# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 06 24_S171
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

171

of poor students, and have it acknowledged in the "Lutheraner." Where one has but first desire and love for the cause, there all such scruples will be overcome. What a joy it would be if here and there such a Society were to arise! What emulation it would awaken! What blessing would be established without and within! The young men within the Lutheran congregation at Fort Wayne, Ia., and of the Lutheran congregation at Bremen near St. Louis have already followed the example of the St. Louis young men and have formed like societies. Many a young man enters such a Society at first because the fellowship of the young men and the bodily purpose attract him; and he is won for the Church and learns among Christian young men the right nature of a living Christian. How blessed is such a young man become through joining the Society! Up, you Christian young men, make a beginning! Do not delay! Wait not until you have become many! Unite, that you may become many! Would you let yourselves be frightened off by the outcry of the unbelievers? They, to be sure, will blame you when you give one cent for the Church. But they blame you also when you pray, when you believe and strive to be saved. They will call upon you to join their anti-Christian societies. Precisely against them, the unbelievers, you must make a free and cheerful confession for the truth, for the Kingdom of God, for the highly praised King and Lord in this Kingdom, for the LORD Jesus Christ Himself. Confess Him also in this way, by deed, before men in our evil times that deny Christ; and the Lord Jesus will also confess you one day before His heavenly Father and all His holy angels, on that great day, on which all unbelievers and ungodly shall come to shame, and all believers and pious to honor, and shall reap without ceasing. Amen.

Communicated.
The Bible in Spain,
or Travels, Adventures and Imprisonment of an Englishman in his Attempt to Circulate the Holy Scriptures on the Peninsula.
By George Borrow. 1843.

In the book which bears this title the author, George Borrow, describes his sojourn in Spain during the years 1835 — 1840, and his efforts to circulate the Bible there. Through the intercession of the English ambassador at Madrid, Mr. Villiers, he obtained from the Spanish government permission to have the New Testament printed in the Spanish language, whereupon he produced at Madrid an edition of the same of 5000 copies. Besides this he translated the Gospel of St. Luke also into the Nanische Gypsy language and into the Euskarra or Biscayan language, which is spoken on both sides of the Pyrenees.

In order to spread the Word of God in Spain, he established depots of the New Testament with the booksellers of Madrid and the capitals of the provinces. Then he rode through the whole country, mostly on a fiery Andalusian stallion, and distributed the Word of God not only in villages and cities, but also among the inhabitants of the plains, hills and mountains. His assistants in the circulation of the N. Test. were the Spaniards Juan and Victoriano Lopez, and the Greeks Antonio Buchini, his servant, Dionysius, John Chrysostom and Manuel.

In this he often fell into danger of his life. But, says he, does he deserve the name of a disciple of Christ who, in the cause of Him whom he calls his Master, shrinks back from any danger? "Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it" are words which the Lord Himself has spoken. These words were my comfort." More than once he was in danger of being shot by bandits and of falling into the hands of the Carlists; by the inhabitants of Finisterra he was taken for Don Carlos and was to be shot by order of the alcalde, when he was saved only by a narrow escape through the intervention of an old Spanish sailor.

But Borrow found his most violent opponents in the Roman priesthood. Borrow opened in one of the busiest streets of Madrid a bookshop for the sale of New Testaments, and had painted upon it in large yellow letters the words: Despacho de la Sociedad Biblica*). Then he had 3000 handbills printed on yellow, blue and crimson paper and posted in all the streets, in which he announced the sale of New Testaments, and besides this he had it inserted in all the newspapers. Thus his bookshop became known throughout Madrid, and he sold daily a quantity of New Testaments. This aroused the wrath of the Roman Catholic clergy. "He practises sorcery," said the one bishop. "He will yet convert all Spain with the gypsy language," said the other. Then it was said in chorus: Que infamia! Que picardia! †) At last Barrow was, at their instigation, thrown into the court prison, Carcel de la Corte at Madrid. But this gave the priests fresh anxiety. "Now," they said, "the rascal in prison learns the language of the thieves, and as soon as he comes out he will translate the Gospel into the language of the thieves; and that is still worse than the Gypsy Gospel; for of the gypsies there are only few: but of the thieves! woe to us! we shall yet all be Lutheranized!" After Borrow had sat three weeks in prison, he was released from it through the mediation of the English ambassador.

*) Office of the Bible Society.
†) what a shame! what wickedness!

Also otherwise Borrow experienced many a hostility from the Roman priests. "He is a heretic; he poisons the people with his Lutheran books," said the priest of Villa Seka. In Leon the priests went from house to house and threatened curse and ban to everyone who should read the N. Testament, "the accursed book." — How the Roman clergy in general deals with regard to the Bible, the following story shows. "About 20 years ago," a priest at Pedron told Borrow, "the English distributed many Bibles among the Spaniards who happened to be in London. Some of these fell into the hands of several sailors of Padron, who after their return to Galicia suddenly became great lovers of disputing. One could never put forward an assertion about religious matters without meeting contradiction from them. 'It is false,' they used to say, 'St. Paul says in that chapter in that verse just the contrary.' 'How do you know then what St, Paul or the other saints have written?' the priests then asked. 'Much better than you think,' they answered, 'we need no longer remain in ignorance about this,' and then they showed their books, read passages out of them and made such remarks upon them that everybody was scandalized. Moreover they cared nothing for the Pope and spoke even of the bones of St. James with irreverence. By order of the bishop, however, their books were collected and burned, the sailors received their punishment and a reprimand, and since then I have heard nothing more of them."

Yet Barrow was also permitted to learn that there were also in the Roman Catholic clergy some who had not received the mark of the beast, of the Roman Antichrist. Not only priests, but also bishops bought Bibles and recommended them to their congregations. When Juan Lopez was selling Bibles at Abades, two clergymen threatened eternal damnation to everyone who should buy them; while the third clergyman exerted himself to the utmost to move the people to provide themselves with New Testaments, saying that his brethren were false leaders and hypocrites, who kept them in ignorance of Christ's Word and will and so led them into the abyss of perdition. — One of the most zealous distributors of the Bible in Madrid was a clergyman. He never went out without putting a N. Testament in his pocket, which he offered to the first person he met and of whom he believed that he would buy it.

Also into the houses of many persons of rank the Bibles found their way. The Marquis of N. had a large family, yet every member of it received a Bible, and indeed, remarkably, on the recommendation of the house chaplain. An elderly, very rich nobleman from Navarre bought Bibles continually at his own