and i a ■ ■ i m [ ! I Glass~Z E> Vg i g fi Book Copyright^ . COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. THE "EL SALTO" FALLS NEAR CIUDAD DEL MAIZ. Mexico AND Our Mission (Associate Reformed Presbyterian) By JAMES G. DALE w For Ten Years Missionary in Mexico Copyright 1910 by J. G. Dale press OF SOWERS PRINTING COMPANY LEBANON, PA. 'CU275671 To fflv Jf after anb iHotfjer Whose Life and Teachings Directed My Feet into the Ministry and Later to the Mission Field And to MpWiit Who for Ten Years Has Been a Faithful Helpmeet in the Lord. PREFACE MISSIONARY fires do not burn long without the fuel of facts. Only when the spiritually minded catch 'the vision of the Regions Beyond so white to the harvest, does the heart flame with consuming zeal and is ready to burn out for Christ and the heathen world. Paul saw the city of Athens wholly given to idolatry and then his heart was stirred within him. When the great Shepherd saw the multitudes scattered abroad as sheep without a shepherd, His heart was moved with compassion and He entreated the dis- ciples to plead with Him that the Lord of the harvest would thrust forth more laborers. Let those who tarry by the stuff see heathen conditions as they are, and they will go and give and pray. For thirty-one years the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church has carried on missionary work in Mexico and yet during all these years nothing more than occasional articles for the Church paper have been written to set before the home Church the conditions of the field, the problems to be solved, the agencies employed, the methods of operation and the outlook. These articles are necessarily fragmentary and for want of space can not deal with the conditions and prob- lems of the missionary operations as thoroughly as may be attempted in book form. These two considerations abundantly justify the purpose of the book. It recognizes that our people will never bear upon their hearts with Pauline fervor the evangelization of papal Mexico till they have seen her spiritual destitution and heard her piercing need-cry, and it has striven to take away the veil that hides that moving vision of the man from Mace- MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. donia and make the appeal ring with the force of a clarion call to come over and help them. For years the conviction has been growing that the book was needed and from all parts of the home Church come assurances that we have judged rightly and that our message has a mission. Mission study classes have been organized whose purpose is to review our denominational missionary operations. They have found themselves sorely hampered by the lack of a sys- tematic and thorough study of our missionary activities from which to glean the facts for class work. It is hoped that the book will be of some help to them. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the friends who have kindly reviewed the manuscript and made helpful suggestions. If the book will broaden and intensify the interest of the home Church in the evangelization of our Mexican field and enable them to more efficiently hold the ropes, it will not have failed of its purpose and the prayer of the author will have been answered. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. The Country 9 II. The People 19 III. History 35 IV. The Religion 49 V. Our Field 75 VI. Plans and Ideals 85 VII. Our Beginning 107 VIII. Our Workers 116 IX. Our Missionary Agencies 136 X. Difficulties 185 XI. Encouragements 206 XII. Our Responsibility 226 XIII. Forward 239 APPENDIXES I. Population 261 II. Statistics of Evangelical Missions of Mexico 262 III. Statistics of A. R. Presbyterian Mission in Mexico 263-264 IV. Bibliography 265 V. Pronunciation of Spanish Letters 265 Index 267 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE. El Salto Falls , Frontispiece v Farmer Plowing 15 %/ Indian Hut. Mexican of Lower Qass. Indian Girl 19" .. Water Carrier. Basket Carrier. Milk Man 23 v Typical Girls 31 Making Tortillas and Drawnwork 27 Playing Bear. Gentleman on Horseback 29 * Hidalgo. Juarez 45 Diaz „ 47 Interior of Cathedral. Saint Benito 57 Virgin of Guadalupe 54 Doing Penance. Scourges 62 Rev. N. E. Pressly, D.D. and Family 112 Rev. W. J. Bonner and Wife. Miss McMaster 116 Rev. J. G. Dale and Family 118 Native Pastors and Students 128 Revs. Cruz and Sanchez with Their Families 132 Deceased Missionaries 136 Tampico Church. Miss Wallace's Grave 138 Rev. Torres and Congregations. Tantima Chapel 142 Churches of C. del Maiz and Rioverde 145 v Rev. J. R. Edwards and Family 147 Missionary Teachers 150 Students of Tampico School 155 Students of Preparatory and Theological School... 161 ' Patients at a Clinic 168 Hospital 170. Group of Indians. Don Severiano and Family 174 Orphans of Hattie May Chester School 176 * "MAP OF THE. A.R PRESBYTERIAN MISSION FIELD OF MEXICO 1 ' The lines t+HWW indicate "branches of the Mexican National Kailroad. Towns marked f indicate Mission Stations. (Below in the left hand corner- is given a general out-line of Mexican territory* including that of our field, showing - the relation of the latter to the entire country.) Crui CHAPTER I. THE COUNTRY.— ITS PHYSICAL CONDITIONS. Mexico, deriving its name from Mexitl, the national war god of the Aztecs, commonly known as Huitzilopochtli, is our next door neighbor. Sep- arated from Texas, California and Arizona by the Rio Grande river, it stretches towards the south- east in the form of a huge cornucopia, reaching to the borders of Central America. From the north- ern line, iooo miles long, which divides it from the United States, the country gradually narrows itself towards the south till at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec it measures only one hundred miles across. The concave coast washed by the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, is about 1600 miles long, while that of the convex side on the Pacific is about 4500 miles long or nearly three times that of the Gulf coast. Including its islands, Mexico has an area of 767,000 square miles or nearly that of the United States east of the Mississippi river. This is only one-half of the territory subject to the Mexican flag sixty years ago. Then Texas, California, Ari- zona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Oklahoma and parts of Wyoming and Kansas 9 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. were Mexican provinces. By treaties culminat- ing in that of Gadsden made in 1853, Mexico ceded to the United States all these states. Otherwise she would have lacked just one-third of having territory equal to that of her powerful neighbor Republic to the north. The country is very broken. *The mountain ranges are projections from the north. The Rocky Mountains stretching down along the Pacific coast under the name of Sierra Madre Oc- cidental, reaching the isthmus, are there joined to the Sierra Madre Oriental, which have kept close to the Gulf of Mexico, as they come from the Sierra Nevada range of the great Northwest. Between these two mountain systems lies the great plateau of central Mexico, where are to be found most of the large cities of the country. As these ranges of the Sierra Madre enter Mexico they mount up toward the sky. The highest peaks are Ixtacihuatl (looking like a colossal woman with her head crowned with perennial snows) 16,- 091 ft., Toluca 15,076 ft., Orizaba 17,363 ft., Po- pocatapetl 17,540 ft., the highest point this side of the far away Andes. The « mountains fall off abruptly on either side of the plateau as they slope toward the coast. The railroad that connects Vera Cruz with Mexico City climbs 8000 ft., though the distance is only 268 miles. On the Mexican National, which runs from Tampico to San Luis Potosi, Tamasopo lies at the foot of the hills. 10 THE COUNTRY. From this point the train begins the climb of 3000 feet to Cardenas, which is only forty miles away. Climate. The physical configuration of the country is unique, affording three distinct climates, and strange to add, all within a few hours' ride from each other. "From- the elevated mountain peaks one can look down past the temperate to the tor- rid zone; from the frozen cone of some volcano to the warm waters of the Gulf, embracing in one view all that class of vegetation which thrives be- tween the Arctic ocean and the Equator." On each side of the central plateau and skirting the Pacific ocean and the Gulf, are narrow strips of land that reach up to the altitude of 3000 feet. These constitute the "tierra caliente" or hot coun- try. It rarely exceeds one hundred miles in width. The eastern coast is subject to northers which correspond to the monsoons of India. They sweep down from the north, blowing for days, leaving Tampico, Vera Cruz, and other towns along the coast, shivering with cold. They are the dread of sailors, being most intense from No- vember to March. Save when these blizzards whip down the coast, driving the mercury very low, the temperature rarely drops below 60 degrees, and often rises to 100 degrees, and not uncommonly goes up to 104. La Paz, on the west coast, is one of the hottest towns in the world. On account of 11 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. the excessive rainfall during certain seasons of the year, and the intense heat, the coasts have often been scourged with epidemics like yellow fever. Modern methods of sanitation, however, have been introduced, and now years pass without a single case of fever. The temperate belt lies between the altitudes of 3000 and 6500 feet, with an average temperature of 75 degrees. Frosts are rare and never heavy. Even where the sultry days of May and June run the mercury up, the air is so dry and crisp that the heat is not keenly felt. The immunity from heavy frosts makes the plateau the home of the orange. Both tropical and semi-tropical fruits thrive side by side. Wheat and sugar cane at times grow almost within touch of each other. The "tierra fria" or cold zone extends from 6000 feet to the snow line, which reaches 12,460 feet above sea level. The mean temperature is 60 degrees, while on the high mountain slopes, as at Toluca, the thermometer has been known to reg- ister 20 degrees. The cold winds from the north often precipitate snow, but it disappears with the gentlest touch of sunshine. While the larger part of the Republic lies within the bounds of the tor- rid zone, the Tropic of Cancer crossing the land slightly to the north of San Luis Potosi, the alti- tudes everywhere temper the tropical climate of the latitudes. Barring the rainy season, lasting three months, rarely a day comes and goes with- 12 THE COUNTRY. out some sunshine, and, excepting the hot belt, rarely a night that a blanket is not comfortable. Mines. Humbolt styled Mexico the "treasury house of the world." Experts say that there is not a min- eral known to the scientific world, except cryolite, that is not found in the country. Of the 24 states of the Republic, all except three have mines. While there are in operation 21,000 mines, cover- ing 633,213 acres of ground, and employing 500,- 000 men, it is claimed that fully three-fourths of the mineral possibilities are yet to be developed. The output of gold for the year 1907-8 was $31,- 921,019, while that of silver for the same period was $93,034,750. Of other metals such as copper and lead, the total production for that year was $158,430,625. Dr. F. S. Borton, of Puebla, is re- sponsible for the estimate that during the past 400 years Mexico has supplied one-half of the sil- ver output of the world. Iron Mountain, in the state of Durango, a gigantic helmet-shaped hill about a mile long, 700 feet high and 2000 feet wide, is composed almost totally of iron. Geolo- gists say that it has 600,000,000 tons of iron and is worth $5,000,000,000,000. » Agriculture. The year divides itself into two seasons, the wet and the dry. The former lasts from June till Sep- tember, while during the remaining eight months 13 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. it generally does not rain. Occasionally it does, though the rainfall is very light. On the table lands it often happens that the rains do not begin till July and August, too late for the farmer to plant. Consequently large areas of this section are wholly dependent on the facilities for irriga- tion. Due to the broken strata formation of the plateau, there are few springs and perennial streams that can be utilized for irrigation; but the civil engineer has come to the rescue of the drought-smitten country and collected the rainfall into dams, which are often made by throwing an embankment across the mouth of a canon. These have made the desert places yield abundant har- vests. Recently the government appropriated $25,000,000 to further projects for irrigation. Al- ready plans have been perfected by which over a million acres of land are to be irrigated in the val- ley of Mexico. One year and a half ago the gov- ernment granted a concession to a company to pump water out of Lake Chapala in quantities sufficient to irrigate 440,000 acres. Where the rainfall is sufficient, or where arti- ficial methods have watered the soil, its produc- tiveness is such that Dr. Wm. Butler, for many years missionary in 'the Republic, has calculated that the country is capable of sustaining one hun- dred millions of population. Crops may be planted in February and gathering them in June, leaves ample time for a second harvest before the 14 THE COUNTRY. cold waves of December come. Sugar cane, one of the principal crops, is planted once in 7 to 12 years, maturing in one year, and each successive year sprouting and developing from the old root. Some fields have been harvested for 15 consecu- tive years. Cotton is perennial and needs to be planted only once in ten years. The methods of agriculture are primitive. The ox is used exclus- ively in the cultivation of the land, and the plow is precisely the same type as that used in the days of our Lord. Many of the large farms or "hacien- das" prefer modern machinery, but the "peon" does not take to the up-to-date ways, and it is easier to leave him to follow in the steps of his fathers and forefathers. Corn, sugar cane, and cot- ton are the three leading agricultural products, in the face of the fact that during the last few years the boll weevil has wrought widespread havoc with the cotton plantations. Peculiar Plants. Rubber. — South of the isthmus and stretching to the borders of Guatamala lie the rubber lands. The trees are planted from ten to thirty feet apart, leaving the intervening space for coffee or cacao plants. When twelve years old the tree begins to produce about three gallons of milk each year, which yields about one-half of a pound of rubber. Extraordinary trees will measure 2 feet in diame- ter and yield 12 gallons of milk or 2 pounds of IS MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. rubber annually. The states of Chiapas and Ta- basco are famous for their rubber plantations, some of which have orchards of 50,000 trees. Orange. — Extremely beautiful is a well cultivat- ed orange grove, such as may be found in the states of San Luis Potosi, Jalisco, Tamaulipas and Sinaloa. Planted in beds from the seed, the trees are reset when one year old. Ordinarily they be- gin to bear fruit after five years. They are shy of the cold and thrive best on the lower lands. The best orchards are laid out allowing 100 trees to the acre, each tree yielding from 1000 to 2000 oranges, though it is not uncommon to see one loaded down with 3000. The crop is ready to be gathered in September, which fact has given the Mexican orange a ready sale on the markets of Chicago and New York, since the California and Florida fruit ripens later. Modern scientific meth- ods, however, have hastened the maturing of these competing groves, till the Mexican orange has lit- tle advantage. This, with the high tariff of one dollar on each box, and the added freight, has proved a sore discouragement to orange growers on this side of the Rio Grande. Banana. — It is found over nearly all the tropics. Besides being a delicious article of food, the stalks and leaves have properties that render them useful for the manufacture of paper. Though the stalk dies after having yielded its first fruit, still it needs to be planted but once, and then 16 THE COUNTRY. from sprouts. Many of these spring up around the parent plant. Only 18 months are required for fruitage. So abundant is the yield that down on the rich land of Chiapas and Vera Cruz bunches are gathered weighing 80 pounds. From 600 to 800 plants can be placed on an acre of land. Ex- perts say that the banana yields 440 times the food that a potato does to the acre, and 130 times that of wheat. The bunches are cut while green and shipped to northern markets, where in hermetic- ally sealed rooms they ripen in two or three days. Heneqaen. — This plant grows in the states of Tamaulipas and Yucatan. In the latter state it is the principal industry of the people. It is usually set out from cuttings taken from the stalk when about 18 inches high. These are thrown in heaps where they lie till they seem decayed and utterly worthless. Then they are set 7 feet apart and in rows 4 feet distant from each other. After 6 years it will begin to yield fiber. "It grows in the form of a conical spike, which springs from the center, and which is soon circled by successive rings of long sword-like leaves, which radiate from it." A mature plant will bear from 6 to 8 rings, with 1 to 15 leaves radiating. The lower rings are cut out each year, the cutting and the developing being almost continuous. The average life of the productive plant is 16 years. With a large knife, the leaves are cut, and by machinery are scraped, the pulp and the fiber being separated. Just as M-2 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. soon as the leaves are dry, they are baled for ship- ment. So profitable is the fiber that it has been styled the "green gold of Yucatan," the annual output ranging in the neighborhood of 600,000 bales. Wheat 22,000,000 Bean MEXICO'S ANNUAL AGRICULTURAL OUTPUT. Corn $100,000,000 Coffee $17,000,000 12,000,000 7,000,000 3,000,000 6,000,000 5,000,000 2,000,000 1,000,000 Barley 7,000,000 Sugar Cane 45,000,000 Cotton 35,000,000 Heniquen 24,000,000 Ixtle 4,000,000 Peanuts 1,000,000 Tobacco Gum Pepper Lumber Potatoes Sarsaparilla, etc, 18 TYPICAL INDIAN HUT IN THE "TIERRA CALIENTE. te -'■ ^-*&- ^ -Sift. • A TYPICAL NATIVE OF THE LOWER CLASS. A TYPE OF INDIAN GIRLS IN OAXACA CHAPTER II. THE PEOPLE. The population of Mexico numbered 13,607,259, according to the last census. The male and fe- male proportion are almost equally divided, the latter having a majority of 103,023. These figures are only approximately accurate, for the Indians of the remote mountain districts shun the census gatherer, suspecting that the government is seek- ing to impose an extra tax. Reliable authorities reckon that the present population is at least fif- teen millions. Of these, thirty-eight per cent are of ■ the Indian race, nineteen per cent are of the white race, and the remaining forty-three per cent are mixed. The Iberian, Semite, Hamite, Goth, Vandal, Roman and Celt races all mingled their blood with that of the Aztec in that stream of fortune-seekers who invaded Mexico during the days of the Conquest. No other American people have the blood of more races in their veins. The Indian. There are 5,170,758 Indians scattered over the Republic. Of the sixty- two languages spoken in the country, fifty-two are Indian dialects, and many of them are as distinct as French from Hin- dustani. Only one or two of these dialects have been reduced to written form. It is said that fully two million Indians are utterly ignorant of the Spanish tongue. J 9 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. The typical Indians are not hunters with bow and arrow, as so often fancied, but farmers, with their corn fields high up on the mountain. They are exceedingly shy. They prefer the isolation of the inaccessible parts, and rarely come down to mingle with the other races, except on market days, when they come to the plazas to make their purchases. Barring their fondness for rum, which is so deeply rooted in their being that they will barter the most essential foodstuffs for a drink, they are a hard-working and enduring race. Though the government grants them all the rights of citizenship, as a race they exercise little influ- ence on the destiny of the nation, save as here and there from their quiet tribes have arisen heroes who have been veritable makers of Mexi- can history. Juarez, who framed and fought suc- cessfully for the enactment of the Reform laws that freed the country from the domination of the Roman Catholic hierarchy; Morelos and Guerrero, who bore bravely forward the banner of Independ- ence which Hidalgo had unfurled; and Altamirano, recognized in literary circles as one of the great masters, — all were full-blooded Indians. And so was the mother of President Diaz, who has piloted the ship of state for thirty-five years. The Foreign Population. The influx of foreign population during recent years has been marked. One hundred thousand souls have come from forty different nationalities 20 THE PEOPLE. of the earth. Of these, the immigrants from the United States are in the front rank, there being 40,000 in the country, of which number 15,000 are residents of Mexico City. The Spaniards number 20,000, and the English 5000. Ten thousand Chinese have emigrated to Mexico, still clinging to Taoism, the faith of their fathers, and 8000 Jap- anese, who are Shintoists. Curiously enough, there are very few negroes in the country. One may be seen here and there in the seaport towns, but in the interior there are absolutely none, save the occasional porter on a Pullman car. Recently an American company imported two thousand to work on their plantation. At first they did splen- did service, but finally became useless and all were discharged. The government compelled the com- pany to carry them back to the States. It is al- leged that the negro is unable to compete with the native laborer, and for that reason does not cross the Rio Grande to seek fortune. Form ■ of Government. The constitution provides for a form of govern- ment that is representative, democratic and fed- eral. The states are vested with full and sovereign power, touching all questions that have to do with the internal administration. At the same time they are united in one central and federal head, which handles all matters of interstate and inter- national relations. The governmental functions 21 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. are divided into three departments, the legislative, the executive and the judicial. The legislative body comprises the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The former is composed of two senators from each state, and the latter of one representa- tive from every 40,000 inhabitants. The execu- tive is the president, elected every six years, and receives a salary of $50,000 annually. He may be elected indefinitely. The judicial branch em- braces the Circuit and Supreme courts. The gov- ernment of the states is modeled after the plan of that of the nation. Each state is divided into dis- tricts, which are under the jurisdiction of "jefes," who are answerable to the governors of the states. The governors are appointed by the federal au- thorities at Mexico City, and the "jefes" by the governors. The Army. The law fixes the regular army at 30,000 men, besides a first reserve of 28,000 and a second of 150,000. The soldiers are stationed over the Re- public at the capitals of the military districts. Fully one-third of the officers are men trained at the military academy of Chapultepec. Not a small part of the army is composed of criminals, who serve the country as a punishment. The plan is a capital one, for while they do not make the best soldiers, in case of war the reserve forces are al- ways available. Besides the regular army, each district has a mounted, volunteer force known as 22 A, ^^■Rh BASKET CARRIER. WATER CARRIER. MILK MAN. THE PEOPLE. the "rurales." These are a police body, consti- tuted by the government, without pay. At stated times they report to their respective "jefes" for inspection. Thirty years ago* the country was in- fested with robbers, and the highways were no- where safe. President Diaz hit on this plan for their extermination. The "rurales" have been the terror of the highway bandits, and now traveling is safe wellnigh everywhere. The Navy. Mexico makes no pretensions toward equipping a navy to match those of the great powers of the world. And she is wise. All that is attempted is a marine force, capable of maintaining peace along the coast, for Mexico is, and expects to be, at peace with all the world. Three hundred and fifty men with one hundred and fifty officers con- stitute the naval equipment. Customs. Mexican life has much in common with the Ori- ental customs of the days of our Lord. So strik- ing is the resemblance that not a few ethnologists believe that the pioneer settlers that antedated the Toltecs, wandered from Western Asia. Women wear their "rebosas" or shawls over their heads, just as the traveler may see them on the streets of Jerusalem now, save that the latter cover the head more completely. Modern Rebeccas gather about 23 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. the wells of the Mexican towns to draw water for the donkeys and cows, as did the fair damsel of Bethuel, when the servant of Abraham drew near in quest of a wife for his master's son. They carry homeward the water in the earthen pots that sit most gracefully on their heads, precisely as we have seen them do about the wells of Cana and Nazareth. The common laborer wears his san- dals, made after the identical style of those the apostles had when they followed the Master over the hills of Galilee. The plow, which Elisha fol- lowed up and down the furrow when Elijah called him to take up his mantle soon to fall, is the exact prototype of those seen in any Mexican field, and drawn by oxen just as then, with the yoke tied to the horns by strong bands of leather. The houses are built with flat roofs, like the home of Simon of Joppa, where Peter was praying when the messen- gers came from Cornelius. The donkey is the same beast of burden for the common people. Mexican life becomes a most helpful commentary on the gospels that record the walk and words of our Lord. Plantation Life. Like the Orientals, the people live almost ex- clusively in cities, towns and ranches. It is rare to find isolated homes scattered through the coun- try. From the towns they will go for miles into the country to till the land. Among the Oaxaca 24 THE PEOPLE. Indians it is not uncommon for them to cultivate their corn fields thirty miles away, and bring" all the produce home on their backs. The greater proportion of the laboring class are gathered on plantations or "haciendas." These immense farms are vestiges of the old Spanish re- gime, when the king divided the lands and passed the parcelled tracts into the hands of the new settlers. The style of the "hacienda" corresponds exactly to< that of the feudal system of Europe, save that the government has eliminated the en- slaving feature, though it often happens that the "peons" of the "haciendas" are practically slaves. In the center of the "hacienda" stands the mansion of the owner, and around it are the huts of the laborers, reaching far off into the surrounding plain. In the early days the main building was enclosed by an impregnable wall, and when at- tacked by invading robbers, which often happened, all ran into the castle enclosure for protection. Hard by the "hacendados" mansion stands the chapel, where the Catholic priests say mass for the edification (?) of the people. The owner generally resides in a neighboring city, leaving his interests in the care of an overseer. Not unfrequently these plantations are as large as entire counties of the United States. Near by is one that will measure thirty-five miles square, and it is not exceptional. They are known to command as many as 20,000 laborers, whose daily wages will rarely exceed 25 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. twenty-five cents silver or twelve cents United States currency. This system of "haciendas" has sorely checked the progress of agriculture, and there will dawn a better day when these immense tracts of land are divided and sold to different parties. The Homes. The houses are made mostly after the same model; square-shaped, of one story, and with a roof well-nigh flat. No space is left for the front 'yard. The "zewuan" (front door) opens on the sidewalk. The entire yard is enclosed by a high wall, so that with the waiting boy sleeping just inside the front door, there is little chance for robbers to enter. The windows are enclosed with iron bars. These were necessary years ago, when at any hour the home might be invaded by a band of bandits, and modern changes have not disturbed these protec- tions. The home is built around a court, which is nearly always filled with choicest flowers. If there is lacking the front yard, with its rich Ken- tucky blue grass, the loss is somewhat compen- sated for by the inside court or "patio," which is always refreshing. Even among the poor, it is rare to find a home without flowers. On the far- away ranches one may see the humble cottage beautified with pots of flowers, the water with which to keep them alive being carried a mile or more on the heads of the women. The advantages 26 # THE PEOPLE. of good ventilation are not generally recognized. Very often among the poorer classes may be seen homes with no windows at all, but two doors which are tightly closed at night. Stoves and fire- places are not used even, in the high climates of eight and ten thousand feet. The rich wrap their furs about them, while the poor grin and bear it. The ordinary hut of the Indian is made of a thatched roof of grass, walled with canes and mother earth for a floor. Sometimes the walls are daubed with simple mud. Most often they are not. The chilly winds from the north have free pass through the cane walls. The bed is a simple mat of cane or grass, on which they sleep contentedly, covered with their blanket. If the thermometer falls very low they will kindle a fire in the middle of the room and gather about the little blaze to keep warm. National Dishes. From the humblest hut to the homes whose tables afford the choicest menu, "tortillas" and "frijoles" are the favorite dishes. Hardly a table is spread without these, which are seasoned with red pepper and to spare. The "frijole" resembles the Boston baked bean. It is first well boiled and then fried with lard. The "tortilla" is a corn cake, made from the meal ground on the "me tat e" or rock, and made always by the women. The corn is first boiled in lime water, after which it is ground on the "metate" into a very fine meal called "nix- 27 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. tamal," then made into small round cakes and baked on an earthen plate or sheet of iron called "comal." The high rate of mortality among the women of the lower class has been attributed to this hard work of bending over the rock and grind- ing the corn for the "tortillas," During the last few years, small mills, operated by electricity or gasoline motors, have been introduced into the country, and they have proven a veritable boon to woman. Thousands and thousands of families live year after year whose bill of fare never gets be- yond the "frijoles" and "tortillas/' with an abun- dance of pepper to be sure. And there are multi- tudes whose daily food consists of "tortillas" and pepper, and these often served cold. Typical Traits. The people are kind and hospitable to a fault. The traveler will never want for a resting place, unless he be a Protestant against whom the Cath- olic priest has embittered the hearts of the people. Patients often come to our hospital whom we are not able to receive on account of the contagion of their disease. These have little trouble to find a lodging place, though they be strangers in the town. Families living in a tiny hut and with a large family, will unhesitatingly share the limited comforts of their home to the sick seeking health. Beggars abound, yet they rarely knock at a door and are denied a bit of bread. 28 THE PEOPLE. To be "simpatico" or amiable is counted one of the cardinal virtues and a sure mark of good breed- ing. The rich, and even the poorest, on making your acquaintance, will invariably tell you that they now become your servants and their homes are at your orders. To praise a thing, be it a jewel, a horse, a house or a plantation, one is sure to have it said that it is yours. To be sure this is not to be taken literally. It is but a cordial outburst of gen- erosity, and the recipient is to decline with thanks. Not all the foreigners understand. A wild westerner was introduced to a Mexican Sefior on the street, who most politely placed himself at his orders, and did the same with his home. The Mexican gentleman was amazed on returning home to find the American seated in his parlor in his best chair, with his soiled boots resting on the sofa, and a cigar in his mouth. "Well, Colonel, I've come," remarked the jolly fellow from the wild West. Courtship and Marriage. "Playing bear" is the current phrase for courting. When a young man falls in love, he stands about the street in front of the home of his lady love, watching the windows and balconies. By the use of a language without words, she under- stands his movements, and if Cupid's arrows have pierced her heart, she will appear on the balcony or at the window or respond by a gentle wave of the curtain. All his leisure hours are spent about 29 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. the street of her home to catch a glimpse of his "novia," At first she appears to rebuff him, but he knows how to interpret and continues to come. After a few days, she will come to the window to speak to him. The next day she will stay a little longer. Then follows the regular calls at her win- dow where he lingers till the late hours of mid- night, he standing on the sidewalk and holding her hand through the iron bars of the window. He is not permitted to enter the home till some inti- mate friend has got special permission from her parents. Even then the lovers are not left alone. A third party is always present and often the en- tire family. If he wins his suit, he is supposed to furnish the full bridal trousseau, generally white satin or silk, and if he is from the better class, the several dresses will cost him hundreds of dollars. The wealthiest class order direct from Paris. Here, at least, the American feels that he has the decided advantage. Eighteen days before the marriage, the groom brings the civil judge to the home of the bride, with four witnesses, before whom the contracting parties declare their purpose of matrimony. This is called the presentation. Immediately the judge gives public notice that in eighteen days, the two are to be united in holy wedlock unless valid ob- jection is filed against it. At the expiration of the specified time, the groom again brings the wit- nesses and judge, and the marriage is consummat- 30 THE PEOPLE. ed. The judge charges ten dollars for each trip. The common people go through the same cere- mony, save that they meet the civil officer in his office, for which no charge is allowed. The gov- ernment recognizes no ecclesiastical ceremony. Having complied with the civil requirements, the bride and groom pass through the third stage, that of the ecclesiastical ceremony, where the par- ish priest makes them one. For his services the spiritual father (?) charges any price, even to one hundred dollars, if the groom comes from the up- per grades of society. And even if not, he will hardly reduce his fee to less than twenty dollars. He insists that the legal ceremony has no value before God. And this fact, with the enormous fees exacted by the priests, has brought on the shameful condition of thousands and thousands of families over the country, in which the father and mother are living together unmarried, not being able tOi pay the necessary fee, and having been taught that the civil marriage is a farce. Music. All Mexicans are lovers of music, and few are without some musical talent. Among the upper classes, nearly every home has a piano. On mis- sionary trips we have found pianos in mountain towns fifty-five miles from the nearest railroad sta- tion, where there was no road better than a mere donkey trail. Indians had carried the pianos 31 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. over those fifty-five miles, and across bridgeless rivers. Every town of moderate size has a band, and most of them are well worth hearing. These give weekly concerts in the plaza or public park. Peo- ple of all classes gather with their families in the evening and walk round and round while the band plays, until about ten o'clock. It is the favorite place for the young people to make love, coming around to meet each other, smile and pass on. These concerts are a veritable blessing to the hum- bler classes after the day's work is over. There all distinctions are blotted out. The rich and poor meet together. Bull Fights — The National Sport. Sabbath afternoon is the time always set, for then is drawn the largest crowds. They are held in immense amphitheaters, some of them with a seating capacity of 20,000 persons. The size of the audiences may be imagined from the fact that at times the gate receipts will run up to $30,000 to $40,000. The cost of the tickets range from five dollars down to fifty cents. It is a scene of blood. The fiercest bulls, worth as much as eight hundred dollars, are brought into the ring. The "picadores," lancers, mounted on horses, stick sharp barbs into the shoulders of the animal till he is wild with rage. The horse is 32 THE PEOPLE. blindfolded so as to make him insensible of the danger. Thus the rider dashes to the front of the charging bull and plants the keen daggers into his shoulders. Early in the fight the horse is gored, but he is spurred on to charge again and again, till he falls from loss of blood and dies. Another and another is brought in to share the same fate. Each time the rider escapes. The bull, now with his shoulders stinging from the deep pricks of the daggers, having gored to death horse after horse, frenzied with anger, is ready for the fighter who enters on foot. Coolly walking to the front of the bull, which quicker than the clock strikes a second, dashes for his tormenter, the lat- ter holds out his red cloak, behind which he pre- tends to shield himself, while through it the ani- mal drives his horns thinking to put an end to his enemy, to find that the agile fighter has quietly stepped aside and is ready for another attack. This is repeated till the bull is discouraged. His sharp horns, backed by the strength of a lion, are no match for the lightning-like movements of the enemy, coupled with the nerves of steel. Finally the fighter lays aside his red cape and waits for the rush of the doomed bull. With the grit of a tiger he points a keen lance and drives it into the heart of the animal, while the crowd applauds it- self hoarse. The hero retires from the ring, with the bull and horses weltering in blood. It must be a most revolting and sickening sight. 33 M-3 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. At times the fighter will receive as much as four thousand dollars for the work of a single after- noon. The annual slaughter of a fighter, who has his season fully occupied, is from one hundred to two hundred bulls. The "torero" or fighter is generally from the lower ranks of society, and is lionized very much as are the prize fighters by the rabble of the United States. President Diaz is against the inhuman practice, and often have fights been prohibited in the Federal District, but only when the iron arm of law makes a fighter liable to years in a penitentiary cell, will the bloody amusement come to an end. One thing sure. It will die hard. But there is hope. There is an Anti-Bullfighting Society at work, and one sena- tor has had the courage to introduce a measure in the National Congress that would place the fight under the ban of law. 34 CHAPTER III. HISTORY. When the Spanish conquerors came to Mexico they found races that had developed high grades of civilization. Among other marks of advance- ment, they had invented a system of picture writ- ing by means of which they transmitted their thoughts and their history to succeeding genera- tions. At Tenoehtilan, the Aztec capital, was locat- ed their great library, in which they had stored away manuscripts that told of those long epochs of pre-historic times. Juan Zumarrago, one of the pioneer Roman Catholic bishops, true to the spirit that always has characterized that church that would extinguish all light and usher us back into the dark ages, ordered the library burned, and thus destroyed those veritable literary treasures, those documents that are the only authoritative source of light on that long range of history that reaches far back into the dark unknown. Pre-historic Tribes. One thing is doubly sure. Thousands of years ago there thrived in Mexico empires with a civili- zation not to be despised. To this testify silent, half-buried ruins scattered all over the land. Such are the pyramids of Cholula, whose base covers 20 acres and rises 177 feet high, with an apex measur- 35 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. ing 144 ft. by 202 ft. The Indian legends say that the band of giants began to build a tower by which to reach the celestial lands, but the gods became angry and demolished their work. At Teotihua- can, 27 miles from Mexico City, is a range of mounds two and a half miles long and two miles wide, the largest being the Pyramid of the Sun, whose base is equal to that of Gizeh, the greatest of the Egyptian pyramids, and with half its height. Close by nestles that of the Moon, almost as large, while around these cluster hundreds of smaller pyramids. All these bear a most striking resem- blance to those marvels of architecture scattered up and down the Nile valley. The Palenque ruins, in the state of Chiapas, are so old that archaeolo- gists have been trying to prove that they mark the cradle of the human race. The buried cities of Chicken-Itza in Yucatan, with the overgrown forests, rival some of those rare specimens of archi- tecture that Pericles built on the hills of Athens. These remnants of those far remote ages, that re- mind us of the Parthenon or the temples of those old master builders on the Nile, bear unmistakable witness that in Mexico empires rose, flourished, and climbed to laudable heights of civilization. Then their glory dimmed and faded. We know not when, nor why nor how. From whence came these tribes? Ethnologists disagree. Some affirm that they came from Europe; others that they were of African descent; 36 HISTORY. while others still trace their origin to the Semitic races of Asia. Of the last theory the eminent an- thropologist, Humbolt, was the leading champion. He is said to have observed more American tribes than any other traveler and fully believed that the primitive races of America were closely akin to Asiatic people. They came by way of Behring Strait, or sailed across the Pacific precisely as many Japanese junks are known to have drifted over to American shores. Toltecs. But discarding legendary lore and dealing with the earliest authenticated history, the Toltecs came from the north during the seventh century and overran the valley of Mexico, founding there their capital city, Tula, and building up an empire of four million souls. They were not a warlike people, but loved peaceful ways, devoting them- selves to the cultivation of the arts and the more humble sons of toil, to the quiet pursuits of agri- culture. Like the Pharaohs, they were master builders, and attained such skill that their name has become a synonym for architecture. They dug into the earth, developed the mines and turned the metals to most excellent uses. They studied the heavenly bodies and wrought out a complex ar- rangement of time that placed them far in advance of their age. They invented a system of hiero- glyphic writing that was used for centuries, and compares favorably with the clay tablets used as 37 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. letters by the Babylonians, and now unearthed on the banks of the Tigris. They planted cotton and wove for themselves clothes. For 400 years the Toltecs prospered. At last they discovered the drink "pulque," a most injurious intoxicant, and that marked the date of their political decline. They were soon displaced by the Chichimecas, who organized a powerful military government. These rude sons of the forest lived on the warpath and thought little on those things that make for peace and progress. The Aztecs. Quickly these races were followed by others, of which the Aztecs were the principal tribe. Enter- ing the country from the northwest, after a series of wanderings, they came to the shores of Lake Texcoco. There they saw perched on a prickly pear leaning over the edge of the water, a large eagle with a serpent in his talons, and with his great breast open to the rising sun. The oracle declared this auspicious omen to be indicative of the will of the gods that they should make that spot their future home, and so they did. They built by the lake, huts of reeds and rushes and lived on the fish of the waters of Texcoco. These new- comers were the lineal descendants of the native Indian tribes of Mexico. From Tenochtilan they pushed the limits of their territory toward all the cardinal points till they were masters of the entire country. 