Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Old San Gabriel Mission: Historical Notes Taken From Old Manuscripts and Records, Accurately Compiled After Diligent Research, With Mention of the Other California Franciscan Missions and Their Founders
They have long since gone to their reward but the frag rance of their holy examples we still perceive; they are here no more, but their generous sacrifices are left behind for us to admire, and their splendid virtues for us to emulate. Their bodies rest somewhere in this land of perennial sunshine, but the fruits of their labor, their wondrous achievements, survive them.
No, not all is gone with their passing out of this earth. Their mighty deeds speak to us even after their death. The Missions founded by them stand yet; sermons in stones as someone has called them, they loudly tell us oftheir courage, patience, devotion to God and man. In justice we must say that the Missions have been the cradle of our civilization. Within their sacred walls the Indians gained the knowledge of the true God; they were taught to serve Him and to love their fellow-men; their hands were trained to manual labor and useful trades. And who will not admit that under the wise direction of the Mission Padres, they succeeded in becoming skillful mechanics and even good artists? Witness the Missions, and the remarkable structures about them, some of which have stubbornly withstood the test of time.
Our very town of San Gabriel owes its birth to the good old Padres whose energies were devoted not only to God's glory but also to man's welfare, who in consequence built up along with sacred edifices, dwellings for their charges, the Indians, community houses, schools, workshops, in a word, whole villages and towns. Look over the California map and see how many cities sprang up by the Missions that still bear their names. Those sweet, musical names were given them with exquisite taste by the founders of the Missions.
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