MODERN MISSIONS IN MEXICO.
By J. J. Gilchrist
A Wonderful Work Accomplished by One Converted Man.
NEVER since the days of Esther, the Hebrew captive, have there been more marked proofs than those of to-day that God uses the humble and unprepossessing as His instruments in bringing the world to Christ. Surely in the mission fields of to-day we find glorious fulfilment of the "greater things" promised to be revealed in the kingdom of Christ in this world. I recall nothing that surpasses the story I now tell as to bristling facts to incite intelligent Christians to active service in order to win some persons for the Master. Less than six years ago a slender Mexican of seventeen years of age, ignorant, and never of very strong mind, came into Southern Arizona to work in the mines; he knew nothing of Protestantism and Scripture truth. Only a little time passed until, owing to the explosion of a blasting charge, which had "hung fire," the poor Mexican lad was carried to the hospital so fearfully mutilated that when he came to know his condition Alejandro pleaded with the doctor for veneno (poison) to finish what little the giant powder had left of life and body. But the Lord had something more for the boy to do on earth, and caused health to come back slowly; but there was little left—mind shattered; ears dulled of hearing; one eye gone and the other dimmed; one arm crippled; one side partly paralyzed—surely even the Lord would expect little service from such a mortal. A Presbyterian minister took pity on the little Mexican, gave him a Testament, taught him a little English, then aided him to enter our mission school at Las Vegas. Bible truth drew the tender-hearted boy, who soon confessed his faith, then began to tell to others "what Christ has done for my heart." This was the theme, while the desire burned more and more "to go and tell my people in Mexico what Christ has done for my heart." I have met many Protestant Mexicans, but never have I known one who had such a personal experience in spiritual life.10Less than two years passed till Alejandro came before the Presbytery and was received as a candidate for the ministry. We questioned other candidates as to their experience and reasons for entering the ministry, but we had few questions to put to Alejandro Villa, as he told in simplest language and with burning earnestness his desire to tell his people of what he had experienced in his soul. During two weeks before he started to Del Norte College, he visited eighty-five Romanist families, and talked only of "what Christ has done for my heart." In the special theological course for training some of our young Mexicans so as to prepare them for local evangelists, the young man did fairly well in study, but seemed inclined to spend too much time talking to those who were not Bible Christians, even becoming rather a chum with the Jesuit priests, but none ever suspicioned aught against Alejandro, as his conversation was always about experimental religion. With the first vacation, the young man undertook active preaching work. He visited everybody, talked religion to the most fanatical Romanists, and was well received, for very few can resist the winning voice and ways of young Villa. You have heard of the Penitentes, the Mexican order of Flagellantes, composed of the most ignorant and fanatical; a body of people interested to save their souls or they would not whip, bruise, and bleed themselves seeking pardon for sin. Some of these heard our boy preacher, invited him to preach at one of their funerals, then asked him to visit their moradas (chapter houses) in order to tell them why he was not a Penitente after their sort. He accepted the invitation, gave them his reasons for not being a Penitente, and later preached to them as to why they should depend upon the Saviour only for redemption. Large audiences were present in the moradas. Apparently Villa has no sense of fear when speaking about the Saviour, and the Lord protects while His "child" leads the people. Nearly three years were spent in Del Norte, but never for a moment did Alejandro forget his gente; he was writing constantly to father, mother, and relatives in the Sonoran home; he sent them some four thousand tracts and papers, with a few Bibles. Just a year ago his father (aided by the minister patron of the boy) sent money for the long trip to Sonora, and urged him to come home for a visit. He had left home an ignorant Catholic, his people Catholics; what joy that day as the youth returned home! There was greater gladness because parents and friends who embraced him were fellow-believers, walking in the light of the Sun of Righteousness. There were some twelve avowed believers, three or four of whom had lived in San Francisco, and there united with a Protestant church, but were now silent through fear of priest and people. Our boy roused them, saying, "Brethren, if you do not tell what Jesus has done for you, the Lord will make these rocks to speak." The priest came to bid him welcome home, but learning that Alejandro was a Protestant, he ran from the house, and has since avoided the boy as he would a wild beast. Not so the people. The first Sabbath Alejandro preached to a large congregation; the priest said mass with only a few present. Surely a spiritual baptism as of fire fell upon that people; the interest spread; congregations gathered; three hundred, five hundred, once one thousand were reported present. The work began in March, 1897; in August the Rev. J. G. Pritchard, of Bisbee, Arizona, visited his ward, Alejandro, and organized a church of ninety-six adults and baptized eighty-four children; one hundred and eighty souls were thus in one day brought into organic relation with our Presbyterian Church. As Mr. Pritchard was in his buggy to return home, thirty-five persons came to be received into the church. The work still grows; the interest does not lessen; the little church and its preacher have been tried as by fire. The preacher is more zealous; the believers, firmer than ever by reason of the trial. It was after this fashion: That day of organization a woman of bad reputation wanted to unite with the rest, but was refused till such time as she should prove by life and conversation to be Christian in life and desires. Angered by the refusal, she plotted with the priest, got rumors started against Alejandro as a traitor, plotting sedition. In February, he was apprehended, like the Saviour in Gethsemane, by officers with a great mob, and hurried off in the night to prison. Like Paul and Silas, this little apostle to the Mexicans sang songs of deliverance, preached to guards and prisoners, talked about religion with them, was visited by his own people, scattered tracts and papers, in fact, his prison was only a new base for work. After suffering there some weeks, he was let out on bail. He writes me of the love, zeal, and fidelity of the brethren in the hour of trial; that the persons who instigated the persecution came and confessed their fault and sorrow; that they had tried to stop the movement initiated, but it had passed beyond their power. The work grows, and the preacher is not puffed up. He begs that a minister be sent to Montezuma, so that he may go about his work of opening up new fields. He counts more than two hundred souls, altho there has been no minister there for months to receive and baptize those who cleave to the church—a church of more than two hundred adults, that has only once heard the voice of an ordained minister. See what God hath wrought by the hand of Alejandro Villa. What might He not accomplish through you, Christian reader, if you would tell your people "what Christ hath done for my heart"?—J. J. Gilchrist, in N. Y. Observer.