e to his _Penal Code of China_, "caused the adoption of a plan of
conversion more _strict_, and probably more orthodox, but, in the same
proportion, more unaccommodating to the prejudices of the people, and more
alarming to the jealousies of the Government. Generally speaking, it threw
the profession _into less able hands_, and the cause of Christianity and
of Europe lost much of its lustre and influence. The Jesuits were
generally _artists_ and men of science, as well as religious teachers."
There can be no doubt that this was the main secret of their success; and
in order to ensure like success, we must send out missionaries of like
stamp, men of high genius and refined education, who have grasped the
theory of Aryan civilization; who can meet the Buddhist, and the Hindoo,
and the Confucianist on their own ground; who, going forth in the spirit
of Our Lord's words, "I come not to destroy, but to fulfil," can, if
necessary, graft the law of Christ on the doctrines of Buddha. Let them
treat Vishnoo and Buddha as St. Paul treated Venus and Mars, and say to a
people given up to idolatry, "Whom ye ignorantly worship, Him declare we
unto you." Not that we would counsel them to make any sacrifice of
principle in order to secure converts, as the Romanists seem to have done;
such a course must be fatal: and, indeed, "these unworthy concessions to
the habits of vice and superstition so prevalent in China" have already
been a serious obstacle to the spread of the true doctrine;[122] for
enquirers have expressed their readiness to join the Church if, like the
people belonging to the religion of the "Lord of Heaven" (_i.e._
Romanism), they may continue opium-smoking, and work as usual upon the
Lord's Day. So successful in one sense have these tactics been, that the
Roman Catholic missionaries claim to have 30,000 converts in the province
of Fuh-kien alone, mostly hereditary Christians of the fifth generation.
These so-called Christians are, however, very ignorant of Scripture, and
in most respects indistinguishable from heathens. For instance, they
identify the Virgin Mary with one of their deities called Seng Mu, or Holy
Mother, and pay idolatrous worship to her. Such success need not be envied
by our missionaries.

The two points, then, in which the Roman Catholic missions have had the
advantage over Protestant ones are--1st. Their missionaries, especially
the earlier ones, were far more able men than the generality of our
missio