Enterprises of this sort have not been a part of missionary work in the Lutheran Church, which believes that the foundation of the Indian or African Church must be laid surely and substantially, no matter how slowly, that adult baptism cannot take place without understanding, that only those may share the communion of Christ’s Church who know His Gospel, and that with the precious message to the soul there should go also the uplifting of the body so that it may become a worthy vessel. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER III. The Lutheran Church in India THE LAND. The people The religions The Caste System The moral condition The English in India The contrasts of India The word “heathen” THE GERMAN SOCIETIES. Basel Gossner Leipsic Hermannsburg Breklum or Schleswig-Holstein THE SCANDINAVIAN SOCIETIES. Home Mission to the Santals Danish Evangelical Lutheran Missionary Society Evangelical National Missionary Society of Sweden The Church of Sweden Mission THE AMERICAN SOCIETIES. The beginnings The General Synod The General Council The Missouri Synod The Joint Synod of Ohio The Synod of Iowa The American Danes, Norwegians and Swedes. CONCLUSION. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER III. THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN INDIA [Sidenote: The Land.] The pen seems to falter before the task of describing India, with its varied landscapes, its dense population, its fascinating history, its great learning, its dark ignorance. Its area is one million eight hundred thousand square miles, which is seven times that of the German Empire and fifteen times that of the British Isles. From north to south it measures about one thousand nine hundred miles and the distance across the upper part of its great triangle is about the same. In the north the high wall of the Himalaya Mountains separates it from the rest of Asia; below lies the broad valley of the Ganges River; still farther to the south a high table-land. There are all varieties of temperature, climate and landscape. [Sidenote: The People.] Even more varied than the temperature and the landscape is the population, which numbers about three hundred and twenty millions or about one fifth of the population of the globe. The people are divided chiefly into two large groups, the Aryans who live for the most part in the north and who have continued the ancient Indian civilization, and the Dravidians in the south who in development belong among the “nature peoples.” In addition there are about sixty-five million Mohammedans, of many races and nations, whose religion is a uniting bond. The Indians speak in all one hundred and forty-seven languages and dialects.