Divine Being were entertained by those wandering patriarchs and semi-civilized tribes. Reverence for the supernatural supplied ancient Hindostan with altars, filled Egypt with temples, and caused incense to rise from the many hills of Greece; inspired also the Semitic sheiks with a similar worshipful feeling and gave them faith in similar agencies; prompted them to offer to their tutelar deity the first fruits of their fields and flocks, and to mingle religious observances with all the events of life. Their moral perceptions could hardly be expected to be in advance of the rudeness which surrounded them on all sides, the same as with all others of the ancient nations. The Jewish story tells us that they were "men of God," but it also tells us that they quarreled about their flocks and herds, and resorted to the same kind of duplicity, tricks, and falsehoods which were practiced by those not called men of God. Josephus states that "Jacob was envied and admired for his virtuous sons;" but as virtuous as they were, eight of them were in favor of murdering their young brother Joseph, and they were only persuaded out of the terrible plan by the project of selling him into slavery. Reuben's conduct with his father's concubine cannot be held up as a pattern for others to follow. Though Judah ordered his son's widow to be put to death for incontinence, he was induced to recall the sentence when she showed him that he was himself the father of her child. And after Shechem, the son of a neighboring chieftain, had shown marked fondness for Dinah, and proposed to honorably marry her, and had consented to their terms, they treacherously put him and his people to death. Nothing in the entire Jewish story is more conspicuous than that Jahveh was a mere tutelary god, whose supervision and protection extended no farther than to the Israelites. Moses often declared this to the people. He told them that Jahveh was their peculiar guardian and friend, and the sworn enemy of all their foes. He was superior to and more powerful than all the gods of the surrounding nations, and could help his people to triumph over them and their wor shipers. He again and again announced himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and expressed not the least sympathy or love for any of the other nations. Over and over did Moses say to them, "Thou art an holy people unto the Lord, thy God. The Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth." "Thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt rule over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee." It is hardly strange that after hearing so much of this kind of instruction, which purported to come from their tutelar deity, they acquired an extravagant estimate of themselves. RESEMBLANCES BETWEEN JUDAISM AND These are some of the resemblances between the religious ceremonies and observances of Hebrews and the Egyptians and other pagan nations: 1. The portable temple or tabernacle ordered by Moses, made in the form of a tent, was constructed on the same principle as the Egyptian temples. Both faced the east and had a tank of water for purification. Both had an outward inclosure and another within, called the Sanctuary, or Holy, and still another inmost, called Sanctum Sanctorum, or Holy of Holies, veiled from the congregation by a gorgeous curtain of blue, purple, and scarlet. "In the inmost sanctuary of Egyptian temples was a chest or shrine, surmounted by a sacred image, overshadowed by creatures with wings. In the sanctum sanctorum of the tabernacle was a chest, or ark, plated with gold, and overshadowed by the wings of cherubim, touching each other." 2. The ark of the covenant was provided with rings, through which poles were to be inserted for the purpose of carrying it. In many of the religious processions sculptured in ancient Egyptian temples, priests were represented carrying their sacred shrines in the same manner. 3. The kings and priests among both the Egyptians and Israelites were anointed with "holy oil," which was applied with great solemnity. 4. Priests were hereditary, descending in the same family, both among the Egyptians and Hebrews. 5. Portions of land were set aside for the use of the priests in both nations. 6. The priests of both religions wore robes of pure white linen in their priestly ceremonies. 7. The priests performed numerous oblations in both sys tems. 8. The government was a theocracy with both peoples. 9. Both honored the new moon with religious ceremonies. 10. Both had harvest festivals, the same as many other pagan nations, 11. Animal sacrifices were extensively used by both. 12. Both offered cakes, meal, wine, turtle doves, and young pigeons to their gods. 13. Both used incense and fragrant odors in religious worship. 14. Both at stated periods laid the sins of the people upon the head of some animal, sometimes a bullock, sometimes a goat. If a bullock, it was sacrificed; if a goat, it was allowed to escape; and in either case it bore away the sins of the people. 15. The Egyptians, like the Hindoos, attached great sacredness to cows, cow dung, etc., in religious ceremonies. Moses also commanded his people to burn a red heifer, skin, flesh, blood, and dung, and to preserve the ashes for purifications upon those who had touched a human bone, or a grave, or a dead body, or had entered a tent where there was a corpse. 16. Serpents were sacred both in Egypt and India, and were used as emblems in religious worship. The image of the serpent was thus often wreathed around a pole. Moses made a serpent of brass and put it on a pole, which was supposed to neutralize the effects of poisonous bites from serpents. 17. The Egyptians abhorred swine intensely; so did the Israelites. 18. Both used circumcision; the Egyptians long before the Israelites. 19. Both esteemed altars very highly. 20. Both held religious festivals and attached much importance to them. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF JAHVEH. Anger, jealousy, and revenge are often imputed to the Gol of the Israelites. Of a Hebrew who offered any homage to the gods of other nations he said, "The Lord will not spare him; but the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man" (Deut. xxix, 20). God also said, "If thou afflict any widow or fatherless child, my wrath shall wax hot and I will kill you with the sword" (Ex. xxii, 24). We read, "The Lord rooted them out in anger and wrath and great indignation" (Deut. xxix, 28). In the line of being changeable and repenting we have numerous passages: "Behold, it is a stiff-necked people; now, therefore, let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them. And Moses besought the Lord his God and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt? Wherefore should the Egyptians say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest by thine own self, I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land will I give unto your seed, and they. shall inherit it forever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people" (Ex. xxxii, 9-14). Sometimes when the people murmured at their hard lot in the wilderness, or rather in the desert, "the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them. And Moses said unto the Lord, Then the Egyptians shall hear of it, and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou, Lord, art among this people, and that thou art seen face to face; that thou goest before them by day in a pillar of cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now, if thou shalt kill all this people, then the nations which have heard of thee will say, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. I beseech thee, pardon the iniquity of this people, according unto the greatness of thy mercy. And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word" (Num. xiv, 11-20). Thus Moses seemed to be more merciful and considerate than Jahveh, and to be able to bring to his mind the promises he had made and which he was just ready to falsify forever. Again, "The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel" (Num. xxv, 3, 4). Little mercy was shown those who worshiped other gods: "If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go. and serve other gods, thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him; neither shalt thou spare; neither shalt thou conceal him. But thou shalt surely kill him; thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones that he die" (Deut. xiii, 6-10). The man who was so presumptuous as to pick up a few sticks on the Sabbath was summarily dealt with: "And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died" (Num. xv, 35, 36). Some of the commands of Jahveh to his people seem harsh and cruel: "Buy bondmen and bondwomen of the heathen about you. They shall be your bondmen forever" (Lev. xxv, 42-46); "And if a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money" (Ex. xxi, 20, 21). Thus if one of God's chosen people beat his bondmen or bond women with a rod within an inch or two of their lives, so that they |