38 HISTORY. These Aztecs were the sternest religionists, teaching "three states of future existence: (i) Where those with no other merit than having a natural death were to enjoy a negative existence — everlasting sleep. (2) Where the wicked were to suffer in everlasting darkness for their sins. (3) Where those who died in battle or by sacrifice passed immediately with songs and dances into* the presence of the sun god."* The god of » war, Huit- zilopochtli, was the central figure in all their devo- tions, and a bloody monster he was. To him was erected on the very spot where now stands the cathedral of Mexico City, a temple known as the "Teocali," a kind of pyramidal structure enclosed within a mighty wall, where assembled as many as 40,000 on feast days. Ahuitzotl dedicated the teocali in i486, celebrating the occasion by the sacrifice of 70,000 prisoners of war. Terry says that they were formed in a line two miles long, and that the sacrifice, or better said, the butchery, consumed two days. On the teocali was a huge rock, where the victims were flayed alive. Five priests stretched the unfortunate victim upon the convex rock while the sixth cut out his heart; and while yet smoking, it was cast at the feet of Huitzilopochtli. Bishop Zumarrago calculated that 20,000 prisoners were thus mercilessly slaughtered each year, in which bloody rites officiated 50,000 priests. • Mexico Coming into Light. — Butler, page 27. 39 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. Finally, there arose that mighty prophet of Az- tec mythology, who heralded reform measures, as did Confucius in China, or Buddha in India. It was Quetzalcoatl, the "Fair God" of Lew Wallace. He came from Tlapallan, the distant Orient where he had been a high priest. With long hair and flowing beard, he was ever attended with song birds, and at his command the earth teemed with flowers of intoxicating perfume, fruits and most abundant harvests. The ascetic priest raised his voice against the inhuman butchery of prisoners, and hurled his anathemas at the heartless god of war. He established houses of prayer, taught the people to do penance, to till the land and to turn from their warpaths to ways of industry and peace. His crusade made for him a mortal enemy in Tez- catlipoca, who gave him a drink of poison which well-nigh bereft him of his reason, and the pure- minded prophet went out to wander, followed by his song birds. At last he embarked on a boat made of entwined snakes, and sailed away toward the setting sun, promising to return one day as a white man to wreak vengeance on his foes. The Aztec kingdom touched the zenith of its glory during the reign of Moctezuma, who was on the throne when Cortez landed at Vera Cruz, April 21, 15 19. The king had a relay system of runners or couriers throughout his realm, who carried hieroglyphic messages from the farther- most nook of the land to the royal palace. So 40 HISTORY. swift were these that it is said that fresh fish were served on the king's table 24 hours after they had been taken from the gulf, 260 miles distant. No sooner had the white man landed than these cour- iers rushed the news to Moctezuma. They were sure that Quetzalcoatl had fulfilled his promise to return, and their hearts quaked at the thought. The Spanish Conquest. The landing of Cortez was the first step in a series which resulted at last in the utter overthrow of the empire of the Moctezumas. With a daring seldom equalled and never surpassed, he sent one of his ships back to report to the king the found- ing • of the new kingdom and then set fire to all the rest. Nothing perhaps in all the bold exploits of ancient history exceeded the fearless resolution of the invader. With only 415 men he turned his back on the sunken hulls of the burned ships, thus cutting off all hope of escape, and set out for Tenochtilan, the Aztec capital, where lived 500,000 souls, and representing a kingdom of four or five million who thirsted for human blood. All these he would conquer with that handful of 415 men on foreign soil. And precisely that he did. Openly he confessed that he had a disease of the heart which only gold could cure, and driven by this mad thirst for the fabulous wealth of the new world, he butchered and burned Aztecs for almost two years. March- 41 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. ing toward the capital he made friends with the Tetomacs, who joined his invading forces. Pass- ing through the Republic of Tlaxcala he found tribes hostile to Moctezuma who gladly rallied to the Spanish banner to seek vengeance on their foes. With these allies Cortez pushed on toward his goal, mercilessly murdering 6,000 Indians as he neared Tenochtilan. Moctezuma came out to meet Cortez with all the gorgeous equipage that the abounding gold and precious stones of his realm could invent. His attendants bore huge globes of gold as presents to the conqueror, beg- ging the Spaniards to return to their far-away land; but Cortez had come with a passion for gold and had seen enough to fan that zeal into a very consuming flame. He accepted the invitation of Moctezuma and marched into the capital, his sol- diers occupying the barracks of the palace. This royal hospitality the Spaniards reciprocated with the heartless treachery of making Moctezuma prisoner. The infuriated populace awoke to the full intent of the Spaniards and arose with a mighty vengeance to drive the hated "malinches" from their shores. To add fuel to the flame, the Spaniards stormed the "teocali" and robbed the sacred precincts of the guarded treasures. All Tenochtilan was in arms. With the hope of quell- ing the uprising, Cortez sent Moctezuma out on the roof of the palace to entreat the crowds to dis- perse. A stray arrow, hurled not at him, but 42 HISTORY. aimed at one of the Spaniards, wounded Mocte- zuma, from which the broken-hearted king- died. The situation grew worse with each hour. Fin- ally Cortez counselled his men to gather all the gold they could carry and follow him. Under the cover of darkness the Spaniards stole through the streets, hoping to pass unnoticed, but the Aztecs spied them, and before they could pass over the lake, the whole city was at their heels. History has called it "the sad night." The Indian wreaked to the full his long pent up fury. Fully three- fourths of the Spaniards and 4,000 allies fell to red- den the waters of Texcoco with their blood. $2,000,000 was lost in the midnight struggle. The disaster was such that the next morning even the stone-hearted Cortez sat on the shore of the lake under the shade of a tree that is still preserved in Tacubaya, and wept over the terrible havoc. His, however, was the spirit that never knows when it is defeated. He withdrew his weakened forces to Tlaxcala and there wintered. The following spring he laid siege to Tenochtilan. It has a parallel in the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, when "room was wanting for crosses and crosses for carcasses." For three months the poor Aztecs awaited their doom. At last the blow fell and from one hundred to two hundred thousand were massacred. Some 70,000 fled to the open country. The Spaniards remembered the "sad night" and had no mercy. Thus Mexico passed under the Spanish yoke, 43 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. and it was iron rule for three hundred years. Un- der a system of government by viceroys appointed by the king, the tribes were reduced to practical slavery. By royal decree the country was divided into districts, which were placed under the care (?) of favorites of the crown. All the Indians of those sections were turned over to them to be edu- cated and christianized. Left in the hands of the avaricious Spaniards, the system degenerated into a kind of peonage that was abject slavery. Laws were passed forbidding the Indian to trade with anyone save the Spaniards under penalty of death. Everything was taxed, even to the religious rites to be paid by the devotees. The clergy, the mili- tary and the favored Spaniards were subject to no tribunals of law. Nothing should be raised in Mexico that Spain could produce. "Vast archi- tectural piles, churches, colleges, convents, mon- asteries crowded each other in every city and in almost every village, built by the forced and unre- quited labor of the timorous converts."* So de- cimating was the dominating rule of the three hundred years that the population of the ancient capital was reduced to 8,000 souls. They were three centuries of grossest injustice, brazen-faced bribery, heart-sickening corruption, rapacious avarice, a story of wrongs too long to be recited, till at last the yoke became too galling to be borne and the national spirit cried out for life and liberty. * New Era in Old Mexico. — Winton, page 16. 44 HISTORY. Struggles for Independence. Don Miguel Hidalgo, on the morning of Sep- tember 1 6, 1810, rang the parish bell as a tocsin of war, and with the "grito de Dolores" (the cry of Dolores), now repeated every sixteenth of Sep- tember by the president and every mayor of the Republic, he rallied his parishioners, who were fired by his appeals for independence. In five days he had gathered 20,000 Indians. They marched on Guanajuato, which fell into their hands, with $5,000,000, which amount better prepared them for the death • struggle which was now on in dead earnest. "On to Mexico" was the cry, and it was heeded. Reaching the high mountain that over- looks the Capital City, the revolutionists halted. Hidalgo realized that Calleja, the Spanish viceroy, was preparing for a crushing blow, and that the well-diaciplined and thoroughly organized army of the crown was more than a match for his patriotic Indians, without either arms or discipline. To march on Mexico City and storm Chapultepec would be hardly less criminal than to lay the head of his patriotic army on the block ready for the executioner's ax. He turned northward, with the hope of being able to reach the United States, where he might secure the needed help for the coming struggle. The royal troops lost no time. They overtook and routed Hidalgo, who was be- trayed into their hands and shot. His head was sent back to Guanajuato, and hung on the corner 45 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. of the fort he had taken. There it remained for ten years. Successively arose heroes like Morelos and Guerrero, who taking up the mantle of their fallen leader, did nobly for the cause of rising truth. One by one they were captured and shot, till after ten years of blood and struggle, Mexico was declared free. Since then the country has passed through many local revolutions and several wars: that waged with the United States in 1846-48, by which all the territory north of the Rio Grande was ceded to the United States, for which the latter were to pay fifteen million dollars; that with France, who, under the pretext of collecting certain moneys due their subjects, organized a government of their own, placing Maximilian, an Austrian prince, on the throne. Led by the "little Indian" Juarez, the Mexican forces overthrew the self-imposed mon- archy in 1863 and condemned Maximilian to be shot. The Separation of Church and State. The Reform laws passed in 1874 separated church and state. The liberal party were led to victory by Juarez, who has been ranked by Victor Hugo with Abraham Lincoln in point of courage and far-sighted statesmanship. Though forever anathematized by the Romish church and con- signed (?) to the lowest realms of the bottomless pit, he is loved throughout the land as the true 46 GENERAL PORFIRIO DIAZ, PRESIDENT OF MEXICO. HISTORY. emancipator of his country. The reform enact- ments declared the church and state forever sep- arate, granted liberty of worship, made all citizens, even the bishops and archbishops, amenable to the laws of the land, established marriage as a civil contract and forbade any religious body the right to hold property, confiscating the vast estates and buildings held by the Catholic church, to the amount of $90,000,000. The Administration of Gen. Porfirio Diaz. General Porfirio Diaz was made president in 1876, and with a short interim of four years, he has been at the helm of state all through these thirty-four years, leading his country to the front rank among the prosperous nations of the world. It is essentially the Mexico of Diaz, a land solvent financially, and facing a future rich with promise. While the national debt is $380,000,000, national credit stands with the best at all the American and European courts. In spite of the fact that $50,- 000,000 had been expended on public works at the close of the years 1908-9, the reserves of avail- able cash amounted to $82,566,825. During the same year the revenue receipts were $111,771,867, while the governmental expenditures were only $93,177,441, leaving in the national treasury a sur- plus of $18,594,426, a net gain above the cost of operating the various departments of the Repub- lic. Can many nations present a better balance 47 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. sheet? The principal railroads of the country have been merged into one vast system, in which the government owns the majority of the share capi- tal, placing lines 5272 miles long under federal control. The central towns of the Republic are connected by a network of telegraph lines 45,000 miles long, and all owned by the government. The Express companies, too, have passed into federal hands. During the year 1908-9 the imports of the nation were $156,504,447, while the exports were $231,101,795. While according to the census of 1900 only six- teen per cent, of the population could read and write, the governmental records for 1907 report that there were in the Republic 9710 schools under Federal control, and 2230 private schools. These were maintained at a cost of $8,980,868.77. The Mexican Herald, the leading English daily of the Republic, in its issue of December 26, 1909, as- serted that there was practically one school for every municipality of the Republic, and that fully one million children were attending these schools. In Mexico City has been established a national library with 205,000 volumes. Scattered over the country are 138 public libraries, 33 museums for scientific purposes, 11 meteorological observator- ies. The spirit of enlightenment has been encour- aged till 702 newspapers are issued, of which the Imparcial, of Mexico City, is the leading daily, with a circulation of 75,000. 48 CHAPTER IV. RELIGION. Baptized Paganism. Cortez, who outraged the moral sense of man- kind by his merciless butchery of thousands and thousands of innocent Indians, had come to Mex- ico with the avowed purpose of converting the natives. He had sailed under the protection of St. John and St. James. On his standard blazed a red cross embroidered with gold. He led the way, and in the wake of his army followed the Catholic priests, who would help turn the Aztec kingdom to the Romish faith. The military leader and the spiritual advisers worked hand in hand, and by sheer force of arms the nation accepted the new faith. Prescott relates one of the many times when at Cozmel the Indian was loathe to abandon his idols. Cortez ordered the images hurled from the "Teo- cali" or temple and mass to be said to the crowds of 'natives, the new converts (?) to Romanism. In this way, adds Prescott, "they demolished in a short while all the Aztec temples, great and small, SO' that not a vestige of them remained." Con- quered, but not convinced, the natives became Catholics. And it was a task of wholesale con- version. To teach the multitudes a few phrases of prayer to the virgin, sprinkle over them the holy 49 M-4 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. water sufficed, they said, to work within them the transforming regeneration of the gospel. The priests boasted that their ordinary day's work was from ten to twenty thousand souls.* In the course of a few years after the reduction of the Mexican empire, the sacrament was administered to more than four millions. General Vicente Palacio, a Mexican historian, wrote that "the people conquered, did not have even a remote idea of Christian doctrine or Cath- olic worship; but they looked upon their conver- sion to that doctrine and worship as a necessary consequence of their defeat in battle, and an in- dispensable requisite which affirmed their vassal- age to the Spanish monarch. The conquered na- tives came to the conclusion that conversion and baptism were the most powerful shield behind which to protect themselves from further cruelties. They therefore entered the towns en masse, ask- ing the missionaries to baptize them, and in search of the precious guarantees of life and liberty, t It was this that forced Humbolt, the great traveler, to admit "that the introduction of the Romish re- ligion had no other effect on the Mexican than to substitute new ceremonies and symbols for the rites of a sanguinary worship. Dogma has not succeeded dogma, but ceremony to ceremony. ,, Nor is Abbott's commentary unjust "that Chris- * Mexico in Transition. — Butler, page 11. tQuoted in Latin America, Brown, pages 74, 75. 50 RELIGION. tianity, instead of fulfilling its mission of enlighten- ing, converting and sanctifying the people, was it- self converted. Paganism was baptized and Chris- tianity was paganized." So zealous were these Castilian kings to co-op- erate with the propagandists of the new faith that laws were formulated that would practically drive the Indian into the Romish fold. For example, a law was enacted making only Christian children eligible to inherit the property of their fathers. The chiefs were given the right to compel the members of his tribe to accept the Catholic faith. Thus millions flocked to the religion of the con- querors, though still pagans at heart and outright idolaters. All this recital of so-called conversion has its counterpart in the dreary chapter of history, when Islam overran Africa and at the point of the sword made the unlettered negroes followers of Moham- med, till the whole Sudan looked to the prophet of Mecca for their salvation. Precisely thus did the Spanish iconoclasts make Mexico Roman Catholic. By the drawn sword of steel were the natives won and not by the conviction of head and heart. This method of conversion by force of arms pro- duced » a church, Christian in name but Aztec in practice. The people were still idolaters; the only difference being that where once they worshipped the Aztec idols now they bowed down before the innumerable images of the Roman Catholic 5i MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. Church. The Indian rites of worship were not one whit more idolatrous than the Romish system of saint worship. Hon. Matias Romero, who was for quite a while the Mexican minister to the United States, says, "It is true that a great many Mexicans, namely the Indians, do not know much about their religion and keep to their old idolatry, having only changed their idols, that is, replaced their old deities with the images of the Catholic Church." Latin America-Brown page 53. Dr. F. S. Borton, of the Methodist Theological Seminary, of Puebla, writes, "The bulk of the eight or ten millions of Indians here are but thinly white- washed pagan idolaters in spirit and practice, though not in name, because they are not only image worshippers as to the saints and the virgin, but they actually worship stones and pray to them, offering them fruit and food and fearing their dis- pleasure."* He tells of an interview with a priest in the mountains of that state, who told him that he once had occasion to take in pieces a large cross that the Indians were worshipping, and found that it contained a large stuffed owl, the Indian symbol of an evil spirit. It was this that they had been secretly worshipping and not the Cross. Lightning struck a church near Puebla and rent in twain the large image of the virgin, and lo it was a pagan idol of stone, one of the • Materialistic and Idolatrous Worship in Mexico. — Mrs. Butler, pace 6. 52 RELIGION. ancient goddesses of the Aztecs. Campbell tells of feasts of the Catholics, where the dance of the natives is the very same as that of the Aztecs be- fore the Teocali, facts that missionaries see for themselves year after year. Romish Idolatry. This idolatry has corrupted the entire Catholic body. Not only the ignorant Indian, but the high- er classes with Spanish blood in their veins, have gone after idols. The whole land is given to idol- atry. Mrs. J. W. Butler, for thirty-five years mis- sionary in Mexico, has calculated that in the churches alone there are 250,000 images. This says nothing of those in the homes. One can count as many as 25 at times in a single little cottage. With a population of fifteen million souls, the read- er can make an approximate estimate of the num- ber of idols in the Republic. It is not so difficult to find gods of wood and stone in Mexico as in Athens, and yet the philosophers used to affirm that men were more scarce than gods. There they were on every street corner. In Mexico they abound in all the homes. Like Ephesus with its silversmiths who plied the sale of the tiny images of the goddess of Diana, every town of Mexico has its image makers, and it is the same paying trade. The virgin of Guadalupe is the patroness of the Mexicans, and in all the homes and churches may be seen facsimiles of her image, which hangs in the cathedral erected to> her honor in the suburbs 53 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. of Mexico City. The original image was miracu- lously (?) given. The story runs thus. Saturday morning, Dec. 8, 1531, an ignorant Indian named Juan Diego, was passing the rugged hill of Tep- ayac, where nothing but cactus grew. Suddenly he heard entrancing strains of celestial music, and about him shone a light so glorious that the very rocks seemed masses of opal, sapphire and bur- nished gold. Drawing near, he beheld a lady of angelic form and face. It was the virgin Mary. She charged him to tell the bishop to build there on that very spot a magnificent temple to her honor. Juan obeyed, but the bishop was incredu- lous, even after the third appearance and the same commission. At last she gave Juan a sign. She told him to climb to the top of the hill, as barren as a rock, and there he would find most exquisite roses blooming. He should cut and carry them to the bishop. Carefully he folded the flowers in his mantle and took them to the prelate. Reaching his presence and unfolding his "tilda," behold there painted on the blanket was a life size picture of the virgin. Far and wide spread the news, and every- where the image was accepted as a direct gift from heaven. The virgin had shown special favor to the nation. She had not dealt so with any other people. Those high in ecclesiastical authority begged the pope to recognize the apparition of the virgin. He referred the matter to the Congregation of 54 THE VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE. RELIGION. Rites for full investigation (?), and at last, in 1754, he set his seal of authority to the veracity of the Indian's story, and granted plenary indulgence in the hour of death to every one who should have upon his person one of the medals of "Our Lady Guadalupe." Benedict XIV declared from the Vatican the absolute truthfulness of the appear- ance and gave a ritual of devotion to be used in the celebration of the mass. W. E. Curtis, special commissioner from the United States to Mexico, wrote that, "according to the story, the portrait is stamped on the blanket of the shepherd, and that the Catholics of Mexico believe. But a close examination reveals the fact that it is done in oil colors and upon an ordinary piece of canvas, and that the pigments peal off like those of any other poorly executed piece of work."* Yet this is the basis of the devotion of the millions that look to Mary as the savior of sinners. The villa of Guadalupe, where stands the church honored with the presence of the image, is the Mecca of all devout Mexicans. "The ceremony of transferring the image from the cathedral of Mex- ico was one of the most gorgeous in all the relig- ious history of Mexico. All the ecclesiastical and civil authorities, the students, foreign ministers, monks and nuns formed in the procession and the church hells rang for days."* Every year the faith- ful pilgrims come from all parts of the country by * Capitals of South America, page 21. 55 ... MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. the hundreds of thousands, some tramping hun- dreds of miles and carrying their children on their backs. This is the basis for the religion of Mexico. The virgin Mary has come to dwell among the Mexi- cans. They would place Juan's story along by the side of any book of the divinely inspired Word of God. Mary has come to pardon and save. And the little facsimile image of the original picture is worshipped and given their supreme devotion. She is the patroness of Mexico. She is mighty to save. Is this the gospel of Him who said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me"? Besides this image, each locality has its patron saint. These have fallen from the sky or have ap- peared in some miraculous way. These are recog- nized as intercessors of great power at the throne of God. From them, blessings are sought, and when granted, the suppliant makes a pilgrimage carrying a gift. One has lost his donkey, and when the saint restores the animal, the owner goes with a little donkey of silver as an expression of his gratitude. Another begs that his wounded leg be healed, and presents a tiny silver leg. Poorer pilgrims carry candles. Some have appeared in the farms of individuals and are their property. Others belong to local churches. They are a sure source of income and it is not strange that they are constantly falling from heaven (?). Saint Be- 56 RELIGION. nito will serve as example of others whose name is legion. To the black image prayers are direct- ed. The following is taken from the "nine days' prayer" : "Look down upon the long vista of liv- ing exiles in this vale of tears who are lost to God. Unite thy supplications with those of the chorus of holy virgins and OBTAIN THE PARDON OF MY SINS." The original image is covered with ribbons. If a wife has a husband that she does not love, she measures him with a ribbon while he is asleep and hangs the ribbon on the saint, making the prayer that he will bring about the speedy death of the husband. It is currently believed that it is effectual. Like all famous saints, paintings of this wonderful black image are sold in the market. These are bought and carried on the person of the purchaser. Besides these special saints numbering hundreds of thousands, scattered over the country, whose pictures are hung up in the homes and worshipped every day, each family will have its favorite saint and even each member of the household. There is no end to the number of saints. To escape the charge of idolatry, they tell us that they do not worship the images, that these visible representations help them to adore the in- visible spiritual beings. First of all, let it be said that whatever be the purpose, the practice is a positive transgression of the command not to make idols of anything in the heavens or on earth 57 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. And if it were true that the Romanists looked be- yond the image to the invisible being, and to these celestial creatures directed their prayers, that too, is a direct violation of the divine injunction to worship the Lord God and Him alone. But the unvarnished truth is, these people do worship the very image before their eyes. Our converts con- fess that prior to their conversion they did look to the image, the piece of wood, stone or paper. They did expect them to answer their prayers. And that the accusation is true the facts we are witnessing every day attest. San Antonio is the patron saint of the neighboring village. He is a small doll-like creature. During a distressing drought not long ago, his devotees cried to him for rain. They waited at his feet for the refresh- ing showers, but the dry earth parched more and more. And the skies became more brazen. The people became angry at San Antonio and decided to punish him. To do so they took him from his favorite corner of the chapel and sent him far away to a strange chapel, and to humble him still more, hung him on the wall with his head down- ward. While these lines are written, a friend tells how she used to shut up in her trunk her many little saints or gods to punish them when she got angry with them. Another tells how she would whip them, hang them out in the rain, etc. What does all this mean but that the thought of the Catholics is 'centered on the little image, and not 58 RELIGION. on the heavenly being represented. And to see the devoted Romanists press tightly to their bosom the images with fond caresses and kisses, affords proof unanswerable that the material thing is the object of their love and worship. The sane, solemn, stubborn fact, proved by the religious conditions reigning anywhere and every- where, reinforced by the unbroken testimony of missionaries who spend scores of years living and moving in personal touch with the very heart of the people, making no allowance for the occasional verdict of the globe-trotters who go through the country on fast flying express trains, is that Ro- man Catholicism of Mexico is not one whit less idolatrous than the gross idol worship that stirred the soul of Paul on the streets of Athens, or that is seen in the far East today. A Christless Religion. From the conditions above named, result as in- evitably as night follows day, a Christless religion. Crosses abound, on hill tops, on church spires, on homes, on mounds by the way, but the Christ of the cross is a Stranger to the people. Their su- preme thought is fixed on the "Queen of heaven," whose heart, they say, being that of a woman, is more tender than that of Christ, and for that rea- son they appeal to her and not to Him. And He being her Son cannot deny her whatsoever she may ask for her devotees. It sounds most logical 59 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. to the soul totally ignorant of the life and words of the Master, who passed through the world al- ways heeding the cries of the blind, lame, broken- hearted, and weeping with the Marys and the Marthas, and was ever calling over life's wild, rest- less sea to humanity, heavy hearted and foot-sore in the ways of sin, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "The two most popular books which the Roman Catholics use are 'The Litany of the Dolorous Virgin Mary,' and the 'Glories of Mary.' These books contain ascriptions to the virgin of nearly every attribute of the Almighty God; but the cli- max is reached when she is represented as having, by an act of the divine Father, superseded the adorable Savior, as being more tender-hearted to- ward the sinner than He can be. It is expressly taught in these books of devotion that the Lord Jesus Christ has assumed the administration of justice and punishment toward men, and resigned to her the functions of grace and mercy. So the poor, misguided souls are taught to transfer their appeals and hope to her in such prayers as these : 'O Mary, we poor sinners know no refuge but in thee. Thou art our only Hope. To thee we in- trust our salvation.' This shocking inversion of the gospel is then wound up in a grand doxology, putting her on an equality with the adorable Trin- ity, at which I tremble as I copy it : T salute thee, 60 RELIGION. O great Mediatrix of peace between God and man. O mother of Jesus, or ! Lord and love of all men and of God, to thee be honor and blessing with the Father and the Holy Spirit/ "* Mariolatry — the worship of the Virgin mother — and not Christology, has become the religion of the people. Their hope of pardon rests with her, and the innumerable army of saints that do her bidding. If Christ has a place in their theology, He is SO' far removed from the worshippers, by means of the orders of saints, angels, archangels and the virgin, that He is no longer Mediator. The only Christ known to them is the babe Jesus lying helpless in its mother's arms, the Christ dead on the cross, or ghastly dead in the grave. He is always thorn-crowned, "blood in streams, and black clots and cakes covers His forehead and face, and fills His eyes and mouth and nostrils," streams of blood drip down from His limbs, with spear-thrusts in His side, and the great open gashes in His hands and feet made by the spikes that nailed Him to the accursed cross, His eyes turned heavenward, with unspeakable agony and horror written over His countenance. For ten years we have gone out and in among the Mexican Catholics, and not once can we recall seeing any sign or symbol of the Christ enthroned and crown- ed with glory and honor at the right hand of the Father. They have erased from their creed the * Mexico in Transition. — Butler, page 60. 61 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. doctrine of the ever-living and pardoning Savior who has opened the way of access into the pres- ence of the reconciled Father, where there is sal- vation full and free. The gospel of the Christ, resurrected and bringing abundant pardon, glad hope, sweet peace and triumphant power, has been placed under the ecclesiastical ban of Romanism, and the spiritual destitution seems vocal with the hopeless wail of Mary in the garden on the morn- ing of the resurrection: "They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him." Is there hope for those who thus rid the gospel of its Christ and crown Mary queen of all? A False System of Salvation Through Good Works. With the Roman Catholics of Mexico, not by faith in the atoning blood of the Lamb of God, are they to be saved, but by deeds of self-torture, even to the shedding of one's own blood. These are the shibboleths that admit the souls through the gates of glory. The bodies are mortified by prolonged fasting or sleeping on beds without mattresses. Ladies wear around their waists cords of horse hair or pricking ixtle till the blood oozes from the body. During the holy seasons a band of netted iron with points is worn next to the skin. Every parish has its "exercises" into which the most faithful are admitted during the nine days preceding holy week. In the larger towns as many as a thousand will enter these "ejercicios." 62 CROWNED WITH THORNS, DOING PENANCE ON HER KNEES. SCOURGES USED IN DOING PENANCE. RELIGION. They eat cold bread, sleep on the bare floor and flog their body with scourges. These whip cords of penance are horse-hair ropes with knotted thongs at the ends, or iron chains, on every second or third link of which are pieces of iron with sharp points. The penitent throws these over the shoul- ders from each side, driving these little spikes into the flesh and bringing out blood in profusion. Penance is most meritorious where the devotees will crawl for miles on their bare knees to the shrine of some famous saint to leave on the rocks behind the imprint of their bleeding knees. The following testimony is taken from the pen of Madame Calderon, the wife of the first Spanish Ambassador to Mexico. She was a Romanist. "The other night I was present at a much stranger scene, at the discipline performed by the men, ad- mission having been procured for us by certain means, private but powerful. Accordingly, when it was dark, enveloped from head to foot in large cloaks, and without the slightest idea of what it was, we went through the streets to the church of San Augustine. The scene was curious. About one hundred and fifty men, enveloped in cloaks, their faces entirely concealed, were assembled in the body of the church. A monk had just mount- ed the pulpit. His discourse was a rude but very forcible description of the torments prepared for impenitent sinners. The effect of the whole was very solemn. It appeared like the preparation 63 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. or the execution of a multitude of condemned criminals. When the discourse was finished they all joined in prayer with much fervor and enthusi- asm, beating their breasts and falling upon their faces. Then the monk stood up and read several passages of scripture descriptive of the sufferings of Christ. The organ then struck up the Miserere, and all of a sudden the church was plunged in pro- found darkness, all but a sculptured representa- tion of the crucifixion, which seemed to hang in the air illuminated. I felt rather frightened and would have been glad to leave the church, but it would have been impossible in the darkness. Sud- denly a terrible voice in the dark cried, 'My broth- ers, when Christ was fastened to the pillar by the Jews, He was scourged.' At these words the bright figure disappeared and the darkness became total. Suddenly we heard the sound of hundreds of scourges descending upon the bare flesh. I can not conceive of anything more horrible. Before ten minutes had passed the sound became splash- ing, from the blood that was flowing. Incredible as it may seem, this awful penance continued for half an hour and without intermission. We could not leave the church, but it was per- fectly sickening, and had I not been able to take hold of 1 the Senora's hand and feel something hu- man beside me, I could have fancied myself trans- ported into a congregation of evil spirits. Now and then, but very seldom, a suppressed groan 6 4 RELIGION. was heard, and occasionally the voice of the monk encouraged them by ejaculations or by short pass- ages of Scripture. Sometimes the organ struck up and the poor wretches, in a faint voice, tried to join the Miserere. The sound of the scourging is indescribable. At the end of half an hour, a little bell was rung and the voice of the monk was heard calling upon them to desist; but such was their en- thusiasm that the horrible lashing continued louder and more fierce than ever. In vain he entreated them not to kill themselves, and assured them that heaven would be satisfied, and that human nature could not endure beyond a certain point. No answer but the loud sound of scourges, which are, many of them, of iron, with sharp points that enter the flesh. At length, as if they were perfectly exhausted, the sound grew fainter, and little by little ceased altogether. . . . They say that the church floor is frequently cov- ered with blood after one of those penances, and that the other day a man died from the wounds received. In the Santa Teresa convent, they showed us a crown of thorns, worn by one of them by way of penance. It is made of iron, so that the nails, en- tering inward, run into the head and make it bleed. We visited the cells and were horror struck at the self-inflicted tortures. Each bed consisted of a wooden plank raised in the middle, and on days of penance crossed by wooden bars. The pil- 65 M-5 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. low is wooden. The nun lies on this penitential couch embracing- the cross. Round her waist she wears a band with iron points turning inward; on her breast a cross with nails of which the points enter the flesh. Thus after having scourged her- self with a whip covered with iron nails, she lies down a few hours on the wooden bars and rises at four o'clock."* A Religion Without Spirituality. Little or no account is taken of the Ten Com- mandments. The Sabbath is the high day of the week, when all the surrounding country comes to buy or sell. The market place is usually in front of the Roman Catholic church. The buyers en- ter to recite their prayers to some saint, and come out to make their purchases for the week. On that day the bull fight draws its largest crowd. With hundreds of thousands the Seventh Com- mandment is a dead letter. The most pious (?) will use the name of God in an ordinary conversa- tion in such a way that it will make one's ear tin- gle. The birth of the Savior will be celebrated and the festivities close with an elegant wine sup- per and a great ball, that will last till early morn- ing. The bull fighter has his favorite saint, and if he is mortally wounded the priest confesses him and gets him ready for heaven (?). The bartender is not barred from entering the innermost circle of the pious Romanists. In our town the leading * Life in Mexico. Calderon de la Barca, page 213. 66 RELIGION. liquor dealer is one of the most faithful of the par- ish. It is not unusual to see the image of the favorite saint hanging over the bar where is dealt out day and half the night the accursed drink that sends men staggering into a drunkard's grave and a drunkard's hell. Souls will kneel in the church and say their prayers, and all the while watch the passersby, as the Tibetan sets his prayer wheel going and goes off on a hunt, expecting his pray- ers to ascend with each revolution of the wheel. Of Mexico it has been said, and at heart she is still the same, "The canonization of a saint, the dedication of a church, the concession of a privi- lege to some religious community, the appoint- ment of a bishop were observed as feasts, with bull fights, masquerades and comedies, which were at- tended by the archbishop and the principal ecclesi- astical dignitaries." The church of Guadalupe, where hangs the image of the virgin, is the Mecca of Meccas, and ought to be the holiest spot on Mexican soil. Of the religious rites practiced there, the Rev. H. W. Brown writes, "Often have the Indians, dressed in native costume, danced their old sacred dances before the altar within the temple. Without, the town was crowded with Indians, and at many of the booths some were drinking and others gambling, while under the cover of darkness worse vices were 'practiced. So great has been the scandal that one caustic Mexi- can remarked that the trinity worshipped there 6 7 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. were Venus, Bacchus and Birjan."* If holy week is the holiest of the year, its influence should be manifest in the life of the people. Of the one just passed, the leading daily of the Capital, the Mexi- can Herald, remarks : "Holy week greatly increas- ed the work of the courts and the police depart- ment. Last Friday alone, the fourth correctional court received ninety-nine cases; of these, seventy- four had resulted in bloodshed. Of the latter, fifty-three had to be removed to the Juarez hos- pital. The other courts received large numbers of infractions of the law. It is stated that the record of holy week this year is higher than for the ten previous years." A Mercenary Religion. Roman Catholicism is a most cunningly devised scheme to extort money from its votaries. In 1850, when the Reform Laws were passed, the wealth of the church in Mexico was $300,ooo,ooo.t One-third of all the wealth of the country was theirs. The archbishop alone had an annual in- come of $100,000, that of Puebla $100,000, and so on down the scale. The income of the national church was $30,000,000 annually. The nuns alone drew $810,000 from their investments. Licenses for sin were sold. The "bull of composition" was an enactment by which any one having stolen goods needed not to return them if he bought a spiritual license; and not to allow too much steal- •Latin America, Brown, p. 109. f Mexico Coming Into Light, Butler, p. 57. 68 RELIGION. ing, the right was limited to fifty each year.* Waddy Thompson said that he would not give in exchange the Roman Catholic financial system, its doctrines of purgatory and its power to get money from the people, for the power of taxation of any government on earth. He wrote of what he had seen during his stay in Mexico as Ambassador of the United States. Raffles for souls are held in the churches. It is a lottery plan to get souls out of purgatory (?). From an announcement of one of these, posted on a church door, a copy of which lies before us as we write, we take the following data: To at- tract the attention of the devoted, the notice has printed in large letters, "Grand Raffle for Souls." For a specified sum tickets are sold and the holder is entitled to a chance in the final drawing of the lottery. The person who should receive the lucky number, would 'get the benefit of the mass which would bring their loved ones out of the terrible fires of purgatory. The scale of dates and prices are given, closing with an exhortation to the faith- ful to think on this golden opportunity to rescue the loved one from the sufferings of the lower world. It is not strange that Father Gavassi should style the dogma of purgatory the El Do- rado of the priest, the best gold mine of the papal system. Baptisms, prayers for the dead, marriages, special masses, etc., etc., etc., are all sources of * Mexico Coming into Light. — Butler, page 56. 