The Work in Lisbon, Portugal.
By Editor
SOMETIME ago there came to us from Brother Rentfro, who is working in Portugal, a report of his work. This report was mislaid at the time of our moving. It has recently come to light. We have not space for all of it; we will, however, present the substance of the message which we are sure will be of interest to our readers, altho it is some months old. It was in 1904 that work was begun in Portugal, but for sometime it seemed to make little progress; but recently souls have become interested in the truth, and quite a number have taken their stand to obey. At that time over fifteen had been baptized in Lisbon. The way the interest was awakened was quite remarkable. At first there was strenuous opposition. Not long ago his co-laborer, Elder Schwantes, sent his colporteur in company with another brother to a province in north Portugal to visit some Protestants who had been abandoned on account of the distance. This colporteur sold a Bible, some papers, tracts, and before a good-sized company on several occasions read the Bible and gave short talks. A few days after, Elder Schwantes went to this place to hold some meetings. Many came to hear him, until three hundred persons were in and around the house. The priest of the community was greatly stirred, altho he himself was a disreputable character, having two wives and nine children. Some of the children, who were young men, have the same hatred as the father against the heretics, and demanded their arrest, but the magistrate would not arrest the preacher nor his followers. They then endeavored to kill the man in whose house the meetings were held, when he was away from home catching his horse. One stone struck him below the eye and nearly ruined his sight. As the result of these meetings there are eight or nine who will accept the truth, and there would be more still were it not for the fear of the priests. A short time after that the colporteur visited the place again. When it came evening, he endeavored to find a place to stay all night, but none dared to give him shelter. He found it, however, at the railway station where a place to sleep and covering from the cold were given him. Newspaper reporters began to visit Elder Rentfro, and one quite prominent illustrated paper photographed him and the charts which he used, publishing two pages of it, which have been sent to us, but we have not space to reproduce them in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. These articles were written up in a style which was designed to ridicule; in fact, the writer seemed to have but little religious sentiment of any kind; designated Brother Rentfro's work as a new religion. The paper declares: "It is the United States that exported to Portugal the Adventist creed, together with its wheat and other things." "It has," the paper declares, "prevailed already to obtain an incomplete dozen of adepts." Of the religion it declares: "It is not a very complicated thing. It is unnecessary to explain that the Adventist temple does not contain images, seeing that already we have said that this new sect has branched from the evangelical church. Its declaration is simple; painted charts are used to explain the symbolical signification of the Old Testament." While this account was written simply to arouse interest in the paper which published it, it had also the effect of bringing many to the meetings. One interesting case of which Brother Rentfro speaks is of finding a man in the country who, having read his Bible, had come to the same conclusions in his own personal study as taught by the message. So God is bringing out His chosen ones. Portugal has been, and is still, a dark land, and we are glad of all the success which has attended the work there.