The record-union., 1898-05-09

j
! had such boundless opportunities to
become a blessing to mankind or to
| perpetuate her power as Spain.
God gave her a wonderful chance
| gave her glorious mission to the
world, and she is accountable for her
| stewardship, and even now is He call
ing her to her account.
! II. Few nations have ever abused
| their privileges to the outrageous ex-
tent that Spain has.
! l. She, who might have been gener-
Gus, has been notorious for her greed
In Peru, in Mexico, in Cuba, and wher-
ever Spain has extended her hand it
has been a grasping, greedy, rapacious
hand. Wherever she has had power
pillage and destruction have been her
| invariable attendants. Her own greed
and rapacity have brought about her
poverty to-day, and from being the
richest she has become one of the poor
est of the nations, and her delight in
cruelty has been even more conspicuous
! than her abominable greed. Her ma
tional sport, bull-fighting, is nothing
but cruelty pure and simple. Her cru
city has become proverbial. When we
wish to emphasize cruelty we say las
cruel as a Spaniard." She has almost
invariably betrayed the confidence of
| the simple natives with whom she has
| dealt. She has abused and tortured in
| offensive peoples. The noble and gentle
Incas and Montezumas were victims of
her cruelty and lust for gold She has
MANNED, branded, starved and butch
cred wherever she has had power.
The text is singularly applicable to
her course among her colonies. To her
| it may be truly said: THE diseased
| have We not strengthened, neither have
| We healed that which was sick, neither
| have We bound up that which was bro
ken, neither have We brought again
| that which was driven away, neither
have We sought that which was lost,
| but with force and with cruelty have
| We ruled them"
| In short, Spain has proved herself ut
terly unworthy of her high commission.
| She is and has been brigand among
| the nations, scourge to every land
that she has touched.
| Because of her unceasing atrocities
she has no real friends, and only few
| who for diplomatic reasons claim
| friendship
| III. Spanish abuse of privilege is
rendered infinitely worse by the fact
that much of it has been in the name
of Christianity. Wherever she has had
power her influence has been to crush
and degrade, and she has done it in
the name of religion.
In the thirteenth century Q232, In
the name of the gentle and loving
Jesus, she set up the most fiendish and
execrable Of all human institutions, the
| Spanish InQuisition. It's horrors, the
tortures it inflicted need not be told;
they cannot be told. 1t makes us actu-
ally sick to read of the cuttings, and
burnings, and rackings, and devilish-
ly ingenious devices for torture Of that
| Inquisition. She began to burn people
at the stake From the year 1S43 to
| 1908 she in the name of religion Off
cially burned alive 81 .912 persons for
their Protestant faith burned in effigy
IL, $50 more, and subjected to rigorous
pains, penalties and unspeakable
tortures POI 1856 Her prosecutions in the
| Netherlands and among the Moors
are too outrageous to be written. No
nation ever did 50 much to bring Chris
tianity into disrepute and to hinder the
kingdom of Christ on earth as Spain.
Claiming to represent the spirit Of
the merciful, pitiful Jesus, she went
| into Mexico carrying fire and sword
and butchery. Day after day Cortez
and his men slaughtered the defense
less inhabitants until they were tired.
Under the heel of Spain poor Mexico,
crushed for centuries, lay in darkness
and degradation, with all her super
| stitions nursed and perpetuated, and
Mexico never will rise to her true place
and dignity until she throws off COM
pletely the yoke Of ignorance and re-
preston laid upon her by a Spanish
priesthood and in the name of religion.
In Cuba we have read how our own
Baptist brother, DR.. Alberto Dias, ma
tive of Cuba and called the apostle to
Cuba, has in the name of religion been
| insulted, fined, imprisoned and BAN
ished and would have been killed but
for the protection of another Govern
ment.
1t infinitely aggravates the atrocities
of Spain that her wolfish cruelties and
her dastardly repression and degrading
| of all under her control has been done
in sleeps clothing and in the name
of Christianity. The Spanish priest
hood, while claiming to represent the
truth, hate the truth, and we'll know
that if the priesthood were in power
here 1 should pay for the truthful ut
terances of this sermon with my life.
Will God allow His cause to be thus
misrepresented? No! A thousand
times, no! SPANS doom is written.
She has written it herself, and whether
her national existence shall end soon,
or whether the end shall be postponed.
1t must come; it is coming. The great
God of justice and mercy and right
eousness has but sealed what she her
self has written by her abuse of pow
er and privilege.
". Contrast Spain with what she
might have been She might have been
great, beloved, the benefactor OF the
world, the herald of the Millennium. She
is weak; has steadily declined for CELL
turtles; is rotten at the core; hated by
all: an obstacle to progress; an enemy
and a blight to humanity. An obstacle
that must be removed before the king
dom of God can come in it's fullness, and
perhaps the last great obstacle to that
blessed contamination All the energy
of her Government and her church mas
been brought to bear against the cause
of progress and reform, and as sure
as there is a God in heaven and his
kingdom comes on apace she must De
set aside.
Hear what God says to those unfalth-
| full stewards and heartleSS shepherds
to whom the text is addressed: "Ye
shepherds hear the word of the Lord:
AS T live saith the Lord God, surely
because my flock became prey, anu
nv flock became meat to every beast
of the field, because there was no