69 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. revenue for the church. The devotees must bring their gifts to the innumerable saints, all of which goes into the pocket of the holy (?) father. Each district of the town competes to see which will carry up to the church the largest quantity of candles, all of which are sold, and the amount goes into the local treasury. A Corrupt Priesthood. Years ago the Abbe Emanuel Domelech was sent as a special envoy from the church of Rome to investigate the religious conditions in Mexico. He was a prominent clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church. He reported of the priests, "They make merchandise of the sacraments, and make money by every ceremony, without thinking that they are guilty of simony, and expose them- selves to the censures of the Church. If Roman justice had its course in Mexico, one-half of the clergy would be excommunicated. The well-in- structed priests, disinterested and animated by a truly apostolic spirit, constitute an insignificant minority. The priests carry their love of family to that of paternity. In my travels in the interior of Mexico, many pastors have refused me hospi- tality, in order to prevent me from seeing their nieces and cousins and their children. It is diffi- cult to determine the character of these connec- tions. Priests who are recognized as fathers of families are by no means rare. The people con- sider it natural enough, and do not rail at the con- 7° RELIGION. duct, except when they are not contented with one wife. I remember that one of the prelates passing through a village near the episcopal city, the priests said to him, 'Sir, have the goodness to bless my children and their mother.' There was a roomful. Can a clergy of such a character make saints? I doubt."* The statement is not over- drawn. Every missionary in Mexico knows that the charges here made against the priests of Mex- ico are literally true. Pages might be written of the dark deeds of the Mexican priesthood, much of which iniquity is done in ours and the neighbor- ing towns, but they are too shameful to be told. Suffice it to add that Roman Catholicism of Mexico is contributing her full share to the fulfillment of the Apocalyptic vision of the "woman arrayed in purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and precious stones, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornica- tion." And upon her forehead was a name written, "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINA- TIONS OF THE EARTH." An Enemy of the Bible. The first edition of the entire Bible in Spanish and Latin, printed in Mexico, appeared in 1833, fully three hundred years after the Spanish con- quest. During all those three hundred years there * Mexico in Transition. — Butler, page 33. 71 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. was not a sign of the Word of God even in muti- lated form to give light to the people. And when this edition was made, with its copious notes, which, like the traditions of the Pharisees, made the word of no effect, explaining away the truth, it was in 25 volumes and cost from $150 to $200, which placed it far beyond the reach of the com- mon people. Two editions (Spanish) have been brought from Spain, those of Scio and Amat. The former is more frequently found, but it too, is is- sued in five bulky volumes and costs $35. And these are not read by the people. Mrs. J. W. Butler sent to the colporteurs a list of ques- tions, from whose answers we take the following facts: 1. Very few of the people know what the Scriptures are. Even the priests rarely possess a Bible, and of course do not know what it contains. 2. Where a Bible with the notes has accidentally fallen into the hands of the people, the priests ad- vise them not to read it, for they are not able to understand it. She tried to buy a copy of the Scio or Amat versions in the book stores of Mex- ico City, and not one copy was to be found in all of them, though they carried in stock a large sup- ply of Catholic books. A Catholic now converted, declared that in his parish in Cuba, of eight thou- sand souls, he was the only person who had a Bible, and from his experience in Mexico, he af- firms that conditions exactly similar prevail there. On the evangelical Bible, which the Protestant 72 RELIGION. Church seeks to place in every home in Mexico, and which is sold for twenty-five cents, U. S. cur- rency, and often given away, the Church of Rome wages unceasing war. It is styled the bad book of the devils. During all these centuries, our Bible has been under the ban of the Church, and over the heads of the people the priests hold the threat of excommunication, forbidding them to look between its blessed pages. The first copies of the Word of God to enter the Republic came through the American army, and even after the Reform Laws took the reign of power from the hands of the bishop, the sword of > fanaticism has been unsheathed to drive the great Book from the land. So intense has been this enmity that the first Christians had to hide in the caves to read its sacred pages. And still it is a common experience for the village priest to call for all the Bibles that the colporteur may have sold in the town and make a public bonfire of our holy Bible to the amusement of the people. Because her deeds are evil, Rome hates the lamp of life and does her utmost to extinguish its last ray, the lost soul's only hope. Such is Roman Catholicism of Mexico. And does this system of white-washed paganism lead the soul to •» God? Is its brazen-faced idolatry less culpable than that of Baal, the Sun god against which the ancient prophets hurled the anathemas of divine displeasure? Has our God changed that 73 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. He may take pleasure in this blind worship of stocks and stones? If the Spirit spoke the whole truth, saying that no man comes to the Father for salvation except through the Son Jesus Christ, where is the hope of this cunningly devised plan of pardon that places Mary on the Intercessor's throne and leaves the sinner to rest upon his good works for acceptance at the bar of the offended God? How can that church be trusted as the pillar and ground of the truth, when the spirit of mammon is woven into the very warp and woof of its being, and it 'is dominated and directed by false prophets that come in sheep's clothing, while in- wardly they are ravening wolves and spare not the flock, waging eternal war upon the 'Word of God that would build up all who follow its divine light and give them an inheritance among them that are sanctified? Where > is the hope for the creed that has torn from its pages all that inspires faith in Christ, the blood atonement of the Lamb of > God, simple trust in the regenerative power of the Spirit, rejects the divine Book of books, and substitutes Mary as mediator, good works as the basis of pardon, and the bulls of popes as the only authoritative light of life? Verily, there is none, literally none. The hand-writing on the wall has passed sentence, and the divine fiat has gone forth, so clear that he who runs may read : Roman Catholicism in Mexico has been weighed in the balances and found wanting. 74 CHAPTER V. OUR FIELD. It has been most unfortunate that the different denominations have not divided the Republic into sections, in order that each church might be as- signed its share of the field, and be made respon- sible for its evangelization. This failure has brought about conditions such, that while there is no missionary force at work capable of effecting the evangelization of the land either in this or the coming generation, still the denominational agen- cies are scattered all over the country. The lead- ing evangelical boards have workers in the north, the south, the east, the west and the center of the land. Most commendable cordiality has character- ized the relations of these ecclesiastical bodies, one with the other, yet they must of necessity overlap, and with the different forms of worship and de- nominational names, fail to present to the enemy an unbroken front. Not all the converts can ap- preciate that while under different denominational nomenclature, we are at heart one in Christ. The Roman Catholics make merchandise of the differ- ences. There is reason for special gratitude that in the Providence of God other denominations have not entered our field, save two or three stations. To say that it is our field is not meant that it has been marked off by a commission of the churches and 75 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. assigned to the Associate Reformed Presbyterian body. Only this, that from the centers where our work has been operated, we have pushed out in different directions and all the territory outlined is yet unoccupied. It is virgin soil. Ours is a wide field. It covers a territory of 31,121 square miles, 'and contains a population of 706,799 souls. It lies in the northern part of the state of Vera Cruz, the southern part of Tamauli- pas and the entire eastern portion of San Luis Potosi. The states are divided into "cantones" or districts, and these into "municipios" or counties. Each district has its capital* and each "municipio" its county seat. 1. The Vera Cruz Field. Vera Cruz is a long state, reaching from the Panuco river, on the banks of which stands Tarn- pico, to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a distance of four hundred and seventy-six miles. At times it measures only thirty miles in width. It has a cli- mate that ranges all the way between the sweltering heat of the coast to the cold zone of the peaks that mount up 19,000 ft. toward the sky. The state is rich in forests, in which abound a great variety of animals. Besides the immense farming interests, wide stretches of territory are devoted to cattle raising, the cattle being driven to the coast and shipped. Oil wells are being bored in the northern part of the state, some of which produce as much as 8,000 barrels daily. The population is very dense, 76 OUR FIELD. and among them many Indian tribes: Totonaco, Huasteco, Popoloco, Otomi, Tepehua, Zapoteco, Chimanteco, Mazateco and Mixteco. All these have their own distinct dialect, and thus present peculiar difficulties to the gospel worker. A rail- road from Vera Cruz to Mexico City crosses the state, dividing it into two almost equal parts. To the north of this line lies our field, embracing seven districts of the state. This section* contains 11,169 square miles and 346,999 souls. In all this long stretch of territory there is no means of travel except on horseback, in a two^wheel cart, or in a boat along the coast. A railway line has been surveyed from Tampico through this section, but it leads over hills so high that it will well nigh empty the banks of Wall Street to project the line. The ' 'cant ones' ' are as follows : Ozuluama. Population of "Canton," 38,890. "Municipios" ; Panuco with 10,227 souls; Ozuluama, 8,325; Tantima, 6,674; Tamalin, 3,875 ; Tampico Alto, 3,671 ; Citlaltepec, 3,460 ; Pueblo Viejo, 2,658. Chicontepec. Population of "Canton," 56,389. "Municipios" : Ixhuatlan, 14,226; Chicontepec, 12,175; Huayacocotla, 9,848; llmallan, 7,517; Zacualpan, 6,698; Tlachichilco, 5,925. Tuxpan. Population of "Canton," 58,282. "Municipios": Tuxpan, 13,518; Temapache, 13,075; Tamiahua, 9,119; Tepet- zintla, 5,526 ; Tihuallan, 4,287 ; Amatlan, 4,077 ; Tancoco, 3,469 ; San Antonio Chinampa, 3,252; Castillo de Teayo, 1,958. Papantla. Population of "Canton," 48,994. "Municipios": Papantla, 23,697; Gutierrez Zamora, 4,598; El Espinal, 4,124; Coyutla, 4,042 ; Coxquihui, 3,265 ; Zozocolco de Hidalgo, 3,049 ; 77 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. Coahuitlan, 1,691; Coazintla, 1,167; Tecocutla, 1,539; Santo Domingo Mextitlanl, 529; Mecatlan, 1,293. Jalacinto. Population of "Canton," 67,016. "Municipios" : Atzalan, 15,564; Altotonga, 14,957; Perote, 9,836; Jalacinto, 8,506 ; H. Tlapacoyan, 8,074 ; Martinez de la Torre, 8,054 ; Las Minas, 2,025. Misantla. Population of "Canton," 21,250. "Municipios": Misantla, 11,047; Nautla, 2,808; Juchique de Ferrer, 2,646; Vega de Alatorre, 2,184; Yecuatla, 1.440; Voliap, 1,125. Tantoyuca. Population of "Canton," 56,179. "Municipios": Tantoyuca, 24,126; Tempoal, 11,838; Platon Sanchez, 5,891; Chontla, 5,438; Ixcatepec, 4,506; Chiconamel, 4,380. Principal Towns: Panuco, population, 1,733; Tantoyuca, 2,984; Chicontepec, 1,969; Tuxpan, 5,455; Papantla, 4,542; Jalacinto, 2,785; Misantla, 3,296. 2. The Tamaulipas Field. The state of Tamaulipas has 250 miles of coast line along the Gulf from Tampico to the Texas border. Down through its center extends the Sierra Madre Oriental, enriching the state with mines that hold treasures of gold, silver, iron, cop- per, marble and asphalt, • and forests that abound with fine woods. The soil produces crops of corn, sugar, coffee, tobacco, besides a great variety of fruits. From Monterey a railroad traverses the state, reaching Tampico, affording an outlet for its commerce. Of the four districts of the state, the most south- erly falls to our church. It comprises about 5,625 square miles, and has a population of 44,579 Souls. Its territorial divisions are : 78 OUR FIELD. Southern District. Population of "Canton," 44,579. "Muni- cipios" : Tampico, 20,000 ; Aldama, 3,290 ; Altamira, 3,941 ; Magiscatzin, 3,302; Xicotencatl, 4,196; Quintero, 2,624; An- tiguo Morelos, 4.576; Nuevo Morelos, 1,126; Gomez Farias, 1,524. The principal town, Tampico; population, 17,000 souls. Lying at the juncture of the Panuco and the Tamesi rivers, six miles up from the coast, it ranks next to Vera Cruz as the finest harbor on the Gulf coast. Jetties placed at the mouth of the river at a cost of $3,000,000, have made the harbor an exceptionally good one. The ships enter even to the very town, landing their cargo at the wharfs, which have been erected at a cost of $1,500,000. The government has erected there one of the most magnificent custom houses in the Repub- lic. The Standard Oil Company have located at this point branch offices and works which afford employment for many who flock from different parts of the country. Quite a large proportion of the population is of foreign nationality. For the English-speaking element, Rev. N. E. Pressly has held services twice a month for years. The companies that con- tract for the unloading of the ships, bring from the West India islands hundreds of negroes to do the work. For these Dr. Pressly also preaches twice a month in a chapel provided by the company. 3. The San Luis Potosi Field. The territory of the state of San Luis Potosi naturally divides itself into two sections, the low- lands and the tablelands. The latter comprise ten of the thirteen districts of the entire state. 'Ehe altitudes range all the way from 4000 ft. to 9000 ft. above sea level, the highest parts being found in the extreme west. In these high regions are found rich mines of gold, silver, copper and salt, the latter producing from seventy to eighty per cent, of chloride of sodium. This section is exceed- 79 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. ingly mountainous, the hills so precipitous and rugged that agriculture becomes an impossibility. Nature, however, that great economizer of forces, has provided for the emergency, and even on these impregnable slopes thrives the maguey, resem- bling the century plant to be seen in the public parks of the United States. From the leaves is made "ixtli," a fiber used extensively in the manu- facture of carpets, rugs, ropes and bagging. The Aztecs weaved the fiber into beautiful blankets and used the thorns as needles and pins. Certain fibers of maguey, it is alleged, will produce excel- lent paper pulp. If true, it will effect a revolution in the manufacture of paper at no distant date, when the dense forests can no longer meet the de- mand. On the plains are large tracts of land under cultivation, which yield immense harvests of corn and sugar cane. Ten of the districts of the state lie on the table- lands. Of these, six belong to our field. These have an area of about 10,862 square miles of terri- tory, and a population of 216,095 souls. The "cantones" and "municipios" are: Santa Maria del Rio. Population of "Canton," 38,257. "Municipios": Santa Maria del Rio, 21,058; Reyes, 10,917; Tierra Nueva, 6,282. Guadalcazar. Population of "Canton," 30,263. "Munici- pios": Guadalcazar, 18,385; Iturbide, 8,027; Arista, 3,851. Cerritos. Population of "Canton," 30,792. "Municipios": Cerritos, 16,358 ; Carbonera, 6,771 ; San Nicolas, 7,703- 80 OUR FIELD. Ciudad del Maiz. Population of "Canton," 31,172. "Muni- cipios" : Ciudad del Maiz, 28,909 ; San Nicholas, 2,263. Hidalgo. Population of "Canton," 44,094. "Municipios" : Alaquines, 17,657; Rayon, 12,446; Lagunillas, 6,073; La Palma, 4,504; Santa Catarina, 3,414. Rioverde. Population of "Canton," 41,517. "Municipios" : Rioverde, 20,827; Ciudad Fernandez, 9,926; San Ciro, 6,806; Pastora, 3,958. The Huasteca Potosina. The lowlands of the state embrace the three re- maining districts. These constitute the Huasteca Potosina, embracing 3465 square miles, and a popu- lation of 99,126. Unlike the higher regions of the state, there the rainfall is more sure and the soil rewards the sower with abundant harvests of corn, sugar cane and coffee. The magnificent pastures make cattle-raising most profitable, carloads of cattle being shipped to Mexico City or across the Gulf to Havana. Of the population, a large per cent, are pure- blooded Indians of the Aztec race. They live up in the mountains, apart from the other races, and are exceedingly shy and reticent. On market days, the Sabbath, they come down from the mountains, make their purchases, and return to their "jacales." Love for rum is their besetting sin, and to buy "aguadiente" they will barter away during the year the better part of the little crop of corn they have gathered from their patches on the mountain sides. One night, after a hard ride of 81 M-6 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. one hundred and six miles during the two days, we reached the banks of the Tamazunchale river, to find that the town lay on the opposite side. It was dark, and the stream swollen level with the banks. On the side of the river where we waited were a number of Indian huts. From one to another we rode, asking for shelter. Not one responded. Knowing that we were not of their tribe, they left us to sit on the river bank all night, after two days' ride in the rain. This reticence, with the added fact that they speak the Aztec dialect, renders missionary work among them rather discouraging. Of this region, the districts and "municipios" are : Valles. Population of "Canton," 22,001. "Municipios": Valles, 10,681; Tanquin, 2,033; Guerrero, 2,196; Tanlajas, 4,272; San Vicente, 2,819. Tancanhuitz. Population of "Canton," 40,860. "Municipfos" : Tancanhuitz, 5,975; Coxcatlan, 4,211 ; Huehuetlan, 4,494; Tam- pamalon, 4,298; Xilitla, 10,838; Aquismon, 8,399; San Antonio, 2,645, Tamazunchale. Population of "Canton," 36,265. "Munici- pios": Tamazunchale, 17,506; San Martin, 9,485; Tampacan, 3,859; Axtla, 5,415- Principal Towns of the San Luis Potosi Field. Cerritos. The town proper has a population of 3,672 and is the chief center of the immense "ixtli" trade for the districts of Guadalcazar, Cerritos and a territory that stretches for hundreds of miles back into the State of Tamaulipas, being the nearest railroad station. Great quantities are shipped to Europe and other parts of the world. It is a mission station of strategic importance. 82 OUR FIELD. Ciudad del Maiz. Before the railroad from Tampico to San Luis Potosi was projected through the state, Ciudad del Maiz was the principal point on the stage line between these two cities and was a center of great commercial activity. The railroad left the town thirty miles to the north, and conse- quently no little of the commercial interests shifted to other places. Still being the largest town of the district as well as of the adjoining district of Hidalgo, it offers splendid ad- vantages as headquarters for gospel effort in that region. Rioverde. With Ciudad Fernandez, its suburb, it has a population of 8,035 and is situated midway between San Luis Potosi and Tampico, on a branch road that connects with the main line between these two cities. Lying in the heart of a large valley covered with a network of irrigating ditches that bring the water from a large, never-failing lake up in the mountains twelve miles away, situated on the banks of a beautiful river that issues out of a huge gorge in the moun- tains not far distant, nestling amid hundreds and hundreds of orange groves, While on all sides stretch toward the hills far-reaching fields of sugar cane with the high towers of the mills where the sugar is made, the town is one of the most beautiful in the state. Great quantities of corn and sugar are shipped each year and hundreds of car loads of oranges are sent out each fall. Voiles. The town lies at the foothills that rise up to the table lands and on the National Railway that traverses the state. Its population is 1,412. Lying at the very gateway of the "Huasteca Potosina," the railroad station through which all the exports and imports must pass, it becomes the most strategic point in all that section of the state. From there the Gospel can best reach out into all the "Huasteca Potosina." Tancanhuitz. Fifty miles from Valles, the town lies in the very heart of the Huasteca Potosina. Its population is 1,607 and is situated in a region so mountainous that once we felt that a friend of that place almost spoke the naked truth when he remarked that not the railroad but the airship was the hope of his part of the country. The best roads are mere donkey trails. Great quantities of coffee are shipped from the sur- 83 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. rounding plantations, though it has to be paddled down the river in simple canoes requiring several weeks to reach Tam- pico, or on muleback to Valles, one hundred miles from many of the coffee fields. With all its defying difficulties, it offers a most magnificent missionary base of operations and some worker will one day gather a glorious harvest of souls and even though Indians, they will be jewels for His crown with whom there is neither Jew, nor Greek nor Scythian nor bond nor free but all one in Him, saved by His grace. 84 CHAPTER VI. PLANS AND IDEALS. Pascal, the French philosopher and theologian, once said that Jesus Christ is the center of every- thing and the object of everything. The aphorism sets forth the supreme and all-determining aim of all our missionary activities. It is not philan- thropy, though the gospel herald is a good Sam- aritan, who cares for the bleeding unfortunate by the roadsides of life. Ours is not a system of po- litical economy, though the entire trend of our teaching is toward the material uplift ■ of the nation. The gospel transforms the home, social surroundings and makes all things new, yet the primary end of missions is not sociological. We do not Come to foreign lands to teach the people the latest methods of agriculture, medicine, com- merce or scientific investigation. Some of these result, while others do not. However, any of them are entirely accidental. To borrow the words of the president of Roberts College, "the aim of for- eign missions is to make Jesus Christ known to the world." Nothing short of this will satisfy the conditions of the great commission. And nothing less will justify the expenditure of men and money. To make known Christ and His 'saving gospel, is the one, underlying, all-directing, all-determining aim of our Mexican Mission. That the Mexicans may know Him, whom to know is life eternal, 85 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. that they may be found clothed upon with that righteousness which is by the faith of the Son of God, that they may grow up into Him in all things and awake at last in His likeness; these are our ideals and toward these ends we plan and preach and » pray. To reach this final goal of all our missionary en- deavor, the work must pass through two distinct stages of life. First, the evangelizing forces are to be organized for operation, and then along dis- tinct lines of development the work proceeds. ORGANIZATION. The Foreign Missionary and His Work. The mission field is divided into districts, and these are placed under the direction of the foreign missionaries, who superintend the entire range of evangelizing forces within the bounds of the dis- tricts. The size of these sections depends on the supply of foreign missionaries. If this is limited, as always has been the case, each missionary must shoulder the responsibility of a larger area. The missionary superintendent selects the most central and accessible point of the district, where he makes his home, and that becomes the base of evangeliz- ing operations. From that strategic center he labors toward the most economical direction of gospel forces, that will issue in the evangelization of the district and the building up of a spiritual church that will be worthy of Him who is the chief Corner Stone. While the missionary is pastor of 86 PLANS AND IDEALS. the congregation where he resides, he becomes the overseer of a parish of souls numbering hundreds of thousands and scattered over thousands of square miles. The work of the missionary is most varied and exacting. On horseback he makes long tours through the towns and ranches, preaching and talking the gospel. It often happens that the head of a home becomes a friend of the truth, and that home is made the meeting place for the gos- pel services. Regular visits are made till some are converted and ask for baptism. There is no body of elders to help the missionary decide whether the applicant gives evidence of having been born again, or is merely deceived by the arch enemy of souls. On his shoulders falls the responsibility. And the burden he carries alone for all the little congregations he organizes over his district, till from the converts are developed characters worthy of the eldership. This requires years of waiting and working. Wherever practic- able, evangelical schools are established, and most often the missionary has to enlist in the teaching force of the enterprise. With the good hand of God resting upon the efforts of the infant congre- gation, soon a little chapel is needed, for which there is neither to be found an architect to draw his nicely measured plans, nor the contractor to execute those, leaving the one An charge to* do nothing but sign the proper documents and pay 8 7 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. the cost. Far from it are the conditions that face the missionary. Though he has never planned the erection of a simple log cabin, he faces the dire ne- cessity of having to build a chapel, and that with the least possible outlay of funds — for the Foreign Mission Boards never experience the joy of seeing the treasuries overflow with appropriations. More- over, some in the homeland at times are disposed to criticise the builder-missionary, but it is barely possible, that given the help that the missionary has, nothing more than a common rock mason, who can scarcely add two simple numbers, com- pelling the missionary to be architect, contractor, foreman, purchaser of material, paymaster, etc., etc., the critic would make the same blunders. Lots are to be bought for Mission buildings, and not to permit the missionary enterprise to be swindled, and on the other hand to avoid the danger of fall- ing into the clutches of an unscrupulous lawyer whose god is gold, the missionary must have a limited knowledge of legal procedure. And where shall the lot be located in the town so as to draw more people? No members of the Board are there to canvass the field with the missionary. On the judgment of the latter rests the decision. Prob- lems arise whose name is legion, questions of ec- clesiastical comity, the relation of his field with that of another denomination that they may not overlap, and thus work harm to the general ad- vance of righteousness, the management of the 88 PLANS AND IDEALS. native force, which calls for greatest wisdom and tact, matters of discipline, where the severity and the gentleness of the Master must be blended, all these problems the missionary must solve single- handed and alone. It requires little mental acumen to understand that the missionary follows a calling that demands a strong body, a physical constitution that can ride horseback all day, sleep on the ground at night, and eat cold corn cakes for breakfast, or travel sixty miles during the day and preach that night, or conduct three religious services during the week, spend five days in the school room and post his books at» night. Nor must the missionary lack mental force. Lodge was right when, before the great Midway Conference he urged that "the mis- sionaries ought to be the foremost men whom the Christian Church possesses; the men who have intermeddled most and gone deepest into knowl- edge; whose intellectual resources are the largest, whose practical and persuasive ability are the finest, and whose temper is under the most com- plete control; the most fervent in spirit, the largest in mind and the most capable in action." Above all, he must be a man of God, "truly converted in heart and holy in life; baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire; taught by the Spirit; led by the Spirit; filled with the Spirit; a man of one idea, one aim and one object; like the great apostle of the Gentiles, counting all things but loss for the 89 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. excellency of the knowledge of Christ; determined not to know anything but Christ and Him cruci- fied; loving Christ, living Christ, ready and willing if need be to die for Christ." The Native Minister and His Work. The congregations organized by| the foreign missionary in different parts of his district are placed in charge of native pastors, who prosecute the work of personal evangelism from the congre- gational centers. Thus the native minister has the larger opportunity for personal contact with the people and must accomplish the larger share of the individual work of the evangelization of the field. The foreign missionary never ceases to be a soul winner. On his itinerating rides and in the homes of the people, he must, like Paul, by all means, save souls. But his energies are principally directed toward the larger work of the entire dis- trict. He must organize the forces, open the sta- tions of the field, stand at the front, and with the care of all the churches on his shoulders, strive to lead the evangelization to a successful triumph. He leaves the native pastor to do the most of the individual work of winning the people one by one. In this sphere of personal evangelism the native pastor excels. Over the world mission field it is the consensus of opinion that the heathen world can best be reached by its own sons. "When the set time arrives, the real reformers of Hindustan will be the qualified Hindus" (Duff). "The agency 90 PLANS AND IDEALS. by which and by which alone we can Christianize Africa, is the African himself" (Mackay). "The millions of China must be brought to Christ by Chinamen" (Nevius). "Whether considered po- litically, economically, sociologically or historic- ally, this is the only sound policy and effective method for evangelizing a nation" (Goodrich). The policy is based on the soundest wisdom. The native has a more fluent and intelligible use of the language than the foreign missionary. After having spent thirty and forty years on the field, the missionary has to confess that he does not have the command of the vocabulary and idioms of the language as does the native minister. It is one thing to master the grammatical construction of the language, but quite another matter to hold at ready command the hundreds and hundreds of idiomatic phrases of the people that best convey to them the ideas current among them. And still more difficult of attainment is the correct pro- nunciation of a foreign tongue. This, to' speak accurately, the foreigner never attains. Some approximate the task more nearly than others, but none that are reared in the homeland ever speak with the real accent of a native. Most nat- urally this consideration gives the native a decided advantage over the foreigner, when the effort is made to convey to the people the thoughts and ideas of our holy religion. The native pastor enters best into the inner life MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. of the people, their modes of thought, their pecu- liar currents of feeling, their national sentiment, their shades of religious feeling, their different customs that are confined to almost every section of the country. To be alive to these national and local characteristics is to have opened a wide ave- nue over which to reach more effectively the souls of those among whom the worker's lot is cast. To ignore these is at times fatal. To run counter to what local custom makes proper is to offend the tastes of the people and turn against the worker the hearts he would win. Right is right every- where, but passing over into the realm of things indifferent, there is much in which the missionary must conform to the ways of the people, and woe unto his usefulness if he cannot be one with them. To be sure, in this the native excels 'the foreigner. Better than the foreigner, does the native min- ister understand the foe with whom he has to battle. The deeply rooted saint worship, the cur- rent stories of how the images have fallen from the sky as gifts from heaven, the innumerable su- perstitions, the hopeless corruption of the priest- hood, the abyssmal shame of the confessional, all this the native understands, for in that atmosphere he has lived and moved and had his being for years. By day and by night he has heard them discussed in all their stages of credulity. He knows the stronghold of these senseless heresies, and the by- ways over which these beliefs travel into the minds 92 PLANS AND IDEALS. of the people; and knowing this, he knows where and how to meet them for successful combat. This is not saying that the common stock of the missionaries' teaching is to be the heresies of the apostate church. Quite otherwise. From those longest on the field we have learned that the surest way to uproot error is to plant the truth. The most effective method by which to rid the heart of idol worship is to admit Christ into the heart, and with the whipcords of His truth He will thrust out all that is against His kingdom. Preach Christ and Him crucified, and the falsities of the Roman apostasy will lose their grip on the pagan heart. Get the new life into the plant and the old leaves will fade and die and fall away. True enough, but there are sprouts which the keen blade of truth must prune that the plant may live and thrive. Without dwelling overmuch on the errors of the Catholic faith, there are times when these false beliefs must be corrected and the native minister knows best where they are entrenched in the heart, and with this knowledge of the where- abouts of the enemy and his wiles of strategy, he can more accurately make the deadly thrust. Dif- ficulties beset the honest seeker after light. Spir- itual problems baffle him. Questions arise with the new faith that must be answered. The walls of his former faith totter, but some towers stand steadfast. Some ideas of his old creed still appeal to him. The native has travelled over that same 93 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. road and knows well the finger posts that lead out into the light. And not only because of the special fitness of the native ministers for winning their own people, but from the standpoint of financial economy, it is wise to employ them, rather than missionaries, as pastors of the congregations. However much the foreign missionary may sacrifice, the provision for his family, the education of his children, the added expense of the direction of his wide district, as well as other considerations, call for a larger sal- ary than that of the native minister. The needs of the latter are simpler. One thousand dollars paid a foreign missionary as pastor of a local congrega- tion, would supply the needs of two or three native pastors. These reasons more than justify the world-wide mission policy, which distributes over the district ten or more native men to labor under the direc- tion of the foreign missionary, who superintends the missionary operations from a central point. Thus the two workers, the native and the foreign, become necessary complements to each other. Without the aid of one the other is sorely crippled, while harmonious co-operation will enable them to reap a glorious harvest for the Lord. The mis- sionary holds the throttle of the ecclesiastical ma- chinery and directs the evangelizing agencies of the district. His burdens are heavy. They are crushing, were it not that he can draw upon divine 94 PLANS AND IDEALS. resources — the responsibility of souls numbering from one hundred to 1 five hundred thousand, the direction of the native force so that no friction re- sults, the oversight of schools and opening of new stations, the long itinerating trips, preaching often every night and always on Sabbath. In a word, the foreign worker follows the model missionary from Tarsus, traveling, preaching, teaching, plan- ning, raising up Timothy here and Titus yonder, and Apollos farther on, and all the while bearing on his heart the care of all the churches, while the native evangelists take charge of the local con- gregations and push to 1 the neighboring towns and ranches the work planted by the missionary. Paul plants and Apollos waters. This is the missionary policy in a nutshell. DEVELOPMENT. A Self-Sustaining Church. Ours, like all other missionary effort, steers its ship along a current that passes between the Scylla and Charybdis of two most fatal dangers. On the one hand, to contribute the funds of the home church toward the running expenses of the mis- sionary machinery of the field, so long and to such extent that the converts come to feel that their financial co-operation is not needed; that back of the missionary is a large bank account that insures a flow of funds such that whether they contribute or not, the missionary campaign will go forward, 95 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. is a hidden rock on which the missionary bark will surely be stranded. It dries up the fountains of spirituality in the hearts of the converts, dwarfs their growth in the divine life, robs the Mission of a working force, and takes from the mouths of weaker congregations that help that would place them on their feet as potent factors of righteous- ness. On the other hand lies the equally fatal error of cutting off all support from the struggling congregation while in swaddling clothes, too weak to walk, and leave it to die by the wayside. Between these two reefs of ruin lies the path of safety and success. Till the new-born congrega- tion has sufficient strength to walk and work, it is the part of wisdom to take it by the arms that it may not fall, and teach it the secrets of spiritual activities. We would lead the little congregations along the way that leads to ultimate self-support. Self-sustaining, self-directing and self-disciplining congregations; this is the ideal toward which we are directing our energies. Our oldest congrega- tion, that of Tampico, has already reached this stage. All the expenses of the local work are met by the congregation. Besides the congregational expenditures, the salary of the native pastor, Rev. Pedro Trujillo, is paid by the members. And all the congregations are striving to reach the ideal. It was for this very purpose that on the 29th of June, 1888, the workers then engaged in the Mis- sion, Revs. N. E. Pressly and Pedro Trujillo, the 96 PLANS AND IDEALS. licentiates Zenon Zaleta and Inez Hernandez, and the elder, Pablo Morato, met in Tampico and or- ganized the Tampico Presbytery. That was but nine years after the planting of the Mission. And all through the years the Mission has been true to the high purpose to train the entire missionary forces, ministers and converts, to a self-sustaining and self-directing body, not operating separately from the Synod, but traveling along the ecclesias- tical paths as seen in the policies of the home Pres- byteries. An Evangelistic Church. That the soul is saved to serve; that the call to come to the Savior is not one whit more authori- tative than the commission to go and seek the lost; that the weary and heavy laden who hear and heed His voice calling to His side where there is perfect rest, must take upon them the yoke of service and become co-laborers with Him who would win the apostate world back to the Father's house; these are the high standards set before our converts. Each one becomes his brother's keeper. It is the Master's own plan. Grace spreads like the fire that descends from heaven (?) on Easter morn as the anxious throng fill the church of the Holy Sepulchre. From the lighted torch of the holy father who has tarried on the altar to receive the celestial fire, each worshipper lights his torch, and from that burning flame another is lit and an- other, till the entire city glows with the light of 97 M-7 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. the heavenly fire. Thus must the light of life travel to the ends of the earth. And if the fire does not spread, it goes out. To tie up our talent in a napkin is to lose it. Jerusa- lem received the oracles of God at Sinai and cen- turies later heard the words of Him who spake as never man spake, yet she lent no helping hand to the other nations that were strangers to the cov- enants of promise, and the terrible woes of the Master have been literally fulfilled. Not one stone has been left on Mt. Zion to mark the dwelling place of the God of Jacob. Use or lose is the in- exorable law of the kingdom of God. Mission fields that have failed to come up to the help of the Lord have not escaped the blighting curse of Meroz. John Mark carried the gospel to Egypt about the year 45 A. D. The good hand of God rested upon the new station and soon Alexandria became the center of a most aggressive Christian- ity. There was founded the great theological school of Clement. Origen, Eusebius and others of like heroic mould, were sons of this mission. Rapidly the gospel extended along the north coast of Africa and up the Nile, till in the year 308 the national council was composed of 270 bishops. Then came the crisis. The wide harvest fields of the south stretched out before them. The door of opportunity opened wide and the man from Mace- donia was calling for the evangelization of the Dark Continent. The North African Church fold- 98 PLANS AND IDEALS. ed its arms, busied itself with technical theological discussions and left the perishing millions to their doom. The result was, that the church was weak- ened by schisms and dwarfed at last into the Cop- tic sect of Egypt, an ecclesiastical body as utterly un-Christian as Islam. The lesson is clear, the Mission that is not evangelistic will soon be missing. For this aggressive evangelism our convert has an experience that stirs him with great motive power. He has turned from his idols to serve the living God. And how different all life becomes! It is like the change from darkest night to bright- est noonday. Christ has borne the curse of his sins and the blood shed on Calvary has washed away all the stain and guilt. The Romanist must bruise his body, go the endless rounds of penance and still never rid his soul of the crushing load of guilt like the mountain resting on Typhon's heart. He who believes on Christ to the saving of his soul, finds in his heart a fountain of perennial joy that stirs him to sing amid the overwhelming sorrows of life, a most striking contrast to the cheerless faith of the papal idolater. The convert to the gospel feeds on the "exceeding great and precious promises" which are like "honey out of the rock," while the Romanist has no message of inspiration unless it be the manual of prayers to the saints or the mass said in Latin. Like Ephraim, he feeds on ashes. The believer looks up into the Re- 99 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. deemer's face and cries, Abba Father, he feels the everlasting arms about him and the throb of the Father heart, while the Romanist bows before his image, and says, "Thou art my hope." The evan- gelical believer holds a creed that makes death a mere shadow through which the great Shepherd guides and comforts with His rod and staff", while those who put their trust in little gods of wood, paper and stone, go down into the grave clinging to their dumb idols with indescribable dread. Theirs is not the light and song of the shepherd psalm. The soul reconciled through Christ de- parts this life to go to the Master's presence, where there is fullness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures forever more. The Romanist looks for the fearful judgment of purgatorial flames, in which the devoted are to be purified till — no one knows how long. So marked is the change between the two ex- periences, that the Romanist who has been sound- ly converted and has received the "fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ," awakes to the sense of his obligation to his neighbors, who follow his empty, lifeless faith in idols. While the be- liever, who has laid body, soul and spirit at the feet of Jesus, feasts in the banqueting house of free grace, he remembers his fellowmen who are feeding on the husks of the far country of Romish idolatry and formalism, and his soul is fired with a mighty passion to tell what great things the 100 PLANS AND IDEALS. Lord has done for him, that others may come to the Father's house where there is bread and to spare. He would go along the highways of papal formalism and bring his friends to the gospel feast to drink of that