CHAPTER III.

APPEAL TO CHRISTIANS.

Humanity is not yet "full grown"-Dreadful evils still exist-The Conservative has no desire to go back, and will not advance-Opinions of Generations to come of our Barbarities-The Duty of the Christian to the Living Christians must labor in the Cause of Humanity or the Work must stop.-The Growth of Humanity confined to Christian Countries-Dreadful Barbarities of the Chinese-Where Christianity prevails in its purest and most living form, there is the largest Benevolence.

Thus have we demonstrated the sure progress of humanity. But let not the reader infer from what we have said, that humanity is yet "full grown." There are still dreadful evils, moral and social, in our world, and a vast amount of human suffering-suffering arising from poverty, crime, ignorance and cruelty, which can and must be ameliorated. We appeal to the reader for his co-operation his sympathy, advice and assistance. You look back upon the past as exhibited in these pages, and you say, "Really the world has progressed in its humanities. I have no desire to go back and live under the customs and laws which held rule two centuries ago. Our fathers must have suffered extreme anxiety and great peril constantly. I rejoice that reforms so important to the interest and happiness of man, have been effected." All this is very well. But do you think it probable that all needed good has been effected? Is there nothing more that Christianity and humanity demand at our hands? Have we arrived at the ne plus ultra of reform? If not, should we not go forward? You do not desire to go back, but will you advance? Everybody is opposed to going back. Thousands of sticklers for the death pen

alty for murder, condemn the rigid laws of our fathers, and thank God that they did not live in the seventeenth century. It is difficult to get the conservative to move willingly. He holds back, but like a horse in a ferryboat, no matter how stubbornly he pulls back, the boat moves, and he goes with it in spite of himself, and when once over, he has no disposition to return. Where is the man who has been carried forward on the broad tide of moral and spiritual. reform, for the last half century, though never so much against his will, that desires to return to the delusion, superstition and inhumanity from which he has merged? Why he can only look back and wonder that his fathers could have remained so long in darkness.

Thus it will be with the generations to come. They will refer to the unchristian barbarities of our day, and say of us, "How astonishing that our fathers could have conceived it either expedient or necessary to deliberately kill men and women because they killed!" Our fathers were instrumental in the execution of their own children for disobedience; they strangled men and women for theft, witchcraft and profanity, and we are astonished." Will not our children be equally astonished at our perverseness in upholding the gibbet as a Christian institution, and our almost total neglect of the millions of young and old, upon whom the doom of poverty has fixed its seal? Examine, then, the several subjects presented in the future pages of this work carefully. You do not believe that the sanguinary laws of our fathers were either just, necessary, or Christian; and by investigation, you may come to have just as little faith in the necessity, justice or Christianity of the gallows for any crime.

If you are a professed Christian, then I would exhort

you especially to consider what we have to offer before you "turn from us and pass away." Remember, that every man, no matter how poor, or sinful, or ignorant, or wretched, is your brother; bound up with you in the same bundle of temporal and eternal interests. Christ died for him as well as for you, and when on earth, he sought after just such to heal and bless them. You believe it to be your duty to labor for their future salvation, that their immortal souls may be secure from suffering beyond the grave. But is it not equally your duty to labor for the amelioration of their condition in life, as Christ labored when on earth. "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was an hungered and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in; naked and ye clothed me; I was sick and ye visited me; I was in prison and ye came unto me. Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto ONE OF THE LEAST OF THESE my brethren, ye have done it unto me."*

....

Now, is it possible for you to enter the spiritual kingdom of the Lord Jesus-a kingdom of "righteousness, peace and joy"—and experience its promised blessings, so long as you neglect to "remember in mercy" the weak and perishing ones, whose bodies as well as souls Christ himself has made it your duty to look after and bless?

Another consideration you must not fail to notice, viz: that the world must be renovated, if at all, through the influence of the Christian religion. If Christians fail to labor in the cause of humanity, therefore, the work must stop. I have demonstrated the growth of humanity in the world; but this advancement is confined mainly to Christian countries, as is its civilization, and the progress

*Matthew 25: 34-40.

of science, art, and philosophy, and all the activities of the world's life.

I said in a previous chapter, that I desired to encourage the Christian in the labors of humanity, by showing that Christianity is the main-spring in all moral, social and intellectual progress, and advancement in humanity.

Let him take a map of the world, and examine for himself. The nations of the earth, when considered in a religious point, are arranged into two great classes, viz: the Pagan and Christian; and these two into other two, viz: the first into Pagan and Mohammedan, and the second into Catholic and Protestant. Now, in what countries do we find the progress and growth which I have described in these pages? Where the most intense love of learning? Where the schools and colleges? Where the profound knowledge of science? Where the books, newspapers, post routes, railroads, and other marks of a high form of civilization? And above all, where the growth in humanity, which alone is the truest seal of the highest human progress?

Take a map and trace. The activities and developments of which I have spoken are not in Africa. There, darkness and cruelty still reign predominant. We visit Asia-India, China, and what is the result? Very nearly the same as that of Africa. The people of the "Celestial Empire" boast of their antiquity. The Chinese, if we believe the affirmations of their philosophers, were the first and the purest people formed by the gods. They have existed from all eternity, and from all eternity the same. They never change. Change, development, with them is weakness. And the consequence is, the

* It is said of a Chinaman, that he chanced to learn to roast a pig, three hundred years ago, by the burning of a house; and to this day, when one of his descendants wishes to roast a pig, he burns a house, not having been able to discover any other method.

grossest superstition and ignorance, and the most dreadful barbarities still prevail among them. During the past year (1855) more than 150,000 "rebels" have been executed in the most dreadful manner, in China. An American, present during one day of slaughter in Canton, writes as follows concerning the dreadful scenes that passed before his eyes:

"As we approached the execution ground many were met with their hands to their nostrils, or with their tails tied round their faces, for the purpose of avoiding the horrid stench, which could literally be "felt" at a considerable distance. The ground was covered with partially dried gore, the result of the past day's work. There are no drains to take the blood away, any substance used to slake it. One man was found digging holes for two crosses, on which, he said, four were to be tied and cut in pieces.

nor is

"The execution had been fixed for noon. At half-past eleven, half a dozen men arrived with the knives, preceded by the bearers of rough deal-wood boxes, decorated with bloody sides. These were the coffins. Unconcern was the general appearance of the soldiers and spectators, of whom, altogether, there may, have been one hundred and fifty. At a quarter of twelve, the first batch of ten prisoners arrived, speedily followed by the rest in similar quantities.

"Each prisoner (having his hands tied behind his back, and labeled on the tail,) appeared to have been thrust down in a wicker basket, over which his chained legs dangled loosely, the body riding uncomfortably, and marked with a long paper tally, pasted on a slip of bamboo thrust between the prisoner's jacket and his back. These "man-baskets," slung with small cords, were carried on bamboos on the shoulders of two men. As the prisoners arrived, each was made to kneel with his face