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If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Story of Lutheran Missions - -Author: Elsie Singmaster - -Release Date: October 26, 2017 [EBook #55819] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF LUTHERAN MISSIONS *** - - - - -Produced by David Edwards, Barry Abrahamsen and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF A. H. FRANCKE.] - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - The - Story of Lutheran Missions - - BY - - - ELSIE SINGMASTER - (Mrs. Elsie Singmaster Lewars) - - - - - - - Published by - Co-operative Literature Committee Woman’s Missionary Societies - Lutheran Church - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1917 - - By the - Co-operative Literature Committee Woman’s Missionary Societies - Lutheran Church - - - PRESS OF - SURVEY PUBLISHING CO., - COLUMBIA, S. C. - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - FOREWORD - -For many years there has been both a need and a call for a book on -Lutheran missions, which could be used as a text book and also as a book -of reference. Mrs. Lewars has met this need and answered this call with -_The Story of Lutheran Missions_. It is fitting that this book should -make its appearance in the Quadricentennial Year of the Reformation and -that it should be the first book issued by the first Co-operative -Literature Committee of the Woman’s Missionary Societies of the Lutheran -Church, representing the General Synod, the General Council, and the -United Synod in the South. - -The courage and devotion of our self-sacrificing missionary pioneers has -been little known even among Lutherans. Our hearts must be thrilled as -we read of the superb courage and the unselfish devotion of the brave -men and women who, surrounded by indifference were fired with -unquenchable missionary zeal to carrying the Word to the ends of the -earth. - -“Through peril, toil and pain,” they blazed the way for Protestant -missions. May this study of the Reformation of the sixteenth century and -the subsequent efforts to carry the Word into all of the world help to -unite our Lutheran forces in a determined missionary purpose to hasten -the transformation of the twentieth century. - - CO-OPERATIVE LITERATURE COMMITTEE: - - MRS. E. C. CRONK, _Chairman_, Member from United Synod. - MISS SALLIE PROTZMAN, Member from General Synod. - MRS. CHAS. L. FRY, Member from General Council. - - LITERATURE HEADQUARTERS FOR MISSIONARY SOCIETIES: - GENERAL SYNOD, 105 E. 21st St., Baltimore, Md. - GENERAL COUNCIL, 844 Drexel Building, Philadelphia, Pa. - UNITED SYNOD, 1617 Sumter St., Columbia, S. C. - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CONTENTS - - - FOREWORD - - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - CHAPTER I—The Beginnings - - CHAPTER II—Pioneers and Methods - - CHAPTER III—The Lutheran Church in India - - CHAPTER IV—The Lutheran Church in Africa - - CHAPTER V—The Lutheran Church in China, - Japan and Elsewhere - - CHAPTER VI—Lutheran Foreign Missions on - the Western Continent - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - Portrait of A. H. Francke (_Frontispiece_) - - Bartholomew Ziegenbalg - - Christian Frederick Schwartz (Preface) - - Louis Harms - - Hermannsburg Parsonage - - John Evangelist Gossner - - Men’s Bathing Ghat at Purulia - - Stall High School for Girls, Guntur, India - - Faculty of Watts Memorial College for Men, Guntur - - Hospital for Women and Children, Guntur - - Hospital for Women and Children, Rajahmundry - - Central Girl’s School, Rajahmundry - - Chapel of Leper Asylum, Kodur, India, (Joint Synod of Ohio) - - Inmates of Leper Asylum - - All India Lutheran Conference in 1914, Delegates from Eight Missions - - A Malagasy Witch Doctor - - Native Lutheran Ministers in Madagascar - - Main Station at Muhlenberg, Liberia, Africa - - Girls of Emma V. Day School, Muhlenberg, Africa - - Carrying Water and Sewing in Garden - - Central China Lutheran Theological Seminary, Shekow, Hupeh, China - - Chapel and Mission Homes, Chikungshan, China, (United Norwegian) - - Administration Building and Class Rooms, Kyushu, Gakuin, Kumamoto, - Japan - - Pastor’s Residence, Chapel, and Student Dormitory, Tokyo. American - Missionaries, Native Pastors and Workers with Wives and Children - - First Graduating Class from Kindergarten at Ogi, Japan - - Group of Theological Students, Kumamoto - - Lutheran Church in Borneo - - Lutheran Church in Java - - Officers and Teachers of Lutheran Sunday School, New Amsterdam, - British Guiana - - Ituni School in School Room Which is Also the Church - - Some Indian Members of Ituni Congregation - - Lutheran Chapel, Monacillo, Porto Rico, with Two Missionaries and - Two Native Workers - - Porto Rican Hut with Miss Mellander and Three Members of Church at - Palo Seco - - Immanuel Colored Lutheran College, Greensboro, North Carolina - - Bethany Indian Mission Band, Wittenberg, Wisconsin (Norwegian Synod) - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - PREFACE - -The author acknowledges her indebtedness to the many persons who have -furnished data for _The Story of Lutheran Missions_, and to those who -have read the manuscript. The authorities consulted have been chiefly -_The History of Protestant Missions_ by Gustav Warneck, D.D., _The -History of Christian Missions_ by C. H. Robinson, D.D., _The History of -Lutheran Missions_ by the Rev. Preston A. Laury, _Geschichte der -evangelischen Heidenmission_ by R. Gareis, _The Lutheran Encyclopedia_ -and _the Encyclopedia of Missions_, beside numerous magazine articles -and reports. Only enough statistics have been included to indicate the -size of each mission. With the book should be used such admirable books -and pamphlets as _Missionary Heroes of the Lutheran Church_, _Our First -Decade in China_, _The United Norwegian Mission Field in China_, _Our -Colored Mission_, _Our India Story_, and the many interesting -illustrated mission reports. _Above all, maps should be constantly -referred to._ - -If the study of _The Story of Lutheran Missions_ gives to the reader, as -its preparation has given to the author, a sense of the essential unity -of the Lutheran Church and a renewed love for her and her history, it -will achieve its purpose. - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - -[Illustration: BARTHOLOMEW ZIEGENBALG.] - - -[Illustration: CHRISTIAN FREDERICK SCHWARTZ.] - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER I. - - The Beginnings - - - THE PURPOSE OF THE BOOK. - THE MISSIONARY IMPULSE. - THE BENEFITS OF MISSIONARY STUDY. - THE PLAN OF SALVATION. - Salvation Intended for the Whole World. - Israel’s Conception of God’s Purpose. - The Jew as a Missionary. - The Septuagint. - - The Roman Empire. - The Supreme Missionary. - The Sending of the Disciples. - Paul. - - The Early Church. - Its Extent. - A Change in Method. - Early Missionaries. - - The Church and State. - Boniface. - The Church of Germany. - Martin Luther. - “What must I do to be saved?” - An Answer Found. - A New Evangel. - A Pure and Living Stream. - The Bible Translated. - Luther and Missions. - - THE BEGINNINGS OF LUTHERAN MISSIONS. - In Europe and Asia. - In Africa. - In North America. - In South America. - Justinian von Welz. - His Appeal Ridiculed. - A Martyr. - A Hero. - - The Spring at Hand. - Philip Spener. - A. H. Francke. - The School at Halle. - The First Missionary Hymn. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER I. - - THE BEGINNINGS - - -[Sidenote: Purpose of the Book.] It is the object of this book to give a -general survey of the missionary labors of the Lutheran Church in all -lands. A knowledge of the work of our own Church is of first importance, -both that we may be well informed concerning those enterprises which we -support and that we may through them become interested in the -achievements of other churches. - -This account of Lutheran missions cannot be exhaustive. Volumes have -been written upon the history of many Lutheran missions. Many names -which deserve record must be omitted and those heroes who have been -selected for mention are no more devoted, no more noble than many others -whose names are lost to human recollection. - -[Sidenote: The Missionary Impulse.] Even if the specific commands of our -Lord were lacking, we believe that every good Christian would find in -his own heart a missionary impulse which could not be denied. There is -no good news which we do not hasten to tell; the man who would withhold -from his neighbors that which would benefit them is rightly condemned. -Would it not be strange if we told all good news but the greatest? The -Christian has found peace and life and hope in the Gospel, surely it is -his duty and it should be his chief joy to tell the good news to others. - -[Sidenote: The Benefits of Missionary Study.] The study of missions is a -fascinating pursuit. Its subject matter is the noblest in the world--the -history of the evangelizing and Christianizing of mankind. The -characters are heroes and heroines. The effect of such study is not only -inspiring but improving. The student will gain through diligent -attention to the courses offered by mission boards a mass of general -information which could be gained so easily in no other way. He will -visit all the countries of the world; he will hear something of their -history, their geography, their flora and fauna. He will see Eliot and -Campanius preaching to the American Indians, he will see Hans Egede -laboring among the Greenlanders, he will hear of the wise colonial -policy of England, of the amazing devotion and great learning of the -Germans, he will observe the daily life of the mission stations where -the sick are healed, where lepers are cared for, where to everyone the -Gospel is preached. The opening of windows into the wide world is not -the least of the rewards for a study of missions. - -Before beginning the actual history of Lutheran missions we will review -briefly Christian missions before the establishment of the Protestant -Church, so that the student may connect the present with the past. - -[Sidenote: Salvation Intended for the Whole World.] Christ did not -present to the Jews the first intimation of salvation for the whole -world. Just as all spiritual truths which He elaborated and fulfilled -were shadowed forth in the Old Testament, so was the missionary idea. -Here we find the hidden seeds, the promises and prophecies which were to -mature and to be fulfilled in the New Testament. God is revealed as the -Creator of the whole world. It was all mankind which sinned in Adam, the -mankind which God had made “of one blood”. Saint Paul makes clear to the -Ephesians the fact that the Gentiles are “fellow heirs and fellow -members of the body”. God said to Abraham that in him should “all the -families of the earth be blessed.” - -[Sidenote: Israel’s Conception of God’s Purpose.] Gradually in the -nation of Israel there developed the idea of a new covenant of grace. -With the growth of this it became more and more clear to Israel’s -prophets and seers that Israel was the center of a great kingdom which -God should gather from all nations. Many testimonies may be found to -this new consciousness. “For the earth shall be filled with the -knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” “For -from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my name -shall be great among the Gentiles.” In the Prophet Jonah we have an Old -Testament missionary, proud and unwilling, but a witness, nevertheless, -to the fact that God’s mercy extended not alone to Israel but to all His -works. - -[Sidenote: The Jew as a Missionary.] Unconsciously to themselves the -Jews were engaged in missionary work. Trained in seclusion, then carried -into captivity or trading in all known quarters of the world, they -continued to worship the living God. They worshipped Him in private and -in public, their synagogues rising plain and austere among the impure -temples of the heathen deities. Long-suffering, devout, faithful, they -did God’s great task. - -[Sidenote: The Septuagint.] About two hundred years before the birth of -Christ the Jews accomplished an important missionary work. They were now -no longer in Judea alone, but lived all over the Roman Empire. For this -scattered host the rabbis translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, -the common speech. The translation is called the Septuagint because it -was made by seventy men. Here is the first great spreading of the Living -Word. The Septuagint was read not only by the Jews but by many learned -Greeks, who, while they did not accept its teachings, yet admired its -eloquence. One of the greatest factors in the success of the early -Christian Church was this acquaintance of the Greeks with the Hebrew -Scriptures. - -[Sidenote: The Roman Empire.] For the fulfillment of Old Testament -prophecies the world was preparing in other ways. The Roman Empire was -at the height of its power, its roads led everywhere, it had pushed back -the boundaries of the world, it was adding to itself great barbarian -nations, little dreaming that all its pride was to serve the will of the -Hebrew’s God! - -[Sidenote: The Supreme Missionary.] When the time was ripe, God sent His -Son into the world, the Supreme Missionary. To convince a doubter of the -divine authority for missions, one need go no farther than to point to -Christ’s earthly life. - -[Sidenote: The Disciples Sent Abroad.] Just as God had sent His Son into -the world, so Christ sent abroad His disciples. Their appointment was -made directly by Him. The command is positive. “All authority hath been -given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and make disciples -of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the -Son and of the Holy Ghost.” “Thus it is written, and thus it behooved -Christ to suffer ... that repentance and remission of sins should be -preached in His name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem.” “As my -Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” “Ye shall receive power, after -that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, -both in Jerusalem and all Judea, and in Samaria and unto the uttermost -parts of the earth.” - -[Sidenote: The Record of Their Missionary Work.] We have in the _Acts of -the Apostles_ a record of the work of the first missionaries appointed -by Christ. It describes the disciples gathered together waiting for the -promise of the Father. It describes the pentecostal visitation with its -mighty wind, its tongues of fire, its strange speech, Parthians and -Medes and Elamites, Mesopotamians, Judeans and Cappadocians, Asians, -Egyptians, Cretans and Arabians speaking each in his own tongue “the -mighty works of God”. It tells the history of the Church, of its early -work in Jerusalem, of its miracles and persecutions, of the death of its -first martyr. It tells of the missionary work of Peter among the Jews, -the beginning of work among the Gentiles. It tells of the conversion of -one Saul, a Jew, who had been laying waste the new Church. - -[Sidenote: Saint Paul.] In the crises of history, great characters seem -to be almost a special creation. Such a man was Lincoln, such a man was -Luther, such a man was the apostle Paul. Paul was a Jew of the straitest -sect of the Pharisees who had kept the most minute provision of the law -and who had felt that the law was unable to solve the problem of sin. He -was acquainted also with the wisdom of the Greeks. To him it became -clear after his conversion that in Christ lay the fulfillment of the -Jewish law and the way of salvation for mankind. - -To those outside the law Paul became the first missionary. Through his -teaching Christianity was made a universal religion, by his personal -work he evangelized a large part of Asia Minor and the chief cities of -Greece. His accomplished task was but a small part of that which he -planned. His longing eyes turned toward the West, toward the “utmost -ramparts of the world”. When the sword of the executioner ended his life -in Rome, only a small part of his dreams had been realized. - - -[Illustration: LOUIS HARMS.] - - -[Illustration: HERMANNSBURG PARSONAGE.] - - -[Sidenote: The Early Church.] Not only the apostles but the whole of the -early Christian Church was filled with the missionary spirit. To that -early period our eyes turn with longing desire to penetrate farther into -the story of devotion, of passion for the things of Christ, of -persecution, of martyrdom and of eventual triumph. To us glorious and -pathetic relics remain in tradition, in a few written accounts and in -inscriptions on tombs and funeral urns. In Thessalonica (now Saloniki), -that city in which Paul and Barnabas were said to have “turned the world -upside down,” were found two funeral urns of this period. Upon one was -the inscription “No hope”; on the other, “Christ my life.” What a mighty -hope had been born in the hearts of men! - -[Sidenote: Its Extent.] It is impossible to know exactly the size and -extent of the Christian Church at any of the early periods of its -history. It is estimated by the conservative that at the end of the -First Century there were in the Roman Empire two hundred thousand -Christians, and at the end of the Second perhaps eight millions, which -was about one fifteenth of the population. By the time of the Emperor -Constantine, Christianity had become so vast in its extent and so -tremendous in influence that he made it in 313 A.D. the State Church of -the Empire. - -[Sidenote: A Change in Method.] As we study the history of the Christian -Church during the next centuries, we observe a new method of -Christianizing. The apostles had built up small churches, had watched -and nourished them, had chidden the backsliders, had permitted no -sacrifice of the cardinal Christian principles. Now there were added to -the Empire barbarian countries upon whose people the Christian religion -was imposed, whether or not they were truly converted, whether or not, -indeed, they were willing to receive it. There were not lacking, of -course, many individual conversions, there were not lacking hundreds of -Christians who labored with apostolic diligence and devotion and who -doubtless deplored the growing union of their religion with the corrupt -politics of a great empire. - -[Sidenote: Early Missionaries.] Among the famous missionaries of this -period were Gregory, the Illuminator, a missionary to the Armenians -about the year 300; Ulfilas, who invented a Gothic alphabet so that he -might translate the Scriptures into Gothic; Chrysostom, who founded in -Constantinople a missionary institution, and Saint Patrick, who -converted Ireland. From the secluded churches of Ireland and the -Scottish Highlands there went forth to Iceland, to the Faroe Islands, -and far into the barbarian sections of the Empire a new band, Columba, -Aidan, Columbanus and Trudpert. From the young English Church went -Wilfrid to Friesland, Willibrord to the neighborhood of Utrecht, and -Boniface to Germany. Further to the east the Gospel was proclaimed under -fearful difficulties. At one time it seemed that Christianity might -become one of the religions of old China. - -[Sidenote: Church and State.] Gradually the alliance of the Church and -State came to its inevitable conclusion. The Church began to share the -ambitions of the State. Christianity armed itself with the sword and -strove to wrest from the Moslem the sepulcher of the Prince of Peace. A -measure of the true spirit of the Nazarene remained in such as Raymond -Lull, who protested against extending God’s kingdom by the sword and -testified to his convictions by giving up his life. The great missionary -societies of the Church, the Jesuit, the Dominican, the Capuchin, -accepted in the main the Church’s theory of conquest, a theory made -enormously advantageous by the discovery of new continents. The -missionary enterprises of Spain and Portugal were marked by hideous -oppression of those who would not accept the offered religion. - -Upon the ministers of the Church the alliance with the State wrought its -evil effect. The ambitions of a bishop of Rome led him in 442 to ask the -weak Emperor that he be made the head of western Christendom. Henceforth -the See of Rome grew more and more powerful. The Church lost entirely -the democratic quality of its early life. Pope Gregory claimed toward -the end of the Eleventh Century that he had power not only over the -souls of men but over all rulers. The lives of great prelates grew evil, -the administration of ecclesiastical affairs venal, the pure Gospel was -obscured. A mistaken emphasis was put upon good works as a means of -winning that forgiveness of sin which God had promised for Christ’s -sake. Before the missionary stream could flow for the blessing and -healing of mankind, a clear passage must be opened to its Source. - -[Sidenote: Boniface.] Among the missionaries who had set out full of -zeal from the English Church in the Eighth Century was Boniface, a man -of extraordinary energy and power. Among the fields in which he worked -was that of Thuringia in Germany. Here, among the dark forests, -encouraged and supported by the Pope and by the ruler, Charles Martel, -he preached the Gospel, converting thousands and binding them to Rome. -With the Gospel he gave them a new sort of superstition, an idolatrous -reverence for Rome and a deep awe of the sacred relics which he brought -with him. He established monasteries, synods, schools, and required not -only faith but knowledge of the forms of the Church, such as the Lord’s -Prayer and the Creed. When an old man, he went to visit the country of -Friesland which had rejected his early preaching and there with his -companions was murdered. - -[Sidenote: The Church of Germany.] His Church, however, continued. -Closely bound to the great Roman See, it reproduced all the evils of -that powerful organization. Here were the great celibate orders, here -collections of relics, here a constant demand for money to build -magnificent churches and to support an idle and ignorant priesthood. -Here, especially, was a tremendous traffic in indulgences by which in -exchange for money the sinner could secure not only release from penance -on earth and pain in purgatory, but, to the minds of the ignorant, -actual pardon for sin. The essential truths of Christ’s teaching were -forgotten while men busied themselves with a thousand non-essentials and -found no peace for their souls. - -Now, as in other times of dire need God provided a man should point to -the true way of salvation. - -[Sidenote: Martin Luther.] In Germany, as well as in all other parts of -the Church, there were many simple, devout Christians whose superstition -was underlaid by a deep and childlike faith. To two such pious souls, -Hans and Margaret Luther, there was born in 1483, seven hundred years -after Boniface had died, a son, Martin. Hans Luther was a poor miner who -had moved before Martin’s birth from Möhra to the village of Eisleben. -For this son Hans and Margaret were ambitious. They wished him to -possess first of all a good character and to that end trained him -strictly. His mother taught him simple prayers and hymns and that God -for Christ’s sake forgives sin. They wished in the second place that the -lad should rise above their humble estate and for that reason sent him -to school, first to Mansfield and Magdeburg, then to Eisenach. - -[Sidenote: University Days.] When he was eighteen years old Martin -entered the University of Erfurt. His father had become more prosperous -and continued in his determination that the boy should have every -possible opportunity. - -Luther was popular among his mates. He won his bachelor’s then his -master’s degree and began the study of the law for which his father -intended him. Suddenly with crushing disappointment to that ambitious -father and to the amazed disapproval of his friends, he abandoned -together the study of the law and the world itself and entered a -monastery. - -[Sidenote: “What Must I Do to be Saved?”] It had not been his studies -alone which had occupied the young man during his university course, but -meditation upon the needs of his own despairing soul. We have every -evidence that he led a pure and godly life, yet the weight of that sin -to which all mankind is heir lay heavily upon him. To a man of his time -there was but one way of escape--the monastery, in which he might work -out his salvation. Vowed to celibacy, to poverty, to obedience, devoting -himself to prayer and fasting, he might hope to be saved. - -If “Brother Augustine,” as he was called, had any fault as a monk, he -erred upon the side of too strict obedience. He followed all the rules -of the order, he fasted, he scourged himself cruelly. But still he found -no peace. God appeared to him an implacable judge, whose laws it was -impossible to keep. He wearied his fellow-priests with confessions and -inquiries, but his heart was not at rest. - -[Sidenote: The Answer.] Finally, however, he found an answer to his -question. Partly by the help of his superiors, chiefly by the aid of the -Scriptures, which, contrary to the custom of the time, he studied -diligently, he saw a new light. God was a kind Father who required only -that his children should throw themselves in faith upon His grace, -accepting Christ’s sacrifice for them. Good works were simply the -natural expression of a soul already reconciled with God and could have -in themselves no merit. If one simply believed, one was justified by his -faith. That this doctrine was not that of the Church, Martin did not -realize. - -But he was soon to learn that his discovery was not acceptable to his -superiors. There came into the neighborhood a monk, Tetzel by name, -selling those indulgences which had become a menace to spiritual life. -Against him and his traffic Luther protested, first in a sermon and then -in a series of ninety-five theses which he nailed to the door of the -Castle Church. - -[Sidenote: A New Evangel.] The sale of indulgences began promptly to -decline, and the money, intended partly for the building of St. Peter’s -Church at Rome, ceased to flow into the treasury. The local clergy took -alarm, the alarm reached to Rome. Threatened, cajoled, greatly -disturbed, but steadfast, Luther clung to his conviction. “The Christian -man who has true repentance has already received pardon from God -altogether apart from an indulgence and does not need one; Christ -demands true repentance from every one,” said Luther. At once came a -stern reply. It was the Pope and not Luther who had the right to decide -this and all other questions. Thus reproved, Luther began to investigate -the claims of the Pope upon the lives and fortunes of men. -Excommunicated, threatened, with the fate of the martyr Huss in store -for him, but gathering courage each day, he persisted until he had -separated essentials from non-essentials and, thrusting aside the -judgments and traditions of men, had founded his theology upon the Word -of God. _Tearing out the weeds of false doctrine and false practice, he -cleared the stream of the Gospel to its clear and living Spring._ - -[Sidenote: The Bible Translated.] Luther not only opened the stream, but -provided for its continued freedom. To his German people he gave their -Bible. His was not the first German translation, but it was the first -which was at once readable and true to the original. With the most -painstaking care and with the aid of his friends, Luther prepared his -version, drawn from the original languages, true to the German idiom, a -joy to laity and scholars alike. - -[Sidenote: Luther and Missions.] The interest of Luther in missions has -been the subject of much unnecessary discussion. There are fervent -admirers who claim for him a missionary enthusiasm which he did not -possess. There are others who deny for him all interest in this vital -question. The truth lies midway. - -Missionary enterprise was not one of the first activities of the new -Church, nor was it to be expected that it should be. The turmoil and -difficulties connected with the establishment of the evangelical -religion occupied fully the minds of the reformers. Germany was -practically an inland nation and a divided nation. It had no ships, no -foreign possessions, no communication with the heathen world. There were -not for the early Protestants as for the early Christians great Roman -roads leading the imagination afar, there were no large cities where men -of many nations touched elbows. The newly discovered lands were the -possession of Catholic countries in whose domain the new Gospel, which -was really the old Gospel, would have had no hearing. - -Not only Luther but other reformers in other lands were concerned -chiefly with the heathenized Church about them. For it they labored and -prayed. The business of laying a sound foundation absorbed them. That -the foundation was well laid, the missions of later centuries will show. -In the words of Doctor Gustav Warneck: “_The Reformation not only -restored the true substance of missionary preaching by its earnest -proclamation of the Gospel, but also brought back the whole work of -missions to Apostolic lines._” - -[Sidenote: The Beginnings.] There is always a difference of opinion -about the actual beginnings of a great work. Modern missions offer no -exception to this rule. General historians are unwilling to find any -indication that even in the Seventeenth Century the Church of the -Reformation felt an obligation to heathen nations. Lutheran historians, -searching the matter more thoroughly and with a less prejudiced spirit, -have discovered various individuals to whom missions were a matter of -deep concern. - -[Sidenote: In Europe and Asia.] As early as 1557, _Primus Truber_ -translated into the language of the Croats and Wends to the east of -Germany the Gospel, Luther’s Catechism and a book of spiritual songs. In -1559, Gustavus Vasa, King of Sweden, and later Gustavus Adolphus, -endeavored to bring into the Lutheran Church the Lapps, who, though -nominally Roman Catholic, had been in reality heathen, but the effort -was not successful. Denmark, which had acquired possessions in India, -provided for a minister to the colony, whose chief concern should be the -spiritual needs of the natives. The creditable undertaking was brought -to naught by the wickedness of the appointed ministers. In 1658, _Eric -Bredal_, a Norwegian bishop, began preaching to the Lapps. Some of his -assistants were killed; he died and his work came to no earthly -fruitage. But the missionary spirit was none the less clearly exhibited. - -[Sidenote: In Africa.] In 1634 _Peter Heiling_ of Lübeck journeyed to -Abyssinia to try to rouse once more the churches of the East whose -spiritual life had almost ceased. There, after translating the New -Testament into Amharic, he died a martyr. - -[Sidenote: In North America.] In 1638 the Swedes established “New -Sweden” on the banks of the Delaware River in America. That there -existed in their minds an interest in the spiritual welfare of the -Indians surrounding them is recorded in one of the resolutions for the -government of the colony. “The wild nations bordering upon all other -sides, the Governor shall understand how to treat with all humanity and -respect, that no violence or wrong be done to them ... but he shall -rather, at every opportunity exert himself that the same wild people may -gradually be instructed in the truths and worship of the Christian -religion, and in other ways be brought to civilization and good -government, and in this manner properly guided.” Among the Swedish -Lutheran pastors who obeyed this injunction was _John Campanius_ who -translated in 1648 Luther’s Small Catechism into the language of the -Virginia Indians, a work which antedated by thirteen years the -publication of John Eliot’s translation of the New Testament for the -Indians of Massachusetts. The work among the Indians lasted for over a -hundred years. - -[Sidenote: In South America. Justinian von Welz.] The most important -name of the Seventeenth Century in our study of Lutheran missions is -that of _Justinian von Welz_, a German nobleman. To him there came -clearly the true vision of the indissoluble relation of living -Christianity and Christian missions. In 1664 he issued two pamphlets, -one bearing the title, “_An invitation for a society of Jesus to promote -Christianity and the conversion of heathendom_,” the other “_A Christian -and true-hearted exhortation to all right-believing Christians of the -Augsburg Confession respecting a special association by means of which, -with God’s help, our evangelical religion might be extended_.” In the -latter pamphlet there were such questions as these: “Is it right that we -evangelical Christians hold the Gospel for ourselves alone?” “Is it -right that in all places we have so many theological students, and do -not induce them to labor elsewhere in the garden of the Lord?” “Is it -right that we evangelical Christians expend so much on all sorts of -dress, delicacies in eating and drinking, etc., but have hitherto -thought of no means for the spread of the Gospel?” - -[Sidenote: His Appeal Ridiculed.] When this appeal was met with -opposition and ridicule, von Welz issued a still stronger manifesto. He -called upon the court preachers, the learned professors and others in -authority to establish a missionary school where oriental languages, the -lives of the early missionaries, geography and kindred missionary -subjects might be studied. Alas! von Welz was considered now more -fanatical and insane than before. When he suggested the sending out of -artisans and laymen to tell the Gospel story, since the learned and -influential leaders would not go, he was thought to be quite mad. - -[Sidenote: A Martyr.] Forsaking his noble rank, this eager soul turned -away from his own country to Holland, where he found a minister to -ordain him as “an apostle to the Gentiles”. Arranging his affairs so -that all his wealth might be applied to his great endeavor, he set sail -as a missionary to Dutch Guiana in South America. There in a few months -he found a lonely grave. - -[Sidenote: A Hero.] In Justinian von Welz the Church of the Reformation -possesses one of her worthiest and least known heroes. It was not until -1786, more than a century later, that the Baptist William Carey, -considered the first standard bearer of modern missions, lifted up his -admonishing voice. Of von Welz, Doctor Warneck, the greatest of all -missionary historians, speaks thus: “The indubitable sincerity of his -purposes, the noble enthusiasm of his heart, the sacrifice of his -position, his fortune, his life for the yet unrecognized duty of the -Church to missions, insure for him an abiding place of honor in -missionary history.” To him another German missionary historian pays -this tribute: “Sometimes in a mild December a snow drop lifts its head, -yet is spring far away. Frost and snow will hold field and garden in -chains for many months. But have patience. Only a little while and -Spring will be here!” - -[Sidenote: The Spring at Hand.] Von Welz’s labors and prayers were to -bear fruit. His teaching sank into the hearts of some of those who read. -In a period of dreary rationalism which followed there began to spring -up the seeds which he had sowed. Missions became more and more a subject -of discussion among learned men. Among those who gave the theories of -von Welz his earnest attention was the German scientist Leibnitz who -urged the sending of missionaries to China through Russia. When men -began not only to think and to discuss but to pray, the Spring was -really at hand. - -[Sidenote: Philip Spener.] To two Lutherans above all other men the -world owes the impulse to modern Protestant missions. If Philip Jacob -Spener and August Herman Francke had not lived, the preaching of the -pure Gospel to the heathen, already long delayed, would have had a still -later Spring. - -_Philip Spener_ was born in 1635 and died in 1705. He was a man of deep -piety and great learning. Occupying many important positions, among them -that of court preacher at Dresden, he preached and taught constantly -that pure living must be added to pure doctrine, urging that the “rigid -and externalized” orthodoxy of the Church be transmuted into practical -piety which should include Bible study and all sorts of Christian work. -He held in his own house meetings for the study of the Bible and the -exchanging of personal religious experiences. From the name of these -meetings, _collegia pietatis_, the name of Pietists was given in -ridicule to him and his followers. - -Among the practical manifestations of a true Christian spirit which -Spener urged was the sending of missionaries to the heathen. On the -Feast of the Ascension he preached as follows: - -“We are thus reminded that although every preacher is not bound to go -everywhere and preach, since God has knit each of us to his -congregation, yet the obligation rests on the whole Church to have care -as to how the Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, and that to -this end no diligence, labor, or cost be spared in behalf of the poor -heathen and unbelievers. That almost no thought has been given to this, -and that great potentates, as the earthly heads of the Church, do so -very little therein, is not to be excused, but is evidence how little -the honor of Christ and of humanity concerns us; yea, I fear that in -that day unbelievers will cry for vengeance upon Christians who have -been so utterly without care for their salvation.” - -[Sidenote: A. H. Francke.] Most famous among the followers and admirers -of Spener was _August Herman Francke_, who was born in 1663 and died in -1727. He showed as a child extraordinary powers of mind, being prepared -to enter the university at the age of fourteen. In 1685 he graduated -from the University of Leipsic after having studied there and at Erfurt -and Kiel. In 1688 he spent two months with Spener at Dresden and became -deeply impressed with pietistic theories. In 1691 he was appointed -professor of Greek and Oriental languages in the University of Halle, -then recently founded. Here he became pastor of a church in a -neighboring village, an undertaking which was to have world-wide -importance. - -The villagers in this town of Glaucha were degraded, poor, untaught. -Moved by their need, Francke opened a school for the children in one -room. He had little money but he trusted God. In a short while it was -necessary to add another room, then two. He next established a home for -orphans, then he added homes for the destitute and fallen. As fast as -his enterprises increased, so rapidly came the necessary support. - -[Sidenote: The School at Halle.] It is not possible to tell here the -amazing history of the Halle institutions which sheltered even before -the death of Francke more than a thousand souls, much less of the -enormous Inner Mission institutions in other parts of Germany which had -here their inspiration. That activity of this remarkable man with which -we are chiefly concerned is his missionary labors. In the words of -Doctor Warneck: “He knew himself to be a debtor to both, Christians and -non-Christians. In him there personified that connection of rescue work -at home with missions to the heathen--a type of the fact that they who -do the one do not leave the other undone. Home and foreign missions have -from the beginning been sisters who work reciprocally into each other’s -hands.” - - -[Illustration: OHN EVANGELIST GOSSNER.] - - -[Illustration: MEN’S BATHING GHAT AT PURULIA.] - - -Francke’s institution became a training school for Christian workers. -There was no specific instruction for such undertakings, but “in those -that came in near contact with him he stirred a spirit of absolute -devotion to divine service, such as he himself possessed in highest -measure, and which made them ready to go wherever there was need of -them.” There came into the school later, as a lad, the Moravian -Zinzendorf, afterwards a zealous missionary, who describes thus the -effect of the surroundings upon him: “The daily opportunity in Professor -Francke’s house of hearing edifying tidings of the kingdom of Christ, of -speaking with witnesses from all lands, of making acquaintance with -missionaries, of seeing men who had been banished and imprisoned, as -also the institutions then in their bloom, and the cheerfulness of the -pious man himself in the work of the Lord ... mightily strengthened -within me zeal for the things of the Lord.” - -From Halle there went forth during the following century about sixty -missionaries, among them Ziegenbalg, Fabricius, Jaenicke, Gericke and -Schwartz, whose careers we shall study. Here also was trained -Muhlenberg, the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America, who -intended first to go as a missionary to India. Here were published in -1710 the earliest missionary reports in a little periodical which was -continued under different titles until 1880, one hundred and seventy -years. Among those for whom the heart of Francke yearned were the Jews, -in whose interest he founded the Institua Judiaca. From Halle there -spread an influence not only through Germany but through the world which -is difficult to estimate but almost impossible to exaggerate. By no -means the least of the missionary activities which had there their -inspiration was that of the Moravian Church, the most ardent in -missionary work of all Churches. - -The missionary influence did not have any means free course. The -opposition shown to the theories of Justinian von Welz continued. -Francke was considered no less of a fanatic. This contrary spirit may be -shown by the expression of a deeply pious clergyman who concluded an -Ascension sermon with the following couplet: - - “‘Go into all the world,’ the Lord of old did say; - But now ‘Where God has placed thee, there He would have thee stay.’” - -[Sidenote: The First Missionary Hymn.] But even in poetic form -missionary activity was soon to find an expression. In Halle a Lutheran -_Karl Heinrich von Bogatsky_ wrote in 1750 the first Protestant -missionary hymn. - - “Awake, Thou Spirit, who didst fire - The watchmen of the Church’s youth, - Who faced the foe’s envenomed ire, - Who witnessed day and night Thy truth, - Whose voices loud are ringing still, - And bringing hosts to know Thy will. - - “And let Thy Word have speedy course, - Through every land be glorified, - Till all the heathen know its force, - And fill Thy churches far and wide; - Wake Israel from her sleep, O Lord, - And spread the conquests of Thy Word!” - -Before this time, however, the first call for missionary workers had -come to Halle from outside Germany. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II. - - Pioneers and Methods - - -PIONEERS. - - _Bartholomew Ziegenbalg_ - Henry Plütschau - John Ernst Gründler - Benjamin Schultze - John Philip Fabricius - Christian William Gericke - _Christian Frederick Schwartz_ - Karl Ewald Rhenius - Thomas von Westen - Per Fjellström - _Hans Egede_ - John Jaenicke - -METHODS. - - German Societies - - The Basel Society - The Berlin Society - The Rhenish Society - The North German or Bremen Society - The Leipsic Society - The Hermannsburg Society - The Gossner Society - The Breklum or Schleswig-Holstein Society - The Neukirchen Society - The Neuendettelsau Society - The Hanover Society - The Bielefeld Society - - Scandinavian Societies - - The Danish Missionary Society - The Norwegian Missionary Society - The Norwegian Church Mission (Schreuder) - The Norwegian Lutheran China Mission - The Swedish National Society - The Swedish Church Mission - The Swedish Mission in China - The Swedish Mongol Mission - The Jerusalem Association - The Home Mission to the Santals - - Finnish, Polish and other societies. - - American Societies - - Nine Norwegian Societies - General Synod - General Council - United Synod South - Synodical Conference - Joint Ohio Synod - Danish Society - Iowa Synod - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II. - - PIONEERS AND METHODS - - PIONEERS. - -[Sidenote: A Danish Colony.] In 1526, nine years after Luther had nailed -his theses to the church door at Wittenberg, the King of Denmark -accepted the Evangelical faith. Subsequently the Lutheran Church was -made the State Church. About a hundred years later Denmark acquired by -purchase an Indian fishing village, Tranquebar, on the east coast of -southern India. There a Danish colony was established, there a Lutheran -church called Zion Church was built, and thither two preachers were sent -to minister to the Danes. Eighty years later the heart of a pious King, -Frederick IV, became concerned for the spiritual welfare of the heathen -in this colony. His court chaplain, Doctor Lütken, who was also deeply -interested, set about securing men who would be willing to undertake the -work. Failing to meet with a response in Denmark, he applied to friends -in Berlin. They recommended a young German _Bartholomew Ziegenbalg_. - -[Sidenote: The Son of a Pious Mother.] Young Ziegenbalg had been -influenced, as most candidates for the ministry are influenced, by a -pious mother. Both his mother and father had died so early that he could -remember very little about them. One recollection, however, was clear in -his mind. Dying, his mother had called her children to her bedside and -had commended to them her Bible, with the words: “Dear children, I am -leaving to you a treasure, a very great treasure.” Earnest and pious, -anxious for communion with God, the young man, who was brought up by a -sister, prepared himself for the ministry. He studied at Berlin and -afterwards at Halle. There his poor health was a cause of deep -discouragement, but Francke reminded him that though he might not be -able to work in Germany he might seek a field in some foreign country -with a more equable climate. - -[Sidenote: Called to the Mission Field.] When his health failed, -Ziegenbalg left Halle and took up the work of a private tutor. He -continued his devotional studies, however, and held such meetings as -Spener had begun. He formed a friendship at this time with Henry -Plütschau, another Halle student. Together the two covenanted “never to -seek anything but the glory of God, the spread of His kingdom and the -salvation of mankind, and constantly to strive after personal holiness, -no matter where they might be or what crosses they might have to bear.” -In 1705, Ziegenbalg accepted a call to a congregation near Berlin. It -was here that he was found by the inquiry of the Danish court chaplain -Lütken. He accepted at once, declaring that if his going brought about -the conversion of but one heathen he would consider it worth while. His -friend Plütschau was anxious to go also, and, ordained by the Danish -Church, the two sailed from Copenhagen on the ship “Sophia Hedwig” -November 29, 1705, for Tranquebar. - -[Sidenote: A Long Journey.] The journey round the Cape of Good Hope -consumed seven months, during which time each of the young missionaries -wrote a book. On July 9, 1706, they arrived at their destination. There, -owing to a difficulty with the captain who had resented their -admonitions, they could not land for two days. It was well that they did -not know that he had been instructed by the trading company under which -he sailed to hinder their work in all possible ways. Unwillingly -received by the Danish governor, they settled in a little house near the -city wall. - -Beside the Danish of the traders, two languages were spoken in -Tranquebar: the Portugese of the first foreign settlers and the native -Tamil language. Leaving the easier task to his companion who was the -older, Ziegenbalg set to work to learn the native tongue. His progress -was rapid; in a year he had completed a translation of the Catechism and -in a few months over a year had preached his first sermon. By this time -he had baptized fourteen souls. - -[Sidenote: Busy Days.] The record of his busy days seems almost -incredible when we remember that he was a man of delicate health. - -“After morning prayers I begin my work. From six to seven I explain -Luther’s Catechism to the people in Tamil. From seven to eight I review -the Tamil words and phrases which I have learned. From eight to twelve I -read nothing but Tamil books, new to me, under the guidance of a teacher -who must explain things to me with a writer present, who writes down all -words and phrases which I have not had before. From twelve to one I eat, -and have the Bible read to me while doing so. From one till two I rest -for the heat is very oppressive then. From two to three I have a -catechisation in my house. From three to five I again read Tamil books. -From five to six we have our prayer-meeting. From six to seven we have a -conference together about the day’s happenings. From seven to eight I -have a Tamil writer read to me, as I dare not read much by lamplight. -From eight to nine I eat, and while doing so have the Bible read to me. -After that I examine the children and converse with them.” - -When the two missionaries felt that it was necessary to build a church, -each gave for that purpose half of the two hundred dollars which was his -salary. The church was dedicated on August 4, 1707, and by the end of -the year it had thirty-five members. Now Ziegenbalg began to work in the -villages of the Danish possessions outside Tranquebar and established a -school for the education of Christian children in the city. - - -[Illustration: STALL HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, GUNTUR, INDIA.] - - -[Illustration: FACULTY OF WATTS MEMORIAL COLLEGE FOR MEN, GUNTUR.] - - -[Sidenote: Early Trials.] The work was not without its hard trials. When -the first financial help arrived, two years after the missionaries had -landed, the drunken captain upset in the harbor the chest of treasure -and it was lost. The work of the missionaries was opposed by the Danish -chaplains and by the Roman Catholics. On account of his defense of a -poor widow who had been cheated, Ziegenbalg was cast into prison for -four months. - -That the faith of these pioneers was unfailing may be shown by a prayer, -written by one of them on the fly leaf of a mission church-book in 1707. - -“O Thou exalted and majestic Savior, Lord Jesus Christ! Thou Redeemer of -the whole human race! Thou who through Thy holy apostles hast -everywhere, throughout the whole world, gathered a holy congregation out -of all peoples for Thy possession, and hast defended and maintained the -same even until now against all the might of hell, and moreover assurest -Thy servants that Thou wilt uphold them even to the end of the world, -and in the very last times wilt multiply them by calling many of the -heathen to the faith! For such goodness may Thy name be eternally -praised, especially also because Thou, through Thy unworthy servants in -this place, dost communicate to Thy Holy Word among the heathen Thy -blessing, and hast begun to deliver some souls out of destructive -blindness, and to incorporate them with the communion of Thy holy -Church. Behold, it is Thy Word, do Thou support it with divine power, so -that by Thy power many thousand souls may be born to Thee in these -mission stations, which bear the names of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, souls -which afterwards may be admitted out of this earthly Jerusalem into Thy -heavenly Jerusalem with everlasting and exultant joy. Do this, O Jesus, -for the sake of Thy gracious promise and Thy holy merit. Amen.” - -[Sidenote: Literary Work.] Ziegenbalg prepared an order of service and a -hymnal and translated the New Testament into Tamil--the first -translation of the New Testament into an East Indian tongue. An English -missionary society, hearing of his labors, sent him a printing press. By -1712 he had composed or had translated thirty-eight books or pamphlets. -Among his original works was an account of the native religions. The -value of this treatise has become more appreciated as men have realized -the importance of a thorough knowledge of those religious principles -which unchristianized peoples already possess. To such knowledge was due -much of Saint Paul’s success among the Greeks. - -[Sidenote: Travels.] Ziegenbalg travelled as far as Madras. On this -journey he talked with native rulers and British governors and preached -to all who would hear about the only true God. - -[Sidenote: Reinforcements.] In 1709 three missionaries were sent to his -aid. Of the three _John Ernst Gründler_ proved most able. When in 1711 -it seemed best for one of the missionaries to return to Europe to -present the needs of the mission, Plütschau was selected to go. There he -accepted a pastorate. The testimony of Ziegenbalg to his faithful work -accompanied him. - -In 1714 Ziegenbalg visited Denmark, leaving the mission in charge of -Gründler. Upon his return in 1716 he brought with him a plan for the -regular government of the mission, the assurance of ample financial -support and a helpmate, Maria Dorothea Saltzmann, who was the first -woman ever sent to a foreign field. - -[Sidenote: The New Jerusalem Church.] In February 1717, Ziegenbalg had -the satisfaction of dedicating a large native church, the New Jerusalem -Church, which is used to this day. He preached the sermon and the newly -appointed governor laid the corner stone. He continued to establish -village schools, he opened a seminary for the training of native -preachers and he provided work by which the poorest of his converts -could earn a living. Except for medical work his mission settlement -included all the activities of the most complete missionary enterprises -at the present time. - -For two more years Ziegenbalg labored, growing meanwhile aware that his -life was drawing to a close. The record of his service leads us to -expect that when his death took place in February 1719 we should find -him an old man. It is with a shock that we realize that he was only -thirty-six. He was buried in the New Jerusalem Church. - -[Sidenote: A Crowded Life.] The extraordinary accomplishment of -Ziegenbalg has been far less well known than it deserves to be. Even if -we do not take into account his frail health, the extent of his labors -is little short of marvelous. His literary work alone would seem to have -been enough to fill to the full the thirteen years of his missionary -activity. In addition, he preached constantly; he made long journeys; he -gave constant thought and effort to his schools; he looked after the -poor; he established a theological seminary. From home came many -criticisms. It was said that he made concessions to the caste system on -the one hand; on the other he was criticised for not gathering in -converts as rapidly as did the Roman Catholic missionaries who allowed -their converts to keep all their old customs. He was reproached because -he paid so much attention to the schools. The criticisms, however, which -caused him anxiety and grief serve to-day but to call attention to his -splendid common sense and excellent judgment, which later missionary -experience has tested. The community of two hundred Christians which he -left was not only converted--it was instructed and established in the -faith. - -[Sidenote: A Second Grave.] The death of Ziegenbalg left his friend, -_John Ernst Gründler_, in charge of the mission. He had been a teacher -at Halle and partook of the devotion of all connected with that great -institution. For a short time he labored in Tranquebar alone. Soon after -the arrival of three new missionaries he died and was buried in 1720 -beside his beloved friend in the new church. - -Of the three new missionaries, _Benjamin Schultze_ assumed the -management of the mission. He resembled Ziegenbalg in the variety of his -talents. Like Ziegenbalg he felt the necessity for a careful instruction -of the natives. He continued the work of translation, completing the -Tamil Old Testament and translating a part of the Bible into Telugu and -the whole into Hindustani. After doing faithful work, Schultze, being -unwilling to accept the rulings of the mission which had sent him to -India, entered the service of an English mission. After sixteen years in -India he returned to Halle. - -[Sidenote: The Mission Grows.] During the service of Schultze a mission -station was established at Cuddalore in Madras. In 1733 the first native -preacher who had been baptized by Ziegenbalg was ordained to the -ministry. Schools were enlarged and another church was erected. -Presently work was begun in Madura to the southeast of Tranquebar. By -1740, thirty-four years after Ziegenbalg had begun his work, the mission -counted five thousand six hundred Christians. - -In 1741 _John Philip Fabricius_ arrived in India. He came from a godly -family in Hesse and like Luther had given up the study of the law for -the study of theology. For theology he had gone to Halle and there had -heard the call of missions. On Good Friday in 1742 he preached his first -Tamil sermon and on Christmas in that year he was assigned to the -station established by Schultze in Madras where he remained till his -death in 1791. Like his predecessors he became a thorough student in the -native tongues. - -[Sidenote: A Scholar.] He revised the translations of Ziegenbalg and -Schultze in a form which remains unchanged to this day. To his -translations the adjective “golden” has been applied. He translated also -many hymns for the use of his congregation. - -Together with a childlike simplicity and amiability Fabricius possessed -great courage. He shared the hardships and dangers of his people during -the “Thirty Years’ War in South India”, defending his congregation upon -one occasion at the risk of his life. - -Another _Fabricius_ whose name should be recorded was that of -_Sebastian_, the brother of John Philip, who was for many years the -missionary secretary in Halle and the devoted friend of all -missionaries. - -_Christian William Gericke_, “a great and gifted man”, arrived in India -in 1767, coming like his predecessors from Halle. His first field of -labor was Cuddalore where he preached until war made necessary the -abandonment of the mission. Gericke remained throughout the conflict, -still preaching and exhorting and supporting his children in the faith. -He saw his converts suffering cruelly and was compelled to watch the -soldiers changing his church into a powder magazine. - -In Madras whither he was invited he took over the work of Fabricius, who -was now old and infirm. From there he was able to visit occasionally the -scattered members of his Cuddalore flock. - -[Sidenote: An Evangelist.] The number of his converts amounted in a -short time to three thousand. It was said that whole villages followed -him when he conducted mission tours, which were likened to triumphal -processions. In some villages temples were stripped of their idols and -converted into houses of worship. When he approached a village the -entire population frequently awaited him. It is related that the heathen -never came to their temples as they came to this man of God. Worn out, -he died in 1803 at the age of sixty-one. - -[Sidenote: Another Pious Mother.] As in the case of Bartholomew -Ziegenbalg so in the case of _Christian Frederick Schwartz_, the impulse -to the Christian ministry came from a godly mother. She died when the -lad was but five years old, but she had made her husband promise that -her boy should be prepared for the ministry. - -Like Ziegenbalg and Luther and many other religious heroes, Schwartz -suffered in his youth from the weight of sin and the fear of God’s -judgment. Like them also he came, after study of God’s Word and earnest -prayer, to rest his soul upon the almighty promises. At Halle he met -Benjamin Schultze who called upon him to aid in his revision of the -Tamil Bible. Urged by his teachers to consider a call to the mission -field, he felt himself at first to be unworthy. Finally, however, he -agreed to go. When he informed his father of his intention he met with -dismay and refusal. The elder Schwartz had three children, of these one -son had just died, a daughter was about to be married and now the third -proposed to go to distant India! Finally the father was won over and, -giving his son his blessing, charged him to win many souls for Christ. -How many times in missionary history has this drama of unwillingness, -persuasion and final yielding been enacted! - -[Sidenote: A Father’s Sacrifice.] May all fathers and mothers who give -their children to the great cause have reason for gratitude as did the -elder Schwartz! - -In January, 1750, Schwartz and two companions sailed, only to return on -account of fearful storms. In March they set out once more and reached -Tranquebar at the end of July. - -[Sidenote: A Diligent Student.] The first work assigned to the young man -was the teaching of the children in the schools. He longed to go into -the wilderness of heathendom outside the city and there do pioneer work, -and in preparation for the day when he should be allowed to go, he -applied himself to a study of the people, their language and their -religion. As a result of his thorough comprehension of their nature and -their needs he was to have a deep and lasting influence upon them. For -twelve years he worked in Tranquebar and the outlying villages. - -In 1755, by the persuasion of the wife of a German officer, Schwartz and -his companions were allowed to pay a short visit to Tanjore, the city -which was the seat of the native government and which had hitherto been -closed to missionaries. - - -[Illustration: HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN, GUNTUR.] - - -[Sidenote: Opening Doors.] In 1762 they went on a similar visit to a -little company of native Christians who had settled in Trichinopoli, for -which England and France had contended for many years. The city was a -center for idolatrous worship and contained great temples to the -elephant god Genesa, to Siva and to Vishnu. Here also there was a -popular Mohammedan shrine. Well might the visitors feel that all the -evil of heathendom was gathered to greet them. - -At that time the English had control of the city and to the joy of the -visitors they besought them to stay, promising that they would build -them a church. It was decided that Schwartz should remain. - -[Sidenote: A True Lutheran.] In making this change an important question -had to be solved by Schwartz. In order to take up the work which seemed -offered by Providence, he would have to sever connection with the Danish -Lutheran society whose missionary he had hitherto been and become a -missionary of the Church of England. In the end he decided that he would -accept English support but he stipulated that he would remain a true -Lutheran, preaching the doctrines of his own faith. He was the first of -many efficient German Lutherans who laid the foundations for the work of -other churches, and who thus furnished an example of true brotherliness -which has often been forgotten or overlooked. - -[Sidenote: At Trichinopoli.] Schwartz had always been diligent, but now -it seemed that his labors became superhuman. He had prayed for -opportunity--here was unlimited opportunity! He had studied -diligently--here were men of many tongues to whom he might preach. With -true wisdom he began his work. With the methods of the Apostles as his -model he trained the best of his converts to become missionaries to -their own people. Each morning he sent them out, two by two, and each -evening he listened to an account of their work. He added Hindustani and -Persian to the languages which he already knew so that he might reach -the Mohammedans and the court, and studied to improve his broken English -so that he might preach to the English soldiers at the garrison. His -ministrations to them after a serious explosion and a battle brought him -gifts from the government and the soldiers. Presently he built at the -foot of the mighty rock upon which stood a heathen temple a Christian -church. - -[Sidenote: At Tanjore.] Schwartz was now fifty-two years old. He had -accomplished large tasks, yet the chief labors of his life were still -before him. He learned to his amazement that the spirit at Tanjore had -changed and he was urged to return, not for a short visit as before but -to remain. The new Rajah of Tanjore sought his advice about the -settlement of certain political differences, and finding a divine call -in this summons, Schwartz left his work at Trichinopoli in the hands of -others and took up his abode in Tanjore in a house presented by the -rajah. Here, supported by the rajah, who, however, could not bring -himself quite to the point of becoming a Christian, Schwartz lived for -twelve years. - -Here the English garrison was transformed as the garrison at -Trichinopoli had been. Two churches were founded, one for the European -residents, the other for native Christians. School houses were built in -which English and Tamil were taught and where the Christian religion was -openly proclaimed. These schools became the models for the great school -system of the English government. A tribe of professional robbers -forsook their evil lives as the result of Schwartz’s preaching, sent -their children to the schools and settled down to the cultivation of the -soil and to silk culture. With the city as a center Schwartz travelled -in all directions encouraging, advising, aiding. He established a -congregation at Tinnevelli, to the south, of which we shall hear later. - -[Sidenote: The Missionary Statesman.] In the history of India Schwartz -is described as the missionary statesman. Such without any will of his -own, but on account of circumstances and his remarkable character, he -became. Foreseeing war with a neighboring ruler in which Tanjore was -likely to be besieged, he stored away quantities of rice upon which the -people fed and which saved multitudes from death. When the rajah grew -old the governor of the Madras presidency made Schwartz the head of a -commission which was to rule in his stead, and when the rajah died he -himself made Schwartz regent during the minority of his son. Schwartz -tried to avoid this heavy responsibility, until the rajah’s brother -proved cruel and incapable of governing. Then the mission house became -the capitol of the province and for two years the “king-priest” reigned. -After the heir had come to the throne, he consulted Schwartz on all -important questions. - -The character of this missionary hero is beautifully described by his -biographer, Dr. Charles E. Hay.[1] - -Footnote 1: - - _In Missionary Heroes of the Lutheran Church._ Philadelphia: Lutheran - Publication Society. - -“In undertaking all the secular duties thus imposed upon him, the -missionary was never lost in the statesman. He still gathered his -children and catechumens about him daily, preached whenever a little -company of people could be assembled and superintended the labors of the -increasing number of missionaries sent by various European societies to -India. These all recognized him as their real leader, and it was -universally felt that the first preparatory step for successful -missionary labor in southern India was to catch the inspiration and -receive the counsel of the untitled missionary bishop at Tanjore. Around -his residence building after building was erected--chapels, -schoolhouses, seminaries, missionary homes, etc.--all set in a beautiful -garden, filled with rare tropical plants. What a refuge for the wearied -and perhaps discouraged catechist! What a scene of beauty and peace to -allure the steps of the hopeless devotee of a heartless idolatry! But -the center of attraction for all alike was the radiant countenance of -the grand old man upon whom his seventy years rested never so -lightly--never too tired to entertain the humblest visitor, always ready -to help by word or deed in any perplexity.” - -[Sidenote: Illness and Death.] In October, 1797, the old man fell ill. -Thinking that his end was at hand he sent for the young rajah whose -guardian he had been and urged him once more to hear the heavenly -invitation. Would that we could record that this young man answered, -like so many of his humble subjects, “I believe”! Improving somewhat, -Schwartz summoned his pupils once more and went on with his work. The -end came at last in February, 1798. With his grieving mission family -gathered about him, he fell asleep, his last words being, “Into Thy -hands I commend my spirit. Thou has redeemed me, Thou faithful God.” - -[Sidenote: A Noble Tribute.] Claiming him for their own, those for whom -he had labored provided for his burial. The rajah who followed the bier -as chief mourner built a handsome monument on which he is represented as -kissing the hand of his dying friend. The East India Company placed a -memorial in the church at Madras with the inscription, “Sacred to the -Memory of Christian Frederick Schwartz whose life was one continued -effort to imitate the example of his blessed Master. He, during a period -of fifty years, ‘went about doing good.’ In him religion appeared not -with a gloomy aspect or forbidding mien, but with a graceful form and -placid dignity. Beloved and honored by Europeans, he was, if possible, -held in still deeper reverence by the natives of this country of every -degree and sect. The poor and injured looked up to him as an unfailing -friend and advocate. The great and powerful concurred in yielding him -the highest homage ever paid in this quarter of the globe to European -virtue.” - -Thus died this godly man. To those whose aim is heavenly peace we -commend such a life as his. To those whose ambition includes a desire -for earthly honor we commend him also. The young rajah added to his -handsome memorial another tribute composed by him and engraved on the -stone which covers his body. - - “Firm wast thou, humble and wise, - Honest, pure, free from disguise; - Father of orphans, the widow’s support, - Comfort in sorrows of every sort: - To the benighted, dispenser of light, - Doing and pointing to that which is right. - Blessing to princes, to people, to me, - May I, my father, be worthy of thee.” - -[Sidenote: Work for Another Church.] Aiding and succeeding Christian -Frederick Schwartz in the English mission was his adopted son, the _Rev. -J. B. Kohlhoff_, who arrived at Tranquebar in 1737 and worked among the -Tamils for fifty-three years. His son, John Caspar, was ordained by -Schwartz. Together Schwartz and the two Kohlhoffs worked in India for an -aggregate period of one hundred and fifty-six years. Still another -Lutheran in the English service was _W. T. Ringeltaube_, who was trained -at Halle. Upon the foundation which he laid the London Missionary -Society has built nobly and has now after a hundred years a Christian -community of seventy thousand. - -[Sidenote: A Period of Neglect.] It is estimated that at the end of the -Eighteenth Century the Danish-Halle mission in India numbered fifteen -thousand Christians. Then a period of rationalism in Europe brought -about indifference and neglect of the mission fields. From England came -the first wave of mounting missionary zeal and into English hands passed -a large part of the work of the Danish-Halle missionaries. While we -acknowledge that they have continued the work with zeal and with marked -success, yet we cannot but regret that so much that was ours, so much -that was won by the devotion of Ziegenbalg and Schwartz, no longer bears -the Lutheran name. - -[Sidenote: Another Steadfast Lutheran.] In the service of the English -mission was _Karl Ewald Rhenius_, a German Lutheran who was sent soon -after the opening of the new century to that field which had passed -partly from Danish-Halle to English hands. He went first to Tranquebar -and thence to Madras, where for five years he preached and studied. At -the end of this time he was transferred to Palmacotta, the chief city of -the Tinnevelli district. Here he began an original work, the founding of -Christian villages. As soon as sufficient natives were converted, land -was bought and they were settled upon it so that they might be removed -from former associations and temptations. Presently a native -organization was formed the object of which was the aid of new Christian -settlements. - -In 1832 Mr. Rhenius withdrew from service as a missionary of the English -society, the chief ground of difficulty being the demand of the society -that he be ordained by the English Church, and for four years he -conducted an independent mission. In character and capacity for work -Rhenius was not unlike Christian Frederick Schwartz. Beside a great -amount of translating he had time to prepare a valuable essay on the -“Principles of Translating the Holy Scriptures”. He is notable also as -one of the earliest missionaries to take a decided stand against the -observance of caste. - -The appeal of Rhenius for his independent Lutheran mission in India was -one of the influences in the first missionary activity of the American -Lutheran Church. Upon his death his followers returned to the English -Mission. In Tinnevelli where Christian Frederick Schwartz laid the -foundation and Rhenius helped to build upon it, there are now over one -hundred thousand Christians belonging to the Church of England. - -[Sidenote: In the Far North.] It was in 1704 that the Danish King -Frederick IV. turned his thoughts to the Christianizing of his East -India possessions. Soon after this time his attention was drawn to a -need nearer at hand. Among the Lapps who lived in the arctic lands to -the north there was great destitution, both spiritual and material. Here -idolatry and sacrifices to the evil spirits were common and the official -transferral of the country from the Roman to the Evangelical Church had -had no effect, since both before and after the natives were at heart -heathen. Those who were most devout in spirit had worshipped both the -heathen and the Christian gods, feeling that thus were they safe. - -A commission was appointed by the King of Denmark-Norway in 1714 to -inquire into the state of these northern people. To Finland was sent in -1716 _Thomas von Westen_, who had himself presented vividly the misery -of these poor Esquimaux. Among them he found _Isak Olsen_, a devoted -school master who had been engaged for fourteen years in missionary -work, and who now offered his services for von Westen’s undertaking. - -Concerning this Isak Olsen, it is related in Stockfleth’s _Diary_ -(_Dagbog_) that he had labored “with apostolic fervor and faithfulness; -in poverty and self-denial; in perils at sea, and in perils on land. The -Finns hated him because he discovered their idolatry and their places of -sacrifice; almost as a pauper, and frequently half clothed, he travelled -about among them. When, as it frequently happened, he was compelled to -journey across the mountains, they gave him the most refractory -reindeer, in order that he might perish on the journey. By all kinds of -maltreatment, they sought to shorten his life, and to weary him out. In -this purpose, however, they were not successful; for God was with Isak, -and labored with him, so that his toil prospered.” He not only -instructed the Finns in Christianity, but he taught a number of Finnish -youths to write, an art which very few Norsemen had acquired at that -time. In 1716, von Westen took him to Throndhjem, Norway, where he -translated the Catechism and the Athanasian Creed into the language of -the Lapps. - -Travelling from place to place, von Westen won the affection of the -benighted people whom he loved. He exposed before them the foolishness -of the sorcerers, built churches, educated the children and sent young -men to Throndhjem to prepare themselves to be ministers to their people. -The hardships of three missionary journeys undertaken and carried out in -a few years so wore upon him that he was added at the age of forty-five -to those who have gone to their reward. - -To Swedish Lapland went _Per Fjellström_ (died 1764) who did not only -valuable missionary work himself, but who laid the foundation for all -future work by his translations of the New Testament, the Catechism and -many of the Psalms. Through him and his associates the whole of Swedish -Lapland heard the pure Gospel. - -In 1739, a royal directorate was appointed to guide and supervise the -Church and school system of Swedish Lapland. It designated Per Holmbom -and Per Högström, as missionaries to that district. Högström, who died -in 1784, is the best known of Per Fjellström’s associates. He gained -great renown among the Lapps. He has described his mission labors among -them, and his _Question Book_ in the Lapp language, is a catechetical -work of merit. - -To the west of the Scandinavian countries lies Iceland, which needed no -missionaries. Visiting Europe in the Sixteenth Century, Icelanders -carried back to their country the story of the Reformation. They -introduced at once the Danish Lutheran liturgy and translated and -printed the Bible. After some opposition, the work of the Reformation -became complete. - -[Sidenote: A Zealous Soul.] Beyond Iceland lies Greenland with its snowy -fields, its great glaciers, its long dark night and its bitter cold. In -the Ninth Century a colony of Norwegians settled there, but in the -course of time perished from cold or starvation or by the hand of -enemies. Their fate was unknown and they were forgotten when _Hans -Egede_, a Lutheran pastor at Vaagen in Norway, read of their settlement -and became possessed of a desire to preach to them that Gospel which had -proved so great a blessing to his own land. In 1710 he wrote to the King -and to several bishops urging that he be allowed to go as a missionary -to these distant folk. - -The King was in sympathy with his desire, but not so his people. The -plan was thought to be impractical, if not insane. Egede’s own family -bitterly opposed him. - -But Egede was at once gentle and persistent. Supported by the devotion -of his wife he continued to urge his cause. He visited the King, but the -interview had a contrary result from that which he hoped. The King asked -those who opposed the project to send in the reasons for their objection -to the court, and so promptly and fully did they respond that Egede -became an object of even greater derision. - -[Sidenote: The Ship “Hope”.] Finally Egede persuaded a few men to -subscribe two hundred dollars apiece; he gave from his scanty store six -hundred, and all together ten thousand dollars was gathered. In a vessel -which he called “The Hope” he set out May, 1721, accompanied by his wife -and little children and some colonists, in all about forty souls. After -a perilous voyage partly among masses of ice floating in a stormy sea -they landed in Greenland in July. The situation which they met was -uncomfortable and depressing. “As many as twenty natives occupied one -tent, their bodies unwashed, their hair uncombed and both their persons -and their clothing dripping with rancid oil. The tents were filled and -surrounded with seal flesh in all stages of decomposition and the only -scavengers were the dogs. Few had any thought beyond the routine of -their daily life. No article that could be carried off was safe within -their reach, and lying was open and shameless. Skillful in derision and -mimicry, and despising men, who, so they said, spent their time in -looking at a paper or scratching it with a feather, they did not study -gentle modes of giving expression to their feelings. They wanted nothing -but plenty of seals, and as for the fire of hell, that would be a -pleasant contrast to their terrible cold. When the missionary asked them -to deal truly with God, they asked when he had seen Him last. - -“The cold as winter drew near was terrific. The eiderdown pillows -stiffened with frost, the hoarfrost extended to the mouth of the stove -and alcohol froze upon the table. The sun was invisible for two months. -There was no change in the dreary night.”