VISIT OF AN ENGLISH CLERGYMAN—LETTER FROM MATAMOROS—CONCLUSION
AN English clergyman visited Granada latterly, and gave an account of his journey, which I extract from the Christian Observer of December, as follows:—
“We reached Granada on the 11th of September last, and on the following day went to the Prison of the Audiencia. It is at the back of the Palace of Justice, a pretentious stone building, at the foot of the hill on which the Alhambra is built, and, though somewhat gloomy, not more somber-looking than such places usually are. A few soldiers were lounging in the doorway as we went in, but they did not appear to take much notice of us, and we were instantly admitted when it was known that we were friends of Matamoros. Inside the prison we were met by one of the Protestants, who bore in his face evident traces of a long imprisonment. We followed him up a stone staircase, and into a corridor, where several other prisoners were idling about, smoking, eating, sleeping, or playing at cards; and then he led us into a good-sized airy room, with a window looking out into a court, three beds, a table and some chairs; and where, from a photograph I had seen in England, I instantly recognized, in the man who rose to meet us, Manuel Matamoros.
“He is in the early summer of manhood, slightly above the middle height, with jet black hair, and finely chiseled features, Italian rather than Spanish.
His face beams with intelligence. I confess he took my heart by storm, and I speedily found in him a most beloved brother, whom I shall know instantly if we shall meet in heaven. My first and last impression of him was, that he is a prince among men.
There was a force and an authority in his very way of expressing himself, that, to our mind, stamped him with the stamp of genius, and our guide said to us that his language was so sublime, he had the greatest difficulty in translating it. He gave me the notion, moreover, of being a man of strong affections, for the love in him seemed to kindle into a white heat as he showed us photographs of friends, among which I recognized Dr. and Mrs. Tregelles and Mr. Dallas.... There were several others in the room. Jose Alhama, a hatter of Granada, who was present, has since been sentenced to a more severe imprisonment than Matamoros. He is quite unlike his friend, both in appearance and cast of mind, but there was an air of quiet strength about him, that showed he knew in whom he had believed, and that if he could not confess his Lord with excellency of speech and wisdom, he could at least suffer for him ... I can never forget how Matamoros read the eighth chapter of the Romans, which seemed to open up to him a new mine of gospel promises, how grandly it sounded in the majestic Spanish tongue; what emphasis he laid on the passages that touched on the fullness of the gospel liberty, and on the certainty of the coming glory; how, ever and anon he would lift up his voice, and look round on his fellow-prisoners, his whole face beaming with radiance, until the climax of the apostle's appeal, in verse thirty-one, almost overcame him; and he asked in a tone of ecstatic triumph, 'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?'”
There remains but one more letter to complete those received and printed, which we give below.
Granada, Nov. 8, 1862.
“BELOVED BROTHER,—I am happy. I live in the joy of Jesus. Liberty will never be to me more sweet than my prison has been, through the divine name of Him who on Golgotha sacrificed his life to snatch us from eternal death. No suffering, no sorrow, clouds for a moment my Christian gladness. God has granted me this blessing, for his goodness is inexhaustible. In my letter of the 30th I gave you the details of our present position. This ministerial fiscal is very bitter against us. He has demanded the augmentation of my sentence. He is not content with that of eight years of the galleys, perpetual inhabilitation for all instruction, rights, or political position, and the payment of the heavy costs of the suit! He has also appealed against Trigo's acquittal, and his present liberation. In fact, the whole case stands as it did the day after the sentence of the inferior tribunal. All must be done over again. The fiscal has appealed against us all, except Alhama; so that it is quite possible that those who have been acquitted may now be condemned.
“Dearest friend, you know that my health has been poor and weak for a long time. The sufferings of prison or of the galleys cannot but hasten the day of my death; but I look forward with joy to that day. Eternal death is not for those who love the Lord Jesus ... .
"I thought it right, in my address to the queen, to vindicate our common right, and to demand from her permission to worship God according to our consciences, and to ask from her, if not perfect religious liberty, at least toleration.
