IDOLATRY IN MEXICO by J. R. Mood

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 27, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 34.

IDOLATRY IN MEXICO.

By J. R. Mood

AMONG the many other reasons why we are at work in Roman Catholic Mexico may be mentioned the gross idolatry of the common people. Intelligent Romanists confess that the masses of the people worship the material images that abound in their churches and homes. We are not dependent upon their witness, however, for the facts are before our eyes every day. I doubt if you could find a country not semi-barbarous where idol worship is more common than in this priest-ridden land. This childish devotion to images has filled their highways, mountain tops, street corners, and homes with all manner of things to be worshiped, from the one-cent paper wood cut of the Virgin of Guadalupe to the life-size painting or sculpture dressed in the finest of fabrics and adorned with precious stones valued at millions. Every dam in the mountains, every bridge across a stream, every prominent hilltop, and almost every weather-beaten tree, has its rudely constructed cross, or “Christ,” as they sometimes call it, to be kissed or worshiped. Such sensuous devotion to stocks and stones must be witnessed to be realized.—Rev. J. R. Mood.