Chapter 1: Reminiscences

WHEN in the year 1892 I sailed for Brazil with a contract on a large Brazilian railway company, little dreamed what a varied and adventurous career lay before me.
On arriving in Brazil I made a bad start, being shut up for the night in a wretched hovel of a Brazilian prison in the interior of the county on a false charge of sedition. The hours that I spent in that cell, herded with criminals and men of a very repugnant type, were so miserable and full of fearful presentient that I vowed, if I escaped, to leave Brazil by she next steamer. Happily the error was discovered. I was unceremoniously released next morning, and deferred my original resolution.
I have always felt a deep sympathy for prisoners since that occasion; and strange to say, many years after, I preached the Gospel to a company of convicts in that selfsame prison, though this time I was on the right side of the prison bars.
Several years later I found myself on a large goldmining establishment in the State of Minas Geraes, and there I held the position of Assay officer, an exceedingly interesting occupation, with excellent prospects for the future; but I was not a Christian. I believed in God, read the Bible, prayed, was an abstainer, and neither smoked nor gambled, and that on a mining camp. I had been christened and confirmed, but I knew absolutely nothing about conversion or the need of it. In my inner consciousness I knew something was lacking, and in my own blind way I groped yearningly for that something.
One day I heard that a new man had joined the staff, in the humble capacity of typist. He was a Canadian named Reginald Young, and it was said that he was a missionary, which fact, from all I had seen of the missionaries who occasionally visited the mine camp, inclined me to despise him at once.
I was surprised to notice, however, that he did not smoke, that he was an abstainer, and, still more, that he looked happy about his religion, and was never so glad as when he talked about it. Then one day he told me the story of his life, how from being a besotted drunkard, a notorious fighter, and a gambler, he was suddenly and completely changed in one short hour; that the miraculous change lasted, and that eventually he became an evangelist in a New York Bowery Mission. He always talked about being saved and happy, and looked it every inch. He was a marvel to me. There was no denying his sincerity and the reality of his testimony; and my own experience became more threadbare and unsatisfactory in comparison.
I had just before induced the mine Superintendent to have the old abandoned mine chapel furnished up and re-whitewashed, with the idea of inaugurating Sunday night services. I persuaded the chief engineer to read the Prayer Book Service and the electrical engineer played the organ, while I rather plumed myself on my rendering of the First and Second Lessons. Of course there was no sermon. These meetings were voted a great social success, and were continued every Sunday for the benefit of the English community.
Soon after Mr. Young’s arrival I was so impressed by his testimony that obtained permission, though with great difficulty, for him to preach in the Consecrated Chapel. There was a big turn out to hear him; but as the audience was a critically orthodox one, and the preacher was nervous, everybody voted it a complete fiasco. Much disappointed I felt bound to admit it was not what I had hoped; but somehow the text stuck in my mind, and would not be dislodged until it had set in motion a train of thoughts that eventually led to my conversion. The text was from John 16:8: “And when He is come, He will convince the world of sin.” I had never before realized that there was a Holy Chest.
I became very despondent and dissatisfied, and Lied to find relief by indulging in long horseback rides among the hills and torrents of the surrounding country, styled by Burton the “Highlands of Brazil.” One day as I raced along a narrow pathway that margined a mountain stream, riding carelessly with loose rein, my pony drove his foot into a hole and came down with a crash. As I was flung through the air I realized to my horror that one foot was fast in the stirrup iron. My pony was a notoriously and excitable one, and in view of the locality the fall occurred it seemed as though a violent and terrible death faced me.
By a divine intervention, however, the horse lay quietly, without a kick, and gave me the few vital seconds required to release my foot from that terrible grip. Then I pulled the animal up. There was not a scratch upon him, nor anything that could naturally explain his unwonted demeanor. I remounted and turned for home, very much subdued and Considerably shaken up by the incident.
“That was a near thing,” thought I. “Had I been dragged to death I wonder where my soul would be now?” “In Hell,” my conscience replied, and I knew it was true, and that my morality, Bible, and Sunday services were empty, idle things. Then I feared that because I had been so good in my own and in other people’s estimation I had rendered myself incapable of being a claimant on God’s mercy, which, though open to the drunken, dissolute miners that I despised, was closed against the righteous Pharisee.
A great fear seized my mind, and all considerations of future prospects and reputation sank out of sight with the consuming desire that took hold of me to possess the truth that Reginald Young knew about. Life was so uncertain, and a hundred dangers and hazards seemed to threaten an untimely end and eternal fate. Accidents in a big mine such as ours were terribly common, both in the workings far beneath, nearly a mile underground, and in the vast surface works and mills, and I might be the next victim, and then —? I shuddered to think of the risk I ran, and I spurred on my horse, in eager sympathy with a hot desire that possessed me, cost what it might, even to life itself, to find peace with God.
