^ VV1 ' wtivi \vv\<2\ ARGENTINE GUATEMALA MEXICO BRAZIL CHILE COLOMBIA Population American missionaries, Native Preachers, teachers, Bible readers, etc Organized Churches. . . Communicant mem- bers Sunday-school pupils, Adherents and catechu- mens Schools— all grades Pupils BRAZIL CHILE COLOM- BIA 7,318,556 3,596,54 1 5,071,10 36 21 26 80 50 38 21 17 4 *6265 946 398 1963 2986 733 5515 6168 1523 9 10 8 504 952 741 ^Communicants reported in Brazil Mission, is the Presby- terian proportion of the statistics for the National Church of Brazil with which we are affiliated. Statistics given above are those reported to the Assembly, May, 1916. “UNCLE SAM’S NAMESAKE.” Brazil. True co-workers with Christ have the “all-the-world” view and are intensely in- terested in what goes on in the trenches of the first battle line just as well as in the conditions and needs of the encamp- ments around the bases of supplies. They in the home-land are toiling and sac- rificing that the campaign out on the for- eign field may be carried on in the most effective manner. They are giving and so wish to know how their money is being administered. They delight to know how the Eternal General is blessing their efforts as the dawn of the new day of immortal light and love breaks on new lands. The capitalist looks over the world for the finest investment opportunities. He is looking for returns. He wants the biggest returns in security and dividends. That is just the way we looked at the mission- ary proposition. Our lives were our capital and we wanted the biggest returns on them for the kingdom of Christ. It was just a common-sense way to look at things. Many of our friends did not understand us and objected. Now, as we tell them of Brazil and her needs they are beginning to understand. After you have admired the wonderful tropical vegetation and unsurpassed skies of Brazil, you will doubtless turn to study the people. We see many very small and rude huts, but no sign of race suicide. The laws of hygiene seem not to have been discovered, or, perhaps, it is only man in the making, for the children and even the women have 1 the appearance of just being evolved from old mother earth. The blank faces and listless forms give you a feeling of un- speakable sadness and you cannot but yearn to do something to galvanize this people into true living and thinking. We alight from the train at a small country station and find there an acquaint- ance. He rides a mustang fitted out with a saddle of the Mexican type and, as a protection against the cold of winter or even the heat of summer, he wears a huge shawl with a slit in the center through which he puts his head. It is called in his native tongue a “palla.” It is not only used by day but at night it serves as a cover. The house of our friend is very humble indeed. As he lives out in the country, he has not many of the luxuries of his city brother. The building is a low one-story structure of sticks and mud, split boards, or possibly even sawed lumber and is cov- ered with split shingles or palm-leaves. It is a dreary, cheerless place with but lit- tle furniture and that of the home-made variety. If it is rainy or cold the rooms are very dark for it boasts no such thing as window-panes. Since we are friends of the family, we go right out in the kitchen with our host and find it a curious place. Our first im- pression may be that the house is afire as we find it full of smoke, but no, it is simply that the Brazilian never has a stove of any kind. There is no floor in the kitchen for if there were the house would burn up. The kitchen fire is built on the ground in the midst of some stones and these serve as supports for the kettle and pans. As we look around we are apt to dis- cover the farm machinery shed behind the o kitchen door if it be so fortunate as to have a door. No one objects to this, how- ever, as it takes little room and bothers no one. The machinery consists of an axe, a foice and a saraqua. The foice is a heavy hooked knife with a long handle and is very effective in felling light tim- ber. The saraqua is the corn planter. It is simply a long sharpened stick and if our friend is right progressive, he may have an iron point on it. Prairie land in general is not productive save for sweet potatoes and mandico, a very nutritious root, until it has been well stirred and manured, so as the Brazilian has no plow, he simply cuts down the for- est, lets it dry, burns it, and plants in the ashes just as the North American Indians did generations ago. The ground is never stirred in any way but the farmer simply takes his saraqua, jabs it in the ground, drops the seed in the hole, steps on it and goes on. If the Roca, as it is called, burns well it will hardly be necessary to hoe it. One double crop of corn and beans is all that can be raised in from four to seven years. The farmer has to wait for the forest to grow up again before he can again cut and plant. You see he understands rotation of crops, he gets one crop in from four to seven years! Great sections of almost unexplored land with the most wonderful natural re- sources, and with the finest climate in the world lie there awaiting intelligent ex- ploitation. The next fifty years will, in the opinion of many who have studied the situation, witness an unprecedented devel- opment in this land of opportunity. We can perform an invaluable service for the Brazilian and earn his everlasting grati- tude if we prepare him for this