,^AVNK ^,t \\\t ShcolofliVaf ^^ O'C/J \\>^^J PRINCETON, N. J. "'"% BL 85 .B72 1890 Brace, Charles Loring, 1826- 1890. The unknown God S/u'// XOW JtEADY, FIFTH THOUSAND OF Mr. CHARLES LORING BRACE'S GESTA CHRISTI, OK A HISTORY OF HUMANE PROGRESS UNDER CHRISTIANITY. Crown 8vo. Cloth. $1.50. Coiies sent postpaid, on receipt of price, hy A. 0. AKMSTEONG & SON, New York. THE UNKiNOWN GOD INSPIRATION AMONG PRE-CHRISTIAN RACES C. LORING BRACE AUTHOR OF "GESTA CHRISTI," "RACES OF THE OLD WORLD," ETC. A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON 1890 (all rights RESERVED) Copyright, 1889, By Charles Loring Brace. 5B[ntbcrsftg 3|ress: John' Wilson and Son, Cambridge. PREFACE. "\'X7HAT may be called the "modern method" in studying ethnic or heathen rehgions is not, as was once the case, merely to search for their defects, or to show their inferiority to the highest religion, but to find what good there was in them ; to see how the man of other races and times regarded the problems of the uni- verse. We wish to know what was his conception of the primeval Cause, what he considered his relation to be to that strange power, and how far that relation affected his daily life and practical morals. We would gladly know how he regarded the great darkness beyond life, and what thoughts he conceived of another life and of the beings there. We eagerly seek to learn what moral ideals and conceptions he transferred to another exist- ence, and how far he succeeded in lifting the great veil which hangs before it. We try to stand in his foot- steps and to see the great mystery as he endeavored to see it. We do not feel it necessary to laugh at his vi PREFACE. vagaries or sneer at his imaginations; wc merely seek to gaze at the universe as he gazed at it. And in doing this we have a still further object; we expect to find with man in all ages and races some evi- dences of the inspiration of the Divine Spirit, and to discover traces of God and higher inspirations in the remotest annals and records of mankind. In this volume the writer has taken for his special theme the words used by Saint Paul in his sermon on Mars Hill, " The Unknown God," — words which the great Apostle applied also to the spiritual Zeus of the ancient Greeks. The effort of the writer is to show the ancient belief of mankind in the Unknown God, and that the great Father of all has granted his inspirations to many of very different countries and tribes and races. This volume is in some respects a search for the footprints of the Divine Being on the shifting sands of remote history. The first chapters deal with the Hamitic and Semitic races. P^ortunately the latest investigations in the early inscriptions of Egypt show that there was a period (not the earliest) in which a profound belief in the One God existed in the minds of the scholars and priests of that ancient country. From this field the student is con- ducted to the Semitic tribes in the valley of the Euphrates. There among an ancient race — probably Semitic — called PREFACE. vii Akkadian, are found remarkable penitential psalms and devout prayers stamped with a religious spirit which had seemed peculiar to another Semitic tribe, the Jews ; they certainly bear evidence of inspiration from the Unknown God. The investigation then turns to the Aryan races, and evi- dence is adduced from the remarkable associations which existed, like secret churches, among the Greeks, called the Mysteries. From the rites of these secret societies the belief in God and a future judgment is discovered, and shown to have been held in secret by a certain number of believers. The investigation then enters the field of the early Greek poetry, and presents the faith in a spirit- ual God, or Zeus, before the idea had been degraded by the myth-making fancy. The evidence from the Greek dramatists and many of the ancient writers is here over- whelming that one spiritual God was at certain periods adored by considerable numbers of the Greek race. The religion of Plato and Socrates and the faith of the Stoics are then examined for evidences of pure monotheism and of genuine religion. Copious extracts are given from the Stoical writers, to show what their genuine religious belief was. The course of the inquiry then turns to the Oriental Aryan races ; and the Zoroastrian religion is investigated, viii PREFACE. to show the purity of its character and its elevated views on truth and moral purit}', and on the character of Orniazd. From the Persians the study passes to the Hindus; and the old \'edic h}-mns furnish the proof of Hindu monotheism in the worship of Varuna, the Heaven- God. In both these chapters extracts are given from the Persian and Hindu religious writings. The fullest description in the book is devoted to the Buddhist faith, with copious extracts from the Dhammapada and other sacred writings of that religion. The author regards Buddha as in a high degree inspired, and as an instru- ment in the hands of Providence for the elevation and purification of Asia. A contrast is drawn between the l^uddhistic and Christian faiths, and the causes which have impeded the success of Buddhism are traced. The final chapter is on the Biblical argument for the inspira- tion of the heathen ; and suggestions are given as to the principles which should guide the missionary in his re- ligious teachings, especially among the Buddhists. The work, it should be remembered, is not designed as a critical attack on the heathen religions, or as a de- fence of Christianity, by contrasting its superior truths with those of other faiths. The object is rather to show what great truths have inspired the pious heathen of the PREFACE. ix past, and how far the influences of the Divine Spirit have reached remote and separated tribes of men and revealed to them the nature of God, and their duties to their fellow- men. It is an effort to make manifest the ways of God to men in a field not hitherto much traversed. It is be- lieved the most devout disciple of Christianity will find little to shock his faith in these presentations, but will rather be strengthened by this broader view of the provi- dence of God to men. C. LORING BRACE. Chesknoll, Dobbs Ferry, N. Y. December, i88q. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE Preface • v I. Egyptian Monotheism i II. The Jews and Egyptians 41 III. Akkadian Penitential Psalms 51 IV. The Greek Mysteries '■ 78 V. Zeus as Spiritual God 9° VI. The Religion of Socrates and Plato . . 106 VII. The Faith of the Stoics 120 VIII. The Faith of the Stoics. — Seneca ... 133 IX. Stoical Writings. — Epictetus i44 X. Stoical Writings. — Marcus Aurelius . . 152 XI. Review 167 XII. Zoroastrianism 182 XIII. Hinduism 198 XIV, Buddhism 224 XV. Sacred Writings of Buddhism 255 XVI. Review 290 XVII. Heathen Inspiration and the Scriptures . 299 XVIII. The Conversion of Non-Christian Nations 309 XIX. Conclusion 317 Appendix 321 Index ' 3^3 Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple^ Who have faith in God and Nature, Who believe that in all ages Every human heart is hiunan, Ihat in even savage bosojus There are longings, yearnings, strivings For the good they eoniprehend not. That the feeble hands and helpless. Groping blindly in the darhiess. Touch God's right hand in that darkness, And are lifted up and strengthened, — Listen / Longfellow's Hiawatha. THE UNKNOWN GOD; OR, INSPIRATION AMONG PRE-CHRISTIAN PEOPLES. CHAPTER I. EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM. I AM HE THAT IS AND WAS AND SHALL BE. Inscription on the Temple of Isis. 'T^HE only conception of the moral action of the ■*- Divine Being on the human soul which is a priori defensible and philosophical, is of a continued and im- partial influence, limited to no time, or age, or race. It should be like the great physical forces, — like gravity, magnetism, or electricity, forever acting in all particles of matter, but not always manifesting themselves, sometimes resisted, often unseen, but eternally w^orking toward defi- nite ends. Religion, if it be the binding of human beings to the Unseen Power of the universe, and Revelation, or the manifestation of his nature to men, must have been reali- ties and phenomena through all ages of human history, and as definite and sustaining to the first savage who 2 THE UNKNOWN GOD. sharpened his flints in the tertiary period, or the first cave- dweller whose mental faculties had grasped the idea of a cause, as to the saint of the middle ages or the religious philosopher of the nineteenth century. The conceptions of the " fossil savage " and of the modern thinker would not be the same, but they would have great elements in common. Both would bow in unspeakable awe before the vast and incomprehensible Mystery behind the things seen; both would depend utterly on this Infinite and Un- known Power, wdiether manifested in one being or many beings; both would bend their wills to the eternal Will, or wills ; and both would seek to guide their lives by what had been revealed to them of the qualities and purposes of the tremendous Being, or beings, unseen yet ever felt. The man of the flint ages w^ould undoubtedly be capable of grasping but few, and those the simplest, truths ; but as his race gradually rose in the scale, its members would be open more and more to the higher divine influences which were ever acting around them, and attaining thus to purer and grander conceptions. Then, from reasons which we cannot always explain, — perhaps connected with the freedom of the human will, — some branch or de- scendant of the savage race would arise which was pecul- iarly sensitive to these unseen influences, which became inspired with moral and spiritual truths, and was especially open to inspiration from above. This tribe or nation has become inspired with religion, EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM. 3 and seems at once to make a great bound in spiritual growth. Truths are revealed to it that move men through all succeeding time ; and lives appear in such a people, so controlled by these inspirations and so animated by moral and unseen powers, that the memories and the legends of them survive all other traditions, and never cease to con- sole or elevate or purify mankind. On the other hand, other races appear in history — why, we cannot say — less open to the divine influences, and thus manifesting them less, and tending toward a lower and more selfish animal life. Yet among such races there are probably far more humane, sympathetic, and spiritual lives, passed in obscu- rity, than human records ever describe. We know but little of the morals or religion of the remote past. What we do know, we judge of by tests entirely inapplicable, and interpret an ancient poetic symbolism by a modern and exact glossary. It is a side evidence of the spiritual inspiration of ancient or barbarous races that so many tribes of men in all ages have a tradition or legend of a moral Benefactor of their race, who came* from above, bore human ills, sought to scatter happiness and enlightenment among men, and. per- haps perished at last in the struggle with evil on earth, to appear again among the stars, or to await his faithful fol- lowers in the region of the blessed. Even " sun-myths," subsequently attached to such traditions, would not dis- prove the substantial historical truth of the original story; 4 THE UXKXOU'aW GOD. nor would the tendency of the human mind to frame its ideals in legends demonstrate that no such ideal bene- factors had arisen. The strength and purity of the feel- ings and practices which gather around such memories are perhaps the best test of their reality. Under a continuity of spiritual influences through all ages, such lives are natu- ral and to be expected. And even if some of these be imagined, the ideal shows the moral forces working on the hearts of men, and the truths which had here and there dawned on them. The highest forms of spiritual thought and the purest ideals of religion would probably be developed in connec- tion with a certain advancement of civilization or of intel- lectual life ; and yet they would not necessarily follow mental progress. To the savage and unreflecting mind the conception of one Power behind the universe comes later than the thought of many powers, though even with the earliest religious beliefs will be a faith in one unseen Being who is greater than other similar beings. And it is perfectly possible that a healthful, independent, roving tribe, — like some branch of the Semitic race, — much in contact with Nature and not corrupted by luxury, might be more open to the unseen spiritual influences, and thus reach a grander conception of the mystery of the universe, than some races much more developed intellect- ually and materially. If we search human records for the most ancient EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM. 5 civilization, we unquestionably come at once upon the Egyptian. To the student among the Greek and the Roman races in their prime, the founders of the magnifi- cent temples and gigantic tombs in the valley of the Nile seemed as remote as they do to us. Indeed, it may with truth be said that the modern European and American student of archaeology knows more of that antique civili- zation than did Herodotus or Plutarch. Whatever doubts may linger about the exact numbers of the Egyptian chro- nology, whether certain lines of kings were synchronous or successive, the general conclusion can hardly be ques- tioned by scholars, that far back in the shadowy ages of the past, thousands of years before the first dawn of Greek culture, centuries before Moses or Abraham or the re- ceived dates of the Flood, a remarkably organized civiliza- tion and highly developed religion existed in the lower Nile valley, shut apart from the world, though destined to EGYPTIAN RELIGION. Till comparatively recent years the modern student was under the double misfortune of knowing the Egyptian religion only through a symbolism utterly foreign to our mental habits, and then through Greek and Roman in- terpreters. If the reader will imagine so strange a calam- ity as that the Christian religion had utterly perished 6 THE i'X KNOWN COD. from the earth in the fifth or sixth century, and that its documents had been hidden or destroyed, and it could on))' be known through its symbohsm and art, and through Greek and Latin historians, he will have some slight appreciation of our relation to the Egyptian religion. In such a case as we have supposed, we would have learned from the noblest and purest Roman historian that this dead religion was a " detestable superstition ; " from another that its followers indulged in shameful orgies of lust, and resorted to human sacrifice; from others among the Greeks of apparently the highest moral sympathies, living within fifty or sixty years of the death of its founder, we would not hear a word of its doctrines, or its marvels, or the wonderful life of its originator. From its symbolism and art, students of archaeology would have inferred as to this extinct faith that its central deity was an aged man with flowing locks, of noble and ven- erable countenance, that it worshipped also a goddess of fair appearance with a wonderful child, that it believed in a marriage of this divinity with a higher deity, and also that it adored a sad man of suffering who had been executed as a criminal. They would also discover animal worship in the adoration of the lamb and the dove, and in the figures of gods with the heads of the lion, the eagle, the bull, and the pigeon. They would detect, be- sides, the struggles of the good and evil principles in the EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM. 7 pictures of gods of frightful aspect contending with gods of benignant countenance, and they would find pictures of heaven which were merely the continuance of the familiar pastoral scenes of Italy and Germany. No doubt, too, as time passed away and the facts and traditions connected with the life of the great founder of this religion had become vague and shadowy, solar myths would attach themselves to its incidents ; the twelve apos- tles would become the twelve months, the day of nativity would be the day of the sun's return northward, his death would be an eclipse, the name which this supposed god gave himself, the " Light of the World," would indi- cate the solar origin of the story, and his resurrection would be the emerging of the sun from the deep shadow, and the life and light which follow it.^ It would require but a brief time and little imagination to attach a solar myth to the Gospel narrative, provided the facts had become obscured. When Herodotus visited Egypt in the third century \\ before Christ, or when Diodorus wrote of it about the time of Christ, or Plutarch gathered the legend of Osiris from Egyptian sources within seventy or eighty years after, the Egyptian religion was a tiling of the remote ^ The Christmas chant is well known, " Sol novus oritur," and the midsummer festival of bonfires to Saint John the Baptist. The words, " He must increase but I must decrease," might well have a solar interpretation. 8 THE Ui\ KNOWN GOD. past, at a greater distance from Herodotus or Plutarch than these are from us. The ancient faith had degener- ated into extreme polytheism, or idol worship, except among those initiated in its "mysteries," and there was only a tradition or vague impression among other peoples of the purity and grandeur of the belief of the early Egyptians. The excessive and peculiar symbolism of this race served also both to hide their real conceptions from foreign races and gradually to degrade their own beliefs. Close observers, like Herodotus, saw clearly that they believed in the immortality of the soul, and others that they looked forward to a coming moral judgment. Their faith in this great moral reckoning of mankind in a future life no doubt influenced some of Plato's ideals pictured in his myths. The Jews may have derived certain spiritual conceptions and portions of ritual from them, and no doubt through Alexandria and the platonizing Jews some of their most ancient beliefs reached the apostles, and through them have come down to modern times. But in general it may safely be said that we know much more of the an- cient Egyptian religion than did the Greeks or Romans. In the remotest ages of human history certain dwellers in the Nile valley, perhaps gazing into the solemn depths of the tropical night, or watching the majestic courses of the stars, or seeing the sudden and resplendent rising of the glorious orb of the sun over the silent desert sands, received in awe-struck wonder the grandest inspiration EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM. 9 which can come to the human soul from the unseen: even the thought of a Power, inimitable, incomprehen- sible, eternal, behind all the phenomena of the universe, above and behind the varied personalities of mythology and polytheism; the One awful beyond expression, endur- ing while all things change, filling immensity and eternity, self-created, the one original, before whom was nothing, and in whose presence the earth and heavens are but as a morning cloud; "living in truth," ^ "truth itself," the essence of " righteousness," terrible to evil-doers, yet merciful, beneficent, full of love. Here to the ancient Egyptian was a Being, vast beyond imagination to con- ceive, and yet inspiring and directing each believer, — a being who lived in righteousness, and demanded right- eousness, or " truth," of all those worshipping and loving him. Their wills must be submitted to his will. He guided and blessed them in life, and the happiness of eternity was to be in union with him.- This dread invisible " concealed " Being manifests him- self through various persons or divinities. He creates through "Thoth," his spirit, or "word." Thoth is his manifestation as word, or truth. He creates from himself through the word. Without Thoth is nothing made, and Thoth is God.'^ ^ Words often used in the Book of the Dead. 2 Book of the Dead. 8 Brugsch, p. 58. " Of his own will he brought us forth hy the word of truth " (James i. 18). " I call to witness the ivord of the Father 10 THE UNKNOWN COD. Saint John (i. 1-3) precisely describes the oldest Egyp- tian faith. " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that is made." The word used for the original source of all things, Xoper,^ according to Brugsch, means the cause of all being and becoming. This creates from himself through the word, or Thoth, not from any " stuff" or things exist- ing. " Hail to thee, creator, body of God who buildeth his own body when heaven was not and earth was not."