Brazilian Sketches

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Perhaps the most famous shrine in all Brazil is in the far
interior of the State of Bahia on the San Francisco River. It is
the famous Lapa. The image has its shrine in a cave in a very
remarkable geological formation. One hundred thousand people make
pilgrimages to this shrine every year from all of the States in
Brazil. The last Emperor himself made a visit to this shrine. From
June to August of last year $20,000 was collected from the
pilgrims. Our missionary, Jackson, met a man who had been on the
way six months. It required him a year to make this trip. The same
missionary saw a family from the State of Alagoas which had been
on the journey six weeks. Dr. Z. C. Taylor says he passed through
sections that had been almost depopulated because the men had sold
out their homes, horses and cattle in order to seek a miracle in
their favor at this same shrine. Fire destroyed the image in 1902.
Protestants were accused of setting fire to it because a
missionary was near at the time. (He was forty miles away.) In the
controversy that arose the missionary noted that, inasmuch as the
new image was sent by freight and not by ticket, it must be an
idol and not a saint. Suffice it to say, that a new image was
placed and the people are worshiping it with the same zeal with
which they worshiped the old, even though the new one came by
freight and the old one was supposed to have fallen from Heaven.
It is believed to have miracle working power and to give great
merit to one who makes the pilgrimage to it.

In the daily paper called the "Provinca," published in Pernambuco,
there was printed on August 23, 1910, the following telegram from
the city of Rio, the capital of the Republic.

"The Seculo (Century) of today announces that on St. Leopold
street in Andarahy (a suburb of Rio) there was discovered a
fountain of water in a hollow rock, in which a plebian found an
image of a saint.

"This image," adds the Seculo, "although in water, did not present
the least vestige of humidity. The news of this curious discovery
was immediately circulated, and there was a great pilgrimage,
including a reporter of the Seculo, to this miraculous fountain in
Andarahy."

It is very probable that this telegram heralds the advent of a new
shrine, because it is in this fashion that these so-called
miracle-working shrines are brought into existence.

Not all of these shrines are canonized, but nevertheless they have
power over the people. As we were making a trip into the interior
of the State of Pernambuco we passed a station called Severino.
Near the station we could see a splendid church building which had
been constructed in honor of St. Severino. This saint is not in
the calendar, not recognized by the church nor the bishop, yet it
is popular all over Brazil. Many people are named after him, and
to this shrine are brought many of the same sort of things as were
described in connection with the shrine of the Good End. This idol
is stuffed with sugar-cane pith. The head of it was found in the
woods some time ago. A tradition was started that an image had
fallen from Heaven. The superstitious people believed the report
and soon a shrine was in full operation, which today, even though
it be not canonized, is exerting a far-reaching influence. The
owner of the shrine gave up his farming and lives handsomely on
the offerings the deluded bring to his private shrine.

In one of the most magnificent churches in Bahia is an image of a
negro saint. This holy being won his canonization as a reward for
stealing money from his master to contribute to the church. That
is it: Do anything you please, provided you share the spoils with
the church.

Across the breast of the Virgin's image in the church of Our Lady
of Penha in Pernambuco, before which church the Bibles were burned
in 1903, are written the following words: "One hundred days'
indulgence to the person who will kiss the holy foot of the Holy
Virgin." This pitifully expresses, perhaps, the thought behind
saint worship. It is the hope that the aching of the sinful heart
may find some assuagement through the worship of these gilded,
gaudy images. It is claimed by the priests and some of the more
intelligent that the image worshiped is only a concrete
representation of the saint, and it contains symbolically the
spirit of the saint. To be sure! This is exactly the reason the
more intelligent fetish worshiper in Africa assigns for worshiping
his hand-made god. The etone or piece of wood is a representative
of God and to a degree contains His spirit. Such worship is
condemned as being idolatry in the African. The thing which is
idolatry in the African must be idolatry in the Catholic. Even the
Catholics will condemn the idol worship of the heathen, and yet
this same Catholic church has in scores of places in South America
and in other heathen lands, taken the identical images worshiped
by the heathen and converted them into Catholic saints.

