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

288 THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES

burned to the ground.14 Dispensaries have been boycotted
as a result of false propaganda asserting that they were furnishing poison for wells. Carabaos and other animals owned
by Protestants are found dead, "the roof of the Protestant
storehouse was set on fire, while the home of the leading
elder was burned to the ground." 15
"Our pastor Kavada, as he came out of the chapel after
evening services, was attacked by a Romanist ex-presidente,
bolo in hand. One of the young men tried to interfere, and
for his pains had his right hand nearly cut off, and will never
have the proper use of it again. He held it up, now useless,
to show me what a man may still suffer in the year of our
Lord 1915. Our people have been stoned, ostracized and
calumniated, all for the Name they have come to love above
every other name. However, the work thrives on persecutions; always has and always will." 16
These things have been written, not as an arraignment of
the Roman Catholic Church, multitudes of whose clergy and
members are the first to condemn such acts as echoes of that
savage period when Protestant and Catholic alike believed in
stamping out heresy by fire and sword. The Roman Catholic
Church in the Philippines has been slow to remove the Spanish
friars with their mediaeval customs. The martyrs of the
Spanish period were liberal Catholics. The martyrs who have
been ushering in the new day in recent years happen to have
been Protestants. They who are persecuted for righteousness
sake may rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for they are the
seeds of the Church. Not only in the Book of Acts, and in the
China Book of Martyrs, but in the Philippines as well, persecution fans the flame like a strong wind, and aids the cause
it seeks to destroy. The gratitude of Protestants to their
fanatical and ignorant oppressors ought to be genuine and
their forgiveness complete. It ought to be recognized that
the unsparing exposure of the ancient regime which Protestant missionaries and pastors have made was sufficient provocation to the Spanish priesthood for them to retaliate in the
"4M. E. Report 1917, p. 55.
X Presbyterian Report 1918, p. 305.
"Rev. Klinefelter in M. E. Report 1915, p. 72.