^ Thousands of prayers are addressed to Xoper: "Thou wert first; nothing was then. Thou makest what is there." " Nothing was before thee, the Only or Self-born." " He was from the beginning, when nothing was." "The heart which he first spoke when he established the universe by his will " (Orpheus's words, quoted by Justin Martyr, Orat. ad gentes). It should be said here that the word " Truth," of such frequent and remarkable use in Egyptian religious writings, is expressed by a sign, meaning rule or vieasure, like our word righteousness. It means what is straight, conformed to rule, and true ; what is enduring and harmo- nious and real; what is good forever. The triumph of truth is the triumph of goodness. Truth is the end of man. The " justified '" is the man held true and good. God is truth. Plutarch describes the amulet which protects Isis as the (^imvi) aXrjdrjs, "Voice of truth " (Isis and Osiris, Ixviii.), as if that were tlie favorite phrase of the Egyptians. ^ Religion und Mythologie der alten Aegypter, p- 51 ; H. Brugsch, 1885. See also De Rougd. 2 Brugsch, p. 58. EG YP TIA N MONO THEISM. 1 1 of Ra, the tongue of Turn, the throat of the god (Am- mon) whose name is hidden," says Brugsch,^ " all mean one God ; " and Thoth is the manifestation of that god as Word. An inscription on the Temple of Dendera proclaims the " revelation of the light-god, Ra, being from the beginning [through] Thoth, who rests in truth ; what flows from his heart works on, and what he has spoken stands for eternity." ^ When these ancient inscriptions were chiselled in the granite near the Nile, before Moses or Abraham, the cul- ture and religion of the Egyptians had passed from their low condition. Mighty buildings had been erected, de- manding a remarkable knowledge of mechanical princi- ples, a complex society was created, and the faith of this race was developed from a belief in the heavens as god to a heaven-god, and again from a sun-god to one who said to the sun, " Come unto us ! " ^ Philosophers note that these ancient Egyptian titles of deity do not in general take their origin from the heavens or the light, or from sensual images, as with the Aryan and other races, but are derived from deeper and more philo- sophic ideas of cause and origin and independent eter- nal being. In this they seem nearer the ancient Semitic 1 Biugsch, p. 50. 2 Ibid., E. Meyer; Set. Typhon. 1875. ^ Book of the Dead, v. 21 : Words of creative power. 12 THE UXKNOWN GOD. Hebrew name of the Self-existent.^ They are such as Xoper, (Being), Amnion (the Concealed), Ra (the Origi- nal), Ptah (artist), Xnum (builder or potter), Sebak (con- triver), etc. Only Osiris 2 {os or us, periodic force) seems to relate to the sun. But behind all these separate gods is the One, unnamable, eternal, infinite. They all seem only forms, or manifestations, of the original being.^ Before they could express it in language, the Egyptians possessed the intui- tion or felt the power of this boundless creator and father. From innumerable of the oldest documents it is clear, says Brugsch, that to the ancient Egyptians God and the uni- verse were as soul and body. God was a spirit dwelling in his cosmic house which he had furnished and built."^ In analyzing the ancient belief of the priests and think- ers and artists of the Nile valley, we find everywhere the statements that God is One and alone, and no other near him, the one who has made all. A Theban inscription 1 Jahveh, — I am that I am. 2 Brugsch. ^ He is the holy spirit who begets gods; who takes on forms, but who remains unknown (Book of the Dead, xv. 46). The substance of the gods is the body of God (xvii. 75). ^ Brugsch. The Egyptians frequently group these manifestations of the Original One in triads. Thus, Xoper (Being), Turn (the Un- known), and Ra make a triad. In the Boston Art Museum (No. 634) may be seen two sets of triad Egyptian figures,— Ptah, Horus, and Keph; and Ptah, Horus, and Thoth. A stdle of the nineteenth dynasty speaks of God as " Father and Son," at Thebes and Memphis (Rev. Arch., p. 357. i860). EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM. 13 says of God in his form of Ammon : " The concealed spirit, a mystery for him whom he hath created, is Am- nion the ancient of days, who is from the beginning, the creator of heaven, earth, the depth, and the mountains." A remarkable hymn to Ammon Ra thus invokes him : " Author of the pastures which feed the beasts and the plants which nourish man ; he who feedeth the fishes of the river and the fowls of the air ; he giveth the bread of life to the germ yet concealed in the egg ; he feedeth the flying and creeping insects ; he provideth food for the mouse in his hole and the birds in the forests. Homage to thee, author of all forms, the One who is alone, whose arms extend and multiply everywhere, thou who watchest over rulers when they repose, who lookest for the good of thy creatures ! God Ammon who preservest all that is ! Homage to thee because thou abidest in us [or because of thy immanence in us] ! We prostrate ourselves before thy face because thou hast produced us. Homage to thee, by all creatures ! Praise to thee in every region, — in the heights of the heavens, in the spaces of the earth, in the depths of the seas ! The gods bow before thy majesty and exalt the soul of him who produced them, happy that their creator abideth in them (or at the immanence of their generator in them). They say -to thee: 'Be in peace, O Father of the fathers of the gods, who hast hung the heavens and planted the earth. Author of things ! Creator of blessings ! Prince su- preme ! Chief of gods ! We adore thy majesty at the moment in which thou producest us. Thou begettest us, and we cry out to thee to dwell in us.' " ^ Or again, take this ancient and lofty inscription of praise to Ammon Ra: ^ — 1 Translated by Grebaut ; Museum of Boulaq. - Chabas, Pap Hav. ; Records of the Past; Trad. pap. Mag., Harris. 14 THE UNKNOWN GOD. " Vast in his largeness without Hmit. Virtue supreme, in mys- terious forms ! Soul mysterious ! Author of his fearful power, life holy and strong, created by himself; brilliant, illuminating, daz- zling ! Soul more soul than the gods, thou art concealed in great Amnion ! Old man renewed ! Worker of ages ! Thou who hast designed the world ! O Amnion, with the holy transformations ! He whom no man knoweth, brilliant are his forms, his glory is a veil of light ! Mystery of mysteries ! Mystery unknown ! Hail to thee in the bosom of Nun (celestial abyss) ! Thou who hast truly begotten the gods ! The breath of truth is in thy mysterious sanctuary. . . . Thou art adored upon the waters. The fertile land adores thee ; the entrails of the wild animals are moved when thy bark [the sun] passeth by the hidden mountain. The spirits of the east congratulate thee when thy light shineth on their faces." All the principal gods in the early faith are but manifes- tations of this original Spirit. Besides being " One," he is a Spirit, as we see from these ancient hymns: he is from the beginning; the Original One; he was when nothing was, the father of beginnings ; he is eternal ; he stands from everlasting ages, and will be for eternity ; he is concealed, and his form hath no man known, his face hath no man seen ; he is hidden from gods and men, a mystery to his crea- tures ; no mortal can name him ; his name a mystery, countless are his titles,^ God is Truth ; he lives through Truth, he is nourished on Truth, he is King of Truth, and Truth he erects over the world. He is Life, and men live through him ; he is Father and Mother of all crca- 1 Book of the Dead, xlii., xliv. 4; Gr. pap., Harris, iii. EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM. 1 5 tures ; he begets, and is not begotten ; he is the creator, and not created, the creator of his own form and builder of his own body, — the universe ; the Maker of all that was, and is, and is not yet ; the original Franier (weaver) of the world, of heaven and earth and the depths. He hung the heavens and founded the earth; he let water (or moisture) come forth, and built the mountains. He is Being itself, the enduring One, who increaseth and is never lessened, the One who multiplies himself million- fold, the many-formed. He is Father of the gods ; gods come forth from the word of his mouth ; the great Master, the original potter who moulds men and gods. He is the weaver of the universe on tlie loom of life. Heaven rests on his head, and earth bears his feet ; heaven conceals his spirit, earth his form, and the depth covers his mys- tery. God is merciful to his worshippers ; he heareth him who calleth upon him, and protecteth the weak from the strong ; he heareth the cry of him bound in chains ; he guardeth the humble against the haughty, and is Judge between the powerful and the miserable. God acknowl- edgeth him who confesseth him, rewardeth him who serveth him, and guardeth him who followeth him. The revelation of light is the most elevated expression of this divine original Power. The various gods, Ra, Ptah, Xnum,^ Thoth, Osiris, are in inner being the same, and all manifestations of this original One. 1 Brufrsch. 1 6 THE UNKNOWN GOD. To such a conception the worshipper might well say: " Hail to thee, thou King of the stars ! Thou who art one with the heaven's arch ! Thee the heavens and the lamps on heaven's arch do praise." ^ " Hail to thee, our lord of truth, Ammon ! whose shrine is hid- den, Lord of gods, Creator sailing in thy boat [the sun], at whose command the gods were made ; Turn, the maker of men, who sui)porteth their works, who giveth them life, who knoweth how one differeth from another, who listeneth to the poor that is in dis- tress, who art gentle of heart when a man crieth unto thee ; thou who deliverest the fearful from the violent, who judgest the poor and oppressed ; Lord of wisdom, whose precepts are wise, at whose pleasure the Nile overfloweth her banks; Lord of mercy, most loving, at whose coming men hve, opener of every eye, proceed- ing from the firmament, causer of pleasure and light, at whose good- ness the gods rejoice, their hearts rejoicing when they see thee." ^ " Bringer of food, great lord of all things nourishing, Lord of all terrors and of all choicest joys. He filletli all granaries, he enricheth all the storehouses, He careth for the estate of the poor. He is not beheld by the eye. He hath neither ministers nor offerings, He is not adored in sanctuaries. He wipeth away tears from all eyes. He careth for the abundance of his blessings." ^ ^ Inscription in Temple of Esne; Brugsch, p. 194. 2 Brugsch, and Records of the Past, ii. 131. 8 Hymn, Records of the Past; Birch, iv. 108. EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM. 1 7 As we have stated, in our condensed resume of the Egyptian belief, Truth was held to be the essence and life of the divine being, as if only the Eternal and the Just could be true. God is held to be the author of truth, and more than once it is said in the "Book of the Dead" that " the society of divine persons [meaning the divine manifestations] subsists by truth every day." But even with this austere idea of divinity, the Egyptian's heart melts when he thinks of the all-pervading love of the un- seen deity. " His love is in the south," he says in im- passioned prayer, " his grace is in the north, his beauty taketh possession of all hearts, his love maketh the arms grow weak. His creatures are beautiful enough to para- lyze the hands ; hearts break in seeing him ; by his will he hath produced the earth, gold, silver, stone, and the hke." 1 The sun especially is worshipped as a manifestation of this unknown Being. " Thy rays," says the worshipper, " come from a face not known ; thou marchest unknown, thou shinest upon us and we know not thy form ; thou presentest thy face to ours and we do not know thy body."^ That this exalted being was equally exalted in purity and spirituality is evident from a thousand inscriptions and documents. What is called the oldest manuscript 1 A Hymn to Ainmon Ra, v. 7; Records of the Past. 2 Denkmaler, vi. 116. 1 8 THE UNKNOWN GOD. in the world, " The Teachings of Prince Ptahhotep," gives this instruction : " Be good to thy people, for that is well pleasing to God. ... Be not proud of riches, for the giver of fulness is God. ... To obey, meaneth to love God; not to obey, to hate God." On the doors of the Temple of Edfu it is said : " God findeth his satisfaction in truth ; he is propitiated by it, and he finds his pleasure in the most perfect purity. . . . God hath purity dearer than millions of gold and silver offerings." These exalted conceptions lasted even into later times, when a Cyprian king, Nikokreon, asked the oracle of Sera- pis, "What is he among the gods?" and the reply was, " Heaven's space is my head, my body the sea, the earth my feet ; my ears are in the upper ether, and my eye the wide-shining, glorious sunlight ; " and of this same deity, Osiris-Serapis, an early papyrus says: "O Lord, no god is equal to thee ; heaven bears thy spirit, earth thy image, and the depth is furnished with thy mysteries." ^ Of Ra, the god of light, it is said : " He is the invisible god, the mysterious spirit, whose form no man hath seen, whose being no man hath understood ; the soul lightens from his eycs."^ The inscription on the Temple of Dendera speaks of God as having made all beings and things: "All that lives hath been made by God himself. He is creator of ^ Papyrus of the Dead, British Museum ; Brugsch. - Brugsch, p. 197. EGYPTIAX MOXOTHEISM. 1 9 all that hath been formed, but he hath not been formed."^ God is adored under his eternal name of " Furnisher of souls for forms." ^ He traverses eternity, is Master of infinity, Author of eternity, traversing mill- ions of years in his existence. He is the Master of eternity without limits.^ He is omnipresent, command- ing at once at Thebes, Heliopolis, and Memphis.* He is unnamable, and abhorreth to have his name pro- nounced.^ OSIRIS. But the manifestation of the Infinite Spirit dearest to the hearts of all Egyptians, and which gained an extraor- dinary power over the whole people, was that of Osiris. That most ancient of human documents, the " Book of the Dead," which is a collection running through many centuries, of prayers, invocations, and protecting spells, deposited w^ith the mummy to guard the dead in his perilous journey through Amenti, is almost one long prayer or ascription of praise to this gentle and blessed Being. " He was appointed to reign over the gods in the presence of the supreme lord on the day of the constitution of the world." '^ He is Truth itself; he is 1 Pantheon Eg. ; P. Pierret, 1881, p. 16S. 2 Chabas, Maximes d'Ani. 3 Book of the Dead, Ixii. 3. * Aegyptische Denkmaler, iii. 246. 5 Book of the Dead, xHv. 4. « Ibid., xvii. 70. 20 THE UNKNOWN GOD. Love. ''His heart is in every woinid."'^ His especial name is Ounnofer, — the essence of goodness. He is Lord of life, Lord of eternity, yet a human mother hath begotten him. " Oh, Osiris, thy mother hath be- gotten thee in the world. She hath called thee with a beautiful name. Osiris is thy name in the bosom of the spirit ; Goodness thy name in the lower hfeaven ; Lord of life thy name among the living; , . . but thy [true] name is God."^ From assimilation with him comes the perfection of being.^ He destroys the great serpent, Apap, the embodi- ment of evil, "the devourer of souls." ^ There appears through innumerable inscriptions and records in lower Egypt an extraordinary feeling of affection and reverence for this remarkable being. " Gold is nothing compared to thy rays," says an impassioned worshipper; "Thy trans- formations are like those of the celestial ocean. Grant that I arrive at the country of Eternity, and the region of the justified ; that I be reunited to the fair and wise spirits of Kerneter (Hades), and that I appear with them to con- template thy beauties in the morning of every day." ^ But * Book of the Dead, xvii. 69. This may be rendered, "His heart is in every bloody sacrifice," but the idea is the same. The sacrifice of Osiris gives him sympathy with every human sacrifice. See De Roug^. 2 Pap. 3148; Cat. des Man. Egypt. ^ Book of the Dead, viii 2. * Ibid., xxxix. 9; xv. 7. ^ Stdle of Boulaq, Mus. No. 72 ; Mariette. EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM. 21 though subsequently becoming the sun-god, at that early period he was above and behind the great luminary. He created it. " He saith to the sun, Come unto us ! " is the remarkable expression of the "Book of the Dead" (v. 21). " When the sun riseth," says another inscription, " it is by his will ; when it goeth down, he contemplates its splen- dors. Hail to thee, whom thy name of Goodness maketh so great ; thou, the eldest son, the risen from the dead ! There is no god can do what he hath done. He is lord of life, and we live by his creation ; no man can live without his will." ^ The received myth of Osiris, it should be remembered, was gathered by a fair-minded and judicious Greek author several thousand years after the probable date of these early inscriptions and funereal records. And yet, if we strip Plutarch's narrative of its mythical and fanciful fea- tures, it presents a remarkable basis of probable fact. At the birth of this extraordinary being, there were the omens which often precede in reality or imagination the birth of the earth's benefactors. A voice was heard announcing that the lord of all things had stepped into light ^ (o)? aTvavTwv Kvpio THE UNKNOWN GOD. him, no sin against him, no witness against him. He lives in truth, nourishes himself on truth. The heart of the gods is satis- fied with what he has done ; he has given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to the naked. . . . There is no wit- ness against him before any god." ^ Then follows the well-known negative defence: — " I have guarded myself from holding godless speeches. I have committed no revenge in act or in heart ; no excesses in love ; I have injured no one with lies ; have driven away no beggars, com- mitted no treacheries, caused no tears. I have not taken another's property, nor committed murder, nor ruined another, nor destroyed the laws of righteousness. I have not aroused contests, nor ne- glected the creator of my soul. I have done no robbery. I have not disturbed the joy of others. I have not passed by the op- pressed, sinning against my creator, or the Lord, or the heavenly powers." - " I am pure, pure ! ... He hath reconciled God by his love [charity]. ... He is with the perfect spirit ; he is lord of eternity." ^ To his Judge and Saviour his prayer is, " Allow to the dead a quiet dwelling-place, Osiris, thou heavenly Lord ! Elevated One, open the doors of glory for the heart of thy glorified servant that he come to thee. Lord and Judge of worlds, Osiris, ruler of the life of men."* " Reverenced by me, beloved one, thou openest the doors of the firmament. Thou madcst the valleys of the 1 Book of the Dead. 2 lljid., cxxv. 14-34. « Ibid., c. xiii. ■* Ibid. EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM. 29 earth, the Holy One who sendeth flames of lightning on the earth, the twofold Judge of men who delightest in men bringing burnt offering." The " day of the account of words " is, above all, a day of moral reckoning and purifying. " The destruction of the faults of the dead is made by the hands of the master of truth," says the ritual, " when he has wiped away the stain in him. Evil unites itself to divinity in order that truth should expel this bad element. The god who chasteneth becomes the god who strengthens superabundantly." ^ To his Judges the deceased says, "O ye who bring justice to the universal Lord, judges of my punishment and my triumph, ye who reconcile with the gods by the fire of your mouths, ye who receive the offerings to the gods, and gifts destined for the manes, ye who live on justice, who nourish yourselves on a truth without error, and who abhor iniquities, wash away all my stains, do away with all my sins ! Ye who bear no stain, grant me ... to traverse the mysterious gates of Amenti."^ Resurrection. — The Egyptians above all things be- lieved in the resurrection of the body. It was for this that loving hands laid so many million human bodies, preserved by careful art from decay, in the rock-tombs on the Nile, and in thousands of unknown graves. It ^ Book of the Dead, cxiv. 2 Ibid. cxxv. 1-3. De Rouge: Rev. Arch., i860, p. 364. 30 THE UXKNOIVN GOD. was for this that " the kings and counsellors of the earth built solitary piles for themselves" (Job iii. 14), made difficult of access, and trusted thus to bid defiance to time and change, and to permit the beloved ones to carry their vital organs into the shadowy land of Amenti. But despite this literal belief, it was not in the Egyptian faith the same corporeal frame as in life which the de- parted would take with him into the divine lower world. The divine spirit or word (Thoth) breathed new life and vigor into the body of the dead. He clothed it in the garment of truth, — in external transformation. The body is purified and restored by the gods; it is no longer the old body, nor is it a new soul. The justified soul is re- stored to a purified body. This is clearly shown in the ancient book, " The Breaths of Life." ^ The dead has passed through the same fate as Osiris, and now rises like him. " Thy word is truth, O Osiris, against thy enemies. . . . The word of Osiris N. is truth before the great gods."