Scriptures, a testimony to the unity of the fundamental moral convictions of the human race, and an independent refutation of the theory that man has no original moral nature, but that his moral convictions have slowly evolved, through a long and fierce struggle. for existence with his fellow man. The divergence of Confucianism from the moral teachings of the Christian Scriptures illustrates on the other hand, the inability of even the wisest and best of human teachers, to set forth maxims that will not result in error in many of their remoter applications. We shall further observe as we proceed, that a chief source of men's errors in judging of human relations and duties, lies in a distorted or false religious belief, showing that correct ethical teachings must be based on a correct religious faith. No man has ever adequately unfolded the relations of man to man, who has not himself comprehended the relations of man to God.

II.-Christianity and Confucianism are agreed in regarding men as endowed from birth with a moral nature. We read in the first chapter of Genesis the august words, "And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness." As the Scriptures assume the being and sovereignty of God, without any categorical announcement, so they assume that man is born with a moral nature, subject to the law of God. God's commands are issued to men, with promises of reward for obedience, and threatenings of punishment for disobedience. Our Savior assumes that man is possessed of this moral, and therefore responsible, nature as the basis of all His teachings. He came not to destroy the law of God, to which man as a moral being is subject, but to fulfil. Men though estranged from God by reason of sin, were to bow before Him in penitence and faith, calling him their Heavenly Father. They were to place the character of God before them as a model for imitation, striving to be perfect even as their Father in Heaven was perfect. The apostle Paul boldly declares that the Gentiles, who have not the revealed law of God, yet have a law written in their hearts, by which they will be acquitted or condemned. Even abandoned sinners, who have come to be without natural affection, know the judgment of God, that they who commit such things are worthy of death. So Confucian scholars uniformly teach that man is born with a moral nature. We read in the book of history; 皇上帝降衷于下民“The exalted Ruler above has bestowed a moral nature upon the people below." The word which I have translated, "the moral nature," is explained as, "the good heart." A fuller explanation is, that Heaven has conferred upon man a nature containing the law of benevolence, righteousness, propriety,

wisdom, without deflection or inclination. This is called the good nature. The ancient literature of China has preserved no tradition, so far as I am aware, of the western origin of the first inhabitants of the country, or of their possessing an original civilization. The aborigines of the land are conceived of as living in a primitive state, without clothing, without houses, without fire, eating raw food, not knowing the flavor of meat, without social regulations. This was a state of nature, before the moral faculties had been wakened into life and activity. Then appeared the Sages and Holy men, IE, 賢聖, among the people, as the gift of heaven, to teach them the relations. and duties of life, as also to cultivate the soil, and to prepare for themselves proper food and clothing. The people responded to the instructions given with the simplicity and alacrity of children, and a high state of social order soon resulted. In this fanciful picture of the early condition of the Chinese we have a conception of the work of the Sages and Holy men, that is uniformly preserved throughout the literature of the people. The common people were possessed of a nature as perfect in the range of its capacities as that of the Sages, yet as the seed must wait for the light of the sun to quicken it into life, so their moral capacities must wait for the light of the teachings and example of the Sages to quicken them into life. We read in the opening passage of the Doctrine of the Mean,天命之謂性 "What Heaven has conferred is called nature." This perfect nature is given to all men alike, and the Sage differs from other men, only in that he has first comprehended his nature, and perfectly unfolded its capacities. In the opening passage of the Great Learning we read;大學之道在明明德 "The doctrine of the Great Learning pertains to making lustrous the lustrous virtue," that is, the unfolding of the original capacities of the perfect nature. We are told that this bright virtue is received from Heaven, pure, spiritual, unclouded, embodying all moral principles, and in harmony with all things. Mencius tells us that, "The great man does not lose his child heart." Again he says, "Men lose their chickens and dogs, and have understanding to seek after them, but they lose the heart," that is the child heart, "and have no understanding to seek after it. The path of education is none other than to seek after the lost heart."

Let us here note the fundamental error of Confucian teaching concerning man's nature, as measured by the Christian standard. Christianity tells us of an original apostasy from God, and the Old Testament Scriptures uniformly represent the entire race of men, as persistently tending toward evil. The Scriptures never speak of the naturally good heart of man, but continually speak of the

naturally evil heart of man; and the apostle Paul distinctly teaches that this heart, which so constantly inclines towards evil, is inherited from Adam, the progenitor of the race, and this evil nature God regards and treats as sinful. Confucianism stands in direct antagonism to such teaching. To charge man as possessed of a nature tending towards evil from birth is regarded as blasphemy against Heaven. The doctrine of the philosopher Hsün Tsu, that man's nature at birth is evil, has been rejected by the whole line of Confuci in scholars, as an offence against Heaven and against man. Confucius says, "Men's natures are naturally near," that is, as explained, they are alike good at birth; "by education they become remotely separated;" that is, by right education some become Sages and Holy men, while others by wrong education become monsters of wickedness. Mencius boldly teaches that the emperors Chieh and Chou, though they descended to the greatest depths of wickedness, did not differ in their Heaven derived natures from the holy emperors Yao and Shun. Their sins are wholly to be accounted for by external evil influences, rousing unbalanced desires in the heart.

