ABSTRACT
THE earliest recorded attempt to impart the knowledge of the true God to the Chinese ascribes it to the N estorian church in the seventh century; though the voice of tradition, and detached notices in ecclesiastical writers of the Eastern Empire collated by Fabricius, lead to the belief that not many years elapsed after the times of the apostles before the sound of the gospel was heard in China and Chin-India. If the tradition contained in the breviary used among the Malabar Christians, that by Saint Thomas himself the ChinesQwere converted to the truth, be not received, Mosheim well remarks that "we may believe that at an early period the Christian religion extended to the Chinese, Seres, and Tartars. There are various arguments collected from learned men to show that the Christian faith was carried to China, if not by the apostle Thomas, by the first teachers of Christianity." Arnobius, A.D. 300, speaks of the Christian deeds done in India, and among the Seres, Persians, and Medes. The N estorian monks who brought the eggs of the silk-worm to Constantinople (A.D. 551) had resided long in China, where it is reasonable to suppose they were not the first nor the only ones who went thither to preach the gospel. The extent of their success must be left to conjecture, but "if such beams have travelled down to us through the darkness of so many ages, it is reasonable to believe they emanated from a brighter source."
