Canton, (China,) Dec. 10, 1831.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,--"Then shall the dust return to the dust
as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."

In an empire so ancient and populous as China, the number of human
beings that have returned to the earth, must be great indeed;
greater than any man can number. For more than thirty hundred years,
one generation after another, in awfully rapid succession, have
gone to the dead. Almost all the hills and uplands about Canton
and Macao, which are not covered with the habitations of the living,
are filled with the abodes of dead. In Macao, almost every rod
of ground, which is safe from water, even to hard, rocky hill tops,
has some emblem,--a turfed hillock, a stone, or a little enclosure,
to remind the visiter of the sleepers below. When I have walked
over these grounds,--these abodes of the dead, thoughts have arisen
in the mind, which you may conceive, but which I cannot express.
O, what multitudes will rise here, at the sound of the last trumpet!
What vast congregations will come up from these burying places,
and stand with us before the judgment seat of Christ! Every day
is adding to the number of this vast congregation. Death does not
wait for his victims--death does not wait till the heathen have
the gospel preached unto them. And unless these multitudes of the
living, speedily obtain mercy of him, of whom they are now
ignorant, how shall they come forth to the resurrection of life?

Will the heathen be saved, who never heard the gospel? I ask you,
dear children, do you think the heathen can be saved, unless
the gospel be preached unto them, and they believe in the name
of Jesus? It is very painful to all think, that all the millions
of our fellow creatures, who are now ignorant of the Savior, must,
when they die, sink down to hell. But how can it be otherwise?
"Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
But "how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they
preach, except they be sent!" And now, dear children, I desire
to ask again, what do you think of these words, which I have
quoted from the tenth chapter of Romans? What do you think St.
Paul meant? He means to say,--if I understand him, he means to
affirm,--in the most positive manner, by the questions which he
asks, that the heathen, who do not hear and believe the gospel,
cannot be saved.

I fear that many very good people have wrong ideas on this subject;
and do not consider and realize the awful condition of the heathen;
for I am persuaded, that if they did see and realize, they would
do very differently from what they ever have done yet; they would
feel and act as Jesus Christ did; they would be willing to become
poor, to labor and toil, and even die for the salvation of the
heathen.

With a desire that you may have correct ideas of the real condition
of the Chinese, I have been urged on to write these letters. I
have stated many facts; but you will desire, I presume, to know
something more about their ideas of death, style of mourning,
funerals, &c.

Having very little if any knowledge of the true God, the Chinese
are entirely ignorant of another world:--of heaven and hell,--of
the joys of the one, and the terrors of the other, as revealed
in the Bible. All their notions about the soul of man, are very
dark and confused. Many think that the soul dies, and ceases
to exist with the body. Others think that when the body dies, the
soul goes away and enters into other bodies--birds, beasts, or
men. All this ignorance makes the Chinese very careless about death,
and all that which is to come upon them. They die like the brutes.
Such are their ideas of death.

When a parent dies, a messenger is sent to announce it to all the
relatives. A board, or a long slip of brownish white paper, is
hung up at the door, on which is written the person's name, age,
and virtues, &c. The children and grand-children of the deceased,
sit on the ground, and weep and mourn. Relations come in and dress
the corpse; and many long and tedious ceremonies are performed.

Usually, after three times seven days, the funeral takes place.
A large concourse of friends and mourners assemble; and a procession
is formed with priests, bands of music, flags, &c. &c.--all quite
like one of the marriage processions, which I have already
described. Meats, fruits, cakes of various kinds, are carried as
offerings to the dead, and the procession moves on to the burying
place. This is always selected with great care, and is usually
a hill. Only two things, it has been said, are feared by the Chinese
after death, "a watery grave, and a white ant sepulchre."

It is not every day, that they may bury the dead; they must wait
for a luck-day. Many of these processions may be seen in a single
day. Some of the funerals are very expensive. Two occurred in this
neighborhood last summer; one of a father, the other of a wife,
on each of which more than ten thousand dollars were expended.
The mourning costume is like a brownish white, with a perfectly
white napkin around the head, and sometimes around the loins; and
their shoes are exchanged for sandals.

By the death of a father, a son is disqualified for, and is obliged
to retire from office, for three years. Great care must be taken
to have a good burying place; and for want of such, and means to
bury the dead, bodies sometimes lie months and years in coffins,
unburied. There were ten thousand such in Canton last year. I
know of one family where there are thirteen in this state.

But from the accounts of the dead, I think you will be willing,
if not glad, to have me desist. I will do so; and, if the Lord
will, I desire to proceed and give you some account of what has
been done for China. In the next letter, I propose to speak of
the labors of the Rev. Dr. Morrison, Tell then, farewell.

Your true friends,
E.C.B.

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