existing churches. It has already put a heavy demand upon the Church for new work. Toward the south the city grows rapidly. Four or five new points of work could be located at once if the men and money were in hand. But these are poorer districts. The people of the wealthier parishes are burdened with the business of rebuilding. Nearly all are heavily in debt, they cannot help largely now. In every parish the congregations are growing, the work is being restored, the lost communicants are being found. Where so many records were lost it is no wonder that progress in the last respect is slow. Only 2,657 communicants are registered to-day as against over 4,000 before the fire. Many of those formerly registered in San Francisco are affiliated with parishes in the surrounding towns; and since on Easter there were more communions made in the city parishes than there are persons registered, it is obvious that the loss is more apparent than real.

The work of the diocese as a whole is vigorous and united. Hopefulness and confidence are the dominant notes everywhere. The heaviest burden is that of opportunities being lost. We need men.

I

TRANSLATION

N the autumn of 1889, two graduates of the Virginia Theological Seminary recently ordered priests,

were sent out under the auspices of the American Church Missionary Society to Southern Brazil. They were the Rev. Lucien Lee Kinsolving and the Rev. James W. Morris. At that time little interest was felt in Latin America, and these young men were regarded as entering upon a desperate and rather quixotic undertaking. They had behind them a small section only of the great Church to which they belonged.

Within two months after their arrival in Brazil, the republic was declared, the whole civil fabric was reorganized, all religious disabilities were removed, the Church was separated from the State, and complete liberty of worship was guaranteed.

After a few weeks' study of the Portuguese language, the missionaries began their work in the city of Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, the most southern state in the republic. They found the people ready to pay attention to their message. In Trinity-tide of 1890 they began to preach haltingly in the vernacular, and were enabled at once to gather together congregations. They found a spirit of religious inquiry and interest in the air.

At first it was supposed best to establish small day-schools, and to build up the Charch through the children. This was successfully done at several points. But it was soon found that the people were so ready to gather in public worship, and to the preaching of the Gospel, that all missionary effort had best assume the form of regular Church or

AND SCRIPTURES
SOME PROOFS OF PROGRESS

ganization and simple proclamation of the Gospel.

In 1891 the force of missionaries was appreciably strengthened by the arrival of the Rev. William Cabell Brown and the Rev. John G. Meem, two men whose continuous and devoted service from that year until the present time has done much to strengthen the Church in Rio Grande, and of Miss Mary Packard, who has done telling work among the women and children.

By 1893 the three principal cities of this state-Rio Grande, the seaport, a town of 20,000, Pelotas, about forty miles distant, with 40,000 people, and Porto Alegre, having 75,000 inhabitants, were all vigorously occupied.

The First Episcopal Visitation

sons.

In 1893 Bishop Peterkin, of West Virginia, by request of the Presiding Bishop of the Church, made an episcopal visitation to the field. He ordained four deacons, and confirmed 140 perHe gave the whole work a regular organization. It is, indeed, from this year that the Brazilian Mission, as an organized body, should be dated. So that under definite ecclesiastical form, the Church has existed about fifteen years.

In the early days lack of men prevented a rapid extension of the mission. There have never been more than five Americans in the field at one time, and even now, with much extension of the work and added responsibilities, there are, counting the bishop, only four American missionaries.

In 1897 the Right Rev. Dr. Stirling, English Bishop of the Falkland Islands,

with residence in Buenos Ayres, acceded to a request of Bishop Peterkin, and made a visitation of the mission. Bishop Stirling professed himself as much impressed by all he saw-by the order, fervor and churchliness of the services, by the large congregations that met him everywhere, by the interesting and devout classes presented for confirmation. He noted with especial interest that English residents seemed so generally to endorse the work of the mission, and often to give liberally to its support.

As a consequence of his visit, the bishop immediately on his return to Buenos Ayres encouraged and advised, whenever practicable, agencies in connection with the English churches and chaplaincies, for giving the ministrations of the Church to Spanish-speaking populations, and especially for preaching the Gospel and encouraging the reading of the Scriptures in the vernacular.

A. V. Cabral, translated very beautifully and accurately the whole Book of Common Prayer into Portuguese. This translation, through the generosity of the Bishop White Prayer Book Society of Philadelphia, and of that devout Churchman and Christian, Mr. James Pott, of New York, was published and put into the hands of the people in 1899. Since then the Prayer Book has been in use in all the Brazilian congregations. It has, too, become the aid and the inspiration of the prayers and devotions of the pious, even in retired and inaccessible interior points of the state.

Dr. Brown, who is widely known as one of the most accomplished Portuguese scholars, has also done invaluable work as a member of a general committee in translating the Scriptures.

In Brazil, the great majority of the people are not heathen. They are Christian orphans. They come together readily to attend the services of the Church. They are in great num

Church

The Brazil Mission had now taken on the form of an ordered Church. An annual council was held, in which representative laymen sat with the foreign and native clergy; local canons for the government of the Church were adopted and all matters of interest to the mission were discussed and legislated upon. This has been a great means for stimulating the interest of the principal men in this Church, as well as for giving them an intelligent appreciation of the Church's teaching ability.

For a considerable time service books, containing Morning and Evening Prayer, with selections from other parts of the liturgy, tolerably well translated, were, by ecclesiastical authority, put in use throughout the mission.

Translating the Scriptures and

the Prayer Book

Later the Rev. Dr. Brown, assisted by the young Brazilian presbyter, the Rev.

are largely Christians, who by false ecclesiastical conditions, have been deprived of their religious home and privileges. Thus the Church grows not through children but through the confirmation of men and women of mature age.

The Mission Policy

When a man is sent to open a new centre of work, his orders are:

"Give yourself entirely to preaching and expounding the Word of God. Do not come before the people as a school teacher. Let the community know you, once for all, as a preacher, a prophet, an official witness to Christ, an accredited messenger of Christ's Church. Let the people see that this is your sole business among them. You are to do this one thing to proclaim the good news of salvation in Christ, and to invite men to use and enjoy the reasonable and reverent faith of our truly Catholic Church."

Experience has shown that for best re