penetrated to the rebel headquarters
was the Rev. Issachar Roberts, the first instructor of the rebel
chief. The latter had sent him a message inviting him to court.
His stay was not long. He found that his quondam disciple had
substituted a new mode of baptism, neither sprinkling nor immersion,
but washing the pit of the stomach with a towel dipped in warm
water! Who says the Chinese are not original? It is probable that
Roberts's dispute lay deeper than a mere ceremony. Professing a
New Testament creed, the rebel chief shaped his practice on Old
Testament examples--killing men as ruthlessly as David, and, like
Solomon, filling his harem with women. A remonstrance on either
head was certain to bring danger; it was said indeed that Roberts's
life was threatened.

Some queer titles were adopted by the Tai-pings.
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As stated above, the premier was styled "Father of 9,000 years";
other princes had to content themselves with 7,000, 6,000, etc.--or
seven-tenths and six-tenths of a "Live forever!" Christ was the
"Heavenly Elder Brother"; and the chief called himself "Younger
Brother of Jesus Christ." These designations might excite a smile;
but when he called Yang, his adviser, the "Holy Ghost," one felt
like stopping one's ears, as did the Hebrews of old. The loose morals
of the Tai-pings and their travesty of sacred things horrified the
Christian world; and Gordon no doubt felt that he was doing God
a service in breaking up a horde of blasphemers and blackguards.

Gordon's victory won an earldom for Li Hung Chang; but the Chinese
conferred no posthumous honours on Gordon as they did on Ward,
who has a temple and is reckoned among the gods of the empire.

The Tai-pings were commonly called Changmao, "long-haired" rebels,
because they rejected the tonsure and "pigtail" as marks of subjection.
They printed at Nanking, by what they called "Imperial authority,"
an edition of the Holy Scriptures. At one time Lord Elgin, disgusted
by the conduct of the Peking Government, proposed to make terms with
the court at Nanking. The French minister refused to cooeperate, partly
because the rebels had not been careful to distinguish between the
images in Roman Catholic chapels and those in pagan temples, but
chiefly from an objection to the ascendency of Protestant influence,
coupled with a fear of losing the power that comes from a protectorate
of Roman Catholic missions. How different would have been
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the future o