The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1929, Sheet 137

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

present time. He is keeping this new suit at his
niece’s home, where it will not be stolen. Two
widows of the congregation were assisted with
clothes, one of them is quite old and has no source
of income except from old newspapers that she
gathers and sells. Chronic asthma has made her too
weak to gather papers lately, and she is patiently
awaiting her Master’s call. Some dresses are still
on hand for emergency purposes, especially for such
as want to come to Catechism instruction for adults
and have not the clothes to do so. The pastor of
Mount Zion and his wife are particularly grateful
for a beautiful home-made quilt, which is a special
present to them from the good ladies of Ottawa.
May the Lord reward them richly, both here and
beyond, for their many deeds of Christian charity.
0. W. L.

Negro Church Organizations
in the United States.

The Department of Commerce announces that,
according to the returns received, there were in the
United States, in 1926, 42,585 churches, with a Col-
ored membership of 5,203,487, as compared with
39,592 churches and 4,602,805 members in 1916.

The total for 1926 is made up of 24 exclusively
colored denominations, with 36,505 churches and
4,558,795 members, and 6,080 churches with 644,692
colored members in 30 white denominations. The
corresponding figures for 1916 are 19 exclusively
colored denominations, with 34,258 churches and
4,070,286 members, and 5,334 Negro churches, with
532,519 members in 21 white denominations. Two
of the denominations reported at the census of 1916,
composed exclusively of colored members, have gone
out of existence. The data for both census periods
relate to churches composed entirely of Negro
members, and the membership reported does not in-
clude Negro members belonging to local white
churches. .

At the census of 1926 the total expenditures were
$43,024,259, as compared with $18,529,827 in 1916.
Under this item are included the amount expended
for salaries, repairs, etc., for payments on church
debt, for benevolences, including home and foreign
missions, for denominational support, and for all
other purposes.

The value of church edifices in 1926 was
$205,782,628, as compared with $86,809,970 _in
1916. This item includes any building used mainly
for religious services, together with the land on

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135

which it stands and all furniture and furnishings
owned by the church and actually used in connec-
tion with church services. It does not include build-
ings hired for religious services or those used for
social or organization work in connection with the
church.

The African’s Belief in Immortality.

The dreams of the African are very real things
to him. When the dead appear to him in his dreams
and speak to him, this is to him certain proof that
the dead are still existing in their spirits, though
their bodies may have turned to dust. Those in-
stances where people supposed to have been dead
returned to life are further proof to him that with
death all is not over. Native Africans who had been
in a comatose condition for hours have told of won-
derful journeys their spirit made in the other world,
and of the marvelous things they there saw. In one
case a man, after his recovery, told of a shining
city he had visited, populated with men, women, and
children clothed in bright garments. He further
declared that, while he was in this beautiful city
of the spirit world, some one had told him that,
when he would come back to earth, he should
tell of his experiences and also tell the people
on earth to give up polygamy and other vices and
listen to the voice of the missionaries. For a long
time this man walked up and down through the
country proclaiming his message, and the people
listened to his message brought to them by one who
had been dead, but was now alive, with wonder
and awe.

The deep-seated belief of the native African ex-
plains the presence of the little hut near the graves
of the departed and also the custom of placing food
into the graves and bringing offerings there after
burial. The African heathen, in spite of his blind-
ness, is sure that the spirit lives on though the body
decays. And this belief in the immortality of the
soul, which is most firmly established in the hearts
of all humanity, is a loud testimony to the truth of
the Bible account of man’s original state of inno-
cence and subsequent fall into sin. Even the poor,
blind animist believes that death is'an accident and
not the natural course of events. In every possible
way the African expresses it as his conviction that
death is not a natural and necessary end of life and
that he believes that there is life beyond the grave.
The heathen Hottentot pointed to the waning and
reappearing of the moon as a picture of man’s sink-
ing into the grave in death and his later reawakening