Through Five Republics on Horseback, Being an Account of Many Wanderings in South AmericaRay, George Whitfield
Religion
Through Five Republics on Horseback, Being an Account of Many Wanderings in South America
Ray, George Whitfield
Ray, George Whitfield, 1868- -- Travel -- South America; South America -- Description and travel
The South American version of Matthew 11:28, as may be seen carved on a
stone of the Jesuit Church in Cuzco, is: "Come to MARY, all you who are
laden with works, and weary beneath the weight of your sins, and _she_
will alleviate you," A literal translation of one of the prayers
offered to her reads: "Yes, beloved Mother! of thee I supplicate all
that is necessary for the salvation of my soul. Of whom should I ask
this grace but of Thee? To whom should a loving son go but to his
beloved Mother? To whom the weak sheep cry but to its divine
shepherdess? Whom seek the sick, but the celestial doctor? Whom invoke
those in affliction but the mother of consolation? Hear me then, Holy
Queen!"
The statues of the "Queen of Heaven" are often of great magnificence,
the dress of one which I know having cost $2,000. In the poor Indian
churches a bag of maize leaves, tied near the top to make a neck, and
above that an Indian physiognomy, painted with some vegetable dye,
serves the same purpose. The Bishop of La Serena, in Chili, has
received as much as $40,000 a year for keeping up the revered image in
that church, and these images _are worshipped_. Bequests are often left
to them, and a popular one will receive many legacies annually.
To be just, I must mention that in the arms of this "Mother of God"
there is, almost invariably, the child Jesus, but I must also state
that to tens of thousands this baby never grew to manhood, but went up
to heaven in His mother's arms. What a caricature of Christianity! Paul
said: "If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your
faith is also vain." "Make Jesus a perpetual child, and Mariolatry
becomes lower than Chinese ancestral worship." If He, as a child, was
translated to heaven, then He never died and rose again. Mary is, to
them, the Saviour. The child Jesus happened to be her son, and, as she
was the great divine one, He, through her, partook of divinity. _La
Cruz_, a weekly paper, published in Tucuman, Argentina, in its issue of
September 3rd, 1899, had the following article:
THE BIRTH OF MARY.
"Chroniclers say that such was the fury that possessed the devils in
hell, at the moment of the birth of the Most Blessed Virgin, that they
nearly broke loose.
"There was sounded in heaven the first cannon shot in salutation of
such a happy event. Lucifer gave such a jump that he got his horns
caught in the moon, and there, it is said, he remained hanging all the
day, like the insignificant fellow he is, to the great amusement of the
blessed ones above, who laughed to see such an uncommon sight.
"The other devils, who could not jump so high, remained below screaming
and kicking!, and tearing their apology for beards, when not otherwise
occupied in scratching and biting and burning the unfortunate condemned
ones.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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