water of which, if a man drink, he shall never thirst, and to eat of that bread of which, if a man eat, he shall never hunger again. Jean Ingelow's hero in "Brothers and Sermon," is our model. The old man lived among the fisher- folk and was wont to go from hut to hut pleading the text, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." His life was so intensely holy that it was as if Christ had been drawn down from heaven to take them home. He begged the fishermen to open their hearts to the waiting, knocking Savior. And he besought them as if their souls were in his keeping, and he could not bear to go to heaven till every one of the humble villagers were ready to follow him. A Spiritual Church. Roman Catholicism is Pharisaism at its worst. " Outwardly they appear righteous to men, but within they are full of hypocrisy and wickedness." To sprinkle a bit of holy water suffices to regen- erate the soul; to whisper the recital of one's sins into the ear of a confessor will insure pardon, though there be no thought of repentance; to make clean the outside tef the platter and of the cup meets the gospel conditions, though the heart be full of extortion and excess. Against this ex- IOI MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. ternalism our gospel makes relentless war, and in- sists that the heart is the center of the spirituality that must stand the shibboleths of divine testing, that until the soul's inner life is righted all is wrong, that we must be born again, that pardon is conditioned by the resolution to go and sin no more, that to go from the confessional back over the ways of iniquity, is to follow the "sow to the wallow and the dog to his vomit," abundant proof that the soul has been the victim of the deceitful- ness of sin, and is still in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. Those who heed the call to separation from this Babylon, "the hold of every foul spirit," need to be told and retold, that "true religion and undefiled before God" is not only to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, but to keep one's self unspotted from the world of bull fights, cock pits, Sabbath desecration behind the trade counter or in the gay whirl of the ball room. The Bible is made the man of our counsel. Like the Pharisee with his endless traditions, the Romanist makes the word of God of none effect through the bulls of popes and edicts of councils. Purgatorial fires are preached, indulgences are sold > and the grossest idolatry is sanctioned with- out the slightest authority; simply because such practices have the seal of papal approval. Our converts are taught that the Sacred Scriptures, "to which nothing is to be added and from which I02 PLANS AND IDEALS. nothing is to be taken," are the royal rule of all holy living, the divine plumb-line by which all pre- cepts and practices are to be tested. Penance is most unsparingly condemned. There is no merit in bruising one's body with spiked thongs, wearing thorn crowns, or crawling over sharp stones. The gospel of the atoning sub- stitution recognizes no remission of sin through the shedding of one's own blood. Only the blood shed on Calvary can take away the sin of the world, "forasmuch as we were not redeemed with cor- ruptible things, such as gold and silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without spot and without blemish." The simple, sublime standards of the prayer life are exalted. The effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous man that availeth much in its working, because offered in the name of our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, and through faith, takes the place of the unintelligibly rapid mumbling of "Hail Mary," the hundreds of times prescribed in the manual of devotion, or the burning of candles be- fore the images, as remembrancers of the plea of the suppliant, or the confessions of their short- comings to a priest whose life too often is stained with the blackest vileness. Isaiah's warning is thundered and re-thundered; that their offerings of candles to saints, and gold for prayers to be said, are vain; their incense is an abomination; their appointed feasts weary the Lord of Hosts, 103 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. and though they stretch forth their hands He will hide His face. They must wash their hands in innocency, and thus compass the altar of prayer. They must put away evil doing and learn to do well. We would lead our converts to draw near with a true heart and in full assurance of faith, having their hearts sprinkled from an evil consci- ence, and enter through the vail rent by the broken body of the Savior on the cross, when His blood was shed for the sinner's reconciliation, and sit at the feet of Him whom we may call Abba Father. Like Christ is the ideal for both our converts and ourselves. Perhaps no part of the Bible is so constantly studied as the Evangelists, to see how He walked and worked. What He would do, is our moving and moulding motto. Like the fabled lake that nestled in the quiet, secluded valley, in whose crystal mirror may be seen mountain ranges that are invisible to the naked eye, we strive to have the converts reflect the likeness of the Christ who walks no more among us in the flesh. To attain to this divine standard, the Holy Spirit filled life is preached. Like the Ephesians, the Romanists have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Spirit. With good works as the basis, their scheme of salvation is self-centered. The error is fatal, and issues in the works of the flesh and final spiritual death. The gospel delivers them from this body of death, and looks to the new center which is Christ, and His Spirit works in them the 104 PLANS AND IDEALS. fruit of righteousness, helping them to add to their faith all the divinely-nurtured graces, till they at- tain to the stature of the perfect men in Christ Jesus. The fanaticism that would call down fire from heaven to consume those who refuse to wor- ship the pope sitting in his temple as god, is purged away as dross by the pentecostal fires of the Spirit who kindles on the heart-altar the flame of that passion which is the bond of perfeetness. We would teach the converts to see Jesus. Rome tolerates no personal relationship with Christ. Hers is a complex system that comes be- tween the soul and its Savior, a mighty ecclesiasti- cal machine that pretends to make saints, and in so doing destroys all personal contact with the Lord, whose we are and whom we serve. Christ becomes nothing, and the individual nothing. The soul is absorbed into the vast system and the Savior is placed far out of reach. The mother church is everything to the Romanist. Our gos- pel aims to do for the converts what the phil- osopher asked of the king, that he would get out of his light. We would compel Romanism to stand aside that the "light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ may shine in their hearts/' And once catching the vision of Him who is the "chief est of ten thousand, the One altogether lovely," the convert will renounce his blind devotion to Mary, and the saints whose name is legion, and crown Him Lord of all, "that 105 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. in all things He may have the preeminence." The soul will feel the sublime thrill of Paul, who counted all things but loss and refuse for the ex- cellency of the knowledge of Christ, and be ready to suffer the loss of all things to win Him and be found in Him. These whose streams of comfort have traced their sources to saints, will look upon that face from which beams that love passing knowledge, and cry "Oh Galilean, Thou hast con- quered." He who is above all and through all, and infinitely closer to all than popes and priests and the "mother church," with her pretended keys, will constrain the devoted hearts to press through all the outer circles of personal fellowship and come near, so near as to lay their weary heads upon His bosom. Then, like Zinzendorf, they will have one passion, Christ and Christ alone. To learn of Him, to know Him, to follow Him, to walk with Him in white, to abide in Him, to die with Him and reign with Him, these are our su- preme aims for those whom the Lord has given us. Patrick's prayer for himself is ours for them. Christ as a light Illumine and guide me; Christ as a shield o'ershadow and cover me; Christ be under me; Christ be over me; Christ be beside me, On left hand and right. Christ be before me, behind me, about me, Christ this day be within and without me. 106 CHAPTER VII. OUR BEGINNING. A Retrospective Look. The fires of missionary zeal began to burn early in the history of our church. In October, 1807, Synod "resolved that every minister of our Synod lift a collection to aid Foreign Missions/' The Church was too small to undertake a separate work on the Foreign field, so that all funds were sent to the Board of the Reformed Presbyterian Church to be applied to the use of their missionaries in India. There is no record of the amount of these contributions made by these pioneers of the Lord's work. Suffice it to add that in the year 1838 the nine congregations contributed three hundred and twenty-seven dollars. To indicate, too, something of the way in which was esteemed the aid of our fathers in the work in far-off India, it is said that among the first converts that these brave Coven- anter missionaries won from the ranks of Buddha and Brahma three were given Christian names, those of Isaac Grier, William Blackstocks and John Hemphill. Not content with being merely helpers, the Associate Reformed people set their heads and their hearts on the operation of a distinct mission work in some part of the Regions Beyond. But where would it be? In 1846 the Committee on 107 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. Foreign Mission work reported through its chair- man the recommendation of the establishment of a school in Kentucky to be under the supervision of Thomas Ware, a colored man of Africa. The purpose of the school was to prepare colored stu- dents for the work in Africa, where the Synod pro- posed planting their Mission. Liberia was to be the center of their missionary operations. Quite a number of persons offered to give the Synod ser- vants for the school. The Government of Liberia readily granted a tract of twenty acres of land for the establishment of the Mission. Three boys were placed at the disposal of the Synod. Dr. G. W. Pressly gave his boy Harrison, Mr. James Robin- son gave his boy William, and the Misses Murphy gave their boy Pinkney. It did look as if the en- thusiasm of the little band was going to bear fruit in the organization of real missionary work on for- eign soil. For this they were praying and toiling. But somehow the school failed. And after about five years of trial, the Board of Foreign Missions reported "It becomes our painful duty to report the failure of the African mission so far as regards the training or preparation of the boys that have been placed under the supervision of Rev. N. M. Gordon." Two of the students proved morally unfit for the work and the other intellectually so. Other students were placed in the school, where great emphasis was laid on manual labor in the curriculum. The whole affair lent little or no hope 108 OUR BEGINNING. to the ardent desire of the fathers to open Foreign Mission work on foreign soil. Thus matters dragged along till in the year 1855 the Board recommended that Synod cease to support the school and it was closed. Thus came to naught the African Mission which for a while promised so much. Why should the frail bark strand upon the reefs and rocks so soon? The Church had given the project their unstinted loyalty. They had opened their purse till the enterprise had no lack. They had been unceasing in their prayers for these dark-faced sons of Africa. But the student factor was so sorely deficient, the material so poor, and the management was so far from what it should have been, that the little ship could not breast the high surging wave and went down. And so rude was the shock given the missionary spirit that glowed in the heart of the Church, that no more was said about Missions for years. At least nothing was recorded. Just before the Civil War broke out, the matter came up once more; for the words, the last words of our departing Lord to go and teach all nations were like a fire shut up in their bones, and weary with foreboding, they could not stay the zeal to speak out. But the scorching sun of those sixties burned to the ground this as • it did so many other frail plants, just opening its buds to bloom. When the storms of war had passed and the struggling Church had risen to her feet again, the 109 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. spirit of Missions made itself heard once more. It could not die so' long" as the Church breathed. It was and is the life blood of the body of Christ. Wherever souls have the spirit of the Saviour they will weep as He did over the lost, be their faces black, white or bronzed, and spare no sacrifice to bring them within the folds of the Father's great love. It was so with our fathers. In 1872 Synod appointed a committee to study and report to the next meeting as to the practicability of opening another mission field. The next meeting took place at Mt. Zion, Mo., and it was resolved to take up actively the Foreign Missionary enterprise, and the Board was ordered to send out to all the churches a letter stirring up their hearts to the great duty of evangelizing the nations. Two schemes were proposed at the next meeting. One was to open an independent mis- sion. The other was to co-operate with some other denomination. The latter was adopted, an invitation having been received from the United Presbyterians, Miss Mary E. Galloway, of Due West, S. G, offered her services as pioneer mis- sionary, and arrangements were made at once to send her to Egypt, the field operated by the United Presbyterian Church. The close of the year 1874 witnessed farewell meetings held in dif- ferent places in honor of our first missionary. On the 28th of January, 1875, sne sailed from New York for Alexandria, Egypt. She arrived there in Jio OUR BEGINNING. March. Her remarkable linguistic ability was now brought to bear on the study of the Arabic language, the one used on her field of labor. The following year she was married to* Rev. John Gif- fen, of United Presbyterian Mission. For five years she labored in Alexandria, Cairo and Assiut, but chiefly in the last named point. In 1881 her health failed. With her husband she went to Northern Italy with the hope of regaining her health there. Somewhat benefited, they returned to Egypt, but she rapidly declined, and on the 16th of October, 1881, she died. One morning with her son, Rev. Bruce J. Giflfen, then a missionary in Cairo, we rode out to the American graveyard where a little mound marks her last resting place till He comes. Nothing in all Egypt had for us more charm than that simple monument. But that marble shaft is not her only monument. There are others that tell more loudly her praises. She had a part in that great work all along the Nile, ranked today among the first missionary work of the century. But especially she labored at Assiut. We were shown into a little room and were told that in that small apartment she and her husband lived, and from that center they labored. They sowed and watered with their prayers. And what has been the outcome? That little room is today a mighty college with its five hundred students. Throughout all Egypt its influence is felt in be- half of righteousness. Spending a Sabbath within III MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. its walls and looking into the faces of that large body of students, we felt that our great heroine, who was the first to carry our 'banner into the enemy's country, falling out there on the firing line right at the front, had a noble part in that far- reaching work for the young men and young women of the Nile Valley. The Mexican Mission Established. It was evident that our people were not content with the co-operative idea. The United Presby- terian brethren had been most generous in the plan of co-operation as carried on in the Egyptian Mission, beyond anything we had a right to ask or expect; the relations between the two bodies had been most cordial and harmonious; Mrs. Gal- loway Giffen had proven a most efficient mission- ary during her 'brief period of service; 'but there breathed throughout the denomination the spirit of an independent mission. Three years after the departure of Miss Gallo- way, and three years prior to her death, in 1878, the Synod resolved to establish an independent mission. The field chosen was Mexico. It was Dr. J. I. Bonner who first proposed and advocated the step that developed into the new mission. While the leaven of the independent mission had been at work, the Lord of the harvest had been preparing the pioneer for the place. He who had heard the cry of Israel groaning under the 112 OUR BEGINNING. stinging lash of the taskmasters, and had been moving upon their hearts ere the set time for their deliverance came, had been preparing the liber- ator, Moses, for forty years as he tended his flock through the deserts of Horeb; He who had raised up the throne of the Caesars and called into being the noble tongue of the Greeks, poured His Spirit from on high, opened the way for the Gentiles to enter the kingdom, was also making ready His servant whom He had called from his birth, Paul, the apostle, who should plant the banner of the cross all the way from Antioch to Rome. The same God who had brought our church step by step to the organization of the new mission on foreign soil, had been moving upon the heart of the worker on whose shoulders should fall the re- sponsibility of the founding. Ere the door was opened that led out into the trackless unknown of our new enterprise, He had called the pioneer. Neill E. Pressly, then a student in Erskine Col- lege, heard the summons and did not draw back from the vision of hardships that lay ahead, but with the promptness of the seraphic prophet an- swered, "Here am I, send me." It was during the farewell meeting held on the eve of the de- parture of Miss Galloway for Egypt, that he heard the still small voice quietly calling for volunteers for the far-away lands of spiritual darkness. Little did he know to what part of the wide world the voice would lead, but he was resolute to follow. "3 M-S MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. For three years he studied and waited for the marching orders. At last the pillar of cloud led the way to Mexico. The Synod had asked him to undertake the planting of the Mexican Mission. With Mrs. Rachel Pressly, who has stood by his side through all the frowning vicissitudes and try- ing hardship of missionary life, and has been a most worthy helper in the Lord, they left for their field, reaching Mexico City, January 14, 1879, where they studied the language. There they re- mained till December of the same year, when the Board, in concert with the missionary, chose Tam- pico as the base of their missionary operations. And so the Mexican Mission became a fact. Those were days that tested what manner of men missionaries were. It was no holiday trip, no outing for sightseeing. There was only one rail- road in the Republic, leaving the lone worker far beyond easy reach of communication. The coun- try was not under the firm grip of law and order as now. Bandits prowled over the country, and fanaticism, too, often had a free hand with the lash and sword of persecution. The missionaries had behind them no long years of experience which they might call to their rescue. The work was not organized. The future was shrouded in mys- tery, save as the eye of faith could discern the shining way that lay beneath the shadows. Would the mission succeed? It required the spirit of Abraham to step out on the untried shore, and a 114 OUR BEGINNING. faith that lays its hand in the Father's and walks calmly at His side. But with the spirit of Miss Galloway, who had gone to Egypt, not counting her life dear unto herself, that she might finish her course with joy and the ministry that she had re- ceived of the grace of God, these two brave pioneers set their faces steadfastly and followed the Master into these dark regions of Romish des- titution. All honor to these who for thirty-one years have stood at the outpost, true to their church and true to their Christ. Crowns of re- joicing will be theirs when the Master comes to make up His jewels. ii5 CHAPTER VIII. OUR WORKERS. FOREIGN MISSIONARIES. Bonner, Rev. W. J — He is the son of Dr. J. I. and Alice Bonner, and was born January 17, 1882, at Oak Hill, Alabama. Under the ministry of Rev. H. M. Henry, he was received into Bethel church in 1896. Having received his literary edu- cation at Auburn College, Alabama, he took a course of study in the Union Missionary Institute of Brooklyn, in 1908-9, after which he was ap- pointed to the Mexican Mission. He was married to Miss Nellie Rhule of Williamsburg, Pa., Sept., 1909. The same year the Tennessee and 1 Alabama Presbytery licensed him to preach the gospel. He reached Rioverde, Mexico, November 5, 1909, where he has since resided, studying the language. Bonner, Mrs. Nellie Rhule. — She was born at Williamsburg, Pa., May 22, 1880, and is the daugh- ter of A. J. and Almira Rhule. In June 19, 1893, she was received into the Presbyterian church of her native town. After having graduated from the Indiana State Normal School in 1901, and from the Moody Bible Institute in 1906, she spent six years teaching, two years in public schools, two years in Nashville and one in the Union Mission- ary Institute of Brooklyn. From childhood she entertained the fond ambition to enter foreign mis- sionary work, and in 1909 saw her desire realized by her appointment to the Mexican Mission. With 116 OUR WORKERS. her husband, Rev. W. J. Bonner, to whom she was married, September, 1909, she reached Rioverde, Mexico, Nov. 5, 1909, where she is studying the language. Boyce, Miss Mattie — She was the daughter of Samuel and Luisa Boyce, and was born at Sardis, N. C, May 1, 1868. Early in life she was received into the communion of Sardis (N. C), congrega- tion. She graduated from the Due West Female College in 1890. For years the missionary spirit had been growing in her heart, till one night she asked God very definitely that He would reveal to her His will. The next day she received a letter from the Board of Foreign Missions asking her to accept an appointment to the Mexican Mission. It was God's call and she was ready. After one year of study under Prof. Todd, of Erskine Col- lege, she with Miss Stevenson, left for Tampico, reaching there in December, 1891. For five years she did noble service for the school work of Tam- pico, till broken health compelled her to retire from the field. However, she never forgot her first love. Whether as Superintendent of the Woman's Work of the Synod, or as Lady Prin- cipal of the Due West Female College, she was ever true to the claims of the Mexican Mission. She fell asleep in Jesus in Due West, June 22, 1903. Dale, Rev. J. Q — He was born at Oak Hill, Alabama, June 21, 1870, his parents being William 117 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. Dale and Sarah Cole. At the age of nine he felt the drawings of the Spirit toward the gospel min- istry, and three years later was received into Bethel (Ala.) church. Graduating from Erskine College in 1892, and from the United Presbyterian Theo- logical Seminary of Allegheny in 1896, he was licensed by the Allegheny (U. P.) Presbytery in 1896, and ordained by the First Presbytery of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in the same year. The Board of Home Missions sent him to Columbia to open work, where he remain- ed three years. The Synod of 1898 appointed him to the Mexican Mission. He reached Rioverde, Oct. 8, 1899, where he studied the language. The year following he was married to Miss Katherine Neel, M.D. Work was assigned him in Cerritos, but the Synod having decided to establish the Preparatory and Theological School, he was trans- ferred to Rioverde to take charge of that branch of the mission work. The Rioverde district was placed under his care when Rev. J. R. Edwards re- tired in 1907. Dale, Dr. Katherine Neel. — She is the daughter of J. D. Neel, M.D., and Margaret Pressly, and was born at Troy, S. C, August 13, 1872. At the age of fourteen she was received into the com- munion of the congregation at Troy, S. C. Her education was completed in the Due West Female College, from which she was graduated in 1892. From her earliest years, reading the lives of mis- 118 OUR WORKERS. sionaries, begat in her heart the desire to became a missionary, and the ambition grew with the pass- ing years. In 1893 she was appointed by the Board to the Mexican Mission. Convinced of the increased usefulness that would be added by a medical course, she spent four years in the Wom- an's Medical College, of Philadelphia, from which she was graduated 1897. After a year in the hos- pital of the same institution as resident physician, she left for the field, reaching Ciudad del Maiz in 1898, where she labored till May 30, 1900, when she was married to Rev. J. G. Dale. Later she was transferred to Rioverde, where she practices her profession. Edwards, Rev. J. R — He is the son of Dr. E. H. and Mrs. A. E. Edwards, and was born near Rock Hill, S. C, May 30, 1867. At the age of fourteen he accepted Christ as his Savior. Graduating from Erskine in 1888, after two years spent in teaching, he took the theological course in Erskine Semi- nary. The Second Presbytery licensed him in 1890, and one year later he was ordained to the work of the ministry. One year was spent in Home Mission work in Bartow, Fla., and another in post-gradu- ate study at Princeton, N. J. In 1893 the Board appointed him missionary to Mexico. Reaching Ciudad del Maiz in December of that year, he spent five months studying the language, after which he opened gospel work in Rioverde, May 10, 1894. After fourteen years of faithful, fruitful 119 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. service, broken health compelled his retirement from the field. Edwards, Mrs. Amelia — She was born in An- derson, S. C, September 16, 1869. Having com- pleted her primary education in the schools of An- derson, she was graduated from Anderson Female College in 1886. While yet young, she was re- ceived into full communion of the First Presby- terian church of her native town. After having prosecuted the study of art in New York, she taught in the state of Texas. For two years she filled the position of teacher of art in the Due West Female College. While there she met Rev. J. R. Edwards, and this friendship culminated in marriage, Oct. 20, 1893. They left at once for the mission field, where she labored till broken health forced her husband to resign his post. She has left an enduring monument in the lives of many who came in touch with her consecrated life on the mission field. Gettys, Miss Jennie. — She was born Nov. 2, 1879, near Leslie, S. C, within the bounds of Neely's Creek congregation, her parents being J. R. and Mattie Gettys. She was received into the church, August, 1891, during the pastorate of Rev. C. B. Betts. Reading the lives of missionaries in- spired her with a desire to go to the Regions Be- yond, and after her graduation from Winthrop Normal College, June, 1909, she volunteered for foreign missionary work, was accepted by the 120 OUR WORKERS. Board and sent to Tampico to take the place of Miss Strong, who had resigned on account of broken health. She reached the field, Nov. 6, 1909, and is at present studying the language. Hunter, Rev. J. S. A. — He was the son of Lorezo Hunter and Anna Boyce, and was born Nov. 13, 1847, at Sardis, N. C. Early in life he made a pro- fession of his faith in Christ. GraSuating from Erskine College in 1871, and the Seminary in 1873, the First Presbytery licensed him the same year. The following year he was ordained to the work of the ministry. From 1879 to 1887 he occupied the pastorates of Hickory and Shady Grove (Arkansas) congregations. He was married to Miss Emma McDill in 1877. Having been ap- pointed to the Mexican Mission, he came to Tam- pico in 1887, where he spent one year studying the language. Locating in Ciudad del Maiz, he served the mission for twenty-two years most faithfully till August 24, 1909, when he passed to his eternal reward. He was married the second time to Miss Rosema Beamer, Oct. 28, 1903. Over a wide region he sowed the seed of the gospel, traveling on horseback and enduring hardness most cheerfully for the name of the Lord Jesus. He organized churches in C. del Maiz, La Colonia, San Antonio, Minas Viejas and Valles, bearing sheaves of souls to his Master, which will be his crown of rejoicing in the day of His coming. Hunter, Mrs. Emma McDill. — She was the 121 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. daughter of William and Jane McDill, and was born in Newberry, S. C, May 18, 1855. She was graduated from the Due West Female College in 1873, and four years later was married to Rev. J. S. A. Hunter. For ten years she labored with him in Arkansas, after which she accompanied him to Mexico to engage in the work of the Mission. After fourteen years of untiring effort she heard the summons of the King eternal and passed into His presence to go no more out forever. She died the death of the righteous, after a life of rare use- fulness in the service of the Master. Of the most winning ways, with a splendid command of the Spanish language, deeply consecrated to the Mas- ter's every interest, thoroughly awake to every opportunity to influence a soul for Christ, she did a truly great and telling work for her Lord whom she loved so whole-heartedly and served so heroically. Hunter, Mrs. Rosema Beamer. — She was the daughter of Solomon Beamer and Leah Taylor, and was born near Gettysburg, Pa., May 28, i860. From her infancy she learned to love her Savior, and at the age of fourteen was received into the Methodist church of Altoona, Pa. Her education was 1 received in Dickinson Seminary and at Chau- tauqua. Early in life she began to pity the nations sitting in the shadows of heathen darkness, and felt the call of God to the Regions Beyond. The doors were closed to her entering the foreign mis- 122 OUR WORKERS. sion field till she came to Mexico, reaching Ciudad del Maiz, Dec. 28, 1903, with her husband, Rev. J. S. A. Hunter, to whom she had been married October 28th of the same year. Since the death of her husband she has had charge of the Ciudad del Maiz school. Most nobly has she come up to the help of the work to which her godly husband gave his life. Love, Miss Janie — She is the daughter of Rev. W. Y. and Mrs. M. K. Love, aand was born at Bloomington, Tenn., September 20, 1882. At the early age of ten the Spirit knocked at the door of her heart and she opened to her Savior, being re- ceived into the congregation of Coddle Creek (N. C), of which her father was pastor. Her mother's prayers had prevailed at the throne of grace. She was graduated from the Due West Female College in 1903. From early childhood it had been her fond desire to go to the foreign mission field. Dur- ing one of the Ashville (N. C.) conferences, the desire was forged into a purpose and at the call of the Board she volunteered. She took charge of the Ciudad del Maiz school in 1904, after having spent one year in Rioverde studying the language. She was transferred to the Rioverde school in 1909 and has enlisted her splendid musical power in the cause 'that looks to the betterment of young womanhood. McMaster, Miss Rachel, M.D. — She was the daughter of George and Lou Gregg McMaster, 123 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. and was born at Winnsboro, S. G, June 24, 1880. During a series of revival services conducted by Dr. W. W. Orr, in November, 1894, she was re- ceived into the church. Her education was fin- ished in Winthrop Normal School, S. C, from which she was graduated in 1901. During her college course she formed the sublime purpose to lay her life upon the altar of foreign missions. She was graduated from the Woman's Medical College, of Philadelphia, in 1908, after which she spent one year in the hospital of the same institution as resi- dent physician. She reached Rioverde, February 21, 1910, where she is studying the language. Neel, Miss Lavinia — She is the daughter of Dr. J. D. and Mrs. Margaret Pressly Neel, and was born at Troy, March 12, 1870. Due to the godly influences of her Christian home, she was brought to the Savior at the age of fourteen. After having finished her literary course in the Due West Fe- male College in 1889, she took a post-graduate course in art in Atlanta and New York. Under the influence of her mother, and later inspired by the teachings of her teacher, Miss Mildred Wat- kins, she decided to enter the foreign mission work. Having reached Ciudad del Maiz in 1894, she took charge of the school there, remaining at that post of service till 1903, when she was trans- ferred to Rioverde and placed in charge of the Hattie May Chester Institute. Her rare executive faculties have been laid at the feet of her Lord and 124 OUR WORKERS. are most telling factors in the mental and moral uplift of the girls of the Rioverde School. Pressly, Neill E., D.D — He is the son of Rev. J. E. Pressly, D.D., and Martha Sherard, and was born at Moffattsville, S. C, Sept. n, 1850. His early years were spent within the bounds of Cod- dle Creek (N. C.) congregation. Graduating from Erskine College and Seminary in 1878, he was licensed by the Second Presbytery, April 13, and ordained Dec. 14 of the same year. Having been appointed by the Board to establish the Mexican Mission, he, with Mrs. Pressly, reached Mexico City, Jan. 14, 1879, where he spent the year study- ing the language. December 6, 1879, he reached Tampico, where he has since resided. In 1901 Erskine College honoreu him with the degree of D.D. Pressly, Mrs. Rachel. — She is the daughter of H. L. Elliot and Mary McMaster, and was born Dec. 16, 1848. Her education was received in the High School of Winnboro, S. C, and under the tutorage of Dr. Lord, of New Orleans. In 1868 she was married to Mr. B. C. Roseboro, who died within five years. During a post-graduate course in the Due West Female College, she met Rev. N. E. Pressly, to whom she was married in 1878. The January following she accompanied him to Mexico. Pressly, Rev. H. E — He was born in Tampico, Mexico, December 9, 1885, and is the son of Rev. "5 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. N. E. and Rachel Pressly. Due to the influences of home training he was converted early in life, and was received into the Tampico congregation in 1899. He graduated from Erskine College in 1906 and from Erskine Theological Seminary in 1909. During the same 1 year the First Presbytery at its meeting of May 4 licensed him, and at the meeting in November he was ordained to the full work of the ministry. The Board of Foreign Mis- sions appointed him to the Mexican Mission in 1909, and early in February, 19 10, he took up the work of the Ciudad del Maiz field, where he at present labors. Stevenson, Miss Made. — She was born at Al- bion, S. C, within the bounds of New Hope con- gregation, Nov. 10, 1872. Her parents were Robert Stevenson and Margaret Harlin. At the early age of twelve she accepted Christ as her Savior. Even before that she often said that she was going to be a missionary. Her words were prophetic. Her education was finished in the Due West Female College, from which institution she graduated in 1890. The same year she was ap- pointed to the Mexican Mission, and after one year of study of the Spanish under Prof. J. M. Todd, she left for the field, reaching Tampico, De- cember, 1 89 1. Notwithstanding the sweltering heat of the coast, and the northers that so often sweep down upon them, she has been at her post for nineteen years. The entire Tampico field has 126 OUR WORKERS. felt the impress of her intellectual and spiritual power. Strong, Miss Anna — She was born August II, 1876, within the bounds of Salem (Tenn.) congre- gation, and was converted under the ministry of Rev. J. H. Strong, in 1888, mostly through the quiet life and words of her mother. She was graduated from the Due West Female College in 1 90 1. When only seven years old her mother read to her the life of our first missionary, Mrs. Mary Galloway Giffen, which determined her to be a missionary. Her purpose intensified with the passing years, till in 1903 when the Board appoint- ed her to the Mexican Mission. After one year spent in studying the language in Rioverde, she reached Tampico, December, 1904. For three years she did faithful service, till failure of health compelled her to resign and return to the States for rest and medical treatment. Sorrowfully she said "Thy will be done," and prayerfully awaited the divine summons to return. • Having regained her health sufficiently to return to the mission field, she was assigned to the Ciudad del Maiz school, reaching there April 13, 1910, where she at present labors. Wallace, Miss Fannie — She was the only daugh- ter of William Wallace and Mary Higgins, and was born March 31, 1873, at Paint Lick, Ky. When twelve years of age she was received into the communion of New Hope congregation. June 127 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 30, 1890, she was graduated from the Due West Female College with the first honors of her class. After some post-graduate work she taught at Cor- sicana, Texas. While there she heard the call to foreign mission work, and was accepted by the Board for the Mexican Mission. After a short course of study in the Moody Bible School of Chicago, she left for Tampico, December, 1900, to fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of Miss Boyce. After but four months of study she began her work in the school room. Her race was soon run. Two years, less one month, mark- ed the time limits of her missionary career, but the years were full for her Master. Nov. 16, 1902, she fell a victim to yellow fever, and went to be with her Eord, whom she loved so well. Among her last words were "I am resigned to God's will. My soul is at peace with Him." Her memory is as ointment poured forth. NATIVE MINISTERS. Butron, Enoc. — He was born in Antiguo More- los, Tamps, October 29, 1889. His educational advantages were exceedingly limited, and even more so were his opportunities for moral better- ment. In 1903 he was admitted to Preparatory School, where he completed the literary course of study. His mental grasp of facts and their rela- tions were those of a mature man and not those of a lad. One year after entering the school he was 128 SOME OF THE NATIVE PASTORS AND THE THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS. Rev. F. M. Meza. Rev. Enoc Butron. Rev. G. Cruz. Rev. Pedro Trujillo. P. Garcia, Student. P. Castillo, Student. F. Bautista, Student. OUR WORKERS. baptized into the faith of the gospel, and his intel- lectual precocity was not more wonderful than his rapid development in the deepest and best things of the life hid with Christ in God. The Presbytery of Tampico received him as student of theology in 1908, and the following year licensed him to preach the gospel. Having finished his theological course in 1909, he was assigned to the pastorate of the congregation of Ciudad Fernandez. Cruz, Cresenciano. — He is the son of Rev. G. Cruz and Juana Zuniga, and was born in Charco Blanco, near Ciudad del Maiz, Sept. 14, 1875. He was one of the charter members of the congrega- tion of Ciudad del Maiz, having been received in 1 89 1. When eighteen years old, he was sent to the States for his education. His literary course was pursued at Erskine College, and he was gradu- ated from the Theological Seminary in 1898. The same year he was licensed by the Second Presby- tery. Returning to his native land he was or- dained by the Tampico Presbytery in 1900, and was assigned work in Valles, where he has since labored. Gifted by nature and with his splendid opportunities for study which he most conscien- tiously improved, he is a most acceptable preacher of the gospel. In '1900 he was married to Sra. Eni- dina Gonzales. Cruz, Guadalupe — He was born Dec. 12, 1839, at Palomas, a ranch near Ciudad del Maiz. He never attended school. His father taught him to 129 M-9 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. read, and with an ambition to learn, he used the few books that fell into his hands and acquired a useful stock of information. When the mission- aries reached Ciudad del Maiz it was noised abroad that the foreign devils had come. Queer stories were circulated as to their beliefs. Curious to know what these new comers did teach, Sr. Cruz asked the missionaries for one of their books. Car- rying the Bible home, he said to his family, "This is the bad book of the hated Protestants. I am going to examine it carefully to see what they be- lieve. Till I have done so, no one in the house- hold dare touch it." He read it from Genesis to Revelation. Finishing the reading, he announced to his family that the book was of God, and that it was the truth. He was going to make the Protestants his people, and their God his God. His entire family followed and were baptized in 1890. At once he felt that he was his brother's keeper, and asked to be allowed to preach the gos- pel to his fellowmen. The Presbytery licensed him in 1892 and three years later he was ordained. His conversion created no small stir, for he had been a Romanist of the straitest sect. The enemies of the cross plotted to kill him, but he was not a reed to be shaken by the winds of popular favor. On horseback he went through the ranches far and near, talking the way of salvation and giving away tracts. He is a most indefatigable worker. Though seventy-one years old, he will ride sixty miles dur- OUR WORKERS. ing the day and preach that night. Ever zealous and optimistic, he loves his calling with all his soul, and does noble service for his Lord. Hernandez, Inez. — He was born in Chontla, Vera Cruz, April 20, 1850. His father was a gambler of the most dissolute type, giving the son no opportunity to reach the best things in life. He grew up as a common lad of the ranch life. His father forbade him to attend the Protestant church, but he was religiously inclined, and when Rev. N. E. Pressly came to> Chiconcillo to preach the first time, Sr. Hernandez was received into the church. He had been at the head of a school in his little town. The infant congregation was left in his charge. He began a short course of study by correspondence under the missionary, and was ordained to the ministry in 1888. He was married to Senorita Rosaria Lugo. Meza, Francisco Mellado. — He was born in Panuco, Vera Cruz, Oct. 6, » 1870. He was left an orphan at the early age of three years. When but fourteen years old, Rev. Zaleta went to Panuco doing gospel work. Francisco, the young Indian, full blooded, was attracted by the tracts and the booklets distributed. These, with the instructions of Rev. Zaleta, won him for Christ, and he was baptized by Rev. N. E. Pressly in 1885. Convert- ed mind, body and soul, he would go with Rev. Zalata on his tours through the ranches and dis- tribute tracts. Often when the minister was un- MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. able to meet his appointments, he would send Francisco. After the death »of Rev. Zaleta, the Indian lad did good service from ranch to ranch, reading the Bible to the Indians. At the age of twenty, Rev. Pressly took him to Tampico, where he spent three years in study preparing himself for the gospel ministry. At Chiconcillo he was, in 1892, licensed to preach the gospel, and two years later he was ordained to full work of the ministry. The Presbytery stationed him at Tan- tima in 1894, where he has been laboring since. His lot is cast among the Indians. He loves them, their ways, their plains of palms and "jacales" of cane with thatched roofs, and strives to bring them under the power of the gospel. Throughout all that region he is known as a fearless exponent of those high, bedrock principles of righteousness and truth, and best of all, his life is a shining light. Senorita Galdina Botello became his wife in 1893 and has been a noble helpmeet in the Lord. Sanchez, Tomas. — He was born in Valerosa de Peto, in the state of Yucatan, in 1872. He lived a nominal Roman Catholic, but a most dissolute character, till he was twenty-six years old. He came under the influence of a native Christian, a member of the Presbyterian Church of Merida, who gave him a Bible and persuaded Sr. Sanchez to accompany him to a gospel service. Just four months afterwards, he was received into the full communion of the church. Storms of persecution 132 OUR WORKERS. broke upon him. The bitterest enemies were those of his own household. His wife made life well nigh unbearable for him, but he stood bravely for the truth, and bore faithful testimony for his Lord, even when brought before the civil authorities who had received false accusations against him. None of these things moved him. He laid his heart upon the altar of the Master and strove to do His will, and soon saw his wife converted to the gospel she had so defiantly opposed for years. Rev. Chas. Millar, of the Presbyterian church, en- couraged him to study for the ministry, which he did. Reaching Coyoacan in 1905, he entered the Seminary. He accepted work in Ciudad Fernan- dez in 1909, where he remained for a few months until he was transferred to Cerritos. Torres, Simon S — He was born at Salinas del Tapado, S. L. P., Sept. 28, 1867. His family being nomadic in character, he was denied the opportuni- ties of even the most elementary education, till eighteen years of age. He came under the influ- ence of the Methodists, who led him to Christ in 1885, and sent him to Laurens Institute of Mon- terey. Leaving school he felt something of the inward burning of the spirit of Paul, "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel." He heard that there were at Tantoyuca, Vera Cruz, two hundred miles away, several men liberally inclined, who had of- fered to support a minister who should preach them the words of life. He went to answer the 133 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. call. They met their obligation for only two months, but the young herald of good news was not dismayed. Like the great apostle, he went to work with his hands, making shoes by day and preaching the gospel by night. Thus he labored for two years. In 1896 he asked to be received by the Tampico Presbytery, being licensed the following year. During his early days he imbibed not a little of the Methodist fire, and it has burned all through the years. His nature is of devotional type. He is a most loyal servant of the kingdom. On horseback, enduring hardness as a good sol- dier, he travels over his large parish feeding the multitudes with the bread of life. In 1896 he married one of his converts in Tantoyuca, Senorita Marcelina Echavarri. He resides at Chalahuite. Trujillo, Pedro. — He was the son of Cipriano Trujillo and Micaela Brito, and was born April 29, 1846, in Mexico City. He was educated in the common schools, and then took a commercial course, receiving on graduation a certificate of proficiency, signed by the great Benito Juarez. While yet a young man he identified himself with the Protestant movement, then just beginning in Mexico. Through the preaching of a converted Catholic priest, Sr. Aguas, he was converted in 1870, connecting with the Episcopal church. In 1874, when Rev. Hutchinson of the Presbyterian mission began work in Mexico City, Sr. Trujillo with Sr. Morales, now called the Moody of Mexico, 134 OUR WORKERS. began gospel work under the direction of the Presbyterian missionary. Sr. Trujillo spent some time at Tisapan, after which he was sent to Tam- pico, where he labored till our mission was es- tablished there. In 1880 he was transferred at his own request to our mission, and in 1884 was or- dained to full work of the gospel ministry. Asso- ciated with the missionary of Tampico, he labors in that congregation as well as those of Dona Cecilia and Las Lomas del Real. Linked with his natural gifts, his deep piety makes him an ef- ficient minister of the gospel. Zaleta, Zenon. — He was born in Ozuluamo, Vera Cruz, April 12, 1855. From Chiconcillo he went to Tampico to work, and was there con- verted, being the first man baptized in the Mexi- can Mission. His was a salvation too genuine to admit of a doubt. The world had no charm for him. With something of the yearning of Paul over the Jewish nation, he longed to carry the gospel to his own people. After three years of study under Dr. Pressly, he was licensed by the Tampico Presbytery in 1885, and sent to Panuco, Vera Cruz. His career was short. Only three years was he permitted to work for the Master, but they were full years. He fell a victim to the white plague, and in 1888 he fell asleep in Jesus. He was a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. 