The editorial in the Outlook for November 4, based upon the interview with Cardinal Gibbons published in the same issue, raises a question of the gravest importance to the religious and political future of this country. As one reason for expressing your belief that “the Roman Catholic Church is not a peril to American institutions; its growth in the United States is not a menace,” you refer to the declaration of Pope Leo XIII concerning the relation between the church and the state. As stated by Cardinal Gibbons, this doctrine is: “The Almighty has appointed the charge of the human race between two powers, the ecclesiastical and the civil; the one being set over divine, the other over human, things. Each in its kind is supreme, each has fixed limits within which it is contained, limits which are defined by the nature and special objects of the province of each. . . . Neither obeys the other within the limits to which each is restricted by its constitution.”
The average Protestant who is accustomed to accept official utterances in their obvious meaning, would conclude from this quotation that the separation of the church from the state was an established principle with the Papacy. But the Roman Catholic who is well informed concerning the interpretation and application of this principle, in both past and present history, knows that he can assent to this statement and yet maintain the subordination of the civil to the pontifical power.
It will be pertinent in this connection as throwing light upon this subject to refer to the syllabus issued by Pope Pius IX, in 1864, condemning “the principal errors of our time.” Among the “errors” thus condemned are these: “The church has not the power of availing herself of force or any direct or indirect temporal power.” (“Ecclesia vis inferendæ potestatem non habet, neque potestatem ullam temporalem directam vel indirectam.”—Prop. 24.) “The church ought to be separate from the state, and the state from the church.”—Prop. 55. According to the Jesuit Schrader, the condemnation of the “error” referred to in proposition 24 establishes this affirmative proposition: “The church has the power to apply external coercion (äusseren Zwang anzuwenden): she has also a temporal authority direct and indirect.”12—“Der Papst und die Modernen Ideen,” Von P. Clemens Schrader, S. J., page 64. This remark is added by Schrader: “Not souls alone are subject to her authority.”
The assumption of the right by the present pontiff, Pope Pius X, to interfere in the affairs of the nations is a forcible comment upon, and an authoritative interpretation of, the principle stated by Leo XIII. In his encyclical letter dated May 24, 1911, the present Pope asserts his power to nullify a nation’s law in condemning the law of separation recently enacted in Portugal. The following extract from this letter is taken from the American Catholic Quarterly Review (Philadelphia) for July, 1911: “Wherefore, as a sense of our apostolic duty prompts, in view of this insolence and audacity of the enemies of God, that we should vigilantly guard the dignity and honor of religion and preserve the rights of the holy Catholic Church, we of our apostolic authority reprobate, condemn, and reject the law separating church and state in Portugal. . . . And whilst we complain in the strongest manner that a law of this kind should be passed, sanctioned, and brought forward in public, and solemnly expostulate with all who have prepared it or taken part in the work, we proclaim and announce that whatsoever it contains contrary to the inviolable rights of the church is null and void, and is to be so held.”
In their protest against the same law the bishops of Portugal declare: “Though the church does not and can not approve in theory or in principle of the doctrine which regards separation as a better régime and more in accordance with progress, it may, for all that, under special circumstances, hypothetically accept separation as tolerable and as a lesser evil. . . . If the formula, ‘A free church in a free state,’ does not represent the ideal, it may be tolerable.”—The Catholic Mind, July 8-22, 1911, page 232.
From these official utterances of recent date, it is perfectly clear that the Roman Catholic Church does not believe in the Protestant idea of the separation of church and state, and in the last analysis claims the right to interfere with the civil power when in its judgment the rights of the church are abridged. An appeal to history shows that this has been the consistent record of the Roman Catholic Church for many centuries.
That the interests of the state are to be treated as wholly subordinate to the interests of the Roman Catholic Church is the doctrine taught by a leading Roman Catholic paper in America. To quote: “For the forty-five years that we have been editing a Catholic paper, we have made it our invariable policy to follow the lead of the holy father in politics. We always declared that if the Pope wanted the States of the Church, or any other states, we wanted him to have them, and were willing to go any lengths to secure them to him. . . . The head of the church knows what he wants, and every Catholic should do his best to assist him in attaining it. . . . We care nothing for the opinions of Catholics in Europe or America when they are not in agreement with the views of the Vatican. We care nothing for the interests of Italy or any other country when the higher interests of the church and religion are at stake.”—Western Watchman (St. Louis), Sept. 21, 1911.
