The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Sheet 125

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

sins, and I went to the minister in the Lutheran
Church, and my sins have all been forgiven through
my dear Lord. Thanks to the Lutheran Hour. I’m
not rich, so I can’t give anything to help this hour.
God bless you!” — “Just a brief note of apprecia-
tion from one who is still standing true to the old-
time faith. It is refreshing to have your messages
come over the air. I like the positiveness of the
speaker. It is a bit of encouragement to those of
us who are fighting away in the midst of New
England Unitarianism and destructive criticism.
God bless you in your efforts for the Master!”

“To Help Starving Americans.” —Black natives
of Batango, West Africa, hearing of hard times in
America and that there were actually people here
who did not have enough to eat, sent the Board of
Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church at
New York a contribution “to help starving Amer-
icans.” ‘The amount was $3.77. Many thanks!

The Bible in Mam. — Adding to the long list
of over 900 languages and dialects in which the
Scriptures appear, the American Bible Society has
just issued a translation of the Gospel of St. John
in Mam, the most primitive language of 200,000
Indians in Guatemala. Mam is the most archaic
language of the Mayans, and it is the eleventh of
the numerous Indian languages spoken in Central
America into which any part of the Bible has been
translated. To accomplish the almost impossible
task of translating the guttural, explosive dialect,
the translators, the Rev. and Mrs. H. Dudley Peck
of the Guatemala Mission of the Presbyterian
Church, had to rely upon human dictionaries and
grammars — Indians selected for their general in-
telligence, linguistic ability, and knowledge of
Spanish. One of these, Aniceto Velasquez, had
three years at the Bible-school, during which he
walked 940 miles a year to and from school. In
Mam, John 3,16 appears thus: “Kun ictsunju
ulakjtanmi Dios quij xjal, tun tsunju tsajtgkon
ocacujun Tkual, tuntsun jniju intxontanmi tij,
mlai cubsitj, tuntsun titen angkbil jumajx,” which,
translated into English, is that well-loved verse:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His
only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
A translation of the entire twenty-seven books of
the New Testament is under way.

Tar Church must go and grow, or else she will
stay and starve. She must extend or expire, preach
or perish. — W. T. Ellis.

123

A Miracle of Missions.

It is now about one hundred and ten years ago
that the first missionaries left Boston to go to
Hawaii. In those days Hawaii was inhabited by
superstitious, uncivilized savages, “half devils and
half children.” Their homes were rude grass huts,
their clothing was of the scantiest, and each man
had as many wives, and each woman as many hus-
bands, as fancy willed.

The Hawaiian Islanders were not cannibals, but
they thought nothing of killing one another. Fully
one-third of the Hawaiian babies are believed to
have been cruelly disposed of by their own mothers,
and the elaborate system of tabu destroyed many
grown people in the best years of their lives. When
anything was declared tabu, the penalty of touching
it was death; and the penalty was always strictly
enforced. The wily priests, aided and abetted by
an absolute monarch, made the tabu system one of
the most powerful instruments ever put into the
hands of a heathen people. Women especially suf-
fered under this system. ‘Then, too, there were
the human sacrifices which on special occasions
were offered to the hideous idols which represented
the gods and demigods of earth and air and sky.
Considering also the ravages of disease, vice, in-
temperance, and tribal wars, it does not seem at
all remarkable that the population of the islands
was decreasing at an alarming rate.

The Hawaiian Islands were discovered by Cap-
tain Cook, the English explorer, in 1778. More
than forty years passed before any Christian nation
took enough interest in the ignorant and degraded
natives to give them any idea of civilization or
Christianity. When they were finally given their
chance through nineteenth-century America, the
whole world marveled at the eagerness and swift-
ness with which they seized it.

Christianity came to Hawaii by way of a little
heathen boy whose name was Henry Obookiah.
Henry’s parents and baby brother were murdered
before his eyes, but he himself managed to escape
from captivity in the islands and finally to work his
passage to America.

Henry Obookiah longed for an education. His
plea touched the heart of a student in Yale College,
who offered to teach him and hear him recite. This
was the boy’s chance. He not only worked hard,
but he also made friends. As a result he received
the best intellectual, moral, and religious training
that friends could give him. Finally, in 1815, he
became a member of the Congregational Church.