Asylums in China | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Nov 16, 1876

Asylums in China.

[Extract from a letter by Dr. J. P. Newman.]

“THERE are in China native asylums for orphans and widows, for the aged and for the sick. But these asylums do not antedate Christianity in China. There is evidence that the gospel was preached there in the first century, and Christianity has twice been the religion of the Empire, once under the Nestorians of the Greek Church, from the seventh to the fourteenth century, and again under the Roman Catholics from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, that is, during these times the reigning royal family accepted the Christian religion.

The native charitable institutions are limited to the relief of the most pressing necessities, while our asylums for the deaf and dumb and for the insane are not known in Pagan China. And prisoners are there treated like beasts. In fact, the Chinese take better care of beasts than they do of these. Take their asylum for animals at Yung Si, wherein are all kinds, and in large numbers. The Chinese are in advance of Huxley, for they believe that such animals will be men in the next world.”