now have free course and be glorified." Men immediately came over from Matamoras for Bibles and tracts, saying, "We can now distribute Protestant books without any hindrance, and we will pay you for all you can let us have."
In 1860 the American Bible Society employed the Rev. Mr. Thompson to labor as their agent in Mexico, the authorities encouraging his work. As far as Monterey he found that the Bible had preceded him everywhere. At Cadereita, thirty miles from Monterey, a man met him with the abrupt question, "Are you not a teacher of the Bible? I have dreamed of just such a looking man as you; I knew that somewhere there must be the living teacher of this book." It was found that this man was well read in the Scriptures. He had thrown aside popery, embraced the gospel, and gave good evidence of being truly "born again." In 1861 this Mexican and his eldest son came to Brownsville, and after careful examination were received into a Protestant church, the first Mexicans who dared to come out publicly and profess the Protestant faith.
In 1861, Miss Rankin and her helpers were shut out by the civil war from communication with friends in the United States, and Mr. Thompson returned to the United States.
Rev. James Hickey, being obliged, as a Union man, to flee from Texas, went to work in Mexico; he was the first man to collect a congregation of Protestant Mexicans. In two places he found churches ready for organization, the result of Bible-reading alone.
After laboring for years amid many perils and some disasters, Miss Rankin's long-cherished desire was granted, and in 1866 she crossed over into Mexico and began
