p. 18 | Religious Intolerance in China by W. A. C.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 5, 1910

Religious Intolerance in China

By W. A. C.

THAT the native Christians in China have something to suffer for their faith appears evident from the following account of atrocities committed in the present uprising in the province of Hunan:—

“The mobs have exhausted even Chinese ingenuity in torturing the native Christians. Every punishment of criminals known to Chinese criminal lore is practised by the mobs, and tortures never before used, some of them unspeakable, as well.

“In some instances the victims’ tongues have been torn out by the roots, and they have been set loose, often blinded, and mockingly told to preach the new creed. Bound till they could scarcely move a muscle, others have been tickled continually till their brains gave way.

“The water torture—the steady dropping of water on one spot of the body—has been frequently employed by the vengeful mobs. After the four-hundredth drop, this torture is excruciating; in one instance reported to-day more than three thousand drops were used.

“In one instance a Christian, an old woman, was bound, and her teeth were filed away to the gums. Finger and toe nails of others have been pulled out.”—Washington Times, April 25, 1910.

These atrocities seem almost to rival those of the Inquisition, and are a forcible reminder of the fact that we are still living in an age of persecution, and that even in an epoch of peace and freedom the spirit of persecution is not dead, but simply slumbers. W. A. C.