Foreign Mission J ouenal
E*ut>llnli«Ml Monthly by (be
В’огеЗци ЛНннЬп
Btoiiril oi tin; Southern BIujpllMt Convention.
a ALL FOWEli IS GIVEN UNTO ME IN HEAVEN ANE IN EARTH.
GO YE, THEREFORE, AND TEACH ALL NATIONS.--—
Vol. 12. — New Series.
RICHMOND, VA., FEBRUARY, 1881. • No. 11.— Whole No. 131.
fEntoml :it tho I'oel-OIlloe nt Richmond, Va., ns second-
1 clnes limiter.]
FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL
KATES I’EK ANNUM:
Oon copy . . . . . .
Я)
els
Four copies nml over, to one aililress, rncli . . . -> els.
IMenso remit by Draft. 1’oMnl Order, or In lteKlslerid
Letter, niut notify
11»
i no.MiTl.y of any cliiinco 111 address.
Address, FOREIGN MISSION .JOURNAL.
Richmond, Y.v.
FOREIGN MISSION BOARD
OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION,
I.ocatkd AT RIOHMOND, VIRGINIA.
I'HKSiDK.iT— J.
I».
M. CURRY'.
Viric.IMiK-iUKNTn.— Jllrnin Woods, Aid.. J.
Л.
llackeit,
La., W. R. Kirk, Va.,
И.
II. McOallum, Fla., T. II. I’rllcti-
srd. N. O., J. L. Harrow*. Ky., S. Henderson, Alabama,
W. I’oiie Yeamim, Mo., .1. II. Link, Texas, W L. ICIIpntrli k,
(la.. J. C. Furman, S. O.. Mull, llillsmaii, Tuan., T. 1’.
F.py, Ark., M. 1*. Lowry, Ml»».
Ooiiiik-wonihnu Skciiktaiiv— If. A. TUPl'KR.
TiiKAMUllita— J. C. WILLIAMS,
ltmonmsn Skciiktaiiy— W. II. GWATIIMEY.
AuniTOn — JOSEl’II F. COTTRELL.
HdaiiiiofManaoi'.iis.— .1. II. Hawthorne, J. It.YV’ntklns, II.
K. Ellysun, W. E. Hatcher, K. Wortham, Henry McDonald,
W. Ooddln, H. H. Harris. .1. Pollard, Jr., .1. W. Jones,
Л.
H.
Clarke, J. II. Winston, T, J. Evans,
О.
H. Winston, S. 0.
Cloptoii.
ErT A U communications in reference to the business
of this Hoard should be addressed to II. A. Tuitkr,
Corresponding Secretary, Richmond, Va.
OUR MISSIONARIES TO BRAZIL.
In another column will be .seen autobiographies ol
Iter. \\\ It. Rugby and Ills wife, who were formally
set apart us missionaries of the Southern Bnptht
Convention to Krn/U, on Sumliiy night, tho 2U of
January, 1831, in the Second Baptist Church of
this city. Their Held Is the controlling empire of
South America, whose ruler Is the only mini in the
Western Hemisphere who wears a crown, and
whose territory, lying on both sides of the equator,
contains an area of three and a half millions of
square miles, with an average elevation of seven hun¬
dred feet above the level of the sea, and a geniality
of climate and capacity for productiveness which
are literally unsurpassed. Brazil embosoms mines of
gold and diamonds, the richest Ir. the world ; Is
traversed, through Its whole extent from west to
east , by the "Father of Waters,” which contributes
every second live hundred and fifty thousand cubic
feet of water to the volume of the Atlantic ; lias
the second navy of the world, and boasts a capital
tlly, Wo de Janeiro, older than any city of the
United States, and having a harbor only rivalled
In beauty by the Bay of Naples and the Golden
Horn of Constantinople. The people are Portu-
Raese, Spaniards, Negroes, and natlvo Indians. The
Portuguese language prevails. The State religion
Is Romanism, which is completely broken down,
us to the respect entertained for it, by the open
wickedness of the priesthood— so that "tne great
need of the country,” In the lungiingc of one who
Is thoroughly informed on the subject, “is a pious,
self-denying ministry who, like the great Apostle
to the Gentiles, will not count their life dear unto
themselves tlmt they tuny win souls unto Christ.”
The questions arise : Why should wo enter this
Held? and how is tho Held to bo reclaimed?
A distinguished selontist says that three condi¬
tions are necessary for the construction of the uni¬
verse, viz: a point, direction and force. This ex¬
treme analysis of materialism llnds something of
analogy in that Kingdom whose extension de¬
mands — 1st. A starting point In the regeneration
of tlm Individual human heart. 2d. The direction
of the Divine will as indicated by the linger of
Providence; and 3d. Tho force of Him who said,
In ordering the universality of Ids reign, “All
power Is given unto me hi heaven and In earth.”
