THE SAVIOUR I N Cemtral America BY 77 C/~/A/=>A^/kAV 182 ' INTRODUCTION By L. C. BARNES, D. D. N O OTHER country has so exalted a name as ours,” said an eminent Salva- dorian lady, a graduate of Vassar. El Salvador (The Saviour) is without question the name above every name. In many ways the little republic, El Salvador, is the foremost country in Central America. It is possible to>/make it indeed the saviour in that part of the world. Nothing less than this is the ambition of many of its best people. To help in that direction is the aim of this book- let and of The American Baptist Home Mission Society behind it. EL SALVADOR By PERCY T. CHAPMAN El Salvador is the smallest of the five Central American republics, and lies on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, 13 degrees north of the equator and 400 miles north of the Panama Canal. It is the most densely populated of the American republics, and averages more people to the square mile than any other country on either American con- tinent; eight times more than Uruguay, the most densely populated republic of South America, and three times more than Cuba, the most thickly peopled republic of North America, and five times more than the United States it- self. Had the United States the same density of population, it would have seven hundred millions. THE PEOPLE The inhabitants of El Salvador are whites of Spanish origin, Eadinos of mixed Indian and Spanish blood, and pure-blooded Indians of the Aztec race. The climate is tropical, but being a mountainous country its temperature varies from temperate to torrid. This is an important fact, as foreign resi- dents can choose that which is most agreeable to them. THE LAND It is an agricultural nation, occupy- ing itself chiefly with coffee, sugar and maize for its own consumption. The country is highly volcanic in character and has sixteen volcanoes, one at least being continuously active. In riding over the country onQ hears stories of how, in digging wells, the crust of the earth has been pierced and unknown depths uncovered. In many parts gey- sers of steam, boiling mud and hot springs are passed, and one can hear the boiling elements beneath one’s feet. Often, too, the footsteps of the mules sound as though passing over hollow causeways. The lines of fire to the various volcanoes can thus be traced. Earthquakes are of frequent occurrence, and add greatly to the missionary's many anxieties. THE GOVERNMENT The government of El Salvador is good at present. Perfect liberty, both personal and religious, is enjoyed. Sometimes this is infringed when the municipal authority is influenced by some fanatical priest, but it is to be hoped that even this failing is passing away. In the new spirit of patriotism and unselfishness introduced by the ad- ministration of the late president. Dr. Manuel Enriques Aranjo, and continued under the present president, Don Carlos Melendez, there is great hope for the future of the republic, and for the spread of the Gospel, without which the republic can never be truly great. MISSIONS Mission work was begun in El Sal- vador some fifteen years ago by the Central American Mission. During this time the work was chiefly sus- tained by one missionary and his wife, working under great difficulties. This missionary, Mr. P. H. Bender, is still working side by side with the three missionaries of The American Baptist Home Mission Society. The member- ship of the Baptist Churches now num- bers two hundred and sixty persons. Some of these were already believers when we commenced work in the re- public, having been led to Christ by the colporteurs of the Bible Societies and by the Central American Mission work; some of them were longing to become connected with the established forces of the kingdom of God. Until we organized them they were without the blessing of any denominational fellowship. One hundred members were added during the last year. Our three missionaries are located in the three principal cities: Rev. Wm. Keech, superintendent of the work at San Salvador (the capital), population 60,000; Dr. G. A. Tavel — Sonsonate — population 15,000. Also three native pastors working under their supervi- sion. Also Mr. Percy Chapman — Santa Ana — population 55,000. Attached to these three centers we have four well- established outstations, and there is also extensive evangelistic work car- ried on among the people scattered over the mountainside. THE DARK SIDE The needs of the republic call loudly for the extension of our work. The people themselves, awakening after four centuries of the fear, superstition and oppression of medieval Romanism, are literally crying out for the light and liberty of the Gospel of Christ. Our missionaries are constantly obliged to refuse the many appeals that come in from all parts of the country, because of inability to respond. Even some of the government officials who are large employers of labor call on us for the evangelization of their respective cen- ters. Our churches have no schools and our people fear to send their chil- dren to the municipal schools because of the corrupt atmosphere. Our hope for the future is in the children, and they should have the advantage of a moral education. THE HOSPITALS We have no means of rendering medical assistance to our people. The hospitals, although government insti- tutions, are hotbeds of a fanatical Romanism, and while entrance cannot be refused to patients, neglect, ill treat- ment and persecution often force them to leave. HANDICAPS The preaching of the Gospel of Christ as the all-sufficient Saviour is as necessary in Central America as it is in China, India or Africa. The people have knowledge of systems of religion, but all lack the life-giving principle of the “only name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” The Romanism of El Salvador is Mariolatry and saint worship. A woman recently declared to one of our missionaries that the Protestants did not worship God. This is a common charge, as the people believe the calumnies of the priests who tell them that the Protestants worship women, animals, etc. He quickly called her attention to the fact of all the temples and altars of her religion being erected to a multitude of virgins and saints, and of the religious feasts being all in honor of one patron saint or another. Of the fact that she commenced the Calendar of Saints in January and con- cluded in December, adding an “All Saints’ Day” to satisfy any unknown one, and that in the end she had hardly directed herself once to Him who is alone worthy of worship. A conversation overheard between a missionary and a young girl