MARRIAGE INSTITUTION.

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political honors. In this regard their civilization is unique among all the heathen nations of the world. What has given to the Chinese this distinguishing characteristic? There can be, we conceive, only one answer to this question: It has sprung from their early connection with the old Bible records, and particularly with the fifth command of the decalogue.

The marriage institution, as recognized in the laws of China, contributes evidence on this subject. The intelligent reader is prepared for the statement that in this respect, also, the Chinese stand entirely above all other heathen nations; but it is probable even he will be surprised to observe how nearly the Chinese view of this subject harmonizes with the one contained in the Pentateuch. A Chinese husband can have at one time only one legal wife. At her death, the bereaved husband may make a second marriage. This wife is taken with established ceremonies, and she is the recognized head of the domestic household. Concubinage is allowed, and freely practiced in China; but the concubine cannot take from the wife her authority or position in the family. His marriage is one of the most important events in the life of a Chinese. Its preliminaries are arranged with anxious solicitude, and with profound deference to all the influences, terrestrial and celestial, which are supposed to affect so important an enterprise. The nuptials are celebrated with all the display which the resources of the parties can command, and the ceremony is invested with judicial sanctions, social festivities, and ancestral honors. It is certainly as remarkable as singular to find such sentiments on this

subject prevailing so extensively among a heathen people, and the bearing of this fact on the question before us is sufficiently evident to the reader. We might refer to other sources of testimony on this point. The industrial and fine arts, agriculture, commerce, architecture, literature, jurisprudence, political economy, proverbs, social system, and the manners and customs of the Chinese, all furnish evidence, palpable, cumulative, and convincing, that the original Chinese came from the old homestead of the human race, in Western Asia, and were acquainted with the doctrines and facts of the early Bible records. It does not fall within the plan of this work to present this evidence in detail. We simply indicate the sources from which additional testimony on this subject may be drawn, and now pass to notice another remarkable feature of Chinese civilization.

It is a noteworthy fact, that of all those ancient empires founded immediately subsequent to the deluge China alone remains. The Assyrians, Egyptians, and, in later times, the Grecians, have severally attained to a comparatively high degree of intelligence and refinement; but their star soon culminated and sank into utter darkness. China, however, has never been wrecked, her civilization has never retrograded; paradoxical though it seems, her star has remained in its zenith for at least three thousand years. Through all this long lapse of centuries the Chinese have kept up, fairly and steadily, to their original civilization; and to-day they present all the essential elements of those social, literary, and political traits which characterized them in those early

NATIONAL LONGEVITY.

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epochs when the Assyrians built their magnificent cities, the Egyptians developed their subtle theory of the metempsychosis, or the Greeks were thundering at the gates of Troy. It must certainly be interesting to inquire how such a result has been reached, and to ascertain, if we can, at least some of the causes which have contributed to it. In solving this interesting problem we observe that the civilization of the Chinese is distinguished from all other heathen civilizations by the fact that its primitive elements were derived from the Bible, and that the necessary tendency of these elements is to conserve and perpetuate the system. A prominent characteristic of Chinese civilization is the total absence of those revolting and cruel rites which form the leading traits of other heathen systems of civilization. As illustrative of this remark, we may refer to the deification of vice and the offering of human victims in sacrifices, practices which, though characteristic of nearly every other heathen nation, constitute no feature of Chinese civilization. The connection between these abominations and the destruction of the nations guilty of them, is shown in Leviticus xviii, 24, 25: "Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you; and the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants." As a further contribution to the solution of this question we refer to the length of days promised by the Almighty to those who observe the command: "Honor thy father and thy mother." No heathen nation has ever approximated

the Chinese in their respect for parents; and notwithstanding the wide divergence of the Chinese, both in theory and practice, from the true import of the fifth commandment, we conceive it is neither fanciful nor farfetched to suppose that even their imperfect observance of it has had much to do with the permanence of their institutions and the perpetuity of their national existence. Finally, on this topic, we observe that God may have preserved the Chinese nation in its integrity for the elucidation of some great principle, or the fulfillment of some prophecy connected with the progress and triumph of his Son's kingdom in the world. There are intimations that in the latter days the Church, in her graces, accomplishments, and triumphs, will be surpassingly beautiful and glorious. "Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." "Behold, these shall come from far: and lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim." (China?) "Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once?" For the accomplishment of these and similar prophecies no nation has ever furnished such grand and essential elements as the Chinese, and in no age of the world have the signs of ultimate and immediate success been so grand and auspicious as at the present hour.

HISTORY OF CHINA.

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CHAPTER III.

HISTORY OF CHINA.

THE history of China has proved to many writers a fruitful source of perplexity and misconception. While some have decried it as altogether unworthy of credence or study, others have lavished upon it the highest encomiums. It has had, indeed, the somewhat singular fortune of being alternately unduly extolled or indiscriminately disparaged. Disgusted with its harsh and unintelligible nomenclature, and with the outré garb in which its scenes and heroes appear before us, the man of refined taste has usually dismissed the subject from his thoughts; while the skeptic, eager for plausible arguments in support of his views, has seized with avidity on its high-sounding claims to antiquity as a triumphant refutation of the claims of the Bible. Some of our readers can doubtless remember the confident utterances of the infidel oracles in France and Germany on this subject not many years ago: "The Bible chronology unreliable;" "the Bible history contradicted by the authentic records of ancient nations;" "the Bible proved to be false !" These and kindred statements supplied at once the text and key-note for innumerable philippics against the Christian religion. "The