the name of God in vain ;' therefore the vow of celibacy must never be broken."

A man in time of persecution was urged to deny his Saviour, but refused, asseverating that the name of Jesus was deeply engraven on his heart. He was immediately killed, his heart extracted, and the name was actually found clearly represented on it!

A company from Germany who had visited the Holy Land were just about going on board ship on their return. As mass was about to be performed in a church near by, one of the company declared that he could never neglect or turn away from this solemn ceremony, and determined to attend, even though he should lose his passage. The vessel sailed without him, and he started on his pilgrimage home on foot. He was soon overtaken by a person on horseback, who asked him to ride. In the course of a few hours, during which the time was beguiled with delightful religious conversation, he found himself at his cottage door in Germany; and his conductor, who proved an apparition of some celestial being, vanished. The less pious and scrupulous of the party arrived at home in the ordinary course of travel in about two months.

An earnest believer who determined to go regularly to mass, though his employer insisted on his keeping busy at the plough, was relieved by an angel in the form of a farm laborer, who attended the plough while the laborer was absent at the service.

Scoffers and unbelievers are dealt with in this book in a

very summary and frightful manner. Once upon a time, when a "good Catholic" was going somewhere on a pilgrimage to obtain sacred ashes, he was told by a person with whom he was stopping by the way that he could get enough ashes in his kitchen without going any farther; whereupon the heap of ashes in the kitchen was lifted up by a furious wind and blown into his eyes, ears, and nose, tormenting and frightening him to such an extent that, in his frenzy, he jumped into the canal and drowned himself. On another occasion, a per

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son unfriendly to the holy religion was ridiculing the elevating of the host among a company of friends at dinner by going through the forms connected with that ceremony by way of amusement. When his hands were uplifted in the act of blessing the host, to the horror of all present, they were immediately fixed in that posture, and remained so through life; so that when he was buried, a coffin was made of a peculiar shape adapted to accommodate this unnatural position of the body!

These are samples of the kind of matter of which this book is full. From the foregoing statements and representations taken from the Roman Catholic literature of China, the reader can draw his own inference respecting the character of the missionaries and native Christians of that Church. I would not be understood, however, as presenting this book as a fair sample of their literature generally, though many others have a strong resemblance to it. That one such book is sanctioned and tolerated in this enlightened age by the adherents of any religion, Christian or pagan, may well excite our wonder. That there are many persons among the missionaries and converts of the Romish Church in China who are honest and sincere in their religious convictions, I do not doubt. I rejoice to hope and believe also, that the truth of God, though held by them in a corrupted form, and with a large admixture of the commandments of men, has, by the blessing of God, been the means of the spiritual regeneration and salvation of many. In the language of Dr. Williams, to whose admirable work on China I have so often had occasion to refer, "The letters of some of the missionaries to their own friends breathe a spirit of pious ardor and true Christian principle worthy of all imitation. **** Many of their converts also exhibit the greatest constancy in their profession, suffering persecution, torture, imprisonment, banishment, and death, rather than deny their faith, though every inducement of prevarication and mental reservation was held out to them by the magistrates to avoid the necessity of proceeding to extreme measIf suffering the loss of all things is an evidence of

ures.

piety, many of them have proved their title to it in many ways. But until there shall be a complete separation from idolatry and superstition; until the confessional shall be abolished, and the worship of the Virgin, wearing crosses and rosaries, and reliance on ceremonies and penances be stopped; until the entire Scriptures and Decalogue be given to the converts; and until, in short, the great doctrine of justification by faith be substituted for the many forms of justification by works, the mass of converts to Romanism in China can hardly be considered as much better than baptized pagans. Their works and influence upon their pagan countrymen show how little leaven of godliness there has been in the lump, and both priest and people can not well refuse to be judged by evidence furnished by themselves."