coming in- dustrial revolution. We can put our na- tive church on a self-sustaining basis a 3 generation earlier if we train our believers to use the country’s natural resources. We now have members with hundreds of acres of fine land and they live almost in misery. Brazil seems far off but she lies at our door. Fine ocean liners continually ply between her ports and ours. But she is much nearer to us in the more real sense of community of interest and ideals. Though Uncle Sam scarcely realizes it, she is his namesake. It is the United States of Bra- zil if you please! In 1839 when the Re- public of which the Brazilian people are so proud, was founded, the United States of North America was taken as her model and our constitution, after it had been adapted somewhat, was adopted by the new Republic. A tremendous error was made, however, for her statesmen did not have the wise foresight that characterized the founders of our Nation, they did not provide the means for preparing the sovereign citizen to vote intelligently. Public schools exist but no public school system that is worthy the name. The country educated classes long ago broke away from the Roman Catholic church. Those who have learned to think for themselves have usually become free- thinkers, Comtists, agnostics or atheists. The common people still carry the saints around and believe in their miraculous power, and even in the cities one may often see large numbers of mostly women and children in processions in honor of one of the saints. Fortunately the people are alive to the situation and the country is in an agony of unrest. In addition to her great bur- den of illiteracy and lack of religion, she has felt herself to be on the verge of political ruin and financial bankruptcy. Now we of the “Christian Institute of 4 Practical Arts” in Castro, Parang, are working day and night in what we call our character-school, to interpret life to the boys and girls of this new and prom- ising land. We have the academic de- partment in which the regular school sub- jects are taught six and one-half hours each day of the school week. But in addition to this, all the students, rich and poor alike, have to work twenty-eight hours per week to help pay their expenses, train the hand and eye, strengthen body and will, develop character, and learn the dig- nity of honest labor. Boys and girls of ten years and upward are accepted but only on recommendation. Care is taken to exclude those who, for any reason, do not give promise Oif fur- thering the ends of the school. There is nothing pious about our atmosphere but every one is learning to interpret Chris- tianity in his work, study and play. Nearly all of them board and room at the Institute and are charged about $75 a year for all their expenses, including books. Worthy pupils who can pay noth- ing are given opportunity to earn all of their expenses by labor on the farm and buildings. They are allowed five cents an hour for work outside of the required time and must stay during the entire va- cation period. All of the work of the school is done by the students. This includes the car- pentry, bricklaying, furniture-making, blacksmithing, farming, gardening, gen- eral house-keeping, etc., etc. School was opened without a single desk, chair or bed. We had no money with which to buy them. It certainly was encouraging to see the way the students set to work to learn how to make these most needed articles. We got a few tools and the lumber and soon most serviceable articles were ready; each 5 boy made his own furniture, and took great pride in it. Not one of us, including myself, had ever had any training in any of the trades but we take an axe, a hammer, and an- other tool or two, get our boards around us, and hack and pound away till they turn into a chair or table, a house, or something or other. Sometimes it is just the latter but lumber is cheap in Brazil and art is long. We try to co-ordinate the industrial de- partment with the academic work accord- ing to the modern theory of education. Six hundred acres of unimproved land and a lot of buildings to erect generate a fair amount of “spontaneous interest. ” Every care is taken to develop the individuality of each pupil. In the morning, in the class-room, the piece of furniture to be made in the afternoon is often designed during the hour for drawing. They are often, in the arithmetic class, given prac- tical problems pertaining to the farm or buildings so the lessons are not merely exercises but are continually linked up with life. The students are trusted absolutely. It is taken for granted that the word of any one of the students of a Christian Insti- tute is absolutely true. If a lie appears we let it run its course to a logical con- clusion. Each student is given a very wide range and is rarely refused any- thing. But often after granting a request, we ask whether that is the student’s best judgment in the matter. The response has been most gratifying. If a pupil does not study as he should he is deprived of the privileges of the class-room for a time. If he is lax in his work, he must leave it and retire to his room and rest. This cuts both ways — it punishes and brings the offender to feel 6 that study and work, under proper con- ditions, are a privilege and not, as we came to feel under the old system, a favor to the teacher or a punishment. We have been astonished at the success of the plan. If there is any self-respect in the pupil it is most