^ " I place myself before thee. Lord of eternity. I have no sin, I have no accuser . . . what I have done, gods rejoice at. Hail to the dwellers of Amenti I Grant me a passage on the road of darkness, that I re- 1 Trans, by De Horrack, Record of Past, iv. 119. See for amu- lets to preserve dead, Rev. Arch., 1862, p. 130. 2 Book of the Dead ; Set. Typhon, E. Meyer, 1875, p. 14. EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM. 3 1 join thy servants, dwellers of the underworld." When he is acquitted, he can say with joy, " I do not pene- trate to the cell of the murderer in the lower world; they do not unto me as to those whom the gods detest." ^ " My soul is not carried to the hall of immolation; it is not destroyed. ... It is saved from the devourer of souls [Apap] in the lower world." ^ The souls of the wicked are tortured or become im- movable for millions of years. They are in gulfs of fire where are seen their dissolving heads ; lion-headed god- desses are executioners who " live on the cries of the impious " and feed on the groans of the souls of the wicked, who stretch unavailing hands from the depths of the gulfs. The saddest of all sentences to those under the "second death" is, "Ye shall not see those upon earth any more, never ! " The good spirit will not perish. It rejoins his body. " I arrive ; having made my body embalmed, my flesh is not dissolved. I am complete as my Father Osiris."^ " The earth hath not gnawed me ; the sun hath not eaten me."* The dead arises : " I raise again my heart after weak- ness ; I fly to heaven ; I descend on earth every day. I ^ Book of the Dead. 2 Pierret, p. 63 ; Book of the Dead. s Book of the Dead. * Ibid. 32 THE UNKNOWN GOD. raise myself and begin among the gods." ^ He^ is re- newed and begins his hfe for milHons of years. The soul again addresses the mighty Judge : " I am Osiris N. ... Hail to thee, great God, Lord of justice ! I come near thee to see thy beauties, I know the name of the great God, and of those with thee in the hall of the double justice, ... in the day of account of words." ^ And to the spirit charged with the office of punishment he says: "Receive in peace this Osiris N., justified! Open to him thy gates ! . . . Let me not be repulsed by thy guards ! Let me see God in his beauties ! Let me serve him in the place where he is ! " "* Then to Osiris : " I arrive near thee, I am with thee to see thy face every day.^ Let me not be imprisoned, let me not be repulsed ; let my limbs renew themselves to contemplate thy glory, as one of thy chosen ones, for I am one of 1 Book of the Dead. 2 The persons are constantly confused in the Egyptian hiero- glyphics. 2 Pap. N. Deveria, pi. vii. ^ Cat. d. man. Eg., 39-92. ^ Hear Job, who has evidently known something of the early Egyp- tian faith: " For I know that my Goel (Vindicator) liveth, and that he shall stand up at the last upon the earth ; and after my skin has been destroyed, this shall be, — even from my flesh shall I see God ; whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold and not an- other" (Job xix. 25-27). Angessi has brought out the correspondence in a most interesting manner between Job's thoughts and expression and the ancient Egyptian writings, in his charming work, "Job et L'figypte." EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM. 33 those consecrated to thee on the earth. I reach the land of Eternity; I rejoin the eternal country, and it is thou who hast ordained this for me who am (hence- forth) in Ra and every god." ^ These ancient liturgies — the " Book of the Dead" — from which we have quoted so much call the day of death the "day of birth." ^ The soul becomes master of fear and terror in the heart of men, of gods, spirits, and the dead. It liveth for eternity. It doth not suffer " the second death " in Hades. No ill is done it in the day of account of words.^ The dead seeth with his eyes, hear- eth with his ears. He is truth.^ " Living ; living is he who dwelleth in darkness ; all his grandeurs live ; living is Osiris N., who dwelleth among the gods." ^ The dead will suffer no harm. He will be in the state of the origi- nal God. No bad thing will destroy him ; he will not see the second death; he will eat and drink every day with Osiris ; he will be living ; he will be like god.^ The mouth of no worm shall devour him,^ A SpiriUial Body. — A new growth of life begins in his body, he is for eternity, and his flesh has vigor in 1 Book of the Dead, xv. 7. 2 Seneca perhaps borrows his expression, "dies natalis eterni," from Egyptian inscriptions. 8 Book of the Dead, cxxx. 28, 29. ^ Ibid., cxxxiii. S. * Louvre ; Pap. No. 3071, Devdria. ^ Book of the Dead, cxxxv. 13, 14. ' Ibid., clxiv. 16. 3 34 THE UNKNOWN GOD. the divine lower world through Thoth, who has done this for Osiris.^ " My limbs are renewed every day to contemplate thy splendor." ^ "Thy rays, O Osiris, in my face, pure gold is eclipsed. Incomprehensible is thy glory. Give me a new heart in place of my heart, . . . give me my mouth to speak, my legs to walk,"^ etc. "The dead is in peace, in peace!'"* At the close of the " Book of the Dead " it is said of him : " He shall be deified among the gods. ... He shall not be rejected. His flesh and bones shall be healthy as one who is not dead. He shall plunge in the stream of the heavenly river. ... It shall be granted to him to shine like a star forever in heaven. . . . " ^ " His body is complete " '^ " He seeth God with his flesh." ' " I have come to see the gods." " I have come to thee, O Lord ! I present myself to contemplate thy glory. I know thee, I know thy name."^ " The spirit of the dead is living for eternity. He does not pass through the second death."® Chapter Ixxxix. of this Ritual treats of uniting the soul to its mummy, that its body be not injured, or destroyed forever.^*^ 1 Book of the Dead, ci. 8. '^ Ibid., xv. 6i. 8 Ibid., XV. 8, 9. ■* Ibid., cxx. 27. ^ Hjjd.^ dxv. « Book of the Dead, clxv. 6. ■^ Compare Job xix. 25-27 : " Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another." 8 Book of the Dead, cxxv. i. 9 Ibid., cxxx. 27. " Ibid., Ixxxix. 27. EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM. 35 Amenti {Hades). — As the dead traverses Amenti, the Ritual says : " Osiris N. hath come ; he seeth his father Osiris. It is he who loveth Osiris ; he hath made the journey." ^ " I arrive at the shore of eternity. I rejoin the land of eternity." ^ " Protect Osiris N. in the region of the divine lower world ; grant that he conquer evil ; place thyself as protector between him and his sins ; place him among the august ; let him join himself to the spirits of the divine lower w^orld ; let him rove in the fields of heaven ; in fine, let him journey with gladness of heart."^ "Hail to ye, Masters of the Truth, exempt from evil, who art living for eternity and per- petuity of ages ! Make me to penetrate into this heavenly country." In his passage through Amenti the dead meets Apap, the great serpent, " the devourer of souls," the spirit of evil, who attacks him as he had attacked his Lord, Osiris.'* As he reaches the heavenly land, the sore-driven spirit hears the welcome, " Appear thou in heaven ; be not thy appearance hindered. Thou diest not; thou renewest hfe; thou wilt not be destroyed ; thou makest thyself young. Nothing evil is in thee ; thou renewest thyself. No sm is in thy nature. . . . Eternity be to thy name. Thou must be in the mouth of those on earth indestructible, like the sun." ^ 1 Book of the Dead, ix. ^ ibid., xv. ^ Ibid., xiv. 4 Cat. MSS. Eg., p. 177. 5 Miramar, p. 14. 36 THE UNKNOWN GOD. The Entrance into Heaven. — A prayer to the sun-god: " I am united with the radiant, noble, and wise spirits of the underworld. I step with them to behold thy glories at thy rising in the early morn, and in the evening by thy setting, when thy mother embraces thee with her arms. When thou turnest thy face to the west country,^ I praise thee with raised hands at thy union w^th the Land of Life." ^ "I have come into the world of radiant spirits, and I have appeared in the door of this lordly land. What is it, this world of radiant spirits, of gods near the sun-dwelling? The door of the lordly land is the door-opening [of the sun]."^ "Open stands the hidden kingdom of the dwellers of the lower world, and there unveil themselves those who belong to the en- lightened. Open stands the hidden kingdom of the air- spaces, and I step out to my seat in the ship [the sun] of the God of Light." * "Osiris N. wanders on his feet, the justified, the holy ; he finds out him who hateth righteousness, and in like man- ner the hidden dwellings of the pious, — him who beareth manifold cares for the good of many men, who arouseth other men to worship. He discovereth him who honors the holy on earth, who loves the care of thy creatures." The dead, as he feels himself purified, and freed from inherited evil, makes the passionate exclamation : " No 1 Hades, the underworld of life. 2 ^ooV of the Dead, xv. 15. 8 Ibid., xvii. 20. 4 15;^^ ixiij. EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM. 37 more stain from my mother! I am delivered [from sin]."' " All the stains which I keep are what I have done against the Masters of Eternity since I went forth from my mother's womb." ^ The sinners, after the great judgment, are some of them sentenced to punishment, as we have before described, and some are compelled to enter the bodies of animals. But some of them are even then forgiven by the merciful Judge. " He, the powerful, pities the begging sinners who call upon the gods. He raises the slaves of his race, the begging sinners, to himself" Heaven. — The pictures of heaven to the Egyptian are such as would be most grateful to a dweller in that hot climate, — deep shades of over-branching sycamores, cool waters, the fresh north wind, and fruitful fields, forever watered, and rich in never-ceasing harvests. The departed still busy themselves in the pursuits of a happy, peaceful agriculture, where the harvest is a hundred-fold. There is a tree of immortal life in this blessed garden, and a heavenly river. But the happiness of eternity, as we have abundantly shown, is for the Egyptians in spiritual life and in union with their Lord. One of the more material though imaginative glories of the future is in embarking with the sun-god in his radiant bark, and thus each day surveying the universe. 1 Book of the Dead, Ixiv. 7. 2 ibid.^ xvii. 37. 38 THE UNKNOWN GOD. But the Egyptian's conception of religion had reached the highest point : it regarded sympathy and morality as the flower and fruit of faith in invisible beings. The spirits or gods unseen, the One God over all, were in harmony with the highest moral ideas of the race. God was the Law of righteousness, embodied in spiritual form. A burial inscription on the stele of Beka^ says: "I my- self was just and true, having put God in my heart, and having been quick to discern his will. I reach the city of those who dwell in eternity. I have done good upon the earth. I have harbored no prejudice. I have not been wicked. I have not countenanced any offence or iniquity. I have taken pleasure in speaking the truth. . . . My sure defence shall be to speak truth in the day when I reach the divine judges, the skilful interpreters, the discerners of sins. Pure is my soul, I have spent my lifetime in the life of Truth." Such was the picture, drawn in a few strokes of light over a dark background, which the ancient Egyptian drew in his imagination of the shadowy Unseen that sur- rounded him as it surrounds us. He peered into the dark- ness which infolded the unseen life then even as now; he bade farewell to his beloved as he laid their bodies in the rocky tombs with the same agony, and anxiously ques- tioned them, even as we do now, and like us he received 1 Trans. Chabas. EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM. 39 no sensible whisper from the unseen. He gazed at the majestic and orderly course of Nature sixty centuries ago as we still gaze, and prayed as we pray for light from the source of all this. More than the members of any modern race, the Eg}'p- tian lived in the life invisible. His grandest dwellings were for the dead. And we now know that his deep religious hunger and thirst were rewarded. The divine inspiration was admitted to the souls of many among that ancient people. It gained, in part at least, the grandest conception known to man of the Unknown God. It sought to serve him by lives of mercy, justice, and truth. It be- lieved in a " day of the account of words." It trusted in a merciful Being, even though a shadowy person, a mani- festation of God's goodness, who had lived and died for the good of men. As this " Son of God," as he is called, rose again and became " the first-born of the dead," so would the dead arise and meet him as Judge. To be like him, and to be united to that sweet and perfect being, was to be the joy of eternity. This faith, too, was in harmony with man's highest ideals. The purest morality and highest human sym- pathy were only the natural fruits of his relation to " the concealed " God and to Osiris. Is not this ancient faith, then, a faint reflection of the light in a great darkness, shining to all men ages ago in the youth of mankind from the eternal Light, even as now. 40 THE UNKNOWN GOD. but not received of men, for men knew it not ? Is it not a precursor of the brighter Light forty centuries later in GaHlee ? This great h"ght which gilds the morning dawn of hu- man history, and was so rich a blessing to so many millions of men, has completely faded away. We can merely trace its faint reflections in the papyri which the dead bore with them into the tomb, and on the inscrip- tions — unread for centuries — upon broken shafts and crumbling pyramids. Its truth alone lives in higher forms, and, in the words of the " Book of the Dead," " is indestructible as the sun." Note. — The "Book of the Dead," or, more literally, the "Book of the Soul's Transformation," has been frequently quoted in these pages. Different translations have been used, the preference being given to those of Pierret and De Rouge; but it is clear that consider- able uncertainty attaches to any one exact rendering. There are vary- ing texts, and, as might be expected in a writing to be placed in unseen tombs and to be read only by invisible spirits, many mistakes and omissions, and much carelessness by the original scribes. Then the highly symbolic language is easily mistranslated. Still, enough comes forth to prove the elevated monotheism of the early Egyptians, and their faith in resurrection and a moral judgment. De Rougd states that the British Museum possesses a copy of this Ritual written before Moses, in the time of Seti I., father of Ramses II. The monuments of the First Empire reveal several chapters of these writ- ings (Rev. Arch., p. 357, i860). Most of the prominent Egyptologists affirm the monotheistic belief of the ancient Egyptians. See the writings of De Rougd, Brugsch, Chabas, Maspero, Pierret, Renouf, Uhlemann, and others. CHAPTER II. THE JEWS AND EGYPTIANS. JAHVEH. "I AM THAT I AM." /^NE of the singular facts of history is that a people Hke the Jews should have lived for so many years under the rule of a nation like the Egyptians, and have carried away after their emancipation so few mental and religious influences. The Egyptians were the pre- eminently cultivated and religious race of antiquity. Their achievements in the arts and sciences far surpassed those of any people of early times, and are the admi- ration of all succeeding ages. They were luxurious, refined, and overflowing with riches. Their society was artificial and elaborate in the extreme. They showed, no doubt, the conservatism and pride of opinion and habit belonging to a nation and civilization of im- memorial antiquity. All their characteristics were such as would stamp themselves deeply on a race of inferior culture and less ancient existence among nations. Then they were peculiarly filled, as we have seen, with the convictions of a future life for the soul, of a coming judgment, and a resurrection of the body. Many classic 42 THE UNKNOWN GOD. writers speak of them as the earliest people who believed in the immortality of the soul. Their daily life was crowded with emblems and reminders of their religious faith, such as scarcely any race, ancient or modern, has presented. Their grandest structures were tombs to pre- serve the bodies of their kings from the gnawing tooth of time, or the wanton destruction of man, until the great " day of the account of words." The very soil has be- come filled with the embalmed remains of those whom their friends hoped thus to prepare for the great journey through the shadowy Amenti. Never, certainly, was a people so deeply inspired with the belief in a future life. Among this people, too, were profound thinkers and philosophers, to whom had been revealed the grandest truths and inspirations of religion. These beliefs, indeed, were concealed from the masses, and held as esoteric or inside faiths of the learned. But they existed, as abun- dant proofs show, and even influenced the classic ages. This race, so powerful and so religious, held under their subjection for a considerable period — perhaps several centuries — a race of semi-barbarous Semitic herdsmen from the plains of Asia. The relation was perhaps somewhat like that of the African slaves in this country to the Anglo-Americans during a century. The foreign Semitic laborers worked under their Hamite task-masters, and brought up their offspring amid this splendid civilization, and then revolted and fled from THE JEWS AND EGYPTIANS. 43 the country to the wilds of the mountainous region east of Egypt. Their leader and emancipator, one of the grandest figures on the stage of history, had been edu- cated by the Egyptian priestly caste, and was familiar with their most sacred and concealed beliefs. Yet if one studies carefully the succeeding history of this roving people, one finds marvellously few evidences of any mental influence from their masters. The Jewish people in their early history seem singularly little in- spired with the belief in a future life or a coming judg- ment. It is as if the African slaves and their descendants had been freed and removed from this country after a century, and had carried with them into their new homes no trace, or only the slightest, of a belief in a Christian heaven and hell, or of the resurrection of the body. The voices of hope and consolation which brought sweet comfort to so many millions of dying Egyptians, telling of a loving Judge and Deliverer at the great Day, of the journey through the shadowy Amenti, and the blessed hfe of the departed, did not apparently for centuries touch the ears of the dying Hebrews. Probably hundreds and thousands said with Hezekiah: " For sheol cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee : they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day." ^ Or with the author of Ecclesiastes : * Isaiah xxxviii. i8, 19. 44 THE UNKNOWN GOD. " For the living know that they shall die : but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a re- ward ; for the memory of them is forgotten, as well their love as their hatred ; and their envy is now perished." ^ There are indeed some evidences of Egyptian influence on the mode of garments worn by the Jewish priests, their sacrifices of atonement, and the ornaments of the Tabernacle ; ^ but of the faith of the followers of Osiris in a continued existence there is the least possible trace. Egyptian mythology has touched the people, as we see in the story of the golden calf and the hidden teraphim ; but ancient Egyptian religion in its own peculiar spir- ituality or its faith in a future Divine judgment did not penetrate the Hebrew masses. But it was not so with their great leader, Moses. From childhood he had undoubtedly been in intercourse with the earnest and religious thinkers who belonged to the Egyptian priestly class. He heard their secret beliefs, which were not to be divulged to the crowd. Amid the multitude of deities worshipped by the masses, the deifying of animals and reptiles, the disgusting super- stitions into which the Egyptian religion had degenerated, he heard from these solitary thinkers of One, by name Xopcr, who was before all, over all, and in all, — the Self-existing, the All-beginning, the Source of all life and action, the Eternal, Immortal, and Invisible ; he 1 Ecclesiastes iv. 5, 6. 2 Angessi: L'figypte et MoYse. THE JEWS AND EGYPTIANS. 