is probable that, vigorous Confucianist as he was,
he was anxious to appear on the side rather of an abstract than of
a personal Deity, and that he was repelled by the overwrought
anthropomorphism of the Christian God. His conversion was said to have
been very near at times; we read, however, that, when hard pressed by
the missionaries to accept baptism, "he always excused himself by saying
that he worshipped the same God as the Christians."

God in the "Odes."--The Chou dynasty lasted from B.C. 1122 to B.C.
255. It was China's feudal age, when the empire, then included between
latitude 34-40 and longitude 109-118, was split up into a number of
vassal States, which owned allegiance to a suzerain State. And it is to
the earlier centuries of the Chou dynasty that must be attributed the
composition of a large number of ballads of various kinds, ultimately
collected and edited by Confucius, and now known as the _Odes_. From
these _Odes_ it is abundantly clear that the Chinese people continued
to hold, more clearly and more firmly than ever, a deep-seated belief in
the existence of an anthropomorphic and personal God, whose one care was
the welfare of the human race:--

There is Almighty God;
Does He hate any one?

He reigns in glory.--The soul of King Wen, father of the King Wu below,
and posthumously raised by his son to royal rank, is represented as
enjoying happiness in a state beyond the grave:--

King Wen is on high,
In glory in heaven.
His comings and his goings
Are to and from the presence of God.

He is a Spirit.--Sometimes in the _Odes_ there is a hint that God, in
spite of His anthropomorphic semblance, is a spirit:--

The doings of God
Have neither sound nor smell.

Spiritual Beings.--Spirits were certainly supposed to move freely among
mortals:--

Do not say, This place is not public;
No one can see me here.
The approaches of spiritual Beings
Cannot be calculated beforehand;
But on no account should they be ignored.

The God of Battle.--In the hour of battle the God of ancient China was
as much a participator in the fight as the God of Israel in the Old
Testament:--

God is on your side!

was the cry which stimulated King Wu to break down the opposing ranks
of Shang. To King Wu's father, and others, direct communications had
previously been made from heaven, with a view to the regeneration of the
empire:--

The dynast