Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 3.djvu/75

of that worship as a minister of religion, giving expression to the highest ideas of God that have been the inheritance of his nation for several millenniums, and acknowledging the dependence of all upon Him for life and breath and all things; but he does this as the parent and representative of the people, and not as a priest.

To this brief summary of China's ancient religion there remains to be added a word about her cosmogonal conceptions. On account of these she has been much ridiculed by Occidental theologians; but in truth the only thing that can be laid to her charge is an attempt to bring within the range of human intelligence processes and results which have hitherto proved wholly unintelligible. Some, indeed, of the prayers offered to Shang-ti suggest that the creation of the universe was ascribed by the Chinese, as it is ascribed by Christians, to an incomprehensible miracle. Thus the Emperor, praying at the round altar, says: "Of old, in the beginning, there was the great chaos, without form and dark. The first elements had not begun to revolve, nor the sun and moon to shine. In the midst, thereof, there presented itself neither form nor sound. Thou, O Spiritual Sovereign, came forth in thy presidency, and first didst divide the grosser parts from the purer. Thou madest heaven. Thou madest man. All things got their being with their producing power." These words might almost serve for an epitome of the story of crea-