Mencius rejects the teaching of Kao Tsu concerning man's nature, as false and degrading. Kao Tsu taught that the nature at birth was in a state of indifference, without tendency either towards good or evil. The willow tree supplies material out of which the workman fashions dishes according to his pleasure. So righteousness and benevolence are the fashioning of material, which nature supplies, by education. Again, nature is like water, that flows to the east or west, according as an opening is made for it. Mencius opposes this teaching, pointing out that violence is done to the nature of the willow in cutting it and fashioning it into vessels, while no such violence is done to the nature to produce righteousness and benevolence. Water is indeed indifferent as to the direction of its flow, whether east or west, but not so as to its flow whether upwards or downwards. It can be forced over a mountain, but its law is to flow downwards. So by forcing nature men are driven into evil, but the law of the nature is towards goodness. Man's nature tends toward goodness as the mountains tend to clothe themselves with forests. Men may cut down the trees with axes, and cattle browse away the young shoots that spring up from the roots, in nature's effort to recover its normal condition, until at last the mountains are bald and desolate. This desolation is not the nature of the mountains, but the effect of external violence. So men become wicked by external evil influences, doing violence to their Heaven-derived natures. In all this there is no hint of any natural tendency of the human heart towards evil. How different

from the language of Scripture which declares that, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."

I will only note in this place two evils that grow out of this distorted conception of human nature. The first is a false estimate of the ease with which men may be turned from sin to holiness. Confucius regrets at one time that none of the princes employ him to correct the evils of government. If thus employed, three years would be sufficient to restore order. If good government continued for a hundred years, the evils of society would disappear. Confucius was employed for a short time as minister of crime in the kingdom of Lu. In three months good government was restored. If articles were lost in the streets, the passers-by were so unselfish, that they would not pick them up. Doors were not closed at night. Men and women walked in different paths. This fanciful idea of the ease with which the evils of society can be brushed aside, has been crystalized in the classical writings of the people, and handed down from generation to generation as a pleasing dream, while actual human-nature in China, has been as obstinate in resisting good influences as in the rest of the world. The second evil that I would note is closely related to the first, and has been illustrated in the examples given above.-A false estimate of the transforming power of Sages and Holy men over the lives of their fellows. The errors of the people are regarded as springing from a lack of right instruction and example. The Sages supply the needed instruction, and set the right example, and immediately men turn towards virtue, as wanderers turn towards the true road. "The virtue of the superior man is like the wind, the virtue of the common people is like the grass; when the wind blows the grass bends." The ideal position for the highest influence is that of a King, who can regulate society by the laws of Heaven. A Sage King has only to shed forth the glory of his virtues, like the bright shining of the sun, and immediately the hearts of his officers and people respond to his virtues, and move about him in beautiful social order. But Confucius is imagined to be the embodiment of all Heavenly wisdom and virtue. He has been exalted to a dignity above that of kings, in the affections of the people. His writings have been the food of thought the patterns of government, and of social life, from generation to generation; and yet the evils of which he complained in his time, have not melted away and disappeared, under the transforming influence of his life and teachings. He has reigned as Emperor of China, not three years, not one hundred years, but two thousand four hundred years, and we look out upon a China that worships Confucius as a God, and has woven the threads of

his beautiful moral maxims into a magnificent cloak, which is worn with proud ostentation, but which, alas, is spread over lives abounding with the sins that those maxims condemn.

III.-Christianity and Confucianism are agreed in regarding man as subject to law, according to which he ought to regulate his life. Christianity assumes that man has written in his nature a law of right and duty. This law responds to the revealed Law of God, as the eye responds to the light. As light would be without meaning, were there no eye to perceive, so the light of Divine Revelation, would be without meaning, were there no eye of conscience to perceive its radience. This truth is poetically set forth in Proverbs; "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts." The apostle Paul tells us, that the Gentiles" Show the work of the law written in their hearts;" and John warns us, that "If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things." But Christianity further teaches that this law of nature, which all men may understand by studying their own hearts, is not a sufficient light, and that there has been superadded the fuller, clearer law of the Divine Command. We are told in Psalms, that this law was given, "That man might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments." Confucianism fully recognizes this law written in the human heart. In the opening passage of the doctrine of the mean we read; Z. “Following nature is the path," that is, of virtue, This path is not remote from men, and difficult to find. It is near at hand, and all may walk in it. Fidelity to one's relatives, and goodness to all men, is the law of benevolence; reverence to superiors, and deference to associaties, is the law of propriety; serving the prince, and respecting the superior is the law of righteousness; discriminating between the true and the false, is the law of wisdom. Men come to a comprehension of the law of Heaven by studying their Heaven derived natures. Thus Confucianism is chiefly occupied in defining the relations of man to man. If those relations are properly regulated, and those duties are properly discharged, the law of Heaven is fulfilled, and men's lives are in harmony with Heaven. General prosperity and worldly good fortune will be the result. In this the order of Christianity is reversed. That order is, to first correct the heart relation of man to God, and following this the human relations are easily regulated. As we have seen, the Sages and Holy men are exalted to the rank of the interpreters of Heaven. Out of their clear intuitions they unfold the law of life. They are regarded as perfect in wisdom and virtue, Their example is therefore without error, and their