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A
GOD IN CREATION,
PART SECOND:
God ExTHROiXED ix Redemption.
THE ANSWER OF HISTORY
TO
MODERN THEORIES OF THE EVOLUTION OF CHRISTIANITY.
A CLERGYMAN /
OF THE
Protestant Episcopal Church.
NEW YORK :
THOMAS WHITTAKER,
2 AND 3 Bible House.
1888.
Ou
Copyright
1888,
BY THE AUTHOE.
"'Vi»J5.^
■
INTEODUCTIOK
The treatment of '' God in Creation " leads to the consideration of God in Eedemption. It is a theme of surpassing concern to man. The grand fact is as old as Eden. Authentic history has preserved traditions about the Serpent and a promised Eedeemer, the first Sabbath and Worship ; disclosing the longings and yearnings of man after Immortality ; how it might be secured, and recounting intimations and suggestions of One who would redeem lost man. The establishment of a spir- itual kingdom was later announced, a kingdom which should endure forever^ and in which God will be eter- nally enthroned. It is of supreme importance.
Avoiding technical expressions^ I have endeavored to put the reader in possession of reliable information, giving the results of latest discoveries. Some dates between lifoah and Abraham, may be left with an inter- rogation. Certainly Professor Sayce does not reconcile his '' bloom of Accadian poetry between 2300 B.C. and 1700 B.C.'' with his new date for Sargon I., viz. 3750 B.C., who was later than Abraham and Chedorlaomer ! It also requires another era for Sargon's library- collec- tions of Accadian literature. Such differences, however, do not touch the existence of similar ideas respecting Eeligion and Eternal Life among the early nations. And it is with them that we have to deal ; with Adam's ransom from death before his first-born child ; with a provided Salvation while man was yet in solidaric unity ; thus illustrating that God who created man also re- deemed him as soon as fallen. That He originally taught men how to live and how to prepare for a future life was the belief of the first ages. It is attested by Hebrew Scripture, by the monuments of Egypt, by the inscriptions and religion of Assyria and Babylonia.
GOD ENTHEONED IN EEDEMPTION.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
I. Legends and Expectations of a Eedeemeb 5
n. The Fikst Sabbath and PETsnTiVE "^okship 38
III. Immoetalitt in Legends and Longings 71
lY. The Lamb Slain for Man's Kedemption 92
V. The SpmiTUAii Kingdom a Realm of Eansomed Souls. . 107
Conclusion 121
CONTENTS OF GOD IN CREATION.
page
I. ChEISTIANITY NOT EVOLYED FEOM GhOSTS ANT) HeEO-
WOESHIP 9
II. God in Ceeation and in Wobship , 36
III. Legends about God and Ceeation 61
rV. Legends about Satan and Evil Spieits 80
V. Deluge Legends and Pagan Deification 97
Conclusion — Testimony of Tacitus 112
I.
LEGENDS AND EXPECTATIONS OF A RE- DEEMER.
It is certaiQ historical fact, so far as we can trace things np, that there is one God, the Creator and moral Governor of the world, and that mankind is in a state of religion. This was received in the first ages. And there is no hint or intimation in history that this system was first reasoned out, rather there is express his- torical or traditional evidence as ancient as history that it was first taught by revelation. Indeed, the state of religion in the first ages of which we have any account seems to suppose and imply that revelation was the original of it (Bishop Butler, '' An- alogy,'' P. 1, 6 and P. 2, 2).
It is sound doctrine to give some weight to cumulative evi- dence, since, when a thing is not improbable in itself, it surely adds much to the argument in its favor that facts which tend to prove it come from many different and independent sources, from those who are quite ignorant of the interest that attaches to their discovery, as well as from trained observers who are fully aware of the importance of every additional fact and the weight of each scrap of evidence (A. E. Wallace, in Nineteenth Century, 1887).
Moses proclaimed the eternal law of right and of righteousness. Based on the character of the soul and of correct ethics, he details the covenant obligations which man sustains toward God, and God toward man. Mutual loyalty was its prominent feature, characteristic in both parties, Israel and Jahveh Elohim. But as man was prone to err, God made provision for the erring.
6 LEGENDS AND EXPEC2ATI0NS
Ordinary offences were to be atoned for by purification and sacrifices ; but soul-sins must be visited on the offender^ and had no provided remedy.
The Egyptian had no proper idea of atonement^ and his deliverance from future sufferiug was based on his improved character by various transmigrations. His religion was thought to prepare him for another life and to secure the favor of God in the present. Early Babylonians held both these views in a mixed way. They sacrificed to God, sang hymns to Him, and wor- shipped Him in various forms, in apparent confidence of acceptance. Of this more presently.
Eecords of the creation and fall of man suggest that he was saved from utter destruction at the Deluge, because God had promised man in Eden that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3 : 15). It was a promise ever remembered. It went forth among mankind in the first ages, and may be traced in the legends and mythologies of the descend- ants of Noah. Even before the birth of this Expected One He was anticipated, was called the Desire, or the thing desired, of all nations (Hag. 2:7), words which imply more than that ^* the desirable things, or riches of the nations," should flow to the new temple at Jerusalem. Very expressive and significant are the words : " Shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land, and shake all nations," that the riches of those nations may proclaim the glory of Jah- veh, and all peoples believe and serve Him. Doubtless the prophecy refers to the restored temple and its wor- ship, and also to Him who from that place would give everlasting peace. Already Babylon had been shaken to its foundations for the restoration of the Jews. Other conquests of Cyrus and his successors only certi-
OF A REDEEMER. 7
fied to that. Darius and Alexander confirmed their privileges. But when the One long desired came to His temple, a generation did not pass till both temple and country were laid in ruins by the Komans. Presently 1 shall adduce evidence from the three great families of mankind, in order to learn what expectations they had of Him.
It is often stated as a law of humanity, that some hero, benefactor, or reformer — the Moses of his age — is sure to arise upon national emergency : now an Horatius at the Bridge, now a Leonidas at the Pass, now an Alfred or a Bruce, now a Washington or a Bolivar, now a Luther, a Wilberf orce, a Lincoln. Thus Noah became a saviour from a flood of waters ; thus Abraham delivered Lot from a doomed city ; thus prophets and reformers saved the peoples for whom they pleaded and died, if only for a generation. Wit- ness Jonah and Nahum at Nineveh. Witness Elijah with Ahab. Witness the Maccabean Princes in Judea. But none of them had previously been heralded ; Jesus alone was the subject of long preparation. Indeed, the remedial principle runs through nature, and is every- where operative. On all sides we see provision for the healing of wrongs and injuries. It exists in plants and in animals, in fish and fowl — in all may be found a remedy for fracture and the process of healing. Nay, it seems to be an abiding quality in the character of Jehovah, that He will not destroy where He can save, in accordance with the eternal laws of nature and of right- eoQsness. This explains, as nothing else can, the world's expectation of a Saviour, more or -less pro- nounced among Semites, Hamites, Japhites or Aryans, during many ages. For, we may ask, was there not a basis of truth in the legend of Berosus, that Xisutbros 1*
8 LEGENDS AND EXPECTATIONS
or Noah, just before the Deluge, was commanded to bury all written documents known to him, at Sippara, a city near Babylon, so that the previous knowledge of mankind might be preseryed ; and that upon leaving the Ark the saved family should return to Babylon, dis- inter those buried writings, and transmit them to pos- terity ? Hence Ifoah's descendants soon learned all the wisdom of the antediluvians, their facts and their legends. Be this as it may^ much of previous knowl- edge was saved and transmitted through Noah and his sons, which may easily account for the almost verbal exactness of ideas and thoughts which found early ex- pression in the different families of man. Hence were derived common knowledge of the Fall by a serpent's tempting man to sin, knowledge or legends of the Tree of Life, and expulsion from Eden. From hence arose ideas about the serpent and his evil work against man- kind. Hence arose fear of him and efforts at propitia- tion ; and thence by a short step men came to adore animals. Ignoring this origin, which to my mind is logical and historical, Mr. Spencer wanders adrift, like one pursuing an ignis fatuus, to account for animal worship among mankind. Whereas it seems the nat- ural outcome of mistakes and misconceptions in some primitive races, of Egyptians and of Hindus. Thus we are told that when Satan was ejected from Paradise he leaped over a mountain, and alighted on the spot where Cabul now stands ! Wherefore the inhabitants of that place are called the offspring of Satan. (See Coleman's '' Mythology of the Hindus,^' p. 208, London, 1832.)
But the Hebrews never fell into such misunderstand- ings. So St. Paul says Adam was not deceived by the serpent, but the woman (1 Tim. 2 : 14). When afflicted with an attack of deadly serpents in the wilder-
OF A BEDEEMEB. 9
ness, Moses was directed to make a serpent of brass^ set it on a pole or standard, and say to the sufferers, Look upon the serpent and live ! It is the first recorded homoeopathic treatment of history. As a lesson to be long remembered, that brazen serpent was preserved to the reign of Hezekiah, who destroyed the Nebushtan abomination ; for Israel had learned to burn incense before it. (See Num. 21 : 6-9 ; the " Speaker's Commentary ;" 2 Kings 18 : 4.) In St. John 3 : 14 our Lord makes that brazen serpent a type of Himself, and of the healing virtues proceeding from Him. In St. Luke 10 : 19 He gives His disciples authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. So in His last words to St. John in vision, He represents that old serpent, the dragon, the Devil and Satan, as seized and bound for a thousand years ; both captured and crashed (Rev. 20 : 2). So we find repeated references to the serpent as an evil worker against man, from his disobedience in Eden to his punishment and deliverance ; and he becomes a type of salvation and a trophy of the Redeemer. There is, therefore, no his- toric reason why we should not accept an actual serpent in the Garden, who tempted Mother Eve. Certainly she sinned in the crucial test, and rather than lose her and be left alone, Adam also sinned with her. But be the real temptation what it may, both Adam and Eve dis- obeyed the law which had been given them. They lost their conscious uprightness, and hid themselves among the trees, when the Divine voice spoke again to them. Yet with their punishment and expulsion from Eden, the promise ^of a full salvation was made, and that the Seed of the woman should crush the serpent's head. It is the Gospel in Genesis. It is the hope of the world. The records of a common- practice indicate a common
10 LEGENDS AND EXPECTATIONS
belief and origin. By stralagem the Old Serpent called the Devil may have bodied himself in a cunning ser- pent, and so have more readily deceived Eve. Her ex- perience had not caused her to be suspicious of the living creatures about her in the Garden. Why should she fear evil of any kind, or from any source ? Not a tear had then been shed, not a pain felt, not a disap- pointment experienced. Only one prohibition had been given : Eat not of that tree ! But childlike she forgot, when enticed and persuaded ; she yielded to the promise of becoming as a God in knowledge, not supposing it was the dreadful knowledge of sin. So the archdeceiver triumphed over a beautiful but inexperienced woman. In fact, but a small conquest, yet it involved stupendous consequences. Eve sinned through her emotions and desires ; Adam through his affections and his will. In him it was wilful sin. In both it was transgression of Divine law, and law known to them. Bravely, we may say, they both suffered the penalty and accepted their lot : she in submissive love, he in labor and in sorrow (Gen. 3 : 16, 17). The promise of a Conqueror to be born of her was large encouragement ; so in the birth of Cain she may have thought that she had received the expected man from Jahveh, not foreseeing that it would be another son, Seth, who should become a wor- shipper of Him, and with his family and associates call upon Him in public assemblies. Later on it was prom- ised that God should dwell in the tents of Shem, and enlarge Japheth, whose descendants became the great colonizers of the world. Shem indeed was the centre and the representative of true religion among men. In Israel especially we see a people the most *' self-enclosed and self-contained'^ of any ancient nation. They achieved more than any other in the way of theology
OF A REDEEMER. 11
and spiritual culture. ^^ There is nothing among other nations which may be compared with the Psalms, Job, and other inspired singers ; nor with Isaiah and other prophets. Isolated Israel produced a literature which in pathos and sublimity far distanced the achieyements of Babylonians, Egyptians, Phoenicians, and the Aryan peoples. The beginning and the end of Hebrew history tend to this lofty aim ; and the manifold changes, even the confusions and perversities which are apparent throughout the long thread of her history, ever tend to the solution of the great problem which the human mind was to work out here. The aim was lofty enough to occupy a thousand years in noblest struggles to attain. The history of Shem in Judea illustrates the growth of true religion, rising through all stages to perfection ; pressing on through all conflicts to the highest victory, and finally revealing itself in full glory and power, in order to spread irresistibly from this centre, never again to be lost, but to become the eternal possession and blessing of all nations. In the closing scene of all antiq- uity, it still maintained its place, reacting upon the world through its spiritual power and advancing to the highest end conceivable. It was a goal in striving to reach which most nations lost their way far too early. After two thousand years' struggle, this one people alone actually possessed it. How effectively they pre- served the true religion from degenerating into false- hood, their literature and traditions clearly show.'' Thus Ewald, the German rationalist, laid the founda- tion for answering Mr. Spencer, even before the treas- ures of Chaldea were deciphered. Again he says : ^' A story essentially the same and sprung from one occur- rence is multiplied by successive changes in details into two or more discordant narratives, which being
13 LEGENDS AND EXPECTATIONS
reproduced in different places and then subsequently brought together^ finally appears as so many different events.'^ Hence arises confusion in history, but such history can neither authenticate itself nor overturn the true original. Once more from Ewald : '^ Hebrew tradition possesses a vivid sense of truth and fidelity, of sobriety and modesty, and an aversion to everything immoderate, vain, and frivolous, by virtue of which it may be regarded as the diametrical opposite of all heathen, especially of Egyj)tian and Indian traditions" {" History of Israel," voL i., p. 31).
The first part of this treatise presented in brief the answer of history, as read in the early annals of man- kind touching their ideas of God and His worship. We considered enough of ethnic or national origins to learn where to look and what to accept, and that we may safely disregard all echoes of races here and there, which are not Mstorically traceable to one of the three sons of Noah, All accumulated puttings from Bongo and Samoan, from African and Malagasy, from Australians and Mongolians, from Scythians, Tartars, and Chinese, from American Indians, Aztecs, Toltecs, and Peruvians, have no more relevancy to the evolution of Christianity than to a definition of the Xortli Pole ! It is through Noah and his descendants that we must trace the true development of religion. It is from Shem, in whose tents God promised to dwell, and from Japheth, whom God promised to enlarge ; yea, from Hamites, who early went astray, and accepted debased views of theology and a sensuous worship. The true religion has nothing to do with any other people, if such existed, even if derived from a fourth or a fifth son of Noah. It has nothing to do with pre-Adamites nor with men of the glacial period. Our sympathies and interest may go out to all
OF A BEDEEMER, 13
who seem to be human and to the higher orders of Yerte- brates ; but our argument only requires that "we consider the covenant religion of the Hebrews, vyhich was per- fected in Jesus Christ. Yet we shall find intimations and prophecies in paganism which were doubtless derived from a common origin before mankind separated and branched off into the three great families above named. Such findings and unconscious evidences have surprised the writer, while they have strengthened his faith in Christianity and assurance in its promises and its power. We shall proceed on historic grounds alone in order to reach indisputable conclusions. With Adam and his posterity, with Noah and his descendants^ we stand upon strong foundations. From them we derive the Old Testament and the New Testament. We may trace the serpent in various ethnic traditions and the legends of some ancient saviours, whose home and origin were Eden, with expectations arising from a Conqueror there promised. Tribes and nations came to ador^ the serpent because of this, and because of its power of good and of evil. How to obtain the good and avoid the evil was of the utmost importance to mankind. The narra- tive of the serpent in Genesis illustrates Isa. 27 : 1, when predicting the overthrow and removal of all evils, moral, personal, and national, from the chosen people : *^ In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent ; and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea." The Revised Version and that of Dr. Briggs change not the sense for our purpose, which is to trace the legends ethnically. Eef- erences to the serpent, generally as an evil worker against man, are frequent in Scripture. Semitic Plioe- nicians represent their god Noum by a serpent. They
14 LEGENDS AND EXPECTATIONS
had coins showing an altar with its fire ascending to the sky, and a serpent on each side of the altar. They had coins representing a youth standing between two ser- pents erect ; coins also having a tree between two altars, and a serpent coiled around the tree ; coins representing serpent worship and serpent crushing.* Semitic Baby- lonians colonized ancient Assyria. The bricks of those lands tell us of the god Bel, who fought against Tiamat, the old serpent who Avas driven from heaven ; and of Merodach, who was the active agent in creation, ever subordinate to his Father Ea, who became a great bene- factor to mankind — in later legends more warlike — going about the world to set right all that appeared wrong ; seeking to remove curses and spells, and in difficult cases applj^ing to his Father how to combat the influence of evil spirits. Thus Bel Merodach after pro- longed struggles conquered the dragon Tiamat, the " scaly one," whose story was well known to dwellers on the Euphrates and the Tigris, Classic versions of that story pointed the pen of Milton ages before modern discoveries of the original legends. Egyptian sculptures often show Horus standing in a boat, and piercing the head of a serpent with his spear, as he rises from the water. The great contest between Horus and Set, or Typho, is said to have lasted three days and nights, during which the gods changed themselves into the form of animals, probably lions, and then renewed the terrible struggle (Wilkinson, vol. iii., pp. 148-152). It was from this legend that the Greeks derived their story of the destruction of the serpent Python by Apollo. Doubtless their mythical war of the Titans was similarly
* Such coins are in the New York Museum of Art, and repro- duced in a cut of "Wide Awake " for April, 1888.
OF A REDEEMER. 15
derived, or from Babylonian legends. It is found in the records of all ancient religions, and probably arose from variations of the serpent in Eden. '' Poet, proph- et, physician, harper, god of victory, and angel of death all in one, Apollo/' says Rawlinson, '^ is always on the side of right, ever true to Zeus, and not much inferior in power. It is, perhaps, a fanciful analogy which has traced him to the Second Person of the Christian Trinity ; but the analogy indicates the pure and lofty character of the god, equalling, if not transcending the highest idea of divinity which has been elaborated by unaided human wisdom." And, says Friedriech, ^' this triad of Zeus, Athene, and Apollo bears an unmistak- able analogy to the Christian Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — Zeus the God Father, Athene the Holy Ghost, and Apollo the Son of God, the Declarer of the Divine will.'' In the same strain Mr. Gladstone says : '^ In Apollo are represented the legendary antici- pations of a person to come, in whom should be com- bined all the great offices in which God the Son is now made known to man, as the Light of our paths, the Physician of our diseases, the Judge of our misdeeds, and the Conqueror and Disarmer, but not yet Abolisher of death.'' Max Mliller, however, pronounces it "' blas- phem.y to consider these fables of the heathen as cor- rupted and misinterpreted fragments of a Divine reve- lation once granted to mankind." But he seems to for- get that the Bible and the brick inscriptions represent the Creator as making an address to the newly created man, instructing him in his duties, and, according to G. Smith's translation, '' pointing out the glory of his state" {'' Chaldean Acct.," 14 and 15). Even with divinely imparted knowledge, man was still without experience, and so not forearmed to meet emergencies, especially
16 LEGENDS AND EXPECTATIONS
those arising from a hostile power, such as Satanic in- fluence in the serpent. M. Lenormant finds the evil serpent among Phoenicians and Greeks, on the Euphrates and in Persia, in Egypt and in Genesis, and that he was defeated and imprisoned in the abyss ; thus illustrating primitiye traditions, and reappearing in the Apocalypse (12 and 20). If Ormuzd found a " delicious spot " for the home of his favored children, the Iranians, Ahriman ruins it by sending a poisonous serpent to vex them. This evil principle is ever opposed to the good in man and in nature, typifying the moral strife between good and evil in creation and between light and darkness. He is no mere storm-cloud, the emblem of chaos, but he symbolizes evil powers in their widest significance. So Lenormant suggests that a serpent-form may have been given to the tempter in Genesis, in order to express a fact of large importance, and so the fall of man by means of a serpent impressed itself on the race as an indelible truth, which cannot be effaced, and which noth- ing outside of Eevelation has been able to explain [Con- temporary Review, 1879). From Eden to Babylon the legend early travelled, and there found deep lodgment. Babylonian gods were acknowledged beyond the Tigris. Belitan, from old Bel, is found among Iranians, whose god was Ormuzd, with Mithra, the brilliant, and the Mediator of the later Persian system. According to Hardwick, the Persians expected a Mediator, whom they named Sosiosh, the Benefactor ; greater than any hero- prophet, who should work out redemption for man, and sing the glories of Ormuzd. He is represented as kneel- ing upon a prostrate bull, which he slays for sacrifice, although attacked by a dog, a serpent, and a scorpion. The sacrifice was of fructifying virtue. What was thus taught of Mithra, the heretic Mani taught of Christ.
OF A REDEEMEB. 17
His system and the heathen form of Mithraism flour- ished in the mother-city of the Koman Empire, and it was planted by the ardor of foreign legions in the Roman capital of Britain. Hence certain customs there, (See '^ Christ and other Masters,'' pp. 568-571, andJSTeander.)
Spiegel suggests a liturgic and sacrificial service to Ormuzd as existing in Persia at an early period ; that the elemental powers of nature, eyen the spirit of the worshipper, came to be invoked ; also the beneficent geuii of the invisible world. (See Hard wick, p. 528.) We know that from Homer to Milton, and later, poets were wont to invoke the Muse, who was but an imag- inary goddess, to inspire their song. There was no polytheism in that.
The earliest departure from the worship of One Supreme and invisible God arose in Chaldea, where the sun was first deified and worshipped. Adoration of the Majesty of Heaven extended to Persia, to Egypt, and to India. But it arose on the Euphrates. We have ample evidence of commercial and other relations between all these nations and with the Hebrews. Thus Moses becomes the Menu of the Hindus, and inspiration is accorded to him. So Zoroaster the First—if indeed there were two of that name in Persia — claimed to be inspired. Truths of theology passed from one people to another. Thus India possessed similar thoughts with Israel, touching the Unity of Deity and eternal life. Hence the resemblance of early Hindu writings with our Bible. But, says Maurice (''India,'' vol. ii., pp. ^88-90), '^ a selfish priesthood led to corruption of doctrine in order to please and control a sensuous people. They taught metempsychosis and idol worship. They fostered adoration of the symbol in place of the spiritual orig- inal, and to honor the Rajah in place of the Creator.
18 LEGENDS AND EXPECTATIONS
Brahmans fattened on the spoils of superstition, and exulted in their success. They covered the walls of sacred caverns with symbolic figures and statues of Eajahs ; bade the people approach them with reverence and recount their exploits. Figures and emblems of the mercy and goodness of God were offset b}^ those representing His justice and wrath, in order to terrify the beholders. Thus they were awed by means of false deities.'^ No wonder that Brahmans finally despaired of all avatars which their imaginations had created ; no wonder that Buddhists sought comfort and hope in some other Light of Asia than Gautama revealed ; that Persians began to desire a more helpful Sosiosh, of un- failing brilliancy, whom their Magi discerned in the star which pointed to the Manger of Bethlehem. He was the Brightness of His Father's glory, the Brother and the Saviour of mankind. Persians indeed worshipped '' the Victorious One '' who drove Ahriman, in the form of a two-footed serpent, from heaven ; who was believed to be the guardian of men in life and their judge after death ; who ever opposed the evil work of Mithra the Bad. For their dualism produced two Mithras, the Bad Mithra and the Good Mithra, the latter being con- substantial with Ahuramazda.
