Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume II.djvu/76

62 The picture of the Virgin did not remain long over the altar, however, but was replaced by an image of the Saviour; for a report had been spread that the strangers worshipped a woman; and if such an impression should have been established, it would have been highly prejudicial to the progress of Christianity; such is the abject and despised condition to which women are reduced in China.

As the Fathers became better acquainted with the Chinese language, they began to hold familiar discourses in their chapel on the most elementary truths of our faith. The mandarins, the men of letters, all the most important persons in Tchao-King listened to them with great attention. "But," says Trigault, "all this brought more applause than fruit."

Then, as now, the mandarins listened to discourses on God, the soul, and salvation, from mere curiosity, or, as they say themselves, "to amuse their hearts a little." They often were even courteous enough to declare the doctrines they heard perfect and unanswerable, but on going away they resumed their habitual indifference, and became just as Chinese as ever. They gravely bestowed their sanction and approbation on the truth and beauty of the new theories, without ever appearing to imagine they could learn anything from barbarians; and instead of becoming disciples, they assumed the airs of arrogant and self-sufficient critics and judges, for their Chinese vanity prevented their observing any other attitude. It is written that "God rejects the proud, and gives His grace to the humble."

One day, as the missionaries were traversing the ramparts of the town, they perceived a poor man lying on the ground, scarcely covered with a few rags, and a