Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/404

396 New Testament. He became interested in it, and read it over and over again, till its truths sank into his heart. He saw the falsities of his old faith. He was convicted of sin. He left off his former bad habits, and, as his new principles shone out in his changed life, he drew others to study a book which had brought such blessed results. He now set up a church in his own house; in two years sixty persons were worshiping there. In 1880 the members numbered eighty-seven.

There is something in the loving zeal of many of these untutored laborers for Christ which promises wonders for the future of the Church in Mexico.

The story of the introduction of the gospel into the State of Michoacan, as gleaned from the letters of Rev. J. M. Greene, gives a touching feature of humble Christian service in connection with the labors of Rev. H. Forcada and other native brethren among the Indians of that region. Mr. Forcada's first visit was to Junapeo, a small town among clustering villages in the lowlands west of the capital. A few Bibles and tracts had been sold or given by a Mexican bookseller in Zitacuaro a few years before, and these had no doubt been doing a silent work ever since among the people. But in 1876, when Mr. Forcada came, Junapeo received him very coldly. Shelter was most unwillingly given him in the village inn, and the storekeeper positively refused to sell the heretic anything. After three months' faithful work Mr. Forcada deemed best to abandon Junapeo for the time. He would not go, however, until he had asked the Master to have his way made so plain that he could not mistake it. That very night the little room where he had been holding meetings was full. The work increased in power. The inhospitable innkeeper was