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Experiences of a Colporteur in Mexico

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 19, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 3.

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Experiences of a Colporteur in Mexico

By A. J. S. B.

BROTHER C. SHULZ, one of our faithful colporteurs in Mexico, has sent us the following account of some of his interesting experiences in that field. For obvious reasons we omit the names of the places he visited:—
“Ever since my conversion in Alaska in the spring of 1904, it has been my desire to bring the lost to Christ. By the guidance of the Lord, it was my lot to come to Mexico, bearing my own expenses.”
“While in — I bought papers, pamphlets, and tracts, taking a burro to carry the load, and went afoot through the mountain country, selling the tracts and books. Sometimes I slept by the wayside, wherever night overtook me, guarded from all danger by Him who sent me. My burro and I lived for more than a month on the sales of the books, and we have returned with enough money to buy another supply.”
“After working for some months in a railroad camp to earn money to enable me to buy a tent and two burros, and securing Bibles from the American Bible Society’s agent, I started out again on a long journey through the mountains. The Lord protected me always from robbers, snakes, and wild beasts. Although I nearly always slept on the ground, and was sometimes sick from fever and bad water, I was able to work. Many received the Bibles with pleasure. Others would tear the tracts, and throw the pieces in my face, ‘the tracts,’ so they said, ‘being Protestant.’”
“While in —, in the state of —, I met Brother B. B. Blackly, who instructed me concerning the Sabbath. While staying at his house with Prof. G. W. Caviness, I accepted the faith of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. I then returned to Texas, and visited my brother and his family, trying to induce them to accept the same faith. Failing in this, at the request of Professor Caviness I went to Mexico City, and engaged in the periodical work.”
“My experiences have been varied. I have worked in twenty-three different states in Mexico. As a result of the seed sown, through the blessing of the Lord, a church has been established in —. A young Spaniard, now elder of the company of believers, accepted the truth through my efforts, and many scattered believers in many places also received the message or are convinced that it is of the Lord.”
“To-day I received a letter from a native pastor. He has been preaching the gospel for more than twenty-five years. I visited him while working in —. He desires to meet with the directors of our mission, and engage with us in giving the threefold message to his people. I had instructed him for two hours on our doctrine, reading to him the ‘Coming King.’ He liked the book very much, and subscribed for our missionary paper, Las Senales de los Tiempos, and for our Spanish ‘Patriarchs and Prophets,’ ‘Home and Health,’ and twenty-eight tracts.”
“Last week I took thirty-six subscriptions for Senales de los Tiempos, besides selling tracts, single copies of our papers, and such books as ‘Steps to Christ’ and ‘Christ Our Saviour.’ I traveled by railroad, steamship, stage-coach, on foot, on burro, and sometimes on a packhorse.”
“In the coast cities, where the people are more liberal, and where there is more money, I am able to sell more of our literature than in the interior, where the people are sometimes fanatical. In one place I had paid for a room; but the owner, learning that I was a Protestant, refunded my money when I was going to my room in the evening. Not finding any other place, I had to sleep on a stone bench.”
“In another place, large boys threw street refuse at me. I was obliged to ask the police to stop it. This happened in several towns. Four times I was led through the streets to police headquarters in the daytime on a charge of unlawfully selling papers. Ignorant, fanatical people had secured the police to take me there, in order to stop my work. Of course I was always set free.”
“I am certain that the Lord will not miss one with his message who has a desire to know and to do. Books sell more rapidly than papers. The people say they ‘want a complete work at once.’ Being so often deceived by agents, they will not often subscribe.”
Truly, we in the home field know but little of the suffering and privations and hardships that are endured by our house-to-house workers in these Catholic countries.
A. J. S. B.