"When our transgressions high as heaven rise,
How well to trust in Jesus' full atonement;
We follow not the demons, we obey
The holy precepts, worshipping alone
One God, and thus we cultivate our hearts.
The heavenly glories open to our view,
And every being ought to seek thereafter.
I much deplore the miseries of hell.
O turn ye to the fruits of true repentance!
Let not your hearts be led by worldly customs."
They thereupon cast away their idols and removed the tablet of Confucius, which is generally found in the schools, and worshipped by the teacher as well as the pupils.
In a little while Hung-sui-tshuen returned to his native village. He soon converted to the religion his cousin Hung-jin, and an intimate friend, Fung-yun-san, also a teacher.
While at home, Sui-tshuen and his friends attentively studied the books, which Sui-tshuen found to correspond in a striking manner with his former visions—a remarkable coincidence, which convinced him fully as to their truth, and that he was appointed by Divine authority to restore the world—that is, China—to the worship of the true God.
I must particularly recommend to the notice of my readers the sound reasoning and wisdom of Hung-sui-tshuen's own explanation, and the high and exalted determination his subsequent acts have so nobly fulfilled.
"These books," said he, "are certainly sent purposely by Heaven to me, to confirm the truth of my former experiences. If I had received the books without having gone through the sickness, I should not have dared to believe in them, or have ventured, on my own account, to oppose the customs of the whole world; if I had merely been sick, but had not also received the books, I should have had no further evidence as to the truth of my visions, which might also have been considered as merely productions of a diseased imagination."
Then he raised his voice and spoke in a bold manner:—
"I have received the immediate command from God in His presence: the will of Heaven rests with me. Although thereby I should meet with calamity, difficulties, and suffering, yet I am resolved to act. By disobeying the heavenly command, I would only rouse the anger of God; and are not these books the foundation of all true doctrines contained in other books?"
Under this conviction, Sui-tshuen, when preaching the new doctrine to others, made use of his own visions and the books, as reciprocally evidencing the truth of each other. He revered the books highly, and if any one wished to read them, he urgently told them not to alter or mark them in any manner, because, said he, it is written therein, "Jehovah's word is correct" (Ps. xxxiii. 4).
The small volumes, "Good Words for Exhorting the Age," that have exercised such a wonderful effect upon a great proportion of the Chinese, through the individual acts of Hung-sui-tshuen, were the production of Liang Afah, one of Dr. Milne's Chinese converts. Consequently it may be argued that contact with Europeans has been instrumental in producing the great Ti-ping revolution, and that to Dr. Milne and his convert, Liang Afah, may be attributed the honour of being agents in converting Hung-sui-tshuen and in originating the first Christian movement in modern Asia.
Although, through the foreign idiom, want of commentaries, and use of pronouns (unintelligible through the absence of the relative), Hung-sui-tshuen, as well as his earlier converts, misunderstood some parts of Liang Afah's volumes, still it is indisputable that the grand truths of Christianity were fully and completely appreciated by them. As the Bishop of Victoria has written:—"Stung with a sense of injustice, and feeling the full weight of disappointment, he found his knowledge of Confucian lore no longer the road to office and distinction. It was at such a critical season of the future hero's career that the truths of the Holy Scriptures were presented to his notice, and the pure doctrines of Christianity arrested his mind."
Hung-sui-tshuen, after some time, again returned to his teachership in the other village, leaving Hung-jin to expound and study the new doctrine. Sui-tshuen's own relatives were soon converted from idolatry and received baptism.
With his few followers he now experienced the usual worldly effects of devout opposition to the sinful and idolatrous practices of neighbours. Hung and his friends lost their scholastic employment and became very poor. Unable longer to maintain themselves at home, they determined to visit other districts and preach the true doctrine, hoping to support themselves by the sale of a few articles they carried with them for the purpose.
Hung, Fung-yun-san, and two other friends left their native villages and started upon a proselytizing mission to the independent tribes of Miau-tze. Passing through the village of Hung's relatives, the Le family, they converted and baptized several of them. Afterwards Hung-jin was engaged as teacher at this place (Clear-far), and in course of time baptized upwards of fifty persons.
Sui-tshuen and his friends continued their journey, everywhere preaching the new doctrine, teaching men to worship the one God, Jehovah, who sent his Son to atone for the sins of the world; and in every place they found some willing to accept their words. Into the wild and mountainous regions of the Miau-tze, Hung and Fung-yun-san journeyed alone, their friends having left them. They were fortunate enough to meet with a teacher who kept a school for Chinese instruction to the aborigines. Being ignorant of the Miau-tze dialect, after converting the schoolmaster and leaving a few tracts with him, they continued their journey to a part of Kwang-si where Hung had relatives.
Hung at last reached the village of his cousin Wang, and at this place preached with such devout eloquence as not only to convert hundreds to Christianity, but to cause many to believe that he and Yun-san were descended from heaven to preach the true doctrine.
To relieve his cousin from the support of so many guests, two converts of the Hung family having likewise arrived, he ordered Yun-san and the others to return to Kwang-tung. Fung-yun-san, however, was moved to continue teaching the Gospel; therefore, although the two returned, he remained preaching by the roadside. Meeting with some workmen he knew, he journeyed with them to a place named Thistle Mount, where, assisting them in their work, he at the same time taught them the way to immortal life.
Some of the workmen, convinced by Yun-san's preaching, went to their employer and informed him. The master engaged Yun-san as teacher of his school, and was himself soon baptized. Yun-san remained in the neighbourhood of Thistle Mount several years, and preached with great zeal and success; so that a large number of persons, whole families of various surnames and clans, were baptized. They formed congregations among themselves, gathering together for religious worship, and became soon extensively known under the name of "the congregation of the worshippers of God." In the meanwhile Hung-sui-tshuen returned home, and greatly displeased Fung-yun-san's relations by having returned without him. During 1845–46 Hung remained at home, employed as village teacher. He wrote many essays, discourses, and odes upon religious subjects, all of which were afterwards improved and printed in the "Imperial Declaration of Ti-ping," at Nankin.
Hung-sui-tshuen