FROM THE FIELD
BRITISH GUIANA, SOUTH AMERICA
I HAVE now been in this field three months.
The country is radically different from my old
field, Jamaica, with its mountains. Here all
the coast lands for a distance of sixty to one
hundred miles inland are low and flat. They
are on an average five feet below the high-tide
mark of the Atlantic Ocean. In some of the
rivers, the tide runs up the river over a hun-
dred miles in the dry season.
The year is divided into two wet and two
dry seasons. February and March are the
short, and August to November the long, dry
season. But this year the rains have been
continuous from December to the present,
July. So much water has fallen that it has
been impossible to get rid of it through the -
cokers, as is usually done. ‘The coker is a
water-gate that can be opened or closed. It
is built in the dirt wall, and keeps out the sea
water in the high tide, and lets out the water
in the low tide. In consequence of the heavy
rains, much of the land has been under water
for many months, and the fields under cultiva-
tion have been destroyed. Sheep, goats, and
cattle have died of starvation,
Formerly, in the time of slavery, there were
vast sugar estates, but now the largest number
of them have been abandoned. . Some have
been bought by the former slaves and their de-
scendants. In many cases these poor people
have not kept up the dams and ditches, and
the lands are flooded, and much suffering has
been the consequence.
There have been Sabbath-keepers here for
more than twenty years, there being about
three hundred at the present time. The large
majority of the people live on the coast,
Georgetown on the Demerara River and New
Amsterdam on the Berbice being the only
towns. There are two hundred and fourteen
villages. Along the coast, village joins to
village in almost one unbroken line of houses
along the one public road. Only short roads
extend toward the interior. All interior travel
is by boat, so the people live along the rivers
and creeks; and as the hunters go into the for-
ests to hunt the wild animals, so must these
scattered people be hunted out and given the
message to prepare them for the Saviour’s
coming. J. B. BECKNER.
EJ I
SPAIN
SpAIN as a whole strikes one as being at
least two centuries behind the rest of Europe,
and little effort is made to recover the lost
ground. To every proposal for improvement
the one and all-sufficing reply is, Manana (to-
morrow).
Off the lines of railway, Spain seems to have
remained unchanged since the days of the
Moors; and generally speaking, even railway
traveling partakes of the drowsy and slum-
berous character of the country. The trains
travel more slowly, stop more frequently, and
linger longer at the stations, than in any other
country in Europe.
THLE WATCHMAN
One cannot fail to be impressed by the con-
trast between the past and present. Every-
where he meets with trophies which attest the
energy and greatness of the country in former
centuries,
Three hundred years ago, the Spanish mon-
archy was the most powerful in the world.
The sun never set upon her dominions. “But
for the stubborn resistance of a few Protest-
ants, who refused to be coerced, she would
have given the law to Furope. Italy, Ger-
many, and the Low Countries were her vas-
sals, The eastern and western hemispheres
poured their wealth into her coffers.”
Great public works were undertaken. Pal-
aces and cathedrals, convents and halls of
fidelity is taking the place of a blind, bigoted
superstition.
Spain is now divided into two hostile camps.
On the one hand there are those who, terri-
fied at the rapid spread of infidelity, cling more
blindly and tenaciously than ever to the super-
stitions of their fathers. These are confronted
by the great masses, who, confounding all re-
ligion with superstition and priestcraft, are be-
ginning to say that there is no God. This is
developing into a lawless anarchy. It is im-
possible to mix with the people without being
impressed by the dangers with which Spain is
thus threatened.
To the student of prophecy this is an indi-
cation that we are nearing the time when the
AMPHITHEATER AT BARCELONA, SPAIN
It has a seating capacity
A bull fight is held in this amphitheater every Sunday.
of 15,000 people.
learning arose in magnificence over the land.
But in the language of another: “ What their
ancestors built, the degenerate descendants are
unable even to keep in repair. Some of the
noblest edifices of medieval Spain are crumb-
ling into ruins. Wherever we turn, we are
confronted by the evidences of a glorious
past, and of a base and ignoble present.”
Undoubtedly the chief reason why Spain
has sunk from the first to one of the last
among the nations of Europe has been the
iniquitous Inquisition. It robbed the people
of God’s holy word, and crushed out all free-
dom of thought and action. The most intel-
ligent and industrious of her population were
burned or banished.
“The dread tribunal had its officers and its
dungeons in every town: its spies in every
house. No man was safe, except by a mute
unquestioning submission. The highest per-
sonages in the state were not above its reach,
the meanest and poorest peasant was not too
obscure for its notice. Beneath this crushing,
blighting despotism all freedom and all cour-
age perished.”
For three centuries Spain has been suffering
the penalties: of her slavish submission to
Rome. Now the power of Rome has been
broken to an extent, and a violent reaction
against the priesthood has set in. Among
those who turn from the church a defiant in-
tottering “ kingdoms of this world are to be-
come the kingdoms of our Lord and of his
Christ,” “and of his kingdom there shall be
no end.” As the angel messenger proclaimed
to the shepherds of Bethlehem who were
watching their flocks by night, “ Behold, I
bring you good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to all people; for unto you is born
this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which
is Christ the Lord ;” so to-day what the Span-
iard needs more than all else is for some one
to tell him those same good tidings, and make
known to him that that same Saviour wants
to be his Saviour too.
“This gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached in all the world for a witness unto
all nations, and then shall the end come.”
Then the redeemed “ shall come from the east,
and from the west, and from the north and
from the south, and sit down in the kingdom
of God.”
On that occasion we hope to see many of
Spain’s sons and daughters, not of this gene-
ration only, but also a multitude of those who
have been martyred in past centuries for their
faithfulness to God’s word.
The prophet John said, “I beheld, and, lo,
a great multitude, which no man could number,
of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and
tongues, stood before the throne and before
the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms