Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/392

384 Aguas, the pastor and bishop-elect of this church, died in 1872.

Planted in fertile soil, this organization seemed destined to outnumber all others and become the leading evangelical Church in Mexico. At one time they claimed over six thousand adherents, and half that number of communicants. It is now sorely rent, however, by internal dissension. In 1884 the communicants numbered about one thousand, and fifty-two preaching-places were reported.

Elsewhere in Mexico, God's word had "free course and was glorified." In 1862 the Rev. James Hickey, a Baptist minister, began a good work in the city of Matamoras as an independent missionary. In 1863 he was preaching in Monterey. His assistant at that time, the Rev. Thomas Westrup, has since been murdered by the Indians. Mr. Hickey died in 1866.

The American Baptist Home Mission Society still holds its ground in Monterey, and has also established itself in the capital. It has (1886) six ordained ministers and a membership of three hundred. The American Baptists of the South also report stations in Saltillo, Progreso, Palos and Banas, and much that is encouraging.

"More important," says one, "than the rise and fall of states and empires is the going forth of the missionaries of the cross to Christless lands." The years 1872 and 1873 are thus marked in the annals of Mexico. Branches of the Presbyterian, Friends and Methodist churches began evangelical work there.

The Presbyterian Church built on foundations already established. Their work began in the State of Zacatecas, in Villa de Cos, a mining-town about sixty miles from the State capital, where Grayson Prevost, M. D., of