“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.