Good Words From Peru by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Nov 20, 1913

Good Words From Peru

By W. A. S.

We must pass on a few words from a letter received from Lima, Peru, in which Elder W. R. Pohle reports tokens of the good for the progress of the message in that field.

The constitution of Peru gives liberty of public religious propaganda only to the Roman Catholic Church. Though public sentiment has forbidden the enforcement of this clause in the constitution, its presence there has given a powerful weapon to the prosecuting ecclesiastics,

as when a bishop with a troop of horsemen raided our Indian mission near Puno, by Lake Titicaca, throwing a number of the Indian brethren into prison.

Elder Pohle says:—

Last week a bill was presented in the senate providing that the last part of Article IV of the constitution be changed or eliminated so as to give us religious liberty. The bill was presented by a senator from Puno, where our Indian mission is located. We knew nothing of it until our attention was drawn to it by a note in the paper. We are preparing to help along the good work of this senator in any way we can. We have called on the different senators of Lima, and have sent out petitions to the towns near by, so as to get signatures back before the bill is up for discussion. Before it can become a law it is necessary for it to pass both houses this year, and also again at the next session of the congress.

This bill has now passed both houses of the Peruvian congress. If it passes again next year, as it doubtless will, it will then become a law. Let us pray that it may be in the good providence of God that the time has come for the breaking down of the barriers in Peru.

Elder Pohle reports also that following the closing of our Indian school by ecclesiastical intolerance (during the time when Elder F. A. Stahl has been obliged to make a change to a lower altitude for his health) our Brother Camacho, the Indian teacher, made a journey to Lima and was received by the president of the republic. He has returned, with assurances from the president that steps will be taken to protect the Indians from these attacks by the church authorities. The government is sending a commissioner to investigate matters, and our brethren hope that these attacks are being overruled for the furtherance of the work.

It is indeed a good word from Peru, for it seemed for a time as if the priests were bound to close up the school work. But truly the Lord is watching over his own.

W. A. S.