Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
By H. F. Graf
(From the Conference President.) THIS state has a population of 1,300,000 inhabitants, and only 450 of them are Sabbath-keeping Christians, with one ordained preacher, and five other workers. This is one of the countries in which Catholicism held sway until a few years ago, and the majority of the people are members of this persuasion. Less than twenty years ago no schoolteacher could pass a public examination who was not a Catholic. Thank God, to-day there is more liberty of conscience, notwithstanding the church yet rules in many ways. Almost all men who hold public positions of trust are baptized Catholics, tho in reality there are many of them who hold ideas quite adverse to Catholicism. Some are infidels, some are Spiritualists, others lean to Protestantism. Many are true Catholics, and are doing all in their power to bring Catholicism again into the place where it was—the one state religion. There have been and are hard times financially in this land, for the locusts have committed fearful depredations, and money is very scarce. But souls are easily turned into the way of righteousness now, if we only had more workers to lead them. Brethren, if you can help us, now is the time to do it, for soon our way will be narrowed with persecution, which has already begun in this country. We are not discouraged because of hard times and persecution, knowing that it will soon be in all the countries of earth, and that it is a sign of the end and of our deliverance from this earth into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus.