The Methodist Episcopal Church in Peru. by calling on the civil authorities to suppress it, not for any violation of law that he could allege against it, but for the reason that its growth is inevitably a menace to the dominant Church. The national government referred the matter to the Prefect of the Department of the Capital, and he to the subprefect. The latter investigated our work and reported in our favor. The prefect indorsed the report, and thus it went to the supreme government. An ultraclerical cabinet prevented that favorable report from passing to the ecclesiastical authorities and to the public as final, and kept it pending in hope of finding some legal way of attacking us. But that ultraclerical cabinet, after a long lease of power, fell without harming us. 505 returned to Callao, but the latter is still carrying on the Bible work in Bolivia with increasing success and encouragement. In our Lima congregation we have several Bolivians, one of whom has expressed the earnest desire to prepare himself as a messenger of the Gospel to his native city, Cochabamba. Another belongs to the Department of Loreto, on the navigable waters of the Amazon, and has urged me to visit that region and see what can be done for it. The year 1892 will be notable in the history of the republic of Ecuador for the beginning of the preaching in that branch of the Vatican" (sucursal del Vaticano), as Penzotti calls He and Fernandez tried to introduce a quan it. This shows that, with the methods and precautions employed in founding this congregation in the Peruvian capital, we can go forward in the work of founding churches all over the land. Progress must be slow and difficult, but the fact that progress can be made stands demonstrated. 3. Preparations for founding new congregations in and around Lima and Callao, so as to form a strong circuit. Railway lines run from Lima in five directions to facilitate the growth of such a circuit, and all the important points reached by them are being prepared for the planting of our permanent work. 4. Preparations for opening up similar circuits in and around all the coast cities, southward as far as Chili and northward to Mexico, and through the Andine highlands southward to the Argentine boundary and northward to Yucatan. Penzotti and Fernandez left Callao nine months ago, selling Bibles and holding religious services in Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, San Salvador, and Guatemala. They are now in the latter republic, near the Mexican border. Arancet and Orellana worked together in Bolivia till the middle of last year, when the former tity of Bibles, but were estopped in the customhouse. Nevertheless, they were allowed to take in a number of copies of the Scriptures along with their baggage, and these they sold publicly in the city of Guayaquil. They found there a Peruvian family named Castro with moral courage sufficient to open their house for services. At the first there was an audience of ten, all men. Other meetings followed, with increasing numbers, including both sexes. When the brethren came to leave the city they were accompanied at their embarkation by a group of friends who did not hesitate to show them notable marks of attachment and appreciation, and that publicly. No small excitement had spread through the city with news of the meetings. Doubtless a pretext would have been found for imprisoning them if they had remained long. As it was, the authorities knew they were soon to leave, as their books had been left in the custom-house for reexportation. But the malice of priestcraft could not let them go without some damage, and secured the confiscation of the stock of hymn books that they had left in the custom-house. 506 Mission Notes from South America. Since then Brother Irigoyen has been selling Bibles and hymn books in the Peruvian provinces nearest to Ecuador with such success that his family has been moved from Callao to that region, making it a center of operations for northern Peru and for the Ecuadorian frontier. 5. Four schools* in Callao. These are as yet small, attendance about one hundred, but they are the beginning of a system of schools destined to become of vast importance. We are experimenting as to the methods of procedure required to escape legal difficulties and overcome the peculiar obstacles encountered here, with the hope of developing a system that will be both cheap and efficient, to be planted in every city in these lands. The schools are all evangelical agencies, with the Scriptures in the hands of the scholars and the Gospel hymns in their mouths, tending as directly and as powerfully as the Sunday school to put the Gospel into their hearts, and vastly more so than the Sunday school to shape their lives. In a land where public preaching is forbidden by law the school becomes disproportionately important for our work. Heuce, we are giving great attention to the small beginnings of our school system. Miss Elsie Wood is the right arm of the Mission in this regard, and the aid of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society is of incalculable advantage. Miss S. M. Wakeman, for years a missionary teacher in Chili, has come to our assistance this year, a providential reinforcement for which we are cordially thankful. With her help, and that of the assistant teachers who have been trained by Miss Wood, the system of schools is developing in a way to fill us with encouragement. 