|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.”