228 The God of "Shu" and "Shi" [LECT. State is ascribed to him. Heaven is called unpitying. But this is his strange work, in judgment, and to call men to repentence. He hates no one; and it is not he who really causes the evil time: that is a consequence of forsaking the old and right ways of Government. In giving birth to the multitudes of the people he gives them a good nature, but few are able to keep it and hold out good to the end." Yü the Great, the founder of the Hsia-Ká dynasty, B.C. 2205, "sought for able men who should honor God" (in the discharge of duty). But the way of Chich, the last of this line, was different. Those whom he employed were cruel men and he had no successor. The kindgdom was given to Tang the successful, the founder of the Shang or Yin dynasty, who grandly administered the bright ordinances of God." His reign dates from B.C. 1766; but Shâu, the last of his line, came to the throne (in 1254, B.C.) and was as cruel as Chieh had been; God in consequence "sovereignly punished him." The throne was transferred to the house of Châu, whose chiefs showed their fitness for the charge by "employing men to serve God with reverence, and appointed them as presidents and chiefs of the people," etc. To read such things in the old books of China, really makes one feel as though some chapters had dropped out of the Books of Kings of the Hebrew Bible, and had been carried across to China, so alike in sentiment. This is the God of Shi and Shu, going back to the 3rd millennium B.C., and all along no reference to reverence paid to other spirits or beings excepting as mere ministers of the Supreme. With reference to these subordinate spirits we have in the statutes of Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1642).1 To the heavenly spirits, "the spirits of the Cloud-master, the Rainmaster, the Lord of the Winds, and the Thunder Master," 1 Legge, Religions of China, 19. V.] Becomes "Heaven and Earth." 229 it is said: "It is your office, O Spirits, to superintend the clouds and the rain, and to raise and send abroad the winds, as ministers assisting Shang-ti. All the people enjoy the benefits of your service," etc. The Supreme was father of the people, but became the Lord of the Emperor, in Chinese development; the Emperor, lord of the people; the man, lord of his children. And so it became the chief duty of children to obey their parents, of men to reverence their superiors, culminating in the Emperor, while the Emperor became the sole worshipper of God. Hence the worship of ancestors, and of ministering spirits, and a thousand other superstitions, which were outgrowths of the decay of primitive worship. As time wore on, teachers began to use a still more indefinite term for the Supreme. "Heaven and Earth" is the common expression, and the primal meaning of divinity is still less strong. Then during the troublous times of 800 to 600 B.C. and up to the time of Confucius, the belief in a personal God grew indistinct and dim, so that Confucius in his teaching, representing the best thought of his day, is even charged with atheism. He never denied the existence of God, but so little does he refer to him that he may be said to ignore him systematically. As to the ethics of primitive China, they are to be found in the Confucian doctrines which have come down to us to-day. Confucius ransacked the ancients for his moral code, and found all the principles of his system in the teaching of 1,500 to 2,000 years before his time. And as we look at his system to-day, we cannot find so much fault with his ethics so far as principles are concerned; their roots run back to the primitive faith of man. But as a religion, Confucianism has not developed upwards, has become fossilized, is nothing but a lifeless name; a religion in which God is ignored is emasculate. As a system of political economy, it may develop good citizens for China, but it can never supply the soul-hunger of the masses. And in fault of a 230 Indian Religions [LECT. religion in Confucius, the Chinese people cherished their superstitions and turned to Taoism and Buddhism for soul-food. III.-Aryan India. 1.-NORMAL. Another line that leads us along the same trend, and still nearer the fountain-head in some respects, is that of the Brahman, or the religion of the Vedas, among the old Aryans of India, and of their home north of the Himalayas. The Vedas take us back to nearly 2,000 years before Christ; they are the oldest literary product of the children of Japhet. Here is a race distinct from the Egyptians and Chinese, and Babylonians, from whom Egypt and China received their first civilization. The Vedas bring us back to a simple shepherd-life, and a simple trust in a holy God, with a very simple service for the worship of this God. And from that beginning we can trace, step by step, the downward evolution from primitive faith in one Holy God, to the worship of nature's powers; to an elaborate priesthood and ritual; to polytheism and superstition; to oppression and rooted immorality. Max Müller gives four periods in the Aryan religion of India as traced by the Vedas. 