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 RIERE 
 
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 HIS BOOK 
 
 By Rev. ALFRED C. WRIGHT 
 ances: 
 Of Guadalajara, Mexico 
 
 (Reprinted from Missionary Herald) 
 
 EARS ago when Bibles were scarce 
 in this land there lived a little 
 boy in one of the northern states 
 
 of the republic whose father gave him 
 a book when he had learned to read, 
 saying he had found it among his 
 books and that it seemed to him in- 
 teresting and to contain good moral 
 teaching. To be sure of it they took 
 the book to the village priest, who, 
 for a wonder, declared it to be a good 
 book; indeed, he said it was the best 
 in the world. 
 
 So the boy began to read; the more 
 he read the more interested and de- 
 lighted he became, and he learned 
 many parts of the book by heart. He 
 continued reading and learning for 
 . several years, until after the death of 
 his father. So he came to love the 
 book, supposing there was not another 
 one like it in all the world. When he 
 was twelve or fourteen years of age 
 
it occurred to him one day to take his 
 book with him to school that he might 
 show it to his teacher. What was his 
 surprise and consternation when the 
 master, throwing up his hands, cried : — 
 
 ** Ave Maria, boy, where did you get 
 that book? Don’t you know it is one 
 of those accursed Protestant books? 
 Give it to me this instant!”’ 
 
 Whereupon he seized the volume and 
 bore it off. The boy cried and begged 
 the teacher to give him back his book, 
 but no, he was told that if he wanted 
 it he must go to the priest, to whom 
 the teacher would take it. 
 
 The boy went home inconsolable and 
 wept most of the night. The next day 
 he went to the priest, a newcomer 
 aware of the insidious Protestant teach- 
 ings of the Bible, who told him that 
 his book had been burned and that he 
 must never read such books lest he be 
 excommunicated by the church. 
 
 From that day the boy lost interest 
 in everything. For years he led a 
 careless and even dissolute life, wan- 
 dering from place to place. At length, 
 while working for a candy maker in 
 El Paso, Texas, the man invited him 
 one evening to go with him to some 
 sort of a gathering; the poor fellow 
 did not know nor much care what it 
 was. As he listlessly entered the room 
 he saw a man standing on a sort of 
 platform with a large book before him 
 
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from which he was reading, and he 
 heard some words which he remem- 
 bered. Instantly breaking from his 
 companion, who tried to restrain him, 
 the young man rushed forward in front 
 of the whole congregation, and stopping 
 in front of the reader, said : — 
 
 ‘‘Sir, have the kindness to give me 
 back my book. That is my book that 
 you are reading from. They took it 
 away from me years ago, but it is 
 mine.’’ 
 
 And he stretched out his hand toward 
 the preacher to receive his treasure, 
 for he had not the slightest idea there 
 could be more than one such book. 
 The preacher, astonished, asked him 
 why he called the book his. 
 
 ““T can prove to you it is mine,”’ said 
 he. “I will tell you what it says.” 
 And he began to repeat passages that 
 he had learned years before. 
 
 The result was that they gave him 
 “his book,’’ and it changed his life. 
 He is now an honored doctor, living in 
 the city of Mexico not far from the 
 place where this is written, a member 
 of an evangelical church, and still be- 
 lieving that there is not in the world 
 a book so good as his book. 
 
 The story was related to me by a 
 young man who was converted recently 
 in a meeting held near this place; the 
 doctor had told it to him some time 
 ago. 
 
REV. ALFRED C. WRIGHT is a mis- 
 sionary of the American Board in its 
 Mexican Mission. The missionary force 
 of the Board in Mexico numbers fifteen, 
 occupying six stations, in the cities of 
 Guadalajara, Chihuahua, Hermosillo, Par- 
 ral, El Fuerte, and C. Guerrero. Con- 
 nected with these stations are fifty-nine 
 outstations. The population of Mexicd is 
 over 13,605,000, only nineteen per cent 
 being of the white race. Twelve years 
 ago more than 10,000,000 of the population 
 could neither read nor write. The value 
 of the schools which the Board maintains 
 in this land, from the kindergarten to the 
 college, can be judged from the above 
 figures, and is emphasized by the stury 
 told in this leaflet. Similar stories of in- 
 teresting life histories from this and the 
 other nineteen missions of the Board are 
 continually appearing in the Missionary 
 Herald. 
 
 Ui 
 
 PIS 
 
 For copies of other leaflets published by the Amer- 
 ican Board, or for subscriptions to the Missionary 
 Herald, write to John G. Hosmer, 14 Beacon Street, 
 Boston, Mass. The subscription price of the Herald 
 is 75 cents a year; in church clubs of ten or more 
 members, 50 cents a year. 
 
 Contributions should be sent to Frank H. Wiggin, 
 Treasurer, 14 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass., or to 
 the District Secretaries, as follows: Rev. Charles C. 
 Creegan, D.D., Fourth Avenue and 22d Street, New 
 York; Rev. A. N. Hitchcock, Ph.D., 153 La Salle 
 Street, Chicago, Ill.; Rev. H. Melville Tenney, Bar- 
 ker Block, Berkeley, Cal. 
 
 4 
 
 Thomas Todd Boston