The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-22
AFTERNOON SESSION.

institutions
AFTERNOON SESSION.
An Interesting Account of Missionary Work
in Brazil by Mrs. j. f. Houston.
The afternoon session was opened with prayer
by Miss Rankin. The report Of the foreign Sec
retaries was read by Miss Anna Holt The re-
port was long, but full of interest and not encum
bered by figures. Condensed, it gave the follow
ing information:
We have now sixty missionaries looking to us,
and from all quarters OF the globe come glad ac-
counts of the good things this year has witnessed
There is deep minor tone in the anthem which
tells of burdens laid on few which should be
borne by many, and of the bitter cries uttered
not only by the light bearers, but by those who
IN darkness are looking for the light when that
cruel word ''retrench" comes to them The re-
port told of the work of the socetys missionaries
among the Creeks, Chppewas, Sacs and Foxes.
and other Indian tribes; of the mission schools
in Mexico, in Brazil, at the Gaboon in Africa, in
Syria, Persia and other countries in Asia, includ-
ing the great work in China, Siam and Japan.
The report of Syria shows eighteen schools in
and around the chief mission center, Abeih.
Miss A.. Milligan read beautiful poem en-
titled Restless Without Thee
Mrs. j. F. Houston, missionary residing
with her husband at Rio Janeiro, gave an inter
esting account of mission work in Brazil. She
said the church in Rio now numbers two hun
dred members. In the morning her husband
preaches and in the afternoon the native pastor.
Another church, formed last August in newer
part OF the city, and where the people are more
inclined to come and listen, frequently has one
hundred persons present. The little organ there
is attraction. They know what pianos are.
but the organ is a novelty. The Sabbath school
numbers 102 children. More can be done with
them than with their parents, who have been
brought up in the worship of the Virgin Mary.
Their native Bible is as ours, except that in the
twentieth chapter of Exodus they forget that
there is second commandment and they divide
the tenth commandment and make two com
mandments Thou shalt not make unto thy
self any craven image'-yet they do this, and
make the Virgin Mary equal with the Great Com
forrer. Going into the interior, there is another
station at San Paulo, with day class and board
ing school The boarding school has twenty
seven pupils the day school from 100 to $780,
These girls are taught domestic duties as we'll as
school studies. In one of these schools were two
daughters Of Catholic priest. who has eight
children by a woman to whom he is not married
The mother did not want to send the girls to the
school, because they would there learn some
thing about music and crotchet-work. which
they could not learn at homo. The mother dis
covered the oldest daughter Benedeta was be-
coming hereto, and she took the girls away.
The priest discovered that Benedeta was teach
ing her brothers and sisters to sing the hymns
she had learned at school, and forbade her teach
ing them. He took her Bible away from her
and burned it, and the last learned Of Benedeta
she was locked up in a room on bread and water
A sister told you of the homes of the people
of China The people with whom we
in little. low-thatched mud cottages,
with the earth for a floor. There are no win
dows, and the beds are built in the sides of the
walls. There is one common little room, and it
Is common to father, mother; the children and
animals. dogs cats and, most of all, feas. The
family of the Emperor are Jesni49s, and jesuitism
Is Catholicism in its worst form. The eldest
daughter, who married the Count D'Eu, vowed
that If an heir should be given her she would 60
in a second class car to place iiun1reu mics
away. and on her knees, sweep the floor of
church. She was given an heir, and performed
her VOW. At another time she vowed that if her
health should be restored TO her she would go
up the three hundred steps of q church on her
knees This was published far and wide in the
papers of the empire and of course, had great
influence among the common people, for If the
Princess does such things, they must follow
The consequences is the missionaries and pas
tors are being prosecuted more this year and
with greater bitterness than ever before.
Mrs. Herrick johnson said she had heard from
one who had been in Chilli of Jesuitism there
that even O Jesuitical arithmetic is taught
and that one can hardly realize what an obstacle
Jesuitism is in Catholic countries.
Mrs. Thomas Gait, of Aurora, Ill, spoke on
''The True Liberty of Woman" She said that
when Colonel Ingersoll was heard talking against
Christianity it must be kept in mind that it does
not take much brain to pull down house-a
very common laborer can Go that-that it re-
quires more brain to erect a structure. There
are women who would pull down this beautiful
temple of Christianity. They tell US about As
pasta, that she reached height Of intellectual
culture which none of our Christian women
are able to attain. That the learned
men of Greece visited her house
freedom. We will not take one woman as
type of womanhood Neither do we take AS
pasias as q type Of purity. They belong to a
type which in our day is only mentioned with
bated breath, class from which in our Chris
tian homes we shield our daughters so zealously.
Let US look at the Grecian mothers the virtuous
women of the same day as Aspasia. Their cou-
dition was. indeed, a low one-that of a mere
servant She had no freedom. That was the
condition Of woman untrammeled by Chris
tianty, and that is her condition to-day in
heather lands. She is as low as the animals
She then showed the condition of woman I'M
der the Old Testament when Deborah was an
honored ruler and under the influences of
Christianity in the early days with Mary and
Martha, Phoebe and Priscilla; and recounted the
work done by Elizabeth Fry, Florence Nightin-
gale, Harriet Beecher Stowe and other noble
Christian women. These are not Aspasias un-
trammeled by Christianity, with liberty to draw
other women's husbands from them to entertain
them. You have not that liberty, but you have
the liberty to entertain your own husbands and
to do good works in the station where Christ
has placed you on pinnacle of glory by His own
precious blood