Doors of Entrance in South America by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 12, 1906

Doors of Entrance in South America

By W. A. S.

The Lord “made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.” And his providence has overruled in the dispersion of tongues and tribes over the earth, determining “the bounds of their habitation”—and all for the purpose of bringing the message of salvation to them, “that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him.”

I have seen here in South America the providential working of the Lord in preparing the doors of entrance into this dark land. There has been no flood-tide of immigration from Europe such as has flowed into North America. But in the middle of the last century, while as yet there was scarcely a Protestant witness in all the land, there began a movement from Protestant Europe toward South America.

It is interesting to see how the newcomers made their choice of location. The German-Russian colonists from the plains of Russia chose the level pampas of Argentina. The German-Swiss made their way into the hilly parts of Uruguay, where one finds prettily planted Waldensian colonies. In Brazil, a bright green, rugged country, most of the German colonists are from the German fatherland. And these colonies are found up and down the coast States of Brazil, from Rio Grande in the south to Bahia, northward.

By far the larger proportion, perhaps nearly all, of these German colonists are Protestants. They came with an open Bible, but with all the tendency to degenerate in the unspiritual atmosphere of South America. These little colonies have been points of light amid the gross darkness that Catholicism has spread over this land for nearly four centuries.

It was among these colonists that the first fruits of the third angel’s message in South America were gathered. God’s

providence prepared doors of entrance into Catholic America. And from among these colonists workers have been raised up who have a knowledge of the Spanish and Portuguese languages, while the German churches stand ready now to help with their means in sending laborers forth to carry the message to the millions of Romanists among whom they live. I believe God sent these colonists here to be lights in the darkness. Many of these have so regarded their presence here. And I thank God for the privilege I have had of meeting our true-hearted German-speaking believers in South America. And what the message has done for them, it is now doing also for Spanish and Portuguese brethren and sisters, won from Catholicism to rejoice in this great salvation and this “blessed hope.”

W. A. S.

Taquary, Brazil.