CHRISTIANITY
IN
CHINA, TARTARY, AND THIBET.
CHAPTER I.
THE DOCTRINE OF THE REDEMPTION OP MEN DIFFUSED OVER THE WHOLE WORLD.—THE PREACHING OF THE JEWISH NATION.—INDIAN POETS.—VIRGIL.–THE SIBYLS.–EXTRACT FROM THE "ANNALS OF CHINA."–THE WORLD IN EXPECTATION OF THE MESSIAH.–LEGEND OF THE APOSTLESHIP OF ST. THOMAS.–PROOFS OF THE PREACHING OF ST. THOMAS IN INDIA.—ARCHÆOLOGICAL PROOFS.—MEDAL OF KING GONDAPHORUS.—PROBABILITY OF THE APOSTLESHIP OF ST. THOMAS IN CHINA.—FREQUENT RELATIONS BETWEEN THE EAST AND THE WEST AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.—CONSEQUENCES OF THESE RELATIONS.—ST. PANTENUS AND OTHER MISSIONARIES IN THE EAST.—NESTORIAN AND CATHOLIC PREACHERS IN CHINA.
The Gospel of the Christian religion, when preached successively to all the nations of the earth, excited no astonishment, for it had been everywhere prophesied, and was universally expected. A Divine Incarnation, the birth of a Man-God, was the common faith of humanity,—the great dogma that under forms, more or less mysterious, appears in the oldest modes of worship, and may be traced in the most ancient traditions. The Messiah, the Redeemer, promised to fallen man in the