In the city of Braga, in Portugal, is a temple which centuries ago
was devoted to Jupiter. It was afterward converted into a Catholic
church and dedicated to St. Peter. The idol Jupiter, with two keys
in his hand, was consecrated into St. Peter. In another part of
the same city is a temple devoted to Janus in Roman times, which
was turned into a temple dedicated to St. John. The idol which
formerly was worshiped as Janus is being now worshiped as St.
John. In the same temple there is an image now consecrated as St.
Mark which was formerly the god Mars. The saint worship in Brazil
is just as heathenish. In China Buddhist idols were renamed
Jehosaphat by the Jesuits and worshiped. Their practices in Brazil
are in keeping with their methods in other lands.

What is the difference between a worshiper who thus seeks
indulgence through the worship of an image in Brazil and a like
worshiper with a like soul need bowing before a similar wooden
image in Africa or China?

CHAPTER VII.

PENANCE AND PRIEST.

Confession and penance play a large part in the religious life of
the common people. The priests exercise great ingenuity to
preserve the confessional. The better educated classes have long
ago deserted the confessional, but it still holds sway over the
common people and hangs like a dark shadow over the immoral deeds
of the priests. Along with it flourishes the performance of
penance. These two hand-maidens in wrong-doing often thrive in an
absurd way.

In Penedo, the capital of the State of Alagoas, a new wharf was
being built and the money granted by the Government was not
sufficient to complete the work. The contractors approached the
two monks who were to hold a mission in the city during February,
1904, and offered to pay them $500 if they would instruct the
people to, in penance, carry across the city the stones which had
been brought from the interior. A large quantity of building
material had been brought down by rail and needed to be
transported across to the wharf. The monks agreed, gave
instructions accordingly, and in one week the people carried these
stones across the town to the wharf. The transfer of these stones
would have cost $2,500. At least 10,000 people engaged in this
colossal act of penance. They came from two counties. Thus the
contractors, by a little skillful manipulation, made penance save
them considerable money.

In some of these penances the people wear crowns of thorns on
their heads and cords about their necks and go barefooted through
the streets of the city in their pilgrimages to the church. All,
that through these means they may find some ease for the
conscience which accuses them of evil.

What shall I say of the priests? I believe I will say nothing. I
declined steadily to soil the pages of my note book with the
records of the immoral deeds of these men. I will let speak for me
an educated Brazilian, a teacher in an excellent school in
Pernambuco, who is not a professing Christian, but who, like a
great many of his class, admires Christianity very sincerely. When
Mr. Colton, International Secretary of the Young Men's Christian
Association, passed through Pernambuco in June, 1910, he was given
a banquet by some of the leading men, which event offended so
grievously the Catholic authorities that they published in the
"Religious Tribune," their organ, a bitter diatribe on the Young
Men's Christian Association. The professor, to whom I referred,
who is now one of the leading judges in the state, published the
following answer to this attack. He is in far better position to
speak authoritatively about the Brazilian priests than I am. His
article ran as follows:

"FURY UNBRIDLED."

"The official organ of the diocese of Olinda could not on this
occasion control its great animus. It threw aside its old worn-out
mantle of hypocrisy, it precipitated itself furiously and
insolently against the Y.M.C.A. It not only does not forgive, but
does not fear to excommunicate the local and State authorities who
appeared at the banquet nor the directory of the Portuguese
reading rooms who lent their hall to said Y.M.C.A.

"After affirming that the evangelization of Brazil means its
unchristianizing the clerical organ begins to call the members of
the Association and Protestants in general wolves in sheep's
clothing.

"But we ask, to whom does this epithet apply better? To us who
dress as the generality of men, thus leaving no doubt as to our
sex and freeing our consciences from the ignominious Roman yoke,
direct ourselves by that straight and narrow way which leads to
salvation; or to this black band which secretly and maliciously
makes of a man its prey from the moment in which he sees the light
of day until the moment in which he goes to rest in the bosom of
the earth? To us, Who having no thirst for dominion, seek to
cultivate in man all the noble attributes given by the Creator, to
us who teach clearly and without sophistry and gross superstitions
the plan of salvation as it is found in the word of God; or to
this legion of corrupt and hypocritical parasites, corruptors of
youth, whose character they seek to debase and villify by means of
the confessional?

"The only object of the wolf in dressing himself as a sheep is to
devour the sheep. And these shaven heads know perfectly well why
we cite the chronicles of the convents; they know from personal
knowledge who are responsible for the greater part of the
illegitimate children, and they have no doubt about the permanency
and progress of prostitution.

"But they have effrontery, these priests!

"What has the priesthood done in Brazil in about 400 years? The
answer is found in facts that prove the absence of all initiative
of will, of strength, of energy and of activity. Brazil has only
been a field for torpid exploitation by these gain-hunting
libertines. And what of the attacks against private and public
fortunes?

"Happily, for some years, the public conscience has been awakening
and the people are beginning to know that a priest, even the best
of them, is worthless.

"Freed from an official religion, the Brazilian people have really
made progress in spite of the hopelessness of Romanism that
perverts all things and resorts to ail sorts of schemes to
preserve its former easy position

"We, pirates? Ah! deceivers. Then we, who present ourselves
loyally without subterfuge, proclaiming the divine truths,
speaking logically, without artifices or superstitions, are
pirates? You noble priests are noble specimens of Christian
culture, I must confess! You are such good things that France has
already horsewhipped you out of the country, and Spain, whose
knightly race is regaining the noble attributes obliterated by the
iron yoke of Romanism, is about ready to apply to you the same
punishment.

"There is no doubt that the priest is losing ground every day. All
their manifestations of hate and satanic fury are easily
explained.

"One easily recognizes the true value of the explosion of vicious
egotism found in the official organ of the diocese of Olinda. The
priest this time lost his calmness and let escape certain rude
phrases as if he were yet in the good old times when he could
imprison and burn at his pleasure. Console yourselves, reverend
lord priests, everything comes to an end, and the ancient period
of darkness and obscurity exists no more in Brazil."

What is the net result of such religious life as we have been
portraying? The common and more ignorant people accept without
very much questioning the teachings and practices which we have
explained. The better educated people, especially the men, have
lost confidence in the priesthood. Scarcely an educated man can be
found who believes in the moral uprightness of the priest. The
chief hold the Church has upon the better classes is a social and
not a religious one. Births, marriages, deaths, alike are great
social events, and upon such occasions, because it is custom to
have a priest, the better classes of people even call in the
services of the priests, in whom they have no confidence. The
effect upon the beliefs of these better classes is most
distressing. Spiritism, materialism and atheism are rampant, and
one could well believe that these people set adrift without
spiritual guides are in a worse condition than if they were still
devout believers in the ancient practices of the Roman church.
They are far more difficult to reach because they have imbibed the
philosophies of spiritism, materialism and atheism. An atheist in
South America is just as difficult to approach as he is anywhere.
The devout Catholics are easier to reach with the gospel. The
devout Catholic has at least one element which must always be
reckoned with in dealing helpfully with an immortal soul. He has
reverence, which thing many of those people who have been swung
away from their faith have not. I take no comfort in the fact that
the people in large numbers are deserting the Roman Catholic
church and are being set adrift without any form of religion. One
could wish that they might be held to their old beliefs until we
could reach them with the virile truths of the gospel of Jesus.

We come back to it--the gospel is not preached in Brazil except as
it is preached by the Protestant missionary. The need is just as
great for gospel preaching in this country as it is in China.

One day after I had finished speaking to a congregation in
Castello, back in the interior from Campos, an old English woman
came up to me and expressed her great pleasure over having the
privilege of hearing once more the gospel preached in English. I
had spoken in English, and the missionary had interpreted what I
had to say into Portuguese. She had heard the sermon twice. She
had been in Brazil thirty-odd years. She and her husband had lived
in the far interior. They had recently moved down to Castello that
they might be near the little church where they could have
the opportunity of worshiping God. She told me that back in the
town in which they had lived they had left two sons who were
engaged in business for themselves. These two sons had been born
in Brazil, and yet in all their lives THEY HAD NEVER HEARD A
GOSPEL SERMON. Yes, these people are without the gospel and this
is our justification for carrying to them the message of life. For
them Christ died, and to them, because they have not heard, He has
sent us that we might bring His precious message of eternal
salvation, for "How shall they believe in Him of whom they have
not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?"

