Page:Our Neighbor-Mexico.djvu/469

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APPENDIX B.
457

behalf of Gospel work in this, my native land. Part of these funds were employed in the publication of Christian pamphlets, which were widely distributed here. These publications were the instrumentality that the Lord selected, in order that 1 might begin to realize the spiritual blindness in which I found myself. I was a presbyter in the Roman Church, and most anxiously longed for salvation. With all sincerity did I follow the errors of that idolatrous sect, and imagined Protestantism, or true Christianity, to be, as it were, a pestilence that was coming to make us, in Mexico, more unfortunate than ever. I consequently opposed its doctrines with all my power. I sincerely thought that in so doing I not only did good service to my native land, but also gained merits to aid me in obtaining everlasting glory. How unfortunate was I! I knew that Jesus Christ had died for us; but that most precious belief was to me obscured, because from childhood I had been taught that, in order to obtain salvation, besides the merits of the Redeemer, the meritorious works of men were also needed. As if, forsooth, the sacrifice of Calvary was not enough to save the soul that truly trusts in it. Being imbued with these Romish errors, it is not strange that I should oppose and attack true Christianity; that I should frequently declaim against it in the pulpit; that I should go to the confessional in search of a remedy for my spiritual evils; and, as one precipice often leads to another, I prayed to the Virgin Mary and to the saints, and endeavored to gain all the indulgences possible; all which practices offend and tend to dishonor Jesus, our generous Saviour.

"As a natural consequence, I had not obtained peace for my soul; I doubted of my salvation, and I never believed that I had done sufficient work to obtain it; and 1 was truly unfortunate, because I observed with sorrow that, after all I did, my heart remained unconverted, and dragged me often into sin.

"I was in this sad state when there reached me the pamphlet called 'True Liberty.' I read it most carefully; and, notwithstanding that I tried to find in the arsenal of my Romish subtleties arguments with which to answer the clear reasoning that I found in this publication, a voice within—the voice of my conscience—told me that my answers were not satisfactory, and that perhaps 1 was in error.

"I commenced to reject the errors of Romanism, and dedicated myself to the study of all the Protestant books and pamphlets that I could lay my hands on. I carefully read the 'History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century,' by Merle D'Aubigne, and, above all, I commenced to study the Bible, without paying any attention to the Romish notes and interpretations. This study, from the moment that it was accompanied by earnest prayer, led me to true happiness. I commenced to see the light. The Lord had pity on me, and enabled me to clearly understand the great truths of the Gospel.

"I first realized that it is false, most false, that salvation is only found in the Romish Church, as the Romanists pretend. But what completely convinced me