I have said, "This is excellent; I will talk with this benevolent Bonze." On one occasion I did so. The High-Caste had dined; I was ushered into his presence; the fruits and the wine were still before him. I approached and bowed low before him, and dared to ask, "Is your illustrious body well?" He slightly nodded, and waved me to a seat. I expressed my admiration of his benevolent morality, as shown in his exalted invocation in the Temple. "Oh, that was of course; we do not rely upon morality." I begged pardon, but did not understand. He added: "Morals are well, in their way. Charity is a good thing, if the purpose be sanctified; but nobody is saved by his goodness." He saw my bewilderment. "Oh, I deplore your darkness; I grieve over the errors, too fatal, even in our Christian land." I could only bow. He continued: "When will the darkness of superstition give way, in the East, to our glorious religion? When will the worship of Christ spread over the whole benighted world?" I ventured to hint that I had called to speak my thought of his noble benevolence. "Oh, yes, we must give. But the true worship—knowledge of, and belief in, the Redeemer—ah! that is the only means of salvation; those are the vital things." I said, "The poor are everywhere, and need help." He looked at me suspiciously for a moment, and then brightened; he saw I had not come to ask for anything. "Yes; the Scriptures say, 'The poor ye will always have with ye,' and we cannot alter it." "I am told that your Low-Caste Priests are good men, and do nearly all the work. I know one of these who is very kind. Your benevolence is like our Confutze, who had a tender regard for the poor and distressed."
"Ah, our divine Master taught charity; but one must go higher than that." "Pardon my poor mind, but do you not really give to the poor, in your temples, as your exalted Wisdom taught?" "Ah-Chin, you mistake; but one must overlook your darkness of mind—no offence—Society takes all I can spare, and I give to Curates from my revenue." "Society? I do not comprehend." "Well, no; you know nothing of the incessant calls. We must visit and receive visits; keep up equipages, servants; then there are always poor relations, and the poor Curates (these are the 'poor relations' of our order)." "But the Curates are poorly paid, I am told, and deserving." "The Curates are well enough; but more fuss is made than need be. I was a Curate, Ah-Chin, myself." "Your illustrious did not need aid, perhaps?" "Well, yes; I got Curate-fare—cold shoulders of mutton, and other colder shoulders." I saw that there was something which I was not to understand. "Pardon, but the Society is not to be put before the Christ-God?" "I beg, sir, you speak not in that way. I pardon much to your darkness. Do not again profane our blessed and holy religion."
This alarmed me; I did not know what portended. I bowed very low, and humbly craved permission to take my leave. I really feared punishment—perhaps of the Cangue, or pan-tsee. I afterwards knew, no more than the reproof of the High-Bonze was imminent; though, had the common people caught a pagan Chinee who had dared to speak, in their notion, disrespectfully of their Idols, he would be fortunate to have no worse treatment than a ducking in a horse-pond [phu-it-mu-dsi-wo].
What but slow progress is to be expected when a people—even the Literati—are so superstitious? for the errors there, make obstacles everywhere. It is but just now that nearly the whole population of the province of Ireland (one-third of the kingdom) have been relieved from maintaining the English Idolatry, though they detested it.
The intolerance of the devotees prevents better men from reforming abuses, even in the Temples. If a Priest dare to moderate the excessive absurdities of the Superstition, he at once endangers his Living, and is likely to be degraded and driven forth to neglect and poverty.
I, myself, knew a Wise Priest of rank, who very innocently published some comments upon the Sacred Writings, wherein he showed that the statements as they stood were simply impossible. Now, as I have said, the Sacred Writings are worshipped; and to doubt that they are the words of Jah is horrible—formerly punished by death, now by degradation, excommunication, and loss of revenue. This poor man did not express any doubt; he merely pointed out an error, which might be there somehow, and which he thought, in his simplicity, should be removed or explained. But the Canon [ban-gwo] of the Superstition allowed of no comment of that sort as to the Word of Jehovah! and cursed out of the Temples, with his Priest-robe torn off, and his money stript from him, the daring blasphemer [zw-an] must go!
This is an astonishing Canon; for if one allows that four thousand years ago Jehovah spoke words which were then inscribed—if one allows that the Jewish Priests kept annals and chronicles, and down through different ages preserved and added to their histories—if one allows that the followers of Christ after his death recorded some things concerning his life and his teachings, and that other followers wrote letters upon these matters—yet, one must also allow that all these writings were written at different periods, for different purposes, and in different and scattered records; all in obscure and unknown tongues; that they have been copied, re-copied, translated—that there are various versions—that, in respect of their meaning, and even of their right to be called a part of the Word, the highest and best cannot agree! Yet, through all the changes of great periods of time—through darkness, and wars, and every sort of ignorant credulity—through everything! every word of this huge collection of Obscure and Ancient Literature, and of an Obscure and Barbarous People, remains exactly as originally delivered by Jah! "Oh, certainly," says his devotee, "because He has preserved them." "Yes; but when a statement is absolutely impossible—as where 'the water covered the whole earth.'" "Oh, the Word does not deal with Science." I think not; Jah was not a god of science—he was, in fact, just as ignorant as the Jew-Priests who pretended to speak his Word!
Yet this inconceivable Canon goes further, and declares that this Word is the absolute, and only, and perfect Revelation of the Deity to man; that it contains the only TRUTH, and is the only way by which man, under damnation already, can have any hope, however small, of escaping the everlasting fire of hell! Upon this Canon all the Sects of the Western Barbarians erect their Idolatries—they call them Churches; but, as we have seen, they are for ever fighting as to the meaning of these very Sacred Writings!
Another Canon is, that Christ is the very God (Jah), and that the Holy Ghost is also the very God. And to deny this Canon is to go to Hell! Nor does it at all matter that one has never heard of this, nor that he could have never heard. The whole race of man before Christ was born, to this very hour, are either burning, and will surely burn, in everlasting fires of Hell, unless they have believed in this Canon! And Jah contrived that all this should be exactly so; though he did also plan from all time that his Son, Christ, should go down to the world and get himself put to death; and thus the great Jah, appeased by the sight of his Son dying on a cross, should be so far softened that some would escape Hell! Only a very few; because no one could escape unless he knew, and believed, and accepted, and was born into the very blood of this son! A mystery so incomprehensible, that Christians do not pretend to solve it, and are always trembling for fear that they may not have been born again!
How, under these circumstances, as Jah cruelly neglected to let the Heathen know that they could be saved—(indeed, they suspect no danger)—the good-hearted devotees of the Barbarians employ Bonzes to go over the great Seas to the Heathen, to carry them the glad tidings! These delegates from the Barbarians are called Missionaries, and the Temples and devotees are full of prayers and invocations for the Salvation of the Heathen! by which is meant the worship of the Barbarians duly adopted in our Central Kingdom, and in other regions of the wide world not under the sway of these Idolaters!