The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1929, Page 143

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

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up and threw my arms around him and said, ‘Pard,
you will do.’ I learned to love him, as I learned to
know what kind of a man he was, as I never had
loved even a member of my own immediate family.
I then and there changed my opinion of mission-
aries. I had never had any use for them before;
but if all are like him, they are certainly the princes
of the earth. We corresponded regularly, and the
greatest sorrow of my life was when, a few weeks
ago, I heard that he had been on board a little coast-
ing steamer that collided off the coast of Korea on
a dark night and was drowned.”

Yes, Appenzeller passed on to his reward, but
the Kerean Bible endures to-day and will endure
throughout the years, bringing joy and peace and
blessings to an entire nation. A Methodist mis-
sionary in Korea said, “Nine-tenths of our work is
due to Bible-work.” A Presbyterian missionary
said, “Nearly every encouraging case brought to our
notice shows some influence of the Bible colporteur.”

Who can appreciate the long, tedious days and
weeks and months and years of labor which devoted
followers have given to the work of translating the
Bible into these various languages? It is a gigantic
undertaking. We are thrilled when we are told that
the Scriptures have been translated into over 775
different languages and dialects. It is hard to
realize that some sixty of these are within this Far
Eastern area.

The translation of the Bible is the capture of
a whole language by aliens, who lay hands on it and
force it to speak the message of God.

Remaking the Orient.

Ninety-Three Years in Sumatra.

The Rhenish Missionary Society, which recently
passed its hundredth mile-stone, started its work in
South Africa in 1830, a field not now occupied. In
1836 it began to work in Sumatra, Nias, and Borneo
of the Dutch East Indies, in Southwest Africa in
1842, and in New Guinea in 1886. The Southwest
Africa field was during the war transferred to the
Finnish Missionary Society. In New Guinea the
American Iowa Synod and the United Lutheran
Church of Australia now share the responsibility for
the field. The Basel Mission took over the East
Borneo field in 1921, leaving the work centering in
Sumatra and Nias in the hands of the original
occupants.

During the past ninety-three years the Rhenish
Society has been particularly active in this latter
field. These missions have had a serious financial

struggle since the war. At present the society is
interested in securing $100,000 for the erection of
hospital buildings at Balige and Pea Raja. In 1900
the Pea Raja Hospital was opened, and later ten
auxiliary hospitals were established in the Toba Lake
District, of which the institution at Balige is one.
In connection with this work there is also maintained
a home for lepers.

Since the war and continuing through the cur-
rent year the society is receiving regular auxiliary
aid from the Dutch East Indies Government. Begin-
ning with 1930, however, the mission will have to
depend upon its own support, save for certain pro-
posed funds for its maintenance, which are being
raised in Holland by a committee recently organized
for that purpose.

“Holding Out’? on God.

Ten cents a week, or the price of a soda, is enough
for the Lord in the opinion of some of the families
in a church in Montclair, N.J. There are other
families who attend the church and think it can get
along without any financial help from them at all.
The church budget, according to a pamphlet recently
issued, is $35,000. There are 408 families in the
parish, and 145 families contribute nothing, leaving
the total burden to the others. It is equally interest-
ing to learn that there are 431 automobiles in the
408 families, or more than one automobile to each
family. Here are some interesting items, which may
have a familiar ring to the real workers in some
other churches : —

Forty families pledge per year less than the
cost of one tire.

One hundred and nineteen more families pledge
per year less than the cost.of two tires.

Five families pledge per week just the cost of
two packages of “Life-savers.” :

Seven more families are happy to contribute per
week the cost of one soda.

Twenty-eight more families estimate the
Church’s blessings per week equal to one admission
to-a Montclair movie (if one sat in the balcony).

Forty-six more families prize their religion in
terms per week less than half a pound of candy.

Twenty-two more families are content with
a weekly gift of the cost of two and a half gallons
of gas. How far will the car go on that?

Fifty-one more families count it a joy to sub-
scribe per week a sum equal to what many men
spend for smoking in one day.