162 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. IX. 
away by false appearances and assertions. Many of the 
Chinese are unprincipled and deceitful enough to become 
Christians, or in fact anything else, in name, to accom- 
plish the object they may have in view, and they would 
become Buddhists the very next day should any in- 
ducement be offered them to do so. Judging from 
appearances, the day must yet be very distant when the 
Chinese, as a nation, will be converted to the Christian 
faith. Could those individuals in our time, who predict 
the near approach of the Millennium, see the length and 
breadth of this vast country, with its three hundred 
millions of souls, they would surely pause and reflect 
before they published their absurd and foolish pre- 
dictions. 
