The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 17 of 55 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 290 pages of information about The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 17 of 55.

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 17 of 55 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 290 pages of information about The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 17 of 55.
the men deserve another.  A very old man dropped from his hands the slip of paper given to him monthly, on which was written the name of the saint whom he had received by lot.  Grieved at his loss, the good old man ran back to the village of Taitai, which is about a mile from his own; and thence (as he did not find the father who used to distribute that kind of slips of paper) he went on to Antipolo, over a rough and hilly road.  When he reached there, after going four miles, he first asked the father’s pardon for his carelessness; and then begged him not to refuse to give him another in place of his lost patron.  This fact shows plainly enough with what zeal these tribes strive after the greater matters of salvation.  In another place an Indian was lying sick, and had received communion and been anointed with the holy oil.  Early in the evening he began to be in such agony that the people in the house took him for dead, and, after laying out the body, put him on his ancestral bier.  After they had watched the whole night about his body, when dawn returned he returned also, stammered something, and about noon uttered his words articulately.  Then he said first that he seemed to have been dead three years, because of the cruel torments which he had himself suffered in hell, and which he had seen an infinite number of Indians suffer.  There demons—­as it were, smiths—­kindled forges with bellows, poured melted iron over the wretched souls, and in the midst of their pitiful howlings burnt them forever with never-ceasing tortures.  After he had seen these things, he said, he had been led by a venerable old man away to a higher place, by reaching which (for he thought it was heaven) he was filled so full of bliss that he was unwilling to leave it.  But when he was commanded, he returned to life, to inform the living about each place to which men are consigned, that of the blessed and that of the damned; and this command, he affirmed, was laid upon him under a heavy penalty; for there are among mortals not a few who by the pretense of virtue deceive themselves and others, and although they are looked upon as good, yet are very far from the service of God.  Then he added that his conductor told him to bid his fellow-townsmen be of good courage, for the church they were then engaged in building would be better and stronger than the others.  The Indian, after he had said these things, recovered, and a general confession was appointed.  He continues to this day to show by his life and example that those things which he reported were no dreams.  The improvement of morals which has followed in many others who heard of these things has almost entirely put an end to pretexts for doubt and suspicions of deceit.

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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 17 of 55 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.