MEXICO AND ITS NEEDS

G. W. Caviness, April 14, 9 A. M.

It is a pleasure to me to see and hear in this Conference that the minds of our people are being turned to other fields. It reminds me of a saying of my little boy when he first went to South Lancaster. He was then three or four years old, and when he went there from Battle Creek, he met a little playmate from Vermont, and one day he was explaining to me the amount of geography he had learned. He said: “Papa, there is one world, and there are three places in it—Battle Creek, South Yancaster, and ‘Mont.” I feel a little that way myself. I have learned by actual experience that there is one world, and there are at least two places in it—the United States and Mexico. I have also heard of other countries, and I believe there are such, but I have never actually seen them.GCB April 16, 1901, page 276.3

You and I can never have an interest in anything that we do not know anything about. It is impossible, and so I do not come here this morning to scold or blame you or find fault with you; but if the Lord will give me the ability to do so, I will present to you the country of Mexico so that you can understand something of its condition and needs.GCB April 16, 1901, page 276.4

Mexico is not a distant land way around the world, but is our neighbor, our nearest neighbor. There is in Mexico perhaps as needy and neglected a field as exists on the face of the earth. Part of this country is under the dominion of the Beast, and we find that for four hundred years this power against which our message speaks, this power that is mentioned first in the message, has had almost absolute control; and that country is barely touched.GCB April 16, 1901, page 276.5

In the central part of the country are the tablelands in the midst of the mountains, from three to five thousand feet above the level of the sea. In these lands we have a climate unsurpassed, in many respects, in the world. You would imagine that in Mexico, we would burn up with the heat; but it is not so. We have not the oppressive heat that you have here. At any time in the house or in the shade, one will find himself quite comfortable. With the sun almost immediately overhead, it sometimes seems almost to burn; but we do not sweat, and we do not feel the oppression sometimes felt here. Furthermore, the sun shines the greater part of the year, and on many accounts it is indeed a good place in which to live. All manner of fruits will grow, and there is opportunity here for some one to enter the field, and make himself a good living and do good to the natives.GCB April 16, 1901, page 276.6

Passing in further toward the center, the land rises continually until near the center there are valleys of various dimensions and mountains of various heights, ranging from five thousand feet to nine or ten thousand. About midway between the east and the west and far down toward the south is the City of Mexico, the capital, situated in a valley seven thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea, surrounded by mountains; and off to the east are the snowy caps of mountains about which many of us have studied in geography in our schooldays, Popocatepetl and Citaltepetl. In this valley is the City of Mexico, with nearly four hundred thousand people,—with its suburban towns, almost as large as Boston. The whole valley has something like half a million people; and scattered all through this land in the various valleys there are other cities large and small, filled with people whom God has created, and to whom, if we believe in the third angel’s message, the gospel must be preached. The country of Mexico, called a republic, consists of twenty-seven states, two territories, and one federal district. The district is where the capital is situated.GCB April 16, 1901, page 276.7

Mexico has two seasons, the rainy season, which begins about the last of May, and lasts until the first of October, and the dry season, which is the rest of the year. In the rainy season it rains almost every day or night, and usually after showers it is bright and clear the rest of the day; so that the rainy season, which is summer, is a very pleasant time to be in Mexico. The dry season comes in the winter time, but in reality there is no winter. In some higher altitudes there is a little frost and a little bracing atmosphere, but really there is no winter.GCB April 16, 1901, page 276.8

In this republic there are something over seven hundred and fifty thousand square miles. There are more than thirteen millions of people. These we may divide into three classes by saying that about one fifth of them are white, European, or American people. Two fifths of them are the mixed race, a mixture of Spanish and Indian. The other two fifths are the native Indians, some of whom are uncivilized as yet. In reality there are but two classes, the servants and their masters, the employers and the employed. One fifth are those who control the entire republic, and the other four fifths are their servants.GCB April 16, 1901, page 276.9

As to the condition of these people morally: For more than four hundred years they have been under the complete domination of the Catholic Church.GCB April 16, 1901, page 276.10