CHAPTER VIII.

THE GOSPEL TRIUMPHANT.

It is often claimed that the progress of the gospel is slower and
more difficult in Catholic countries than in outright heathen
lands. Such statements can be answered only by an appeal to the
facts in the case. What are the facts? The Foreign Mission Board
of the Southern Baptist Convention has been conducting operations
in Brazil for about thirty years. It has been doing work in China
for more than sixty years. During all the time since work--was
opened in Brazil, the Board has had about three times as many
missionaries in China as it had in Brazil, with the result that at
the present time we have 9,939 members of our churches in Brazil,
as against 9,990 members of our churches in China. We have worked
less than half as long in Brazil and with one-third of the
missionary force. Last year with a missionary force one-third as
large in Brazil as it was in China, there were 635 more baptisms
in Brazil than there were in China. There were 1,534 baptisms in
China and 2,169 in Brazil. The same sort of comparison between our
work in Italy and Japan would make the same showing. This is not
to make a prejudicial statement concerning the work in any field.
We make it simply to show that the gospel does succeed remarkably
in the Catholic countries. The fact is, the rate of progress is
far greater in the Catholic country than it is in the heathen
land. The gospel does succeed in Catholic countries. What is said
here of the work of this one Board can he laid just as truly of
the others.

It was our privilege to witness some remarkable demonstrations of
the power of the gospel while we were in Brazil. About 3:30
o'clock one afternoon we arrived in Genipapo in the interior of
the State of Bahia, after having ridden since early morning upon
the railroad train through a mountainous country which, with its
tropical vegetation, held our keenest interest. We were met at the
station by some members of our church, who escorted us to the home
of Polycarpo Nogueira. Mrs Nogueira is a very devout Christian.
Some years ago she learned that her mother had embraced
Christianity. Mrs. Nogueira set out upon a journey of 130 miles on
muleback to her mother's home for the purpose of taking out of her
mother's heart her belief in the gospel. She succeeded in shaking
her mother's faith and also the faith of her brother. She now
determined to prepare herself to combat this Baptist teaching
which was spreading over the country. She marked passages of
Scripture which she proposed to use against the Baptists. But when
she used them she grew ashamed because she became conscious of the
fact that she had misapplied the Word which she then gave deeper
study. The Word of God took hold of her own heart and she in turn
was converted. Her first thought was concerning her mother and
brother 130 miles away. Again she took the long journey on
muleback in order to lead her loved ones to Christ. She was able
to re-establish her mother's faith, but to this day her deep
regret is that her brother does not believe.

We had a great service at the church that night. The crowd was so
large that we held the services out in the open. Seven stood to
confess their surrender to Christ. The good deacon of the church
was so thoroughly in the spirit of the occasion and in such
sympathy with me that he declared he could understand my English.
He really seemed to catch it before the missionary could interpret
it.

On the following day we reached St. Inez, the station at the end
of the railway, and spent the night in a poor excuse of a lodging
house called the Commercial Hotel.

At 7 o'clock on the following morning, which was Sunday, we
started on horseback for Arroz Novo, an excellent country church
fifteen miles away. A young brother named John Laringeiro (John
Orangetree) had brought horses for us. Before his conversion he
was an arch persecutor, and since he has become a Christian he has
been called upon to suffer even more bitter persecution than he
ever inflicted upon others. He is struggling to care for his
mother, and as the pastor of the church at Rio Preto, he is a most
acceptable gospel preacher.

