THE TESTING OF THE MISSIONARY.
In thinking of the missionary, most of us dwell upon the heroic
self-denial he practices and the bravery with which he faces the
gravest dangers. Certainly, the missionary in Brazil is due a good
share of such appreciation. He has been called upon to endure shameful
indignities, painful personal dangers and the enervating perils of a
hostile climate. Our own missionaries have been beaten, stoned, thrown
into streams, arrested and haled before courts, shot at and in many
instances saved only by the most signal dispensations of Providence.
Dr. Bagby, our first missionary, in spite of stoning and arrest when he
was baptizing converts in Bahia, kept fearlessly on in his endeavor to
lead the people to Christ. Dr. Z. C. Taylor traveled through the
interior of Bahia State in perils of robbers, in perils of fanatics, in
perils of infuriated priests and in perils of bloodthirsty persecutors
without fear or shrinking. In the spring of 1910 Solomon Ginsburg was
set upon by a mob at Itabopoana, which opened fire with such perilous
directness that one bullet flattened upon the wall a few inches above
his head.
This same missionary in 1894 endured bitter persecutions when he
attempted to open the work at San Fidelis in the interior of the State
of Rio de Janeiro. A mob of a thousand people threw stones, grass, corn
and a great miscellany of other objects at him and his little band of
worshipers. The howling of the mob prevented him from preaching. The
best that could be done was to sing songs. Finally, a stone having
struck a girl in the congregation, he carried her out through the
infuriated mob to a drug store across the street, where she was
resuscitated, and he returned to his service of song.
Next morning he was called to the police headquarters and the officer
forbade him to preach. He asked what the missionary was doing there, to
which he replied, "To preach the gospel." The missionary was then
prohibited from preaching in the province. He replied that he was sorry
he could not obey, for he had superior orders. He could not accept
orders from the police, nor the Governor, nor even from the President
of the Republic. The officer asked who this superior authority was. The
missionary replied it was God. God had told him to go preach the gospel
in all the world to every creature; some of God's creatures were in San
Fidelis and he was there to preach according to the command of his
Lord. The police officer, after plying him with insulting epithets,
kept him a prisoner of the State as a disturber of the peace. On the
following day he was sent to the State prison at Nictheroy, where he
was confined for ten days. Friends, through the solicitation of Mrs.
Ginsburg, brought pressure to bear upon the Government and the
missionary was released. He was requested then as a personal favor not
to return until after the naval revolt, which was then in progress,
should be suppressed and a degree of quiet could be restored to the
State. Being thus requested, he remained away from San Fidelis awhile.
When the revolt was suppressed he returned to San Fidelis and
persecution arose again. He appealed to the chief officer of the State
and fifty soldiers were sent to his relief. In choosing these fifty
soldiers the officer asked for believers to volunteer. Twenty-five
responded. He asked then for sympathizers and twenty-five more
volunteered. These were put under the command of the missionary, who
instructed them not to appear armed at the church. They came unarmed,
but when the mob began to thrown stones again and refused to respect
the soldiers, they pounced upon the evil doers and there was a rough
and tumble fight. Several were bruised considerably and a number of
limbs were broken, but after this conflict the persecution ceased.
We relate these incidents for the purpose of making it clear that our
missionaries have been called upon to suffer greatly for the cause of
Christ. Every missionary who has been in Brazil any length of time has
felt the weight of personal, physical persecution, and all in the
gravest dangers have conducted themselves as became the heroic
character with which they are so splendidly endowed. And this
suffering, we are sorry to say, is not yet over. For many years to come
the desperate and despotic hand of Rome, which could in the name of
religion invent the horrible inquisition and organize the bloodthirsty
order of Jesuits, has not changed its attitude completely and will
resist desperately to the last the inevitable progress of Protestantism
in Brazil.
Let me hasten, however, to say that it is very easy to get the wrong
impression of what the heroism of the missionary consists. It is easy
for us to think it consists in his willingness to face personal danger.
If such an idea should obtain amongst us permanently and alas, it has
persisted altogether too long; it will rob the story of missions of its
true interest and hazard appreciation of the enterprise upon the
ability of the historian to find thrilling tales of adventure to
gratify the appetite of the sensation-loving public.
The most trying thing to the missionary is not the imminence of
personal danger, but the ever-present chilling, benumbing indifference
of the people to the gospel. Even though here and there we find large
numbers of people who are ready to accept the gospel, let us not
deceive ourselves into the belief that all Brazil is eagerly seeking to
enter the Kingdom of God. The Macedonian call to Paul did not come from
a whole nation which was ready to accept his teaching, but from one man
in a nation. Most all Macedonian calls are like that. The few,
comparatively speaking, rise to utter such calls and these few are the
keys of opportunity which may be used to unlock whole Empires. The
great body of the people in Brazil (and this is especially true of the
educated classes) are as indifferent to the gospel as people are most
anywhere else. It is the weight of this stolid indifference which tries
the endurance of the missionary. It fills the very atmosphere he
breathes and hangs a dark cloud over his horizon, which only his faith
in God and the winning of occasional converts graciously tinge with a
silver lining. It is indifference, slowly yielding indifference that
tests the temper of the missionary character. There are times when a
bit of physical persecution would afford a positive relief to the
fatigue of his exacting career.
