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HISTORY OF THE WORLD.

CHAPTER THIRD.

At the end of the first number, I promised to tell you something about the religion of the Egyptians, and how all that the Prophets had foretold about them has come to pass. Now, I will speak of the Egyptian religion. Of course you recollect the miracles which Moses wrought in Egypt, and the plagues which he brought upon the land. Now those miracles were directed against the false religion of the people, and you will best understand their false worship, and remember it, if we lake those several miracles in order. 1. The first miracle is recorded Exod. vii. 8 to 15 verses. The Egyptians worshipped serpents; and Moses' rod became a serpent by God's power, and swallowed up the rods of the magicians which had become serpents by the power of the devil. Most heathen idolaters worship the serpent, that image of the devil. The Maories -once worshipped lizards, which are something like serpents ; as there are no serpents in this land they worshipped the thing most like it. The black lads that the Bishop has brought from the Northern Islands tell us that they worship serpents. , j 2. The second miracle is recorded Exod. I vii. 17—21. The Egyptians worshipped the ] river Nile, just as the Hindoos now worship ! the river Ganges. Moses turned the water x)f this god of theirs into blood, and the j sacred fish into a mass of rottenness. 3. The third miracle is recorded Exod. j viii. 2—7. This river-god of theirs was i believed by them to be able to heal dis- j eases—now it sent forth frogs which infested • the land. j Though the devil had enabled his magicians Jannes and Jambres, (2 Tim. iii. 8.) to : imitate Moses, and to work like miracles, ! ihey could only bring the evil upon the land, and could not remove it. God alone re- j moved the evil plagues. j 4. The 4ih miracle is recorded Exod. viii. ! 16—10. The priests of the false Gods of : Egypt were forbidden to approach their: altars, and offer sacrifices, if there was any impure vermin upon them. Therefore they wore only linen garments, and shaved them- ;

selves all over every day. So when Moses brought lice on all their quarters, the magicians themselves confessed, «This is the finger of God.' 5. The fifth miracle is described, Exod. viii. 21—24. The Egyptians worshipped that God mentioned in St, Matthew 12, v. 24, and called Beelzebub. The meaning of that name is ' the prince of lies ! He was supposed to be able to keep off the ravenous flies that infested the land; and hv this plague Moses showed that he was a false god. 6. The sixth miracle is recorded Exod. ix. 3—7, The chief idols of the Egvptians were the bull, the heifer, the ram, and the goat, who were all overthrown and destroyed in this sixth plague. j 7. The seventh miracle is recorded Exod.! h. B—H. It was a practice of the Egyptian priests to propitiate a god called Typhon, by offering human sacrifices. They burnt the victims alive, and then gathered together their ashes, and threw thern up into the air, in hopes of averting evil from all the places where the ashes fell. So Moses took a handful of ashes from a furnace, and cast it into the air; and wherever the ashes fell, boils and blains boke out upon the people; as a sign that evil and not good would come from this wicked! practice. | 8. The eighth miracle is recorded Exod. ix, 52—26. There was a goddess, called Isis, specially worshipped by the Egyptians. She represented the moon, and was believed to have power over the tides of the sea, the clouds of the air, and the fruits of the earth ; as rain seldom falls in that countrv, what must have been the horror with which the people saw their crops destroyed by th j rain and lightning, in spite of their goddess Isis. 9. The ninth miracle is recorded Exod. x. 4—6. Another great idol of the Egyptians was Serapis, whose special office it was (as they thought) to keep off the locusts of the Red Sea. Moses showed the people how vain was their trust in Serapis, when he brought locusts upon the land, and drove them away again. 10. The tenth miracle is recorded Exod. x. 21—23. The river Nile was the chief god of the Egyptians. The moon or Isis, was the next in honour. Serapis came third, and Osiris fourth. Moses having shown the power of the true Jehovah over the river Nile, over Isis, and Serapis, now showed his power over the Sun, their god Osiris. During three days and three nights, a thick darkness covered the land, and the

light of the Sun was hid from every part of Egypt, except Goshen, where the people of Israel dwelt. i In the last miracle (described Exod. xii. \ 29, 30.) God showed his powu* over man, as He had before shown it over the false gods and idols. The Egyptians, like all oiher heathen nations, were inclined to worship their kings and great men, when dead, and God showed His power over all alike, when i He cut off the first-born of every family from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on the throne, to the first-born of the captive; that was in the dungeon. Then were ful-j fi!Jed God's own words, Exod. xii, 42,1 * % Against all the gods of Egypt will I exe-! cute judgment." " | I promised to tell you something of Egyptian history, and to show how the prophecies I about them were fulfilled. There is one! special prophecy about Egypt in the 49th j ■chapter of Isaiah. He foretells the civil j wars of the people among themselves, and the in\asion of the country by foreign princes. This came to pass in the time of Cyrus the Persian, who invaded and conquered Egypt. His son Cambyses was a great tyrant, and was guilty of great aueliy to the people whom his father bid conquered. Isaiah lived 800 8.C., and Cyrus! and Cambyses lived between 550 and "500 B.C. Then Isaiah foretells in the same chapter, that * the Lord shall be known to Egypt;' and this w r e may perhaps consider to have been partially fulfilled, when the 70 most learned Jews residing in Alexandria, about 260 years 8.C., were appointed by King Piolemy to translate the Scriptures from Hebrew into Greek- and that version madf known the true Jehovah wherever the Greek language was spoken and read. It is still called * the 70.' Again, there is a remarkable prophecv of Ezekiel's ch. 30. v. 43, where he foreiels that •« there shall no more be a Prince of the land of Egypt." Accordingly, ever since that time, Egypt has been governed bv foreign princes; it has always been subject to another people. First, it was conquered, as I said just now, by Cyrus and the Persians. They ruled there, till Alexander the Great conquered the Persians 350 8.C., and built a city called Alexandria after his own name, at the mouth of the river Nile. It was one of his generals named Ptolemy, that ruled over Egypt, when Alexander was dead; and the descendants of this Piolemy were princes of

Egypt till just before Christ's birth. Then the Romans conquered them ; and ruled lhe?e. till Mahomet's time; and since that time, 750 A.I) , it has always been governed by Mahometan Princes, who came first from Arabia, then from Cirrassia, and lasily from Turkey. Mahomet's general, named Omar, defeated the Romans, and burnt the great library of Alexandria, saying, lh.it the Koran, or sacred book of Mahomet, was the only book worth reading, ana lhal all other books were good for nothing.' This was a very foolish thought of his. Nor was that a wise thought of the Maori chief who said lhal * he did not wish to have any books in NewZealand except the Bible.' For though the Bible is the best book in the world, yet other books help us to understand the Bible ; and the reason why Englishmen understand the Bible belter than the Maories, and cm explain it better, is that the English read other books, and some of them understand the Hebrew, Gieek and Latin languages. Lot the Maori, therefore, read these books, that he may understand the Bible better.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MMTKM18570131.2.14

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume III, Issue 1, 31 January 1857, Page 11

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,407

HISTORY OF THE WORLD. Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume III, Issue 1, 31 January 1857, Page 11

HISTORY OF THE WORLD. Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume III, Issue 1, 31 January 1857, Page 11

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