The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 172

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172

THE LUTHERAN’ PIONEER.

language of the Cheyenne Indians of Oklahoma and
Montana. Some idea of the bewildering difficulties
of this tongue may be had by seeing Acts 2, 4 in
Cheyenne: “Na nistxevoss emhanesenzastovkesetova-
oha-evohon onitavenszistovazisto-hivenszheshaevoss
Matasoomaho.” But language barriers do not limit
the saving power of God’s Word.

Alaska.— The Board of National Missions of
the Northern Presbyterians maintains thirty-six
mission-enterprises in Alaska, with a personnel of
sixty-five workers. In the Sheldon Jackson School
an attempt is made to train future native leaders.

Chiang Kai-shek, President of China,
who has joined the Christian Church.

Good News from China. Telegraphic dispatches

» from Shanghai, China, report that President Chiang

Kai-shek publicly joined the Christian Church, being
baptized October 23 in Shanghai by a Chinese pastor,
Rey. C. T. Kuang, who is a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church South and whose mission head-
quarters are in Nashville, Tenn. The president’s
wife and other relatives on her side have been mem-
bers of this Church for years, and it is supposed that
he took this step as the result of the Christian in-

_ fluence of his wife.

Peace in China. — Has it come to China? It

_ seems 60. The Northern war-lords have withdrawn

their troops after having been defeated in their

fourth vain attempt to destroy the Nanking govern-
ment. Added to this, comes the fact that the young
Manchurian general Chang Hsueh-Liang, who up to
this time has been neutral, now is apparently cast-
ing his lot with the Nationalist forces, which gives
a further strong reason to think that peace has come.

~ Let us hope so.

East Africa. — In East Africa, where polygamy
is very common, missionaries find it hard to
reorganize polygamous housholds on a Christian
basis. Such reorganization calls for great sacrifices.
Often tribal opposition and family persecution is
to be met by the man who conforms his family life
to Bible standards. Referring to this difficulty,
W. T. Bartlett, who has spent years in East Africa,
writes thus: “Nothing so impresses a heathen com-
munity with the power and reality of the Gospel as
to see one of their own people sending away his extra
wives and descending into poverty because he has
heeded the Word of God. More and more frequently
in East Africa we are able to rejoice as we see poly-
gamists converted and making what once seemed to
them an impossible sacrifice.” The same spirit of
obedience would save so-called Christian America
from its present moral laxity.

Where Zeal Outran Discretion. — Missionaries
should not attempt to preach in the native language
at too early a date. But sometimes missionaries will
be tempted to cast discretion to the winds and
attempt to do what they had better leave undone.
This was the case with an English missionary in
Tunis, Africa, who, after only a year’s residence,
attempted the difficult task of preaching to the
natives in their tongue. For his text he chose the
story of Gideon’s heroic night attack on the Midi-
anites. With increasing warmth he tried to describe
the incident. Unfortunately the word for “trumpet”
in Tunisian is much like the word “bug”; also the
word used for “blow” really means “strike,” so that
by a slight mispronunciation the missionary said
the following: “Then Gideon said unto them, ‘Look
on me and do likewise. It shall be that as I do, so
shall ye do. When I strike the bug, then strike ye
also all your bugs on every side of the camp.”

Praise for Missionaries. — A bouquet for the
missionaries has just been thrown by a former vice-
roy of India, who is also the son of a viceroy. Lord
Lytton, viceroy in 1925 and son of the Lord Lytton
who was viceroy in 1876, has recently said of the
missionaries in India: “The great church missionary
societies . . ..are all doing splendid work. These
men work in a spirit and temper far removed from