Daily Devotion

“These records are the earliest archaeological remains of China, and they throw such a fresh light into the dim origins of Chinese religion and culture that the author feels compelled in the interests of Sinology to place these plates before the public before he has been able to complete the whole of his design.”

James Mellon Menzies · Preface to Oracle Records from the Waste of Yin (Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh, 1917)

Scripture

Acts 14:16-17 “In the past, he gave each of the nations their own way; yet he has not failed to demonstrate his own worth by showing favor, by sending rain from heaven and by providing bountiful harvests, so that you may have enough to eat and be filled with joy.”

Reflection

Before the three-thousand-year-old remains of Yin, Menzies wrote that these oracle records throw a fresh light into the dim origins of Chinese religion and culture. Believers may also reflect that God, even before the Gospel was heard, had already spread His grace and signs across the land of China. The Book of Acts reminds us that God has never left any nation. Universal grace falls like sweet rain, nourishing all things and the human heart. This compels us to abandon narrow-mindedness and arrogance, and amidst the vicissitudes of history and the order of nature, to learn to seek and cherish with reverence and humility the goodwill and yearning that God has already prepared deep within the human heart.