Presuming that the work of modern missions lias
Its start in the regencrucy of God’s people, what have
been tho several signal pointings of Providence as
to the direction for this work? The ilrst was,
through the establishment of the East India Com¬
pany, toward lllndoostnn as the stronghold of the
most powerful paganism in the world ; the next
through the battering down, by English guns, the
exclusiveness of China, which compasses one-tldrd
of the human family; the third signal Indication
was through the explorations of Livingstone
and Stanley, and the establishment and the
overthrow of slavery In the United States,
which secured respectively the wealth of
Europe and ilm Interest of the negroes of our
Southern States for theolvlllzation and the evangel¬
ization of tlie dark continent of Africa ; the fourth
was the organization of the kingdom of Italy, by
whlch.tliat soul-crushed land has been thrp.wn open
lo the liberating power of the gospel of Christ.
And the work of Foreign Missions, under this gui¬
dance of Providence, has not been surpassed in any
age of the Church, not excepting that of the Apos¬
tles themselves.
But, are the present providential pointings to¬
ward Brazil less unmistakable? Let us see:
1. An emperor Is on the throne in that country
who, though at the head of a State Papal Church,
is so broad-minded and sagacious that he invites
Protestant missionaries to Ids country, and puts
the high premium on tlielr coming of proffering,
we understand, to pay their passage from the
United Suites to his capital city.
2. Citizens of our Southern States, many of
whom took refuge III Brazil after our civil war, are
said to be specially desired by the people there.
Here let It be said, that some missionary efforts in
Brazil have failed because labor was done with tho
negro-slaves of that country, unmindful of the deli¬
cate relation between master and slave. We are
not slaveholders now ; but wo know all about that
relation— and Southern ministers, other things
being equal, are the best missionaries that can bo
sent to Brazil.
3. Our Southern business men are exercised by
the fact that, while our country only furnishes
seven millions of the imports of Brazil, the Valley
of the Mississippi, and the mills of Alabama and
Georgia, and of the Carolines and Virginia, can
produce the whole one hundred millions of com¬
modities annually Imported. Thus might our
country also, instead of receiving only thirty-nine
millions of the exports of that country, be enriched
by a large part of the two hundred and twelve
millions. The increasing commerce between the
countries is destined to bind togotlier the twin
Americas more strongly than the ligament of an
Isthmus, which, by the way, is being clipped by
the Panama caual.
Now, as Providence has spoken by British trade
and cannon, and by explorers and conquerors, so
It speaks now by tills liberal Emperor and tills
opening commerce, and says to us : go up and pos¬
sess the land— go, as Joshua and Caleb ; not to re¬
turn, however, but to meet the giant evils there, as
well us to enjoy tho blessings of a self-denying life
more blessed than tho luscious cjusters of Escliol.
Here, then, is why we go, by these missionaries,
to Brazil— God says, go.
But, how is tills land to be taken for Christ?
Wo answer, by force. Not, however, by the force
of our missionaries, the force of their strong will,
or of their earnest desires, or even of tlielr conse¬
crated characters. It is the force by which tho
hostile empires of the past have been overthrown;
by which the great Reformation was hurled against
the apostacy of the church; by which the stu¬
pendous works of modern missions have been
achieved. Many things the missionary lias to do.
Ho lias to observe the laws of nature and society
for the preservation of health and for social influ¬
ence, and of the government under which lie lives,
that he may be a pattern in all things ; but his
most Important duty is to keep himself, by faith
and spirited activity, iu increasing sympathy with
that Dlvlijc power by which the work of individual
salvation and o_f. national deliverance can bo alone -
accomplished; lie is to be an adapted medium
of that almighty force by which Brazil and the
world are to be transformed into the Kingdom of
the Lord and of Ills Christ. And thus is lie to real¬
ize iu himself something like an omnipotence of
faith, implied in the inspired declaration, “ all
things arebossible to him that believetli," and as
an iiupe&oiiatiou of the gospel, prove “the
power of God unto salvation.”
We commend to our young missionaries as their
motto : “ Looking unto Jesus, the author and lln-
Islier of faith, who, for the joy that was set before
Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and
is set down at the right hand of the throne of God,”
and who says, “And lo, I am with you alway, even
unto the end of the world. Amen."
These choice young spirits sailed from Baltimore
in the Bark Yatnoydeu on the 13tli of January,
1831, for lfio de Janeiro, whence they will pro¬
ceed at once to our mission station at Santa Bar¬
bara, In the Province of San Paulo, Brazil. Let
the prayers of God’s people, morning and evening,
ascend in their behalf.
EDUCATION.
A gentleman once told us that he was the trusteo
of a will that required that the money bequeathed
should be Invested la the cestui que trust. .Thus it
was to bo transformed into real property, a part of
the child’s self. This was property which uo lire
could burn, no water drown, no robber steal.
How can money bo better invested, for tlie greatest
safety and to pioduce the most far-reaching prollts,
than in giving truth to the mind and Christ to the
soul ? . . .
CHURCH LIFE.
л
•
The following Is from a private letter : “1 believe
the church is dying of lethargy. If we could get
up a minsionary society, it would do more than any
help from abroad.
