Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 224

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Term for Elohim and Theos.

APRIL,

approach of ordinary mortals; and have thought him to be so trans- cendently great, glorious and powerful, &c., as to receive no homage, regard no petitions, and take no cognizance of any of mankind, ex- cept through the appointed medium of vicegerents and mediators. Thus a people might worship myriads of objects, not one of whom would be regarded as divine or a God. Such seems to be the real position of the Chinese, and there is a doubt whether the emperor himself be an exception. It is therefore asking too much, to assume as a fact, that the objects worshiped by the Chinese are their Gods, especially too, when intelligent Chinese themselves most positively deny that they are so esteemed. They represent their shin to be the servants and agents of a great Supreme One, by whose authority they are appointed and act, to whom they are amenable, and at whose tribunal they must annually appear. Hence the annual ceremony of sending off all the shin on the 24th day of the 12th month. It is of small moment how we regard their shin, but in this search it is important to ascertain how they regard them.

What then are the objects of Chinese worship, according to their own estimation? The Chinese have two great classes of objects to which religious worship is offered. These may be distinguished by foreign and native. The former class belongs to Budhism. This system was introduced into China nearly eighteen centuries ago. It has brought in a multitude of objects of worship. There is, however, very little pure Budhism in China. The system has been modified to suit the tastes and customs of the people adopting it, and engrafted on a religious trunk indigenous to China. Yet one would scarcely turn to this mutilated and borrowed system to seek for the term after which we are searching, especially when it is borne in mind, that the system is regarded heterodox, and is one object against which the Im- perial author of “ the Sacred Edict" issues his bull. Budhism and its books are of no authority, and will never be appealed to by the intelligent. Still it may be inquired, if among Budhistical objects of worship, there be not a God, some Divine being or beings, regarded essentially and naturally so? Whatever may be the opinion of Budhists in the land of Budha, Chinese Budhists have no such idea. All objects of worship are regarded as holding a relation to the ori- ginal Chinese Supreme One. There is a multitude of the canonized, and some who by a kind of apotheosis or absorption, have become amal- gamated with the Deity, and are worshiped as patterns for imitation, and to secure their assistance in obtaining what they have attained— viz. absorption in the felicitous west. These objects of worship are rather imported tutelary saints than imported Gods.