The Lincoln County leader. [volume] (White Oaks, Lincoln County, N.M.) 1882-189?, 1888-03-10
RELIGIOUS DEPARTMENT.
THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION
AND SPIRITU Al NEED
OF MEXICO.

y 0AA Eh'lAIN W
tanned from the Queen OF Spain
the three ships to make his voyage
in quest Of a western route to Asia,
he promised her to "carry the
Cross and plant it III heather
lands" lie reached the West In
dies, and became the first of the
bard of explorers of the New
world.
Afterward, Cortez started out
on his conquest of Mexico, and
wherever he went he planted the
cross and built a church.
1t seems that Mexico was pre-
pared to give up its Aztec heath
enism for Roman Catholicism, for
II was not many years before near
ly the entire people became the
devoted adherents of that faith.
In Mexico its cathedrals are
among the richest in the world,
and the revenues of church and
bishopric are enormous.
From the year 1921 to 1851,
Mexico was greatly disturbed by Il
succession OF conflicts growing out
of the opposition of the Roman
Catholic party to the constitutional
government, which has resulted
in the party tavoring freedom, pro-
gress, and universal education
gaining a decided victory,
The time came when the leaders
in Mexico became satisfied that
there could be no real liberty for
the people until the political pow
er of the Roman Catholic church
should be broken, and the Mexican
Congress decreed that the church
ard state should be Independent
of each other, and that there
ahould be federation of all other
religions. The history as written
of abe past in countries where
church and state we're m their
progress have been slow. This is
the key stone in the arch of Liber-
tv, and God has left the matter of
choice in religious matters sacred
to his own will.
81 beg to call the attention Of
thoughtful people to the fact that
not.the absence of religion, bnt the
presence Of false religions, is en-
phacised in the Bible as the most
formidable force with which the
gospel has to contend. When the
very gospel itself has been corrup-
ted, and the edge of the instru-
ment Of divine surgery, that pen
etrates between the joints and the
marrow, and separates between a
sinner and his sins, has been blnnt-
ed and bent, how pitiable beyond
expression is the plea for help"
The revolutions which have
been occurring IN Mexico tor the
past fifty years, are the index on
the dial, and Indicate that there Is
lying Just beneath the surface a
desire for religious liberty.
cit is written in the general
public dlstrust, in the tedious and
costly details and endless certif-
cations that cucumber and deform
their jurisprudence, in the fearful
popular lgnorBnce and abiect pow
erty of the masses, in the armOry
that men everywhere carry eX-
posed on their persons, in the
guards on their railroad trains and
public highways, in the lotteries
and bull fights, in the summary eX-
ecutlon of highway robbers, and
in the violence winch the church
itself is ready to visit upon those
who dare to point out the way OF
salvation
SO corrupt has tins system be
come, that the cultivated classes
are almost driven not merely to
irrelig,on. but to open opposition
to Christianity itself, and to the
bleak, barren plains of free
thought, infdelity and atheism.