E. C. Bridgman

“ The natural darkness which at this hour gathers around your habitations, and the cold, northern blasts of winter that sweep over the hills of New England, are fit emblems of the thick moral darkness, and death-like desolations that gather around us here. Without, all is dark as midnight--a howling waste--a desert of immortal souls. My heart aches, as I stand and gaze at gloomy prospects. ”

“ Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools,--blasphemers of God,--boasting of things without their measure, and their mouth speaketh great swelling words. They call their emperor the Son of Heaven, and bow down before him, and worship him as a divine being. They call their empire the celestial empire. They call it also the middle kingdom. All the people around them, even all the nations of the earth,--the English and Americans, and all other people, they call ignorant cruel barbarians. I do not dislike the Chinese. ”

“ The Chinese mechanics almost always work by a pattern; and every thing so far as it is for their own use, must be made according to old custom. This people are very far from thinking that every generation grows wiser and wiser. On the contrary, they think that the ancients were, in many respects, the perfect models of perfection. Hence to imitate, and to be like them, is the utmost of their wishes. This is the case with the mechanics. Hence ships, boats, houses, shops, temples, furniture, and implements of every kind, are made just like those made years and years ago. ”

“ Having very little if any knowledge of the true God, the Chinese are entirely ignorant of another world:--of heaven and hell,--of the joys of the one, and the terrors of the other, as revealed in the Bible. All their notions about the soul of man, are very dark and confused. Many think that the soul dies, and ceases to exist with the body. Others think that when the body dies, the soul goes away and enters into other bodies--birds, beasts, or men. All this ignorance makes the Chinese very careless about death, and all that which is to come upon them. They die like the brutes. ”

“ Whether it be a crime or not, to bring and sell opium to this people;--and whether it be a crime or not, for this people to use it, when brought and sold by the hands of Christians, I will not undertake to say,--but I believe, stubborn facts compel me to believe, that of all the causes of crime, among the inhabitants of the Chinese empire, OPIUM, brought and sold at the rate of a million of dollars per month, is the greatest. It is nothing better, than to scatter fire-brands, arrows, and death. Simply being put in prison, seems hardly to be regarded as a punishment among this people ”

“ MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,--I have already told you about the soldiers, the merchants, the mechanics, and the husbandmen of China; in this letter I will give you some account of the scholars. Among all the pagan nations, that have ever been, or now exist, none perhaps, have been more learned than the Chinese. But no people in the world, without the Bible, can be so learned as those nations who have it. Those people, who read, and study, and understand the Holy Scriptures the best, will always be the best scholars; they will have the best taste, the best judgment, the best understanding ”

“ But see now what the Chinese say:-- "When a man is born, he sleeps on a bed; He is clothed in robes, and plays with germs;-- But when a daughter is born, she sleeps on the ground; She is clothed with a wrapper and plays with a tile; She is incapable either of evil or of good:-- If she does ill, she is not a woman; If she does well, she is not a woman; Virtue and vice cannot belong to woman." These, dear children, are the words of one of the ancient wise men of China. And the present condition of females, is in exact accordance with the sentiment which they contain. ”

“ The Chinese never assemble for religious worship as Christians do, who go to the house of God, there to worship him, who is a Spirit, in spirit and in truth. Their worship is very unholy, and offensive to God, and injurious to man. They have no preaching; their priests never set as public, religious teachers. Their worship consists of prayers and offerings, made to their false gods, and to their departed friends, to the sages and heroes of antiquity, and to their emperors--both living and the dead. ”

“ China has long, long been neglected. Scores and scores of laborers are needed, to break up this fallow ground, to sow the good seed, to seek the Lord, the Lord of the harvest, till he come and rain righteousness upon this people, and make them his own husbandry. You know, my dear young friends, that God, our heavenly Father, is very good, that He doeth good to the evil and unthankful, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. God has been very good to the Chinese. ”

