THE URGENT CALL.
This very breaking away in some places is piling up additional burdens
and the pitifully inadequate force is called upon to meet demands that
twice their number could hardly satisfy. If we had the same
distribution of Baptist ministers in our Southern country that we have
in Brazil there would be only four ministers in Texas, two in Virginia,
three in Georgia and other States in like proportion. Think of E. A.
Nelson, the only representative of our board in the Amazon region,
trying to spread himself over four States which comprise a territory
five times as large as Texas. Passing down the coast, five days
journey, we would find D. L. Hamilton and H. H. Muirhead, who have
faced dangers as fearlessly as have any brave spirits who have enriched
the annals of missionary history with courageous service. They, along
with Miss Voorheis, are our sole representatives in the State of
Pernambuco and in the adjoining State of Alagoas. C. F. Stapp, Solomon
Ginsburg and E. A. Jackson are attempting to carry forward the work in
the vast States of Piauhy, Goyaz, a part of Minas Geraes, and Bahia,
which last named State has in it one city as large as New Orleans. E.
A. Jackson is located far in the interior of the State, three weeks'
journey from Bahia; all of the energies of Stapp are consumed in caring
for the school; Ginsburg is forced to give his attention to the
nurturing of the thirty-five churches and of evangelizing as far as his
strength will go. In the State beyond them, going down the coast,
stands L. M. Reno, in the State of Espirito Santo. In the populous
State of Rio, in which is located the capital city with its 1,000,000
inhabitants, we have Entzminger, Shepard, Langston, Maddox, Cannada,
Christie, Taylor and Crosland. Entzminger, in addition to conducting
the publishing house, must also conduct the mission operations in
Nictheroy, a city of 40,000; Shepard, Taylor and Langston have placed
upon their shoulders the tremendous responsibility of conducting the
college and seminary; Cannada must give his energies to the Flumenense
School for Boys, leaving only Maddox, Christie and Crosland at liberty
to do the wider evangelistic work and care for the many churches which
the success of their labors have thrust upon them. Crosland has been
transferred recently to Bello Horizonte, in the great State of Minas
Geraes. Farther South, in Sao Paulo, the richest and most progressive
State in the country, are Bagby, Deter and Edwards, Misses Carroll,
Thomas and Grove. Bagby and wife and the young ladies just mentioned
devote their time to the school, leaving only two to man a field which,
because of its splendid railroad facilities, has in it scores of
inviting locations for successful work. In Paranagua in the next State
to the South, have been located recently R. E. Pettigrew and wife. Far
down to the South in Rio Grande do Sul, a State as large as Tennessee
and Kentucky combined, stands a single sentinel in the person of A. L.
Dunstan. What a battle line for twenty men to maintain! It is more than
4,000 miles in length. If you should place these men in line across our
Southern territory, locating the first one in Baltimore, you would
travel 100 miles before you reach the second, 100 miles before you
reach the third, 100 miles to the fourth, and in going toward the
Southwest, you would reach the twentieth man in El Paso, Tex. Whereas,
if you were to draw up the Baptist ministers enrolled in the Southern
Baptist Convention territory along the same line and pass down it to
make the count, by the time you had reached El Paso you would have
passed 8,000 men, for they would have been placed just one-fourth of a
mile apart.
Why do we need 400 ministers in this country to one in Brazil? Is it
possible that we will grudgingly cling to our 8,000 ministers and
decline to give even eight to reinforce our little handful in Brazil?
Such a division of forces can neither be fair nor faithful.
In drawing this picture I have practically stated the situation for the
other denominations. The Presbyterians occupy the same general
territory as do the Baptists with an equal number of missionaries. The
Methodists have somewhat more compactly stationed about the same number
of missionaries as each of the other two, while the Episcopalians, the
Congregationalists and the Evangelical Mission of South America
combined add a number about equal to each of the three larger
denominations. A total of less than 100 ordained missionaries scattered
over a territory larger than the United States of North America, which
allows about four missionaries to each Brazilian State. Add to this
number the wives of the missionaries, the thirty-seven unmarried women
and the 125 native workers and the entire missionary body, foreign and
native, barely totals 300. How utterly inadequate is such a force in
the presence of such vast needs! Because this situation has in it a
call so apparent and so inexpressibly urgent it is impossible to
portray it in words.