This is quite in harmony with the principle enunciated in an article in the Catholic World for July, 1870, Vol. II, page 439: “While the state has some rights, she has them only in virtue and by permission of the superior authority, and that authority can only be expressed through the church; that is, through the organic law infallibly announced and unchangeably asserted, regardless of temporal consequences.”
To the same effect is the argument made by Dr. O. A. Brownson, an American writer who abandoned Protestantism for Romanism. In his “Essays and Reviews” (New York, P. J. Kennedy and Sons) he uses this plain language: “She [the church] is, under God, the supreme judge of both laws [revealed and natural], which for her are but one law; and hence she takes cognizance, in her tribunals, of the breaches of the natural law as well as of the revealed, and has the right to take cognizance of its breaches by nations as well as of its breaches by individuals, by the prince as well as the subject, for it is the supreme law for both. The state is, therefore, only an inferior court, bound to receive the law from the supreme court [the church], and liable to have its decrees reversed on appeal.”—Page 284.
It requires no argument to show that the doctrine set forth in these remarkable utterances is utterly subversive of the American and Christian principle of the separation of church and state, as understood by Protestants, and yet they are the official declarations of the Papacy as interpreted by modern American Catholics.
In conclusion, I will call attention to some utterances by Leo XIII, in addition to the one quoted by Cardinal Gibbons. In his encyclical “Immortale Dei” of Nov. 7, 1885, is found this paragraph: “Every Catholic should rigidly adhere to the teachings of the Roman pontiff, especially in the matter of modern liberty, which, already, under the semblance of honesty of purpose, leads to destruction. We exhort all Catholics to devote careful attention to public matters, and take part in all municipal affairs and elections, and all public services, meetings, and gatherings. All Catholics must make themselves felt as active elements in daily political life in countries where they live. All Catholics should exert their power to cause the constitutions of states to be modeled on the principles of the true church.”—Cited in “Facing the Twentieth Century,” by James M. King, page 215.
From the letter of Pope Leo XIII to Cardinal Gibbons, dated Jan. 22, 1889, this extract is taken: “From the foregoing [paragraphs] it is manifest, beloved son, that we are not able to give approval to those views which, in their collective sense, are called by some ‘Americanism.’ For it would give rise to the suspicion that there are among you some who conceive and would have the church in America to be different from what it is in the rest of the world.”
The Roman Catholic Church in America must defend and act upon the principles established by the authoritative teachings of the Pope of Rome, or reject the ex cathedra utterances of the head of the church; but it has not repudiated these doctrines, neither will it dare to do so.
Inasmuch as semper eadem is the boast of the Papacy, I think I am fully warranted in affirming on the strength of the testimony already introduced (and much more is available) that the authoritative teachings of the Roman Catholic hierarchy on the relations of the church to the state are diametrically opposed to the views entertained by the founders of this nation, and destructive of political and religious liberty, and that therefore the growth of the Roman Catholic Church in this country is a peril to American institutions.
Bible Prohibited in Modern Greek
UNDER the new Greek constitution an absolute prohibition forbids the publishing or circulation of the Bible in modern Greek. This applies even to the Old Testament, written originally in Hebrew. The ancient Greek is not understood by the common people, so the Bible will hereafter be available only to scholars, the masses being left without the Word of God.
The Service of Man, the Glory of God
By C. M. S.
It is the business of Christians, as well as their blessed privilege, to be workers together with God. He, through the centuries of the past, has been working for man. They who would be workers together with God must also be workers for man. To be in such service acceptably means the consecration of all the faculties of the being to the work of God.
We often hear the expression: “I must look out for number one,” which means, I must look out for myself. Self is the first consideration. But the true and trusting Christian knows that his own interests are best served when he leaves them in the hands of God, and goes out in the service of others, looking out for their interests. There is an eternal increment thus added to the everlasting inheritance of men that can be attained in no other way. It is upon13this principle that “he that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.” Prov. 19: 17.
