informer appear, or that the information prove false, all the kindred of the deceased leave off mourning and begin to set forth his praises " (i. 7). دو But this ceremony, whatever once its value and meaning, grew to be merely a matter of form. And though the Egyptians were, after their manner, "religious," says Herodotus, "to excess, far beyond any other race of men," we cannot wonder that Moses, knowing little of the hidden beauties of their belief, seeing only the corruption, the cruelty, the callousness to every virtue with which this intense religious sentiment could be associated, determined to preach a very different doctrine. It has often been remarked that there is in the books of Moses no expression of any thought, of any hope, of a life beyond the grave: it may well be that this teaching was the reaction from a system of religion where the belief in a future state was so strong, and led, in the present, to so little that was good. And further, "The will Of the great gods is plain; and ye must bring Their pleasure, to their feet."-ARNOLD. The gods of Egypt, as known to their captives, were corrupt, lustful, cruel. The God of Moses, a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he. If thou wilt do that which is right (Ex. xv. 26), if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people (xix. 5). If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; then walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people (Lev. xxvi. 3, 12) - this was the message that Moses had to give. I will "For I spake not unto your fathers," says Jeremiah, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: but this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you" (vii. 22). For this commandment, says the writer of Deuteronomy, which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply (xxx. 11-16). And so Israel became the bringer in and defender of the idea of Conduct, "the lifter up to the nations of the banner of Righteousness." Righteousness was their religion: the secret of the Lord was with them (Ps. xxv. 14). "This does truly constitute for Israel a most extraordinary distinction. In spite of all which in them and in their character is unattractive, nay, repellent, -in spite of their shortcomings even in righteousness itself and their insignificance in everything else, this petty, unsuccessful, unamiable people, without politics, without science, without art, without charm, deserve their great place in the world's regard, and are likely to have it more, as the world goes on, rather than less. It is secured to them by the facts of human nature, and by the unalterable constitution of things. 'God hath given commandment to bless, and he hath blessed, and we cannot reverse it; he hath not seen iniquity in Jacob, and he hath not seen perverseness in Israel; the Eternal, his God is with him!'” 1 NOTE. In 1881 a wonderful discovery was made at Deirel-bahari, on the left bank of the Nile, near Thebes. There were discovered the actual mummies, the embalmed bodies, of the Pharaohs of the Bondage and the Exodus, together with many others of interest hardly less absorbing. For several years M. Maspéro, then the DirectorGeneral of the Boulak Museum at Cairo, had noticed the number of valuable relics which were offered for sale by the Arabs at Thebes, and had suspected that these knew the secret of some royal tombs as yet unexplored by science. For a long time no rewards, no threats or punishments, availed to extract the secret; but at last, in the summer of 1881, it was discovered. Herr Emil Brugsch hurried at once to Thebes; and there, in a small cave among the western hills, he beheld the mummies of no less than thirty-six kings and queens and priests, with beautiful mummy cases, gold and silver ornaments, priceless papyri, all lying huddled together in bewildering confusion. 1 Arnold, Literature and Dogma, 42, 205. The mummies found included those of King Rasekenen or Ta-āken, and of Aahmes I., the founders of the XVIIIth dynasty; and also of Ne-fert - ari Aahmes, whose name means "the beautiful consort of Aahmes," ancestress of the new empire. Belonging to the XVIIIth dynasty, too, were Amenhotep I., Thothmes II., and the illustrious Thothmes III.; and with them, enclosed in a beautifully inlaid casket, the intestines of the woman-king Hatasou. There were also Seti I. of the xixth dynasty, and his son the great Rameses; the xxth dynasty Rameses III., last of the great warrior-kings of Egypt; and some of the Queens and Priest-kings of the XXIst dynasty. These were all brought to the surface and carried, in weird procession, under the broiling July sun, across the plain to the river-bank, thence to be conveyed down the Nile to Cairo, where they now lie in the museum of the Ghizeh Palace. (Century Magazine, May 1887; Robinson, Pharaohs of Bondage and Exodus; Brugsch, Egypt, 131, 359, new ed.; St. Clair, Buried Cities, 22; Stuart Poole, Cities of Egypt, 63.) |