45 learned, doubtless, that the other so-called gods were only manifestations of this Infinite One, or were spirits beneath him. It is possible that he read on the pediment of the Temple of Isis that wonderful ancient inscription, " I am he that is, and was, and shall be." It is not probable that these ancient and secret faiths were adopted in all respects by Moses, for he belonged to a race visited by higher inspirations ; but they made a background in his mind, over which future inspirations could play. As the teachings of a Christian childhood will in this age sometimes open the soul later to the highest inspiration, so Egyptian monotheism perhaps prepared Moses for his wonderful revelation. The history of this momentous event in the inner life of the great Jewish emancipator is given with distinctness. God has been especially worshipped and communed with, in all ages, on the tops of mountains. Moses had with- drawn to the grand heights and sublime granite peaks of the ridge where Mount Horeb appears in the southern extremity of the Sinaitic peninsula. It is a region still known for the grandeur of its outlines and the wonderful beauty of its coloring, especially under evening and sun- set lights. There, in those almost inaccessible solitudes, the lower earth shut out by a sea of white clouds, this leader of men sought communion with the unseen Source of life. Perhaps while gazing into the dark-blue depths 46 THE UNKNOWN GOD. of the vault above, or at night following the paths of the clear orbs of light, there came to the soul of Moses the grandest inspiration granted to man, — the revelation of a personal Being who came not from any birth, who was when all things were void, who is now, and shall be when all worlds have ceased to be. He is revealed, not as the son of Kronos and Chaos, of Gea and Ouranos, of Eros and Pncuma ; he is no creature of mythology ; he has the reverend name Jahveh, the I am that I am, the Self-existent He is behind all time and space, and all matter and spirit ; the One, so awful that his name was to be the most revered of all possible things; the Self- containing, All-embracing, Eternal. And yet to Moses, not a brute force, but a Spirit, a person of righteousness, punishing evil by the laws of heredity, and in like manner showing compassion and tender mercy. This inspiration of Jahveh carried with it future revelation, and coming moral progress for the world ; the moral code, or Ten Commandments, supported by infinite power and wisdom ; the widening revealing of the sympathy and love of this Spirit, and the final perfecting of humanity through union with him, by means of his highest manifestation in later ages. But this profound monotheism had already become rooted among the Jewish people. They lived in Egypt during the decadence of its ancient faith, when its most disgusting and degrading idolatry and superstition pre- vailed. The idea of the one God, which had been the THE JEWS AND EGYPTIANS. 47 inspiration of early Egyptian thinkers, had died out among the masses. The statues and figures of innumerable di- vinities represented what remained of that sublime and ancient faith. Only the learned and the spiritual-minded among the chosen and secret circles of the priests be- lieved in that God whom so many prayers and inscriptions represented as having existed in all past ages and as to exist in all future. Probably the thoughtful and the initiated among the people still considered the various divinities as local manifestations of the Infinite and Unnamable, but the masses of the nation had fallen into the lowest forms of idolatry. The Jews, though so much inferior to their task-masters in learning and civilization, were in- spired with profound faith in Jahveh, and probably felt an intense abhorrence for the superstitions of the race who held them in bondage. The natural result was, that even the grand truths believed in by this ancient people of the Nile did not anywhere touch the minds of these Semitic herdsmen. They did not spend a moment's thought on the "day of account" and the future life re- vealed to the Hamitic thinkers ; they classed them all to- gether under "the worship of the dead gods," ^ as idolatry was called at a later period of the same people. And under the higher inspiration of Moses, it is possible that the new conception of Jahveh, the self-existent and ^ See Teachings of the Twelve Apostles: Qiuiv vfKpwv. 48 THE UNKNOWN GOD. awful, the one Person who is and was and is to be, and who holds the power of righteousness in the world, so filled their thoughts and hearts that they did not dwell on what might be their future condition in the unseen life. It was enough for them that Jahveh lived, and that all men and all things were in his hands. This at least seems to us the most probable explanation of the singularly slight influence of the Egyptian dogmas upon the religion of the Hebrews. The faith in Jahveh as a Being of righteousness, and a constantly higher conception of him as a compassion- ate Father and loving Creator, carried with it naturally the belief in a continued existence of union with him. In very early ages the tradition of Enoch as being united wnth Jahveh without passing through the pangs of death, showed what lay at the bottom of this faith as among the possibilities of the future ; and in the Book of Job, and among the Psalms of David and other singers, and in the utterances of the Prophets, this hope of a future life with God comes forth clear and distinct. But it cannot be said that the faith in immortality among the Hebrews is in any way derived from the faith of the Egyptians. It is true the famous passage in Job, wherein the resurrec- tion of the body is so clearly set forth, bears very evident marks of Egyptian influence.^ Such an influence would naturally be expected from the wandering nomad Semitic ^ See Angessi. THE JEWS AND EGYPTIANS. 49 chieftain, whose genius under a higher inspiration framed that subHme drama. But it should be remembered that in those early ages, as in the present, the air was full of certain thoughts and ideals peculiar to separate races, and the grand concep- tions and imaginings of one people inevitably floated over into the intellectual atmosphere of another. The Egyp- tian faith in immortality and a coming judgment was scat- tered far beyond the borders of the Nile, and the intense and profound Hebrew conviction of an Eternal Being who led the world toward righteousness, reached thinkers in every country who otherwise despised the half-savage tribe that held this belief. There was a considerable com- merce in those early days, movements of large cara- vans, the sailing of little vessels from one coast to another, and the wanderings here and there of eager and curious travellers. The secrets of one nation gradually became known to the thinkers of another, and the great truths which had inspired solitary leaders among distant tribes slowly diffused themselves to far-away scholars in other lands. The mysteries and inner truths held by the priests of one nation finally became the property of the ordinary citizens of another; and the divine inspirations which had been granted to a few in remote ages were thus conveyed to the many in distant times and places. It is true that these inspirations were soon over-flooded by tides of worldliness and animalism, yet they left here and there in the human mind seeds of a divine life. 50 THE UNKNOWN GOD. The principal influence of the secret Egyptian religion on the Jews is no doubt seen in the profound monothe- istic faith of Moses, and in his connection of religion with a high morality. The experience of ages, and among peoples far more cultivated than either Egyptians or Jews, shows how diffi- cult it is for the human mind to grasp and retain the in- spiration of a " God of righteousness." Moses was granted that sublime conviction, and through' that inspiration has moved all succeeding ages. To a less degree some ancient Egyptian thinkers had reached a like point of moral progress. The devout Hamitic be- liever in the " negative defence " of the sinner before Osiris (so often quoted), and the Jew uttering the code of the Ten Commandments, both trusted in a God who loved righteousness, and who demanded righteousness of his creatures. Note. — Schrader derives the name Jahveli from the Assyrian god Jahon (Cuneif. Inscr., p. 23), and Renan, in his History of Israel (p. 70), follows him. Tlie Aramaic word Hawa, which seems allied to these names, means breathy or life, or bciiig. The version given in our Bible of Self-Existence, seems perfectly consistent with this derivation. The Genesis narrative (iv. 26) indicates an ancient period when men began to call the Infinite One by the name of Jahveh. CHAPTER III. AKKADIAN PENITENTIAL PSALMS. God my Creator, stand by my side ! Keep thou the door of my lip, guard thou my hands, O Lord of light ! Akkadian Prayer. THE investigations of the last few years in the cunei- form inscriptions of Babylonia have brought forth remarkable results, both as regards an ancient faith and a forgotten people. In northern Babylonia existed probably three thousand years before Christ a race who attained a considerable degree of cultivation, and who are supposed to have invented the cuneiform mode of writing. They have been called "Akkadians,"^ or Mountaineers, from the mountainous region on the northeast, whence they probably issued. They were long thought to be of stock foreign to the Semitic-Assyrian race who inhabited this region, and were believed to be Turanian, or connected in language with such races as the Finns, Turks, and Mon- gols. But closer investigation ^ makes it probable that they were mainly Semitic in blood, though perhaps with strong Turanian mixture. The language of their inscrip- 1 Sayce. Akkad, or Agade, their city, is mentioned in Genesis. 2 La pr^endue Langue d'Accad. J. Halevy. Also Delitzch, and Professor Lyon's paper before the American Oriental Society in 1887. 52 THE UNKNOWN GOD. tions and tablets may have been a kind of classical or sacred dialect of the Semitic-Assyrians. This ancient peo- ple had made a considerable progress in civilization even two thousand years before Christ, and possibly nearly four thousand years.^ They had founded great libraries ; their scholars had written treatises on astrology, magic, and certain branches of mathematics ; they possessed various histories of the wars and exploits of the Assyrian kings, and had constructed temples and many public buildings, and (to judge from the cuneiform tablets) seem to have carried on elaborate commercial affairs. This race or people is deeply interesting to the student of religions, because it manifestly drew its religious traditions from the same source as the Hebrews. And from the region inhab- ited or influenced by the Akkadians came forth one of the great figures of history, — Abraham, the father of mono- theism. It seems to have been a people with a deep sense of the mysterious and supernatural. The Chaldean magic became known to all Oriental races. It w^as in that stage of development in which it especially wor- shipped the elemental powers, or the spirits of earth and storm, and sky and sun, and dreaded the evil powers of the universe. A very ancient and remarkable invocation to "The Seven Evil Powers " of the world has been dug out from the ^ A date now given to Sargon the Great is 3800 B. c, supposed to be derived from his tablets. AKKADIAN PENITENTIAL PSALMS. 53 cuneiform. It is the product of the genius and reverence of this people, — the Akkadians. The mysterious signifi- cance attached to the number seven is common to them with many Oriental races. The Seven Evil Spirits.^ I. Seven are they ! Seven are they ! In the sea's depths are they seven ! In the heaven's heights are they seven ! In the sea deep down their birth ; Not men are they ; not women they ; Wives take they not, sons have they not, Order and good- will know they not, Prayers and wishes hear they not. Seven are they ! Seven are they ! Seven adi si-iia [evil spirits] - are they.* 1 Schrader's translation. Die Hollenfahrt von Istar. 2 Others translate adi si-tia as a numeral, or twice seven. •* Man they are not, nor womankind ; For injury, they sweep from the main, And have wedded no wife but the wind, And no child have begotten but pain; Man they are not, nor womankind. Fear is not in them, nor awe, Supplication they heed not, nor prayer, For they know no compassion nor law. And are deaf to the cries of despair; Fear is not in them, nor awe. Professor Dyer's Translation. 54 THE UNKNOWN GOD. In the following hymn the conception of a Heaven- God has come forth, one who struggles with the ele- mental, mysterious spirits of evil. Hymn to the Fire-God. O Fire-god, supreme on high, the first-born, the mighty, supreme enjoiner of the divine commands of Anu ! The fire-god enthroneth with himself the friend that he loveth ; He bringeth forth the enmity of those seven evil spirits. . . . O Fire-god, how were those seven begotten, how were they nurtured ? Those seven in the mountain of the sunset were born, Those seven in the mountain of the sunrise grew up. . . . As for them, in heaven and earth they have no dwelling ; Hidden is their name. Among the sentient gods they are not known.^ This ancient invocation also has been preserved : — " From the curse, O Spirit of heaven, protect us ! O Spirit of earth, protect ! O Spirit of the Lord of lands, protect ! O Spirit of the Lord of light, protect ! " ^ In later development the same reverent spirit is directed towards both their own gods and the gods of the Assyrians, and we find this prayer: — " May Bel, the King, my Creator, pardon ! May Hea, Spirit of earth, pardon ! May Merodach, King of angels, pardon ! May Istar, Goddess of love, pardon ! In the days of sin may they cleanse him. Whoever he be ! " ^ 1 Sayce : Hibbert Lectures, 1S87, p. 180. 2 Biblical Arcliacology, vi. 539. ^ Ibid. AKKADIAN PENITENTIAL PSALMS. 55 In their mixture with a Semitic people, the Akkadians undoubtedly felt some touches of that inspiration which has glorified one humble Semitic tribe, the Hebrews, — an inspiration which sent forth from this region Abraham, and caused him to abandon the polytheism of his kin- dred,^ and which a thousand years later made a wild barbaric chieftain of the same race, David, the mouth- piece of the prayers and aspirations of all succeeding ages. The resemblance of these Akkadian prayers to those of David and to the Psalms is truly remarkable ; they show a form of expression so moulded in the fur- nace of intense feeling as to pass down among these races for a thousand years as the truest human words to set forth man's highest feelings. Some ancient Akkadian had risen out of his bondage to elemental powers and 1 " And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith Jahveh, the God of Israel : Your fathers dwelt of old time beyond the river [Euphrates], even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor ; and they served other gods. And I took your father Abra- ham from beyond the river, .... Now, therefore, fear Jahveh and serve him in sincerity and in truth ; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the river, and in Egypt ; and serve ye Jahveh" (Joshua xxiv. 2, 3, 14). " This people [the Hebrews] are descended of the Chaldeans, and they sojourned heretofore in Mesopotamia because they would not follow the gods of their fathers which were in the land of Chaldea. For they left the way of their ancestors and worshipped the God of heaven, the God whom they knew; so they cast them out from the face of their gods, and they fled into Mesopotamia and sojourned there many days. Then their God commanded them to depart and to go into the land of Canaan " (Judith v. 6-9). 56 THE UXKNOWN GOD. his dread of magical incantations, and had received a vision of a Being who loved righteousness and hated iniquity, and who was best served by purity of heart ; he grasped the idea of sin and of moral purity; he felt that all in life and the future depended on this God of righteousness ; he alone could save from sin and death. Apparently the human mind in its highest flights of devotion cannot attain a more perfect view of God, and of our moral relation to him, than did this ancient heathen from the valley of Mesopotamia two thousand years before the advent of Christ. Akkadian Penitential Psalms. i The heart of my Lord was wroth, to his place may he return. The transgression that I commit, my God knoweth it. The water of my tears do I drink. my Lord, my transgression is great, many are my sins. The forbidden thing did I eat. My Lord in the wrath of his heart hath punished me. 1 cried aloud ; there was none that would hear me. I am in darkness and trouble ; I lifted not myself up : To my God my distress I referred, my prayer I addressed. How long, O my God, shall I suffer? O Lord, thy servant thou dost not restore. In the waters of the raging floods seize his hand ! The sin that he hath sinned, to blessedness bring back ! The transgressions he hath committed, let the winds carry away ! My transgressions are before me ; may thy judgments give me life. 1 Translated by A. H. Sayce: Record.s of Past, vii. 153. This prayer must be anterior to the seventeenth century b. c. See Schrader : Hollenfalirt, p. 90. AKKADIAN PEXITENTIAL PSALMS. 5/ Another Psalm. my Lord, my sins are many, my trespasses are great, And the wrath of the gods hath plagued me with disease, And with sickness and with sorrow. I fainted, but no one stretched forth his hand ; 1 groaned, but no one drew nigh ; I cried aloud, and no one heard. O Lord, do not abandon thy servant ! In the waters of the great storm seize his hand ! The sins which he hath committed, turn thou to righteousness. O my God, my sins are seven times seven ! ^ Akkadian Prayer. God my Creator, stand by my side. Keep thou the door of my lips, guard thou my hands, O Lord of light ! ^ These prayers come from the depths of the human soul. They are filled with the sense of God and of sins as an evil to him. Prayer for the King. Length of days. Long lasting years. Strength of sword, Long life, Extended years of glory, Pre-eminence among kings, Grant ye to the king, my Lord, Who hath given such gifts to his gods. May he attain to gray hairs And old age. And after the life of these days, 1 Records of Past, ill. 136. - Ibid., iii. 137. 58 THE UNKNOWN GOD. In the feasts of the silvery mountains, the heavenly courts, The abode of blessedness, And in the light of the happy field, May he dwell a life Eternal, holy, In the presence of the gods Who inhabit Assyria.^ In all the ancient Hebrew annals there is scarcely one passage which conveys so distinct a belief in a future life as do the following prayers. Yet the faith in one God has not the simplicity which made the Jews such a power in the world's history. Prayer for a Soul. Like a bird may it fly to a lofty place ; To the holy hands of its God may it ascend. The man who is departing in glory, May his soul shine as radiant as brass. To that man may the sun give life ! Grant him an abode of happiness ! This picture which follows, of the death of " the strong man " ages ago, has all the pathos and nature of a scene of yesterday. So died our father or friend; he who had been so strong and brave lay as one to whom " his strength doth not return ; " and to him as to the old Akkadian came a divine messenger of love, bringing " a goblet from the heavenly treasure-house ; " and by faith we behold the weak made strong, and the righteous man "shining as a silver goblet" in the celestial mansions. ^ Records of Past, iii. 133. AKKADIAN PENITENTIAL PSALMS. 59 Death of a Righteous Man. Bind the sick man to heaven, for from the earth he is being borne away. From the brave man who was so strong hath his strength de- parted. To the righteous servant the force doth not return ; In his bodily frame he Heth dangerously ill. But Istar, who in her dwelling is grieved concerning him, Descendeth from her mountain unvisited of men ; To the door of the sick man she cometh. The sick man listeneth : "Who is there, who cometh?" " It is Istar, daughter of the Moon-god." They approach the body of the sick man ; They bring a goblet from the heavenly treasure-house. That righteous man may now be risen high, May shine like that goblet. Like pure silver may his garment be shining white ! Like brass may he be radiant ! To the sun, greatest of the gods, may he ascend ! And may the sun, greatest of the gods, receive his soul into his .holy hands ! ^ After Death. Wash thy hands ! purify thy hands ! Let the gods, thy elders, wash their hands^ purify their hands, Eat sacred food from sacred platters. Drink sacred water from sacred vessels. Prepare thyself for the kingdom of the just ! ^ Sense of Sin. — From the days of my youth am I bound fast to the yoke of my sin.'' 1 Records of Past, iii. 134, 135. 2 ibid.^ xi. 161. 3 Budge : Babylonian Life, p. 148. 6o THE UNKNOWN GOD. There is in the following that sense of moral obligation to man which usually only follows the highest stage of religious faith. A Defence. — Have I estranged father and son, brother and brother, or friend and friend ? Have I not freed the captive, re- leased the bound, and delivered him who was shut in prison? Have I resisted my god ? . . . Have I taken land not my own, or entered with wrong desires the house of my fellow? Have I shed man's blood, or robbed one of his clothing?^ Among the remarkable features of human belief is a faith in a divine Mediator. The Akkadians and As- syrians embodied this in a being called Silik-khi, and* later Merodach or Marduk. Prayers to the Mediator.^ Benefactor, who can escape thy hail? Thy will is the sublime sword with which thou rulest heaven and earth. 