The people of the Philippines, their religious progress and preparation for spiritual leadership in the Far East,

UNLOCKING THE FORBIDDEN BOOK

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The Bibles which the two colporteurs had failed to smuggle
past the customs at Manila, were shipped back to Singapore,
where they lay in a storehouse of the British and Foreign
Bible Society for ten years. When in August, I898, the Singapore agent of the Society, Mr. C. B. Randall, heard of the
capture of Manila, he wasted not a day; he packed the gospels
translated by Lallave, now yellow with age, and with them
portions in Tagalog and Bicol which Don Pascual Poblets
and Don Cayetano Lukban had prepared in Spain, and a
large supply of Spanish Bibles; and he sailed on the first boat
for Manila. On September 6, 1898, the unlocked Bible made
its triumphal entry into the Philippines. Choking with emotion as he thought of the four hundred years during which
the most priceless record in the world had been kept from
the Filipino people, Mr. Randall opened his books before the
customs officials, and heard them say "0. K." "Gentlemen,"
said Mr. Randall as the unrestrained tears flowed down his
cheeks, "that is the first time those words have been uttered
by customs officials over the Holy Bible since these Islands
were created!" Before that day was over he had sold twenty
Bibles, seventeen Testaments, and forty-five portions of the
Scriptures. He visited Aguinaldo at Malolos and presented
to the famous insurrectionst a handsome Spanish Bible and
an English Testament.
Mr. Randall, together with Secretaries C. A. Glunz and
F. A. Jackson of the Army Young Men's Christian Association, went to Dagupan, carrying the old yellow Pangasinan
gospels translated many years before by Lallave. So eager
were the people for the forbidden book that, says Mr. Randall, "the colporteurs had to take refuge in a building and
pass the books out through the grated windows to avoid being
overrun."
Almost every province contains stories of men who prepared the way for the coming of the new day, as a result of
their contact with the Scriptures. Enrique Villareal of Albay
was caught with a Bible in his possession by the Spanish authorities and sent into exile. After the defeat of Spain he
returned to his home, and did valiant work in spreading the