Thus they have been without the truth of God, without the Bible. They have simply changed the names of their old heathen customs and forms of worship, and now have the same thing with another name.GCB April 16, 1901, page 276.11

This one fifth of whom I have spoken are well-to-do, many of them living in luxury, and having as fine places and fine living as any one need to wish in this world. But the others are poor; and I think that in Mexico, one half or more of the people that you meet are more poorly and shabbily dressed than the raggedest newsboy you ever saw in New York or Chicago. They have but a little cotton clothing—a shirt and a pair of trousers made of very coarse cotton; and over these they wear the blanket. Some of them have sandals, a little piece of leather which they tie on the bottom of their feet; but many of them are entirely barefooted. At night they simply roll up in their blanket, and sleep, many of them wherever they happen to be; as the climate is not as it is here, they can do this; and as they can live on a very little, they manage to exist in this way.GCB April 16, 1901, page 276.12

The huts in which many of them live—are barely one room,—made of sundried brick or mud, with no floor. They live there on the dirt and in the dirt. They need to be taught cleanliness, which is next to godliness, and brought to a higher plane of living.GCB April 16, 1901, page 277.1

There are not, as in the United States, small farms tilled by many well-to-do people; but there is one large hacienda, owned by one man or a company, and quite a number of the poor people live upon it. These people are called peons, and are like the chattels of the property. And while I have heard with interest our brethren speak of the condition of the colored man in the South, I believe that here in our neighboring country Mexico there are from eight to ten millions of people, many of whom can not read or write, as ignorant and as superstitious as any of the colored people of the South, as helpless, and in a worse condition, because for all these years they have had nothing but that which the Catholic Church has been pleased to give them, which is very little indeed.GCB April 16, 1901, page 277.2

A particular instance will illustrate many. Just before coming to this place. I took the train from Mexico City to Querandaca, went up over the mountains, into the valley, and then into another valley—four or five hours’ ride from Mexico City. There I was met by a native with a mule; and in this way we proceeded into the country about eighteen miles. Outside of the city there were no roads whatever, simply a bridle path; and we went over the hills, and down into very deep galleys.GCB April 16, 1901, page 277.3

At last we reached the foot of a mountain, and here was this man’s home. Here he had lived all his days, as had his father and grandfather before him. Around his house were the huts of the natives. He told me that there were something like thirty families living there. These huts were made of twigs, branches, and thatched over with straw. I went to see the place because he wanted to sell it, and I wanted to know something about the country and the people and the land, that I might tell you something about it.GCB April 16, 1901, page 277.4

This ranch is composed of over five thousand acres of land. On this land the man raised sugar-cane, beans, trees, various fruits of the country, and almost anything that will grow in a tropical country. I asked him about the peons. He said there were enough of them for the cultivation of the land; and that if the land was sold, these would stay and work. You are supposed to pay them a small sum, which runs from thirty-seven to fifty cents a day in Mexican money, and Mexican money is now worth about half what our money is worth. He took me around back of the mountain, and showed me a large valley, and one place where the two mountains came near together, some two hundred feet across, and said, “We are putting a dam in there. Water could be got in the rainy season to irrigate all that land, and if that could be done, then several hundred families could be used here.” It seemed to me that some one might purchase a place similar to this, and employ these natives.GCB April 16, 1901, page 277.5

There is no church there, nor any priest; but the man who owns the land has full control of these people, and they would be children under his charge. He might teach them the truth of God, might open a school for the children; and thus, in a few years, several hundred people, the very lowest and humblest classes, might be reached.GCB April 16, 1901, page 277.6

The country having a warm climate, one can raise one crop with the rains of the rainy season. And if you can have a dam, and preserve water, so that you can irrigate the land, you can raise crops the year round. In Mexico one can have continually, if he so desires, fresh vegetables and fruits of almost all descriptions every day in the year. So much with reference to that.GCB April 16, 1901, page 277.7

Voice: What is the price of this land?GCB April 16, 1901, page 277.8

G. W. Caviness: The price of this land was $12,000, or $6,000 of American money. That is a little over a dollar an acre. There are a good many large cities in the country, and railroads are now being built through various parts of the republic, and there is market, and will be more, for almost anything you can raise there.GCB April 16, 1901, page 277.9

