p. 17 | Mexico by Geo. M. Brown

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 23, 1906

Mexico

By Geo. M. Brown

SAN LUIS POTOSI.—For two weeks or more I have been away from home, having visited Guadalajara, Celaya, and Dolores Hidalgo before coming here.

At Guadalajara I held a series of meetings especially for the benefit of the Mexican believers; I also held quarterly service, and some meetings in English, with the American brethren. I think that all were encouraged. I received over three hundred pesos in tithe and donations.

One day I spent in Celaya with Dr. Fattebert and his wife. His practise is not large, but it is growing. He is of good courage.

I visited Miss Minnie Westphal, sister of the Elders Westphal in South America, who for two years has been governess in the family of a wealthy Mexican gentleman. This family is not Catholic, but does not belong to any Protestant church. The lady is favorable to the truth, and keeps the Sabbath in a sort of way. Miss Peebles was for a time governess in this same family, and the lady’s brother is Mr. Stephenson, who was connected with Professor Caviness when he was working on the translation of the Bible into Spanish. Sister Westphal has had full liberty to teach the truth to the six girls under her care, and she thinks that three of them really believe the truth. These three have saved the tithe from their weekly allowances, and so, with what Miss Westphal gave me, I received one hundred and three pesos from them. This young sister has done good missionary work in the two years that she has been there, and I trust that these young ladies will not forget what they have learned from her.

The secretary to the archbishop of Mexico City, who is a friend of the family where Sister Westphal has been, knowing that her contract would soon expire, was desirous of securing her as governess for his girls. She told him that she would have to teach the Bible as she understood it, and that she could not take the girls to mass. Of course this did not suit him. But he was so anxious to secure her, that after she had plainly written him her decision in regard to the matter, he wrote again, urging her to change her mind, and come, stating that she would not have to teach Catholic doctrine to the girls, nor would she have to accompany them to the church, but simply to refrain from teaching Protestant doctrine. Of course she refused to go, or to make any such compromise.

This gentleman was much impressed with the way in which the girls under Miss Westphal’s care had been trained, and expressed his recognition of the fact that they were better trained than his. He had a very devout Catholic as a governess. She has recently become a nun. I have mentioned this case to illustrate how the results of the teaching of the truth are recognized by the high dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church—those who move in the highest circles of society in Mexico.

Here the interest is growing, and I am planning to remain for some weeks and hold a series of meetings with the little company which Brother Godinez has gathered. Six months ago we organized a Sabbath-school of thirteen members; now there are twenty-five, with a good number of visitors. Last Sabbath the attendance was thirty-five, counting the visitors.

GEO. M. BROWN.