[Sidenote: Co-operation a Reality.] Recently all the Lutheran Missions in Central China united in a co-operative plan of educational work, which it is expected will result in economy and efficiency. A union theological seminary was established at Shekow in Hupeh Province near Hankow and a union college, a union publishing house, and a union periodical are under consideration. In the words of a Lutheran missionary historian: “Co-operation is not only a watchword but an established reality in the Lutheran missions of China; and thus the foreign missions of our American Lutheran Church excel the home churches in wisdom and working efficiency.” [Sidenote: The Heart of China.] The opportunities of the Lutheran Church in Central China are set forth in _Our First Decade in China_. “It will appear in looking at the map of China and noting the important position that the Lutheran Church holds geographically, that God has meant her to be a dominating force in new China. He has entrusted to her the very heart of China. The Lutheran Church occupies in the central provinces territory equal to all of Illinois and Iowa and half of Wisconsin, or as large as the whole of New England plus New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and half of Maryland. In this territory she is ministering to a population of fifty million souls.” [Sidenote: The Work of a Century.] A hundred years have passed since Robert Morrison, the English missionary, baptized his first convert and recorded in his diary. “At a spring of water issuing from the foot of a lofty hill, by the seaside, away from human observation, I baptized him in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.... May he be the first fruits of a great harvest.” To-day there are in China over five thousand foreign missionaries, seventeen thousand native workers and two hundred and thirty-five thousand communicant members of the Protestant Church. Of these about ten per cent. are Lutherans. JAPAN. [Sidenote: The Land.] Japan proper consists of four large islands, Yezo, Hondo, Shikoku and Kyushu and about three thousand smaller islands. In the northern part the climate is severe, in the southern part semi-tropical. From north to south through the center of the large islands runs a long line of volcanic mountains whose highest peaks are still active. From this high ridge the land slopes gradually to either shore. Only about one-tenth can be cultivated, an area which is equal to about one-tenth of the State of California. From this soil about fifty-three million persons draw their sustenance.