It was a fine ride into the country, over hill and mountain and
deeply-shaded valley. After we had ridden about half the length of
our journey several brethren from Arroz Novo (New Rice) met us to
escort us to the church. A mile or two further we were met by
another company, who swelled the number of our dashing cavalcade
to about twenty-five. It was dashing, too, for they were hard
riders. It was a very joyous and cordial reception committee.
Finally we rode into sight of the church, winch is located on a
high hill commanding a grand panorama of the mountains. As we
approached we saw two long lines of people standing facing each
other in front of the church. The men were on one side and the
women on the other--about 600 of them. As we rode up the
congregation sang a hymn to give us welcome. We dismounted when we
reached the end of the two lines and walked down between them to
the church. Now it is the custom in Brazil upon festal occasions
to strew the meeting place with oleander and cinnamon leaves and
to throw rose petals and confetti upon those they wish to honor.
These good people observed this custom generously that day. A wide
space of the ground in front of the church was strewed with
leaves, and they showered such quantities of rose petals and
confetti upon us that we were beautiful sights by the time we
reached the door.

We entered the very creditable church building into which the
people now poured until every foot of space was occupied. There
was hardly room left for me to make gestures as I spoke. It was
ten o'clock. The people had been present since four engaged in a
prayer meeting. We began the service immediately. The Spirit of
the Lord was upon us to preach the gospel. Afterward we called for
those who wished to make confession of their faith in Christ. We
pushed back the people a little bit in the front and the space
thus made vacant was immediately filled with those who wished to
confess their Lord and Savior. We saw that others wanted to come,
so we asked them to stand where they were. All through the
audience they rose. Then began the examination of these
candidates. Numerous questions were put to them by the missionary
and the pastor of the church. Sometimes as many as twenty-five or
even more questions would be asked an individual so great was the
care exercised in examining those who wished to become members of
the church, and what impressed me most was the fact that after
every question they could think of had been asked, they would ask
if anyone present could endorse him. Whereupon someone, if he
could recommend the candidate would, after a brief speech of
endorsement, make a motion to receive him.

Over to my right rose a young woman who was the most beautiful
woman I saw in Brazil. Her name was Elvira Leal. She had been
favorable to the gospel for some time and had suffered cruel
persecution from her father. The tears streamed down her face as
she spoke, saying, "You know my story and what I have been called
upon to endure for the gospel's sake, but this morning I must
confess the Lord. I cannot resist the Spirit longer." I learned
that her father, in order to force her to give up her faith, had
dragged her across the floor by her hair. He had brandished his
dagger over her heart, threatening to take her life; he had forced
her to break her engagement to be married to the young preacher,
John Larinjeiro, who had brought the horses for us; he had
declared he would kill both of them rather than to allow them to
marry, and at the time we were there she was compelled to live in
the home of a neighbor, so violent had become her father in his
opposition to her adherence to the gospel. That morning, however,
she said though she knew it involved suffering, she would follow
her Savior at whatever cost.

By the time the missionary had finished examining this woman, a
man had crowded near to the front and indicated that he wished to
say something. It was John Larinjeiro's brother. He said that for
two years he had been impressed with the gospel, but because of
the persecution in his own home he had held back. When years ago
his mother had been converted, he went to persuade her to give up
her religion. Persuasion failing, he persecuted her severely. She
finally told him that his efforts were of no avail because she
could not give up her faith in Christ, yet if he would take the
Bible and show her where she was wrong, she would give it up. He
secured a gospel circulated by the priest and also "The Manual of
Instructions for Holding Missions" and both of these confirmted
his mother's faith, and he had no more to say. The Word impressed
itself upon his heart and he became sympathetic to the gospel.
Then trouble arose. His father-in-law, he said, had threatened to
take his wife and children from him and to put him out of his own
home. His wife had persecuted him and declared she would leave him
if he made the confession he desired to make. He said that he did
not know what to do, but had come forward to ask us to pray for
him. Then the congregation fell upon its face, as far as such a
thing was possible, and prayed. I could not understand all they
said in the prayers because they were spoken in Portuguese, but so
mighty was the presence of the Spirit and so irresistible was the
appeal sent up to the throne of Grace that I knew before the
prayers ended what the result would be. As soon as the prayers
were concluded, the man stood up and said, "News travels quickly
in this country. It may be that when I reach home I shall find my
wife and children gone, but whatever may he the cost, I cannot
resist the Spirit today. I must confess my Lord and ask for
membership in the church." Of course, he was received. A letter
received from the missionary some months later informed me that
the father-in-law had carried out his threat and did take away the
wife and children.

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