“ In Macao, almost every rod of ground, which is safe from water, even to hard, rocky hill tops, has some emblem,--a turfed hillock, a stone, or a little enclosure, to remind the visiter of the sleepers below. When I have walked over these grounds,--these abodes of the dead, thoughts have arisen in the mind, which you may conceive, but which I cannot express. O, what multitudes will rise here, at the sound of the last trumpet! ”

“ Though old, and feeble, and grey headed, and oft times tenderly instructed by his son; yet, poor man, he resists the truth, loves his idols, and says there is no God. And so when the son Leang Afa, and his wife and young Atih, kneel down together around the family altar, to worship the living and true God, the father, the grandfather, the old, feeble, dying man, goes away and worships.--O how dreadful, how pitiable, he goes away and bows down and worships, as he himself declares, the DEVIL, and then comes and rails at his son, because he has forsaken the gods of his country! ”

“ If all people would only read and obey the word of God, then there would be no wars and fightings; there would be no more thieves, no more robbers, no more murderers, no more profane persons, and drunkards, and such like wicked persons. But the Chinese have not the Holy Bible. They have not the wisdom, that is from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. ”

“ In an empire so ancient and populous as China, the number of human beings that have returned to the earth, must be great indeed; greater than any man can number. For more than thirty hundred years, one generation after another, in awfully rapid succession, have gone to the dead. Almost all the hills and uplands about Canton and Macao, which are not covered with the habitations of the living, are filled with the abodes of dead. ”

“ I am not aware that the Chinese ever fight duels--though in their quarrels, persons are often killed. They are great scolds, and use the most obscene and abusive language. Theft and robbery are the most common among the poor, though it is not confined to them. Among such multitudes of beggars, it often happens, that they cannot obtain sufficient food and clothing to make themselves comfortable. By gambling also, multitudes are reduced to beggary and want; hence come bands of thieves and robbers, trained and prepared for any and every thing that is evil. ”

“ They worship they know not what. And now, my dear young friends, do you think all this vain and wicked worship constitute a cheap and easy religion? Think of the priests and priestesses devoted to idleness, and to abominable rites and services. Think of the hundreds of temples and idleness, and to abominable rites and services. Think of the hundreds of temples and pagodas, and thousands of idols which cover and fill the land. Think, too, of all the times and seasons; all the costly offerings and sacrifices employed in this idol worship ”

“ On all these waters, vast multitudes of human beings are born, and live, and die;--having, many of them while they live, no home but a boat, or a ship, and when they die, no winding sheet and grave but the waters. On the north bank of one of these rivers, stand the city and suburbs of Canton. The river varies in its breath. ”

“ China is a very ancient nation; and has, at the present time, a vast population,--probably twenty or thirty times as many people as there are in all the United States of America. If there are, then, three millions in the United States to be gathered into the Sabbath schools, and there Sabbath after Sabbath, instructed in the Holy Scriptures; there are here in China more than sixty millions, of the same age, who know not even that there are any Sabbath, or any Sabbath day, or any Holy Bible. ”

“ According to the laws and usage of the land, it is the children's duty to receive the object of their parent's choice, Nothing in China can be more absolute than a parent's' authority. In certain cases, it may, and does with impunity, take the life of the child. Such authority is liable to abuse; and often in connexion with such a strange system of wedlock, it becomes a must fruitful source of dislike, deception, strife, hatred, and almost every other evil passion. The Chinese have many laws on the subject of marriages, specifying all the steps necessary in order to make them legal ”

“ Usually, not always, the most ignorant are the most wicked. The Chinese pay considerable attention to learning. They have a great many books, some of which contain excellent precepts, and much good instruction. But the good, which their books contain, is almost always mixed up with more or less that is bad, and contrary to the laws of God. Scholars in China are the most respectable part of the community. Some of their scholars of ancient times, they say, were perfect men; and so now the people worship them, and sacrifice to them. ”

“ The Chinese never pray in their families and closets as Christians are taught to do. Individuals sometimes go to the temples to pray, and pay their vows, and to make offerings to the idol gods. I have repeatedly seen women, sometimes with their young children, bowing before the altars in the temples. The Chinese observe many times and seasons, in which they make religious offerings, some of which are very expensive. There are appointed seasons when the Emperor of China worships his ancestors, and the heavens, and the earth, and also some of the great mountains and rivers of the empire. ”

