that he must abandon all use of his reason if he accepted this deed of perfidy and blood as right in the sight of God. His disaffection led him to procure a copy of the Scriptures in Spanish. This he studied in secret, hiding it away from the notice of any one likely to bring its possession to the notice of the friars. In reading the words of Christ the scales fell from his eyes, and he saw that the system of the priesthood is a human invention. During the long years that followed he became a marked man—a Bible reader! When the insurrection of 1896 broke out he was caught in the dragnet let down into Manila depths by orders of a government acting under the direction of the friars. He was banished to the island of Chafarina, in the Mediterranean, north of Africa. Nearly three hundred others, also under friar condemnation, accompanied him in the prison-ship, many of whom died from the rigors of their treatment on the way. He was there until the signing of the Treaty of Paris, and was one of the many prisoners for conscience' sake set at liberty under its provisions. He immediately went to Spain, where he sought out religious services of the Protestants, of whom he had until that time only read and heard. He found his spirit refreshed as he communed with them, and, loaded with Bibles and Testaments, and filled with a desire to carry to his countrymen the Gospel of Christ in its simplicity, he returned to his home in which, at last, it was safe to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience.

In his absence his son had completed his course in the College of Santo Tomas, and had received his Master's degree. Already imbued with his father's ideas of true religion from long secret study of the Scriptures, he was ready to avow his faith in Christ as a personal Savior when his exiled father again ventured back where

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH: BEGINNINGS.

THE Methodist Episcopal Church was the first to send a regularly accredited representative of its Missionary Society to found its work in the Philippine Islands. That representative was Bishop James M. Thoburn, D. D., in episcopal charge of Southern Asia. His instructions came to him by cable from Bishop Andrews and Dr. Adna B. Leonard, secretary of the Missionary Society of that Church, in February, 1899, while he was holding the annual session of the Malaysia Mission Conference in the city of Singapore, to which he had been strangely led from Calcutta in 1885.

It was good news to the bishop. His heart had longed for such orders for more than a decade of investigation and prayer for open doors to the Filipino people. Now the doors were open. The orders had come. It was a period of storm and stress in the Philippines. On the 4th of February had occurred the outbreak of hostilities between the Filipinos and American troops, and rebellion was aflame on all hands. But it was with keen delight that the bishop set out on this trip, which he well knew was to make history.

On March 2, 1899, he preached his first sermon in Manila. Mr. A. W. Prautch, to whom reference was made in the preceding chapter, secured the Filipino theater in Calle Echague, and about one hundred persons gathered to hear. It was a service held under diffi

culties. Firing was going on so near the city that the shots could be plainly heard. All the city was under strict military guard. Permission to hold the service had to be secured from the commanding officer of the city. Nearly all the Americans in Manila were soldiers, and practically all of these were either on duty or in momentary expectation of a call to duty. Filipinos had not yet learned much of their privileges in the matter of attendance upon any form of non-Catholic services, and a service of a religious character held in a theater was not inviting to them. There were few of the customary aids to worship; but the Spirit of prophecy rested upon the speaker. He traced the history of God's kingdom in Asia, showed the providential character of American occupation, and spoke freely of the evident purpose of God to make possible to the entire Filipino people a career of peace and righteousness. With great power the bishop enforced the text, "He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth; and the isles shall wait for his law." In the afternoon of the same day he spoke in one of the military hospitals. During his stay of two weeks several steps were taken looking toward a permanent occupation of Manila and the Philippines. A Church was organized. Arrangements were made to carry forward regular preaching services in both English and Tagalog. Mr. Prautch received license as a local preacher, and the aid of Chaplain George C. Stull, of Montana, and other workers who had a mind to help, was enlisted in maintaining these services until the arrival of regularly-appointed workers from the United States.

A Soldiers' Institute was opened under the care of Mr. and Mrs. Prautch. It had a great field among the crowds of soldiers, mostly volunteers, many of whom