CHAPTER X.
THE JOSS-HOUSE, CHINESE IMMIGRATION AND CHINESE THEOLOGY In Chinatown--Conception of God--The Joss House--Chinese Mottoes--The Joss a Chinaman--Greek and Egyptian Ideas of God--Different Types of Madonnas--Chinese Worship and Machine Prayers--The Joss-House and the Christian Church--Chinese Immigration--Chinamen in the United States--A Plague Spot--Fire Crackers and Incense Sticks--The Lion and the Hen--The Man with Tears of Blood--Filial Piety--The Joss--Origin of the World--Creation of Man--Spirits of the Dead--Ancestral Rites--The Chinese Emperor--What Might Have Been--The Hand of God.
Our study of Chinatown and the civilisation of the country of the Yellow Dragon, as seen in the City of the Golden Gate, has thus far brought us in contact with the social and business life of the Chinese and their amusements; but we are now to visit one of their temples of worship, the Joss-House.

And here the real man will be revealed; for it is in religious services and ceremonies and beliefs that we get a true knowledge of a race or a nation.

The conception of God which you have is the key to your character.

If your views of Deity are low and ignoble you will not achieve any greatness in the world; but if on the other hand you invest the Being Whom you worship with noble attributes and look upon Him as just and holy, a God of mercy and judgment, your breast will be animated with grand thoughts and lofty ideals will impel you to the performance of heroic deeds.

The word Joss, which we use for a Chinese idol or god, seems to be derived from the Portugese, Dios, or rather it is the Pidgin English of Dios.