Reliyious Services of the Tai-ping. ^2i2> 



ping, indeed, call one day of the week the day of 

 prayer, and it happens more through oversight than inten- 

 tion to be fixed upon the Saturday, but so far as external 

 sanctity goes there seems to be no special attention paid to 

 it. They buy, and sell, and delve just as on other days. On 

 the previous night about ten o'clock two or three cannon-shot 

 are fired to announce the approach of the hour of prayer, 

 and that the day of worship is at hand. Every family is 

 engaged for an hour in devotion and praise. All strangers 

 who have been in communication with the Tai-ping in Nan- 

 kin state that, even in the capital where he has been resident 

 for seven years past, that dignitary does not observe the 

 Sabbath in any way, either by preaching, prayer, or ex- 

 pounding of the Scripture ; there are no exhortations or pious 

 admonitions; they have neither churcH nor temple; their 

 sole divine service consists in each one reciting in his own 

 house English hymns, and repeating a few prayers, while 

 divers offerings are made, such as tea, rice, and the flesh of 

 slain animals. They offer their prayers kneeling, after which 

 they close the proceedings by singing a hymn standing. An 

 English missionary, who arrived at Nankin with the conviction 

 that the insurgents were genuine sincere Clnristians, made, 

 after a short stay, the following severe but just remark con- 

 cerning them : ''I found to my regret no trace of Christianity, 

 but a system of the grossest idolatry substituted for it, and 

 arrogating its name. Their notion of God is so distorted, 



