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Brazilian Sketches

By

Rev. T. B. Ray, D.D.


Educational Secretary of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern
Baptist Convention.

TO MY WIFE WHO SHARED THE JOURNEY WITH ME





CONTENTS

     I. THE COUNTRY
    II. THE CAPITAL, RIO DE JANEIRO
   III. A VISIT TO A COUNTRY CHURCH
    IV. TWO PRESIDENTS
     V. THE GOSPEL WITHHELD
    VI. SAINT WORSHIP
   VII. PENANCE AND PRIEST
  VIII. THE GOSPEL TRIUMPHANT
    IX. JOSE BARRETTO
     X. CAPTAIN EGYDIO
    XI. FELICIDADE (Felicity)
   XII. PERSECUTION
  XIII. THE BIBLE AS A MISSIONARY FACTOR
   XIV. THE METTLE OF THE NATIVE CHRISTIAN
    XV. THE TESTING OF THE MISSIONARY
   XVI. THE URGENT CALL
  XVII. THE LAST STAND OF THE LATIN RACE
        APPENDIX




FOREWORD.


I was dining one day with a very successful business man who, although
his business had extensive relations in many lands, was meagerly
informed about the work of missions. I thought I might interest him by
telling him something of the effects of missions upon commerce. So I
told him about how the civilizing presence of missionary effort creates
new demands which in turn increases trade. He listened comprehendingly
for a while and then remarked: "What you say is interesting, but what I
wish to know is not whether missions increase business--we have
business enough and have methods of increasing the volume--What I want
to know is whether the missionary is making good and whether
Christianity is making good in meeting the spiritual needs of the
heathen. If ever I should become greatly interested in missions it
would be because I should feel that Christianity could solve the
spiritual problem for the heathen better than anything else. What are
the facts about that phase of missions?"

These words made a profound impression on me, and since then I have
spent little time in setting forth the by-products of missions,
tremendously important and interesting though they are. I place the
main emphasis on how gloriously Christianity, through the efforts of
the missionary, meets the aching spiritual hunger of the heathen heart
and transforms his life into spiritual efficiency.

Since this is my conception of what the burden of the message
concerning missions should be, it should not surprise anyone to find
the following pages filled with concrete statements of actual gospel
triumphs. I have endeavored to draw a picture of the religious
situation in Brazil by reciting facts. I have described some of the
work of others done in former years and I have recorded some wonderful
manifestations of the triumphant power of the gospel which I was
privileged to see with my own eyes. These pages record testimony which
thing, I take it, most people desire concerning the missionary
enterprise. More arguments might have been stated and more conclusions
might have been expressed, but I have left the reader to make his own
deductions from the facts I have tried faithfully to record.

No attempt has been made to follow in detail the itinerary taken by my
wife and myself which carried us into Brazil, Argentina and Chili in
South America, and Portugal and Spain in Europe. It is sufficient to
know that we reached the places mentioned and can vouch for the truth
of the facts stated.

I have confined myself to sketches about Brazil because I did not
desire to write a book of travel, but to show how the gospel succeeds
in a Catholic field as being an example of the manner in which it is
succeeding in other similar lands where it is being preached vigorously.

I wish to say also that I have drawn the materials from the experiences
of my own denomination more largely because I know it better and
therefore could bear more reliable testimony. It should be borne in
mind that the successes of this one denomination are typical of the
work of several other Protestant bodies now laboring in Brazil.

The missionaries and other friends made it possible wherever we went to
observe conditions at close range and under favorable auspices. To
these dear friends who received us so cordially and labored so
untiringly for our comfort and to make our visit most helpful we would
express here our heartfelt gratitude. We record their experiences and
ours in the hope that the knowledge of them may bring to the reader a
better appreciation of the missionary and the great cause for which the
missionary labors so self-sacrificingly.

Richmond, Va.




CHAPTER I.

THE COUNTRY.


We had sailed in a southeasternly direction from New York twelve days
when we rounded Cape St. Roque, the easternmost point of South America.
A line drawn due north from this point would pass through the Atlantic
midway between Europe and America.