He wore a tufted crown,
which made him look somewhat war-like. It is but natural that this
Joss should be a blind man. The Greek gods and goddesses have Greek
countenances. The idolatrous nations fashion their deities after their
own likeness. And what are these but deified human beings? It is so in
Greek and Roman mythology. The Egyptian Osiris is an Egyptian. It is
true that some of the ancients outside of Hebrew Revelation had a
better conception of God than others. Even in Egypt where birds and
beasts and creeping things received divine honors there were scholars
and poets who had an exalted idea of the Deity, as witness the Poems
of Pentaur. This is true also of some of the Greek Poets who had a
deep insight into divine things. It is not a little interesting to
note also that artists of different nations paint the Madonna after
the style of their own women. Very few of the pictures in the great
art galleries are after the style of face which you see in the Orient.
Hence there are Dutch Madonnas, and Italian and French and English
types. There were no worshippers in the Joss-House at the hour when I
visited it.
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