Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 218

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Term for Elohim and Theos.

APRIL,

Another writer (whose manuscript is in my possession) states as the important ground, why he favors shin as analogous to the Hebrew and Greek terms for God, is "That the Chinese do use shin to de- signate their objects of worship, and that it is with them a common and not a specific name." He further remarks, "Infinite Wisdom in the Son of God directed him differently [than to select the name of any individual Deity]. He selected and employed for the true God, the common name employed by the heathen to designate the objects of their worship." Further in Vol. XVIII, page 100 of the Repository, we have a pithy article by "A Lover of Plain Common Sense," who founds all his remarks on this same idea, that the objects worshiped by any people are necessarily the Gods of that people, and that a name in their language generic for such objects of worship, must be the term we need to translate and sos, and on page 608, are given the views of a writer on the same side, where this same idea again appears in a strong light; and shángtí is declared not to be the generic name for “the beings or idols" worshiped by the Chinese, but is applied “to few only of the multitude of false deities adored by this people."

I have been thus particular in presenting these quotations and re- ferences, to show that there is no misapprehension of the position as- sumed, in order, undesignedly, to foist shin into the lofty station of a term to reveal our Jehovah God. The position assumed is clearly

Here we have the divine sanction and the highest authority for applying the word as an appella- tive to the Supreme Being, which was used by the heathen to designate an unknown God or their fabulous deities. If it were proper to introduce a new word for God, in teaching Christianity to the beathen, it doubtless would have been adopted by the Savior and his Apostles ; but if Jesus Christ and his inspired disciples, in giving Chritianity to an idolatrous people, employed the term for the Most High by which they designated their idols, why need we use a new word or a foreign symbol in teaching Christianity to the Chinese? Surely they have gode enough to have some common term to designate them, and they can scarcely be more ignorant of the true God than were the ancient Greeks and Romans

Should it be urged against the use of Skin for God that it is used in other senses, such as teing skin, animal spirits, &c., the same objection nay be urged against the application of Thess to God, for this term is also found in composition having another signification." It enters into the com- position of proper names such as Theophilus and Theodosius, and a variety of common words, such as theogony, theopathy, theomancy, and the like, still no objection is made to the use of Theos to designate the true God, because the term is found in composition with another sense, la the Chinese Thesaurus, from which extracts have been made by a distinguished Chinese scholar illustrative of the use of Skin, the primary meaning given to it is Spirit i. a. Skin is a spirit. This much resembles the defiuition of Deity given in the Sacred Scriptures—“ God is a Spirit." The example given by the same Chinese author to illustrate his definition of Shin, is—“ The inscrutableness of the superior and inferior principles in nature is called Skin' i. God.

In commenting on the use of Skin by Confucius, Oku-fu-taz' says that, “ Kwai is the soul of the inferior principle of nature, and Shin is the soul of the superior principle. But if we speak of the two united together, we say, when extended, they become Shin, god, when contracted or reverted, they become Kwei, demon.” The sage adds a quotation from the Odos, which says- *The approach of the skin (gods) can not be comprehended, with what reverence therefore

should we conduct ourselves!'

Should those engaged in translating the Sacred Scriptures into the Chinese language, transfer the proper name Jekovak, or adopt the suggestion of the learned linguist who proposes the abbreviated form Jak, and represent this by the symbol, or should they employ the Chinese term Tian (Heaven) or Tien chu (Heaven's Lord) or Shang ti (High Ruder) they would still want an appellative form by which to translate Theos or God, and which 1 think is correctly rendered by the term Shim.

Truly yours, SCIOLUS.