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 Literature Department 
 The Woman’s Missionary Association 
 United Brethren in Christ 
 406-408 Otterhein Press Bldg., Dayton, O. 
 Price 2 Cents 
 
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 Porto Sira 
 
 REV. N. H. HUFFMAN 
 
 The Stars and Stripes entered Porto Rico, 
 July 25, 1898, by the beautiful Guanica Bay, 
 on the south side of the island. Far up on 
 the mountain sides many people saw the 
 flashing of the searchlights as the warships 
 wound their way through the narrow chan¬ 
 nel into the safe harbor, but they knew not 
 that it was the foregleam of a new day for 
 their beloved island home. 
 
 The entrance of the American flag was 
 the doom of the religious tyranny that for 
 so long had oppressed and repressed the 
 Porto Rican people. It threw wide open the 
 door by. which the pure light of Bible Chris¬ 
 tianity could shine in upon the minds and 
 hearts of the people, bringing life and good 
 cheer to all who were disposed to receive 
 the gospel. 
 
 The first sermon preached in the Spanish 
 language by a United Brethren missionary, 
 was delivered in the open air on the shady 
 side of a poor house in the suburbs of the 
 city of Ponce. The fact that the poor had 
 the gospel preached to them was a signif¬ 
 icant omen, an evidence that the kingdom of 
 heaven had 1 come near. All over the island 
 of Porto Rico the poor who were helplessly 
 poor and despised because they were poor, 
 suddenly found friends in the Protestant 
 missionaries. New hope came into their 
 lives and new aspirations stirred in their 
 bosoms. Freed from destructive vices and 
 spurred into action by new ambitions, many 
 as if by magic, stepped out of the squalor 
 of poverty into a life of self-respect and of 
 usefulness in society. Others who by. rea¬ 
 son of circumstances over which they had 
 no control, could not escape material pov¬ 
 erty, found spiritual riches and came to 
 value them as, after all, the true riches. 
 
 While halls were rented and churches and 
 chapels were built for worship and the 
 preaching of the Word, open-air services re¬ 
 mained one of the most effective means of 
 getting a hearing for the gospel. It takes 
 some grace and courage to stand up before a 
 curious and perhaps hostile crowd, or worse 
 still, to stand up and begin in doubt as to 
 whether or not a crowd will gather and 
 listen to you. But the missionary must ex¬ 
 perience some discomfort and expose him¬ 
 self at times to some danger if he is to imi¬ 
 tate the Good Shepherd, who went out after 
 the lost sheep. An old lady who long had 
 been faithful to the Roman Church, in the 
 belief that it was the true fold, and that 
 Protestantism was of the devil, was con¬ 
 verted by means of a service held in the 
 street in front of her own door. Surely, she 
 argued, the priest can’t scold me if I hear 
 the preaching from within my own house. 
 As she listened to a gospel sermon for the 
 first time in her life, she suddenly discov¬ 
 ered how vain and profitless had been all 
 her devotion to the Roman church. The 
 gospel immediately found a response in her 
 heart and she became an active Christian be¬ 
 liever. 
 
 In an island so thickly populated as Porto 
 Rico, where so little attention had been 
 given to hygiene and where vice was so 
 widespread, it is not strange that diseases 
 also should be found widespread in distress¬ 
 ing and revolting forms. Nor is it strange 
 ‘.hat our missionaries should seek to alleviate 
 to some extent the physical suffering of the 
 people and take an active part in the min¬ 
 istry of healing. This led to the founding of 
 a few well-equipped hospitals and the open¬ 
 ing of many dispensaries. Our own Church 
 founded no hospitals, but has been active in 
 dispensary work. In some cases, medical 
 missionaries attended these dispensaries; in 
 others, physicians and surgeons have given 
 free of charge, their services for one or 
 more half-days each week. Thus an incal¬ 
 culable amount of good work has been done. 
 And, mind you, this work has not been ear¬ 
 
 ned on simply as a bait to win the sympathy 
 of the people. It is nothing more or less 
 than an expression of true Christian love 
 and desire to render helpful service to suf¬ 
 fering humanity. If it did bring sympa¬ 
 thetic hearers to the gospel services and re¬ 
 sulted in the spiritual healing of many 
 souls, surely no one need complain, for the 
 gospel finds its truest expression and most 
 winsome influence in helpful service ren¬ 
 dered in the name of Jesus Christ. Growing 
 out of this medical work, many have been 
 won who might never have been reached in 
 any other way. Some of those thus reached 
 have caught the spirit of those who brought 
 healing to them, and are in turn passing on 
 the ministry of healing and salvation to 
 others. 
 
 One of the best tests as to whether or not 
 the gospel is really taking root in the life 
 of a people, is the measure of their partici¬ 
 pation in the support and propagation of the 
 gospel. And likewise one of the tests of 
 faithful missionary work is the teaching of 
 the grace of giving. That this teaching has 
 not been neglected in our Porto Rican mis¬ 
 sion and that it has not been fruitless, we 
 have witness in the financial reports made 
 from year to year, showing a substantial 
 and increasing amount contributed by the 
 native churches for the support of their own 
 work as w'ell as of that in other lands. The 
 last report shows a total for all purposes the 
 amount of $1,833.14. At every annual con¬ 
 ference, emphasis is given to the question 
 of self-support, and methods are adopted 
 which are giving results. A more spectac¬ 
 ular evidence of the liberality of the Porto 
 Rican Christians we find in the six or eight 
 rural chapels erected by their combined ef¬ 
 forts during the last ten years. From these 
 chapels the bells ring out their invitations 
 in obedience to the command, “Let him that 
 heareth say come.” Thus our gifts to the 
 missionary work in Porto Rico have opened 
 up in that island a fountain of missionary 
 giving, and who can tell how far this stream 
 of beneficence may flow? 
 
