Page:China's spiritual need and claims.djvu/18

4 in China—was composed by Wun-wang, an emperor who lived a century before David’s reign. When Moses, learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, led the people of Israel from the house of bondage to the promised land, Chinese laws and literature were probably not inferior to, while their religious views were far in advance of, those of Egypt; the worship of graven images not having been introduced into China until some centuries after this period. Upwards of 200 years before the call of Abraham, certain astronomical



observations were recorded by Chinese historians, which have been verified by astronomers of our own times. And the oldest record of antiquity, still possessed by the Chinese, graven on the rocks of Hung-shan some half-century antecedent to this early period, was intended to perpetuate the memory of engineering works not less remarkable for extent or difficulty than those displayed in the erection of the pyramids of Egypt. Since that time Egypt has risen to the zenith of its glory; has faded and become "the basest of the kingdoms." Since that time the once famous empires of Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome, have waxed–and waned–and passed away; but China still remains, the only monument of ages long bygone. For 4000 years this empire has been preserved by the power of, and it shall be yet preserved until His word, delivered more than twenty-five centuries ago by the mouth of His servant Isaiah, shall be fulfilled to the last jot and tittle:—"I will make all My mountains a way, and My highways shall