of them asked him this question:
"Suppose someone should strike you in the face in persecution, what
would you do?" And then the great, strong violent man who had been made
meek and humble by his acceptance of Jesus gave an answer which showed
him to be genuinely converted to the Spirit of Jesus. He said: "I am
not afraid of such a thing as that happening, for the reason that I
propose to live in this community such a life for the help of my
brothers that no one will ever desire to strike me in the face," and
these others turned shame-stricken away from him. He threw down before
that community the challenge of his life, and that is the thing that
not only in Brazil, but here in our own land, must finally win for our
King the triumph which is His due.

CHAPTER X.

CAPTAIN EGYDIO.

What brought about the readiness of this territory in the interior of
the State of Bahia for the acceptance of the gospel? Perhaps the brand
of burning which did more than any other to shed light through the
entire section over which we passed, was the person of Captain Egydio
Pereira de Almeida. He was one of several brothers of a good country
family which owned large possessions in the interior 150 miles from the
city of Bahia. He was an intense Catholic, but never a persecutor. At
one time he was Captain in the National Guards. He was political boss
of his community and protector for a small tribe of Indians. He was a
hard-working, law-abiding citizen.

In order to know the story we must go back a little. In 1892 Solomon
Ginsburg sold a Bible to Guilhermino de Almeida on the train when he
was going to Armagoza. Ginsburg had only one Bible left and felt
constrained to offer it to the stranger across the aisle. The man said
he had no money and did not care to buy. The missionary pressed him and
finally sold him for fifty cents a Bible worth four times that amount.
That night his fellow passenger heard the missionary speak in the
theater in Armagoza and seemed to enjoy especially the hymns the
preacher sang. The missionary marked for him the Ten Commandments and
other passages in the Bible.

When the man reached his home at Vargem Grande a few days afterward he
told his brother Marciano de Almeida of his encounter with the
missionary, of how he had bought the Bible which he did not want and of
the Ten Commandments the missionary had marked for him. He very
willingly gave his Bible to his brother. Marciano read the book and was
pa