What should be the results, physical, mental, moral, and spiritual, of a child’s religious acts? Which of all the world religions produces these results? Study Mohammedanism, for instance, of which we have already noted some of the religious acts expected of the child. These must necessarily inculcate formalism, thoughtless repetition, deep-rooted superstition, and the idea that God can be appeased and sin can be forgiven through certain acts unconnected with life and character.
“When I die,” said a poor, blind Mohammedan girl, “I shall be visited by two angels, the chief of whom will make an examination of my deeds, and remind me of everything I have done, and left undone; he will then cut off a piece of my shroud and record upon it my good and bad deeds, and attach it firmly to my neck with a piece of rope. If my good deeds outweigh my bad ones, I shall go straight into heaven. If my bad deeds outweigh my good deeds, my intercessor Mohammed will easily get permission for me to enter heaven, so it does not much matter how I live.”[82]
Mohammedan month of mourning.
The annual month of mourning of the Shi’ite Mohammedans is observed by children as well as by adults, and little ones with their heads covered with straw or ashes, or wearing chains, are borne on horseback in the processions that close the series of passion plays. A missionary in Persia saw a mother carrying her boy of five or six years in the bloody procession, cutting his head with a curved sword, while blood streamed from five or six gashes. Poor, eager, zealous mother, trying to store up merit for her baby boy against the day of wrath!
Fear and horror in idol worship.
Fear, dread, and horror are inseparably associated in the minds of thousands of children with the worship of their gods. From earliest childhood others grow so naturally into the forms of ancestor, idol, and spirit worship that this becomes one of the most difficult factors in leading them into Christianity. From the Mission Day Spring we quote a few words about “how Chinese children worship.”
We must go up a flight of wide stone steps at the entrance of the temple, and as we enter we shall see two tall images with very ugly faces and brilliantly painted coats, which are called “Guardians of the Gate.” The mothers bring their little children forward, and teach them to clasp their hands and bow down, knocking their heads to the ground as they worship the image. If it is the first time, the children are afraid and often say, “Oh, I can’t do it, I never can do it!” Then they have to watch closely while their mothers once more show them how to worship. Afterwards they are sometimes rewarded with little presents, which they are told have been given them by the idol. If they are still too afraid to worship, stories of the terrible things that happen to people who do not ask the protection of the idols are repeated to them.
Up on the mountain slopes of the Hakone District in Japan, is the great children’s god, Jizo, carved centuries ago out of the solid rock. The heathen mother has been taught that, when the souls of her little children pass over the sullen stream of death, they must be saved from the clutches of a cruel hag residing on the banks. She steals their clothes and forces them to the endless task of piling stones at the river side. In order to induce Jizo to save them from the hag, the weary heathen mother climbs the steep paths leading to the children’s god, and there makes her supplication. And the little one tied to her back or led by the hand, with highly strung nerves and weary limbs, shrinks in terror at the sight of the ugly idol, and at the stories of dire vengeance which will befall her unless she worships properly.
Death from fright and exposure.
Many children die from the effects of fright and exposure connected with religious rites, as in the case of some of the African boys whose initiation into ancestor worship was described above.