Rev A Brandram No. 26
Mexico 24th September 1828
My Dear Sir,
I have the pleasure of informing you that I am again pretty well restored to health, through the blessing of Him whose unwearied love still sustains us notwithstanding of what we are. I hope yourself, and some of my other friends around you, sometimes make mention of me in your prayers. I find I stand in need of them, for my own spiritual welfare, and for the spiritual welfare of this place. Will you allow me then to say again, that I count upon your aiding me in the way I have mentioned. When I pray for you, and for the prosperity of the Society, I pray also that God would hear your prayers on my behalf, and on behalf of this country. I have often been struck with the anxiety of the Apostle Paul to have the prayers of his Christian brethren offered up for him; and if Paul counted so much on this, and begged so often and so earnestly for the supplications of his brethren, how much more anxious should we be for prayers to be offered up for us, standing, as we do, so much in need of them, through our ignorance, weakness, and the waywardness of our hearts, and living, as we are, in an evil and ensnaring world. Let what I have now said, My Dear Friend, and all of you My Dear Friends, be considered as a new and more earnest petition from this distant land for your aid; and may God himself stir up your spirits within you on our behalf.
What I have to communicate to you this month, is I am sorry to say, not very encouraging. To begin with the worst first, I must say, the sale of the Scriptures here is for the present nearly have to stand. From what I have mentioned to you in some of my late letters, you will not be at a loss to find out the cause of this unpleasant interruption to your work. The edict issued a few months ago by the ecclesiastical authorities in this metropolitan diocese, is the cause of this evil. Although the edict in question, to extend its authority beyond this diocese, yet it has had a considerable influence and various other dioceses in the remoter parts of the country. Within these few days past I have had a letter from Puebla, in which it is mentioned that this edict has about put a stop there to the sale of the Scriptures. Hopes however are expressed in the same letter, that the sale may revive after the lapse of some time when the injunctions of the edict are forgotten. In my last I referred to a second edict without mentioning any place. The place I alluded to was San Luis Potosí. Since writing you I have made more particular inquiry respecting the edict said to be issued there. I find my correspondent was a little in a mistake respecting it in his first communication. It seems there was no edict issued in the diocese of which San Luis is a part. But the Rector of that place wish to make effectual there the edict issued in this diocese of Mexico, although its authority cannot extend beyond the limits of the diocese in which it was issued. With this view he endeavored not only to stop the sale of the Scriptures, but wished also to seize upon those supplies that should come to the Custom House. I am happy however to say the Governor of the State of San Luis oppose the Rector's measures, and gave orders to the Collector of the Customs not to interfere in any wise in this matter.
From Guadalajara I have had a letter within these few days informing me that the Rector of that diocese has issued an order to collect all the copies of the Scriptures each were on sale there. My correspondent adds, that having had notice beforehand of what was likely to be done, he had hid the books, and thus preserved them. I shall write to the Governor of the State of Jalisco of which Guadalajara is the capital, in order that this illegal and violent order may be counteracted, and that the sale of the Scriptures may go on. Sales had been effected there up to the time referred to, to the amount of 251 dollars.
By the accounts I have now given you from Puebla, from San Luis Potosí, and Guadalajara, you see the evil influence that the edict issued in this city has had in different parts of the interior of the country. You will see also the desirableness of having a stop put to this growing evil. In my last letter I noticed my intentions as to a complaint to be made to the general government on account of the illegality of this edict, and the petition for its annulment. On the 10th of this month I presented this complaint, and corresponding petition. The minister to whom I presented my paper received me very favourably and told me that something had already been done towards forming a judgment respecting the legality or illegality of the edict in question. I called his office 10 days after according to his request, and he then told me that some inquiries had been put to the Dean & Chapter; and that their answers would soon be ready, and when he had them before him he would be able to decide upon the subject. I have learned since that the minister's own opinion is decidedly against the edict. From the circumstance one might expect a favourable judgment. I hope it will be so, and I wish I could add that I expected a speedy decision. All however who know the minister speak of him as very dilatory in all his movements. I shall hope for the best notwithstanding, and wish I may be able to communicate to you an early and a favourable issue in this matter. Much, very much depends on this issue as to the future circulation of the Scriptures in this country.
I have made inquiry as to the number of Bibles that have been delivered up in this city in consequence of the edict, and I learned that they do not exceed twenty-five, which is a small number indeed when we think on the hundreds that have been circulated in this capital. There is in this circumstance not a little consolation to us under our present discouragements. We see in this that the people prize their Bibles, and that they disobey ecclesiastical authority when required to give up the Sacred Volume. Let us rejoice that the seed which has been sown is not lost and let us pray that its fruit may be abundant.
You are aware that the two journeys I have made in the interior provinces of this country have given me an opportunity of visiting most of the populous cities in Mexico. I have constantly had in view to make two other journeys in this country in prosecution of your work; the one Northwestward and the other to the East as before, but extending my tours to places still more remote. With this in view I was thinking of visiting the parts of the Northwest during the dry season now near at hand. Upon maturer consideration however, and from a fuller knowledge of the country and the circumstances of the present time, I have given up my intention of making the tour in question until a future occasion or season as occurrences may dictate. My reasons for this decision are:
1st. That the concerns of the Bible Society in this city and State both directly and indirectly are far more important in reference to the general and extensive circulation of the Scriptures in this country than anything that might be expected to be done in the interior. If the Scriptures circulate freely in the capital, they will do the same, all over the country, and if this circulation is impeded here, impediments will as a matter of course take place in other quarters. This edict as you already see as have most injurious effect in the interior. It is necessary therefore to use every endeavour here to counteract it through means of the petition I have presented, and which must be urged forward in person. And should be edict happily be annulled, it will be necessary to undo its effect by actively endeavouring to promote sales in this city, and in other parts of the diocese.
2nd. Under the existing circumstances it does not appear that much good could be done in the interior in consequence of these ecclesiastical measures against the circulation of the Scriptures which have been already taken, and which no doubt will extend themselves to other places. A future visit to the interior after the annulment of the edict would likely prove far more effectual than a visit to them at the present time.
3rd. My absence from the capital would greatly hinder anything that might be expected to be done in the procurement of translators of the Scriptures into the native languages.
4th. I have some hopes that the Scriptures might be introduced into the schools of the State, which if it could be effected, would be a very great point gained, and would I may say be tantamount also to gaining the same in due time in other schools throughout the country. In this State that upwards of one thousand schools, and ten copies to each of them of some part of the Scriptures, would at once circulate and put in active use 10,000 copies of the word of life.
I mention in the 5th. place a motive for remaining here which seems to me sufficient of itself. Through the acquaintances I have already in most places of the country from the visits I paid to them in the two journeys I have taken, I am now enabled to carry on the circulation of the Scriptures through correspondence in writing, and from this city as a centre I could supply or give orders for supplying from Vera Cruz or Tampico the various parts of the country. My correspondence with the interior is every day increasing, and not to be here to attend to it would retard our work. By means of this correspondence with the various cities in the country from the acquaintances I have already formed, and can form here through the Members of Congress from the various States of the Republic, I conceive that almost all can be done that could be done by a personal visit to these places, which would occupy about six months, and would cost the society for my traveling expenses about £300. To these reasons I add in the last place that we are here at present in a very unsettled state from ...
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