Whatever may have been the benefit of the missions hitherto, their wanton, cruel sacrifice of the greatest Christian movement this world has ever witnessed has dimmed their glory with a shadow all time cannot remove; it is even needless to blame them for neglecting the innumerable and less favourable points of the Ti-ping religion—the grand and unalterable fact was the possession of the whole Bible as their only faith, and the hitherto unparalleled free circulation of it by the martyred revolutionists.
Only last June, the Bishop of Victoria, at the Highbury College grounds, referred to some of the remarkable scenes incident to the rebellion, and observed—"that in Amoy, which had suffered deeply, missionary work had made more progress than in any other city in China! One effect of the Ti-ping movement had been the wide-spread destruction of idolatry, by which a vast work had been done, preparatory to that of the missionary."
The idols, indeed, were all destroyed, but the missionaries did not step in. And now that the Ti-pings have been driven from their former possessions, and nearly exterminated, all the idols have been replaced by the Manchoos; and the missionaries may rest assured it will take them infinitely longer to overthrow the re-established Budhism than it occupied the Ti-pings in the first place. The Chinese have been edified by witnessing the Europeans fighting to suppress what has always been looked upon by natives as a religious movement, alien to the ancient and national faith of the country, in fact, as Christianity, or the religion of the foreigners. This being the case, it would be absurd to expect the Chinese will again come forward and adopt the creed for which they are daily beholding the Ti-pings suffer,—a creed to which they are naturally averse, and dare not profess if they would, not only from dread of their Manchoo Government (which will certainly keep a sharp look-out to suppress any new outbreak of a movement which so nearly overthrew their own dynasty), but from the very fact that they have seen the strong and resistless "foreign devils" allied to the Manchoos for the express purpose of exterminating the Ti-ping Christians. There can be no ground for cavilling about the right of the Ti-pings to such denomination, the fact being that they accepted the Bible, acknowledged it as the Word of God, and worshipped His Son, as the Tien-wang has written, "as the Saviour of men's souls." Can the missionary-made Christians do more?
For my part, I shall ever rejoice, because I have been in a position to render what little assistance I could to many hundreds of the Ti-pings who have requested me to give them the foreign interpretation of different articles of faith; and I shall ever regret that, while missionaries are sent with exhaustless munificence into parts that will not profess Christianity, to the Ti-pings, under whose authority millions have professed and accepted the Scriptures with an enthusiasm and firmness of purpose never excelled, not one has been sent or volunteered to go.
It is difficult to understand, how ministers of the Gospel should not have felt a generous sympathy with men, whose profession of Christianity not only entitled them to the brotherhood they have always claimed with Europeans, but actually deprived their movement of a very great element most essential to its success—the popular national rising against the Manchoos.
Even Mr. Bruce, their greatest enemy, has stated,—
"My impression is that both the prospects of the extension of pure Christianity in China through the instrumentality of these men, and the success of the insurrection among the Chinese, viewed as a political movement against the Tartar Government, have suffered materially from the religious character Hung-sui-tshuen's leadership has imparted to it.
"Not only the gentry and educated classes, but the mass of the people, regard with deep veneration the sages upon whose authority their moral and social education for so many generations has reposed. And the profession of novel doctrines resting on the testimony of a modern and obscure individual, must tend not only to deprive the revolt of its character as a national rising against the Tartar yoke, but must actually transfer to the Tartars and their adherents the prestige of upholding national traditions and principles against the assaults of a numerically insignificant sect."
What could appeal more powerfully to our sympathy than this statement of an enemy? But for their profession of Christianity the Ti-pings would have carried the whole population of China with them long ago. Mr. Bruce in the above statement, and all persons acquainted with Chinese character, agree that the minds of the people are so immutable and apathetic, and so fixedly rooted to the ancient superstitions and idolatry of their country, that all change seems impossible. This being admitted, is it not certain that some superhuman effort must be made?