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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 16, 1908

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 85, No. 16.

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Argentina

By Arturo Fulton

BUENOS AYRES.—Sunday afternoon some of us here in Buenos Ayres went to visit Brother Kalbermatten in the prison. We found him well and of good courage. For five months he has suffered every petty persecution that perverted human nature could invent in order to make him yield. At the time of the revolution when the other troops were called to go, the order was given in his hearing, to take him along, and if he did not obey there, to shoot him down. He gave himself into the hands of the Lord, and after going some distance the commander ordered him taken back, as they said he would be only in the way.
The seventeenth he was to be tried, and I have just received his letter, which I translate from the Spanish:—
“My beloved brother in Jesus: The blessing of God be with you. Yesterday I was taken before the Counsel of War, and was condemned for one year, discounting the five months that I have already served, so I have yet seven months to serve. The judges tried me greatly, but I always showed my strong faith to be true to the law of God. They told me to be careful and not to refuse again to work on the Sabbath, that the second time the sentence would be much more severe. I answered that I could
not promise them to work on the Sabbath.
“In the end, the Lord permitted this, and he does not permit anything that is not his will, and it will all be for my good. Soon they will take me to Martin Garcia to complete my sentence; then I must return to the army and finish my time there. So I do not know the day when I shall be free. The Lord will always be with me, and he will help me in my afflictions, that I may remain faithful to him.
Without more to say for the present, I remain your never-forgotten brother in Christ, PEDRO KALBERMATTEN.”
So here, shut away from those of like faith, from his home and family that he loves so well, amid the vile, the low, and the godless, our young brother is condemned to seven months’ imprisonment on the lone island of Martin Garcia, for having chosen to obey God rather than man. At the expiration of his imprisonment he can only look forward not to release, but to be tried in the same way again. Surely he needs our prayers that he may prove true. We are certainly entering a time when the souls of men shall be tried as never before. God grant that we may shake off the lethargy that binds us down, and work as never before.
ARTURO FULTON.