But those who have this faith will have Heaven, and they shall live by the blessings derived therefrom, both in this world and in the world to come.
7th. Brethren and friends, let us get faith; for it is the greatest blessing to us. If we have it, let us live by it; for it is the most vital and most wholesome food our souls can have. Let us hold fast to it. Let us exercise it so as to promote the happiness of men to the saving of their souls. Let us exercise it so as to magnify the love of God, and His Son Jesus Christ.
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
CHINESE AND CHINESE CUSTOMS.
The longer you live in China and the better you know the people, the greater do your wonder and amazement increase. Their superstitions are as numerous almost as your thoughts. Their religious customs are so many and intricate, that they make burdens for the people more grievous to bear than those the Pharisees laid upon the Jews. They spend as much money on those, to us, useless and silly customs—ten times as much, I fully believe—as we Christians spend on the Gospel. A rich man, I am told, recently spent on the building of a paper house, which was burnt, for the use of the spirit of the head of the family who had died, and on the ceremonies connected with it, $10,000 in hard cash.
This is a large sum of money to spend on paper to be burnt simply in what, to us, seem perfectly ridiculous rites. But that is only a tithe of the money spent by such a family, on this religion, which God hates. These people believe that every man has three spirits. When he dies, one spirit goes to hell, the second dwells in the grave, and the third by due ceremonies is invited to take up its residence in a wooden tablet, on which his name is inscribed. This tablet is kept in the house, and the worship of it is the ancestral worship, which is the last thing a Chinaman will give up.
No later than yesterday we had a good example of the ceremony for the dead of which I have spoken. This is the case of a Chinaman born in Penang, whose wife died in the latter part of last year, but the ceremonies for providing for her comfort in Hades were not performed till yesterday. He should have performed these services several months ago, according to the proper custom, and was very much blamed by the Chinese for having delayed. He told me the secret of the business, however. He did not believe in the thing, as he said, but his wife’s mother was near at hand and all her relations, and because he was going to neglect the matter apparently, they began to give him trouble. For peace, therefore, he made the preparations. In the meantime, the body of his wife was still in the house in the coffin. A Chinese coffin is thick and air-tight—at least, no smell escapes from the decaying body, which sometimes is kept for years in the house or in a temple. This man was not a rich man, but was in good circumstances.
He prepared a house about twelve feet square, built of bamboo and paper, most beautifully and carefully finished, the painting on it representing brick, stone, marble, and woods of different kinds. Silver and gold leaf were used profusely; fruits and trees in relief, and figures of all shapes. Inside the house, which was, by the way, beautifully furnished with miniature furniture, reclined the lady of the house, to represent his wife, on a handsome couch. In the house were all the household utensils and everything indicative of wealth. At the door was a handsome sedan chair, and four coolies standing by, ready at her call. Around her were men and women servants in figures about eight inches high, some engaged in one work, some in another. Some were preparing rice, some baking, some washing clothes, some cleaning rice with a fanning mill. All was most tastefully and elegantly made up.