A CHINAMAN'S VIEW OF CHRISTIANITY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3264, 17 December 1881, Page 4

A CHINAMAN'S VIEW OF CHRISTIANITY.

The following translation of Ah Ching s letter to his brother Jain at Hong Kong was presented to the President of the Canterbury Free Thought Association, to be dealt with as he might think fit: — " Know, O Jam, that I am living at Christchurch, in New Zealand, which is an island in the South Sea, and I write totell you that last week there was great religious excitement here. The people are barbarians, but not savages. Most of them have come from Europe, and are either Christians or Freethinkers The others have come from Asia and aro Jews. Now, on the third day of last week the Christians opened a large temple, very grand and beautiful, which they call a cathedral, for the worship of Jehovah, their god ; and two days later the Jews opened another temple, which they call a synagogue, also for the worship of the Bame god, Jehovah —for the Jews will not worship in the cathedral, and the christians will not worship in the synagogue. How is that ? you will ask. Well, I will tell you. The Jews are about 2000 years older than the Christians, and during all that time they worshipped Jehovah as one —one God and one person. Then came the Christians, who told the Jews that they did not understand their own God, and that He was nob one person only, but three—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Of course the Jews denied this, but the Christians would not be denied, and they said the Jews must and should believe in the three persons or they would slaughter them ; and they did slaughter thousands of them. But in those days the Christians were very fond of blood, and when they could not get Jews to kill they killed one another. But this is altered now. Since the Christians have sent their ships to our great country they have got somewhat civilised through the influence of our blessed Gotama, and now they do not kill the Jews. So two days after the Cathedral was opened to worship Jehovah in three persons, the religious zeal of the old Jews burst into a flame, and they opened their synagogue to worship Jehovah in one person. You may guess ■what would have happened if such a thing had been done before the Christians had intercourse with the disciples of Gotama; but now there was not a single Jew killed ; no, nor even wounded, and in the evening of the same day the Freethinkers opened a temple also, and these people will not believe in even one person in Jehovah. They think he is no more than a myth. They seem to be followers of our Confucius, and pay no attention to any god, or any world but this, which they mean to turn into a paradise. But the Christians did not harm them either. About three hundred years ago, when these Christians werp at war with one another, a great many of them lost their stings, and ever since then they have been breeding Christians without stings, or with stings imperfectly developed. But, the Freethinkers do not do them justice. They accuse them of neglecting their interests in this life for the sake of a life which they believe is to come afterwards, but I know that this is a fal?e accusation. I have much dealing with them, and I am sure that tbey pay as much attention to their interests in this life as any Freethinker can do. It is true that their god has told them not to do this, but in practice they pay no more attention to his commands than I do. lam getting a little gold together, and by-and by you will, perhaps, see me in Hong Kong. Farewell, 0 brother Jam,

Ah Ching.