"Well may I be in earnest," he replied, "for herein my only hope lies. I am an old man, without kith or kin, without anybody to care for my soul when I die."
"But you are wasting your money on worshipping these false gods, and you are spending your energy in vain. I know of a better way."
"A better way! What might that be? I never heard of any better way. And as I have no sons or grandsons, I must look out for myself. I do not need my money. I have buried my wife and my children. Now I have been preparing for my own burial. For twelve years my grave has been made and is well lined with bricks. My coffin is in my house waiting for me. I have prepared many boxes full of paper clothes, and many thousand paper dollars to be burned for me when I am gone, for I do not want to go hungry and naked into the next world."
[Illustration: Another jewel for Christ.]
"You are early at your worship, old grandfather. You are very earnest about it."
"But all these things will be of no use to you in the next world. The priests are deceiving you. You ought to come and worship God."
"You say I ought to worship God. I do worship heaven. We all ought to worship heaven and earth."
"I do not want you to worship heaven, but the Creator of heaven and earth. There is no God beside Him."