The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Page 78

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" conesses,
“martyrs. Most of these lives were lost among the:
“Indians of America. The Moravians at this time

76

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

a leading religious journal, a well-known New York
newspaper, and a news exchange from Germany con-
temporaneously comment on the unusual demand
for the Book of books, it is worthy of special notice.
In six weeks Selfridge & Company, Lid., London,
sold 10,000 Bibles and then placed an order for
110,000 Bibles. The manager of the Selfridge firm
remarked: “There is only one book in the world
of which any business firm would dare order 100,000
copies.” It is estimated by the American Bible
Society that 34,000,000 Bibles were sold or distrib-
uted in 1930 in every part of the world. Bibles or
parts of it have been printed in over 925 languages
and dialects, including those which are now obsolete.

- The Old Chapel at Bashi, Ala.

Statistics on Deaconess Work. — In five years
the number of deaconesses connected with the Lu-
theran Deaconess Association has grown from three
to thirty-four. Five of these are working in our
Foreign Missions in India, three among the Apache
Indians of Arizona, three are engaged in parish-
work, and fourteen are stationed at charitable insti-
tutions, such as homes for the aged, orphanages,
and the like. At the present time there are twenty-

eight in training.

Two Hundred Years of Moravian Missions. —
During its existence of two hundred years the
Moravian Church has sent 1,555 missionaries into
the foreign field. Besides the missionaries proper
the Moravians have puf into the field 1,710 Euro-
pean helpers. ‘Thirty-six missionaries, ten dea-
and four children died the death of

have 185 mission-stations in Africa, Asia, and in
North and South America, manned by 262 Euro-
m workers and a large number of native laborers.

The Moravian missions have a membership of
132,303 Christians and in their 440 schools 40,806
pupils receive Christian training.

The New Director of the Rhenish Mission
Society. — Dr. Johann Warneck, for many years
a missionary and superintendent in the service of
the Rhenish Society and the author of a classic
on animistic heathenism, Zhe Living Forces of the
Gospel, has been chosen the new executive head of
the Rhenish Mission Society. At the time of his
election he was home on furlough from his scene of
activities for years past, the island of Sumatra.
Dr. Warneck has accepted the position.

A Baked Bible. — When the government of
Bohemia years ago decreed that all Bibles must be
burned, a pious woman wrapped her Bible in dough

The New Chapel at Bashi, Ala.

and put it into the bake-oven in order that those
who were seeking for Bibles might not find it. As
those three men in the days of Nebuchadnezzar
were saved from the fiery furnace, so this Bible
was saved in the glowing oven surrounded by fire.
To-day this Bible is in the possession of a great-
grandson of the woman, who emigrated to America.
His name is Schebold, and he is reported to be
a farmer in the State of Ohio, according to the
Friedensbote, a Lutheran weekly in Poland.
Persecution of Lutherans in Russia. — Among
the million Lutherans in Russia there are only
eighty-nine Lutheran pastors remaining. Only
forty-eight of these are active in the ministry, how-
ever; for the other forty-one are in prison. — Just
outside of Riga, Latvia, there is a small cemetery.
Here, on a marble slab, are inscribed the names of
forty-two Lutheran pastors who gave their lives
during the invasion of the Baltic republics by the
Red Army of Russia during 1918. In addition to
these pastors there was also the name of a woman.
She was the deaconess at the head of the Lutheran

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