The days of the pioneer missionary, with their personal dangers, have
in a measure passed. The yeans of the persecutor in the face of an
increasingly more enlightened civilization are numbered. The
probability of personal perils is growing steadily less. The missionary
must now fight for a hearing before a public which is too often willing
to let him alone. In many places it does not care enough for his
message to persecute him for bringing it. It is ready to patronize him
with an assumed air of liberality and resist the message which burns in
his heart and upon his lips. They are willing for him to speak, but not
willing to listen to what he has to say. He must fight for a hearing
with this patronizing indifference. It is this that tries his spirit.
It is this that bleeds his heart of its strength. It is this that calls
out the heroic in him as never does the dart of the savage, the weapon
of the fanatic or the fury of the mob. To hold on true to his purpose
in the face of such soul-harrowing indifference is the crowning act of
heroism upon the part of our missionaries. No one of them has ever
drawn back and given up his work for fear of death at the hands of his
persecutors, but it must be said for the sake of the truth that some
have succumbed before the rigors of blasting indifference. The saints
at home ought to support valiantly with their prayers our missionaries
who at the front are engaged in a battle even unto death with
indifferent souls unwilling to accept their message.
There is another count in this subject of indifference to which we at
home should give more prayerful consideration. It is the failure of the
churches at home to send out an adequate number of missionaries to
reinforce the workers at the front and make it possible for them to
take advantage of the opportunities that have come to them already.
What could take the spirit out of a man more quickly than the feeling
that those who had sent him out do not care enough about him to give
him support and reinforcements for his work? It is a shame upon us that
we at home add another burden to our missionaries by failing to loyally
support them. What must be a man's thoughts after he has toiled and
sacrificed on a field for years and has unceasingly begged for a mere
tithe of the helpers he really needs and which we fail to send?
When that brave garrison of English soldiers were shut up in Lady
Smith, South Africa, during the Boer War their courage to hold out
against overwhelming odds and on insufficient rations through many
weeks was kept up by the assurance that the patriotic English nation
was doing its utmost to send relief, though the relief was long
delayed. If the thought that their home people were not trying to send
succor to them had ever taken possession of their minds, they would
have surrendered forthwith. Their line of communication was cut, but
they knew help was coming, and so they held out with grim determination
until relief came.
How is it with our missionaries in Brazil? Their lines of communication
are intact. They know their people at home are able to supply them with
the help they need and yet the help does not come. What must be the
conclusion forced upon, them and what must be the effect upon them?
Either the churches, though able, will not give the means to send out
missionaries, or the men for reinforcement will not volunteer. It may
be that both causes are at work. What is the matter when a pulpit
committee of a prominent church can have sixty names suggested to it of
men who might become its pastor, and a good percentage (save the mark)
of these direct applications, when our small missionary force in Brazil
is pleading for only ten men to be sent out to relieve them in their
strain? Whatever explanation we may have to offer for these things, the
fact remains that our indifference to the call of our men at the front
adds an additional weight to their already too heavy load, and yet, in
spite of it all, they are standing with unflinching heroism at their
posts.
Something must be done to relieve this situation. Counting all
denominations, there are in Brazil fewer missionaries today in
proportion to the population than there are either in India or China.
Why this disparity of workers in Brazil? Is it because the work is not
successful there? The facts show that, taking into consideration the
number of workers, it is one of the most fruitful of all mission
fields. Is it because there is less need of the gospel? I believe I
have shown that these people are bereft of the gospel, and because of
their sin and idolatry are as needy as are to be found anywhere. No,
there is no excuse to be offered. Our workers at the front need help.
We are trying their brave spirits by withholding the relief they have a
right to expect, and yet we repeat they are holding on with a courage
that stamps them as heroes of the finest type. God help us to see our
obligation to send out recruits in sufficiently large numbers to
relieve these brave soldiers and transform them from a besieged
garrison into an aggressive army of conquerors.
Let us bear in mind that what is said about indifference both on the
foreign field and among the churches at home is spoken of the people in
the large. Thank God, the light is breaking in many places at home and
abroad. Many individuals and churches are today seeing the larger
vision and are assuming their larger responsibility in the support of
the foreign mission cause. Many are saying: "We will faithfully
strengthen the hands of our brothers who toil so courageously at the
front." In Brazil (and in other mission fields, too,) there is in many
places a marvelous breaking away from the old attitude of indifference.
The little handful of missionaries we have on the field are straining
every nerve to meet the opportunities that are pressing upon them. They
are not discouraged. They are as busy as life trying to meet the
increasing demands. They are looking to the future with the largest
hope. They are a band of the most incurable optimists you ever saw.