effective. If not he is speedily deprived of the school privileges indefi- nitely. The atmosphere of the school has been thoroughly Christian right from the start. With two or three exceptions, all the stu- dents who did not already have Bibles, provided themselves with one. In the first four months they bought, without any propaganda being made, fifteen copies. One poor orphan boy got the money (5 0c) some way and asked the boys not to tell his Catholic grandmother with whom he was staying. Over twenty-five per cent, of the boys in the school are preparing themselves for the Ministry. No advan- tages whatever are given these but they are best workers and the leaders in the student life. In this atmosphere the non-Christians soon get a pretty clear idea of right think- ing and right living. There are only two schools of this self- help type in a country nearly as large as the United States. Practically none of the students we now have would have the slightest chance to get an education if it were not for our work. We have to refuse students continually for we have no room for more. The boys are sleeping in a small wooden house, a slab shanty, and up over the shop, but even so there is room for no more. We must have a boys’ dormitory at once. In the near future we must have one for the girls also. Shall we deprive these boys and girls of that which to our children, is as free as the air we breathe just be- 7 cause we have a false idea of the use we should make of the money entrusted to us? In the United States we feel that our Christian educational institutions are the bulwark of the church. But if they are such a needful force in this land of the Christian home, the open Bible, churches and Sunday schools almost without num- ber, how much more are they needed in that land of ignorance, superstition, and open vice. In the United States we must run around and beg the boys and girls to go to school. There they beg for the privilege. We can never hope to evangelize a great nation through the agency of the foreign missionary alone. His business is to start the movement but he cannot hope to com- plete it. Even if he could, it would be most unjust and unwise to attempt it. We must train native workers. True educa- tion is the handle to the situation. It is the easiest road of approach in Brazil. It is the thing they want. It is the only guarantee we can make for the future. If we do not step in and take Brazil now with this wonderful opportunity we neglect our Christian duty with our eyes open. At present the Protestant church is far and away ahead in the educational move- ment. We have the confidence of the peo- ple but the only way to continue to lead is to continue to advance. We were visiting one of the well known universities of this country and the secre- tary of a neighboring institution was tak- ing us around. He took us to see the new football stadium, a massive concrete structure. “How much did it cost,” I asked. “Three hundred thousand dollars,” he replied and added “That would be quite an item for your work in Brazil, wouldn’t it?” “Yes,” I said, “I hadn’t thought of it but it does seem as if there is a wrong 8 emphasis placed somewhere when people will give three hundred thousand dollars to have a place to sit down and watch the students play when we in South America have difficulty in getting one per cent, of that to buy materials so the boys can build themselves a place in which to live while they study.” They have the brawn and brains but air-castles are the only structures you can build without materials. Thousands of men are working night and day that the soldiers in Europe may be able to kill each other. We are pleading for peace munitions that men may save one another. We Americans feel our re- sponsibility in this world crisis. We are praying God that he may lead us, that we may do our part that reason and justice, and not brute force may prevail; that love and not lust may rule, that an interna- tional conscience and sense of brother- hood may be created. Just now we can do little for the old world. Our peace-ship is out of commis- sion. Our offers to mediate are rejected. But we can do something in the New World. Our Mexican policy, whatever else it has done or left undone, has inspired confidence in us on the part of the South American Republics. They need us and they know it. Brazil is our namesake. She takes us as her model. She is poor, illiterate and despairing for she has no religion. Shall we stand idly by and watch as she de- teriorates into a waste heap or shall we share her burden and lift her that she may develop into a world? The pupils of the Christian Institute are looking to you to help. They want to prepare themselves to serve the land they love. They have a vision of service. They got together in some way, about twenty dollars, bought a flag, and presented it to 9 the school. I have never even in this country seen such an outburst of patriotic enthusiasm as there was when the flag was unfurled. Some years ago I heard John R. Mott say of China that the sleeping dragon was stirring in its sleep. We know what hap- pened when China awoke. Brazil is awakening. Shall we help her awaken to the truth or shall we let her be taken by the wave of commercialism and indus- trial revolution. H. P. MIDRIFF. 