28th Aug. We are glad to see the New York Nation writing very favourably of Archdeacon Moule's recent volume, New China and Old, a book which is not only a pleasant' record of the author's experiences during his thirty years' residence in the country but which contains a great deal of suggestive matter, well worth the serious considertion of all those who are really anxious for the welfare and progress of China. The author of the notice in the Nation, fixes especially we see on one point in the archdeacon's book, his account and discussion of Ancestor Worship, and it is to this that we were ourselves anxious to draw attention, as we are convinced that it is the unfortunate attitude which the missionaries have taken on this question that has been the cause of the undeniable failure of mission work in China. We do not mean to say that the missionaries have done nothing; but we do contend that the results they have attained do not begin to be comment surate with the well-intentioned labour that has been lavished on the country. The Nation says that "the author, as well as many educated Chinese, regards Ancestor Worship as the greatest obstacle to the success of Christianity in China." We should rather have said that the author, though he does not expressly say so, regards the way the churches treat Ancestor Worship as the greatest obstacle. There is nothing in Ancestor Worship itself incompatible with Christianity; and if the churches, taking counsel with the wisest and most reasonable of their.emissaries in China, would re-open and re-examine the question, and assimilate Ancestor Worship under proper regulations, as the Early Church assimilated the festivals and ceremonies that it found existing among the peoples whom it converted, there would be a thousand converts in China where there is now one, and, what is of still more importance, the greater part of the opposition of the educated classes to Christianity would be robbed of its force. Ancestor Worship is the basis of society in China. There is no prejudice in China against new faiths, religious toleration coming quite naturally to the Chinese; but they do object, and most reasonable people will consider that they are quite right in objecting, to have the basis of their morality dug up, to be replaced by another which may be theoretically sounder, but which certainly is not surmounted by a practically better superstructure. In China no man lives for himself; the family is continuous from the past through the present into the future: in China it is heresy to suggest that the dead past should bury its dead. In all important acts the Chinaman, from the Emperor down, has to think what his ancestors did or would do in similar circumstances, and what posterity will think of his nets; and the restraint which these considerations exert is most salutary. The condemnation of Ancestor Worship on the part of the churches is therefore most impolitic, but it is more than that, it is distinctly hypocritical. There is not a Western nation or a Western church in which Ancestor Worship is not cultivated. We have Supreme Courts kept up at vast expense to carry out dead men's wishes: our churches and cathedrals and cemeteries are full of the memorials of our an-cesters, which it is a pious duty to keep fresh and maintain. Such of the missionaries themselves as were educated at our universities were taught there regularly to commemorate their an-cesters, and special advantages are offered to " founders' kin." To interfere with a family burying-place is sacrilege in England; because ao similar commemoration of ancestors is attended with different ceremonies in China, ceremonies in which the unenlightened missionary discerns that worn-out fetish, idolatry, the churches would sweep away Ancestor Worship in China; and otherwise estimable person like the Rev. Mr. Y. K. Yen would hardly venture, Archdeacon Moule tells us, to have in his house even a picture of his parents so strong, apparently, is his natural proclivity to idolatry. Archdeacon Moule puts tersely and in two sentences that could hardly be improved on, the aversion with which the good Chinese regard the Christianity that condemns Ancestor Worship: " When the Christian convert refuses to join in the worship of the dead, that which may be called the great religious instinct of the Chinese soul is wounded and scandal lised. It seems to the non-Christian as unreasonable and as immoral as it would be for children to refuse to join the rest of the family circle in honouring and reverencing and loving their parents."
Archdeacon Moule give a most. useful resume of the history of the discussion as to whether Christianity should tolerate or condemn ancestor Worship in China, The great. evangel list Ricci was in favour of toleration equally infallible Popes have issued decrees on both sides. The tyranny of words is eminently exemplified in this question: it was the churches themselves that named this reverence of the dead which is universal in humanity Ancestor Worship: then they turned round and said that all Worship, except of the one God, is idolatry: therefore Ancestor Worship is idolatry, and must be condemned as such: but they do not call it idolatry when they put flowers on the grave of a loved and lost father Jor mother. The difference is only in degree, not in kind. Let the churches if they really want to succeed in China put aside the protestations of the less enlightened majority of their emissaries, and take to heart the advice of such men as Drs, Martin, Bdkins, and Williamson, and the Rev. Gilbert Reid, summarised by Archdeacon Moule:—"Phe uncompromising dogma that ancestral worship is essentially and wholly idolatrous is the great bar to the conversion of many in the literary class to Christianity. Why be intolerant to those elements in ancestral worship which are not necessarily idolatrous or superstitious? At its peril indeed will the Church condone either idolatry or superstition! But at its peril door which is not fast shut by the again will the Church close a Bible, our one infallible guide! Does not the expression Ancestral Worship prejudge the whole question? Does reverence, does even prostration, imply necessarily divine worship and adorn ation? Is there no via media by which, steering between idolatry and reverence, we may provide a Christian rite which shall retain the good and purge out the evil of this system? We touch here
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.