But there are other considerations which account for resemblances in doctrine and symbol : Noah identified with Menu, and Moses with the First Zoroaster, or his contemporary, while the Greek Pythagoras was a dis- ciple of the second great Persian teacher. Numa, Buddha and Confucius, Thales, Pythagoras and Solon, Daniel, Ezekiel and Jeremiah, formed a galaxy of famous men acting upon society, all but one of whom flourished within a single century. Abraham at Beer- sheba and Scythians in their mountain wilds worshipped
OF A REDEEMER. 19
God in groves of oak and gloom ; Druids in Ganl^ Britain^ and Mona, and Brahmans in India so worshipped ; sim- ilar sacrifices were offered : first, animals ; later, human victims. The evolution was from the offering of Cain and the sacrifice of Abel to the child-victims before Moloch and death in the Ganges.
<* In Persia's hollowed caves, the Lord of day Pours thro' the central gloom his fervid ray.'*
The setting sun, the rising sun, or the sun in noonday splendor represented God to the Persian. This fact and that the Jews had long been captive dwellers in that country give special significance to the words of Mai. 4 : 2, *'Unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings ;'^ evidently referring to the winged disk symbol of Ormuzd. Mithra, too, another name for the Sun-God, was worshipped in Iran and in India. He was the middle character or Mediator of the Persian system. We also find him, according to standard writers, in the Vishnu, in Krishna, and Agni of the Hindus ; while in Egypt Osiris and Vulcan were his representative and equivalent, the Enlightener and Purifier. Those who adored him offered sacred fire, kindled by the solar ray, on their altars. A king in reverent posture oflBciating at a fire altar is strikingly portrayed. (See plate, p. 97, of Maurice's second volume of '' Indian Antiquities/') The frontispiece of that volume exhibits such altar with the sacred flame ascending, kindled by the solar ray, and kept ever burning. Doubtless the thought that the heavenly -bodies represented the Deity led Aryans, Phoenicians, and Egyptians to regard the stars as ani- mated intelligences, and to give them* adoration. They were the source of large beneficence. Abraham himself
20 LEGENDS AND EXPECTATIONS
was a student of the heavens, and when he made his old and trusty servant swear to deal rightly by him in the matter of Isaac and Eebekah, he invoked the Lord God of heaven to witness it (Gen. 24 : 3, 7). And out of heaven came the voice which promised to multiply his seed as the stars of heaven (22 : 15, 17). Indeed, St. Paul declared to the Romans that the invisible things of God, even His eternal power and Godhead, are clearly seen in the works of creation (1 : 20). True, there were opposing forces, spirits of evil and dark-visaged demons oppugnant to Brahm ; Ahriman oppugnant to Ormuzd and to Mithra the Good ; in Egypt Typho was oppug- nant to Osiris the Benefactor. And in each nation this hostile being assumed the form of an evil serpent, and was overthrown. In Greece, near a thousand years be- fore our era, Hesiod sang of the war in heaven '' against Titans in dire combat, when the sea roared, earth re- sounded, the wide heaven trembled throughout its vast ex- tent, and hurled forth the Titan brood' ^ {" Theogony," lines 883-939). Some centuries later ^schylus gave another version of
** The furious Typhon, who 'gainst all the gods made war ; His horrid jaws with serpent-hiss breathed slaughter ; From his eyes the gorgon-glare of baleful lightnings flashed, As his proud force would seize the empire of the sky : A bolt pierced thro* his soul, and withered all his strength."
— Prometheus Bound.
Every celebration of the Pythian games told the assembled Greeks of their Apollo who had killed the huge serpent Python, said to have been evolved from the mud of Deucalion's deluge. So in memory of the conflict Apollo instituted the Pythian games to testify of his triumph. It was the echo of Eden heard in iittica. Before the Exodus Greece had dealings with
OF A REDEEMER. 21
Egypt, learned of the conquests of Horus over Typho, of his standing on crocodiles playing with serpents, and how he turned the serpent back in triumph. (See Dunc- ker, '' Hist. Antiq.,'^ vol. i., p. 60.) Thus we find him the same evil worker in all mythologies before Christ, either as Tiamat or Typho, Ahriman or Mithra the Bad, Titan or Typhon, and by all represented as a dragon, serpent, or gorgon. It explains the origin of animal worship, which was to propitiate him and escape his wrath. So animals came to symbolize the Deity : a ram for Noum and for Jupiter, a goat for Pan, a bull for Osiris, a vulture for Isis, a hawk for Horus, an ape for Kama, a ram also for Kneph, etc. Egyptians carved a serpent over the doors and windows of their temples, perhaps to signify that devout worshippers would thus triumph over evil ; for had not Hebrews found healing virtue by looking at a serpent of brass ? He was, in fact, domesticated by many dwellers on the Nile. Greeks and Romans regarded him as the emblem of beneficence. Of interest to us Aryans is the fact that at Abury, near Salisbury, a temple or a burial enclosure was constructed at an early period, on the serpentine plan, similar in base outline to that of Stonehenge. (See plate in Cole- man's ** Hindus,'' p. 105.) In Egypt, India, ancient Britain, in Mexico and Peru, the serpent was honored or even worshipped, and temples adorned with him, or patterned after him when circled in repose. It suggests the old antagonism of good and evil, and perhaps that even the evil possessed some good qualities which would triumph in the end over the evil. In Japan a red fox was the emblem of the Devil, while a three-headed idol symbolized the Good Being, paralleled by the globe, the wing, and the serpent of Egypt, whose hymns to Osiris disclose a Triune Deity. Coleman says the craft
32 LEGENDS AND EXPECTATIONS
and cupidity of priests in India and Egypt led to the degradation of the symbols and to debasement of the ' mysteries of religion. Cayern sanctuaries and conse- crated groYCS in both countries^ in Britain and in Ger- many, testify to a common origin, if not to devotion, in Brahmans and in Druids. In Persia also prayers were offered in sacred grottoes and in embowering for- ests, and men chanted their orisons to their beneficent Creator. Zoroaster in Bactria and Buddha in India taught similar practices and doctrines.
EXTENSIVE USE OE EIRE IN" WORSHIP.
The mystic letters which formed the word 0 M mean solar fire. The orb of God, or fire, kindled the sacred flame upon the altars of Persia to her God. Thus God aids the Iranian in propitiation of Him ; so in India, though the people may not have understood the full import of their sacrificial flame. But in a sense it was mediatorial in its character. It was of God, inter- ceding with God for the benefit of him who offered it. Thus adoration of Osiris, Mitlira, Vishnu, Agni, and Vulcan was adoration of God the Supreme by mediation. Perverted in methods, it still retained the essential ele- ment of propitiatory sacrifice. This is a point worth remembering when considering the use of the solar ray in kindling the altar-fires of India and Persia, and in the worship paid to Mithra and other fire gods. It had similar reference to a Mediator with the slain animals of Israel and Judah, but it was not according to the Divine appointment as instituted by Moses. Yet we may ask, Why deny the value of such sacrifice for those with whom the covenant of Moses was not made ? These studies suggest that the ordinary treatment of this question has been on too narrow a basis. Salvation
OF A BEDEEMER. 23
was of the Jews ; Jesus was of the family of David ; *' but ill every nation he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him" (Acts 10 : 35). Are we not therefore justified in applying these words of St. Peter to Persians, Hindus, and Egyptians in their feeling after God and worship of Him according to their own forms? Three times a day the Brahmans and three times a day the Egyptian priests and three times a day the devout Hebrew offered sacrifice, burned in- cense, or prayed aloud to their respective ideas of Deity ; nay, the Egyptian priest rose and bathed at midnight, in obedience to his ritual. Eemains of temples in Babylon still certify that her people worshipped the Sun and other heavenly bodies. Even in Jerusalem the sacri- fice daily offered was in part a burnt offering. Thus in the single element oifire in worship and of the bodies or names which symbolized fire, Chaldeans and Pales- tinians, Persians and Hindus, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans followed a common practice derived from a similar origin. With them Fire ever symbolized purity and purification. Fire purified the worshipper of the Sun, which was supposed to be fire ; purified the wor- shipper of Ormuzd and Mithra, symbolized by fire ; purified the worshipper of Osiris, the Sun = Fire ; purified the worshipper of Brahm as represented by Vishnu and Agni, who stood for Fire. Indeed, by all these peoples Fire, Incense, and the Sun, under some name, were ele- ments of worship, or of the worshipped, for purposes of purification. They had sacrificial fires upon the altar and sacramental fires for cleansing from sin and pro- pitiation of God (Coleman, p. 105). Was it thus that Job beheld the shining sun or the moon in her bright- ness? Why was he asked if he could bind or restrain the sweet influences of Pleiades? (31 : 26 ; 38 : 31.) Or 2
24 LEGENDS AND EXPECTATIONS
was the writer a Sabsean who gave a ChaldeaD^ Persian, or Indian coloring to his book ? Inscriptions tell us of a '' Mediator and benefactor, a Protector who does good to men, who would raise men to life again." There is evidence that the *' Babylonian consciousness presup- poses a conviction of sin, so requiring a saviour ; hence arose the idea of vicarious punishment. Belief in the original purity and innocence of the race, which was lost and ruined by Tiamat, was the primitive belief." Man sought to regain it. Conscious of his sin, he is ready to give '' the head of his child for his own head, the brow of his child for his own breast;'^ suggesting human victims in sacrifice ? Even Bel is said to have offered up his only son in sacrifice, which recalls the case of Isaac, while the substituted ram suggests that the incident occurred in March (Sayce's " Babylonian Lit.," pp. 45-55). Fortunately, we can much easier define the period of Abraham than that of Bel's sacri- fice, and the line of international communication in those days indicates that Chaldeans may have got the incident of Isaac and the ram from Phoenicians, rather than that Abraham and Moses got it from Babylonia. In any case, Abraham's example was an illustration of Heaven's prohibition. But earlier still, why was Noah's offering in gratitude for his deliverance a liirnt sacrifice^ whose odor was sweet to Jehovah ? Indeed, we discover a fire- cleansing idea and propitiation in the sacrifice of Noah, in the fire altars of Persia, and all other use of fire and incense in approaches to God. The magnificent temple at Elephanta exhibited the splendor of Mithric worship in that period, and linked together the religious ideas of Indians and Chinese. But Chaldea was the home and originator of Sabseanism. Her pyramidal form of temples and use of the solar ray
OF A BEDEEMEB, . 25
passed thence to Egypt (Maurice^ '' Indian Antiq./' vol, ii., p. 217). The Pagoda of Coromandel was planned to correspond with the cardinal points, haying lofty pyram- idal gateways in the middle of its walls, as in Egypt. And a temple like that of Elephanta is found at Din- dara, Upper Egypt (plate at p. 225, vol. i.) The Mith- ric EgyptiaD grotto and the mystic cell of Osiris sug- gest him as the African Mithra. Hence it was quite historic for Bryant and others to regard the rites and cult of Isis and Osiris as intended and originally insti- tuted to commemorate the Deluge, and that the worship of Brahm in India was derived from that of Noah, who was the Menu of Sanscrit writers. Grecian rites closely resembled them, as did the Roman altar fire (Maurice, vol. ii., pp. 19-22). The caverns of Salsette, an island off Bombay, and Elephanta, all richly adorned with symbolic sculptures, quite eclipsed in august impressive- ness all else in Asia. Stonehenge and Abury failed in such adornment. Caverns were first used as sanctuaries, then temples or altars on mountain heights. Thus Mithra was adored in Irania and in India. Porphyry, the writer against Christianity, in his '^ Antro-Nympha- rum,'' would press the nymphs of Homer into use in order to support his theories, but he never denied the primitive worship of mankind. One can but marvel how modern scientists ignore the testimony of pagan writers touching the evolution of religion. Homer, Hesiod, iEschylus, etc., afford them no support. Con- sider : Upper Egypt has a rock on which are elaborate sculptures representing Sun-worship, with altars sur- mounted with lambs for sacrifice ! The height of the sculpture is fifty feet, the width fifty feet, and the chis- elled work six feet deep. In it are three sacrificial piles, supposed to denote the three Egyptian seasons, or some
26 LEGENDS AND EXPECTATIONS
Triad ; while seven vases represent the seven days of the week. Here we have fire and lambs for sacrifice, evidently of an early date (plate in Maurice, vol. ii., at p. 209). Mithra was the great Benefactor in the Persian system after the sixth century, the Sun in glory, having his counterpart in India and Egypt. Hence their caverns, grottoes, rocky and subterranean shrines to the Sun-God. Superstitions and licentious rites were also similar in those countries and in Grreece, with some echoes in Britain. Their lesser gods were not deified men, but deified qualities and attributes which personi- fied God, and so were worshipped. Thus the Bull of Siva and the Bull of Osiris symbolized God, and were adored. There were sacred serpents in both countries ; there was the Eagle of Jupiter, and the Eagle of Vishnu ; Vulcan and Bacchus, Isis and Thoth, Hercules and Hermes, represented the beneficent in nature, in art, or in prowess. So the Indian Rama was regarded as an incarnation of Preserving Power. Why Rama should ever have been called a son of Gush is a question for ethnologists ; for the Hindus of the Vedas were Aryans from Japheth ; but all are descendants of Noah. Pos- sibly legends of Southern India got mixed with those of the Northern people. If the later Zoroaster and Darius Ilystaspes visited India to receive and communicate knowledge upon matters of common interest, especially religion, then what was essential in Fire worship was doubtless considered by them, who were reverent offerers of the solar flame (Maurice, vol. ii., pp. 130-132). But in India, as in Egypt, the priests kept the people in ignorance of the highest theology and of the Divine Unity. Paintings, ceremonies, and spectacular exhibi- tions were called to their aid, and were more impressive than mere contemplation of Brahm. Mysteries cele-
I
OF A REDEEMER, 27
brated in darkness and the silence of night overawed the imagination of Hindus and of Greeks, until those initiated learned the delusion^ or learned the higher truth, according as it might be unfolded or the super- stition exposed. But what pure mind would not rcYolt to see that prostitution was throned upon the altars ?
Yet there was to be seen in the cavern of the Ele- phanta sanctuary a recess which had but one symbol of the Deity^ which expressed His Unity ; at the same time the exterior of the temple was covered with mytho- logical sculptures. We must allovf the joint existence of the true and the false. But that single symbol taught the Oneness of God. Ancient- colonies from Chaldea made cavern sanctuaries in India and in Egypt, which expressed similar religious ideas and showed a common origin ; they might differ at a later time. In Thebes, Elephanta, and Athens the religious feeling was expressed by similar symbolism, sculpture, and ornament. Maurice, Coleman, Wilkinson, etc., make Osiris to represent the productive power, while Isis and Ceres represented the fruitful earth, the two former being personified by the Sun and Moon. Moreover, Osiris on the lotus plant, serpent worship, and the mundane egg were equally familiar to Indian sages and to Egyptian priests. And their most venerated idols were personified representatives of Deity, as also of their exalted Rajahs.
Osiris, we find, was ever regarded as the Beneficent One and Bestower of blessings upon man, while living among them, and, like our Lord, he becomes their Judge after death. In this he was more than Mithra as gen- erally understood, while both were opposed by an Evil One : Mithra by the Devil of Persia and Osiris by the Devil of Egypt. After wise- instruction and govern-
28 LEGENDS AND EXPECTATIONS
ment of Egypt for twenty-eight years, establishing their religious worship, he traversed the world for like benefi- cent purposes, and won the nations to him by his teach- ings, his music, and his poetry. Finally he is enticed into a coffer by Typho, who shut the lid, fastened it down, and set the whole afloat upon the river. On his behalf Horus fought three great battles with Typho, and defeated him. It evidently symbolizes the conflict of Good and Evil, light and darkness, man's bane against his benefactor, resulting in the triumph of EighteoLisness. The mythical son of Cronos and Ehea, Osiris was the chief of the Second Egyptian Triad, and the only pagan Deity who was believed to have been restored to life and honor after death, becoming the acknowledged Judge of Amenti, where all the dead must pass the last ordeal. Thus this old legend of Egypt echoes the promise of Eden, and suggests that its coloring must have been received from ideas and intercourse with ancient Hebrews ; that descent from Noah and the going down of Abraham, Joseph, and Jacob to the land of the Nile originated and fostered Egyptian intimations of a Messiah long before He came. And so two very ancient peoples, Chaldeans and Miz- raim, in their Merodach and Osiris, who went about doing good, furnish a dim parallel to Him who in Judea taught the multitudes, and fed the hungry, and healed the afflicted, and then died to save the world.
Osiris was often identified with Ea, as in the formula Osiris-Ea, and having the attributes of Ea. He then is the great Father, and Isis the great Mother ; thus elicit- ing the love, praise, and adoration of men. Hymns were sung to Him, temples erected, sacrifices offered ; but not as to a myth or a deified hero, but as represent- ing the great God. We also find that while many
OF A REDEEMER. 29
Egyptians potted, fostered, and idolized serpents, repre- senting them as beneficent or as tropliies in sculptures ornamenting tlieir temples, or in ring shape, with the tail in their mouth, indicating that their power to injure was self- destroyed, yet Horus is often represented in the act of killing a serpent by piercing its head through with a spear ; Horus standing on the heads of crocodiles, emblems of Satan, denoting his conquest of the Evil One. Horus also stands spear in hand thrusting it through the head of the dragon Apap. This may be seen in striking illustrations in Sir G. Wilkinson's " Egypt/' vol. ii., plates 33 and 34. If we regard Osiris, Isis, and Horus, the Second Egyptian Triad, as the national expression of the hope of a Saviour, it all the more emphasizes what was taught of our Lord Himself as the Conqueror of Evil and the Eestorer of Humanity. Certainly, good government, earthly blessings, and future happiness were supposed to be conferred on Egyptians by their Second Triad, the most popular and most generally worshipped throughout Egypt, and doing for that people very much the same as our Lord did for the Christian Church. But we need not look for the pure and recondite Hebrew-Christian idea of the Redeemer, who as God in man lived in Judea, and on the cross made atonement for the world's sin ; not in Egypt, not in Persia ; yet in those nations we may find intimations and scintillations of it.
i:^CARKATIONS OF THE HII^DUS.
We are now prepared to glance at the so-called Incar- nations or Avatars of the Hindus ; not indeed to find the Son of God there, but perhaps some faint prophecies and illustrations of thoughts about Him. If we allow an early Teacher of Persia who was contemporary with
30 LEGENDS AND EXPECTATIONS
Moses we may also admit a later reformer of that coun- try, who tried to bring the people back to a purer wor- ship and wiser thought of God. He was the contem- porary of Daniel and Ezekiel, of Pythagoras and Pisis- tratuS;, of Jeremiah when captive in Egypt, and of Etruscans when struggling for domination in Eome. Moralist and reformer, he was also the high-priest of Iran ; but I can find little historic ground for suppos- ing that he w^as a teacher of the Hindus. For this was Buddha Gautama, who is represented by some in almost the same character as our Kedeemer, being the ninth incarnation of Yishnu. Buddha was the son of a King and heir to his throne, but forsook both, wife and child, that by the practice of asceticism and severe studies he might learn how to cure the evils of his time, and to teach more genial and beneficent doctrines than then •prevailed among his people. These, however, were not written out till after his death, so that his real teach- ings are set forth with poetical additions. He is re- ported to have said, "' Let all evils or sins of this degen- erate age fall upon me, but let the world be redeemed." Yet Brahmans, Buddhists, and Jains alike reject the notion of a representative man, and repudiate the idea of vicarious suffering, holding that sin shall find the sinner, who must endure the consequences of his mis- deeds, in each state of his existence ; that heaven nor hell can extinguish the influence of good or of bad acts ; that degenerate man may become good by culture, and that the power of such moral transformation is by the grace of endeavor. Hence salvation is the outcome of mortification and self-subdual ; perfectibility arises from perpetual efforts and strivings after it. This per- fection Gautama is said to have attained, and at the ripe age of fourscore years " ascended to the hall of
OF A REDEEMER, 31
Glory,'' 543 b. c. (Coleman's " Hindus," p. 184 ; Profes- sor AVilliams in Contemporary Review, 1879^ and others). Buddha taught that there are twenty-six heavens, one above another, where the good are supremely happy, forgetful of all past evils and sorrows ; while there are thirty-four larger and one hundred and twenty smaller hells, in which sinners are punished. His doctrine, therefore, was not supremely genial and beneficent. Yet he was deified and worshipped for the good he did to India. But his deification was 2500 years after Noah, 1500 years after Abraham, and nearly a millennium after the legislation of Moses. Clearly he is not the Messiah of the prophets. Learned Brahmans acknowledged and adored One God, without form or quality, external to themselves, unchangeable, and occupying all space, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Very early he is represented with three faces, looking every way, and symbolizing Creation, Preservation, and Destruc- tion. Then Brahm unfolds himself as Vishnu or Krishna and Siva ; a consistent monotheism, yet with the people soon degenerating into polytheism, as in Egypt and Chaldea. Then six different sects were evolved : worshippers of Siva, of Vishnu, of Surya or the Sun, the Ganapatyas, the Sactis, or worshippers of Bhavani or Parvati, and the Bhagavatis ; but all adored one Deity in the many names of Brahm, now as Varuna, now as Indra, now as Agni ; each invoked as Preserver, Creator, Destroyer. Vishnu, the Brahmans said, would destroy nature by the stamp of his foot (Coleman, p. 12). As the Arabs had a thousand names for lion, so the Hindus had a thousand names for Vishnu, and ascribed to him ten incarnations. In the first avatar he took the form of a Fish, which Sir William Jones thought referred to the Deluge of l^oah. He would save the 2*
32 LEGENDS AND EXPECTATIONS
world, restore the sacred books, destroy giants, and punish the wicked. Dining the tenth incarnation the world itself would be dissolved.
Iranian names of deity are found in India as in Egypt, different names for the same god at different seasons. Thus at night and in winter Siva is Vishnu ; at noon and in the evening he is Siva ; in the east and in the morning he is Grama. The same color also is aj^plied to Egyptian, Indian, and Greek gods. Krishna is the eighth incarnation of Vishnu, who becomes the shepherd Apollo of the Hindus, and the delight of their women. Very striking is the fact, as seen in plate 12 of Coleman, that the infant Krishna is represented as crowned with hooded snakes, a token of triumph, for Krishna is said to have killed a huge serpent which poisoned the Kiver Jumna, having actually crushed its head ; and he was the wonder-worker of India, performing such and so many prodigies as cannot be recounted : blinding, dis- embowelling, and swallowing giants, alligators, and dragons, and eating them. He also becomes the love maker, who is paralleled only in the Song of Solomon, or in Solomon himself. Yet he was not altogether in- vulnerable, for when he crushed the head of the serpent, he was poisoned in the heel, and was cured only by drinking the milk of the goddess Parvati Durga, the Warrior, from whose eye the goddess Kalli sprang in complete armor, being born in battle ; so Maurice, '' Indian Antiq.,^' vol. ii., p. 79. Thus we are reminded of the vulnerable heel of Achilles and of the full-grown Minerva. How easy was it for Aryans to expound or explode Hebrew types I But nothing which may be said of Krishna, his labors and his frolics, his persecutions and his triumphs, now toiling like a Hercules, now revelling like a Bacchus, now regnant and glorious as
OF A REDEEMER. 33
Apollo performing wonders, can equal the works of Him who stilled the waves of Genesareth, who restored brother Lazarus, who Himself rose again from the dead ! All pagan avatars have failed in this, and in the grand tesfc of the perpetual love and admiration of mankind. They had no prophets and heralds who prepared their advent, and after death they had no resurrection. In all which our Lord Jesus Christ stands supreme and unapproachable. He came to destroy the works and the power of Satan ; they to struggle for a while against him, and then let him dominate the earth, spirits of evil becoming more oppugnant and destructive to men, and overmastering the Brahman and the Buddhist, the Parsee and the Coptic priest.
