The Taiping Christians

While the Second Advent message was beginning in America, there was a most remarkable Christian movement going on in the heart of China led by a man unacquainted with Christianity. The story is documented in The History of the Taiping Revolution, by Augustus Lindley (Lin-Le), a former British naval officer turned adventurer who traveled and worked extensively with the people of this movement.

In 1837, a heathen Chinese had a series of remarkable visions, in which he was shown the principal points of the Christian religion. In his visions, Hung-sui-tshuen was first taken to a river, where the celestial visitors said to him: “Why hast thou kept company with yonder people and defiled thyself?” He was then washed clean, his heart was taken out, and a new heart was given to him. (How could a heathen be given a better idea of conversion and baptism?) He was then brought in before