Page:Our Neighbor-Mexico.djvu/460

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468
OUR NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR.
fate. And, lest the awful crime should fail to prove the utmost barbarity, they entered the church, and announced the deed well done by ringing twice a merry peal of bells.

JOHN L. STEPHENS.

"We are left to weep and mourn the loss of one so dearly beloved, but his tears have been all wiped away. Stephens, the protomartyr from among us, doubtless ere this has been welcomed by Stephen, the protomartyr from among the disciples of old, into the company of those who have laid down their lives for Christ's sake, and our brother now, with them, wears his crown in glory, the crown that belongeth to the martyr, a 'crown that fadeth not away.'

"It was an absolute impossibility to bring the body to Guadalajara, on account of the great heat and the insecurity of the roads, so it was secretly buried Monday night, by five of the brethren, in a place only known to them."