The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 163

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

There are possibly about nine million natives
who have not yet been gained by the agents of
Islam. Living mostly in the interior, they are hard

Negrito-Filipinos and Their Chieftain.

to reach. But missionaries have penctrated ‘the
forest fastnesses of Sumatra and Borneo and have
brought to these savage cannibals the story of
Jesus, and their labors have not been in vain.
Abundant harvests have been gathered in places,
and the Gospel is proving also among them the
power of God unto salvation.

Christian Missions in Malaysia.

Though Christianity was introduced as early
as the seventeenth century, real mission-work was
actually begun only about a hundred years ago by
‘the Netherlands Missionary Society. Among the

European missionary societies that are active in ©

the Archipelago there is none more successful than
the Rhenish Mission Society. The American
‘Methodists are working there since the early years
of the present century and several English societies
are doing important work in Borneo. The present
total foreign missionary staff in the Malay Archi-
pelago, including ordained and unordained workers
and their wives, numbers, almost 700. These
laborers are manning somewhat over 200 stations.
The native staff numbers over 6,000 men and
women. The Christian community totals almost
700,000, among them almost 50,000 converted Mo-
hammedans. The present missionary force is, of
course, unable to cover the vast field, and many
parts of Malaysia must remain wholly neglected.

163

THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.

There are over 7,000 islands belonging to this
group, though many are so small that they are not
inhabited. About a dozen of them are large and
important, the two largest being Luzon and Min-
danao. The total area of the Philippines is equal
to the combined area of Illinois and Wisconsin,
while its population is equal to that of New York,
that is, about 11,000,000.

The islands abound in beautiful scenery, the
vegetation is rich, and their mineral resources are
extremely great. Though hot, the climate is not
unhealthful.

The people are of different racial stock, the
Negritos, a small black race living in a half savage
state in the interior, being generally regarded as
the aborigines of the islands. The rest of the people
seem to be of Malay origin and are classified as
Igorots, Moros, and Filipinos. The first are still
largely uncivilized to this day and have retained

A Moro Girl of the Philippines.

their primitive pagan religion. The Moros are
Mohammedans in religion and ‘occupy a higher
social scale than do the Igorots. The Filipinos,
who constitute nine-tenths of the native population,