6. Preparations for a high grade school in Lima. Brother Stockton's school in the Argentine capital, and Brother La Fetra's in the Chilian capital, must have their like in the Peruvian capital. We have not yet started it, as the funds available have been insuf ficient. The founders of the institutions in Buenos Ayres and Santiago labored under the same difficulty at the beginning, and were compelled by it to seek financial success in the schools at the expense of evangelistic efficiency. Here we have hoped to found a mission school whose evangelistic efficiency will be secured at all cost. To reach this result will require a carefully adjusted combination of resources which has not been possible hitherto, but now at last seems coming to be so. For this we thank God and take courage. 7. Circulation of periodicals. Where preaching is under ban of law the press becomes disproportionately important. We do all in our power to promote the circulation of evangelical publications, and with results which deserve special mention. Our congregations here surpass all that I ever knew in the number of religious papers that they take and pay for, in *Now five, with attendance increased since this was written. proportion to the numbers and wealth of the members. The fact that most of these are poor determines the choice of papers-the Aurora, of Buenos Ayres, and the Heraldo, of Santiago-as these come cheaper than any others that would meet the demand. 8. Bishop Newman's visit deserves mention in this report. It is Peru's first episcopal visit, as our two bishops who have passed this way heretofore did not stop in this part of the continent. His brief stay made a profound impression on the public. Our enemies wonder what it means, and our friends are greatly encouraged by it. His addresses will never be forgotten, and some of his words reported in one the dailies have been made use of lately in the press to encourage liberal tendencies. His patient study of the difficulties and the possibilities of this peculiar field made his judgment and advice concerning the work of inestimable value. The presence of Mrs. Newman added to his visit an interest and a charm of the highest order. Mrs. Moses, too, a member of the party, endeared herself to the brethren and friends. These noble ladies are followed by the prayers of earnest hearts in this field. Mission Notes from South America. BY REV. GEORGE G. FROGGATT. THE following, taken from the Buenos Ayres Monday Chronicle, will serve to show how civilization is, as yet, in many respects but as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal among us: "An accident happened at Olivos Station, where a man jumped from a train in motion, and was disemboweled and smashed in a fearful manner. The train was immediately stopped, but although the wretched man lay with his face buried in the ground, and several English gentlemen, Messrs. O'Donoghue, Beatson, and Ansell, requested that the head might be turned, the officials did not dare to do anything till the arrival of the head of the police from San Isidro, some stations up the line. A fellow-being dying and no one allowed to even turn his head that his last dying words may be heard and the pangs of the final agony alleviated! "This lot might befall any one of you or any of those most dear to you. You or they might lie groaning and dying, dismembered, or suffering the cruelest torture, and until the arrival of some useless official (for it is not a doctor, but a police officer who must be sent for), you would not be permitted to be touched. You might have some words of farewell you would desire to utter, to be conveyed to those near to you, but no-no one would be allowed to receive them! Your life might be ebbing away, and a trifling assistance might stay the flow of the life blood, but noyou would have to wait till the police officer came, and if he did not come in time, die! There is an active society for preventing cruelty to animals. Is there to be no society for the prevention of cruelty to a dying man or woman?" Mission Notes from South America. Cases of the above description are matters of everyday occurrence in this and in the Argentine Republic, and should by all means lead to the immediate formation of a strong society to work for the repeal of so unchristian and so scandalous a law. Certainly it is a shame and a disgrace to us that while we have an active, first-class society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, we have no society in any shape for the prevention of cruelty to a dying man or woman. Despite the innate, repugnant barbarity of such scenes, and the fearful blot they are on countries like these, where every large town swarms with nominally Christian churches, convents, etc., the native press has hardly a word