135 CHAPTER IX. OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. By all means save some is our supreme ambition and all-determining missionary aim; and any instrumentality that will administer to that end must be pressed into service. No worker will tie himself down to any ironclad list of agencies for making the gospel known to those without God and without hope. Rather any legitimate help will be used that will effectively bring the gospel to bear on the minds and hearts of those com- mitted to our spiritual keeping. When the la- mented Mrs. Emma Hunter, who was without a peer in the sphere of soul-winning, went to Ciudad del Maiz, she found that the people stood aloof from the missionaries. Her ingenuity began* to de- vise some means that would bring her in touch with the women. She saw that all the Mexican ladies were lovers of flowers, and so she brought from the United States flower seed, and not a few dared to enter the missionary home to buy the foreign flowers. She would seize the opportunity to tell them of the "Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the valley." She also brought little cake pans and other novelties that would attract the people and bridge the wide gulf which fanaticism had reared between her and the souls she labored to win. 136 OUR DECEASED MISSIONARIES. Rev. J. S. A. Hunter. Mrs. Emma McDill Hunter. Miss Fannie Wallace. Miss Mattie Boyce. OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. Nearby was a large plantation owned by an American. She offered to sell the sugar from her front window, and selling it cheap, many of the poor came to buy. She made nothing in dollars and cents, but she was always ready with a word for her Lord. When they came on Sabbath, she told them why she could not sell and urged the obligation to keep the Lord's day of rest. And every field has its own ways of working. The nature of the conditions obtaining there de- termine which are the most practicable. The wise general surveys well the field on which the mili- tary operations are to be cast, and with all the data in mind, decides whether he will rush the mounted cavalry or bring up, the lines of infantry; whether he will order a bayonet charge or use the long range siege guns; whether he will storm the opposing lines or throw up breastworks and lie on the defensive. It is so with the soldiers on the far- flung battle lines of missionary conquest. In China the missionaries go through the streets preaching the gospel to the curious crowds that gather on the corners or in the market places. In Mexico the law expressly forbids any religious service on the street. For this reason is barred out the noble Salvation Army that in other lands has won from the depths of woe so many immortal souls and sent them toward glory with a new song in their mouths. In Africa great stress is laid on Indus- trial Missions, whereas in Mexico in all the forty 137 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. years of gospel effort only one attempt has been made along that line and it is in its bare incipiency. However, there are certain agencies which are practicable in all mission fields. By common con- sent they are the most effective. Of these used by our mission, let us take them up for study one by one. Evangelistic Work. This refers to the preaching of the gospel by the missionary or the native pastor, from the pul- pits of the organized congregations, in the homes where they are permitted to hold services however informal, and on itinerating trips through the country. To convey a clear idea of the modus operandi, the fields will be discussed in the order of the organization. i. The Tampico Field. Rev. N. E. Pressly, Superintendent. (i) The Tampico Congregation, Revs. N. E. Pressly and Pedro Trujillo, pastors. A colporteur, Francisco Escobar, reached Tampico in 1875 and succeeded in selling a number of Bibles. Impress- ed with the possibilities of the town, on returning to Mexico City he urged Rev. Hutchinson to send a gospel worker there. Sr. Pedro Trujillo answer- ed the call, reaching the port Dec. 26, 1875. The opposition was exceedingly bitter and the progress very slow. When Rev. N. E. Pressly, after one year of study was ready for work, and our Board 138 .""> ■Uj^ * v * Q^"%^.!4jtJ^y^^^S^^ w* THE CHURCH OF TAMPICO. THE GRAVE OF THE LATE MISS FANNIE WALLACE. OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. was casting about for a base of opera- tions, the Presbyterian Board cheerfully turn- ed over to our church the Tampico sta- tion, both on account of the discouragements and the inaccessibility of the field from their cen- ter. From the first an old warehouse on Muelle street served as a chapel. Those were trying days for the lone gospel heralds. But they had in their spiritual makeup that of which martyrs are made, and against fearful odds contended earnestly for the faith. For more than a year no one dared enter the chapel save the missionaries and their families. Fanaticism excluded all the rest. About eighteen months passed and the light began to break upon the dense darkness. The first person baptized was a poor old blind lady, Jesus Gonzalez. Others were received, and July 3, 1881, the Lord's Supper was administered for the first time there. For ten years the congregation worshipped in the chapel. In 1889 a lot was bought on Muelle and Estrado streets, and a beautiful church erected, costing $5550. It was dedicated Jan. 17, 1890. Under the supervision of the pastor and asso- ciate, the work has grown to a membership of 117. «And the cause has grown financially as well, paying each year the salary of Rev. Pedro Trujillo in full. A Christian Endeavor Society, with one hundred and nine members contributing last year $217.13, a Sabbath School of one hundred and twenty-five members, and a Juvenile Society of 31, 139 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. under the direction of Miss Made Stevenson, are most valuable helpers in the work of the congre- gation. (2) Dona Cecilia. Revs. N. E. Pressly and Pedro Trujillo, pastors. This is a suburban town of Tampico, three miles farther toward the beach. Repair shops of the National Railways of Mexico and branch works of the Standard Oil Co. are lo- cated there, both of which attract many seeking employment. Gospel work was begun there, August, 1 90 1. Eleven members have been gath- ered into the church. Last year they contributed $100 towards the building fund for the Tantima chapel. (3) Las Lomas del Real. Revs. N. E. Pressly and Pedro Trujillo, pastors. The town lies on the coast to the north of Tampico, about 25 miles dis- tant. Well nigh the entire population of 500 in- habitants are engaged in the salt business. The northern winds bring the sea water overland into artificial lakes, where the salt is deposited, the water having escaped by evaporation. Sixteen years ago the gospel found entrance there. Far back in 1903 a Bible was picked up from a trash pile in Tampico and fell into the hands of Sr. Pedro Garcia of Las Lomas del Real. He read the book with ever sharpening avidity. Its teachings gripped his heart and life. At the same time there came to his town a silversmith who had fled from the fierce persecution which the Protestants on the 140 OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. Pacific coast suffered. Daily as he worked he kept his Bible before him, and when anyone entered he hid it in his drawer. One day Dn. Pedro saw the book and insisted that he be allowed to read its pages. The two men became mutual helpers in the Lord. They invited Rev. Pedro Trujillo, of Tampi- co, to preach in their town and in the home of Dn. Pedro. The missionary at once entered the opened door and the first service was held Dec. 30, 1903. Sr. Garcia became the life of the work. In his home was made ready the chamber for the com- ing* of the prophet once a month. On the other Sabbaths he gathered the little band in his home and taught them the way of life in Christ. His was a light that burned and shone. He stirred the members with the purpose of building a chapel and though when first finished it was well nigh destroyed by a cyclone, they had a mind to work and rebuilt the house of worship, which was dedi- cated in August, 1909. The membership has grown to twenty in the face of the most bitter opposition. In 1909 Dn. Pedro was called to serve in the upper sanctuary. Under his leadership the little body of Christians have borne most telling testimony for the Lord there, and now that he will meet no more with them, to judge by the past, they will still hold forth the word of life, shining as a light in a dark place. (4) Chiconcillo. * Rev. Inez Hernandez, pastor. The village lies one hundred miles south of Tam- 141 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. pico. A young man, Zenon Zaleta, had gone from Chiconcillo to Tampico to learn the blacksmith's trade. There he was converted and became instru- mental in opening the way for the missionary to go to his native village and preach the gospel in 1882, when a goodly number were received into the church. The present membership is 37. Tapa Boca and La Labor are offsprings from this con- gregation. At the former place Rev. Hernandez preaches* from time to time. Estero, with 10 mem- bers, is another branch of Chiconcillo, where Don Pablo Morato reads and explains the Word of God to the ranchmen each Sabbath. (5) Chalahuite. Rev. S. S. Torres, pastor. The worker was transferred to Chalahuite in 1907. It is a village of five hundred souls, about 25 miles from Tuxpan. There the worker has won thirteen souls for Christ, at San Francisco a neighboring ranch of three hundred inhabitants, twenty souls, and at San Lorenzo, another ranch near, of fifty people, six members. 'Many of these were mem- bers, or related to members of Chiconcillo. At San Lorenzo, a member, Sr. Nicefero Santiago, has built at his own expense a little chapel costing approximately $400. (6) Tantima. Rev. Francisco Meza, pastor. The town has a population of 1550 souls, and is situat- ed about one hundred miles southwest of Tampico. Rev. N. E. Pressly preached there in 1882, but no regular work was attempted till 1893, when Rev, 142 n h " WA ^1 REV. S. S. TORRES AND CONGREGATIONS. THE TANTIMA CHAPEL. OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. Meza was placed in charge of the station. The field has been an unusually difficult one, still twenty-two souls have been led out of the dark- ness into the light of life. In 1909 a commodious building was bought and converted into a chapel costing $750. From this center the pastor visits Ozuluama and La Labor, preaching once and twice a month. At the latter ranch are 19 mem- bers. (7) Vega de Otates. Rev. N. E. Pressly, pastor. This is a small ranch of about fifty inhabitants a few miles from Panuco, Vera Cruz. Work was begun there by Rev. Zenon Zaleta. From time to time Dr. Pressly makes pastoral visits there. The membership is 9. 2. The Ciudad del Maiz Field. Rev. H. E. Pressly, Superintendent. (1) Ciudad del Maiz Congregation. Rev. H. E. Pressly, pastor. After one year of study in Tam- pico, Rev. J. S. A. Hunter took an itinerating trip through the state of San Luis Potosi with the view of selecting a station for work. He chose Ciudad del Maiz. With his family he reached there April 6, 1889. Going by train over the National R. R. to Rascon, the terminus of the road then built, but subsequently projected to San Luis Potosi, they completed the journey in a coach over fifty- five miles of the roughest mountain road. Of all the towns of the state none was more fiercely fan- M3 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. atical than this to which they had come. It was by a sheer work of Providence that they secured a house. They had rented the place and were settled before the owners hardly knew who they were and what their business. One night they walked out to the public square. A friend after- wards told them that he had followed them home, feeling sure that they would be attacked and pos- sibly killed. On the streets rocks were thrown at them. Through the windows stones were hurled at the missionary while preaching. They were looked upon as veritable demons and the crowds would mete out to them such treatment as the emissaries of the infernal regions deserved. But God had a work for them. Their hour had not come. For one year the missionary preached to an audience composed of his wife and children. Even the cook would always smoke as she passed through the house "to keep the evil spirits from entering her," so she said. Undismayed by these things seemingly against them, the missionaries toiled and prayed and waited. After two years of effort, lacking two months, God's set time came, and twelve were baptized, the first fruits of their labors. Of these charter members, two afterwards became ministers of the gospel, Revs. G. and C. Cruz. Two years later a lot in the central section of the town was bought. On one side of the lot was a house which became the parsonage, while on the other side was built and dedicated, Dec. 144 OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 12, 1896, a handsome church edifice, costing $7,- 000. The present membership consists of 33 per- sons, the Christian Endeavor Society has 40, the Juvenile Society 37 members, and the Sabbath School 42. Aside from the expenses of the con- gregational work, $75 was contributed last year toward the salary of Rev. Torres, the missionary of the Presbytery. (2) La Colonia de Gutierrez, Rev. G. Cruz, pas- tor. La Colonia is a village of 250 souls, seven miles east 'from Ciudad del Maiz. About 1892 Rev. G. Cruz began work there, and after two years the first converts were baptized. Quite a large proportion of the inhabitants are Italians and most' stubbornly fanatical. Still the seed sown has brought forth a harvest of thirteen souls. A neat little chapel, with a seating capacity of fifty per- sons, has been built. The membership is 13.* (3) San Antonio. Rev. H. E. Pressly, pastor. The village lies to the north of Ciudad del Maiz twelve miles distant. Revs. Hunter and G. Cruz have made itinerating trips through the place from time to time, talking and preaching the gospel, till they succeeded in organizing a little congrega- tion on Dec. 16, 1906. Intensely fanatical at first, much of the opposition has been overcome, till eighteen souls have come out on the Lord's side, representing five families. There is an average at- tendance of 35 at the preaching services held week- ly. A beautiful little chapel has been erected, cost- 145 M-10 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. ing $400, contributed by the Young People's So- cieties of the Synod, and was dedicated April, 1906, Rev. J. R. Edwards preaching the sermon. (4) Valles. Rev. Crecenciano Cruz, pastor. Gospel work was begun in June, 1899. The fol- lowing year the first members were received. Since that time thirty-one have been received, of whom nineteen are at present members. Among these are represented six families. Last year $336 were contributed toward the work of the Lord. Owing to the liberal spirit of the place, gospel work makes slow progress there. 3. The Rioverde Field. Rev. J. G. Dale, Superintendent. (1) The Rioverde Congregation. Rev. J. G. Dale, pastor. The pioneer worker of this field was Rev. J. R. Edwards, who opened the mission in Rioverde, May 10, 1894. Prior to his arrival, Sr. Forcado, a native minister, had preached for a short while* in the town, but left no visible result of his labors. He had retired before the missionary arrived. The sowing of the good seed found the same rocky soil of ignorance and superstition, the same scorching rays of fanaticism as had attended gospel efforts in other parts. Dur- ing the first two years, nine members were receiv- ed into the church. The services were held in the home of the missionary till 1897, when a substan- tial chapel, costing $1500, was erected near the 146 OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. center of the town. After fourteen years of labor, Rev. Edwards was compelled to retire from the field on account of ill health, but his efforts had not fallen short of an abundant fruitage. Sixty-four persons had been received into the church, a hand- some chapel had been built for the congregation, a neat house of worship had been erected in Ciudad Fernandez, a parsonage and an Orphanage home, all finished without the extra cost of an architect or contractor. Besides he had carried the gospel into Mojarres, a little ranch twenty-five miles in the mountains, and had won there three souls for his Lord. Gifted with a special linguistic ability that enabled him to take hold of his work with a vigorous grasp after only a few months of study, with a capacity to form friendships that made the onslaughts of fanaticism less effective, and with a fitness for pastoral work that endeared him to his flock by ties that years can not sever, this pioneer herald of the cross proved himself worthy of a place among those heroes who stand at the front amid the thickest of the fight, faithful and true. When Rev. J. R. Edwards retired from the field in 1907 because of ill health, the work was placed in charge of Rev. J. G. Dale, then at the head of the Preparatory and Theological School, he still retaining his place in the educational work. Locat- ed at the principal educational center of the mis- sion, the congregation has magnificent advantages for gospel effort among the student body of the H7 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. schools. For these, special services are held each year in the chapel. The good hand of God has been upon the congregational activities. The present membership is 97. The Sabbath School with 126 pupils, the Christian Endeavor Society with 53 members, the Junior Endeavor Society with 40 little workers, and the Woman's Aid So- ciety with 40 devoted Dorcases, are noble helpers in the Lord's vineyard. Notable is the spirit of prayer among the members. Each Sabbath morn- ing after the religious service, more than an hour long, volunteers wait for an half-hour of prayer for the coming of the Spirit upon the congregational efforts, and from fifty to seventy-five spend the season waiting upon God for power. (2) Ciudad Fernandez. Rev. Enoc Butron, pas- tor. Prior to 1900 Rev. Edwards had preached there occasionally. A neat chapel was erected in 1900 and dedicated the following year. The structure cost about $400. Owing to the dogged fanaticism of the town, as well as the lack of a regular pastor, the progress has been very slow. Though Rev. Tomas Sanchez had charge of Ciu- dad Fernandez for several months in 1909, much of his time was spent in Cerritos in the interest of the work there. Sixteen members have been re- ceived since the organization. (3) Cerritos. Rev. Tomas Sanchez, pastor. This field has suffered from the repeated interrup- tions in the history of the missionary efforts there. 148 OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. Years ago a Presbyterian native minister was sta- tioned at that point, but after a few months of work was moved to another place. After the lapse of several years, Rev. J. G. Dale was stationed there, but within a few months was placed in charge of the Preparatory and Theological school, and was transferred to Rioverde. No native min- ister having been available, the field was abandon- ed till 1909, when Rev. Sanchez made monthly trips. To add to the difficulties of the field, the Catholic Church has lost its grip on many of the influential families, and these have come to regard themselves as belonging to> the liberal class, which is but another name for infidelity. However, the labors there have not been in vain. In April, 1910, a church was organized with six members and with about twenty-five adherents. (4) Cardenas. Rev. J. G. Dale, pastor. The town is situated on the National Railway line from San Luis Potosi to Tampico, about fifty miles east of Cerritos, and by rail the same distance from Rioverde. The repair shops being located there, families come from the surrounding country seek- ing employment. It has a population of about 800 souls. The congregation was organized in 1909. Occasional pastoral visits are made from Rioverde. Due to the fact that the services are not held with any regularity, the progress has not been rapid. The members, eleven in number, H9 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. meet each Sabbath for the study of the Word of God. It is a most loyal little band of believers. Educational Work. The ultimate end of the mission school is not the social uplift or the mere intellectual betterment of heathen childhood. Laudable as are these as- pirations in themselves, something nobler nerves the missionary teacher to meet the hard tasks that draw so heavily upon the energies of head and heart. They would lift the heathen children up out of the wild, heathen surroundings, lead them from the lowlands of gross ignorance, where bigot- ed fanaticism best thrives and give them visions of those things, pure, lovely and of good report. They would save them from the foul forces of heathendom that would issue in their eternal moral wreckage and transform them into characters that will burn and shine like veritable light-houses, sending their rays of gospel light far out on the reefs of heathen error and sin. And best of all, they would lead the children to the feet of Jesus, enable them to see Him the chiefest of ten thou- sand, the One altogether lovely, and give their lives to Him with utter abandon, to become effici- ent soul winners to turn many to Him who alone can bear away the sin of the world. In a word, they labor and pray to win their pupils for Christ, and through them reach the heathen homes, con- verting these into centers of great spiritual bless- 150 MISSIONARY TEACHERS. Miss Lavinia Neel. Miss Janie JLove. Miss Jennie Gettys. Miss Macie Stevenson. Miss Anna Strong. Mrs. Kosema Hunter. OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. ing. To attain these high ends, the mission schools have peculiar fitness. They become most powerful agencies. The mission school touches the child life at a period when the strongest impression can be made for the gospel. Before the strange superstitions of the unlettered have found lodgment in their minds; before 'they have breathed for long years the polluting atmosphere of shameless impurity; before the heart is hardened by idolatry and its long trains of evils, the missionary teacher has an opportunity to mould the tender, responsive heart for Christ. Statistics assert that the greatest num- ber of conversions are registered between the ages of fifteen and sixteen. If such be true in Christian lands where the ennobling influence of the holy tenets of our faith throw about the homes the safeguards of protection, with more reason may we expect the statement to hold good in heathen lands. And through the schools brought under the power of the gospel while young, they become like the plant that grows straight and erect from the very ground, while our converts, saved after decades and scores of years of superstition and idolatry, find their likeness in the twig that grew bent toward the earth, and long afterward had its topmost bough turned upward. It always re- mained crooked. How often, after years of spir- itual training, we find aged converts still morally crooked by some inherited heathen sin. Not so 151 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. with the child that has passed through the biblical curriculum of the mission school. At the tender age the sprout is made to grow heavenward and Godward. Two travelers once < stood at a heathen tem- ple door. A mother drew near with her ill-shaped child, and falling at the foot of the steps that led up to the heathen god, she prayed, "O grant that my child may grow fair. Grant that my child may grow lovely. Grant that it may grow strong. O hear the cry of a mother and a mother's breaking heart." As she turned to go, one of the strangers asked, "Friend, to whom did you pray?" "I do not know," she said, "but there must be somebody to hear the cry of a mother and keep a mother's heart from breaking." That one is the conse- crated missionary teacher. She will make the child to grow fair, lovely and strong. The missionary school has the decided advan- tage of a sustained influence of the teacher on the child. The missionary pastor has his flock gath- ered about him for an hour or two and three times each week. The mission teacher holds her school under her personal influence for five days of the week for nine months of the year. With her desk as pulpit she has the two or three score children for an audience all day long. And very particu- larly is this true of the boarding school. The es- tablishment is made a home with its daily drill 152 OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. in the holy principles of Christ, and under the con- stant inspiration of a heavenly atmosphere. The missionary school is & forerunner of the gospel. It prepares the way for the Word of God to enter the homes, whose doors are barred to the approach of the gospel herald. Roman Catholic families, taught to believe that Protestant mission- aries are proselyting emissaries rof the infernal realms of darkness, feel that for a missionary to pass the threshold of the home would be hardly less sacrilegious than that a Jew should allow a Gentile to enter the holy of holies. And yet, till the homes are won, little or no permanent impres- sion can be made on the nation. Christianity must touch these fountain heads ere the streams of in- fluence flow out and on through the far-reaching circles of society, if the whole social fabric is to be regenerated. How shall we bring the gospel to storm and take this citadel, this center of the throbbing soul-life of the people. Elisha, before he could raise to life the breathless form of the lad of Shunem, must place his warm body upon the cold, lifeless form, eye upon eye, mouth upon mouth, and limb upon limb, till, by the dynamic energy of prayer he brought him to life again. It is the lesson of vital personal contact. Precisely this is the province of the school. It offers the point of contact. The child carries into the fan- atical home the gospel truths learned at the teach- er's desk. They become the common talk in the 153 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. family circle. And better still. The teacher, through the affection of the pupil, gains the good will of the parent and it comes to pass that in nine- tenths of the homes represented in the school, the teacher is made welcome, and in well nigh every instance is allowed to read the Bible and offer prayer. The teacher labors to have pupils attend the meetings of the Christian Endeavor Society, or the Sabbath School, and be it said to> the praise of our teachers, fully three-fourths of the children do attend. This becomes a first and almost sure step toward getting them to attend a preaching service. It inevitably results that some of the fam- ily go. Thus the missionary teacher bridges the yawning chasm between the homes and the church, and becomes a connecting link by which to draw families to the house of God. The missionary school has added vantage ground because of the urgent need of educational .institutions in the country. The government is doing nobly for the cause of education, spending $6,805,074 annually in maintaining 9710 schools. When viewed in the light of the stupendous task that confronted the government, this showing is commendable. Because of centuries of warfare, battling for its national life and quelling the con- stant revolutions, the national energies have been spent in arms and in repleting the losses of war, rather than on schools and their equipment. On the other hand, viewed in the light of what re- 154 OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. mains to be done, the need is most urgent. The census of 1900 reported that there were in the Republic 4,129,142 children under twelve years of age, who could neither read nor write. The latest authority asserts that "more than 8,000,000 who have reached their majority who can neither read nor write." For the stupendous task of enlight- ening these, the schools that have been established are not sufficient. And the difficulties are multi- plied fourfold, because of the fact that there are so many different dialects among the Indian popula- tion. This loud need-cry, the growing thirst for light, the recognized superiority of the ■ evangelical schools, and the awakening desire to study English which is taught in all our schools, these considera- tions give the missionary schools a lever of power of which the Church may well be proud. What are our schools doing to enter these wide-open doors? 1. The Tampico School. Teachers, Misses Macie Stevenson and Jennie Gettys. Jan. 16, 1893, the school was opened in a« rented building, which was afterwards bought by the Board and since used for the school exercises. Misses Stevenson and Boyce were the pioneers. The first morning they had only three pupils, but three more came in before the day was over. The enrollment has grown to ninety-five. After five years of splendid service, broken health compelled Miss Boyce to retire from the work. She was 155 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. succeeded by Miss Fannie Wallace who after two years of service most unsparingly given her Lord, was called to her eternal reward. Miss 'Anna Strong took up her work but her health failed and she was compelled to return to the States after three -years. Miss Jennie Gettys has taken her place. The school under Miss Stevenson's guid- ing hand and the help of her associates, has been a noble handmaid to the congregational efforts of the town. Beside the daily Bible study in the class room, the teachers visit the homes of the children and read the Word of God to the parents. Seventeen of the pupils have accepted Christ, and nearly all have given full proof of a change of heart and a hope of heaven. Several mothers have been brought to Christ through the influence of the school. Last year forty-two of the pupils were enrolled in the Sabbath School and twenty-two in the Junior Endeavor Society. In 1906 Dr. Pressly raised, within the bounds of the Synod, funds for the erection of a new and com- modious building, which will widen and deepen the sphere of the educational efforts of the insti- tution. 2. The Ciudad del Maiz 'School. Teachers, Mrs. Rosema Hunter and Miss Anna Strong. For a year or two Mrs. Emma Hunter had gath- ered in her home several little girls, and had given 156 OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. them such instruction as she was able aside from her other duties. The school was formally opened on the arrival of Miss Lavinia Neel in 1903. For ten* years it was under her care till she was placed in charge of the Hattie May Chester Institute. Miss Janie Love took charge of the school the year following, remaining there for five years till trans- ferred' to the Rioverde School. She was succeeded by Mrs. Rosema Hunter. Beginning with three pupils, the school has grown till last year it had an enrollment of seventy-five. Miss Anna Strong having regained her • health was returned to the Mission in 1909 and appointed to this School. Fully one-half of all the children are members of the Christian Endeavor Society or the Junior En- deavor Society. Besides the daily teaching of the Bible in the school, the teachers hold a prayer meeting in the school room on Friday afternoons, which is attended by nine-tenths of the children enrolled. They also make stated visits into the homes of the parents, where the Bible is read. Personally the teachers go to the homes of the children, inviting and bringing them to the ser- vices of the sanctuary. Through this agency small schools have been established in La Colonia with nine pupils, and in San Antonio with forty-five. A substantial structure was bought in 1897 just across the street from the church costing $1000, which has been dedicated to the work of the school. 157 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 3. The Rioverde School. Teachers, Misses Lavinia'Neel and Janie Love. It was formally opened February 23, 1897, with eight pupils. After six years, under the direction of different native teachers, the work was placed under the care of Miss Lavinia Neel. Daily Bible study and daily prayer in the school room, visits in the homes of the pupils, and personal dealing with the children are the means used to bring the children under the influence of Christ. The enroll- ment last year was 79. Of these, ten were received into the church, making twenty-three conversions from the school during the present management. Fifty of the pupils are members of the Sabbath School, eleven belong to the Christian Endeavor Society and thirty-two are members of the Junior Society of Christian Endeavor. In 1905 the boarding department was intro- duced, the boarders occupying a rented house. Two years later it was combined with the Orph- anage, then under the direction of Mrs. Amelia Edwards, and the institution was thereafter known as the Hattie May Chester Institute with Miss Neel as principal. In 1909 Miss Janie Love was transferred from Ciudad del Maiz to this school. Last year thirty-three boarders attended. They come from many » different fields of the Mission. A splendid opportunity is thus presented to make the girls and young ladies disciples of Christ. Aside from the regular Bible study of the daily 'classes, 15s' OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. special prayer meetings are held for the girls and the teachers aim to surround the school with the holy* influences of a truly Christian home. Keeping the students under the inspiration of the daily prac- tice of these great principles of our faith for nine months of the year and day by day, as well as by personal effort, the teachers strive to make the most of their opportunities for Christ. A TROPHY OF THE SCHOOL WORK. Senorita Elena Manrique entered the Ciudad del Maiz school ten years ago a giddy girl from a most fanatical home. She promised little for the kingdom of the Lord. The gross idolatry of her people and the surging high tide of worldliness, with its balls, etc., were but tares tending to choke any good seed sown in the school room. But the daily drill in all that pertains unto life and godli- ness and the constant touch with the teacher be- gan to triumph over the evil influences and mould her without her recognition of the change. She came to the Hattie May Chester Institute as a boarder. There the world was shut out and the leaven of the gospel began to work. Soon she asked to be baptized, knowing full well what awaited her in her fanatical home. She said that she loved Jesus best and was willing to be counted as the offscouring of the world for His sake. And nothing less than that was the price she paid. She developed into a character of unusual fixedness of 159 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. purpose and unflinching solidity. Her testimony among the girls was always for the things best and noblest. Having finished her course, she returned to her home to be tested in the furnace of persecu- tion heaten seven times hotter than it was fc wont. Her family and friends gave balls, etc., in her honor to make her attend and so effect her* fall from the lofty plane of weanedness from the world upon which she had pitched her life. The whole current of her former circle — for she had been a belle of her class — set in to win her back to Catholicism and the world, which are one. Failing in their fiendish attempt, they threatened to tear her from her surroundings and force her into a convent. So intensely fierce did the fires rage that one evening she found a revolver aimed at her with the de- mand that she recant and renounce her Lord Christ for the old life of saint worship and balls. With that spiritual iron in her blood that reminds us of the old prophets and the believers of the first century who were sawn asunder rather than deny their faith and went to the flames • singing, she stood through it all unflinchingly true to her Lord. When, one year ago, we asked her if she would go to San Ciro, one of the most fanatical towns in all this section and open a school there, and thus prepare for the establishment of a preach- ing station later, her instant reply was, "I am ready to go to any place where the Master may call me." 160 OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. And she is one of the many for the making and the moulding of whom the efforts of the schools are indeed worth while. 4. The Preparatory and Theological School. Principal, Rev. J. G. Dale. For twenty-two* years the mission moved along without a college for the higher education of our young men, and without a training school where those young men whom God should call to the work of the ministry might receive a preparatory course of study. The missionaries had picked up here and there such men as they felt would help in the evangelization of the field, and after a short period of study in the elementary branches of the common school and the rudimentary principles of theology, they were placed in charge of stations. Prior to the establishment of the school in 1901, and after twenty-two years of missionary labor in Mexico, we had in the service only six native men. Of these, one had come from the Presbyterian church, one from the Methodist church, and one had been educated in the States. Rev. N. E. Pressly had found Sr. Francisco Meza, and after two years of study had sent him to Tantima. He had given Sr. Hernandez a short correspondence course of study and left him in charge of Chicon- cillo. Sr. Zaleta had studied under Rev. Pressly and had gone to Panuco, but after three years of service had been called to rest. Rev. J. S. A. Hun- 161 M-11 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. ter had taken Sr. Guadalupe Cruz, then fifty years old, had taught him the fundamental things «of the gospel and had placed him in charge of La Colonia. This is the record of our missionary ef- forts in the direction of the preparation of a native ministry for the quarter of a century, lacking three years. And nothing had been done for the higher education of our young men. Thus arose the crying need of an institution for the equipment of a qualified native ministry, not to speak of the duty of the mission towards the hundreds of boys and young men scattered over the field, for no less than at home do we need an intelligent and consecrated laity. These were the considerations that led the Synod which met at Louisville, Ga., in 1900, to pass the resolution of- fered by the Committee on Foreign Missions, or- dering the Board to take steps toward the estab- lishment of an institution on the mission field that would meet these two recognized needs. The Board appointed Rev. J. G. Dale, principal of the school. It was located in Rioverde, and opened January, 1901, with two students. From its very inception the undertaking has had to bat- tle with gigantic obstacles. Prior to its opening there were operated on the field three evangelical schools; one was barely beginning, the second re- ceived boys under twelve years of age and the third admitted no boys at all. The Preparatory school was forced to gather up boys without edu- 16? OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. cation and less moral training, and launch its bark bound for the port of an intelligent laity and a qualified ministry. Under these circumstances there was no immediate hope for students for the higher branches and none for a native ministry for several years. It would be necessary to lay the foundations of an elementary education, and on this basis rear the structure of a solid, even though short, literary training, and a further theological preparation for the high calling of the gospel min- istry. Thus it has come to pass that the students matriculated in the school are of ages that range from twelve to thirty years. And all these had to begin with the most elementary branches of study. Another serious difficulty arises from the failure of the parents to appreciate the worth of a Chris- tian education. They prefer to place their sons where they can earn something to help the family along in its strivings for a livelihood. And where they enter the school and learn to read, write and multiply numbers, the temptation is all the strong- er, for then the youth can command a better sal- ary and be of more service to his family. Many young men have gone out from the school before they have entered upon the higher and more fun- damental stage of the curriculum. Thus the school has at times been robbed of good material out of which might have developed competent teachers, capable laymen or worthy preachers of the gospel. 