Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/300

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288
PLAIN TALK TO CHURCH DIGNITARIES.

guage as that which he made use of a year or two since, when he shook his finger at the assembled dignitaries of the Church, and exclaimed with an emphasis and earnestness which had in it the spirit of prophecy:

"Look you, sirs! That henceforth you walk in the strait and narrow way, turning neither to the right nor to the left, as becomes the followers of the meek and lowly Jesus of Nazareth, or prepare for the inevitable day, in which the long suffering people of Mexico, shall arise in their might, level your proud temples to the dust, and scatter the fragments of your pagan idols to the winds!"

Of his speech on this occasion I give a very hasty translation, made by Señor Don Miguel Pedrorena, of San Francisco, premising however, that no translation however perfect, can give a clear idea of the torrent of fiery eloquence which flows from his lips when he warms to his subject. As he proceeded all the guests left their seats, and stood around the chair of the President to listen in silence only broken from time to time by enthusiastic applause, in which all joined.

Gentlemen:—The Minister of one of the republics of South America, perhaps the most flourishing, said, a few years ago, referring to the honors that had been tendered by his country to the illustrious Cameron and S. Martin, that "Those nations only that are grateful, deserve to be assisted."

A holy maxim, that has been stamped forever in the conscience of the people, the observance of which has raised them to the highest pinnacle of power, and the forgetfulness of which has dragged to degradation the most famous and powerful empires. The republics of this new Continent should always keep in their minds this maxim, that we may never forget it, if we wish to see America occupy that position that has been assigned