“You write to me of my sufferings, dearest brother. I see that they occupy your heart and memory, sadly and constantly. But, dearly-loved brother, let your mourning on my account be turned into joy. I, your poor brother in Jesus, whom you love and with whom you suffer, I suffer not. No! I rejoice unspeakably. This cruel sentence, these appeals, these two years of captivity, these doubts and delays on the part of foreign governments to speak a word in favor of our Christian liberty, and the opposition of the queen and the government to our release, all seem to my memory as causes for rejoicing.
“If I perceived love and kindness in my enemies, that would indeed seem strange! but their anger against me is natural, is consequent; and this auger causes me to raise my heart continually to my Lord, thanking Him for this eminent honor which He has been pleased to lay upon me, a despicable, useless, all-unworthy sinner. Oh! believe me, dearest friend, not alone in prison could I rejoice; not alone in the sufferings of the galleys; the stake, the scaffold, the ax of the executioner, would give me only fresh cause for gladness. I am ready not only to suffer for the divine name of Jesus, but also to die for Him.
“Do not let the indifference of the European governments affect you. All their power is as naught if the will of God is contrary to their will. Our weapon is only prayer—a powerful and mighty weapon, of which the world knows nothing; but the prayers which ascend to the throne of the Eternal bring forth fruit; for the goodness of God our heavenly Father is inexhaustible and infinite. I should rejoice to see these governments do all they could to procure liberty and toleration for all nations; but the Lord must do it, or nothing will be done. He wills that all shall be obtained by prayer; and therefore, whatever happens, I shall rejoice in Jesus. The liberty of my body is nothing to me; for this reason I said nothing of it in my address to the queen.
“That which really interests me is the salvation of my soul. I entreat you, dear friend, and all my brothers, to pray for me, that I may be faithful to the end. I have been told that a European deputation is about to visit Madrid. I rejoice! for by the might of prayer the doors—not of my prison, that is nothing—but of my country, may be thrown open to religious liberty, and I fain would hasten the dawn of that approaching day. This was one of the reasons of my address to the queen.
“Farewell, dearest brother in the Lord. Receive this letter as a token of the constant love and gratitude of your brother in Christ,
"MANUEL MATAMOROS.”
And now, in conclusion, I pray that this little work may be prospered by Him whose foolishness is wiser than men, and whose weakness is stronger than men. Has England no lesson to learn from Spain? What was it that helped so much to lull the voice of God's Spirit in that land in the sixteenth century? Was it not the gold of Peru? And with what is Satan seducing the hosts of the Lord in this country now'? Is it not with the golden cup of Babylon, full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication? Is not our commercial pride, of which our Exhibition is the exponent, the Delilah that has kept Samson spellbound '? and is not the fierce anger of the Lord revealed against us nationally, and smiting us sore in the very heart of our stronghold, by what is occurring now in our manufacturing districts?
Shall we continue to be silent? Saints of Christ, awake. Behold the Judge standeth at the door. Witness the good confession of the young Spaniard whose letters you now have before you, and arm yourselves with a like mind. A greater evil than Romanism is eating out the vitals of our populations. But the Lord will appear to "destroy them that destroy the earth," though they give to their sorceries the pleasing name of civilization. The enemy has come in like a flood, but the Spirit of the Lord shall put him to flight. Nothing else can stand before Satan. In this alone has been the secret of Matamoros' strength. It was this made Samson more than conqueror. Does the young lion roar against him? The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid. Do the Philistines shout against him? By the same Spirit the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands; and he found a new jaw-bone of an ass, and put forth his hand and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith—a most unlikely weapon for such a warfare, but none other than the sword of the Lord when wielded by the brawny arm of a lively faith.
THOSE readers who have followed us in the previous narrative, which detailed the conversion, the subsequent "bonds and imprisonments," and the "good confession" of Manuel Matamoros, will linger with a saddened interest over these "MEMORIALS," which tell of his labors of love during the period after his liberation from the Prison of the Audiencia, at Granada. "For the space of three years he ceased not" to spend his strength in that cause so dear to his heart—the evangelization of his countrymen.
In these concluding pages will be found the particulars of our beloved friend's declining days, and the record of his departure to that better land concerning which he said, "I shall live in the midst of that joy unceasing, of that peace, and of that love, which I have sought in vain on earth.”
W. G.