163 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. Perhaps the most insurmountable obstacle that besets the progress of the work is the class of ma- terial with which we have to do. Most of the stu- dents come from the common people — which often means from the lower strata of society, for the mission is too small yet to furnish boys trained in the homes where reign the principles of the gos- pel. Too often we have no character foundation on which to build, and one can hardly be expected to make bricks without straw. Our most capable native minister, who has preached the gospel for thirty-five years, said to the principal that the in- stitution might be counted successful if one-third of the students who enrolled from year to year developed into men, morally strong, intelligent and useful. His estimate was doubtless over- drawn, but he is a man of the people, and thoroughly consecrated to the interests of Zion. Last year fifty students were enrolled in the school, coming from five different states of the Republic. Nine-tenths of these were boarders. $1333.28 was spent on the running expenses of the work, of which $856.00 was appropriated by the Board, $150 contributed by friends toward the salary of the assistant teacher, and the balance collected from the students. The purpose is to have all students pay for their board and tuition when they are able. The expense is placed at its minimum amount, $3.00 a month for board, and one dollar for tuition. Some pay one-half of the 164 OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. expenses, while many are too poor to do more than buy their clothes. For five years the work was carried on in rented buildings. The Synod which met at Mt. Zion, Mo., in 1904, directed the principal to canvass the churches to raise $5000 for a building. On the leading thoroughfare of the town, half-way between the public square and the railroad station, stands the splendid structure capable of accommodating seventy-five boarders, with class rooms and auditorium and built on a lot donated by Rev. J. P. Erwin, of Rosemark, Tenn. To combat the potent forces for evil that threaten young manhood and to throw about them the formative influences that will make for their sure development into telling factors for righteousness, the school labors and prays. The Bible is the leading textbook and it is aimed to bring its teachings to bear on the practical every- day life of the student body. The assistant pro- fessor lives in the dormitory with the students and strives to introduce into the establishment the at- mosphere of a genuine Christian home. Morning and evening they gather about the altar of prayer, and at the opening of the classes all engage in de- votional exercises. Every student is compelled to attend all the religious exercises of the chapel. Besides their weekly prayer meetings and the gatherings on Sabbath afternoon to study the Bible, each year special evangelistic services are held for the student body. At the close of these i6 5 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. services last year only one of the entire student body was left out of the church of those who were old enough to take the responsible step. At this writing there are at least ten whose ages range in the neighborhood of twenty years who contem- plate the work of the gospel ministry. It is safe to forecast that the majority of these will prove worthy factors in the evangelization of their race. Two of these young men were employed in the work of the mission during their last vacation, holding services, one in Guerrero and the other in Cardenas. This year the first graduate goes out to preach the gospel. He was licensed by the Tampico Presbytery at its meeting last year. His record will inspire perhaps a firmer faith in the school. His history runs thus. One morning a man knock- ed at the door of the school. He was a peddler traveling over the state with his pack of goods. He had with him a lad of fourteen whom he had brought from a little town that lay beyond the mountains fully two hundred miles away. He asked that the boy be received as a charity student. He did not have even a change of clothes. The peddler had found the lad in Antiguo Morelos and had begged the mother to allow him to bring him to the school. He brought no recommendation, but there was nothing to do but take him in. To the boy all was new. He had come from a mountain town 166 OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. where the horizon is no higher than the low life of a mountain ranch and the feast days of the faith- ful Romanists. It was his first opportunity, and he began to awake to the glories and possibilities of life. He studied his books as men seek treas- ures. The Bible was all new to him. Its hidden treasures fascinated his soul. One year after he came, he gave his heart to his Lord and he began to catch the visions of the land of far distances. With eager spirit he grasped the opportunities of the school and grew both in intellectuality and in the graces that adorn the doctrines of our Savior. His life has been a practical sermon of righteousness preached each day before the stu- dents of the school. From time to time others have been sent away for the sins of lying, stealing and uncleanness, for they come from homes where the moral tide touches the lowest ebb, but he with his face set like a flint has fought the low, base ideals that lure young manhood and has developed into a new man. Soon he began to look out upon the white harvest fields, and slowly but firmly was forged the sublime purpose to carry the gospel to his people. He heard the call, and without shrink- ing he stepped forth with the readiness of the seraphic Isaiah, "Here am I. Send me." It was a work of God, who had used the humble school to take the unlettered lad of the mountain, blind to the spiritual heights to which the soul may reach, and moulded him into a vessel meet for the 167 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. Master's use. For the simple making of Enoc Butron, the labors of the school have not been in vain. We thank God and take courage that others are following hard in his footsteps. The Medical Work. Physician in Charge, Mrs. Katherine Neel Dale, M.D. "And Jesus went about all the cities and vil- lages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sick- ness and every disease among the people." No less than twenty-three or two-thirds of His mir- acles were of healing. He made His preaching and healing go hand in hand. It was His own method, and it requires only the sanest exegesis of His words and life to see that the consecration of the healing art was a part of His master plan for all the ages, till all the world kingdoms crown Him Lord of all. He would have the physicians, with their medicine chest, go by the side of the heralds of the cross into the regions beyond. The missionary of His kingdom must be the truest successor of the good Samaritan, take the bleeding unfortunate left by the way and pour into his wounds the oil of healing and joy. Our Christianity is the highest type of philanthropy, and nowhere so well as on the mission field are offered such golden opportunities for the ministry of healing. Even in Mexico there is a wide-open 168 OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. door. To the southeast of us we can ride on horse- back three hundred miles and not find a single physician. The sick are left to the mercy of the old men and women doctors with their herbs. A prescription for the cure of fever, for example, is to place the patient out on a plank in the hot sun for hours, when the thermometer will register one hundred and two degrees. But medical missions finds its highest utility as a pioneer agency, a most effectual forerunner that opens the way for the preacher of the gospel. Gross ignorance, blind and deaf superstition, de- moniacal fanaticism, social caste and national pre- judice erect their barriers and say to the gospel herald, "thus far shalt thou come and no farther," while to the medical missionary these walls of di- vision vanish and the missionary physician can en- ter the homes and transform the fanaticism to friendships. Dr. Parker, for many years medical missionary to China, said, "I have no hesitation in expressing it as my solemn conviction that as yet no medium of contact and of bringing the people under the sound of the gospel and within the in- fluence of the means of grace, can compare with the facilities afforded by the medical missionary operations." Dr. A. Grant, with needle and lan- cet for the removal of the cataract from the eye, forced mountain passes through the wild Nestor- ian country, winning the hearts of the most fer- ocious tribes, and crossing districts hitherto un- 169 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. trodden by the foot of civilized man. In spite of the repeated threats of the priests that they would condemn to the fires of purgatory all who should admit our medical missionary into their homes, her professional services have been sought, and fast friendships have been formed in families that were most doggedly fanatical. The medical work has been operated along two lines, by the hospital and by clinics. (i) The Dale Memorial Hospital. The building was donated by the Dale family, of Oak Hill, Ala- bama, in memory of William and Mary Dale, and was erected in 1906, costing $1500 U. S. currency. It is a structure of two stories, with six rooms for patients, a large waiting room, a private office for the physician and the drug store. During the past year 103 patients were received into the hos- pital. The entire expense was $928.62. Of this amount $128.62 was contributed by the patients, and the balance was appropriated by the Board of Foreign Missions. Most of the patients attend the services of the Rioverde church. These exercises, with the daily prayer meetings held in the building, and with the personal efforts of those in charge, are the means used to lead the patients to a personal faith in Christ. Repeated instances might be given of souls influenced and won for Christ. (2) The Clinics. This is the principal method of prosecuting the medical work. Six days of the 170 OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. week the office of the medical missionary is open to the public and on Sabbath urgent cases are received. During the forenoons no charity work is done. Regular charges are made, such as any physician would make. This is done for the reason that there are always some who are willing to pay for the actual worth of the medicines and professional services, and at the same time the amount thus collected enables the physician to meet the expenses of the work with- out any appropriation from the Board of Foreign Missions. In the afternoons the doors are opened to the poor who are charged only twenty-five cents for consultation and medicines. The very poor are charged nothing. During the past year 10,110 patients were treat- ed by the physician, with the aid of her trained nurse. More than ten thousand tracts were dis- tributed to the patients, and about one hundred Bibles sold. The receipts from consultations and sale of medicines amounted to $3309.14, and the current expenses $2961.50 (Mexican currency), leaving a balance of $347.64. Thus it will be seen that though the poor and all who come in the after- noons are charged only twenty-five cents, and though the best medicines available are used in the practice, the work meets all its expenses. The missionary draws no salary. Hence the medical work does not call for one dollar of help from the Board. *7* MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. The efforts of a single afternoon will serve to show how the opportunities may be turned to the account of the gospel. Early in the afternoon the poor and all those who wish to get the benefit of the reduction, gather in the large waiting room of the hospital. The room is generally full. Be- fore the physician begins prescribing, the mission- ary goes with the Bible and holds a short service, always aiming to explain clearly the way of sal- vation through Christ. It is an opportunity to be coveted. One there sows on virgin soil. Because of fanaticism or fear of the anathemas of the priests, ninety-nine hundredths of the hearers have never entered a gospel service. T« them it is a new story, that of the Son of God dying on the cross for our sins, and pardon full and free through His atoning sacrifice. The patients come from towns far and near. Almost any day we can count patients present from towns and ranches fifty miles distant. It is not uncommon for them to come seventy-five miles. Beyond doubt no other agency equals this in drawing the people and bringing them in contact with the gospel. Far- reaching fields are brought within reach of the gospel sower, permitting him to sow beside all waters. Occasionally it will happen that some of those present do not wish to hear the Bible read and explained and will cover their heads with their shawl. One afternoon a woman was seized with a 172 OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. violent toothache the moment the missionary en- tered and announced that he would read from the Word of God. She had not felt the toothache be- fore. The missionary having occasion to leave the room for a moment, the pain ceased and she was quiet. The moment the worker returned the pain also returned and with renewed force. She moaned so piteously that the voice of the preacher could scarcely be heard. But these cases are rare. Generally the people are attentive and love to hear the Bible read. As the patients pass into the of- fice of the physician, she improves every oppor- tunity to speak a word for the Savior. Medical missions becomes essentially a sower of the gospel seed by all waters, letting it fall where it may. Little opportunity is left to water and culti- vate. The patients come and go, some from far distant ranches and some never to return. The word of truth is spoken, the tracts and Bibles are carried to their distant mountain homes, and the missionary looks to the fulfilment of the sure word of prophecy that "as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not hither, but watereth the earth and maketh it to give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please/' However, the work is not without its results. Don Severiano came from a distant ranch 173 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. for treatment. He sat in the waiting room as the missionary told the story of the love of God. The evangelical plan of salvation was new to him. He had never seen a Bible. The little gospel service was nothing less than fascinating to him. Seeing that he was intensely interested, the physician in- vited him to come back and hear more of the gos- pel. Two weeks later he returned. He knocked at the window of the missionary's study and said, "I have come for you to get me out of my ignor- ance. I want to know more of the gospel." For two hours the missionaries did their best to ex- plain to him the way of salvation through the Son of God. He could not read a word. He bought a large Bible and began to spell out the words one by one. Twice a month he came from the ranch to attend the chapel services on Sabbath. One of the students of the Preparatory school helped him in his efforts to learn to read. In three months he was reading the Bible. Out in the ranch, they say he would sit for hours reading his treasured book. Soon he saw that God hates impurity and he re- membered that he had never married the mother of his children, and she was the second of his so- called wives. He came with his true wife, was married by the civil authorities and asked to be received into the church. His life had been changed. His wife tells how that once he had been a hard drinker, but now he has quit the cup. Once he had been cruel and had often whipped J 74 A GROUP OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN THE STATE OF GUERRERO. DON SEVERIANO AND FAMILY, OF RIOVERDE, IN THEIR HOME. OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. her, but now he is kind to her. Old things have passed away and all things have become new. The medical missionary accompanied Rev. J. S. A. Hunter to San Antonio, where a preaching ser- vice was held. A school teacher of the village was sick and wished the physician to prescribe for him. This she did only for those who attended the ser- vice, if able. The sick man came. His wife hid behind the house and looked between the cane walls to see his eyes leap from their sockets, for she had been told by the Catholics that such would be the fate of all who should dare attend tke meet- ing for prayer and the study of the Bible. The husband had run the risk to get the wonderful medicine of the foreigner. Nothing happened, ex- cept the man became interested in the gospel, and, to make a long story short, he was soon baptized in the faith of Jesus Christ. And at laot, she, too, was led to the feet of the Savior. While the medical missionary lived in Ciudad del Maiz, Dona Pancha came one day for medicine. She had never dared to enter a Protestant's home, for she had been told that they were devils with great horns. But now, for the sake of the medi- cine, she braved the danger. There she heard the gospel. It appealed to her and she began to at- tend the church services through the back door of the church that her friends might not see her. She was won for Christ, and then her husband and his brother, and then his wife. For years this convert x 75 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. has had charge of the kitchen of the Preparatory and Theological school, and has served her Master most faithfully. Instances might be multiplied. These are sufficient to illustrate that Medical Mis- sions are a veritable handmaid of the gospel, and deserve a place among the foremost and most potent agencies that work and wait for the saving of the nations. The Orphanage. Founder, Mrs. Amelia B. Edwards. Very soon after her arrival in Rioverde, the con- dition of the orphan children touched the heart of Mrs. Edwards, and she resolved to do what she could to alleviate the misery of their lot. By rea- son of the great poverty of the lower classes, the condition of the fatherless and motherless is most distressing. The lack of home surroundings, and very specially the fact that they had no moral train- ing, led Mrs. Edwards to open the little orphan- age, December, 1897. For the greater part of the time the work was carried on in the home of the missionary. Off to one side of the yard were fitted up several rooms, which the little girls occupied. There being no matron to take charge of the chil- dren and look after their interests, the missionary was compelled to have them directly under her personal care. The first orphan received was For- tunata Hernandez. Very soon the number in- creased to five, and at times there were as many as 176 OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. twelve in the home. The children were sustained by voluntary contributions made by the home church. The superintendent kept the people in- formed as to the needs of the institution. Many of the congregations of the home church turned into this worthy channel their contributions made on Thanksgiving days. Thus all the needs of the orphans were met, due to the energetic efforts of the superintendent, and her constant prayer for them. Their welfare, temporal and spiritual, was the burden that lay upon her heart. For them she labored and prayed. Rev. J. P. Erwin, of Rose- mark, Tenn., moved by the appeals for the chil- dren, donated the funds sufficient with which to purchase a lot for a building. Very soon Mr. E. B. Chester, of Tennessee, contributed $1600, with which to erect the needed home. God was caring for the fatherless, according to His promise. The children moved into* their home in 1903. It is a substantial building of two stories and has been a blessing to the children. In 1907 it was deemed best to combine the orph- anage with the boarding school then operated by Miss Lavinia Neel. This was done both on ac- count of the need of a capable person to live in the building with the orphans, which Mrs. Edwards could not do, and also to place the two institutions on a more economical basis, which could be done by combining them under one management. Three of the orphans have graduated from the Presby- 177 M-12 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. terian Normal School of Saltillo, and are engaged in teaching. One of these is Senorita Fortunata Hernandez, assistant teacher of the Hattie May Chester Institute. Thoroughly capable, conscien- tious in all her efforts, she labors faithfully for the youth of her race. The efforts of the faithful founder have borne fruitage to the glory of the Master. Literature. i. Our Official Organ, "La Fe Cristiana." Very keenly had been felt the need of a periodi- cal to circulate among the converts of the mission. With no desire to ferment the spirit of denomina- tionalism, the paper formed the lofty aim of striv- ing to bring the different fields of the mission into closer touch, deepen their interest in our own de- nominational activities, and at the same time offer them good, sane, evangelical reading matter. Be- sides contributing toward the efforts to build up our converts in the rudiments of our most holy faith, something might be done to transmit the good news of salvation to those beyond the pales of the church. Early in 1908, a friend of North Carolina, do- nated a press and type for the enterprise. With the full approval of the Board of Foreign Missions, "La Fe Cristiana" sent out its first issue August 8, 1908, having two departments, one in Spanish and one in English, edited by Rev. J. G. Dale. The English department was meant for the home 178 OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. church. It was felt that through its columns a deeper interest might be quickened among the congregations of the homeland and the churches be stirred to hold more faithfully the ropes of mis- sionary obligation to the Regions Beyond. At the close of the first year, the English de- partment was issued separately, being sent out monthly, under the title "Our Mexican Mission." "La Fe Cristiana" was changed to a semi-monthly. The former goes into nearly all the congregations of the Synod, and it is firmly believed that much is done to promote a livelier zeal for missions. The latter has subscribers in all our congregations and from testimonies received, the paper is making rapid strides toward the attainment of its high end, that of becoming an efficient medium of evangeli- zation. No appropriation of funds has ever been received from the Board of Foreign Missions. With the help of a few friends, it has been self- supporting. Through its agency, thousands and thousands of tracts have been printed and scattered over the field. On the mission field the power of the religious press is unique in that the silent messenger travels far into the mountain towns and ranches where the voice of the missionary is never heard. To the humble villages it preaches Christ and Him cruci- fied. The following bit of history, which is being repeated over and over again, is eloquent in praise of the printed page as it travels into the inaccess- 179 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. ible regions, far removed from the centers of light. Two years ago a letter reached the principal of the Preparatory and Theological school from a man who lived in the state of Vera Cruz, two hundred miles away and out of reach of the missionaries. He had never attended an evangelical service. No missionary had gone to his little ranch to point him to the Lamb of God, who could take his sin away. Years ago he received in some way a copy of "El Abogado Cristiano," the organ of the Methodist Church. He subscribed for the paper and read it with the zeal of a man who was awak- ening from long slumber to find himself possessor of great treasures. Its weekly visits, with its col- umns of gospel truth, was like cold water to his thirsty soul. Back in the mountain, where to be able to read is a marked attainment, he studied and followed on to know the Lord. He was feel- ing after God, if haply he might find Him, and the Bible appealed to him as the whole truth, the infallible guide. In his tailor shop he daily talked the new truths he had learned. Finally he saw a notice of our school where poor boys are given an opportunity to learn and work for the Master. Though nearing thirty years, he wrote asking to be received, saying that he was willing to do any kind of manual labor for his board. He wanted light. He was seeking Jesus. He came, and in a few weeks was received into the church. His life has been a benediction to the school. Loved and 180 OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. respected by all, he takes under his care the younger boys and looks after the details of the management of the establishment, thus taking from the shoulders of the principal a thousand lit- tle burdens. Gifted with an ordinary mental capacity and an increasing steadfastness linked with a genuine spirituality, he is making rapid pro- gress and promises to be able in a few years to take charge of a congregation. And to judge by these two years, when the fruit has made sure that the tree is good, his career may not flash with brilliancy, but Felipe Bautista will render the Mas- ter a service of a most lasting, substantial charac- ter. It was a periodical that first opened his eyes to the light. All honor to these quiet little mes- sengers that enter homes beyond the reach of any other evangelical influence and lead souls into the clear light of the Sun of Righteousness. 2. COLPORTAGE WORK. The American Bible Society, with its headquar- ters in Mexico City, has its colporteurs stationed in different sections of the Republic. From the central towns they go over the districts selling the Bibles and scattering gospel tracts. Noble heroes are these. Traveling most often on foot, with their books packed on a donkey, they invade the hot malarial lowlands of the tropics as well as the chilly regions of the table lands. Jeered at and not sel- dom driven away from ranches, sleeping often by 181 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. the roadside and faring on cold corn bread, they will surely hear the blessed well done of the faith- ful servant and enter into the eternal joy of their Lord. With our other evangelical forces these co-oper- ate without a jar. While only men of known spir- itual qualifications are employed, they are strictly forbidden to talk denominationalism on their trips. They must talk Jesus and the way of salvation through Him. They canvass our fields, leaving thousands of Bibles in the homes and always speaking a good word for missionaries and their work. And thus they become fellow helpers to the truth. Every missionary considers colportage work as included in his commission to teach the nations. He keeps on hand a stock of Bibles and testa- ments, a part of which he carries with him on his itinerating trips from ranch to ranch. And so the Bibles are scattered over the field and the gospel truth works its way into districts miles and miles from the limits of congregational activities. And quietly, but slowly and effectually, His word is accomplishing that which He pleases. An ex- ample, one of many, will suffice. Returning from a long trip on horseback, Rev. J. S. A. Hunter passed Los Charcos del Oriente. He carried, as he always did, his bundle of Bibles. As it was not safe to travel alone, he carried a guide to whom he gave a Bible before they parted. 182 OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. The aspirations of the guide never reached beyond the intoxicating cup, and he left the Bible in the home where they passed the night. The owner of the house found the book and began to read. It was like a voice from heaven. He pored over its pages day after day. His less serious brother laughed at him for reading the book with such zest, but like the weeping prophet, he had found the word, he was feeding on it and it had become the joy and rejoicing of his heart. He was a con- sumptive and soon passed into the great beyond, but his death was so triumphant, so peaceful, that his brother felt that there must have been some- thing in the book that could have given the depart- ing soul such buoyant hope, and so he, too, began to read. The message took hold of his heart, and he, too, found the same joy. He lost his faith in the images and pictures that had been his gods. "Thus saith the Lord" became the royal rule of his life. A storm of persecution broke upon his head, but he did not draw back from the cross. Hear- ing of the Protestants of Ciudad del Maiz, he went asking them to lead him farther into the light. Like thousands of his countrymen, he had reared a family but had never married. All such wrongs, he at once righted, and was baptized. Returning to his ranch, he strove to be a torch of light set on a hill to cast its rays into the dense darkness, and bore faithful witness for his Lord. One of his con- verts was Dn. Pampilo, of precious memory, who 183 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. died two years ago, leaving his little fortune of $500 to the work of the gospel. And others learn- ed to believe on Christ through him. What a work of grace brought to pass from the Bible left in the ranch by the missionary ! Only at the great reckoning day will it be known what a mighty host have found Him, the Desired of the nations, off in lone ranches with no Philip to guide, but like this simple Indian, looking beyond his gods of wood and paper, and led by the Spirit and the Word, have seen Jesus, and saved by that look, have pillowed their dying head on the precious promise and have gone home to their newly-found Savior and Father — God. 184 CHAPTER X. DIFFICULTIES. Falsehood dies hard. For every inch of vantage ground, truth has to battle, even unto blood. From the Red Sea to the Holy City, the chosen hosts of God had to war. The history of redemption re- peats itself. Missions that would enthrone Christ Jesus as King, have to grapple with difficulties more defiant than the swollen stream of the Jor- dan or the Jericho walls stretching heavenward to dispute the passage of Israel. These are obstacles well-nigh insurmountable, and woe unto the faint- hearted. Passing by the most serious difficulty, the indifference of the home church, let us mar- shall out into the clear light, the difficulties that beset the onward progress of the gospel on our field. i. The Fanaticism of the Roman Catholic Church. Rome in Mexico hates the evangelical faith pre- cisely as she did in Europe centuries ago, when, with fire and fagot, she did her best to burn to ashes all who loved Jesus, their pardoning Lord. In both lands the inquisitional fires burned and burned till the strong arm of law compelled them to let men worship God as their consciences dic- tated. Rev. H. W. Brown quotes in Latin America a Catholic who freely confesses that un- 185 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. der necessity the Catholics "would tolerate the Protestant, and if expedient he would imprison you, fine you and possibly hang you. But one thing sure, he would never tolerate you for the sake of the glorious principles of civil and religious liberty." That is the spirit that is abroad in the land where we labor. Although the Reform Laws protect us, still the smouldering hatred erects high walls of opposition that separate the missionaries from the masses. It is an enmity far more bitter than the hatred of the homeland toward the Mor- mons, traveling over the country winning converts to the faith of John Smith. It is rather the abhor- rence of the reader toward a literal demon who should come up from the pit assuming the form and features that exactly represent his inner spirit, an incarnation of the old-time pictures of Satan with horns and hoofs. This is not the attitude of all, but the opinion of the faithful Mexican Cath- olics. To use their own phrase, "Protestant mis- sionaries are devils." It is a common thing to see those whom we meet on the street, make crosses on their foreheads or mumble a prayer to their favorite saint to save them from the defiling contagion of the Protestant devil. Last year Sr. Cejudo went to San Ciro to sell Bibles, under the direction of the American Bible Society. He found lodging in the "meson" or hotel. The first day it was noised abroad that he was a Protestant. The startling news reached 186 DIFFICULTIES. the landlady of the hotel after dark. She went to the room and told the colporteur bruskly that he had to leave at once for she would not shelter a Protestant. He had to leave at the dead of night. She would hardly have driven out a poor dog at that hour, knowing that he was a stranger in a strange town. The next day she scoured with soap and water the room where the unclean Prot- estant had been. About that time the missionary of Rioverde was trying to rent a house in San Ciro in which to open gospel work. The parish priest gathered his faith- ful followers and harangued them as to the infernal character of these hated devils that were coming to town. He assured them that the blinding, withering curse of God would fall on all who would befriend them. They were not to even look to- wards them. The town awoke one morning to find on the public square a large tent put up by a lottery company to ply its trade on the coming Sabbath. An old lady had started out to buy corn and beans for dinner. She saw the tent and was sure that the Protestants had arrived. She recall- ed the exhortation of the holy father (?) not to look at the Protestants and ran home as fast as she could. She asked the neighbors what she was to do, for now she could not go to market because her eyes were sure to fall on the Protestants and she would be accursed. Patients have come to our gate and begged the physician to come out and 187 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. prescribe for them. They were afraid to enter the house lest some great evil should befall them. A water-carrier who sells water through the streets began to attend the evangelical services. His former companions jeered at him and cursed him for associating with the "hated devils." Many of the homes promptly advised him that they would no longer buy his water. He had rented a small tract of land where he planted corn. The owner advised him that he could no longer hold his land. The moment that he showed his liking for the gospel, the billows of persecution swept down upon him. It is not difficult to understand how this stubborn fanaticism stands like a mighty breakwater against the gospel tide of salvation. Many are convinced, so they tell us, that the gos- pel is the true way of life, but they go away sorrow- ful, for they are not ready to meet the shot and shell of ridicule and ostracism that are sure to pour their volleys into the breasts of the persecuted. On the Congo multitudes flock to the heralds of the cross, and in Korea they fill the chapels to over- flowing, but with us, Mexican fanaticism has raised high barriers, and the crowds stand aloof as if we were lepers or mad dogs. What Adoniron Judson wrote long ago of Burmah, is every whit true of Mexico, "When any person is known to be consid- ering the new religion, all his relations rise up en masse, so that to get a new convert is like pulling out the eye-tooth of a tiger." Uhlhorn wrote of 188 DIFFICULTIES. the early church, "Whoever became a Christian was compelled to renounce not only immemorial prejudices, but usually also father and mother and brothers and sisters, friends and relatives and em- ployment." Our converts have to pass through identical experiences and they are tests before which many shrink back unto the eternal loss of salvation. 2. Social Caste. During the Spanish domination of three hun- dred years, the whole land became nominally Cath- olic. When the gospel entered forty years ago, it spread most rapidly among the poor, as it did in the days of Paul, and as it has always done. Of primitive Christianity, Gibbon sneered "that the adherents were almost entirely composed of the dregs of the population, of peasants, mechanics, of boys and women, of beggars and slaves/' His sarcastic fling was Christianity's glory. To mould saints of the type of those of the first century, and out of such material, is abundant proof that the movement was of God. It is so with us. There are not a few from the upper ranks of society, but Protestantism is principally the religion of the poor. Nor are we ashamed of the charge. We are willing to place our converts alongside those of any mission field, as examples of what the grace of God can do for prodigals that have strayed far from the Father's house. 189 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. For the higher classes to heed the gospel call and sit down with the poor, is to break caste and make well nigh the identical sacrifice of the Hindu, who turns his back on Buddha and follows the lowly Nazarene. And many, like the young noble- man, are not willing to be reckoned as the off- scouring of the world for His sake. Often have friends said that they were fully convinced that the truth was on our side, but to accept and follow would be to invite social ostracism, for which they were not ready. 3. Sabbath Desecration. Mexico has no Sabbath. On the Lord's day trade is best. The public square of any town is alive with buyers and sellers. From all the sur- rounding country the merchants come with their merchandise for sale, and the people with their spare money to buy. The stores add to their ordi- nary force of clerks. Pre-eminently it is market day. Most generally in front of the Catholic church is found the market place. The pious Romanists attend mass, where they mumble pray- ers to some favorite saint, and on their way home buy provisions for the week. To attend mass in the forenoon, a bullfight in the afternoon and a gay ball at night is the very common program for the Sabbath. If the carpenter or farmer is behind with his work, the former opens his shop and works all day, and the latter carries his oxen to 190 DIFFICULTIES. the field and spends the day following his plow up and down the furrows. It is man's day and not God's. To all this the gospel runs counter and calls the Sabbathless land to rest, prayer and worship. And to wean the people from these practices, woven into the very warp and woof of the social fabric, lead them to endure the severe losses and self-denial that the observance entails, is nothing less than a Herculean task. And yet, before the applicant for baptism receives the sacred rite, he must vow to take up the cross of Sabbath observ- ance and follow Jesus. With the converts too, this is a burning ques- tion. Sabbath being sale day, articles of merchan- dise are cheapest then, and it often happens that certain things cannot be bought on any other day. Hence the constant temptation to avaihthemselves of the low prices of the Sabbath. Their poverty makes the test all the more severe. Many of those engaging laborers will not pay off their employees till the Sabbath, and all reserve the right to call on them to continue their work through the Sabbath, if they choose. Amid such conditions, where the tide is against all respect for the holy day of rest and where the poor toiling for their daily bread, and with families dependent on their earnings, find every inducement to trample under foot the divine requirement, it becomes for the Protestant Church one of the gravest problems on the field. How 191 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. shall we bring the Catholic Church, that so over- whelmingly outnumbers us, to the high gospel standard of honoring and sanctifying the Sabbath? How shall we get our converts to keep clear and distinct the lines of separation between the Church and the world, that is utterly Sabbathless? These and kindred questions call for long seasons of prayer, and throw the worker back on the re- sources of divine power and wisdom. Of all the matters that come up for discussion on the floors of Presbytery, none are so frequently heard as this ever-living, burning question of Sabbath keep- ing. Though the Ten Commandments thundered from Sinai are preached from the pulpits, though every opportunity is seized to urge obedience to this command as a sine qua non of our religion and though the pastors maintain the strictest dis- cipline, it is no easy task to keep the standard high for the current is all against us. 4. The Anti-American Spirit. The President of Mexico and those associated with him in the administration of the affairs of the nation, are sincere friends of the United States. Of this they have given most unmistakable proof. And the more thoughtful element of the country are kindly disposed toward the American immi- grants. They recognize that their northern neigh- bors, coming to make their home in Mexico, con- tribute to the development of the land, materially, intellectually and morally. 192 DIFFICULTIES. But in the minds of a great many, lurks the feel- ing that the presence of the American bodes no good for the country. They have not forgotten the long slice of territory that they lost in the war of the forties. From their standpoint it was an instance when might made right and the sober sense of justice had no voice. Not a few historians indoctrinate into the minds of the people that the nation was treated most unjustly and memory lin- gers over the loss as the Americans throng the land. Demagogues fan to a flame this spirit, tell- ing the unthinking that the American missionaries are spies, forerunners of a second invasion from the North, when all Mexico will be annexed to the United States. Behind the Monroe Doctrine they think they can see a cunningly devised scheme to enlarge the Republic of the stars and the stripes. The "Diario del Hogar," an influential paper of Mexico City, in view of the recent disturbances in Central America, calls upon the Republics of Latin America to unite against the "Yankee Oppressor." "In the presence of this powerful and open threat of oppression, we must forget our differences and unite for the welfare of Latin America, for the weal of our respective countries, and to protect our independence. The eagle on the White House is sharpening its claws ready to prey upon our liberties. The Yankee Napoleon is already dis- posing of our future and forgetting that St. Helena is near." And the priest, ever ready to slander 193 M-13 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. the evangelical missionary, remembers how his- tory has called the Catholics traitors to the coun- try when they allied themselves with the Spaniards who fought the liberalists struggling for freedom, and now seeks to turn the tables and persuade the people that the Protestant missionary is traitor, for he labors on a secret mission to effect the overthrow of the Mexican government. This works havoc to missions. The Mexican is intense- ly patriotic and to be told that he follows a mis- sionary whose schemes are set to undermine his government, tries his faith, or at least makes him less favorably disposed toward the gospel workers. From this race i prejudice has sprung up an ecclesiastical organization known as the Indepen- dent Church. It opposes all that is American and wages bloody war on the different denominations of the country. Professedly the opposition finds justification in the division of the Evangelical Church into so many branches that the Independ- ents feel called upon by the Providence of God to introduce another distinct creed so broad and lib- eral that any and all denominations may come un- der its ecclesiastical wing. It requires no astute- ness to see that the motive of the movement is the deep dislike towards the American missionary in the evangelization of the country. They insist that the Mexican is capable of carrying forward to complete consummation the task, and urge the people not to receive one dollar from the Boards. J ?4 DIFFICULTIES. Through its official organ, "Mexico Evangelico," it pours its venom upon the foreign missionary who is an intruder and is not wanted in Mexico. Playing the role of feigned patriotism, it has stirred some to rally under the Independent banner. And while the movement is surely destined to come to naught, still it deceives some and disturbs the quiet harmony that should reign in the missionary cam- paign. In Tampico they have made trouble for Dr. Pressly, resulting in the withdrawal of two or three members. No separate organization was ef- fected. They simply stand aside and find fault with all that is done. In Cardenas too, they have sowed tares, baptizing three persons, some of whose matrimonial relations were notoriously il- licit. To them that mattered little. A year has passed and the "disturber in Israel" has never re- turned to his flock of three. 5. The Presence of the American Population. The influx of Americans into the country has been enormous. Fully 50,000 are scattered over the country. Capitalists have come, investing $800,000,000. As a rule, these have set their heart on gold and silver mines, rubber plantations, orange groves, bales of henequen, grazing lands for cattle, and to reach their goal, they seem will- ing to trample under foot all those high virtues of America's best manhood. Many have come seek- ing an asylum from the law that followed close upon their heels to bring them to justice for some 195 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. crime committed in the States. A very army of railroad men pour into the country. These have little to recommend Christianity in the States and less in Mexico. Thousands lead lives of moral shame and follow tricks of trade that would bring the blush of shame to the cheek of every true American. Trainloads of tourists scour the coun- try, taking the Sabbath for special excursions, at- tending the bullfights, cockfights and making no more impression for Christianity than if they were direct from Paris, whose god is the world. The damage done missions is all the more deadly from the fact that the Catholics look upon all Americans as Protestants, and the priests take advantage of the situation to say to the fanatical, "This is a sam- ple of what the United States, with its boasted ev- angelical religion, can do for men." The fore- going accusation may seem severe, but the facts justify the conclusion. Exceptions are to be found here and there, but these only make the general rule stand out in bolder outline. 