The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1929, Page 12

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iy THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

are kept alive by home-mission aid. Of these sub-
sidized churches a large number are in active com-
petition with churches of very similar doctrines.
Seven out of every ten rural churches have only
a fraction of a pastor apiece. One-third of all rural
pastors receive so low a salary that they can live
only by working at some other occupation. Only
half of the rural churches of the country make
an annual gain in membership of as much as
10 per cent.

Mission-Work Never in Vain. — Some years ago
a mission-worker, while canvassing a certain sec-
tion of a city, came to the home of a Catholic
family. . Of course, when he learned that the family
was Catholic, he went on. It was only another one
of the many visits made by a missionary for which
he expected no returns. About a year after, the
missionary’s telephone rang. The Catholic lady
referred to above was on the wire. She told him
that she remembered his having been in her neigh-
borhood looking about for unchurched people and
that a lady is living in her block who is a Lutheran.
She added that the husband of this Lutheran woman
was very ill, but that no pastor visited him, and

_ended by asking whether the missionary would not
want to look up these people. The missionary
thanked the Catholic woman for her information
‘and at once made ready to locate the family he
had been told about. He was gratefully received
by the wife and her sick husband, and his services
were gladly accepted. The missionary continued his
visits, prepared the man for death, and was able to
say at his funeral that he had died a Christian
death. .

An Endless Chain.— An English lady advised
a Chilean to read the Bible. He did so and in turn
advised a friend to do likewise. The advice was
passed on from friend to friend and acted upon in
each case. Who knows where in Chile the end of
that chain will be! Perhaps it will not be limited
to Chile. “You will see that this is pure gold,”
said the first Chilean to his friend. “Get it, then,
fresh fromthe mint. Do not content'yourself with
coins which become defaced from much handling.”

* Another Endless Chain.— A pocket Testament
dropped from an English warship in a Japanese
harbor in 1854. A Japanese general, Murata, saw
the book fall into the water and had it brought to
him. But he was not able to read it. A Dutch

_ interpreter told him that the book told about Christ,

‘which increased the general’s perplexity. Finally
he got a translation of the book from China. He

tead the book and was convinced of its truth. At

the risk of his life — for the Christian religion was
strictly forbidden in Japan at the time — he came
to Dr. Verbeck for baptism. His brother also
became a Christian. Their high standing added to
their testimony for Christ, and there are not a few
people in Japan to-day who owe their faith in the
Redeemer of the world to the Testament fished out
of waters of Nagasaki harbor many years ago.

One-Cent Gospels. — Attractive copies of single
gospels are now sold by the American Bible Society
at one cent each. These cheap gospels may be had
in English, German, French, Italian, Polish, Por-
tuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish. Single
gospels and other books of the Bible may be had in
many other languages at a very low cost. Even an
entire English New Testament may be bought for
only five cents.

What One Medical Missionary Does. — During
1927 Dr. Puff, medical missionary in the Kiliman-
jaro region of the Leipzig Missionary Society’s field
in Tanganyika Territory, Africa, treated 7,429
people at his clinics. He placed 169 patients in
the mission-hospital and in three months performed
53 operations. In addition, he found it necessary
to travel great distances to care for European and
Greek settlements, which in times of sickness are
dependent upon the mission-doctors. The mis-
sionaries have lent their unstinted efforts to the
energetic fight now in progress against epidemics
and tropical diseases produced in the Dark Conti-
nent by the absolute ignorance of prophylaxis and
hygiene. — Lx.

A New Apache Chief.—In October past the
White Mountain Apaches chose a new chief to take
the place of Alchesay, who died last summer. Baha,
the oldest son of Chief Alchesay, was chosen to be
his father’s successor. ‘Like his father, Chief Baha
is a baptized member of our Lutheran Church,
having been baptized by one of the workers of the
Wisconsin Synod Indian Mission in Arizona. May
Chief Baha walk in the footsteps of his father!

.A New Missionary Opportunity. — New oppor-
tunities for Christian missions suggest themselves
in the discovery in South America, of a new tribe of
natives hitherto unknown to civilization. The tribe,
living along the border of Bolivia and Brazil, is
neither Indian nor Asiatic in character and is re-
ported to bear strong physical resemblance to cer-
tain tribes of South Sea Islanders.

A German Bible for the Blind. — What is said
to be the first complete German Bible for the blind
is now being printed at Wernigerode, Germany, by
the Society for Christian Life among German Blind.