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Spain THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 28
Cadiz, Huelva, Granada, and various other places. (4) The Irish Presbyterian Church has opened missions and schools in Cordova and Puerta Santa Maria; and conducts a theological school in the latter place which has done not a little in training evangelists and pastors. (5) The Dutch Presbyterians are reported to have stations at Malaga, Almeria, and Cartagena. (6) The Reformed Churches of Lausanne, and Geneva, Switzerland, sustain missions at Barcelona, Reus, Tarragona, and Pontevedra. (7) The English Wesleyan Methodists undertook their first mission in Spain in 1816 from Gibraltar. This was soon abandoned because of the Roman Catholic opposition. Other efforts were made from 1830 to 1840, with Cadiz as a center, but were also abandoned. The mission was revived in 1869, at Barcelona, and a growing work has been conducted in that vicinity and in the Balearic Isles, just off the coast. The work at Barcelona has prospered greatly of late years under the leadership of Rev. Franklyn G. Smith. (8) The German Lutherans have an important work in Madrid, with several stations in the province, and a publication house which has done much to supply the country with evangelical literature. In Madrid also is located, in a fine building, the celebrated Lutheran " College of the Future " (Colegio de Porvenir). (9) The American Baptist Missionary Union has a station at Barcelona, with several preaching-points in the province. (10) The Swedish Baptists support one missionary in Valencia who has charge of several small churches. (11) The Plymouth Brethren (q.v.) have chapels and schools in La Cornea, Marie, San Tomb, Vigo, Figueras, Barcelona, Madrid, and various other places throughout the kingdom. (12) The Christian Endeavor Societies have been organized in connection with the Protestant churches throughout Spain and, to quote the words of a Protestant missionary on the field, " No other agency yet operating in Spain has [so vitally] produced the spirit of Christian fellowship and [so] helped toward vital union in Evangelical work as the Christian Endeavor." The number of societies is forty-eight, with a total membership of 1,549. Conventions are frequently held in the principal cities and practically all the Protestant communions are represented.
In 1910, statistics show that primary schools were conducted by Protestants in fifty-one of the principal cities and towns of Spain, with 167 teachers and 6,462 pupils. Secondary schools were conducted
in the larger Evangelical centers such z. Schools as Alicante, Huelva, Rio Tinto, Madrid, and Other Santander, and Seville. ,The higher
Agencies. institutions of learning were the " Pres-byterian Theological Institute," at Puerta Santa Maria, the " International College," and the " International Institute for Girls," both at Madrid, and at Barcelona " The College of the Future." Two Protestant hospitals are located in Madrid, one in Barcelona, and a medical dispensary in Figueras. The Protestants have two orphanages in Madrid, and one at Escorial. The principal Evangelical periodicals are La Luz, Amigo de la Infancies, and Esfuerzo Christiano, all published at Madrid; El Evangelists, at Barcelona; El Heraldo, at Figuer-
as; El Correo, at Valencia, with others making eleven in all, most of which are issued monthly. The British and Foreign Bible Society, which entered Spain in 1868, has a central depository in Madrid and supports several colporteurs. Three other Protestant depositories and publishing-houses in Madrid, two in Barcelona, and one in Figueras, issue devotional, controversial, and educational literature at a low price. All of these agencies have been useful in the spread of Protestant culture and Evangelical Christianity throughout Spain.
The great hindrance to the propagation of Evangelical Christianity in Spain in modern times is the existing ecclesiastical corporation, with the ignorance, intolerance, and irreligion which it has
fostered among the people. The strong3. Sum- est ally of the Protestant forces is the
mary of new national spirit which has gradu- Conditions. ally emerged in the course of a centuryand has come in large measure to dominate Spanish thought and feeling, especially since the loss of colonial possessions has centered the interests of the nation on internal enterprises.
It is not surprising that the transition from the medieval to the modern point of view in the national consciousness of the Spanish people has been accompanied by a general drift toward skepticism. To them the Roman Church has appeared as the opponent of progress in every sphere, religious, social, intellectual. Therefore they say, "away with the Church "; and as Rome has consistently claimed to be the only representative of Christianity, the only true religion, they say " religion is Romanism, and we will have none of it." At the same time it could hardly be expected that they should assume other than an indifferent, or even hostile, attitude toward Protestantism. Their knowledge of Protestantism has come exclusively from their priests, who have presented to the people only caricatures of the Reformers and of Protestantism and have filled the minds of the people with prejudice and contempt for any enterprise promoted by Protestants. More than this, the Roman Catholic Church, by its emphasis on forms, ceremonies, and non-essentials, and by its failure to give the people the Bible or adequate instruction in the fundamental principles of morality, has perverted the conscience and corrupted the morals of the great mass of the people to such an extent that there can be little to appeal to them in the high moral teachings of Evangelical Christianity; and this is notoriously true of the entire Roman Catholic body, notwithstanding the fact that within it there are now thousands of sincere and faithful Christians, especially in the convents.
If the Protestant propaganda is to meet successfully the present crisis in Spain, the Protestant leaders by taking a stronger grasp on the agencies already in use and those which lie ready at hand,
and by a sympathetic approach, and 4. Oppor- specific adaptation of their methods to
tunities. the Spanish point of view, must speed-ily strive to attract the attention and win the respect of all classes. The opposition of the ecclesiastical corporation can best be offset by an intelligent and earnest effort to reach the individuals within the ranks of the clergy, to invite them to