"We remember, moreover, how on a former occasion we, in conjunction with Bremer, Elliot, and Wanking (?), in the province of Canton erected a church, and together worshipped Jesus, our Celestial Elder Brother. All these circumstances are as fresh in our recollection as if they had happened but yesterday."
It is utterly impossible that anything could have been more satisfactory than this first communication with the Ti-pings. Not only were all their documents couched in the most friendly manner, affording a striking and total contrast to those of the Manchoo; but in practice as well as theory their conduct was excellent. They substituted for the old and insulting epithets, "barbarian" and "foreign devil," hitherto applied to all Europeans, the kindlier appellation of "foreign brethren;" while instead of assuming the repellant and exclusive manner of the Imperialists, they evinced the warmest friendliness and most candid demeanour. So pleasing was their conduct generally, that all persons having communication with them were unanimous in expressing their favourable impressions. Captain Fishbourne, describing his visit in the Hermes, says:—
"It was obvious to the commonest observer that they were practically a different race. They had Gutzlaff's edition of the Scriptures—at least they told us so; we know they had twenty-eight chapters of Genesis, for they had reprinted thus much, and gave us several copies; and some of them were practical Christians, and nearly all seemed to be under the influence of religious impressions, though limited in their amount. They believed in a special Providence, and believed that this truth had had a practical demonstration in their own case. That though they had had trials and incurred dangers, these were to punish and to purify. They had also successes, such as they could have had only by God's special interference. They referred, with deep and heartfelt gratitude, to the difficulties they had encountered, and the deliverances which had been effected for them, when they were but a few, and attributed all their success to God.
"'They,' said one, speaking of the Imperialists, 'spread all kinds of lies about us; they say we employ magical arts. The only kind of magic we have used is prayer to God. In Kwang-se, when we occupied Yung-ngan, we were sorely pressed; there were then only some two or three thousand of us; we were beset on all sides by much greater number; we had no powder left, and our provisions were all gone; but our Heavenly Father came down and showed us the way to break out. So we put our wives and children in the middle, and not only forced a passage, but completely beat our enemies.'
"After a short pause he added, 'If it be the will of God that our Prince of Peace shall be sovereign of China, he will be the sovereign of China; if not, then we will die here.'
"The man who, in every extreme, spoke these words of courageous fidelity to the cause, and of confidence in God, was a shrivelled-up, elderly little person, who made an odd figure in his yellow and red hood; but he could think the thoughts and speak the speech of a hero. He, and others like him, have succeeded in impressing with their own sentiments of courage and morality the minds of their adherents."
The Hermes brought away from Nankin the following books, which were published and circulated amongst the Ti-pings, viz.:—
1. The Book of Religious Precepts of the Ti-ping Dynasty.
2. The Trimetrical Classic.
3. An Ode for Youth.
4. The Book of Celestial Decrees.
5. The Book of Declaration of the Divine Will, made during the Heavenly Father's Descent (in the Spirit) upon Earth.
6. The Imperial Declaration of Ti-ping.
7. Proclamations from Eastern and Western Kings.
8. Arrangement of the Army.
9. Regulations of the Army.
10. A New Calendar.
11. Ceremonial Regulations.
12. Book of Genesis, Chap. I.—XXVIII.
These furnished abundant proofs of the Christianity of the whole movement. Errors, and some very grave, undoubtedly existed; but although these have been sometimes animadverted upon in unmeasured terms, the grand truth that the Ti-pings admitted and recognized the principal points of the Christian faith, remained. Yet some persons seemed to imagine the insurrection totally unworthy of Christian sympathy and consideration, because their tenets of belief were not perfect; forgetting that everything must have a commencement, and forgetting the universally imperfect commencement of Christianity, even from the time of the Apostles. Those who have made the religious error of the Ti-pings an argument against them are not worthy of the smallest attention; for, although they have been forward enough to declaim against the struggling Christians, they have been altogether backward in the slightest attempt to teach them better. Their own Christianity is scarcely so faultless that they can afford to consign tens of thousands of professing, though ignorant, Christians, to destruction; and were they ever so correct themselves, still less should they be guilty of so unchristian an act.
The earnestness with which the Ti-ping government endeavoured to promulgate the saving Word of God, is illustrated by the fact, that then, and ever since, they circulated the Scriptures and all religious publications entirely free of charge, a circumstance unparalleled in the history of the world. Captain Fishbourne reports:—
"Before leaving Nankin they furnished us with many copies of books which they had published, and of which they appear to have had a large store, as they circulated them by every possible means; they were seen by some officers of the Hermes in boats that they had sent off to drift down the river amongst the Imperial flotilla."
This singular mode of proceeding seems to imply that even at that early period they recognized the truth of the Divine promise, "My word shall not return unto me void," and with a holy simplicity were acting in full confidence as to the results.
The Bishop of Victoria, in his estimate of the books of the Ti-pings, has used the following language:—
"There are important questions which we have to consider respecting the character of the religion of the insurgents; e.g.: Are its doctrines essentially those of the Christian religion? Do the elements of truth preponderate over those of error? Are the defects, which may be observable among them, such as constitute a reasonable ground for condemning the whole movement as one of unmingled evil, and the work of Satanic power? Or, on the other hand, are they the natural shortcomings of a body of imperfectly enlightened men, placed in a situation of novel difficulty, labouring under almost unexampled disadvantages in their pursuit of truth, without spiritual instructors and guides, with only a few copies of the Holy Scriptures, and those apparently in small, detached, and fragmentary portions, with no forms of prayer or manuals of devotion, having their minds distracted amid the arduous toil of a campaign and the work of religious proselytism, with no definite views or clear knowledge respecting the sacraments, the Christian ministry, or the constitution of a Church—engaged in a struggle for life and death—and yet, amid all these hindrances and drawbacks, evincing a hopeful, praiseworthy, and promising vigour of mind and independence of action, in the great undertaking of a moral revolution of their country?
"We do not hesitate to assert that ours is the latter and more favourable view."
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