Southern California . / r\- THE MISSIONS. HE founding and developing of the mis-sions of California constitutes an episodeunique in history. The story has beenoften related, but a brief account cannotbe omitted in a sketch of Southern Cali-fornia. To understand the zeal of thesemen and the wonders which they per-formed, it is necessary to realize their pointof view on the great questions of life, and this,in an age of skepticism, is not easy. It is hardfor us to understand that the mainspring of mens actioncould have been a belief, bitterly realistic, that the soulsof all human beings not bapt
Southern California . / r\- THE MISSIONS. HE founding and developing of the mis-sions of California constitutes an episodeunique in history. The story has beenoften related, but a brief account cannotbe omitted in a sketch of Southern Cali-fornia. To understand the zeal of thesemen and the wonders which they per-formed, it is necessary to realize their pointof view on the great questions of life, and this,in an age of skepticism, is not easy. It is hardfor us to understand that the mainspring of mens actioncould have been a belief, bitterly realistic, that the soulsof all human beings not baptized into the Catholicchurch were certain to suffer the eternal torments ofhell punishment. To men of gentle and refined natures,the pity aroused by this belief stimulated them to almostsuperhuman effort, and enabled them to consecrate theirlives to endless toil and pain in behalf of the savagesthus doomed by divine mandate. It was this conviction which enabled Father JuniperoSerra, an old man with a painful sore of y
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Keywords: ., bookauthorkeelercharlesaugustus, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890
