The following inflammatory placard, which was posted up last year at a place called Lung-p’ing, near the great tea mart of Hankow, will give a faint idea of native prejudice against the propagation of Christianity in China.  The original was in verse, and evidently the work of a highly-educated man:—­

  Strange doctrines are speedily to be eradicated: 
  The holy teaching of Confucius is now in the ascendant. 
  There is but one most sacred religion: 
  There can be but one Mean. 
  By their great virtue Yao and Shun led the way,
  Alone able to expound the “fickle” and the “slight;"[*]
  Confucius’ teachings have not passed away,
  Yet working wonders in secret[+] has long been in vogue. 
  Be earnest in practising the ordinary virtues: 
  To extend filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, and
    considerateness, is to benefit one’s-self. 
  Be careful in your speech,
  And marvels, feats of strength, sedition, and spirits,[:] will
    disappear from conversation. 
  I pray you do not listen to unsubstantiated words: 
  Then who will dare to deceive the age with soft-sounding phrases. 
  Our religion is for all who choose to seek it;
  But we build no chapels to beguile the foolish. 
  Our true religion has existed from of old, up to the present day,
    undergoing no change. 
  Its true principles include in their application those of the middle
    and outside nations alike. 
  Great is the advantage to us! 
  Great is the good influence on this generation! 
  Of all religions the only true one,
  What false doctrine can compare with it? 
  The stillness and cleanliness of Buddhism,
  The abstruseness and hollow mockery of Taoism—­
  These are but side-doors compared with ours;
  Fit to be quitted, but not to be entered. 
  These are but by-paths compared with ours;
  Fit to be blocked up, but not to be used. 
  How then about this one, stranger than Buddhist or Taoist creed? 
  With its secret confusion of sexes, unutterable! 
  More hurtful than all the dogmas of the other two;
  Spreading far and wide the unfathomable poison of its mysteries. 
  Herein you must carefully discriminate,
  And not receive it with belief and veneration. 
    Those who now embrace Christ
  Call him Lord of heaven and earth,
  Worshipping him with prayer,
  Deceiving and exciting the foolish,
  Dishonouring the holy teaching of Confucius. 
  I laugh at your hero of the cross,
  Who, though sacrificing his life, did not preserve his virtue
    complete. 
  Missions build chapels,
  But the desire to do good works is not natural to them. 
  The method of influencing the natures of women
  Is but a trick to further base ends. 
  They injure boys by magical arts,
  And commit many atrocious crimes. 
  They say their religion is the only true