The Ethical Standard of Confucius
By Editor
IN speaking of the adoption of Confucianism as the state religion in China, the Springfield Republican, among other things, has the following sentences: "In combating heathen superstitions, it is often enough to expose their falsity. But Confucianism is singularly free from superstitions; and since it is mainly concerned with teaching virtue and wisdom, the missionary is often at a loss in attacking it. In proportion, indeed, as Christianity discards the miraculous, and puts stress on ethical teaching rather than on revelation or a system of rewards and punishments in a future state, it must be inclined to cooperate with Confucianism rather than to oppose it. Of all old religions, Confucianism is perhaps most based on man and least on theism." The professed ministers of the gospel who have sought to present Christianity merely as a higher system of ethics have not stirred the world, and that for the reason that when you give Christianity as nothing more than an ethical system, you have left out of it its very life and power. Christianity is based upon miracles. The greatest miracle of Christianity was the birth of Christ Himself. The infinite Son of God came into the world, took upon Himself the human form and the human attributes while retaining His divine power, and in this He demonstrated that sin could be conquered and overcome in the human flesh, if it was united with the proffered power of divinity. Take this great miracle, as well as the other miracles, out of Christianity, and offer Christianity merely as an ethical cult, and its power is gone. That is the trouble with much of the professed Christianity of this time. Men are seeking to present it simply as an ethical system; but instead of its being a mere ethical system, it is a plan of salvation that brings living and overcoming power into the life of the one who accepts it.