The faculties that are consecrated to God are fulfilling the purpose God had in mind when he endowed us with them. They are performing his work, and thus we who possess them are working “together with God.” But let us use those faculties for our own selfish ends, and we at once pervert his purpose. Then the exercise of those faculties becomes displeasing in the sight of God. They are stagnant water where springs and wells should be; deserts in the place of fruitful fields. The continued exercise of an unconsecrated faculty toward a selfish end works toward the final ruin of the soul. The rapidity with which that end is reached depends upon the number of faculties so used, and the extent to which the individual has abandoned the counsels of God’s Word.
Many a man who should have been a steward for God has flung aside his scruples one by one, and has finally bent every faculty of his being toward the amassing of wealth for his own gratification. Such a one is, day by day, selling his eternal birthright for a mess of pottage, selling his soul for gold; and there is bound to come a time when that sale will be complete, when there will be no desire on the part of the individual to turn to God. Others endowed with a faculty for acquiring knowledge have perverted that faculty by turning it into unsanctified channels, or by using it for selfish interests or for gain, and have come to that place where the desire for the things of God is fast vanishing away. There will come a time when continuance in that course will entirely crush out all desire for participation in either the work of God or the promised blessings. The faculty perverted has sold the soul.
It matters not how good the faculty, of how great worth in the cause of God, its perversion to selfish ends will bring ruin to the soul. Its consecration to God and his work will make its possessor a coworker with God, a sharer with him in the renewed universe, a dweller with him in the courts of heaven. We can not be too careful in the matter of the use to which we put the faculties with which we have been endowed by our Creator. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” He laid aside the glory of heaven that he might give himself to the service of men and the glory of God. “Go, and do thou likewise.” We have not the glory of heaven to lay aside, but we have a glorious inheritance to participate in if we turn aside from the allurements of this world of sin, and set our faces toward Zion’s hill in the service of God and our fellow men. Sacrifice and service are what God holds out before us now. To the man of the world, near-sighted through continual close scrutiny of his own wants and interests, it is foolishness; but to the trusting child of God it opens the gates of paradise and the long vistas of eternity.
Consecrate your faculties to the service of God. There is no investment in this world that can compare with it.
C. M. S.
Autumn Council of the General Conference Committee
By William Ambrose Spicer
Third (and Last) Report
Distribution of Laborers
The following further recommendations may be reported:—
Dr. W. C. Dunscombe, of Edinburgh, Scotland (formerly of Japan), to England, to engage in sanitarium work.
Herman Olson, of America, to study in the University of Upsala, Sweden, in preparation for teaching.
Miss Gertrude Johnston, of the Foreign Mission Seminary, to engage in Bible work in Virginia.
A. L. Shidler, of the Foreign Mission Seminary, to Mexico, to engage in the book work.
Elder J. C. Rogers and his wife, of the Nyassaland Mission, Central Africa, to come to America for the furlough voted at the Friedensau council.
Ben. Hoffman and his wife, of the Foreign Mission Seminary, to Japan, to engage in evangelistic work.
Miss Anna Hoffman, of Oakland, Cal., to Washington, D. C., as stenographer and assistant in the office of the Sabbath-school Department.
Church Missionary Work
Study was given to plans for increasing activity in home tract and missionary work. The following actions were taken:—
Whereas, The responsibility for the development of the church missionary work rests primarily upon church and conference officers and other laborers, representing the work of the cause as a whole, instead of resting largely upon any one department; and,—
Whereas, The work of the Publishing Department has so developed as to make it difficult for that department to give attention to the church missionary work which its great importance demands; therefore we recommend,—
1. That provision be made by conference and church officers for a strong, active development of the church missionary work.
2. That conference laborers be urged to take this responsibility, and enter actively upon the work of leading our churches into all important lines of missionary activity, and of instructing the churches how to do the work.
3. That each conference tract society be given sufficient help to enable the secretary, or some one appointed for that purpose, to give primary attention to the development of church missionary work, both by correspondence and by personal labor in the field.
4. That conference and church missionary conventions be held, as the needs may require, for the promotion of this work, and for giving help and instruction to conference laborers, church officers, and members.
5. That the General Conference employ an experienced missionary secretary to labor for the organization and advancement of the church missionary work.
