XV.
CHRISTIAN WORK IN MEXICO.
Not yet.—The First Last.—A Telegram and its Meaning.—Perils and Perplexities of Church purchasing.—Temptation resisted.—Success and Dedication.—Cure Hidalgo and his Revolution.—Iturbide and Intolerance.—Beginning of the End.—The Mexican War, and its Religious Effects.—The Bible and the Preacher.—The first Revolt from Romanism.—Abolition of Property and of Institutions.—Invasion of the Papacy through France and Maximilian.—Expulsion thereof through America and Juarez.—The Constitutionalists the first Preachers.—The first Martyr: "Viva Jesus! Viva Mexico!"— Francisco Aguilar and the first Church.—The Bible and his Death.—First Appeal abroad.—Response.—Rev. Dr. Riley and his Work.—Excitement, Peril, Progress.—President Juarez, the first Protestant President.—The chief native Apostle, Manual Aguas.—His Excommunication by and of the Archbishop.—A powerful Attack on the Church.—His Death.—The Entrance of the American Churches in their own Form.—Their present Status.—The first American Martyr, Stephens; and how he was butchered.—San Andres.—Governmental Progress.—The Outlook.—Postfatory.
Not quite yet Good-bye. A journey undertaken solely for Church purposes should not omit the consideration of that work from its pages. It has not been largely thrust into the body of the work, brief and infrequent references only having been made to the subject. The aim has been to give a transcript of the land and people, apart from all especial views or ends, so that those who sought light upon the country or sought the country itself should not have too much, to them, extraneous matter set before them. It seemed better to put such matter in a chapter by itself, so that those who wished it not might avoid the dish entirely, and those who wished for it might enjoy it all by itself. At the risk of slight repetitions in minor points, let us glance at the story of Christian Work in Mexico, and put that which was first in its appropriate place, the last.