A touching legend, and one of the most significant of India, may properly close our collocation of similitudes.
The Brahman Euru was affianced to the beautiful and accomplished Pramadvara, but on the eve of their in- tended marriage she was bitten by a serpent of deadly venom. In her terrible agonies her Brahman lover was eloquent in his bitter grief ; he earnestly proclaimed her gentleness and perfections, and devoutly prayed that Pramadvara might be given back to him fully re- stored to health. His prayer was answered, but on con- dition that he for her sake would sacrifice one half of the life otherwise allotted to him. He agreed to the terms and won his bride. But the Brahman had sacri- ficed half his life on earth. It surely taught important lessons, and among them was salvation by sacrifice, yea, in spite of his theory, salvation by substitution. Here was no victory over the serpent, but the law of redemp- tion is taught to one who does not believe it in theory, while he accepts it in order to possess Pramadvara. Thus, beneath manifold contradictions of his S3^stem
34 LEGENDS AND EXPECTATIONS
there was revealed to the pagan a promise of better things, or at least some faint whispers of a brighter dawn for man. By purity, by prayers, by sacrifice, by self-subdual, the Hebrew and Assyrian, Egyptian and Greek, Iranian and Indian, might overcome the evil within him and the evil one, and so obtain the favor of his Grod. Not even the King could attain that without such helps. He might be the Divine representative to the people, yet he must seek the Divine aid and bless- ing. Sacrifice of some kind was necessary to atone or compensate for sin. Devoutly offered, with penitence and submission, who can doubt its acceptability to God — acceptable in priest, prince, or peasant ? Surely these ^^ unconscious prophecies," intimations and echoes of the true, though but dimly understood, were significant. Not the groans of ghosts, nor sighs of spirits of the tombs, not mutterings of grave mounds, but the echoes .^ and adumbrations of Eden, they are the longings and whisperings of mankind of the coming One who would crush the serpent and deliver man from his thraldom and longer deceiving of the nations.
Naturally enough, this expectation would be mis- understood and misapplied by Roman writers. Thus Tacitus {" History," v. 13) says : '' By many the opin- ion was held, derived from the ancient writings of the priests, which was then about to be realized, that the East would become dominant, and [leaders] proceeding from Judea would take the government of affairs. These ambiguities were declared of Vespasian and Titus." Saetonius also speaks of an ^^ ancient and permanent belief which had spread over the whole East,'' indicating knowledge and expectation of a Re- deemer {ad Vespasian, 4). Virgil suggests its applica- tion to Augustus. Like the legends of Sosiosh and the
OF A REDEEkER. 35
incarnations of Vishnu, they probably arose from the promise made in Eden. Indeed, '' Krishna was the heart's protest against the negations of Brahmanism." E\^en Porphyry admits that something more was wanted for emancipating men's souls than philosophy had yet discovered (Augustine, De Civ, Dei, x., 32). And Druids had taught redemption of one life by another. Hence their sacrifice of human victims, especially criminals, in certain cases of sickness, to insure victory in battle, etc. So during many ages the great preparation was going on for One who should satisfy the hope of the world. "We may see it even in Hercules when he vanquished the hydra-headed monster ; in the Siegfried of the Germans, as well as in Merodach and Krishna and Horus. But under various names, mythical here and there, are latent ideas of the same truth descending from a remote age, and telling of a Heaven-promised Eedemption by One who was to come. His conquests and His triumphs ; now to Adam in Eden ; now to Babylonians of Bel over Tiamat ; now to Egyptians of the serpent-victories of Horus and the defeats of Typho ; now to Persians of Sosiosh and the Victorious One who drove Satan in ser- pent form out of heaven ; now to Hindus of the Avatar who tramipled on dragons and scorpions and crushed the serpent of Jumna, whose open jaws reached from earth to the clouds and were terrible to behold ; and they suggested to all Fire -worshippers that the sacred flame was acceptable to God for the symbolic cleansing from sin in Persian, Hindu, Greek, Eoman, Briton, Phoenician, and Israelite.
USE OF FIRE IJ^ HEBREW WORSHIP.
Consider : an altar of Incense and af perpetual Fire were of Mosaic appointment. Ancient traditions of
36 LEGENDS AND EXPECTATIONS
the Jews tell us that the fire which came out from before the Lord (Lev. 9 : 24) was sacred, coming from Jehovah Himself, and was kept ever burning until the destruction of the temple by the Babylonians, having been renewed at the Dedication, when fire again '' came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifices/^ (See the "" Speaker's Commentary/' ad loc) When God ap- peared to Moses in the Bush, it was in a Flame of Fire ; when He led Israel through the wilderness, it was a Pillar of Fire which guided them by day ; on special occasions His glory appeared to them like devouring Fire ; sins of ignorance and of trespass were atoned for by confes- sion and burnt offerings ; sacrifices burned on the altar typified the cleansing of the priests ; a calf, a ram, a goatling, were slain and burned as sin offerings ; the fat of a bullock and a ram were consumed by fire coming out from the Lord upon the altar. Offering strange fire caused the death of Nadab and Abihu (Lev. 10). Of the two goats for a sin offering, one was let go and the other with a bullock was burned to ashes (Lev. 16 : 22, 25 ,27). If the fire of the Lord sanctified, it also con- sumed (Num. chs. 11, 15, 16). To procure the Divine blessing for Barak, Balaam sacrificed burnt offerings (Num. 22). The mountain burned with fire when the Law was given at Sinai, and Jehovah is called a con- suming Fire (Deut. 4 : 11-15, 24 ; 9 : 15 ; Ex. 19 : 18. The test of Elijah's sacrifice was fire from the Lord, which consumed it (1 Kings 18 : 38).
Fire, moreover, was an accompaniment in the morn- ing and evening oblations both of the tabernacle and the temple worship. Upon the altar it was to be kept ever burning, and not to go out (Lev. 6 : 9, 12, 13). Once and again the Angel of the Lord appeared in a flame of fire. By a more than poetic fancy the Psalm-
OF A REDEEMER. 37
ist exclaimed, Thou makest a flaming fire Thy ministers ; and the prophet compared Him to a refiner's fire, and predicted the healing power of the rising Sun of Eight- eousness, meaning the Lord (Ps. 104 : 4 ; MaL 3:2; 4:2). St. John beheld Him in vision as having eyes like a flame of fire, even when on His head were many crowns (Rev. 1 : 14 ; 2 : 18 ; 19 : 12). To signify the energy and sanctifying unction of the Holy Ghost, He appeared unto the assembled Church at Pentecost in tongues as of fire (Acts 2:3). Thus we find that Fire and Incense, the serpent and sacrifice of animals were common alike to all the great families of Noah, not only for purposes of cleansing and procuring blessings, but as referring to a coming Saviour, and as symbolizing Him at the descent of the Holy Ghost. Perhaps as the representative of solar influence the serpent was wor- shipped at an early period ; his conquest was portrayed by St. John, indicating the triumph of the Christian Church. He who was lifted up on the cross tvould drato all men unto Him, And why not? Semite Babylo- nians, Assyrians, Hebrews, and Phoenicians, Hamite Babylonians and Mizraim, Japhite Persians, Hindus and Greeks, Romans and Britons, testify to the expecta- tions of universal mankind as evidencing God in Media- torial Salvation, being adumbrations of Him who, in the fulness of the ages, crushed the head of the serpent, and was bruised in the heel for the crushing. Indian art graphically portrays both the crushing and the bruising. (See figure on the cover of this book.)
II.
THE FIEST SABBATH AND PRIMITIVE WOESHIP.
The weekly day of rest is the salvation of our personality from enslavement in material toil. On the seventh day man is free to lift himself erect to the full stature of his manhood, to expand the loftier elements of his being, to reassert his freedom, and realize his superiority over the mechanical, the secular, and the earthly (Professor W. G. Elmslie).
On the seventh day God ended His work which He had made ; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it (Gen. 2 : 2, 3).
This resting and blessing are significant. The Creator is repre- sented anthropomorphically, as though He and the celestials joined with man in sanctifying the day and in worship. After creative work the Divine Being seeks spiritual rest and refresh- ment. Our Lord is said to have perceived that virtue had gone out of Him. On the mountain, by the seaside, in the Temple, Jesus sought to recuperate His spiritual powers. Herein the Father and the Son set man an eternal example. Here are our earliest and highest authority for Sabbath and worship. Though not in mandatory form, it is quite emphatic, and of perpetual obligation. The day is to be sanctified, God honored, the soul refreshed.
Very early it was known that God needed no praise from His children ; "' neither man's work nor His own gifts/' says Milton. Yet he requires recognition. Not to tell Him how great He is, but extolling Him for His
PBIMITIVE WORSHIP. 39
goodness, praising Him for His mercies, and commun- ing with Him in order to become spiritually like Him, the human soul soaring to the Divine Soul — this was the purpose of the First Sabbath and of primitive wor- ship. It was to lift man heavenward, and to preserve his spirituality. We also read that then the morning stars sang together, and all the sons or angels of God shouted for joy (Job 38 : 7). So in the second century of Adamic time, Seth and others called upon the name of Jahveh, and devoutly called themselves by His name, and worshipped Him in public assemblies. Clearly this was a free act, not by compulsion, but by Divine intimation ; not by command, but by love, which was prompted by echoes from Eden. Some, however, soon forgot their duty and spiritual privileges. Cain was self-centred, envious, and became a fratricide. IM^eglect of God grew fast among men. Yet observance of the Rest-day and its sanctification preserved among them the idea of God and of His worship. Enoch lived a holy life, and was early taken to be with God. Centuries passed, and Noah became a preacher of righteousness to his generation, but with small results, and the Flood, drowned a world of sinners. Those saved peopled a new world, whose worship began at the altar which Noah built unto the Lord.
The details are significant, and show that even then animals were classed as clean and unclean ; Noah took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. It was a sacrifice acceptable to Jahveh. According to the longer chronology now approved by many, that sacrifice was a thousand years before the Accadian Flood legends, the earliest of which Professor Sayce places about 2300 B.C. As the names of Adam, Noah, and other early patriarchs have not yet
4:0 THE FIRST SABBATH
been deciphered on Assyrian or Babylonian tablets, showing the independent origin of Bible names^ we in- sist on the Biblical reading of the Divine name for the Oneness of Deity in the sacrifice after the Deluge, thus correcting the Accadian plurality and indicating how early polytheistic ideas arose, but earlier still the Divine Unity was known. For ^' Jahveh smelled a sweet savor/' or a '' savor of rest," suggesting both the char- acter of the sacrifice and the day when it was offered. Jahveh then made a covenant with the saved man, and appointed a perpetual token thereof. Eecords of this deliverance, of the sacrifice^ and even of Divine instruc- tion to man are found in Chaldea. The Sabbath was as strictly observed in ancient Babylonia as by Israelites in the days of Moses. That it was of high authority is apparent. Man would not impose such restrictions upon himself. Evidence is wanting that even in Baby- lonia the Sabbath was of priestly origin. Indeed, the Sabbath was before priests. It was a recognized duty to approach God every day with sacrifice, reverent prayer, and free-will offerings. (See "' Chaldean Acct.," p. 78.) Before a hero, benefactor, or any tomb service was the Sabbath-sacrifice of Noah, and the Sabbath- sacrifice of old Accadians. A half millennium before Moses they had forQiulated a Saints' Calendar and a Liturgy foi:, daily worship. Chaldean bricks give more detailed accounts of how to observe the Sabbath and worship God than our Genesis. Moses said : "' Remem- ber that thou keep holy the Sabbath day," and all pre- vious national histories tell how men had kept it. Pro- fessors Sayce, Proctor, and Eawlinson, and departed Assyriologists like G. Smith and F. Lenormant, agree in their testimony that the earliest records of Babylon and Egypt certify to a Sabbath-day rest and worship in
I
i
AND PRIMITIVE WOBSHIP. 41
those countries. In old Accad the observance was much like that prescribed in Exodus, but Moses did not get his idea from the Accadians, who, indeed, had ceased to be a nation when he legislated. If, as Proctor holds, he adopted the Egyptian Sabbath, that only strengthens the fact of its known observance. Its obligation must have been early conceded, for no king would impose upon himself the restrictions found in a Babylonian Sabbath. The Accadians read a lesson of Sabbath ob- servance to modern legislators and generals, who often fight their fiercest battles on Sundays. On the Nile, between the Eivers, and in Palestine, its observance runs back to the very earliest ages of mankind. We can explain this universality only by regarding it as a Divine Institution, and that men everywhere so re- garded it. The descendants of those saved from the Deluge settled Egypt, peopled Babylonia, colonized Assyria and Phoenicia ; and they all observed a Sab- bath. A thousand years before Moses, Nimrod built a temple to his God, whom he worshipped with prayer and sacrifices. But for long ages the world had to depend on Greek and Latin accounts of those times, with which to supplement the Biblical records. It was content with the testimony of hearsay Herodotus touch- ing the offering of incense, of sheep and sucking young to the Deity in early ages. But modern discoveries show that one or two millenniums previously there had been pictured on cylinders and Chaldean bricks details and symbols of the primitive worship, of recurring Sab» baths and holy days for Divine services.
The late G. Smith was one of the first to read and translate those inscriptions, and now, ten years later, Mr. Sayce, in the Hibbert Lectures for 1887, confirms the essential readings of the bricks ; that the seventh day
42 THE FIRST SABBATH
of the month Elul was Sabbath, dedicated to God, when a gazelle without ilemish was offered^ suggesting the clean animals of Noah. Similarly of the fourteenth, the nineteenth, the twenty-first, and the twenty-eighth days of the month, which were " Sabbaths dedicated to their gods ; when the shepherd of mighty nations must not eat cooked meats, nor change his clothes, nor put on white garments, nor offer sacrifice — which on Sab- baths was reserved for the priests — nor drive a chariot, nor issue royal decrees. Nor might the augur mutter, nor apply medicine, nor utter a curse. During the night the King should make a free-will offering and sacrifice to Merodach and Istar.'' Names which sug-* gest that the legend is not of the earliest date, but yet ages before Moses, and telling of Sabbath and worship before the law was uttered at Sinai, and the Sabbath first made a holy day for Hebrews. Clearly this Sab- bath of Eden and of Noah was not of priestly origina- tion and ecclesiastical development, probably not of priestly origin when first observed by ancient Baby- lonians, and the sacrifice of a gazelle. Indeed, every day was provided with sacrifice and appointed worship. The ritual enjoined Daily Service. A recent discovery has induced some scholars to reconsider and lengthen the Babylonian chronology. But one thing remains certain, the Accadian Sabbath was not earlier than the Sabbath of Eden and of Noah.
Moreover, from God's blessing the seventh day and the repeated mention of seven in Genesis, seven became a sacred number, not only with Hebrews, but also with Babylonians and Egyptians. Of clean beasts and of fowls Noah took them by sevens into the Ark. After seven days it rained ; he waited seven days, and yet another seven days. So ''by sevens he disposed the
AND PRIMITIVE WORSHIP, 43
measured vases/' the ritual of sacrifice (p. 102 of Part I.). There were also seven evil gods, seven evil demons, seven evil consuming spirits ; in heaven there were seven, and on earth seven. There were seven arch- angels. The throne bears of the goddess of Hades were seven. This was common alike to Accadians and Sumerians. The fact, also, of such a word as Sabbath is emphatic of there being such a day. To many it signified the Day of Rest. The ethnic relation of Babylonians, Hebrews, and Phoenicians, and the inter- course between Tyre, Zidon, and Egypt, emphasize the reasons for the Sabbath being known and observed by them. Mystic sevens were common to them all, and suggest the seventh-day Sabbath. So, too, the Saints' Calendar and the Book of the Dead, explaining how to serve God acceptably in Egypt and Chaldea, teach the same observance.
The evolution of religion is from the simple and pure to the complex and corrupt, both in worship and theol- ogy. This is seen in the sacrifice of Noah and the sac- rifices to Moloch ; but the Bible, from Adam to Malachi, insists upon a pure offering to the covenant Jahveh- Elohim, By some name or names He was known among all the primitive races ; now as 1\ or El, now as Jah or Ra, then as Bel, Baal, Urania, or in the feminine forms of Istar, Astarte, etc. Phoenicians, says Kenrick, did not originally worship with wanton rites. Their early temples had no visible representation of Deity, or only rude symbols of Him. The Scriptural denunciation of Zidonian worship was because of its cruelty and its later licentiousness (in Israel it was an intrusion and an apostasy). Baal was only another form of Bel, and Melkarth was its synonyme, and of high antiquity {" Phoenicia, *' p. 322). While it had many indications
44 THE FIRST SABBATH
of affinity with Jewish and Egyptian rites, the PhoBui- cian was not a spiritual religion. But the word sabatna suggests the Hebrew Sabbath, and that it was known by Phoenicians. Some known remains are a bronze laver almost as large as that of Solomon's temple ; also bowls, carved figures, trees and flowers, lions and bulls, festoons and hanging work, even cherubim find their copies or equivalents in Phoenician remains. (See Condor's ^^ Syrian Stone-Lore.'^) In art and religious usages this people resembled the Hebrews. And, like Egyptians, they represented the soul as seeking the " water of life," and regarded the tomb as an '^ eternal home.'^ In She-mesh and Beth-she-mesh we have their *Miouse or temple God.'' The x^ccadian ark- builder, Tam-Zi, became the Phoenician Tammuz.
So from the old Accadian Silik-Mulu Khi may be traced the Iranian Mithra, and the serpent Azi Dahak is said to be derived from Tiamat. Some Accadian deities resemble those of the Vedas. And the seven archangels of Mazdeism were probably derived from the seven planetary deities of the Babylonian firmament, noticed on pages 65 and 74 of Part I. Naturally enough the Persian record of the six days of creation resembles the Semitic account, which is not duplicated in the Vedas. This is all the more noticeable because of the frequent communication with India by Arabs, Babylo- nians, and Phoenicians in early times. Before the fleets of Solomon and Hiram traded with Ophir, Egyptian fleets sailed down the Ked Sea ; perhaps in the seven- teenth century B.C. And in the nineteenth dynasty the Greeks gained a naval victory over the Egyptian fleet. Thus at an early period these peoples were brought into somewhat intimate relations, and the Greeks borrowed many ideas of religion and history, of art and science,
AND PRIMITIVE WORSHIP, 45
if not of philosophy, from the Nileland. Schrader, in his ''' Cuneiform Inscriptions/' p. 18, says that '' a week of seven days was unknown to both these nations." Yet we have Biblical and monumental proof that the Egyptians were descended from Noah ; they knew the observances of their ancestors, but may have changed their own. Clearly Schrader was mistaken ?
St. Paul is authority for the '' religiousness" of Greeks, whose altar to the unnamed God might mean the Lord, whom he preached. And in Genesis 1 : 2 the Egyptian might discover six members of his panthe- on— viz., the Earth, Chaos, Darkness, the Deep, the Spirit of God, and the Waters. Presumably he would not regard them as distinct Persons and equally Divine (Wilkinson, vol. iii., p. 274). Nor did Egyptian his- tory claim that the gods ever lived on earth ; though some works of imagination so represent and some his- torical lists seem to imply an earthly reign for them. The legend of the rule of Osiris is mythical. The sober history of Egypt even ridiculed the Greeks for pretend- ing to derive their origin from deities (Wilkinson, vol. i., pp. 11 and 28 ; vol. iii., pp. 92, 230, 305). More- over, sacrifices were offered to the Apis as to Osiris, whose Divine soul had descended into him, it was thought. But the animal as such was not adored, only the God dwelling in him for the time. So many regard statues and paintings of sacred persons to-day, and adore Him whom they represent, not the material ob- jects which they see. Wilkinson on this matter fully corrects opposing views. He tells us that Osiris and Isis had each a variety of names ; were called Myriony- mous, having ten thousand appellations. Osiris was the Beneficent Deity, the Bestower of all blessings in life and in Amenti ; while Isis was the Protector
46 THE FIRST SABBATH
and Defender, even rescuing Typho from punish- ment.
Indeed some deities were erased from the statues and others substituted in their stead. It was not till the eighteenth dynasty that the god of war, Amenophis, was evolved or introduced into Egypt. The people were peace-loving, as is usual with agriculturists. On the contrary, the early sphinxes belong to the fourth dynasty, representing the power and authority of deity and royalty ; if not regarded as Divine, they were Divine symbols. So of other sacred objects — birds and animals. But it should be remembered that there is a vast differ- ence between being held as sacred and being ranked as a god in Egypt. The peach, the vine, pomegranate, acan- thus, sycamore, fig, tamarisk, lotus, garlic, leek, onion, ivy, palm-branch, papyrus, and some other fruits and plants were held as sacred to the gods, but not as gods.
This is also seen in the treatment of sacred animals by Egyptians. To propitiate and obtain favors from them, they fed them even delicately, they fattened and flattered them, they entreated them and sang to them ; but if that did not procure what they sought, they threatened them, put them in secluded places, shut them up in the dark, as children do refractory dolls, and then if still delinquent, the animal was put to death and quickly buried out of sight (vol. iii., p. 247). And the government would favor such treatment. For the veneration of the crocodile, which was also an emblem of Typho, gave assurance that repair of the canals would not be neglected. The canals and ditches must be kept clean and in repair to insure health, Y^rosperity, and fruitfulness. If you add the element of religious duty, it would only tend to secure performance of natural obligation to obtain the fruits of the earth.
AND PRIMITIVE WORSHIP, 47
But, as Porphyry suggests, the Egyptians may have really thought that the lower animals, as well as man, were endued with Divine qualities, and that a spiritual essence pervaded all living beings ; and the notion of metempsychosis would also favor it. They could not know who dwelt in such animals, perhaps the spirit of some ancestor undergoing transmigration by the judg- ment of Osiris. Therefore treat them with considera- tion. To cherish and supplicate them would secure the favors desired, or else the disappointment would cause them to be disowned. If animal adoration was derived from worship of the serpent, through misunderstanding of the teachings of Eden, there was all the more reason for discarding a creature who might harm, if he would not or conld not bless.