Religious Liberty
The situation confronting us in this country, regarding the constant pressure for religious legislation, was reviewed, and the following actions taken:—
Inasmuch as there is great need for the enlightenment of all the people on the subject of the principles of religious liberty, which increases with each new day; and,—
Whereas, There are now measures pending before Congress, and to be submitted to Congress, affecting these principles; and,—
Whereas, There are movements in this country, propelled by Roman Catholicism as well as apostate Protestantism, with which our people and the world should become conversant and understand the meaning thereof; therefore we recommend,—
1. That union and State conferences be urged to supply Liberty regularly to State, county, and municipal officials, legislators, judges, and attorneys in their respective fields.
2. That campaigns be inaugurated with local churches, to take Liberty in clubs for missionary purposes and to secure individual subscriptions; also that competent persons be selected to engage in the work of selling the magazines.
3. That local and union conferences place “American State Papers” in all public libraries, and supply it to governors, legislators, judges, and other public officials.
4. That the publishers of “American State Papers” issue a subscription edition, and that special efforts be made to place it in the hands of editors, educators, and the legal profession throughout the United States generally.
5. That religious liberty institutes be held in churches and local and union conferences where arrangements can be made and competent persons can be provided for conducting them.
6. That we ask the union conferences to devote a reasonable time, during the coming biennial sessions, to the study of the religious liberty interests.
Medical College
The following action was taken in behalf of the Loma Linda (Cal.) Medical College:—
In view of the great need of additional facilities at the Loma Linda College of Medical Evangelists in the way of buildings, more properly to carry on the work of the institution,—
We recommend, That a fund of $10,000 be raised for this purpose during 1912, said amount to be apportioned to the General, union, and Southern California conferences as follows:—
Pacific Union .......... $ 1,500
Southern California .... 1,000
General Conference .... 1,000
Central Union .......... 1,500
Lake Union ............. 1,500
North Pacific Union .... 1,000
Northern Union ......... 500
Southwestern Union .... 50014
Southern Union ........ $ 250
Southeastern Union .... 250
Columbia Union ......... 500
Atlantic Union ......... 300
Canadian Union ......... 100
West Canadian Union .. 100
Total ................. $10,000
Publishing Work
The representatives of the publishing houses and the field book work held frequent councils. Actions were taken relating to—
The manufacture of the larger subscription books in foreign languages in the United States by the Pacific Press.
The manufacture and sale of the smaller foreign books by the International Publishing Association.
The circulation of the ten-cent magazines in every part of the country.
In response to calls from the fields, the officers of the Publishing Department were asked to select workers as follows:—
Two canvassers from Mexico for Central America.
Two canvassers from the United States for Mexico.
One canvasser from Mexico for Cuba.
One canvasser for Colombia, South America.
One canvasser for India.
Thus the calls come, year after year, for more workers. And the work itself, spreading constantly and rapidly, calls ever for dedication of lives and of means to the missionary cause.
To the last day of the council, Elder C. B. Haynes furnished reports to the Washington papers and the news agencies. Asked as to the circulation of the reports, he said: “The aggregate number of Washington papers circulated, containing reports of the council, was 1,636,000. This is the actual number of copies, not readers. In addition, the Associated Press sent out over the country briefer reports; but it is of course impossible to count these papers.”
W. A. SPICER, Secretary.
Week of Prayer Greetings
By L. V. Finster
MANILA, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.—Greetings from “The Pearl of the Orient.” The First Seventh-day Adventist Church of Manila desire at this season of prayer to express their thanks to God, and their appreciation to you, for sending to them the third angel’s message, calling them out of darkness into its marvelous light. A new hope has sprung up in our hearts, and we with you are striving to prepare for the coming King. But, brethren, how can we expect to enter into that kingdom ourselves, numbering only sixty-two, and leave behind, unwarned, nine millions of our brothers for whom Christ died? So we earnestly solicit a share in your prayers and offerings, that the good news may be carried quickly to our fellow countrymen.
