PERSECUTION.
Some of the severest persecutions the saints have ever endured in
Pernambuco broke upon this new congregation in the Ilheitas district.
The houses of the believers were broken into and everything destroyed,
some of the buildings were burned. The believers asked for police
protection, but the police sent to protect them being under the
domination of the priest, who was the political boss of that district,
persecuted the believers even more than their neighbors had done. They
drove the believers about, beating them with their swords, forcing them
to drink whisky and in many ingenious ways heaped indignities upon
them. After the success of the great persecution in Bom Jardim, of
which we will speak later, the priest organized a large force of men to
destroy everything belonging to the Protestants in the Ilheitas
district and to drive them away. They burned all of the church
furniture, as well as the household furniture belonging to
Hermenigildo, who was forced to flee for his life. They cut the cord to
the hammock in which was lying his young baby. The fall broke the neck
of the child. The mother was driven unclothed between two lines of
soldiers and severely beaten. The other believers were so harrassed
that most of them were compelled to leave the neighborhood.
Hermenigildo stayed away five months, when a change in police chiefs in
Pernambuco made it possible for him to return. The church was
reorganized the following year. A new building was constructed on
Hermenigildo's farm and today, with a membership of 103, it is in a
most prosperous condition.
In the little city of Nazareth the fury of persecution has been felt.
Not a great while after the church had been organized by Dr. Entzminger
the farmers in the community and the priest combined to drive the
Protestants out of town. Dr. Entzminger heard of their purpose and went
up to Nazareth, accompanied by a number of soldiers whom the Government
had put at his disposal. A great throng was collected at the station to
do violence to the missionary on his arrival, but when they saw the
soldiers they took to their heels, and many came that night to the
service to show that they were not in the mob. A year or two later
another mob broke into the church, poured oil over the furniture and
burned practically everything. The police saved the building. Once
after this, when Missionary Ginsburg was to hold an open-air meeting in
this same town, a soldier was hired to take his life. The officers of
the law left town in order that the deed might be done without
hindrance. The soldier drank whisky in order to brace himself for the
deed, and fortunately imbibed too much and became so intoxicated that
he fell asleep. When he awoke the meeting had been held and he had
missed his chance. These facts were confessed by the soldier to Dr.
Entzminger after the soldier had been converted a year later.
At the railway station at Nazareth we met Primo da Fonseca, who had,
for the sake of the gospel, lost all in a great persecution at Bom
Jardim, which is not a great distance from Nazareth. He was a reader of
evangelical literature and preached the gospel all over that country,
though he had not been baptized. A native missionary went into that
region, began preaching and soon afterward gathered a congregation and
organized a church in Fonseca's home. The political boss of the
community planned with the Catholics to take 800 men into Bom Jardim on
the night of April 15th, 1900, for the purpose of killing all the
Protestants who were in prayer at Fonseca's house. The mob divided into
two parties. One party was to approach the house from the front and the
other from the opposite side. A gun was to be fired as a signal for the
attack. The first party approached the house, which was near the
theater. Now in the theater at that time was gathered a great throng of
people. When the news came to them of the approach of the mob the women
thought it was a part of the band of bandits led by Antonio Silvino,
who is perhaps the most famous outlaw of Brazil. All were greatly
frightened. The Mayor went out to see if he could not do something to
persuade the mob to leave the town. After some parleying they said that
inasmuch as the Mayor asks, we will turn back. Someone at that time
fired a shot and shouted, "Viva Santa Anna" in honor of the patron
saint of that city. This signal brought up the supporting party at
once, who mistook their comrades for the believers and fired into them.
In the melee twenty people were killed and about fifty wounded. All
night they were carrying the dead away to burial in order that they
might cover up the deed as far as possible. The Municipal Judge made
out a case that the Protestants had fired on the Catholics. He
pronounced nineteen as being implicated. Several escaped, six were
finally brought to trial. Dr. Entzminger in Pernambuco sent lawyers and
gave such assistance as he could. After about two years, Missionary
Ginsburg having come also to help in the meantime, the men on trial
were set free. Fonseca lost all he had in this law suit, he being one
of those arrested. He was in jail four months. He has been deserted by
his family. When the disturbance occurred he was Marshal of his town.
Today he lives in Nazareth, poor, deserted, faithful. But what cares he
for this suffering, poverty and desertion as he contemplates the fact
that he has set a torch of eternal light in his community. The church
which he finally established will bear faithful witness in spite of
hardships long after all persecution has ceased, and he, himself, has
gone home to God.
It was our good fortune to visit the little town of Cabo (which means
Cape), two hours' ride from Pernambuco, where we have a small church,
organized about two years ago. We were entertained in the home of a
mechanic who superintends the bridge construction along the railroad
which passes through the town. He takes his Bible with him when he goes
to work, and wherever he is he preaches the gospel. He told us of two
station agents along the line who had recently accepted Christ through
his personal efforts.
