ord of Hosts,
against whose church not even the gates of Hell can prevail.

CHAPTER XII.

PERSECUTION.

Some of the severest persecutions the saints have ever endured in
Pernambuco broke upon this new congregation in the Ilheitas district.
The houses of the believers were broken into and everything destroyed,
some of the buildings were burned. The believers asked for police
protection, but the police sent to protect them being under the
domination of the priest, who was the political boss of that district,
persecuted the believers even more than their neighbors had done. They
drove the believers about, beating them with their swords, forcing them
to drink whisky and in many ingenious ways heaped indignities upon
them. After the success of the great persecution in Bom Jardim, of
which we will speak later, the priest organized a large force of men to
destroy everything belonging to the Protestants in the Ilheitas
district and to drive them away. They burned all of the church
furniture, as well as the household furniture belonging to
Hermenigildo, who was forced to flee for his life. They cut the cord to
the hammock in which was lying his young baby. The fall broke the neck
of the child. The mother was driven unclothed between two lines of
soldiers and severely beaten. The other believers were so harrassed
that most of them were compelled to leave the neighborhood.
Hermenigildo stayed away five months, when a change in police chiefs in
Pernambuco made it possible for him to return. The church was
reorganized the following year. A new building was constructed on
Hermenigildo's farm and today, with a membership of 103, it is in a
most prosperous condition.

In the little city of Nazareth the fury of persecution has been felt.
Not a great while after the church had been organized by Dr. Entzminger
the farmers in the community and the priest combined to drive the
Protestants out of town. Dr. Entzminger heard of their purpose and went
up to Nazareth, accompanied by a number of soldiers whom the Government
had put at his disposal. A great throng was collected at the station to
do violence to the missionary on his arrival, but when they saw the
soldiers they took to their heels, and many came that night to the
service to show that they were not in the mob. A year or two later
another mob broke into the church, poured oil over the furniture and
burned practically everything. The police saved the building. Once
after