ROMANISM IN MEXICO by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 1, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 25.

ROMANISM IN MEXICO.

By Editor

JOAQUIN MILLER can hardly be accused of political bias against Romanism, but this is the way he writes of it as he sees it in Mexico, where it has had full sway for so long. Spain found intelligence and enterprise in the ancient Aztec civilization, but she brought and left a religion which has utterly and hopelessly demoralized the whole people; she has left some magnificent monuments of success in building monasteries and nunneries, churches and cathedrals—nothing more. Here is Mr. Miller's account of a visit to the cathedral in the city of Mexico—doubtless a fair type of the state of the church throughout the country:—

'Hat in hand, let us enter the lofty doors of gold and silver, and silver and gold! Get a book and read of this cathedral. After that you can better understand the splendor and squalor that come clashing together inside these doors in awful contrast. Look forward at the far, deep nave! Fifty feet high and forty feet wide. You see nothing but gold, and gold, and gold! The image of God and his angels. Old, bald-headed St. Peter, patiently holding his keys and ready to unlock Heaven to the kneeling world. And now look down on the dirty floor before you. A thousand poor creatures crawling about, some blind, some lame, some dying of loathsome diseases, and all very, very miserable; all naked and hungry and helpless; yet a sea of glittering gold before them! The music is sublime! Mass is being said for some dead Mexican robber of princely fortune, and so the singers, the priests, the little boys and the big boys, too, are all doing their best.

'A good many of the cripples that crawl about over the dirty floor have lottery tickets to sell. Many an old woman with a baby on her back offers you a lottery ticket by way of breaking the ice and getting well enough acquainted to ask you for a cent. Every day, every hour, in church and out of church, you are importuned by the poor to buy lottery tickets.

'A priest called on me the day I came to this curious town, imploring me to buy some lottery tickets of him for the benefit of his church and for his poor. These lotteries are conducted by the Government, as in Italy. The Government gets a large per cent. Those who sell the tickets get a liberal commission. What I mean to say is, you can buy your tickets directly from the Government a great deal more cheaply than you can in the stores and streets. Yes, indeed, it is simply awful. Everyone expects to draw a grand prize to-morrow; and so why go to work to-day? O Mexico, Mexico, why will you persist in standing forever in your own glorious light! Deeper and deeper the organ sounds, and louder and louder the prayers for the dead. The people—the poor, naked, and lazy and dirty people—all on their knees, join the prayer for the departed soul. They fall on their faces, they spread their naked, dirty arms wide out on the naked, dirty floor, and lie there praying and mourning in the dust on their faces, their splendor of hair sweeping up the dust.

'Here comes in a priest to pray. He is leading a little boy. Perhaps this good priest is a sort of a school-master, also. He has a book or two in his right hand, also a very large sheet of lottery tickets. He kneels on books

and tickets, his head sideways, his eyes closed; his fat and greasy hands are full of greasy beads.'

If this is all Romanism in full sway can do for a country, God save us from its dominion. —Christian Advocate.