10 MARKING TIME IN MEXICO, During the last five years the prospects for active mission work in Mexico were never brighter than last year. The pro- gram outlined at our last mission meet- ing was perhaps never more constructive and far sighted and more enthusiastically endorsed. Our mission was ready to begin a new day in its history and prayed that the internal situation might clear up and make it possible to carry into effect our part of the plans in harmony with the spirit of the Cincinnati conference plans of 1914. However, we are about where we left off several years ago — in fact, we are continuing to “mark time” in Mexico. It would seem that our zeal- ous brother in Northern Mexico had his prayer answered when with distressed and heavy heart he prayed last year — “O Lord hear us in this hour of our need and help us to bring chaos out of confusion down here in poor Mexico.” A little more than a year ago, the greater part of our mission force re- turned to Mexico after having been out of the country for some time. The United States had then just recognized the Car- ranza faction as the strongest and most capable of restoring law and order to the revolution-torn country. I believe the two American business men whom I saw at the American Consulate in Nuevo Laredo, expressed the feeling of the ma- jority of the foreigners in Mexico. They said, “We are tired of the last few years of uncertainty. We don’t care whom the United States recognizes just so we can go back to our business and do something .” Everybody was willing to give the bene- fit of the doubt to anything they heard 11 or read that showed a silver ray of hope for the future of Mexico. Since Madero’s rise six years ago no faction had a more hopeful beginning. Most of the married missionaries had left their families in the States last year believing that by New Year they would be able to join them in Mexico. As the months passed our plans for them were shifted until now we are once more leaving them in the States and returning to the field. In the fall of 1915, among Mexico’s many problems the railroad and financial ones pressed more urgently for solution on the newly recognized faction. Such problems as the land question, calling of elections, social and educational problems, enforce- ment of the Reform Laws which originated under Juarez, etc., naturally and logically would have followed. After years of revolution the railroads suffered immensely — so much so that some one has said that it would need five hun- dred million dollars gold to restore the lines with their equipment of five years ago. We read of the big things that were to be done, so that the mines could be opened and transportation facilities put at the service of the whole country. Then, too, the country was flooded by cheap paper money of many factions. The coun- try needed to be put on some financial basis so as to give stability to the Mexi- can dollar and a sound basis of credit to business. A faction that cannot solve these two problems cannot bring peace and prosperity to Mexico. If you would ask anybody who has lived in Mexico, if these two problems have been handled in such a way as to have won the confidence of the people they might not say much but they would shake their heads. As to the railroad situation — nine months after the recognition of the pres- 12 ent faction, we were going from Mexico City to Vera Cruz, which are connected by one of the principal railroad lines in the country. Pullman service was not to be had, and my companion and I had to stand most of the way. When night fell, the two kerosene lamps in our coach failed to give light because of broken lamp chim- neys, besides many of the window panes were broken and bullet holes marked the car. We were also three days going from our mission station to Mexico City because the direct railroad line had been cut and service interrupted by several thousand Zapatistas. In the district where our sta- tion is located there were thousands of bushels of corn ready to be shipped but could not be moved for lack of railroad transportation facilities. Last June, we went to Southeastern Mexico as a committee to look over the state of Chiapas with the idea of opening up active work there in the near future. The American Consul at Vera Cruz ex- pressed his doubts as to the wisdom of our making the trip. Foreigners were then leaving that part of Mexico. The Consul suggested that if we went we should be prepared to take to the brush at any mo- ment and live off the country like a jack- rabbit. After waiting several weeks on the Isthmus to go into the interior by ox cart with safety because of the unset- tled conditions there, we moved south toward the Guatemalan border and arrived there several days before a train was held up, and shot upon by a rebel band, and this in a section of Mexico that was reported to us by good authority before we left Mexico City, to be peaceful and quiet. As to the financial situation. The new issue of paper money that was to have been put into circulation at the beginning of the present year was delayed until 13 May. Meantime the Government presses kept turning out millions of dollars of cheap paper money that could be and were easily counterfeited. By and by it took an expert to know which was counterfeit and which was genuine. Metallic money, of course, was not seen in circulation. The paper money called “Vera Cruz money” in six months dropped from twenty to one hundred and twenty-five for one dollar gold. By government decree the new paper money was to be held at a fixed value of ten cents gold on the Mexican dollar. In three months it depreciated to three cents gold. As a natural conse- quence the bottom dropped out of the money market, business was paralyzed and gloom and pessimism swept over the country as never before during the past six years. Until peace and order come to troubled Mexico the mission forces will continue to “mark time.” R. R. GREGORY. 