will give a good idea of the conception of God given to the people by the priests. The. missionary was speaking to her of Christ and salvation, when he said something that caused the girl to exclaim: “But the Holy Cross is greater than God!” She truly thought that a wooden cross, stuck at almost every corner in Central America, was greater in power than the Almighty Creator of the universe. Bible burning, the public and re- peated cursing of our missionaries and their adherents, and the ascribing of all calamities, both public and private, to the presence of the Protestants, are the chief occupations of most of the re^ ligious instructors of the people. The religious feasts are a drunken carousal and many murders and other evils are their outcome. We have seen the re- ligious processions stopping at the saloons as they passed, and the bearers of the images staggering to overtake the procession again, having been left behind in the last saloon. IMMORALITY History, past and present, shows that unbelief and immorality are the results produced in the national life of coun- tries dominated by Rome. At present in El Salvador the immorality is more apparent than the unbelief. Statistical tables show that 71 per cent, of the births in one of the principal cities and 73 per cent, in another were, in 1909, illegitimate. People speak of their illegitimate children without em- barrassment. We have heard those who were presumably of the society of the republic speaking loudly to each other across the dinner table of the hotel explaining which were the legiti- mate and which were the illegitimate children of their friends. Among the lower classes the women speak not of their husbands, but of “the father of their children.” Life is reckoned as of little value. All carry arms of one kind or another and murder, assassination and suicide are very common. Women, generally speaking, occupy the same position that they do in heathen countries. THE BRIGHT SIDE But to turn to the brighter side — Salvadorians when illuminated in heart and in mind by the Gospel of Jesus Christ make enthusiastic, warm-hearted Christians. It can be truly said of them that love and service for Christ become their chief object in life. No distance is too great nor road too bad for them to traverse in order to be present at meeting. To the different centers many walk from four to eigh- teen miles to be present at the Sunday services, especially on “Communion Sunday,” in which service they dearly love to participate. One dear woman, who shortly afterward died, noticing that her attacks of fever always came on on Saturday, decided that it was the devil’s device to keep her from Sunday worship. So to “resist” him she walked down from the mountain, eighteen miles on a very bad road, with the fever on her. Another brother walked thirty-six miles out and the same distance back in the hope, which proved vain, of being able to take some member of his family to two special meetings held near his home. This meant also that he lost several days’ work. The “communion of the saints” is so real that parties from one congre- gation walk long distances to visit their fellow believers. Another notable fact is that their brotherhood in the Lord is esteemed more highly than the natural relationship. hor them to accept Christ means persecution in its different forms, often that they are rejected by friends and family, loss of employment, and also very often public ridicule and ill treat- ment. This keeps our churches at a high standard, and free from nominal professors. This story would not be complete did we not mention the work done in the prison at Santa Ana. The gover- nor gave our church there free access and all possible help to reach the prisoners. Two services are held in the respective wards each Sunday. There is a large voluntary attendance by the men, who listen eagerly to the message, so vital and hopeful; a mes- sage so different from anything con- nected with religion that they had heard before. There is no capital pun- ishment for the ordinary murderer in El Salvador, and many of these men have sentences of ten, fifteen and twenty years, and the blood of several of their fellow men upon their hands. The governor speaks highly of the changed tone and atmosphere in the prison since the Gospel has been preached there, and, even better than this, some forty have openly declared their faith in Christ. The church in Santa Ana, which is our largest and most developed congre- gation, has already given the tenth of its one hundred members, having sent the ten to the evangelization of its own and the adjacent republics. How many home churches have attained this standard? The following extract from the re- port of Mr. Keech, for the past year, sums up the situation in this neighbor republic : “The latest census returns of this republic give a total population of 1,133,004. Of these there is a totally unevangelized population of 1,120,000. And this is only in the republic of El Salvador, with its small area of 7,000 square miles. Around us are three larger republics, each one being about seven times larger in area than Sal- vador, with a total population of per- haps 3,000,000 souls. El Salvador, with its teeming, industrious and thriving population, is naturally situated that it may become the fulcrum for the uplift of these peoples around. Here, then, is our task. “Existing work lacks proper church edifices. The only church edifice we have is in Santa Ana, with the burden of a debt upon it. The capital, with its population of about 60,000 people, is without a proper place of worship. “In the town of El Progreso an old Indian woman, who, with her numerous family, lives on their own plot of land in thatched huts, offered some time ago a piece of land in order to build a chapel. It seemed so much for her to do that for long I did not care to receive it, but when she requested again and again that it might be used for this purpose, I finally received the land in the name of the Home Mission Society. Three hundred dollars in gold would put up a building quite sufficient for present needs in that town.” The name of this republic, “El Sal- vador," signifies in Spanish “The Saviour.” It was prophesied at the establishment of the Baptist Mission there that the republic from its strategic situation, and because of the character of its people, and because of its past history, was fitted to be the saviour of Central America. P. T. Chapman and deacons, Santa Ana Supt. Wm. Keech Members Building Santa Ana Church PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETY 23 East 26th Street New York 10M — S-T3.