Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume II.djvu/200

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the numerous obstacles of various kinds offered to the spread of the faith, Christianity was making great progress among all classes of society in China. At this period, when such important discoveries were being made by the Spanish and Portuguese navigators, innumerable preachers of the gospel, full of zeal and piety, were travelling, cross in hand, over all parts of the recently-discovered countries, and planting communities of fervent Christians in the very midst of idolatry and infidelity. The missionaries of different