Monroe City Democrat. (Monroe City, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1906-09-06
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN BELIEFS
Influence of Magic on the Lives of
the People-Ideas of Heaven
and He'll.

No nation in the world devoted So
much attention to the subject of the flu.
ture life as the ancient Egyptians, and
yet, strangely enough, with so little eff.
tect upon their daily lie in this world,
1t had, however, no morbid effect upon
him, for, unlike any other nation of an
tiquity, the Egyptian had fully con-
WINGED himself that this life was but the
ante-chamber to life of eternity and
everlastingness."
Egypt was essentially the land of
magic, and fully justified the Talmudic
| saying that when magic was created
out of ten parts, nine were assigned to
Egypt. 1t is in magic, says the London
Globe, that we find the whole key to the
Egyptian ideas of heaven and hell.
The greatest work on the future state
was that known as the Book of the
Dead"-a marvellous compendium of
magic, religion and folklore. Its begin
| ming is lost in the dark regions of the
prehistoric age, for there is now no
| doubt that it had taken definite literary
| form long before the fourth dynasty,
| the sixth, some centuries later.
The Egyptians ideas of future life
were the outcome of his magical belief
( that everything material or immaterial
! had it's immortal double. The land it.
self, the Nile, the chief religious cities,
the king, and the people, all had theiI
| doubles in the next world. Out of this
grew the idea of life in the future state
of perfect happiness, the best on earth
in the Fields of Peace. There can be nc
doubt that this region of the blessed was
regarded by the early Egyptians, and
indeed, for long time by the common
people, not as a celestial region, but as
situated in the fertile and well wateret
regions of the Nile delta in the north.
west of Egypt, where the blessed ever
breathed the cool north wind.
Here he lived an ideal form of his life
upon earth. He plowed his fields anC
grew the grain which supplied him will
bread that grew not stale and beer tha
never became sour" Here was situated
the duplicate of his earthly town or vii
lage, and Heaven would, indeed, be {
home to him.
The belief in ancestor worship, NJ
doubt, was an important element in thu
religion of the Egyptians-but would thu
deceased meet and be recognized b!
those who had preceded him? On thi
point DR.. Bulge describes how the de
ceased meets and is recognized by al
who are near and dear to him.
AS he truly remarks, it is an exact pic
ture of the return of long absent wan
derer to his native village, such as ma
be seen any day in the Nile valley. I
explains, also, the reason why the funeT
al inscriptions make so strong a featur
of the family and social rectitude of tn
dead. Thus the expression: 81 was on
reverent to my father, favored of m
mother, devoted to my brothers and sis
tiers and united in heart with the peopl
of my town."
The underworld was a region of fire
lakes of fire, rivers of fire, and tn
damned were treated as captives, bount
beheaded, and each day brought to lif
to undergo fresh torture. Space wi
not permit us to deal with this subjeC
here, but in these terrible pictures W
have, no doubt, the source from whic
the early Christian writers drew thei
vivid descriptions of the tortures of tn
wicked.