Brazilian missions : a monthly bulletin of missionary intelligence

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Entered at the Post Office at Brooklyn, N. Y., as second-class matter.

Vol. IV.
No. 10.

Brooklyn, N. Y., October, 1891.

On September 12th, from Newport
News, Va., on board the Allianqa, four
missionaries sailed to reinforce the Epis-
copal Mission in Brazil. Rev. Wm,
Cabell Brown and wife, Rev. J. G.
Meem, Jr., and Miss Mary Packard.
Rev. Dr. Newbold, Secretary of the
American Church Missionary Society,
writes concerning them :

" We trust the prayers of all your good
friends will go with them. Rev. Wm. D
Smith, Jr., who was to have accompanied
them, has been detained by the sickness
of his wife, but hopes to go in the course
of the year. These are all able and
well educated men and women, and will
add much strength to the mission. Mr.
Brown has been a teacher in the High
School for years, Mr. Meem was a pro-
fessor in the Virginia Military Institute
for four years, and Miss Packard, who
is daughter of Rev. Dr. Packard, the
Dean of the Methodist Seminary at
Alexandria, Va., has also been a teacher.
They are all friends of our missionaries
already there, and ready to enter into
then plans with zeal. They are looking
forward to occupying Rio Grande, in ac-
cordance with the plans laid by Rev. L.
L. Kinsolving and the Presbyterian Mis-
sionaries in Brazil. Mi'. Kinsolving is
on his way home, but is not sick or
deserting his post. He comes to add
another missionary to the force by mar-
riage, and to present the cause of Brazil
in the pulpits of our churches for a short

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time, when he will return with his wife
to his post, from which we can hardly
spare him for a short season."

NOTES FROM THE FIELD.

The Rev. Miguel Torres made a jour-
ney in the outskirts of his parish during
May, which proved of rare interest.
Eleven were received upon profession
and a number of children were bap-
tized.

The churches of Sao Joao da Boa
Vista, Faxina, Monte Mor, Sao Carlos,
Amparo, Castro, Cruzeiro, Bella Vista
(Rio Feio,) Gramma, Jahu and Tatuhy
are erecting buildings and Curityba is
planning to follow their example.

The Rev. W. E. Finley made a tour
in the interior of Bahia during April,
and found signs "of awakening interest
all over his held. Nine members were
received.

The Rev. B. F. de Campos, of Faxina,
reports vigorous spiritual life and activ-
ity in that church. Several have been
received and the church seems on the
eve of a revival.

74

BRAZILIAN MISSIONS.

A Mission Sabbath School has been
opened in Bella Vista, a suburb of Sao
Paulo, by the Kev. E. Vanorden. Mr.
Vanorden who is engaged in business in
Sao Paulo proposes to purchase land
and erect a building for the new work.

Mi-. J. K. Hall, a theological student,
with some of the students of the Sao
Paulo High School proposes to open a
mission in the Braz, a suburb of Sao
Paulo containing 12,000 inhabitants and
without protestant services.

The Rev. Caetano Nogueira made
during April a very extended tour to-
ward the centre of Minas. He reports
great interest in all the neighborhoods
visited and pleads for another man to
push on to the regions beyond.

The church of Braganca has just re-
ceived an entire new family from Ro-
manism.

The Rev. W. A. Carrington, of Rio
Claro, proposes to remove to Pirassun-
unga. taking charge of the churches of
Pirassununga and Araraquara and their
out stations.

The churches of Rio Claro and Sao
Carlos are arranging to call the Licen-
ciate Herculano* de Gouvea as pastor.
The church of Rio Claro has subscribed
80 lniLreis [$40] per month toward his
support.

In June the Rev. J. R. C. Braga be-
gan a long journey in the interior. His
wife and the Misses Henderson and
Hough accompanied him a few days and
then returned. He had not been heard
from up to July 20, and fears are felt
for his health.

ied the Rev. Z. de Miranda on a long
tour in the Sorocaba field and has
visited the churches along the line of .
the Sao Paulo and Rio R. R. He pro-
poses to spend August in Sul de Minas
where the Rev. E. C. Pereira, of the Sao
Paulo church, is visiting the churches.
The Rev. M. A. Menezes will take
charge of this region — so long without
a pastor — in August or September.

Arrangements are completed on the
side of the mission for transferring Rio
Grande do Sul to the Episcopalians.
The action of the Presbytery will prob-
ably be taken in September. The an-
nual meeting of the mission will begin
September 3, at Sao Paulo.

