Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/388



HE people of Mexico had been praying in an unknown tongue for more than three hundred years, when a devoted priest, Francisco Aguilar, began to read and to ponder the teachings of the Holy Scripture with regard to prayer. As he studied the history of the apostolic Church the great doctrine of justification by faith loomed up before him as a new truth, and that peace which he had so vainly sought in fasts and in penances began to flow into his soul. His eyes were now opened to see the miserable perversions of Scripture which Rome had taught for truth. Like the apostle Andrew, Aguilar abode with the Master for one day, and then, eagerly seeking: for some one to whom he could communicate the blessing which filled his own heart, brought a brother-priest to Jesus. Thus one friend told another, until a band of fifty Bible students had been formed whose undreamed-of strength at first woke no opposition. But as the truth spread the spirit of persecution was aroused. The Church began to thunder out its warnings and curses, but Aguilar, strong in the Lord, went on his way undismayed.

An effort had been made by a few earnest souls as early as 1861 to leave the Church of Rome and build on true foundations. This work now took shape, and in