But touching anthropomorphic gods, the human form was that always assumed by the Deity in His vari- ous appearances to men. It also represented the Divine intelligence, and possessed the Divine Spirit. The human form, therefore, was the best earthly symbol and representative of God, whose children men are. The feminine form meant fruitfulness. A Babylonian god- dess was little more than the shadow or double of the god ; thus Zarpanitu, wife of Merodach, to account for his son Nebo ; thus Anat, wife of Anu, to account for Istar, who occupies a unique position as a goddess who was not a wife, but an independent deity, who was seen in the evening star. She was Astarte in Phoenicia, as Bel was Baal. Assur had no peer in Assyria, nor till later ages was a wife, ISTin-lil, assigned him. Supreme in heaven and in earth, says Sayce, '' Assur in Assyria suggests Jahveh in Israel, while the later gods of Baby- lonia were like the local saints of Catholic Europe, not like the hierarchy of Olympus, ruled by the nod of Zeus.^^ 3
48 THE FIRST SABBATH
Old Bel was before and chief of all, not alone, but supreme in the pantheon. Drop the B in Bel and we have the El of Israel and Phoenicia, while B makes him the House Gody Beth-El. Professor Sayce is clear in his idea that early Semitic peoples had but one God. They were monotheists, who sought to impart their theology to all with whom they dwelt (Hibbert Lectures, p. 207). In Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Palestine, Persia, India, Greece, and Rome there was but one chief Deity, yarioasly named. He was El, II, Ra, Jah, Jahveh, Zeus, Jupiter, the Heayen God, Urania or Varuna. So in Christian lands to-day He is God, the Lord, our Father, the Most High, the Holy One, all names of the Supreme whom we worship and obey, rever- ence and love, the equal in number of appellations with the Deity of Ohaldea. It was a point considered for years in China by what name the missionaries should designate the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accadians said Ea or Bel, and Sumerians, Merodach, and Phoenicians, Baal or Melkarth, all meaning the One Supreme Being. The Sun-god of Sippara, the Moon- god of Ur, was by name older than Merodach of Baby- lon. But older yet was Bel, whose worship spread around from Nipur and struggled for supremacy. It did not, however, find popular favor, and was probably opposed by the priests. (Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 80-88.) The fourth creation tablet names Mul-lil, Ea, and Bel as guardians of the sky ; and Bel-Merodach as the destroyer of Tiamat by a sort of wind-blast hurled into her stomach, a translation hardly differing in sense from the whirling thunderbolt of pages 86 and 87, Part. ]., and illustrating their accuracy. Indeed, Mr. Sayce corroborates our former conclusion as to Babylonian theology, while Professor G. Maspero, in '* Egyptian
AND PRIMITIVE WORSHIP. 49
Archaeology/' sustains our use of Sir G. Wilkinson^ Kenrick, etc. Thus Maspero tells us that an Egyptian temple must contain one inner chamber, having neither statue nor emblem^ but only a sacred bark or taber- nacle ; a single block of stone, which received on certain days the symbol of the local god, or a living animal, or the image of it, which was sacred to that god. This one chamber was a necessity in every temple, and was entered only by Pharaoh and the priests. The sane* tuary and its immediate surroundings were closed against the people ; but they had access to the fa9ades, courts, etc., where they might admire and worship as devoutly as they pleased. Egyptian temples contained neither sculptured images, inscriptions, nor symbols. The temple of the Sphinx is bare. Offerings of fruits in worship are of an early date. A Mediator appears in the person of the son of Osiris. The king enters the temple and speaks face to face with the god he wor- ships. The shrines were little chapels of painted wood or stone, in which the spirit of the deity was supposed at all times to dwell, and which contained his image. This was as early as Seti I. Moreover, the chapel of the tombs was always separate from the tombs (pp. 63- 105). This suggests that the' god so worshipped was not the ghost of the departed, but rather that the de- parted were invoked to assist in the worship ; recalling All-Saints^ Day among those Christians who observe it. The dead, even Pharaohs, were not deified, nor gener- ally honored with apotheosis. Intelligent Egj^ptians worshipped God alone, yet by symbols. It is doubtful if the Egyptians really represented under any form their idea of the Deity. With them, as with the Jews, the Divine name was regarded with such profound re- spect as never to be uttered. He was the Being of
50 THE FIRST SABBATH
Beings, '* who was, and is, and will be,'' without repre- sentative. Osiris, indeed, was the nearest approach to the Supreme, yet his realm was that of disembodied souls, being their Judge, and the Avatar, of very high rank, but not the Supreme Deity in Unity. Such a Being is not represented on the sculptures, but only the qualities and attributes belonging to Him. Men in early times believed in an omnipotent and all-wise God.
Dr. Bigg, in the Bampton Lectures for 1886, has pre- sented the earnest efforts of pagan philosophers to re- vive and correct the old pagan theology ; how the second Christian century saw a revived Mithraism in which that Deity was made the Eedeemer and Mediator between God and man ; how Atonement was seen in the blood of the slain bull connected with Mithraic wor- ship, which was said to regenerate for eternity. The Messiah and Saviour of men might be seen here and there, especially in Zarathustra's son, in Pythagoras, and in Apollonius, by whom a glorious end should be put to the long strife between good and evil (pp. 237- 242). And the Emperor Julian in the fourth century exerted himself to the utmost to restore pagan theology, pagan worship, and pagan literature to their former position among the people. Such reformation implied something that needed reform, for a lapse had occurred. Men had wandered far from the primitive worship.
Originally there was a weekly observance of the Eest- day. In Egypt and between the Rivers a week of seven days was long known. It was the religious day. Pro- fessor Proctor is positive that Sabbath observance was the original practice of all Semitic peoples. Indeed, his assurance on this point surprises me. He claims that Moses derived his idea of enacting each seventh day as a day of rest from the Egyptians, who had
AND PRIMITIVE WORSHIP, 51
taught the practice to the Jews, and that it would have increased the difficulties of his position to have omitted such a festival, while the time was not favorable to establish a new one. He manfully opposed Egyptian polytheism, but nevertheless adopted certain ceremonies and festivals which he incorporated into his legislation. We have historical evidence as to the non-Jewish origin of the observance of the seventh day. Philo, Josephus, Clement of Alexandria, etc., speak plainly of the week as not of Jewish origin, but common to all Oriental nations. (See '' The Great Pyramid,'' pp. 248, 249.) The days of the week are named after the sun and six long-known planets of ancient times. ''When Baby- lonian priests began to observe the stars, they did vast service to mankind and laid the basis of astronomy. They divided the circle into three hundred and sixty degrees, the day into twenty-four hours, and the week into seven days, naming them after the planets. On Babylonian clay tablets the Sabbath day is found among her religious institutions, a seventh-day called Sabbath, on which no work was to be done" (Franz Delitzsch). Add to this Professor Proctor's claim that the great pyramid at Gizeh was built by Cheops for astronomical purposes chiefly, and that a week of seven days was even then a measure of time in Egypt, and we have a three- fold source of evidence, strengthened by various con- siderations, that by Babylonians, Egyptians, and by Hebrew patriarchs the Sabbath was observed at a very early period for the worship of God, now with prayers and sacred hymns, now with sacrifice of animals and the fruits of the earth ; vegetables, figs, grapes, the hon- ored onion, incense to a large amount, and even oint- ment, were offered. In early Egypt religion entered into the daily life of the people as well as of the priests.
52 THE FIRST SABBATH
Besides the days sacred to God, what we call religious service attended upon all the great events of life from birth to burial, including them. Every day had its appropriate service. They observed fast days as well as feast days, the birth and death of a peasant's child and of a Pharaoh's. Every important undertaking, every marked favor, going to war and returning in triumph, were accompanied with prayers, sacrifices, and thanks- giving to God. So was the accession to the throne of a new king, who, if not already a priest, was enrolled a member of the priesthood. The images of Babylon and of Egypt, and the Ark of the Covenant, were borne by priests in a similar manner when removed. The conse- cration of persons and places separated for religious uses, anointing with oil, use of incense and the sacred fire, were common alike among each people who then represented mankind. It was the religiousness of Egyptians which caused them to legard their stay in this world as of short duration in comparison with the everlasting habitations awaiting them upon leaving the inns of life and the body of death. Their history shows that two millenniums before our era they had purer ideas of God, and how to worship Him, and prepare for the judgment of Amenti than prevailed in the days of Cleopatra. There was an evolution with the passage of ages, but it was into debasing superstitions, which Apepi in the seventeenth century vigorously opposed by a decree forbidding the worship of any God in Thebes except Ra-Amon, the One Supreme. In Egypt and between the Rivers there were occasional wars for relig- ion, from Nimrod to the king who knew not Joseph. And the Semitics were ever on the side of the invisible and eternal Being whom they approached with prayer, sacrifice, and thanksgiving. Yet from an early period
AND PRIMITIVE WORSHIP, 53
there were those who made the heavenly bodies to sym- bolize Him, and which were adored on certain days of the month named after the planets. Later on the Eternal Being was worshipped ia His attributes and by material emblems and as dwelling in animals.
According to an inscription now in the British Muse- um, Sargon of Accad dedicated a temple to the Sun- god at Sippara ; at Nipur he restored the Temple of Bel, and another to Beltis, wife of Bel, while at Zir- ghulla he built a temple to Sar-ili, King of the gods ; and in each thought himself a consistent monotheist.
Whatever the date of these temples, they imply wor- ship and days for sacrifice. The men who erected and adorned them did it in honor of the God whom they worshipped. So had Noah offered his sacrifice of thanksgiving ; and earlier still men had observed the Sabbath of Eden. Prom the mountain of Nizir and the plain of Shinar Sabbath observance went to Egypt, and its priests enjoined rest on that day because it was a duty of religion, and not only because it was consid- ered unlucky to work on that day. The unluckiness arose from its being God's day, whereon man must not do his own work nor seek his own pleasure. Daily at sunrise and at sunset Babylonian and Egyptian priests chanted hymns to the Deity, and on special festivals to the national God. On New Year's night the Chaldean priest repeated a hymn of fourteen lines, alternately in Accadian and Semitic, having no connection between them, but which had come to them as a legacy of the past. The Semitic lines were to Bel-Merodach, the Accadian to *' a god of the sanctuary" and 'Mord of the world ' ' (Hibbert Lectures, 1887, pp. 80, 340). Some hymns of the Accadian liturgy were translations from the Semitic tongue, for the two peoples were then united
54 THE FIRST SABBATH
under one ruler, and so they made joint use of prayers and litanies. As early as Sargon of Accad there was a litany which shows Semitic supremacy at that time. Already temples had been erected to Anu. That of Belus was the earliest known.
Such progress had been made by ancient Babylonians in astronomy that they very early learned to intercalate a whole month, called Elul, into their year of three hun- dred and sixty days ; in some years, two such Eluls, every day of which was provided with religious service and sacrifice. The nineteenth day as well as each sev- enth day was a Sabbath of rest and worship. Some Accadian lines of this ritual Professor Sayce confesses himself unable to translate, and calls them '* an heir- loom possibly from 2^"^^- Semitic days^'' (pp. 77-80), which is, of course, before the Deluge. They may have been preserved with other records at Sippara, or in the Ark by Noah, when seven was already considered a sacred number, and animals were classed as clean and unclean, when the flesh of a pig was avoided ; yet at an early date M. Maspero and Professor Sayce find evi- dence that *• the flesh of a man, the front breast of a man,'' were eaten (p. 83) ! Which may have been only a peculiar way of speaking of " Mother's Milk." And Professor Sayce is careful to shield Semitics from shar- ing in such cannibalism (p. 84). The Phoenician rite of offering children to Moloch did not imply saci^ificing them, but only presenting them to lord Baal, the god of light and life ; the usual sacrifices being of oxen, sheep, and gazelles, with offerings of meal and wine, hymns, prayers, and invocations. We shrink from dog- matism on this early Accadian period, when women were especially honored and Istar reigned— two points to be remembered in affirming the custom of human
AND PRIMITIVE WORSHIP. 55
sacrifices. Stilly the case of Isaac may have been created to teach that in Palestine and elsewhere such victims were not acceptable to God, but rather an abomination. And via Phoenicia and Damascus the Divine aversion to them might easily be carried to Accad in the twen- tieth century B.C.
Moreover, other changes were effected in Divine offices and names for Deity. MuMil, from being lord of the world of departed spirits, became Bel or Baal, *' a sud- den change, seemingly, not a development (p. 347). Gods of good had long struggled with spirits of evil, which we see in Egypt and Persia as well as in the Accad of Sargon, when Ea, Samas, and Merodach desig- nate the same Deity, and when Merodach was called Bel in Babylon. His contest with Tiamat was an early solution by the dwellers between the Eivers of the prob- lem of the origin of evil. Hence arose prayers and in- cantations to be delivered from all demoniac influences. Hence prayers and confessions to obtain forgiveness for sins of thought as well as of deed. Hence the frequent supplications, '' 0 God, forgive my sins ! 0 goddess, forgive my sins ! As a mother forgives an erring child, so Babylonians desired to be forgiven" (pp. 350-52). But neither here nor in the early records of Chaldea, which have survived to us, can Professor Sayce find any traces of ancestor worship. The ghost world of Nipur lay beneath the earth in the realm of Queen AUat. And Mul-lil of Accad became the Semitic Bel before the Deluge tablets were inscribed, which give his later name. He reigned a supreme God, if not alone. Istar was the Lady Nana of Accad, and was known as Nana at Erech to the latest times. Hymns were sung to her which set forth her greatness and renown. She was also called Tillili, Dav-kina, the bride of 'Tammuz, her 3*
56 THE FIRST SABBATH
shepherd and lord ; all were names of the same divinity. Naturally enough, Tammuz, her bridegroom, was not of Semitic origin ; Istar and Tammuz were of Accad. In honor and supremacy were Anu, Ea, and Bel of Baby- lon, called Assur in the northern empire. So numerous are the hymns and prayers addressed to them, that Lenormant styled them the " Chaldean Eig-Veda/^ But as copies of originaL are mixed with later produc- tions, as in the court of Sargon L, Semitic and Acca- dian scribes vied with one another in compiling new texts and in making old ones accessible to Semitic learners ; as under Assur-bani-pal, in the seventh cen- tury B.C., copyists may have passed later compositions for earlier ones and interpolated some others to suit themselves, no modern scholar can be always sure of his text, nor of the true meaning to be put upon it, till about 650 B.C. An artificial dialect sprang up, based on the Semitic, having Accadian words and phrases blended with it, which reacted on the Accadian, which thus became mixed with Semitic words. So of religion, Accadian ideas were blended with Semitic, which also intertwined with Accadian beliefs. But the theology of northern Babylonia was more purely Semitic than the southern. Yet Narum-Sin, the son and successor of Sargon I., was, according to the adjunct ** Sin," deified ; so a cylinder found by Di Cesnola in the treas- ure vaults of a Kimrian temple suggests. Its date is not given, but is certainly much later than 3750 B.C. The '' Sin," like ^' Ra" in Sekenen, expresses kingship by Divine permission. The Semitics were monotheists long ere this. And Sargon I. established their suprem- acy in Babylonia and was the lawgiver of its legends. Not only did ancient Babylonians and Assyrians observe the Sabbath, but its institution runs back of the Acca-
ANl) PRIMITIVE WORSHIP. 57
dian era ! It was the *^ Eest-day, a Day of Rest for the heart/' and like the Hebrew Sabbath, was observed every seventh day. The new-found data would make it before 4000 B.C. (Sayce's '' Hibbert Lectures/' pp. 30-36, 76, 77). Moreover, Assyrians were similar to the Semitics of Babylon in language, religion, and law, with Assur for the Supreme God, without a rival ; and the Semitic forms of religion were adopted by ancient Phoenicians. * ' It was typically Semitic. '' Bel- Merodach became Baal, Melkarth, and Moloch, of whom the sun, fire, and the planets were visible symbols. Among them all a seventh- day Sabbath was early ob- served for rest and worship. It is also noteworthy that in old Jebusite Jerusalem the title for the Supreme God was Dod or Dodo. So in Isaiah 5 : 1 we read Dod-i for *^ my beloved." Hence also the name David ; so Sayce, p. 57 ; and he says the temple of Merodach differed from all other Babylonian temples by being oriented at the side, while others are oriented at the corners. With- in it bore a striking likeness to the temple of Solomon, with a '* holy of holies" curtained off from profane gaze. Originally built and dedicated to Belus, it was repaired and embellished by Nebuchadnezzar, and a golden image symbolized Merodach, whom he reverently took by the hand when recounting his prowess and suc- cesses. All his greatness and his triumphs had come to him through the favor and blessing of his God, whom he extolled and adored. Nebuchadnezzar and Darius each issued a .decree that every people and nation of their dominion should acknowledge the God of the Hebrews, for He is the living God, and steadfast forever (Dan. 3 : 29 ; 6 : 26). And an Egyptian papyrus of twelve hundred years before their day tells us that Apepi, the contemporary of Joseph, proclaimed that
58 THE FIRST SAB13ATH
One God was to be worshipped throughout Egypt. He also sent to Sekenen, the tributary King of Thebes, to allow no other worship, so that the monotheism thus enjoined was exclusive. For there was One only God whom men ought to worship. He was then called Ea- Amon, who was also acknowledged at Babylon ; a name derived from the original Ka>Ra, or the gate of Ra, of which Babil was the Semitic translation, denoting the Supreme God, or " King of the gods," as we find Sar- ili to mean. At Zerghul a temple was dedicated to him by Urukh, said to be the earliest of monumental kings ('* Records of the Past,'^ vol. iii., pp. 9, 10 ; vol. viii., p. 3). Thus Ra was the Supreme God, however vari- ously designated. As Professor Rawlinson says : '' The Unity of the Divine nature was not gradually worked out by sages and philosophers, but seems to have under- lain religion from the very first. And the earliest hymns are as monotheistic as the latest. It is polytheism that grows and is elaborated, not monotheism.'' Ra and His worship are found in Babylon and in Egypt at an early date. The manifesto of the Hyksos King Apepi to Ra-Sekenen is itself a refutation of the evolu- tion of religion. Very noteworthy is the prefix Ra to Sekenen's name, simply meaning '^by Divine permis- sion," or '' by God^s grace," King of Thebes, not a God-King at all. Thebes was then tributary to Apepi, who reigned at Memphis and Avaris, whence he issued his decree enacting the worship of One only God, who seems never to have been represented by material sym- bols. Ra, indeed, might be seen in Osiris and his sym- bol, and so receive the homage of men, but He was the concealed God whom intelligent Egyptians worshipped with the highest titles of honor and supremacy. ^' The designation of other deities had better be that of genii^
AND PRIMITIVE WORSHIP. 59
corresponding to the angels of the Bible. '^ Since the Greeks very early had dealings with Egyptians and Asiatics, we may understand why Sophocles could sing :
*' There is in truth but One, One only God, Who made both heaven and long-extended-earth ;'*
And Aratus sang :
' • Men worship Him, the First, the Last, Their Father, Wonderful, their help and shield."
In the nineteenth dynasty the era of the Exodus, the Greeks had direct intercourse with Egypt, and then in hostile combination with Phoenicians, Cyprians, etc., who are named in the papyri, they inyaded the Nileland, and became acquainted with its philosophy and religion {'' Records of the Past/' vol. iv., pp. 39-48). And vol. 2, p. 8, says that King Una, of the sixth dynasty, had his priests, north and south, truly devoted to Osiris, the name of the Heaven- God at that time. In the twelfth dynasty, about the era of Abraham, King Usertesen was ruler of the three regions— viz,, Upper, Lower, and Middle Egypt, when Ra-Amon was the name of the One God without a peer, and the dead were carried in the boat of Ra {" Records of the Past," vol. ii., p. 134). As before stated, the Hyksos Apepi received the homage of the whole land, but precipitated a revolt because he refused to tolerate the worship of any other God than Ra-Amon. He would not suffer Sekenen to assent that the Thebans should serve any of the gods of the land except Ra-Amon, the King of the gods {"' Records of the Past," vol. viii., p. 3). Whatever polytheism this may disclose, it also discloses a stubborn monotheism, which would risk the chances of war rather than ac-
60 THE FIRST SABBATH
knowledge more than one God. Apepi and Ra-Sekenen of the seventeenth century B.C. confute the theory of ecclesiastical evolution. The Moabite stone contains the compound Ashtar-Chemosh to designate a single deity. And in times of droughty we are told, the ancient Phoenicians lifted their hands heavenward to El, the only God and Lord of heaven. So by various other names they worshipped Baal-Samin, which means Bel — that is, El, the Lord of Heaven, who ruled the world and men ; hence their worship of Him. So in Chemosh-Ashtar, Pen-Baal, Shem-Baal, the goddess part seems to be merely different aspects of Baal, which no more militates against original monotheism than does the Christian Trinity against the monotheism of Christians. Influenced by commercial dealings with other peoples. East and West, they might adopt the names of their deities for their own, but according to Kenrick, ^'the Phoenicians were not idolaters in the sense of being image-worshippers. And in the temple of Melkarth at Gades there was no material emblem of the god at all, except that of an ever-burning fire.'' Stones and pillars, supposed to possess a sort of mystic virtue, were set up before their temples, and sacrifices were offered to them. Phoenician worship consisted of prayer and praise, and sacrifice of animals, with liba- tions and incense in profusion, and they uttered pro- longed cries to importune the Deity, and practised self- mutilation, as in the grand tragedy at Carmel, the final test between Baal and the God of Elijah and Israel. That demonstrated that the covenant- Jehovah and His worship, as prescribed by Moses, must not be superseded by any other in Israel. It was apostasy so to do (Num. 15 : 30 ; Deut. 17 : 12). But was the Mosaic legisla- tion obligatory upon other nations ?