The Rev. J. B. Kolb reports constant
growth in his far off station and calls
loudly for a colleague. Who is ready
to take this, the most remote field, but
one of the most fruitful in Brazil ?

Sr. Lino, a theological student of the
Presbytery of Rio, has taken charge of
the Xictheroy preaching station, which
shows a great awakening under his min-
istrations.

The Rev. Mr. Tucker, Agent of the
Bible Society, has made a vigorous cam-
paign in the north central portions of
Minas with excellent results.

The Methodist church in Sao Paulo
received four members during the quar-
ter ending June 1.

The colporteurs of the Bible Society
in Minas and Espirito Santo report large
sales.

O. L. Ginsburg, of the Fluminense
church, is laboring with great accept-
ance in Pernambuco.

The Rev. T. J. Porter has accompan-

The Expositor Ohristao, the journal

BRAZILIAN MISSIONS.

75

of the Methodist Church, will henceforth
he published weekly.

The Baptist Church in Maceio re-
ceived live members in April and May.

The Baptist Mission has organized a
church in Campos, baptising live per-
sons. There is a Presbyterian church
in Campos.

The projects for the establishment of
Protestant hospitals in Rio, Sao Paulo
and Botucatu are taking derinite pro-
portions. During the first year of pre
paration, Rio has raised $10,000, and se-
cured a site for a convalescent cottage.
In less than a year Sao Paulo has land
and 815,000 : while by the beneficence
of Sr. Doiningos Soares, Botucatu has a
house and lot and 815,000 in money.

THE PROTESTANT COLLEGE.

Friends have said. " Your Sao Paulo
school work seems to be prospering
finely. "Why agitate the college ques-
tion just now ? Why not go right on
with the work as it is and trust that the
college will grow out of it in due time !"
That is just what we have done. We
have gone on as far as we can, and the
most urgent need for a college has
grown out of it. The youth of all
ranks of society knock at our door for
admission, and we are obliged to turn
them away because we are full.

•■ Will not Brazilians take up the
matter of higher education ! " we are
asked. Certainly they will and that is
what we are afraid of. Reaction from
Romanism has left a large part of the
educated classes in the midst of material-
ism, positivism, and often open atheism.
If Protestant Christians do not take up
this matter of higher education, and
that right soon, they will. Protestant-

! ism in Brazil depends largely upon this.
The influence of a Christian college at
this juncture is also of vital importance
to the welfare of the young Republic in
shaping its moral character and future
destiny. If we have anything valuable
in our national life, is it not that stal-
wart morality, that undercurrent of re-
ligious fervor, tempered by independent
thought that came to us from the Pro-
testant schools founded by our Puritan
ancestors ? We would do well to pass it
along.

If we were wise enough, patriotic
enough, quiek-tkoughted and far-sighted
enough, we should seize this opportunity
of moulding the thought of Brazil and
binding her to us } " ties stronger and
more enduring than ,„ " treaty of com-
merce.

The new Republic has new claims
upon American Protestants. Slavery is
gone. Monarchy is gone Old laws
and old habits of thought are gone.
New impressions and new influences are
at work. New needs press upon her.
" Never was the need of education so
pressing. Never was there so few
hindrances and never was its power for
good so full of promise. Never was
there an opportunity, so easily, so
quickly, and at so slight a cost to give
to so many the benefit of a liberal Pro-
testant education, and by so doing to
decide then destiny."

Shall we go ahead ? Will you help
us ? This is a crisis in the life of a
nation. It is said he who gives quickly
gives double. It was never truer than
in this case.

The College has been organized on a
strictly imdenominational but evangeli-
cal basis and our appeal is to all Pro-
testant churches.

Contributions should be sent to the
College treasurer, Mr. Henry M. Hum-
phrey, 132 Front street, New York.

76 BRAZILIAN

A CONTRAST,

There are in the United States nearly
400 institutions of higher education, em-
bracing colleges, universities and tech-
nical schools. One of the "largest of
these had last year 2,550 students and
disbursed $816,623.45 during the year,
exclusive of cost of new buildings.
Millions of dollars are contributed an-
nually to these institutions through
private benefactions. In the Report of
the Commissioner of Education for
188-4—85, no less than nineteen double
pages are occupied by benefactions to
education for that year, amounting to
over $9,(500,000.

