August, 1941
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
294
Man . . . In His Own Language"
"Every
By ELISABETH HAVEN LATHROP none of the Word of God in their native tongues. A very small proportion un derstand their Indian idiom and Spanish equally well. ‘ Many can- understand enough to buy and sell, but find it very difficult, if not impossible, to compre hend the truth of the gospel, much less the great facts of the abundant life in Christ, unless the explanation comes to them in their own language. But these Indian groups are_ not for gotten, for there are .now thirty-seven young people working in eighteen of the fifty-one tribes in this country, re ducing their difficult languages to writ ing, compiling dictionaries, puzzling over knotty grammatical problems such g.s they had never dreamed existed. They are learning to speak understand ably, and are translating parts of God’s Word for the Indians. The Gospel of John has already been published in one dialect of the Aztec, and is received with great delight by believers of that tribe. For another tribe, two able young wo men have finished the whole New Testa
ment in its first draft in the Mazateco language. Language As a- Door to Understanding For four hundred years there has been a form of Christianity in Mexico. But priestcraft enslaved the Indians who mixed the already perverted teachings of Roman Catholicism with their own forms of idolatry. And practically all the teaching was in Spanish, in creasing* the errors for these people who understand so little of that language. "This is the first time in many years that I have been up here to see the ‘old man,’ ” remarked Nalo, as he brushed away faded' floral offerings to reveal to his companion a man-shaped outcropping of rock. "You see, it is only recently that my | fear of him is gone. The witch doctor in the village says that he serves just as well as the saints in the church for divining diseases, and for other secrets of witchery. But now I know this is nothing but a rock.’’ Several years before, the Lord had t
n T w e n t y INDIANS gathered be neath a big tree with their Span- 1 ish Bibles open to the Sunday- school lesson of the day.' Their red blankets, shirts of every hue, and bright belts made a splash of color against the brownness of the mud houses and the dusty ground. The stocky, bronze-faced man who stood before them was their pastor and teacher, Isaac, a full-blooded Indian, one of the very few who has had an education in Spanish and a training in the things of the Lord. Yet he faced a great difficulty in teaching these In dians, for though several of them could read Spanish haltingly, the words meant little to them. Therefore it was neces sary for Isaac to translate extempo raneously into their language, as best he could, and teach -them in the tongue in which the truth could reach their hearts without the hindrance of misun derstood words. Isaac and his little group of believers are representative of the three million Indian population of Mexico, who have
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