Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-03-24

TEEN Tor the Church or Rome, do not calculate
on its appearance In that paper request, there
fore, II you find nothing In il conflicting with your
rules, or the principles Of your party-and whether
1t shall appear in the Herald not--that you win
give il place In your paper and oblge
Your very respectful and ob't serv't,
]. II. Polk.
" The Chinese Revolution--The Religious
Element.
For the New York Herald.
Mr. BENNETT In the Herald Of the 18th inst,
under the caption quoted above, you give all the
credit OF the Christian element among the Chinese
rebels tits delineated by the Rev. Mr. Bittinger,
chaplain of the Susquehanna, to the Jesuits. You
consider 1t the product of seed which they had
been sowing for three centuries.
| The Jesuits themselves are, apprchend, very
far from agreeing with you They surely cannot
| admit that crop so monstrous, so abhorrent in
their sight possibly be the product of seed so
different in its nature, planted by them with 80
much care, and cultivated with SO much toll
| These Chinese rebels acknowledge and teach the
| ,oLole of the Ten Commandments just they have
come to us through Moses. Isuppose you have
not to be informed that the Jesuits, by their ex-
1 emplary teachngs---in some Of their catechsms--
completely nuify that part which forbids the max
ing and worshiping Of images and likelesses.
The Chinese rebels treat the Sabbath as day
consecrated to the service Of God. With the Jesu-
its, it is day of feasting Of profane recreation,
/ theatrical amusements, dancing and reyelry, cock
fighting, card-playing in short, they consecrate
1 it, If may speak, to the service of the Devil,
excepting when they are among Protestants, who
| will not tolerate such practices.
| The Chinese rebels abhor image and picture wor-
ship; and they make it point to destroy all such
/ idols wherever they find them. This they have
/ done even in the churches Of the Jesnits, putting
| their worshippers to death at the same time; not
i haing AHA IN hat 10 unra nf tua
&C., by Jesuts, was less idolatrous than the same
thing was when done by Chinese
/ The Chinese rebels reverence the Bible by read
ing it, and encouraging others to follow their ex-
ampleconstruing il according to their own pri-
| vate Judgment. The Jesuits consider this helm
Gus offence against tho Church, for which, when
ever they have the power the offender is subjected
to most cruel and ignomnious punishments
/ confess my surprise, Sir, aware as / am Of your
| extensive information, that when you perceived
the Christianity of the Chinese rebels to be dia-
metrically opposite to the religion Of the Jesuits,
you did not look around for some other sowing of
seed among the Chinese different from theirs, from
/ which such fruit was more likely to have sprung.
The jealous, selfdeDying, selfsacrifcing, might
better say, and interchangeable Gutslaf, who labored
for SO many years among the Chinese, speaking
and writing their language like native, dissemna-
ting evangelical Christianity, surely deserved more
than aspassing notice at your hands; but, you
never even mention him.
j Moreover, it should be remembered, that Tae-
| pingwang was Bible reader before he began his
! political career; and, like Rammohun Roy, the
distinguished Hindoo Brahmin he derived his reli-
gious tenets from that glorious Book OF God itself,
without the aid of missionaries of any denomina-
i ton though, like man Of sense, and lover of
truth rather than bgotry, he takes great pleasure
| in learning the opinions of others.
4 You compare this religious movement in China
IN he
the Great; and you'suppose that the change of
religion among the subjects of the latter was also
the result of previous sowing of the seed of Chris
| tianity among them. According to my reading,
the subjects in general Of Constantine did not at
| first adopt Christianity from conviction Of its
/ truth or, in consoquence--as you snppose--of
the previous sowing of the seed thereof; but mere
ly as matter of course, the Christian religion be-
| ing, then, the religion of the Emperor himself
! All impediments to Investigation being thus re-
moved, and free inquiry and the free reading of
the Scriptures, and the free preaching of the Word
being not only permitted but encouraged, the
masses soon embraced the new religion from gen.
| uine conviction of its truth Thus far, then, the
comparison is just The followers of Tapping
wang at first followed him in his religion natu-
| rally as they followed him to batte-never dream
| ing of the course marked out by the Jesuits for
their ancestors or themselves, and which bears no
greater resemblance to that Of Tapping wang
than darkness does to light But now, the masses
under that most extraordinary cheftain have the
Bible, and we are assured that t Is read and stud
| led with eagerness and reverence. They cannot
fall therefore, to be convinced Of the vast superb
ority of the Christian system TO their recently aban-
doncd, as well the Jesuits, senseless, and ira
| tonal idolatry.
| Besides, at the very time when Tae-piagwang
started in his career, the Jesuits were laboring in
China with might and main, still assiduousy sowing
| Ind .fo thavh had thara
three centuries befsre aud yet without crop like
this Surely none could have been more astonshed
than they were at beholding crop strange and so
different from anything they had right to expect,
for, have they ever sowed the seed of Christianity
No, sir, no. They have sowed The mind. Their
crop is the phiripind Let them reap 1t.
So widely different Is the religious system OF Tae-
ping-wang from that OF the Jcsuits, that, as soon
as he shd have fair prospect Of being completely
successful shall expect to learn that the Popes
" dear son"-Lous Napoeop-is endeavoring TO
compel him, at the lannon's mouth, to allow free
coahse among the Chinese to Jesuits and French
brandy, now prohibited, to his people-just as
Louis Philip in lS4l, compelled the King Of the
Sandwich Islands TO receive both, which, till then,
were excluded from his dominons; and, from that
time and circumstance, may be dated the decline
and fall Of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Already, In
deed have the French, in obedience to their lord,
the Pope, and their masters, the Jesuits, COM
menced operations 10 impede the progress Of a
revolution which promises to exclude from China
all intoxicating liquors, az well as opium and Idol
/ airy.
| A remarkable thing was observed in Japan by the
Rev. Mr. Bittinger. The Japanese, you know, are
dolaters he says that within their temples, In res
pect both Of objects and and ceremonies, nothing
but cross is needed TO render them identical with
Roman Catholic churches. The fact is, that many
years ago, Bishop Middleton, in his celebrated
Letter from Rome" fully demonstrated that most
Of the rites and observances Of the Church Of
Rome---her image and picture worship in particu-
lar--are Of Pagan origin.
lam, sir, very respectfully, &C.,
J. u. POLK.
WASHINGTON CrrY, March -, 1856.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, March %, 1885.