read prayers and Scriptures; his wife and daughter sang superbly, and he talked earnestly. It was an impressive and profitable hour.
With the death of Manuel Aguas the movement assumed a new departure. The American and Foreign Christian Union abandoned the field. The Presbyterians, encouraged by Dr. Porteus, of Philadelphia, for many years a resident of Zacatecas, accepted the mission in Villa de Cos, in the State of Zacatecas, and sent their missionaries there in the fall of 1872. They have now flourishing missions at Toluca, Zacatecas, Vera Cruz, and in and around the city of Mexico. Rev. Mr. Hutchinson at the capital is very efficient and successful.
The Baptists flourish in Monterey under the supervision of the Rev. Mr. Westrup. A native preacher introduced their form of faith. The Congregationalists at Monterey and Guadalajara have already had precedence of all other missionary churches in the seal of martyrdom to which they have attained, in the brutal massacre of Rev. Mr. Stephens, by a mob incited by a Romish priest.
This martyr, John Luther Stephens, deserves especial mention. Born at Swansea, Wales, October 19, 1847, murdered in Ahualulco, March 2, 1874, he had barely passed his quarter of a century ere he captured this crown. His father, a sea-captain, was drowned at sea in 1850. His mother went to live in Petaluma, California. In 1866, when nineteen years of age, he joined the Congregational Church in that place. He spent nearly five years in study for the ministry, graduating in May, 1872. That fall he entered Mexico from the West. He staid at Guadalajara, doing valiant service with his colleague, Mr. Watkins, printing the Biblical and Roman Ten Commandments, and placarding them over the city, distributing Bibles, and holding meetings. Great was their boldness of speech toward their malignant enemies of the Roman Church. Several times they were threatened with assassination; but their would-be murderers were baffled. Mr. Stephens visited Ahualulco in the fall of '73, sixty miles from Guadalajara. Here he had great prosperity, though also great peril. One attempt was made to shoot him, but the man was prevented. At last they succeeded.