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Does any one regret that we followed the 
 flag into Porto Rico with the gospel? None 
 of the missionaries sent here to represent us 
 have expressed any regret for the privilege 
 of pouring out their energies in that field of 
 labor. The ringing testimonies of the mem¬ 
 bers of the native churches contain no note 
 of regret, but rather great joy and gratitude 
 for the privilege of hearing the gospel. Some 
 of our colaborers who in years past have 
 contributed liberally to this mission, have 
 passed on to their reward in heaven, and 
 have met there redeemed souls who have 
 gone to the glory land from the mission 
 churches in Porto Rico. We can be sure 
 that their only regret is not to have done 
 more for a cause so dear to the heart of our 
 Master and so fruitful in soul-saving. Let 
 us, therefore, be not weary in well-doing, 
 but with willing hearts and ready hands, 
 “labor on till the close of day/’ 
 
 Some Conditions We Have to Overcome. 
 
 Missionary work in all lands must meet 
 with conditions which are not favorable to 
 the establishment of Christianity. Those 
 who engage successfully, in this work need 
 to be of the overcoming sort. It is a ques¬ 
 tion of either overcoming or being over¬ 
 come. 
 
 On the threshold of the work the mission¬ 
 ary finds himself confronted with the ques¬ 
 tion of the language. There is no royal 
 road to the learning of a language. Some 
 drudgery required in that, some patience and 
 some persistence. Just think of the labored 
 effort to express one’s self and the embar¬ 
 rassments at the discovery of mistakes after 
 it is too late to correct them! But this is 
 a condition that must be overcome. From 
 reports received from those competent to 
 judge, our missionaries in Porto Rico have 
 all overcome this condition and can clearty 
 and forcefully bring the gospel message to 
 the people in their native tongue. 
 
 Another condition to be overcome was 
 the opposition of the Roman clergy. No 
 form of tyranny or oppression dies easily. 
 Entrenched in the social, political, and com¬ 
 mercial life of the people, the Roman priests 
 resisted strenuously the entrance of Prot¬ 
 estantism into the island. They, seized and 
 used any arm that might serve their purpose, 
 calumny, ridicule, appeal to false patriotism. 
 They even tried to imitate the good work of 
 Protestant missions, which was one good re¬ 
 sult, at least, of Protestant effort. 
 
 Spiritualism was another adverse condi¬ 
 tion in Porto Rico. It was found among 
 the highest and the lowest classes of soci¬ 
 ety. Its presence was an indication that 
 many were breaking away from the Cath¬ 
 olic Church and that still there was within 
 them a religious instinct looking for some¬ 
 thing to take its place. Some fell in with 
 the Protestant work quite readily, but when 
 they discovered the radical difference be¬ 
 tween their doctrines and those of the Bible, 
 they were forced either to give up their 
 former doctrines or withdraw from the 
 church. As the work progressed, this dif¬ 
 ference became better understood and the 
 separation was more marked. A servant in 
 the home of a missionary was one day dis¬ 
 covered burning two books in the kitchen. 
 Upon being asked, she gave the informa¬ 
 tion that they were spiritualistic books be¬ 
 longing to two friends who were on the list 
 of seekers in the church. One book had 
 been surrendered voluntarily and the other 
 had been surreptitiously taken for the good 
 of the seeker. 
 
 Another serious condition to be overcome 
 was the social disorganization. Shortly 
 after the American occupation, statistics 
 showed that fully one-third of those living 
 in conjugal relations had no religious or 
 legal sanction to their union, and that forty 
 per cent, of the births were reported ille¬ 
 gitimate. This condition of affairs was at 
 the same time both an evidence of the need 
 of Protestant missions and a challenge to 
 the faith and courage of those who had a 
 higher ideal for human society. 
 
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 Religious indifference was another condi¬ 
 tion to be overcome. In a country where 
 the religious leaders made such a pretense 
 to holiness and used so frequently in their 
 speech terms of the highest moral and spir¬ 
 itual significance, and at the same time 
 lived lives so at variance with their profes¬ 
 sion, it was but natural that many of the 
 people should note their lack of sincerity 
 and lose all interest in religious things. A 
 noted man of the island, in a public address, 
 made the remark that Porto Rico was soul- 
 sick and that its disease was spiritual indif¬ 
 ference. One of the tasks of Protestant 
 missions, therefore, was to put a new note 
 of sincerity in religious profession and give 
 to the gospel an interpretation that would 
 grip the heart of the people. 
 
 The dynamic power of the gospel has 
 again been put to the test in meeting the 
 adverse conditions mentioned and has dem¬ 
 onstrated its efficiency in intrenching itself, 
 in spite of these obstacles, in the life of the 
 people, and setting in motion influences that 
 are making for a greater and better Porto 
 Rico. 
 
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