Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society.]
Christ said: "I give unto My sheep eternal life"; but the record of
that saying is jealously kept from them.
When the early colonists left Spain for the New World, they took with
them the Creed of Pius IV. That creed expressly states that the Bible
is not for the people. "Whoever will be saved must renounce it. It
is a forbidden book."
"In 1850, when the Christian world was first being roused to the
darkness of South America, and philanthropic men were desirous of
sending Bibles there, Pope Pius IX. wrote an Encyclical letter in
which he spoke of Bible study as 'poisonous reading,' and urged all
his venerable brethren with vigilance and solicitude to put a stop to
it. Thus has South America been denied the revelation of God. The
priest has, because of this ignorance, been able to 'lord it over
God's heritage.'" [Footnote: Guiness's "Romanism and the
Reformation."]
With an open Bible, Spanish America would have progressed as North
America has done. Without the enlightening influences of that Word,
behold the darkness! Could anything be more eloquent than the
prosperity of the land of the Pilgrim Fathers in proclaiming the
value of the open Bible?
Mr. Hudson Taylor, of the China Inland Mission, speaking on a recent
occasion, said: "I always pray for South America. It is a most needy
part of the world, and wants your prayers as well as mine. The
workers there have great difficulties to contend with, and of the
same sort as we have in China, from Roman Catholicism - the most God-
dishonoring system in the world. The heathen need your prayers, but
the Roman Catholic needs them ten times more. He is ten times as much
in the dark as the heathen themselves are."
The Missionary Review of the World describes South America as
"Earth's darkest land." Do you not think, O reader, the words are
most truly applied?
"There are in South America eight hundred missionaries, men and
women, from Great Britain, the Continent of Europe, Canada and the
United States. In Canada and the United States there is on an average
one Protestant minister for every 514 persons. In South America each
missionary has a constituency of about fifty thousand, indicating a
need in proportion of population one hundred times as great as in the
Protestant countries of North America." [Footnote: Bishop Neely's
"South America."]
Yet, One called Jesus, whom we say we love, said: "Go ye into all the
world and preach the Gospel to every creature."
End of Through Five Republics on Horseback by G. Whitfield Ray
