I. THE ANCIENT TEACHINGS. i. From the earliest times men have felt the misery, instability and senselessness of their existence, and have looked for salvation from this misery, instability and senselessness to a God, or Gods, who would deliver them from various calamities in this life, and, in a life to come, give to them that welfare which they had desired, but failed to obtain, in this. 2. Therefore from the remotest antiquity, there have been teachers in various nations who have instructed men as to the nature of the God, or Gods, by whom they might be saved; and as to the means of propitiation to be employed in order to obtain rewards here or hereafter. 3. Some of these religious doctrines taught that God was identical with the sun, and personified in various animals; others identified the Gods with the earth and sky; others taught that God created the world, choosing from among all others one favoured nation; others, again, taught that there were many Gods, and that they participated in human affairs. Yet others taught that God had descended to earth in human form. And, intermingling truth with error, all these teachers required of men, not only abstinence from actions regarded as evil, and performance of actions regarded as good, but also divers sacraments, sacrifices and prayers, supposed to especially insure welfare both in this world and the next. THE INSUFFICIENCY OF THE ANCIENT TEACHINGS. 4. But the longer men lived the less these teachings satisfied the demands of the human soul. 5. In the first place, men saw that notwithstanding their fulfilment of the demands of their God, or Gods, they failed to obtain in this world the happiness to which they aspired. 6. Secondly, with the spread of enlightenment, these teachings about God, and the future life with its promised recompenses, were seen not to correspond with the present clearer conceptions of the universe, and consequently men's confidence in them grew weaker and weaker. |