The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Page 15

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

15

been shaken by medical science. The old medicine-
man is now a rare sight; in fact, he will avoid
being seen either by Europeans or by members of
the mission. The more human method of extracting
teeth at the mission dispensary, the treatment for
general complaints, and the prevention of dreaded
diseases by means of inoculation have resulted in
an increasing number of medicine-men’s being on
the unemployed list. The change is due to the
power of the Gospel of Christ. A tragic accident
took place at a school in Hunan Province of China.
The high wall of a neighboring house fell without
any warning and demolished a portion of the church
premises occupied by the girls of the Church Mis-
sionary Society school, causing the death of a Chi-
nese teacher and six young girls. Bishop Holden
writes: “Six years ago such an appalling accident
would have meant a terrible outcry against the
Church; but so much has the situation changed
that the general attitude has been for the most part
one of sympathy and help.” These are indeed
hopeful signs. = —

Pigmies of Africa.— Speaking of the pigmies
of the African forest, a recent traveler writes:
“Only in one sense did the pigmies seem to me
comparable to the dwellers in a modern metropolis.
This is their attitude toward religion. I lived
among them for whole weeks and found no trace
of a faith. They said no prayers, there was no
trace of a cult or images associated with a cult in
their houses, and I had already decided that at last
I had come upon people that had no faith and
no god. But I had been in total error. At the
end of about a month the veil lifted, and I learned
that they did recognize a supreme being, and they
prayed to it when they went on a hunt or in search
of honey. ‘To this supreme being they always make
thank-offerings. The practise of giving the first-
fruits and the first portion of honey and other bits
as a sacrifice I found flourishing among all tribes.”
What a sad reflection do these poor pigmies, dwarfs
in mind and body, cast upon many born and reared
in Christian environment and enjoying spiritual
and material advantages all their lives such as these
pigmies in the wildest flights of their imagination
could not dream of!

A Family of Missionaries. — Dr. John Scudder
was the first medical missionary in India, sent there

‘ by the Dutch Reformed Church in America. That
was in 1819. Since he entered the mission-field,
more than a hundred years ago, no less than thirty-
seven Scudders have gone to India, most of them
as medical missionaries. In succession seven sons

followed John Scudder to India in the last century,
and to-day two members of the family are at the
head of the Scudder Memorial Hospital near
Madras. In all, the Scudder family has spent 1,000
years in the missionary service of the Dutch Re-
formed Church in India, and at present eight of
the third generation and six of the fourth are
still there.

How a Bible Did Double Duty. y

A Christian lady once went into one of the many
little candy stores in Tokyo. While the clerk, an
old woman, wrapped up the candy, the lady looked
over the little store. She noticed that the walls
were covered with the pages of some old book and
found, upon looking closer, that they were pages
from a Bible. When she expressed her surprise,
the old woman told her the history of that “wall-
paper.”

Years ago the old woman had walked by a book-
store and found a pile of waste paper. Since her
walls did not look well, she picked up the leaves,
carried them to her store, and pasted them upon
the walls. A short time thereafter her grandson,
who had learned to read, came on a visit and began
to read to her the stories on the old leaves. She
enjoyed the stories so well that she listened atten-
tively. When her grandson left, she asked every
customer who could read to read to her from her
“wall-paper.”

One day a young-man entered the store and
asked whether she knew what was written upon her
walls, whether she understood it, and whether she
was a Christian. The next Sunday he called for
her to take her to church. The story ended in this,
that the old woman had come to faith in the Lord
Jesus and had been baptized. — Fachange.

BOOK TABLE.

(By the Eprror.)

Missouri Synod Synodical Reports. Concrodia Pub-
lishing House, St. Louis, Mo. No.9. Central Dis-
trict. SO pages. Price, 30 cts. Doctrinal papers:
Das Werk der Heiligung. “How Can a Christian
Congregation Best Accomplish the Purpose for Which
It Exists?” — No. 10. Nord-Nebraska-Distrikt. 84
pages. Price, 28 cts. Doctrinal paper: Die Regie-
rung Gottes.—No.1l. Northern Nebraska District.
56 pages. Price, 15 cts. Doctrinal papers: “The
First Commandment.” “The Providence of God.”
(Résumé.) — Colorado District. 80 pages. Price,
20 cts. Doctrinal papers: “The Kingly Office of
Christ.” Die Gemeinde und das Pfarramt. — No. 12.
Eastern District. 109 pages. Price, 51 cts. Doc-
trinal papers: Johannes der Taeufer. “Unionism.”