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.”

[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!

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.