CONCLUSION
IN the month of July, 1866, dear Matamoros went to his happy home in Jesus' bosom. He had told me in one of our interesting and intimate conversations that he had asked God to give "Libertad de Cultos" (freedom of worship) in Spain, and that soon, very soon, I should see it with my eyes, for God had heard his prayer. In the year 1868 occurred the memorable revolution undertaken and carried out by three of Spain's best men, Prim, Serrano and Topete. The two first Generals in the army, and Topete Admiral in the navy. The men who had suffered like Matamoros, and who had been liberated at the time of his release, were some of them in Bayonne and Bordeaux, some in Gibraltar. General Prim being in Andalucia at the time of the great victory obtained by his troops over Queen Isabella's in the Valley of the Guadalquivir, not far from Cordova, went soon after to Algeciras, a Spanish town opposite Gibraltar, and had there an interview with the three principal religious leaders who had suffered bonds for Christ's sake. Their names were Cabrera, Alhama and Hernandez. General Prim received these gentlemen with the greatest kindness. In reply to their remarks that their only crime had been, that they did not profess the Roman Catholic religion, General Prim said, "From this day forth there shall be liberty in our country, real liberty; every man shall be master of his own conscience, and shall profess the faith which seems best in his own eyes. You gentlemen," he added, "may return to your country at once, and you are at liberty to enter Spain with your bibles under your arms, to preach its doctrines." Afterward these gentlemen were sent for by the administrative Junta of Algeciras and informed that they were at full liberty to take up their residence in that town, or that they should be provided with passports if they wished to proceed elsewhere. It is generally well known how, not only these three refugees, but all those from Bordeaux and Bayonne at once entered Spain, and the majority of them went to Madrid, and during several years great activity was displayed in preaching the pure Gospel of Christ. A large bible depot was opened in one of the principal streets, minor ones in other places; colporteurs employed in numbers to carry the Word of Life into the provinces; halls erected for preaching in all the large towns, and schools established in connection with many of them. Indeed, seldom has such an impetus been given such the spread of evangelical truth in any place in such a short period of time. At the period of which I am writing great improvements were being made at Madrid, new roads and streets being laid out all round and about that city. In cutting through one of these which passed through the "Quemadero de la Cruz," the celebrated spot where the wicked tribunal of the Inquisition had burnt so many of God's saints some 300 years ago, the amount of human bones and other remains brought to light was appalling. Among other horrors were found two bony hands, transfixed by a large nail, and clasped in the attitude of prayer, and the ribs of some victim, with the spear still protruding by which they had been pierced. The effect of the discovery was immense. Rome was revealed more clearly than ever before the eyes of Spain. A speaker in the Cortes said that while there were strange geological sections and strata, there were also strange theological sections and strata declaring the history of the past. There was a public meeting held on the site, attended by multitudes. On one side of the excavation there was a high bank, halfway down which the long black strata was exposed to the light of day. Their contents crumbled beneath the touch, and were found on examination to consist principally of the debris of fuel and human bodies burned and buried together. God has truly said in his word, "The earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain." The devoted missionary, Mr. Grattan Guinness, accompanied me to this celebrated "Burning place of the Cross!" where the Autos da fe (acts of faith) were executed. His spirit was moved within him, and he, without loss of time, wrote the following appropriate lines.
Ye layers of ashes black, and half burnt bones,
Ye monuments of martyr's stifled moans
Of human agony and dying groans,
Cry out till every ear has heard your tones!
Cry till the murderess trembles, though her brain
Is drunken with the blood of millions slain
She did not mean to show you; 'twas the spade
Of simple workmen which your horrors laid
Unearthed and bare, before the light of day;
They only dug to open a new way.
As they advanced, the ground before them grew
In patches softer, changed its wonted hue,
And with the smell of death defiled the air.
They dug, and they discovered, layer on layer,
Black bones, and rusted chains, and human hair,
And iron nails, and bits of melted lead,
And the burnt fuel of unnumbered dead.
They cut the heap across; it crowns a hill.
Its length is shown—its breadth lies buried still.
Doubtest thou reader? I was there to day;
I saw them at the work; I brought away
Some horrible remains, which while I write
These very lines, are lying in my sight.
A piece of paper on this table holds
Some of this martyr dust within its folds.
I pause, and gently touch it with my hand:
It is not common earth; it is not sand;
I look at it; the tears have filled my eyes;
My God, what is it that before me lies?
The ground beneath was gravel and was red,
But this is dark, and formed a separate bed.
How soft it is, and light; it feels like soil
That has been saturated once with oil;
'Tis full of small black cinders, most is gray
And ashen; here is something burnt away
Black as the blackest coal; this was the meat
Of some relentless and devouring heat.
A little box beside the paper stands,
Its relics I collected with these hands.
I take a something from it like a stone;
'Tis gray and light; ah! 'tis a piece of bone;
This was the side on which the muscles grew,
The other side its chambers are burnt blue.
These four are lumps of iron, they are red
Like fetters that have rusted off the dead.
