awake thinking what to do." She has moved again when the next letter arrives. "I am trying to settle the Gubat problem, but I am not worried. I am casting all my cares upon Him who died on Calvary. The services are a great comfort to me, for every one is splendid, whether in the church or out of doors. Last night we began at half past eight and ended at half past ten. Imagine how I preached! Only I find my voice very hoarse this morning." Then this slender little girl is in another and a harder town, from which she is saying: "We came here last night and held services as soon as we got off the truck. It was a little discouraging because there were several persons who tried to interrupt the interest of the audience. There are some really savage people in this place. They molested us because they had received instructions to do so from their priest, before we arrived. This is the first time they have ever heard the gospel message. I do not lose hope for I know that there are sheep of Christ among these people. We are preparing for another service. I plan to have services morning and afternoon and evening as we have but little time to stay here . . ." and she hurries on to the next towns where they have never heard the story she came to tell. A stranger may read these burning letters without emotion, but nobody with a heart could do so if he knew the little saint who wrote them.

"Sore temptations assail the little workers," wrote Miss Stixrud, "and their letters to me are full of appeal for help. The trouble arises mainly from the fact that they must go alone. But they have never proven unfaithful. These deaconesses have spent more than half their salaries in traveling. The deaconesses are in need of their deaconess mother to love and sympathize with them in their sorrow and joy, as well as to direct their work. Some girls have overworked and need to be taken away for a rest. Some are broken hearted by the death or sorrow of those they loved. Some have been imposed upon by the families with whom they lived. . . .'

"In the Lagonoy district the work of Angustia Pron and her brother has been remarkable. The brother is not a

preacher, and Angustia is untried, but they have won their way with the people. Recently we wrote to the churches that unless the people took more seriously the matter of selfsupport we should have to remove the Prons. The next time I visited there, as I neared the house, the children who are always at Angustia's heels started to weep. It was a wail that reached to heaven. I did not see the brother or sister, and I surmised that one of them was either dead or dying, from the sounds and evidences of tears that I saw on every hand. I jumped from the car and rushed up to the house to be met by Angustia, and I asked her if she were ill. She said, 'No.' I then found out that the children were weeping because they thought that I had come to take Angustia away. 'We love her, Mr. Brown; we never had such a teacher.' It was very sweet. There are nearly four hundred in that open-air Sunday school."

1

In all the world it would be impossible to find more completely consecrated lives than many of these Bible women and deaconesses. "One of our deaconesses received $50 from one of her correspondents in the States. Without a suggestion from us, she turned it all over to the fund for building the new church in San Fernando." And how they can collect money from others! "Inocencia," writes Mrs. Housley, "has collected more money for her chapel than has ever been collected by any native pastor in the province. She has a talent for getting people interested in her work. She put up a nice chapel quickly and cheaply-even the Roman Catholics helped her without pay.. All she gave them was their dinners." Rev. Moe tells of a little Filipino lady of twenty years, who because her church needed her, left the girls' seminary before graduating. In six months she raised two hundred pesos, contracted for materials and construction, saw the work through, and held the first service in the new church. (Why do missionaries so often forget to give the full names of these wonderful Christian ladies? There ought to be a rule that nobody should be commended without giving her name.) These girls are the heroes in the trenches. In heaven their Rev. Roy H. Brown in the Presbyterian, Jan. 1922.

names appear in full, in large bold print, high up in the list. And in the minds of thousands upon thousands of members they stand first. Mr. Widdoes declares that the request of the churches in the province of La Union always is, "Send us a deaconess whether you can send us a pastor with her or not." Francisca Cutaran has probably broken the world's record. She cares for a husband and four children. She arose in an Institute with her baby in her arms and read the following report for the year: 121 sermons; 51 exhortations; 24 conversions; 68 visits to the sick; 109 visits to homes; 69 prayer meetings; 104 times taught class in hygiene; 25 times taught class in catechism; 26 times taught Sunday school class; gave 2.40, 32 bunches of rice and 4 chickens for the support of the pastor.

It is enough. Credulity could endure no more.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE INDEPENDENT PROTESTANT CHURCHES

In this tropical climate where vegetation grows so luxuriantly, new denominations have been equally prolific. Scarcely a mission has been so fortunate as to avoid a schism. Even the Seventh Day Adventists have lost from their membership a considerable number who were dissatisfied because they were not permitted to eat lard, pig, shrimps, etc., or otherwise violate the requirements of the Old Testament. The name of the New Adventist denomination is Iglesia Adventista del Septimo Dia Glorioso.

None of the schismatics have gone back into the Roman Catholic Church. One small group joined the ranks of the Aglipayans. All the others have established their own denominations on strictly evangelical lines. Occasionally schismatics from one mission seek entrance in another, but nearly always they remain entirely free from missionary control. Filipino schisms are one aspect of the ever growing spirit of nationalism. They result from a feeling that political independence is inadequate unless spiritual independence accompanies it. Often the foreign missionary is the victim of the indiscretions of his fellow countrymen. He must share the criticism for what they say on the question of independence, whether he shares the prevalent view or not. Every time a new instance of racial estrangement appears, one hears of plans for a new independent church.

The Methodist Mission was the first to feel the effects of the desire for independence. It is placed in a peculiarly vulnerable position by its very virtues. It employs a large number of preachers at low salaries, and gives many of its local preachers no salaries at all. These men are likely to grow dissatisfied under the control of foreigners, especially

when they are not promoted as rapidly as they feel that they should be. This risk is the price Methodism has had to pay for her amazing progress.

The first break occurred in 1905 in Baliuag, Bulacan Province. An unordained local preacher named Manuel Aurora, chafing under what he regarded as an inadequate salary, organized a society, the avowed purpose of which was to separate from the Methodist Mission. A committee of investigation found him guilty of "lying, sowing dissension, and improper conduct. While the committee of investigation was in session, he returned his license and withdrew from the church. About eighty of our members followed him, having nothing against the church, but being influenced by his arguments about independencia in church affairs." 1 This is what was known as the "Baliuag Revolt." Aurora had himself ordained by a group of provisional laymen and ex-local preachers. The new church was called the Religion Evangelica Filipina de los Cristianos Vivos.

The movement gradually spread until to-day it has churches in the city of Manila, in nine municipalities in Bulacan Province, two in Rizal, four in Pampanga, and seven in Nueva Ecija. Its basic ideas throw light upon the direction of the thought of most of the schismatic churches. The more important of them are: (1) To respect and admit all sorts of religious belief and practice, provided it is not contrary to morality and law. (2) To love God and one's own race and nation. (3) To recognize natural law as the ruling power in nations and individuals as in all the world. (4) To strive for the triumph of Filipino Christianity, and for the salvation, prosperity, strength, and security of the Filipino race.

Aurora came to the conclusion that God, being love, could not punish anybody, but would at last bring all to eternal happiness. This universalistic doctrine was attended by scandals of immorality. The result was that many of the better members broke away and organized the Iglesia Nacional Filipina, which was officially registered in 1910.

'Report of Mr. A. E. Chenowith, Methodist Annual Conference 1906.