6. The Liberal Spirit. Liberalism is abroad in the land, and the blame lies at the door of the Roman Catholic Church. With dogged obstinacy, Rome has fought the lib- eral party, whose purpose has been liberty and enlightenment. "In every foreign war which Mex- ico has had, namely with Spain in 1829, with France in 1838, with the United States in 1846, and again with France in 1862, the clergy were 196 DIFFICULTIES. against their own government."* This, with the moral corruption of the priesthood, and the recog- nized avidity of the Church to grasp at all hazards and at all seasons every opportunity to fill its cof- fers with gold, have uprooted the faith of many, specially men, and set them adrift on the high seas of infidelity and liberalism, without chart or com- pass. Having lost confidence in one religion, they have no faith in any creed. With frigid indiffer- ence they look on all efforts to lead men to the feet of God. They may go to mass once in a while, but it is only to accompany their wives or their daughters. Most of them spend the Sabbath pay- ing off their employees or in their offices and stores. Of all classes, this is the most hopeless. Even the most fanatical are to be preferred before the liberal type. The former do worship idols, but that indicates that they have a thirst for God and are feeling after Him if haply they may find Him, and when once convicted of the error of their way, that quest for God inspires them to follow on to know the Lord, while the latter is dead to all re- ligious sentiment, the most discouraging class for the gospel missionary. 7. The High Standards of the Gospel. Wu Ting Fang, that astute Chinaman who visit- ed America not long ago, asserted that the ideal of Christianity was too high, that therein lay the •Mexico Coming into the Light, J. W. Butler, page 67. 197 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. prime fault of the Christian faith, the radical dif- ference between it and Confucianism. He might have added in all truth that it constituted the es- sential difference between Christianity and all other religions. Our faith holds humanity to a divine standard. All lies, all uncleanness, all social deceit, all evil thinking, all double dealing, all ille- gitimate social relations, all Sabbath breaking and every other infringement of the divine law are un- flinchingly placed under the ban. Among Mexi- can Catholics the gospel conditions are thought too stringent and many turn away. Rome has her man-made system of pardon so nicely adjusted to the human wish that the devotee can take little or no account of the fundamental principles of right and wrong behind the counter, on the farm or in the home. He may deal in all manner of social deceit, spend his Sabbath in the bull ring, in the cock pit or in the ball room, pass days on drunken sprees or nights in gambling dens, and yet have his spiritual account straightened up once a year to return over the same ways of sin. To such the gospel condition seems hard when it de- mands that they break with all sin, great and small, repent of their iniquity and turn to God, who searches the heart and face a future, with no thought of going back to the mire of former sins. The Romish devotee looks upon religion as a set of rules to be kept, a pious mumbling of prayers to an idol, giving alms to the poor, occasional trips 198 DIFFICULTIES. over long distances to worship some wonderwork- ing image, stated confession to the priests; and he finds the simple faith in God and implicit obedience to Him through Jesus Christ by the sole help of the Holy Spirit, a most unwelcome task. His is a relig- ion of externalities that fails to touch the heart, the springs of life; and when the evangelical worker insists on a pure heart, simple faith in the dead but risen and glorified Savior, whole-hearted loyalty to Him and Him alone, clear-cut abandonment of all known sin, a life of Bible study and prayer, he confesses that the demands are too searching, and returns to his fold. It is easier to crawl a mile on one's knees to pay a vow to> an image, than to keep the heart clean and undefiled. It is an hundred- fold easier to bruise the body till covered with blood, than to keep the soul's trust firm and un- wavering in the blood of the Lamb of God, which alone can take away the guilt of sin. A prominent citizen of Ciudad Fernandez at- tended the services. He felt the drawings of the Spirit. His spiritual desires were awakened. But he soon saw that the gospel called for a clean life. No longer could he take his morning dram, which had been as regular as his cup of coffee. He could no longer pass intoxicating drinks across the counter of his store. The doors of his store would have to be closed on Sabbath. With admirable frankness he confessed that the conditions of dis- 199 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. cipleship were too rigid, he must give up too much and he went back to walk no more with us. Nearly all the heads of families received into the Church have first of all to go before the civil au- thorities and be legally joined in matrimony. For years the father and mother have been rearing families under the most illicit conditions, and the missionary must see that the moral crookedness is made straight before they can receive the rite of baptism. For this sad state of things the gov- ernment does not bear the blame. While no ecclesiastical ceremony is recognized as legally binding, the government offers to perform the civil ceremony free of charge. And to encourage par- ents to enter the civil contract, all children are re- quired to be registered eight days after birth, which can only be done when the father and mother are legally married, and if the child is not registered it can claim no part of the inheritance before the law. At this point the Roman Catholic Church steps in and assures the citizen of the Republic that the civil contract is useless, be- fore God it is not binding, and that only the priest can unite them in true wedlock. For his services the charges of the priest are such that often the poor are not able to pay them. And so the two live together unmarried. It often happens that one of the two comes un- der the power of the gospel. To be baptized they must comply with the civil requirement or separ- 200 DIFFICULTIES. ate. Not unfrequently the woman is inferior to the man, who looks upon her rather as his servant, and so is not willing to make his life one with hers, and yet for the sake of the children he is not ready to separate. For other reasons, it some- times happens that they are not willing to marry and not ready to part. There falls across their way an Alpine barrier over which to climb to reach the kingdom of heaven. Where this difficulty is removed and they are married and baptized, the long years of illicit relations have seared the con- science, and long stages of spiritual training are needed to bring them up to the gospel standard of a conscience void of offence. 8. Superstition. This works mischief to the unlettered as the fear of social ostracism does to the educated. Among the lower classes superstition is rife. To hang about the neck tiny images renders them im- mune to all evil spirits. A tiny Christ on the cross is placed in the mouth of the dying soul which helps it to pass safely through the gates of glory. On the way to* the graveyard are discharged fire crackers to frighten away the evil spirits that oth- erwise would torment the soul on its way into the other world. On the night of the first day of No- vember food is prepared for the dead, who return to visit the scenes of their earthly pilgrimage. Dainty dishes are prepared and placed on the 20 1 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. piazza or in a special room, where the departed may have access to them. Our washwoman lost her husband years ago from the blasting curse of drink. On the night of All Saints day we passed her home and could see through the cane walls on a little altar a bottle of whiskey. These beliefs, current among the common people, are not one whit less superstitious than those of the Buddhist who feeds his gods. One night, so the children tell of the mother, she had prepared a choice meal for the deceased father. All were in bed when a noise was heard in the adjoining room as if some- one was eating. "Listen children/' she said, "do you not hear your father eating." They found that it was a hungry dog prowling about the premises. The tenth of January is the red letter day for the animals. "Antonio" is their patron saint. About the year two hundred and fifty he retired to a cave to hide from temptation. Satan determined not to leave him to his holy meditations. He sent thronging evil spirits in the form of fiercest animals. These expected that the pious monk would come out and curse them for their insolence. Rather he blessed them, so the Catholic version runs. Thus it is that each year the people carry their animals to the parish priest for him to sprinkle holy water upon them and bless them. Pigs, turkeys, goats, chickens, donkeys, etc., etc., are carried to the church. With the blessing of 202 DIFFICULTIES. the priest, the hog will yield more meat, the sheep will give finer wool, the cows will give richer milk, the horses will run faster on the race course, the canary will sing more sweetly, and the cock will prove a better fighter in the games. It is a rare sight as the pious lead their animals away from the church. Some are painted for the occasion, while others are festooned with colored paper and flying ribbons. Last August a terrific storm swept down upon Zapotlan. A humble shepherd was passing the hill when he saw the blinding lightning rend in twain a great rock that lay on the side of the mountain. And on the face of the rent rock the virgin left the photograph of her face. He ran to tell the village priest, who, with the crowds of the faithful, went out to see, and sure enough it was true (?). The priest said that he could see the im- print of the face of Mary, and all shouted "Amen." The picture was called the Divine Lady of Zapot- lan, and became a Mecca for the devoted of that section. It is but one of the hundreds of appear- ances of the virgin in the Republic. Such superstition abounding everywhere, affords a most fruitful soil in which the Roman Catholic Church can sow the follies of her creed, instill in the minds of the people the most absurd and un- just beliefs as to the character of the Protestants, and make it exceedingly difficult for the simple, sane teaching of the gospel to take root in their 203 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. hearts. And even after our members have been converted from these follies, the superstitious ideas still cling to them and tend to choke the good seed of truth. Less than a fortnight ago, a man who loves the Lord with all his heart, came to ask if the story he had just heard was true. Pilgrims had brought the news from one of the shrines where they had gone to worship a famous image, that they had seen the face of Jesus Christ on a brick near the shrine, and the priest had affirmed that it was the very true face of Christ. Patiently and persistently the missionary had to show him the folly of these things, that a "thus saith the Lord" is to be the touchstone of what we believe, and not a "thus saith the priest." These and other difficulties stand in the way of the progress of the gospel, but shall they be a sig- nal for retreat? That was far from the spirit of Paul. "I will tarry at Ephesus, for there is a great and effectual door opened unto me, and there are many adversaries." The presence of the enemy was an invitation to stay on the field and fight it out. The difficulties of the field stirred all the iron that was in his blood and nerved him with the manliness to stay at Ephesus, just because it was the thickest of the fight. He was not the man to shun a hard place, or run from a foe. Mexico is a hard field. Roman Catholicism in- trenched there, faces about like the lion of Gibral- tar and refuses to be driven from his lair. Every 204 DIFFICULTIES. inch of vantage ground has to be fought over, and won by a struggle unto blood that tries the stout- est hearts. Difficulties, whose mame is legion, ig- norance, superstition, fanaticism, prejudice, etc., lie in our way, so that the number of converts does not reward our efforts as in other lands. Shall we beat a retreat and invest in souls elsewhere? Or shall these things be the inspiration for a forward march? Shall we retire from the field of battle where we have engaged the enemy, because we chanced to fall upon the lines of attack where the charge is fiercest, the difficulties greatest and the results most discouraging? Would that savor of the heroism of Him who set His face like a flint to the difficulties of the way, and taking up His cross went quietly through all the besetting foes, even to the brow of Calvary? 205 CHAPTER XI. ENCOURAGEMENTS. "Watchman, what of the night?" Darkness, gross darkness had covered the land. The nation has been sitting in the shadows of spiritual night. The land, with crosses on well-nigh every hilltop, has been waiting for the Christ of the cross. It has been night. One long night. At last there are gleams of light to encourage us. The morning cometh. It is said that our converts are few. Missionary letters tell of a veritable Pentecost in Korea, where workers are waiting to train and baptize the crowds that wait for admission into the king- dom of heaven. Down on the Congo, the black sons of the swamps are gathering by the hundreds, seeking the way of life. Churches in China are being filled by those who have deserted Confucius and are clinging to the Christ. From India come messages of hope, that the Brahmins and the Buddhists are losing faith in their gods of wood and stone. It is not so with missions in Mexico, and our critics say that the work is a failure. Have they forgotten gospel work throughout the entire Moslem world? What about Arabia, Egypt, the Sudan, Turkey and other lands where Islam is supreme? Who comes from these fields to bear witness of vast throngs flocking into the kingdom? Missions among outright pagan nations reap abun- 206 ENCOURAGEMENTS. dant harvests, while those among religions with half of the truth like Roman Catholicism and Mo- hammedanism find the task slow and plodding. One by one the converts put off the works of darkness. To illustrate. Turkey proper, that is, Turkey European and Asiatic, is the center of the Cres- cent. It is the stronghold of the Mohammedan faith. Missionary work was begun there as early as 1 82 1. According to the reports filed in the Foreign Missions Library of New York by the two Societies at work in Turkey, the American Board and the Reformed Presbyterian Board, there are at work in this field 191 missionaries, male and female, with native force of 1163, and a church membership of 15,690. Alongside of this showing, place the statistical results accomplished in Mexico. Fifty years after the establishment of missions in Turkey, the first missionaries opened work in Mexico. While Tur- key has a force of 191, Mexico has 176, and while the former has 1163 native men, Mexico has only 278. Yet the Mexican field has yielded a harvest of 28,618 souls, while Turkey missions re- port only 15,690. And the same proportion will hold good throughout the Mohammedan world. Missions in Roman Catholic lands can make as creditable showing as those in Mohammedan lands. Both fields are peculiarly difficult, but in neither case is there ground for discouragement. 207 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. A mighty temple is to be reared. First of all, the dense forest is cleared away, the giant oaks felled and the trunks drawn out of the earth. The mounds are leveled, the debris removed, the rocks blasted and hauled from the grounds, the machin- ery placed, the excavation made and the earth carried away. After all this preparatory work is done, the foundations are laid and the structure is reared. For years missionaries have been laboring to build a national evangelical church in Mexico. To accomplish this, time and energies have had to be spent in clearing away the rubbish of supersti- tion, taking out the rocks of fanaticism, leveling down the hills of race prejudice, rilling up the val- leys of ignorance. Scarcely have they begun to build as yet. But the structure is rising, as the 574 congregations with 28,618 members testify. The Spirituality of the Converts. "Missions are to be judged by the quality of the converts, and not by the quantity," is a dictum oft quoted in missionary literature. Our laborers are willing to accept the challenge. Though they "walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, banquetings and abominable idolatries," they have put off these works of darkness and no more live to the lust of men, but strive to do the will of God. Though born and reared in an atmosphere that begets no holy aspirations of dynamic power to 208 ENCOURAGEMENTS. lift the soul upward from its groveling tempta- tions; without the splendid advantages of a Chris- tian education that brings within the compass of life all the unspeakable glories of sacred literature; bereft of the heritage of a pious parentage that shields the soul like a mighty breakwater against the surging tide of evil forces; still our converts make marked attainments in the divine life. This is not saying that some do not fall from their steadfastness and go back to the leeks and garlicks of Egypt, but the proportion is no greater, per- haps, than at the beginning, when one of the first twelve converts drew back to perdition. Most of them choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. They esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of the Papacy, for they look unto the recompense of the reward. The fires of the Inquisition no longer burn, but the sneers and shouts of ridicule can do a work more deadly, and yet our converts remain true to- the Mabter. It is easier to go into the flames singing than to bear the daily, and ofttimes the hourly, taunt of jeering fanaticism that brands the mem- bers as traitors to their forefathers and to their country. Hosts of them have to> take up a cross and follow Him up the long, rocky way to the skull-shaped dome at the end of unflinching devo- tion and abide the issue there, hung by the merci- less spiritual nails of Romish hatred. Many do 209 u-u MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. not count their lives as dear unto themselves and are willing to die at the Jerusalem of duty for the name of the Lord Jesus. Dona Catarina Arcos was a Catholic of the Catholics. Her heart's chief devotion was un- sparingly poured at the feet of the image of the virgin Mary, whose altar sat in her room year after year. Before that image, with her rosary, she prayed morning, noon and night. She was a member of the sisterhood, composed of the most pious daughters of the virgin. Like Luther climbing the Scala Santa, she labored to be one of the straitest of the sect. With it all she was a great drunkard. Almost every afternoon she drank till too intoxicated to walk. Tired of the galling bondage of drink, she begged the virgin to rescue her from the fiendish clutches of the cup, but no help came. Her faith in the image was being undermined. One night she was passing the house where Rev. J. R. Edwards was preach- ing. The singing attracted her, and slipping in the room, she took a back seat trembling with fear. She would not have been surprised had a thunder- bolt rolled from the sky and shaken the building to ruins, so intense would be the anger of the vir- gin that this devoted daughter of hers should at- tend a gospel service. They were singing the twenty-third psalm, that nightingale song of di- vine peace to the soul. Down in the hidden depths 2IO ENCOURAGEMENTS. of her heart she knew that the virgin had never satisfied her soul-hunger. The psalm told her that Jesus could fill that aching void of her heart and make her life one grand, sweet song. The Master was knocking at the door of her heart and she let Him in. She abandoned her sisterhood, threw away her idols and opened her heart to make Jesus King of all within. Before she had besought the virgin to take away the thirst for drink that, like a vampire, was drinking up her very life blood, but the virgin was powerless to give her victory. Now she asked Jesus, and He who reached down His tender hand and drew Jerry McCauley out of the mire, lifted her and placed her feet upon the Rock of the Ages. The desire for drink was gone and has never returned. Fanatical friends sneered, cursed and persecuted her, but during all these fifteen years she has been true to her Lord. Like the adopted daughter of Ezekiel's vision, the Lord washed her from her drunkenness and idolatry, clothed her with the embroidered work and fine linen of a quiet holi- ness and her renown has gone forth among all who know her for the spiritual comeliness that He has put upon her. For six years she has had charge of the humbler part of the management of the Hattie Chester Institute, and no girl has gone out from that school without having felt the rich aroma of her quiet saintliness. She is a jewel for the retired pastor's crown. 211 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. Don Pablo Morato, of Chiconcillo, was an idola- ter, serving his idols with all the powers of body, soul and spirit. While yet young he was seized with a sickness which all felt would be fatal. His only hope was the famous image kept at Tampico Alto, about one hundred miles away. It was the figure of Christ nailed to the cross, soiled by the kisses of devotees of one hundred years and al- most eaten up by worms. With no power to save itself, they say that it can save others. To this "Senor de Tampico Alto," thousands up and down the coast say their daily prayers. When sickness or some other misfortune overtakes the faithful, they look to the image and make a vow that if it will render them the needed help, they will make a pilgrimage carrying a present and ever after- ward it will be the object of their supreme devo- tion. This Don Pablo did. He recovered and at once set out for the shrine, carrying the promised gift. There kneeling at the feet of this deaf, dumb, dead god, but to him all powerful, he gave it the glory of his healing and vowed to dedicate his soul with utter abandon to the will of his patron saint and savior. With him there was no thought of the Father's love; no repentance of his sin, though he had been a very Solomon in the wick- edness of carnal desire; no effort to find cleansing for his heart which had been a temple of foul wan- tonness and ungoverned lust; no faith in the Lamb of God to wash him from his innate and added 212 ENCOURAGEMENTS. corruption. His religion consisted in prayer to this image three times a day, and trust in it for this world and the next. He bought a little pic- ture of the idol, had the resident priest to bless it, and returned home. For his little god he made an altar in his home and there he knelt three times each day. He himself affirms that with him there was no thought of the God above as he looked to his image. He expected that the image would arrange the matter of his sin and receive him into glory at last. Did he have to be absent from home, he could not pray till he returned to the feet of his image, where he would say all the prayers that were not repeated while away. Breathing out threatening somewhat like the apostle against the gospel, he did his utmost to bring to naught the cause of the gospel carried on in his village. His son went to Tampico and bought a Bible from Rev. N. E. Pressly. Returning home with his treasure, he would slip away into the woods at night with a candle to study, for he would not dare let his father see the accursed book. During the day the book lay hidden in the garret of the home. One night the father watched him go to the woods, return and hide his book. During the day he took down the Bible and studied for him- self. He had never seen such a book with its mines of hidden treasures. It led him out of the darkness. He began to attend the gospel services held in Chiconcillo. During his annual visits Dr. 213 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. Pressly would teach him for hours each day, for he received the truth with the unwavering faith of a little child. Clearly he saw the error of his way, brought his favorite idol to the mission- ary and, renouncing it forever, gave his heart to Christ. Now the idol was nothing and Jesus was all. At once he reared a family altar. Recogniz- ing that he was saved to serve, he heard the call, and like Andrew, began with his own family. Soon his wife and all the children followed him in his new faith. He asked the missionary to teach him that he might go to the neighboring ranches and tell them what great things the Lord had done for him. So intense was his zeal that Presbytery gave him a license, and through all these twenty years he has spent the Sabbaths in the ranches on the coast holding religious services, paying from his own private funds the rent of the house, and for his work receiving nothing save the hope of a crown at the Master's coming. He has a large farm and each day here and there on his rounds, he has secret places for prayer. By the roadside, on his farm and through the ranches, he talks the gospel, for the word of God is like a fire shut up in his bones, till weary with forbearing he cannot stay the message. Such examples of spirituality might be multiplied of those who, like the Thessa- lonians, have turned from their idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from 214 ENCOURAGEMENTS. heaven. They quicken our faith and nurture with- in us larger hope for the ultimate evangelization of the land. The Evangelistic Spirit of the Converts. Fully three-fourths of the converts brought into the fold of Christ each year are the fruits of the personal efforts of the members, who have inter- ested them in the gospel and thus opened the way for the pastor or missionary to reach the seeking souls and lead them to the Savior. More than in the homeland, perhaps, have they felt the weight of the individual responsibility of souls. And it bodes good for the cause that they are awaking to see that they are their brother's keeper. It sounds a note of hope that they are catching the passion for souls. Nemecio Olguin is one of our humble mem- bers. When the college building was going up, he applied for work and was assigned the task of carrying brick and mortar for one of the masons. While he brought the material up the ladder, he seized every opportunity to tell the mason of his faith in Christ. It was all to him, and why not pass the blessing on to a fellow man in need? He showed him his Bible at noon as they rested. To the mason it was a new book, and he was irre- sistibly drawn to the teachings as the simple be- liever talked to him of the precious but profound truths of Christ and salvation. The mason was 215 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. invited to the services, the Christian workman of- fering to go with him. The gospel took hold of him and he continued to attend. He was soon baptized and has led a worthy life. He will be one of the stars in the crown of this unlettered hod- carrier who sowed by all waters. Don Jose Ortiz had drifted into Texas and had accumulated somewhat of this world's goods. Life was at least comfortable till he gave his heart to Christ and heard the call to service. With the promptness of Andrew, he followed and went to seek his brothers and sisters. They were far to the south, but he was their debtor, and woe unto him if he withheld from them the good news of pardon. Selling all his possessions, with his fam- ily he started across the mountains in a cart on the journey of hundreds of miles to make his home with his people and win them for Christ. His ev- angelical faith made for him enemies on every hand. Fanaticism frowned on him and treated him as the offscourings of the social world. Work became scarce and he had to* endure untold sacri- fices, which were patiently endured to be able to save some of his people. Seeing Him who is in- visible, like Moses he endured the taunts and sneers, toiling and praying for his mother and brothers and sisters. At first they laughed and made fun of his religion without saints and images, but his quiet, holy life was a sermon preached with irresistible force, and one by one they were 216 ENCOURAGEMENTS. plucked as brands from the burning. One even- ing- he came with his wife and children in his cart, saying that he was on his way back to Texas. He had won the mother, sister and three brothers. One sister still barred the door of her heart to the entrance of the Savior and he felt that she had grieved away the Spirit. For her there was no hope. His work was done and he was returning to his former home several hundred miles distant. Does not his self-denial and patient endurance remind us of the great apostle who made himself all things to all men that thereby he might save some? The Loyalty of the Converts to the Evangelical Church. Recognizing the Evangelical Church as the young David who has snatched them from the devouring jaws of the lion of Romanism and led them to the fold of the great Shepherd, there is born in their heart a deep gratitude for their de- liverer. They come to love the church that has "opened their eyes and turned them from dark- ness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they might receive the forgiveness of sins and the inheritance among them that are sanctified by the faith that is in God." Freed from the task-masters of Roman Catholicism, which, with their whip-cords of anathemas, drive them to slavish fidelity, they feel something of Israel's 217 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. love for Mt. Zion, where are centered all their hopes temporal and eternal. There are many who, rather than forget the Jerusalem of their spiritual hopes, would let their right hand forget its cun- ning. On preceding pages is told the story of the In- dependent movement that has spared no energy and expense to sow discord among the members of the native church, and has striven with cruel venom to embitter the native mind against the American missionary and the ecclesiastical organ- ization that he has come to establish and nurture into growth. These sowers of tares have reaped a most disappointing harvest. The Mexican con- verts have not forgotten these forty years of sacri- fice, persecutions and unremitting toil, the burden and heat of the day that the Evangelical Church has borne, that they might come out of bondage into the glorious liberty of sons of God. At Tam- pico and Cardenas, the Independents have left no stone unturned to alienate the converts from the church and the missionaries, but the gospel has suffered little harm at their hands. Don Pedro Garcia and his life will illustrate. From a Bible found in a trash pile in Tampico, and that had providentially fallen into his hands, the gospel light broke upon his soul. At once he went to the missionary of Tampico for more in- struction. From that interview he seemed a new man, born of the Spirit. On the altar of his heart 218 ENCOURAGEMENTS. were kindled the fires of divine love, and loyalty to the gospel cause became a consuming flame. He asked the missionary to go to Las Lomas del Real, his native town, and preach to them. Rev. P. Trujillo went. But who would offer their home in which the services might be held to bring upon themselves the scorn and contempt of all for hav- ing sheltered and aided the hated Protestants in their "propaganda"? Don Pedro received the gospel worker in his home, which was made the headquarters of the gospel effort. It was an hour that tested his loyalty to the truth. He stood single-handed and alone. That night when the first service was held, a mob gathered about the door determined on an uproar to drive the Prot- estants from the town. They shouted "Death to the Protestants" and "Long live the Virgin !" Don Pedro* sat in his door as the preacher began. He saw the raging madness of the mob and knew their intent. Quietly he asked the minister to take a seat for a moment. He walked to a drawer and taking out a revolver he returned to the door, saying, "All of you are my friends and you know me. I would do> nothing rash or unwise, but my house and my friend within are to be respected. All are kindly invited to come in and hear the sermon. He who first protests will be left dead in his tracks." Turning to Rev. P. Trujillo, he asked him to proceed. Throughout his village he was known as a peaceable citizen, but he loved the 219 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. truth more than all else and he was ready to de- fend the Bible at all hazards. His coolness and courage were enough. There was no further trouble. For years his home was used as a chapel, and there week by week he gathered his friends to study the Bible. Each month the gospel work- ers coming to preach found the prophet's chamber ever ready. Early he caught the spirit of David, who longed to build the tabernacle, and began to work toward the erection of a little chapel. He loved the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. The chapel was almost finished when a cyclone swept over the village leaving the building well-nigh in ruins, but his love for his church never faltered. It was rebuilt, and on his shoulders fell almost the entire financial burden that the building called for. No Jew ever yearned more tenderly for his Zion than this aged servant longed for the courts of the Most High. At the dedication of the chapel he prayed, "Now, Lord, let thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy house in my town." When the lamented J. S. A. Hunter with fail- ing health, returned to the United States, with lit- tle hope of ever being able to resume his mission- ary labors, there followed him for three miles to- ward the station the entire membership of Ciudad del Maiz, sorrowing most of all that they would see his face no more. The heart of the native church beats true to the missionary and to the 220 ENCOURAGEMENTS. Evangelical Church. For this reason our faith catches a larger vision of the final triumph of our missionary endeavor. The Loyalty of the Converts to the Word of God. "Thus saith the Lord" is the touchstone that settles all questions of right and wrong. Like the Bereans, who searched diligently the Word of God to see if the things taught by Paul were in accord with the mind of the Spirit, they endeavor to make the Bible the infallible standard of their be- liefs and practices. At times they fail, but most of them fall with their faces toward the ideal, and rise with firmer faith in God and a deeper devotion to His Word. Dona Hilaria of Rioverde, strove to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. It was her in- flexible rule to buy on Saturday all that was need- ed for the coming Lord's day. One Saturday night she found that she had not one cent for the purchases, and it was too late to borrow. She would not break the command of the blessed Book which was her unerring guide. The only course left, as she saw the question, was to fast till Monday, and that was done. The husband of Sra. Apolinar Cruz had no sympathy with the evangeli- cal faith and would often buy corn and frijoles on the Sabbath. She always refused to eat that which he had bought on the day which was to be kept holy. Sotero Lopez, a faithful member of Ciudad del Maiz, now gone to rest with Jesus, was told by 221 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. his father to go to the plaza on the Sabbath and make certain purchases. He respectfully refused and stubbornly disobeyed his father that he might obey his God. He was carried before the mayor of the town to have him severely punished for his in- solent disobedience. God moved upon the heart of the mayor, as He once stirred the spirit of Cyrus, though the Persian did not know it, and the father was reproved for trying to drive the lad to fight against God. When Rev. G. Cruz first went to San Antonio to preach the gospel he found there a soothsayer of no little fame, Dn. Nicanor Lopez. He prac- ticed the curious arts as some did in Ephesus in the days of Paul. This had been his trade for years. The gospel gripped his soul and he gave his heart to Christ. The Word of God was to be his infallible guide book. He began to read how that the anger of God burned hot against the great sin of his life, and saw the fate of those who tolerat- ed wizards within their borders. In the Sabbath School he read of the converts of Ephesus who had followed this same nefarious calling, how that they had made a bonfire of their books on the streets of the city, abandoning forever their iniquitous practice. His loyalty to> the Word of God was such that he at once resolved to follow the example of the Ephesian converts. And though his books had cost him fifty dollars, which for a man of his standing was a little fortune, he burnt them all, 222 ENCOURAGEMENTS. quitting forever his former life which the law of God had condemned. From his family have come two noble daughters, one our efficient trained nurse, Senorita Teresa Lopez, and the other now in charge of a little evangelical school in Car- denas. On a feast day, when Ciudad del Maiz was thronged with Roman Catholics from the sur- rounding ranches, Rev. J. S. A. Hunter offered Rev. G. Cruz a box of Bibles to sell on the public square. The law gave him the right to sell Bibles as others sold corn. The fanatics were furious. Had the Protestants dared to offer their accursed book for sale right under the shadow of their church and on their feast day? They persuaded the fanatical mayor of the town to send Rev. Cruz to jail. Nor was he released till the missionary threatened to telegraph the United States Consul for protection. Did the prisoner of the Lord count the sacrifice too great and forsake the cause of the grand old book of salvation? On the con- trary, it intensified his zeal and he came from the prison more resolutely bent on carrying the Bible to all the neighboring towns and talk its good news on all the public squares. His unflinching loyalty to the Word of God reminds one of the weeping prophet who, when the wicked king, Je- hoiachim, cut the roll in pieces and threw it into the flames, wrote another with added words, and sent it to the defiant monarch. 223 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. Has our faith in the ultimate evangelization of Mexico become faint-hearted and downcast? Do we wonder if after all it is worth while? These triumphs of grace will call back our retreating faith and burn into our hearts the buoyant opti- mism of the little drummer boy of Napoleon, who had forgotten how to beat a retreat, so sure was he always of victory. These shining examples of godliness will assure us that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ can dispel the mid- night darkness of Romanism and lead the changed life up the path of the righteous man that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. These trans- formations of divine power should fire our droop- ing courage with that thrill that swept over Israel when they looked upon the grapes of Eschol which the spies had brought from the highland of Heb- ron. They were pledges of that land that flowed with milk and honey, and these transformations of grace are unmistakable earnests of those larger harvests that await us if we will only go up and possess the land. If the efforts of faith have digged from the hole of the pit these rare stones which have been 'hewn, fashioned and polished by the Spirit's inworking, why may we not set our hearts on tens of thousands that will stand at last pillars in the temple of the King, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens? 224 ENCOURAGEMENTS. Watchman, what of the night? Stand upon the watchtower of faith and the spiritual signs upon our missionary horizon are clear. The days of idolatry in Mexico are numbered. It will yet share the severe fate of Dagon, the god of the Philistines, whom his devotees dared to set up face to face with the ark of the Lord God of Hosts. The god fell headlong to the floor. Our God will brook no rival. Mexico's millions of idols must soon fall shattered to earth by the dynamic power of the Christ lifted up on Calvary, that He might draw all men from their gods of wood and stone to Him who alone is the hope of the sinning and the suffering. The eye of faith can see the first grey streaks that play upon the eastern horizon, forerunners of the morning light to be ushered in by the rising of the Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings. The morning cometh. 325 M-16 CHAPTER XII. OUR RESPONSIBILITY. Paul was debtor to the Gentile world, and the conviction fired his soul with a zeal that leaped over Alpine heights, defying his passage, and crossed streams of difficulty that would have dis- mayed souls of smaller mould. His responsibility to the nations that sat in the shadows of spiritual night, lay upon his heart with leaden weight, and he strove with all his might to meet the obligation. We are debtors to Mexico. The Providence of God has placed on our shoulders the responsibil- ity. We are our brother's keeper. i. The Responsibility of Proximity. From the very beginning the Master missionary outlined the plan of the world-wide campaign, marking most clearly the lines along which it was to proceed. "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. " The holy city was to be the center of the movement that was to encompass the earth. From this great nerve center the apostles were to proceed in the order of proximity. From Judea they were to go into the white harvest fields of Samaria. They dare not leap beyond the bounds of Samaria and hasten to the uttermost parts of the earth. They must go to the hated Samaritans and gather out from them a people for His name. Only then 216 RESPONSIBILITIES. were they at liberty to cross the seas or to go over the deserts to Babylon. Shall we invert the divine marching orders? Beginning at Jerusalem, it is well to evangelize the homeland till King Jesus is crowned Lord of lords. Hordes of immigrants are pouring into the country on the east and on the west, lacking the better elements of civic righteousness and woe- fully lacking in all that goes to make up a man four square. It is the white man's burden to teach them the things that make for peace and eternal righteousness. Millions of free men are scattered over the South waiting for the bread of life, whose need-cry is carried on almost every wind that blows up from the sea. The apostles first gave the gospel to Judea, and the Evangelical Church of the United States may not slight these unchurched multitudes at their very doors. And if the Church would be true to the divine commis- sion, she must not stop short of the evangelization of the uttermost parts of the earth. A million a month are dying in China. They go to the bar of the offended God to learn for the first time that the Son of God died to atone for their offenses, yet the Church with the good news of pardon in her hands sleeps while the condemned throngs go silent to their eternal doom. Under the shadows of the Himalayas and in the Sudan thousands are waiting for the gospel, while Christians busy them- selves with things as trifling as gathering wild 227 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. flowers by the way and the sheep perish far from the fold of the great Shepherd. "Beginning at Jerusalem .... and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." But let us not forget, oh let us not forget that between these two, Judea and the uttermost parts of the earth, lies Samaria, whose claim precedes those of the uttermost parts. Mexico is Samaria. She is our next door neighbor, only a river runs between. And if the Church of the United States would follow the divine order of the great com- mission, there should be given Mexico, forces of evangelization capable of making Christ known to this generation, before the Foreign Mission Boards set their faces toward the salvation of the far-away land of the uttermost parts of the earth. It is not claimed that the Church should wait for the complete conversion of the Republic. Only that missionaries and missionary equipment be sent such as can within reasonable expectations evangelize the land in this generation. 2. The Failure of the Roman Catholic Church. For three hundred years the Roman Catholic Church has been on trial in Mexico. Providence has favored her with every opportunity to show the world what her religious system can do toward the spiritual betterment of the people. First of all, the Spanish conquerors struck the deadly blow at Aztec idolatry, demolishing the heathen teocalis or temples right and left as they marched 228 RESPONSIBILITIES. through the land subjugating the natives, north, south, east and west. It was a promised land, rid of all its Canaanites and open for possession in the name of the Lord of Hosts and of the gospel. For three centuries the reins of governmental con- trol were in the hands of the ecclesiastical authori- ties. The Church and State were one, till the Re- form laws were passed, under the leadership of Juarez. Thus the Church was in no way hampered by civil enactments which might have thwarted any plans proposed for the evangelization of the land. To no earthly potentate was the Church amenable. Could an opportunity more golden have been wished? Nor did they lack means. When their property was confiscated by the passage of the Reform laws, the value of the churches and real estate was esti- mated to be $300,000,000, from which they deriv- ed an annual income of $30,000,000.