This was an iron bolt, 'tis long and curved,
To hold a chain or cord it doubtless served;
This is a hollow bone, burnt through and through,
It leaves upon my hand a dusky hue.
That was a bar of iron, now mere rust,
And this is indistinguishable dust.
Oh Rome, thou mother of a cherished race,
Blush not to show the world thy kindly face!
Thy bosom—hide its demons, hush thy breast,
'Tis there alone that suffering men find rest.
How mild the chastisements thy love hast used
Whene'er thy children have thy laws refused!
Gentle coercion! Pity's tender tones!
Tell me, thou murderess black, what mean these bones?
These bones before me, those upon the hill,
Who, what were these thus slaughtered by thy will?
What did these helpless women? these poor men?
Why did'st thou shut them up in thy dark den?
Why did'st thou pinch their flesh and starve their frames,
And cast them bound into devouring flames?
True they reproached thee for thy crimes and lies,
And prayed for thee with sin-forgiving sighs.
Thy multiplied idolatries abhorred;
Nor mediator honored but their Lord;
Condemned thy Priestcraft and thy love of gold;
Clung to God's word, and for its truths were bold
Adorned by blamelessness the name they bore;
Loved not their lives to death. What did they more?
Were they adulterers, these prisoned saints?
Or murderers-these who died without complaints'
Hush, for they sleep in Jesus, soft their bed.
His suffering saints their Lord hath comforted I
Hush, for the sevenfold wrath of God grows hot!
Hush, for her deep damnation slumbereth not.
G. GUINNESS.
Madrid, January 14, 1870.
Latterly I again visited this celebrated burning spot, but much pains had been taken to cut away all the ground that was in any way blackened; but though the ground has been removed, the fact remains, and these lines, too, will remain to testify of Rome's treachery and unchangeable character, as recorded in holy writ-drunk with the blood of the saints. In the present year, 1881, I visited Spain, passing through Barcelona by Saragossa to Madrid, and returning to London by Bordeaux and Paris. During the last ten years great progress has been made in developing the railway system and the other branches of her industry. I remember in 1855 making the journey from Bayonne to Madrid by the diligence; it occupied seventy-two hours, and I arrived at the capital exhausted and fatigued beyond measure. In the month of May, 1881, it was comfortably performed in nineteen hours, without any fatigue whatever. The same was the case in passing from Perpignan to Barcelona by the Catalonian railway. The railways have been a great help to the introduction of the Gospel into Spain, and frequently, during their execution, the words of the prophet, as quoted by Luke, came into my mind: “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." Yes, man has been busy in executing these railroads for his own convenience in carrying his merchandize more easily; but God had his plans in view for his own far more important and blessed ends, even for the gathering out of his elect church in Spain, and this, His purpose, is in course of fulfillment evidently.
The sufferings of Matamoros have not been in vain. The Gospel trumpet has been sounded now on her hills and in her valleys by numbers of God's faithful witnesses, and that trumpet has given no uncertain sound; and it is very interesting and worthy of note that the seven principal witnesses called out and fitted by God in his infinite wisdom, after they had finished their glorious testimony, were caught up to God and to his throne. Their names were Matamoros, Cosido, Carrasco, Astray, Ruet, Gould and Gladstone. How mysterious are God's ways. Truly we must say with the prophet, They are higher than our ways. Yea, past finding out. Humanly speaking, these excellent seven were almost indispensable to the progress of the Gospel in Spain; but we are taught by their removal that God can dispense with the best of us, and that at the best we are but "the worm Jacob" in His eyes. He is ever proving to us in such dispensations of His providence that all flesh is grass. It is not by might nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts, that all My purposes are accomplished. Would that we were not so slow in learning the lesson.
Other faithful men are laboring unceasingly and indefatigably throughout Spain, and those centers I visited gave proof to the untiring zeal of the Lord's servants at each post. In Barcelona I learned that there are some thousand children in the schools; eight hundred in Madrid. By a recent change of ministry a better state of things is expected with regard to liberty of worship, which for some years had been curtailed ever since the reaction which was gradually inaugurated after the assassination of the liberal General Prim. Poor Spain needs the sympathies and prayers of God's children as much as ever, and how much my visit encouraged the dear laborers was quite evident to me. Oh that there was more earnest prayer offered by the saints for this deeply interesting field. In a letter just received from a friend I visited on my journey, he says, "God be praised for sending you here. How precious is the flower of Christian sympathy; but, alas! how rare in this poor world of sin." I had the great privilege during my short stay at Madrid of hearing the glorious Gospel preached in all its life-giving and consoling power in the fine old Castillian tongue to a numerous and attentive audience, who were visibly drinking in every word of the preacher, The words were words of power evidently felt by the preacher and also by his congregation. The hall was well filled, and I observed many a tear in the eyes of the listeners, for which I praise God. I must say that, for my own part, the words were precious to my soul as ever Spurgeon's or Guthrie's have been, and all this occurred within gunshot of the burning place of the heretics mentioned above.
