OUR CHINESE IMMIGRANTS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 237, 16 November 1877, Page 9

OUR CHINESE IMMIGRANTS.

Progress op the Catholic Religion in China.

The Emperor of China has repeatedly issued exterminating edicts against the Christians. Some years ago the English Press published one these bloody edicts. The English and Americans send missionaries to China to convert the heathen Chinese, yet when the Celestials come to America and these colonies the people are loud in denouncing their presence, and urge the Government to expel them or forbid their entrance into the country. The chief reason for this is the alleged immoral and foul habits of these people. But why don't the missionaries try to convert them when they do come here and to America ? Oh ! convert a Chinaman into a decent Christian — impossible. No use trying. Then hear what the London Press say about that. The London Atlas claims great credit for the accuracy of its intelligence in the foreign news department. Alluding to the bloody Chinese edict above referred to, the Atlas writes thus :—: — " Probably the bloody Chinese barbarian is ignorant that at this very moment China contains many millions of Christians. They are all Hainan Catholics. And all of them have been reclaimed from Atheism — for such is the established faith— by the Propaganda Society at Rome." If the Catholic missionary be thus far successful in China, why should the conversion of a Chinaman when he comes to these colonies be regarded as a hopelesß thing ? I ask you or some of your readers to say why. Is it because the Chinamen when he comes here sees so many bad Christians that he cannot believe their religion to be true, and may say or think within himself " Physician heal thyself." The Chinese whom the Roman Catholic missionaries convert in China are no common Christians. They suffer willingly for their faith when called on to do so. Their Christianity is more than skin deep.

The London Atlas in the same article from which I made the quotation, writes :—": — " Within the last twenty-five years some thousands of Chinese Christians disdaining to render the slightest verbal honour to the abominable faith— if faith it can be called — of the people have received the Crown of Martydom. Little as their trials, their persecutions and sufferings are known to the people of England, certain it is that their constancy, their heroic self-devotion, was never surpassed in the first ages of the Church." The Chinese who come to these colonies are of the same race with those who furnish under Catholic teaching in China such exemplary Christian converts as the Atlas has described, and who put to shame our o^-n cold and worldly Christianity. I ask again why is it that our missionaries do not set themselves to convert the Chinese who come here, instead of the public Press declaiming so loudly against their views and urging the Government to refuse them admission into the colony, or to drive them out of it ? What a tale of Christian depravity and selfishness must these Chinamen have to recite to their Pagan countrymen if they ever return among them. The Chinese Emperor in his edict warns his people that they do not know what the Christian religion means, or what is its real character. But he knows, and will tell them. It is, he says, a religion which corrupts men's morals by depraving their hea"rt. He niust have had some strong reason to say so. He probably judged of its character and tendency by witnessing" the conduct of bad Christians. By the Christian religion he possibly meant that form of it known as Protestantism, which he said was patronised by the powerful Governments of England and America. What wonder if he formed a bad opinion of Christianity judged from a Protestant point of view, and regarde li t as ending to foment evil passions, especially lust and an insatiable greed. Did not Luther himself describe Protestantism at its very birth as the source of the very same evil passions. The Catholic converts who gave such strong proof of their heroic constancy were not likely to violate the precepts of Christ by immoral conduct.

Alluding to the cruel sufferings of the Chinese Catholic converts, the London Atlas continues — "Melancholy therefore as is the edict in question, we are not hopeless of the result. The good seed has been sown, and tho good cause, whatever the obstacles with which it may have to contend, will ultimately triumph." True and a glorious triumph for the Catholic Church it will be when she receives into her communion so populous and interesting a nation as China. What a happy thing it would be were the editors of all the English Protestant newspapers to write as the Atlas has done — in the above quotations — on subjects affecting the foreign missions of the Catholic Church. He writes like a Catholic. The Chinese edict referred to by the Atlas is indeed a most bloody one, and in the main, absurd as well as bloody. Yet it contains some grains of sense. The Chinese aj;e no fools. The Celestial monarch reminds his subjects that ignor-%-.-.tT)Cople readily allow themselves to be deceived ; and that it is hard to instruct or convince an ignorant man when his ignorance is associated with prejudice. Involuntary ignoiance deserves pity ; but perverse icrnorance is criminal. It occur.-, to me very forcibly that thef>e judicious remarks apply exactly to a great number of our Protestant friends in the CLrlstian land", and to His Celestial Majesty himself. They are ignorant of Catholic tenets : or what is worse, know them only so far ns to misunderstand them. They suffer themselves to be deceived. Their ignorance is united with "the strongest prejudice. How then can they be instructed or convinced ?

The Atlas describes the manner in winch the Catholic missionary in China proceeds in his labours. He docs not like his Protestant fellow-labourer live daintily in some safe place on the coast with his wife and babies, and send his bibles and tracts into the interior. The Atlas tells us :: — '• The Roman Catholic missionary in China mixes with the people ; frequents the houses of those in whom he can confide ; explains to them the doctrines and duties of Christianity, and conducts himself with so much caution as not to alarm the authorities. Some of the Mandarins and local Judges are members of his flock. From them therefore he has nothing to fear. Even those who suspect his purpose and are hostile to it will not proceed against him till formally brought before the judicial tribune. Then indeed he has no hope of mercy, if it can be proved that he preached the Christian doctrine, and he refuse to acknowldge the religion of the country, such as it is, he is immediately put to death."

There was some years ago a powerful sect in China called " Taipingp." They had got hold of some scraps of Christianity from the Protestant missionaries and the bible, and great hopes were entertained by the Protestant religious world that they woxild Protestantise China as they were a numerous and active class. But v turned out that they were rebels — Chinese Hauhaus, if I do not mistake — and they gave the Chinese Government as much bother as our Maori Hauhaus gave the British Government in New Zealand. Their creed, like that of our Hauhaus, was a compound of Judaism, Christianity, and Paganism. It was probably in reference to Christians of that class that the Chinese Emperor described Christianity as corrupting the morals by depraving the heart of the people. We thus see that Protestantism foments sedition and treason in all countries. The Chief Maori rebels here were converts to Protestantism, and unhappily seduced some of their Catholic neighbours. The Taipings no doubt used the bible, as W. Thomson used it, to justify their rebellion. — Mdc Gorst's " Maori King."