1. Early Christianity in China, and Evangelizing Work There Today.
THE question as to how far the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has yet been preached in all the world for a witness, is one of considerable interest, and it is not improbable that as we grow in knowledge, and take increased interest in the past and present condition of peoples, nations, and tongues in every quarter of the globe, we shall be astonished to find to what a wide extent of the earth its sound has already gone forth.
The Acts of the Apostles record some of the labors of two or three of the apostles, but little is said of the rest of the twelve. Is it not possible that some of these labored among the Gentiles in parts of the world far removed from the direct influence of the Jews, or even of the Roman empire? The Malabar Christians have a tradition that the Apostle Thomas went to India, and there died a martyr’s death. To this day his tomb is pointed out at a place near Madras, where, in 1547, an ancient stone was found bearing the following inscription: ― “Whoever believes in the Messiah, and in God above and also in the Holy Ghost, is in the grace of Him who bore the pain of the cross.” The Chaldean breviary of the Malabar Church, in its office of Thomas, contains such passages as the following:―“By Thomas were the Chinese and the Ethiopians converted to the truth”; and in an anthem, “The Hindoo’s, the Chinese, the Persians, and all the people of the isles of the sea―they who dwell in Syria and Armenia, in Javan and Romania―call Thomas to remembrance, and adore Thy Name, O Thou our Redeemer!”
The Indian branch of the Syrian, or Nestorian, Church, which still exists in Travancore and Cochin China, numbering more than 100,000 souls, appears to have descended from a Syrian colony, which arrived in India at a later date than the first introduction of Christianity into that country, and may have been the first to send the gospel to China.
The historian Gibbon says, “In their progress by sea and land the Nestorians entered China by the port of Canton and the northern residence of Si-ngan.” Beyond this, next to nothing was known of an early introduction of Christianity into China till the discovery of the famous Nestorian monument dug up in the capital of the Shensi province, in 1625. We are, therefore, dependent upon the inscription graven on this stone, for all our present knowledge of early missionary efforts in China, and strange to say it is the only known remaining relic of former Christianity in all Central Asia.
Although the exact date at which the first messengers of the gospel found their way into China is not known, there is reason to believe that as early as the year 505 the gospel was preached there. One hundred and thirty years later, the stone tells us, “the Scriptures had been translated by Imperial request, churches had been erected in every province, and every city was full of churches.”
Reference is made to the tablet by a large number of Chinese writers, and by no one native authority is its authenticity called in question.
Si-ngan Fu, the city in which the stone was found, is the capital of the Shensi Province of North China, goo miles south-west of Peking. It is the capital of the first Emperor of China of the Tsin dynasty (whence probably the name of the country, Tsinim or Sinim, mentioned in Isa. 49:1212Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim. (Isaiah 49:12)), and of some of the most powerful dynasties of the empire.
It was the royal city of the Tang dynasty (A.D. 618-913), and has been probably the most celebrated city in Chinese history.
It is said to have been established as early as the twelfth century before Christ; since which time it has been built and rebuilt, taken and retaken, and today remains one of China’s greatest cities.
It has been the writer’s privilege twice to visit and preach the gospel to this city: and, next to Peking, he has no doubt it is the largest city in North China, with a population said to be one million, but without a resident Protestant missionary.
Its wall is strong, and flanked every few hundred yards with strong buttresses, and surmounted with guard-houses and towers affording a fine view of the surrounding country.
It is one of the finest of the 1200 walled cities of China, with wide streets fairly well paved, and ornamented with fine avenues and numerous triumphal arches of stone and wood. The houses are built generally of burnt bricks, the shops are large, and well stocked with every commodity, even to goods from England. The inns are large, and generally well filled with travelers. As in all northern cities, the traffic in the streets is carried on by means of mules and donkeys.
This, then, is the city in which the famous Nestorian inscription was discovered, and according to a Chinese work entitled, “Inquiry into the Illustrious Religion,” “In the time of the Emperor Wan-leih, when some people at Chang-an (Sing-an) were excavating the ground, they found a tablet of the Illustrious Religion, dated A.D. 781, of the Tang dynasty,” and, adds the historian, “the scholars and great statesmen who had become disciples of the Western teaching, congratulated each other on the fact of their religion having been propagated in China so early as the Tang dynasty; but, if they were asked what the Illustrious Religion really was, they could not tell.”
The writer saw the tablet in 1881-2. It is of stone, about 10 feet high by 4 wide, and 9 inches thick, and was standing erect upon a heap of ruins. He made a rubbing of the inscription, which is in Syriac and in Chinese. A full translation would occupy several pages, and would not probably be very interesting to the majority of our readers.
It begins by stating that the Great Creator of the universe― “Our Eternal true Lord God”―is the source of all that is honorable. After creating the worlds and day and night, He made the first man pure, and ordained him ruler of all created things. But Satan introduced the seeds of falsehood.
It declares that Messiah appeared in the world as a man, and the angelic powers promulgated the glad tidings. A virgin gave birth to the Holy One in Syria, a bright star announcing the event. Persians came to present tribute.