of emphatic reprobation to utter whenever a barbarous case of this nature takes place. What can we expect of a people so callous in matters so evidently opposed to the whole spirit of Christianity? The Buenos Ayres Young Men's Christian Association is in a most gratifying state of prosperity; it is full of spiritual and of intellectual life, and is adding to its membership every day. The secretary of the association writes: "If our membership increases at this rate, we shall soon have to build a Y. M. C. A. of our own." We rejoice with all our souls at the deserved prosperity of this body of earnest young Christian workers who are doing a most excellent work in Buenos Ayres, and sincerely trust the time is not distant when our good friends shall be able to build a Y. M. C. A. of their own. If any Christian association deserves financial help, warm sympathy, and our ardent prayers it is the Buenos Ayres Y. M. C. A. We read in the last number of the Gleaner, that a farewell meeting was held in the Y. M. C. A. rooms on July 15, to say good-bye to Mr. T. B. Hill and to Mr. John Milne (son of the Rev. A. M. Milne), who intend leaving in a few days for Europe. Both these young men have left a most honorable record behind them as members of the "Young Men's Association of the American Church," and as members of the Y. M. C. A. Brother Hill has also been secretary of the Methodist Episcopal Church Sunday school for some time past, and has always shown exemplary zeal and faithfulness in the discharge of his official duties. Both Brother Hill and Brother Milne are modest, sincere Christians, highly worthy of the love of their brethren in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have no doubt they will be much missed; while we sincerely regret their departure from the Argentine capital, we sincerely trust their vacant places may early be filled. Mr. Fred W. Thomson, son of the Rev. Dr. John F. Thomson, was appointed assistant editor of the Estandarte, at the last session of the South America Annual Conference. We trust we shall yet see this talented young man following his noble father's example in preaching the Gospel to the benighted millions who inhabit these South American republics. 507 Brother R. Blanco writes from Mendoza (Argentine Republic): "We have just finished a special 'week of prayer,' during which we have been blessed with rich spiritual blessings. Seventy persons partook of the Lord's Supper, and twenty new persons were added to the church on probation." The Rev. George C. Grubb (the Anglican evangelist) and his two lay missioners left Montevideo for Rio on Friday last, after a stay in the above city of about a week. Mr. Grubb is a very effective speaker, and his words have been eagerly listened to by hundreds, and, we have no doubt, divinely blessed to the comfort of many a soul. On the whole, Mr. Grubb's mission seems to have been a decided success, though it has unexpectedly given rise to much unseemly bickering and controversy in certain quarters, which must have been very painful to Mr. Grubb and his devoted fellow-evangelists. A certain Father Constantine (Passionist) writing to a well-known Roman Catholic gentleman in Buenos Ayres recently, says, "I would rather see our poor people beg round town or starve in the streets than be fed by heretics." I wonder what kind of Christianity this is. I think Father Constantine had better go and study his New Testament a little more before he attempts to appear among men as an authorized teacher of a Gospel of righteousness and of pure, infinite love. Brother Olsson writes: "In Bolivia my experience in the Lord's work has been glorious. The good Lord has been true and very faithful. Many people on the way have for the first time heard and seen the word of God, and the Bible has been taken to places never before visited, the people gladly listening to the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ; but as yet one cannot publicly proclaim his name in Bolivia. The priests have been bitter against me, but the Lord has been my keeper from all harm and dangers." Bolivia and the provinces of Cordoba and Tucuman in the Argentine Republic seem to be fields ripe for the harvest. But where are the laborers, and when will evangelical Protestantism commence the glorious work of attempting to gain these promising lands for Christ? How long, how long, how many years must yet pass by without any heed being paid to the voices summoning us to labor and to reward in these parts of the Lord's great and precious vineyard? There are seven Protestant papers in Brazil, all published in the vernacular; two of these are published, respectively, by the Rev. T. C. Correa and by his daughter, Miss Ponciana Correa, both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church Mission in Brazil. A new school of superior grade for boys has been opened by our missionary authorities in the city of Montevideo. Great things are hoped from this new school, which is to be under the efficient general management of the Rev. A. Guelfi assisted by three other teachers. Durazno, Uruguay, August 18, 1893. City