[2] - -Footnote 2: - - Hans Egede: the Rev. Thomas Laurie, _Missionary Review of the World_, - December, 1889. - -[Sidenote: The Reward of Faith.] The devotion of Egede to these degraded -people was not shared by the colonists and traders who had come with -him. When the expected ship failed to appear in the spring they -announced that they would return. They had already begun to tear down -the buildings preparatory to their departure when the faith of Egede was -rewarded. A ship arrived and with it the welcome news that the mission -would be supported. - -During the summer, Egede, in his exploration of the various bays which -indent the coast, discovered the ruins of one of the settlements which -he had read about and which had seemed to beckon him to Greenland. There -were only ruins remaining, but it seemed to this devoted soul that he -could hear the echoes of Norwegian hymns and Norwegian prayers. The next -year in a journey along the coast he found many other ruins, among them -those of a church fifty by twenty feet with walls six feet thick. Nearby -in the churchyard rested the bones of pastor and people. - -[Sidenote: A Devoted Wife.] Preaching, translating, trying to establish -better methods of agriculture, now receiving aid from home, now -apparently forgotten, Egede labored for fifteen years. Beside the -heavenly assurance of ultimate victory his chief solace was the devotion -of his wife. “She was confined to the monotony of their humble home, -while he was called here and there by the duties of his office; but -though its comforts were very scanty, she saw the ships from Norway come -and go, and heard tidings from her native land without any desire to -desert her work. Amid all his troubles her husband ever found her face -serene and her spirit rejoicing in God. His greatest trial was the want -of success in his work. Though many pretended to believe, he could find -little change in heart or life, for those who affected to hear the Word -with joy, among their own people still spoke of his instructions and -prayers with derision.”[3] - -Footnote 3: - - _Ibid._ - -Presently a fort was established to protect the colony and the island -from other nations, but the presence of armed men drove the islanders -farther away. After the death of Frederick IV., the colonists were -commanded to return to Denmark. Egede declined to go. In 1733 hope was -once more kindled by the announcement that trade would be renewed and -the mission be supported. - -[Sidenote: A Sad Heart.] But greater misfortunes were at hand. A fearful -epidemic of smallpox ravaged the country. “In their despair some stabbed -themselves, others plunged into the sea. In one hut an only son died and -the father enticed his wife’s sister in and murdered her, as having -bewitched his son and so caused his death. In this great trial Egede and -his son went everywhere, nursing the sick, comforting the bereaved and -burying the dead. Often they found only empty houses and unburied -corpses. On one island they found only one girl with her three little -brothers. After burying the rest of the people, the father lay down in -the grave he had prepared for himself and his infant child, both sick -with the plague and bade the girl cover them with skins and stones to -protect their bodies from wild beasts. Egede sent the survivors to the -colony, lodged as many as his house would hold and nursed them with -care. Many were touched by such kindness, and one who had often mocked -the good man, said to him now, ‘You have done for us more than we do for -our own people; you have buried our dead and have told us of a better -life.’” Finally the missionary’s wife fell also a victim to the plague. -Dying she blessed him and his work. - -In 1736, broken in health, Egede returned to Denmark, invited by the -King. There by pen and tongue he continued to work for Greenland until -his death. - -[Sidenote: The Church of Greenland.] Upon the foundation laid by Egede -missionaries of a closely-related Church built a noble superstructure. -Appealing to the heart rather than to the intellect, the heroic -Moravians won the country for Christ. Soon spring dawned in that wintry -land. When a Moravian missionary dwelt upon the love of God and the -agony of Christ, an Esquimaux stepped forward asking eagerly, “How was -that? Tell me that again, for I also would be saved.” - -The mission to Greenland offers not only records of noble devotion and -sacrifice but a touching and remarkable conclusion. In 1899 the -Moravians handed back to the Danish Lutheran Church the work which the -Lutherans had begun. The missionary task was complete; with no selfish -desire to hold for themselves in ease what they had won in great -difficulty, the Moravians turned their labors into other fields among -the many which they have so diligently harvested. The Lutheran Church -which has sent so many laborers into other mission fields has here had a -brotherly return. - -[Sidenote: A Malady.] The latter part of the Eighteenth Century offers a -less happy missionary spectacle than the earlier part. Upon religious -life, not only in Lutheran countries but in other Protestant countries -fell the blight of indifference and of rationalism. When men do not -believe the doctrines of the Scriptures, when a future life becomes a -matter of doubt and personal salvation the subject of amusement, they -cease to feel an obligation to those who are less favorably situated, -and the carrying of the Gospel message becomes a useless or worse than -useless undertaking. - - -[Illustration: HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN, RAJAHMUNDRY.] - - -This malady of unbelief affected the Church, however, for only a short -time. By the beginning of the Nineteenth Century men were already -returning to the hope which they had rejected. With the return came once -more that sense of obligation to the heathen world which had been so -clearly seen by von Welz, Francke, Ziegenbalg and Schwartz. - -[Sidenote: A Missionary School.] The new light shone out in the opening -year of the new century. Then _John Jaenicke_, who was called “Father” -Jaenicke, established in Berlin a missionary school, the first -Protestant institution whose object was primarily the direct training of -missionaries. For many years Jaenicke had been the only believing -preacher of the Gospel in Berlin. In spite of a disease which threatened -constantly a fatal hemorrhage, he labored with a humorous disregard of -his physical disability--and lived to be eighty years old! His church in -Berlin was composed partly of Bohemians, and to these he preached in the -morning in Bohemian, his native tongue. In the afternoon he preached in -German and on Monday evening he gave a powerful review of his Sunday -sermons, dwelling constantly on two cardinal points, human sin and -divine grace, and crying earnestly to his people. “You are sinners, you -need a Savior, here in the Scriptures Christ offers Himself to you!” - -Visiting the sick, giving alms to the needy, comforting the desolate, -and alas! constantly laughed at and mocked, this godly man pursued the -course which he had set for himself. As in the case of Francke, so in -the case of Jaenicke an abounding charity concerned itself not only with -those at hand but with those afar off. From his missionary school, he -sent out in twenty-seven years about eighty missionaries. Before his -death the beauty of his character and the softening heart of his country -enabled men to see him as he was. - -The Jaenicke school exists no more as such, but in the impulse given to -missions and in a successor, the Berlin Missionary Society, it still -lives. - - METHODS. - -[Sidenote: A Method of Work.] For those who are acquainted only with the -missionary methods of the American Lutheran Church, in which missionary -work is done officially by the various branches of the Church, it is -necessary to explain briefly the different procedure of Germany and -other foreign countries. Where the Lutheran Church is the State Church, -it cares officially only for those within the State. All other varieties -of Christian work are carried on by societies which have been organized -either by groups of zealous men and women or else by a single person. -The circumstances connected with the foundation and the history of these -organizations are often intensely interesting. It is to be regretted -that we can give only a short space to each one. - - GERMAN SOCIETIES. - -[Sidenote: A Century of Service.] No missionary society has had a more -interesting beginning than the _Basel Society_. There was encamped on -one side of the Swiss city of Basel in 1815 a Hungarian army, on the -other side a Russian army. Destruction seemed certain, and when it was -averted the pious folk determined in gratitude to establish a mission -seminary to train preachers for the heathen. While this undertaking is -partly Reformed, its intimate connection with the Lutheran Church makes -it proper for us to include its work in a history of Lutheran missions. -Many of its directors and a large proportion of its workers have been -Lutherans and a great deal of its support has come from Lutheran -sources. - -At first the men trained in the Basel school went into the employ of -English missionary societies, but in 1822, after eighty-eight -missionaries had served the English Church Missionary Society alone, the -society sent its men to its own fields. Between 1815 and 1882 the -society trained eleven hundred and twelve candidates. - -The Basel society has certain distinct and peculiar characteristics. It -combines with its evangelical work industrial work which is managed by a -missionary trading society. It was the first of the German societies to -combine medical with evangelical work. It trains surgeons, farmers, -weavers, shoemakers, bakers, workers in wood and iron, tailors, printers -and mechanics as well as teachers and ministers. - -In 1915, surrounded once more by cannon, but still in peace, the Basel -society celebrated its centennial, in rejoicing yet in sadness. It has -now stations in India, China and Africa. Its last accessible report gave -its income in 1913 as $586,000. - -[Sidenote: Royal Approval.] By 1823 the attitude of the Church toward -missions had so changed and improved that ten distinguished men, -theologians, jurists and officials of the government issued “An Appeal -for Charitable Contributions in aid of Evangelical Missions”. The -organization which they formed received the royal sanction and was -called the _Berlin Society_. In 1834 the first missionaries were sent to -South Africa. At present the society works in Africa and China. Its last -income was $291,000. - -[Sidenote: Another Large Society.] As in the case of the Basel Society, -so in the case of the _Rhenish Society_ there are two elements, Lutheran -and Reformed, who work together in all its enterprises. Its school and -headquarters are in Barmen, Westphalia; its first missionaries were sent -to South Africa in 1829. Its fields lie in Africa, the Dutch East Indies -and China. Its income was in 1913 $328,000. - -In the north of Germany is located the _North German_ or _Bremen -Society_ whose workers are trained at Basel and whose field is West -Africa where it has offered an amazing sacrifice. Its income was in -1913, $71,000. - -[Sidenote: An “Aristocrat Among Missions”.] The _Leipsic Society_, which -was organized in 1836, received its strongest impress from its director -Doctor _Karl Graul_, a thoroughly trained theologian and a devoted -supporter of missions. He endeavored to make this society the center of -the missionary work of the whole Lutheran Church. He not only organized, -advised and managed from the home base but spent four years in India. -The society works in India and Africa. On account of the thoroughness -and solidity of its work it has been called “the aristocrat among -missions”. Its income was in 1913, $179,000. - -[Sidenote: The First Missionary Ship.] The _Hermannsburg Mission_ was -begun in 1849. Its genius was _Louis Harms_, the pastor of the Lutheran -church in the village of Hermannsburg. Though he was brought up under -rationalistic influences he remained true to the principles of the -Gospel. He believed that missionary work could be best accomplished by -the sending out of colonies of missionaries who should be a source of -support and encouragement to one another and who should furnish to the -natives an example of Christian behavior in all the walks of life. His -enthusiasm imparted itself to his congregation which was willing to make -any sacrifice in order that his plans might be carried out. His first -missionary party numbered twenty, twelve missionaries and eight -colonists who sailed on the ship “Candace” for East Africa. Beside its -African field the Hermannsburg Society has stations in India and Persia. -Its income in 1913 was $139,000. - -[Sidenote: The Work of One Man.] Like the Hermannsburg Mission, the -_Gossner Mission_ owes its existence to the faith and piety of a single -man. This remarkable person, _John Evangelist Gossner_, was originally a -Roman Catholic priest who was banished from Bavaria because his -preaching and his writing tended constantly away from orthodox Romanism. -Persecuted, he declared his intention of entering the Lutheran Church, -and was put through a severe examination. Proving that he held the pure -faith, he was ordained about 1827. He was subsequently pastor of large -congregations, among them that of which “Father” Jaenicke had been -pastor. His labors knew almost no limit and included home missions, -foreign missions, religious correspondence, writing and works of mercy -of all kinds. That activity with which we are most concerned is the -mission in India which he established on certain independent principles. -He believed, for instance, that missionaries should work with their -hands and thus provide for their maintenance as did the Apostle Paul. In -ten years he sent out to various missionary societies eighty -missionaries. In 1844 he established a mission of his own among the Kols -in India. To-day the Gossner mission concentrates its efforts chiefly -upon its India station. Its income was in 1913 $184,000. - -[Sidenote: Three Promising Societies.] Forty years had now passed since -Father Jaenicke founded his missionary school and the new life of -missions began. For about twenty years no societies were formed. Since -that time there have been many new undertakings. Among them is the -_Breklum_ or _Schleswig-Holstein Society_ which was founded in 1877 by a -devoted Pastor Jensen. Its fields are India and Africa and its income -was in 1913 $67,000. The _Neukirchen Society_ was founded in 1882 in the -Rhine province, by Ludwig Doll, who vowed during a severe illness that -if he were restored he would give his life to missions. This society -labors in Africa and Java and had in 1913 an income of $30,000. Most -important among the remaining Lutheran societies are that of -_Neuendettelsau_ which works in Kaiser Wilhelmsland in New Guinea, and -also in Australia, the _Hanover Society_ with stations in South Africa, -and the _Bielefeld Society_ in East Africa. - -[Sidenote: German Missionary Scholarship.] Before leaving this brief -introduction to the missionary labors of Germany, we must allude to the -fine service paid by various Germans in the field of missionary -literature. The Germans were the originators of the scientific study of -missions. They have given to missions its greatest historian, Doctor -Gustav Warneck, who for many years occupied at the University of Halle -the only academic chair in Christendom then devoted to the teaching and -study of missions, and who prepared monumental volumes discussing his -beloved theme. To his study and to that of other German scholars the -Lutheran Church owes much of that sobriety and thoroughness with which -its mission work has been done. - - SCANDINAVIAN SOCIETIES. - -[Sidenote: In Denmark.] Though the pioneer Lutheran missionaries, -Ziegenbalg and Plütschau, were sent to India by Denmark, missionary -activity languished in Scandinavia for many years. The _Danish -Missionary Society_, organized in 1821, sent missionaries to the -Greenland mission and a few to the work of the Basel society in Africa. -In 1862 it established missions of its own in India and Northern China. -In 1913 its income was $125,000. - -[Sidenote: In Norway.] The _Norwegian Missionary Society_ was founded in -1842 in Stavanger and consists at the present time of about nine hundred -societies. It works among the Zulus in South Africa, in Madagascar, and -also in China. In 1913 its income was $234,000. The _Norwegian Church -Mission_ was organized by Bishop Schreuder in 1873. Its field is in -South Africa. The _Norwegian Lutheran China Mission_, organized in 1890, -has an income of $62,000. - -[Sidenote: In Sweden.] In Sweden there are various Lutheran missionary -organizations. The most important are the _Swedish National Society_, -which works in East Africa and Central India, and has an income of -$120,000, and the _Swedish Church Mission_ whose fields are in South -Africa and East India and which has an income of $88,000. Among the -smaller societies are the _Swedish Mission in China_, the _Swedish -Mongol Mission_, and the _Jerusalem Association_. - - -[Illustration: CENTRAL GIRLS SCHOOL, RAJAHMUNDRY.] - - -[Sidenote: A Brave Girl.] One of the interesting characters in the -history of Scandinavian missions was a young Finnish girl, Maria -Mathsdotter, by name, who, through the preaching of the missionaries had -come to understand the need of her people for the Gospel. She learned -Swedish so that she might speak to the King and thereupon in 1864 set -out to walk two hundred miles to Stockholm. When a few days later she -started back, she carried with her enough money to build a children’s -home to which Finnish children could go for Christian and some -industrial instruction. As a result there are to-day a number of such -homes in Finland. - -[Sidenote: Two Friends.] Among the most popular missionary societies in -Denmark and Norway is the _Home Mission to the Santals_, established in -1867 by a Dane, Hans Peter Börresen and a Norwegian Lars Olsen -Skrefsrud. Lars Skrefsrud was the son of pious Christian parents, but -led a life of such waywardness that he was finally confined in prison. -During his term of two years he was thoroughly converted and determined -to devote his life when he should be free to mission work. As soon as he -was released he offered himself to the Norwegian mission in Africa, but -the committee concluded that a man just out of prison was not a safe -agent. He then applied to Father Gossner, who accepted him for work in -India. In the training school he became acquainted with Börresen, and so -close was their friendship that when they were placed in different -stations they separated from the Gossner mission to found the _Home -Mission to the Santals_, which is supported by Danish and Norwegian -Lutherans in all parts of the world. - - FINNISH, POLISH, AND OTHER SOCIETIES. - -Not the least valuable of Lutheran missionary enterprises is that of -little Finland, which after contributing to the missionary work of other -nations, established in 1859 on the occasion of the seven hundredth -anniversary of the conversion of Finland to Christianity the _Finnish -Lutheran Missionary Society_ with headquarters at Helsingfors. In 1867 -the society began its own mission in South Africa, and later in Japan. -Its income was in 1913 $72,000. The _Finnish Lutheran Gospel Society_ -works in China. - -The Lutherans of Poland divide their contributions among various German -Lutheran societies, among them the Leipsic and Gossner societies. - -The Lutherans of Friesland, a province of Holland, contribute to the -work of the Bremen or North German Society. - -In the Netherlands there are small Lutheran organizations which aid in -the work of the German missionaries in the Dutch East Indies. - - AMERICAN SOCIETIES. - -The missionary work of the American Lutheran Church is accomplished both -by the various large bodies and by organizations within the synods whose -sole purpose is missionary work. From the Norwegians and Danes in -America, contributions are sent to the missionary societies of the -fatherland, such as the _Home Mission to the Santals_. There are nine -American Norwegian organizations--the United Church, the Norwegian -Synod, the Hauge’s Synod, the Norwegian Free Church, the Brethren Synod, -the Elling Synod, the Santal Committee, the Zion Society and the -Intersynodical Orient Mission--which in 1915 contributed $235,000, an -average of sixty-nine cents per member. The General Synod contributed in -the same year $117,000, an average of thirty-three cents. The General -Council contributed $119,000, an average of twenty-four cents. The -United Synod in the South[4] contributed $20,000, an average of forty -cents per member. The Synodical Conference contributed $56,000, an -average of six cents per member. Not included in the above figures is -the work of the Synodical Conference for the American negro which -amounted in 1910-12 to $66,000. The Joint Synod of Ohio contributed -$16,800, an average of eleven cents per member. The Danish Society -contributed $7,825, an average of fifty-five cents per member. The Iowa -Synod contributed $16,000. It is estimated that the average yearly per -capita contribution of American Lutherans to missions is twenty-three -cents. The fields of American Lutheranism include Africa, Madagascar, -China, India, Japan, the East Indies and South America. - -Footnote 4: - - Contributions not reported through the regular treasurer bring the - per capita contribution to fifty-three cents. - -It has been impossible in this brief account to give a separate place to -the work of women’s or other auxiliary societies, which have contributed -so largely to the work of missions. The actual financial additions -brought by these societies may be easily computed, but not the interest -which they have roused, the information which they have disseminated, -the prayers which they have offered. May they long continue their -generous work! - -Many persons and some churches hold the opinion that missionary work can -be done in a haphazard fashion, each man following what he believes to -be the divine direction within him. Devoted men who counted their lives -as nothing so that they might serve Christ have gone to preach to the -Hindu without understanding his language or being able to speak it and -have counted with ill-founded joy thousands of converts who had in -reality not comprehended a word of the message. The coast of Africa has -within its soil the bodies of many missionaries who alone, unsupported -by home supplies, unfitted for their task, have laid down their lives in -a glorious but useless endeavor. - -Enterprises of this sort have not been a part of missionary work in the -Lutheran Church, which believes that the foundation of the Indian or -African Church must be laid surely and substantially, no matter how -slowly, that adult baptism cannot take place without understanding, that -only those may share the communion of Christ’s Church who know His -Gospel, and that with the precious message to the soul there should go -also the uplifting of the body so that it may become a worthy vessel. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III. - - The Lutheran Church in India - - -THE LAND. - - The people - The religions - The Caste System - The moral condition - The English in India - The contrasts of India - The word “heathen” - -THE GERMAN SOCIETIES. - - Basel - Gossner - Leipsic - Hermannsburg - Breklum or Schleswig-Holstein - -THE SCANDINAVIAN SOCIETIES. - - Home Mission to the Santals - Danish Evangelical Lutheran Missionary Society - Evangelical National Missionary Society of Sweden - The Church of Sweden Mission - -THE AMERICAN SOCIETIES. - - The beginnings - The General Synod - The General Council - The Missouri Synod - The Joint Synod of Ohio - The Synod of Iowa - The American Danes, Norwegians and Swedes. - -CONCLUSION. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III. - - THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN INDIA - - -[Sidenote: The Land.] The pen seems to falter before the task of -describing India, with its varied landscapes, its dense population, its -fascinating history, its great learning, its dark ignorance. Its area is -one million eight hundred thousand square miles, which is seven times -that of the German Empire and fifteen times that of the British Isles. -From north to south it measures about one thousand nine hundred miles -and the distance across the upper part of its great triangle is about -the same. In the north the high wall of the Himalaya Mountains separates -it from the rest of Asia; below lies the broad valley of the Ganges -River; still farther to the south a high table-land. There are all -varieties of temperature, climate and landscape. - -[Sidenote: The People.] Even more varied than the temperature and the -landscape is the population, which numbers about three hundred and -twenty millions or about one fifth of the population of the globe. The -people are divided chiefly into two large groups, the Aryans who live -for the most part in the north and who have continued the ancient Indian -civilization, and the Dravidians in the south who in development belong -among the “nature peoples.” In addition there are about sixty-five -million Mohammedans, of many races and nations, whose religion is a -uniting bond. The Indians speak in all one hundred and forty-seven -languages and dialects. - -[Sidenote: The Religions.] The chief religion of India is thus described -by Doctor Warneck. “Two hundred and eight millions have been won by -Brahmanical Hinduism, which combines the most varied forms from the -sublimest philosophy to the coarsest idolatry, profound speculations and -the wildest fantasies, even childish absurdities, moral truths and -immoral myths in wonderful mixture.” The Indian believes in so many gods -that it is difficult for him to conceive of one God. Next to Brahmanism -in number of adherents comes Mohammedanism and below it the demon -worship of the mountain tribes. - -[Sidenote: The Caste System.] In addition to the many perpendicular -divisions of the people into religious sects, there are the horizontal -divisions of caste. This strange institution from which emancipation is -almost impossible is an immeasurable hindrance to Christian missions. We -have been taught that there are four castes, (1) priests, (2) warriors, -(3) merchants and _sudra_, including peasants, artisans and servants, -and (4) outcastes. But these are only general divisions. In South India -there are said to be nineteen thousand caste divisions. Every trade -becomes a caste, and even the Christian Church is regarded as a caste. - - -[Illustration: CHAPEL OF LEPER ASYLUM, KODUR, INDIA. (JOINT SYNOD OF -OHIO)] - - -[Illustration: INMATES OF LEPER ASYLUM.] - - -[Sidenote: The Moral Condition of India.] [5]“The moral condition of the -people should be described as one of apathy or even deadness rather than -as one of violent and malignant opposition to virtue. Their lives are -destitute of stimulus and incentive. Their religion furnishes no motive -for the present and incites no aspiration for the future. The thought of -bettering their own condition or of doing aught to benefit another’s is -foreign to their minds. The Oriental doctrine of fate is ever present to -quench all upward endeavor. It is their destiny to be what and as they -are, and who are they to contend with destiny? Their chief faults are -licentiousness and lack of truthfulness. Intemperance is not usually a -vice of the Hindu people, though in recent years the introduction of -cheap foreign liquors, and the course of the government in licensing -drinking-places, has stimulated the use of intoxicating liquor among all -classes. The disposition of the people is mild, and crimes are no more -common among them than among the people of other races.” - -Footnote 5: - - _Encyclopedia of Missions_: “India”. - -Of the evils of child marriage and the wrongs of widowhood we need take -no space to tell. To him who does not believe in missions, who holds -that for India its native religions are best, its own thought -sufficient, it is only necessary to point to the two million wives under -ten years of age or to the evils of the temple system. India still -requires help from without and from above. - -[Sidenote: The English in India.] About the year 1000 a Mohammedan -conqueror entered India from Afghanistan and gradually all India was -brought under Moslem control. There was continual strife, however, -between the Moslems and the original Hindus who, here and there, were -able to rise against the galling rule of their conquerors. Early in the -Seventeenth Century the English came to India first as humble merchants, -then as rulers. When in 1857 the India mutiny, fomented by dispossessed -native princes, shook the power of the great East India Company, the -English government took the place of the company and India became -British territory. - -To-day the fourteen provinces, in which are six hundred and seventy-five -native states, are British soil. Whatever we may think the right or -wrong of the power by which Great Britain has seized and held her vast -possessions, we can feel only admiration for her colonial -administration. She has come to feel toward India a sense of duty; she -has governed justly; she has established good order and peace. She has -taken care of the sick, has educated the young and has fed the starving -in time of famine. She has, best of all, made it possible for the -Christian Church to do its great work. - -[Sidenote: The Contrasts of India.] The contrasts of India are described -by a writer in the _Missionary Witness_. “This is a land of blazing -light, and yet, withal, the land of densest darkness. There is wonderful -beauty with repulsive ugliness. A land of plenty, full of penury. Ultra -cleanliness and unmentionable filthiness. There is kindness to all -creatures, combined with hardest cruelty. All life held sacred in a land -of murders. A people of mild speech given to violent language. Proud of -learning and sunken in ignorance. Seekers for merit, resigned to fate. -Unbelieving and full of cruelty. Belief in one god co-existent with the -worship of 330,000,000 deities. Intensely religious, yet destitute of -piety. Altogether, India is lost humanity gone to seed; a diseased -degenerate herb become a noxious weed. At least this is the condition of -her society.” - -[Sidenote: The Word “heathen”.] It is characteristic of the wider -charity and also the wider knowledge of our time, that we speak of -unchristianized nations as “non-Christians” rather than as “heathen,” a -term which, especially in India, has given offense. The exchange of -terms is one greatly to be desired, since it removes a cause of offense -and also makes clearer than ever the power of the Gospel to enlighten -and to bless. For the darkness and misery of India there is one hope of -change--that she may cease to be “non-Christian”. - -To India Lutherans were, as we have seen, the first of the Protestant -Churches to carry the Gospel. Since the landing of Ziegenbalg and -Plütschau in Tranquebar, eighty-six years before the Baptist Carey went -to Bengal, Lutherans have been preaching and teaching according to the -command of their Master. - - - GERMAN SOCIETIES. - -[Sidenote: The Use of Maps.] We shall consider first of all the German -missionary societies and their labors. Before beginning the study of any -particular field the reader should refer to the brief account of the -origin and history of these societies in Chapter II. He should also -refer constantly to the map, marking, if possible, on a map of his own -the position of each foreign field. Thus he will add not only accuracy -but interest to his missionary study. - -[Sidenote: A Gift for Missions.] The _Basel Society_, which is, it -should be remembered, not wholly Lutheran in organization, support, or -workers, had already established missions in other places when, in 1834, -it received a gift of $10,000 from the Prince of Schönberg with the -stipulation that it should start a mission in a new place. The spot -selected was the Malabar district on the west coast of India on the -opposite side of the peninsula from Tranquebar and thither three -missionaries were promptly sent. - -[Sidenote: Hard Hearts in a Fertile Land.] The country which they had -selected was beautiful and fertile, but the hearts of the inhabitants -were hard soil. A proverb expressed their carelessness and indifference: -“What can man do? Idleness is good, sleep is better, death is best of -all.” In the mission field six different languages were spoken, and thus -long study and much literary work were required before permanent results -could be hoped for. - -Establishing their first station at Telicheri the missionaries worked -out into the surrounding country. As soon as possible they began to -preach, to establish schools and to translate the Bible into the native -tongues. - -[Sidenote: An Experiment.] Not the least of their difficulties was the -lack of tried missionary principles. One worker was convinced that the -only way to impress the heathen was to live their life with them. -Persuading other new missionaries to his way of thinking, he left the -mission buildings and established himself with thirty Hindu boys in a -little hut. The floor served for chairs and table and the missionary ate -with his pupils three times a day their meal of rice. An illness brought -him to his senses and he returned to a sane way of living. - -With such devotion and diligence did the Basel missionaries labor that -when one of the earliest workers was married eight years after the -establishment of the mission one hundred and twenty Christians came to -the wedding. Spreading northward into the Bombay Presidency the mission -had established by 1913 twenty-six stations with sixty missionaries and -not less than twenty thousand Christians. - -[Sidenote: A Christian Settlement.] One of the chief stations is at -Mangalore. Outside the town is Balmatta Hill round the base of which -lies a Christian village. Here live the missionaries and their wives, -here are schools, here a theological seminary for the training of native -workers. Near by is an almshouse; in this building weavers ply their -trade; yonder there is a printing establishment; here are stores, a -bakery, a carpenter shop. Crowning all, there stands on the hill top the -Church of Peace. - -[Sidenote: Shall Missionaries Provide Work for Converts?] The famous -industrial work of the Basel Society is actively promoted. Here idle -hands are trained to work, here those who have been makers of wine are -given an occupation better suited to a Christian profession, here the -very poor are able to earn their livings. There is a difference of -opinion about the value of industrial work in connection with missions, -some students believing that the spiritual work is hampered and confused -by this connection with commercial life and that undesirable and -unfaithful converts are attracted by the prospect of having work to do. -This danger, however, the Basel Mission seems to have avoided. An -unprejudiced observer writes: “Even those who for these reasons believe -that only necessity will justify the starting of mission industries, -have to admit that this Basel work has made a real contribution to -economic progress and to the dignifying of labor as worthy of a -Christian.” It is interesting to note that in the Basel weaving shop at -Mangalore was first made khaki cloth, which now covers so many million -soldiers. - -The most famous of the Basel missionaries in India was _Doctor Gundert_, -who labored for more than twenty years, then returning to the Fatherland -assumed the work left by Doctor Barth, another Lutheran director of the -Basel Society. His remaining years were filled with labor for the cause -which he loved, writing, speaking and editing missionary journals. His -wife, Julia, was the first woman missionary sent out by the Basel -Society. - -[Sidenote: A Stirring Charge.] The _Gossner Mission_ was founded in 1844 -when Pastor Gossner sent four missionaries to India with the -instructions, “Believe, hope, love, pray, burn, waken the dead! Hold -fast by prayer! Wrestle like Jacob! Up, up my brethren! The Lord is -coming and to everyone he will say, ‘Where hast thou left the souls of -these heathen?’” - -Arriving at Calcutta the first group of missionaries endeavored to -establish a colony but were not successful. They saw among the coolies -on the city streets, many men of a distinct type and discovered that -they were Kols. Among these people, once of a better standing, but now -degraded and oppressed, the Gossner missionaries determined to set to -work. - -[Sidenote: Discouragement.] Selecting the capital of the local -government, Ranchi, for their headquarters they named the spot where -they settled Bethesda. For five years they worked without gaining a -single convert. Utterly discouraged they asked for permission to seek -another field. To this request Pastor Gossner answered as follows: -“Whether the Kols will be converted or not is the same to you. If they -will not accept the Word they must hear it to their condemnation. Your -duty is to pray and preach to them. We at home will also pray more -earnestly.” - -[Sidenote: Reward.] Presently four natives were baptized, others came to -inquire, and a church was built. When it was begun there were sixty -members of the congregation; when it was completed there were three -hundred. So thoroughly was the work of evangelization done, so well -grounded were these degraded people in the faith, that in 1857 at the -time of the great mutiny when the natives of India rose against the -English the nine hundred adherents of the Gossner mission refused to -give up that faith to which they had been baptized. Here is an -extraordinary episode in missionary history. In 1845 the deepest -degradation, misery and superstition, which included the worship of -idols and demons and even the recollection of the sacrifice of living -beings--in 1857 the most exalted Christian faith and courage. - -From now on the mission prospered and its converts multiplied. Presently -work was begun among the Hindus and Mohammedans in the Ganges Valley -with a station at Ghazipur. - -A visitor to Ranchi has written down some of his impressions of the -chief station of the Gossner mission. - -[Sidenote: Impressions of a Mission Station.] “In Ranchi I could have -spent a month with the greatest delight, there is so much to see and to -hear. There is a Christian hostel here on the mission premises, which -seems to be a great power for good. It is a large square courtyard with -open rooms all around, in which any Christians are allowed to put up who -may be in from the district on business; they get their firewood free, -and the only condition of admittance is that they attend morning and -evening worship. Occasionally heathen people stop there too. The idea is -a capital one, as it keeps the missionaries in touch with their native -converts in a way which otherwise it would be very difficult to -accomplish. We visited the printing press and the boys’ and girls’ -schools. I was particularly struck by the bright little girls, who -answered so intelligently when I questioned them, and whose part-singing -was beautiful. The Kols are naturally musical, their ear being, as a -rule, very good. The girls sang softly and sweetly; some of them even -sang alone for me. They were being taught by a native who seemed to have -a great deal of musical talent; he had just picked up a new thing -himself--by ear, I suppose--and was putting it to notes for his girls. - -“I was greatly struck by the practical work being done by these German -missionaries. The children were being taught in an elementary and -practical manner suitable to their village life. For instance, the girls -were given a sum; one stated it on the blackboard, another worked it out -in her head and gave the answer, and then both had a pair of scales and -weights with some sand, and before the others they weighed out the -amount which, according to the sum, they were entitled to. In the same -practical way the girls were taught cooking and other things which would -be useful to them as the wives of country villagers. - -“I was taken to see the theological seminary and boys’ boarding school, -and the fine church, where about eight hundred of the native -congregation meet every Sunday for the worship of the true God; and yet -we are told that missions are a failure! - -“One very striking thing in the seminary was the singing class; I was -amazed at the splendid way in which they rendered selections from -Handel’s ‘Messiah’.” - -[Sidenote: Purulia.] One of the chief enterprises of the Gossner Mission -is its famous leper asylum at Purulia. The asylum was founded by -_Missionary Uffman_ in 1888, the immediate occasion being the driving of -a number of poor lepers from their miserable huts. The missionary -offered them a refuge in his compound and there relieved them as much as -possible. From this small beginning has grown the largest and finest -institution of its kind in India. There is a model village on a tract of -fifty acres of evergreen woods, with sixty spacious houses, offices, -dispensaries, a hospital, prayer rooms and a lofty Lutheran church. -Four-fifths of the inhabitants are Christians. The medical treatment is -that prescribed by the latest investigations of scientific men who have -discovered the blessed fact that the prevention of leprosy for the -children of lepers is possible and inexpensive. - -[Sidenote: Hope in the Midst of Misery.] A visitor describes thus a -Christmas celebration. “The lepers came marching out singing hymns and -playing instruments. Some limp slowly, some blind ones are led by their -comrades, some are carried. At last all are seated in the sunshine. -There were knitted garments, mufflers, scrapbooks, toys, something for -everybody, and how grateful they were! But when we saw the disfigured -hands held out for the gifts, or little leper girls caressing their new -dolls, our hearts were deeply touched, and we could hear those leper -boys making music with their new instruments almost through the whole -night. - -“Hear this grateful letter from a leper saint. ‘Lady, Peace! your -love-heart is so great that it reached this leper village--reached this -very place. I being Guoi Aing, have received from you a bed’s wadded -quilt. In coldest weather, covered at night, my body will have warmth, -will have gladness. Alas, the wideness of the world prevents us seeing -each other face to face, but wait until the last day, when with the Lord -we meet together in heaven’s clouds--then what else can I utter but a -whole-hearted mouthful of thanks? You will want to know what my body is -like--there is no wellness in it. No feet, no hands, no sight, no -feeling; outside body greatly distressed, but inside heart is greatest -peace, for the inside heart has hopes. What hopes? Hopes of everlasting -blessedness, because of God’s love and because of the Savior’s grace. -These words are from Guoi Aing’s mouth. The honorable pencil-person is -Dian Sister.’ - -“Beyond question this work at Purulia is one of the most successful -concrete results of Christian missions that the world can show.” - -[Sidenote: A Costly Sacrifice.] The founder, Missionary Uffman, paid a -costly sacrifice of devotion to the cause which he loved in the death of -his oldest daughter from leprosy. Among the workers for the lepers was -the _Rev. F. P. Hahn_, who gave forty-two years of labor in the mission, -dying in 1910. He had been awarded, as have been other Lutheran -missionaries, the Kaiser-i-Hind golden medal, which the British -government bestows only upon those who have rendered distinguished -service in humanitarian causes. - -The reports of the Gossner Society for 1913 recorded fifty German -missionaries and seventy-one thousand Christians. The Gossner mission is -the largest of the Lutheran enterprises in India. - -[Sidenote: The Command of God Unheeded.] The Danish-Halle mission among -the Tamils in Tranquebar had been founded by Ziegenbalg and Plütschau as -we have seen. Then during a period of unbelief at home, this noble -mission declined. It was no wonder that the command of God was forgotten -when a writer upon ecclesiastical affairs could express himself thus: -“The Church of Christ is not suited to such nations as the East Indians, -the Greenlanders, the Laplanders, and the Esquimaux. These people belong -to the race of apes and it is useless to preach the Gospel to them until -they become men.” - -[Sidenote: A Decline.] At the time of the one-hundredth anniversary of -the founding of the mission, Madras, Cuddalore, Tanjore and Trichinopoli -had been allowed to pass into the hands of English missionaries, smaller -stations had ceased to be occupied at all, and the Danish-Halle Society -was limited to work at Tranquebar and Poriear. In 1825 a royal command -put an end officially to the mission. - -In 1837 there died the last Danish-Halle missionary, _Kemerer_ by name, -who bewailed upon his death-bed the sad condition which he left. But the -church which he loved was not to remain without witnesses. The _Leipsic -Society_, whose origin we have described above, sent to Tranquebar in -1840 _John Henry Charles Cordes_, who was a son-in-law of Kemerer. - -[Sidenote: A Single Witness.] Alone, Cordes set to work. Feeling the -need of native helpers he began once more a training school for them at -Poriear. When in 1845 England bought Tranquebar he saved the mission to -the Lutheran Church. At first the circumstances under which Cordes -labored were disheartening in the extreme. Then two missionaries, _Ochs_ -and _Schwartz_ arrived. A third station at Majaweram, begun and given up -by the English, was incorporated. - -[Sidenote: A Delicate Question.] In 1846 several hundred Tamils from -Madras turned from the mission of the Church of England into the mission -of the Leipsic Society on account of caste difficulties. One of the most -delicate questions which must be met by missionary policy in India is -that of caste. It has been the policy of most churches to decline to -recognize that which is so contrary to the spirit of the Christian -religion. The policy of the Leipsic missionaries has been to ignore the -question, trusting to the purifying and uplifting effect of the Gospel -eventually to solve the problem. - -[Sidenote: Old Citadels Retaken.] Gradually under Missionary Cordes and -his successors some of the old work of the Danish-Halle Mission was -resumed and new stations were established. Work was begun once more in -Madras, where Schultze had labored. Cumbaconam, where Christian -Frederick Schwartz had preached, where ten thousand heathen priests were -supported by the populace, where heathen temple touched heathen temple, -heard again the Gospel, preached now by another Schwartz. In Sidabarum -where the natives declared: “Christians may not live here; the God Siva -will not endure it,” the Leipsic missionaries won seven hundred -converts. - -For more than thirty years Cordes worked in India and until his death in -1892, fifty years after he had been ordained as a missionary, he busied -himself with missionary affairs. - -[Sidenote: Brotherly Support.] The Leipsic Society is famous for the -thoroughness and solidity of its work. Its last report gives twenty-four -main stations which lie chiefly in the districts of Trichinopoli, -Tanjore, Coimbatore and Madura. It has also small missions in Rangoon, -Penang and Colombo for the sake of the Tamil Christians who have -emigrated to these places. In the southern part of its territory it is -aided by the Swedish Church Mission. Together the Leipsic Mission and -the Swedish Church Mission have fifty-eight missionaries at work. There -is a Christian community of twenty-two thousand and there are fourteen -thousand pupils in the schools. - -The following description given by a young Leipsic missionary in 1890 -indicates at the same time the enormous task before the Church and the -courage with which the scattered workers are endeavoring to solve it. - -[Sidenote: A Great Festival.] “On the evening of November 5th we went by -rail together to Majaweram, in order to celebrate Brother Meyner’s -wedding. This fell just in the time of the great Bathing Festival to -which as many as fifty to sixty thousand assemble. On the chief day we -went to the bathing-place, and looked at the matter a little more -closely. There was a tumultuous throng; hardly to be penetrated. We were -the only white faces among all these dusky multitudes. The best place -for viewing the whole affair appeared to be the flat roof of the idol -temple. We climbed up to it by a ladder, without any opposition. From -here we could overlook the human masses; they stood close packed -together, some bathing, some chatting, etc. We saw also how they were -carrying about different idols, which were adorned with gold, silver and -precious stones. All were greeted by the crowd with uplifted hands and -loud acclaims. In view of this our hearts might well sink, as we beheld -heathenism yet subsisting in its full, unbroken might. If we did not -know that God’s truth gains the victory, we should despair of the -possibility that India will ever be converted. It is an almost -impregnable citadel of Satan, and the individual mission stations are -like oases in the waste, and the individual missionary is as a drop in -the ocean. For instance, in each of such cities as Sidabarum, Cuddalore, -Cumbaconam, etc., of forty or fifty thousand inhabitants, there is only -a single missionary! What can a single man effect over against such -masses? Even yet it is only a siege from without--we have not yet made -our way into the interior of the fortress. Nevertheless we will not -therefore despond, but with fresh courage attack the task in the name of -the Lord--you at home with prayer and gifts, we in the land itself by -preaching the Gospel to the poor, blinded people, and attracting such as -are willing to let themselves be saved. We know that the Lord by little -can accomplish much. But Thou, O Lord Jesus, accept our poor, weak will, -our slender strength, take also the offer of our youth, and fashion us -into men, and into instruments of Thy mercy! Do Thou Thyself fulfill Thy -work in power and bring hither to Thy flock them that are scattered -abroad in the world, so that Thou canst soon appear in Thy glory and -conduct us out of the conflict and strife of time into Thy kingdom of -peace! Amen.” - -A quarter of a century has changed greatly the situation in India. The -siege has advanced nobly and many fortresses have been taken. - - -[Illustration: ALL INDIA LUTHERAN CONFERENCE IN 1914. DELEGATES FROM -EIGHT MISSIONS.] - - -[Sidenote: Another Brave Record.] The station of the _Hermannsburg -Society_ in India is in the southern part of Telugu land in the -Presidency of Madras and the district of Nellore. This mission has a -history of bitter opposition from the natives and cruel sufferings from -cholera, but its workers have bravely persisted, longing for a larger -force. After fifty years of work they write hopefully: “Our work in the -Telugu mission is a blessed one. The plot is small, but it will be a -great harvest field. Our preaching meets with great opposition, but -opposition is better than a dull indifference. Had we but the means to -offer salvation to the pariahs they would come in throngs.” - -After fifty years the mission reports a staff of fifteen missionaries in -twenty stations and a Christian community of more than three thousand. A -leper asylum is one of its enterprises. - -[Sidenote: A Promising Field.] The last of the German missionary -societies to establish itself in India is the _Breklum_ or -_Schleswig-Holstein Society_. It had been recommended to work in the -Bastar land, but the king refused to allow the missionaries to stay and -they went therefore to Salur in 1883. Though the mission is still young, -it provides for all varieties of missionary work, its schools are -first-class, it has established a training school for native workers and -a leper asylum and deaconesses are in charge of Zenana work. - -The Breklum Mission lies partly in high land where the temperature is -that of Europe. Here in the hills the various popular religious cults of -India had not penetrated; the inhabitants were demon worshipers. Among -them the Gospel has been received. To the missionaries it seems that -dawn is at hand; in the words of one, “there is throughout the land a -rustling as though rain is coming.” - -In 1913 the mission reported twenty-seven German missionaries and -sixteen thousand five hundred converts. - -[Sidenote: Work Interrupted.] It is with a sad heart that the lover of -missions contemplates the condition of German missions in India to-day. -Instead of the longed-for and expected harvest there is blight and -desolation; instead of plenteous rain there is drought. These Germans, -pious, diligent and successful, find drawn across the history of their -work a deeper rift than that which was drawn by the mutiny of ’57. -Removed from their missions and either held as prisoners of war or -returned to Germany, they watch with distress as the labor of years is -disastrously halted. The Basel mission which is partly manned by Swiss, -is not so seriously affected as the Leipsic, the Hermannsburg, the -Gossner and the Schleswig-Holstein or Breklum missions, which are -deprived of their workers and deprived of support. - -Lutherans in other lands are doing all that they can to care for these -enterprises. The Leipsic Mission will be looked after by the Lutheran -Church of Sweden; the Schleswig-Holstein or Breklum Mission by the -General Council; the Hermannsburg Mission by the Joint Synod of Ohio, -and the Gossner Mission by the General Synod. In this cause the American -Norwegian and Danish bodies have offered their services, as might have -been expected from their characteristic liberality. - - SCANDINAVIAN SOCIETIES. - -[Sidenote: A Trans-formation in Fifty Years.] The _Home Mission to the -Santals_, founded, as we have learned in Chapter II by Hans Peter -Börresen and Lars Skrefsrud was so called because the founders wished it -to have the nature of a “home” from which all sorts of improving -influences should flow. The Santals are akin to the Kols of the Gossner -mission. Terribly oppressed, especially by Hindu money lenders, they -rose in 1860 in a bloody rebellion which called public attention to -their misery. In 1867 the two ardent Scandinavians set to work among -them, and in a short time saw the harvest beginning to ripen. The chief -station is at Ebenezer and round about are many smaller and independent -stations. Good schools and a mission press from which a monthly paper, -“The Friend of the Santal”, is issued, are among the means for -education. The thirteen thousand five hundred Christians are so well -trained that a great part of the mission work is conducted by them. In -Assam the mission provides for its converts who have gone thither to -work on the tea plantations. - -The mission is supported, as we shall see, not only by the Scandinavians -of Europe, but by those of America. - -The _Danish Evangelical Lutheran Missionary Society_ has since 1862 -stations in Pattambakam in South Arcot. It has twenty-seven men and -women at work and a Christian community of over seventeen hundred. - -The terrible heat of Southern India is one of the conditions which make -especially heroic the service of the Scandinavians who are accustomed to -an almost arctic climate. In 1886 a Danish missionary wrote to his -friends at home with no expectation that his letter would ever be -printed: - -[Sidenote: Heroic Service.] “Though only May, it is now ninety-six -degrees in the house night and day. Our little son, four years old, will -often throw himself despairingly on the floor, exclaiming, ‘O mother, -this country is too warm, too warm; can’t we go into the great ship -again and sail home to Denmark?’ In the morning we find no application -of our Danish hymn, ‘Renewed in strength by nightly rest’. The power of -the hot, scorching wind is the same day and night. Yet we are thankful -for general health. But we cannot help thinking how, when nature is the -most withering upon us, she is opening into her fullest loveliness in -Denmark. This very day letters were received from home, and all spoke of -the Spring, of the beeches that were ready to leaf, of wood anemones and -violets, of gardens filled with Easter lilies, crocuses, hyacinths, and -all the other delicate and gracious flowers which are now covering the -Danish land. Nor did the letters merely speak of them; for in one there -were violets, in another tender beech leaves. We are fresh from seeing -all this; how living it all becomes on the receipt of such letters. -Involuntarily we exclaim: - - ‘The Pentecostal feast does nature keep - In robes of flowery magnificence.’ - -Ah! how lovely is Denmark!” - -The contributions of Norway to India are given to the Home Mission to -the Santals. - -[Sidenote: Help in Time of Famine.] _The Evangelical National Missionary -Society_ of Sweden works among the Gonds in the Central provinces of -India. Beginning in 1877 it has now extended its work to include all -natives in its vicinity. It has fifty-three Swedish workers. The most -important station is Chindwara, where the senior missionary lives and -where there are training schools and two large orphanages founded during -the terrible famines of 1896 to 1900. Other institutions established -during that trying period are industrial schools for men and women which -are now self-supporting. There is also a hospital and very active Zenana -work. - -[Sidenote: A Missionary Family.] The _Church of Sweden Mission_ in India -was begun in 1855 when two Swedish missionaries went into the service of -the Leipsic mission in Tamil land. In 1869 they were joined by Dr. C. J. -Sandgren, who is still alive and at work surrounded by five of his -children as fellow workers. In 1901 several stations of the Leipsic -mission were handed over to the independent control of the Swedes and -since then the mission has grown rapidly. Madura is the central station -and at Tirupater there is a fine hospital. The mission has profited -greatly by the mass movements toward Christianity which have taken place -in recent years in South India, in which whole villages have asked for -baptism, a condition which brings new missionary problems. - -It is to this mission that there has passed during the war the work of -the Leipsic Society. - - AMERICAN SOCIETIES. - -[Sidenote: The Patriarch of the American Lutheran Church.] Among the -heroes of the American Lutheran Church is _Henry Melchior Muhlenberg_ -who was born in Germany in 1711 and died in America in 1787. He was -educated at the University of Göttingen from which he went to Halle to -teach in the Orphanage and to prepare himself for missionary work in -India. Instead he accepted a call to become the pastor of the scattered -congregations of Lutherans in Pennsylvania. When he arrived in 1742 he -found the people without church buildings or schools and at the mercy of -imposters who claimed to be clergymen. At once he began to preach and to -organize. Travelling from New York to Georgia, doing pastoral work, -forming constitutions for churches and for the first American Synod, he -filled forty-five years to the brim with valuable work. Of him Doctor -Henry E. Jacobs says: “Depth of religious conviction, extraordinary -inwardness of character, apostolic zeal for the spiritual welfare of -individuals, absorbing devotion to his calling and all its details, were -among his most marked characteristics. These were combined with an -intuitive penetration and extended width of view, a statesman-like grasp -of every situation in which he was placed, an almost prophetic -foresight, coolness and discrimination of judgment, and peculiar gifts -for organization and discrimination.” - -Under the ministrations of Doctor Muhlenberg the Lutheran Church in -America was firmly established. That his heart turned longingly to the -first field of labor which he had selected, we know from his own -records. In giving an account of the Third Convention of the Ministerium -of Pennsylvania, he said that when the delegates gathered for an evening -meeting at his house he told them of the Mission among the Malabars and -among the Jews. Doubtless he was consoled by the hope that there might -go from his American Church those who would do what he had wished to do. - -[Sidenote: The First Missionary Undertaking.] The missionary -consciousness of the new church found its first expression is an -unsuccessful effort to evangelize the American Indian. In Georgia a -little was accomplished by the pious Salzburgers, but the withdrawal of -the Indians from the neighborhood of white settlements and the growing -and natural distrust which they felt for the whites soon put an end to -missionary work among them. - -[Sidenote: A Missionary Institute Discussed.] At the first meeting in -1820 of the General Synod, to which belonged the Synods of Pennsylvania, -New York, North Carolina, the Joint Synod of Ohio, and the Synods of -Maryland and Virginia, the founding of a missionary institute like those -of the Fatherland was suggested and discussed. Before this time -congregations had contributed individually to the work of foreign -missions through the American Board, an inter-denominational society. - -[Sidenote: The First Missionary Society.] At the meeting of the West -Pennsylvania Synod in Mechanicsburg in 1836 there was formed at the -recommendation of the General Synod a Central Missionary Society whose -object was “to send the Gospel of the Son of God to the destitute -portions of the Lutheran Church in the United States of America by means -of missions; to assist for a season such congregations as are not able -to support the Gospel; and, ultimately to co-operate in sending it to -the heathen world.” Later the name of the society was changed to “The -Foreign Missionary Society of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the -United States of America.” - - -[Illustration: A MALAGASY WITCH DOCTOR.] - - -[Illustration: NATIVE LUTHERAN MINISTERS IN MADAGASCAR.] - - -[Sidenote: Two Appeals.] There had come meanwhile to the Lutheran Church -in America two appeals from the foreign field, one from Missionary -Rhenius in India whose career we have described in Chapter II, the other -from Gützlaff in China, whom we shall study in Chapter V. It was decided -in answer to the appeal of Rhenius that _John Christian Frederick Heyer_ -should go to India as the first missionary of the General Synod. When it -appeared probable that difficulties would arise on account of the -connection with the inter-denominational American Board under whose -direction Heyer was to go, he resigned, and in 1841 was sent by the -Pennsylvania Synod which had withdrawn from the General Synod after the -first meeting. The death of Rhenius and the return of his followers to -the English mission made it possible for the Americans to select a -wholly new field. - -[Sidenote: The First American Lutheran Missionary.] In April, 1842, a -hundred years after the arrival of Muhlenberg in America, Mr. Heyer -became the first fruit of his missionary hopes. Heyer was of German -birth and had come to America when he was fourteen years old. From 1817 -till 1841 he had been a home missionary, laboring in difficult and -widely divided fields in Pennsylvania and Maryland, Indiana and -Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri. Travelling from settlement to -settlement often amid the greatest hardships, he had established -churches and Sunday schools. - -[Sidenote: No Longer a Young Man.] When he accepted the call to India, -he was almost fifty years old. A younger man might well have hesitated -to meet the dangers of the sea, the menace of a foreign climate, the -loneliness of exile. But Heyer knew neither fear nor hesitation. That he -realized that dangers existed is shown by his own words: “I feel calm -and cheerful, having taken this step after serious and prayerful -consideration, and the approbation of the churches has encouraged me -thus far. But I am aware that ere long, amidst a tribe of men whose -language will be strange to me, I shall behold those smiles only in -remembrance, and hear the voice of encouragement only in dying whispers -across the ocean, and then nothing but the grace of God, nothing but a -thorough conviction of being in the path of duty, nothing but the -approving smile of Heaven can keep me from despondency.” - -[Sidenote: Eager to Begin.] It was thought best that Mr. Heyer should -begin his work in the Telugu country north of Madras. It was the -beginning of the hot season when he arrived and he was advised to remain -in Madras and commence the study of the language. But his impatient -spirit would not let him rest. In spite of the intense heat, he -travelled to Nellore and thence to Guntur, where, invited and welcomed -by a godly Englishman, Henry Stokes, who was collector of the district -and who had earnestly wished for a missionary, he made an end of his -long journey. On the first Sunday of August 1842, he held a service with -the aid of an interpreter. [Sidenote: Reinforcements.] At once, -according to the sound method of the Lutheran missionary, he set about -the establishing of schools. He began a school for beggars and another -for a scarcely less despised class--Hindu girls. This was the first -Hindu girls’ school. Within the first year he was able to report three -adult baptisms. In two years two missionaries came to his aid, a German, -the _Rev. L. P. Valett_ who came to start a mission of the North German -Society at Rajahmundry and the _Rev. Walter Gunn_, who was sent out by -the General Synod. - -[Sidenote: A Visit Home.] In 1846 failing health compelled Father Heyer, -as he is affectionately called, to return to America. Two years later he -returned to Guntur, the visitation among the churches of the home land -having been denied him. During the two years, however, he had studied -medicine, in Baltimore, receiving his degree at the age of fifty-four. - -[Sidenote: “Oh Grave, Where is thy Victory.”] In India he discovered -that in his absence little new work had been accomplished on account of -the feeble health of Mr. Gunn. Now, however, began a period of rapid -advance. Father Heyer made missionary journeys into the Palnad district, -and soon, encouraged by many conversions, he built in Gurzala, its chief -town, a mission house, the money for which was furnished by Collector -Stokes. Heyer’s courage is shown by an incident of his life in Gurzala. -The climate of this section is deadly, and on reaching there Heyer had -his grave and coffin prepared so that his body might be buried and not -burned. But he did not contract the fever and when he left the field he -burned the coffin and repeated at the grave the words of Saint Paul, “O -grave, where is thy victory?” - -In 1850 the mission station of the North German or Bremen Society at -Rajahmundry was taken over. - -[Sidenote: Back to the Home Mission Field.] In 1857 Father Heyer -returned once more to America, not to rest but to devote twelve years to -home mission work in the distant fields of Minnesota. In the meantime -discord arose at home. The disruption brought about in all elements and -institutions of American society by the Civil War had its sad effect -upon the Church. Support and missionaries for the foreign work failed, -and the Rajahmundry station was about to pass from the hands of its -founders into those of the Church Missionary Society of England. Father -Heyer was in Germany at the time, but hearing of the danger threatening -his beloved work, he set sail for America, and appeared suddenly at the -meeting of the Pennsylvania Ministerium at Reading to plead that the -mission be retained. He would go to India at once, he said, and in -August 1869 he turned his face for the third time across the sea. He -remained in Rajahmundry a little over a year. Then handing over his work -to a successor, the _Rev. H. C. Schmidt_, he returned to America where -he died in November 1873. - -[Sidenote: To India Once More.] Of him his biographer, the Rev. Dr. L. -B. Wolf says: “He needs no eulogy. His work at home and abroad makes him -the most cosmopolitan character of his time. He had a world-vision, and -his soul was restless unless it was in touch with the whole world. He -saw what few in his day were able to see, that the Church stands for one -supreme work which must be performed in the whole world and for all men. -He will live in his Church when men of his day of much larger influence -and more commanding place shall have been forgotten, all because he -permitted no bounds to be set to the sphere of his work, except those -which he recognized as set by his Savior and Lord.” - -[Sidenote: Other Laborers.] Beside Father Heyer there labored in the -early days of the Lutheran mission the _Rev. Walter Gunn_, who died -after seven years of devoted service; the _Rev. Christian William -Grönning_, a missionary of the North German Society, who entered the -service of the American Lutheran Church when Rajahmundry was -transferred; the _Rev. A. F. Heise_, who was compelled by ill health to -resign after eleven years of work; the _Rev. W. E. Snyder_, who died in -1859; the _Rev. W. I. Cutter_, who was compelled to return on account of -the health of his wife after a short term; and the _Rev. A. Long_, who -died of smallpox after eight years of faithful service. - -[Sidenote: The Field Divided.] In 1869 the mission field in India was -permanently divided, the Gunter station and the surrounding district -becoming the charge of the General Synod, the Rajahmundry station -becoming the charge of the General Council of which the Ministerium of -Pennsylvania was now a part. Between the two missions there have been -always the most cordial and helpful of relations. In spirit they have -been one. - -[Sidenote: At Work Alone.] We shall consider first the work of the -_General Synod_. At the time of the division of the mission field the -_Rev. E. Unangst_ was the only representative of the American Lutheran -Church in India. For three years he had had no helper. He had seen since -his arrival in 1858 seven missionaries die or depart; nevertheless his -heart did not fail. For thirty-seven years he labored almost without -interruption and happily participated not only in the sowing but in the -reaping of the harvest. - -[Sidenote: A Civil War Veteran.] The _Rev. Dr. J. H. Harpster_, a -veteran of the Civil War, served his first term as a missionary from -1872 till 1876. Returning for a second term in 1893 he was nine years -later allowed by the General Synod to assume temporary charge of the -Rajahmundry mission, then passing through a period of confusion. In the -service of the Rajahmundry mission he continued until his death. To him -his fellow workers paid this tribute: “As a missionary he was -indefatigable, as a preacher eloquent and inspiring. He labored in -season and out to inculcate self-support. Altogether this was a man to -love.” His work at Rajahmundry accomplished all that had been most -hopefully expected, for in place of the discord and disorganization -which he found he left peace and order and the promise of a great -future. - -[Sidenote: Almost Fifty Years of Service.] In 1873 the _Rev. Dr. L. L. -Uhl_ was sent to Guntur, and there (in 1917) he is still laboring, -vigorous, optimistic and in the words which Dr. Harpster applied to his -own mental condition, “immensely content.” Laborers younger than he have -fallen, a few have become discouraged, but Dr. Uhl is still at work. - -[Sidenote: The Children’s Missionary.] In 1872, when a farewell meeting -was held in Harrisburg for Dr. Uhl, there was in his audience _Adam D. -Rowe_, who determined then to devote himself to missionary work. -Conceiving the plan of collecting from the children of the Church the -means for his support, he sailed for India. Worn out by his active -labors, he died in 1882. Similarly there fell while at work, the _Rev. -John Nichols_ and the _Rev. Samuel Kinsinger_. - -A missionary who has been spared for many years of service is _Dr. Anna -S. Kugler_, who went to India in 1883. Beginning in a humble way by -caring for a few afflicted women, Dr. Kugler has stimulated and directed -the founding of a large and finely equipped woman’s hospital. Capable, -enthusiastic and deeply consecrated, she has been rewarded for years of -unceasing labor by the realization of many of her hopes. The importance -of Christian medical work is illustrated by an experience of Dr. Kugler. -A neighboring rajah, various members of whose family had been cured in -the hospital, expressed his gratitude not only by a large gift, but also -by the making of a metrical translation of the Gospels into Telugu. - -To-day the Guntur Mission has in its service thirty-nine missionaries -and twelve Anglo-Indian assistants. In addition it has eight hundred and -sixty-one native workers, who include Bible women, colporteurs and -catechists. It has a baptized native membership of about fifty thousand. -It possesses twenty-one church buildings and school buildings, one -hundred and ninety-six schoolhouses and prayer houses, two hospitals, -three dispensaries and two college and high school buildings. Its -college is the only Lutheran college in India. Its last biennium has -been extraordinarily blessed and unceasingly does it call like all other -missionary enterprises for more workers, larger sums of money, and more -fervent prayers. - -[Sidenote: A Man of Practical Ability.] The record of the Mission of the -_General Council_ is a brave one. When Father Heyer returned to -Rajahmundry after his appeal to the Ministerium of Pennsylvania that the -station be not given over to the Church of England, he was followed in a -few months by the _Rev. F. J. Becker_, who had scarcely more than begun -his preparation for active service when he died. In a few months his -successor, the _Rev. H. C. Schmidt_, arrived, and subsequently the _Rev. -Iver K. Poulsen_. For a short time, until the final return of Father -Heyer to America, there were three missionaries on the field. Beside his -fine service as a preacher and teacher, Doctor Schmidt is especially -remembered for his wise care of the property of the mission. He is the -third of a trio of workers in the Rajahmundry mission who have stood in -the eyes of their Church above their fellow men, the others being Father -Heyer and Doctor Harpster. At the time of Doctor Schmidt’s retirement, -Doctor Harpster became the director of the mission. Of him we have given -above a brief account. - - -[Illustration: MAIN STATION AT MUHLENBERG, LIBERIA, AFRICA.] - - -[Sidenote: A Sad Toll.] The Rev. Poulsen withdrew in 1888 after -seventeen years of active service in the Rajahmundry mission, and, -coming to the United States, died at the age of sixty-seven in the -active pastorate. Within a few years two promising young men, _A. B. -Carlson_ and _H. G. B. Artman_, both trained in the Philadelphia -Theological Seminary, arrived, took up the work which so urgently needed -them and in a short time died. Two others, the _Rev. Franklin S. -Dietrich_ and the _Rev. William Grönning_ also laid down their lives, -the former after seven, the latter after four years of service. -Grönning, a son of C. W. Grönning, was a brilliant scholar, an eloquent -preacher and a trained musician. His parentage and his early training -had bred in him a deep love for missions and his loss was irreparable. - -Not the least heavy of the blows which the mission suffered was the -death of the _Rev. F. W. Weiskotten_, who was sent to India to inspect -and report on the affairs of the mission. Accompanying his daughter to -the field, he died on the homeward journey and was buried at sea off the -coast of France in December 1900. - -To-day the Rajahmundry mission reports over twenty-four thousand -members, about thirteen thousand of whom are communicants. Its -missionaries number eighteen and the total number of all its workers is -about five hundred and fifty. It owns valuable property and conducts a -widely useful medical work. - -The first money which was given toward the Rajahmundry hospital was -contributed by the children in the surgical ward of the German Hospital -in Philadelphia. - -[Sidenote: A Touching Story.] The first medical missionary, Doctor Lydia -Woerner, describes in an incident of her day’s work the misery of India -and its great hope. - -“Early one bright sunshiny morning, during the monsoon season, I came -through a side street in our town, passing a long, high, gray wall. -Above the wall I saw palm, banana, mangoe and tamarind trees, which -almost hid the roofs of several houses. - -“As I looked I noticed a little green door in the wall. When I asked my -helpers about the place, they all knew it by the little green door, -which they told me was always locked on the inside. It had several small -holes through which the secluded women peeped without being seen. Our -Bible woman had tried many times to gain entrance, but was told by -voices from behind the little green door that her presence would pollute -the place. One of the helpers suggested that we pray to God to open that -little green door for us. - -“A few nights later, during a terrific storm and a pouring rain, two -native officials came with an urgent call to take me to the house of -another official. I did not know him nor where he lived, but they told -me his wife had been suffering intensely for several days, so my helper -and I picked up the emergency bag and started off with them. On the way -we were told that every native midwife available had tried to relieve -the patient, but had failed. Large offerings had been made to the gods -in their favorite temple. Even the river goddess had been implored to -give help, by sacrifices thrown into her waters. As a last resort, they -had come to seek help from the missionary doctor. - -“We were drenched and stiff, as we crawled out of the oxcart. It was -very dark. The streets were flooded, but a flash of lightning revealed -to us that we were in front of the little green door--and _it was open_. -Outside, under umbrellas and blankets, were groups of men--friends