CHINESE SUPERSTITION AND IDOLATRY. CHINA, with its three hundred and sixty millions of inhabitants, sunk in deplorable superstition, supporting various systems of idolatry, engages the deep consideration of the friends of missions, and it is brought L before the minds of our readers by our present engraving. We have been favoured with a cast of it by the Rev. T. Timpson, who has caused it to be taken from a splendid folio volume, enriched with costly plates, containing the "Report of the Dutch Embassy to the Chinese Court," about one hundred and eighty years ago but the forms of superstition entertained by that singular people have continued unchanged, and that vast empire yet remains without the knowledge of the true God, except as the doctrines of Christ have been made known by our devoted missionaries. Mr. Timpson's elegant and valuable little work, “WHAT HAVE I TO DO WITH MISSIONS," will supply our principal remarks illustrative of our engraving: it is one of its beautiful pictorial embellishments. Religion in China consists principally of confused mixtures of three systems of heathenism,-Lamaism and the two professions of Confucius and Fohi. LAMAISM OF BUDHISM is a system of vile idolatry prevailing in many regions of northern and eastern Asia. The emperor of China is of this sect, having descended from the Mantchoo Tartars, who conquered this country in 1644, and then established their superstition. The chief or visible head of this system is called the Delai Lama, or Grand Lama: he is the high-priest, and the object of worship to the vast hordes of Tartars. He resides in a palace on a mountain near the river Burampooter, in Thibet, attended by 20,000 lamas or priests, who regard him as the deity, and style him God, the everlasting Father of Heaven! -Mr. Wood, a late Baptist missionary in India states, that "the principal idol in the temples of Thibet is Muha-Moonee, the Boodhu of Bengal, who is worshipped under these and various other epithets throughout Tartary, and among all the nations to the eastward of the Brumhapootra. Among other titles he is styled Godumee, or Goutuma, in Assam and Ava; Shamanu, in Siam; Amida Buth, in Japan; Fohi, in China." CONFUCIUS was a great philosopher, born about 550 years before the advent of Christ, and he is regarded as the chief of the wise men of China: he recovered some of the patriarchal principles of true religion, enjoining a deep veneration for the deity, or King of heaven: he delivered some excellent moral precepts, but appointed no priests nor temples; comparatively few, therefore, except the more learned in China, profess to be his followers. Still it is reckoned that 1560 temples are consecrated to Confucius, and that there are offered in sacrifices annually in those edifices 5,800 sheep, 5,800 goats, 27,000 pigs, and of rabbits 27,000. There are, of course, priests for this service, and they are said to perform their duties clothed in the richest silks of China. FOнI, FO, or FUн, was an Indian prince, who is believed to have been metamorphosed into a divinity at the age of thirty-six years, when he established his religion in India, and died at the age of seventy-nine. After his decease his followers propagated many fables concerning him; that he was still alive; that he had been born 8,000 times, appearing successively under the figures of an ape, a lion, a dragon, an elephant, &c. -Fohi has a vast number of temples, some of them magnificent, open night and day, and a table furnished with flowers and perfumes is placed before his image, with other images of birds, beasts, and creeping things, to symbolize the various changes of this divinity! Temples are numerous in the towns and villages of China, dedicated to the different deities said to preside over the land, water, hills, &c., and crowded with images of various forms, some with heads of beasts, with and without horns, sitting cross-legged upon flowers or cars, all represented as corpulent, which is esteemed honourable. Our engraving represents IMMORTALITY on the left hand, the idol being twenty feet high; that on the right hand is PLEASURE, the image being of the same height; but the centre idol is the great KING KANG, forty feet in height, most gorgeously attired and crowned.Sacrifices of a costly kind are offered at the chief festivals to these abominable representations. These delusions of idolatry have the imperial sup port; for the emperor is the supreme head or chief pontiff of all the established or licensed systems of idolatry, and he offers an annual sacrifice of oxen, sheep, goats, and hogs, in the only temple erected in honour of Tien, or Heaven, and another sacrifice to