of Bogota. CAPITOL AT BOGOTA, COLOMBIA. BOGOTA, the capital of the republic of Colombia, has a population of about one hundred thousand. The houses are built of adobe, and are never more than two stories in height. There is an extensive system of street car lines, the drivers carrying horns, which they blow constantly, so as to notify the people in the houses of their approach. The streets are narrow, paved with stoue, and in the center of each is a gutter, through which a stream of water is constantly flowing. The streets are named after the saints, battlefields. and famous generals; but the houses are not numbered, and it is difficult for a stranger to find one that he may wish to visit. The police do duty only at night. During the day the citizens take care of themselves. The Methodist Episcopal Mission in Buenos Ayres. BISHOP NEWMAN writes as follows of the city of Buenos Ayres and our missions there: "Buenos Ayres is a charming city on the banks of La Plata, a city as large and elegant as Boston, whose parks and palaces, fashionable drives and gorgeous equipages, would adorn Fifth Avenue, New York, and whose busy multitudes and crowded streets and imposing mercantile houses and attractive resorts of pleasure recall the greater cities of Europe and America. "While there we were the guests of Dr. and Mrs. Drees-she the cultured, active Christian lady; he one of the ablest missionary superintendents Methodism has produced, and reputed to be the best Spanish scholar in South America, with an accent so pure as to excite the admiration of the Spaniards themselves. "With him are associated the eloquent Thomson and the logical Tallon, the stanch defenders of Protestantism, and whom I would put against the ablest champions of Rome. My first Sabbath was spent in the American Church, a noble structure, erected by Dr. Jackson, my friend and former colaborer in New Orleans, and where Dr. McLaughlin is the pastor of this self-supporting congregation of influential English-speaking people, and where his zeal and learning command public attention. "How many illustrious names are associated with the pastorate of this people: Dempster, Norris, Lore, Carrow, Goodfellow, Shank, Thomson, Jackson, Wood, Stockton, and McLaughlin ! Under the ministry of the latter the church is highly prosperous. The average attendance is five hundred. "Americans are conspicuous in the official board; and of the membership fifty per cent are of Scotch origin, forty per cent are English, one half of whom are native born, and many of them have been connected with the society for more than a generation. Drawn to us by our spiritual life there are leading merchants, importers and exporters, farmers and railroad officials, and not a few of them occupy a high social position. "Their current expenses are five thousand dollars a year, and this is a self-supporting church. It has the largest English Sunday school in the city, two hundred and sixty strong, an Epworth League of one hundred members, and a strong temperance organiza. tion. This property, which cost sixty thousand dollars fifteen years ago, is now worth one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. "Herein our Spanish people worship at night, with a membership of four hundred and fifty-five and a Sunday school of one hundred and fifty; and connected with this central society are six Spanish congregations and as many Sunday schools. They should have a church of their own, and soon will The Roman Catholic Priests and People of Brazil. have, on an eligible site, in the desirable part of the theological The Roman Catholic Priests and People of Brazil. REV. S. J. PORTER, a Baptist missionary in Rio Janeiro, Brazil, writes as follows of the Brazilian people and their teachers: "Without exception, the Catholic priests of this country are the most corrupt set of men that I have ever seen. Purity of character among them is utterly unknown, while honesty and integrity is little taken into account. A few days ago I heard a priest conversing with one of our young native Christian workers. During the conversation the priest said that he did not believe in the Bible-that he himself had as much right to make a Bible as did the apos 509 tles, that he did not believe Christ was the Saviour of the world, but nothing more than a man. Upon being asked what he did believe, he replied that he hardly knew what he believed, and that he doubted very much the existence of a God. "We asked him if he did not claim to be a priest of God and a believer in God's religion. His reply was, My only religion is money and good eating.' This same man is considered the best and most learned and consecrated priest in the whole state of Minas. He is a fair specimen of the religious teachers of the Brazilian people. "No wonder that the people are wicked and sensuous infidels. The majority of them have no religion. They believe nothing. No moral restraint is placed upon their passions, but they yield to every form of lust and sin. Were I to refer to the crimes openly committed and tolerated here every day it would render this paper unfit for publication." |