1 commanded the sea, and the sea became calm ; I commanded the flower, and the flower ripened to grain ; I commanded the circuit of the River [Euphrates], and by the will of the Benefactor I turned its course. How sublime art thou ! What transitory being equal to thee ! O Benefactor amongst all the gods. Thou art the rewarder ! . . . 1 Budge : Babylonian Life, p. 148. 2 Silik-khi, the Benefactor of man, Mediator between God and man Lenormant, Chald. Mag., pp. 192, 193), and the One who raises the dead. AKKADIAN PENITENTIAL PSALMS. 6 1 O Lord of battles ! Merciful One amongst the gods ! Generator who bringest back the dead to life ! Beneficent King of heaven and earth ! . . . To thee is the Ufe of life, To thee belong death and life ! Another Invocation. Thine the depth of the ocean ! Thine are all human beings, all who breathe, all who bear a name and exist on the earth's surface, The whole of the four regions of the world, the archangels of the legions of heaven and earth, how many soever, — These are thine. Thou art the life-giver ! Thou art the Saviour ! f The Merciful One among the gods ! Cure thou this plague ! ^ This god, Merodach the Mediator, raises the dead to life, and combats the great dragon - and the powers of evil. He was first worshipped as the Sun-god, and later as Bel, or Baal, the Lord. It is interesting that in the inscriptions of Cyrus (circ. 549 B. C.) illustrating his reign, he (Cyrus) is spoken of as " governing in justice and righteousness," and Merodach is described as " beholding with joy the deeds of his vicegerent, who is righteous in hand and heart." ^ 1 Lenormant. 2 This struggle is represented on a well-known tablet. 8 Sayce : Ancient Monuments, p. 156. 62 THE UNKNOWN GOD. " Merodach," says the inscription, " who in his necessity- raised the dead to hfe, who blesseth all men praying in need, hath in goodness drawn nigh to him, hath made strong his name." The prophet Isaiah (or his succes- sor) uses like words of the same Cyrus : " I [God] have raised him up in righteousness." ^ " For Jacob my ser- vant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name ; I have surnamed thee, though tJioit hast not knozvn mcy^ "I am Jahveh, and there is none else; there is no god beside me. I girded thee though thou hast not known me." The inspired prophet of Israel evidently believed that the Unknown God was guiding and strengthening the Persian or Elamite conqueror, though he knew him not.2 Psalm to God. {Akkadian) In heaven who is great ? Thou alone art great ! On earth who is great ? Thou only ! When thy voice soundeth in heaven, the gods fall prostrate. When thy voice soundeth on earth, the spirits kiss the dust O Thou, thy words who can resist ? Who can rival them ? Among the gods, thy brothers, thou hast no equal. God, my Creator, may he stand by my side ! Keep thou the door of my lips ! ^ Isaiah xlv. 13. 2 Jbid., xiv. 4, 5. ' Sayce has brought out this thought strikingly in his " Ancient Monuments." AKKADIAN PENITENTIAL PSALMS. 63 Guard thou my hands, O Lord of light ! ^ O Lord, who trusteth in thee, do thou benefit his soul ! - To the ancient worshipper the sun embodied the high- est manifestation of the Unnamable. It came forth from the great darkness, bringing hght and Hfe and gladness. It was the Unknown God showing himself to the world. To the Akkadian and Assyrian he was not alone light, radiant and glorious, but truth itself; he made lies to vanish. To the Sun-God. O Lord, at thy command Will his sins be atoned, His transgressions be removed.^ O Sun, I have called unto thee in the bright heavens ! In the shadow of the (holy) cedar art thou ! Thy feet are on the summits. The lands have longed for thee ; • They have longed for thy coming, O Lord ! Thy radiant light illuminates all countries ; Thou makest lies to vanish ; Thou destroyest the noxious influence of portents, omens, spirits, dreams, and evil apparitions ; Thou turnest wicked plots and evil apparitions to a happy issue.* 1 Records of Past, iii. 136, 137. Schrader : Hollenfahrt, p. 100. 2 Ancient tablet of Babylon. Budge: Babylonian Life, p. 145. 8 Schrader, p. 96. * Quoted by Ragozin. Story of Chaldea, p. 171. 64 THE UNKNOWN GOD. Another Psalm to the Sun-God. O Sun-god, king of heaven and earth, director of things above and below, O Sun-god, thou that clothest the dead with life, deUvered by thy hand, Judge unbribed, director of mankind, The mercy is supreme of him who is lord over trials. . . . Creator of all the universe, the Sun-god, art thou. . . . Father supreme, I am debased, and walk to and fro, With scourges and in expiation I beat myself; My litdeness I knew not, the sin I have committed I knew not ; 1 am small, and he is great, the walls of my god may I pass.^ Original Sin. — One peculiarity of the deep sense of sin among this ancient people was shared by the Jews, and perhaps with both was a Semitic transmission, — the pro- found belief in the inheritance of sinful desires, in trans- mitted depravity. Says one psalm : — " Against the evil spirit, disturber of his body, Whether it be the sin of his father, Or whether it be the sin of his mother. Or whether it be the sin of his elder brother, Or whether the sin of some one unknown, We pray." - The following prayer to the supreme god of " Ur of the Chaldees," which is so stamped by monotheism that it might almost have been uttered to Jahveh himself, was 1 Hollenfahrt, p. 321. This prayer then changes into a magical incantation, showing a mixture of the old Akkadian superstition with the Semitic monotheism. ^ Records of Past, iii. 141. AKKADIAN PENITENTIAL PSALMS. 65 possibly listened to by Abraham, and was perhaps fer- vently uttered by Terah his father, who worshipped the gods of that country. Prayer to the God of Ur. Lord and prince of gods, who in heaven and earth alone is supreme, Father, Lord of the firmament, Lord of the gods, . . . Merciful one, begetter of the universe, who foundeth his illustrious seat among Hving creatures, Father, long-suffering and full of forgiveness, whose hand upholdeth the life of all mankind, Lord, thy divinity, like the far-off heaven, filleth the wide sea with fear. . . . Father, begetter of gods and men, who causeth the shrine to be founded, who establisheth the offering, . . . First-born, omnipotent, whose heart is immensity, and there is none whom he discovereth. Lord, the ordainer of the laws of heaven and earth, whose com- mand may not be broken, Thou boldest the rain and the lightning ; defender of all living things, there is no god who at any time hath discovered thy fulness. Li heaven, who is supreme ? Thou alone, thou art supreme. On earth, who is supreme ? Thou alone, thou art supreme. As for thee, thy will is made known in heaven, and the angels bow their faces. Thy will is made known upon earth, and the spirits below kiss the ground. . . . Thy will hath created law and justice, so that mankind have established law. . . . King of kings, whose divinity no god resembleth, look with favor on this thy city, Ur.^ ^ Hibbert Lectures, p. 192. 5 66 THE UNKXOIVIV GOD. Another Akkadian Psalm. Whoso feareth not his God will be cut off even like a reed. Whoso honoreth not the gods, his bodily strength shall waste away ; Like a star of heaven his light shall wane ; Like waters of the night he shall pass away.^ If evil thou doest, To the eternal sea Thou shalt surely go.^ These outcries of human sorrow and repentance, it must be remembered by our readers, are among the most ancient of the prayers and litanies of mankind. When they were stamped in strange characters on the bricks and cylinders and tablets of Chaldean buildings, Abra- ham had not been long separated from his idolatrous kindred,^ and from the people of the plains, being called by the divine voice within him.* They preceded by a thousand years, probably, the like impassioned utterances of David and the singers of the psalms of the Jews. They are the cry of a soul feeling what a pure God is and what human sin is. They are still the language of 1 Schrader: Hollenfahrt, p. 97. 2 Ragozin : Chaldea, p. 210. This utterance is believed to go back to 3800 B.C. ; it is from Sargon's inscriptions. (See Records of the Past, xi. 154.) ^ Joshua xxiv. 2, 14. * Acts vii. There seems good reason from the cuneiform inscrip- tions, to put Chedorlaomer, King of Elam, mentioned Genesis xiv., as connected with the Elamite invasion of Canaan, about 2000 B. c, which gives an approximate date for Abraham. (See Budge and Sayce.) Hommel places the date for Abraham at about 2170 B.C. Semitische Volker, p. 131. AKKADIAN PENITENTIAL PSALMS. 6j man when he measures his hfe by the standard of per- fect goodness. The Chaldean cuneiform psalms might be uttered by all men in every age of the world. It will seem strange to the reader that such exalted and pure thoughts could be expressed among a people such as the Chaldean Akkadians, given up to the worship of the powers and demons of Nature, and every kind of super- stition, among whom human sacrifice prevailed, and whose public records on the tablets are a horrible history of murders, tortures, and brutalities. But it must be remembered that the divine inspiration called a man from this very region, the son of an idolater, under the same Semitic influences as were the Akkadians, and he left his polytheistic kindred, and founded the purest monotheism of history. This divine voice, no doubt, sounded in the ears of these ancient Akkadians. The horrible rite of human sacrifice was practised by all the tribes related to the Jews, and probably at times by the Jews them- selves. The bloody cuneiform records of Chaldea are no worse than those of all ancient countries. They relate the exploits of great captains and kings. But during all these terrible wars and times of oppression people must have planted and sown, and quiet domestic histories of aff"ection and piety must have been lived, and the " still small voice " listened to in the camel- driver's tent or under the shepherd's booth, even as it is now in the humblest places. 68 THE UNKNOWN GOD. It would not be fair to judge of the Christianity of the nineteenth century from the records of Napoleon's cam- paigns or the battle-pictures of Versailles. History and art give but a fragment of human life. The Akkadians were naturally deeply influenced by the Semitic Assyrians, and perhaps were mingled in blood with them. The Assyrians were polytheistic, yet many scholars maintain that their national god, Assur, was in his original form the first and source of all gods, the One, the Good. He was called Ilou,i and no temple was erected to him in Chaldea,^ but Babylon (Babel, gate of God) is called from him. He is not always distinguished from his manifestations, such as Anu, the heaven, and later the heaven-god. Assur is spoken of as the " Father of all gods," the " King of all gods," •' he who ruleth supreme over all;" his people are the "ser- vants of Assur," and his enemies the "enemies of Assur." He placeth kings on their thrones, making their reigns glorious and lengthening their years; they ask him for victory and to grant all their wishes. He is the " Lord of hosts," that is, of all spirits. Prayer to Assur. Pray thou ! Pray thou ! Before the couch pray ! Before the throne ; before the canopy ! ^ The kindred word to El, or God, in all the Semitic races. * Lenormaiit. AKKADIAN PENITENTIAL PSALMS. 69 Before the dawn's light, pray ! By the tablets and books, pray ! By the hearth, By the threshold. At the sun-rising, At the sun-setting, pray ! ^ As we have seen in the psalms, the ancient Akkadians and Assyrians bch'cvcd in a future life of blessedness for the righteous ; and in the famous legend of Istar's descent into Hades there is an allusion to a place of punish- ment. The description of Hades in the cuneiform tablets is highly poetic, and has a tone as of Dante. Istar's Descent. To the land of no return, to the far-off, to regions of corruption, Istar, the daughter of the Moon-god, her mind set To the house whose entrance is without exit. To the road whose way is without return, To the house whose entrance is bereft of light ; A place where much dust is their food, their meat mud, Where light is never seen, where they dwell in darkness ; Ghosts like birds whirl round and round the vaults ; Over the doors and wainscoting there lieth thick dust."'' One of the forms of manifestation of Ilou was as Sun- god. Prayer to the Sun-God. Lord, illuminator of the darkness, Who piercest the face of darkness ! Merciful God, who settest up those that be bowed down, ^ Biblical Archasoloofy, vi. 540. 2 Budge: Babylonian Life, p. 140. 70 THE UNKNOWN GOD. Who sustainest the weak ! Towards thy Hght the great gods turn their glances. The archangels of the abyss, every one of them, contemplate gladly thy face. The language of praise is one word ; Thou directest it. The host of their heads seek the light of the sun in the south ; Like a bridegroom thou risest joyful and gracious. In thy lightnings thou dost reach afar to the boundaries of heaven. Thou art the banner of the wide earth. O God, the men who dwell afar off contemplate thee and rejoice ! i A peculiar interest, as we have said, follows the Akka- dians and the Assyrians, because not only were they touched by these divine inspirations, but their tradi- tions were in many forms closely similar to those of the Jews. They had a like history of the creation, an allu- sion to the temptation, a narrative of the flood as a moral punishment, and of the confusion of tongues, and they practised a similar observance of the Sabbath. But the Akkadian history of creation is immeasurably behind the Jewish in grandeur and simplicity, and is stamped by polytheism. Neither tradition seems likely to have been derived from the other, but both, as might easily happen, from a common Semitic source of great antiquity.^ One very curious legend, however, to which there is allusion only in the Scripture,^ the " revolt in heaven," 1 Budge: Babylonian Life, p. 136. 2 Dr. Dillman especially holds to this view, as do others. * Rev. xii. 7-9; Isa. xxiv. 21, 22; Jude i. 6-9. AKKADIAN PENITENTIAL PSALMS. 7 1 which must be a very ancient Semitic tradition, de- scribes the " God of Life divine " as sitting supreme and beneficent amid thousands of adoring angels (or gods, Hi), who were chanting his praises in celestial songs, when a loud cry of discord broke up that holy harmony, " spoiling, confusing, and confounding the hymns of praise." " Then he of the bright crown sounded a powerful blast on his trump, such as might wake the dead, and prohibited return, and stopped the service to those rebel angels and sent them to the gods, his enemies. In their place he created mankind.^ The first who received life dwelt along with him. To them he gave strength never to neglect his word, following the serpents whom his hand had made. And may the God of divine speech expel from the whole assembly (the five thousand) those wicked (the one thou- sand) who in the midst of his heavenly chorus had shouted evil blasphemy, — the God Assur, who had seen the malice of those who had deserted their allegiance, to raise a rebellion." ^ This ancient inscription clearly bears the stamp of monotheism as once existing in Chaldea. 1 See Milton's similar thought, Paradise Lost, i. 184-191 : — " Glory to him whose just avenging ire Had driven out the ungodly from his sight, And the habitations of the just ; to him Glory and praise, whose wisdom had ordained Good out of evil to create, instead Of spirits malign a better race to bring Into their vacant room, and thence diffuse His good to worlds and ages infinite." 2 Biblical Archaeology, iv. 349 ; Talbot's translation. 72 THE UNKNOWN GOD. Each year now increases the discoveries in regard to this ancient people. No doubt much hght will be thrown on the Bible by future investigations in this field. But each new fact makes plainer the wonderful superiority of the leaders of the Hebrews in religious ideas over the related Semitic tribes, or the neighboring peoples of other races. From our long habit of regarding inspiration as an act solely of God, and not accompanied by any receptivity or motion of the human will on the part of those who are thus elevated, we do not sufficiently render justice to the Jews' great services in human history. We feel the obligations of modern progress, for instance, to the Roman ideas of law and to the Greek ideas of beauty. We recognize the immense indebtedness of the world to the elevated conceptions of Plato and Socrates. But when we consider what Abraham or Moses has done for the advance of mankind, how few are ready to render them the gratitude they deserve. They seem mere in- struments in the hands of an all-\vise Providence. It was God that worked in them, not they themselves. But a closer study of their history and of their surroundings will show that they were men of like passions with our- selves. They struggled with endless temptations, and many nearest to them yielded ; but their victory has blessed all succeeding generations. AKKADIAN PENITENTIAL PSALMS. 73 Abraham, according to the tradition, sitting almost under the shadow of the famed temple of the Moon-god at Ur, and surrounded by a thousand solicitations to Akkadian magic, is yet able to hold his mind open to the inspiration of the One God, and in this faith to leave country and kindred, and break even from his father's religion. 1 Though his kindred still cling to the worship of many gods, he is immovable in his belief. He may be said to have founded the purest monotheism of history. When one considers the transmitted effects of his life, and later of the leadership of Moses, it may truly be said that these early Jews are the greatest benefactors of mankind in ancient history. Amid tribes of far greater wealth and higher refinement given over to superstition, these remarkable leaders preserved themselves and a few of their people from the contamination of polytheism, and handed down the faith in a pure religion. No equal services had ever been rendered before to human progress. The Jews of modern days ought to be forever honored for such progenitors ; and a race which could produce such men deserves the lasting respect of mankind. The objections of Kuenen and others, that the Jews were not monotheistic till the time of the Prophets, and then only among a select class, do not seem sound. This great inspiration or belief was transmitted from age to age 1 Genesis xii. 1-3. 74 THE UNKNOWN GOD. among a limited number of Hebrews, and thus preserved for the modern world. That great numbers were false to it is true. In like manner, multitudes among every Chris- tian people are untrue to Christianity; and yet its great truths and inspirations are transmitted from one century to another. Moreover the early Jewish belief in many gods does not exclude the belief in one Supreme God, even as a modern Christian may believe in many evil spirits of greater or less power, and yet have no doubt of a Supreme Spirit. Even the belief in a God especially favoring a given people is consistent with a faith in his universal government. Many a modern Englishman be- lieves that God has a special charge of the queen and the British kingdom, and yet has no doubt he is the God of the whole earth. Jahveh was indeed the God of the Hebrews, but many knew him as " Lord of all nations." The Unknown God was thus revealed, as appears in these Akkadian psalms, thousands of years ago to a poetic and inventive people in the valley of the Euphrates, prob- ably related to the Hebrews. Under this inspiration they uttered words which " cannot die," which descended among the poets and singers of the Jews to later ages, and through them still move the world. It is not im- probable that in future ages all other poetry of Greek or Latin or English poets and dramatists will be like echoes preserved in the phonograph of forgotten melodies, while AKKADIAN PENITENTIAL PSALMS. 75 the utterances and songs of ancient Akkadians and Hebrews will still be preserved fresh in the hearts of common people, and will be the chosen expression of man's highest aspirations and purest prayers. Both races draw in part their great ideas of monotheism from an ancient tradition of creation, which with the Akkadians became so intertwined with polytheism as to degrade their whole conception of the universe, and finally to unfit the people for leading human progress. No human faith or morality can be enduring unless it rests on a belief in one God of righteousness. Note. — The entire rejection by a certain school of critics of the historical existence of the Jewish patriarchs and of Abraham, seems not justifiable by any sound rule of criticism. It must be remem- bered that destructive writers like Seinecke, Wellhausen, Kuenen, Tiele, Stade, and numerous others, have no sources of knowledge superior to those of Ewald, Stanley, Hommel,^ and like scholars, and their inferences are drawn from facts in the possession of all students. The profound and indelible impression made by the personality of Abraham on the traditions of three religions, the Jewish, Mohamme- dan, and Christian, would alone be an argument for his historical re- ality Then the narrative of the " Book of Origins " (Genesis) has an archaic and simple character which belongs to ancient traditions. The story of Abraham's life is interspersed with allusions to forgotten and unknown peoples, and to antique customs and childlike faiths, which are a characteristic of remote ages and their annals. Furthermore, the cuneiform investigations confirm the truth of their "local color- ing," and of the probability of their historical reality. The names of cities and peoples which occur accidentally in the Genesis narrative 1 Father Honimel, a very impartial and somewhat rationalistic writer, de- clares in his Semitische Volker, p. 131, his entire disagreement with Stade and his school, as to the historical existence of Abraham and the general truth of the ancient Jewish history. 