RELIGIOUS MATTERS.
The earliest religion to be planted in all this western country was Roman Catholic. In Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, you will hear of "The Missions," by which they mean some ancient cathedral or monastery, built more than a century ago, but now in ruins. The tumble-down walls are of great interest to the traveler, and are regarded with superstitious reverence by many persons. Enthusiastic orators and writers often rave over the noble self-sacrifice of the Spanish priests who founded these Missions. Doubtless there were some pure, good men among them, inflamed with a zeal for soul saving. But if we study the history of the Missions, there is little to admire. There was a deliberate trade between the Spanish Government and these Spanish Fathers. They received every encouragement from the government and carried on their building and trading under government protection. The Indians, whom they came to Christianize, became practically their slaves. The labor required to quarry and dress the stones, burn the brick and prepare and transport the timbers for the buildings, was immense, and it was all done by the Indians under the direction of the Fathers. The income from the Missions, established by one of the Societies, became $2,000,000 annually. They were in possession of their properties for more than half a century. After the Missions were secularized by the Mexican government, to replete its exhausted treasures, the Fathers gave up their places, the Missions crumbled into ruins and their converts went back into their savage state.
There is now no trace of anything permanent about their work, except where the Indians intermarried with the Spanish soldiers; their decendants are still Catholics. But the Catholics are strong on the Pacific Coast, as they are everywhere in Coast cities. Probably the Episcopalians come next, though of this I am not certain. From all that I could see, most of the people are working at most anything else than religion. I was constantly reminded of the couplet in the old hymn:
"Where every prospect pleases
And only man is vile."
If a lovely country, delightful climate, bountiful harvests and general prosperity, make people religious, the Californians certainly ought to be devout; but I fear they take these things as matters of course, and forget the Giver of all good.
I was told at Sausalito that men did not go to preaching in California. From what I saw in the Episcopal church in that little city, at a night service, it looked as if it were true; but I worshipped with the First Baptist Church in San Francisco on two Sunday mornings and was much pleased to find fully one-half the worshippers males.
BAPTISTS
in San Francisco are few in numbers. I had the privilege of preaching for the First Church people one morning. Dr. Wood, the pastor, is a strong preacher, and seems to have an aggressive church. My membership was here when I was a boy. But I was not a very loyal member, as the reader later will find how I attended the services of Dr. Scott on account of my Southern proclivities. A Southern preacher in California is a rarity, I judge, but he meets with a hearty welcome. Old Southerners, of course, greet him with a style he is used to, and the Yankees crowd about him as if he were a curiosity. "I knew you were from the South," said one: "Why?" I asked. "Are you a Southern man?" "No, but I was down in that country on the other side from you in the war." From the handshake he gave me, one would not have guessed that we had at one time been enemies. "Reckon" is a good word peculiar to the South and so is "Tote." These are the two words, the use of which anywhere in the North, will betray the speaker as a Southern man. The words they use to express the same ideas are "Guess" and "Pack." I submit these are no improvement on ours. In my sermon I had occasion to say, "You reckon"—instantly the face of every Northerner was lit up with a smile. I was greatly pleased with the heartiness with which most everyone in the congregation entered into the singing. An instrument was used, but a leader stood on the platform and led the congregation. The pastor explained to me, rather apologetically, that since their building was destroyed a few years ago, with their fine organ, a choir had not been organized. I thought: "The Lord be praised for a fire if it gives us such singing as that in place of the music of the average city choir."