CLIFF DWELLERS. WITHIN TWENTY-FIVE MILES OF SANTA FÉ, NEW MEXICO
The missions of Guevara, Zumacacori, and San Xavier were peculiarly fruitful in good results. The ruins of Zumacacori still cover a large space. The church is partially unroofed; the form is seen to have been that of a plain Greek cross with a basilica, and a roofless chapel is standing. The basilica is still crowned by the cross, and the vital influence of this sign and seal of faith in the Christ, this commemoration of the sacrificial zeal that animated the Mission Fathers is still felt by all who gaze upon this sacred emblem silhouetted against a blue sky.
Santa Fé is, indeed, alive with the most profound and arresting interest. The work of the early Spanish missionary priests effected a great work among the Indians in creating conditions of peace and industry; for faith in God, taught in any form, is not merely nor even mostly an attitude of spirit: it is the instinctive action of life. It permeates every motive inspiring it with power; it vitalizes every effort with creative energy. Faith in God may well be described as the highest possible form of potency. He who is receptive to the Divine Spirit moves onward like a ship whose sails are set to the favoring winds. He who is unreceptive to the Divine Spirit is like the ship before the wind with all her sails furled. "The merit of power for moral victory on the earth," said Phillips Brooks, "is not man and is not God. It is God and man, not two, but one, not meeting accidentally, not running together in emergencies only to separate again when the emergency is over; it is God and man belonging essentially together,—God filling man, man opening his life by faith to be a part of God's, as the gulf opens itself and is part of the great ocean."
The unfaltering devotion of the Franciscan Fathers to the work of bringing civilization and Christianity to these Indian pueblos and their martyrdom in their efforts to establish "the true faith of St. Francis" invests Santa Fé with an atmosphere of holy tradition.
"All souls that struggle and aspire,
All hearts of prayer by Thee are lit;
And, dim or clear, Thy tongues of fire
On dusky tribes and twilight centuries sit."
These early Church Fathers taught a pure and high order of faith in the most practical way. They acquired the Indian language in sufficient measure to speak to the tribes. They taught them the rudiments of arithmetic, history, and geography—in the imperfect way then known; but they gave their best. They inculcated industry and honesty. Their faith is largely told in the poet's words,—