SOUTH AMERICA by E. A. Dawson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 17, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 51.

SOUTH AMERICA.

By E. A. Dawson

[E. A. Dawson, in Christian Worker.]

The sometimes called (and rightly) the “neglected continent,” is indeed a great continent, lying to the south of us, reaching from ten degrees north of the equator to fifty south, a distance of some 4,800 miles. It is built up on more or less the same plan as North America: Triangular form, with the base lying toward the north, a great mountain range on the west, and great prairie and woodlands to the east.

It has all degrees of climate, from dry to wet, and from hot to cold. Its products are also as varied, comprising all kinds of fruits, roots, and grains.

Politically, it is divided into ten republics and three small dependencies, each having its own president and senate. The population is many times underrated, and is about 36,000,000. Sixteen millions of these live in the great republic of Brazil, and are mostly of Portuguese descent. The remaining twenty millions inhabit the other and smaller republics, and are mostly of Spanish and native descent. There are, however, in this population, and scattered throughout the whole continent, about 5,000,000 Indians, speaking the native tongues. The Spaniards and native races have always been very warlike, and from the discovery up to the present time, they have continually been at war among themselves, some States indeed hardly having a year’s peace. It is only in religion that they apparently seem to be united, all being of the Roman Catholic faith, excepting a few Indian tribes, which, as yet, have not been brought under the baneful power of that system. This unity, however, is only seeming, as they hate each other with cruel hatred, and in the times of war they destroy each other’s temples, images, and saints, the priests taking part in invoking their patron saint against the other nation; brothers spilling each other’s blood upon the earth, and the saints warring in the heavens! Altho it is a land of great outward religious show and pretensions, a land of churches, of convents, of priests, of nuns, of crosses, of holy water (?), of images, of rosaries, and all the rest of the paraphernalia of priest-craft and idolatrous worship, at the same time it is a land of ignorance and sin. Gross idolatry and blind fanaticism there go hand in hand with stupid iniquity, murder, lying, thieving, and deceit, even in the very pretended temples of God and by the very priesthood who serve at their altars. The social and political life of the people is corrupted and rotten from the head to the foot, from the presidents and governors of States to the lowest slave of the common people, so that there is no trust, no public confidence, not even between father and son, priest and people. It is quite a common occurrence for priests to refuse to baptize an infant, or marry a couple, or give burial to the dead, without first receiving their charges, and often when they do trust so far as to perform these offices before receiving corresponding fee, they have to go to law to recover the same. I knew a priest in Chile who had at one time some twenty cases before the judge for the recovery of his fees. The people are very priest-ridden, and the church is sustained by the government, yet they charge their dupes for everything,—pay to be born, pay to marry, and pay to die; pay to get into purgatory, and pay to get out; in short, without money there is no salvation. This, therefore, is a picture of the social, political, and religious life of the people of South America, and now I ask, What evangelical Christian would ask such a question as “Why send them, the Gospel and missionaries?”

We send missionaries to India, Africa, China, and Japan, and they are needy fields, but let us not forget the Samaria at our own door. It is just as needy as any of the others, and, because of its situation, has even more demands on us than they. In all of that great continent to-day there is but one missionary to every 160,000, or in all, about 250 missionaries, while in North America we have one worker for every thousand of its inhabitants. Christian workers say they are not called to go to the mission-field, I would like to ask all such, Have you a call to stay at home? Do you not hear the Master’s voice coming to you down across the centuries, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel”? Would God have you stay at home, while the heathen perish for want of knowledge? Is God, therefore, partial toward the Saxon race, and is it His will to leave the rest of humanity to perish? There is no partiality with Him, and He does not desire the death of any, but that all should come unto Him and live.

Do you say, We have heathen enough at home? If we have, and I do not deny it, it is because they choose to be so, rejecting the light; but that does not excuse you nor me from our duty to give the Gospel as a witness to all mankind. This witnessing to the truth of the Gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit in our own lives, is our first duty as Christians. The acceptance of the message is a personal and individual responsibility which rests upon the hearers, who alone will be responsible to God, if we do our duty, but if we do it not, and obey not His clear command “Go,” then we shall be accountable. Has not God said in His Word, “I have set thee a watchman”? “When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die: if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked of his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.” Will He not require it of us?—Yes, He will; and that right soon; then how shall we meet Him after twenty centuries of Christian truth, and light, and a dark heathen world all around us? Brother, sister, let us be up and doing while it is day, and let us help a little to hasten the day of our Lord’s return. Then shall we not be ashamed at His appearing. Behold, He cometh!