Cl vv) . ^ wt e T, /ztn BRAZILIAN BAPTISTS T. B. RAY FOREIGN MISSION BOARD, SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION RICHMOND, VA. Brazilian baptists The Brazilian Baptists are worthy of con- sideration. Their leaders, their churches, their institutions have inspiring stories. Let us become better acquainted with them for our own help and theirs. MISSIONARIES. Counting the representatives of all denomina- tions, there are in Brazil fewer missionaries to-day in proportion to the population than there are either in India or China. There is one missionary in Brazil to every one hundred and twelve thousand of the population, one to one hundred thousand in China and one to every ninety thousand in India. If we had the same distribution of Baptist ministers in our Southern country, that we have in Brazil, there would be only four in Texas, two in Virginia, three in Georgia and other States in like proportion. Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Nelson, the only repre- sentatives of our Board in the Amazon region, are trying to reach four States which comprise a territory five times as large as Texas. Pass- ing down the coast five days’ journey, we find D. L. Hamilton and H. L. Muirhead and their wives, who along with Miss Voorheis, are our 2 representatives in the State of Pernambuco. They have also placed upon them the super- intendence of the work in the adjoining State of Alagoas. Two days further down the coast are located Mr. and Mrs. S. L. Ginsburg, Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Jackson and Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Stapp, who 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. Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Jackson are located far in the interior of the State, three weeks’ journey from Bahia. In the State of Espirito Santo beyond them going down the coast, stand Mr. and Mrs. L. M. Reno. In the populous State of Rio de Janeiro, in which is located the capital city, with its one million inhabitants, are W, E. Entzminger, J. W. Shepard, A. B. Langston, J. J. Taylor, O. P. Maddox. W. H. Cannada, A. B. Christie and D. P. Crosland and their wives. Entzminger, in addition to conducting the Publishing House, must also carry forward mission operations in Nictheroy, a city of 40,000 inhabitants situated across the Bay opposite Rio. Shepard, Langston and Taylor have placed upon their shoulders the tremendous responsi- bility of conducting the Rio Baptist College and Seminary. Cannada gives his energies to the Flumenese School for Boys, leaving only Maddox, Christie and Crosland at liberty to do the wider evangelistic work and cultivate the many churches which the success of their labors have thrust upon them. Farther South in Sao Paulo, the richest and most progressive State in the country, are Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Bagby, Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Deter, P. M. Edwards, Miss Annie Thomas and Miss Kate Carroll. Dr. and Mrs. Bagby and the young ladies just mentioned, devote their energies to the school, leaving only two to take care of the field which, because of its splendid rail- road facilities, has in it scores of inviting loca- tions for successful work. Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Pettigrew have recently been located in the city of Paranagua, the greatest seaport town of the State of Parana, lying just South of Sao Paulo, a State twice as large as Virginia. In Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, the Southernmost State of Brazil, a State as large as Tennessee and Kentucky combined, stand two sentinels in the persons of Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Dunstan. What a battle line for twenty men to main- tain! It is more than four thousand miles in length. If you should place these men in line across our Southern territory, locating the first one in Baltimore, you would travel one hundred miles before you would reach the second, one hundred miles to the third and in going toward the Southwest, you would reach the twentieth man in El Paso, Texas. Whereas, if you were to draw up the Southern Baptist ministers located in the Southern Baptist territory along the same line and pass down it to make the count, by the time you reached El Paso, you would have passed eight thousand men, and they would have been standing just one-fourth of a mile 4 apart. Do we need four hundred ministers in this country to one in Brazil? Such a division of forces can neither be fair nor faithful. How- ever, let us not get the impression that the handful of missionaries we have down in Brazil are discouraged, though they cry manfully for reinforcements. They are as busy as life try- ing to meet the increased demands which are placed upon them and look to the future with largest hope. CHURCHES. Scattered up and down the land from Manaos, a thousand miles up the Amazon, to Porto Alegre, in the far South, are 113 Baptist churches, having a membership of 8,182. This is a vigorous body of evangelistic spirits who, in spite of the persecutions they endure in many places, witness so faithfully and effec- tively that they are confidently expecting to baptize within their Convention year four thou- sand souls. The 35 churches in the State of Bahia added to their membership by baptism during 1911 the magnificent total of one thou- sand. They are a self-sacrificing people who believe thoroughly in the grace of giving. Some churches go so far as to make tithing a test of fellowship, having the rule that no person who does not tithe is allowed to be a member. They are usually very poor, though here and there is found a wealthy member. They make a good showing in building houses of worship. Out of their poverty almost half of these 5 church organizations have church buildings, most of which were built without any aid from the Foreign Mission Board. Some of these churches were erected through the generous contributions of single individuals. They believe in missions. They have State Mission Boards in several States and a Home Mission Board is maintained by all the churches. A Foreign Mission Board is also supported by all the churches. The Brazilian Baptists gave to distinctly foreign mission work last year an average of 22 cents per member, the same as that averaged by Southern Bap- tists. They maintained foreign mission work in Chili and Portugal, while the Home Mission Board is stretching out its hands to the border regions in the Republic. INSTITUTIONS. They support liberally a number of excellent institutions. One of the oldest of these is the Brazilian Baptist Publishing House. Its headquarters is located in Rio and Dr. Entzminger is its secre- tary. This publishing house contains a print- ing plant in rented quarters which prints and publishes the “Jornal Baptista,’’ conceded by most people to be the best religious weekly in Brazil, Sunday-school periodicals, books ancj a large number of tracts of various sorts. The Brazilian Baptists are alert to th< necessity of building up good denominationa schools. To this cause, they have been willin to make great sacrifices. . 6 The ctown of the school system is the Rio "Baptist College and Seminary. It is located at Rio de Janeiro. Drs. Shepard, Langston and Taylor, aided by a large corps of professors, are doing a really wonderful work. In four years, this school has grown from an enroll- ment of five students to the probable enrollment of 300 students this year. Its greatest need is adequate grounds and buildings. If this school -could be once set on its feet with an adequate plant, it could be easily self-sustaining, and would be one of the mightiest power-houses for good in South America. The secondary schools are very essential to the success of the denominational scheme. There is a fine school for girls conducted by Dr. and Mrs. Bagby in Sao Paulo. Through this agency, they are reaching sympathetically some of the leading families of that city and State. A very excellent school for boys is conducted by Brethren Cannada and Christie in Nova Friburgo in the mountains north of Rio. It is called the Flumenese (River) School. It is I our newest school and has a bright future. I The school for boys and girls at Bahia, which the generous gift of Captain Egygio, one of I our greatest converts, made possible to open several years ago, has taken on new life since it has been moved into the excellent property boug'iit recently from Dr. Z. C. Taylor. Brother IStapp is in charge. The only other school run by our mission- liries is at Pernambuco. Brother Muirhead, as- 1 7 Bisted by Mrs. Muirhead and Miss Voorheis, is doing a great work for boys and girls in this splendid school. In connection with it is con- ducted by Brethren Hamilton and Muirhead, a Theological Training School which is rendering yeoman’s service in training young ministers for the evangelization of North Brazil, Such are our forces. They are small in num- ber, but large in success. During these thirty years in which the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention has been operating in Brazil, the work has had a remark- able growth. Indeed, in no other country has our work progressed as rapidly. It is certainly a country of wide-open doors. We believe the successes of the past are prophecies of larger triumphs in the future. What would happen if we could increase our missionaries In Brazil three-fold? We could then confidently expect to win this country for our Lord and Christ — a goal which is neither unreasonable nor im- possible. To this end, let us devote ourselves with prayer and self-sacrifice. 8