REV. P. STOKKS TURNEK, B.A., ON MEXCIUS. 



2G7 



performed their religious obligations, "if there comes drought or 

 inundation, the spirits of the land and grain are deposed and others 

 appointed in their place." Presumably this is done by the Supreme 

 Ruler. The idea that God has set angels over various provinces of 

 nature and holds them responsible for the way in which they 

 execute their office, seems to receive some support from the eighty- 

 second Psalm, where rulers bearing the appellation of " gods " are 

 rebuked for abuse of their position. 



That Mencius could assert the doing of right to be quite 

 easy shows that his knowledge of human nature was more theoreti- 

 cal than practical. Evidently he permitted his theory to blind his 

 eyes. 



The greatest service rendered l)y him to mankind was that he 

 stood for Will-freedom and the Divine supremacy of Conscience, 

 and thus for Absolute Morality. Herein lies his chief claim to 

 admiration and gratitude. 



AVe shall agree with the author that we are debtors to the 

 countrymen of Mencius. " Unhappily Christian nations have 

 gravely wronged China in the past.*' Let our present action be 

 to set forth that Gospel of which Confucius and Mencius were 

 ignorant. Let us tell the Chinese, as they feel after God, if 

 haply they may find Him, that He is Spirit, that He is Light, that 

 He is Love, and is not far from every one of them. Let us tell 

 them that He has come to man, to redeem and save and bless him 

 through the atonement and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ 

 our Lord. 



Eev. James Thomas (Secretary, British and Foreign Bible 

 Society). — I rise to express my deep sense of obligation to the 

 reader of the paper, who has brought before us, within a narrow 

 compass, the important teaching of one of China's greatest men. 

 It was not an easy task which the writer of the paper set before 

 himself. Those who have listened to it are ver}^ liable to conclude 

 that because it is so exceedingly clear and apparently so simple that 

 the task had few, if any, difficulties. Whereas, on the contrary, 

 the subject in itself is not at all easy. 



We have been given a picture of the condition of China in the 

 days of Mencius, and we have had represented the task which that 

 great sage set before himself. Primarily he sought to be a reformer 

 of kings and rulers, but the plans he pursued have enabled us very 