L. V. FINSTER.
ANOL GRUNDSET
By Anol Grundset
ASMARA, EAST AFRICA.—Our school has just closed for a three months’ vacation. All the students have scattered to their various homes and villages, where they will meet numerous questions concerning us and our work and faith. Thus our school will be better known among the people. We feel thankful to God for our first year’s school work. Though there were many obstacles to encounter in making a beginning, the work has gone well. The Lord has sent us students from places we never thought of, places never visited by us. We even had one lad from away across the border, in Abyssinia. The seed of truth that has been sown, we hope will remain with them; and we are earnestly praying God to water it by his Holy Spirit. We hope that these, with others, may return to us for the coming school year, which we expect to open on New-year’s day, the Lord willing. We have asked the Mission Board for means and permission to double our number of students the coming year, which we hope will be granted, the treasury allowing. We are made glad by the recent arrival of Brother Emery Lorntz, of Norway, as a collaborer for this field. Brother P. N. Lindegren is at present in the Debaroa District, better to acquaint himself with the language and the people. Several deaths by cholera have taken place in the capital city, Asmara; but the Italian government has taken rigid measures to stamp it out, which seem to have been effective. We are of good courage.
ANOL GRUNDSET
The Third Angel's Message in Peru
By A. N. Allen
A. N. ALLEN
NEARLY three years have passed since we landed in Peru. Though deprived of everything except our trunks by the sinking of the steamship “Finance,” on which our household goods were shipped, we, with the help of God, have again surrounded ourselves with some of the comforts of life. God has blessed his work in this field, and the seed sown by the colporteurs and in other ways is constantly bearing fruit. The membership in this field, which was twenty-two when we came, has grown to over one hundred. Several thousand dollars’ worth of literature has been sold, mostly by natives. It has cost considerable to maintain the mission and secure these results. The field being large and the believers widely scattered, much traveling has been necessary. However, we are putting forth every effort to reach a normal basis, and as the tithe increases from year to year, we hope the time will soon come when self-support may be possible.
The state of mind of a large per cent of the people of Peru is best expressed by an occurrence in Uruguay recently referred to by Brother Maximo Trummer. From the last page of the REVIEW of August 31, I quote: “From early morning until late at night, carriages were driven from one part of the city to the other, from which were distributed leaflets with such titles as these: ‘Away with God;’ ‘Let the Family and Church Be Separate;’ ‘We Desire to Be Free From All Religion.’ Young women15marched through the streets carrying a banner with the inscription, ‘All Women Who Are Against the Church, Come to the Meeting.’”
Is the French Revolution to be repeated in South America? What can be done to meet this situation? What is the responsibility resting on us as a people in this continent? The importance of the words found in “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. IX, page 67, becomes apparent: “Why . . . do not our people appreciate and circulate more widely the books bearing the divine credentials? Why is not a specialty made of the books containing the warnings regarding Satan’s work? Why do we not give greater effort to circulating the books that point out Satan’s plans to counterwork the work of God, that uncover his plans and point out his deceptions?” Every student of prophecy knows what this “counterwork” is. Here in South America thinking men and women have seen the corruption of this false system, and instead of seeking the true faith, they are preparing to repeat the history of France. How urgent that we circulate books here, not only revealing the deceptions of the false system, but also teaching the truth for this time.
The leading men in Peru are Masons, and a large per cent of the young men are atheists. The women are also rapidly losing faith in the priests. Strong anti-clerical articles find place in all the leading newspapers. Other papers are published with the sole purpose of combating the power of the priest in politics, home, and business. Our papers find a ready sale in all parts of the republic. Shall we hesitate longer in giving the people the books dealing with these subjects in the light of prophecy and history?
Some agitation is continually going on in favor of liberty of worship. Apparently one of the chief hindrances to the changing of the constitution so as to legalize freedom of worship is the straitened political relation of Peru with her neighbors, which have granted freedom, and thus have to a degree lost their connection with Rome. But Peru fears to lose any advantage of influence she may have over her neighbors through the Pope. For this reason she hesitates to offend by making any laws unfavorable to the Church of Rome. However, public opinion is very liberal, and I have yet to experience any serious difficulty in holding public meetings anywhere in the country. In one place we were given, free of charge, a large municipal hall for our meetings. In another place we have the offer of the free use of the municipal theater whenever we wish to hold public services. For all these openings we praise God, and push ahead with the message.
If our brethren in the home land could see the joy with which some of these people accept the truth, and how they labor and sacrifice in order to give it to others, they would feel highly repaid for all their sacrifice for foreign missions.
Lima.
