With these before him will a Christian suppose that morals are dependent upon our Bible?
Of Confucianism, believed by millions to be essential to their salvation, and one of the three state religions of China, Clodd says: "On the soil of this great country there is crowded nearly half the human race, the most orderly people on the globe. This man (Confucius), who was reviled in life, but whose influence sways the hundreds of millions of China, was born 551 years before Christ. His nature was so beautifully simple and sincere that _he would not pretend to knowledge of that which he felt was beyond human reach and thought_."
What an earthquake there would be if our clergymen where only to become inoculated with that sort of simple sincerity I His disciples and followers did that for him as has been done in most other cases.
"The sacred books of China are called the _Kings_, and are five in number, containing _treatises on morals_, books of rites, poems, and history. They are of great age, perhaps as old as the earliest hymns of the Rig-Veda, _and are free from any impure thoughts_. [Which is much more than can be said of our own sacred books, which are not so old.] In the Book of Poetry are three hundred pieces, but the design of them all may be embraced in that one sentence, '_Have no depraved thoughts._'
"At the time when Confucius lived, China was divided into a number of petty kingdoms whose rulers were ever quarrelling, and although he became engaged in various public situations of trust, the disorder of the State at last caused him to resign them, and he retired to another part of the country. He then continued the life of a public teacher, instructing men in the simple moral truths by which he sought to govern his own life. The purity of that life, and the example of veneration for the old laws which he set, gathered round him many grave and thoughtful men, who worked with him for the common good."
Confucius said among other wise and moral things: "Coarse rice for food, water to drink, the bended arm for a pillow--happiness may be enjoyed even with these; but without virtue, both riches and honor seem to me like the passing cloud.... Our passions shut up the door of our souls against God."