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historians, poets, philosophers The pro-
found mysteries of modern thought, the va
carries of modern metaphysics, the doctrines
of the skeptics the evolutionists, all had
! their day in Egypt. They have had their
day about once in every four centuries, with
such regularity that it is a wonder some one
does not discover that philosophic science is
ike light and heat, undula;ory in
regular waves over or in the intellects of
men.
But Egyptian philosophy and faith never
doubted that man derived his origin from
/ God, never descended to find that origin A.
mong the beasts. They, like all other an
cient civilizations, were proud to trace their
ancestry up to the divine 1t was left for a
later age of pigmies in philosophy to seek
with hunah senses the formation out of mat
I ter of the immatefial and immortal and to
imagine their souls born in the brains of
monkeys Drifting away, age after age,
from the primcval simplicity ofmonothcism,
the Egyptian system of faith never to the
death Of the last A pis ceased TO hold rs its
cardinal doctrine the supremacy of one God
over all other gods, giver of all power and
life TO gods and to men.
} Egypt had been settled sot1le centuries
before the erection of this Obelisk, By q
colony who had come across the desert from
Asia. The date of this settlement is still a
iubiect of investigations Psychologists are
the most modest and most judicious of all
scientific workers. They argue in favor OF
their several theories, but they rarely insist
that the theories are absolutely affirmed as
truths OF late wears there has been mar
ked tendency on the part Of those who held
the extreme antiquity Of the settlement to
accept a less remote date. We no longer
hear Bupscn's BIC. 10000 even hinted at.
/ The extremists now reckon the immigration
under Misraim at about B. c. 5000. while a
large body Of careful students are assured
that it was not so long ago as B. G. 5000.
Longer or shorter, Egypt had in her iso
lated position, cut off by seas and deserts
from the rest of the world, grown to be !.
peculiar people, with peculiar customs and
/ habits. peculiar religion. Here we find the
Oldest records Of human faith in God out
side of the sacred record. Asia has no such
antiquity of recorded history. India and
/ China have fables of heroic age, myths
which are vague dreams like the Greek sto-
ries of Perseus and Heraklcs. These myths,
/ like the Greek, do not profess to be connect
/ ed with history until the time after this OBJ
/ elisk had been erected. Nowhere in the
world are there any physical certaintics
proving human eXiStchcc so old as in Egypt.
1 Human arts are genealogical and the gen
/ calogv carries Us back in nearly all of them
1 to or through Egypt. And among human
inventions, many forms of religion and
! faiths are 70 be ranked ns works Of art-Of
mems device. Some ignorant writer's, look
/ ing no further back in history than to the
/ barbarians of our own day, have talked a
! bout serpent worship and fetish worship rs
/ earlv-thc earliest form of human religions.
This is pure fancy, without basis in history.
The oldest religion of which we have any
record outside the Bible is Egyptian, and
that religion was the religion Of Enoch and
Noah and Abraham, the worship of one God.
There is no dispute among Egyptologists.
Monothcism was the religion of young
Egypt.
Nor did the one supreme God even leave
the Egyptian Pantheon. over which he was
alwav- Lord. He was indeed known only
tothe most learned in later ages, and the
unity of all the dcitiCs as mere developments
of Him and his attributes was the mystery
of the initiated, Nevertheless He is as
Ai-lliN ltiAl- illLtit III l'tiAil AT a.
deir whose statue has come down to us
The 0bcisk was itself asort of Hiercgyph
It's sculptures, read by all the people, taught
them 60 believe in ilortis and the stin as
giyers OF life and power. Thus on this
obclisk, erected b. ThothmCs III, and re-
ceiying additional sculptures from Remeses
H.. we have several long legends, ascrblng
the power Of these monarchs to certain gods.
The middle lines of the three perpendicular
inscriptions on each side relate to Ihothmes,
the outer lines to Rcmescs. On one side the
middle lire is translated freely thus:
The Horus, powerful bull, crowned in
western Thebcs. Lord Of diadems, whose
kingdom is set as the sun in heaven, the
Setting Sun Lord of IIelipois, caused him.
Thothmcs. to be born. The gods gave him
a home beautiful as their own, foreseeing
that he would found q dominion, like the
sun. for ages lie (is) king of Upper and
Lower Egypt, Mcnkhepcrra (Thothmes 7;
beloved of the Setting sun the great God
and his surrounding gods, eiyer of all life,
stability aud power, like the sun, for ever.
The line at the left reads thus:
The IIoru7, powerful bull, son Of khc-
per king of Upper and Lower Egypt, sun
favored Usermara, the golden hawk, rich in
years. greatest of the great Rcmcses bcioy-
ed of Anon. lie proceeded from the sun
body to take the crowns, to be sole lord, lord
of the two countries sun-tayOred jsermara
Ramcscsl glory of Tum (the setting sun
like the sun"
The other inscriptions are Of similar char
acter. But while all. in mystic terms, re-
/ late to gods known to the people, in mystic
terms. the four converging lines Of the obe-
/ lisk itself were pointing heayenward, to-
/ ward the residence of the one God OF the
| Egyptian Fathers; and these lines were alb
ruptlv broken of, to signify thatit was vain
/ for human power to attempt to reach the
+ SPOT where those converging lines would
meet. This was the grand lesson OF the OBJ
/ elisk. The same lesson Is tatght less clear
+ ". bv modern church spires. It is the most
important feature. the whole, of the mono
lith. Wherever an obelisk stood, AZ Hello
po'js. NJ Karnak. at Luxor, in the Feyoom,
Ii taught the same truth. And it Is not the
/ least value which attaches toit IN this young
O., of countries that it is 4 monument OF
tho oldest religion Of our race, the worship
Of the one God whom MuTiette-Bey, writing
Of the Fnyptian religion, describes rs " one
ONLY God. immortal, uncrcateds Invisible,
and concealed in the inaccessible depths oi
his own being. He is the crcatoroi heaven
and earth; lie has made everything when
exists and nothing vas made without HIM.
To this God the obelisk pointed to all
who approached the gate Of the temple
To Him the grand court and assembly place
of the raoDlc was open. rOohess, for he could