1. The first period is from 1800 to 1400 B.C. The word deva used for deity takes us back to the time when the three great families were still together. The one God was worshipped in the earliest Veda times under thirty-three different names, but there was no more polytheism about it apparently then than there is in the three-one God of the Christians to-day. Each one when mentioned was eternal, omnipresent, omnipotent, dwelt in invisible Heaven, never slept, hated and punished all sin. Sin was contrary to the divine nature. That nature was light, pure, holy in itself. Each one is Creator of the universe, Lord of Heaven and Earth. They manifest power sometimes in different ways, but there is no sign of anthropomorphic teaching, of marrying V.] As traced in the Vedas. 231 and begetting, and so forth; all were names or manifestations of the one Infinite God, and each one absolute. In the Rig Veda we have these words:-"They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni, also the well-winged Garutmat. That which is one, the sages call by different names," etc.1 The worship was very simple; the father of the family was at first priest, poet, and ruler. As priest he sacrificed and prayed. As men multiplied, certain persons did the work of offering, others of public praying, and others of singing sacred hymns. The hymns preserved show the consciousness of a holy God, of sinfulness in man needing an atonement. Sin was considered as an evil, enslaving the human will, an inherited depravity. There was also a trust in God as the merciful forgiver of sins. Here is an extract from a hymn to Varuna : Will he be dis peace see Him The wise all Was it an "Wise and mighty are the works of Him who has adorned the firmanent. He lifts up the bright glorious heaven. He spreads out divided the stars and the earth. Say I this to my own soul? How can I attain unto Varuna? pleased with my offering? When shall I in reconciled? I ask, O Varuna, for I know my sin. tell me the same thing, Varuna is angry with thee. old sin, O Varuna, that thou should destroy one who ever praises thee? Make it known to me, O thou invisible Lord, and I will quickly turn to thee with praise, released from sin. Free us from the sins of our fathers and from those that we ourselves have committed. Release me, O king, as a thief who has eaten of stolen cattle; let me go as a calf, freed from the halter. It was not our own doing, O Varuna, it was involuntary, it was a poisonous taint, it was passion, fate, thoughtlessness," etc. The germs of decay were already showing themselves, a personal consciousness of guilt was passing away; a tendency to excuse sin as an inherent trait in humanity, and the first 1For this and succeeding quotations I am indebted to Ebrard's Apologetik. 232 Gradual Decay. [LECT. germs of pantheism began to appear. Then peace and pardon were less prayed for, only worldly goods were asked of God. In a hymn to Indra-" Be not absent from one of thy worshippers, holding thyself aloof! Even from far come thou to our feast; or, if present, hear us! For those that here worship thee, draw near to our drink offering as flies set themselves at a feast of honey. Longing for abundance, I call upon thee, who holdest the thunder in thine arm, and art a good giver, as a son calls to his father. Be thou, mighty one, a shield for the mighty, when thou drivest the warriors forth to combat. Let us divide the possessions of him whom thou hast destroyed, bring us the utensils of those who are hard to conquer. We have no other friend than thee, no other happiness, no other father than thee, O thou mighty one! Drive away the unfriendly, O mighty one, and make it easy for us to take spoil; be our protector in battle, the benefactor of our friends." Here we see not the former peaceful shepherd, but the rover leaving home, and bent on depredation. Sacrifices become not atonements for sin, but gifts to God. The conviction of sin dies, worship is degraded, the idea of a holy God fades away. Nature's gifts alone are prized. God is soon forgotten; Nature is adored as God, and Agni becomes the god of fire. Here is a hymn to Agni :-" Thy path, O Agni, is also dark (with smoke). O Agni, thou from whom, as from a new born male, immortal flames ascend; the shining smoke rises heavenward, as messenger thou art sent to the gods." Here we have what was at first a name of the one holy God degraded to the position of a messenger from a priest to the new gods that have grown up in later centuries. 2. And this brings in the second Indra Period, 1400-1000 B.C. The hymns are now full of ceremony and ritual. The oldest hymns often had no ritual, were simple personal prayers to God. But now everything shows an organized priesthood, in regular classes, with fixed ceremonial and various offerings and |