|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.
|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.
|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.
CENTRAL GIRLS SCHOOL, RAJAHMUNDRY.
|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.
|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.