The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Sheet 95

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

The Thin White Line of Christians. — After
almost two thousand years of Christianity we have
scarcely begun the evangelization of non-Christian
lands. India has only 1,500,000 Christians among
its 315,000,000 people. In China there are about
437,000 Christians among more than 400,000,000
people. Missions have won 116,000 Japanese out
of a population of 54,000,000. North and Central
Africa have 553,000 Christians out of a population
of 120,000,000.

Doctoring the World. — Medical missions have
placed 14,066 modern hospitals on the map of the
world. That means innumerable patients relieved,
almost incalculable diseases stayed, and tens of
thousands of operations performed. The hospitals
are about equally divided between such as are sup-
ported by Catholics and Protestants. ‘The Prot-

Primitive Farming in India.

estant hospitals and dispensaries treat nearly
8,000,000 cases annually and the Catholics about
the same number, while about thirty thousand
major operations are performed by Protestant hos-
pitals every year. Outside the hospitals medical
missionaries are doing big work through dispen-
saries and through traveling and house-to-house
canvassing. They teach sanitation in all the Orien-
tal cities, fight against plague, cholera, and tuber-

culosis, attend the deaf, blind, crippled, and leprous, -

and show millions of people how to live in health.
Wherever the medical missionary goes, he makes
life safer and better. But, above all, let us not for-
get that the medical missionary, while he heals the
body, also endeavors to give his patients what they
need for their souls — the Balm of Gilead, the heal-
ing ointment of Christ’s Gospel.

Buddhism in Japan.— Buddhism has had its
adherents in Japan for twelve hundred years. To-

day Japan has 71,000 Buddhist temples, 51,000
Buddhist priests, and over 19,000,000 worshipers
of Buddha. But Buddhism is failing in Japan.
Why? Because it has teachings which are beyond
the understanding of the man in the street; be-
cause it closes heaven to woman and debases her to .
be the slave of man; because to the weary, comfort-
seeking heart, Buddhism offers no other consolation
than, “There is no way to help!” Only Christian-
ity has the help that the men, women, and children
of Japan stand in need of.

Should Christianity Be Content with This? —
In a Chinese city of five hundred thousand inhab-
itants — and this city is typical of many others —
95 per cent. can neither read nor write; 50 per
cent. of the babies die before they are a year old;
98 per cent. are born, live, and die without proper
medical attention; only about 1 per cent. of the
men ever bathes —the women never do; the only
bathing facilities are in public bath-houses, where
it costs as much as the day’s wages of a coolie to
hire a jar of water and a towel; a wedding or a
funeral in the family means the expenditure of
a whole year’s wages. To combat these conditions,
Protestantism has one church. The money appro-
priated for this one church in a city of half a mil-
lion is barely enough to pay the workers’ salaries,
leaving nothing for social service work, which
would help to open the hearts of the people for the
precious tidings of the Gospel. Can this be con-
sidered “occupied mission territory” ?

Read and Ponder. — Converts are not easily ad-
mitted in Korean churches. In many churches it
is an unwritten rule that a believer may not be
admitted to full membership until he has brought
at least one person to Christ! About how many
members, do you think, would be in your church
if such a rule were enforced?

Home Mission Cars.— The American Baptist
Publication Society now owns seven “Gospel cars,”
traveling railroad churches. ‘These cars are so
equipped that they can be used for living quarters
by the mission worker and his wife, as well as being
an auditorium where services are held. These cars
have been instrumental in organizing about three
hundred churches. They have helped to establish
more than four hundred Sunday-schools. In one
single car more than two thousand sermons were
preached during five years of its service. Around
Puget Sound the enterprising Baptists are also
using “Gospel cruisers” in their home mission work.