The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Page 78

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78 THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

An Eightfold Increase.—In 1900 the con-
tributions to missions in the United States were
$5,916,781. In 1923 they were $45,272,793. This
eightfold increase, next to the increase in missions,
is to be attributed to the fact that a larger number
of Christians has during this period learned to give
regularly to this greatest of all enterprises of the
Church.

San Francisco City Mission. — City Missionary
F. H. Menzel has the following to say in his latest
annual report concerning his activities in the past
year: He visited thirteen institutions regularly.
He made 465 such visits and on these visits had
private conversations with 2,231 patients, inmates,
and prisoners. He teaches twenty-two different
Sunday-school classes in the institutions which he
regularly visits and has 539 pupils in these classes.
He conducted 254 services in chapels and wards,
which were attended by 12,231 persons. In the
course of the year he came in contact with 444 un-
churched Lutherans. He addressed thirty-seven
meetings in the interest of his work, received 602
letters, and wrote 593. During the year he dis-
tributed 13,811 tracts and leaflets.

Personal Mission-Work.—It is surely most
gratifying to hear of the increasing number of our
members, especially young people, who are taking
an interest in personal mission-work. - Our city
missionaries in Cleveland and Buffalo have formed
regular classes in which those who wish to prepare
themselves better for the work of bringing souls to
Jesus may receive the desired help and instruction.
Pastor Wind, in Buffalo, has 125 persons enrolled
in his class. The classroom is flowing over, and
many of those attending must be satisfied to sit in
the hall, where they can hear, but not see, their in-
structor. We have reason to believe that Pastor Ilse,
‘too, has a large class which he is instructing. There
can be no doubt that these classes have helped many
Christians to see their duty as they never saw it
before and that many who thought they had not
the necessary qualities have learned that their talent
can be used in the Lord’s cause. May God increase
the number of those who would help lost sinners to
come to the Savior! Oh, that every member of

“every congregation would have the desire to take
part in this blessed work!

Cannibals in the Belgian Congo. — Reports come
from the Belgian Congo that the people of the

 Balula “empire,” a native African state, are can-

_ nibals. The founder of this tribe was named Kon-
-gola, a notorious man-eater, who killed and ate his

own mother. By way of consolation he is said to
have told her before he committed the atrocious
deed, “I may be killed any day in war, and I don’t
want to leave you behind with no one to care for
you.” Reports further say that Nero’s reign pales
into insignifi¢ance before some of this tyrant’s
doings. A traveler in those parts says that Kongola
is not the only man guilty of the awful deed of
killing and eating his own mother. Recently a

“number of medical missionaries came to work

among these benighted heathen. It is with great
self-sacrifice that these devoted men are working
here in order that Christ’s kingdom may be ex-
tended and light may also come to darkest Africa.

‘Christian Schools in China. — The first Protes-
tant mission-school in China, it is claimed, was
opened by the London Missionary Society in 1839.
That was five years after the death of Morrison,
who, under the auspices of this society, reached
Canton, in 1807. But, though he was never per-
mitted to carry on his work openly, all readers of
missionary literature know what solid and broad
foundations he laid for future work. Foreigners
had no treaty rights in the country until 1842.
And the edict tolerating Christianity and free-
dom of travel was not secured until the treaty of
Tientsin in 1860. It is all the more remarkable,
therefore, that even during that early period of
repression and exclusion Christian schools could
be maintained. From that small beginning educa-
tion has forged ahead, as it has always been a lead-
ing factor in mission-work. To-day there are in
China 7,046 Christian schools and colleges, with
over 240,000 students. These schools cover the en-
tire range of modern education — kindergartens,
lower primary, higher primary, middle schools, col-
leges, universities, and professional schools. In
contrast with the public or government schools,
which number about 40,000, the Christian mission-
schools, of course, give a prominent place to the
Bible, aim to wield a Christian influence, and
spread the life-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Lutheran Standard.

A Happy Ending. — Too many American hus-
bands have to be coaxed by their wives into church
attendance, but here is a case where a wife could
not drag her husband out of church. The incident
is related by a missionary at Nanking, China. For
six years a Christian convert in Gu Yung labored
with his three brothers, all gamblers and idolaters.
Finally one brother accepted Christianity, but his
wife was infuriated, rightly inferring that his con-

me