This strong sense of filial piety has done
more for the stability and perpetuity of the Chinese Empire than ought
else. It is a great element of strength and it leads to respect for
customs and to the observance of maxims. Especially are burial places
held in sacred esteem, and as they contain the ashes of the fathers
they must not be disturbed or desecrated. In this respect we might
emulate the Chinese, for they are a perfect illustration of the
old precept, "Honour thy father and thy mother," which, in a busy,
independent age, there is danger of forgetting. But we look with no
little interest on the Joss above the altar, the Chinese god. His name
is Kwan Rung, and I am informed that he was born about two hundred
years after the beginning of the Christian era. Such is the person who
is worshipped here. That he may not be hungry food is placed before
him at times, and also water to drink. It is a poor, weak human god
after all, a dying, dead man. How different the Creator of the ends
of the earth, Who fainteth not neither is weary! The Chinese have no
conception of the true God.
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