It refers to both Old and New Testaments, and speaking of the later, says twenty-seven sacred books have been left which unfold the Original transforming principles. Describing the followers of the Illustrious Religion, the tablet informs us, “By the rule of admission it is the custom to apply the water of baptism. They do not keep slaves, but put the noble and the mean on an equality. They do not amass wealth, but cast all their property into the common stock.”
The Scriptures were translated in the imperial library, and the emperor investigated the subject in his private apartments, and became so deeply impressed with the truth of the religion, that in the seventh month of the year 638 he put out a proclamation, commanding its dissemination. Later emperors also supported the Nestorians, who were persecuted by the followers of Buddhism.
It must be borne in mind that the tablet was erected as late as A.D. 781, so that what is written there cannot be taken as an example of the teaching of the first preachers of the gospel in China, nearly three hundred years earlier.
The Nestorians appear gradually to have wandered from the simplicity of the gospel, and for a truly spiritual worship to have substituted that of pictures and idols, the saying of prayers for the dead, and a thousand other errors which crowd in upon a church, or an individual, the moment a departure is made from the simplicity and obedience of the word of God. Governments might rebuild their places of worship, and officers of the state might defend their persons, but they lacked the very element of growth and prosperity— trust in God, and the moment the broken reed of imperial favor upon which they were leaning was turned into a rod for their backs they quickly succumbed, and became well-nigh extinct. With the exception of the monument itself, there is today no known trace whatever of their existence in China.
The edict of Wu-Tsung, in the year 845, sought to crush the “Illustrious Religion,” but as late as the twelfth century, when Marco Polo traveled so extensively in China, many churches existed. This remarkable man was for three years governor of the city of Yangchow, and he speaks of two Nestorian churches in that neighborhood. The writer, who lived for eighteen months in that city of three hundred and sixty thousand people (the only Protestant missionary there), never found any trace of former Christianity in the neighborhood.
Whatever may have been the opportunities afforded to the Chinese in the past of accepting the gospel, the solemn fact remains that today more than a thousand walled cities, and many thousands of large market towns and villages, and some three hundred millions of people in this one country are without the gospel. However, it is matter for much praise, that of late years so many men and women from this country and from America have gone forth, and are spending their lives in the service of the Lord in China.
The following instance illustrates the freedom which the missionary has to preach Christ in China in this present day. A few years ago, during the time of the great famine, we were traveling through the province of He-nan on our way up into the famine district, preaching and distributing Christian tracts and the Scriptures as we went.
One day we stayed at a town called Tsaitien-tsai. It was wet, and our rooms in the inn were far too small to admit one-tenth of the people who crowded round to see us, and to hear what the foreigners had to say. Some of the people suggested that we should go to the village temple, the largest public building in the place, and address them. The priests had either perished in the famine, or, for fear of doing so, had fled, leaving their idols to take care of themselves. We proceeded to the temple with an armful of tracts and books, followed eagerly by the wondering people, for rarely did a foreigner pass that way, and still more rare was the presence of a preacher of eternal life.
The interior of the building was covered with idols of Buddha, the god of acting, the Madonna and Child, and many others, all of which were made of wood, or straw and clay. The floor was filthy. The idols had not been dusted for months, and the ashes of incense were scattered about everywhere, while incense jars and candlesticks, which had not been destroyed, remained standing before the images, though seldom called into use. Occasionally, however, some poor creatures would come and present a few sticks of incense to these dumb idols which looked, some grimly, others smilingly upon them.
We lost no time in surveying our situation, and, pushing aside the jar of burning incense and the candles, at once mounted the altar. From this most excellent position we proclaimed the glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Nor was there need to go far for a text. Never before had we had such a practical one, and one more easily understood by the people, for on our right was a man, with ragged clothes and half-bare feet, uncombed hair and unshaven head— a very picture of misery. He was crouching at the side of the wall, unable either to sit down or to stand up, for one end of a short chain was round his neck, and the other end fastened into the wall. He was a captured robber.
We made him our text, and described men bound hand and foot by the power of sin, and with no power on earth able to loosen them and let them free, except Christ, the Son of God; for is it not written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord”? Never did the priests of Buddha preach such things, nor had their words ever loosed one from his sins, or given one soul rest.
It is remarkable that the effect of the famine had led many to inquire, “What are these idols? When we most need their help they desert us. We pray to them―we do them the greatest honor we can―scores of times have we carried them in sedan chairs through the streets, chanting their praises in the ears of all the people―but what are we the better? Are these things, after all, mere wood and stone, and the work of our own hands only?” and to conclude, “We will no more worship them; we will worship heaven and earth from this time forth.”
This is a true picture of the condition of large masses of the people in China. They find no satisfaction in Buddha; they are hungering and thirsting after something―they know not what; but we, being taught by the Holy Spirit, know what they want is Christ, not Buddha―life, not darkness, superstition, and death; and, as our future chapters will show, the preaching of Christ has led many to turn to God from idols to serve the living and the true God. P.