The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 171

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

171

Los Angeles, Cal. — Our veteran colored mis-
sionary Rev. John McDavid has taken charge of the
promising colored mission field in and about Los
Angeles, Cal., and is anxious to get in touch with
all the people out there who may have come from
one or the other of our churches in the East or
South. Pastors of our colored churches who have
members in the vicinity of Los Angeles should send
the addresses to Rev. John McDavid, care of Rev.
G. H. Smukal, 3017 E. Fifth St., Los Angeles, Cal.,
at once.. Pastor McDavid was installed in his new
field on September 13. Los Angeles and vicinity
has a large colored population and will, no doubt,
prove a promising mission-field. We are looking
forward to the receipt of inspiring reports from
this field in the near future.

The Silent Influence of the Gospel. — Our gen-
eration is inclined to tabulate results of work and
to lay great store by figures. We often overlook,
and some ignore, the intangible results. So it is
in mission-work. We may be sure that the salutary
influence of the Gospel reaches far beyond the num-
ber of converts and members won. Missionaries in
the foreign field know and tell of many secret be-
lievers who are kept by various obstacles from con-
fessing their faith openly. Rev. J. E. Ross, a
missionary in North India, writes: “The mass
movement in India has been among the outcastes,
but there is a mass movement of interest in Chris-
tianity? going on in India to-day among high-caste
people.. Not many of these have confessed Christ
openly, but the day is not far distant when Hindus
in great numbers will do so. Although not many
students in mission high schools have become Chris-
tians, yet these students from mission colleges and
schools in Saharanpur, and in fact all over India,
are invariably friendly to Christianity, and many
of them are secret believers. These institutions are
second to none as agencies of evangelization.”

> A New Movement among the Hindus. — In the
sphere of religion as well as in the sphere of politics
and economics, India is in a ferment. Old things
are passing away, and many are eagerly snatching
after new things. While the intellectuals among
the ‘Hindus are for the most part dreading and
opposing the spread of Christianity, they feel that
they cannot continue to maintain their century-old
traditions and customs, and so they are studying
modifications and adaptations. One of the latest
developments came to light at a recent conference
of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, and Parsees in
Benares. According to the leaders a Hindu is “any

person professing to be a Hindu or following any
Teligion of Indian origin.” This patriotic basis
would seem broad enough to accommodate and
unite them all; but the fact is that the conference
was anything but a peaceful one. Different at-
tempts at reform failed to receive a majority vote,
for instance, the resolution for the removal of un-
touchability or for relaxing the rigor of the caste
system, as well as the attempt to raise the marriage-
able age of girls. Still, while the conference was
divided, some measures favorable to the low castes
were adopted — in the main, these three: the right
of drawing water from the common wells, the priv-
ilege of bowing before idols in temples (!), and
the boon of instruction for their children. Reforms
move slowly, but evidently some of the galling! bonds
are beginning to loosen.

Catholic Work among the Negroes. —The col-
ored parochial schools conducted by Catholics are
attended by 22,000 children. It is estimated that
there are about 250,000 Catholic Negroes in our
country. The work is conducted by about 175
priests and 700 so-called sisters. There are ninety-
eight churches for colored Catholics with resident
priests and 155 schools for colored Catholic chil-
dren in the United States. There are four colored
priests and 323 colored “sisters.”

Negro Progress. — There are said to be 70,000
Negro business men in the United States to-day
owning property worth $1,700,000,000, compared
with 20,000 business men twenty-five years ago with
a total property valuation of $300,000. Varied: pro-
fessions and businesses have called many Negroes
to their ranks, the numbers at the present time
being about as follows: 50 architects, 259 artists,
315 writers and journalists, 19,000 clergymen, 200
chemists, 1,000 teachers, 3,400 physicians, 900 law-
yers, 3,700 musicians, and 32,000 barbers.

Italian Lutherans on the Pacific Coast. — The
first Italian Lutheran congregation on the Pacific
Coast was organized this past summer in San Fran-
cisco by Rey: Pampana, who is working under the
auspices of’ the ‘Board of the United Lutheran
Church.

A Missionary Gharch —In Minneapolis there
is a Lutheran church with a confirmed membership
of only 350 which supports. its own missionary in
Madagascar. This church gives $3,000 annually for
foreign missions. Three former members of this
‘congregation are now working i in foreign £ fields, ‘two
in Madagascar and one in China.