The Chinese, with their strong and peculiar idiosyncrasies, will never be taught Christianity: whenever they become Christians, it will be in exactly the same manner the Ti-pings became so, viz., by their own readings of Scripture, as the Author shall see fit to inspire them, but certainly not through foreign teaching or interpretation. If the Ti-ping rebellion should be utterly extinguished, the result will be dismal for generation after generation. The cause of true religion will have been delayed and driven backwards. It is to be hoped that it may be otherwise, and that the Bishop of Victoria prophesied truly when he said that—
"On the eventful day on which the flag of Taeping-Wang floated triumphantly from the battlements of Nankin, a light has been kindled in the empire of China, which shall never be extinguished, and those first and faint glimmerings of truth will brighten with increasing clearness, and 'shine more and more unto perfect day.'"
As I have already stated, the principal feature of the Ti-ping faith is their acknowledgment of the Holy Bible as the word of the True God. All their religious practices are deduced from its authority, and, in so far as they have been able to effect it, their form of worship and belief assimilates to Protestantism. All the principal sacraments of the Protestant religion are either observed or celebrated with such error or approximation as they have been interpreted with. The holy communion, unfortunately, has not been correctly understood; in its place every fourth Sunday the Ti-pings are in the habit of partaking of grape-wine. Each Sabbath three cups of tea are placed upon the altar as an offering to the Trinity; it is only since 1859, when Hung-jin, the Kan-wang, joined the Ti-pings, that the cups of tea have been tasted; previously, they were a part of the offerings rendered up at each worshipping,—a custom generated by their confusion of the ancient sacrifices mentioned in the Old Testament with the offerings and the Lord's Supper of the New.
Baptism constitutes the principal and most important of their sacraments. Until the arrival of the Kan-wang at Nankin, none but grown-up persons who, after a strict and lengthened examination, were found duly qualified, were admitted to the fellowship of the Ti-pings and baptized as Christians. The following were the forms observed, as issued by the royal authority of the Tien-wang, in the "Book of Religious Precepts of the Ti-ping Dynasty":—
"FORMS TO BE OBSERVED WHEN MEN WISH TO FORSAKE THEIR SINS.
"They must kneel down in God's presence, and ask Him to forgive their sins; they may then either take a basin of water and wash themselves, or go to the river and bathe themselves; after which they must continue daily to supplicate Divine favour, and the Holy Spirit's[32] assistance to renew their hearts, saying grace at every meal, keeping holy the Sabbath day, and obeying all God's commandments, especially avoiding idolatry. They may then be accounted the children of God, and their souls will go to heaven when they die; all people throughout the world, whether Chinese or foreigners, male or female, must observe this in order to obtain salvation."
The prayer of the recipient of baptism was as follows:—
"I [A. B.], kneeling down with a true heart repent of my sins and pray the Heavenly Father, the Great God, of His abundant mercy, to forgive my former sins of ignorance in repeatedly breaking the divine commands, earnestly beseeching Him also to grant me repentance and newness of life, that my soul may go to Heaven; while I, from henceforth, truly forsake my former ways, abandoning idolatry and all corrupt practices, in obedience to God's commands. I also pray that God would give me His Holy Spirit to change my wicked heart, deliver me from all temptation, and grant me His favour and protection, bestowing on me food and raiment, and exemption from calamity, peace in this world and glory in the next, through the mercies of our Saviour and elder Brother, Jesus, who redeemed us from sin. I also pray that God's will may be done on earth as it is done in Heaven. Amen."