AND PRIMITIVE W0B8HIP, 61
Here I may notice a reviewer of the first part of my book, who, planting himself upon Renan as authority, claims that monotheism did not become fixed in Israel till about the ninth century B.C. ! Surely, if the records of that century prove anything, it is that monotheism was then decadent, and in the latter part of the eighth century the Ten Tribes, for idolatry, were carried cap- tive to Assyria. Jerusalem also was punished for her ecclesiastical coquetry. In the ninth century occurred the famous test of Elijah with Jezebel's priests. Jehu was anointed to succeed Ahab ; Baal's priests were slain or exiled, and their queen dashed to pieces. Yet the idolatry of Jeroboam was maintained. There was, indeed, a brief revival of national prosperity, but from the time of the rival sanctuaries of Dan and Bethel to that of Jerusalem, Jahvism, which may properly desig- nate the monotheism of Israel, became more and more debased and decadent in that nation. It was seven hundred years earlier that Moses established Jahvism. It was confirmed under Joshua, as we read in ch. 22 of that book ; while under David and Solomon mono- theism was regnant. Kenan's eloquence cannot ex- scind historical facts. Never was " Jahveh a confused nebula" with intelligent Hebrews. Even those who dishonored Him did not forget Him, but sought to pro- mote and secure what seemed to be doubtful rights of sovereignty. (See 1 Kings 12.) Jahveh was not a ** tribal evolution from spiritism." In allusion to the Persian winged-disc symbol of Ormuzd, He is called by Malachi '^ the Sun of Eighteousness. " EloMm, meaning spirits, do not meet Moses in mountain-passes, but the covenant Jahveh-Elohim thus manifests His glory (Ex. 33 : 17-22 ; 24 : 8-11 ; also 1 Kings 19 : 9-14). In Isaiah 57 : 15 it is the Spirit of the Holy One that
(>2 THE FIRST SABBATH
dwells in the hearts of men. M. Eenan's historic gen- eralization cannot transform the essential basis of Hebrew literature. *' The Ten Commandments will not budge'^ at his bidding, nor cease to proclaim that Jahyeh-Elohim gave them. Witnesses of Him are the sacred Ark and the Tabernacle service ; the Passover and other annual memorials ; the pillar of stones at the Jordan and at Shechem ; even the brazen serpent which Hezekiah destroyed ; the morning and evening sacri- fices, and the law of the king, which must have been given before Saul. Then there are silent references and vocal epochs which cannot be eliminated ; Noah and Nimrod, Abraham and Jacob, Moses and Jethro, Samuel and David, even Ahab and Jehu, as well as Elijah and Elisha, all emphasize for us the Jahvism of patriarchs and of Israel as before and above all else. Jahveh, indeed, has ever been known since He talked with Adam and Eve, and ever worshipped since the first Sabbath of Eden ; in the sacrifice of Noah ; in the temple of Belus ; by Semitic Babylonians ; in Egyptian temples, and by decree of Egyptian kings, of Nebuchad- nezzar and of Darius ; in Ra and his representative Osiris ; in Assur, Bel, and in El ; in Varuna, Indria, and Agni ; in Ormuzd and in Mithra ; in Zeus and in Jupiter ; wherever menhave worshipped Him who made them, and who preserves them alive for the life ever- lasting, there and so far they worshipped God. The Creeds of Nicea and of St. Athanasius, of Westminster and of Heidelberg, may help or even hinder some to right views of Him, whom for short we call God our Creator, God our Saviour, God our Father, who is Infi- nite and Eternal, who has Personality and self-volition, who is before all, and above all, and in all who love and adore Him. His praises have been sung now in psalms
I
AND PEIMITIVE WORSHIP. 63
by heavenly choirs^ now by hymns in temples on the Euphrates and on the Nile, now by Persian bards and by Indian poets, now by anointed kings, by prophets in royal raiment and in leathern girdles ; and wherever the soul has extolled the majesty, the power, and the love of God, there and so far it has acknowledged and worshipped Him.
MATTERS AUTHENTICATED.
Summarizing some established facts, we find that early Semitics were monotheists, not indifferent, but aggressive in having those with whom they came in contact conform to their religion. It was thus with the king who first unified the Babylonians under one gov- ernment. Accad, Nipur, Sippara, and Ur were fused together by similar means that at a later time consoli- dated the Assyrian Empire. Sargon of Agane was both soldier and statesman, a builder of temples and a col- lector of libraries. Sennacherib, one, two, or three thousand years later, was a warrior, who strengthened his government and extended monotheism by the force of arms, as Apepi had attempted in Egypt a millennium before him. '' The struggle," says Eanke, "' was no less political than religious." Witness the quasi-relig- ious wars of Assur-bani-pal. Men fought and died for their religion on the borders of the Nile and the Euphrates near four thousand years ago. Their temples and capital cities have long lain in ruins, and their cen- tres of literary activity are lost to sight, but their liter- ature has been recovered from the debris of ages, and the Accadian tongue, which in the seventeenth century B.C. was dead as Latin in the Middle Ages, is now vocal with its accounts of Creation, of God, of Sabbath, and of Worship. Sargon's collections are said to be transla-
64 THE FIRST SABBATH
tions of Accadian originals, or based on Accadian texts, not the creations of poets and thinkers. He claimed sovereignty over the four nations of the world, but only his religion and his literature have survived. His son and successor was Naram-Sin, who was succeeded by a queen regnant, who was succeeded by Kammurabi of Elam, who ruled over Babjlonia, and was the first who made Babylon the capital of the Empire, which position it held for more than a thousand years. He added to the library founded by Sargon, which library makes for the later date of Sargon, and which, after other enrich- ments, was for the most part removed to Assyria by Sennacherib, who conquered the city about 690 B.C. What he left there must have perished in the fire which raged for three days and nights ; it could not have escaped the grasp of Assur-bani-pal twenty years later. Hence the small hope of finding any literary remains in Babylon of an earlier date than l^ebuchadnezzar, who largely rebuilt and adorned his capital with temples and palaces. The country was the battle-ground of the great nations of Asia, and its literature is largely to be collected among Assyrian remains, which contain copies of almost everything Babylonian in religion, in science, in art, and intellectual achievement. From hence western Semitics and western Aryans received much of their learning and civilization and religion. Thus the literature of old Accad lived again in Greece, but with a finer finish and a deeper philosophy, blended also with the treasures of Egypt. Hence what may be called the monotheistic polytheism of Greece and her complex theology. Witness that of Anaxagoras and Thales.
The Mount Nizir, upon which the Ark rested, is now located in ancient Assyria, and appreciation of deliver- ance by it from the Flood is said to have led to an early
AND PRIMITIVE WORSHIP. 65
adoration of the '' spirit of the mountain," and that a sort of ''naturalistic spiritism" was practised. Be it so. It only shows the gratitude men cherished for the direct sources of comfort and beneficence. Hence, too, veneration of the heavenly bodies and the powers of nature. But with this, and higher than this, men also worshipped in a deeper sense the Creator and Lord of all. Every day it was commanded to approach God with prayer and sacrifice. It was not till one or two millenniums after the Deluge that Abraham was the appointed head of a people who should worship God according to a divinely prescribed liturgy. This was not provided at the first, and men followed their own devices. Yet before Moses men fought and died for their religious convictions. Before the Bible there was Sabbath, Sabbath observance and the worship of God. So-called spiritism was a fantasy. Totemism was tribal history and tribal traditions, little more.
I have seen educated Christian women kneel on the grass to kiss the flowers, a lesser adoration than wor- ship, but arising from strong feelings of admiration. So from appreciation of his warmth in autumnal days, I have heard a child of only six years repeatedly say, '' The sun will keep me warm ; the sun will not let me take cold.'^ It was a real apostrophizing of nature in word and act. Nature, indeed, is an early and impres- sive teacher. Even flowers tell us the hour of the day ; plants the week of the month ; trees the month of the year ; suns and stars the years of a great cycle. Men of old time observed much ; they read but little ; they thought a great deal. Naturally they concluded every- thing good was to be appreciated, while everything evil was to be deprecated. Thus it was in Babylonia and in Egypt. " Her animal worship," says Kanke, " rests
66 THE FIBST SABBATH
upon a presumption that the deity is in the habit of assuming certain animal forms. This did, indeed, degenerate into idolatry, but it was never forgotten that all was symbolical, and worship was always paid to the god concealed under an external form. The Egyptian system embraced the whole phenomenal world and man. Life was not ended in death ; it was to return to its Divine source. Beyond the grave was another Nileland, where the pure soul would be united with the Deity, and yet retain its individuality. In the sarcophagus documents were placed designed to show that the de- ceased are worthy of admission among the blessed. '^ We should remember that the second commandment was not enacted before Moses, and that Jahvism did not arise from it, but it was a Divine " manifesto against the idolatry then prevalent in the world. '^ That a strange blending of spirit in nature worship "" long re- mained dear to the lower classes'^ is evidence of want of original instruction to them. The Decalogue was not then given. The marvel rather is that monotheism did, in fact, struggle for supremacy ages before it was proclaimed from Sinai.
Professor Sayce seems to predict a coming time when the brick inscriptions may be translated in the Biblical style ; what but capacity in the translator now prevents such rendering, if thereby greater accuracy of the orig- inal meaning would be attained? Those ancient records, so far as known, disclose a vast contrast in spir- itual character between their subject-matter and pas- sages like Ps. 91 and 97, Isa. 35, 40, and 44, not to say Heb. 1. Expressions like " The effulgence of His glory, and the very image of His substance ; the Sun of Kighteousness with healing in His wings ; ministering spirits sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation ;
AND PRIMITIVE WORSHIP. 67
let all the angels of God worship Him/^ illustrate the ease with which a people of a poetic and luxuriant tem- perament might pervert correct religious ideas into Mithraism, Osirianism, the later polytheism, and Baby- lonian angelology. Add to this the symbolism of the serpent in Eden, and that for long ages there was no divinely appointed ritual, no fixed and formulated the- ology, no authoritative writings and standard of appeal, and the rise of Sabaeanism, Accadian Shamanism, and the various mythologies of ancient peoples cause no sur- prise. Eather our wonder is that any should have pre- served the original purity, have been intolerant of error, and have maintained their theology with a stubborn oppugnancy, as we find they did on the Euphrates and on the Nile.
A seventh. day Sabbath and the worship of God, more or less pure, were observed from Noah to Abraham and Sargon L In Shinar the Semite worshipped One God, and did something to correct Accadian errors, as he also did in Egypt. Naturalistic theories cannot explain Semitic monotheism. A people who honored women, giving them the first place of power and influence, can hardly have fallen very low in the adoration of nature. Their Totems were not symbols of religion, but family records. Accad was near neighbor of Ur and largely influenced by it, especially when forming a part of the tetrapolis which Sargon consolidated. Thus the " peo- ple of the highlands'' became merged with those who occupied the plains between the Ki vers, and were dom- inated by them. If they learned to adore the spirit of *' the mountain of the world," the Turanian Olympus, on which Noah's Ark rested, spreading thence in all directions, meeting Alarodians on the north and Semites on the southwest, they must have been largely moulded
68 THE FIRST SABBATH
and modified by those of Ur, *' the city/' par excellence, with its temple to Bel-Istar^ the first capital of Baby- lonian rulers of the first confederate tetrapolis, compris- ing Ur and Accad, Nipur, and Surippac {Encyclopmdia Britannica), Here arose the first struggles for religious and political supremacy, so far as known, when Semites became the dominant race in Babylonia, and the House- God Bel became the King-God or national Deity of the country. Sumerians, the most advanced in civilization of ancient Babylonians, were essentially monotheists when they erected the first temple to the Moon -god, for they assigned to theMoon the first place in the firmament. Only by misunderstanding did they so honor the in- ferior orb of heaven. Accadians became merged with them, and lost much of their so-called '' spiritism^' — a spiritism which is seen in New York, when the dying year is treated by many to a noisy and grotesque fare- well, and the new year is greeted with tootings and shootings, a terror to nervous people. Others, again, are fervent in their prayers at the moment of the de- parting year and at the dawn of the new year. Yet none of them regard the year as a personality, or as being possessed by any spirit, good or bad. They are monotheists for all that, as Scotchmen are, notwith- standing their annual celebration of Beltane fires on May 1st.
Moreover, the remains of Accadian literature have been preserved by others, largely in copies of the orig- inal, and that original flourished only between 2300 B.C. and 1700 B.C., when it ceased to be spoken, except by the learned. *' The bloom of Accadian poetry was four thousand years ago." Its legends then passed to As- syrians, Phoenicians, and to Aryan Greeks ; possibly the Hebrews may have absorbed some of them, and they
AND PRIMITIVE WORSHIP. 69
became the possession of civilized man (Professor Sayce, " Babylonian Literature/' pp. 9-41).
Accadian laws allowed any man to have a private sanctuary or chapel on his estate ; which implies his own priest to minister in it, and his own religious cult. Such liberty might soon lead to new names for the god so worshipped, and to new objects of worship, especially when the grantee was of large abnormal religious sub- jectivities. No marvel, then, if earlier than 2000 B.C. the names for deity in their liturgy were numerous. And later copyists may have changed them to suit their ideas, as they did in the Deluge legends. The triumphs of Kammurabi, ^' the delight of men," over Elam and Larsa (Ellasar), becoming their king as well as of Accad and Sumer, the four races or tribes of that region, a thousand years before ISTebuchadnezzar, did not enable him to hand down to that monarch the original litera- ture of Accad. Fixed as the Semitic language may have been during that millennium, this does not guar- antee the verbal preservation of Accadian theology, or of its Divine names. One king worshipped Bel, another Marduk, a third Merodach, or Istar, as the God by whose favor he had triumphed over his enemies and per- formed exploits. Thus the temple " House of Heaven," the Temple of the Moon, and the walls of Ur were built, and the country unified. The legend even makes a Semi-Divine being to have built the tower Babel, while another identifies it as the tower or the tomb of Belus. Nor may we forget that Sennacherib razed great Baby- lon to its foundations. Early in the seventh century '^he pulled down, dug up, and burned with fire the tower and its palaces, root and branch, destroyed the fortress and the double wall, the temples of the gods and the towers of brick, and threw their rubbish into
70 PRIMITIVE WORSHIP,
theAraxes." Modern discoyeries, therefore, can only unearth the remains of buildings erected by Essar- haddon, Nebuchadnezzar, etc. Indeed, Alexander found the Temple of Bel a mass of ruins. The build- ings became a quarry, first for Seleucia, then for Ctesi- phon, and other towns. The marvel is that remains are now so extensive. The famous temple was a pyramid- al structure in square stages more than two hundred yards each way, and rising stage above stage. The shrine at the top contained a golden image of Bel forty feet high, with two other statues, one, at least, of gold. At the base were two chapels with altars, and two images of gold. The God of a great people was wor- shipped at great cost. This was alike true in Judea and in Babylonia. There, as in Egypt and Assyria, mag- nificent temples were erected, expensive sacrifices offered, and hymns of praise were sung in the earliest ages to the Creator and Preserver of men. A seventh-day Sab- bath was observed in His honor and in remembrance of His rest from creative work. The Sabbath- worship of Eden originated and explains all other worship of God, by the three great families of mankind.
III.
IMMORTALITY IN LEGENDS AND LONG-
INGS.
We have already seen that men in the first ages believed in another life ; they confidently looked for it, and they prayed to be admitted to its enjoyments. The translation of Enoch and the early legend of Noah or Khasisatra being taken to dwell with the gods disclose the thought of immortality. It expressed Accadian belief in continued existence. They also prayed that the soul might be admitted to the abode of happiness, soar to a lofty place, ascend to the holy hands of God, be clothed in radiant garments, be seated in the com- pany of the celestials, and eat the food of the gods. Such exaltation was to be secured by a holy life, by prayer and sacrifice ; sevenfold sins were to be forgiven through sevenfold mercy ; holy light was to guide through earth's dark pathway ; life itself was a prepa- ration for coming judgment, when the angel-god would transport the virtuous soul to Heaven's blessedness ('' Eecords of the Past,'' vol. iii., pp. 133-38).
If ancient echoes seem at times to be indistinct, it is because of the medium of transmittance, not because primitive peoples had not definite ideas of immortality. Dwellers near the Nile and between the Kivers expressed those ideas more in detail than the Hebrews before David ; while Cato and Caesar, in the Roman Senate, on 4
72 IMMORTALITY IN LEGENDS
the question of the punishment of Catiline, shrank from putting him to death, and used those arguments which might justify their votes, not as expressing their real belief. The vicious eyen on earth suffer for their wickedness, and are scorned by the good ; put them to death as a penalty, and you have exhausted retribution ; only on the idea of another life, with rewards and pen- alties, is it a punishment to be executed. In the ad- ministration of government the Komans could not pre- sume upon eternal life. Even if taught by the sanctions of religion, it was not a part of their civil policy. Sen- eca might teach not to fear death, while he shrank from it as long as possible. Cicero denied that it was an evil, and if the soul be immortal death was a real good ; that many philosophers so regarded it ; that historical and metaphysical considerations proved the future ex- istence of the soul, and that there is no reason to dread the end of our earthly career, if we make virtue the sole rule of our conduct. Yet his flight from the execu- tioner showed his desire to live as long as the gods per- mitted. (See his ^^Tusculan Disputations/' lib. 1.)
The legend of Istar's descent to hell, at least 2000 B.C., is quite explicit. It tells of a place for the wicked, a realm of unhappy souls, where Allat reigned. Only by the intervention of Heaven could Istar be res- cued after once entering the sevenfold guarded passage. There the soul was unclothed and stripped of all its covering, surrounded by darkness and death. Only by partaking of the waters of life near the throne of the avenging goddess could any one, even Istar herself, be restored to the upper world. That water alone brought back health, beauty, and the light of day. It doubtless expressed Accadian belief in a nether world of unhappy spirits. It was the abode of unfaithful wives and bus-
AND LONGINGS. 73
bands, of youths who had dishonored their bodies, of men who had destroyed the purity of their souls, of impious kings and of e^il spirits. It was the Tophet and Gehenna of later Jews, while to the early Hebrew Sheol was the realm of all the departed. The body was in the grave, the spirit had returned to God, and the soul (naphesh) deserted by the spirit, was in Sheol. To the Chaldean who served his God, the Lord of Light would grant an abode of felicity. He would " live for- ever in the land of the silver sky/' (Sec Part I., pp. 59 and 96.)
Figured in the side adytum of an Egyptian temple at Thebes is a scene of the Judgment of Osiris in the Hall of the Two Truths. Copies of it are in Birch's Wilkinson's ''Egypt'' and in Eawlinson's ''Ancient Eeligions.'^ The central shrine is occupied by Osiris, and lesser gods or angels attend upon Him. There are forty-two asses- sors. In due course of procedure the director of the weight produces a pair of scales, places an ostrich feather, the emblem of truth, in one scale, and a vase supposed to contain the good deeds of the deceased in the other scale. Thoth stands by, tablet in hand, and records the result. If the good deeds weigh down the ostrich feather the soul is adjudged righteous, and " led to the boat of the sun," to be conducted by angels to the "Pools of Peace," the dwellings of the blessed. But if they are lighter than the feather, and do not bal- ance it, then the poor soul is sentenced to a course of transmigrations in unclean animals, the number and duration of the transmigrations to depend upon the nature of the sins of the guilty soul and the time needed for its purification. If after other trials soul-purity was not attained, it was finally pronounced incurable, and condemned to annihilation, being destroyed from
74: IMMORTALITY IN LEGENDS
the presence of the Lord of Light. But the good soul, having passed the Judgment of Amenti^ and having been purified from all stain of sin, was made the companion of Osiris for three thousand years, when it might return to earth, re-enter its former body, and live a second earthly life. Such process might be repeated till a cer- tain mystic cycle should be fulfilled, when final glory and blessedness would be attained by union and absorp- tion with the Divine Essence. Hence the practice of embalming the bodies of the dead, because it was believed they would be revivified and reoccupied by the soul, which still lived with Osiris, and would never cease to exist either as a personality or by return to the Deity from whom it at first emanated. So the mum- mies of Egypt prove its ancient belief in the continued existence of the soul ; while the Book of the Dead, often wrapped around the embalmed, was for their in- struction and guidance on the long journey through Amenti. However we interpret the details of custom, Egyptian mummies prove and illustrate Egyptian belief in the continued existence of virtuous souls. Their tombs, their Eitual, their legends, are emphatic voices of belief in immortality, and of preparation for another life. Because that other life was so much more endur- ing than the present, they spared no^ pains and no ex- pense in preparation for its happiness and to secure its perpetual enjoyment.
Taught thus by Egyptians, by Babylonians, by Assyr- ians, by Persians, and Phoenicians, Greeks, long before our era, learned to ask :
** Who knows whether life may not be death, And death itself be life ?"
The consuming fire that burns the body does not de-
AND LONGINGS. 75
stroy the soul. Hence Pythagoreans sought to become like God on earth, that they might be with Him in heaven. Thus instructed, Socrates believed there was that in him which his unjust judges could not destroy, nor his friends detain from its upward flight, but which would live on in perpetual converse with the immortals, the wise, and the good. " Our souls are born again, he says ; and as life passes into death, so the dead must pass into life ; for if this were not so, all things must at last be swallowed up in death/' Doubts are
*' Blank misgivings of a creature *
Moving about in worlds not realized. ' '
The soul carries nothing with her but character and the fruits of education. Then she is borne to her own place, arrayed in her own jewels, and dwells forever in the glorious mansions of the elect. So Antiphanes would not lament departed friends, for they are not dead, but have gone before us to the spirit world ; and we shall follow after, spending eternity in their com- pany. And again, death is hungry ; he is the medicine for immortality. To one who thought Anaxagoras had no regard for his fatherland he said, pointing to heaven, '*Ihave great regard for my fatherland.'^ This sug- gests the ^' Babylonian hereafter in the land of the silver sky.''
The Hindus said : '' Those holy men who are ac- quainted with God, depart this life in the light of day, or in the brightness of the moon, and go to Brahm ; but those who are not acquainted with Him, die during the dark night when the moon does not shine ; they have only a mortal birth" (Maurice, *' Indian Antiquities," vol. ii., pp. 256, 257). '
76 IMMORTALITY IN LEGENDS
The immortality of the soul and of the individual is clearly proclaimed in the Veda, contrary to the common notion about Nirvana. Says Professor Roth : ** In the Veda we find beautiful conceptions of immortality ex- pressed in unadorned language, with child-like convic- tions. Persia was not the only early place for belief in this doctrine. To the truly charitable and good the Veda assign the highest place in heaven. ' ' The Hebrew, unlike the Egyptian, did not expect to return to life in the earthly body. In Talmudic literature it is described as a resurrection of souls who shall possess new bodies springing from the incorruptible bone of the old skele- ton. Job says : '' The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more ; thine eyes are upon me, and I am not. Man dieth, and wasteth away ; yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?" Here Job (7 : 8 ; 14 : 10), according to Oehler, speaks only of man's disappearance from the earthly scene, and not that he has entirely ceased to be. He yet sojourns in the kingdom of the dead. So in Ps. 37 : 36 ; 39 : 14. The existence of man after death is treated as a matter of course. In the Old Testament it is never really doubted. Job does not doubt his future existence. Hebrew uncertainty was only as to the liow of an after life ; how the soul could be freed from the grasp of Sheol. And Ps. 49 : 15 answered it, saying, God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol. Ps. 16 : 10 : He will not leave my soul in hell — i e., in Sheol. The path of life leads to the Divine presence, where are ever- lasting pleasures. As a punishment the King of Baby- lon was brought down to Sheol, yet his body was refused burial (Isa. 14 : 15, 19). There was no promise of his redemption. Hence Sheol becomes the region of dark- ness and forgetfulness (Ps. 88 : 12 ; Eccles. 9:5, 6,
AND LONGINGS. 77
10 ; Ps. 6:5; 115 : 17) ; but consciousness was not destroyed ; the sleepers might be awakened and sing again. Without the flesh they shall see God. Peace- fully to be buried with his fathers was the patriarch's hope of being happy with them in Sheol and with their God (Gen. 48 and 49). The Assyrian Sualu, like the Hebrew Sheol, designates the region of the departed. It was that state from which God alone could deliver and transfer to the enjoyment of His presence, (Com- pare Job 14 : 14 ; 19 : 25-27 ; Ps. 16 : 10, 11 ; 49 : 15 ; Isa. 26 : 19.)
