Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 234

1850.

Term for Elohim and Theos.

205

6. That skin is never employed for God by way of eminence; never so employed as to distinguish any being or class of beings, from any other being or beings as God or Gods. Consequently if a xa?' soxrv term be necessary to translate Oɛog, shin can not be that term. It is the only term in the Chinese language which generically means spirit and spiritual. The falseness of the position that such a term is ade- quate to translate ɛos, and become the distinguishing name of the divine Being, will be manifest by these two syllogisms :

1st. God is a spirit. The soul of man is a spirit. Therefore the soul of man is God.

2d. God is a shin. But shin is a spirit. Therefore` shin a spirit is God, and an adequate term to translate a term which means God. This reasoning is no more absurd in one case than the other.

Such are the views which I have been constrained to embrace. The Essay" with all its labored argument, fastened the conviction on my mind that shin could not be the term we needed; other advocates of the same views only have deepened that conviction. "An Inquiry into the proper mode of rendering the word God," &c., advocating tí, nearly produced a similar conviction concerning this term. The position of a missionary thus situated was not very agreeable, his great business being to make God known, and yet destitute of a name through which to reveal him. The result of investigations occasioned chiefly from such a state of mind, I have here spread out. Hoping these views may prove of some use in the investigation, they have been given though with reluctance. If they be wrong I would rejoice exceedingly to see my error. If they be correct, may the Author of the Bible by his Holy Spirit so guide each of us that we may see and yield to the truth; and thus prevent any from standing in the way of the universal spread of the sacred oracles among this multitudinous nation of dark- minded idolaters.

[Note. We have taken the liberty of inserting the entire communication from the China Mail referred to by our Correspondent, on page 192, for which we trust he will not be displeased. The general argument of the paper we commend to the consideration of those interested in the discussion, and will, with the permission of the writer, here only refer to two or three points in it which are not clear to our own mind. On page 198, the writer speaks of the shin being "servants and agents of a great Supreme One," and being all sent off on the 24th day of the 12th month to appear at his tribunal. We have made such inquiry in respect to this statement as we have had opportu- nity, both from "intelligent" natives and from books, and can find no author- ity for it. In the Siú Shin Kt, it is stated to be done by the Tsáu shin, or god of the Furnace, who ascends on that day to the presence of Yuh-hwáng Shangtí, to report upon the conduct of the household during the year; and every one says he is the only shin who does it. We should be glad to have