"Millions in Brazil look upon the Virgin Mary as their Saviour. A book widely circulated throughout northern Brazil says that Mary, when still a mere child, went bodily to heaven and begged God to send Christ, through her, into the world. Further on it says that Mary went again to heaven to plead for sinners; and at the close Mary's will is given, disposing of the whole world, and God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—the Trinity—act as the three witnesses to the will. How many good Christians at home think Brazil is a Christian country?" [Footnote: W. C. Porter.]
If the Bible were in circulation throughout South America, the populace would be enabled to see that Christ is not the remorseless Judge but the loving Saviour, and that it was He who purchased redemption for us. Mary, according to Luke 1:47, was herself in need of a Saviour, and her only recorded command was to do as He, the Christ, enjoined (See John 2:5). Not only Protestants, but not even Roman Catholics born in Protestant countries, can understand what Romanism is in South America.
Christ said: "Search the Scriptures." Rome has done her best to destroy the sacred volume. Papal bulls, said to have been dictated by the Holy Ghost, have been issued by several Popes. Rome sometimes burned the martyrs with a Bible hanging around their necks. Romanists showed their hatred against Wycliffe, the first translator of the New Testament into English, by unearthing his crumbling remains and burning them to ashes. I have often seen the same spirit shown in South America.
A colporteur, writing of Scripture circulation in the Argentine, says: "Many of the people are trying to get us ejected from the city. One, to whom a Bible was offered, became so infuriated that he said: 'If it were not such a public place? I would drown you in the river.'" A missionary writes: "A young fellow called out after me, 'I renounce you, Satan,' but as that is not my name, I did not turn back. During the meeting on Sunday evening, the priest came riding up to the window, and shouted that he would soon put a stop to us. Today he has had a number of bills printed, warning his parishioners to have nothing to do with us. To-night one of the bills was pasted on the door. Br. Arena took it off, and no sooner had he the door shut than two shots were fired, but they did no more harm than to pierce the door—thank God! I have been informed that a number of young men will either beat or shoot me, and that as I am the only one left they are going to make me leave, too, by foul or by fair means. The following is a translation of the priest's warning:
"To the faithful of Candelaria. Beware. This parish has been invaded by one of the wicked sects of Protestantism, and, having the sacred duty of warning my parishioners, I give them to understand that should any one of them attend, even from mere curiosity, to hear the false and pernicious propaganda, or accept tracts or books that come from the propagators of Protestantism, he will be excommunicated from the true and only Church of Jesus Christ, Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman, wherein resides the infallible authority. Beware, then, oh, ye faithful, and listen to your parish priest, who advises you of the danger of your souls."
Yet with all this darkness and error, the majority are well contented, and quite willing to obey "warnings" like this and the following, published in Los Principios, of Cordoba:
"It has come to our knowledge that there are amongst us various Protestant ministers, that distribute with profusion leaflets containing their erroneous doctrines and calumnies against the Catholic Church. Some of these leaflets and booklets have fallen into our hands, and in them we have found confirmation of what we say above. In one of these leaflets, for example, they treat as idolatry the worship that we Catholics tribute to the Mother of God. They treat as superstition the veneration they have in Rome for the holy staircase by which our Lord Jesus Christ went up to the judgment hall of Pilate. They combat the worship of images, relics, and things of that description.
"Catholics ought to know that it is not lawful for them to read these leaflets, nor the Sacred Bible distributed by the Protestants, because it has been falsified by them, accommodating its texts to their errors. The Church has prohibited its children many times these pernicious readings. Let us reject, according to the counsel of St. Paul, these ravenous wolves that come in sheep's clothing, for they come to kill and to destroy souls, thrusting them into the ways of error, being separated from the true Church of Jesus Christ, from which Luther, Calvin, Zuinglio, Henry VIII, and others separated themselves, of whom Cobbell, the Protestant historian, himself has said: 'Never has the world seem gathered into one century so many perverse men as Luther, Zuiniglio, Calvin,' etc."
One acquainted with Spanish-American Romanism will smile at the reference in the above article to the Bible having been falsified by us. If the text of any version extant is compared with those which are painted on the walls of the church in Celaya, there surely will be found a great discrepancy. The following are translations:
"MARY, my mother, in thee I hope; save me from those that persecute me."—Psalm vii. 1.