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head downwards: elsewhere they walk in long and melancholy procession, with their hands bound across their breasts, and their heads nearly severed from their bodies; or with their hands tied tightly behind their backs, and their hearts torn from their bosoms, and dragging after them on the ground. In other zones, souls in the form they bore when on earth, or in that of a hawk or crane, are plunged into boiling cauldrons, along with the symbol of divine felicity, the fan, which they have forfeited for ever. In the great representation of these fearful scenes, which is repeated in many of the tombs of the kings, the offences for which they endure these torments are specified over each zone; and it is declared concerning all the inhabitants of these abodes of misery," These souls are at enmity with our god, and do not see the rays which issue from his disc; they are no longer permitted to live in the terrestrial world, neither do they hear the voice of God when he traverses their zone."

While giving this description of the mythology of the Egyptians, which is mixed up with the grossest follies, we yet notice truths that are the groundwork of these inventions, which are far too precious to be destroyed even by the coarse and tasteless fictions with which they are combined. The religion, then, of the Egyptians, the most ancient nation in the world, has been investigated on the very walls of the temples and monuments that were erected for the celebration of its worship. Its divinity recognises the doctrine of a Trinity, and the hope of a future incarnation of God. Its ethics rest upon the tenet of the immortality of the soul of man; upon his responsibility to his Maker for his deeds on earth; and upon his appearance after death at his judgment

seat and also upon the infinitely important truth, that God himself is the exceeding great reward of the righteous, and will surely punish the wicked; that his favour is everlasting life, that his wrath is death eternal.

These results throw light upon an obscure and remote portion of the history of the ways of God to man, which may sometimes minister consolation to the weak and feeble believer in the hour of darkness and perplexity, and wherein the confirmed faith of the more advanced Christian need not disdain to rejoice. To be able to show to the gainsayer that the truth was partly holden in the fables of ancient heathenism, as well as revealed to the saints of old, is surely well calculated to dissipate the doubts that are sometimes suggested respecting the periods at which God was pleased to impart the revelation of his will to mankind, and his mode of dealing with those who lived before his written word was inspired. We know, upon the most unquestionable of all possible evidence, contemporary inscriptions, that long before a written revelation was possessed, man was conscious that he had within him a soul that cannot die; that after the death of the body that soul must appear before the bar of God, and be judged concerning the deeds of this life; and that infinite rewards and infinite punishments depended upon the issue of that trial. These, we conceive, are facts of importance, whether we be contending with unbelief in others, or in ourselves.

CHAPTER VIII.

TRACES OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

THE early history of Egypt requires for its investigation the help of the same unerring guide, whose counsels have directed us hitherto, the word of God.

"And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth and from thence did

the Lord scatter

them abroad upon the face of all the

earth," Gen. xi. 1-9.

Of this sentence the children of Mizraim, the son of Ham, who, according to the same inspired record, were the first inhabitants of Egypt, Gen. x. 13, certainly partook. This is plain, not only from the tenor of the account itself, but from their language, which is very peculiar both in its words and structure.

But let us proceed to inquire if the mass of most ancient facts concerning Egypt which have been recently recovered from the examination of its remains, will not also supply some further evidence of the occurrence of the confusion of tongues, in addition to that of the peculiarity of the language, which is common to all other nations.

We premise that it is plainly inconsistent with the Scripture account both of the Divine attributes, and of God's ordinary mode of dealing with mankind, to assume that our first parents were driven forth to wander over the face of the earth like savages upon a waste. The inspired narrative of the first transactions in this sin-polluted world, the record of which is preserved to us, describes a different state of society. The whole family of man could not in the days of Cain and Abel, in the ordinary course of things, consist of any great multitude of persons. The curse of God was yet tingling in the ears of our first parents, and the thorns and the thistles which first started into existence at that awful voice, had but for a few summers expanded their flowers and shed their downy seeds to the winds, yet even then Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain was a tiller of the ground, Gen. iv. 2. Both these occupations are incompatible with a state of barbarism, and both existing together

the best proof that may be had of a civilized condition of society. Accordingly, soon afterwards we read of the progress of the useful and ornamental arts among mankind, Gen. iv. 20-22.

The statements of Scripture leave to the infidels who have originated it their utterly untenable and barren theory of Egypt or Ethiopia covered some myriads of years ago with a horde of speechless savages, gradually improving themselves through the long lapse of lazy-footed centuries until they had attained a pitch of civilization and refinement which enabled them to meet together and agree upon the sublime harmony of sounds and pictures, which constitutes the language of ancient Egypt. For, in spite of the constant repetition of such absurdities, we know that all analogy, as well as all Scripture, is against them. The savage never improves until he comes in contact with the civilized man. Left to himself, his race is always sinking to deeper degradation and final extinction. This is probably a rule without exception. The traditions of all savages are on this point in accordance with the Bible. They all tell of past days of greatness and prosperity, evidently meaning civilization. The savage state, then, is not one of nature, but of degradation; and it is in modern rather than in ancient times, that this deplorable consequence of the sin that is in man is to be looked for. The whole history of man since the creation has likewise taught us that, ignorant of the art of writing, he would soon become a savage; for we are not aware that a race of human beings entitled to be called civilized ever existed who were without it; and this consideration certainly renders it probable that in this art also man, in his primitive state, was fodidaктos, taught of God. Another circumstance

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