Delivered From a Jesuit Conspiracy
By W. A. S.
For centuries the Jesuits held absolute control of the Madeira Islands, that group under Portuguese rule, lying off the Morocco coast. The people, of mixed Portuguese, Moorish, and negro race, were trained in all the superstitions and prejudices of Romanism at its worst. As modern commerce brought the islands more in touch with Europe, Madeira came to be quite a winter resort for invalids. Thus the leaven of Protestantism was introduced. In the last annual report of Methodist Missions, Bishop Hartzell tells the story of the work and the deliverance from death of the man who pioneered the way in Funchal, the capital city of the Madeiras:- Sixty years ago a Scotch Presbyterian physician did a remarkable work among these Portuguese Roman Catholics. Besides his work as a physician, he had schools, and taught the people to read the Bible in their own tongue. Twelve or fifteen hundred became Protestants in the course of a few years, and insisted on reading the Bible themselves, and worshiping God according to the dictates of their own consciences. A great persecution arose, and the day was fixed when Dr. Kalley, the missionary, and all his followers were to be exterminated. On that very day, while the signal bell was being sounded in the tower of the cathedral, God sent an English ship into the harbor, and the leader, disguised in clothing as a sick woman, was carried in a hammock to the beach and to ship by men who would have murdered him had they known who he was. All the Protestants, it was thought, were driven from the island. But a little precious seed remained, however, and only a short distance from where Dr. Kalley had his wonderful work in the mountains, we have our Mount Faith Mission, with nearly fifty men and women recently converted, and who testify to God's love, and as many more youth in our Sunday and day schools. Down in the city, opposite a beautiful park, we have our church house. The Presbyterians and the Church of England also have churches in the city. Funchal has a population of sixty thousand, while its harbor is a port of call for about two thousand ships every year. The Scotch physician labored not in vain. Other islands of the group are now also open to Protestant effort. W. A. S.