of -the husband--who had come to sympathize with him because his wife was -giving him so much trouble. The sympathy was all for the husband. -Probably, after all the trouble his wife was making, she would give him -only a girl child! Inside was bedlam! A crowd of women were shrieking -and crying. Little fires had been placed in pots all over the veranda. -Smoking censers were swinging at windows and doorways, to prevent the -evil spirits from entering the house. - -“The husband came to meet me with a lantern. He was much distressed, and -besought me in beautiful English to grant him help in his great -calamity. This was his third wife. The gods were against him. He had no -_child_--only three daughters! Not one word of anxiety or sympathy did -he have for his suffering wife. - -“I saw her lying on an old cot, with a coarse bamboo mat and gunny bag -for bedding. She was a beautiful young Brahman girl. The cot was on the -outside veranda, exposed to wind and rain. The patient had already been -partially prepared for death. She was covered with burns and bruises, -and was very weak, but she looked at me with her beautiful eyes, and -implored me not to treat her as cruelly as the others had done. It was a -weird scene, with the flickering little lamps, the beautiful ill-treated -patient, and the curious faces of the women peering at us out of the -darkness. - -“Under great protest the relatives finally allowed the patient to be -moved into a small veranda room. By and by things calmed down, and the -people left for their homes. All was quiet, and the patient’s confidence -and strength revived. At dawn we left a smiling young mother holding her -newborn son in her arms, and a father proud and happy, because now he -had a _child_, an heir to his large estate. - -“The little green door opened to let us out. A little child had opened -it, and never since that night has it been closed to us or to the Gospel -message.” - -The General Council conducts a mission in the City of Rangoon in Burma. -The native catechist, who has been in charge of the work for three -years, writes that he has won thirty souls for his Lord. He says -further: - -[Sidenote: The Letter of a Native Worker.] “Though the year has been a -black one, full of trials, temptations, accidents and poisonous fevers -and break of work on account of the present war, such as the world has -never witnessed, yet God has brought us through safe and given us the -victory. And when the time shall come for the strife and toil, the -tumults and wars, the tears and groans of creation to end forever, then -shall come the jubilee, the grand coronation song shall be sung by the -resurrected redeemed hosts of the Lord, saying, ‘Thou art worthy to take -the book and to open the seals thereof; for Thou wast slain and hast -redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and -people and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and -we shall reign on the earth.’” - -In 1894 the _Missouri Lutheran Synod_ began work in India in the Salem -district of the Madras Presidency, their first station being at -Krishnagiri. There the pioneer missionary the _Rev. Th. Naether_ labored -until his death in 1904. In 1907 the work was extended to Travancore. -The mission has eleven chief stations and fourteen missionaries. - -The women’s societies of this synod are very active, their contribution -including not only money but large shipments of garments for the -children in the mission schools. The medical work of the mission, the -retreat for missionaries in the hills, and the school for missionaries’ -children are supported entirely by the women’s societies. - -_The Joint Synod of Ohio_ which had taken over before the war the Kodur -and Puttur stations of the Hermannsburg mission has now agreed to -support the entire mission. - -The _Lutheran Synod of Iowa_ sends contributions to the work of the -Leipsic Society. - -The Danes and Norwegians in America support the Home Mission to the -Santals. The Swedes are a part of the General Council and help to -support her mission. - -We owe to the Rev. George Drach the closing words of our Indian story. - -“To-day there are no less than twelve different missions in various -parts of India, supported and controlled by societies and boards of the -Lutheran Church in Europe and America, numbering according to the census -of 1911, a native Christian constituency of nearly two hundred and fifty -thousand. To emphasize their unity in faith and to consult concerning -the best method of mission work, as well as to plan for closer -co-operation, delegates were sent by the various Lutheran missions to an -All India Lutheran Conference at Rajahmundry, held December 31, 1911 to -January 4, 1912. This was the second conference of this character, the -first having been held at Guntur four years ago. - -All told, eighty European and American and twelve Indian delegates came -together at Rajahmundry in order to advance by the fostering of -Christian fellowship among Lutheran brethren and by practically helpful -deliberation, the cause of Christ in India. They represented the -Leipsic, Missouri, Swedish and Danish missions of the Tamil country, the -Hermannsburg, Breklum, American General Council and American General -Synod Missions of the Telugu country, and the Gossner Mission of the -North. The delegates came from the South of India where the breezes have -not yet spent all the spicy fragrance of which, softly blowing, they -robbed Ceylon’s isle; they came from the sun-scorched plains of Central -India, where great rivers roll seaward in tepid sluggishness; they came -from the far north where the vast, snowy reaches of the Himalayas -abruptly bound the view. It was a joy to see them, young men still in -the newness of the first years of missionary service, perhaps still -studying the vernacular of their fields of work; men in the prime of -life who had tested their strength upon the tasks God gave them to -perform amid surrounding heathendom, and who had become wise in counsel -and strong in achievement; older men whose whitening hair confirmed the -story, told by their battle-worn faces, of decades of service against -the forces of Satan, and who yet burned at heart with the zeal of young -warriors. Moreover, there was not a department of woman’s work in -missions that had not its goodly complement of women present at the -conference.... Could any other Church, besides the Lutheran, have -gathered together in one body such a unique, diversified yet united -conference of Indian missionaries and Christians?... The conference -marked an epoch in the work of Lutheran missions in India, which, -united, strong and zealous, will not be content until they occupy -advanced ground in the movement of the army of the Lord Jesus Christ.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - - The Lutheran Church in Africa - - -THE LAND. - - The People - Womanhood in Africa - The Riches of Africa - A Continent Betrayed - The Traffic in Gin - Mohammedanism in Africa - Africa under European Flags - The Picture not all Dark - The First African Missionary a Lutheran - -THE GERMAN SOCIETIES. - - (_West Coast_) - - Basel - Gossner - North German or Bremen - - (_South Africa_) - - Rhenish - Berlin - Hermannsburg - Hanover - - (_East Africa_) - - John Ludwig Krapf and Johann Rebmann the Founders - Bielefeld - Berlin - Leipsic - Breklum or Schleswig-Holstein - Neukirchen - -GERMANS AT WORK FOR OTHER SOCIETIES. - -SCANDINAVIAN SOCIETIES. - - Norwegian Missionary Society - Norwegian Church Mission (Schreuder) - Swedish State Church - Swedish National Society - -FINNISH LUTHERAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. - -NORWEGIAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY IN MADAGASCAR. - -AMERICAN SOCIETIES. - - Norwegian Synod - United Norwegian Church - Norwegian Free Church - General Synod - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - - THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AFRICA - -[Sidenote: The Land.] The continent of Africa has been likened to a -great ear which waits upon the word of the rest of the world. It is -enormous in extent, its area being nearly twelve million square miles. -If a line should be run east and west a little north of the Equator, the -northern section would enclose all North America, the southern section -all Europe. The coast line is low, and the country near the coast -unhealthy; the interior is high, composed of vast table lands and -mountain ranges. The Congo River, which is said to be thirty times the -size of the Mississippi, rushes to the sea over gigantic waterfalls and -through deep-cut channels which are almost unfathomable. Besides the -Congo there are three other large rivers, the Niger, flowing toward the -west, the Nile, toward the north, the Zambesi toward the east. - -[Sidenote: The People.] It is estimated that the native population of -Africa numbers about one hundred and seventy-five millions. Among this -vast throng there is the widest diversity of character, religion and -speech. Beside the negroes there are millions of Arabs, Copts, Berbers -and Moors. One of the better tribes of negroes, the Kondes of Central -Africa, is described by a Lutheran missionary. “You can hardly imagine, -for Africa, anything more idyllic than a Konde village. First, -well-tilled fields announce that it is near; then we often see a -widely-extended banana grove. The dwelling houses are often so neat and -clean that they would draw attention even in Europe. The people are -strong and of muscular build, their color is dark. You notice among the -men many whose features speak of reflection. They are sober and honest. -There appears, therefore, to be such a soil for the diffusion of the -Gospel as is seldom found.” - -Of the worst tribes it is difficult to speak or write. Their degradation -seems to put them below the level of the beasts. Indescribable -practices, cannibalism and slavery are common. A member of the Congo -medical service said of that section of the country: “At N’Gandu, we -found that the chief had gathered together about ten thousand cannibal -brigands, mostly of the Batatela race. Through the whole of the Batatela -country for some four days’ march, one sees neither gray hairs, nor -halt, nor blind. Even parents are eaten by their children on the first -sign of approaching decrepitude. N’Gandu is approached by a very -handsome pavement of human skulls, the top being the only part showing -above ground. I counted more than a thousand skulls in the pavement of -one gate alone. Almost every tree forming the fortification was crowned -with a human skull.” - -Commenting upon the conditions in which many Africans live, a missionary -says that “when eleven men, women and children, and seventeen goats live -together in a hut seventeen feet square, it is difficult for the flowers -of love and tenderness to flourish.” - -If we wait for evolution to raise these poor people, we will wait -forever. Fortunately, here and there, another theory of human -development has been applied with magical results. - -[Sidenote: The African Woman.] A student of Africa and the Africans has -seen in the shape of the continent the figure of a woman with a huge -burden on her back, looking toward America. If it is true that “the -index of civilization of every nation is not their religion, their -manner of life, their prosperity, but the respect paid to women”, then -we need seek no further for proof of the sad degradation of the Dark -Continent. Bought and sold, rented or given away, living in polygamy or -worse conditions, “she is the prey of the strong, her virtue is held of -no account, she has no innocent childhood, motherhood is desecrated, and -when she wraps vileness about her as her habitual garment, it is -encouraged.” In the words of Doctor Dennis, “she is regarded as a -scandal and a slave, a drudge and a disgrace, a temptation and a terror, -a blemish and a burden”. It is far easier for an African to accept the -Gospel for himself than to believe that it is intended also for women. -Doctor Day describes the vigorous driving away of the women from his -services by the headman or “king-whip” who laid about him briskly as he -cried out, “This God-palaver is not for women!” - -[Sidenote: The Riches of Africa.] The riches of Africa are for the most -part surmised rather than accurately known. The country is fertile and -crops can be cultivated with a minimum of effort. Great forests -abound--ebony, teak, rosewood, mahogany and almost every other known -kind of timber. An investigator with a fondness of mathematical -speculation has said that the forests of Africa would build a boardwalk -round the globe six inches thick and eight miles wide. The names of -certain localities, “Diamond fields”, “Gold Coast”, “Ivory Coast”, tell -us of the riches to be found therein. The coal deposits are estimated as -covering eight hundred thousand square miles. The copper fields equal -those of North America and Europe combined; the undeveloped iron ore -amounts to five times that of North America. Nor is the power for the -development of these riches wanting. Human strength is there; the black -who carries on his back for the many hours of a long march a sixty pound -burden can learn to apply his muscles to other tasks. Water power is -there in enormous waterfalls, and there are many navigable rivers. - -W. E. Burghardt Dubois, himself of African descent, declares that in -Africa may be found not only the roots of the present war, but the -menace of future wars. Of the process by which the European nations have -gained possession of practically all the black man’s continent he speaks -with passionate indignation. “Lying treaties, rivers of rum, murder, -assassination, mutilation, rape and torture” have marked the progress of -these nations in their campaign for African land. There is the spoil -“exceeding the gold-haunted dreams of the most modern of imperialists” -there is the prize for which nations will struggle indefinitely unless a -new spirit is bred among them. - -[Sidenote: A Continent Betrayed.] The great missionary command, “Go ye -into all the world and preach my Gospel to every creature” is a -sufficient direction for the Christian world in its relations with -Africa; but re-inforcing it there is, or there should be, our enormous -obligation to this most benighted country. Africa is the most helpless -continent, the most degraded, and, alas, that it should be so, the most -fearfully abused. Livingstone described it as the open sore of the -world. Small countries have been exploited, the Papuans of Australia -have been almost exterminated, the American Indian has been driven from -hunting ground to hunting ground until all that he can call his own is a -small donation of the vast land which was once his. But Africa is a -whole continent which has been betrayed. The white man has in the main -not sought to enlighten, to show the hideousness of sin, to point the -better way, but upon the evil fires of paganism he has poured gin so -that the smouldering ashes have leaped into destroying flame. The -slavery which was one of the most horrible products of paganism he did -not try to abolish, but himself stole and bought human beings; in all -one hundred million souls. - -The history of the African rum traffic would seem to take forever from -England and Germany and the United States their boasted name of -Christian. Upon the heart of our Doctor Day this fearful evil lay with a -heavy weight. Said he: - -[Sidenote: The Traffic in Gin.] “Within a stone’s throw of us lay a -large steamer laden to the water’s edge with rum. When we remember that -one of these steamers carries four thousand tons of freight and that -hundreds of them are running to the country laden with rum, the very -vilest that chemistry can invent and concoct, we may have some -conception of what it means, not only to the heathen, but to -missionaries at work there. At the mouth of every river and stream -wherever there is a rod of beach smooth enough to land, the traffic goes -on. In the name of God, in the name of all that is high and holy, why do -not the owners of these ships, who live in luxury in Boston, Liverpool, -Hamburg and London, paint their ships black and run up the black flag, -or better still, nail it to the mast? Never pirate sailed the seas whose -crimes were so black as the crimes now perpetrated on this continent in -the name of commerce. - -“At Freetown, our ship had a lot of powder to discharge. It could not be -landed at the regular wharf, but must be landed in a state of quarantine -a quarter of a mile away. What a farce! There lay the liquor ship -landing thousands of cases of rum, dangerous in a thousand fold greater -sense than all the powder that ever went into the dark continent. - - -[Illustration: GIRLS OF EMMA V. DAY SCHOOL, MUHLENBERG, AFRICA.] - - -[Illustration: CARRYING WATER AND SEWING IN GARDEN.] - - -Think too of the awful caricature of ships carrying in their holds these -untold millions of gallons of rum, holding on Sabbath the beautiful -services of the Church of England! More than all this, along this coast -are ships of war, bristling with cannon, and on these ships, too, are -read the Sabbath service, and there is a chaplain to read daily prayers. -They are here to protect commerce, a trade that is transforming so many -of these people into driveling idiots, gibbering maniacs, thieves, -harlots, everything that is low and wicked, then launching their sinful -souls into the lake that burns.” - -To the horror of its own situation Africa is not dull. Like the American -Indian, like every poor besotted wretch in his hours of sanity, the -African has besought that this curse be removed. In 1883 the natives of -the diamond fields implored the Cape Parliament to have public houses -removed at least six miles. The petition was refused. [Sidenote: -Mohammedanism in Africa.] A little over six hundred years before the -Christian era Mohammed preached his new religion in Arabia, urging upon -those who followed him prayer, almsgiving, fasting and pilgrimage to -Mecca, and allowing them slavery, concubinage, polygamy and easy -divorce. With the rapidity of fire in a field of dry grass the new faith -spread, not the least productive of the methods of the prophet being -wars of subjugation and extermination. - -The Mohammedans soon conquered North Africa sweeping away the early -Christianity, and then crossed into Spain from which they were finally -driven. For a long time the great desert served as an impenetrable -barrier to further advance in Africa, but presently they crossed the -desert, and when Christian missionaries arrived on the west coast, they -found that Islam had preceded them. Forbidding none of the old practices -of heathendom, imposing only a few new rules which are easily followed, -the Mohammedan faith has had an enormous following. Between the Crescent -and the Cross West Africa must make her choice and upon the Christian -Church depends the decision. - -In meeting Islam and its active missionaries the Christian cannot but be -sadly aware that the evil of drink was and is condemned by the prophet -and his followers and that to a true Mohammedan all forms of alcohol are -taboo, a fact with which the Mohammedan has not failed to taunt his -rival. - -Dr. Zwemer and Dr. Westerman estimate the total population of the Moslem -world to be two hundred million of whom forty-two million are in Africa. -To them as well as to the pagan should the Gospel message go. - -A missionary book or a missionary address to which I am not able to give -credit describes the parting of an English trader from the African woman -with whom he had lived during a long residence in Africa, who had served -him and truly loved him. Having accumulated riches, he was about to -return to England without even bidding her farewell, but she had heard -of his departure and followed him to the shore, where throwing herself -at his feet, she besought him not to cast her aside. Indifferent to her -grief, annoyed by her importunity, he angrily thrust her from him and -embarked. Such have been the dealings of the white race with Africa. - -[Sidenote: Africa Under European Flags.] Except for a few almost -negligible sections the continent is under European flags. France owns a -colony twenty times the size of France itself; Great Britain a colony as -large as the United States, which extends almost without interruption -from the coast to Cairo, a distance of six thousand miles; Germany, a -colony one and one-half times as large as the German Empire in Europe; -Belgium, a territory equal to that of Germany; and Portugal, Spain and -Italy a twelfth of the continent between them. - -[Sidenote: The Picture Not All Dark.] But the picture is not all dark. -The mention of Africa recalls to our minds the names of Livingstone, of -Robert Moffatt, of David A. Day. The Christian world has in Africa its -records of shame, it has also its records of glory. It has at Kimberly -the deep shafts of diamond mines, symbol of the pride and lust of man’s -heart; it has nearby the graves of many pious German Lutherans. -Lingering along the western shore there must be still the cries of the -afflicted, the wailing of mothers torn from their children, of husbands -beaten from their wives! Yet here are the graves of the children of -David A. Day. Into the distant interior penetrated the slave raiders, -torturing, driving the inhabitants from their villages, binding them -with chains, marking their course with blood; yet here is buried the -heart of Livingstone. Whether or not we heed the call, we are bound to -Africa by an unbreakable bond. - -[Sidenote: The First African Missionary a Lutheran.] It is a -satisfaction and an inspiration to know in the searching of heart which -should be ours that our own church has heeded the Ethiopian call. If it -is true that “when the history of the great African States of the future -comes to be written, the arrival of the first missionary will be the -first historical event”, then will the Lutheran Church have its Peter -Heiling (Chapter I) to record as the first of the Protestants to concern -himself directly with the spiritual welfare of the Africans. Would that -there were no such gap as that which exists between his going to -Abyssinia in 1634 and that of the next Lutheran missionaries! - -For purposes of Lutheran missionary study, we shall divide Africa into -three sections: first, the West Coast; secondly, South Africa; thirdly, -East Africa. As in the case of India we shall consider first the work of -the German, then the work of the Scandinavian, then the work of the -American Lutherans. - - - THE GERMAN SOCIETIES - - THE WEST COAST. - -[Sidenote: The Spirit of Faith.] To the eastern side of the so-called -Gold Coast went in 1828 the _Basel Society_ to begin a costly work. -“Sober and patient”--thus Doctor Warneck describes them. Opposed to them -were superstition, dense ignorance, a fearful climate, to say nothing of -all the difficulties produced by colonial politics. - -Between 1828 and 1842 the society sent to the West Coast of Africa -seventeen ministers, ten of whom died within one year, two others in -three years, and three returned to their native country confirmed -invalids. Yet steadily they pressed from the coast into the still darker -interior, working among the Ga, Chi and Ashanti negroes. In Africa there -are few native tribes which have a written language, hence the first -work of the substantial missionary is to create one. Wars among the -natives and wars among the great nations disturbed the mission, but the -work went on in spite of all obstacles. After thirty years of labor -three hundred and sixty-seven Christians were counted, after sixty years -eighteen thousand. Station after station has been founded, school after -school established. A theological seminary trains the natives to preach, -the famous Basel industrial enterprises train their hands and eyes, and -medical missionaries heal their bodies and show them how to live in -cleanliness and decency. - -[Sidenote: “The Door-Keeper of the Gold Coast.”] Among the most devoted -heroes of this mission, was _Andrew Riis_, a Lutheran. At one time when -three or four missionaries had died and persecution had dimmed somewhat -the lamp of faith, he was advised to return to Europe. But he would -listen to no such advice. Sending back the message, “I will remain”, he -went farther into the interior. Presently there arrived two other -missionaries and with them the young woman to whom Riis was engaged. -When the two newly arrived missionaries died, Riis was left once more, -the only “door-keeper” on the Gold Coast. Now he sailed for Europe, not -to give up the mission but to rouse the home churches to its support. -Successful in this effort, he returned to the field and the mission -began anew, now quickly to become prosperous. - -The changed conditions in this dark land are described in a German -missionary journal. - -[Sidenote: A City Transformed.] “In June, 1869, the missionary Ramseyer, -of the Basel Missionary Society, was dragged as a prisoner into Abetifi, -then a city of Ashantee, with his wife and child. They spent three days -in a miserable hut, with their feet in chains. Human sacrifices were -then common in Abetifi, which was under the tyrannical rule of the -Ashantee chieftains. To-day, in the same streets, under the same shady -trees, instead of the bloody executioner going his rounds, a Christian -congregation gathers together every Sunday. Christian hymns, such as, -“Who will be Christ’s Soldier?” ring joyfully through the streets. The -people come out of their houses, the chieftain is invited; he comes with -his suite and listens to the joyful tidings of salvation. And it is not -vain; many have become the disciples of Jesus. Many even dare to tell -their fellow-countrymen in the streets what joy and peace they have -found in Him.” - -In 1896 the Basel mission opened its eleventh station at Kumassi. It has -twenty-four thousand three hundred church members with a school roll of -nearly eight thousand pupils. There are thirty-six missionaries and -forty-three other Europeans who direct the industrial and commercial -work. The mission extends from Ashanti beyond the Volta River. - -[Sidenote: The Beauty of Nature and the Depredation of Mankind.] The -Basel mission has also a flourishing work in the German colony of -Kamerun, among the Bantu negroes. The beauty of the land in which they -work and the human misery are described by one of the missionaries. “It -is a beautiful wild country which often reminds us of Switzerland; on -all sides we see chains of mountains separated by deep valleys, roaring -torrents, foaming waterfalls, and forests of palm trees reaching to the -highest summits. How many times our hearts have leaped for joy at the -glory of the scene! And, on the other hand, what a sorrow it is to see -humanity fallen so low! The inhabitants of this paradise live in a real -hell, always in unspeakable dread of evil spirits and of death. The -dying often quit this world with cries of terror. The different tribes -fight constantly with one another. Their moral condition is incredible. -There are actually certain localities which exchange their dead in order -to devour them.” - -How vividly this description brings to our minds a danger not often -considered at home, the fearful effect which constant sight of the most -hideous immorality upon the missionary who is himself but a man. God be -thanked that they hold fast to all that is pure, thinking, in the midst -of monstrous crimes, of those things which are lovely! - -The Basel Society has here thirteen main stations which extend nearly a -hundred miles into the interior. Here there are sixty-three European -missionaries. The Christian community numbers twelve thousand. - -The _Gossner Mission_, whose chief work is in India, resolved in 1914 to -send missionaries to Central Kamerun. Just before the outbreak of the -war four missionaries were sent out to make preliminary studies. - -On the Slave Coast the _North German_ or _Bremen Society_ has had a -mission since 1847. This society has no mission school of its own, but -draws its workers from the mission school at Basel. Its African mission -has been continued only at enormous sacrifice. In fifty years sixty-five -men and women died. The climate is dangerous, the hearts of the natives -are stubborn. The territory in which the mission is situated is partly -German and partly English, a fact which causes not only political but -linguistic complications since German must be the language of one -section, English of the other. - - -[Illustration: CENTRAL CHINA LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, SHEKOW, -HUPEH, CHINA.] - - -[Illustration: CHAPEL AND MISSION HOMES, CHIKUNGSHAN, CHINA. (UNITED -NORWEGIAN)] - - -Nevertheless, the Bremen missionaries have persisted. To-day they have -nine stations with a staff of twenty-eight, and over ten thousand native -Christians. A thorough study has been made of the language, customs and -religion of the people, who belong to the Evhe tribe. - -Assisting in the work of the Bremen Society are deaconesses. The lives -of these godly women have had a marvelous effect especially upon the -native women. - - SOUTH AFRICA. - -[Sidenote: A Land of Many Nations.] By South Africa we mean the great -southern portion of the continent extending from Cape Town up to the -Zambesi River, which flows toward the east and the Congo which flows -toward the west. Here, in addition to the native tribes who are chiefly -Hottentots, Bushmen and Bantus, Kaffirs and Zulus, are large settlements -of whites, who, unable to go beyond this section on account of the -climate, are more and more steadily making the country their own. Their -presence, as may easily be imagined, complicates and makes immensely -difficult all mission work. To this fertile land, rich in gold, diamonds -and other minerals, have gone naturally the adventurous and in many -cases the wicked of other nations. There have been already fearful -struggles between native and foreigner, black and white. When we realize -that among the five hundred and seventy-five thousand baptized native -Christians, one hundred and twenty thousand are Lutherans, our interest -in the sadly complicated situation becomes keen. - -[Sidenote: The Missionary Press.] The first German society to work in -South Africa was the _Rhenish_ which, like the Basel Society, is not -wholly Lutheran. This society in 1829 established stations first in Nama -Land, then in Herero Land, then in Ovambo Land. Here we have another -record of opposition, of native wars, of indifference. The mission -station lies almost entirely in the German colony. It has in all -fifty-two missionaries. The number of Christians is now more than -twenty-six thousand. Here also, the Germans have translated and taught -with the greatest care. The press is constantly used to bind together -the scattered Christians in the sparsely settled districts, two monthly -religious papers, one in the Nama, the other in the Herero language, -being published. - -[Sidenote: A Labor Not in Vain.] Says Doctor Warneck: “It has been a -laborious work of patience that the missionaries have done in these -great countries, industrially so poor,--a work made difficult by the -great inconstancy of the Hottentots and the strong opposition of the -Herero, as well as by the entanglements of war,--and more than once in -Herero Land the workers were on a point of withdrawing. But German -fidelity at last carried the day. Now the whole of the great region from -the Orange River to beyond Walfisch Bay, far into the interior of Great -Nama Land and Herero Land and even up to Ovambo Land is covered with a -network of stations. All the points that could be occupied have been -made mission stations and the whole population has been brought under -the educative and civilizing influence of Christianity.” - -The Rhenish Society has also a mission in the southern part of Cape -Colony. Its first station was at Stellenbosch, near Cape Town, -established in 1829. - -The society has now in all a membership of twenty-one thousand four -hundred Christians. A number of its churches are financially -independent. Here as everywhere there are discouraging backslidings into -the old sins of drunkenness and impurity, but even so the light has -shone and will shine with increasing brightness. - -[Sidenote: The Discovery of Diamonds.] The _Berlin Missionary Society_ -began work in South Africa in 1834, first among the Koranna people -between the Orange and Vaal Rivers, and later, in 1838, in Cape Colony -itself, its first station being at Peniel. At first few foreigners -penetrated into this district between the Orange and the Vaal, but in -1870 when diamonds were discovered, Cape Colony, in spite of the -protests of the Orange Free State to which it had belonged, annexed it. -At once thousands of adventurers poured in, both black and white. In -1860 the missionaries went north into the Transvaal. - -The Berlin Mission is the largest in South Africa. Its last report names -fifty-eight stations and one thousand sub-stations. The Christian -community, which numbers sixty thousand is organized in five synods of -Cape Colony, the Zulu-Xosa district, Orange River Colony, South -Transvaal and North Transvaal. - -Among the notable Lutheran missionaries of the Berlin South African -mission have been _Merensky_, a famous writer upon missionary subjects, -_Grützer_, who gave forty-nine years of devoted service to the mission, -_Wuras_, who gave fifty and Doctor _D. Kropf_ who did valuable work as a -translator. - -Another Berlin missionary of large achievement describes his early -experience, writing in 1889: - -“After having worked myself weary through the week, when on Sunday I saw -these wild men of the wilderness sitting before me, absolute obtuseness -toward everything divine, together with mockery and brutal lusts written -on their faces, I sometimes lost all disposition to preach. Those fluent -young preachers who not only like to be heard, but to hear themselves, -ought to be sometimes required to ascend the pulpit before such an -assemblage. There is not the least thing there to lift up the preacher -of the Divine Word or to come to the help of his weakness. As when a -green, fresh branch laid before the door of a glowing oven shrivels up -at once, such has sometimes been my experience when I had come full of -warm devotion, before the Kaffirs, and undertaken to preach. I have -sometimes wished that I had never become a missionary. Once the hour of -Sunday services again approached. The sun was fearfully hot, and I felt -weary in body and soul. My unbelieving heart said: ‘Your preaching is -for nothing’, and Beelzebub added a lusty amen. The Kaffirs were sitting -in the hut waiting for me. ‘I’ll not preach to-day’, said I to my wife, -but she looked at me with her angelic eyes, lifted her finger, and said -gravely: ‘William, you will do your duty. You will go and preach’. I -seized Bible and hymn book, and loitered to church like an idle boy -creeping unwillingly to school. I began, preluding on the violin, the -Kaffirs grunting. I prayed, read my text, and began to preach with about -as much fluency as stuttering Moses. Yet soon the Lord loosened the band -of my tongue, and the fire of the Holy Ghost awakened me out of my -sluggishness. I spoke with such fervor concerning the Lamb of God, that -taketh away the sin of the world, that if that sermon has quickened no -heart of a hearer yet my own was profoundly moved.” - -The writer, Missionary Posselt, lived to baptize one thousand Kaffirs. - -[Sidenote: The Progress of Tropical Medical Treatment.] One of the -interesting developments in the Berlin Society mission has been the -great decrease in sickness, owing to the progress of tropical medical -treatment. No employee of the society, whether missionary, wife of -missionary or artisan, is sent to Africa without a thorough course in -tropical hygiene. To those faithful scientists who discovered the cause -of malaria is ascribed the success of the Panama canal; no less are they -to be thanked for the continued life and work of many missionaries. - -The _Hermannsburg Mission_ entered South Africa in 1854. Its field is -located among the Zulus in Natal where there are twenty-one stations and -twelve thousand eight hundred Christians, and among the Bechunas in the -Transvaal where there are twenty-eight stations and sixty-one thousand -Christians. - -[Sidenote: The Ship “Candace.”]. We have learned in Chapter II of the -origin of the Hermannsburg Mission in the mind and heart of Louis Harms. -After a year or two, a number of German sailors, recently converted, -sought admission to the training school, and at their suggestion a ship -was built and named the ‘Candace.’ This ship was to carry the Gospel to -South Africa, and on October 8, 1853, she sailed from Hamburg. On board -were sailors, colonists and missionaries who were to found a missionary -colony. To each separate class Pastor Harms gave separate directions, -but upon all he urged the necessity for prayer. “Begin all your work -with prayer; when the storm rises, pray, when the billows rage round the -ship, pray; when sin comes, pray; and when the devil tempts you, pray. -So long as you pray it will go well with you, body and soul.” - -The missionary colony hoped to settle among the Galla tribes, but were -driven away by the Mohammedans, therefore they returned to Natal. On the -19th of September, 1854, they established their first station near -Greytown, giving it the dear name of Hermannsburg. Each artisan began to -practice his trade, a house was built, and before three months had -passed the first converts of the Zulu church were baptized. - -[Sidenote: A Truly Lutheran Mission.] No Lutheran mission has so intense -a Lutheran spirit as the Hermannsburg mission, whose founder wished all -the Lutheran symbols and especially the beautiful Lutheran liturgy to be -recognized and used by mission churches as well as by churches in the -fatherland. - -The good ship “Candace,” one of the most famous and probably the first -of the missionary ships of the world, made many journeys. Not the least -interesting, at least to those concerned, was her second when she -carried to Natal reinforcements and additional colonists, among them a -wife for each of the missionaries who had made the pioneer journey. - -The Hermannsburg mission has not lacked a baptism of blood. In 1883 -thirteen stations were destroyed and Missionary _Schroeder_ met a -martyr’s death. - -The _Hanover Free Evangelical Lutheran Church Missionary Society_, -branched off from the Hermannsburg Mission in 1892. It has six stations -in Natal and Zululand with about twenty-two thousand Christians, and -among the Bechunas in the Transvaal three stations with thirty-six -hundred Christians. - - EAST AFRICA. - -[Sidenote: German East Africa.] The colonial expansion of Germany in the -eighties stimulated missionary interest and activity in its newly -acquired possessions in East Africa, where is situated the largest and -most thickly populated of the German Colonies, with about seven and a -half million inhabitants. The mission field is a difficult one, the -natives belonging to one of the lowest human groups. Hard of heart, slow -to give up their heathen customs, especially that of polygamy, affected -in some sections by Islam, they are difficult to impress and reluctant -to be won. Yet among them a harvest has been reaped. - -The East African mission field is inseparably connected with the name of -a Lutheran, _John Ludwig Krapf_, who in the employ of an English -missionary society founded Christian missions in this section. - -[Sidenote: A Call to Service.] [6]Krapf was born in 1810 near Tübingen -in Germany. A fondness for geography coupled with the reading of a -pamphlet describing the spread of missions among the heathen impelled -him when he was a mere boy to prepare himself for missionary work. After -studying at Basel, he became pastor of a congregation, but he could not -shut out from his heart the needs of unchristianized lands. “In the -needs of my congregation I recognized those of non-Christian lands in a -measure that affected me very deeply; in their sorrow I recognized the -wretchedness of the heathen. The grace which I myself enjoyed and which -I commended to my own people, was, I felt, for the heathen as well, but -there might be no one to proclaim it to them. Here, everyone without -difficulty may find the way of life; in those lands there may be no one -to show the way.” - -Footnote 6: - - The account of John Ludwig Krapf is taken largely from the Rev. F. - Wilkinson, _Missionary Review of the World_, November, 1892. - - -[Illustration: ADMINISTRATION BUILDING AND CLASS ROOMS, KYUSHU GAKUIN, -KUMAMOTO, JAPAN.] - - -[Illustration: PASTOR’S RESIDENCE, CHAPEL, AND STUDENT DORMITORY, TOKYO. -AMERICAN MISSIONARIES, NATIVE PASTORS AND WORKERS WITH WIVES AND -CHILDREN.] - - -[Sidenote: A Slave Market.] Following his inclination, he offered -himself for missionary work and was sent by the Church Missionary -Society of England, which used Basel missionaries in the work, to its -Abyssinian Mission. Leaving England in 1837, he reached Alexandria and -started up the Nile. At Cairo he had his first glimpse of Africa’s great -curse, the traffic in human beings. He visited the slave markets and -there saw the wretched creatures men, women and children, lying fainting -under the burning sun, to be examined like cattle by purchasers. Like -Abraham Lincoln on his journey down the Mississippi, Krapf vowed eternal -hatred for the hideous institution of human slavery. - -[Sidenote: The First Repulse.] Journeying to Adoa in the highlands of -Abyssinia, Krapf joined other missionaries trained at Basel and employed -by the Church Missionary Society, Blumhardt and Isenberg by name, but -they were soon driven away by the ruling prince. Thus repulsed, Krapf -determined to go to Shoa in the south of Abyssinia, and, accompanied by -Isenberg, he arrived there after a severe illness in June, 1859. There, -when Isenberg had returned to Egypt, Krapf worked for several years -alone. - -[Sidenote: Once More the Door Closed.] In 1842, he left Shoa to meet his -future wife, Rosina Dietrich, in Egypt and to help on their way two new -brethren who had arrived on the coast. Travelling on foot, ill, fatigued -and several times set upon by robbers, he reached the coast where he -expected to find the two missionaries, only to learn that they had been -there and had gone back to Egypt. When he with his bride returned to -Shoa they found that its ruler, like the ruler of Adoa, had closed the -kingdom against him. - -[Sidenote: The First Sacrifice.] The need of the Gallas, a nation to the -south to whom no Gospel messenger had been sent, had lain heavily upon -the heart of Krapf and now, driven from Shoa, he tried to reach them, -but found it impossible. Thereupon he determined to do what he could by -circulating the Scriptures. Joining himself to a caravan, he started for -the interior, with him his young wife, whose newborn baby was in the -course of a few weeks buried in the desert. - -[Sidenote: “Cast Down But Not Destroyed.”] Alas, even this long journey -and these trials were in vain, for once more was Krapf forbidden to -proceed with his work. The brave man, disheartened, but not completely -cast down, wrote home: “Abyssinia will not soon again enjoy the time of -grace she has so shamefully slighted.... It is a consolation to us and -to dear friends of the mission to know that over eight thousand copies -of the Scriptures have found their way into Abyssinia. These will not -all be lost or remain without a blessing. Faith speaks thus: Though -every mission should disappear in a day and leave no trace behind, I -would still cleave to mission work with all my prayers, my labors, my -gifts, with my body and soul; for there is the command of the Lord Jesus -Christ, and where that is there is also His promise and His final -victory.” - -[Sidenote: A Christian Grave in East Africa.] Krapf now determined to -attempt to gain a footing on the coast, in order from there to reach the -Gallas, whose language he had learned. With this object in view, he -sailed, with his wife, in an Arab vessel from Aden in November, 1843. -Strong headwinds and a heavy sea compelled them to return to Aden. In -spite of their exertions, the water gained upon them in their leaky -boat, and on reaching the entrance to the harbor the land wind drove -back the vessel toward the open ocean. Half an hour after they were -taken from the vessel it sank. Eight days later Krapf sailed again, and -after four or five weeks’ journey arrived at Mombasa. Scarcely, however, -had he begun to work at Mombasa when he was called to pass through -another sorrow, in the loss of his wife. In prospect of death she prayed -for relatives, for the mission, for East Africa, and for the Sultan, -that God would incline his heart to promote the eternal welfare of his -subjects. The next day she appeared much better, but the day following -much worse, while her husband himself was so weakened by fever as to be -obliged to leave the care of her almost entirely to others. The next day -she breathed her last, and on the following morning--Sunday--they buried -her, according to her wish, on the mainland in the territory of the -Wanika, her newborn daughter by her side. Krapf, even amid all these -trials, wrote in a letter to the secretary of the missionary society: -“Tell the committee that in East Africa there is the lonely grave of one -member of the mission connected with your society. This is an indication -that you have begun the conflict in this part of the world; and since -the conquests of the Church are won over the graves of many of its -members, you may be all the more assured that the time has come when you -are called to work for the conversion of Africa. Think not of the -victims who in this glorious warfare may suffer or fall; only press -forward until East and West Africa are united in Christ.” - -[Sidenote: Two Friends.] In 1846 he had the joy of welcoming a fellow -laborer, a Lutheran, _Johann Rebmann_. The two men were exactly opposite -in nature. Krapf, restless and energetic, entertained far-reaching -plans, and even saw in imagination a chain of missions stretching from -Mombasa to the Niger, and thus connecting east and west Africa; Rebmann, -on the contrary, believed in settling in one place and staying there. -Nevertheless, the two men worked in harmony. When they finished the -building of a house in a village not far from the sea-coast, Krapf felt -that the first step toward the dark interior had been taken. - -After twelve years of labor, Krapf visited Europe. When he returned to -Africa he took with him two missionaries and three mechanics, an -undertaking which was not altogether happy. But in the midst of -discouragement he took heart. - -[Sidenote: Still Undismayed.] “And now let me look backward and forward. -In the past what do I see? Scarcely more than the remnant of a defeated -army. You know I had the task of strengthening the East African Mission -with three missionaries and three handicraftsmen; but where are the -missionaries? One remained in London, as he did not consider himself -appointed to East Africa; the second remained at Aden, in doubt about -the English Church; the third died on May tenth of nervous fever. As to -the three mechanics, they are ill of fever, lying between life and -death, and instead of being a help look to us for help and attention; -and yet I stand by my assertion that Africa must be conquered by -missionaries; there must be a chain of mission stations between the east -and west, though thousands of the combatants fall upon the left hand and -ten thousand on the right.... From the sanctuary of God a voice says to -me, ‘Fear not; life comes through death, resurrection through decay, the -establishment of Christ’s kingdom through the discomfiture of human -undertakings. Instead of allowing yourself to be discouraged at the -defeat of your force, go to work yourself. Do not rely on human help, -but on the living God, to whom it is all the same to serve by little or -by much.... Believe, love, fight, be not weary for His name’s sake, and -you will see the glory of God.’” - -Twice Krapf tried to penetrate into the distant interior but was both -times compelled to return without establishing missions. In 1853 he -returned to Europe on account of ill health, but the next year set out -to Africa once more, only to be compelled on account of weakness to give -up the journey. - -Once more, however, he visited the country of his love. Wishing to open -a mission in East Africa the Methodist Free Churches requested him to -accompany their missionaries and to assist them in establishing the -mission. He agreed to go and said of the new station: “The station Ribe -will in due time celebrate the triumph of the mission in the conversion -of the Wanika, though I may be in the grave. The Lord does not allow His -Word to return unto Him void.” - -[Sidenote: A Heroic Life Ended.] Returning to Europe, Krapf continued to -work and to pray for missions until, in November, 1881, he was found -dead, kneeling in the attitude of prayer. - -[Sidenote: The Missionary as Explorer.] The names of Krapf and Rebmann -are associated not only in heroic missionary labors but in important -linguistic work and most valuable geographic discoveries. When they -declared that there existed in the center of Africa snow-capped -mountains and an inland sea, they were laughed at, but as a result -exploring expeditions were sent out to discover that what the -missionaries claimed was true. The American poet Bayard Taylor, struck -by the marvelous variety of temperature and verdure upon Mt. -Kilimanjaro, whose base was surrounded by tropical forests and whose -summit was wrapped in snow, celebrated it in verse. - - “Hail to thee, monarch of African mountains, - Remote, inaccessible, silent and lone-- - Who, from the heart of the tropical fervors, - Liftest to heaven thine alien snows, - Feeding forever the fountains that make thee - Father of Nile and creator of Egypt! - I see thee supreme in the midst of thy co-mates, - Standing alone ’twixt the earth and the heavens, - Heir of the sunset and herald of morn. - Zone above zone, to thy shoulders of granite, - The climates of earth are displayed as an index, - Giving the scope of the book of creation. - There in the wandering airs of the tropics - Shivers the aspen, still dreaming of cold: - There stretches the oak, from the loftiest ledges, - His arms to the far-away lands of his brothers, - And the pine looks down on his rival, the palm.” - -[Sidenote: David Livingstone.] This section of Africa cannot be passed -without a mention of that other hero, David Livingstone, the missionary, -scientist, and explorer, who said, “I am tired of discovery if no fruit -follows it”, and “The end of geographical achievement is only the -beginning of missionary undertaking”, who was a king among men and who -considered it his only glory that he was a “poor, poor imitation of -Christ.” - -There is a very particular reason for including a mention of Livingstone -in a history of Lutheran missions, because his impulse to become a -missionary was directly inspired by a Lutheran, Karl Frederick Gützlaff, -whom we shall study in Chapter V. Livingstone was interested in missions -and had resolved “that he would give to the cause of missions all that -he might earn beyond what was required for his subsistence.” When he -read Gützlaff’s appeal on behalf of China he determined to give himself. -For various reasons Africa rather than China was determined upon for the -scene of his labor. - -The first German movement toward a missionary possession of the German -colonies in Africa was in Bavaria where a group of men who had been -influenced by Krapf, planned a Wakamba mission. Their society is -generally known by the name of their headquarters, _Bielefeld_. One of -the leading spirits and a director of this society was Bodelschwingh, -the famous leader of Germany’s Inner Mission movement. Bodelschwingh, -like Francke, was an illustration of the fact that they who do mission -work at home do also mission work abroad. - -The principal field of the Bielefeld Society is Tanga and the country -lying behind it. In 1907 it began a new mission in the northwest corner -of German East Africa, a densely populated district between Lakes -Victoria Nyanza, Kivu and Tanganyika. In its two fields the mission has -thirty-five missionaries and about two thousand Christians. - -[Sidenote: Careful and Painstaking.] The careful and painstaking methods -of the German missionaries are indicated in a description of the winning -of their first converts in their newer field. Three years after they had -begun to work, a youth appeared for baptism. He was followed by six -other young men. Then a number of girls asked for instruction and -presently a leprous woman whose interest had been gained by the tender -care of the missionaries. For more than a year these inquirers received -instruction. At the end of that time four young men and three young -women were considered worthy of baptism. - -The _Berlin Society_ began work in 1891 in the extreme southwest corner -of the German possessions. Gradually extending, it has now fifty-seven -missionaries and about four thousand native Christians. The mission -field lies among the Konde tribes at the northern end of Lake Nyassa. - -The _Leipsic Society_ had begun its work before the possession of this -section by Germany. The people among whom it labors belong to the Chaga -tribes at the foot of snow-capped Mt. Kilimanjaro. Its stations extend -also southward and westward. It has in all twenty-eight missionaries and -about twenty-seven hundred Christians. - -The _Breklum Society_ began work in 1911 in the Uhha country on the -western shore of Lake Tanganyika where it has three missionaries. - -The _Neukirchen Society_ has a mission in German territory in Urundi -between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Kivu with five missionaries, and also -in British territory near the mouth of the Pomo River, where there are -nine missionaries. - -In Africa as well as in India there is a long list of faithful Germans -who worked in the missions of other churches. Among them _Nylander_ went -as a missionary of the English Church Missionary Society to Sierra Leone -in 1806. Until his death in 1825 he remained at his post, never -returning home for a furlough. _Doctor Schön_ reduced the Hausa language -to order and wrote for it grammars, dictionaries and reading lessons. -Upon him the French Institute conferred a gold medal for his brilliant -philological work. Livingstone declared that Schön’s name would live -long after his own had been forgotten. _Sigismund Kölle_ compiled the -_Polyglotta Africana_, a comparison of a hundred African dialects. He -was first a missionary in Sierra Leone and afterwards in Egypt, -Constantinople and Palestine. - -[Sidenote: A Lutheran in Jerusalem.] Another German Lutheran who has -been employed by other societies was _Samuel Gobat_, who was born in -Berne, Switzerland, in 1799. When he was nineteen years old he entered -the Basel Missionary Institute. After he had thoroughly prepared himself -there and in Paris in the Arabic, Ethiopic and Amharic languages, he -offered himself to the Church missionary Society of England and was sent -to begin in 1826 a mission in Abyssinia. Before he sailed for his -mission field he received Lutheran ordination. For three years he -traveled extensively in proclaiming the Gospel both to the priests who -ministered to the sadly degenerate Abyssinian Church and to the people, -then he was compelled to leave on account of ill health. He continued -his missionary activity by superintending the translating of the Bible -into Arabic at the Church Mission in Malta; in 1845 he was made Vice -President of the Protestant College at Malta. Subsequently he was -appointed Bishop of Jerusalem, his election to this important position -being preceded by his entrance into the English Church. He died in -Jerusalem in 1879, “notable for his piety, vigor, tact and good -judgment.” - - SCANDINAVIAN SOCIETIES. - -In 1844 the _Norwegian Missionary Society_ sent Hans Schreuder as a -missionary to Zululand. Here at Umpumulo he and thirty companions -started a mission. After twenty-five years’ constant and faithful work, -the number of Christians was two hundred and forty-five. To-day there -are five thousand seven hundred church members divided among thirteen -stations. The training school carries its students carefully through a -nine months’ course in the Gospels, the Catechism and Church history, -besides providing exercise in preaching and instruction concerning the -care of souls. The pupils go out two by two on Sundays to preach in -heathen kraals. Their instructor says of them, “For diligence, attention -and Christian walk, I can give them the highest praise. It has been a -delight to work among them, for they seem to grasp more and more the -central teaching of Christianity.” - -In 1873 Hans Schreuder, the pioneer, left the service of the society to -establish the _Norwegian Church Mission_, which now has four stations -and two thousand Christians. Schreuder was the father of Norwegian -missions. His appeal, “A Few Words to the Church of Norway,” in 1842, -aroused the country to a sense of its missionary obligation. - -[Sidenote: Co-operation.] The _Swedish State Church_ established in 1876 -a mission in South Africa among the Zulus, selecting this spot because -of its nearness to the Norwegian mission from which the Swedes expected -advice and co-operation. In this expectation they were not disappointed. -In sympathy and collaboration with them are also the neighboring Berlin -missionaries. A common hymn book, prayer book and catechism are used. -The native pastors of the three missions are trained by the Swedes, the -teachers by the Norwegian and the evangelists by the Germans. - -Oscarberg is the oldest station. The Zulu war and the Boer war both -caused great loss and suffering to the mission. The work was extended in -1902 to South Rhodesia. In all its stations the mission has about six -thousand native Christians. - -In Abyssinia and extending into British East Africa is the mission of -the _Swedish National Society_. To this field the society was directed -by Louis Harms in 1865. Its people, whom the missionary-explorer Krapf -longed to reach, are Gallas, a vigorous and superior African race, one -of the few who have not been influenced by Mohammedanism. Like Krapf, -the Swedes hoped to have access to these people through the Abyssinian -Church. To their hopes was put a cruel period by the murder of one of -their missionaries. In 1881 a second effort was made to reach them. -Prince Menelik of Shoa promised free passage and also Negus of -Abyssinia, but both broke their word. Finally slaves who were carried -from the Galla country were trained by the persistent missionaries and -sent back. Among them, Onesimus Nesib, who was baptized in 1872, has -translated the whole Bible into the Galla language and has written -various Christian books and a large dictionary. - -The Eritrea station of the Swedish National Society is in the Italian -colony of that name on the Red Sea. Here the missionary press, printing -in seven languages, is busily at work. To the natives of these parts the -missionaries have given their first written language. Boarding schools, -day schools and a hospital are among the mission enterprises. - -A German missionary who visited Finland in 1867 roused among the -Lutherans there an interest in Africa. As a result the _Finnish Lutheran -Missionary Society_ established a mission among the Ovambo people, near -the great mission of the Rhenish Society. For thirteen years their -missionaries labored without a single convert. Then the rulers ceased to -oppose mission work and the mission began to succeed. In nine stations -are two thousand eight hundred Christians. - -After long instruction the King of Ovamboland was baptized in 1912 and -dying shortly after gave testimony to his faith upon his death-bed. -Subsequently his successor was publicly baptized together with fifty-six -of his subjects. - - NORWEGIANS IN MADAGASCAR. - -[Sidenote: Planting.] The French island of Madagascar lies to the -southeast of the continent of Africa and has a Malay population of about -four hundred thousand. Work was begun in 1818 by English missionaries -with the approval of King Radama, who acknowledged the suzerainty of -England. Interrupted for some months by the death of most of the pioneer -party, the mission was recommenced in the year 1820, in the capital -city, Antananarivo, in the interior highland, and was carried on with -much success until the year 1835, when the persecuting queen, Ranavalona -I, began severe measures against Christianity, and all the missionaries -were compelled to leave the island. But during that period of fifteen -years of steady labor, the native language was reduced to a written -form, the whole Bible was translated into the Malagasy tongue, a school -system was established in the central province of Imerina, many -thousands of children were instructed, and two small churches were -formed. About two hundred Malagasy were believed to have become sincere -Christians, while several thousands of young people had received -instruction in the elementary facts and truths of Christianity. That was -the period of planting in Madagascar. - -[Sidenote: Persecution.] The second period in the history of Malagasy -Christianity was that of persecution which continued for twenty-six -years (1835-61). During this time persistent efforts were made to root -out the hated foreign religion. But the number of the “praying people” -steadily increased, and although about two hundred of them were put to -death in various ways, the Christians multiplied tenfold during that -terrible time of trial. - -The truly Christian death of these martyrs is described in a native -account. “Then they prayed, ‘O Lord, receive our spirits, for Thy love -to us hath caused this to come to us; and lay not this sin to their -charge.’ Thus prayed they as long as they had any life and then they -died--softly, gently; and there was at the time a rainbow in the -heavens, which seemed to touch the place of the burning.” - -[Sidenote: Harvest.] In 1862 mission work was re-established, and then -began the third period in the religious history of the country, -emphatically that of progress. From that date until the present time -Christianity has steadily grown in influence. - -A great outward impetus was given to the spread of Christianity in the -early part of 1869 by the baptism of the queen, Ranavalona II, and her -Prime Minister, and the subsequent destruction of the idols of the -central provinces, and still more by the personal influence of the -sovereign in favor of the Christian religion.[7] - -Footnote 7: - - The material for this account was gathered from the _Missionary - Review of the World_--Article by James Sibree--June 1895. - -[Sidenote: A Model Mission.] Among the societies which entered -Madagascar at this period was the _Norwegian Missionary Society_ which -settled in the province of Betsileo in 1867. With admirable -administration at home, and in spite of serious difficulty with an -opposition mission established by the Jesuits, they have accomplished a -task which is universally praised by missionary historians. They have at -work, besides many Norwegian and some American missionaries, ninety-six -native pastors and over nine hundred catechists. There are two medical -missions and a leper asylum, schools and printing offices. It is -reckoned that among the one hundred and thirty thousand Christians in -the Island, eighty-four thousand are Lutherans. - -Among the great names of the mission are those of _Dahle_, who -established a Seminary for native workers, and _Doctor Borchgrevink_, a -medical missionary. - - AMERICAN SOCIETIES. - -The Norwegians in America, always closely connected with the Church of -the Fatherland, sent their missionary contributions at first through the -fatherland societies, the Norwegian Missionary Society and the Norwegian -Church (Schreuder’s) Mission. To Schreuder’s Mission the _Norwegian -Synod_ (American) still contributes, having sent in 1915 about $10,000. - - -[Illustration: FIRST GRADUATING CLASS FROM KINDERGARTEN AT OGI, JAPAN.] - - -[Illustration: GROUP OF THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS, KUMAMOTO.] - - -In the work in Madagascar American Norwegians have a large and important -part. In 1892 the Norwegian Missionary Society assigned to the _United -Norwegian Lutheran Church_ (American) the southern part of the island. -In 1897 this field was divided once more, the _Norwegian Lutheran Free -Church_ (American) taking the western section. Together these two -societies have a territory covering about thirty thousand square miles, -with a population of almost four hundred thousand. The United Church -contributed in 1915, $42,000 for its work and the Norwegian Free Church -almost $17,000. Together they have a Christian community of about -twenty-six hundred. - -To the work of the Leipsic Society in East Africa the American Lutheran -_Synod of Iowa_ contributes and to the work of the Hermannsburg society, -the _Joint Synod of Ohio_. - -The _Synod of South Carolina_, now a part of the United Synod in the -South may be said to have been the first Lutheran body in America to -send a missionary to Africa. This was _Boston Drayton_, a colored member -of the English Lutheran Church of Charleston, who sailed in 1845. Of him -or of his work, little more is known. - -[Sidenote: An African Republic.] The Republic of Liberia was established -in 1821 “to be reserved forever for the settlement of American freed -slaves.” The little republic contains about fifty thousand of the -descendants of these early settlers and about two million aborigines, -who are divided into eight tribes. Among them fetish worship, -superstition, polygamy, tendency to constant strife, and other -characteristic African faults abound. In this republic the mission of -The _General Synod_ was founded by the Rev. Morris Officer in 1860. Mr. -Officer had served for a year and a half as a missionary of the American -Board, but his heart longed for a mission of his own Church, and his -diary shows his deep satisfaction when he was authorized to begin. He -describes the making of roads, the planting of banana and coffee trees, -sweet potatoes and flowers. He tells of the first children in the -school, forty boys and girls captured from a slave ship. When he decided -upon a site for the mission he knelt down among his native helpers and -prayed for God’s blessing upon the new endeavor. - -In a year and a half Mr. Officer was compelled to return on account of -ill health. In the meantime reinforcements had arrived and the sad and -stirring history of this little mission had begun, a history which might -be celebrated, in the words of a writer for the _Missionary Review_, in -some spirited poem like “The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava.” -Of eighteen missionaries sent out during the first thirty-six years, six -died within two years after reaching the field, while eight returned -within three years with greatly shattered health. - -[Sidenote: An Ideal Missionary.] In contrast to this shadow we have the -history of Doctor David A. Day, who lived and labored for twenty-three -years in this dangerous country. A man of strong body and fine mind, -Doctor Day was an ideal missionary. Possessing deep faith with which to -meet serious problems, and a keen sense of humor with which to meet -smaller difficulties, he labored until he was worn out. Returning to -America when he dared linger no longer, he died almost in sight of the -home land, his wife, whose devotion was no less than his, having died -two years before. Mrs. Day was made of the same heroic stuff as her -husband. As the end of her life approached she urged her husband to -remain in Africa where he was so much needed rather than join her, great -as was her desire to see him. How many noble missionary wives have made -similar sacrifice! - -The great regard in which Doctor Day was held, as well as the -impressionable and affectionate nature of the people among whom he -worked, is shown in an incident recorded in his biography. When the news -came from America that Mrs. Day was dead, the little children of the -mission gathered a bunch of white lilies which they put into the hands -of one of their number who carried them into the room, where, stunned -and grief-stricken, Doctor Day bent under the first shock of his -bereavement. Silently laying the flowers before him, the little girl -kissed his feet and as silently withdrew. Surely missionary work has its -earthly as well as its heavenly reward. - -To-day the Muhlenberg mission has fifteen men and women at work. It -counts its native Christians at three hundred. A valuable and -interesting expansion of the work is the employing of _Doctor -Westerman_, a distinguished German philologist, to prepare grammars and -dictionaries of the native languages, which, to prepare for greater -growth, the missionaries must learn. Like all of Africa this mission -begs for more workers, more money, more interest, more prayers. - -Here closes the record of our work in Africa. It has given many examples -of faith and courage to missionary history, it has added many names, -John Ludwig Krapf, Rosina Krapf, Schreuder, Day, to the roster of -Africa’s apostles. But in the words of Frederic Perry Noble, Africa’s -chief missionary historian, “Lutheranism is yet in its attitude toward -missions a sleeping giant.” Since Mr. Noble gave expression to this -opinion, Lutheranism has made a beginning in African mission work. -Still, however, she is not yet aroused. As in India, so in Africa, -German missions and missionaries have suffered cruelly in the present -war. May the true spirit of Christ so influence His Church henceforth -that missionary and not military warfare may fill the pages of history. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V. - - The Lutheran Church in China, Japan and Elsewhere - - -CHINA. - - The Land - The People - Religion - Character - History - - Early Missions. - - Karl Frederick Gützlaff - - Societies - - _German_ - - Basel - Rhenish - Berlin - - _Scandinavian_ - - Danish - Norwegian Missionary Society - Norwegian Lutheran China Mission - Swedish Mission in China - Swedish Lutheran Mission in Mongolia - Lutheran Gospel Association of Finland - - _American_ - - _United Norwegian Lutheran Church - Hauge’s Norwegian Lutheran Synod - Norwegian Synod - Norwegian Free Church - Norwegian Brethren_ - -JAPAN. - - The Land and the People - - Societies - - _American_ - - Lutheran Gospel Association of Finland - United Synod in the South - General Council - Danish American - -EAST INDIES - - Societies - - Rhenish in Sumatra, Borneo, Nias, etc. - Neukirchen in Java - Dutch in Batoe Islands - -AUSTRALIA Neuendettelsau - -NEW GUINEA Neuendettelsau, Rhenish - -THE NEAR EAST - -THE JEWS - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V. - - - THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN CHINA, JAPAN AND ELSEWHERE - - CHINA. - -[Sidenote: The Land.] China is the most ancient of the great empires of -the world. It comprises more than four million square miles and is -divided into eighteen provinces. Among the various annexed countries are -Tartary, Mongolia and Manchuria. There is a wide variety of scenery and -climate, there are mountains of great elevation and there is an enormous -and fertile river plain, which lies on the lower courses of the Huang Ho -and Yang-tse-Kiang Rivers and which supports a larger population than -any other region of the globe of equal size. - -A Danish Lutheran missionary describes thus the features of the Chinese -landscape: - -“The soil of the valley is clothed with light green or yellow -rice-fields, through which the water course winds like a glittering -silver ribbon; along the stream, or on either side of the valley, wave -the delicate leafy crowns of the bamboo reeds, bowing to the slightest -breeze. If we look up to the mountain-sides on either hand, these are -covered below with mulberry groves, cotton plantations, and trim -tea-grounds, which are often disposed in artificial terraces, which -sometimes also bear corn. Higher up, as far as the mountain will consent -to be ‘clothed’, grow woods, among whose foliage the light leaves of the -camphor-tree, the reddish leaves of the tallow-tree, and the dark green -leaves of the arbor vitae occupy a conspicuous place; but there are also -found cedars and cypresses. Where the wood sinks into shrubbery, it -frequently consists of azaleas and similar plants, which we grow in -green-houses or in windows fronting the south, and which in the -flowering time afford a spectacle of dazzling beauty. There are also -found groves of roses or jessamines. On the whole, there are many very -beautiful landscapes in China. Nor are there wanting wild mountain -regions of an Alpine character. Deserts there are none; but, on the -other hand, there are dreary and melancholy marshes, and the coasts are -often flat and tiresome. - -“While plant life is thus richly developed in China, the opposite is -true of animal life. There is certainly no region on earth where it -plays so slight a part and is so scantily represented as here. The -greedy and reckless children of men have consumed or expelled the beasts -of the field and the fowls of the air.” - - -[Illustration: LUTHERAN CHURCH IN BORNEO.] - - -[Illustration: LUTHERAN CHURCH IN JAVA.] - - -[Sidenote: The People.] The people, numbering about four hundred -million, live chiefly in large towns and in dense settlements along the -rivers. Millions live on the rivers in houseboats. The Chinese are -industrious and thrifty and at the same time ignorant and exceedingly -unprogressive. Only a small class is educated, and education, like all -else that is Chinese, has hitherto looked to the past for its subject -matter. It consists of the fixing in mind of the ancient classical -writings and the acquiring of the ancient, classical style. To the -foreigner the language offers obstacles which are almost insurmountable. -There are only four hundred different words, but these are so modified -by inflections and by the tone of the voice that their variations are -legion. One of the early missionaries said that in order to acquire the -Chinese language one must have a “body of brass, lungs of steel, a head -of oak, the eyes of eagles, the heart of an apostle, the memory of an -angel and the life of Methuselah”. The written language is even more -difficult to learn than the spoken language and both present the -greatest difficulty to the missionary in that they contain no such words -as sin, holiness, regeneration, spirit, God, which are so essential a -part of the Christian vocabulary. - -[Sidenote: Religion.] Three religions are firmly established, -Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. These are not clearly differentiated, -by any means, but the individual frequently selects from each the -elements which please him. Doctor Warneck describes this strange -eclectic religion as follows: “All of them reverence Confucius, regulate -their life--to a certain extent--according to his precepts, and are -devoted to ancestor worship; all have recourse, especially in sickness -and need, to the magic arts and superstitious hocus pocus of the Taoists -and almost all commend their souls at death to the Buddhist priests, -have masses read for the soul and make use of the Buddhist burial -ceremonial. The polite man says to the man of different belief, and the -enlightened man who no longer believes anything repeats it: ‘The three -doctrines come to the same thing in the end’.” - -There are in China also about thirty million Mohammedans. - -[Sidenote: Character.] The Chinese character is as difficult to impress -as the Chinese language is hard to learn. Since the Chinese worships -that which is old, the stranger and foreigner seems to him indeed a -“devil”; since he is self-righteous, he does not consider himself an -object for missionary effort. It was at first laughable to him that -missionaries should come to his land with so foolish a purpose. In -scores of cases he punished the effrontery of their undertaking with -death. - -Nevertheless upon his hardened and indifferent heart there has been -wrought a wonderful work. To Christian nations he has learned to look -not only for a better educational system but with increasing eagerness -for a better religion. Recently an edict was passed declaring -Confucianism to be still the State religion, but at the same time -thousands were thronging to hear the speakers in a nation-wide Christian -campaign. - -[Sidenote: China no Longer a Closed Land.] Until the middle of the -Nineteenth Century China was closed to foreigners. In 1842, at the end -of the infamous Opium War by which England forced the opium trade upon -unwilling China, five ports were opened, Shanghai, Ningpo, Foochow, Amoy -and Canton, and the Island of Hongkong was ceded to England. In these -ports missionaries went at once to work. In 1850 the Taiping Rebellion -seemed to promise for a while not only sweeping reforms but the possible -acceptance of the religion of the foreigners, but it degenerated into a -barbarous and cruel rebellion which was eventually subdued by “Chinese” -Gordon at the head of the Imperial troops. - -In 1856 there was another Opium War in which France joined. At its close -nine more ports were opened. In 1860 there was a third war and finally -twenty-four ports were opened. Now missionaries were allowed free course -through the Empire, but they had become more than ever in the eyes of -the people “foreign devils”. - -[Sidenote: The Boxer Uprising.] In 1900, by which time it was estimated -that in spite of fearful opposition there were two hundred and fifteen -thousand Christians, came the Boxer uprising. Disapproving of the -progressive policies of the young Emperor alarmed by the threatening -advance of Germany, Russia, England and France, the Chinese determined -upon a wholesale slaughter, not only of missionaries and other -foreigners, but of native Christians as well. With indescribable -barbarity thousands were slain, among them one hundred and thirty-four -missionaries, fifty-two children of missionaries and sixteen thousand -native Christians. - -The effect upon Christian missions was extraordinary. As though the rain -of blood and fire had been a refreshing shower, the harvest sprang up. -Truly the blood of martyrs was once more the seed of the Church. Within -ten years after the uprising the number of Christians had more than -doubled. - -[Sidenote: The First Missionaries.] The first Christian mission to the -Chinese was that of the heroic Nestorians in the Seventh Century of -which little but a traditional account remains. Roman Catholic missions -record the names of many heroes, but on account of the hardness of the -heart of the people and also on account of the lack of wisdom of the -missionaries, no permanent missions were established. - -Before the treaty ports were opened in 1842, the English missionary -Morrison visited the country secretly and began Protestant missions by -translating the whole Bible into Chinese. Equal in devotion and -diligence and with a peculiar interest for us was another missionary, -_Karl Frederick Gützlaff_, a Lutheran whose ardent appeal for China -helped to quicken the missionary spirit in the American Lutheran Church -and also inspired David Livingstone to give his life to missions. - -[Sidenote: A Letter to the King.] Gützlaff was born of humble folk in -Pyritz in Pomerania in 1803. When he was twelve years old he was -apprenticed to a saddler, but he had other intentions for his life, and -wrote in poetical form his desire to become a famous man. This poem the -lad addressed to no less a person than the King of Prussia, through whom -he was sent first to Halle to school and afterwards to the institute of -Jaenicke at Berlin. In 1826 he went as a missionary of the Netherlands -Society to Java. After several years of labor, he determined to -penetrate into closed and inhospitable China. When the Netherlands -Society declined to give him permission, he left their service in 1831 -and became an interpreter on a coast vessel. - -[Sidenote: Appeals for Help.] Meanwhile during his service in Java, -Gützlaff had learned the Chinese language, the most difficult of the -many tongues which his extraordinary gift for language enabled him to -master. Now in the many journeys which he made up and down the coast, he -began to preach and to distribute thousands of tracts of his own -translating. He wrote to England and America earnest appeals that -workers be sent to share in his labors. Presently he was made an -interpreter in the English consular service, in which position he had -wide opportunity for Christian work. At the end of the Opium War he gave -valuable service by his knowledge of the country and the people. -Tradition records that at this time among China’s vast population there -were six Christians. - -Though five ports had been opened by the treaty of Nanking, foreigners -were not allowed to go far beyond them. To meet this difficulty, -Gützlaff began the training of bands of native workers who should carry -the Gospel to the most distant of the eighteen provinces. He continued -to preach and to call upon the home lands for aid. In 1849 he visited -Europe. Travelling rapidly, he flew “like an angel” through most of the -European countries, preaching, pleading and endeavoring to form -societies, which should divide vast China into missionary provinces. -Among the few who heard and answered his plea was, as we have seen, -David Livingstone. - -[Sidenote: A Cruel Disappointment.] In 1850 Gützlaff returned to China. -The bands of native workers which he had trained with such enthusiasm -had not lived up to his high hopes but had basely betrayed him. Before -he could do much toward repairing the damage which they had wrought, he -died at the age of forty-eight. He was buried in Hong Kong and over his -body was erected a mighty stone bearing in English the inscription, “An -Apostle”, and in German, “The Apostle to the Chinese”. - -[Sidenote: Author and Translator.] The literary labors of Gützlaff were -enormous, especially when we consider that he was constantly occupied -with other affairs as missionary and interpreter. He translated the -Bible into Siamese; he aided the Englishman Robert Morrison in his -translation of the Bible into Chinese; he published a monthly magazine -in Chinese and wrote in Chinese various books on useful subjects. Among -his English and German works were a “Journal of Three Voyages along the -Coast of China in 1831, 1832 and 1833,” “A Sketch of Chinese History, -Ancient and Modern”, “China Opened” and “The Life of Taow-Kwang.” - -As remarkable as Gützlaff’s talent and industry was his enthusiasm. -Where his work did not succeed, failure was brought about not by any -lack in himself but in those of whom he expected larger things than they -could accomplish. - -A missionary historian describes a memorial to Gützlaff, which seems -singularly appropriate to his life of devotion. - -[Sidenote: A Memorial.] “We were passing through the Straits of Formosa -at midnight when we saw suddenly before us on China’s wild coast a -towering lighthouse. At the same moment a loud cry came over the water, -‘Gützlaff!’ We asked who was summoned and they answered that the -lighthouse was named for the missionary Gützlaff, and thus by the use of -his name instead of the accustomed ‘Beware’, was his memory recalled.” - - GERMAN SOCIETIES. - -It is proper to include here as elsewhere the histories of those German -societies, which, though they are not wholly Lutheran, yet employ and -are supported by many Lutherans. The three Lutheran or partly Lutheran -organizations which have missions in China are the Basel, the Berlin and -the Rhenish societies. - -In response to the appeal of Gützlaff, the _Basel Society_ sent to China -in 1847 two missionaries, _Lechler_ and _Hamberg_. Greeted with joy by -Gützlaff, they set about learning the Chinese language and began at once -to preach with the aid of interpreters. Their work was begun in the -southwestern part of Canton, the most southern of China’s eighteen -provinces. So well did they labor that by 1855 they had one hundred and -seventy-five Christians. Gradually a thoroughly organized mission was -established with the characteristic Basel features of industrial work -and careful education. In 1897 the mission celebrated its fiftieth -anniversary, together with the fiftieth anniversary of the work of -Missionary Lechler, the latter a rare and notable occasion in the -history of missions. - -[Sidenote: Fifty Years of Service.] To-day the Basel Society works in -two districts, one in the highlands, the other in the lowlands of -Canton. It has a staff of forty-seven missionaries, who are divided -among seventeen main stations, and one hundred and ninety-seven -out-stations. - -In addition to its foreign forces it has at work two hundred and twenty -natives. Its communicant members are seven thousand, the total number of -its Christians eleven thousand. - -With the Basel missionaries there went to China in 1847 two missionaries -from the _Rhenish Society_, Genahr and Kuster. They established -themselves in the province of Canton and nearer Hong Kong than Lechler -and Hamberg. The mission has had during the seventy-five years of its -existence many difficulties, but, though it has never grown to be very -large, it has accomplished a fine work. - -[Sidenote: A Missionary Sermon.] One of the first of its misfortunes was -the death of Missionary Genahr, who contracted cholera from a Christian -who had been cast out by his employers. The earnest spirit of this pious -man may be read in a little missionary sermon from his pen concerning -those easy-going Christians who think that it lies entirely within their -own good pleasure whether they will do anything for work abroad. “In the -Book of Judges, fifth chapter, twenty-third verse, we find: ‘Curse ye -Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants -thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of -the Lord against the mighty.’ In an old book we find the following -questions and answers upon this verse: - -“‘Who was commanded to curse Meroz?’ Answer: ‘The angel of the Lord.’ - -“‘What had Meroz done?’ ‘Nothing.’ - -“‘How? why, then is Meroz cursed?’ ‘Because she has done nothing.’ - -“‘What should Meroz have done?’ ‘Come to the help of the Lord.’ - -“‘Could not the Lord, then, have succeeded without Meroz?’ ‘The Lord did -succeed without Meroz.’ - -“‘Then has the Lord met with a loss thereby?’ ‘No, but Meroz has.’ - -“‘Is Meroz, then, to be cursed therefor?’ ‘Yes, and that bitterly.’ - -“‘Is it right that a man should be cursed for having done nothing?’ -‘Yes, when he _should_ have done something.’ - -“‘Who says that?’ ‘The angel of the Lord; and the Lord Himself says -(Luke 12:47); “He that knew his Lord’s will and did it not, shall be -beaten with many stripes.”’” - -[Sidenote: Danger and Loss.] In 1871 two of the stations of the Rhenish -Society were destroyed by a fanatic mob who accused the missionaries of -desiring to poison all those who were not Christians. Again in 1898, -stations were destroyed by robbers and rebels. Fortunately the Boxer -uprising in 1900 left the property of this mission almost untouched and -the missionaries returning after it was safe, were able to begin almost -where they had left off. - -At Tungkum the society has a large hospital, whose superintendent had in -1899 twenty thousand consultations. The latest reports gave two thousand -five hundred church members divided among seven stations, at which there -are twenty-three missionaries. In 1873 the Rhenish Society took over -what remained of Gützlaff’s mission. - -[Sidenote: A Missionary Scholar.] Among the missionaries of the Rhenish -Society was _Doctor Ernest Faber_, a scholar of immense learning, who, -after being in the service of the Society for eight years joined the -General Protestant Missionary Society. He is especially famous for his -translations of the Chinese classics and it was said of him that he -spoke a better Chinese than the natives themselves. - -[Sidenote: A Chinese Saint Paul.] The _Berlin Society_ has two separate -fields of labor in China. The first is in the Province of Canton, near -the missions of the Basel and Rhenish societies. The mission has its -record of loss and persecution during the native uprisings and also its -stories of victory. In its early history the station at Thamschui was -the scene of a cruel attack. The mob was led by a young man blowing a -trumpet and calling to his followers to exterminate the foreign devils, -who meanwhile fled from house roof to house roof and finally escaped. -Subsequently this young man was converted and became a powerful -evangelist who like Saint Paul endeavored with all his power to build up -that which he had hitherto torn down. - -[Sidenote: In Time of Famine.] The second station of the Berlin Society -is in the Province of Shantung. In consequence of the assistance given -during the famine in 1889, when over $200,000 was distributed and over -one hundred thousand lives saved, many became interested in Christianity -as the religion which inspires deeds of kindness and mercy; and during -1890 it is said that over a thousand persons were baptized whose -attention was drawn to the religion of Christ by the fact that the -missionaries were so prominent in securing this aid and distributing it. -In this work and its reward the Berlin Society had a part. - -The following letter from a missionary of the Berlin Society describes -vividly a Chinese city and gives an account of the work of the Christian -evangelist. - -[Sidenote: A Chinese City.] “We hired a bearer and proceeded through the -endless confusion of the narrow, dirty streets of Canton, through the -evil smells of a many-thousand-year-old decaying culture, on past all -the innumerable shops and idol temples, halls of justice and idol -altars, past all the numberless human forms, poor and rich, well and -sick, vested with silk or covered with rags, painted with vermilion or -consumed with leprosy, which flood the lanes of the giant city of -Southern China, out through the great iron Northern gate, through -several streets of the suburbs, past scattered huts--and now the great -alluvial plain of the Northstream delta stretches before our eyes. A -pure air breathes over the land and encompasses us after we have escaped -the exhalations which rest, suffocating and heavy, upon the city of a -million souls. - -[Sidenote: In the Mountains.] “In the schools and on the crossways, -where the passing wayfarers were resting in the tea-huts, we sought -opportunities to preach the Word of God. Often we found them, often we -waited in vain. Many a guest listened an instant, then silently took up -his bundle and went on his way. There was nothing in the proclamation of -the Word that engaged the man’s interest. Companies of heathen hungry -for salvation, and hanging upon the lips of the missionary, were not to -be found in the mountains; such, we may well say, are not to be found -anywhere in China. The Lord alone knows where a seed-corn of eternity -sinks into a human heart. The man takes it with him; often it sinks out -of reach or is choked by the thorns and briers of heathenism, yet often, -after the lapse of years, it shoots up again into the light. At one -tea-hut, which was covered with the leaves of the fern palm, there -gathered around us a great company of women. They were burdened with -stones out of the neighboring quarry, at the same time carrying their -infants on their hips. They laid off their loads and listened, and some -asked very intelligent questions, ‘Sir, if we are not to worship idols, -how shall we pray to the heavenly Father?’ A heathen, sitting near, -disturbed us by his unseemly witticisms. The language is rich in such -equivocal turns. People do not understand the reference, and are taken -in by the seeming harmlessness of the phrase. The helper explained to me -the more usual of them. They open a view into the hideous depths of -heathenism.” - -This description was written many years ago. To-day the missionary -historian rejoices to record that there are companies of Chinese hungry -for the news of salvation. In many instances the largest auditoriums in -great cities have proved too small for the throngs which pressed to -attend evangelistic meetings. - -The Berlin Society has a staff of thirty-six missionaries in fifteen -main stations. Its baptized Christians number about ten thousand. - -The contribution of German Lutherans to mission work in China is not to -be reckoned altogether by figures. Here as elsewhere the Germans have -thoroughly studied the native languages, and have devoted much time to -the writing of grammars and dictionaries and the making of translations -so that the foundation might be well laid. Their labors have been a -benefit to other missionary societies as well as to their own. - - SCANDINAVIAN SOCIETIES. - -The _Danish Lutherans_ have a mission in Manchuria which was begun in -1895. Two stations are in the south and one at Harbin. There are -forty-two men and women at work and the number of baptized Christians is -nearly one thousand. - -The missionaries appointed at the opening of the work in China visited -on their way the United States and roused interest in many churches of -the United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Synod, which now aids in the -China work of the Fatherland Society. - -The _Norwegian Missionary Society_ has six stations in the Hunan -Province, in which there are fifteen hundred church members and one -thousand catechumens. - -The _Norwegian Lutheran China Mission_ works in Northern Hupeh with -twenty-nine missionaries and has won about eight hundred and fifty -Christians. - -The _Swedish Mission in China_, founded in 1887, labors in -connection with the China Inland Mission, a large and successful -inter-denominational mission, which has more than twenty thousand -communicants. To this work other Swedish societies contribute. - -[Sidenote: A Pioneer.] The founding of the Swedish Mission in China was -due to the influence of a visit from Lars Skrefsrud, one of the founders -of the Home Mission to the Santals in India. His burning enthusiasm for -the cause of missions influenced _Erik Folke_ to become in 1887 a -pioneer in China. He studied the Chinese language in the school of the -China Inland Mission and then arranged for the founding of an -independent Swedish Mission, which should, however, work in connection -with the China Inland Mission. Mr. Folke’s fearful experiences during -the Boxer uprising so affected his health that it was necessary that he -should return to Sweden where he serves as president of the Home -Committee. - -The field of this Swedish Mission is composed of the parts of the -Provinces of Shensi, Shansi and Honan, which meet at the turn of the -Yellow River from south to east. It numbers almost as many inhabitants -as Sweden. Among the mission institutions are opium refuges where those -afflicted with the opium habit may go for treatment. - -[Sidenote: The Swedish Martyrs.] There is a small _Swedish Lutheran -Mission in Mongolia_, begun in 1899 with three missionaries, its station -being at Hallang Osso, eighty-five miles north of Kalgan. This mission -suffered greatly during the Boxer uprising, its three missionaries being -killed. It seemed for a long time that labor in this district was worse -than useless, but a few faithful workers have persisted. Now the three -missionaries who are on the field believe that the harvest will shortly -be gathered. - -The Swedish missions have laid many sacrifices upon the altar of the -cause which they love. The total number of Swedes murdered in the Boxer -uprising was about forty, one-third of the whole number of the -westerners who were killed. A number of these were Lutherans. If the -blood of its martyrs is the seed of the Church, there opens for Sweden a -great future in China. - -The _Lutheran Gospel Association of Finland_ carries on a mission in -Northern Hupeh with sixteen missionaries in four stations. - - AMERICAN SOCIETIES. - -[Sidenote: A Generous People.] The _Danish Lutherans_ support, as we -have seen, the mission of their fatherland. - -Five American Norwegian Lutheran bodies have missions in China, to which -they contributed in 1915, about $118,000. - -_The United Norwegian Lutheran Church_ is at work in the south central -portion of the Province of Honan, where it took over in 1904 several -stations of an independent society. It has now six stations and -forty-nine missionaries. The Christians number about fifteen hundred. -Among the stations are Sinyang, where there are training schools for -native workers and Kioshan where the mission hospital is situated. - -_Hauge’s Norwegian Lutheran Synod_ began its work in China in 1891. The -main station is Fan Cheng and the territory lies partly in the Honan and -partly in the Hupeh Province. The field of this mission covers six -thousand square miles and has a population of between three and four -millions. The working force includes twenty-one missionaries, two of -them medical missionaries, and ninety-eight native helpers. The -Christians number twenty-six hundred. - -The _Norwegian Synod_ has had a mission in Honan since 1912. Here ten -missionaries are at work in three stations. - -The _Norwegian Free Church_ has been at work in Honan since 1915. There -are six missionaries at work in a section the population of which -numbers two million. - -The _Norwegian Lutheran Brethren Society_ established its mission in -Honan in 1900. There are fourteen missionaries at work. - -[Sidenote: Another Large Field.] The _Augustana Synod_[8] has had since -1905 a mission in the Honan province and now has fourteen men and five -women at work there. The field is in the form of a triangle with one -corner at Hsu-Cheo, one at Nan-Yang-Fu and the third at Honan-Fu. Its -area is about ten thousand square miles, a little less than the State of -Minnesota, with a population ten times as large, that is, about three -million. The province of Honan was one of the last to submit to the -invasion of the missionary and the first missionaries of the Augustana -Synod suffered during their search for a mission field from the feeling -against the foreigner. Their experience is vividly described by their -first missionary, the Rev. Edwins.[9] - -Footnote 8: - - A part of the General Council. - -Footnote 9: - - This account is taken from _Our First Decade in China_, published by - the China Board of the Augustana Synod. - -[Sidenote: A Perilous Journey.] “To our knowledge no danger threatened -us at any time except on the second day of our journey. Then it happened -that we were attacked at a country village where two of the common -Chinese open-air theatres had attracted a concourse of about two -thousand idle spectators. Through the village street, which was crowded -to the utmost, our clumsy mule carts had to make their way. On seeing -that we were foreigners many in the crowd began to yell out a kind of -unearthly war-whoop. Our drivers were somewhat uneasy and desired to -move on as fast as the dense crowd would make way. The two-wheeled cart -swayed from side to side on the uneven road. A basket of Chinese steamed -bread was upset by a slight collision with one of our carts. The vendor, -a young boy, screamed loudly as his little loaves rolled on the ground -and were snatched up by the thievish bystanders. This episode increased -the commotion. Little by little, however, our carts plowed their way -through the dense mass of surging humanity, and we were soon on the -point of leaving the crowd behind us, but then the mob followed us -hooting and yelling and hurling at us and our mules and vehicles -whatever missiles were at hand. Some of our little company received -heavy blows. The mules pulling the foremost cart stopped and for a -moment it seemed that we must be surrounded, but fortunately our drivers -succeeded in getting the animals started again and by rapid driving we -managed to outdistance the howling mob.” - -Provided with a military escort, travelling by another route and aided -by the workers of the China Inland Mission, the Americans selected their -field. To-day thirty-two missionaries are preaching and teaching. Two -hospitals and a school for the blind have been established. In 1915 the -Synod contributed $40,000 to this work. - -[Sidenote: Co-operation a Reality.] Recently all the Lutheran Missions -in Central China united in a co-operative plan of educational work, -which it is expected will result in economy and efficiency. A union -theological seminary was established at Shekow in Hupeh Province near -Hankow and a union college, a union publishing house, and a union -periodical are under consideration. In the words of a Lutheran -missionary historian: “Co-operation is not only a watchword but an -established reality in the Lutheran missions of China; and thus the -foreign missions of our American Lutheran Church excel the home churches -in wisdom and working efficiency.” - -[Sidenote: The Heart of China.] The opportunities of the Lutheran Church -in Central China are set forth in _Our First Decade in China_. “It will -appear in looking at the map of China and noting the important position -that the Lutheran Church holds geographically, that God has meant her to -be a dominating force in new China. He has entrusted to her the very -heart of China. The Lutheran Church occupies in the central provinces -territory equal to all of Illinois and Iowa and half of Wisconsin, or as -large as the whole of New England plus New York, Pennsylvania, New -Jersey, Delaware and half of Maryland. In this territory she is -ministering to a population of fifty million souls.” - -[Sidenote: The Work of a Century.] A hundred years have passed since -Robert Morrison, the English missionary, baptized his first convert and -recorded in his diary. “At a spring of water issuing from the foot of a -lofty hill, by the seaside, away from human observation, I baptized him -in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.... May he be the first -fruits of a great harvest.” To-day there are in China over five thousand -foreign missionaries, seventeen thousand native workers and two hundred -and thirty-five thousand communicant members of the Protestant Church. -Of these about ten per cent. are Lutherans. - - JAPAN. - -[Sidenote: The Land.] Japan proper consists of four large islands, Yezo, -Hondo, Shikoku and Kyushu and about three thousand smaller islands. In -the northern part the climate is severe, in the southern part -semi-tropical. From north to south through the center of the large -islands runs a long line of volcanic mountains whose highest peaks are -still active. From this high ridge the land slopes gradually to either -shore. Only about one-tenth can be cultivated, an area which is equal to -about one-tenth of the State of California. From this soil about -fifty-three million persons draw their sustenance. - -[Sidenote: The Religion.] Like the Chinese, the Japanese selects his -religion from among three great religions, Shintoism, Buddhism and -Confucianism. Like the Chinese he frequently thinks it well to mix the -three. If he is a Confucianist, he is thoroughly trained in the rules -which govern man’s relation to the State and to his fellow man; if he is -a Buddhist, he learns self-control and self discipline in order that he -may at the last become absorbed into a vague impersonal deity; if he is -a Shintoist he worships the rulers and his ancestors. - -[Sidenote: The Japanese a Lover of Beauty and a Fatalist.] The Japanese -is intensely patriotic and invariably civil and courteous. His love of -beauty finds expression in almost every detail of his life, his -practical ability needs no further proof than the adaptation of the -nation’s millions to its circumscribed area. His life is happy; but the -volcanic eruptions, numerous earthquakes, dreadful tidal waves which -bring to his lips a patient smile and a fatalistic word “No help for it” -must stir in the depths of his human heart other feelings, however -unexpressed of terror and dismay. To him, so far lifted above many other -non-Christians but lacking the chief thing, the Christian’s God offers -peace for terror and assurance for dismay. - - SCANDINAVIAN SOCIETIES. - -There is but one European Lutheran Society in Japan, the _Lutheran -Gospel Association_ of _Finland_, which has six men and three women in -its field northwest of Tokyo, where it began to work in 1902. - - AMERICAN SOCIETIES. - -[Sidenote: “Kyushu Gakuin.”] The mission of the _United Synod in the -South_ was begun in 1892. It has met with the difficulties and obstacles -common to all young enterprises and is now well-established. Its chief -stations are in Saga, a city of thirty-five thousand, in Kumamoto, a -city of sixty-five thousand and in Fukuoka, which, together with its -twin city Hakata has a population of eighty thousand. The island of -Kyushu upon which these cities lie is densely populated, and there is an -average of only one Protestant Christian to over one thousand of the -people. In the city of Kumamoto is located the educational institution -of the United Synod and the only Lutheran educational institution in -Japan, called Kyushu Gakuin, which consists of a middle school and a -theological department for the training of native workers. Here almost -six hundred boys and young men are being educated, who are but a small -part of those who would gladly come if there were larger accommodations. -The work among the little children in Sunday schools and kindergartens -meets with hearty support at home, a work whose joys it is easy to -comprehend. The United Synod has at work four missionary families and -two single women. Its baptized membership is over six hundred. - -[Sidenote: Candidates for Chris-tian Work.] The second American Lutheran -body to enter Japan was the _Danish Synod_ which established itself in -1898 in the same neighborhood, its chief station being at Kurume. At -Kurume it has a baptized membership of one hundred and forty four. From -this congregation ten young men have during the last few years offered -themselves for training in Christian work. The Danes send to the school -at Kumamoto a resident professor, the _Rev. J. M. T. Winther_, who is a -highly efficient teacher. - -[Sidenote: A Student Dormitory.] The last of the American Lutherans to -establish a mission in Japan was the _General Council_, which in 1908 -began work in Tokyo, the chief city of the Empire. It has now a second -station at Nagoya. Besides its preaching and educational work the -mission conducts a dormitory for students who come to Tokyo to attend -the university. It is hoped by means of Christian influence and by the -Christian services which these young men are required to attend to win -many. There are two missionary families in residence and a baptized -membership of twenty-eight. The General Council maintains a professor in -the school at Kumamoto and contributes at present a third of the running -expenses of the school. - -One of the many happy features of Lutheran work in Japan is the friendly -co-operation of the three American Boards. It is the intention of them -and their missionaries to build up a single, united Japanese Church. -Freely aiding one another, all lending their services to the building up -of the school in Kumamoto, they are directed by a common conference and -their financial matters are managed by a single treasurer. - -[Sidenote: The Christian Church in Japan.] In the words of a missionary -of the United Synod in the South, “Every indication points to the -ultimate success of the Church in Japan. Only lethargy and unbelief can -rob her of the victory.... The leaven of Christ’s Gospel has been -working in Japanese society for half a century, and under its influence -the whole lump is gradually undergoing a subtle change. There are higher -ideals of social and civic righteousness; different conceptions of -responsibility toward the weak; a growing consciousness of sin, which -never existed before; dissatisfaction with present religious and moral -conditions; an impelling desire to progress along the lines of the -highest material and spiritual development of the west.... A learned -professor in the Imperial University, himself a non-Christian, has said: -‘Buddhism can never again control the thought of Japan; Christianity -will rule the life of New Japan.’” - - THE EAST INDIES. - -[Sidenote: Where Every Prospect Pleases.] Southeast of India lies a -group of large islands known by the name of East Indies. These are -colonial possessions of Holland. Their population numbering thirty-eight -million is divided among various tribes of the Malay race whose -character is as varied as that of the different tribes of Africa. The -land is rich and its products many, among them sugar-cane, coffee, rice, -spices and all varieties of tropical fruits. Many sections are covered -with forests of valuable timber. - -There are Lutheran missionaries on the islands of Borneo, Sumatra, Nias, -Java and on the group to the west of Sumatra, which are called the Batoe -Islands. - -[Sidenote: Borneo.] On the fertile and beautiful Island of Borneo the -_Rhenish Society_[10] has had its missionaries for eighty years. -Beginning along the southeast coast, the missionaries pushed gradually -into the interior by way of the rivers. The Dyaks among whom they -labored were the fiercest of savages and “head hunters.” Finally eight -stations were established and the future appeared bright, when in 1859 -during a rebellion of the Malays against their Dutch rulers, the Dyaks -became involved. In the struggle which ensued, all the inland stations -were destroyed and seven of the missionaries were murdered. In a few -years the work was recommenced. To-day there are eighteen missionaries -and the native church numbers about three thousand five hundred. - -Footnote 10: - - It should be remembered that the Rhenish Society is largely but not - entirely Lutheran. - -[Sidenote: Sumatra--A Great Achieve-ment.] For more than fifty years, -since 1861, the Rhenish Society has conducted a mission in the island of -Sumatra. The larger part of the population is Mohammedan, but in the -interior there are tribes who still retain their primitive religion. -Among these tribes are the Bataks, who have a speech and written -characters of their own. Once cannibals, they had been before the advent -of the Rhenish Missionary Society the object of evangelizing work which -had failed. In spite of constant danger the early missionaries continued -faithful. The annals of missions have scarcely anywhere a greater -victory to record. There is now a well organized church partly -self-supporting. Thirty Batak native preachers have been ordained and -work is carried on at forty-one main stations and five hundred -out-stations. Twenty-seven thousand five hundred Batak children are -being educated in five hundred schools. There is a training school for -native preachers, a hospital, a leper asylum and a large industrial -school. The Christian community numbers about one hundred and fifty -thousand. - -[Sidenote: The Work of Deaconesses.] During the last twenty years the -Rhenish Society has sent out deaconesses to take special charge of the -work among women. They manage the girls’ schools, teach and give Bible -lessons to married and unmarried women and try in every way to further -the development of their own sex. - -Not only have the Rhenish missionaries won a large harvest from among -the Bataks, but they are winning also many converts from among the -Mohammedans, a much more difficult task. - -The effect of the Christian religion is described in a letter from a -Rhenish missionary in Sumatra. - -[Sidenote: A Land Transformed.] “What a difference between now and -thirteen years ago! Then everything was unsafe; no one dared to go half -an hour’s distance from his village; war, robbery, piracy and slavery -reigned everywhere. Now there is a free, active Christian life, and -churches full of attentive hearers. The faith of our young Christians is -seen in their deeds. They have renounced idolatrous customs; they visit -the sick, and pray with them; they go to their enemies and make -conciliation with them. This has often made a powerful impression on the -heathen, because they saw that the Christians could do what was -impossible to heathen--they could forgive injuries. Many heathen have -been so overcome by this conduct of the Christians that they came to us -and said: ‘The Lord Jesus has conquered.’” - -The failure of Mohammedanism to meet the deep need of the human soul is -shown in another letter from a Rhenish missionary in the same field. - -[Sidenote: In the Last Hour.] “Here I must make mention of the faithful -Asenath, whom on the last day of the old year we committed to the bosom -of the earth. After an illness patiently endured for two years she felt -her end approaching. As the last provision for her way she wished yet -once more to enjoy the Holy Supper. I administered it to her in her -roomy house before a large assemblage. As I was about to give her the -bread she said, ‘Let me first pray.’ And now the woman, who for weeks -had not been able to sit upright, straightened herself up, and prayed -for fully ten minutes, as if she would fain pray away every earthly care -out of her heart. I have seldom heard a woman pray in such wise. -Thereupon she received the sacred elements. The next day I found with -her a Mohammedan chieftain, who on taking leave wished her health and -long life. ‘What say you?’ she replied, ‘after that I have no further -longing. My wish is now to go to heaven, to my Lord. Death has no longer -any terrors for me.’ Astonished, the Mohammedan replied: ‘Such language -is strange to us. We shrink and cower before death, and therefore use -every means possible to recover and live long.’ - -[Sidenote: The Beams of a Living Hope.] “Even so I think of our James, -whose only son died. When at the funeral I pressed his hand, with some -words of comfort, he said: ‘Only do not suppose that I murmur and -complain. All that God does to me, is good and wholesome for me. I shall -hereafter find my son again in life eternal.’ So vanish little by little -the comfortless wailings of heathenism; the beams of a living hope -penetrate the pangs and the terrors of death, as the beams of the sun -the clouds of the night. And, as the hopelessness of heathenism is -disappearing, so is also its implacability. When Christians contend, and -at the Communion I say to them: ‘Give each other your hands’, often they -say: ‘Nature is against it; but how can I withstand the graciousness of -my Saviour?’ Such words are not seldom heard. And am I not well entitled -to hope, that they, as a great gift of my God, warrant a confident hope -in the final and glorious victory of the Prince of Life, and of his -great and righteous cause?” - -[Sidenote: Nias.] On the Island of Nias and in some of the lesser -islands, the Rhenish missionaries have been at work since 1865. Here -there are about a quarter of a million inhabitants who are racially -related to the Bataks. Persisting through many years with but a few -baptisms, the missionaries were finally rewarded. There are now thirteen -stations with eighteen thousand Christians. The number of inquiries is -greatest in those portions of the island where heathenism is the least -broken, and the whole island seems to be open to the Gospel. - -The Rhenish missionaries have in all in Malaysia Christian communities -whose total inhabitants number one hundred and sixty-five thousand, of -whom seventy-five thousand are church members. It is a rule of the -Rhenish society to exercise the greatest care in baptizing converts so -that only those shall be accepted who are worthy and who understand the -step which they are taking. - -[Sidenote: Java.] The beautiful Island of Java to the Southeast of -Sumatra has been called Holland’s treasure house. Though the island has -been under Christian control for three centuries the results of mission -work do not make a very large showing. The largest of the Protestant -Christian societies at work is the German _Neukirchen Mission_ which has -eleven principal stations, with twenty-nine workers. Java is inhabited -chiefly by Mohammedans who have here a university and who have issued -the Koran in the Javanese language. These Mohammedans are more willing -to listen to the Gospel teaching than those in many other parts of the -world. - -[Sidenote: The Batoe Islands.] On the Batoe Islands south of Nias, a -Dutch Lutheran Missionary Society has a station with two missionaries -and five hundred Christians. - - AUSTRALIA. - -[Sidenote: The Destruction of the Native Australians.] Originally the -continent of Australia was occupied by Papuans, who have been gradually -exterminated or driven into reservations. The history of the Australian -native affords a record of injustice and almost incredible cruelty. The -first foreign settlers were a band of criminals quartered there by -England; then as the richness of the country became known, there arrived -other settlers who with almost unthinkable barbarity dispossessed and -murdered the natives, shooting them down like beasts, poisoning them in -crowds, so that to-day the great expanse of Australia has within it not -more than fifty-five thousand Papuans. - -This little remnant is cared for by the government and to it go -missionaries of various denominations, among them those of the -_Neuendettelsau Mission_ which has two stations, one at Elim-Hope in -Queensland and another at Bethesda in South Australia. The Australian -Immanuel Synod which is composed of Germans living in Australia has a -station at New Hermannsburg in South Australia. - - NEW GUINEA. - -[Sidenote: Success Amid Danger.] In 1886 the _Neuendettelsau Society_ -began to work in New Guinea. There in Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land, which is a -German protectorate, it has four stations. The climate is dangerous, the -language difficult to learn, and the various tribes at enmity with one -another. Nevertheless the first fruits have been gathered, so that in -1909, three thousand six hundred Christians were reported. Thirty-five -missionaries are on the field. - -To the work of this mission the _Lutheran Synod of Iowa_ contributes. - -In _Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land_ there is also a mission of the Rhenish -Society, which has three stations round Astrolabe Bay. - - LUTHERANS IN THE NEAR EAST. - -[Sidenote: An Untilled Field.] “The Mohammedan world, which extends over -the whole of North Africa, part of southeast Europe, and from Arabia and -Asia Minor, through Persia as far as China and the Dutch East Indies, -and which numbers one hundred and ninety-six million five thousand -adherents, is still almost entirely closed against the Gospel. This is -true not only where there is Mohammedan rule, and where conversion to -Christianity is by direction of the Koran punished with death, but also -in the Christian colonial dominions of British and Dutch India. Missions -to Mohammedans are carried on by societies and individuals, but -considerable congregations have nowhere yet been formed from the -confessors of Islam with the single exception of those in Java and -Sumatra.... Besides Mohammedan fanaticism, a special hindrance which has -to be reckoned with is the unfortunate connection of religion with -politics. Not only are the Mohammedan governments inspired with the -greatest distrust towards evangelical missionaries, as if they were the -instigators of sedition, but missions are also impeded by the political -jealousy of the Christian powers.” - -Thus wrote Doctor Warneck, the great Lutheran historian of missions in -1902! He went on to speak of the policies of Russia, England and -Germany, which jealously forbade the touching of Turkey. The good man is -no longer living--what would be his emotions if he could look in 1917 -upon the Near East and the confusion which political jealousy has -wrought! - - -[Illustration: OFFICERS AND TEACHERS OF LUTHERAN SUNDAY SCHOOL, NEW -AMSTERDAM, BRITISH GUIANA.] - - -[Illustration: ITUNI SCHOOL IN SCHOOL ROOM WHICH IS ALSO THE CHURCH.] - - -[Illustration: SOME INDIAN MEMBERS OF ITUNI CONGREGATION.] - - -The Lutheran Church has made but little effort either to revive the -ancient Christian churches of the East, or to convert the Mohammedans. -The most ambitious plans were those of the Basel Society whose leader, -Christian Frederic Spittler, dreamed of an apostolic road from Jerusalem -to Gondar in Abyssinia. The early work of the Basel Society in Russia -and Persia was ended by imperial command. - -[Sidenote: A Lutheran Orphanage.] Among the various German missionary -enterprises in Palestine which draw a large part of their support from -Lutheran sources, is the _Syrian Orphanage_ outside Jerusalem, which for -sixty-six years has been training children in useful trades. Here -carpentry, joinery, printing, tailoring, shoe-making, blacksmithing and -brick-making are taught. Its founder was _Pastor Schneller_, at whose -death it was continued by his son. Now more than two hundred boys are -enrolled, many of whom are confirmed in the Lutheran Church. A few years -ago a school for the blind was added which received both boys and girls, -who are taught basket-weaving, chair and brush-making. - -Another German enterprise which is partly Lutheran is the _German Orient -Mission_ founded in 1895. From its printing press at Philipopolis it has -issued translations of the New Testament and other religious literature -into Turkish. Two Turks who were converted were compelled to take refuge -in Germany. - -The _German Jerusalem Union_ has been at work since 1852. Its chief care -is for the German churches in Palestine, but it conducts also mission -work in the old Christian Arab population. - -The _German Jerusalem Association_ was founded in 1889 for the benefit -of the German Evangelical congregation in Jerusalem. This is in no sense -a missionary enterprise, but the fact that it is supported and -authorized by the German government gives importance to all the German -Lutheran work in Palestine. In 1898 the German Emperor and Empress were -present at the dedication of the Church of the Redeemer, supported by -this organization. This church building stands within the walls of the -city not far from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. - -[Sidenote: The Work of Deaconesses.] Schools and hospitals at Jerusalem, -Beirut, Constantinople and Cairo are supported and conducted by the -_Kaiserswerth Deaconesses_, who for sixty years have labored in the -East. The last report gave one hundred and twenty-eight as the number -actively engaged. - -The _Danish Lutherans_ have small stations in Syria, Asia Minor and -Arabia. - -The _Church of Sweden_ conducts a hospital in Bethlehem. - -The only direct work by American Lutherans for the Near East is done -through the small _Intersynodical Orient Mission Society_ of the -American Norwegians, Swedes and Germans, whose field is Kurdistan. The -_Joint Synod of Ohio_ supports a missionary in Persia, a vast and -uncultivated field, where there is one missionary to two hundred and -twenty-one thousand of the population. There has also been another -Lutheran Society at work, the Syro-Chaldean. - -[Sidenote: A Lutheran Scholar.] It is doubtful whether all other -enterprises for the conversion of the Jews have equalled in bulk or -importance the work of a Lutheran, _Dr. Franz Delitzsch_, one of the -most celebrated scholars of his time, who was born in 1813, and who died -in Leipsic in 1890. His greatest devotion was given to mission work for -the Jews, and for them he translated the New Testament into Hebrew. The -first chapters appeared in 1838; by 1888 eighty thousand copies had been -published. Though to millions of Jews the languages of the countries in -which they sojourned had become familiar, yet to them religion and -religious instruction could be given in no other tongue than the sacred -Hebrew to which they were accustomed. - -Doctor Delitzsch’s translation was not the first which had been made, -but like Luther’s translation of the Bible into German it far surpassed -in accuracy and literary value all that had gone before. - -On account of his close friendship with the fathers of the Missouri -Lutherans in this country, Doctor Delitzsch’s name is a familiar one to -a large part of the American Church. - -Beside his translation of the New Testament he contributed many other -works to Hebrew literature, tracts upon various subjects, commentaries, -and a monthly journal. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - - Lutheran Foreign Missions on Western Continent - - -SOUTH AMERICA - -PORTO RICO - -THE AMERICAN INDIAN - -ALASKA - -THE AMERICAN NEGRO - -CONCLUSION. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - - LUTHERAN FOREIGN MISSIONS ON THE WESTERN CONTINENT - - SOUTH AMERICA. - -[Sidenote: The Land.] To a large proportion of the Americans who are -interested in missions Asia and Africa are better known than the great -continent of South America which lies so much nearer. Of the physical -features of South America it is necessary to speak in superlative terms. -Here is the largest river in the world, the Amazon, with thirty thousand -miles of navigable waterway, here are the densest forests, here is the -greatest mountain range. The continent is five thousand miles long and -at its broadest point, three thousand miles wide. Its long coast line -offers splendid harbors; its interior table lands abundant minerals and -metals and a fertile soil. - -For many centuries the Indian held South America for his own. Unmolested -from without, troubled only by quarrels with his neighbors, he lived and -died for the most in slothful ignorance. - -[Sidenote: The First Immigrants.] This quiet was interrupted when the -Spaniards and Portuguese took possession of the country by right of -conquest. Once opened to the world, the continent became the destination -of thousands of settlers, not only from Spain and Portugal but from -other European nations, many of whom built up large fortunes. The -relation between them and the natives is described by R. J. Hunt. “Some -of the early colonists were of a friendly disposition, and treated the -natives kindly, much in the same way as they did their horses or their -dogs; others, with a high sense of honor, were just and considerate to -the aboriginees; a fair percentage of them, especially those in the -wild, remote districts, freely mingled with the natives and married one -or more of their women; but the great majority looked upon the natives -with suspicion and distrust if not with abhorrence. - -[Sidenote: The Opening of the Country.] “With the influx of immigrants -and the natural increase of the descendants of the pioneers came the -growth of trade, the extension of agricultural pursuits, and the opening -of mines. There came simultaneously the desire for independence and the -consequent rise of republics with a demand for progress and a clear -determination of territorial bounds. Railways were opened in various -directions, the great rivers were supplied with steamers, trade was -increased, companies were formed and numerous interests started. For -scientific and commercial purposes expeditions up the great waterways -and across the trackless plains were organized and carried out with -varying success; but even to-day there remain vast regions unknown and -unexplored except by the red Indians.”[11] - -Footnote 11: - - _Missionary Review of the World_, July 1911. - - -[Illustration: LUTHERAN CHAPEL, MONACILLO, PORTO RICO, WITH TWO -MISSIONARIES AND TWO NATIVE WORKERS.] - - -[Illustration: PORTO RICAN HUT WITH MISS MELLANDER AND THREE MEMBERS OF -CHURCH AT PALO SECO.] - - -[Sidenote: The Darkness of South America.] In spite of the fact that its -ten political divisions are republics, and that it has produced men of -distinguished rank as scientists and scholars, South America is on the -whole a land of dense ignorance, not only among the Indian population -but among the mixed or pure descendants of the European settlers. In -spiritual things the ignorance is tenfold increased. Of the hundreds of -tribes of Indians, many have never heard the Gospel, and to only ten -millions of the population has it been presented in any intelligible -form. Rome, which has claimed South America for its own has done little -to raise the natives from their degraded condition or to enlighten their -darkness, and has opposed most bitterly the spread of the pure Gospel -among them. The priests declare that the Protestant Bible is an immoral -book which will do great harm to him who reads, and make every effort to -destroy all the copies which they can find. Nor do they offer their own -version. Doctor Robert Speer is reported to have said that visiting -seventy of the largest cathedrals in South America, he could find but -one Bible, and that a Protestant version, about to be burned. Of the -religious condition, Doctor Warneck says, “The Catholicism is of a kind -that, according to even Catholic testimonies, is more heathen than -Christian. There are many crosses but no word of the Cross; many saints, -but no followers of Christ.” - -Against the domination of the Catholic Church the most intelligent of -the population have rebelled and men especially have ceased to believe -in the priests or their teaching. May they upon leaving the old find -true guides into new and better things! - -[Sidenote: The Population.] The latest statistics give the following as -population of South America: - - Whites 18,000,000 - - Indians 17,000,000 - - Negroes 6,000,000 - - Mixed White and Indian 30,000,000 - - Mixed White and Negro 8,000,000 - - Mixed Negro and Indian 700,000 - - East Indian, Japanese and 300,000 - Chinese - - ---------- - - A total of 80,000,000 - -Since South America offers vast resources in a sparsely settled country, -its population will unquestionably increase rapidly by immigration. - -[Sidenote: The Roman Catholic Church in South America.] Recent activity -on the part of the Protestants in the interest of the nominal Christians -of South America has roused much opposition among Roman Catholics. Among -Protestants themselves the question has been debated with an earnest -desire to see the right and wrong of this problem. To this question Dr. -Robert Speer has given the following reasons for his belief that such -mission work is legitimate and necessary. (1) The moral condition of -South America warrants and demands the presence of the force of -evangelical religion in a country where from one-fourth to one-half of -the births are illegitimate and where male chastity is unknown. (2) The -Protestant missionary enterprise with its stimulus to education and its -appeal to the rational nature of man is required by the intellectual -needs of South America. (3) Protestant missions are justified in order -to give the Bible to South America. (4) Protestant missions are -justified by the character of the Roman Catholic priesthood. (5) The -Roman Church has not given the people Christianity. It offers them a -dead man, not a living Saviour. (6) The Catholic Church has steadily -lost ground; the priests are reviled and derided; religion is abandoned -by men to priests and women. (7) Protestant missions may inspire and -compel self-cleansing in the South American Catholic Church. (8) Only -the Protestant religion, free from superstition, reformed, Scriptural, -apostolic, can meet the needs of South America. - -The missionary occupation of South America has been small; indeed no -country has so low a percentage of missionaries. It is said that in any -of the ten countries a missionary could have a city and a dozen of towns -for his parish. In some of the countries he could have one or two -provinces without touching any other evangelical worker. - -As Lutheran missionaries in the person of Ziegenbalg and Plütschau were -the first to enter India; as Peter Heiling, a Lutheran, was the first to -enter Africa, so the Lutheran missionary Justinian von Welz, of whose -stirring appeal to the Church we have told in Chapter I, entered South -America, where in Surinam he died in 1668. It gives us at least some -small comfort to realize that of all the South American countries -Surinam is to-day the most thoroughly evangelized, even though it is the -Moravian and not the Lutheran Church which has done the work. After the -time of Justinian von Welz we search in vain for Lutheran missions in -South America for many years. - -[Sidenote: German Lutherans in South America.] Among the emigrants to -South America have been large numbers of Germans. For these the Church -at home has cared so that there are many well-established Lutheran -congregations. Here and there these congregations have undertaken a -little missionary work among the natives, but there has been no -organized effort for their evangelization as in the case of Africa and -Asia. - -[Sidenote: North American Lutherans in South America.] American -Lutherans have one mission in South America, that of the _General Synod_ -in New Amsterdam in British Guiana, a colony with a population of about -three hundred thousand of which about four thousand are Europeans, the -remainder East Indians, negroes and native Indians. In 1743 Dutch and -German Lutherans founded here a Lutheran church which continued for a -hundred years. Then, the congregation having fallen away, service was -discontinued. The property consisted of a beautiful old church, a church -house and parsonage, a good deal of valuable land and an endowment of -twenty thousand dollars. In 1878 the church was again opened and the -Rev. John R. Mittelholzer became its pastor, and the congregation united -with the General Synod. - -The Missouri Synod has eighty-three congregations among the Germans in -Brazil and Argentina, a theological seminary and many schools. Some of -its pastors work among the Portugese speaking natives. - -Of various recent plans for Lutheran work in South America it is still -too soon to speak. - -The appeal of South America to the Lutheran Church is thus expressed by -those who have studied the subject. - -“Among the population of South America German and Scandinavian Lutherans -are present in larger proportion than the members of any other -Protestant denomination. - -[Sidenote: Has the Lutheran Church an Opportunity in South America? ] - -“In Montevideo, Uruguay, there is a colony of five hundred German -families. In Bolivia, there are also many of our people. In Chile there -are eighty thousand Germans. They are numerous in Bogota and -Barronquilla, Colombia, and in Guatemala, where Roman priests are -prosecuted and Protestant ministers welcomed by those in authority. In -Brazil, which is 220,000 square miles larger than the entire United -States, the _Statesman’s Year Book_ declares that there are one million -Germans, besides many Scandinavians. In Paraguay, President Schierer is -a German, and there are at least two hundred thousand of our people. In -fact, there is not a State or island of this vast domain where our -people are not found as sheep without a shepherd. They occupy prominent -and influential positions in government, and are dominant in the -business world. Once interested, they would furnish the means and the -men to care for our own, and extend the work among the intellectuals, -the peons, the Indians, and the negroes of Latin America. Our Lutheran -Church has the largest opportunity, consequently the greatest -obligation, of all the Protestant Churches in these southern lands.” - - PORTO RICO. - -In Porto Rico, where many of the conditions of South America are -repeated on a much smaller scale, nine Protestant churches are at work. -Since the island is under the control of the United States, missions -have no political opposition to meet. Here, as in South America, the -natives have many crosses but no true cross, many saints but few true -believers in Christ. A missionary relates a discussion between two -members of the native church, one of whom worshiped the Virgin who was -supposed to dwell at Lourdes, another a Virgin who dwelt at some other -shrine. Of Christ they knew nothing. - -Here the _General Council_ has had a mission since 1899. It has in all -nine congregations and twelve stations with more than five hundred -communicant members. Among its stations are Catano, San Juan and Bayamon -where it owns fine church properties and has excellent parochial -schools. In Catano there is a kindergarten in connection with the -parochial school to which Miss May Mellander has given years of devoted -service. In Catano the missionaries instruct native teachers. - -The experience of the General Council in Porto Rico has been that of all -workers in Latin America. They have discovered that the Roman Catholic -Church has lost its hold on the people and that thousands are longing -for a better way. - - THE AMERICAN INDIAN. - -The American Indian was so called, as we know, from the fact that the -discoverers of this continent supposed they had reached the eastern -coast of India. Indians belong to one race, though they call themselves -by many different tribal names. How large their number was before the -advent of the white man it is impossible to tell; now, greatly -diminished by wars among themselves, by oppression, by diseases brought -from abroad and especially by the white man’s brandy, they number about -three hundred thousand. Of these the majority live in reservations -appointed to them by the government of the United States whose later -policy has been to care for them with such thoroughness that for most of -them independent development is difficult. It is reckoned that among the -three hundred thousand about ninety-two thousand are Christians. These -are reliable, sober and settled. Almost none of the Indians educated in -the Christian schools return to the habits of their forefathers. - -The work of the Lutheran Church among the Indians began, as we have -seen, in the Swedish settlement along the Delaware River. In Georgia the -work of the Salzburgers was closed by the removal of the Indians, an -almost inevitable consummation in the days when the Indians were -constantly shifting in flight or by compulsion from place to place. The -Rev. J. C. Hartwig, one of the pioneer ministers of the American -Lutheran Church who died in 1796 left his property, amounting to about -seventeen thousand dollars for the establishing of a training school -(Hartwick Seminary) for ministers and missionaries. He had in mind -especially missionaries who should work among the American Indians. The -school was established and when application was made to the government -to begin work among the Indians of Otsego County, New York, President -Washington answered that a special act of Congress would be required -before permission could be given. - -Among the unconverted Indians the Lutheran Church is at work in various -places to-day. - -The _Norwegian Synod_ has had a mission among the Winnebago Indians in -Wisconsin since 1885. For its support they contributed in 1915, $6,000. -Here also _Elling’s Synod_ of the Norwegian Church has a mission. - -In Arizona the _Missouri Synod_ has a mission. - -In Arizona the _Wisconsin Synod_ has four mission stations--at Globe, a -town of about eight thousand inhabitants, at Peridot on the San Carlos -Indian Reservation, at East Fork, and at Cibecue. The community at East -Fork has been recently visited with serious epidemics, but the -twenty-five children in the Lutheran school all survived and were able -to return. The village of Cibecue lies far from the railroad and the -Indians there have not been affected by the vices of civilization. Here -it was not possible during the last year to receive all the children who -came. - -The _Danish Synod_ has been at work in Oklahoma since 1892. It -contributed in 1915, $2,500 to this mission. - - ALASKA. - -Alaska is the name given to the northwestern corner of North America -which was bought by the United States from Russia in 1867. Its area is -about five hundred and ninety thousand square miles and is equal to that -of all the northern States east of the Mississippi with the addition of -Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. The population in 1890 -was sixty-three thousand, of whom twenty-five thousand were Indians and -Esquimaux. The natives are superstitious and devoted to the worship of -departed spirits. Though the North of Alaska is uninhabitable, the South -has a temperate Summer. - -Here the _Norwegian Synod_ began missionary work in 1894 at Port -Clarence. The mission was begun in buildings furnished by the United -States government, which had suggested the undertaking. The first -missionary, the _Rev. T. L. Brevig_, not only served the colony of -Norwegians and Lapps, but went promptly to work among the native -Esquimaux. - -The _Synod of Wisconsin_ has four or five ordained ministers in Alaska. - - THE AMERICAN NEGRO. - -The _American Negro_ offers to the American Christian Church one of its -most pressing responsibilities. Brought to this country against his -will, held for many years in slavery in which independent development -was out of the question, then by political necessity given in addition -to his freedom the right to help govern the country in which he had been -a slave, he has furnished for himself and for the white race a problem -like no other problem in the world. - -Before the Civil War the Christianization of the negro was carried on by -pious individuals, many of them slave-holders and by various churches. -There were in 1860 before the outbreak of the war about half a million -negro Christians, belonging chiefly to the Baptist and Methodist -churches. This number has increased until to-day a conservative estimate -would fix the number of Christian negroes at seven and a half million. - -Another motive than the desire to win the negro for the kingdom of God -has entered into much of the philanthropic work undertaken by the white -race. This is the realization of the menace to the State from so large -an uneducated, uncivilized and alien race within it. - -That the negro is capable of profiting by education and capable of -becoming a valuable citizen is proved in many ways, not the least -remarkable of which is his progress in religious matters. It is said -that no other people give a larger percentage of their earnings to -religious work. Over eight per cent of the total wealth of the negro -church is vested in its church properties. Late reports mention four -large publishing houses which issue only negro church literature. All -the important negro churches now maintain home and foreign missionary -departments, which contribute over $50,000 a year to foreign missions, -over $100,000 to home missions, employ two hundred missionaries and give -aid to three hundred and fifty needy churches. - -The conditions which make it imperative that the American should raise -his negro associate are expressed by Booker Washington. “When I was a -boy I was the champion fighter of my town. I used to love to hold the -boys down in the ditch and hear them yell. When I grew older, I found -that I could not hold another boy down in the ditch without staying -there with him. Nor can any race hold another down in the ditch without -staying down in the ditch with it. Those white Christians who fear the -rise of the negro to intellectual and material independence may put -their fear aside if they give him with education the Christian -religion.” - -The early Lutheran pastors in America showed a practical interest in the -spiritual welfare of the negroes. In 1704, the Rev. Justus Falckner -baptized the daughter of negroes who were members of the first Lutheran -congregation in New York. The beautiful prayer which he made upon this -occasion has been recorded. - -“Lord, merciful God, Thou who regardeth not the persons of men, but, in -every nation, he that feareth Thee and doeth right is accepted before -Thee; clothe this child with the white garment of innocence and -righteousness, and let it so remain, through Jesus Christ, the Redeemer -and Saviour of all men.” - -The Rev. Dr. John Bachman, pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church, -Charleston, South Carolina, had many negroes in his congregation. He -sent to Gettysburg Seminary, Daniel Payne, a colored man who afterwards -became a bishop of the African Methodist Church. - -The Lutheran Church is represented in work for negroes by the _Synodical -Conference_, which is composed of the synods of Missouri, Wisconsin, -Minnesota, Michigan and Nebraska, and various smaller bodies. It -resolved in 1877 to take up work among the negroes, its first missionary -being the Rev. J. F. Doescher, who began his activity at a missionary -gathering at New Wells, Missouri. Travelling through Arkansas, -Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, he -preached wherever he could find opportunity, in cities and villages and -also on large plantations. His work was continued by other missionaries -and by the Lutheran churches near by. In 1914 there were forty-six -preaching places served by forty-nine laborers, thirty-one of whom are -colored. The total membership of baptized Christians was two thousand -four hundred and thirty four. - -As early as possible in the history of this work it was determined to -educate young men to be preachers and teachers and young women to be -teachers in the colored mission. The first promising boys were sent to -Springfield, Illinois, to be trained. In 1903, Immanuel College, the -first colored Lutheran college was established in Greensboro, North -Carolina. Beginning in a school house, the college is now at home in a -large stone building which was dedicated in 1907. In New Orleans the -Mission supports Luther College. To both of these institutions women are -admitted. The six women graduates from the Teacher’s Course of Luther -College and the eight women graduates from the Teacher’s Course of -Immanuel College have given the mission valuable service as teachers. - -In the thirty-five years of its history the Synodical Conference has -raised $525,000 for the work of the colored mission. About $30,000 of -this sum has been raised by the colored churches themselves. The annual -expenses of the mission work are now about $30,000 per year. To its -funds the _Norwegian Synod_ contributes. - -The _Joint Synod of Ohio_ became interested in the work for negroes in -1890, when the first colored pastor was received into its membership and -a committee was appointed to take charge of the work. Until 1911 the -undertaking was limited to one small congregation in Baltimore, then an -advance was made in the establishing of a mission school and the -securing of candidates for the ministry. In 1915 activity was extended -into the heart of the South and work was begun in Jackson, Mississippi. -A desirable church property has been secured and a parochial school is -conducted. In 1916 a school was established in Prattville, Alabama. In -all there are about one hundred confirmed members, two hundred children -in three parochial schools, one superintendent, one colored pastor and -three teachers. - - CONCLUSION. - -A study of Lutheran or other missions would be a vain and useless -undertaking if it did not leave the student with his eyes upon the -future instead of upon the past, if it did not in the light of what -others have done show him his own duty toward the millions still -untouched. As a work of individuals, Christian missions may truly be -said to be a magnificent accomplishment; as a work of great -denominational bodies of Christians the result is small. The adding of -figure to figure may seem to produce enormous totals. As we have added -the seventy thousand Christians of the Gossner mission in India, the -twenty thousand of the Basel mission, the fifty thousand of the American -Lutheran mission and others until we had a total of two hundred and -sixteen thousand Indian Lutheran Christians, we have said to ourselves -that the work was well begun. When the total number of Protestant -Christians in India has been estimated at three million five hundred -thousand we have felt a thrill of pride. But India has a population of -three hundred million! Truly our beginning is small! In Africa the -Protestant Christians number about one million seven hundred thousand; -and the population one hundred and eighty million; in South America the -Protestant Christians number two hundred thousand and the population -eighty million! China, Japan, the vast Mohammedan East--to what a task -does a study of missions open our eyes! - -For this task our study should give us determination and courage. Though -the results have seemed small, they have been, in comparison to the -number of workers, enormous. We observe a thickly settled section of -India, a few men and women,--preachers, a medical missionary, a few -nurses,--around them in seventy years fifty thousand Christians! Were -our Lutheran Church really to awake, how rapidly and yet how thoroughly -could the work be done! Those who have gone before us have opened the -doors, ours is the opportunity to enter. It is estimated that in India -one of every four inquirers for truth is knocking at the door of a -Lutheran mission. Africa lies open to whoever will possess her, in China -our standard bearers have claimed a great territory; South America is -ours by right of first possession. This opportunity is not one which may -be seized or rejected; thus clearly presented it becomes a -responsibility. - -Another promise for the future is the material aid which the Church will -receive from those whom she has converted and trained. In her fields in -China, in India, in South Africa, a native Church is being slowly -moulded. The Christian courage in the Boxer uprising proves that China -can stand fast. Likewise did the great mutiny show the devotion of -thousands of Indian Lutherans to the Christian religion. Wherever there -are converts there are candidates for Christian service. A story told by -Rev. C. F. Kuder of the Rajahmundry mission is rich in suggestion for us -all. - - A NEW DEFINITION. - -“Four hundred Lutherans were assembled in one of our annual conferences -in India. Missionary Eckardt, who is the Livingstone of our Mission, was -speaking. He has gone farther inland than any of his predecessors had -gone. His district embraces three hundred thousand people, who have no -hope of hearing the Gospel unless he brings it to them. - - -[Illustration: IMMANUEL COLORED LUTHERAN COLLEGE, GREENSBORO, NORTH -CAROLINA.] - - -[Illustration: BETHANY INDIAN MISSION BAND, WITTENBERG, WISCONSIN. -(NORWEGIAN SYNOD)] - - -“He stood up that day at the conference, and said that up in the hills, -where there were a number of Christians, but more heathen, a hill had -been given him by a heathen, on condition that a church would be built -on it. He said that it would be a center for all the Christians in that -locality, and a constant call to the heathen to come to the living God. -The difficulty was: how to get the money to build the church? He did not -want to ask the Christians in America for it; so he asked whether our -Christians in India would not help him? - -“The conference listened with interest and sympathy. The hill-country -had for years been its home mission field. After much casting about for -some satisfactory method, the suggestion was made that all the -Christians be asked to practice self-denial from Ash Wednesday to Palm -Sunday, bringing their free-will offerings to the service on Palm -Sunday. - -“When the proposition was announced to the Rajahmundry congregation, the -interested faces, quickened eyes, and, in some cases, the tucking of -heads to one side, all bespoke approval and willingness to help. - -“And what did the members do? They cut off a little here and a little -there; true, only a little, for if it had been much, there would not -have been anything left for themselves. More than a little would have -been _all_. - -“There were women who were widows in the congregation, whose income was -about five cents a day. With that they had to provide food, clothing -and, in some cases, shelter. Of course, it goes without saying that -living in India is very cheap, but it goes equally well without saying -that such widows do not live on broiled pigeons, peacocks’ tongues, and -other delicacies. The truth is, that they must practice self-denial, not -only in Lent, but throughout the year. They rarely are able to have -enough to eat to satisfy hunger fully. It is estimated that over sixty -million people in India go to bed hungry every night. - -“But what did they do? In the evenings, when they measured out their -rice, they would say to themselves: ‘I must help to build that little -church up in the hills, so that the women up there may learn to know -_my_ Redeemer. I _could_ eat all this rice, but if I can live with so -much, I can also live on a few mouthfuls less. I’ll give up a little -rice cheerfully, so they may have that meat which perisheth not.’ - -“Then they would take out a pinch of the raw rice and put it aside in a -bowl for safe-keeping. This they did until Palm Sunday. Then they -measured the rice saved and brought its value to the Lord. - -“No, it was not much--probably, in most cases, not more than ten -cents--but it was given of their necessity--_taken out of their mouths_. - -“In the boys’ school were some one hundred and sixty boys, from about -nine to fifteen years of age. Money? They had so little they scarcely -knew the color of it; but deep down in their hearts was an earnest -desire. They, too, felt they _must_ help to build the little church on -the hills! - -“One evening, a day or two before Ash Wednesday, the manager heard many -voices at the door of the teacher who had charge of the boarding -department. There was an interested consultation, and then he heard the -boys troop back to their rooms with many little shouts of gratulation -and glee, and many a “_bagunnadi_” (it is good). - -“The next morning the teacher came to the manager with a queer smile. - -“What were the boys up to last night?’ queried the latter. - -“‘They asked for permission to go without their supper once a week, on -condition that the money saved be given them for the little church up in -the hills,’ was the reply. - -“‘What did you say to them?’ - -“‘I said they might, if you consented.’ - -“‘Oh,” said the manager, ‘I think it will not hurt them. Let them try -it; but we must keep a watch on them that they do not get sick.’ - -“‘Yes,’ replied the teacher, ‘but they were not satisfied with that. -They worked out how much it would make, and this morning they came back -to request that they be allowed to go without supper twice a week!’ - -“The manager, catching their enthusiasm, said, ‘Let them try it.’ - -“Growing boys have hearty appetites, and it was not easy for those lads -to go to sleep supperless every Tuesday and Thursday evening during -those weeks, but there was never a murmur. - -“Palm Sunday came. No one ever saw brighter-eyed boys than those who -walked to church that morning from our school. When the offerings were -received, they put a solid lump of silver coins on the plate. It -contained twenty-five _rupees_--eight dollars and thirty-three cents. - -“The girls in their school had been securing an offering in a similar -way, and they brought only thirty cents less. - -“That day there was laid on the plate a total offering of ninety -dollars! - -“_This is the Telugu Lutheran definition of self-denial._” - -If the devotion of the Church at home even distantly approached such -devotion as this how quickly might the work be accomplished! - -The world is still overshadowed by the apparently impenetrable cloud of -a great war. The condition of hundreds of mission stations is a matter -for serious anxiety. When the war closes it is likely that there will be -new boundaries, British colonies now German colonies, or German colonies -now British colonies. Each change of this kind will bring into existence -new complications for missionary policy to meet. The Christian Church -will need faith and courage to take up a task so sadly interrupted and -marred. - -It is certain, on the other hand, that the Church will have access to -new mission fields. Such has been the single gleam of brightness through -many war clouds in the past. - -For the Church of Christ the war has a lesson which must be learned. -There is but one cure for war--the evangelization of the world. May all -the Christian world by missionary effort prevent the repetition of so -terrible a catastrophe! May especially our own Church come daily into a -clearer realization of her mission! As the time of Christ and his -apostles was a time of seed-sowing, so was the time of the Reformation. -By Martin Luther the world was shown once more the Way of Salvation. By -Martin Luther the Holy Bible, the infallible guide, was put once more -into the hands of mankind, so that true religion and true liberty might -be forever preserved. Let us look well to our ways that after the -seed-sowing may come the harvest. - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - ● Transcriber’s Notes: - ○ Missing or obscured punctuation was corrected. - ○ Typographical errors were silently corrected. - ○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent when a - predominant form was found in this book; otherwise it was not - changed. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Story of Lutheran Missions, by Elsie Singmaster - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF LUTHERAN MISSIONS *** - -***** This file should be named 55819-0.txt or 55819-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/8/1/55819/ - -Produced by David Edwards, Barry Abrahamsen and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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