Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 638

596

Defense of an Essay, &c.

Nov.

god of Fire worshiped the rising sun, or igniting faggots, they worship- ed towards them. For the people considered that if there was no fire wherewith to cook, they could not live; and that if there was no bright sun, then in the universe there could be nothing seen. Therefore the foreigners of these two countries, from a high antiquity, had this cus- tom. The idea arose from a desire to recompense the root (i.e. to acknowledge their god, the sun, as a source of blessing): it was not a depraved god" (sié shin) i.e. a being who afflicted them with cur- ses, but a benignant being who sent them blessings. Now the Sun is the one being worshiped by the Parsees. Do they regard this being as a mere spirit? Could this author have supposed they regarded it as a mere spirit? Speaking of the ruin of Ormuz, our author says “There is an old temple there where the sun, the god of Fire (Ho Shin) was honored." "The Africans," he tells us, "worship trees, birds, and beasts as gods (shin), and whoever kills an enemy offers him in sacrifice to them.....The people of Guinea worship birds and beasts as gods (shin).” When telling of Hannibal's swearing eternal enmity to the Romans, he says that he swore before. Jih-pih-tih-'rh, Jupiter, and in a note calls him "so fung tsung tsú chí shin

Z, the god (shin) whom their ancestors worshiped." Thus we see that the word shin is used by this writer just as we would use the word god in English. No one would say the Parsees worshiped "the Sun, the spirit of fire;" that Jupiter was a spirit; that trees, birds, beasts, &c., were worshiped as spirits.

But there are nations with whose worship we are yet more familiar, whose religion is spoken of by this writer. In the 3d Section, 37th page of his work, he speaks of the object worshiped by the Jews and by all the European nations. By what name does he call this Being? His account is as follows:-" In Fuh-lin (Palestine) i.e. in Judea and in the countries to the west of it (Europe), all serve the God (Shin) of heaven. The worship of the God (Shin) of heaven commenced with Moses in the time of Wuh-ting (B.C. 1720) in the beginning of the Sháng dynasty. He (Moses) pretends that the God (Shin) of heaven descended upon Mount Sinai in Arabia, and delivered the Ten Commandments for the instruction of men. The observance of the seventh day as a Sabbath commenced from this time, which is distant from the birth of Jesus one thousand aud several hundred years. The (t'ien chủ kiáu) religion of the Lord of Heaven (the Romish) sprung from this; it is not the Romish religion."

Of the character of the Being worshiped by the Jews and Euro- peans, we can have no question; and I think there can be no doubt