14 CHILE’S NEEDS. Chile is probably the most homogeneous of all Latin-American countries. Foreign immigration has, to no great extent, reached her coasts. The Asiatic is not in evidence and the negro is so rare as to excite attention. If we subtract the large Peruvian, Bolivian and Argentine ele- ments, found principally in the North, and which are closely allied to the Chilean in blood, language and religion, there re- main less than two per cent, which can be termed alien. One great difficulty to the advance of Christian work among the Chileans is the influence of renegade Protestants and their descendants. Often spiritual appeals to the native conscience are ineffective be- cause of the immoral influence of those whose superior education has placed them like “Cities on a hill.” The faithful, how- ever, have rendered invaluable service. The earliest missionaries came at their call. “To preach to us and the Chileans” was the prayer of the little group of Brit- ish and Americans who met in Valparaiso in 1842, and who after three years brought Dr. David Trumbull to Chile. They won the first victories of religious freedom; supported for forty years the Valparaiso Bible Society, founded the Seamen’s Mis- sion, founded the “Escuela Popular,” and “The Sheltering Home,” and made possible by their generosity the acquisition of many valuable properties in use to-day. Well organized churches are indispensable to preserve the faithful and to rescue the unfaithful. These churches should be centers of spiritual, intellectual and social life. Thoroughly equipped Sun- day schools, Clubs and Young People’s 1 5 Societies served by men who give their entire time and energies to this work, faithful, spiritual men with a Christianity broader than nationality and denomina- tionalism. These little communities need careful organization, strenuous pastoral visitation, and live, high-toned, incisive evangelical sermons. The churches already organized should be encouraged and helped with bet- ter buildings and improved accessories. New’ work is urgently needed in the large establishments of the Braden, Chuquica- mata and Bethlehem companies, and on the great sheep farms about the Straits of Magellan. We find but tw r o classes in Chile — one small, rich, educated, absolute in Govern- ment; ruling in many respects well, in all respects for the advantage of its order; to wTiich class the National Church is allied by affinity of spirit and community of in- terests: the other, the proletariat large in numbers, poor, ignorant, degraded; patient up to the present, under the exactions of a paternal government and an autocratic Church. Conditions, however, are rapidly chang- ing. The peon who now receives his poli- tics and his beans from his patron, and his religion from his parish priest, will as a class disappear. Democracy is in the air. There are rumblings in the hitherto solid substratum of Chilean life. He w r ho places his ear close to the ground can hear them. The 90 per cent, are clamor- ing for the rights of life, of education, and of a share in 'the government. Slowly but surely the great mass is drifting away from the social conditions of 'the past and as surely from the faith of its fathers. The movement is interesting to the sociologist and fraught with anxiety to the Christian philanthropist. Some of these days the 16 Hour and the Man will meet. If the people are prepared, a social evolution will be the result; if unprepared a revolution. In this transition period, Romanism and Protestantism can be of incalculable use. They need not be antagonistic, nor mutu- ally repellent for they spring from the same source and are, supposably, working for the same ends. •Chile gives the impression not only of a needy field, but also of an unoccupied field. The Roman Catholic Church does not work it. She apparently lacks men and means. A ground swell of sullen in- difference is carrying the masses away from her altars. William Carter, after- wards Bishop of Serena, once welcomed a missionary with the words — “I am glad to know you. We have lost our hold on this people. If you can give them some in- spiration towards better living, I for one shall be glad.” Without criticism, with no unkind refer- ences to present delinquencies or to past mistakes, should we not try by every means in our power to bring this people to a knowledge of Him who is the Saviour of the World? The northern section of Chile includes the five provinces of Tacna, Tarapaca, Antofagasta, Atacama, and Coquimbo, with a population of 500,000. Except a small area about Tacna on the extreme north, and Serena on the extreme south, this part of Chilean territory is desert. There is no rain and there are no streams for irrigation; consequently there is no vegetation. It is rich in minerals and es- pecially in nitrate of soda. Mining is practically the only industry. These provinces have developed in many ways independently of the central Government. Of the millions they produce annually, only a small part remains for local neces- 17 sities. Sanitation and education have been neglected. There are few schools except in the larger towns. There are frequent