Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/221

Rh with the soul, or the invisible world at all; they imagine that all the rewards of virtue and vice, are confined to the present state; and if not dealt out during the life-time of the individual, will be visited on his children and grandchildren to the latest generation. The attachment of parents to their offspring, and the desire of perpetuating one's name and estate to future ages, are thus appealed to; but these feelings are far from influencing men to a suitable extent. When, therefore, a Confucian can calculate on escaping immediate infliction, and can harden himself against his posterity, he has nothing to allure him to goodness, but the principle of pursuing virtue for its own sake; which, in a corrupt heart, will not carry the individual far.

Thus, then, we find the far-famed school of Confucius deficient in two important points, the existence of a God, and the interest of the world to come; teaching a lifeless, cold-hearted, uninfluential system, which is powerless in the present, and hopeless for the future world. Of what avail is the parade about the five cardinal virtues, and the human relations; when the foundation of all virtue, and the most interesting of all relations, is unknown and neglected? The love of God is a principle which Confucius never broached, and which his disciples, until taught by a better master, cannot understand; while the employments and enjoyments of heaven never entered into their heads to conceive, nor into their hearts to appreciate. Surely, if ever any needed the teaching of the Divine Saviour, the sages of China do; and the first lesson they would have to learn in Immanuel's school is, humility.

Before quitting the system of Confucius, it may be