cotts or when they may be turned into
the streets through the bitter hatred of hard-hearted priests, but the
most trying persecution is that which comes from the insinuating
remark, the sneer of the supercilious and the doubt of the envious. The
taunt of hypocrisy is often thrown into the teeth of native Christians.
Their motives are frequently impugned. I was profoundly impressed with
the answer they usually give to such persecutions. They reply by
saying: "See how we live. Note the difference between our careers now
and our careers before we became Christians." And this challenge of the
life is the one which will finally answer the ridicule and doubt of all
who assail them.

CHAPTER XV.

THE TESTING OF THE MISSIONARY.

In thinking of the missionary, most of us dwell upon the heroic
self-denial he practices and the bravery with which he faces the
gravest dangers. Certainly, the missionary in Brazil is due a good
share of such appreciation. He has been called upon to endure shameful
indignities, painful personal dangers and the enervating perils of a
hostile climate. Our own missionaries have been beaten, stoned, thrown
into streams, arrested and haled before courts, shot at and in many
instances saved only by the most signal dispensations of Providence.
Dr. Bagby, our first missionary, in spite of stoning and arrest when he
was baptizing converts in Bahia, kept fearlessly on in his endeavor to
lead the people to Christ. Dr. Z. C. Taylor traveled through the
interior of Bahia State in perils of robbers, in perils of fanatics, in
perils of infuriated priests and in perils of bloodthirsty persecutors
without fear or shrinking. In the spring of 1910 Solomon Ginsburg was
set upon by a mob at Itabopoana, which opened fire with such perilous
directness that one bullet flattened upon the wall a few inches above
his head.

This same missionary in 1894 endured bitter persecutions when he
attempted to open the work at San Fidelis in the interior of the State
of Rio de Janeiro. A mob of a thousand people threw stones, grass, corn
and a great miscellany of other objects at him and his little band of
worshipers. The howling of the mob prevented him from preaching. The
best that could be done was to sing songs. Finally, a stone having
struck a girl in the congregation, he carried her out through the
infuriated mob to a drug store across the street, where she was
resuscitated, and he returned to his service of song.

Ne