The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Page 61

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

61

Japanese Empress Attends Christian Service. —
Several months ago the Empress of Japan attended
the morning prayer service at the Doshisha high

school for girls at Tokyo. It is reported that the
crown princess intends to give a sun-dial to the
Christian leper hospital at Tokyo, bearing the in-
scription: “From the rising of the sun until the
going down thereof, the Lord’s name shall be
praised.”

Literacy and Education in India. — There is re-
ported a substantial advance in literacy in India in
the last ten years. In the decade from 1911 to 1921
the increase in literacy was 22 per cent., while the
increase in population was only 1.2 per cent. The
greatest advance was made in Burmah. An out-
standing feature in the figures is the disparity in
the literacy of the sexes. In India only 139 males
out of a thousand and only 21 females out of a thou-
sand are able to write a simple letter and read the
answer to it.

Influence of Protestant Colleges in China. — Of
1,854 students from twelve leading Christian schools
and universities in China, 45.6 per cent. have taken
up educational work, 14.2 per cent. have gone into
business and industry, 13 per cent. into the Chris-
tian ministry, 9.9 per cent. into medicine, 4 per
cent. into social service, 3.6 per cent.*into govern-
ment service, 2.4 per cent. into offices, 1.7 per cent.
into agriculture and forestry, banking, engineering,
literary work, law and politics, journalism and
research.

Bible Distribution in China Grows.— The cir-
culation of the Bible, either in whole or in part,
reached new high levels in China last year. The
American Bible Society makes this report of its
activities: “The total circulation by our agency
this year is 2,551,831 —an increase of 28,814 over
last year. Of these, 22,152 were Bibles, and 50,304
were Testaments. This’ is also the largest number

of Bibles we have sold in one year. Were we to add’

the figures of the two other Bible societies, we would
find that over 60,000 Bibles have been sold and
a total of almost 9,500,000 Scriptures. This does
not take into account many sales by the tract so-
cieties, the Baptist Publication Society, and other
organizations that circulate the Scriptures in pam-
phlets, study books, and otherwise.”

_ Catholic Indians in Canada. — The total number
of Catholic ‘Indians in Canada is estimated at
43,986, which is 6,600 more than the adherents of
all Protestant denominations put together. A great
part of the missionary work among the Indians is
done by the Jesuits and another order.

The Catholic Church in 250 years has ordained
8 Negro priests in the United States. Father Nor-
man Duckett, the eighth, was ordained in February.

Lutheran Tercentennial in Paris.—The 16 Evan-
gelical Lutheran churches of Paris, France, together
with the synod which they compose, have under
consideration the making of a suitable plan for the
celebration next December of the 300th anniver-
sary of the first Lutheran service in Paris.

“Los von Rom!” — In the city of Pilsen,
Czechoslovakia, where five years ago fewer than 500
Protestants were to be found, says The Continent,
a vast throng heard evangelical pastors last July 6,
the anniversary of the martyrdom of John Huss,
preaching to the people. Next day the Pope severed
diplomatic relations with Czechoslovakia. “This
means 10,000 recruits to Protestantism,” prophe-
sied one of the Protestant leaders. The outcome
was even more startling. By August 23, it was re-
ported at Stockholm “not 10,000, but 80,000 people
in Czechoslovakia have renounced Romanism since
July 7%, and are now waiting at the doors of our
evangelical churches.”

Buddhists in California. — Los Angeles may now
boast the possession of the largest Japanese Bud-
dhist temple outside of Japan. It was dedicated in
November by Count Sonyu Atoni, brother-in-law
of the Japanese Emperor, head of one of the lar-
gest and most progressive of Japanese Buddhist
sects. Count Atoni, while in Los Angeles, em-
phasized the common contribution to world peace
which the United, States and Japan can make. He
states that one of the purposes of his trip was to
encourage the sons of Japanese now in this country
to return to Japan for training, in order that they
might later act as Buddhist missionaries to America.

Christian Century.

Missionary Heroism. — Stories of missionary
heroism are common, but that of Dr. Howard Bu-
chanan, medical missionary of the Sudan, is par-
ticularly appealing. He and his family were the
only white persons in a hamlet on the White Nile,
300 miles south of Khartum, when a runner brought
word that the staff of the next mission-station had
been stricken with fever and that he must come at
once. As he pressed south, the sky. darkened with
warnings of the “mansur,” or dust-storm, of the
Sudan. The guide begged Dr. Buchanan to seek
shelter, but he pressed on and was caught in the
storm. When the sky cleared, the guide led him,
blinded, to the mission-station, where he insisted on
administering to the sick missionaries before seeking
relief for himself. Ophthalmia, which might have