Index of Soldiers in National Cemeteries
AFTER five years’ work by expert tabulators, the War Department’s card index to the bodies of soldiers buried in national cemeteries is nearing completion. The work was begun under direction of Quartermaster-General Aleshire, in 1905. There are at the present time 78 military cemeteries in the United States, with 360,753 soldiers buried in them. Of this number, 207,075 are known, and 153,678 are unknown. The graves of the unknown are marked with a marble monument six inches square and extending eight inches above the ground, and those of the known are marked by a flat headstone bearing the name of the soldier, his age, and other details. These stones cost the government five dollars each. Last year the total amount expended for this purpose was in excess of $75,000. In 1902 it was only $25,000, the amount having increased slightly each year since.
G. F. JONES
By G. F. Jones
SINGAPORE.—Never has the work looked more encouraging than at the present, nor have victories over darkened and biased minds been more apparent. Never have we so felt our need of more funds to draw upon that a dozen other intelligent men and women, born in the land and already possessing an education with a knowledge of languages, may be set at work among the people of these cosmopolitan lands who are waiting for this message. Within about a month we have had three baptisms. Seventeen souls have broken every barrier down, through the revelation of the gospel of Jesus in their souls. Several others are almost ready for baptism. Since the beginning of the work here, we have not seen such an awakening among the young people as now. What shall we do with them? Shall we let them drift back into the world? That is the inevitable, unless gifts come in to provide a home and a teacher to instruct and prepare them for service. The Lord is soon coming. We pray and plead. May it not be in vain.
G. F. JONES
Ten Thousand Miles on the Amazon
[Mr. Uttley left Buenos Aires in March, this year, with the object of reaching Manaos, a town one thousand miles from the coast, situated on the Rio Negro, a tributary of the Amazon. His purpose was to find out whether it is possible to extend the Bible society’s work in the Amazon valley, a region quite as large as half of Europe, but with a population estimated by Mr. Uttley to be not over one million. This descriptive article will be read with interest by REVIEW readers, as it tells of a vast unentered territory to be reached by the message.]
THE journey from Para up the river to Manaos is perhaps one of the most unique voyages in the world. Para is situated about sixty-five miles from one of the mouths of the great river. The main mouth reaches the sea farther north. Some idea may be gained of the size of the Amazon when we state that one island in the center of this estuary is as large as the whole of Wales.
The river itself is over four thousand miles long, and in some places over six hundred feet deep. It has twelve tributaries over one thousand miles in length, one, the Madeira, being over two thousand miles. At Iquitos, in Peru, twenty-three hundred miles from the sea, the Amazon is three miles wide, has a five-knot current, is navigable by ocean-going steamers of three thousand tons, and has a difference of forty feet between high- and low-water mark. This is due to the quantity of water brought down from the Andes and other places during the rainy season. At Manaos the rise and fall is sixty feet, and the Rio Negro tributary, on which the town stands, is five miles wide, though nearly one thousand miles from the sea. The volume of water carried out to the ocean by the Amazon is said by some writers to equal that of all the other rivers of North and South America combined. Be that as it may, we know that owing to its immense tributaries it possesses altogether twenty-five thousand miles of navigable waterway, and its aggregate length of waters is sixty thousand miles.
I was exceedingly glad to find myself moving up its turbid and restless current. From the deck of the steamer, one might easily believe one’s self at sea. Now and again the coast on one side is out of sight, and the view is very unlike that of a river.
It took us four days to steam the distance of one thousand miles to Manaos. I was very sorry not to be able to call at some places on the way. But none of these quicker ocean-going vessels stop at these towns; and to take a small native boat would have meant prolonging my stay a great deal, and running risks of being detained for periods of time which I could not afford. From various sources, however, I gathered valuable information with reference to these places, of which the only important ones are the towns of Santarem and Obidos, one with a population of six thousand, the other much smaller. They have been visited again and again by colporteurs, and Protestant preachers are now stationed there. Our colporteur, Snr. Lima, expects to pay another visit to both places during the next few months.
