The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Page 14

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14

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

“The Deaf Lutheran.” — This is the organ of
our very successful mission among the deaf-mutes.
We are glad to hear that the influence of this mis-
sion and its organ reaches over to England. We
recently read a letter written to the editor of the
Deaf Lutheran in which an English deaf-mute in-
quired as to the price of the Deaf Lutheran in lots
of twenty-five and fifty. This same deaf-mute asks
the editor of the Deaf Lutheran to print an article
on the great spiritual need of the deaf-mutes and
particularly to show the absolute necessity of mis-
sionaries to the deaf-mutes who will preach justi-
fication through the blood of Jesus Christ to their
congregations. The writer deplores the fact that
Modernism has also reached the missionaries to the
deaf-mutes, so that some no longer preach Christ
Crucified as they should. This writer is of the
opinion that too many sermons to the deaf-mutes
speak of a beautiful character as the ground of
salvation instead of stressing the truth that we can
truly serve God only after Christ has come to us
through faith and renewed our hearts. — In another
letter we were permitted to read a blind man most
touchingly thanks the editor of the Lutheran Herald
for the Blind for sending him the periodical and
invokes God’s richest blessings down upon Pastor
Schroeder for this magazine, which he finds so very
edifying.

Associated Lutheran Charities.—The Missouri
Synod has eighty-three charitable institutions with-
in its bounds. These institutions — orphanages, old
people’s homes, hospitals, home-finding societies,
sanitaria, and the like — minister to about 400,000
_persons every year. These charitable enterprises
employ about 1,000 persons. They are found from
the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada to
the Gulf of Mexico. What streams of blessing flow
out from all these institutions!

Bethany Lutheran Cemetery Rededicated. —
This item will be of interest to all who have read
and heard of our very first Indian Mission enter-
prise in the Saginaw Valley of Michigan, *way
back in the early half of last century. About a year
ago we printed for our readers a series of articles
on this early missionary enterprise from the pen of
Dr. E. A. Mayer. The seat of our mission among
the Indians in Michigan was Bethany Chapel, and
near the chapel was located the cemetery, where
a number of Indians found their last resting-place.
It was this cemetery that was rededicated a few
months ago. How large a number of people had
_ gathered for the ceremony the reader may judge
_ trom the fact that 1,790 automobiles were put to

use to bring them to the historical spot on the
White River. This vast multitude by their very
presence bore eloquent record of their appreciation
of the work that had been done by Craemer, Baier-
lein, and Miessler among the Red Men. Pastors
Zeile and Voss of Saginaw spoke upon the occasion.
A large white cross with a wreath was placed in
the center of the cemetery, and a copper plate in-
scribed with a tribute to the missionaries who served
Bethany was unveiled. The cemetery is located one
and a half miles north of St. Louis, Mich., on the
banks of the romantic Pine River.

Millions Starving!—The official announcement
comes from China that 50,000,000 in China are on
the verge of starving and that conditions are get-
ting worse from month to month. The flood in
China covered at its worst stage 50,000 square
miles of the most densely populated part of China,
700 persons per square mile being a very low esti-
mate. The sufferers are living on dike tops and
roofs of houses. In many places the water will not
be off the land till spring. The poverty of these
millions is most abject, and the relief measures are
sadly inadequate. As a result one can hardly con-
ceive the sad physical condition of these poor people
and the hopelessness of their lot.

Need in the Virgin Islands. — These islands
were acquired by us from Denmark a few years ago.
News comes that many children there go to school
without breakfast and take with them a piece of
sugar-cane or a piece of fish for lunch.

Want Still Nearer. — Among the unemployed
miners of West Virginia conditions are said to be
tragic. There in the mountains, far away from our
crowded cities and traveled highways, such acute
distress as has seldom been known in our country
is to be seen on every side.

The Bethel Institutions. — One of the most ex-
tensive charitable enterprises is Bethel, near Biele-
feld, Germany, founded by F. von Bodelschwingh
many years ago. The number of inmates of the
various homes composing this most comprehensive
benevolent undertaking is at present almost 6,000,.
and it is continually increasing. Just now the
aes need of this enterprise is very great.

Rays of Light in Heathen Darkness. — We
read that a few years ago the power of the witch
doctor in Kenya Colony, Africa, was very great
and many cases were known in which the old witch-.
doctor informed his victim that he would die within
a few hours, and this proved only too true. But
nowadays the very foundations of witchcraft have: