In the Philippines

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 21, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 16.

In the Philippines

THE Protestant school-teachers in the Philippines do not always meet with fair treatment, according to the Philippine Christian Advocate. While no teachers have been removed because of attendance at Protestant religious services on Sunday, a number of them have met with considerable opposition where the District Superintendents are Catholics. Teachers who have assisted in religious services, entertained Bible workers, or conducted Bible studies at their homes, have been compelled to discontinue such services. This has been done, and the teachers and other Protestant workers have not complained, as it is according to the law. But it is reported that Romanist teachers doing similar things have not been disciplined.

The account is given of a certain American Romanist school-teacher who took occasion to inform his pupils, in a Friday-afternoon program, that Mary was the mother of Christ and therefore the mother of God, and that it would be possible for them to obtain salvation and a home in heaven by praying to Mary, as they could not pray directly to either God or Jesus. An exhorter-student followed him; neglecting his own subject, he “proceeded to answer the principal, stating very clearly that he was reading his Bible, and that he had learned from it that if he wished to be saved, he must believe in Jesus Christ as the only mediator between God and man, and that he could not find a command obligating him to worship the Virgin Mary in order to be saved.” “At the close of the program,” the Advocate states, “he was informed by the principal that he had no right in the school, and that he was very rude to speak as he did about the Roman Catholic Church. He was also informed that if he continued in this attitude, he would one day leave the school never to return, and he would find it difficult to enter another school.”