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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 16, 1903

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 80, No. 24.

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Mexico

By George M. Brown

After spending two months in Mexico, I attended the General Conference at Oakland, going from there to Nebraska.
The Lord prospered us in disposing of our small home there, and May 7 my family and I left for Mexico. We had a pleasant journey, and reached Mexico City, May 11. We were kindly entertained by the brethren till we could find a suitable house.
This is a large field, with about 13,500,000 people, who are either superstitiously attached to the Roman Catholic Church or else indifferent or opposed to all religion, having seen the iniquity of the church, and knowing no other religion.
Spanish is the legal language, and is used throughout the republic, as English is in the States. There are twelve Indian languages spoken by different tribes, which in the aggregate number about twelve million people. These Indians alone present a great field of labor for the missionary, and as yet but little has been done for them.
At present we have two churches in the republic, with a membership of about sixty. The larger part of the missionary effort put forth by our people in this country has been in establishing and equipping the sanitarium at Guadalajara; as a result we have an institution there which will accommodate forty or fifty patients. It enjoys quite a good patronage, and at present is self-supporting. We also have a dispensary for the treatment of the poor at a nominal price, or free if they are unable to pay anything. A monthly health journal, La Salud (The Health), is published at the sanitarium, and it has a large field of usefulness before it.
In this country the “right arm of the message” is destined to play an important part in breaking down prejudice and giving us access to the people. We must open up medical and Christian Help work in all the large cities of the republic as rapidly as possible, thus increasing our sphere of influence.
The evangelical work in this field has been limited to the circulation of our literature and the holding of Bible readings. Our missionary paper, El Mensajero de La Verdad (The Messenger of the Truth), has a circulation of about two thousand a month, about one half of which is to paid subscribers.
Those who have worked with the paper have met with good success in securing subscriptions, and some who have taken the paper became so interested that they have secured additional subscriptions, and thus the class of interested readers is slowly being increased. We have been crippled by a lack of tracts in the Spanish, but Professor Caviness has translated the recent tract on the coming of Christ, also tracts on other essential phases of the message.
A colporteur of the American Bible Society who has been thirteen years in Mexico has accepted the truth, and as his wife is in hearty sympathy with him, they add materially to the strength of our work. He is still in the employ of the society, and is doing good work selling Bibles and talking with the people.
Recently, while traveling in the interests of our paper, two of our workers found a young man who had been trained for a priest in the Catholic Church, but seeing the iniquity in that church, he turned away from it, and through reading “Steps to Christ” gained a Christian experience. He knew nothing of us as a people, and coming in contact with the missionaries of another denomination, he affiliated with them, and began preaching in his native town. As a result of his labors, a congregation has been gathered, and a chapel built. This man welcomed our brethren, and gladly studied the truth with them. He also opened his chapel and gave opportunity for them to speak to his people. He expressed himself as ready to accept the truth presented to him, and we believe he will be a great help in building up the work.
Our experience teaches us that there are honest souls in Mexico who will receive the truth, and who, because of their lifelong knowledge of the language and ways of the people, will be the most efficient instruments in carrying the truth to their fellow countrymen.
Like all other great, unworked fields, Mexico presents many difficult problems to the missionary, but relying on him who said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,” we believe all problems will be solved. Our work is crippled for lack of means, and we are praying that the Lord will move on those whom he has made stewards of his bounty to give liberally, that the work may be carried forward now while the doors are open.
GEO. M. BROWN.