76 THE UNKNOWN GOD. are often found in Akkadian inscriptions, and allusions to historical events in tiie Jewish annals can be filled out from the cuneiform tab- lets of Babylonia. The date for Abraham (about 2000 b. c.) which is assumed by some cuneiform scholars such as Budge, ^ Sayce,- and others, is an inference from a statement in the cuneiform records of an Elamite invasion of Chaldea, and of a king supposed to be the brother of the Chedorlaomer mentioned in Genesis (xiv. 1-9). It may truly be said that no single fact brought forth by the cunei- form tablets, which cover the history of thousands of years in Baby- lonia and Chaldea, tells against the historical accuracy of the Book of Origins, and many incidentally confirm it. The silence of these records of mighty races and ambitious conquerors in regard to a small tribe of emigrants who left the luxurious cities and populous plains of their kinsfolk for conscience' .sake, is what might be expected. Even a great moral personality like Abraham might be utterly un- known to Akkadian and Assyrian scribes and court historians, espe- cially as he had rejected the faith of his people. The Ur-Chasdim (Ur of the Chaldees), home of Abraham, is be- lieved by many scholars to be Mugheir, west of the Euphrates, on the border of the desert, a former seaport, and distinguished by its famed temple to the Moon-god. Even if the composition of the Pentateuch should be more and more made probable as occurring in later ages, and by several authors, it would not materially change the historical probability of the events described. Were Moses the compiler, he must have used the tradi- tions or written documents current among his people. The emio-ra- tion of Abraham and his family from Mesopotamia, in order to maintain a pure religion, is a fact, like the departure of the Puritans from England in the seventeenth century for similar objects, which would probably be stamped indelibly on the memories and traditions of the emigrating race. Even if all records perished, a true and suffi- cient history would survive in the oral narrative transmitted. But Abraham left a people who possessed an important literature, and some of his followers may have understood the art of writing or stamping on clay tablets. 1 Babylonian Life, p. 43. 2 Ancient Monuments, p. 49. Meyer : Geschichte des Alterthums, p. 161. AKKADIAN PENITENTIAL PSALMS. 7/ The use of signet rings ^ implies writing. At all events, the vast fund of Eastern traditions in regard to this great character gives assur- ance of a striking historical personality behind them ; and the tradi- tion in the Book of Origins seems at once the most simple and most probable. The lack of all allusion to Abraham in Assyrian cuneiform tablets is no proof of his being an unhistorical character. If the Puritans liad not been the forefathers of a powerful nation, how little should we have heard of them in English histories. Their departure would have been a mere ripple on the surface of affairs in the British Empire of the seventeenth century. And the emigration of Abraham and a few hundred persons was probably only one of many such movements by small Semitic tribes from the great Semitic-Assyrian Empire " beyond the River " to Canaan and Egypt. 1 Genesis xxxviii. i8. CHAPTER IV. THE GREEK MYSTERIES. Ceres hath made the Athenians two gifts of the greatest value, — corn, which brou^'ht Its out of brutality, and the Mysteries, which those who share, have hopes sweeter than all the rest of existence. — IsoCRATES. "O EMARKABLE associations existed among the clas- sic peoples which at periods of their history had a certain resemblance to the churches of Christian times. These societies were secret, and members were admitted after rites of purification. The effects of initiation were supposed to be of the highest moral and spiritual kind ; and to the members of the inner circles of these asso- ciations, truths were beheved to be revealed of the most sublime nature. It is supposed that these truths were conveyed by signs and symbols, and therefore were not clear to common minds ; so that the masses gathered one class of beliefs from the "Mysteries," and initiated quite another. The very name given by the Greeks to these initiations, Teletai,^ is of the same root as that ap- plied by the Epistles of Saint Paul to perfection of char- acter, — the "finishings" or "completings" of the soul. 1 Plutarch gives another rendering of this word " Teletai," as of the " last " and deepest speculations about the gods, wherein they are made the source of all good (Morals, iv. 432). THE GREEK MYSTERIES. 79 The full comprehension of these secret societies is ren- dered the more difficult in that, owing to the secret char- acter of their rites and their nightly meetings, they ran very early into wild and unlicensed revels and indulgence. Furthermore the testimony about them seldom comes from their contemporaries, but from classic writers long after the time of their highest bloom. Yet this testimony comes from such varied writers and at such distant periods, and the most agreeing so nearly in the main features, that it must at least be received as representing the common opinion of the most cultivated races of antiquity, and no doubt conveyed essential truth. The idea then of the Orphic and similar Mysteries among the Greeks seems to us to be the uniting of men and women for secret worship and for the hearing of certain great truths symbolically taught, which had been handed down by Egyptian priests and others among the initiated. Though we know not exactly, it is altogether probable that these representations were like the Mystery-plays of the Middle Ages. The sceptical Greek or Roman was introduced into the grand dim-lighted hall, and there saw the gods of Hades, and the fearful punishments of the wicked, and the different sentences passed on the various classes of the vicious ; or, again, was permitted a vision of the happy Elysian fields, where with the upper gods the dead were passing an eternal life of unbroken peace and So THE UA' KNOWN GOD. joy. Then following these powerful dramatic scenes, were uttered by the priests, in mysterious voices as if from oracles, the great truths that had probably descended from Egypt, — the existence of one eternal God, Father and source of all ; the immortality of the soul ; the com- ing judgment; and the possible union of the human spirit with its divine origin. These and like truths, taught amid such scenes, made an enduring impression on the spec- tator, and he could say truthfully, as did Diodorus, that all life was sweeter and better after sharing in the Mysteries. The continuity of religion carried down the beliefs in the unity of God, the immortality of the soul, and a com- ing moral judgment, from Egyptian thinkers through these secret associations to the early and later Greeks, and even to the time of the Roman Empire. The ancient Greek hymns called the " Orphic Hymns " no doubt bore a part in this transmission of ancient Egyp- tian theology, and were probably recited in the celebration of the Mysteries. The Unknown God was acknowledged. Thus an ancient hymn sung in the Eleusinian Mysteries by the priest said, " Go on in the right way and contem- plate the sole governor of the world. He is One, and of Himself alone, and to that One all things owe their being. He worketh through all, was never seen by mortal eyes, but doth himself see every one." ^ ^ Eusebius: Prep. Evang., lib. xiii. THE CREEK MYSTERIES. 8 1 In the Orphic Hymns, the first principle in the universe is declared to be "the thrice Unknown Darkness;^ but Zeus is the All-parent, the Principle and End of all."^ " All that is past and all that e'er shall be Occultly in fair connection lies, In Zeus, ruler of the skies." ^ " Thus Zeus within his breast all things concealed And into beauteous light from thence. revealed.^ Zeus is first, Zeus last, origin of all, king of all, One power, one ruler, one God ! " ^ Orphic Hymns.^ Zeus. O Zeus Kronios, sceptre-bearer, most high, mighty one, self- begotten, father of gods and men, begetter of all, beginning of all things, end of all things, earth-quaker, increaser, purifier, all-shaker, lightener and thunderer, creator Zeus, hear me ; thou of many forms, grant me health without fault, and divine peace, and the glory of wealth without stain ! Zeus."^ . . . Great glory to thee, O most high Kronides, giver of blessings, giver of shelter from harm; who can sing the' deeds of Zeus? Hail to thee, Father, hail again, and give us perfectness and plenty ! Without virtue, w^ealth knoweth not how to increase a man, nor without abundance, virtue. But give us both virtue and plenty ! ^ (TKOTos dyucoarov Tins. ^ Taylor, p. 46. * Ibid., p. 47. * Ibid.; ujjxj] ndvrcov, navrcov t€ reXfuTTj. ^ Taylor: Eleusinian Mysteries. ° Quoted by Sturz , ed. Cleanthes. I am under obligations to Prof. J. G. Croswell for these translations. ■^ Callimachus. 82 THE UNKNOWN GOD. Hymn. . . . Having looked upon the divine vision, meditate stead- fastly thereon, directing the whole gaze of thy mind's eye upon it. Step forward boldly upon the path, and behold the sole king of all the universe ! One is he, self-begotten, from him are all things sprung, and in them all he moves. No mortal hath seen him, but he surely seeth all men. He giveth evil after good to mortals, horrid war and tearful grief. There is no other one beside the great King ; himself I do not see ; a cloud is round about him. In all mortal eyes there are only mortal pupils, too weak to see Zeus, reigning over all things. He, sitting on his golden throne, rests on the brazen sky, and the earth hath he put under his feet. His right hand he stretcheth to the ends of the ocean, the high hills tremble round about, and the rivers, and the deeps of the hoary and dark blue sea. Socrates, just before his death, is represented as saying: "Well then, so prepared, the soul departs into that invisible region which is of its own nature, — the region of the divine, the immortal ; and then its lot is to be happy, in a state in which it is freed from fears and wild desires, and the other evils of humanity, and spends the rest of its existence with the gods, as those are taught to expect who are initiated in the Mysteries. . . . We may well believe, therefore, that they who instituted the Mysteries were not mere triflers, but that there was in truth a hidden meaning in that old figure, wherein they said that he who went uninitiated and unconsecrated to the world below should wallow in mire, but that he who had been purified by initiation should dwell with the gods." 2 1 Quoted by Justin Martyr, Clemens of Alexandria, Eusebius, and Cyril. 2 Phaedo, p. 68. THE GREEK MYSTERIES. 83 Pindar is quoted by Saint Clemens as saying of the Eleusinian Mysteries, — " Blessed is he who having seen those common concerns in the under-world, knoweth both the end of life and its divine origin from Zeus." ^ Cicero, copying Isocrates, says beautifully in the Laws: " There is nothing better than those Mysteries by which we are cultivated and softened from a wild, half-savage mode of hfe into a spirit of humanity ; and not only receive with joy a mode of living, but even of living with a better hope." ^ Many classic writers speak of this better hope {spes vielior) which was sought in the Mysteries. Aristotle admits that the great efficiency of these secret associations was in their giving certain moral and religious impressions, and creating certain states of mind, — a de- scription which would accord well with the theory that they taught religious truths dramatically. The classic writer who has spoken most of the Myste- ries is unhappily not one to inspire the most confidence, — Apulcius, an author who has written on the most ob- scene and the most elev^ltcd themes. He describes the initiated as passing through a rite resembling baptism, and receiving precepts from the priest better than all words.^ They went forth almost convinced of a future life, and that terrible punishments awaited the wicked there, ^ Clemens : Stroniata, lib. iii. 2 De Legibus, ii. 14 ; ctan spe meliore vivendi. 2 Metamorphosis, xi. 23 ; i/ieliora voce. 84 THE UNKNOWN GOD. and sweet peace and happiness the good and pious. He says : — " I approached the Hmits of death, and touched the very threshold of the dark kingdom of Proserpine. I passed through all the ele- mental forces of nature, and was permitted to return to life again. At midnight I saw the sun shine with unclouded brilliancy. I came near to the mighty gods of heaven and earth. I saw them face to face." ^ This certainly looks like the impression made by a re- ligious drama. Initiation seemed a kind of voluntary death and resur- rection. The believers died to their old past and rose to a new hfe; a new sun shone upon them, and they were filled with divine influences.^ Apuleius addressed an Egyptian goddess revealed in these Mysteries in the most impassioned words, which were evidently borrowed from the Egyptian litanies we have quoted in a preceding chapter. Even Jews admitted the good influence of these rites, for Josephus says that the Mysteries taught that God contains all things, and is a Being every way perfect and happy, is self-existent and sole cause of all existence, beginning, middle, and end of all things.^ He argues that the same revelation was made to the Jews in their holy writings as by the Mysteries. Eusebius also, using the ^ Metamorpliosis. ^ Apul., xi. 21-24 ; sole novo lati, plaiiqne dcorum. « Con. Ap , ii. 22. THE GREEK MYSTERIES. 85 same words as were employed in regard to initiation in these secret rites, urges that the Jews had the special honor of being " initiated " in the knowledge of God the Creator, and of true piety towards him. Clemens says that the Egyptians were not wont to reveal the Mysteries indiscriminately to all, nor expose their truths concerning their gods to the profane, but to those only who were to succeed to administration in the State, and to such of the priests as were most approved by their education, learning, and quality.^ It was a common assertion by classical writers that the great truths taught in these secret associations, such as the unity of God, the immortality of the soul, and a future moral judgment, came forth from Chaldea and Egypt. The doctrine of metempsychosis also seems to have been spread through the teachings of these societies. " The gods," says Diodorus, " assured through the Mysteries an eternal life, of which the constant occupation should be sweet worship." ^ Of the Samothracian rites he says : "Under these all the initiated are held as righteous; they find their sins atoned for. . . . They say that the initiated are more pious, more just, and every way better than they were before." ^ These secret religious societies were the ancient church of the non-Christian Greek races, and there seems to have been baptism or purification as a condition ^ Stromata, v. 566. 2 Quoted by Bollinger, p. 176. 8 Did. Sec, v. 549. 86 THE UNKNOWN COD. of membership. Even the satirists alkide to their influence. Aristophanes represents two things as securing his country- men a better reception in the under-world, — initiation in the Mysteries, and kindness to strangers and citizens.^ Of all classic writers, Plutarch speaks the most feelingly of these rites, and of the faith which had come down from Egypt. " Isis," he says, " communicated her doctrine to those who by their perseverance in a life sober, temperate, and separate from the pleasures of the senses, the pas- sions of the flesh, aspire to a participation in the Divine nature; to those who exercise themselves constantly in the temples in severe practices, vigorous abstinences, the end of which is the knowledge of the first and sovereign Being, which the soul alone can conceive, and which the goddess invites man to look for in herself as in the sanctuary where she resides. Isis is wisdom, the brightness of the eternal light, the mirror without stains of the divine majesty, and image of its goodness." ^ Or again: "All our life is only a sequence of errors, painful eff'orts, long courses by tortuous roads, and without issue. At the moment of quitting it, fears, terrors, trem- blings, mortal sweats come to oppress us ; but as soon as we are gone out of it, we pass into delicious fields where one breathes the purest air, hears musical harmonies and sacred discourses; in fine, where one is struck by celestial visions. There man, become perfect by his new initiation, 1 Ran., p. 451. 2 De isjg^ pp j^ 2. THE GREEK MYSTERIES. 87 restored to liberty, truly master of himself, celebrates, crowned with myrtle, the most august Mysteries, converses with souls just and pure, and sees with contempt the im- pure troops of profane and non-initiated, always plunging and struggling in the mire of darkness."^ " The initiated are three times happy, in that when they penetrate to Hades, to them alone is, given life ; for others there is only suffering." ^ It was admitted generally that the Mysteries revealed the true end of life and prepared men thus for death. " To die," says Plutarch, " is to be initiated in great mysteries. ... As for what you hear others say who persuade the vulgar that the soul when once freed from the body suffers no inconvenience or evil, nor is sensible at all, I know that you are better grounded in the doctrines handed down to us from our ancestors, as also in the sacred mysteries of Bacchus, than to believe such stories ; for the religious symbols are well known to us who are of this fraternity."^ In the Mysteries it is taught that the universe is not without mind, or reason, or a pilot.'* The poets often speak of the high morality and purity required in these associations ; that the initiated were the only happy, both here and hereafter, and that initiation began a new life. Both metempsychosis and a future life were taught under these sacred rites. The Christian ^ Fragt. de Imm. Stob. Serm., c. 274. 2 Plut. : Soph. Fragm. ' Plutarch : Consol. ad Uxoretn, p. 393. ^ avoov Kill oKoyov Km aKv^kpvr^TOV. Isis et Osiris. 88 THE UNKNOWN GOD. writers even agree with this view ; thus Porphyry compares the state of mind of the initiated during the Mysteries to that of the blessed.^ It was beheved that Plato, guided by the mystic cere- monies, testified to the different allotments of the purified and impure souls in Hades, their several conditions, and the three-forked path which led from the peculiar places where they were, and that this was all according to tradi- tional institutions, every part of which was full of a sym- bolical representation, as is a drama.^ Theon states also in his description of the Mysteries that the end of all these rites is " friendship and interior communion with God."^ And again, in the words of Plato : " I must not omit to mention a tradition which is firmly believed by many, and has been recommended from those learned in the Myste- ries ; they say that crime will be punished in the world below, and also that when the perpetrators return to this world they will suffer for what they did by a compensa- tion of Nature, and end their lives in like manner by the hands of another." * It is but just to say that he also speaks of the Mysteries at times with a deep contempt: "They produce a host of books, written by Musaeus and Orpheus, who were chil- dren of the moon, and the Muses, by which they perform their ritual, and persuade not only individuals but whole 1 Ap. Stob. Eclog. Phys. 2 Proclus- (Plato), p 374 8 Mathematica, quoted by Taylor, p. 47. ^ Laws, ix. 670. THE GREEK MYSTERIES. 