The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 30

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30

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

Joint Synod of Ohio has undertaken to assist the
Hermannsburg Society to the extent of $3,000
a year for five years in carrying on its new work
among the Gallas of Africa.

Labors of a Pioneer. — Robert Morrison, En-
glish missionary to China, a century ago, overcame
many obstacles in order to give the Chinese the
Christian Bible. When, at nineteen, he decided to
enter the Gospel ministry, he undertook the study
of Latin. Later, when he volunteered for foreign
missionary service in China, he studied astronomy
and medicine, went to work for the East India
Company, and became a master of the Chinese Jan-
guage. He translated the Book of Acts, printed
sermons in Chinese in tract form, then the Gospel
according to St. Luke, and a Chinese grammar. —
A Roman Catholic bishop issued a curse upon all
who held intercourse with Morrison. A Chinese
king published an edict making it a capital crime
to issue books on the Christian religion. Morrison
kept at work. After six years’ effort in China he
completed his translation of the New Testament.
He later translated all of the Old Testament except
twelve books, which were rendered by a fellow-
laborer, William Milne. When Morrison died, two
Protestant missionaries and three active native
Christians constituted the entire Protestant Church
in China. — NV. L. C. News Bulletin.

An Active Missionary Agency among the
Jews. — The Zion Society for Israel, a Lutheran
missionary agency working among the Jews, held its
fifty-first annual convention at Northfield, Minn.,
last fall, electing the following officers for this
year: President, Rev. H. J. Holman, Chicago; Vice-
President, Rev. T. O. Burntvedt, Minneapolis; Sec-
retary, Rev. A. W. Knock, St. Paul; Treasurer, Dr.
C. K. Solberg, Minneapolis. — It was announced
that the fiftieth anniversary building fund of
$50,000, which was to be raised without campaign
through the free-will gifts of $50 from one thousand
persons, had reached the sum of $14,000. When the
fund is completed, it is proposed to build a mission
in Brooklyn, N. Y. — NV. L. C. News Bulletin.

Ninety-Eight Billions.— The total income of
the American people in 1928 was $98,000,000,000.
Who of us does not ask, when he hears of this vast
amcome, “Where does the money go?” Here is
a partial answer to the question: Half of this vast
- sum went to the ‘retail stores, $49,000,000,000.

$18,000;000,000 was spent for food, tobacco, and
soft drinks, the barbers got $750,000,000, and
$2,000,000,000 was spent for automobiles and

trucks. Of course, several billions were used for the
construction of homes and other buildings and
several billions for taxes. For religious purposes
$154,000,000 was spent, which is about one-fifth as
much as the barber shops got, somewhat less than
was the outlay for shirts and practically the same as
was spent for pickles. The average American each
year spends $2.58 for diamonds, $5.00 for jewelry,
$4.15 for near-beer, $1.30 for pickles, $3.00 for ice-
cream, $3.75 for toilet soap, $1.10 for books, $1.85
for shirts, $10.00 for schools, $45.00 for food
luxuries, only 70 cents for eggs, 6 cents for ink,
11 cents for health service, $70.00 for joy rides, and
$1.29 for religion.

An Appreciation. — Ramsay MacDonald, the
Prime Minister of England, has the following
words of appreciation for the Christian missionaries
in Africa: —

“As soon as the missionary appears, slavery is
doomed. I do not say that it is doomed in twenty-
four hours; but I do say that the presence of the
missionary has this effect, explain it as you may,
that from the moment he becomes a part of the
atmosphere of a race, slavery dwindles and educa-
tion begins. Men whose lives have been long lived
in the atmosphere of ignorant superstition and
mortal terror are enabled to lift up their heads and
to discover that there is something giving them
power, enabling them to walk about with heads up-
lifted, obedient to the law, but not victims of the
law, enabling them not only to look out on the world,
but within themselves. There begins a respon-
sible care, which at last emerges into a conception
of the responsibilities of usefulness, lending them
the idea of responsibility to the universe. I think
the missionary requires no further justification. We
who have been called to the secular affairs of life
rather than the spiritual will never fail to be grate-
ful, I hope, to the missionaries who have carried
into effect the gospel of human justice as well as of
spiritual power.”

Our Lithuanian Mission.

To the student of secular history the Lithuanians
are an interesting people. Originally coming from
Central Asia, they, together with the Letts and the
Old Prussians, have an interrelated language. They
have no racial or linguistic affinities with the Rus-
sians, Poles, and the rest of the true Slavs.
Lithuania, ruled in the thirteenth century by an
independent grand duke from his capital Vilna,