New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-04-04

besides a host of minor Deities. Hence
the Egyptian religion was polytheistic
whereas the Hebrew religion unlike Na
Egyptian or any ancient creed was motor.
iously monotheistic. Now if the Hebrews
copied the Egytians they would certain
" have more than enc God. Eorss~er
any God which the Hebrews ever had
d1tfererd from any ore which the Egyp-
tians worshipped. Take their 3 first
class gods: Amun, Mant, Noun, Safe,
Pthah, Meth, Khem, Pasht. Each one
had special territory, special Office.
There was no universally Of rule, ne
infinity of attributes such as chareesasJ q
Jehovah. Amun comes nearsst in maf.;-
ty, but his power was limited to A,e
Deistic assembly. Nor did he always
have full control over it, as many Of thu
gods were quite Independent. Witness
Noun, the ram-headed god who was his
companion and was held as his equal.
Nor did he create; for Pthah was the
creator; nor was he the principle of ma
ture for Khem was so held. Nor did he
have plenitude of spiritual power as the
Jews ascribed to Jehovah; for Safe pos
scssed this; so the conclusion is irresist
able that the Hebrews did not get thoir
God or ideas of divinity from Egypt.
Did they get their devil from Egypt
Not at all. They brought tie snake
story to the Egyptians. According to
Herodotus ak the Egyptian gods were of
Asiatic origin. Now when the primitive
Egyptians came into Egypt they did not
have spap, the great serpent; the emblem
of wickedness. Therefore he was brought
in later. By whom? The question must
be answered by the Chaldeans or the
Hebrews: for both of these peoples had
recognized evil principles under the
form of serpents. Now it is not likely
that the Chaldeans did SO; for they had
little communication with Egypt in those
times. At any rate we have conclusive
proof that the Hebrews were in Egypt
as subject race and we know that con-
quering nations then adopted all gods of
the conquered or at least some of them.
The Chaldeans, the ancient Persians, the
Babylonians, the Indians had borrowed
gods; so had the Greeks and Romans as
every school boy knows. Herodotus
says that Range, Astarte and Seth were
gods borrowed by the Egyptians. Hence
we can reasonably conclude that the
Egyptians took the snake from the He
brew slaves and elevated him into deitv.
His snakeship, lowly and dispised among
the Hebrew, grew into ga great Giant"
and received high honors. That the
Egyptians did not borrow Jehovah als,.
is probably due in the exclusive wishes
and character of the latter: Hthou shall
have no strange gods but Me-" But no
other hypothesis for the snalke-story is
tenable. Moses did not use the word
devil but meant the personal being for
which devil stands; because he attributes
reason and judgment to the snake and
because he knew snake could not SO
act unless informed by thinking principle.
The book of Wisdom says by the hatred
of the devil death entered into the world.
The book of Ecclesiates says: By
woman the beginning of sin was made
and through her we all die. So in the
old testament they have the word devil
and the woman here referred to is evi
IDENTIFY Eve. Job and Zachariah mention
good angels; hence by implication they
knew of bad ones. As matter of fact
Job is first to use the word Satan. Mo-
ses in Genesis says the serpent induced
our first parents to sin, which would be
absurd if taken in literal sense: The
rabbinical tradition, explaining his words
states that Serpent means the Evil Spirit.
The sacred Avesta of the Persians, CON
temporary record, says the same thing:
''Ahrimanus, the Supreme Ruler of evil
spirits under the form of a serpent. Sc
duced the first men to SIM" On this noint
consult Rosenmueller. The Brahamins.
too, bear out this Interpretation Of Moses;
for they describe the evil spirit as a
serpent. For this fact consult Harlez.
Or without an appeal to contempo ran
@ eous history, take a parallel case
| I.ill know from your correspondence article,
although he did not give his name, that
he is human being, with certain men
tai training and with certain religious
beliefs; SO from Genesis, from the actions
recorded of the serpent. i conclude and