The Church At Waikthlatemialwa Has No Colored Glass Windows - Old
Canvas Bags Take Their Place.
The reverent worshippers assemble
morning and evening, in all the pride of their paint and feathers,
but there is no hideous idol inside; nay!
They worship the invisible
One, whom they can see even with closely shut eyes. To watch the men
and women, with erect bearing, and each walking in the other's
footsteps, enter the church, is a sight well worth the seeing. They
bow themselves, not before some fetish, as one might suppose, but to
the One whom, having not seen, some of them are learning to love.
One of the missionaries translated my simple address to the dusky
congregation, who listened with wondering awe to the ever-new story
of Jesus. As the Lengua language contains no word for God, the
Indians have adopted our English word, and both that name and Jesus
came out in striking distinctness during the service, and in the
fervent prayer of the old ex-witch-doctor which followed. With the
familiar hymn, "There is a green hill far away," the meeting
concluded. The women with nervous air silently retired, but the men
saluted me, and some even went so far as to shake hands - with the
left hand. Would that similar stations were established all over this
neglected land! While churches and mission buildings crowd each other
in the home lands, the Chaco, with an estimated population of three
millions, must be content with this one ray of light in the dense
night.
On that far-off "green hill" we shall meet some even from the Lengua
tribe. Christ said: "I am the door; by Me if any man enter in, he
shall be saved." But oh, "Painted Face," you spoke truth; the white
"thing" is selfish, and keeps this wondrous knowledge to himself.
PART IV.
BRAZIL
[Illustration]
"There can be no more fascinating field of labor than Brazil,
notwithstanding the difficulty of the soil and the immense tracts of
country which have to be traversed. It covers half a continent, and
is three times the size of British India. Far away in the interior
there exist numerous Indian tribes with, as yet, no written language,
and consequently no Bible. Thrust back by the white man from their
original homes, these children of the forest and the river are,
perhaps, the most needy of the tribes of the earth. For all that
these millions know, the Gospel is non-existent and Jesus Christ has
never visited and redeemed the world." [Footnote: The Neglected
Continent]
BRAZIL
The Republic of Brazil has an area of 3,350,000 square miles. From
north to south the country measures 2,600 miles, and from east to
west 2,500 miles. While the Republic of Bolivia has no sea coast,
Brazil has 3,700 miles washed by ocean waves. The population of this
great empire is twenty-two millions. Out of this perhaps twenty
millions speak the Portuguese language.
"If Brazil was populated in the same proportion as Belgium is per
square mile, Brazil would have a population of 1,939,571,699.
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