Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/25

 the fundamental doctrine of religion ; and thus, thanks to this general expectation and preparation, Christianity was able to spread itself with facility over the whole surface of the earth.

Its advent was more adapted to satisfy the human mind than to astonish it; and there was nothing to prevent the words of the apostles from being heard, according to the text of Holy Writ, to the utmost confines of the world: —

The preaching of the Gospel was, in fact, heard in the most remote countries, and probably in the very heart of the Chinese Empire, — an empire at that time vaster, and perhaps more civilised, than that of Rome.

The propagation of the Christian faith in Upper Asia, is a subject that has been very little studied. People have generally contented themselves with supposing that the Gospel was not carried there till a recent time; and it is nevertheless now discovered that to a certainty the doctrines of Jesus Christ were preached from the very beginning to the nations of the utmost East.

The light has often shone in the midst of darkness, and unfortunately the darkness has "comprehended it not."

Abdias, in his history of the apostolic labours, says that St. Thomas, while he was at Jerusalem, received a