their homes. Soon
they rented a hall, with the aid of a few others, and sent to
Pernambuco for a missionary to come and organize them into a church.
This man has endured cruel hardships. He had to abandon his business as
a street merchant because the people boycotted him. He rented a house,
built an oven and began to bake bread. Not long after that he was put
out of this house. Again and yet again he had the same experience until
recently he has rented a house from the same man who provided for our
church building. He can now make a living.

The church has had experience similar to that of its founder. It was
put out of three rented buildings at the instance of the Vicar, who
either forced the owners to eject or he, himself, bought the property.
Finally a man who is not a believer, but whose mother is, bought the
present building and sold it to me church. He is permitting the church
to pay for the building in installments of small sums. At last the
church has a place upon which it can rest the sole of its feet and in
two years has grown from ten to fifty members. On the occasion of our
visit six more made public confession of Christ before a large audience
and were received for baptism.

Out on the cape is a fine lighthouse which we had admired as we came up
the coast on the ship. May it be a symbol of the lighthouse which this
church may become to the storm tossed in that section of Brazil.

Of course, persecution is a painful thing for those who are called upon
to endure it, but wherever I found those who had passed through
afflictions they counted it all joy to suffer for the cause of Christ,
and whenever I attempted to comfort them because of their hardships, I
came away more comforted than they, for the reason that their joyous
willingness to suffer for His sake strengthened my own faith and
assured me of the ultimate triumph of the gospel through the labors of
such heroic people. Persecution, while it may temporarily suspend work
in a certain place, always defeats its own purpose, and instead of
preventing the spread of the gospel, is one of the most helpful
agencies in the growth of the truth.

A most encouraging illustration of this fact occurred in Pernambuco in
1904. There had been a bitter persecution at Cortez, a village not far
from Pernambuco. The chief instigator of the trouble was the parish
priest. The believers were driven out of the town and their lives
threatened. The missionary went and was also