Perhaps I ought to speak more directly of the work that we are trying to do: and as many have asked me with reference to the work I went there to do, perhaps a few words with reference to this matter will not be out of place. About four years ago, the General Conference Committee and the Foreign Mission Board, after hearing a plea from Mexico with regard to a definite matter, invited me to go and represent them. This was the revision of the Spanish Bible. The committee consisted of one member from each of the denominations at work in Mexico. After I had reached the place, the committee had a meeting, organized and prepared for work. The plan was that we should have two years for studying the original—the Spanish, and then we should meet as a committee and go through the whole Bible, making the necessary suggestions for changes in the Spanish Bible. We were to work on what is called the modern version. I spent the time in the study of the language, and with the assistance of a native professor, translated the greater part of the New Testament from the Greek into Spanish, and some of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Spanish. I did this for two reasons: One was that I did not wish to present myself before a committee of men chosen to revise the Bible, and not be conversant with the Greek, knowing exactly what the best and most correct texts were, and also without knowing the Spanish; so my work was to learn the Spanish, and to study the original, and understand how to put the one into the other. After our study, we had a meeting, and began work, but from one cause or other the matter has been allowed to rest, and is in that condition now. The committee has never disorganized, but is simply waiting.GCB April 16, 1901, page 277.10

After this, a little over a year ago, we went to a suburb of Mexico City, and there thought to open up the work with a few workers. We were strangers, and knew not how to go about our work; but started out to visit the people, going from house to house to talk with them, and see what could be done, and what they were interested in. We found one thing that they were interested in,—that was a school where the children might learn English. And that seeming to be the interest just then, we hoped that through it we might be able to do something else, to become acquainted with the people, get into their homes, and accomplish some work.GCB April 16, 1901, page 277.11

We opened a little school, and it grew slowly, but surely, and we were surprised to find that we had in it children of the highest officials of the government. At present we have a school of more than forty children. They are the children of generals, judges, doctors, and people of this class. And the school is growing. The day before I left, a lady who had two children came to see me about the school. She said her husband had died recently, and she wanted the children to be educated. She did not want to send them to the public schools, which intellectually are not very good, and morally are very bad, and she said she cared not to send them to the parochial schools; but she had heard that our school was a good school, a moral school, and that the children were cared for, and she wanted to put them into school, and asked our terms. When we told her, she said she would gladly pay that, and more.GCB April 16, 1901, page 277.12

The school paid, during the last months of last year, something over one hundred Mexican dollars a month in tuition, and is doing more than that this year so far. More than that, it has brought us into connection with the people of this class. Before I came away, the professor of the higher mathematics in the military school asked us to give Bible readings to himself and wife. Of course we have never covered up the fact that we are Protestants, or that we are Seventh-day Adventists; and these people know this, and yet they send their children to our school, and some of them want us to give them “Bible Readings.” We have a Sabbath-school, and the last Sabbath before I came away, some twenty of these children came into the Sabbath-school; and, brethren and sisters, if you knew what it was in Mexico, where Catholicism is supreme, to get into the homes of the people, and to find them willing to listen to the Bible, it would seem as if this is almost miraculous. I gave a number of readings to this man and his wife, and they seemed deeply interested; and we hope that others will also be reached through this method.GCB April 16, 1901, page 278.1

Last August Dr. A. A. John came to Mexico, and opened up a medical office in the city. His practice is mainly among the missionaries of different denominations, and he has had good success. Under his direction, a small mission has been opened in the city, where we can give some treatments, and where we can bring in the people, talk with them, read the Bible to them, and give them literature.GCB April 16, 1901, page 278.2

But we need literature. And just a word about that: We have at present a few books,—“Patriarchs and Prophets,” “Steps to Christ,” “Christ our Savior,” “Gospel Primer,” and a few tracts. But these books were certainly published before any one of our people knew very much about Spanish, as they show at the present time. One of our books, “Patriarchs and Prophets,” informs us that as they went through the field on Sunday, the disciples plucked the ears of corn; and other things of that kind.GCB April 16, 1901, page 278.3