Very early the looped cross + was the sign of life, as it is with modern Christians in Roman or Greek form. Abraham and contemporary Egyptians paid equal atten- tion about the purchase of a burial-ground. The patri- arch would buy it of the sons of Heth, and those of the Nileland spent large sums upon their sepulchres or '' eternal habitations/' as they called them. The idea of another life on earth, of continued life in the pres- ence of God, or of Osiris, led to honor and even venera- tion of the virtuous departed ; not because they had become deified, but because the soul was of the Divine essence, and returned to God. The emanation was orig- inally from the Divine to the human ; after the judg- ment and approval of Osiris the soul would dwell with Him. Kings and peasants must pass that ordeal. In- deed, the name of a wicked Pharaoh was erased from the tablet, and his body refused burial in the cemetery prepared for him, funeral honors being denied him after death, which was the severest of punishments to Eg}^p- tians and to Hebrews. (See Wilkinson ; 1 Kings 14 : 13 ; 16 : 18 ; Jer. 36 : 30.)
Assyrian belief of future blessedness was an *^ eternal abode in the land of the silver sky.'' The opposite of
78 IMMORTALITY IN LEGENDS
this was the imprecation of Tiglath-Pileser I. about the era of Samson, upon any one who should injure his tablets and cylinders, or erase the writing or divide the sculptures. Let Ann and Vul consign his name to per- dition ! a lot even more undesirable than the Egyptian sentence to transmigration into loathsome animals, but with a chance of recovery and reinstatement. In both countries belief in two states for departed souls was prev- alent^ with or without possibility of restoration. Dif- ferent degrees of sinfulness met with different degrees of punishment. (See '^Kecords of the Past/' vol. v., pp. 7-26 ; Eawlinson, '* An. Mon./' vol. 2 ; ^' An. Kelig- ions/' p. 54 ; Sayce's Hibbert Lects., 1887.)
But in Hebrew-Palestine to the time when Solomon built a sanctuary to Milcom-Ashtoreth for the use of his strange wives, in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to its purification by Josiah, Sheol was the one word to desig- nate the place of departed souls, good and bad. Within a living generation of that time the Exile to Babylon led to some new definitions of angelology and of escha- tology by the «Tews. And this may have been modified by Persian influence. Zoroastrians believed in both the immortality of the soul and in the resurrection of the body. Mahomet learned of them his notion of the narrow bridge over which good souls might pass by the aid of good angels to Ormuzd, while wicked souls fell into the bottomless pit of Angro-Mainyus. Indeed, from the plains of Shinar the idea of immortality spread through Babylonia and Assyria, Egypt and Judea, Persia and India. Early Vedic bards sang of eternal life, and to be made immortal where the desires of the heart would be realized. Hence their earnest prayers for the pardon of sin, and to be absolved from the sins of their fathers. '' Let me not yet enter the house of clay, 0 Varuna !
AND LONGINGS, 79
Have mercy, Almighty, have mercy !" Another says, Who gives alms goes to the highest place in heaven — to the gods. Heaven is gained by pious works. Pious sacrificers enjoy the heaven of Indra ; they dwell in the presence of the gods. But Indra casts into the pit those who do not sacrifice ; the wicked, false in thought and false in speech, are born for the deep abyss of hell ! Who can doubt that these bright rays of light, amid so much darkness, came from God inspiring the thought, and in many guiding the soul to earnest endeavors to serve Him ? They attained to much of true religion ; to belief in One Eternal and Perfect Being ; to the need of worship and of holy living in order to please Him, and to supplicate His mercy and pardon of their sins in order to attain admission to the radiant worlds where He dwelt in eternal light and blessedness. (See hymn on p. 96, Part L; Miiller's " Sanskrit Literature," and Eavvlmson's "' Ancient Eeligions.")
As early as Cyrus and Darius their religion taught how to prepare for life with Ormuzd ; how to worship Him, and appease the evil Angro-Mainyu. Thrice each day and thrice each night the heavenly priest was thought to smite the evil one and his crew ; and to secure victory, prayers and sacrifices were offered by Persian worshippers, and they drank the sacramental juice which should make men immortal on the day of resurrection. Thus they believed in the immortality of the soul and in the resurrection of the body ; that an "' eternal spring should come when the earth would be repeopled by the risen bodies of the righteous." Then the evil serpent, after his bondage on the high peak of a mountain, would be loosed and slain ; and a son born to Zoroaster would bring eternal life and light to glori- fied mankind, as his father had once brought the law 4*
80 IMMORTALITY IN LEGENDS
and the truth. Zoroastrian monotheism was made the State religion under Darius Hystaspes. So Professor Sayce. The Zend-Avesta is as explicit as Num. 15 : 30 and Deut. 17 : 12, that no atonement was provided for certain sins, sins of omission as well as of commission, and the guilty were doomed to the abode of Angro- Mainyu and his crew of demons. In the end Ahriman will be forever vanquished and brought to naught. But it provided that a man belongs according to his deeds to Ormnzd or to Ahriman, and the good would go to the palace of Varuna to live a life of everlasting happi- ness ; while the bad would go to Ahriman or Angro- Mainyu, who is eternal death. For in paradise good souls manifest goodness of spirit and excellence of mind ; they taste at once of as much pleasure as the whole living world can taste, in the place of Endless Lights. But wicked souls taste of as much of suffering as the whole world can taste, of evil thought, evil word, evil deed, in endless darkness. On the contrary, the souls of the faithful in the paradise of Varuna are supremely happy, good in thought, good in word, good in deed, and enjoy Endless Light. (See Darmesteter's translation '' Sacred Books of the East,'^ Part. L, pp. 70, 75; Part II., pp. 315-344.) Homer sang that '*in Elysium man's whole existence is a state of ease ; no snow is there, nor violent storms, nor rain ; where Khadamanthus dwells the gently blowing zephyrs re- fresh the weary soul.^' Plato is more spiritual in his view of death and judgment when the soul shall put on immortality, and he concludes : '* Wherefore, w^hat ought we not to do to attain virtue and wisdom in this life, when the prize is so glorious, and the hope so great. But as for wicked souls, they will be thrown into Tar- tarus, whence they can never come forth, and their pun-
AND LONGINGS. 81
ishment will be everlasting." As similar teachings are found in the Gorgias^ the Phaedo, and the story of Er, it would seem that Plato so belieyed. A century before, Theognis had inquired how one could reconcile it to his sense of right and wrong, if the wicked and the good were treated in the same way ? And Pericles thought a kingly soul demands a kingly state, as Egyptians had thought near two thousand years before him (Wilkin- son's ''Egypt,'' vol. ii., pp. 496, 499). Indeed, they give a good rendering of Job 29 : 18, I shall multiply my days as the Phoenix, which was said to live six hun- dred and sixty years, and then to rise again from its ashes. He was therefore not an inappropriate emblem of immortality, of the everlasting reproduction of the highest forms of life, before reunion with the Deity. It recalls the waters of life near the throne of Allat, which were poured on Istar before recovering her former state. Istar's descent suggests that of Orpheus after Eurydice ; and " the death of Adonis, and the descent of the goddess into Hades to search for him, formed the subject of Accadian poems before the Greek had yet reached his future home." So the Greek Charon repre- sents the Egyptian Nephthys, and the Kiver Styx the sacred lakes of Egypt. The cerberus of Pluto is an- other expression for AUat's sevenfold guarded passage to the nether world. With a priest Egyptians buried the insignia of his oflBce ; with a soldier his arms, and so with others to indicate their employments on earth. Similarly the Hindus, Gauls, and Britons buried or burned with the deceased the things — even animals and servants — that were most dear in life. So Pope sings of our Indian, who
** Thinks, admitted to yon equal sky. His faithful dog shall bear him company.'*
82 IMAIORTALITT IN LEGENDS
With Attila the Hun, with Scythians and Tartars, were also buried or sacrificed for him living attendants and useful articles for his service in life after death. (See pp. 33, 34, of Parti.)
Eemarkable as are these ideas and preparations for the life beyond the River and the happiness of disem- bodied souls, in Egypt and Babylonia, in Assyria and Persia, in India and Britain, with echoes of them in Gaul, Lydia, and Phoenicia, they are no more remark- able than the early attainments in civilization of those primitive peoples. The one word of explanation for it all, and the only rational and adequate explanation, is that of original and Divine instruction to man ; super- nal intuition and direction of heart, intellect and hand, which enabled him in his ignorance to achieve at once the highest attainments of humanity, which in essence and character are unsurpassed to-day. If we have found evidences of God the Creator, and we believe they amount to a demonstration of intelligent creation by Divine direction, then we need not hesitate about affirm- ing God the Revealer and original Instructor. Univer- sal mankind so believed in the first ages, that such knowledge was divinely imparted, and that God was ever present for them. From our point of view we might ask, Why was not this early instruction sooner written out, as it was under Moses ? rather than. Why was it originally communicated ? And we answer, for purposes of self-development and the unfolding of char- acter. Something was left for man to do. He was given intimations and directions ; let him heed them. Let him see what he can do with them. In the fulness of time he shall have specific details of ritual and a written Revelation. But meantime and always the great purpose of life is the unfolding and perfecting of
AND LONGINGS. 83
character, the subdual of the human will to the Divine Avill. Creeds and sacraments are but helps by the way, pledges and instruments of Divine aid. Till these are provided, man must attain to the possession of char- acter by culture and personal efforts. But Sabbath worship and longings for immortality were powerful aids in man's endeavors to prepare for the life beyond. He was never left to himself. Ancient legends prove this. It is not known to history that a savage people ever deyeloped into civilization without external aid. The conditions of barbarism tend to strengthen that barbarism. Put the builders of the pyramid of Gizeh B.C. 2200 or 5000 B.C., the wonder still is that it was then built. The farther back we place the time of its erection, the greater is the marvel of its construction. Uninstructed man could not have built it ; untaught men could not have devised the Judgment of Amenti. Before its conception there were explicit ideas of man's being judged after death for his conduct in life. We suggest Divine instruction to him that conduct formed character, and that character in life determined the soul's condition after death. The elementary princi- ples of religion were God-given in Eden, and thence to all the first nations. If that light became obscured, it was by not regarding it, by negligence and misconduct. This is strikingly illustrated in the history of Israel. There were periods after Moses when the Divine-cove- nant-religion was hardly observed. Solomon's shrines to Chemosh and to Moloch, Jeroboam's calves at Dan and Bethel, Ahab's altars to Baal in Samaria, and the Syrian altar of Ahaz at the Jerusalem Temple, made devout worshippers of Jehovah tremble for the conse- quences. Despite the Law and the Prophets apostasy from Divine covenant was frequent. It was only cor-
84 IMMORTALITY IN LEGENDS
rected and cured now by the exile of the Ten Tribes to Assyria, and now by carrying the Two Tribes into Babylonia. The praises of a virtuous wife were sung as loudly on the Euphrates two millenniums before our era as by the much-married King of Israel ; and they had more to say than he of immortal life ; but neither he nor they maintained a high degree of chastity, nor lived up to the standard of the Saints' Calendar. Dread of the judgment of Osiris, dread of the realm of AUat, dread of Sheol, of the narrow bridge over the deep chasm of Zoroaster, and of condemnation by Minos or by Ehadamanthus, did not induce all the men and women of old time to li^e righteously and be loyal in serving God. Before Moses and Divine covenant, as with them, men failed in reaching the standard they possessed. So it is to-day. The assurance of immortal life in Jesus Christ does not draw all men unto Him. Few among us would lend money to the living, as did the ancient Gauls, to be repaid in the spirit world, as a test of their belief in eternal life. Belief in this does not make men loyal to God and man. They ^* jump the life to come ;'' risk the bridge of the gatherer ; pas- sage in the ferryboat of Charon ; over the Sacred Lake, and the slippery pass of Chippeway Indians. The sym- bol of eternal life in some form has been found from Assyria to Britain, from Egypt to India and China, among the aborigines of North and South America, and the Islands of the Pacific. The sign of immortality and the symbol of the resurrection are seen everywhere. (See Edmhurgh Review for July, 1870 ; Donnelly's ''Atlantis,'' pp. 133-35.) Yet Sadducees denied the doctrine, and made an uproar against the Apostle who preached it. Nevertheless eternal life was the hope and belief of mankind. Job did not think that his patient
AND LONGINGS. 85
endurance would be forever remembered ; nor was that what he looked for when he affirmed that from or with- out his flesh he should see God (19 : 26). Posthumous reputation was not what he expected instead of reyivified life with God ; so of David when he thought of the re- demption of his soul from Sheol, and of rejoicing in the Divine presence ; so of Isaiah : ^* Thy dead shall live ; Awake and sing !'^ So of Daniel: ''Many of them that sleep in the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt^' (12 : 2). So the Hindus : " Let my soul return to the immortals. From mortal man, felled by the hand of death, God shall make him spring to birth. He is per- fect wisdom and perfect happiness. He vivifies all." (Craufurd's " India," vol. i., pp. 180-94 ; Eccles. 12 : 7.) So of Socrates, five centuries before St. John's Gospel, yet confident that "' death was but the passage of the soul to another world, where he would find juster judgments and truer judges than he had found on earth, and he would there hold converse with departed worthies whom he had been wont to interrogate. Hence it was better for him to die, to go to those who were wise and good. The lot of the good man is far better than that of the wicked. He will enjoy the converse of pure souls in the light of perfect truth. Our souls will not vanish like smoke, but will be born again into life. Nay, is not much of our knowledge the souFs recollec- tion ? Were death the end-all, the wacked, not the vir- tuous, would gain by dying. On the everlasting journey the soul carries nothing with her but her nurture and education. An angel will lead her through untried places to dwell forever in the mansions of the elect.'' Such a teacher was a remarkable illustration of Plato's prediction, that if ever a perfectly good man were to
S6 IMMORTALITY IN LEGENDS
appear on earth, he would be maltreated and crucified. (See Westminster RevieiOy July, ISo-i, p. 77.)
Socrates put to death on the charge of corrupting the youth of Athens and for disbelief in the national gods, was only one of many, from Abel downward, who have been the victims of injustice. Thus our Lord, the most reverent of men, was convicted of blasphemy by His enemies, and executed for treason by Pilate. And the devout Stephen was stoned to death for seeing his Lord in a supernal vision ! Only faith in this Grandest of Persons and assured hope in His sublime doctrines can sustain the soul in such emergencies. It is Jesus standing on the right hand of God, who supports and comforts the believer ; who comforted the noble army of martyrs and confessors from St. Paul in the Eoman prison to John Bunyan in Bedford jail ; from John Baptist in Herod's castle to the Hugue- nots in besieged Eochelle. "Witness Eoger Williams and the Quakers persecuted in Massachusetts, early Methodists persecuted in England, and liberal Presby- terians persecuted in Scotland. Jesus, indeed, does not speak alike to all His followers, but all are moved by Him. When they hear they obey. His love and the compensations of eternity attract them to Him. His was a voice which all generations had waited for and longed to hear. His was a word which had never before been so clearly and so emphatically uttered. And He gave examples of His power to fulfil His promise : " Maid, arise I young man, I say unto thee arise ! Lazarus, come forth !" And all were restored to life. Dare we doubt His pledge to others, and that at His bidding all that are in Hades will not come forth ? His own example illustrates His power ; He Himself rose from the dead. He conquered death, and opened the
AND LONGINGS, 87
Kingdom of Heaven to all believers. Wherefore all may pass through the tomb to eternal blessedness.
Yet there are those who would rob men of this grand victory, and despoil them of immortal hopes. They would reverse the progress of ages, and transform triumph into defeat. Nay, they would eliminate the potency as well as the promise of future existence. They make the soul a secretion or function of the body, so that it is only physical in its origin and end, not the God-imparted spirit which is immortal. They hear not the testimony of patriarchs and prophets, nor the voices of Egypt and Ohaldea, of Persia and India. They are deaf to the spoken words of Jesus, to the earthquake and the open sepulchre which proclaim Him at once the Kesurrection and the Life. They tran smute immortality into posthumous reputation ; eternal life into the con- tinued existence of mankind ; soul and spirit into a product of matter, and man into a molecule. Thank Heaven, our historic gleanings of legends and longings in universal mankind disprove this ! From the tombs of ancient Egypt, from the inscriptions of Babylonia, from the royal records of Assyria, from the teachings of Zoroaster and the bards of India, from Hebrew Psalmists and prophetic utterances, and from the prom- ises, the proofs, and the example of Jesus Christ, we have reasonable evidence, amounting to a demonstration y of the imjnortality of man. Conscience, memory, soul- qualities, the voice of God, in life and at the dying hour, alike suggest and confirm it. The conception of it is a proof. Longing for it is a proof. Preparation for it proves capacity for it. Wherefore Coleridge rightly asks :
** Is that a death-bed where the Christian lies ? YeSy but not his ; 'tis death itself that dies !"
88 IMMORTALITY IN LEGENDS
That which suggests immortality is capable of it. '^It is the Infinite stirring within the finite breast.^' Contrast the idea that the pains and sorrows^ the desires and aspirations, the love and belief of mankind shall end in the grave and be like precious nectar forever spilled in the dust, with the belief which all nations have more or less clearly regarded as the chief hope and fruition of existence. Dare we discard belief in a law of compensation reigning throughout the universe, and that the inequalities of time shall be compensated in eternity ? What comfort is it to be told that we shall join the *' choir invisible/' whose voice is ''the music of the world/' if the choir invisible and musical world shall cease to be, and an eternal night engulf all souls, and everything, like ghosts and phantoms, shall dis- appear in darkness ! For then not only will the souls we love leave us on a desolate shore, but on this theory all souls will alike be engulfed in the dark ocean of de- parted existence, never to think, or love, or live again I The whipped slave praying for his cruel master ; the apostles and martyrs burned at the stake for the faith and love of Jesus — seekers after the truth like Athenag- oras and Augustine, like Pascal and Littleton, like Bishop Butler and Dr. Chalmers — all these, on this sad outcome of negation, will share the same fate with him who had feasted and filled himself with earthly enjoy- ments ! Surely such notions shatter all possibility of future compensation, and they would soon eliminate all aspiration and noble effort. They level and destroy what is best and divinest in man, and have no uplifting and inspiring qualities. For blank is blank, despite all scientific whitewashing. And if the end and final up- shot is to cease to be, what is that but universal blank 1 Bad, flower, and fruit alike destroyed ! It does not per-
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mit even final absorption into Brahm ! No ; a thousand times no ! Let me rather hold to metempsychosis or to absorption by a Divine To Pan. Yet since I have begun to live, who, what can blot me out of being ? May not continued life be predicated of man's earthly life ? We talk about '* the future life/' but what is life anywhere but present existence ? It is consciousness of Joy or sorrow, acting or thinking, remembering or aspiring. Anything future about it is only the continuation of to-day, with new experiences. The life of each day prepares for the next ; new times, new thoughts and duties. We are ever preparing for the next day, ever following out the line of conduct already commenced. Manhood is the future life of the boy, precisely in the same sense as the disembodied condition is the future life of the aged. What can prevent one in that con- tinued life from pursuing the same lines of thought, of conduct, mental and spiritual habits, desires and aspira- tions, except so far as such pursuits were dependent upon the body ? Simply to be (iu'cmbodied can make no radical change in the character, in soul conduct, memory, affection, and reverence of God. We are in His Divine hands now. Dives imploring Abraham in Hades shows that he there retained his reasoning powers, memory of the past and fraternal affection ; also fear of God and dread of suffering. So, divested of the timal and its belongings, we shall retain our identity, memory, understanding, consciousness, v/hich we now possess ; soul-affection, love of God, love to our fellows, all which affords self-proof of our selfhood. Thus shall we know others even as we are known. Thus shall we love in our life of to-morrow all that is spiritual and worthy in our friends of to-day. Said Dr. Thomas Sydenham, two hundred years ago : " How can I think that the
90 • IMMORTALITY IN LEGENDS
Divine Being, who hath admitted me to a little acquaint- ance with Him, will let the laying down of my body perfectly break ofE this acquaintance, and not rather that the throwing off of this load of corruption will put my soul into a condition more suitable to its own nature^ it being much more diflBcult to think how such a noble substance as the soul should be united to the body, than how it should subsist separately from it. Add to this that I have faculties of knowing and of adoring this Divine Being with close attention, and that I have endeavored to yield obedience to those laws which He hath written upon my nature ; that I who have thus attained (supposing I have so attained) should become extinguished, or should extinguish when my body dies, is, indeed, very unlikely. In mankind a cer- tain appetite reaches out after future happiness, but that there should be no such thing to answer to it, thus cheating the rational part of man, is very improbable." It is only infirmity of the body which prevents the con- tinued ^^manifestations of the soul, at least in all who ever think or love, remember or hope. " In February, 1885, at Wilmington, 111., died Mrs. Wilmore at the age of one hundred and fourteen years. On her death- bed much of her forgotten history, with scenes of her . early life, seemed to pass before her mind. She re- peated many hymns and passages of Scripture, sang beautifully many familiar tunes which she had learned in her youth, and called her last hours the happiest and sweetest of her life. She had always prayed to die in the triumphs of the Christian faith, but had never thought it would be so glorious. With spiritual eyes she saw the King in His beauty. Leaving her body behind, she departed to be with Him. Because Jesus lives, she shall live also." Says one : '' I think, there-
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fore I am ; I think a God, therefore God is ;" I think of and desire immortality, therefore, since One has pur- chased it for me, and ransomed me from death, I shall have eternal life. So have myriads of mankind in all the ages. Why give me such capacities and aspirations, if I am to be utterly disappointed ? I have been prom- ised, and seem to have the potency of eternal life ; why deceive and mock my expectations ? The Father does not lift one up, soaring to supernal heights, only to dash him down and extinguish him. He does not inspire a hope, or make a promise, in order to disappoint. Rather He fulfils and perfects ; intimation and longing become pledge and assurance ; for soul and spirit a home has been prepared. Jesus has gone before and opened the doors of heaven.
Thus let me think and hope with the thoughtful of past times, with Chaldeans and Egyptians, with Greeks, Gauls, and Goths, with Hindus, Jews, and Christians. By the resurrection of my Lord, let me feel that life eternal has been secured for me, that I shall live forever with Him who hath redeemed my soul from death. Then to die is gain and the path to immortal life. But I see it not in posthumous reputation, nor in prolonged national existence. I hear it not in the music of the spheres, nor in any choir of invisible phantoms. Rather do I see it at the stake of holy martyrs, in the cells of those persecuted for righteousness, at the bed of dying Christians, by the Cross of the Son of God, and in the faith of Stephen, who saw the opening heavens and Jesus beckoning him away ! Thus let me think of immortality, be assured of it, and prepare for it.
IV.
THE LAMB SLAIN FOR MAN'S EEDEMP- TIOK
Foreordained before the foundation of the world (1 St. Peter 1 : 20).
Anointed for to do whatsoever Thy counsel predetermined to be done (Acts 4 : 27, 28).
He is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world (1 Bt. John 2 : 2).
Slain from the foundation of the world (Apocalypse 13 : 8).
Levi, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him (Heb. 7 : 9, 10).
The last passage clearly illustrates how the solidaric unity of the human race is a reasonable conception, and removes the diflBculty of Lotze in his " Philosophy of Religion/' p. 151. It also explains St. Paul, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God ; that He hath set forth Jesus Christ to be the redemption and propitiation of man, even for the remission of sins that are past, or of sins done aforetime ; that God might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus (Rom. 3 : 23-26 ; 5 : 8-19). Adam sinned while yet the race was in solidaric unity in him, and Adam was redeemed while yet the race was in solidaric unity in him. But he entailed a sin-inclined nature, or what Coleridge calls " an evil will," upon his children.
