Now Dr. Tucker had thought he was giving the Bible to the people of
Brazil just as fast as he could, but he redoubled his efforts. He sent
out still more colporteurs. They gathered the people in the public
squares of the cities and read and preached to them, and the people
listened gladly. Sometimes the colporteurs started out with sacks
filled with Bibles and came back with their sacks full of the images
the people had been worshiping and had cast away when they read, "I am
the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
Dr. Tucker has given more than a million Bibles to Brazil. He presented
a Bible to President Prudenti Moraes on his inauguration day. He has
found many ways of giving the spirit of the Bible in addition to
putting the book into the hands of the people. He does not wish anyone
to think that this is a magical book, and that it is enough merely to
have it.
When he took Bibles to the sick boatmen down in their poor little mud
huts by the river-side, he found they had no one to care for them
properly,—there are many thousands of sailors coming into the port of
Rio every year,—so Dr. Tucker became the "seamen's friend." He rented
a house and made it a Seamen's Home. In one year more than ten thousand
sailors came to his Home. Most of them were glad to pay for their meals
and beds, but he did not turn any away if they were ill or had no
money. There were free beds and free meals for those who needed help,
and doctors to care for those who were sick, and employment found for
those who were out of work.
While he was preaching in the slums of Rio he found many people who
were poor and sick, as there are in all great cities. He went to a
young Brazilian doctor and asked him to visit the homes of the poor
people in the slums.
The young doctor came back and said, "Why, Dr. Tucker, it is almost
enough to make anyone ill just to go into these homes and see how the
people live. There are so many dark rooms and so little sunlight, and
the houses are very dirty. In almost every home someone is sick." Dr.
Tucker remembered how the multitudes came to Jesus and were healed, and
so he thought one of the best ways to give more of the Bible to the
people was to help those who were sick.
He had stereopticon pictures made which showed how tuberculosis might
be prevented. Then he went to the United States Ambassador and to the
mayor of Rio and to the president of the Board of Health and to other
great men who could help him and told them he was going to give a
lecture and wanted them to come and sit on the platform. He sent cards
out all over the city telling how many people had tuberculosis and what
they should do to be cured and inviting people to his meeting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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