epidem- ics of smallpox, bubonic plague, and yel- low fever. As to the population of 500,000 about 160,000 are found in towns of from three to forty-five thousand, wh'ile the remaining 340,000 live in the rural and mining districts. The conditions in which this large number live can be easily imag- ined, the burning sun by day, the biting winds by night, the peculiar hardships of the work, the prevalence of drunkenness and vice. This territory has been neglected. With few exceptions outside of the larger towns there are no priests, no churches, and no administration of the sacraments. It is practically virgin soil, and no conscience, however sensitive on points of ecclesiasti- cal procedure, need hesitate to enter in and possess the land. There is need of schools, doctors, innocent diversions, the Bible and Jesus Christ. Up to the present, about 3 5 points have been touched by the Evan- gelist, some of these being visited monthly and others once or twice a year. Those best acquainted with the North field, ask ten additional missionaries, fifty native workers, and teachers for 5 0 schools in the Pampa (the nitrate region). The Central district comprises the provinces from Serena on the North, to Chiloe in the South. Here more than three- fourths of the population of the country have their homes. It differs from the North in every respect. Agriculture flour- ishes, there is rain in the winter and suf- ficient water for irrigation in the sum- mer. The climate is mild and the soil marvelously productive. Flowers bloom everywhere. Cereals of the temperate and semi-tropical zones are abundant and of 18 excellent quality. From early colonial days this has been the seat of Government. Here are the Universities and principal institutions of learning. It was here, too, that missionary work had its beginning. Dr. Trumbull arrived in Valparaiso in 184 5. In 1856 the Union Congregation dedicated its church — the first Protestant house of worship from the Golden Gate to Cape Horn. In 1868, the first Chilean church in the country was organized in Santiago. In 18 88 the law permitting Protestants to hold property was passed by Congress. These dates are historic. Since then other societies have entered the field and the work has materially increased. In this central territory about 4 00,000 live in rural districts — little groups of one family to one hundred souls. These have not been reached. There are about 4.000 villages of 100 to 1,000 population. In these there are no Evangelical churches. The same is true of about 150 towns of 1.000 to 5,000. Thirty odd towns of 5,000 to 20,000 in nine of which there are no churches. Four cities of 20,000 to 100,000 with a church in two and two churches in the other two. Santiago and Valpar- aiso with a population of over a half a million, with fifteen churches. These com- plete the list of centers and the churches in each, and by the word “church” we mean organized groups with pastor and with regular divine service, not centers to which occasional visits are made. There is an imperative need: First for an institution for the preparation of a native ministry. Such a Seminary now exists, carried on by the Methodist and Presbyterian Missions. It is in an em- bryonic stage as yet. The evangelistic work requires a school of the prophets equipped with suitable buildings and manned by teachers who can give all their 19 time and energies to this work. Second — in importance — are schools of secular education, the spirit of which is positively Christian, In Santiago, of all places in the republic the most favored in matters of education, the children of the poor are, to a con- siderable extent, untaught. In other cities and towns there are less facilities, while in many rural districts there are no schools of any description. Modest day- schools in connection with 'the Church and under the direction of the pastor have given excellent results. “Escuelas Popu- lares” — one or more in every place where there is Christian work — are to be de- sired. But all schools from the “Instituto Ingles,” and the “Santiago College,” down to modest Escuelas Populares are designed to serve other than educational ends. An ex-Rector of the University speaking of the University and the Liceos (intermedi- ate schools) once said— “We turn out good scholars, but for some reason we do not turn out good citizens.” We therefore recommend first of all— that the Chilean church be strengthened and increased. Beside the Church, the Theological Seminary; and as feeders to the Church and the native ministry, a Christian University with thousands of “ Escuelas Populares.” The second need is for Christian work among students, of whom there are at least 6,000 in the capital of the Republic. Santiago is strategically placed for such work. Here are gathered from the prov- inces the choicest young men and women, the future rulers and the hope of the nation. With its two Universities, affili- ated Colleges and numerous Liceos, San- tiago presents a unique opportunity to reach the very springs of national life. 20 Among these students are as fine speci- mens of young manhood and womanhood as can be found anywhere. In the last three years we have met perhaps twenty earnest, hopeful students who deplored existing moral conditions, and who wished to do something for the uplift of their fellows. The third need in the existing social conditions, is for industrial schools. These would be invaluable. The Catholic Church has