Light Breaking in South America by William Ambrose Spicer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 26, 1906

Light Breaking in South America

By William Ambrose Spicer

NEARLY a century ago Henry Martyn, the missionary, called at the port of Rio de Janeiro, on his way to India. Then there was not the faintest glow of light in all South America. He wrote in his diary that as he looked over these hills surrounding Rio, he could think only of the lines of the hymn—

“O’er these gloomy hills of darkness, Look, my soul, be still and gaze.”

I see these same hills as I write, from the deck of the ship that is to carry me away,—and I thank God for the changes that have come since Martyn’s day. Still the darkness of Romanism covers Brazil and all South America. For centuries this land has been under the influence that withers and curses. The glorious light of Protestantism gave liberty to North America. Our sister continent of the New World fell under the bondage of Catholic superstition. And how different has been the history of the two Americas in consequence!

But, thank God! there is light breaking over these gloomy hills of darkness. For half a century Providence has been especially preparing the way. And now South America’s day is coming—the day when the light of God’s Word is to shine forth to the honest-hearted.

Where fifty years ago any open Protestant propaganda would have led to riot, an open Bible and the liberty to preach it openly are now accepted facts. The Bible is circulating, and Protestantism is spreading, and by its own tyranny and misrule the Catholic Church has alienated the hearts and confidence of multitudes.

More significant to us than all, the time has come when the Spirit of God is stirring up Catholic hearts to inquire for this message of the coming of the Lord.

I know of nothing more soul-thrilling than the evidence coming to us from the darkest lands that God is preparing hearts to respond to the message, as we bring it to the people. A change has come, and that within a few years.

It was a continual wonderment to me to see the faces of the people in some of our public meetings. Here were hungry souls. One could see that they were feeding upon the living Word as

it was spoken to them in Spanish and Portuguese.

Again and again I inquired of the brethren if this one and that one, or if this audience or that, were really Catholic. Yes; here they were, Catholic faces upturned toward the light. From Roman Catholic lips came the expression of thanks for help given, and the earnest requests for prayer and for more light.

I saw it with my own eyes—and this is the memory of South America that I carry away as the most vivid of all the experiences of the few months spent with our workers here. Those faces appeal to my heart. Those hands, reaching up from amid the darkness, are stretched toward us, brethren and sisters, of favored Protestant lands.

Well may we thank God for what his blessing has enabled us to do already in South America; and now that the organization of this new union conference has distributed the workers and the responsibilities, so that effort for the message will count more strongly than ever, let us make greater effort than ever before to help our brethren enter new fields.

Not for a moment would I suggest that truth is popular in South America, or that superstition has not weakened the people, and warped the moral standards. But the joyful thing is that there is every evidence of the special present working of the Holy Spirit amid the darkness, searching out the honest-hearted, and leading them to give ear to truth when they hear it. The other day Elder Westphal told me that really, in his experience as conference president in the United States, he could not remember having had as many calls from people inquiring after the truth in various parts as have come to him as conference president in Argentina during the last year. The new time has come to South America.

It is a plain statement of the facts, that light is breaking in this “neglected continent.” God is saying “to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.” This land of the south has been a desert wilderness for centuries. But God is comforting the “waste places.” The time for the enlargement and the finishing of the work has come. In this new time we are seeing the word fulfilled, “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert . . . to give drink to my people, my chosen.”

It is glorious to see God’s arm made bare, and the message of the judgment hour speeding to the nations. I thank God for what I have seen in South America, and for the privilege of associating with the workers and believers there.

W. A. S.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.