The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 149

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

149

Christian Missions.

Previous to the World War missionary effort in
the Asiatic Near East was very difficult because
religious liberty was nowhere recognized’ in prac-
tically all this territory. For a Moslem to profess
Christianity was generally the signal for a religious
riot, and for this reason practically the only safety
for a converted Mohammedan lay in flight from
the country. Foreign mission workers were treated
with suspicion, and open dislike of them was every-
where apparent. They were so greatly restricted by
the government in their activities as almost wholly
to hinder them in the work of evangelization.

The —Moravians, im- their’ consuming zeal for
missions, tried to gain a: footing in the Asiatic
Near Hast as early as 1740, but all their attempts

1885, at his own expense, to bring the Gospel of
Jesus to Arabia; but already two years after his
arrival he breathed his last, a victim of malignant
fevers, which sapped his strength. After his death
his work was taken up by the United Free Church
of Scotland. To-day probably the most distin- -
guished worker in the Moslem field is Rev. S. M.
Zwemer, who began his labors in Arabia under the
auspices of the Reformed Church of America in
1890, but has since located in Cairo, Egypt. A num-
ber of schools and colleges, among them the cel-
ebrated Robert College at Constantinople and the
Syrian Protestant College at Beirut, have wielded a
great influence upon the entire Near East. Mission
presses have also done a blessed work in spreading
the Gospel where open evangelization was impossible.

A Moslem at His Devotions.

failed, and the honor of being the pioneer evangel-
ical missionary of this extensive territory belongs
to Henry Martyn, that zealous and eminently gifted
young English missionary, who entered Persia in
1811 and at Shiraz completed a translation of the
_ New Testament into the Persian tongue in the
almost incredibly short time of only eight months.
But his delicate constitution was unable to bear
the hardships to which he was exposed, and he died
already in the following year, at the early age of
only thirty-two years. The Church Missionary So-
ciety began operations in this territory in 1819;
its workers were almost without exception German
men, who had been trained in the mission seminary
_ at Basel. The Basel Missionary Society began work
in this field in 1820, while the American Board had
sent its first agents in the year previous. With
Arabia the name of Ion Keith Falconer will ever
be associated. With his devoted wife he set out in

Latest Missionary Statistics.

The difficulty of the field may be judged from
the following statistics. In the Asiatic Near East
there are now laboring 112 ordained and 143 un-
ordained foreign male workers, besides 64 physi-
cians and 266 women. The total number of sta-
tions occupied is 88. Besides the foreign workers
there are 45 ordained and 528 unordained native
male laborers and 537 native women mission
workers employed in this field. The whole Near
East has only 101 organized congregations, with

_a total Christian constituency of 32,060. In the

elementary- and middle schools of this vast field
there are, all in all, 15,780 pupils, while the higher
schools have a total of 268 students. In all Meso-
potamia there is not a single organized church, and
the 5 foreign and 4 native workers laboring at
4 stations have so far gained only 5 converts. In
Arabia the work is carried on at 6 stations by a