The report of 1887-88, gives a table
of benefactions to colleges of liberal
arts alone amounting to 84,545,035 —
and State aid to same institutions of
$1,225,590. Two hundred and fifty-
eight (258) colleges possess $60,318,481
of productive funds. The income of three
hundred and seven colleges (307) is $8,-
885,575.

Comparatively few of these institu-
tions are full, many of them not half
full, some of them with hardly students
enough to do effective work.

For example, one of the older col-
leges, which has received a round million
of dollars during the past ten years, and
is completely equipped as to buildings
and faculty, has only eighty students.
Another equally well equipped, with an
annual income of over $50,000, has less
than a hundred students. The list of
others in similar condition is a long one.
We see the strange anomaly of colleges
hunting for students, instead of students
hunting for colleges. No young man or
woman in this country need go without
a liberal education who really desires to
obtain one.

Our colleges and universities have ac-

MISSIONS.

tually an enrollment of about 80,000
young men and women ; if full 200,000
could be accommodated.

Thus it is that a generous, prosperous
people, under the influence of Protestant
institutions, has anticipated the needs
of society by at least twenty-five years.

In broad Brazil, with her fifteen mil-
lions, under the influence of Rome, who
has had exclusive control of her education
for 300 years (save a few professional
schools supported and administered by
the Government), there is not a single
college or university — absolutely no
chance for higher education. The flower
of her youth must go abroad if they
would pursue then studies.

The contrast is striking and painful.
We are literally overstocked with col-
leges and universities. Our sister Re-
public has none. This is no arraignment
of Brazilians, they are as patriotic and as
keenly alive to then needs as we are to
ours, but they have been the victims of
a pernicious system and it is to then-
lasting credit that they have broken
from its bondage.

There is an opportunity for an
American Protestant college — it is solic-
ited. Shall we give it to them ?

If any one supposes that the separa-
tion of the Church from the State in
Brazil, has crippled Rome or diminished
her grasp upon the common people,
they are mistaken. The Church has
been immensely benefited by the separa-
tion. The common people in their
ignorance, part of the educated classes
through pride, and both through respect
for family traditions, are keeping up the
Church by voluntary contributions. The
Church has been roused from its condi-
tion of inchfference and weakness, and
compelled to organize. At no period
during the present half century has
Rome presented so bold a front in Brazil

BRAZILIAN MISSIONS.

77

as now. Heretofore Protestantism has
been persecuted and obliged to act on
the defensive ; now that there is perfect
freedom, Rome is posing as a victim of
injustice, and making the most of her
ancient prestige to hold the people.
Protestantism, if it would survive, must
take the offensive and educate the people
out of reach of the clap-trap and super-
stitions of popery. The people must be
taught to think for themselves, in order
to learn the truth and follow it.

PORTUGAL AND ROME.

At first sight " Portugal " seems
simply an arbitrary expression. The
country is a little corner cut out of the
Iberian Peninsula, not only without
reason, but at nearly every point of the
boundary, contrary to reason. The
language is Celto-Latin separated from
Spanish by an equally arbitrary line.
The characteristics by which the race is
discriminated are simply modulations of
the Celto-Latin notes or provincialisms
no greater than those that distinguish
Catalan from Castilian. The religion is
merely a developmeut of the same bap-
tized paganism that prevails in all the
lands delivered by the Pontifex Maximus
to the Psuedo-Vicar of Christ. The
literature is distinguished by limitations
more Iberian than national, limitations
due to priestly domination over ex-
pressed thought. The history, until
1095, is involved in that of the Peninsula
and has had one chapter written in
Spanish since. Nothing seems to war-
rant a greater individuality than belongs
to Aragon or Castile, Andalusia or Gal-
licia.

Yet the fact remains that, despite
these resemblances, without the dykes
and polders that give us Holland, with-
out the differences of Magyar and Ger-

man that give us Hungary, without a
Pyrennees Portugal has been, is and ap-
parently will be a nation apart, as proud
of its nationality and as zealous of its
independence as sea girt Britain.

Why this anomaly among the nations ?
"What is the formative principle of Por-
tuguese autonomy ?

