.

On Monday, June 13th, we boarded a six AM train for Parahyba do Sul,
which we reached about ten o'clock. It is a charming town situated on
the river by the same name. This river reminds one of the French Broad,
though the mountains are not so high and precipitous as the North
Carolina mountains. The mountains, too, in this section are not covered
with trees, but with a tall grass, which, being in bloom, gave a
beautiful purple color to the landscape. The railroad climbs up the
mountain sides from Rio in a very picturesque manner.

The Parahyba do Sul Church is three miles over the mountains from the
station, in the house of Mrs. Manoela Rosa Rodrigues. The house is
constructed with mud walls and a thatched roof. The floors are the bare
ground, which is packed hard and smooth. There are two rooms, with a
narrow hall between them and a sort of "lean to" kitchen. The largest
room, which is about fifteen feet square, is devoted to the church. The
most prominent piece of furniture in the house is the pulpit, which
stands in this room. This pulpit is large out of all proportion to
everything else about the place. It was covered over with a beautifully
embroidered altar piece. The two chairs placed for Brother Maddox and
myself were also entirely covered with crocheted Brazilian lace. I
hesitated to occupy such a daintily decorated seat.

This church of forty-six members maintains three Sunday schools in the
adjoining country and six preaching stations, members of the church
doing the preaching. Every member gives to the college in Rio 200 reis
(six cents) a month, and to missions, etc., 300 reis (nine cents) per
month. This is munificent liberality when we take into consideration
their exhausting poverty.

Our coming was a great event with them. We were met at the station by a
member of the church, who mounted us on a gray pony apiece and soon had
us on our way. He walked, and with his pacing sort of stride he easily
kept up with us. His feet were innocent of shoes. He says he does not
like shoes because they interfere with his walking. Underneath that
dilapidated hat and those somewhat seedy clothes we found a
warm-hearted Christian, who serves the Lord with passionate devotion.
He often preaches, though he has very little learning. He is mighty in
the Scriptures, having committed to memory large sections of them, and
has a genuine experience of grace to which he bears testimony with
great power.

We arrived at the