excellent schools of this kind but they are too few. The artisan class has few opportunities for technical education. There is practically no such thing as ap- prenticeship. The trades are picked up by the rule of thumb. Skillful workmen are scarce. Industrial schools would thus meet an economic as well as a moral want. But even more important and as feeders to such schools, are homes for children too young for industrial education. The number of uncared-for children is large. Mothers compelled to earn their own liv- ing often find them a burden, and many children are farmed out or cast adrift. It is pitiful, especially in the winter to see such numbers of children from three to eight years of age, naturally healthy, robust, splendid human material, wander- ing about the streets, inadequately clothed, wet to the skin with the chilling rain, destined to fall victims to endemic dis- eases. To save a few of these waifs and rear them to be good citizens and useful members of society, is a work that com- mends itself to all. It certainly speaks very strongly to kindly hearts. The fourth need is for a normal school for the training of Chilean women to work among their own sex. The mental inertia among the women of the lower class is appalling. Some learn to read after they begin to attend 21 Evangelical services, but by far the larger number nod their heads over the Church teaching, without comprehending a single idea, just as their mothers, for generations, respectfully listened to the Mass in an unknown tongue. The teacher must there- fore go to them, visit them in their homes, eat with them as Christ ate at the tables of the publicans and sinners, teach them by example the proper care of children and better ways of domestic life and thus gradually awaken benumbed minds to practical and divine things. We believe that the best results in the evangelistic work come from a settled pastorate. The minister counts for more who lives among the people, meets them in their homes, helps them not only by •instruction in Divine things, but also by the influence of a Christian life and Chris- tian home. This method requires a greatly increased evangelistic force. As we look over this field, so promis- ing and so needy and seek for the agencies now engaged in Christian work, large in- crease in every line, we may well ask — What is the ultimate object and end of all this? Surely, it is that men, through Jesus Christ may have an abundance of that life which alone can bless human life in every point of the circle. COLOMBIA’S LACK, My interest in Colombia is not of re- cent origin, it dates back more than thir- teen years when immediately after having been led to volunteer for the missionary “front” I was approached by a veteran — Rev. Joseph Norwood — who urged me to accompany him on his return to this coun- try to assist in the work of an orphanage which he proposed to found in order to care for at least a few of the many chil- dren left orphans and homeless as a re- sult of the civil war then drawing to its close. Only my lack of sufficient prepara- tion prevented me from packing my grip and starting there and then; providentially however, four years of further preparation intervened and then the Great Captain of the campaign directed me to a country south of the equator called the “land of the sun” where for seven years I was per- mitted to labor amongst people of all ages and conditions — nearly all, however, or- phans and homeless in the sense of lack of any direct relationship with the Heav- enly Father and having no place of care and shelter in the great and happy House- hold of Faith. Amongst Handbooks of South America there are at least one or two dealing with Colombia and in these the respective edi- tors have done their best to paint a bright picture for the benefit of the capitalist, mining engineer, merchant and possible immigrant, none of whom, however, as yet appear to have made anything like a determined rush for this land of promise. Has a Protestant mission or missions any place here? One of these books says No, and finds the results of such mis- sions to be “utterly negligible either for 23 good or ill.” There will certainly not be wanting many in the homelands who will declare that Protestant missions are an unwarranted intrusion in a land which claims to be Roman Catholic and there- fore Christian. On this account I feel it necessary to affirm that there is a place for the Protestant missionary, that how- ever small the minority may be who de- sire enlightenment and progress, and how- ever low in the social scale, they will wel- come him and do their best to help him in the carrying on of his task. What then are my impressions of this new field of labor? 