Brazil—General Meetings
By F. W. SPIES
The date for the Castro general meeting was April 14-21. The ministerial help planned for consisted of Brethren Lipke and Hoelzle, and the writer. Having been a member of the committee for the locating of the printing plant, I could not reach Castro until toward the close of the meeting. The attendance of our people was good. Some, even women, and they not very robust, traveled about one hundred and ten miles, part of the way on foot, the rest on horseback, in order to attend this gathering. The outside attendance was also good. In fact, even though toward the close of the meeting the weather was decidedly unpleasant, raining very much, the meetings were well attended; and although it had been planned for Brother Hoelzle to also accompany us to Blumenau to assist in the meeting there, it was found necessary for him to remain in Castro to follow up the interest created by the general meeting. The Castro meeting was attended almost wholly by Brazilian brethren, and it afforded a good opportunity to instruct them in many important things, among these the importance of healthful living, and giving the Lord his own in tithes and offerings. And one thing we need to teach quite clearly and early is the spirit of prophecy. The various Protestant missionaries of Brazil have found the need of something with which to battle against the truths we teach, and the weapon of their choice is Canright's book, which they have caused to be translated into the Portuguese language. Then they make the spirit of prophecy the main issue, by making all sorts of ridiculous and untrue misrepresentations concerning it. So we find it necessary at times, even when we begin work with certain souls, to show them what the Bible teaches with reference to this subject, and also the fulfilling of it as revealed in the remnant church. We find that, as a rule, those who have come to the point of recognizing the Bible as the Word of God, have no difficulty whatever with the spirit of prophecy. Of course, here as elsewhere, “the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand,” because they do not wish to understand. The Castro general meeting likewise ended with a baptism, seven souls being buried with their Lord in the watery grave. This was followed by the ordinances of the Lord's house, which seemed to make a deep impression on many of the townspeople who had come to our meetings. April 24 Brother Lipke and I left Castro to go to the Blumenau meeting. On the first of May we arrived at Brusque, and after getting ready to move to Rio Janeiro the things we still had there, after the meeting had closed, we went to Timbo, Blumenau, where the meeting was to be held. Here again, although it had been raining almost constantly, and the roads were well-nigh impassable, we were agreeably surprised at seeing a goodly number of our people present. The evening services were also well attended for a country place, from two hundred to two hundred and fifty persons being present on some evenings. But later work showed that this was largely due to curiosity, rather than to a real interest. At the close of this meeting two sisters were baptized. This, like the other meetings, gave opportunity to present many timely truths to the brethren, and also to the people of the neighborhood, and the testimonies borne showed that many of our people had consecrated themselves anew to the Lord and his work.