In every large house in China there is a room called the Hall of Ancestors.  There the family worship their dead parents and grand-parents, and great-grand-parents, and those who lived still further back.  There are no images to be seen in the Hall of Ancestors, but there are tablets with names written upon them.  The family bow down before the tablets, and burn incense and gold paper!  What a foolish service!  What good can incense and paper do to the dead?  And what good can the dead do to their children?  How is it that such clever people as the Chinese are so foolish?

RELIGION.—­You have heard already that the Chinese worship the dead.

Who taught them this worship?

It was a man named Confucius, who lived a long while ago.  This Confucius was a very wise man.  From his childhood he was very fond of sitting alone thinking, instead of playing with other children.  When he was fourteen he began to read some old books that had been written not long after the time of Noah.  In these books he found very many wise sentences, such as Noah may have taught his children.  The Chinese had left off reading these wise books, and were growing more and more foolish.[6] Confucius, when he was grown up, tried to persuade his countrymen to attend to the old books.  There were a few men who became his scholars, and who followed him about from place to place.  They might be seen sitting under a tree, listening to the words of Confucius.

Confucius was a very tall man with a long black beard and a very high forehead.

Had he known the true God, how much good he might have done to the Chinese; but as it was he only tried to make them happy in this world.  He himself confessed that he knew nothing about the other world.  He gave very good advice about respect due to parents; but he gave very bad advice about worship due to them after they were dead.

Was he a good man?  Not truly good; for he did not love God; neither did he act right:  for he was very unkind to his wife, and quite cast her off.  Yet he used to talk of going to other countries to teach the people.  It would have been a happy thing for him, if he had gone as far as Babylon; for a truly wise man lived there, even Daniel the prophet.  From him he might have learned about the promised Saviour, and life everlasting.  But Confucius never left China.

He was ill-treated by many of the rich and great, and he was so poor that rice was generally his only food.  When he was dying he felt very unhappy, as well he might, when he knew not where he was going.  He said to his followers just before his death, “The kings refuse to follow my advice; and since I am of no use on earth, it is best that I should leave it.”  As soon as he was dead, people began to respect him highly, and even to worship him.  At this day, though Confucius died more than two thousand years ago, there is a temple to his honor in every large city, and numbers of beasts are offered up to him in sacrifice.  There are thousands of people descended from him, and they are treated with great honor as the children of Confucius, and one of them is called kong or duke.