We had a delightful service that night in the church, a great throng of
people being present, six of whom made public profession of their faith
in Jesus. After we had returned from the church we sat in the little
dining room in the rear part of this man's house until a late hour.
Some of those who had suffered for the cause of the gospel came in to
see us, and as we sat there in the dim light of the flickering candle,
they told us of some of their sufferings for the gospel's sake. The
scene reminded me of what must have taken place often in many a dark
room in the early centuries when the Christians gathered together for
the sake of comforting each other in their trials.
Amongst those who were present in this little room was brother Honofre,
through whose efforts the church at Cabo had been founded. Several
years ago he began to read a Bible which had been presented to him by a
man who was not interested in it. He became converted along with his
household. There was a Catholic family living opposite to him which he
determined to reach with the gospel. After awhile this family accepted
Christ and the two families began to hold worship in their homes. Soon
they rented a hall, with the aid of a few others, and sent to
Pernambuco for a missionary to come and organize them into a church.
This man has endured cruel hardships. He had to abandon his business as
a street merchant because the people boycotted him. He rented a house,
built an oven and began to bake bread. Not long after that he was put
out of this house. Again and yet again he had the same experience until
recently he has rented a house from the same man who provided for our
church building. He can now make a living.
The church has had experience similar to that of its founder. It was
put out of three rented buildings at the instance of the Vicar, who
either forced the owners to eject or he, himself, bought the property.
Finally a man who is not a believer, but whose mother is, bought the
present building and sold it to me church. He is permitting the church
to pay for the building in installments of small sums. At last the
church has a place upon which it can rest the sole of its feet and in
two years has grown from ten to fifty members. On the occasion of our
visit six more made public confession of Christ before a large audience
and were received for baptism.
Out on the cape is a fine lighthouse which we had admired as we came up
the coast on the ship. May it be a symbol of the lighthouse which this
church may become to the storm tossed in that section of Brazil.
Of course, persecution is a painful thing for those who are called upon
to endure it, but wherever I found those who had passed through
afflictions they counted it all joy to suffer for the cause of Christ,
and whenever I attempted to comfort them because of their hardships, I
came away more comforted than they, for the reason that their joyous
willingness to suffer for His sake strengthened my own faith and
assured me of the ultimate triumph of the gospel through the labors of
such heroic people. Persecution, while it may temporarily suspend work
in a certain place, always defeats its own purpose, and instead of
preventing the spread of the gospel, is one of the most helpful
agencies in the growth of the truth.
A most encouraging illustration of this fact occurred in Pernambuco in
1904. There had been a bitter persecution at Cortez, a village not far
from Pernambuco. The chief instigator of the trouble was the parish
priest. The believers were driven out of the town and their lives
threatened. The missionary went and was also driven out, but returned
under the protection of some soldiers and conducted gospel services
through a whole week in order to give courage to the believers and to
demonstrate that the Protestants could not be driven out. A news
account of this persecution was published in a daily paper in
Pernambuco. A boy cut this article out and gave it to his teacher, a
priest in the Silesian College. The teacher read the article and wrote
a letter to Missionary Cannada and asked him to come to the college at
midnight to explain the gospel. Two letters were passed before the
missionary finally went at midnight to hold a conference. The priest
came out and discussed the gospel with the missionary and then returned
to the college, taking with him a copy of the New Testament. After a
month the missionary went again at midnight to the college and the
priest came away with him once for all. The priest went to the home of
the missionary and for two months studied the Bible, after which time
he was converted. He at once began to preach the gospel to his friends
as he would meet them on the streets. He also made a public declaration
of his conversion in print. The President of the college from which he
had gone obtained an interview with him and offered him every
inducement to return. His parents disinherited him and many other
trials came to him, but through all, he stood firm. He has just
graduated from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, taking the
Th. D. degree and has been appointed to teach in the Baptist College
and Theological Seminary in Rio. His name is Piani. About a year after
Piani's conversion he induced another priest to leave the same college.
This man spent a month in the missionary's house studying the Bible,
but was enticed back by the priests and hurried away to New York in
order that he might escape the influence of Piani. Three months after
reaching New York he was converted and joined the Fifth Avenue Baptist
Church and is today a pastor of a Baptist church in Massachusetts.
In no place where our people have endured persecution, even though it
may have been severe enough to cost the lives of some, has the work
been abandoned, but in every place the weak, struggling congregation
which faced obliteration at the fury of its enemy, has in the end
increased, and today enjoys the blessing of growth in numbers and in
the sympathy of the people. Persecution is a good agency in the spread
of the gospel.