The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 103

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. 103

dreadful agony which seized her, Sampati sprang
into the Ganges. They threw the corpse of her hus-
band after her with the cry, “Drown yourself and
‘do not return!”

In spite of the protests of the excited mob the
police ventured after her in a boat and brought her
‘back. She lay down in the shade of a tree, and the
people brought her offerings; but neither from
‘doctor nor judge would she accept help, nor would
she allow the police to remove her to the hospital.
For two whole days she lay thus. On the third day
the authorities of the district came and, with force
‘of arms dispersing the throng, removed the widow
to the jail. On the day following her removal she
died. A shrine on the shores of the Ganges erected
to her memory by the people marks the spot of this
occurrence.

The Anglo-Indian court took up the complaint of
the police in this matter and imposed the sentence
of imprisonment prescribed by law on all those
directly concerned in the incident. —

This harrowing occurrence, the details of which
.are taken from an authentic report of the occasion,
goes to show the power Hinduism, especially as it
still holds sway in some of its oldest and most cruel
customs, exercises over the individual soul and over
the people in general. This was not merely a case
of carrying out a purely formal rite, in answer to the
demands of ancient custom, but rather reveals
a deep appreciation of the firmness of those ties
which hold the wife to her husband, a capacity for

heroic surrender which is not appalled by the pros-
pect of the most intense suffering. Sampati’s con-

duct was not dictated by love or favor, — they had
not lived together as man and wife, — but was her
obedience to an obtaining precept of her religion,

-which made it imperative that she give herself

utterly to a deity that had come to her and was
lastingly present with her through the medium of

cher husband. Here we find bared to our gaze the
_ bitter need of the heathen, especially the heathen

‘woman, which cries to us for an answer. Hers are
chains of Satan’s forging, which Jesus alone can
break. Out of the purda (the seraglio of India) the
cry comes with ever-growing insistence to the ear of
Christian womanhood, “Come over and help us.”
Ev.-Luth. Miss.-Blatt ;
tr. by G., in Australian Lutheran.

oO

THE Gospel of Christ is a Gospel for all men,
and it is a Gospel for the whole man. —

A Letter from China.

The following letter we take from the latest
issue of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary Endeavor
Quarterly, the organ of the Lutheran Women’s Mis-
sionary Endeavor, whose object is to encourage the
women of the Central District of the Missouri Synod
to show greater interest and activity along mission-
ary lines, home and foreign. The letter was written
by Missionary E. C. Zimmermann, of Shasi, China.

“On the 29th of October, 1929, we celebrated the
first anniversary of our landing in China, and soon
shall have been in Shasi one year. It does not seem
so long, but we do feel a little better acquainted now.
We feel a little more ‘at home,’ and people look upon
us as though we really belonged here. Besides, we
can understand quite a bit of their language now,
and they can understand a little of ours, and so we
are not so strange any more. However, very much
of their conversation still is lost to us.

“Now just a little as to our work. We have plenty
of it and for that reason have not been able to write
sooner. My good wife spends some four or five hours
daily at learning the language, and I am spending
some five or six hours in the same endeavor. In
addition to this I am now instructing six men for
baptism. This is most interesting work. Two weeks
ago I also started instructing a Japanese lady. All
come twice a week. The Japanese lady is being in- .
structed by means of the English language. We have
a native Chinese who assists me. He instructs five
women for baptism once a week. These classes are
attended by all members and many others, a total of.
about 25. This class meets Monday afternoons, and
my wife and Miss Simon also attend it. Mr. Hsue,
my Chinese assistant, also does the preaching and
teaches the men’s Bible class. We also have a school,
taught by Mr. Teng, which is attended by some
18 children: Miss Simon teaches music there two
hours a week. She also does quite a bit of women’s
work through her dispensary. She spends from two
to five hours there each day. At our home my good
wife teaches Sunday-school on Sunday afternoons at
4 o’clock. A Japanese woman and girl, a British
boy, a Chinese girl, and another girl, who is half
Chinese and half Irish, attend. The class is taught
in English. My wife also teaches this same group
English twice a week and in this way. will likely win
them for Christ. The Japanese woman, Mrs. Hisai-
zumi, came of her own accord. When she was young,
she attended a Christian college in Japan, but did
not become a Christian. She has, however, been