The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1884-02-29

USUAL pneuomouoH vi agency was ODSerVeQ,
that distinct being or intelligence was oper-
ating visibly and directly. This creation of
personal intelligences out of natural phe-
nomena, this personifcation of NATURES forces
was prolific source of fable and idolatry
Another source of fable, and in fact the earli-
est source, was the perversion or misinterpreta-
ton of facts in sacred history. The immediate
family of Noah possessed knowledge of the
true God, and preserved for time pure
worship. But, when, after the confusion of
language at the tower of Babel the members of
this family were scattered abroad over different
countries, truth, intrusted to oral communi-
cation, became exaggerated and perverted.
Error accumulated and surrounded it with a
mass of fable. Diversity of language and
change of abode was soon followed by a
change of worship. The hard struggle for
existence under primal circumstances led the
mind away from the contemplation of the
true God. Objects and operations in nature,
visible, and tangible, became subjects for
thought and study. Isolation precluded the
possibility of interchange of IDEAS Myster
les, multiplied, increased the darkness that
gathered around human understanding. Yet,
among all nations there has been preserved,
not however without some mixture of fiction,
the tradition of great principles and great
events; proof that all the nations had one
common origin, and all religion originally one
common source, viz Gods revealed word.
Hence the belief, common to all people, in
a sovereign God, omnipotent and omniscient,
the ruler and creator of the universe. All
nations have preserved an uniform and gen.
eral assent to certain great facts such, for
instance, as the creation of man out of the
earth by an exertion of divine power his
state of innocence and happiness known as
the Golden Age, in which the earth yielded
L 49,
abundance; the fall of man the source of all
his woe; the destruction of the world by a
food on account of sin; the saving of race
in boat which rested on mountain, and the
re-peopling of the earth by one family. These
| facts have been preserved by all nations as
cardinal truths But the details of particular
actions being of less importance and conse-
quently less known, became, in course of time,
perverted by fable and fiction. The historical
| fact that Noah was the father of three SONS,
| whose descendants peopled three different
parts of the earth, undoubtedly gave rise to
the fable of Chronos or Saturn, whose three
SONS according to the poets shared between
them the empire of the universe. Hence we
have in the Greek and Roman mythologies
Zeus, or Jupiter, ruling the heavens
Poseidon, or Neptune, the seas and Hades
or Pluto, the lower or underworld. In the
Morse mythology We have Odin, Vile, and
We the gods that people the earth in the
| Hindo mythology Brahma, Vishnu and silva,
the gods that create, preserve and destroy.
| The ministry of angels in human affairs
gave rise to another source of fable. God
has associated the angels with his spirituality,
his intelligence, and his immortality. He has
also employed angels in his government of the
world both in the departments of nature and
the elements, as we'll as in reference to the
nOp1unf of men The ooripfu-ac cyaooE If
| angel, who, in one night slew the first born
of all Egypt; of an angel who stood with q
sword drawn out over Jerusalem; of another
angel prince of the Persian empire; of
another prince of the Grecian empire of
another prince of the people of God. Angels,
as Gods messengers, have appeared in
tangible form, and in the likeness of men.
We read in the scriptures that an angel sat
under an oak in Ophrah while Gideon threshed
wheat by the wine-press; that an angel pre-
pared food for Elijah as he lay asleep under
the Juniper tree; that an angel, with sword
drawn in his hand, stood in path of the vine
yards and opposed Balaam on his journey.
| The visible ministration of angels is as old as
| the world, as we learn from the cherubim
stationed eastward of Eden to keep the gate
| of the terrestrial paradise. Noah and his
family, also the other patriarchs, were, beyond
doubt familiar with the truth that God as
sociated the angels with his government of
the world They also, undoubtedly, in
structed their families ON such an important
subject. But as mankind went forth over the
earth, and away from the teachings of those
instructed in the divine will and purpose, they
by degrees lost the more pure and spiritual
notions of concealed and invisible divinity,
and came to consider only the agents en-
ployed. Hence it is that men formed the idea
of gods. AS the angels have each their APP
propriate sphere, SO they conceived of gods
whose offices it is to preside over special
interests and purposes, as well as over special
departments of nature. Consequently they
assigned to some the care of the fruits of the
EARTH to others the mountains, to others the
valleys, to others the rivers; while others
again!presided over war, peace, famine, pesti-
lence, etc.
| The corruption of the human heart gave
rise to another source of fables. In order to
palliate and excuse practices most shameful
and vicious, the human heart has been ready
to authorize its crimes and passions by at
tributing to gods crimes most frightful and
debauchery most detestable, thereby afording
justification for its own dark deeds.
| Again, natural sentiment of admiration or
gratitude led men to associate the idea of
something like divinity with all that seemed
to benefit or bless mankind. As such they
worshiped the sun, moon and stars Persons
distinguished for inventions useful to man
kind; heroes illustrious in war benefactors
who rid the country of robbers or other pub
lie enemies in fact all who by some Illus
tr;o,,c otion rosa coucpicious above the COM