The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-06-04

felt for those nearer home. Mexico, with
natural phenomena closely Analogous TO
that of our own land, and peopled largely
by the same nationality which first en-
tered and opened TO the world our own
loved Southern California. is today truly
as heather as any land across the seas.
All history attests to the fact that no
superstition is so hard TO combat and sub
due as Jesuitical Eomanism. Open idola-
tries and pagan worships yield more read
iIy to the influences of the gospel. Mex
leo is no exception TO this rule. The first
results TO Christianity there have not
been among the Spanish people, but
among the lowest classes of the Indian
population. Only recently has anything
been done with the higher classes.
The ancient Aztec religion was one OF
hideous sayagery. With polytheism
embracing one Supreme Creator, thirteen
chief and 200 inferior deities, and
at the head of this system
the horrible Huitzilopochtli really
the war-god. they bathed their
affairs in the blood of wholesale human
sacrifice. War was resorted TO for the ex
press purpose of providing victims for this
terrible pagan butchery. During the
years preceding the conquest as many as
10000 captives of war were annually sac
rificed to this conceived demon; and when
the great temple was dedicated 10000 per-
sons. specially kept for the purpose, were
marched in solemn procession, two miles
in length and were offered up in one
awful sacrifice, a hideous feast of horror to
the terrible arch-fiend.
In course of time the conquering Cortez
came and claimed the land for the crown
of Spain. He established a government
much like our own, but with the essential
difference that religious liberty and the
study of the Bible were restricted, and
popery and priestcraft became the &C.
knowIedgsd powers. Church and state
being welded. the nation was enslaved,
the people fettered and the masses kept in
ignorance. Contrast the difference be-
tween the growth of Mexico and Southern
California with that of the United States.
As late even as 1853 Mexico and Southern
California were IN about the same degree
of moral depravity. Statistics show Los
Angeles to have been the most wicked
city on the Pacific coast. As much as
S. 000, 900 was spent in FIVE years for bowie
knives and pistols, and the mortality from
violent causes was frightful. But in 1891
mark the difference. Los Angeles has be-
come populated with a law-abiding people,
cultured and refined, and California takes a
lead in the broadcast and best civilization.
Such a result has been due to the broad re-
ligious influences of republic where
Christianity has fullsliberty. Just across
the line, however, the darkness is so black
that as many as 100000 people have
never read the bible. The religion of
Mexico is form of Catholicism that even
the church of Rome declares is disgrace
to the Catholic world-a religion in which
fetichism, and pilgrimages to saints
shrines, and penances without number,
form an essential part of worship. Writes
a lady missionary from there: would
that Cortez had never set foot in this land
would that his every follower had per-
ished, before he had brought a religion SO
disastrous as this"
The Protestant Bible was first intro
duced in 1875, though but little progress
was made until Miss Matilda Rankin,
really the first missionary there. estab-
lished school at her own expense at
Brownsville, opposite Matamoras. and
from that point circulated Bibles in Mex
leo. Despite opposition there and in the
face of encouragement at home in this
country, she maintained her SEM
mary, and distributed over 1900
Bibles. But, in 1868, the invasion
of Southern troops compelled her
to give up the work for while. She re-
turned and once more opened her school
with sixty pupils. In 1866 she established
her headquarters at Monterey, being ap-
proved by the American and Foreign Mis-
sionary Board. She raised funds amount
ing to Sill 900. Soon afterwards an agent
for the American and Foreign Christian
Union visited the City of Mexico, and
Miss Rankin turned over the work TO this
organization, having held the fort almost
single-handed for twenty years-the most
prominent Protestant power in all Mexico.
In 1872 the Baptist, Congregational,
Presbyterian and Friends denominations
established missions in Mexico, and our
own church also made an appropriation.
In the year following, Dr. William Butler,
already noted for his missionary work in
India, was appointed by Bishop Simpson
as missionary TO Mexico, and in course OF
time secured the purchase of the ancient
palace of Montezuma, which for three
centuries had harbored as many as 1000
sensual franciscan monks, as a monas.
terry, and after an indignant populace
had driven out the oppressive monks, had
become famous theater. This is now the
headquarters in Mexico of Methodist
missions The Women's Foreign Mission.
airy Society now has there "A teachers and
Bible women. 10 schools and $50 pupils
while the church at large has communi
cants aggregating 400 souls, but this is
only a small beginning when compared te
the millions still in absolute darkness
there. Have we not then just cause tc
plead with you to think and work and
pray fo- Mexico?
Benefit for the Woman's Home.