ANTIQUITY OF EGYPT.
As a full comparison will show that the religion of ancient Egypt and that of the Jews were essentially alike, not only in their general features but in their most minute details, with respect to most of their doctrines, precepts, and customs, the question arises, How came this resemblance? It is out of the question to consider it merely fortuitous: that one grew out of the other, or both were derived from a common source, we are compelled to admit. To determine which was the parent system we have only to ascertain which possesses the greater antiquity. This question is very easily settled. A large volume of facts is at our command which tend to prove that the Egyptians were in a high state of civilization before the Jews were known to history. The Bible itself partially recognizes this fact by its frequent allusion to Egypt as a wise and powerful nation, able at all times to exercise superior sway over the Jews, and whose wise men, or magicians, could compete with not only the Jews, but their God, in the performance of miracles; that is, with the Jews and their God to help them, in achieving the most astounding feats. They could make any thing that Jehovah could, with the exception of lice. The remote antiquity of Egypt can be proved by a few facts. The Egyptians have a carefully preserved list of sixty-one kings, who ruled the empire between Menes and Amasis, with names and ages given, whose aggregate reign comprises a period of more than seven thousand years. Herodotus says they computed with great care and accuracy. Manetho tells us Menes reigned seven thousand seven hundred years ago, which places him more than seventeen hundred years before Adam. Engravings on monuments, and writings on papyrus, confirm the statement of Manetho. And then hieroglyphics on the pyramids of Egypt, with names, dates, and figures which have recently been deciphered, enable us to trace the antiquity of Egypt back eight thousand years, when she is shown to have been in a high state of civilization. Another fact: Layard and Rawlinson, who recently visited Egypt as commissioners or agents of the British Government, state that fragments of pottery have been recently found by digging in the Valley of the Nile, which, by counting the successive layers, or deposits, made by the annual overflowing of the river, are shown to be not less than eleven thousand years old. Such facts amount to demonstration, and can not be set aside. And Mr Wilkinson, in his "Manners and Customs of Ancient Egypt," adduces another kind of evidence to show the impossibility of Egypt having obtained her religion from the Jews. He says, "The first glimpse we obtain of Egypt shows us a nation far advanced in the arts and customs and institutions of civilized life." And this was six or seven thousand years ago; while the most conclusive evidence can be adduced to show that no essential change has been made in her religion since the inscriptions were made on the monuments, some of which bear evidence of being eight thousand or nine thousand years old. If there has been no essential change in her religion for eight thousand or nine thousand years, it is prima facie evidence that she did not borrow any of her religious tenets of the Jews. Such facts settle the question more conclusively than the most elaborate argument could do.