Most of my readers are doubtless aware that it has been, and perhaps still is, the custom of many missionaries to require their converts to surrender their ancestral tablets, or to destroy them, as a proof of their sincerity before baptism. There are many sad stories connected with this cruel proceeding,[308] and it is refreshing to listen to the frank confession of so experienced and fair-minded a missionary as Dr. Martin, who admits that he himself once insisted on a convert giving up his ancestral tablets, and has ever since regarded this as one of the mistakes of his life, and looks back upon it with "poignant grief." As he adds decisively, "I had no right to impose such a test," it is to be hoped that his words have served as a warning to some, at least, of his successors in the missionary field. If Christianity is to win its way to the hearts of the Chinese people it will probably have to condescend to a compromise on the question of ancestor-worship. A recent writer in _The Spectator_ evidently thinks it is the Chinese who will make all the compromise. "There is no reason," he says, "why the Chinese, in accordance with their proved mental habit, should not adopt a kind of metaphysical reading of ancestor-worship such as would enjoy the hearty sanction of the Church which preaches the 'Communion of Saints.'"[309] It is indeed likely enough that as time goes on certain superannuated features of ancestor-worship, as of other Chinese religious practices, will gradually disappear, but it is probable that this will be due rather to rationalistic pressure than to Christianity. The Chinese are beginning to imbibe Western culture--especially Western science and philosophy--with avidity, and the more they do so the more ready will they be to abandon some of their traditional ideas with regard to demonology, _fêng-shui_, the burning of paper furniture and money, the worship of the "gods" of Taoism, and many other superstitious beliefs and practices; indeed this lopping off of the rotten branches of the religious life of China began several years ago, and is not likely to cease until there are no more rotten branches left on the tree. But it is a very noteworthy fact that the abandonment of many popular superstitions does not necessarily imply the establishment of Christian dogmas in their place.