The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Page 175

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

175

presented were’ interesting and instructive. The
services were edifying. Supt. Kramer expresses
the wish that every conference might be as blessed
as the one at Mansura.

Medical Work in China.

Thirteen million die in China every year. Of
these, by a conservative estimate, five million die
of preventable diseases. Chinese medical practise,
while having some worth-while old-time remedies,
is crude and often cruel. The work of doctors and
druggists is a trade, not a profession. Famous
prescriptions are kept as a secret by those who own

them and are handed down from father to son.:

Surgery is unknown to the old order; wounds go
uncared for, and broken limbs remain unset. One
half of the children die under ten years of age.
The condition of women in the crucial hour of
motherhood is pathetic; it is estimated that 85 per
cent. of these suffer from infection. Blindness re-
sulting from a virulent form of pink-eye is common.
Malaria is wide-spread and, allowed to go un-
checked, leads to endless complications. Flies,
mosquitoes, lice, and rats spread disease. Epidemics
of one sort and another claim their thousands every
year, especially during the hot weather. “Pestilence
walketh in darkness, and destruction wasteth at
noonday.”

Hospitals have been established through mis-
sionary effort in the principal cities of China. The
Rockefeller Foundation has established a hospital
and medical school in Peking at a cost of eleven
million dollars, which is maintained at a cost of
a million a year, in which there is a demonstration
of the most modern and effective methods of med-
ical work, and where there are trained medical
specialists. The medical school at Tsinen is train-
ing Chinese for hospital work and general practise.

The aims of medical work in China are: 1) the
actual relief of suffering; 2) the promotion of
public health; 3) the training of Chinese doctors
for work among their own people. The object of
missionary medical work is to walk in Christ’s steps
and to win souls to Jesus, the only Savior.

Unless greatest stress is laid upon the evangel-
istic importance of medical work in heathen lands,
it will prove a failure as a missionary agency.
Whenever possible, a missionary should devote all
the time that may be necessary to Gospel-preaching
and individual work among the patients.

There was recently held in Nanking the fifth

annual meeting of the Chinese Medical Association,
composed wholly of Chinese and representing five
hundred modern trained Chinese doctors. It is the
beginning of a new day in medicine, but only the
beginning; for in order to reach the needs of the
people, China will require at least one hundred
thousand well-trained doctors.

The hospitals are overcrowded, and the doctors
are overworked. Though most of them are, by
careful and capable management, meeting their
current expenses through fees paid locally, yet large
sums are needed for equipment, and these sums
are coming in very slowly.

Even were it desirable, it is no longer possible
to carry on missionary medical work in Japan; but
in China the door is wide open.

The medical problem in China is the biggest in
the world, and the opportunity offered to the Chris-
tian Church is unsurpassed.

BOOK TABLE.

Geschichte der Allgemeinen Ev.-Luth. Synode von Wis-
consin und andern Staaten. By John Ph. Koehler.
Northwestern Publishing House, Milwaukee, Wis.
307 pages; buckram binding. Price, $2.50.

This is the first volume of a history of the Wisconsin
Synod. It tells of the beginnings of that church-body.
The book, on every page, brings proof that the author is
a real historian and that the study of history is his de-
light. Professor Koehler is not only a painstaking and
conscientious gatherer of facts, but likewise a scholar of
keen judgment. It is remarkable with what certainty he
succeeds in differentiating the important from the unim-
portant, and how successful he is in summarizing the his-
tory of the Wisconsin Synod’s development during the
first period of its existence in the last twenty-five pages
of the book.

Versicles for Festival Seasons and General Occasions.
Edited by Dr. L. Fuerbringer. Concordia Publishing
House, St. Louis, Mo. Price: 5 cts. each; dozen,
40 cts.; 100, 75 cts.

The fact that Dr. Fuerbringer selected these versicles
is a guarantee that the selection is well done. The leaflet
will fit into our word-edition hymnal and may easily be
tipped in. The price is exceedingly low.

The Reformation and Its Blessed Fruits. Book IT:
Fruits of the Reformation. By M. L. Gotsch. Con-
cordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo. Price:
5 cts.; dozen, 50 cts.; 100, $3.50.

Last year the author of this program published a cate-
chization on the life of Luther. So it can readily be seen
how this catechization is a natural sequel to the other.
This catechization is as good as was the one of last year.

Venite Adoremus. (“Come, Let Us Adore Him.”) Com-
piled by F.R. Webber. Concordia Publishing House,
St. Louis, Mo. Price: 6 cts.; dozen, 60 cts.; 100,
$4.50.

A fine children’s Vesper Service that will appeal to all
those who are able to appreciate our rich Lutheran lit-
urgies. Many of the hymns selected are old favorites.
The place and content of the recitations are indicated.