Chap. I. 



TENETS OF CHINESE CHRISTIANS. 



17 



ment with considerable doubt. This is not the 

 age of miracles, and certainly nothing less than 

 a miracle could account for many thousands of the 

 Chinese being all at once converted to Chris- 

 tianity. 



Mr. W. H. Medhurst, Chinese Secretary to the 

 English Government at Hong-kong, who visited 

 Nanking with the " Rattler " and " Styx," put 

 us in possession of an ofScial statement professing 

 to be a few of the tenets of the so-called Chinese 

 Christians. The document in question is certainly 

 an extraordinary one. If we understand it aright, 

 and if it really be what it professes, and an expo- 

 sition of the religious belief of the insurgents, we 

 must conclude their Christianity to be a sham, and 

 their leaders fanatics or knaves. 



In this document, one of the leaders of the 

 insurgents, styled the Eastern Prince, professes 

 to have direct communication with the Supreme 

 Being. He pretends to fall into a trance in the 

 presence of the females of the court, and in that 

 state assumes that he is the Heavenly Father, and 

 gives instructions to be communicated to himself, 

 and also summons the Northern Prince to his 

 presence. The instructions given to himself are 

 afterwards communicated to him by the females, 

 and are to this effect : he is desired to go to court, 

 and reprove the Celestial King, Hung-sew-tseuen, 

 the leader of the insurgents, for harshness to the 

 females of his court and for over-indulgence to 

 his son. When the Northern Prince arrives^ the 



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