When these are a man’s thoughts he never has to wait long. If the pride and wrath of man can sometimes provoke a great manifestation of divine disapproval, then ten-thousand times more will the cry of a repentant sinner draw forth the Father’s immediate response, even though it were necessary to perform some mighty miracle — some unheard-of providence, such as the world had never heard of nor could science decipher.
Just before I reached the private road that led to my home, a Philip stood in the way. It was the typist, Young. I dismounted and entered into conversation with him, soon betraying my concern for my soul. He drew out a New Testament from his pocket, and said, “Do you believe this is God’s Word?”
“Yes, I never for one moment have doubted it,” I replied sincerely.
“Thank God for that! Do you believe that God is faithful and just?”
I stared at him a moment, and said, with emphasis, “Of course I do!”
Looking me full in the face: “Then, if you have no knowledge of the forgiveness of sins, there is only one person in the world to blame, and that is Frederick Charles Glass; for here it affirms, ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’”
I felt astounded; how simple it suddenly appeared! To think that, as a good churchman, I knew that verse so well, and yet had never applied it to my own personal need!
I bade him a hasty goodnight, and in a few moments reached my home. The servant took the horse while I hurriedly shut myself in my room, and from among a big array of books drew out my Bible. Yes, there it was, as clear and simple as could be; and so I knelt, and as clearly and simply received it for myself. I “believed on the Lord Christ” as my own Savior, and arose a pardoned sinner— a new creature in Jesus Christ — on the 20th of June, 1897.
Soon after this I began to feel that I had been saved for a purpose higher and greater than gold testing and refining, also that God had a special purpose in bringing me to Brazil. But the thought chilled me that no Missionary Society would accept me. I had had no training for Gospel work; I was no Portuguese scholar; I was too timid; and finally, I was quite unable to lace the privations and hardships which I knew belonged to the life of a real missionary. But I could not escape the conviction as to my duty, until one day Satan reminded me that I had a four wars’ contract with the Mining Company, with two and a half years of it yet to be completed. As a Christian I must, of course keep my contract, It seemed such a very righteous and satisfactory solution of an awkward situation. But it was; cowardly and faithless one, for the Lord can remove such little difficulties when we are ready to obey Him, So I hid away behind the contract, and thought it would be two and a half years before I needed to concern myself about ties question, and then — perhaps the Lord would not want me. It was a true supposition; if the Lord calls us today, and we harden our hearts, He may not call us tomorrow, to our eternal loss.
This was an attitude that God could not honor. So it happened that, shortly Afterward, while making some experiments with an arsenical ore, I was violently poisoned with arsenureted hydrogen. I tried to disguise the fact, and hoped the Lord would heal roe; but I grew rapidly worse, and then my friends became alarmed and sent the mine doctor to see me. I was carried no to the hospital to die.
My relatives were cabled to, to prepare them for the news of my death, which scorned only the matter of a few days or hours. And then, when almost reduced to a skeleton, by the power of God I began to recover, and a few weeks later I. left the hospital a mere shadow of my former self and an object of pity to all my old friends. Of those who get poisoned as I was scarcely one in a hundred recovers.
Shortly after I had a long talk with the Superintendent. “You know, Glass,” said he, “the doctor and I have talked things Over, and he says you must go home as soon as you are a little stronger and be nursed up, though you will never be well and strong enough to return to Brazil. The directors at home will consider your case sympathetically, so far as your contract is concerned, and we will consider that as canceled forthwith.”
With all this I quite agreed. In my condition, as it was then, there seemed no other alternative; I felt very sorry for myself. But strange to say, immediately that contract was canceled I began to recover health and strength with marvel tons rapidity. Everybody was amazed, and in a few weeks I was as healthy and well-colored as ever in my life.
Then I had to face the vital question of service once more; with no contract to hide behind; and after a considerable struggle I surrendered.
My first-class passage home had been booked, but I refused to sail. They tried to renew my contract terms. I declined to agree, and left the mine, not knowing what I could do or where I should go.
Immediately the way opened up before me. Mountainous difficulties vanished like thin air, and all my misgivings proved to be foolishness when the Lord undertook for me Himself. Right ready to hand, I found I had a God-given capacity to sell Bibles, a thing I had never dreamed of doing before it proved the happiest time of my life. Hesitant, slow to perceive, and of little faith, I fear, I have ever been since; but when it has come to the test I have been willing to let Him have His way in me, and to His longsuffering patience and goodness alone is due the extraordinary fact that He has been able to use my weakness and foolishness to His praise and glory.