'Colombia is the field, but up to the present my radius of activ- ity is limited to the capital city. Bogota has most if not all of the conveniences of modern civilization such as electric light, electric cars, telephones, “cine” shows, etc., but is far behind the 'times in matters such as public health and hy- giene, primary education and industrial development. In certain streets amongst a row of private dwellings one is found bearing the legend — “Escuela Municipal” (Municipal School). The presence of this “seat of learning” can usually be detected at a distance of a block or more by the sound. In a room perhaps measuring 12 x 20 feet, with low ceiling and maybe one or two windows of 3 x 3 ft. dimensions, will be found packed in sardine fashion some 2 5 or 30 children repeating at the top of their voices a portion of some text- book (duly approved by the ecclesiastical authorities). At home the recess period is indicated by noise of games and romp- ing, here the reverse is the case. All available lung-power is required for study hours. Advance in pedagogical methods is not very rapid as evidenced by the fact that 24 in the first educational institution of the country the professor dictated and the scholars copied matter from the text-book. In view of these facts I think it will be granted there is room for one or more Protestant educational establishments. What are we doing in this line? Weil the Mission has two schools in this city , one for boys and one for girls, a drop in a bucket one might say as regards the meet- ing of the educational needs of this one Department (Province), to say nothing of the other fourteen. At least one visitor from the United States has been im- pressed with the fact that these institu- tions are greatly lacking in equipment for the proper carrying on of their work, but while native institutions, whose methods are a century old or more, receive govern- ment subventions and all sorts of private aid, our schools worry along as best they can waiting for financial and other help which should place them in the position of leaders rather than that of second-rate competitors in the field of Protestant Christian pedagogy. What are we doing in the line of direct evangelistic work? We have a good church building centrally situated with ac- commodation for a congregation of at least six or seven hundred people, but the attendance rarely exceeds one hundred or one hundred and fifty. To reach the large congregation which on Sundays fills the streets, parks and squares and which on other days is more or less get-at-able in workshops, offices and homes we publish a monthly paper and run a small book- store. The paper circulates more widely outside of Bogota than within its limits and this perhaps is accounted for by the fact that religious reading is not eagerly sought after in the capital. Attention is divided between nearly a dozen daily 25 papers, organs of different political par- ties who fight each other like the pro- verbial Kilkenny cats and in this way pro- vide any amount of diversion for their readers. To reach this larger congrega- tion we need a widespread, continuous and systematic distribution of tracts — but tracts cost money and so our ability to preach to the thousands outside the church waits for its accomplishment on the help that must be forthcoming at least in part from supporters of the Mission at home. For the same reason our circulation of books remains very limited until we are able to announce them by means of cat- alogues, advertisements in papers and so forth. What can be said as regards itinerating work and training of a native ministry? With respect to the former at least two trips have been made this year, one by Mr. Allan in May and another by the writer in June and July. The expense of the latter used up the remainder of our funds set apart for that purpose so the pros- pect of another visit to outlying regions seems irremediably postponed until the commencement of our new fiscal year in April, 1917. Bogota offers exceptional ad- vantages for work of this character. Its situation in the centre of the country, the existence of three lines of railway having their termini in the capital, an excellent road for horseback travel running north for over a hundred miles, passing through a succession of more or less well populated towns and villages, river navigation within easy access — all this at hand to facilitate the work, but!!! awaiting your help good friends for its prosecution. To a large extent our ability to create and train a native ministry depends on this very work of itineration. The most promising material is not to be found 26 amongst the youth of capital cities such as Bogota. The moral atmosphere here is decidedly corrupt and degrading. The young men we need are more likely to be found in the simpler and less evil sur- roundings of a country town or village, and to reach them we must go after them, which is after all a most proper and nat- ural missionary occupation. How shall I sum up my impressions of Colombia? I think I can best do it by reducing them to one word which I find frequently repeated in Mr. Trull’s report of his visit to South America, viz: LACK. Every department of life in this land bears this label, and the deepest and the most pressing want is in the spiritual sphere. A long and steady diet of stones, serpents and scorpions has wrought havoc that can- not quickly and easily be remedied, but, thank God, the Gospel is still the power of God unto salvation unto everyone that believeth, and Roman Catholics are no less capable of faith in Christ than Jews, Turks or heretics. E. C. A. AUSTIN. 27 GUATE- MALA MEXICO* VENEZU- ELA Population 2,003,579 15,160,369 2,816,484 American missionaries, 1 1 20 4 N ative preac hers, tea chers, Bible readers, etc 7 12 10 Organized churches... 3 8 1 Communicant mem- bers 685 659 67 Sunday-school pupils. .1010 389 75 Adherents and catechu- mens 4075 1083 200 Schools — all grades ... 2 2 2 Pupils 45 77 51 *Not fully reported owing to revolutionary conditions. Statistics taken are those presented to the Assembly, May, 1916. The Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. 156 Fifth Avenue, New York November, 1916 Form 2431