ORIGINAL BEBEMPTION 93
Promised redemption was of the soul, redemption of the evil will, that all sonls might regain forfeited soul-life through tlie^ Redeemer ; not freedom from hereditary- taint, but conquest over a sin-inclined nature. Thus Redemption is of solidaric man, not conditional, but of world-wide efBcacy, the outcome of a Father's love joined with perfect righteousness ; all-embracing, yet not accepted by all, because some will not be saved when they may. Thus God stoops to earth, but He does not compel men to soar to heaven. He is abound- ing in His providings, but man is self-limited in his acceptances.
It is so with the gifts of nature. Sun and air, food and clothing, and capacity of enjoyment, are the heritage of most men. If limitations are experienced by any, they are not of Heaven. Restrictions in the enjoyment of the good things of life are mostly human and self- imposed. The miner, the slave, the prisoner, all who must obey the behests of another, are thus by human arrangements and devisings, not through Heaven's orig- inal plan. So of the evils of heredity. Entailed evils are of man, and like all evil penalties, come of violated law through an evil will. How a Redeemer could ran- som all and save a world of sinners is the question of the ages, while its solution is of Heaven. Generous as are the bounties of nature, she yet allows men to impose restrictions, and the strongest to get the larger share. Hence the popular phrase, " survival of the fittest,'^ is as destitute of grace as it is suggestive of strength. It lacks the character of faith, the patience of saints, the spirit of the beatitudes. It has no blessing for the poor in spirit, for the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those hungering after righteous- ness, who shall be filled with the good things of the
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heavenly kingdom. Any restrictions are of men's de- vising and exclusiveness. Thus it happens that to want is as human as to err. No one ever fails of salvation for want of ample provision or lack of grace. Kedemp- tion is co-extensive with human souls. Heaven's grace is as free as the sunshine. The Author of salvation was beloved of the Father before the foundation of the world, because He would save the world which the Father loved. Indeed, Jesus was made a little lower than the angels, that He might taste death /or every man (Heb. 2:9). The word rendered /or means on account of, for the sake of, instead of all men. It sug- gests that Christ's death made salvation available and effectual for all. The agony of the Garden and of Crucifixion was not limited to the expiation of some sins or of some sinners, but He tasted death — vntp navro'i — for every one, for all who believe in Him. It is available retrospectively and prospectively for all sin of all believers. It is for the benefit of mankind equally with the sun and showers of Heaven. The favors of grace are as free as the blessings of nature. As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. In Adam death, in Christ life : but while we have no option over our birth, we have the option whether we will be in Christ, so we have the option whether we will enjoy the air and light of day. We may hide away, we may deprive ourselves of God's grace and of His sun- shine. Yet He is as bounteous with the one as with the other. Jesus Christ died for every man. Indeed, is it not the crowning glory of His atonement that He put the whole race in the way of salvation, all who were mined by Adam's sin ? Adam as our federal head brought sin and death upon all ; Jesus as our federal Saviour brought salvation to all. The one disobeyed
FOR MAN'S REDEMPTION. 95
and fell, the other fulfilled and ransomed. In one we see the weakness of human nature, in the other we see the power, goodness, and love of God. Almost all Christians accept this as Bible truth.
Let us advance another step. Adam sinned before the birth of his first child ; he sinned while the race ■was yet a unit. Thus he involved all his posterity. Had one child been born, that would not have been tainted with Adam's guilt nor obnoxious to Adam's penalty. But it was not so. The sin and the fall were before the firstborn of man, and involved all who should be born in guilt and condemnation.
Another step is this : As soon as man sinned a Saviour was promised (Gen. 3 : 15), and that promise was accepted as the legal fulfilment of it. The seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, which in due course was accomplished. It was as truly accom- j)lished in the purposes of God, in the sacrifice of Jesus, while man was still a unit, as in the fulness of time when He died upon Calvary. With Him a thousand years are as one day. The promise, since it surely would be kept and redeemed, anticipated the fulfilment, so that it was just as acceptable and as efficacious as if it had been fulfilled when first prompted by a gracious Saviour, Who was the Seed of the woman. I repeat, it was made and accepted while man was yet a unit, and before his firstborn child. This view tends to remove a great difficulty which some find in treating this matter. It makes salvation synchronize with condeumation. It perfectly vindicates and justifies the principle of substi- tution. A competent substitute was promptly found, and was accepted ; One who should be born without sin by the creative power of God ; who should obey the law for man, to show that he could have obeyed it, and then 5
96 THE LAMB SLAIN
should pay the penalty for his sin. This great trans- action was assured for man while he was in unity^ for Adam as fully as for his last born child, and for each one as surely as that he was born after the saving sub- stitute had been offered and accepted. Thus God is just, while He justifies him who believes in this pledged Saviour ; the Saviour of the world, because He was the Saviour of man in unity, of the unit and of all who should descend from him. There is no limitation here.
But for man's instruction, and, if we may so say, to emphasize the blessings of Redemption, a long line of prophecy preceded and prepared for the incarnate Man, who was to teach and to save the world. Other teachers had appeared, and had failed. Other incarnations had been declared, and had been found wanting. Brahma, Vishnu, Buddha left men longing for a truer and Diviner Sayiour. At length He came, the Redeemer of all men, truly representing the solidaric unity of the race, and the Sayiour of all who should believe in Him, because He died for them. Thus I understand the words. He tasted death for all, and so became the Redeemer of mankind. For He died fore^isically when He became the substitute of our race in solidaric unity. Hence, loss in Adam is regained by salvation in Jesus Christ, the loss and the gain being alike in unity.
We may now proceed a step further. In Rev. 13 : 8 we read : '* All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the beast or Antichrist), whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. '^ H, with some critics, we transpose thus : " Whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, of the Lamb that was slain,'' we do not change the truth therein taught. For the names could not have been
HOR MAN'S REDEMPTION. 97
written in the Book of Life, unless the Lamb had been slain ; nor could they have been written from the found- ation of the world, unless the Lamb had been slain from the foundation of the world. The life spoken of was purchased by the blood of the Lamb slain, and the names of believers in Him were written in the Book of Life, because He had died for them, had ransomed them from the power of the grave, had redeemed them from death and destruction (Hos. 13 : 14). If one was from the foundation of the world so also was the other. The written names and redemption's work were from the beginning of God's saving purposes. The Omniscient One knew who would believe in Jesus ; knew the human wills that would submit to Him.
We find a similar truth in Eev. 17 : 8, but with the words '^ the Lamb slain'^ left out. Yet we must not correct the fuller statement by the one less explicit, for thus we might eliminate many important truths. It would be a riddling of Scripture. In both these pas- sages we are told of them whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world ; and in one passage we have the additional truth that the Lamb was slaia from the foundation of the world. There is no contradiction, only a fuller statement : the Lamb slain and the names written were from the foundation of the world. I doubt the wisdom of going back to an earlier period of eternity. Man was born in time ; he sinned in time, and was redeemed in time.
Taking the word to mean, as in many other passages of Holy Scripture, from the beginning of the dispensa- tion of Grace, from the promise of Divine interposition on man's behalf, in a pledged Saviour who should crush the serpent and save men from its poison, there can be
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no objection to our exposition. Original sin is offset by original Eedemption.
Having developed these thoughts thus far, I was glad to find so prudent and conservative a writer as Bishop Beveridge expounding in a similar way : ''From the time that the first promise of the new covenant was made. Then Christ undertook to pay this ransom, by dying instead of mankind ; which, therefore, took place immediately in the Divine purpose, as much as if it was already done.'^ This reveals the transcendent bounty and world-wide compassion of God's love. The remedy synchronized with the need, was co extensive with it, and effectual for all who applied it. All who should be faithful to their opportunities were known, and their names were written in the Book of Life through the anticipated efficacy of the Slain Lamb. His promise saved them. He ransomed them from the power of the grave, and He triumphed over it. Thus victory over sin, the victory of light over the powers of darkness, of truth over error, was secured. A lost world was re- deemed. Mercy and love triumphed over sin and jus- tice, through Him who bore our sins in His own body on the Cross. And here applies Heb. 7 : 9, 10, affirm- ing that Levi, the great-grandson of Abraham, paid tithes in Abraham ; for he was yet in the loins of his father, when Abraham met Melchisedec. This clearly makes for all that I claim — viz., not for the " impossible conception of the solidaric unity of the human race,'' at the time of the crucifixion of our Lord, to which Lotze objects, but for the solidaric unity of man in Adam, when the Messiah was first promised, man re- deemed, and the serpent conquered. That protevan- gelium was a provided salvation for all men, for infants and for pious heathen. The marvel is that these pas-
FOB MAN'S REDEMPTION. 99
sages had not long ago suggested this view of the re- demption of mankind when in unity. Thus the doc- trine of Christ's atonement^ of the salvation of many by the offering and acceptance of One who should suffer for all, is simplified and brought within our human apprehension. The Divine law was vindicated. The Divine purposes, the calling and election of God, are illustrated and brought within the range of man's idea of righteousness. Heaven's saving grace was not limited to a few, but provided for all. Federal ruin was met by federal salvation. Jesus Christ became the Head of the Church, by being its Founder ; the Judge of the world, by being its Saviour ; the King of His glorified saints, by having raised them to sainthood ; passing through the grave and gate of death He purchased im- mortality for all believers.
He did and suffered all that was necessary to save the first man in unity as fully and as effectually as if He had suffered and died for each one separately. Upon the woman of Samaria He so impressed this truth that she was anxious for her friends to understand it with her, in order that they might say : '^ For we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world " (St. John 4 : 42), not the Saviour of Jews alone, but of Samaritans and Eomans, of the world. Thus Archbishop Trench : '* The first half of the Book of Acts gives evidence how slowly, with how many reluctancies, on the part of some, it broke upon their minds that theirs was a commission as wide as the world, that their Lord was not King of Israel only, but ' Saviour of the world ' as weir' (''Studies in Gospels," p. 136). And our exposition makes natural and rational why and how He could become so great a Saviour. It removes all difficulty about the number of the saved.
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the seeming favoritism and the exclusion of any, and presents Him as the Saviour of mankind as truly as that Adam was their father. Thus the redemption of one sinner cost as much as the redemption of the world. Thus He tasted death for every one, for Adam and for all his children. Dying for them when in solidaric unity. He opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all be- lievers, so that all may be saved if they will. His power of an endless life reaches out to all men that He may impart it to them ; to Adam, Seth, and ISToah, to Mel- chisedec, Abraham, and Moses, to those in priestly lines, to Job, to Socrates, to Indian sages as well as to Christians. Whosoever seeks to do and to know His will, to him shall be given of His truth and His salva- tion. The Eev. Dr. S. H. Turner, late professor in the General Theological Seminary, says : " St. Athanasius, following the Septuagint, and expressing the Hebrew with more exactness than is done in our translation, renders Prov. 8 : 22, The Lord created me a leginning of His ways, which is equivalent to the assertion that the Father prepared me a body, and He created me for man on behalf of their salvation. Thus the Divine Logos, or Wisdom, became a Divine Saviour. He who created the world saved the world. He gave his life a ransom for it. Not His incarnation, but His death atoned for the sins of man." With St. Athanasius agrees St. Athenagoras that the Lord appointed the Logos the first of His ways in His work, or the first step in His plan of salvation (Athenag. *' Sup." x. 42 ; Justin Martyr, **Dial. cum Try ph.,'' 61). St. Anselni is the great author- ity with many, but his Cur Deus Homo has a scholastic basis. It necessitates a Deus Homo in order to provide for the salvation of fallen angels. " He would believe, that he might understand,'' which is right, but 'Mie
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would not seek to understand^ that ho might believe/' which is wrong. It is curious to read Dante, a genera- tion after Anselm, that our "' Saviour, by His suffering under the sentence, not of Herod, but of Pilate, who was the delegate of the Eoman Emperor, acknowledged and confirmed the supremacy of that Emperor over the whole world ; for if all mankind were become sinners through the sin of Adam, no punishment that was in- flicted by one who had a right of jurisdiction over less than the whole human race, could have been sufficient to satisfy for the sins of all men !'^ Again : ^^ It was be- hoovef Lil that the government of earth should be in the best possible condition at the coming of Christ ; there- fore the imperial city and Roman people were ordained for this accomplishment."* It was a Middle Age attempt at the solidaric unity of man for his salva- tion. Before this and since, others have attempted to explain the difficulty which was seen in the substitu- tion of one for the offence of many. Anselm believed without understanding it ; Origen believed in the hope of understanding it ; Augustine believed in the calling and salvation of all the baptized, and Calvin in the salvation of all the elect. Here the unbeliever charges injustice and partiality against the provision of salvation. He does not see what the Bible so clear- ly teaches — viz., the sin of mankind while the race was in federal or solidaric unity, and the pledged sal- vation while the same race was in federal or solidaric
* Carey's Dante, Purg. c. 32; Paradise, c. 6; Convito ; De Monarchia, b. 2. While reading the proof of this paper, I have m^amined the late Prof. Hitchcock's sermon on Eternal Atone- ment. Able as it is, it hardly meets the objections which I have sought to remove— i.e., scientifically and historically.
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THE LAMB SLAIN
unity. Jesus made a propitiation for the sins of the whole world. The substitution was a righteous substi- tution— yiz.^ of a perfect Man for a sinful man, and being accepted while man was a unit, all his children were thereby put in the same Eedeemed position. So in a state of slavery, the offspring are relegated to the condition occupied by the parents. Birth condition is recognized by all. Poverty and ignorance belong to those who are low-born, until they are lifted, or lift themselves, into wealth and culture. The Son of God was born, suffered, died, and rose from the dead, that He might lift mankind into the spiritual wealth and culture of the Kingdom of Heaven. If the Old Testa- ment narrates the conquests of Satan, the New Testa- ment proclaims the triumphs of Jesus Christ. It re- veals His incarnation, it recounts His sufferings, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and then heralds His coronation with the Eedeemed.
About a generation since, a book entitled *' The Con- flict of Ages'' was published in Boston, which attempted to solve the difficulties of a partial salvation according to the doctrine of predestination. Its solution was based upon the assumption that man had existed in a previous state, and that the beings who peopled this world were those who had failed in the moral trial to which they had been subjected there. In a word, that we are the damned of such former existence, and that all who are saved in this second probation are so much clear gain upon that first failure. St. Origen was quoted as favoring the notion, and considerable learning was shown in illustrating it. The writer admitted that it only removed, did not explain, the idea of uncondi- tional election and reprobation— but removed it to tMf right place — viz., the eternity of a pre-existence and
FOR MAWS REDEMPTION. 103
moral failure in it. He frankly admitted that personal consciousness and identity did not suggest such a trial in a previous life. It was only a theory to humanize a harsher theory. Alas ! we cannot, nor need we try, to reconcile the oppugnancy of theological metaphysics with the humanity of man and the everlasting benefi- cence of God. He reveals Himself as our Father, in His Word and in Jesus Christ our Lord.
For twenty years I have thought about the explana- tion suggested in this paper, as harmonizing the salva- tion of man with the justice of God, atonement for sin with eternal principles of righteousness. And I submit that the redemption of mankind in unity, by a promised Saviour, illustrates truth and goodness, love and equity. It needs no system of foreordination and election to say w^hy some accept and others reject the provided salvation for all men ; that depends upon their will. All who feel after God, truly seeking Him, may find salvation through Jesus Christ. Hence, the Divine Spirit was given, and was said to strive with man even before the Deluge destroyed incorrigible sinners (Gen. 6 : 3). Already the dispensation of grace had commenced ; not, indeed, in the Pentecostal fulness, but in such way as to enable men to love, obey, and worship their Creator. Very early they assembled for worship and calling upon Him (Gen. 4 : 26 ; Jude 14). He who made man pro- vided for the redemption of the lost, and instructed them how to serve Him loyally. This last fact is taught in the inscriptions of Babylonia and in the Bible. (See Chapter I. of this Part.) The Divine promise of the Sin-healer was early made, and preparation for Him was commenced. Men, before Abraham and Moses, as afterward, enjoyed communion with God and learned to please Him. This was their privilege from the days 5*
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of Seth to Xoah, from Xoah to Sar^on of Agane, from Apepi to Cyrus. I see God worshipped in the sacrifice of the lamb substituted for Isaac^ and in the first Pass- over victims ; in the daily morning and evening sacri- fices on the altars of Israel, and on the altars of Baby- lonia and of Egypt ; each, more or less purely, typified and heralded the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The sacrificial rites of mankind, from the ofiEering of Abel to that offering when the veil of the TemjDle was rent in twain, and Jesus exclaimed, '^ It is finished I" all more or less clearly expressed the deep want and thought of humanity ; its feeling after God, and its endeavors to propitiate Him and secure His favor. All soul-struggles found their end and goal in Gethsemane : all sacrifices found their meaning and fulfilment upon Calvary, and in the Lamb there slain. In His bitter cry of Divine abandonment the world's sin was done away I The blood shed from His broken heart sealed the Eedemption of Man : made reconcilia- tion for iniquity ; brought in everlasting righteousness, and perfected the long chain of prophecy. Moreover, it was as effectually saving when the promise of it was first made as when Jesus died upon the Cross. He tasted death for every man. The Just became the Sub- stitute for the unjust, and ransomed us with His blood. This also illustrates how His sacrifice atoned '' not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men.'' He was " the propitiation for the sins of the whole world " (1 St. John 2- : 2). Forensically dying for all in unity. He died for each one severally. Original sin was ex- piated by Divine atonement, and the redemption was without limit or partiality, fully and effectually for all who would accept it, both of the living and the dead. For, after paying the penalty of sin, the Just suffering
FOR MAN'S REDEMPTION. 105
for the unjust, also " went and preached to the spirits in prison," or, as the R. V, renders it, ** unto the spir- its in prison, which aforetime were disobedient^^ (1 Pet. 3 : 18-20). This surely means that He offered accept- ance of salvation to those in Hades, who in this life had not believed, or had not been taught concerning Him, in order that they also might believe in Him. This preaching of our Lord to the departed, between His crucifixion and resurrection, seems to make for the utmost possible efficacy of His saving work, and that He would have all to know what He had done for them. Its blessings were conditioned upon belief and accept- ance, so He Himself descends to- Hades and preaches salvation to the spirits in prison, that the doors thereof might be opened and believers there set free ; yea, that in Christ all should be made alive, and, quickened by the Spirit, should live forevermore. I see nothing to restrict the full meaning of the words that Christ died for all, and that whosoeyer will may take of the water of life. He was lifted up to draw all men unto Him. (See able paper by Dean Plumptre in his ^* Spirits in Prison.'')
Moreover, after His ascension to where He was before He paid our ransom price, our Lord sent the Holy Spirit of truth to guide man into all truth, and to per- fect His saving work in the heart. '''Tis He that works to will; and He also works to do.'' Every needed agency has been employed to complete His work and make it effectual. No element or useful adjunct was omitted. There was the preparation of millen- niums, from the prophecy of Enoch to the prophecy of Malachi. There was the dispensation of Moses. There was the preaching of the prophets, from Samuel to John Baptist. There was the speaking oracle, followed by the
106 ORIGINAL REDEMPTION.
clearer voice of the Holy Ghost. There were the life, the teachings, the death, the resurrection, the ascension of Jesus Christ, followed by the descending Spirit, who should bring all His wonderful works and spoken words to remembrance, from the baptism at Jordan to the coronation at Olivet. God left nothing wanting of redemptive value to mankind.
Jesus Christ was the most perfect flower of all humanity, the embodiment of its graces and its virtues, iifter His saving work. He left not His followers orphans, but made them citizens of a new kingdom, and enjoined upon His disciples to preach His Gospel and extend His kingdom through all the world. It was a never-to-be-forgotten duty to administer the Christian offices to the end of time. Himself would ever be with His people, and receive all who should come to Him ; none should be rejected. While bodily absent. He would prepare for them a mansion in the Father's House. Thus the Lamb slain purchased Redemption and Eternal Blessedness for all believers. This is the true idea of the survival of the fittest — viz., helievers in Him. For He says, the hour is coming when all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil, unto the resur- rection of judgment. Again He says : He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. I will raise him up at the last day. It is the redemption and coronation of all believers, through the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world. Man's part is to love Him, believe in Him, and live in Him. With deep pathos He remonstrated with them that would not come to Him, that they might have life. And He went and preached to them who aforetime were disobedient, that they also might believe in Him. By His sacrificial death He would draw all men unto Him.
V.
THE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM A REALM OF RANSOMED SOULS.
My kingdom is not of this world, said our Lord. Thy kingdom come, He taught as to pray. He called you unto His kingdom and glory, said an apostle. Lord, remember me, when Thou comest into Thy kingdom, prayed the dying penitent. Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy blood, of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and madest them unto our God a kingdom and priests, sang the four and twenty elders in heaven, as they fell down before the Lamb (Eev. 5 : 9, 10).
Such is the kingdom which our Lord bids us seek before all other seeking, and for whose perfect establish- ment He became the Lamb slain, and the Lamb glori- fied. It is a new kingdom and a spiritual kingdom. Drummond, in his '' Natural Law in the Spiritual World," has happily shown that the organic kingdom is based upon, but not developed from the inorganic world ; for from the dead the living cannot come. Life is not a product of inorganic matter. A dead world can- not produce a living thing, neither animal nor vege- table. Nor can immortal souls be produced from mere animal life. The highest physical and mental perfec- tion is not immortality. Only the soul possesses soul life. Culture, indeed, may lead to morality, as well as to aesthetics. Yet culture is eternallv different from
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spirituality, and falls short of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
As, therefore, matter and life demand a Creator, so soul and spirit, or the immortal part of man, demand a Creator. And as the former constitute the two king- doms of nature, so the souls of men constitute what we may call the world of spirit. The soul is neither evolved nor developed, according to Scripture nor according to science, from matter, nor from mere animal life, but rather is the creation, impartation or gift of God. Thus we understand Gen. 1 : 26, 37 ; 2 : 7 ; 1 Cor. 15 : 45. The breath of God breathed into man made him an immortal being, more than a living creature. It en- dowed him with a nobler quality than other living crea- tures possessed, and it linked him with his Creator. Thus Job says : *' The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life" (Job 33 : 4). Hence man is held responsible for his conduct, responsible in a way that brutes are not. Hence he is punished for bad acts, not merely because they are bad, but because they were committed from bad motives. The moral difference is radical between a man's killing his brother man and a dog's killing a sheep ; between stealing to satisfy hunger, and sinning through lust and passion. Sin pollutes and debases the soul as well as the community. Hence laws are enacted against crime, and governments are organized to enforce them. Because the souls or spirits of men are immortal, it was from the foundation of the world appointed and provided to constitute a kingdom of souls, of souls redeemed and glorified, which kingdom should be eternal.