Much of the wine growing district I passed through in the south of France has been a prey to the Phyloxera, and consequently for hundreds of miles no more vines are grown, and the land is turned into pasture or arable land, so the French people have been obliged to send to the south of Spain for the wine that used to be grown on their own territory. This has enriched Spain to an extent hardly credible, as I was told at Barcelona, and this new capital is being invested in new railways and several other ways, and a new life is observant in Barcelona and all along the southern coast. The iron trade in the north, zinc, coal, copper, lead and silver, with many other precious metals, in the south, have brought the energies of Spain into new life as far as commerce is concerned, but, much as we may approve of this material progress, yet it is the careful labors of the men of God and the praying groups up and down the land that are more blessed in the eyes of God than all human activities. Our Lord tells us what to do to meet the emergency. Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He would send laborers into His harvest. Let us obey His command, believing that as He has given us this command He will certainly answer our cry, and this new edition of this book will answer the end I have in view if it stirs up once again the sympathies of the Christian Church to labor and pray for Spain.
The publication of these letters some twenty years ago was much used by God in directing attention to the wants of the Peninsula. Their reproduction at this time will, with God's blessing, give a fresh and blessed impetus to the same holy cause. God can do it and I believe He will. "Call upon me in the time of trouble, I will hear thee and thou shalt glorify Me.”
I have been much encouraged in my efforts for the circulation of the Gospel in Spain when constructing the railways in that country, and in order to encourage those who are desirous of working in a similar way I must just recite a short story to show how abundantly our God does bless our feeble and unworthy efforts for the advancement of His kingdom. An interesting Spaniard in La Mancha had executed a portion of the railway between Madrid and Alicante entirely to my satisfaction, and from many interesting conversations with' him, I found great honesty of purpose in him, as well as other lovely qualities as a natural man. I had with difficulty smuggled into Spain a beautiful large copy of the New Testament at this time (1852), bound in red morocco, with gilt edges, and I had kept it for a long time so as to place it in good hands at last. The man of La Mancha mentioned above was the person I thought of as the one most likely to give it a careful perusal, and I was confirmed in this judgment by a circumstance which happened. I had a new section or contract of the same railway to give in his neighborhood, and proposed it to him because of the clever and rapid way in which he had executed his first work, but, as he had a large family, I suggested to him to undertake this work alone without having any partners to share in the profits, but he refused, and said he did not want to have it all for himself, but wished his friends to share. This act of unselfishness decided me in bestowing on him the true riches contained in the lovely volume. He treasured up the Book to his dying hour. He had been a diligent student of its sacred truths; it had brought joy and peace to his honest, noble heart. At his death he handed the volume to his sons, telling them that it contained the truth, and leaving it to them as the greatest and best gift he could give them. This Book was the means of the decided conversion of the two sons, who brought another interesting man to join them, who was also converted. They three became among the best of the Spanish colporteurs, and have gone through many and great dangers in the propagation of the truth, one of them having lost his eye by a stone lately thrown at him, when defending the doctrine of his Lord. Who can tell the results that the giving of that one red testament may produce? Eternity will reveal the hidden things that we see not at present. "Cast thy bread upon the waters, thou shalt find it after many days." About the year 1856 I passed through Bayonne. There lives there an earnest Christian French pasteur, Mons. Jean Nogaret by name. He had the dark state of Spain laid upon his heart, and had an ardent desire to do something for the spreading of Gospel light in that country. He proposed to me to accompany him to Paris in order to form an association of Christian friends for the proclamation of the glad tidings there. I did so, and we succeeded in getting the cordial co-operation of Pastor Fisch, Valette, Fred. Monod, and others for this important work. The first laborer they sent there was named Pinto. He brought dear Matteo Cosido to the Divine Savior, and afterward they helped dear Matamoros in his glorious mission, until he had the great honor to suffer bonds for Christ. Eternity will tell by-and-bye the result of this Paris journey—but one result manifested at present is the existence of some sixty congregations in Spain where idolatry is banished. Where God's word is read and where prayer is wont to be made; but there is still much land to be occupied. We want now men of the stamp of the writer of the letter at page 87 of this edition, to help forward this work by their prayers and sympathy, and I trust God will find them; precious Phebes, "who was a succourer of many," and such holy faithful women whose labors have been and are being owned of God in Spain now. We have some there, I say, but may our God send many such, and may He abundantly bless those who are at present at work, whose praise is in all the churches. America has given us two dear laborers, the brothers Gulick, one stationed at Santander and one at Saragossa. Little did Finney think what would result when Mrs. Gulick was converted through his powerful appeals—a whole family of missionaries. Oh for more Finneys, and more converts like this noble roman.
I now terminate this second edition, commending these pages to my dear Lord and compassionate Savior, beseeching Him to use them as He did the previous ones, to the edification of His precious blood-bought family, and to the stirring up of the wise virgins of our day to obey His Divine command, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
Awake, awake, for night is flying,
The watchmen on the heights are crying;
Awake, Jerusalem at last !
Midnight hears the welcome voices,
And at the thrilling cry rejoices ;
Come forth ye virgins, night is past !
The Bridegroom comes, awake !
Your lamps with gladness take ;
Hallelujah!
And for His marriage feast prepare,
For ye must go and meet Him there.
THE END.