“ It is our heavenly Father, that Being who cannot lie, who has told us that his word shall not return unto him void, but shall prosper, and accomplish all his holy will. If all good people would only do their duty, the heathen I think would very soon become converted. When the children of God pray and labor as they ought, he always blesses them. I have told you about one person who came to Dr. Morrison's house, and heard him talk of Jesus and of the way of salvation by the blood of the Lamb, and that man believed and was baptized. ”

“ Why does God require all men, and all little children to have new hearts? It is because all men have hard hearts, hearts of stone, and cannot love Him. Why does He require us all to be renewed in the temper of our minds? ”

“ Bribery is very common in China; perverting just judgment, and screening the guilty. This wickedness is most common among the rich. Almost all the rulers of the land, will take bribes. Many defrauders and injurious persons, many thieves, and robbers, and murderers, escape through bribes. Money is seen to be, here, the root of all evil. "A little silver physic," it is said, "has often brought a dead man to life." The immense quantity of opium that is smoked here, is a most fruitful source of crime. ”

“ In the north of China, wheel carriages for various purposes are in common use; but here, all kinds of produce and merchandize, and men and women themselves, are carried, either in boats, or by human strength. The sedan, in which people ride, is made quite like a chaise top, with poles, like thills, extending an equal distance before and behind. Only one person is seated in the sedan, and two strong men stooping down take the poles on their shoulders, and then rising up, lift the sedan about a foot from the ground. ”

“ In America, the man who has not a shirt to his back, must be poor indeed. In China, the poor seldom have such an article; and not a few, even among the gentle-folks, often go without it, especially in summer. In which case, the only dress, in addition to shoes, stockings, and trowsers, is a long frock, made quite like that worn by farmers in New England, at haymaking. ”

“ The Chinese Empire, as it has existed since 1644, extends on the north, and west, far beyond the boundaries of ancient China, and is, probably, the largest Empire in the world. The whole number of persons in the Empire, who are enrolled as soldiers and make the art and practice of war their essential employment, is very great; amounting, probably, to two or three millions. Chinese Merchants have by no means that high character, and that influence, which the same class of men possess in Europe and America. ”

“ Such ignorance, and such degradation, do not destroy female influence, but leave it to corrupt, and to be corrupted. Thus, in the very nursery, and in the mother's arms, where the story of Christ crucified ought often to be repeated, and where all the first principles of our holy religion should constantly be taught, the little child is left, not only uninstructed in all that is good--but left, to follow vain imaginations, and a mind which is enmity against God. You, dear children, have received, and continue to receive much good instruction from your parents--especially from your mothers. ”

“ The occupations of these five classes, the Chinese call "the essential employments." And they say "that when the high heavens produced men, they appointed to every one an employment, as the means of personal support. Therefore, though men naturally differ as to knowledge and ignorance, strength and weakness, yet none should be without an employment. Having employments, all men have a proper duty to which they should attend, both that they may be profitable to themselves, and useful to the world." ”

“ There are no priests belonging to the Confucian sect. Priestesses are more wicked, but not so numerous as priests. There are three sorts of these poor miserable creatures. Those that belong to the sects of Buddha and Taon wear a peculiar kind of dress. Those of the Buddha sect shave their heads, and the people of Canton call them "women padres." Those of third sort form a kind of sisterhood, live wholly on vegetables, and dress like other women. These are all very wicked, ugly people. They pretend to sing songs to the gods, and drive away demons. ”

“ The people will lie to the magistrates; children to their parents; and servants to their masters. Instead of supposing every man to be honest, until he is proved to be a rogue, they seem to regard every one as a rogue, until he proves himself to be honest. Gambling is a chief "crying sin" among the Chinese. They are notorious gamblers. Old and young, rulers and subjects, rich and poor, will gamble; nor have they much regard to the time, or place, when they gamble. I have often seen them gambling in their temples. Thousands are ruined by this sin. ”