The Religious Situation in the Philippines
By Editor
"The Philippine Christian Advocate" (Methodist Episcopal) of May, 1908, tells us that from a Protestant point of view "the religious situation in the Philippines is full of encouraging promise." While there is not the enthusiastic thronging of multitudes characteristic of a few years ago, in which there were more or less political motives mixed, the stream of converts has become deeper and more permanent. They are coming fast enough, he tells us, and speaks of "the thirty thousand Filipino Methodists" which have been gathered, but which need the "deepening of spiritual life. They need to know the Holy Spirit, not as a name and a creed, but as a transforming power in personal character." We are glad that those laboring there recognize this need. He tells us further, however, that the Roman Catholic Church "feels the people slipping from her as sand slips between unwilling fingers. It is a fight for life, and she stubbornly contests every inch of ground surrendered. Persecutions are not infrequent; one Protestant Filipino preacher in Cebu; in Navotos, seventeen men, women, and children imprisoned for conducting religious services on the street; chapel burned in San Manuel, and another in Ilocos Sur. Such is a part of the record indicative of the spirit of religious intolerance with which the missionary has to contend." Now, if our Protestant friends will use only the Protestant weapons,—the sword of the Spirit, the word of God,—and conduct their work in the Spirit of Christ, not seeking state favor, or state aid, they will win, but if they turn to the state, they will find that ever in the end Rome will succeed.