Page:The Chinese Empire. A General & Missionary Survey.djvu/161

 macadamised roadways where once the walls of Tientsin stood, may be taken as an index and sign of the movement in all departments of the life, governmental, industrial, and educational, of this metropolitan province.

Christianity, in the form of Roman Catholicism, was introduced into Chihli towards the end of the thirteenth century. The province is divided into three Vicariates; the north and west under the jurisdiction of the Lazarists, and the south or south-east in charge of the Jesuits. The number of their converts cannot be less than 200,000.

The Greek Church has been in Peking for more than two hundred years. It had its origin in the border wars between Russia and China in the time of the great Kang-hsi. A colony of Christian Tartars from the fort Albasin on the Amoor river were carried captive in 1685. This was used by Russia to establish an ecclesiastical mission in the capital, with an Archimandrite at its head. The Mission has never been aggressive in seeking to make Chinese proselytes.

Among the large group of Protestant missionaries gathered at Shanghai in 1859 and 1860, waiting eagerly for the opening of new ports on the northern coast and along the Yangtse valley, were Drs. Blodget, Burdon, Lockhart, Edkins, John, and Messrs. Innocent and Hall. With the exception of Dr. John, who in the providence of God followed the "pillar of cloud" to Hankow, all the others here mentioned became pioneers in the province of Chihli. Dr. Blodget of the American Board Mission began preaching in the streets of Tientsin in 1860. The Rev. J. Innocent of the Methodist New Connexion Mission (English Methodists) settled there in 1861, and was closely followed by Dr. Edkins of the London Mission.

Dr. Lockhart had the honour of being the first Protestant missionary to reside within the walls of Peking. He rented a house next to the British Legation, and immediately opened a dispensary. The Society's report for 1862, referring to this event, says: "We indulge the sanguine expectation that the introduction of Christianity to the