The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Page 111

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER 111

sults of the mission-work here done. But above all
you will find many mission congregations along the
coast line, congregations having members who are
letting their light shine before their fellow-men.
The American Lutheran Church has joined hands
with the German mission society and has a large
share in bringing about this wonderful transforma-
tion. The Lutheran mission in New Guinea has
no fewer than 500 native helpers in the field. —
In justice it should be stated that since 1887 the
Rhenish Missionary Society has also worked in the
Madang District of New Guinea. The beginnings
of this missionary enterprise were most dishearten-
ing, but at present prospects are very favorable.
Noteworthy is the hearty cooperation which the
foreign missionaries are getting from the native
workers, some of the native evangelists working
without pay, deeming it a privilege to witness to
others and gain them for Christ’s kingdom.

Missionary By-Products.

Mission-deaconesses in India tell us that two
great forces stand much in the way of helping the
poor people of that country to better their condition
also in a physical way, ignorance and poverty. “We
did not know these things,” is the cry always heard.
When the mission-workers teach, explain, and repeat
the same instructions over and over, they are finally
told, “We can do nothing; we have no money.”
Said a mission-worker: “One feels hopeless and
helpless before this fact, which is so overwhelmingly
apparent on every side. Even when ignorance has
been overcome, there is its twin sister, superstition.
They will come and tell us that their grandmothers
did thus and so and even their great-grandmothers,
and why should they want to make a change?” An-
other factor that must be dealt with is carelessness.
Mothers of little babies, when taken to task by
mission-workers for not having done what they
were told to do in the case of their sick babies, will
say: “We did not think that it made any difference ;
we'll do it next time.” But very often next time is
too late to save the baby’s life.

The favorite way of bathing a baby in India is
for the mother to sit on the floor, roll up her skirts,
place the baby’s head between her knees, then pour
over the child water that is almost at the boiling
point. A nut is pounded for soap, and the lather
rubbed over the child. This lather is very strong,
and if it should happen to get into the baby’s eyes,
blindness often results. The sun and the wind com-

bined serve as towel. After the bath the mother
simply takes the baby by its two arms and swings
it back and forth. Why bother about any other
towel when nature has so kindly provided one?
Babies receive this kind of treatment in Northern
India in December, when grown people are glad to
have wraps.

Indian mothers will tell you when you ask them
to protect their children in a better way that a baby
needs no clothing as it does not feel the cold like
a grown-up. Fortunately, in South India, where
our missionaries labor, babies do not need to be
protected from the cold, except for a short time of
the year. Then the height of fashion and luxury
for the child is a nice woolen bonnet, acquired no
one knows where, tied securely under the chin, and
a pair of bright pink socks! The baby’s “tummy”
is considered of little importance, and a brief shirt,
a very brief one indeed, is sufficient. Thus it be-
comes quite plain why in India only “the fittest
survive.”

What are babies given to eat in India? The
child’s diet in India haunts one’s dreams; it is
a specter, and close behind it stalks another specter,
with a sickle in hand, who gathers the babies in.
The poor mission-deaconesses find it almost impos-
sible to teach the mothers in India what an impor-
tant part a proper diet plays in the life of a child.
Indian mothers often, if not generally, nurse their
babies till they are two and three years old. They
are fed rice before the first tooth appears. When
asked why they give this or that indigestible food
to their babies, Indian mothers will say, “They
cried for it. What could we do?” In answer to the
chiding words, “Don’t you know that you ought not
to nurse your child any longer, that it is bad for
both of you?” Indian mothers will say, “What else
can I do? Where can I get milk? If I don’t nurse
it, it will ery. I have no money to buy milk for it.” .

The great wonder in India is not that so many
children die in India, but that so many live. But
Christian missions are bringing happier days also

-to the babies of India.

The Solitary Witness.

Some years ago a missionary went to a heathen
village in India, but no one there would listen to
his words. When he went away, he left one New
Testament behind him in the shop of a native. It
was but a single seed cast into bad soil, and he
feared that it would perish there, that the precious