Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/15

Rh all their wanderings; travelled with them through Persia, India, and Tartary, and by both routes to China; at the same time that they penetrated into Egypt, Asia Minor, and Greece, and through Greece to the West and North of Europe. At length, according to Strabo (who wrote in the time of Pompey and Crcsar), "the Jews were scattered into all cities; and it was not easy to find a spot on the earth which had not received them, and where they were not settled." Thus a current of the truth had been felt over the whole surface of the globe; the human race had begun to awaken from its supine slumbers, and to thrill with the presentiment of its redemption.

If there were anything to be surprised at, it would be that after this men should manifest surprise at finding, among all nations, and in all modes of worship, biblical fragments, and ideas that may be called Christian. The wonder would be if it were not so. "God," says St. Paul, "has not left himself without witness among the Gentiles; "and according to the prophecy of Jacob, the Redeemer was to be "the expectation of the nations."

When the Christ appeared, it was not only in Judea, among the Hebrews, that he was looked for; he was expected also at Rome, among the Goths and Scandinavians, in India, in China, in High Asia especially, where almost all religious systems are founded on the dogma of a Divine Incarnation. Long before the coming of the Messiah, a reconciliation of man with a Saviour, a King of righteousness and peace, had been announced throughout the world. This expectation is often mentioned in the Puranas, the mythological books of India. Sometimes the earth is represented in them