The ripeness of the State of Piauhy for evangelization will illustrate
the urgency of the opportunity all over Brazil. As far back as 1893 Dr.
Nogueira Paranagua, who was at that time National Senator from his
State, urged Dr. Z. C. Taylor to send a man into Piauhy and promised to
help pay the expenses. Two years later Col. Benj. Nogueira, the brother
of the Senator, gave a similar invitation, making a promise that he
would sustain a missionary. It was not until 1901 that E. A. Jackson
was able to reach Col. Benjamin's home. He preached the gospel in this
good man's house and also in Corrente, the town near by. Persecution,
bitter and determined, arose. There were three attempts to take
Jackson's life in one day. Once Col. Benjamin stepped in between the
assassin and the missionary and thus saved the missionary's life. Some
months later, upon the return of the missionary, Col. Benjamin, who had
been for so many years a friend to the gospel, gave himself to it and
was baptized. In January, 1904, the new house of worship at Corrente
was dedicated. It was built by Col. Benjamin at his own expense. He
also built a school building and library, and afterward when the
missionary was able to secure a teacher, this generous man paid all the
charges.
When we reached Brazil last summer I received a message from Judge
Julio Nogueira Paranagua, a nephew of Col. Benjamin, who is one of the
Circuit Judges in the State of Piauhy and who after a short while is to
be retired upon his pension, according to the Brazilian law. As soon as
this takes place he expects to give himself entirely to the work of
evangelizing his own people. The message ran: "The State of Piauhy is
open to the gospel. There is a fight on between the priests and the
better classes. The better educated people, disgusted with Romanism and
priesthood, are drifting into materialism and atheism, but if a
competent man could be situated at Therezina, the capital, the whole
State could easily be won to the gospel."
His uncle, who is President of our Brazilian Convention, as we have
already stated, whose family embraces in its immediate connection over
a thousand people, in a letter written me after I left Rio, reinforces
this appeal. He says:
"I come to call your attention to the State of Piauhy, the field in
Brazil at present which seems to me to be the best prepared for
evangelization. Many things have contributed to bring this about. The
Masons, on the one hand, have done the most they possibly could against
Romanism; on the other hand, the propaganda sincere and fervent of a
small church founded in the southern part of the State, which happily
is receiving the greatest blessing from Almighty God, is greatly
contributing to the reception of the gospel throughout the State. My
brother, Col. Benj. Nogueira, the founder of that church, has passed
away, but he has left sons who are spiritual and who continue to work.
With the work developed there it will spread beneficently. In the
adjoining townships there exist many believers, and a church will be
founded soon in Paranagua, a town situated on the beautiful lake by the
same name. In the cities of Jerumenha and Floriano there are already
small churches, which united to the others in assiduous labors, will
powerfully contribute to the evangelization of the State, which is one
of the most promising of Northern Brazil. My friend, Senator Gervazio
de Britto Passo, strongly desires that a minister of the gospel come to
the section where he is most influential. This Senator greatly
sympathizes with our cause and is convinced that his numerous and
influential friends as soon as enlightened by a pastor as to what the
religion of the Baptists is, will unite with them, becoming
evangelical. The best moment to move in that State is the present one,
when so many causes concur for our evangelical development. The
population of Piauhy, which is over 500,000, will increase considerably
as well as its economic wealth.
"I hope that you will not leave this field without pastors, where the
gospel is being received as the greatest benefit to which the people
can aspire for their civilization."
It was my good fortune to meet the present Senator from the State of
Piauhy aboard the ship as he went up the coast, and he, while not a
Protestant, urged upon me the importance of our heeding the call of
this Nogueira family and personally assured me that he would do his
utmost to see that such a missionary would have the widest opportunity
to preach the gospel to the people. This must be a Macedonian call,
which we hope to soon be able to heed.