The prophet Obadiah predicted the coming of such a kingdom (v. 21). Daniel declared that the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be
A REALM OF RAJS80MED SOULS. 109
destroyed (2 : 44). It shall stand forever. King Nebuchadnezzar praised the Most High whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from gen- eration to generation (4 : 34). Darius in a decree pro- claimed the God of Daniel to be the liying God, and His kingdom not to be destroyed to the end of time (6 : 26). Daniel also predicted the Coming of the Ancient of Days, whose kingdom is an everlasting king- dom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. It was to bring in everlasting righteousness (7 : 13, 14, 22, 27 ; 9 : 24). Similar predictions abound in the Psalms, which afiirm that '' a sceptre of equity is the sceptre of God's kingdom" (45 : 6 ; 103 : 19 ; 145 : 13). The establishment of a spiritual kingdom forms the warp and woof, the foundation and apex of the KTew Testament. Its coming is prayed for in the prayer given by our Lord ; its seeking is enjoined by Him as the first and essential duty ; He preached its gospel and unfolded its mysteries. It was not of this world ; it was within the hearts of the regenerated, and all were invited to enter it, and possess its spirit. The redeemed and glorified saints rejoiced, because they had been made into a kingdom and priests in it (Rev. 5 : 10). The reign of the spiritual kingdom was the reign of righteousness. Arising out of the mountains of Judea, it should fill and dominate the earth (Dan. 2 : 34, 35). For admittance into it, the crucified malefactor earnestly besought the expiring Lord.
He did not become Man to create a new world, but to regenerate and transform mankind ; to establish the reign of Grace over the realm of souls redeemed, and over the kingdom of souls to be glorified. Hence He '^ translates '' sinful man out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. The frequent use of this
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word is for a purpose, not a fantasy ; to show the new conditions of those whom He translates ; to show that sin shall no longer reign over them ; it may be in them as a possibility, but shall not dominate them. They shall no longer be alienated from God and oppugnant toward Him, but in spiritual harmony, joy, and peace. In the light of His countenance and the smiles of His loving approval Christians find supreme delight. All things become new. The pleasures of the world no longer please. The merry dance, the lascivious look and touch, lose their charms. Fast living, midnight revels, worldly ambitions, social jealousies, have no place in the life of the sanctified. They seek those things which are above. Risen with Christ, they set their affections upon Him. His is a kingdom of right think- ing and of right living, a kingdom of righteousness, and of all that makes for it, and where our Lord reigns. Earth^s poor in spirit are there, for they are rich toward God. Learned or ignorant in earthly knowledge, they are learned in Divine things. Indeed, all who enter there, go empty-handed, as some wise ancients taught, for their treasures go before them ; they were already laid up in heaven. Our great High Priest presented them to the King, and stood ready to introduce them to the kingdom of holy souls. Such, broadly stated, was the view of primitive Christians ; not, indeed, at the first, but they grew up to it after the Spirit of truth had opened unto them the Scriptures.
Let us recall that memorable walk to Emmaus. Jesus had been crucified, and His disciples were deeply affected. Certain of them told Him, who had just risen, that they trusted the mighty Prophet would have redeemed and delivered Israel from the Roman power, and have restored again the kingdom to their own rulers
A BEALM OF RANSOMED SOULS. Ill
(St. Luke 24 : 21 ; Acts 1 : 6). But soon they learned the perfect lesson. They appointed one to take the place of Judas, and numbered Matthias with the Apos- tles. Filled with the Holy Ghost, St. Peter declared that Jesus had been delivered to death by the determi- nate counsel and foreknowledge of God — a counsel deter- mined and foreknown since the promise of a Conqueror in Gen. 3 : 15, of whom David spoke, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did the Holy One see corruption ; for God had raised Him up, and exalted Him to His right hand. Thus was fulfilled the promise of the Father ; thus was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2 : 22-34). Again St. Peter repeated the same truths touching the Prince of life, the predictions of the prophets, and the restoration of all things in a gracious covenant, whereby all families of the earth should be blessed (Acts 3 : 12-26). So in Hebrews we read that Jesus was the Surety of a better covenant, and that He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto Him ; that Christ hath entered into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for man ; yet not to offer Himself again, since He had made one sacrifice for sins forever, thereby perfecting them that are sanc- tified (7 : 22, 25 ; 9 : 24, 28 ; 10 : 12-25).
Now the results of such teaching were remarkable, and were illustrated in the daily life of the regenerate. Worldliness and self-seeking had become regnant, but Christians were distinguished by considerateness for one another, provoking unto love and good works, assem- bling together for Divine worship and instruction. The sign of the old covenant was not enough. It had toler- ated the sordid baseness of Sadducees for twenty years. Our Lord had been crucified by them. He taught His Apostles what to do, and how to proceed after His
112 THE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM
departure ; how to organize a visible kingdom for the pronaotion and perpetuation of spiritual life. Hence those who received the Apostles^ word were baptized into the new covenant, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. On one day three thousand souls were thus covenanted. At another time five thousand believed the spoken word. These con- tinued steadfastly in the Apostles' teaching and fellow- ship, in the breaking of bread, and the prayers (R. V.). For the time, they became Christian socialists ; they were much together, had all things in common, sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as any man had need. And daily continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they praised God, and had favor with all the people (Acts 2 : 42-47 ; 4 : 4). It is evident the first Christians were incorporated into a Brotherhood for mutual help, instruction, and encouragement. Probably they had never heard of the Pythagorean com- munity, but already they equalled, and even excelled that order in personal concern and helpfulness. Help- fulness was the distinguishing mark of primitive Chris- tians. They avoided all that tended to pervert them into self-seeking and worldly entanglements ; avoided all political intermeddling, which corrupted and de- stroyed the Pythagoreans. Very early Christians real- ized that their Lord's kingdom was not of this world, but far above it, and that their duty was to live in and for the kingdom of ransomed souls.
Nevertheless, some evil men crept into their number, who were rebuked and reformed, or punished by expul- sion. Now a man and his wife suffered death by the judgment of God, for hypocrisy and lying to the Holy Ghost ; now Simon Magus was sharply reprimanded for
A REALM OF RANSOMED SOULS. 113
his sordid lust ; now an unclean liver was excommuni- cated ; now Hymeneus, Philetus, and Alexander were delivered over to Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme. Most emphatically did St. Paul caution his converts against the works of the flesh and all wrong-doing, warning them that thereby they would forfeit the eternal kingdom. And he enumerates '* the fruit of the Spirit.'' It is love, joy, peace, longsuffer- ing, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temper- ance— temperance in all things, in order to keep the body in subjection to the spirit. For they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts (Gal, 5 : 17-24). Neither doctrines nor duties change with the centuries. The Baptismal promise to-day means all that it meant in Apostolic times : re- nouncing the Devil and all his works ; renouncing the world and all worldliness ; renouncing the flesh, its lusts and enticements ; a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness ; then, positively, to fight manfully under Christ's banner, and to continue His faithful soldier and servant unto the end of life. Thus wearing the cross precedes wearing the crown, and is preparation for it. Not otherwise can it be won. Con- sider this address to the baptized adult : "' And as for you, who have now by Baptism put on Christ, it is your part and duty, being made a child of God and of the light, by faith in Jesus Christ, to walk answerably to your Christian calling, and as becometh the children of light ; to follow the example of our Saviour Christ, and to be made like unto Him ; that as He died, and rose again for us, so should we, who are baptized, die from sin, and rise again unto righteousness ; continually mortifying all our evil and corrupt affections, and daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of living. "
114 THE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM
In the office for Confirmation is the touching prayer for '^ tlie sevenfold gifts of the Holy Ghost to strengthen us daily with increase of the manifold gifts of grace ; the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and ghostly strength, the spirit of knowledge and true godliness ; and to be filled with the spirit of holy fear forever. ' ^ What more is required ? This — viz., sanctification for coronation. Every time the Christian commemorates the dying love of his Lord, he '' offers and presents himself, soul and body, unto Him, to be a holy and living sacrifice ; that he and all others may worthily partake of the holy Communion, be filled with God's grace and heavenly benediction, and be made one body with Christ, that He may dwell in them and they in Him. ' '
Such are the sacramental duties of citizenship in the Christian kingdom. Nothing less is loyalty ; little more is possible in human beings ; for it demands the life, the soul, the all of every one. They are in the world, but translated far above the world. As in the realm of nature, the blooming plant is rooted in the earth, but buds and flowers above it ; as in the realm of mind, the intellectual range soars above all material limits ; so the redeemed souls of men should soar ever upward to their exalted Head ; seeking for the highest knowledge and the loftiest attainments ; seeking to knoio God by communion with Him ; to love Him for the gift of His Son, and to obey Him in all things. To know, to love, to obey, these require thought, time, and atten- tion. These we must give willingly if we would really know God ; so to know Him as to love Him, so to love Him as to obey Him, so to obey Him as to be loyal citizens of His kingdom. It requires all the time which can be devoted to it. Months and years are necessary
A REALM OF EAN80MED SOULS, 115
to learn a human language ; longer yet to learn the lan- guage of heaven^ and to study its incomparable litera- ture. In celestial studies eternity will be occupied, wherefore should we go to school with Christ in time ; we should become like Him ; be happy with Him, and enjoy the company of His saints. For we are called to le saints, Pythagoras enjoined his followers to seek to become like God, an impossible attainment. Jesus says : Be perfect like your Father ; learn of Me ; follow Me ; love Me. The millions who have done this prove that you and I may do it. We all may learn to know somewhat of the true God, and of Jesus Christ given for our salvation. We must be transformed and con- formed to His standard ; cherish and be nourished by His Spirit ; be in harmony with His people, and help forward His kingdom. Surely the Redeemed and saved will endeavor to put others in the way of salvation. Bought with a price, ransomed with His blood, we are not our own, but His who purchased us, and translated us into His kingdom. Our citizenship is in heaven, and to heaven we owe allegiance. We are placed in a new and spiritual environment. We are fed by soul food, and only in the realm of souls can we be sustained and grow. Spiritual nourishment and growth go together. It is with open face, by direct looking at Him, that we behold the glory of the Lord ; that we become changed into the same image and character from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord. This is also expressed as '' living by faith in the Son of God ; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that His life may be manifested in us ; so to live and act as though Christ lived in us," animating and directing our conduct. This is the reign of the spir- itual over the material ; the triumph of the soul over
116 IHE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM
the body ; disregarding visible and transient things for the invisible and eternal. It is also called a life hid with Christ in God (2 Cor. 3, 4 ; Col. 3 : 3).
Thus the regenerated soul, living in a spiritual en- vironment, is being prepared for the kingdom of the glorified. He has the assurance that, after the dissolu- tion of the body, he shall have a building /row God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. So he longs to be clothed upon with the habitation which is from heaven ; not merely to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life (2 Cor. 5, R. v.). This is a proper sequence : We de- sire not to die, not to become extinct, but to be per- fected in glory. Unlike Socrates,* with whom eternal life was a speculation, or philosophic guess, the Chris- tian has the assurance and guarantee that what is mortal in him shall be swallowed up of life. Thus to die is eternal gain. It is the souFs coronation.
Our statement and characterization of the spiritual kingdom accord with Scripture and other received standards, ancient and modern. They are the belief and profession of Christians to-day. Uses, indeed, may change, but not the doctrines of salvation. If the Church had not fallen short of her Lord's teachings, the gains of the first century of grace might have leav- ened the world. Nevertheless, the increase has been large, and in view of the overthrow of civilization by barbarians and the destruction of the old empire it has been very encouraging, as is the present outlook. But still there has been too much conformity in the Church with the world ; Christians have not been sufficiently- mindful of St. Peter's declaration, that they are a pecul- iar people, chosen for God's own possession, and they should show forth the excellencies of an elect race.
A REALM OF RANSOMED SOULS, 117
The Church should now be just as intolerant of sin in her members as she ever was ; just as revolutionary and reformatory of the evils around her. She owes no more respect to the possessor of wealth than St. James teaches ; no more regard for a poor man who breaks his promise than St. Paul teaches his son Onesimus ; no more tenderness toward lukewarm or erring members who do not repent than her Lord taught touching the seven churches of Asia. To be a Christian is to be loyal to Christ, without any false compromise. It roots out all inordinate love of the world, and all conformity with it. It enthrones Jesus Christ upon the highest place and keeps Him there, regnant above all and in all. Such is the Christian who holds communion with God, such the brotherhood that has heirship in His kingdom.
Hence arises true brotherhood with man. He who loves God will love his brother also. For the Church is not a mere club, but a Brotherhood, and a community of souls having sympathy one with another. It is not a private order for the profit of a few having personal objects to accomplish, or for gain, like a joint stock company. It is appointed and endowed for the salva- tion of souls. Its business is to bring men to Christ. Its duty is to teach men about Christ, and help them to receive Him. The Church must not withhold the Gospel from any one, but rather compel them to come to her rich sources of blessing. She has no right to a prejudice against any one, unless he rejects and refuses to receive her Lord. For her commission embraces all mankind, and to make disciples of all nations. Our Lord would draw all men unto Him. His followers must assist in drawing them.
The one distinguishing mark of His earthly life, which lifts Him far above contemporary Pharisees and
118 THE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM
Saddiicees and the failing Church of Israel, was His care for the poor, healing their sick, helping the help- less, and preaching the Gospel to them. His presence raised men to a higher standard of aspiration and attain- ment. It gave a new impulse to humanity, which awakened it from the slumber and sin and death of ages, and incited men to concern for the erring and un- fortunate, for aged persons and for little children. Wherever Jesus Christ touched mankind, He made them better a^nd lifted them heavenward. There was that in Him and in His teaching which arrested atten- tion and reached the conscience. His look. His voice. His way of saying things, convinced men of the truth He spoke and of His authority and supernal character. Pilate and the chief priests felt this. Even Judas, whom no sacrament could sanctify and wean from his sordid self-seeking, felt it deeply, and died in conse- quence. Men who discard sacraments, and men who assist in daily celebrations, must rise to the sanctifica- tion and Divine relation of true fellowship with Jesus, or they will fail to partake of the Bread of Heaven. Surely, while depriving themselves of the grace of the kingdom, men cannot attain to its graces. The Chris- tian kingdom is the place and Christian offices are the means to obtain spiritual blessings. So sacraments should be sanctifying in their effect, inciting men to do the will of God and aiding them to do it to one another ; thus becoming outward signs of inward character, visi- ble means of spiritual attainment, and witnessing to an indwelling Christ who reigns in the soul. Thus His kingdom increases, and its members prepare for citizen- ship in heaven. They endure the cross before gaining the crown — an eternal inheritance.
No other system of religion ever produced such re-
A BEALM OF RANSOMED SOULS, 119
sulfcs. At best, it only affected the conduct, it did not inspire and purify the heart. To attain the perfection of Buddha was to be absorbed into Nirvana and lose conscious personality. The philosopher Seneca pain- fully illustrates how little stoicism could sustain one under misfortune^ in exile, and in death. He presents a sad contrast when compared with St. John in Patmos. So in Cicero we see the spiritual poverty of eclecticism. Cato and Caesar among the greatest of later Eomans, even admitting they died while promoting their coun- try's welfare, bear no comparison with St. Paul in his departing triumph : '' I have fought the good 6ght ; I have finished my course ; I have kept the faith ; hence- forth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord shall give me at that day !" Alas ! Roman philosophy made no such promise ; it only taught conduct and culture in life, with a possibility of feasting with departed heroes. It had no spiritual future, no eternal abode with the Heaven-Father. It failed in all that makes for noblest manhood. So with science to-day. Limited to phenomena and their laws, it cannot fathom spiritual essences nor the deeps of eternity. Soul qualities and attributes which prove the life of God within man are not the things with which science has to deal ; they are above it, and belong to the spiritual kingdom. It is as surely another realm as that life differs from matter. The realm and laws of the soul differ from those of phenomena, yet they are just as real. An indwelling Christ may be as truly known as heat in steam or as warmth in the sunshine, and men will feel it to be so. " The sweetest visits of God's grace ask but an open soul." The great Socrates left guesses and speculations for his disciples ; Jesus Christ left precepts, doctrines, promises, and spiritual 6
J 20 THE CELESTIAL KINGDOM,
powers for His^ and by His death purchased eternal life for them. He went before to prepare a place for them. It is a mansion in the Father's house^ a seat, if not a throne, in His kingdom. And this is just as needful for souls as a world is needed for bodies, for the realm of spirits is as real as any earthly kingdom. Hence the Apostle's readiness to depart and be with Christ, in order that he might receive spiritual coronation in the kingdom of spirits.
There are the myriads who have come out of great tribulation, from the discipline of earth to the glory of heaven, having washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. There are the heroes who lived and died for Christ. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His Temple. They hunger no more, neither do they thirst, nor can any evil befall them ; for the Lamb is their Shepherd who will lead them into all pleasant places. As the earth was peopled by the sons of JSToah, and divided among them according to their generations, so in the heavenly kingdom multitudes of all nations and kin- dreds, peoples and tongues are clothed in white robes, with palms in their hands ; and they sing the song of salvation and glory unto God and to the Lamb forever ! They have no fear of loss or of forfeiture, for the old serpent is conquered, and can hurt men no more. Their home is '' where an enemy cannot enter, and whence a friend never went away." It is a kingdom of ransomed souls and of spiritual enjoyments, such as none but Jesus could establish. It is not a development of phi- losophy, not a product of progressive thought, but a purchase and a supernal gift to the sanctified, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
CONCLUSION.
Our examination has disclosed five important ele- ments of religion in the first ages : 1. The general ob- servance of a seventh-day Sabbath, the week of seven days being a measure of time, and seven a sacred num- ber. 2. Significant ideas of a coming Saviour and world-wide expectations of Him. 3« Immortality, which cannot be affirmed of animal life, was generally believed in, and man had deep longings for it. 4. Sal- vation by sacrifice ; preparation for One promised in Eden is the grand fact of grace and of history ; He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 5. A spiritual kingdom for redeemed and glorified souls was to be established, which should have no end.
In Part I. we saw that men of the first ages believed in a Divine Creator, His providence and hearing of prayer, in evil angels and the fall of man ; that by penitence, supplication and sacrificial worship they sought to propitiate Him and obtain His favor here and hereafter. Add the points presented in Part II. and we find ten principal elements of religion in men of the earliest ages ; ten streams of a great river which water the city of our God ; ten lines of circumvallation which defend it. To say that '*' this was all error, super- stition, human devising," is about as wise as for a lunatic to pronounce all other men insane, for all the probabilities point the other way. It was not a part of my plan to treat upon the fitness of things, the moral
122 COJS^CL VSION.
consciousness and subjective adaptations to objective realities. This lias been well done by others. Ours has been the harder task of sifting long-buried records, studying their meaning and weighing results.
We have verified the proofs of what Bishop Butler assumed in the " Analogy/' that religion was taaght to men in the first ages — probably by Divine Inspiration. M. Lenormant suggests a series of Eevelations. The first men practised religious worship before they could have evolved or developed it. Very early they had more than what is known as ^' natural religion ;'' they had the seventh day of Eest ; they had Divine Instruc- tion ; they had profound longings for and expectations of a Saviour and of Immortality ; their bloody sacrifices and their Avatars foreshadowed the slain Lamb of God, and in various ways they sought, more or less spiritually, to found and to people a realm of righteous souls. Hence it behooves us to examine the facts of human history as well as the laws of nature, before we reject the testimony of universal mankind and of the Bible. The true science of this world cannot antagonize God and His Word, for He is the Author of both. In both we should ever seek to know, so that we may under- stand, and to understand that we may believe.
Science deals not with spirit. Men were religious before they understood the laws of nature. Do we now understand them all ? Put the first temple or the first pyramid as early as you please, religion is found before either — man worshipping God. We might easily have multiplied our illustrations as to the consensus of early history touching religion. In a pretty wide sweep we have produced evidences from Assyria, Babylonia, and ancient Egypt, proving that primitive man was a wor- shipper of what stood to him for God, and having hopes
CONCLUSION-. 123
and aspirations for Immortality. The largest ruins are those which demonstrate the early religiousness of man, suggesting a Divine Architect in creation, and a Divine Person in the Eedemption of man. The sages taught it ; the poets sang it ; it is the law and essence of his being ; it is the solace of his life.
We cannot evolve the round of Christian duties from the worship of ghosts, nor Christianity from the wreck of ancient faiths. It comes to us with a " thus saith the LoED.'' As a product of humanity, however en- lightened, it could not be of authority and obligation. It could not teach a life to come, nor guide us unto the life everlasting. Christianity does more ; it is the guide of our conduct, our support in sorrow and disappoint- ment, our solace in the hour of death, and it bridges the two worlds with a promise, with a preparation, with a company of angels to conduct the redeemed soul to his Lord and Saviour. This is the outcome of a Father's love, who has provided for all the soul's needs and longings to be satisfied. Hence the duty and priv- ilege of reciprocal love in man. It cannot be too ardent and confiding, nor too reverent and profound. As our Father, He requires this, love and honor, loyalty and devotion. Hence the prophets suffered and the martyrs died. For this His children pray. The Infinite, Eternal, and Omnipotent Lord is worthy of our supreme worship, obedience, and faith. The redeemed would die for Him who died for them. It is the soul's answer to the Saviour of the soul. The love which purchased redemption guarantees it. He who promises immor- tality has burst the portals of the tomb. His is an open grave. The promise and the attestation go together. ** Wherefore, seeing these things are so, what ought we not to do to attain wisdom and virtue in this life, since
124 CONCLUSION.
the prize is so glorious and the hope so great?" No duty is too onerous to secure such a boon. Yet duty arising from love is never onerous, for affection sweetens labor and even sorrow. It is the elixir of life. Infinite love prompted the salvation of finite man. So he re- turns the love of his heart to the Saviour of his soul, supreme confidence, trust, and belief in Him. Thus he is made a citizen of the spiritual kingdom.
Now, with all this, the science which seeks to sweep away the foundations of Christianity has nothing to do and nothing in common. The thought of the possible evolution of the religion of Jesus Christ from human consciousness or from human development begins with imperfect views of history, imperfect views of science, and imperfect views of the origin and destiny of man. It eliminates the Heaven-Father and the Immortality of man. Instead of such a Being and such a destiny, science at best oflers us a guess and a blank ! Death an eternal Darkness, and Heaven an eternal Silence !
Our argument is for intelligent readers, who seek to know why they believe in Christianity rather than in the so-called religion of science, and who want to know the testimony of mankind before accepting agnosticism or any theory of negations in exchange for the eternal hopes and blessed promises of the Gospel. This general belief of primitive man amounts to a demonstration of Keligion, of Redemption, and of Immortality. Every one, whether he feels it or not, has a deep interest in the future of himself ; and "" the consequences will be what they will be," in spite of his opinions. With the light of Divine Revelation, agnosticism or know-noth- ingism will not excuse indifference to personal religion and a title to admission among redeemed souls, Nor can our denials change the final outcome. The unfold-
CONCLUSION. 125
ings of eternity will go on whether or no we prepare for it These are
" Truths that wake to perish never ;
Which neither listlessness nor mad endeavor,
Nor Man, nor Boy,
Nor all that is at enmity with joy,
Can utterly abolish or destroy !"
** An infinite happiness or an infinite woe awaits every man hereafter/' We cannot escape it. Be it ours to learn to ascribe '' Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever/' (Rev. 5 : 13.)
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