When we study the phenomena care-
fully we see that the one distinction
between Portugal and her Latin sisters
is a difference of degree in all that may
be summed up in the one word — Rome.
The remote corner, the far off province,
has felt the influence of the Eternal City
more than any other portion of Transal-
pine Celtia. Here Rome found fallow
ground. The Turanian Basque in his
Navarrese hills tinged all Northern
Iberia with an influence that even the
image of iron could not destroy. The
Semitic Carthagenian left his mark deep
on Southeast Spain. But in Lusitania
the pure Celt was ready for the Latin
influence and nowhere did Latin civiliza-
tion assert its power more strongly. The
land became Latin.

When the Roman terror had passed
from the nations and all Asia and Europe
were seething with the hordes that des-
poiled the Western Babylon, the Teu-
tonic race which longest had felt the
Roman influence seized the lower valley
of the Douro and the Gallician moun-
tains and like the Franks, their old
neighbors, founded a kingdom that
sought to conserve the liches of the
past. This kingdom fell before the
fiercer Visigoth, but the influence of the
Suevi lingered beside the Douro and
mitigated the destructions of barbarism.

When the wave of Moorish conquest
flowed, Portugal received but the side
of the mighty tide. The Arab found
here no trace of kindred influence as in
the cities that Carthage had ruled ;

78

BRAZILIAN MISSIONS.

none who rejoiced that with his com-
ing the power of the Aryan was broken,
and the tide ebbed quickly from the
Atlantic coast, leaving but little of that
imprint on land and race that still
lingers in Murcia and Andalusia.

Thus from one cause and another
when the peoples settled down to nation
making, the Lusitanian without any radi-
cal differences was still, a man apart
clinging to more of the common heritage
than his neighbors, a Benjamin among
the nations with a double portion of the
goods of Latium.

Perhaps it was because so much of
old Rome lingered beside the Tagus and
the Douro that the new Rome that loves
to call itself Christian found there so
easy a concpiest. Be that as it may, the
new nation was from the first a faithful
servant of the Neo-Paganism and has
felt to the fullest possible extent the
blessing and the curses incident to its
loyalty.

We pass the countless acts by which
successive kings purchased the favor of
the Bishop of the Lateran until Alex-
ander VI. graciously was • pleased to
dower the faithful realm with half the
unknown world. We pass the tale of
how the few who heard and echoed the
Reformation call were silenced in death
or prisons. We pass the strange story
of a king so infatuated with Jesuitry that
he gave his realm into the hands of the
order vowing that he and his house after
him would wear their crowns at its will,
with its stranger side of a people so
bound by priestcraft that they saw
national independence yielded to a
foreign monk and kept their peace.

These are but bits of history that go
to show that as Lusitania of old was
the " faithful province of Rome the
Imperial, so Portugal in these centuries
has been faithful to the full to Rome
the Papal. Once only has a spirit of

independence moved, once only has a
great man spoken for the nation. Pombal
broke the power of the Jesuits, but the '
power of the church was unbroken and
in time the work of the Great Marquis
was undone.

What is the condition of Portugal
to-day ?

The movements that have liberalized
Italy and France and even opened Spain
to the truth have met with only partial
practical success in the little kingdom.

The industries of the country are
largely agricultural. The mass of the
country people are small cultivators.
The country villages are remote on ac-
count of the lack of railroads. The
priest is the prop of the throne and in
the interior he is practically absolute.
The cities are given up to trade rather
than manufacture. All tendencies are
conservative and the drift of the rest of
the world from Rome toward Germany
meets with scant favor from the race
whose autonomy finds its reason in close-
ness to Roman type, but in spite of all
Portugal does move, and there are those
laboring in the Masters Name who
firmly believe that the time will come
when the beautiful langauge will lend
its music to the Gospel message and the
race will bring its conservatism to the
maintenance of the faith once delivered
to the saints.

RIO HARBOR MISSION.

The inauguration of a second mission for
this port took place at No. 10, Rua da Im-
peratriz on the 2nd and 3rd of August. On
Sunday, services were held at the bethel by
Rev. H. C. Tucker, which were well attended
in spite of the unfavorable weather. On
Monday, the 3rd. a public meeting was
held, on which occasion Mr. Edward Wesson
explained the character of the work pro-
posed and the steps taken during the past
year to this end. Addresses were also made
Dy others on the subject of port mission
work.

It is designed to open a reading-room at
the mission during the current week. The
mission is founded under the auspices of the
British and Foreign Sailors' Society of Lon-
don, and the American Seamen's Friend So-
ciety of New York. — Rio News.

BRAZILIAN MISSIONS.

