p. 28 | Mexico by George M. Brown

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 30, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 44.

Mexico

By George M. Brown

By Superintendent George M. Brown

THE Mexican Republic has an area of 757,005 square miles, and a population of 13,607,259, of which some 13,500,000 are Roman Catholics. There are 60,000 Protestant members and adherents, and notwithstanding the efforts of the government to establish a free public-school system, only about 2,500,000 out of the entire population are able to read and write.

S. D. A. Church in Bridgetown, Barbados.

About one-half of the people are mestizos, persons of mixed blood, the result of intermarriage of Europeans and Indians. They are the ruling element in the country, and are intelligent, active, independent, and, as a rule, progressive. The Indians comprise about one-third of the present population, and the majority of them are still in a state of semi-civilization.

Present Favorable Conditions.

The laws of reform enacted in 1858 curtailed the power of the oppressive church in civil matters, and the law of 1874 provided for the separation of Church and State and guaranteed religious liberty.

Since then missionary work has been systematically carried on under the auspices of the principal evangelical denominations of the United States, and the beneficent influence of this effort is now being seen in many ways.

Chief among these evangelizing influences should be mentioned the American Bible Society, which, since 1878, has distributed 533,039 volumes. To accomplish this noble work some of the society's colporteurs have sacrificed their lives.

Our Work.

The world-wide movement which the Signs of the Times represents is stirring Mexico. What has been done is but a small beginning, but it is based upon the word of God which is living and powerful, and as a result a people will be prepared for the soon-coming of the Saviour and a home in those mansions which He is now preparing.

Organized companies of believers are to be found in Mexico City, Guadalajara, San Luis Potosi, and Torreon. Medical missionary work is being done in Guadalajara, Ameca, Celaya, Torreon, and Guautla.

A printing-office has been established in Tacubaya, the largest suburb of Mexico City, where a sixteen-page, illustrated monthly is published. Sabbath-school lessons and tracts and pamphlets are produced in numbers sufficient to supply the needs of the Mexican mission and the calls that come from near-by Spanish-speaking fields.

The paper above referred to is called El Mensajero de la Verdad, "The Messenger of Truth," and undoubtedly has the largest circulation among Roman Catholics of any evangelical periodical in the Republic. 3,500 copies are printed each month.

Our Needs.

Patients at Guadalajara Sanitarium, Mexico.

We need consecrated persons who have given their lives to God's work. Such persons laboring as Bible teachers and colporteurs can do a great work.

We need money to support these persons and provide the literature which is indispensable to the success of their work.

We need substantial families having a living Christian experience and some of this world's goods to settle at different points where there are interested people. Such families, while being self-supporting, will be able to give stability to the work, and exert a powerful influence in favor of the truth.

We need "intercessory missionaries!" These are men and women of strong faith, who, tho they can not go to a mission field, will pray systematically and continuously for those who are in the field.

Avenida 20, No. 1426, Tacubaya, D. F., Mexico.