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time, these symbols lost their primitive significations, and the figures, which were but an expression of those attributes, were afterwards considered as different and distinct deities, though not quite unconnected with the Supreme Being.'

Such was, doubtless, the process through which the traditions of divine light and truth, originally carried into Egypt by its first colonists, became darkened under the cloud of idolatry, as far as regarded the mass of the people. The one Supreme God,—the primary triad, one divinity, yet three principles, the divine atonement,—and the future immortality, which were the original creed of Egypt, became so mixed up with Ammon, Isis, Anubis, Re, Sate, Smé, Pooh, and numberless other deities, the fable of Osiris, and his reproduction as Horus, the mysteries of the caverns, the horrors of Typhon, and probably the transmigration of souls, that none of the uninitiated could possibly obtain a glimpse of the truth; and what can we think of those priests and epopto, who, knowing the true meaning of these ceremonies, could suffer the multitude to pursue so frightful a career of vice and idolatry ?-Was their religion, however specious its creed, anything akin to the spirit of the patriarchal faith? To that holy religion which induced Abraham to build altars and "proclaim the name of the Lord" wherever he journeyed? No; Egypt, in all the pride of her wisdom, was destitute of the only true light; and to this destitution must be ascribed the barbarous and degrading absurdities of her worship, and the moral darkness which could suffer such rites to be practised.

*

*The Hebrew of Gen. xii. 8, &c. signifies either "called upon," or " he preached the name of the Lord." Luther always renders it by the latter; and doubtless Abraham endeavoured to teach the truth of God to those among whom he sojourned.

The subsequent cruelties exercised upon unhappy Israel, were but a natural consequence of such a religion as prevailed in the land of their captivity. The character of those favourite deities, the vulture and the crocodile, then shone forth in broad and hideous exhibition; and was acted, to the life, by all concerned with that miserable people. They were truly crushed in the jaws of the ravenous oppressor; and only the "high hand and stretched-out arm " of their fathers' God could have conquered the tyrant, and brought the captives forth to the freedom of the desert.

Some have thought that a great reformation was wrought in the Egyptian worship during the captivity of the Israelites; and certainly individual good was effected, for we read of those "that feared the word of Jehovah among the servants of Pharaoh." (Exod. ix. 20.) It seems probable, however, that the light of the true faith was exhibited with very partial success amid the moral night of Egypt. Perhaps a few converts among those who saw the miracles of Moses, were all : certainly the idolatry of the country at large remained unchanged, for we find Moses refusing to do sacrifice in Egypt, and alleging that they should be stoned by the enraged natives, if they offered sacrifices abominable to them. Exod. viii. 26. They might probably have offered human victims without let or hindrance; but to kill a bullock or a ram would have grossly infringed the divine dignity of Apis and Ammon, and therefore the rite was impracticable.

Again, when the first-born were slain, "the firstborn of beasts" were expressly included, (Exod. xi. 5.) and in Numb. xxxiii. 4. we read that "the Egyptians buried all their first-born" which the Lord had smitten among them; upon their gods also the Lord executed

judgments,"-which must refer to the death of the first-born among animals, as the Egyptians had no other living gods.

Such, then, was the state of the most learned, scientific, and magnificent people of antiquity; a state of moral darkness and religious absurdity, scarcely equalled among later nations. No doubt the mythology of Greece or Rome was, in theory, farther removed from original truth than that of Egypt; all streams are purest when nearest to the fountain: but the actual Egyptian worship, whether in the folly of its beastadoration, the depravity of its practised rites, or the cruelty of its human sacrifices, claims a dreadful preeminence among the idolatries of old.

A. F.

IDOLATRY.

"AND the idols he shall utterly abolish." What a precious promise, what a glorious prospect. No fact is more astonishing, or more full of proof of the corruption of our nature, and of the necessity of a revelation from God of himself, than the melancholy picture of a man falling down to worship the stock of a tree, an idol of wood or of stone, the work of his own hands,—that which his own fingers have made. As we view the spectacle of a degradation so awful, the question arises, Can these be of the same race as Enoch, who had the testimony that he pleased God? Can these be the offspring of Noah, who found grace in the eyes of the Lord; who was just, and perfect, and walked with God? Or of Abraham, who built an altar to the only true God, and called upon his name, and was called the friend of God? Or of that unnumbered company who now people the courts of heaven, who enjoyed communion with God, and delighted in his laws, and leaned upon him through the wilderness; who had a precious faith by which they saw him who is invisible, and waxed valiant amidst a host of enemies, knowing that they should come off as conquerors, because the Lord was on their side, whose aim was to keep the ways of the Lord, and whose prayer was, that the words of their mouth, and the meditation of their heart might be acceptable to him? Yes, these two estates of men are linked by the ties of nature as brothers ;-" of one

blood, was all nations of men made." "God made man upright, but he found out many inventions."

There is a strong bias in our nature to walk by sight; we desire something visible as an object to be regarded -we are strangers to that faculty, which becomes a part of the new nature; faith, which realises spiritual and unseen things. Such a faculty had Moses, when he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; the things of sense, the enjoyments of the present moment, had no value for him: he was of the wise who prefer eternity to time, who would lose their life here, that they might find it hereafter : he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. We find the same faculty in Abraham, who, against hope, believed in hope, and not being weak in faith, he was enabled by grace to lay aside all natural reasoning, all doubtful questioning, as to "how can these things be ?" he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform; and these are not solitary instances, for, says St. Paul, the time would fail to tell of those whose numbers vie with the stars of the sky, and are as the sand which is by the sea-shore innumerable, who died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were persuaded of them and embraced them. As an example of a different kind, just compare the language of that lord, who, when he heard the word of the Lord by Elisha as to the sudden supply of provisions in the gate of Samaria, poured forth of the abundant store of his worldly wisdom, and carnal reasoning, and natural possibilities, with which he would fain limit the Omnipotent; and he said, “Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?"

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