Chapter XIV: 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.

“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.

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● 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