89 cities that expiations and atonements for sin may be made the sacrifices and amusements which fill a vacant hour, and are equally at the service of the living and the dead ; the latter sort they call Mysteries, and they redeem us from the pains of Hades, but if we neglect them no mortal knows what awaits us." ^ It is possible, of course, that these various writers of dif- ferent ages may have mistaken somewhat the true object of the classic Mysteries. It is true that the doctrines which they were supposed to teach did not spread widely among the members of these secret societies. The belief in the unity of God, in a future life, and a coming judgment, did not apparently reach any great number of thinkers in the Greek and Roman communities. The origin of all things was still " the thrice Unknown Darkness." These doctrines were probably taught by symbols and dramas, and were comprehended by only a few wise spirits. They certainly did not affect to any wide degree the morality or religion of the people. The Mysteries themselves also degene- rated, and were often the covers to hidden license and wild orgies. Still, the thread of continuity which connects human beliefs no doubt bound together the early mono- theism of Egypt and its belief in a moral judgment to mankind with the elevated religion, some of whose doc- trines were represented by Socrates, Plato, Plutarch, and some among the great Stoics. ^ Republic, ii. 364. CHAPTER V. ZEUS AS SPIRITUAL GOD. O Zens, whatever he be. If that natne please him loell. By that on him J call. Weighing all other names, I fail to guess Aught else but Zeus, if I would cast aside Clearly in every deed From off my soul this weight of care. Agamemnon, v. 158. A MONG the ancient Greeks there appears in their "^^ reUgious behef a grand and solemn figure not unlike the Jahveh of the Jews. " Zeus Is the beginning of all things, the conductor of all," ^ says an ancient hymn ; the " Leader of nature," in the words of an early Stoic ; 2 the " God who made heaven and earth," says another ; " No one is free but Zeus ; " ^ " He existeth by himself; " ^ " O Zeus, Father Zeus," says another, " thou governest the heavens, thou watchest the guilty and unjust actions of men, thou dost punish the monsters of the world." ^ Solon, at the beginning of his laws, invokes Zeus as the 1 ZfO Tracrwi/ apxh (Terpandcf, quoted by Clemens : Stromata, vi.). 2 Cleanthes. ' /Eschylus : Prometheus, 50. * yEschylus : Suppliants, v. 600. ^ Archilochus : Fragm. xviii. ZEUS AS SPIRITUAL GOD. 91 God of justice ; he is the source of Hfe and death ; ^ he has remedies for all human ills ; ^ he is the God of the suppliants, the very mild,^ merciful God. " Raise thy eyes to Zeus," says the poet ; " from the heights of the heavens he observeth the unfortunate who receive no succor; the God of suppliants is angry when the cries of the unfortunate are not heard."* The word " God" is used by the poets as a synonym for Zeus. " God gov- erneth all things according to his will," says Pindar. " Good fortune is God's gift to mortals." Zeus is the king of kings ; he is the God of cities and republics; he in- spires the deliberations of assemblies ; he is the protector of good faith in transactions; he is the god of hospitality, a friend to strangers, good and helpful, the deity of homes and of firesides, the god of friendship, the avenger of murder and adultery, the protector especially of the married woman. Like Jahveh he is the god of armies and the protector of liberty.^ He was " stronger than time and age and all-flowing nature," says an ancient writer.^ " He fills the world and is above it," writes ^schines. " Zeus is the God of gods," says Plato. Terpander sings of Zeus as " the head of all things, the beginning of all." "Zeus was, and is, and is to be," said the ancient Dodonian ^ fw^f KCLi Oavdrov irf ipara vf^av (Ap. Stob.). ^ TrdvTOiv (})dpfiaKa t;^?*. 8 MftXt;(to?. * ^schylus : Suppliants, 287- ^ 'EXevOepios. ® KpfiTTcov alavos (Maximus Tyrius, 3). 92 THE UNKNOWN GOD. inscription,^ — words evidently derived from the celeoratcd Egyptian inscription. Even with Homer and Hesiod, despite their corrupt mythology, Zeus is often the all- seeing, all-knowing, all-wise, omnipotent, governing the universe; the just one, and Father of men and gods. He scndeth war and peace, health and sickness, hunger and plenty; kings hold from Zeus law and sceptre, honor and majesty. He is the god of oaths and justice; he punishes unjust judgments, perjury, and all sins; he is the friend of the poor and the stranger, the father of music and song. He presides over property, and becomes the divinity of landmarks. . He is the highest ;2 like Indra, the god of thunder, the king of kings,^ the shepherd of peoples. " There is but one god, greatest among men and gods, and not like mortals in form or mind."* Hesiod compares the eye of Zeus to " thrice ten thou- sand immortals watching over the ways of mortal men."^ The duty of man is to avoid the smooth road to evil,^ to choose the straight path of good, which, rough at first, becomes easy to those who work in it.' We are to deal with all men after the rule of righteousness which cometh t'rom Zeus.^ Justice and Truth shall in the end prevail^ over pride and violence. They who do evil to others do 1 Pausanias. 2 Z^irrTn^. 2 Baa-tXfuy l3a(Ti\ea)v. 4 Xenophanes (Clemens). 5 Hesiod : Works and Days, 252. ^ ibid., 288. ' Ibid. 8 Ibid, 35. ^ Ibid. ; 8iKr) S' vnep v^pios laxft ZEUS AS SPIRITUAL GOD. 93 it to themselves.^ The eye of Zeus^ having seen all things and observed all things, also regards these things, if he so picascth ; nor docs it escape him of what nature is the justice which the city encloseth. This great conception of Zeus belongs to a certain stage of Greek thought, but is no doubt soon mingled with a low mythology. Aristotle says that with the ancient poets the highest and ruling Power, the original Being, was not, as in so many mythologies, the Night or Chaos, or Heaven or Water, but Zeus.^ Saint Paul quotes from Aratus what is said of Zeus as if spoken of the Unknown God.* " Let us begin with Zeus, whom we men will never leave un- named ; and all streets are full of Zeus, and all the market-places, and men ; and the sea too is full, and the ports ; and we every- where stand in need of Zeus, for we are his offspring (roG yap koI •^ivo^ icTfJLei'), No grander thought ever penetrated the Greek im- agination than this of the great Father of gods and men. Phidias was able to embody this lofty conception in a statue of such nobleness and sweetness, such majesty and benignancy, that the Greeks felt its moral power as they did of no other work of Greek art. Repeated testimony shows that the aspect of it was to the worshipper like a sudden glimpse of ineffable beauty, and of majesty beyond. 1 Hesiod : Works and Days, 263. 2 Ibid., 265. 3 Metem. * Phaenom., 1-5 ; Stobaeus : Eclogas Physicce, i. 7 ; Acts xvii. 94 THE UNKNOWN GOD. all other imagination of man. Even Christian testimony confirmed this. Dio Chrysostom says that a man could forget all the pangs and sorrows of human life, who could stand in the presence of that sublime image. Unfortunately the modern world has only a few im- perfect representations of it on ancient coins. The face of the Olympian Zeus of Phidias bears a striking resem- blance to the traditional profiles of Christ. The later Greek poets and dramatists preserve this high conception of Zeus, and often regard this name as only a means of indicating the unnamable moral power and Being who pre- sides over all. He is the ^eo? a-fvcoaro^ (Unknown God). Says Sophocles : — " Thy power, O Zeus, what proud ordinance of men can re- press, — that power which sleep never overtaketh, nor the divine unwearying progress of the months? Through undying time thou dwellest in the brightness of Olympus ; thy laws are all- pervading ; they have been, and shall be forever."^ Electra, when she denies herself for the sake of her dead father, is pictured as pious toward Zeus.^ " O Zeus ! if thou art rightly named, let it not be hidden from thee and thy everlasting will, that men are disregarding oracles, and that religion is passing away."^ The poet appeals to Zeus as the highest power, whether " that be the right name or not." ^ 1 Antigone, 605 ; Abbott's translation. ^ Electra, 1095 ; Z^i/oy evaf^fla. 8 CEdipus Tyrannus, 902. ■» Agamemnon, 160. ZEUS AS SPIRITUAL COD. 95 " May it be mine, in every act and word of life, to preserve the piety and purity ordained by those high laws of which Olympus is the only sire, whose birth was in the sky above, and nothing human gave them being. In them is a divine power which groweth not old."^ Here the heaven and the sky god, or Zeus, are iden- tical. CEdipus appeals to the pure holiness of the gods.^ They are beyond the reach of human pollution. Their vengeance may linger or come quickly, or the sins of the fathers may be visited on the children, but it will surely come. The gods love the good, and will punish the evil. No one is wise whose wisdom is not from above. In /Eschylus, Zeus is all-causing, all-sufificing, all-mighty, all-seeing, all-accomplishing, Lord of lords, most holy of holies.^ " In thy hands is the balance; what can mortals accomplish without thee? What without Zeus can befall any man? Justice is the child of Zeus. He leadeth mortals to wisdom, in that he ordained that to suffer is to learn." "^ " And from high towering hopes he hurleth down To utter doom the heir of mortal birth ; Yet sets he in array No forces violent. All that God works is effortless and calm, ~^ 1 CEdipus Tyrannus,-863. - Ibid., 830 ; S 6iu>v ayvhv a-f^as- ^ Suppliants, 524 ; fiuKapuiv p-aKaprare. * Agamemnon, 175. 96 THE UNKNOWN GOD. Seated on loftiest throne, Thence, though we know not how. He works his perfect will." ^ " Look thou on him who looks on all from heaven, Guardian of suffering men Who, worn with toil, unto their neighbors come As suppliants, and receive not justice due. For these the wrath of Zeus, — Zeus, the true suppliant's god, Abides, by wail of sufferer unappeased." "^ " Zeus the great god of kindred in these things Watches over both of us Holding an equal scale, and fitly giving To the base, evil, to the righteous, blessing ; Why, when these things are set In even balance, fear'st thou to do right? "^ " For not a subject hastening at the beck Of strength above his own. Reigns he subordinate to mightier powers ; Nor does he pay this homage from below. While one sits throned in majesty above, Act is for him as speech To hasten what his teeming mind resolves." * *' But since as sharer in the throne of Zeus compassion dwells. Regarding all our deeds." ^ " If still there dwells beside the throne of Zeus The eternal right that rests on oldest laws." ® 1 /Eschylus: Suppliants, 90. 2 Ibid., 375. 8 Ibid., 395. * Ibid., 588. 6 CEdipus at Colonus, 266. « Ibid., 1381. ZEUS AS SPIRITUAL GOD. 97 The poets even offer the comfort of a future life. An- tigone, near death, says : " When I come there, such is the hope I cherish, I shall find love with my father, love with my mother, and love with thee my brother ! " ^ It will be a life far longer than the lower life. In that life arc no mistakes. Justice dvvelleth with the gods below.^ According to Sophocles, the laws of righteousness are established in heaven, and in them God is great and can- not grow old. With Euripides, if the gods do aught that is wrong, then are they not gods at all,"^ Says yEschylus: " There [in the unseen], as men relate, a second Zeus Judges men's evil deeds, and to the dead Assigns the last great penalties."* " Though 'neath the earth he flee, he is not freed ; For the blood-stained shall find upon his head Another after me. Destroyer foul and dread." * " Zeus, who leadeth man in wisdom's way, And fixeth fast the law, Wisdom by pain to gain." ^ In the Bacchse, Euripides says : " O foolish pride, which pretends to be wiser than the sages and ancient laws ! Ought it to cost our feebleness to avow the force of a ^ Antigone, 887. '^ Ibid., 451. ovK fiVtf ^601. — Frag. Bell., xix. 589. * Suppliants, 227. 6 Eumenides, v. 118. ' Agamemnon, v. 170. 7 98 THE UNKNOWN COD. Superior Being, whatever be its nature, and to recognize a holy law anterior to all time.''^ "Who knows," asks this poet, "but death be life and life death? "^ " God," says Aristotle, " who is happy and blessed, not through any external from himself, but himself through himself.^ One power, that which reaches through all things, arranged the entire sea, and earth and ether, and sun and moon, and the whole heaven, . . . compelling the most obstinate natures in it to harmonize, and from these things devising safety for the whole. . . . These things, too, we ought to think in re- gard to God, who in might is most strong, in beauty most fair, in life most immortal, in virtue most excellent, be- cause being imperceptible by mortal natures he is per- ceived by his works themselves." * " And we say that God is a Being everlasting and perfectly good, so that life and duration, continuous and endless, belong to God ; for this is God." ^ " But this virtue is without a name, because there is no such thing as the virtue of God; for God is better than virtue." ® " Zeus was the first, and the last was Zens, with bolt of which lightning Zeus was the head, Zeus the middle ; from Zeus all things are created." '' " A kind of original and ancestral belief, then, have all men, that of God and by God all things have been composed for us, 1 Bacchs, 887. - Plato : Gorgias, 104 ; To Kar6av-\v hi. ^v. 8 De Rep., vii. i. '' De Mundo, v. 6. 8 De Mundo, p. 397. « Mag. Moral, p. 1200. Prof. R. M. Smith's translation. ' De Mundo, pp. 400, 401. ZEUS AS SPIRITUAL COD. 99 and that no nature alone is sufificient in itself, if deprived of the safety that comes from him." ^ " And in brief, what a pilot is in a ship, a driver in a chariot, a leader in a chorus, law in a State, a commander in a camp, this is God in the universe, except that to those ruling is wearisome and full of effort and full of care, but to him it is without worry, with- out toil, and free from all bodily weakness. For, seated unmoved, he moves all things, and turns them where he wills and as he wills, in different shapes and natures." '^ The religion which had come down by secret channels to the Greeks, or which sprang from their intuitions, brought with it its own stimulus to morality. Euripides makes the just man, " him who is born for his neigh- bors."^ The Athenians held in theoj^y to the Golden Rule. Iso- cratcs says: " Do not to others what you would not suffer from them, and be towards others what you would wish I should be towards you." ^ An ancient Greek hero, Bonzyges, is made by Hesychius to say, " Do to oth- ers what you would should be done to you." ^ Euripides pictures Macaria, daughter of Hercules, as saying, " If I saved my days at the expense of those of my brothers, should I be the happier?"^ A certain person (Boas) is represented as delivering young girls from slavery, and sending them back to their parents, to whom, instead of demanding ransom, he sent presents. Religion was felt 1 De Mundo. p. 397. '^ Ibid., p. 400. ^ Herac. * Oratio ad Nicoclem, c. 61. '^ Alaury. ^ Herac v. 528. 1/ lOO THE UNKNOWN COD. to be the foundation of the highest morahty. " What- ever good you do, refer it to the gods," said an ancient writer.-^ There is a morahty, says Menander, founded on the nature of man, independent of all speculative opinion, anterior to all conviction ; but more, there are in virtuous souls intellectual faculties which one calls reason, — a reflection of the divine nature of God himself.^ It was often repeated that God was the soul of the good. Simonides had said, " God alone is good, and it is impossible for a man not to be a sinner." ^ " Men loved of the gods are the most virtuous."^ Even Homer, with all his lower mythology, pictures the blessed gods as " loving not impious actions, but they honor justice and the pious works of men."^ "On him ruling justly and mildly God looketh favorably," '^ says the great tragic dramatist. " He that honoreth his parents is cherished by the gods in life and after death." ^ God abaseth the proud and raiseth the humble; and even in the Pythian games the victor is exhorted to remember that God is the author of his glory.^ The state of mind most often encouraged by poet and moral- ist is humble moderation {crcocfipoa-vvT]) towards gods and men, as one suited to a being exposed to so many ^ Diogenes Laertius. 2 Quoted by Saint Justin. 8 Plato : Protagoras, p. 84. * Ibid., p. 87. ^ Odyssey, xiv. 80. ^ /Escliylus. ' Euripides: Fragments, p. 182. ^ Pindar: Pyth., v. 23. ZEUS AS SPIRITUAL GOD. 1 01 chances and perils, and dependent on the upper powers. Faith is frequently taught. " Finish your sacrifice to God," says Menander, " with faith, being just and adorned with purity of soul as with a brilliant garment. If you hear the thunder do not fly, since your conscience makes you no reproach, for God seeth ^ you and holdeth him- self near you." The greatest sacrifice to God is to be pious.^ Isocrates says : " Remain inviolably attached to the religion of your fathers. Remember that the homage of a just and virtuous soul honors the immortals more than the pomp of outward worship and a multitude of victims. It is by justice, rather than by sacrifices, that one obtains what one asks." ^ " Honor first the immor- tals by faithfulness to your oaths more than by the multitude of victims." ^ " Worship is due the gods," says Aristotle, " because they are the source of the greatest benefits we have re- ceived, and we owe them intelligence as well as lifc."^ " Good thoughts are the greatest gift of God," ^ says the poet. Pindar declares that those who imagine they can conceal any of their actions from divinity are mistakenJ 1 6 yap 6((>s iSXeVft ere, quoted by Eusebius : Prep. Ev., xiii. 131. 2 Menander. * Isocrates ad Nicoclem, c. 20. * Isocrates ad Dem , p. 23. ^ Ethics, viii. 12. ^ . . . Tu fjLij KuKiou (ppovflu 6(ov pfyiarov Sipov (Agamemnon). ' Olymp. 102 THE UNKNOWN GOD. Pythagoras declares the best thing to be to follow God and become like him.^ Aristotle says: "It is an old word of our fathers that from God and through God all things stand." ^ The idea of resignation, under God's decree is every- where found, and the deeper thought that Zeus sends trials for discipline. The gods below give two blessings for one evil. What Zeus sendeth, one must bear.^ On Mount Menale was a temple dedicated to the "Good God." Of this inscription the historian says: " If to the gods men owe all the goods they enjoy, and if Zeus be the King of gods, this must be his surname." * Prayer. — \\\ a later age, the great Roman moralist could say of prayers that all men are agreed to look upon crops and fields and all kinds of material goods as blessings of the gods; but none considers virtue as a gift of God. " Jupiter is called the Best and Greatest, not because he has made us just, temperate, and wise, but because he has made us healthy and well-supplied, and enriches us with all earthly blessings." ^ But in the earlier ages men had a higher faith. Homer and Py- thagoras held wisdom and virtue as gifts of the gods, and "to be obtained by their help ; and so with Pindar and others. Socrates asked God for inner moral purity and 1 Olymp., i. 491. * De Mundo, p. 6; Trdrpios Xoyoy. 8 Odyssey, vi. 189. * Pausanias, viii. 36. 5 Natura Deorum, iii. 36. ZEUS AS SPIRITUAL GOD. 1 03 beauty, " One ought not to wish for children," he says, " in one's prayers, nor riches, nor power, nor long life. One must simply ask for wisdom and what is good for us ; once we are penetrated with these sentiments, noth- ing more salutary and purifying to our feebleness than to invoke God in all important interests of our life, and at the beginning of all our labors." Sacrifices were generally offered for material goods. An ancient Greek writer defines prayer as " a fortify- ing process with God ; a testimony that the soul renders of its virtue in thanking him who has inspired us with it; an encouragement which virtue gives itself in asking of God goods which by his favor it finds and draws into itself." 1 The conception of Zeus, expressed by these writers, was, as the Apostle Paul clearly saw, an idea of the Unknown God. It was mingled with a childish my- thology, and obscured by low and sensual ideas and imaginations ; but in some points it reflected back the divine inspiration. Jove as Spiritual God. A like inspiration in regard to the Unknown God visited also the Latin race, though with them it w^as more quickly overcome by polytheistic beliefs and the influences of the myth-making fancy. There was an age 1 Denis : Histoire des icl(?es morales, p. 247. 104 ^-^^ UNKNOWN GOD. when the God of the Latins was worshipped as Jupiter, the "Best and Greatest" {pptimns maxinmsque) of be- ings, — the Father of gods and men, the all-powerful, the King of all kings, the progenitor and producer of all, the God of gods, the One and all/^ The poets make him address other gods as his limbs, appointed by him to certain functions.^ Varro speaks of a "Spirit governing the universe"^ by his own action and reason. Ennius says, " Look at that sublime vault of heaven which all call Jove ! " * — in this making manifest that to some the highest god was still the Heaven. But from the Heaven-god came life and all things. The other gods were explained by Varro as only personifications of the forces of Nature. The ancient inscriptions^ show that Jupiter was re- garded as the Highest and Most Excellent Being, the Ruler of divine and human things, the arbiter of the fates, the God of gods, " who art alone powerful." One temple showed the moral idea attached to divinity by its 1 Omnipotens, rerum rex ipse Deusque, Progenitor, genetrixque, Deorum Deus, Unus et omnes (Ouintus Valerius. Aug. : Civ. Dei, vii. 9). 