* Archbishop Montufar wrote to Spain how that the priests "em- ployed relays of five hundred to a thousand men, and without wages or a mouthful of bread to eat, the men being rounded up for four, six and twelve leagues."t Magnificent cathedrals were erected all over the country at no cost to the Church, and buildings of a private character, which accounts for the vast quantity of real estate held by the Catholics. What is the result of Romish efforts in Mexico? *Mexico Coming into the Light, J. W. Butler, page 57. tLatin America, H. W. Brown, page 87. 229 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. Abbe Domeleeh, an envoy sent by the pope to re- port on the condition of the Church in Mexico, confessed, "The Mexican faith is a dead faith. The abuse of external ceremonies, the facility of recon- ciling the devil with God, the absence of internal exercises of piety, have killed the faith in Mexico. It is vain to seek good fruit from the worthless tree which makes the religion the singular assem- blage of heartless devotion, shameful ignorance, insane superstition and hideous vice. The wor- ship of saints and madonnas so absorbs the devo- tion of the people that little time is left to think about God."* This severe arraignment is fully borne out by the facts of the preceding chapters. ROME HAS FAILED IN MEXICO. She has been weighed in the balances and found wanting. The gross ignorance of the fundamental principles of Chris- tianity, the abounding superstition, the blind fan- aticism, the blunted moral sense, the low moral standard among the common people, the Christ- less externalism of the Church, their mad devotion to saint worship, its mammonism, the corrupted priesthood, its demoniacal opposition to the light of the Bible, — these things speak with trumpet tongue and bear faithful testimony that ROME HAS FAILED IN MEXICO. And more. The glaring corruption of the Ro- man Catholic Church is driving multitudes from •Mexico and the United States, G. D. Abbott, page 203. 23O RESPONSIBILITIES. her folds. Inevitably they become a prey to infi- delity and all its kindred evils. Cutting themselves aloof from the Romish faith and finding no other port of spiritual safety near, they set out for the high seas of liberalism and become the most hope- less subjects for the gospel workers. They become dead to all appeals. Religious sentiment seems to shrivel up and die, leaving the soul a victim to free thought, which means no heaven, no hell, no God and no accountability. It is the seven spirits that returned to the house from which they had gone out, they find it swept of all religion, empty and garnished. They take with themselves seven other spirits more wicked than themselves, and the last state of the soul is worse than at the first, when the youth stepped forth into the sphere of re- sponsibility without God. Mexico is without spiritual guides. And the destitution, far more vocal than the call of words, pleads with the appeal of a Macedonian cry for help. Shall we leave them to the mercy of the false shepherds? Shall we leave them without chart or compass to drift on the high seas of god- lessness and hopelessness? Shall we deny them the anchor of our gospel that will save their bark from the reefs and rocks that will surely dash them to death and to doom? 3. The Responsibility of An Open Door. That noble missionary, Xavier, who went like a flaming torch from land to land, came at last to 231 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. the walled kingdom of China, and lying on a bed of fever, looked up at the great wall that shut out all gospel effort by governmental edict, cried, "Oh rock, rock, when wilt thou open to my Master." Not many years have passed since a wall just as impregnable reared itself defiantly in the face of the gospel messengers, and said that to the Rio Grande they might come and no farther. Prior to the promulgation of the Reform laws, all gospel effort was strictly forbidden. The reins of power were in the hands of the bishops and archbishops, and the iron arm of law was stretched forth to make the Catholic faith supreme and gospel work- ers guilty of death. The fires of the Inquisition were kept burning for the gospel heretics, and 2302 were burned because they sought light. The sale and reading of the Bible were placed under the ban of condemnation by enactments more stringent than those of the States that forbid the transportation of obscene literature. And even after the Reform laws lifted the ban and made the gospel welcome, mad fanaticism lurking away in the corners of the land beyond the reach of law, has left a long list of martyrs. Patriots like Hid- algo* Juarez and a host of unnamed heroes bore their breasts to the storm of leaden rain and hoist- ed the banner of religious freedom. Brave martyrs have paid for their convictions with the price of blood and have made liberty of conscience a liv- ing fact for all who would walk in the unfettered 232 RESPONSIBILITIES. freedom of the Son of God. They have opened the doors and the gospel herald is safe to go with Bible in hand. Shall we hold in light esteem this opportunity so dearly bought? Gospel forerun- ners have opened the doors, shall we enter? Shall we learn the lesson of the sculptor who carved out of stone the god of opportunity with her face covered with hair, because men so seldom recog- nize her coming, and attached wings to her feet because she does not tarry long? Today the gates are open wide, tomorrow they may be shut, for liberalism and free thought will have entered and taken possession of the land for the prince of dark- ness. Truly we are Philadelphians of opportunity. Shall we prove Laodiceans of lukewarmness? 4. Providence is Leading the Way. With no thought of popish infallibility, we ac- cept the call of the Church as the call of God. From the year 1878, when the Synod first resolved to open the Mexican Mission, through the years it has ratified its action at every one of its thirty- one annual meetings. Not once has that ecclesi- astical body affirmed its lack of faith in the leading of the Head of the Church. Rather it has repeat- edly affirmed its confidence that the Lord of hosts is with us in our missionary campaign, sending out missionaries from time to time. He has placed the seal and stamp of His approval upon the work. He has opened doors, and has been the help and 233 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. inspiration of the missionaries, giving them hun- dreds of souls for their hire. Does not the Master's leading call for loyal following? When the pillar of cloud began its majestic forward movement from above the camp of the nation and from all quarters sounded the silver trumpets which every Israelite understood as the divine signal for marching, the millions at once struck their tents and pushed out into the trackless desert, following the Lord of Hosts. When the Spirit forbade the apostle to enter By- thinia on the right hand, and Mysia on the left, he went straight forward to the coast where he caught the vision of the man from Macedonia beg- ging him to come over and help. Assuredly gath- ering that the Lord had called him, and without faltering he crossed the Hellespont and planted the cross in pagan Greece. No less clear than the quiet march of the cloud, the ringing call of the silver trumpets or the secret stirrings of the Spirit, is the providential call of God that our Church undertake on a worthy scale the evangelization of Mexico. Shall we follow His leading? 5. The Responsibility of a National Debt. Mexico looks to the United States for her spir- itual regeneration. When the noble Juarez was persecuted by the demagogue, Santa Anna, and driven from his native land, he reached New Or- leans. There he studied the underlying principles of our free institutions, and after their spirit he 234 RESPONSIBILITIES. framed laws that have led the country along the ways of amazing prosperity. When the French, under the false pretense of collecting certain pri- vate financial obligations of their subjects, entered the country, hoisted their flag over the capital and placed Maximilian, an Austrian prince, on the throne, it was a voice from Washington that spoke to the government at Paris, demanding the with- drawal of their forces from the land, leaving the nation free and sovereign once more. American capital is pouring into the country, bringing ma- terial for the development of its mining industry, the construction of railroads, introducing modern methods of agriculture, importing American ma- chinery of all kinds. Great has been our contribution to the material and intellectual progress of the country. Shall we withhold our spiritual help, that of which the American nation should be proudest? We throw about Mexico the shield of the Monroe Doctrine, and say to the foreign powers that no other flag shall float over Chapultepec, their proud Capital. This is well. It is nothing less than the stronger brother yielding to the dictates of duty toward the weaker. But shall we leave them an easy prey to the deadly enemies of superstition, infidelity, ig- norance, bigotry and the long attendant train of evils far more to be dreaded than the usurpation of power at the hand of a foreign nation? While we aid them in thrusting the foreign invaders from 235 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. their shores, shall we not offer them the gospel of the Son of God, which alone can make men free, and without which all are fettered slaves? While the United States makes her contribution of a free press and free institutions, shall we fail to give them the Word of God on which all our civil in- stitutions are founded and without which our su- perstructure of civic righteousness would be but a frail house built on the shifting sand? Stirred by our example of the Declaration of Independ- ence that vested the United States with the author- ity to stand in the council chamber of the sover- eign nations of the world, Mexico rose up in the might of eternal liberty and burst asunder the shackels that had bound them for centuries. Shall we now withhold from them our pattern of the kingdom of heaven? Daniel Webster spoke more wisely than he knew, when he said, "Our greatest danger is that we have to the south of us a sister nation in almost mortal agony, and no one amongst us seems to be willing to lend a helping hand." 6. We Have Laid Our Hands to the Plow and Must Not Turn Back. For thirty-one years the Church has directed its missionary agencies toward the evangelization of our field in Mexico. Men and money have been sent to the front of the firing line. The mis- sionaries are giving themselves to the work with 236 RESPONSIBILITIES. unstinted devotion, and not a few sleep in Mexican graves. Prayers have been ascending from family altars over the Synod for these score and a half of years. We have been laying the foundations of a spiritual temple, which fitly framed, is growing together in the Lord. Shall we leave a supply of men utterly inadequate to rear the walls of the building and expect a worthy structure not to be ashamed of at His coming? We 'have entered the white harvest fields of Mexico and have committed ourselves to the evangelization of 706,799 souls. Shall we expect four missionaries and eight native men to reap the harvests of these wide, wide regions? We have carried the war into the en- emy's country, storming their citadels of power, and now that the opposition is stubborn and the spoils not so remunerative, s'hall we fail to> send the needed recruits to insure a glorious victory for our Lord? Would we be true to the men and women on the field to place on their shoulders the heavy, unreasonable task of evangelizing 716,457 souls? Would we be true to these souls whose weal or woe is in our hands? Would we be true to Him who has assigned to us the taking of this wing of the line of the enemy? Would we be true to ourselves to leave half finished this work already begun? On Calton hill there stands a half-finished struc- ture that overlooks the Scotch Athens. It was modeled after the Greek Parthenon, the finest 237 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. specimen of ancient architecture, that crowning glory of the .classic city of Pericles, and was de- signed to perpetuate the undying memory of those who stood like a breakwater against the rolling tide of Napoleon's popularity at Waterloo and checked it forever. It was a most worthy cause, and a magnificent monument planned; but alas, there it stands, an occasion for mockers to laugh at, the ambition of those whose plans were too much for their resources. Fierce rebuke to the vacillating and the unstable. Shall that be the ver- dict of future generations as they look on our ef- forts for the redemption of our part of the Mexi- can field? "This man began to build, but was not able to finish." It must be so unless we rally to the help of the Lord against the mighty, and triple and quadruple our forces so as to be able to prosecute to a worthy conclusion the missionary plans outlined by our great and godly forefathers for a grand structure on Mexican soil that would lift its head high above the mist of the ages and tell unborn generations that we were true to the thousands committed to* our spiritual keeping. Will we leave our work half finished? 238 CHAPTER XIII. FORWARD. "Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward." Not less clear and commanding is that voice that rings with the emphasis of a clarion call to duty as we face the evangelization of our Mexican field. "The King's business requireth haste." i. Larger Visions. That prince of early missionaries, who literally burned out for his Lord, used to catch the visions of the nations redeemed and prostrate at the feet of Jesus; and he was wont to cry out, "Yet more, oh my God, yet more : more sufferings, more hard- ships, more scourgings for Thy name, more sick- nesses, more deaths if Thou wilt grant me more souls. Yet more, oh my God, yet more." Let us catch the vision of our field evangelized and souls redeemed from the demons of idolatry, clothed in their right mind and sitting at the feet of Jesus, brought under the spell of that name that is above every name, and our faith will inspire us on over all opposition with the consuming zeal of a Xavier. We have looked at Roman Catholicism in Mex- ico, not less idolatrous than the worship of Baal, against which the prophets hurled their fiery de- nunciations for centuries, or the fetish worshippers of the jungles of Africa, who press the tiny wood- 2 39 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. en god to their bosom with the fond caresses of a deep passion; we have seen the strange supersti- tions of the masses who will put their trust in a stone or piece of wood that chanced to bear the likeness of a face, taking unto themselves the con- solation that it is the photograph of a saint Who can hear and heed their prayers; we have seen the bitter enmity toward the gospel that has with fire and faggot striven to burn all who would follow the gospel of our only Savior, Jesus Christ; we have seen the power of Rome over her devotees as she drives with the whipcords of the threats of excommunication, more slavishly than the task- masters did in Pharaoh's day; we have seen the walls of fanaticism as impregnable as those of Jer- icho over which the gospel herald must pass to possess the land for God. Have these revelations filled us with dismay? Are we ready to shrink back with the ten spies who had seen the Canaan- itish giants intrenched in their cities walled up to heaven? Let us catch the vision of Caleb and Joshua. "Let us go up and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it." Their God was might- ier than idols. "They that be with us are far more than they that be with them." By the vital faith of a trumpet blast and a forward march, these Jer- icho walls will fall and obstacles formidable as Jor- dan's swollen streams will part to let us pass. A larger faith in our God and the final outcome of our efforts, is the crying need of the hour. 240 FORWARD. 2. Larger Love for Souls. The Lord is gathering that great multitude which no man can number, of all nations and kin- dreds and peoples and tongues. They are to stand before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes and with palms in their hands. Of the millions now bowed under the thraldom of Roman Catholicism there are many who might be- come partakers of this inheritance of the saints in light. Of the souls of our field who knows how many might go to the mansions of the Father's house prepared for those who believe on His Son. Shall we deny them this blessedness? They hun- ger for the living and true God, evidenced by the intense religiousness that makes them bow to stocks and stones. Shall we deny them the glory of the beatific vision and the bliss of serving Him forever and ever? They hunger for the bread of life. Shall we leave them to their pain through that long night of eternal blackness that will never dawn into morning light? And if we do not preach them the truth of Christ, then who will? The Providence of God has marked off this field and given to us the im- perative duty of its evangelization. To whom but to us can they stretch their hands imploring help? If these thousands ever come to taste the good- ness of God and be satisfied with the fullness of joy in His presence, it must be through the efforts of our denomination. There are no* others to 241 M-16 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. open the prison doors and lead 'them out into the glorious liberty of Christ, no others to proclaim to them that the great year of the gospel jubilee has come through the atonement of the Lamb of God. Give me Thy heart, oh Christ, Thy love untold. That I like Thee may pity, like Thee may preach For round me spreads on every side a waste Drearer than that which moved Thy soul to sadness. No ray hath pierced this immemorial gloom And scarce these darkened toiling myriads taste Even a few drops of fleeting earthly gladness As they move on slow, silent to the tomb. 3. Larger Reinforcements. The National Missionary Conference, which met in Chicago, May 3-6, 1910, composed of 4,146 delegates, representing the laymen of the Christian Church of the United States, affirmed, "We accept as a working policy the standard that in addition to the native agencies, there should be provided from the churches of Christian lands an average of at least one missionary to every twenty-five thou- sand of the people to be evangelized." Mr. J. R. Mott, one of the sanest and most thorough students of Missions, states that, "the leading authorities on all mission fields have been asked to estimate how many missionaries, in addi- tion to the native force, would be required to so lead the missionary enterprise as to accomplish the evangelization of those countries within a genera- tion. The highest number suggested by any one 242 FORWARD. is one missionary to every 10,000 of the heathen population. Few gave a lower estimate than one to every 100,000. The number most frequently mentioned is one to every 20,000. The average number given is one to every 50,000."* Between the statement of the National Mis- sionary Conference to the effect that the evangeli- zation of the world in this generation calls for one foreign missionary to every 25,000 souls, and the estimate of the foreign missionaries themselves that the speedy evangelization of the world de- mands one missionary to every 50,000, let us take the average, which is one to every 37,500 souls, and calculate our need of reinforcement on that conservative basis. Our Mexican field has a popu- lation of 706,799. To equip the missionary forces with one foreign missionary to every 37,500 would call for 19 foreign workers. AT PRESENT WE HAVE ONLY FOUR ON THE FIELD. To institute a comparison. The state of South Carolina has an area of 30,370 square miles, while our Mission field comprises 31,221 square miles. According to the census of 1900 the white popula- tion of South Carolina numbered 557,807, while 706,799 souls are found on our Mission field. Thus the state of South Carolina could be placed on our field and fail to cover the entire territory, while her population is one-fifth less than the number of souls for whose evangelization we are responsible ♦The Evangelization of the World in this Generation. Mott. page 162. 243 , . MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. in Mexico. Let us compare the provision made for the spiritual needs of these two sections. With- in the bounds of South Carolina 1025 ministers are laboring to effect the complete evangelization of the white race of the state, with 2322 organized churches rallying to their help. (Handbook of South Carolina, E. J. Watson, page 604.) To accomplish that identical work for our Mexi- can field with a greater population, are employed four foreign missionaries and eight native preach- ers. THESE TWELVE MEN ARE EXPECT- ED TO DO FOR OUR MISSION FIELD EX- ACTLY WHAT THE 1025 ARE TO DO FOR THE 42 COUNTIES OF SOUTH CAROLINA. Is it possible? Is it reasonable? Is it worthy of us? But the comparison is entirely superficial. The facilities for reaching the people are not the same. In all our mission field there are only two rail- roads, while over the counties of South Carolina are to be found a network of railway lines. The missionaries meet the most bitter opposition, while throughout the above named state the people are at least favorably disposed toward the gospel and heartily welcome the minister into their homes. To make the comparison compare we must enter all the thousands of homes of those 2322 churches and tear down the family altars and counteract all gospel influences, obliterate the schools where are taught the fundamental principles of the Word of God, burn all the Bibles, demolish all the printing 244 FORWARD. presses that issue millions of copies of evangelical periodicals, convert the Sabbath into a holiday, make one-half of the people ignorant even of the alphabet, fill their minds with the most stupefying superstitions, and change all to idolaters bowing down to< stocks and stones. Then the 1025 min- isters would confront a task somewhat similar to that which the Church has laid upon the shoulders of us twelve. Does it not look as if we were play- ing with this great duty of evangelizing these 706,799 souls of our field? If it be said that those of South Carolina are our fellow citizens, and for that reason our debt to them is more binding, let us remind ourselves that we have undertaken to give Mexico the same gospel with its unspeakably great blessings of di- vine grace. And if we pretend to offer both fields the same evangel of pardon and peace and power, and in addition to these, the necessary means to attain to these supreme goals of human desire, is it just to assign 1025 to one field and 12 to the other, knowing that the latter field is beset with difficulties such as are never seen at home? Mak- ing all due allowance for the fact that these seven- teen counties are our own people, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, does not the proportion of 1025 workers to 12 pass beyond the bounds of any- thing reasonable? At least give the field eight foreign mission- aries and increase the force each year till it is 245 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. capable of carrying to a successful conclusion the evangelization of the country. Would nine mis- sionaries (eight for Mexico, and one for India) be too many for the Church to send to the foreign field? The report of the last Synod gave the As- sociate Reformed Presbyterian Church a member- ship of 13,469. To send out four more workers would give the Church one foreign missionary for every 1500 members approximately. Is that aim too high? The Moravian Church has sent out one missionary for every 66 members. Would we be willing to concede that their zeal for the hasten- ing of the kingdom of our Lord bears toward ours the proportion of 22 to one? Are volunteers wanting? When the professions are crowded till there is hardly standing room even at the top, shall this, the greatest work in the world, lack for laborers? The Son of God goes forth to war for His kingly crown and to bring the ends of the earth within the confines of His promis- ed possessions, shall we let Him go alone? Rather shall we not go with Him and stand at last by His side in the quiet and glory of that eternal victory? Shall our young men and women hear the sweet voice calling "that makes whoever hears a home- sick soul thereafter till he follows it to heaven," and not lay their hands to "the work that stands at the present time in the front rank of all the tasks we have to fulfil, the primary work of the Church?" The Roman poet tells of a wounded soldier bleed- 246 FORWARD. ing to death upon his couch. He heard the roar of battle on the Alban hills, "the hurling of the great stones from the catapult, and the sound of clashing steel." And though his eyes were filming with death, he arose from his bed and started for the far-away Alban heights, praying to the gods that they would give him strength to reach the lines of battle and strike just one blow for the triumph of the great golden eagle. Shall we love less our King and strive less for the supremacy of His kingdom? Beats the heart of our young men so dead to the heroic that they do not hail with supreme joy the opportunity to go to the front of the Master's far-flung battle line, where the oppo- sition is deadliest and the battle wages more furi- ously? And the number of our native ministers must be greatly multiplied. A competent missionary* reckons that for the effective evangelization of a field ten native men are needed for each foreign missionary. (Evangelization of the World in this Generation, Mott, p. 166.) On this basis we shall have to increase our present force fivefold. From whence may we expect so large an increase? For this very purpose was established the Preparatory and Theological School. But to be able to supply this enlarged demand, the institution must have better equipment. At present it is expected that the principal and one assistant teach 50 students, taking them through a curriculum which begins 2 47 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. with the multiplication table, leading through the higher branches to a full literary graduation, and then a theological course of study. It involves a task of 60 classes daily, thirty for each teacher. No sane person will believe that with this overcrowd- ing of work the school can rise to its full measure of duty and furnish an educated laity and a quali- fied ministry. The Presbyterians are operating a similar school at Cooyoacan with an enrollment of JJ students. Their faculty consists of three qualified native teachers, two American missionaries and an- other American missionary who devotes one-half of his time to the work. The appropriation calls for $6375, including the salaries of the mission- aries. The teaching force of our school numbers two men, with an appropriation of $2078, includ- ing the salary of the missionary who is principal. For a larger equipment of this institution we most earnestly plead. By the crying need of a capable native ministry, for the lack of which open doors of opportunity have waited for scores of years with no messenger to heed the Macedonian call; by the important place which the native ministry holds in the missionary ma- chinery, without which the Church can not shoul- der the responsibility that our Lord has laid at our door and go to the great white throne clean of the blood of men; by the possibilities of a mission force thoroughly equipped with a consecrated pre- 248 FORWARD. pared Mexican ministry, by which under the direc- tion of an adequate foreign missionary force, we might make Christ known to these hundreds of thousands, and thus serve our own generation by the will of God ere we fall asleep; by these sub- lime considerations we plead for a larger and more worthy equipment of the institution. On it in large measure depends the success or failure of the mission. From it are to come the men that must stand at the head of the congregational ac- tivities and lead these to their final victory. 4. Larger Appropriation. For the more thorough equipment of the mis- sionary enterprise and the needed enlargement, conservative calculations will call for an appropria- tion of $26,000 annually. This estimate is not too large for our membership of 13,469, making the contribution only $2 for each member toward this the greatest work the Church has attempted in all her history, the work that lies heaviest upon the heart of Him whom we love, and that will yield the largest returns at that day when all must carry to His judgment seat the talents entrusted and those gained while He tarried. Who does not spend a greater sum on some extra outing of the year, some extra article of clothing that might be dis- carded from one's life without serious discomfort? To reach this high water mark of missionary ap- propriation it will be necessary to introduce into our missionary enterprise the sound, practical prin- 249 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. ciples similar to those on which commercial in- terests are based. The late J. H. Converse, who for years was president of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, and who translated his words into works, said, "When business men apply to the work of missions the same energy and intelligence which govern in their commercial ventures, then the pro- position to evangelize the world in this generation will no longer be a dream." And does not the missionary cause merit such? Missions are no longer the butt of the sneers of the Sydney Smith type, no longer thought of as the dream of certain star-gazers, a spiritual mirage in the wild desert of imagination, a Utopia of the pulpit. The mis- sionary ideals are the most reasonable and the methods the most practical. More than one hun- dred years of missionary history, with its hope- inspiring results, have reduced its methods to a literal science and justified the undertaking as in- tensely practical and worthy of the most modern methods of commercial economy. The Mission Boards have come up the paths of the century per- fecting their modus operandi till no business firm invests their capital more economically or more wisely than they. These conditions call upon the rank and file of the Church to look upon the cru- sade of missions as the most practical scheme of the ages and respond accordingly. Then two dol- lars annually toward this grand world-wide cam- paign for souls will seem but a light task. 250 FORWARD. And the spirit of self-sacrifice must grip our souls. Let us begin to give not merely that which we do not need, but that which we can hardly af- ford to do without. It is the spirit of David, who refused to take the summit of Mt. Zion without pay from his pagan friend, for there on that spot he would place the house of God and he would not offer His God that which cost him nothing. His gift had to pass through the hands of self- denial, and was more acceptable to his God. And why should not those who tarry by the stuff and hold the ropes practice self-sacrifice for missions when they have asked the missionary to give up much and go to the front, where self-denial must be one of the cardinal practices of his daily life? Bishop Thoburn, who gave his best days to India, has said: "If I as a. missionary am expected to give up all things for the interests of the work, to count home and treasure, and ease and personal comfort as nothing, when the interests of the work are at stake, my brother in the States who un- hesitatingly assigns me this standard of duty, should be governed by a spirit precisely similar." Nothing will so surely foster this spirit as a clearer vision of Him who, though rich in all the glories of the Godhead, counted being on an equal- ity with God, a thing not to be grasped at, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, mak- ing Himself so poor that though the foxes of the fields had caves and the birds of the air had nests, 2 5* MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. He had not where to lay His head. He lived in a borrowed home, sailed in a borrowed ship, rode on a borrowed ass and after death was laid away in a borrowed tomb. Viewed in the light of His sublime sacrifice, liberality will become the joy of life and two dollars will seem a small sum to help win the nations from their idols and rally them to the banner of Him who sacrificed His all for us. 5. More Prayer. On Patmos the Apostle John saw the angel stand before the throne, and with the golden cen- ser offer the incense of the prayer of the saints upon the altar before the throne, and the smoke of the offering ascended before God as a sweet- smelling savor. Then from the fires of sacrifice upon the altar the angel cast down to earth burn- ing incense, and lo there were thunderings, light- nings and an earthquake. These thunder peals, lightning flashes, and mighty upheavals of nature came about as the results of the prayers of the saints offered by the Angel of Intercession. It has always been true. By prayer Moses saved the nation, four million strong, whom God would de- stroy for the idolatry of the golden calf. By the uplifted rod the sea and river divided, the Jericho walls fell down at the trumpet blast, and whole nations, with chariots of iron, were routed and spoiled to possess the land of promise. Daniel pleaded the promise of the return of his nation 252 FORWARD. from exile and God moved upon the heart of Cy- rus to fulfil His word without knowing it. After days of waiting the cloven tongues of Pentecost descended upon the disciples gathered in the up- per room and going out, they reaped a harvest of three thousand souls. The story of the modern Acts of the apostles has been written by an angel's hand in the Lamb's book of life, recording results brought to pass by prayer, not less wonderful than the thunderpeals and lightning flashes of the Apocalyptic vision. The mighty quickenings on the mission fields have all been born in the upper room of prayer and fasting. By prayer Mackay gathered on his twelfth anniversary of missionary effort all his liv- ing converts to a great love feast, and 1200 sat down to the table of the Lord. By prayer the Telugu revival spread and intensified till it had equalled that of Pentecost, and in 18 months ten thousand had been added to the list of the saved. By prayer the fifty years of gospel effort in the Fiji Islands, saw transformations so marvelous that though the missionaries who introduced the work had first to gather up the skulls of victims sacri- ficed at the carnival feasts, they lived to see 15,000 churches planted and 104,000 souls filling these from Saibbath to Sabbath. By prayer Mackay and Hannington stormed the centers of blood- thirsty Uganda that had hacked to pieces hun- dreds of Christians and in 17 years the blood of 253 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. Hannington had borne the fruit of 17,000 souls. By prayer there resulted in Manchuria a great shaking of the dry bones after 25 years of work, and was reaped the golden harvest of 19,000 souls. Do not these stirring signals of divine blessing call us with clarion peal to give ourselves more un- sparingly to prayer, to stand upon the watch-tow- ers of intercession, not holding our peace day nor night, and giving Him no rest till He make our mission field a praise in the earth? Face to face with the dearth of spiritual results, do we cry with Israel, "Awake, awake, put on thy strength, oh arm of the Lord," the Master answers as He did His chosen people, "Awake, awake, put on thy strength, oh Zion." Heeding His voice, let us rise in the almightiness of faithful agonizing prayer for the speedy coming of His kingdom in Mexico. Let us set apart days for fasting and prayer, pleading for the refreshing showers of grace upon the parching mission field, that its desert places may blossom like the rose. Let us make our morning watch an opportunity for missions, when we shall cry mightily to God for a Pentecostal outpouring of His Spirit upon the reapers of the white harvest fields of the Regions Beyond. Let us organize praying bands tarrying in the upper room and waiting for the fulfilment of the promise to give His Son the heathen for His inheritance. Let us preach the lament of the Lord that there are none that stir themselves to take hold of Him in inter- 254 FORWARD. cessory prayer, the sin of ceasing to pray for the perishing millions, the loud call for princes in Israel who may take hold of the angel of blessing and never let Him go till He causes to blow upon the valley of dry bones of spiritual deadness the vital- izing breath of the Almighty Spirit that they may rise and live. And above all, let us each begin to pray daily for our mission work with the intensity of David Brainard, who agonized in intercession for the pagan tribes, till his clothes were saturated with perspiration. "Lord, teach us to pray." 6. More Love for Christ. In the quiet of the upper room, after the resur- rection, on the mountains of Galilee during those forty days, on the slopes of Mt. Olivet just before He ascended, the Master thrice gave the commis- sion that shifts on our shoulders the obligation to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. It was the last command, the only command given after He rose from the dead. And if we shirk the responsibility and fail to preach the gospel to the 706,799 souls whom the hand of Providence have so unmistakably assigned to our spiritual keeping, will not He add at last, "Why call ye Me Lord and do not the things that I say"? What we have done for these needy ones, will be the unfailing test of our loyalty to Him at that great day of His appearing. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me." 255 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do," asked Paul. He was commissioned to carry the gospel to the Gentiles, and to fulfil his ministry he press- ed toward the mark with undaunted zeal, though it meant the beasts of Ephesus, five times forty stripes save one, shipwreck on the seas, the under- ground dungeon at Rome and at last the execu- tioner's ax. Shall we be less loyal to His express command to evangelize the thousands of Mexico? If not, how shall we stand unashamed before Him at His coming and say, "I have finished the work that Thou gavest me to do." Larger love to Christ, such love as translates itself into practical loyalty to His command to evangelize the nations will demand an advance all along the lines and the wide districts of our mission territory will be won for our Lord. And He wants these thousands saved. That the shepherdless sheep of the nations might come within the reach of His grace, has been the fond wish of His Father-heart from the council cham- bers of eternity. So consuming was His compas- sion that when the fullness of time was come He took upon Himself the form of a man and allowed Himself to be nailed to the accursed cross, drink- ing to the last drop the infinite ill deserts of hu- man guilt, and bore the burden of human sin away from God into the land of eternal forgetfulness. To seek and save the lost sheep and lead them back to the Father's fold, He has sent forth His Spirit, 256 FORWARD. while He intercedes at the right hand of Him who promised Him the heathen for His inheritance. He waits and waits for the consummation of His de- sire. For these long centuries He has been wait- ing. And He will never see the travail of His soul nor be satisfied till the work of evangelization has been done. He looks out over the idolatrous thousands wandering as sheep without a shepherd and for their salvation he thirsts. Will we sit idly by while they pass with noiseless tread into the deep spiritual shadows of eternal night and do nothing to quench this divine thirst for souls? At the bare expression of his desire for a drink of water from the old well by the gate, the heroes of King David broke through the ranks of the Philistines, and at the risk of life brought the cooling draught for their leader. Our Lord thirsts for the souls on our Mexican field with an infinite yearning that will never be quenched till these prodigals have come home to His heart of love. Does not the thought fire our soul with an all-consuming passion to lay upon the altar of mis- sion service all our energies of body, soul and spirit to evangelize the thousands committed to our care and thus help satisfy the hunger of His compassionate heart? Deus vult was the sublime text of Urban as he stood upon the platform at Clermont and pleaded that the crowds would go with him to the Holy Land and snatch the tomb of our Lord from the 257 M-17 MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. defiling hand of the pagan Turk. God willed it. God wanted it done, they said. And with that simple watchword they swept out from the market place with utter abandon to all other plans. The silver-tongued pleader made clear the price to be paid. The tenderest ties were to be severed for the sake of this goal that loomed up before them as the supreme desire. He warned them that many of the pilgrims would fall by the way from fatigue or sickness, and sleep at last on the desert sand of some far-away land of strangers or down in a watery grave. Others would fall into the hands of the avenging hand of the savage Turk and be consigned to a life to which death would be a thousand times to be preferred. Few would stand at last in the gates of the holy city, look upon its stately spires, see the green hill just out- side the city wall where our Lord was crucified and the garden where his pierced body was laid, broken for us all. Not once did they waver. God willed the rescue of the Saviour's grave. He wanted it done and that was sufficient to fill all Europe with the tread of armies and sweep toward the holy land those mighty throngs of Crusaders ever memor- able for their misguided zeal, but for a heroism that stirs the iron in the blood of every true sol- dier of the cross. A greater crusade pleads for our service. It is the evangelization of the world in this generation. And our part is to gather out of Mexico's millions 258 FORWARD. the thousands who are to form a part of the body of His Son and present it "unblamable before Him, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Deus vult. God wills. God wants it done. And shall we prove less loyal in this grander crusade for souls? Shall we falter at this crucial hour? Shall we not rather crowd out of our life all self-center- edness, all wastefulness, all love of ease and luxury, all things weak and mean, and laying our talents, one, two or five, at His feet, and looking with Him on the fields so white to the harvest, pray quietly and seriously, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Shall we not distinguish between that which is gold and that which is stubble, and turning away from the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, and with unsparing abandon, begin to burn out for this greatest work of the world? Oh that there might sweep over our hearts the loyal spirit of those crusaders, thrilling our souls as the aspen quivers in the wind, and send us out to count not our lives as dear unto ourselves that we may fulfil the ministry which our Church has re- ceived from the Lord to testify of the grace of God, that we may stand at last by His side un- ashamed amid the quiet and glory of that hour when the world kingdoms shall pay their homage at His feet, and that thorn-pierced brow shall be covered with the fadeless crown of an imperish- able victory. 259 APPENDIX I Population of Mexico according to the last Census (1900). OCCUPATIONS AND OTHER CLASSIFICATIONS. MALE. FEMALE. TOTAL. Agriculture Mining Industries Commerce Liberal Professions Public Administration . . Domestic Service Property Owners Various Occupations Under Age Over 70 Years of Age. . . Blind Able to Read and Write. Total Population 3,130,181 27,306 3,157,487 96,761 584 97,345 495,702 262,052 757,754 189,404 48,729 238,133 49,558 12,649 62,207 24,488 700 25,188 95,198 3,785,682 3,880,880 9,908 12,825 22,733 174,116 185,898 360,014 3,526,799 3,527,129 7,053,928 79,459 74,026 153,485 8,071 4,888 12,959 1,273,325 906,263 2,179,588 6,752.118 6,855,141 13,607,259 o M X 9 2 < u W o z < O O )— < Q Z W Cm Oh < s 3ApB^ JO uopnqu^uo3 •pjBog U8T3JO£ JO uopBiidojddv •pa^Bajx •sfB^ideoH '6aueuoissij^[ |Bojpap^ s;uBDiunuiujo3 •63UBUIUI3S IBDiSoioaqx •S383U03 •sjooips •suopB3aa3uo3 •SJ3ipB3J, SApB^J •SJ3ipB3X uSpjoj SiO^SBd 3ApB^ •S3UBUOISeiJ/\[ uSiaj'ojj •unSag ^joaa. s B 88888888S888 >TtOJ© iNQiOMQCOiOOgOOO 8vo88o888n8 §«OOtpOQO(DO COOO^OOOhO .NOOiOOOOONO Oo5iOO©iO(NOOrH(NOOiCCXDC000^7 N^NtDHH r-2 rH00©00'OtO"<*CO^»«00 — 7 co co (N csi in to co oo oo >o •;— r- t- r- co oq © 1-» to t-- © •£; 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 CO 00 00 •§§ o w . --a ■2*8 S • a is -a rt r* o a O O >> w r r. >>-rJ »* re O7-J u u • oj )-. ? 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