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n. THE UFE A_D TIMFS OF CO_FUCZUS. 3I
Scacdfice will ultimately abrogate the rivers of animal
blood annually shed in sacrifice throughout this empire,
and therewith the idolatry and superstition of Chins, is
merely a question of time and faithful service, but may we
not gratefully admit that the sacrifices retained and handed
down by Confucius have kept open the way of approach to
the abode of the Divine until the great Day of Atonement
Sin and its punishment are acknowledged, the punishment
being looked for in the present rather than in a
future existence. Reformation from wrong doing is required,
rather than penitence and appeal for remission.
Prayer is recognised as a duty, and as acceptable and
effcacious; but it is not daily prayer or a sanctifying
communion with the Divine. It is rather the formal
petition accompanying a sacrifice, and should be preceded
by fasting and bathing. No priesthood or mediator is
required, the worshipper being his own priest and the
aacrifice his medium of acceptance; yet, in a sen_,e, the
Emperor is the high priest for h_ispeople, the officer for
his district, and the father for his household. Moreover
the regulations for ceremonial sacrifices are many, and on
great occasions a director, or master of ceremonies, is a
necessity to order. Only the Emperor may offer the
State sacrifices to Shang Ti, the Ovel' King, but the ear
of Heaven is open to the cry of all, even of the repentant
evil doer. A future life is not denied, though Confucius
avoided the discussion of it ; he did indeed in a measure
confirm it by his insistent demand for sacrificial remembrance
of the ancestor, and his command to worship the
ancestral spirit as really present.