the Earth; both these ceremonials are performed at Pekin. EMBLEMS FOR THE YOUNG, BY THE REV. A. FLETCHER, A. M. PREACHED AT FINSBURY CHAPEL, TO ABOUT FIVE THOUSAND CHILDREN. (TAKEN IN SHORT-HAND.) BEFORE I commence this sermon, my dear little children, I will mention to you the different figures by which the Bible may be illus. trated, and which have been already brought before you,* and then, having mentioned these under various letters, from letter A to P, I shall proceed to deliver to you a sermon from other figures. Under the letter A there is only one figure-armoury; that is a place for spiritual weapons, which little children stand in need of, to enable them to fight the Christian battle. Under the letter B I have two words or figures -a box of jewels and bread. Under the letter C I have four; first, the chamber of a king; secondly, a compass; thirdly, a cordial; fourthly, chains of gold. Under letter D-delight; dwelling. Under letter E an evergreen; and an epistle. Under letter F-a friend, a field, and a fortress. Under letter G there are three figures; first, a garden; secondly a gem, (that is a precious stone;) and thirdly a girdle. Under letter H there are two figures; first, a heritage; secondly, a hill, which the good child climbs in the morning of his days, and which leads to heaven. Under letter I we have only one figure—an inn, a place of refreshment; and pious children go to the Bible to refresh their souls! Then under letter J I have only one figure-a jewel. Under the letter K we have a keepsake; and oh! what a blessed keepsake is the Bible! Then under L we have five figures; first, a lamp; secondly, a law; thirdly, a lesson; fourthly, a light; fifthly, a looking-glass. Then under M we have four figures; first, a market-place-pious children go to the Bible to buy spiritual provisions; secondly, a medicine-the Bible cures spiritual disease; thirdly, a mine, where the spiritual believer digs for gold and silver ; and fourthly, the moon. Then under letter N we have, first, a nail: every passage of Scripture applied by the Spirit of God to the heart, is a nail fastened in a sure place; and secondly, a name. Then under letter O-odoriferous flowers, oil, oracles, orchard. Then under letter P two figures were mentioned, namely, patrimony, and pattern. Now I invite attention to the following verse:— 66 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."-Psalm cxix. 105. I HOPE, dear children, God will give you grace to pay strict attention; keep your eye fixed upon the minister. * See page 273 of last year's volume. I have Oh! what a wonderful book is the Bible! often told you there is not another such book upon the earth. There are more books in the world than would fill this chapel; and, my friends, if this chapel were filled with books, these books would be folly when compared with the Bible. Go home, and tell your fathers, your mothers, your brothers, your sisters, that the most wonderful book in the world is the Bible: it is not only the most wonderful, but also the most useful. Did you ever hear of the palm-tree? It provides what makes clothes; what makes houses; it provides fruit and milk; it provides these four useful things, so useful is the palm-tree. There is a delightful juice in it, that in some countries the people drink it as milk; and therefore the palm-tree is one of the most useful of all trees. Now, my dear young friends, how useful is the Bible! for it provides milk for babes! This Bible is full of milk. What an amazing book! a book to be filled with as much milk as would supply all the world! And this Book contains garments for the soul, and provides protection for those who are in danger, because they are exposed to the temptations of Satan; and it is so useful that it is called a "light" and a "lamp." I like the following saying of a good man,-"If ever I have been honoured to do any good in the world-if ever I have been useful to society, to my family, and to the Church of Christ-if I have ever enjoyed any happiness-if I have ever cherished any hopes of heaven-I owe all to the Bible." Oh! what a useful book, then, the Bible is! My beloved children, may you admire the Bible as a book the most wonderful, and may you love the Bible as a book the most useful. I will now proceed, by the assistance of Divine grace, to mention several figures under the letter P, which illustrate the excellence of the Bible. I. You will observe, in the first place, that the Bible is a Peacemaker. The most blessed man on the earth is the peacemaker. I cannot point out with my finger the most blessed child amongst the thousands who are around me, but I can tell you who that child |