That such a religion, holding, though imperfectly, the great truths of the unity of God and salvation through a Redeemer, and thus contrasting favorably with the gross forms of Chinese idolatry, while, at the same time, it adapts itself to the customs and prejudices of the people, should speedily gain currency among such a people as the Chinese, is not surprising. It will no doubt have a powerful influence in co-operating with other causes to subvert and overthrow the existing systems of idolatry; but we may not look to it to supply the Chinese with a pure, vital, and aggressive Christianity. It may spread rapidly at first, but it can not bear the ordeal of free discussion, which it must ere long meet with. At present, in so wide a field, the representatives of the Romish and the Protestant Churches labor apart. But when the influence of both shall have extended, and the reign of Buddhism and Tauism shall have passed away, the struggle will ultimately be in the East, as in the West, between the two forms of Christianity, Protestantism and Popery. The appeal will be to the sacred Scriptures, the common ground of our faith. Our confidence as to the result is in the power of God's truth, accompanied by the blessing of His Spirit.

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CHAPTER XXVI.

THE TAI-PING REBELLION.

The Interest which has been felt by Western Nations in the Tai-ping Rebellion.-Early Life of Hung-sew-tswen.-He receives the Bible and Tracts from Missionaries.-His Sickness and fancied Revelations.-His Attention is directed anew to the Christian Books.-He constructs from them a new System of Religion, commences propagating it, and gains many Converts.-The Steps by which the Adherents of this corrupt Form of Christianity became an Insurgent Army.—The long Struggle for Empire, and the final Defeat and Overthrow of the Tai-ping Rebellion.

FEW events connected with China have within the last twenty years excited as much interest in Western lands, or been as often referred to in our public prints, as the rebellions and civil wars which are desolating different parts of the country, and producing the impression in the minds of some not familiarly acquainted with the character and history of the government that a state of strife and anarchy is its normal condition. The great Tai-ping Rebellion is of special interest to us on account of its religious, or, rather, Christian character; and for this reason, as well as on account of its great influence on the present condition and future prospects of China, it merits a special consideration.

This remarkable movement originated with a man named Hung-sew-tswen, who was born in a small town near Canton in the year 1813. Though of a poor family, as he gave early evidence of a bright intellect and aptness for study, his parents and friends gave him the advantages of a Chinese education; and when about twenty years of age, he is found taking part in the literary examinations at Canton. Some time between the years 1833 and 1836, while attending these exam

inations, he received from the native preacher Liang-a-fah some Christian tracts, and portions of the Old and New Testament Scriptures. These seem to have been carelessly read, and to have produced at the time but little effect upon his mind. In 1837 he returned home from the literary examinations, in which he had been again unsuccessful, seriously ill, and in a desponding state of mind. During his sickness, which continued for more than a month, he was subject to mental aberration, and regarded himself as being favored with supernatural manifestations and revelations. He thought that he was washed from the impurities of his nature; that he had a new heart given to him; and was introduced into the presence of an august being, who exhorted him to lead a virtuous life and exterminate demons. During his sickness he also "often saw a man of middle age, whom he called his elder brother, who instructed him how to act, accompanied him in his wanderings to the uttermost regions in search of evil spirits, and assisted him in slaying and exterminating them." These fancied revelations seem to have produced a deep impression on his mind, and to have changed his character and outward demeanor, though, after his recovery, he returned to his quiet occupation as a student and village school-teacher.

In the year 1843, just after the war with England, and the establishment of new relations with Western nations, when it was natural for the minds of the natives to be directed toward foreigners, a friend of Hung, whose name was Le, was led to read the foreign books in Hung's library, which it appears had been disregarded for years. He became much interested, and through him they were again brought before the attention of Hung, and were the means of giving a new shape to his life, and opening before him a new and remarkable career. "He was greatly astonished to find in these books the key to his own visions which he had six years before. He now understood the venerable old man who sat upon the highest place, and whom all men ought to worship, to be God, the Heavenly Father; and the man of middle age who had instructed him,