CHAPTER VI.

THE AUGUSTAN AGE IN CHINA.

THE Augustan age of Rome was the period of her

greatest power and renown. It was the boast of her people then that her armies had conquered the world. The Christian Church is accustomed to regard the extension of the dominion of Rome over the nations as one principal preparation for the coming of the Messiah and the universal preaching of the gospel. This is no doubt true. But it is a remarkable evidence of man's limited knowledge of the providence of the Most High that there was at the same period an empire equally extended and powerful upon the opposite side of the globe. The simultaneous existence of these empires, each so little acquainted with the other, is like that wonder of the heavens created by the moon's revolving round the earth in exactly the same time in which it revolves upon its own axis, so presenting to the gaze of the human race from age to age precisely the same surface. The opposite side of our satellite is as well lighted by the sun, and no doubt corresponds with that which we look upon in its physical character. But if it be peopled by any intelligent beings, they have never yet seen, from any of those opposite lands, the great world around which

they unconsciously revolve. Nor, on the other hand, has any inhabitant of our earth ever beheld that mysterious hemisphere of theirs which is turned so constantly away from us.

And so it seems to have been with much of the history of our world, which has moved on from age to age, the one and the other of its two great sides each knowing so little of that which was opposite. The side which we see is what lies westward of the region where man was created, where revelation was bestowed and where Jesus Christ died. Westward the course of empire has moved for us. But there is another side of the globe whither at least equal colonies of mankind at first advanced; where God's providence has been full as beneficent; where some of his moral precepts have been on the whole better kept; where he as mightily prepared the way for the manifestation of the knowledge of his Son; where it is not improbable the preaching of the apostles was originally as successful; and where, though, as in many portions of Europe and America, the truth has been forgotten, yet there is reason to believe the triumphs of the kingdom of the Messiah will be as glorious as we anticipate they will be amidst the nations of the West.

We read of the preparation of the world for the advent of the Saviour by the extension of the Greek and Roman empires, and their influence upon the civilization of the West; but it is not observed by historians that the preparation of the East for the same event was as distinct and complete. It is not within the scope of the present volume to trace this parallel at length. But we are at a point where it may be mentioned, and where

a few of the more remarkable particulars may be grouped together.

As the Greeks spread over the West a "wisdom" which prepared it for the "power" of the Romans, so the philosophy of Confucius, who wonderfully resembled Socrates in many respects, prepared China for the conquests of the Han dynasty. The Punic wars and the downfall of Carthage in the third century before Christ were an advance toward the consolidation of society and the formation of the imperial power; and at the same period we see the states of China first united in one great empire. Civil wars had prevailed in each of these two portions of the world. Peace reigned, it is commonly said, just at the birth of Christ, so that, as a sign of it, at Rome the temple of Janus was shut. In China it is remarkable that the name of the monarch who sat upon the throne was Ping-ti, which means the emperor, or prince, of peace. In the West, the magi of Persia, moved by the universal expectation, went westward to seek the new-born King. In China, within the same century, a royal commission was sent toward the same quarter to inquire for "a holy One" that was to arise; and this was the sad occasion of the introduction of Buddhism, whose priests imposed upon the members of it the statement that the religious founder of the sect-a Hindù prince-was the one whose doctrines would satisfy their spiritual longings.

The founder of the first general dynasty, which dates from the year 249 B. C., was Chi Hwang-ti. He had been a prince or king of the Tsin, a powerful state in the north-west. He conquered the neighboring states in succession, and at length established his dominion over