Our steamer was booked to stop at Itacoatiara, or Serpa, a small town at the mouth of the Madeira River, which is the most important of the tributaries of the Amazon, and rises far away in Bolivia. It has great numbers of plantations along its banks for the first two hundred miles of its course, from the point where it joins the Amazon. For seven hundred miles it is navigable by the largest steamers. Then commence cataracts and rapids stretching for the next two hundred miles, and impeding the passage of even small river craft. Beyond these breaks, the river is again free, and navigable for another thousand miles right into the heart of the continent. At San Antonio, the village where these rapids begin, the river is so deep close to the banks that boats of seven thousand tons coming all the way from Liverpool and New York anchor there. When the railway is finished, which is now being constructed rapidly by an American company for the Brazilian government, much of the commerce of this rich region of Brazil, and of a great part of Bolivia, will be brought down the Madeira, past the port of Para, and into the Atlantic. At present this Bolivian commerce has to be taken over the passes of the Andes, twelve thousand feet high, and by the way of the Pacific to Europe and the United States. It can easily be seen that this railway is a very important one, and that the port of Para will gradually become a great deal more influential than it is at present—perhaps the next commercially after Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.
This railway, when completed, will be one of the most costly in human life that the world has known. It passes over immense stretches of swamp; for the river overflows its banks, and great masses of water collect at the back of the line which is in course of construction. When the dry season begins, this water recedes, and again and again it has washed away the earth in large quantities from under the line. The railway had to be built up several times before a secure bottom was reached. Owing to these swamps, and the insect pests which accumulate there, great numbers of workmen have died. At the beginning it is said that about fifty per cent succumbed. The company, however, is working nobly to overcome the terrible difficulties with which it has to deal. The company has fine hospitals, well-qualified doctors and nurses, mosquito-proof dwellings, and pays the ordinary workman £1 a day and all expenses. The difficulty now is to get labor. Not a few foreign powers have taken energetic steps to prohibit their countries from becoming recruiting-grounds. One of the few places left open is Buenos Aires. But on board the boat which I joined at Pernambuco, there were about eighty-five16men, Greeks and Spaniards. At Para these were again embarked on the steamer in which I was traveling. They had been carefully prevented from going ashore, as so many who had landed at Para on previous occasions had never returned to the steamer: they had heard of the climate of the region to which they were bound.
When we reached Serpa, the port where these men change in order to go up the Madeira, we were met by a large tug and launch belonging to this American railway. The eighty Greeks passed from our ship onto the tug without any difficulty; but when it came to the Spaniards, who had conversed with and understood the Portuguese passengers, and had heard dreadful stories about the place to which they were going, trouble began.
Though their fares had been paid for them all the way from Buenos Aires, they declared that they would not leave our ship. An American official came on deck, and informed the captain, who at the moment was speaking with me, that these men would not move. Without another word, the captain gave an order; and in a few moments we saw them being carried forcibly onto the tug. They looked pictures of misery, and could not have presented a much sorrier sight had they been going to be shot.
On arriving in Manaos, we found an especially bad epidemic of yellow fever. People were dying every day. I arranged to visit the town during the day and return on board to sleep. The doctor told me it would be foolish to do anything else. A newcomer is specially liable to infection. None of the crew are ever allowed to go ashore here during an epidemic, and rarely at other times.
Manaos is perhaps the most expensive place in the whole of South America in which to live. An egg costs 6d.; a bottle of ginger beer, 1s. 6d.; the cheapest hotel or boarding-house, which in London would cost no more than a bank clerk could afford, costs here £1 a day. My first call in the town was upon the Brazilian Baptist minister. I found him far from well, and some of his family were suffering from fever. He was keeping a small day-school, in order to get a living. I had an interesting conversation with this pastor about our work, and found that he and his helper were selling Bibles for the American Bible Society. He greatly helped Snr. Lima, our colporteur, when he visited Manaos last year. On that visit, Snr. Lima sold all the books he had brought with him.
I next called on the Brazilian Presbyterian minister, and here found one of his children just recovering from fever. He was exceedingly kind to me during my visit, and took me all over the town. I met other Christian workers, and arranged for our books to be kept in stock and sold for us by my friend the Presbyterian pastor, until I could arrange for another colporteur.
(Concluded next week)
Standing Still
By Allen F. Gage
ALLEN F. GAGE
“STAND still, and watch God work”—
This is the hardest part,
The means that try the soul
And test the bravest heart.
We see our fellows strive
’Gainst sin and crime and wrong;
We long to act our part,
And sing the victor’s song.
To stand, to wait, to hope,
To rest, to trust, to pray,
Are lessons he would teach
In his appointed way.
We may not know the end—
He doeth all things best,
In darkness as in light;
Then in his choosing rest.