7"

THE WORK AND WORKERS
NEEDED IN BRAZIL

After thirty years of truly mission
effort the portions of the Presbyterian
missions located in the heart of Minas
and Sao Paulo Presbyteries find then-
work well entered on a new stage. A
Brazilian church has been created and
has gained sufficient strength in wealth
and workers to care for those portions
of the field longest the scene of evan-
gelization. The mission work of the
future will be education and chinch ex-
tension. In view of this fact how shall
we answer the question often asked by
earnest young workers at home, " Am I
fitted for the work in Brazil ? " t

There is need of workers of all classes.
Ministers, trained teachers, skilled house-
hold administrators can all find a place,
but they should be the best of their
class. The school work of the missions
has been brought to such a degree of
perfection that no average teachers are
wanted. The work is not to teach
children but to direct and train teachers
and no one who is not qualified to fill a
chair in some Normal faculty or the
principalship of some prominent school
should think of Brazil. The number of
American workers is so small that the
missions cannot afford to have their
ranks filled with those who can do only
classroom work. Brazilian teachers
trained in American methods surpass
the best Americans before Brazilian
children, and only in the training de-
partment and in those higher grades for
which as yet no Brazilians are fitted
should Americans be employed.

The household chiefs, the matrons of
our boarding schools also shoidd be the
best material that our homes can furnish.
Theirs is a • task infinitely harder than
that of the teacher's and at the same

time, if there be any gradation in honor
in His work, higher and holier. The
school during a few horns and under
artificial conditions of its own choosing,
strives to act upon the individual
through the mass. The boarding de-
partment during the whole day and
night strives to create for each child in
the midst of school formality and in the
face of social demoralization the natural
conditions of Christian home life. No
matter how skillful an administrator you
may be, do not think of this department
of Brazilian work unless you are the
chosen friend of all the children of your
neighborhood and do not let love for
children determine you unless you have
the household genius that never sticks
fast in a tight place. And while we are
on this subject, we would ask if there
are no Christian servants in the home
land who are willing to serve the Master
here. Every matron of a girl's school
should have a trusty head-servant who
can train the cooking classes, superin-
tend the tidying of rooms, look after the
work in the dining-room and in general
be the matron's aid and helper. Are
there no women of mature years and
refined religious experience who feel
that they can serve Him thus ?

The minister who thinks of this field
should be very sure of four things on •
the part of himself and his family ; good
health, good temper, love of roughing it
and "horse sense." There are few
climates more trying than those of BrazU
and no continental region so totally
destitute of accessible and cheap health
resorts. To complete a term of eight
years in the North will tax any physique
and the interior is very wearing. But
even more important than good health
are the other three qualifications. J he
future missionary shoidd follow the
Pauline plan of going from city to city,

So

BRAZILIAN MISSIONS.

dwelling in each for one, two or three
years in his own hired house, preaching
and teaching the Gospel both to the city
dwellers and to the occupants of the
farms and plantations of the district.
This calls for complete isolation, occu-
pying uncomfortable houses, many and
fatiguing journeys, frequent changes of
residence and a score of inconveniences
that must be known to be appreciated
and which when known are generally
found to be sufficient to test the temper,
gratify any love of petty hardships and
give practical sense a wide scope for
usefulness. Do not think of Brazil
unless you can and will do the work of
an evangelist in the hard places.

But you say there is no mention of
sympathy, hunger for souls, consecra
tion, in all this. My friend, if you have
any thought of working for the Master
anywhere you need these, and as the
burdens so should your gifts be. Do
not try to proclaim His Name in any
land unless He hath annointed you, and
do not plan to work on the frontier of
His kingdom unless He has made you a
frontiersman.

The Fhuninense church of Bio shows
a steady and healthful growth.

The Jornal de Minos of the 17th
inst., devotes a column and a half to a
denunciation of the municipal council
for permitting an evangelist. H. Maxwell
Wright, to preach in the assembly room
of the municipal hall. The Jomal
preaches a little and denounces a great
deal because of the favor thus granted
to the heretic, and then advises the good
people of Minas to stand firm in their
faith. We fail to see the necessity [of
being so intolerant, however. H the
Minas people have the true faith, they
need fear nothing from the evangelist
who makes use of a public building to
expound his views on the subject. — Rio
News.

Brazilian Missions.

A monthly bulletin, containing the latest re-
ports of missionary work in Brazil, is published
at Brooklyn, N. Y.

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