The Pillar of Fire; or, Israel in Bondage

by J. H. Ingraham

"But is not the great god Apis the peculiar deity of Memphis?" I asked; "and is not his worship the most magnificent and imposing on earth?"

"Yet here in the City of the Sun is the temple of Mnevis, the sacred ox of On, honored with a worship as profound and universal as that of Apis."

"But do the more polished Egyptians indeed worship the ox, either here or in Memphis?" I asked with some hesitation, for, as prince, Remeses is first priest of the realm, next to the high-priest of Osiris.

"Do not fear to ask freely any questions, my dear Sesostris," he said. "We do not worship these animals. They are but the embodiment of attributes. Under both of these gods, at On and at Memphis, Osiris the great Judge of men is veiled. They are but the living images of Osiris. The origin of their introduction is unknown save to the priests, whose office it is to keep the records of all things appertaining to religion."

"What is revealed concerning the history of Osiris?" I asked; "for I am at a loss to understand the exact relation a deity known over the world by name, but of whose worship little is understood, holds to Egypt and to the other gods. At home, in Syria, I have marvelled how the Egyptian mythology could stand, when made up of such contradictory elements,—a part directing the worship of an invisible divinity, and a part directing the adoration of the hosts of heaven and beasts of the earth. In Phœnicia we worship the Invisible through the sun, as his representative. We worship nothing earthly. In Palestine, south of us, Ashteroth, Belus, and images of stone and brass are adored, but not with us."

"The Egyptians, through all their forms, and by all their gods, adore the Supreme Infinite, my Sesostris," said the prince. "The history of our faith is briefly this, according to common tradition: Osiris was in the beginning the one lord of worlds; the sun of truth and the glory of his universe. He came upon earth for the benefit of mankind. Before his coming, the ox and all other animals were wild, and of no service to man. The Nile was a terror to Egypt. Vegetation had perished. He came as a 'manifester of good and truth,' as saith the great golden book in the Hall of Books. He entered into all things, and infused his life, and good, and uses into all. He bound the Nile to its banks, by breasting its flood and subduing it. His spirit passed into the bull, and all cattle. He tempered the heat of the sun, and drew the poison from the moon. The earth became his bride, under the name of Isis; and brought forth Horus, and the order of equal times, and thus man was benefited and the earth made habitable. Upon this, his brother Sethis, who represented 'evil,' as Osiris did 'good,' sought his destruction, and caused him to be hated and put to death. He was buried, and rose again, and became the judge of the dead. And this legend or fable is the foundation, noble Sesostris, of our mythology. The sun, moon, Nile, animals, and vegetables even, are regarded as sacred, therefore, because the spirit or soul of Osiris had been infused into them, to change them from evil to good. Thus one god is worshipped through visible objects, which he has consecrated,—objects once his temples and abodes; for, says the sacred record, he had to enter into every thing which he restored to the use of man."

"The mythology of Egypt," I said, "is at once relieved, O prince, from the charge of grossness and superstition which has been attached to it. I can now understand more clearly your system of religion."

"The mysteries of our religion are still unfathomable," answered Remeses. "It is doubtful if they are fully comprehended by the priests. In the multiplicity and diversity of objects of worship I am often confounded, and it is a relief to me to pass by all material forms of Osiris, and send my mind upward only to himself!"

"That is a noble conception, great prince," I said, admiring the lofty and almost divine expression with which this pure sentiment lighted up his fine countenance.

"But the people of Egypt are not able to comprehend Deity except through visible forms; and, in order to convey an impression of the abstract notions men form of the attributes of Deity, it will always be necessary, perhaps, to distinguish them by some fixed representation; hence the figures of Osiris under the various forms in which he is worshipped, of Pthah, of Amun, Neith, and other gods and goddesses, were invented by the ancient priests as the signs of the various attributes of the Deity. And as the subtlety of speculation expanded the simple principles of our mythology, the divine nature was divided and subdivided, until any thing which seemed to bear any analogy to it was deified, received a figure or form as a god, and was admitted into the Pantheon of the kingdom, to a share of the worship of the people."