New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-02-28

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documents, hundreds Of years after Moses
had passed away; but that one Of the
original documents was the work of
Moses is admitted, and the work there
fore is either wholly or partly his. But
be that as it may, the account can hard
ly have been intended as an historical
fact. I think it far more fair to regard
it as categorical in its character, in
tended to explain the principle ofsin and
the cause of it. In fact people at that
time made but little, if any, distinction
between history and fiction. There was
| always, however, truth at the bottom
OF most of the ideas which sprang
spontaneouslylfrom among them, and the
truth in this case was that sin was the
violation of Gods laws, and any viola.
ton of his laws would always carry with
it it's own punishment. Whether we be-
lieve in a personal God or ''Nature' with
all it's laws ana forces-in either case
this idea holds good.
But how about the idea of an outside
inhuence-the snake that coaxed our
parents into sin? Where did that come
from? The priests tell US that the ser
pent was the devil; that he was created
q good angel, but turned cranky, started
an neutrality-suspicious. and was hurled
over the battlements of heaven, way
down to hell; and that thenceforth it
became his duty to introduce sin into
| the world and to turn upside down every
good thing that God had done.
But distrust everything that comes
from the priests. want to know what
the man who wrote this story had in his
head.
We must remember that the Jews
were not always an Independent nation.
AS early as the leign Of the third patrl-
arch they had emigrated to egypt, where
they remained for 400 years. It was
there that they grew up to be nation of
great numbers. But they also grew up
in q condition of servitude, under a peo-
pie far above them in civilization. In
agriculture, architecture and mechanical
skill the Egyptians were far advanced.
They had very we'll developed political
and religious system. But their religi-
GUS ideas we're also peculiar. Living in
a low country, their ideas were attached
to low objects. They believed that the
good ana evil powers dwelt in the ami
mails, and accordingly they worshipped |
animals some for the good they did, |
others out of fear. The bull was wor-
shipped as the God of agriculture, the
bird, ibis, and the cat because they kept |
the country clean, the Ichneumon Ca rat) |
because it destroyed the eggs of the
crocodile, while the crocodile aud SER
pent were worshipped out Of fear. They
had well-defned system of sacrifice or
offering of animals to atone for their sins, |
the idea being that the blood of the Of !
fering atoned for crimes against the del
ty. Now it is simply matter of course
that the Jews, having lived in this coun-
try for 400 years in condition of servi-
tude, must have imbibed and adopted |
the religious ideas of the Egyptians, aad
in all their religious exercises, laws, Gus
toms and ideas, we find positive traces of (
the Egyptian examples. Moses himself |
grew up at the court and was educated
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and
it is just as much a matter Of course that
he became an Egyptian in his ideas, as |
it would be for man brought up in
Catholic Seminary to become Catholic,
And this fact makes clear the absurd
story of the serpent. AS an Egyptian in
his ideas, Moses found it directly in his
way to ascribe the origin of sin and the
downfall of the race to that awful snake.
And it would not have been orthodox
for him to ascribe 1t to anything else.
He does not give us a single word or
syllable that conveys the idea of a devil.
The curse, ''Thou shalt crawl on thy bel
ly and eat dust all thy days." and again
sthe seed of the woman shall crush thy
head" is directed against the snake and
nothing else. The Jews, moreover, knew
nothing of devil at that time. They
learned nothing of him until thousand
years later and then from another peo-
pie.
But the 9Th chapter of Genesis has
another account of the introduction of
sin into the world. 1t reads like this ::
'sAnd it came to pass when man began
to multiply on the face of the earth and