Chapter I: Preface

The story of the world’s worship is a story of absorbing interest. The odd and the curious, the enchanting and the revolting are each factors of heathen devotion. We well remember with what exhaustless interest we looked in childhood at strange pictures of idols and temples, and listened to the reading of tales about the heathen. When the celebrated Dr. Alexander Duff was a little boy, his father was accustomed on Sabbath afternoons to show him pictures of idols, and to explain their histories. So vividly did the pictures and their stories impress the boy, that when he became a man he left Scotland and went to labor for the heathen of India.

The subject is indeed intensely interesting. Every nation has its God, or gods, and its corresponding forms of worship. Nothing lies so close to the heart of mankind as its religious faith. Religion in some form is interwoven with the entire fabric of human history. It concerns man’s dearest pleasures, his fondest hopes, and his highest aspirations. Man must worship. It is part of his nature to worship. Hence, from the most civilized European to the half-civilized Chinaman, and even down to the degraded Hottentot; in all stages of man’s existence, among all races and classes, some form of worship is found. Nothing surely can interest us more than the story of that faith in which our fellow-creatures have lived and died.

It is because the author believes that the subject of false gods and idol worship is so interesting, and because he hopes to furnish some much-needed information on this topic, that he has undertaken the present work. There is no one book that covers this ground. There are many volumes covering various phases of the religious systems of heathendom, but there is not one that deals comprehensively with all religions, extinct or existing, except indeed it be those suited only to students and to learned men.

The aim in this volume is to present the subject in a popular style, suited to the average reader of our land. It is proposed to make a book to be read in the family and by the fireside. The very best works of the most thorough students of the non-Christian religious systems have been consulted, and the author has freely availed himself of the results of their labors. If due acknowledgment is not always made of the aid thus received, it is because he deemed it best not to multiply references and because he has so frequently found it necessary to translate scholastic and technical phrases used by these authors into language familiar to the general reader.

Among those whose works the author has consulted are, Max Müller and Hardwicke on Comparative Mythology; Wilkinson on the Ancient Egyptians; Lenormant on Assyria and Babylon; Haug on the Parsees; Monier Williams on Hinduism; Rhys-Davids, and Barthelemy St. Hilaire on Buddhism, and Edwin Arnold’s paraphrase of Buddha’s life in his “Light of Asia;” Humboldt on Central America; Schoolcraft on the American Indians; Wyatt Gill and Lord Grey on the Pacific Islands; Legge, Edkins and S. Wells Williams on the Chinese; Griffis and Sir Edward Reed on Japan; and Stanley and Livingstone on Africa. Beside these he has derived great help from “The Tour of the World with General Grant,” and Dr. H. M. Field’s “From Egypt to Japan.” In addition he has consulted quite a host of other authors in works of travel, and in the translations of various sacred books.

In all parts of his work the author has sought to present definite information, carefully arranged, truthfully told, and clearly and interestingly stated. He has aimed to show the origin, development and spread of each non-Christian religious system; and to give an account of their gods and goddesses, temples, shrines, idols, sacred places, superstitious customs, legends, myths, domestic worship and the innumerable peculiarities of their daily religious life.

The work is fully illustrated by accurate, and in many cases, expensive engravings. The book is not made merely to sell. Sensational statements and mere padding have been neither added nor borrowed. The author has not drawn upon his imagination in the least. He has told a story which, though sometimes stranger than fiction, is nevertheless solid fact and not baseless fancy. Let it be remembered that this is a pioneer work. The author has had to blaze his pathway through a trackless forest. He has had no guide. He sincerely hopes that by its perusal his readers will be led to an increased appreciation of the infinite superiority of Christianity to all other religions; and that they may find a deepened interest in the welfare of the heathen world.

It has been the purpose of the author and the publishers to place the subject-matter of this volume within the ready reach of all who consult it. An exhaustive Table of Contents has been given therefore, in which the chapter titles and all the sub-headings of the chapters will be found. A full index of the proper names and principal topics of the book is also added, by means of which it is believed any desired subject treated in the volume can readily be found. By such means as these the book has been made as complete and as useful as patient labor can make it.

Thanks are specially due to Professor Isaac H. Hall, who not only gave careful consideration to the subjects specially under his care, but who in addition read all the MS., and gave the benefit of his extended learning and excellent judgment at every point. To Professor S. Wells Williams also, the author desires to make public acknowledgment. Though burdened with many onerous duties, yet he gave his closest attention to the chapters on those much misunderstood nations, China and Japan, and from the rich stores of his own extensive and well-digested knowledge, he made such suggestions as proved of inestimable value.

To the Publishers, who were ever ready to meet the author’s largest desires, his thanks are especially due. Without such generous support the volume must have fallen far below its present excellence. Indeed, all concerned in the production of the book have proved themselves true helpers, to whom author and readers alike will be largely indebted.

F. S. DOBBINS.

STEEL-PLATE ENGRAVINGS.

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FRONTISPIECE, 2

TEMPLE OF THE TEN THOUSAND IDOLS, 47

HINDU FAKIRS PRACTICING THEIR SUPERSTITIOUS RITES, 217

THE HINDU MOTHER, 234

THE FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY, 498

A SCENE ON THE JUMNA RIVER, 760

CONTENTS.

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