One thing is certain, that no amount of religious truth or enthusiasm will make a person a scholar in a language, but he must devote a great deal of hard study to it. And if we are to publish the truth in any language, we ought to very much in it. Otherwise we shall disgrace the truth. I hope to see the time when we shall have a printing-press established in Mexico, and when we can have the truth presented in clear, simple language so that the people can understand and learn it. They are beginning to read. There are public schools now throughout the land. For the last thirty years there has been a stable form of government, and schools established and many of the people now, even of the poorer class, are beginning to read.GCB April 16, 1901, page 278.4

When the American army went down there in the war with Mexico, colporteurs went with it, and scattered some Bibles, and in this way a few Bibles were brought to some of the people of that country, and a few learned something of the truth. After the war; the church gathered up the Bibles and destroyed them, as far as she could. But she did not destroy them all, nor all the influence of them.GCB April 16, 1901, page 278.5

About thirty years ago, in 1870 or thereabout, the different denominations began to work in Mexico. They have been at work ever since, but they have a very small following indeed, and practically nothing has been accomplished in comparison with what is to be accomplished. The beginning was made there by a lady who had been in Brownsville, Texas, I think, studying Spanish. She employed some Mexicans as colporteurs, to carry the Bible into Mexico. She removed to Montaville, Mexico, and opened a school, in which she taught the Bible as well as the ordinary studies. Her students went out to the field round about, and in a little while about fourteen companies were raised up. When her health failed, and she left the work, it was turned over to the Presbyterians, and from this they took their start.GCB April 16, 1901, page 278.6

Those who go to a place where it is necessary to learn the language should, of all workers, be those who go for life; because it will take some time to learn the language, and when you have learned it, then to go away is to spoil a work. I had thought that this school that we had opened might be a place where some could come and teach while studying the language; that they could almost, if not quite, pay their expenses and earn their wages in teaching, and be learning the language at the same time, so that they could go out into the work; for while we believe we can, and must, bring in native help just as far as possible, yet it will always be necessary that there be some who understand and know the truth, and who can be depended upon to lead out in all lines of work. In Mexico we speak the language of old Castile; they call it the Castilian language. There is very little difference between it and the old Spanish Castilian language. In writing, as it appears in the printed pages, it is the same. The Spanish Academy dictionary and grammar is the standard text-book, and this book is published by a body of learned men in Spain called the Spanish Academy; and we follow that as a textbook, so that in writing the language is the same. In pronunciation there is a little difference in a few letters, though it is slight. We learn just what that is, and soon, with a little practice, we can pronounce the word either way. I think there is not much more difference between the language of Mexico and that of Spain than there is between the English of the United States and the English of England. Some words have a different pronunciation, but in writing, and on the printed page, the words are alike.GCB April 16, 1901, page 278.7

There are other lands than Mexico where Spanish is spoken, and I find that the greater part of all the people in the countries below us—Central America and South America,—except Brazil, speak Spanish. Of course not all the colonists that come from other lands speak it, but it is the national language. There are also the West Indies. Then there is Spain, with its eighteen million people speaking this language. Recently the Philippines have been brought under control of the United States, and there Spanish is the national language. As best I can judge, there are about seventy-five or eighty millions of people who speak this language. These are all, and have been for ages, under the almost absolute control and sway of the Catholic Church.GCB April 16, 1901, page 278.8

It seems to me, as I read even the history of the recent past, that God in his providence is bringing this people to us, and showing us that we have a duty with reference to them.GCB April 16, 1901, page 279.1

I hope and trust that God in his providence, as he is leading all this people, and calling their attention to the “regions beyond,” while looking afar, we shall not overlook this vast multitude near at hand. My Bible reads that there is to be a song sung by people gathered from every kindred, tongue, and nation. These will be gathered from the Spanish people, too.GCB April 16, 1901, page 279.2

The Spanish is a beautiful language in many respects, and I long to see the day when a goodly number of those who speak and sing this language will here on earth be singing the praises of God and freedom from the power of the the beast, as you and I sing it now. May God move upon our hearts, and send forth those who should be able to carry the light of truth to those who know it not.GCB April 16, 1901, page 279.3