THE GOSPEL WITHHELD.
When I went to South America I decided that I would spend little time
upon the material aspects of the trip, but would, on the other hand,
attempt to arrive at an understanding of the religious conditions and
needs of the people. I consider that the religious needs are the
abiding and vital interests of any people.
I knew also that Brazil is counted as being a Roman Catholic country
and the consideration at once arose in connection with this fact as to
whether this religion affected the life and thought of the people
sufficiently to satisfy their religious needs. If it does, then let us
be honest enough to recognize it, and if it does not, let us be
courageous enough to assume our responsibility towards it for we must
hold that the great justification for missionary effort is the
evangelical and not the polemical one. If there is no greater reason
for our entering a country than for the purpose of fighting the
Catholics, then I, for one, am frank to say that I do not think we
ought to spend our energies in any such field. The question for us to
settle is whether there is a real call for the preaching of the gospel
in a given country. That question can be answered only by a candid
consideration of the facts in the case and not by the bigoted notion
that all who do not agree with us are to be driven from the face of the
earth.
What is the religious status of Brazil? Is there any call for
Protestant effort? I answer after giving serious study to this
question, and after personal observation of the effects of the
religious practices upon the people, that there is the same imperative
call for missionary effort in Brazil that comes from China or any other
heathen country, viz., the gospel is not preached to the people.
The priests hold services, to be sure, in the churches, but there are
many churches in Brazil in which there has been no pretense of
preaching a sermon within five years. The priests do not preach. They
say mass, read prayers and sing songs in Latin, a language which is not
understood by the people. Occasionally, a Catholic fraternity will
invite a special orator to preach a sermon upon some great feast day.
This visiting brother does not preach. His theme upon such an occasion
would either be a discussion of the special saint whose day is being
celebrated, or he would speak upon some civic question which had more
or less to do with the moral or political life of the people. In the
interior these special occasions occur only once every two to five
years, so that even this semblance of a sermon comes rarely. In the
cities these special addresses are made on one saint's day each year or
on some special anniversary, or when some dignitary is making a visit.
Usually this dignitary will say a mass and not preach. When one of
these special days occurs the preaching is not heard very extensively
for the reason that the noise and commotion about the stalls for
gambling, drinking and other attractions is sufficient to drown the
voice of the speaker. These side-show attractions fill all available
space about the building, giving it the appearance of a circus more
than anything else. They are run by individuals who pay a tax to the
church for the privilege. The preaching is not the feature of the day,
the chief object seeming to be to furnish amusement for the people and
money for the church. It cannot be said that on such days the gospel
can possibly be preached successfully.
Occasionally there is held in the church what is called a special
mission. This is conducted by visiting monks. We would expect that on
such occasions the gospel would be preached, but such is not the case.
They hear confessions in the morning. A special premium is placed upon
the celebration of marriages during the mission, because these visiting
monks will make a cheaper rate than the resident priests. For this
reason the majority of the priests do not like to have these monks come
in for special missions, and would not conduct them but for the fact
that the bishop compels them to do so. The addresses delivered by the
monks in these special missions are not sermons. They either upbraid
the Protestants, speak against civil marriage (the only legal marriage
in Brazil is that performed by a civil officer), inveigh against the
Republic, discourse upon the lives of the saints, assail Luther and
other reformers, or urge confession, penance and submission to the Pope.
Furthermore, the Bible is withheld from the people. The circulation of
no book is so bitterly opposed as that of the Bible. It is true that
the Franciscan monks are trying to introduce an edition of the New
Testament which contains special comments attacking Protestants. These
special editions are very expensive and difficult to secure. The person
who wishes to buy one of these Bibles must get permission from the
vicar of his parish, and if the would-be purchaser is inclined towards
Protestantism, the vicar will refuse to grant permission. The priests
are not very much in sympathy with the idea of circulating even this
annotated edition of the New Testament.
In Armagoza, near Bahia, the Franciscan monks held, three or four years
ago, a mission and sold about 1,000 of these Catholic Scriptures. It
seems that the Protestants had also been circulating a Testament which
had the same general appearance as that sold by the Franciscan monks.
When the monks had sold out their supplies, they heard of what the
Protestants had done and inasmuch as the people could not distinguish
between the true book and the false, they ordered the people to bring
back all of the books to the monks, under the promise that they would
examine them, eliminate the Protestant book and return to the owners
the authorized Bible. The people brought back their books in good
faith. The monks took them, but never returned them. Neither did they
return the money.
On the 22nd of February, 1903, there occurred a public burning of
Bibles in Pernambuco. This was done in defiance of the Protestant work
with the evident purpose of intimidating the Protestant workers and
arousing a public sentiment against them.
But having failed in this, their first effort, they decided to try
another even more ostentatious.
Although it is illegal to burn any religious document publicly, yet the
first burning passed unnoticed by the officials of the law. But not so
the second.
Having incurred the censure and ill-will of many of the most thoughtful
and liberal-minded, even of the Catholics themselves, by the disgrace
of February 22nd, the directors of the Anti-Protestant League decided
to make a grand rally on the occasion of the league's first
anniversary, September 27th. And to realize this, they published about
two weeks beforehand a very extensive program. The program said that
"there will be burned 26 Bibles, 42 Testaments, 45 copies of the Gospel
of Matthew, Luke 9, John 12, Mark 4 and Acts 9", besides a great many
other useful books. In the list also there were some three hundred
copies of different religious Protestant papers.
According to the program the bishop was to preside. The public burning,
however, was not performed. Such pressure was brought to bear upon the
officials that they interfered. It was even discussed in the National
House of Congress. But in spite of all opposition, not to be completely
defeated, they burned the Bibles in the back yard of the church.
These examples are sufficient to demonstrate the attitude of the
priests towards the Scriptures, and we must concede that any church or
set of men who by such methods withhold from the people the Word of God
cannot be said to preach the gospel. He is an enemy of the gospel who
puts any restraint upon the circulation of the Scriptures. It is wise
indeed for the sake of their cause that these opponents of
Protestantism should oppose the circulation of the Scriptures, for we
shall cite numerous instances of how the Bible unaided has broken down
Romish superstition and turned men from dark error into the light of
the glorious gospel of Jesus.