The Heavenly Father | Page 7

has come forth actually from the recesses
of the sepulchre: it reaches us from ancient Egypt.

In Egypt, as you know, the degradation of the religious idea was in
popular practice complete. But, under the confused accents of
superstition, the science of our age is succeeding in catching from afar
the vibrations of a sublime utterance. In the coffins of a large number
of mummies have been discovered rolls of papyrus containing a sacred
text which is called the Book of the Dead. Here is the translation of
some fragments which appear to date from a very remote epoch. It is
God who speaks: "I am the Most Holy, the Creator of all that
replenishes the earth, and of the earth itself, the habitation of mortals. I
am the Prince of the infinite ages. I am the great and mighty God, the
Most High, shining in the midst of the careering stars and of the armies
which praise me above thy head.... It is I who chastise and who judge
the evil-doers, and the persecutors of godly men. I discover and
confound the liars.... I am the all-seeing Judge and Avenger ... the
guardian of my laws in the land of righteousness."[8]
These words are found mingled, in the text from which I extract them,
with allusions to inferior deities; and it must be acknowledged that the
translation of the ancient documents of Egypt is still uncertain enough.
Still this uncertainty does not appear to extend to the general sense and
bearing of the recent discoveries of our savants. Myself a simple
learner from the masters of the science, I can only point out to you the
result of their studies. Now, this is what the masters tell us as to the
actual state of mythological studies. Traces are found almost
everywhere, in the midst of idolatrous superstitions, of a religion
comparatively pure, and often stamped with a lofty morality. Paganism
is not a simple fact: it offers to view in the same bed two currents, the
one pure and the other impure. What is the relation between these two
currents? A passage in a writer of the Latin Church throws a vivid light
upon their actual relation in practical life. It is thus that Lactantius
expresses himself: "When man (the pagan) finds himself in adversity,
then it is that he has recourse to God (to the only God). If the horrors of
war threaten him, if there appear a contagious disease, a drought, a
tempest, then he has recourse to God.... If he is overtaken by a storm at
sea, and is in danger of perishing, immediately he calls upon God; if he
finds himself in any urgent peril, he has recourse to God.... Thus men
bethink themselves of God when they are in trouble; but as soon as the

danger is past, and they are no longer in any fear, we see them return
with joy to the temples of the false gods, make to them libations, and
offer sacrifices to them."[9] This is a striking picture of the workings of
man's heart in all ages; for, as our author observes, "God is never so
much forgotten of men as when they are quietly enjoying the favors
and blessings which He sends them."[10] As regards our special object,
this page reveals in a very instructive manner the religious condition of
heathen antiquity. The thought of the sovereign God was stifled
without being extinguished; it awoke beneath the pressure of anguish;
but ordinary life, the life of every day, belonged to the easy worship of
idols.
It may now be asked what is the historical relation between the two
currents of paganism of which we have just established the actual
relation in practical life. Did humanity begin with a coarse fetichism,
and thence rise by slow degrees to higher conceptions? Do the traces of
a comparatively pure monotheism first show themselves in the most
recent periods of idolatry? Contemporary science inclines more and
more to answer in the negative. It is in the most ancient historical
ground (allow me these geological terms) that the laborious
investigators of the past meet with the most elevated ideas of religion.
Cut to the ground a young and vigorous beech-tree, and come back a
few years afterwards: in place of the tree cut down you will find
coppice-wood; the sap which nourished a single trunk has been divided
amongst a multitude of shoots. This comparison expresses well enough
the opinion which tends to prevail amongst our savants on the subject
of the historical development of religions. The idea of the only God is
at the root,--it is primitive; polytheism is derivative. A forgotten, and as
it were slumbering, monotheism exists beneath the worship of idols; it
is the concealed trunk which supports them, but the