2 Coelicolce mea membra, dei quos nostra potestas officia divisa facit. 8 Anima mundum gubernans. * Aspice hoc sublime candens quern invocant omnes Jovem. 5 3 Orelli, 1267. Jovi summo, excellentissimo ; divinarum, huma- narum rerum rectori, fatorum arbitro, Deo deorum qui solus potes ! ZEUS AS SPIRITUAL GOD. 105 inscription, "Enter good! go forth better !" ^ In a later age Pliny says that frail mortality, mindful of its weak- ness and sufferings, had divided up the original godhead into parts, so that each human being might have what he most needed.^ Saint Augustine quotes a letter from a heathen of his day, who says : " Under different names we adore the only Divinity whose eternal power animates all the ele- ments of the world." ^ This spiritual worship of a grand deity — Jove, the Best and Greatest — degenerated, however, into fear and superstition towards innumerable spirits and gods, until the Unknown God of the universe was almost for- gotten, and religion was nearly severed from morality. Its final degradation seems indicated in an ancient in- scription of praise on the tomb of a priest, — "He gave to his disciples kisses, pleasures, and fun."* When this and others similar could be written over the grave of the servant of a god, the empire was near its final moral dissolution. The stern and august worship of Zeus and Jupiter had come to a pitiful end. 1 Bonus intra, melior exi ! (Renier: Inscription de I'Algdrie, No. 1657). 2 Quest. Nat., ii. 7. Frasjilis et laboriosa mortalitas. 3 Augustine : Epistles, p. 16. ^ Orelli, No. 6042. Basia, voluptates, jocum alumnis suis dedit. CHAPTER VI. THE RELIGION OF SOCRATES AND PLATO. // is the clear vie'w of truth, the possession of eter7tal beauty, the contempla- tion of absolute good, -which makes up the life of the just and happy. — Plato. 'T~^HE idea of the Unknown God had thus descended through Greek tradition from ancient Egyptian and Chaldean sources. The Orphic hymns had voiced it almost in the words of the old Egyptian oracles. The Mysteries had expressed it, and had perhaps added to it the Egyptian dogmas of the immortality of the soul, of a future moral judgment, and of the retribution which comes in the changing abode of the soul through ages in animals or men. But there was little belief among the Greeks in the love of this mysterious unknown Being for men, or the senti- ment of love for him. A stern and pitiless destiny gov- erned gods and men. Zeus, as well as his creatures, was under an implacable fate. Love was not the key of the universe, but justice; and man only owed to his neigh- bor the obligations of justice. Univ^ersal sympathy was almost unknown. Under such religious conceptions the future life became vague and shadowy. In the oft-quoted THE RELIGION OE SOCRATES AND PLATO. 107 words of tlic poet, one would rather be a poor hind in the abodes of men than a kuig in the dim reahiis of Hades. Mythology took possession of religion and de- graded it to the lowest depths. The fancies about the gods lowered the moral ideas of daily life, and gradually the practical world lost hold of any faith which could purify passion, soften human selfishness, console sorrow or mitigate cruelty, or lighten up the valley of the shadow of death. But the Divine Spirit ever struggles with the soul ; and down through the channels of human belief had come to certain great thinkers of Greece the ancient inspira- tions, and these falling on good ground had borne fruit among the best and purest souls known outside of Christianity. In briefly considering the faith of Socrates and Plato, we need not for the present purpose seek to distinguish the beliefs of each. It is not improbable that Plato made Socrates the mouthpiece of many of his own ideas and theories ; but there is enough verisimilitude in the pic- ture of the rugged moralist to get from it a true impres- sion of the points of agreement and difference between the statements of the cunning dialectician and the poetic expounding of the ideal philosopher. Socrates, it is evident, took a more intellectual view of religion than did his great disciple. With him virtue and knowledge were often the same. Yet knowledge I08 THE UNKNOWN GOD. here may often mean " seeing the truth," as distin- guished from self-deceptions, and guiding the hfe by these realities instead of following sentiment and passion and self-interest. In the definition of the "philosopher" by Socrates, the modern reader could easily substitute " re- ligion " for "philosophy," as in the following: — " It is not generally recollected as it ought to be that those who truly apply themselves to philosophy [religion], are really studying how to die, and how to be ready for the state after death ; but if this is really so, it is a most absurd proceeding, that men who have been all their lives studying this thing, when the thing comes that they have looked for and studied for, should be startled and grieved." ^ Plato, on the other hand, took a broader view of virtue and religion. He made allowance for the power of habit and tradition as well as for knowledge and reasoning, and to him religion was life, an influence imbuing the whole character and governing both thoughts and actions. It was not so much knowledge as inspiration ; it was a moral life coming from God himself. The position of both these great thinkers in regard to Grecian mythology was peculiar. It was not unlike that of some rationalistic scholars at this day towards mira- cles and the supernaturalism of Christianity. The ancient myths seemed to them to cover and express great moral and spiritual truths. They were old and revered poetic revelations of the great facts of religion. The essential ^ Phsedo, p. 21. THE RELIGION OF SOCRATES AND PLATO. 109 in them was eternally true, the form was imaginary and temporary ; yet these philosophers would not rudely overthrow even the form. It was ancient and therefore reverend ; it was intertwined with morality and order and devoutness, and therefore should be carefully handled by the thinker. Moreover, these myths belonged to a realm where nothing was certain, and where strange combina- tions and stranger beings might coexist. The gods might be demons or spirits or unknown powers beneath the Omnipotent. They were existences about whom the wise would neither affirm nor deny. So the two philoso- phers recognized the popular mythology, and used it for these great moral purposes, only half believing it, and extracting from it the truths which are everlasting. Of one thing, however, they were certain. Whenever the myths represented the gods as acting contrary to the eternal principles of morality, then they did not hesitate to say they were false. "And do you really believe," asks Socrates, "that the gods fought with one another, and had dire battles and quarrels and the like, as the poets say, and which we see represented in the works of great artists ? The temples to the gods are full of them. . . . Are all these tales of the gods true ? " ^ " Neither," says Plato, " if we mean our future guardians to regard the habit of quarrelling as dishonorable, should anything be said of the wars in heaven and of the plots and fightings of the gods against one another, which are quite untrue." ^ 1 Euthyp., vi. '^ Republic, ii. 378. no THE UNKNOWN COD. " At Athens there are tales preserved in writing which the virtue of your State, as I am informed, refuses to admit. They speak of the gods in prose as well as verse, and the oldest of them tell of the origin of the heavens and the world ; and not far from the beginning of their story they proceed to narrate the birth of the gods, and how often they were born, and how they behaved to one another. Whether these stories have a good or bad influence I should not like to be severe on them, because they are ancient ; but 1 must say that looking at them with reference to duties of children to their parents, I cannot praise them, or think that they are useful or at all true." ^ " For if, my sweet Adeimantus, youth seriously believe in such misrepresentations of the gods, instead of laughing at them as they ought, hardly will any of them remember that he himself being but a man can be dishonored by similar actions ; neither will he rebuke any inclination which may arise in his mind to say and do the like." ^ It must be remembered also that Plato himself is not a dialectician or a systematic theologian. He is essentially a poet. We cannot tell always precisely what he means ; and in a field of thought so remote and so difficult as that in which he labors, he seems often to attain higher and perhaps more real glimpses of truth than more systematic thinkers since. Thus the Divine Being is to him the centre of all things, and a Person, and yet at times he is impersonal, the equivalent of Truth or Beauty or the Good ; and again he often uses interchangeably the words " gods " and " God." It would seem, so grand is his conception 1 Laws, X. 886. ^ Republic, iii. 888. THE RELIGION OF SOCRATES AND PLATO. Ill of this unnamable and awful Power, that he expresses it in almost opposite terms of human thought. Plato is not a pantheist, but he once speaks of Zeus as the "Mind of the Universe."^ God to him is omnipotent, but He is. controlled by the nature of matter and of the human will. "Then God is perfectly simple and true both in deed and word ; he changeth not ; he deceiveth not, either by dream or waking vision, by sign or word." ^ " Few are the goods of human life, and many are the evils, and the good is to be attributed to God alone ; of the evils, the cause is to be sought elsewhere, not in him." ^ '* God is not the author of evil, but of good only." "* " All things are from God, and not from some spontaneous and unintelligent Cause." ^ " Now that which is created must of ne- cessity be created by a Cause. But how can we find out the Father and Maker of all this universe ? ... If the world be indeed fair and the artificer good, then, as is plain, he must have looked to that which is external, ... for the world is the fairest of crea- tures, and he is the best of causes." ® " Let us begin then by asking whether all this which they call the universe is left to the guidance of an irrational and random chance, or, on the contrary, as our fathers declared, is ordered and governed by a marvellous intelli- gence and wisdom." "^ 1 There is in the universe a mighty Infinite and an adequate limit, as well as a Cause of no mean power, which orders and arranges years and seasons and months, and may be justly called Wisdom and Mind. And in the divine nature of Zeus would you not say there is the soul and mind of a king, and that the power of the Cause en- genders this ? (Phil. 30.) 2 Republic, ii. 3S2. » Ibid., 379. " Ibid , 380. 5 Sophistes, 765. ^ Timceus, 28. ' Philebus, 78. 112 THE UNKNOWN GOD. Cod cares for all. " For surely no wise man thinks that when set at liberty he can take better care of himself than the gods take of him." ^ " The gods care about the small as well as the great ; • . . they are per- fectly good, and the care of all things is most entirely natural to them." '^ He is just and righteous. "The good man finds in the Eternal God the model of that which he seeks, and he who would be happy and just ought to attach himself to him and force himself to imitate him." ^ " God is perfectly just, and nothing among men more resembles him than he who has arrived at the highest degree of justice."* "Knowl- edge of God is true wisdom and virtue, and ignorance of him is utter ignorance ® and wickedness." " God, as the old tradition declares, holding in his hand the beginning, middle, and end of all that is, moves according to his nature in a straight line towards the accomplishment of his end. Justice always follows hirn, and is the punisher of them who fall short of the divine law." ^ He is truth. " Can you imagine that God will be willing to be or to make a false representation of himself, whether in word or deed ? " ^ Of Him, according to Xenophon, Socrates says: — " All divinities bestow blessings upon us without being visible. But the Supreme God, he who directs and sustains all the uni- ^ Phaedrus, 62. See also Timseus, 30, 44; Sophistes, 265; Phile- bus, 28 ; Laws, x. 709-899 ; Republic, x. 612, etc. 2 Laws, X. 900. 3 Pliaedrus, 64. « Thaetetus. 81, 176. 6 Ibid , 85 ; aixaQla. « Laws, xiv. 716. ' Republic, ii. 382. THE RELIGION OF SOCRATES AND PLATO. 1 13 verse, he in whom reunite all good, all beauty, who for ouF use maintains it all entire in a vigor and youth always new, who forces it to obey his orders quicker than thought, and without ever dis- tracting himself, — this God is visibly occupied with great things, but we do not see him govern." ^ " Socrates," says the same author, " engaged his disciples to do nothing impious, shameful, criminal, not only in presence of men, but in view of the gods, from whose regards one could not escape."" Of the just man, Plato adds : — " We must then believe of the just man, that whether he be assailed by poverty, or by sickness, or by any other seeming evil, it will all in the end turn out for good, either during his life or after his death. For he cannot be deserted by the gods who has ear- nestly striven to be a just man, and who by the cultivation of virtue has endeavored to become like God so far as man can." ^ " God is the measure of all things in a sense far higher than any man, as they say, can ever hope to be ; and he who would be dear to God, must as far as possible be like him, and such as he is.""* " And this is the conclusion, which is also the noblest and truest of all sayings, that for the good man to offer sacrifice to the gods, and hold converse with them by means of prayers and offerings and every kind of service, is the noblest and best of all things, and also the most conducive to a happy life." ^ The future life, with both thinkers, enters into all their beliei's. " And whenever," says Plato, " the soul receives more of good and evil from her own energy and the strong influence of others, — when she has communion with the Divine, she is carried into 1 Xenoplion : Memorabilia, i.x. 3. - Ibid., i. 4. 3 Republic, x. 612. * Laws, iv. 716. ^ Ibid. 114 THE UNKNOWN GOD. another and better place, which is also divine and perfect in holi- ness ; and when she has communion with evil, then she also changes the place of her life (for that is the justice of the gods who inhabit heaven)." ^ " O youth or young man who fancy that you are neglected by the gods, know that if you become worse, you shall go to the worse souls, or if better to the better, and in every suc- cession of life and death you will do and suffer what like may fitly suffer at the hands of like. " This is a divine justice, which neither you nor any other unfor- tunate will ever glory in escaping, and which the ordaining powers have especially ordained. Take good heed of them, for a day will come when they will take heed of you. If you say I am small and will creep into the depths of the earth, or I am high and will fly up to heaven, you are not so small or so high but that you shall pay the fitting penalty, either in the world below or yet in some more savage place still, whither you shall be conveyed." ^ Etertial Beauty. — " But what if man had eyes to see the true beauty (the Divine Beauty, I mean, pure and clear and unalloyed, not clogged with the pollutions of mortality and all the colors and vanides of human life), thither looking and holding converse with the true beauty, divine and simple ! Do you not see that in that communion, only beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold, not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become a friend of God and be immortal, if a mortal man may?"^ " It is the clear view of truth, it is the possession of eternal beauty, it is the contemplation of absolute good which make up the life of the just and happy." Immortality. — " If the soul be immortal, then does she stand in need of care, not only during this period which we call life, but for all time ; and we may well consider that there is terrible danger 1 Odyss., xix. 43. 2 Laws, x. 904. Jowett's trans. 3 Symposium, 212. THE RELIGION OF SOCRATES AND PLATO. II5 in neglecting her. If death indeed were an escape from all things, then were it a great gain for the wicked, for it would be a release from the body, and from their own sin, and from the soul at the same time ; but now as the soul pioves to be immortal, there is no other escape from evils to come, nor any other safety, but in her attaining to the highest virtue and wisdom ; for she goes to the world below possessed of nothing but whatever training or education she may have received, and this we are told becomes either the greatest help or the greatest hindrance to the dead at the very first instant of his journey thither." ^ " And when she, the soul, has entered into the company of other souls, if she be found impure, or to have done impure deeds, whether stained with wanton murders, or with other crimes akin to these, which are the works of kindred souls, then do the other souls flee from her and avoid her, nor will any consent to be her companion or her guide ; . . . but the soul which has gone through life reasonably and purely, with the gods as companions and guides, comes to dwell in her fitting abode." - " That man should be of good courage in regard to his soul, who in his lifetime has bidden farewell to all the pleasures and ornaments of the body as foreign to and likely rather to work evil against him, and who, having striven after knowledge, and adorned his soul with no foreign ornaments, but with those which alone befit her, — moderation and justice, and freedom and truth, — thus awaits his journey to the world below." ^ " Well, then, the soul so prepared departs into that invisible region which is of its own nature, — the region of the Divine, the Immortal, the Wise ; and then its lot is to be happy in a state in which it is freed from fears and wild desires, and the other evils of humanity, and spends the rest of its existence with the gods, as those are taught to expect who are initiated in the Mysteries." ^ 1 Ph;rdo, 107. Miss Mason's translation. - Ibid., 108. 3 Ibid., 114. " Ibid., 68. Il6 THE UXKXOWN GOD. Socrates' last words best show his faith: — " You, too, O judges, it behooves to be of good hope about death, and to believe that this at least is true, — that there can no evil befall a good man, whether he be alive or dead, nor are his affairs uncared for by the gods." ^ The two great Greek thinkers, in their religious phi- losophy, struck on a conception of the universe which no Egyptian or Oriental philosophers (so far as we know) had ever grasped, and which rests on the same basis with the philosophy of the Christian. They found that the^ moral universe in its inner structure rests on the foundations of sympathy, love, justice, and truth. Or, in other words, that the nature of man is so constituted that his highest health and happiness are only to be reached in unselfish- ness and truth and justice. Whatever appearances may show, that man can alone be happy and sound who is true and good. He may be a rich and successful t\Tant, or the great -king himself; but if he is false and unjust and selfish, his soul is covered with wounds and sores and scars, and there is no health or happiness in him. The wicked man cannot by any possibility ever be truly happy or successful. The nature of man is made for goodness. But as human life is not constituted to show this true state of things, the future life reveals the soul as it is, without regard to circumstances or condition; and punishment, or 1 Apology, 41. THE RELIGION OF SOCRATES AND PLATO. W] probation, begins there the true recovery to health and a restoration to soundness. From these premises Socrates is represented as draw- ing these foundation-principles, which equally belong to Christianity: (i) That it is better (or happier) to suffer wrong than to do wrong ; (2) That it is better for the wrong-doer to suffer punishment than to escape punish- ment; (3) That it is better to be than to seem, and all false seemings are to be shunned. ^ From this structure of the moral universe Plato infers that its Maker is of like nature ; that he is the ideal of love and justice, of sympathy and purity and truth ; that his happiness is also in beneficence and in truth. I\Ian is made to be like him, and by loving eternal beauty in God to become as he is. He holds, as we have seen, that nothing can turn out evil to him that loves God. Death will only bring the soul nearer to its Creator. And as this world does not in its affairs and issues fully realize this plan and idea, the Divine Behig has constituted pun- ishments, purifications, and transmigrations to restore the health of the soul, or to satisfy justice. Man in this life may be led towards health and soundness by pain and penalty; but his highest recovery is brought about by union and likeness to the Divine Original. The great Creator being such must be happy in mak- ing his creatures happier and better; and hence the great ^ Gor