EGYPT.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume I, Issue 11, 15 August 1861, Page 25

EGYPT.

On the dispersion of men from Babel, they carried with them the knowledge of God to the several countries where they located. According to the opinion of some, Noah went away to China, Hani to Africa, Japheih and his children moved off towards Europe, whilst Shem and his offspring continued lo reside in Asia, which was the original residence of mankind. j Although Man had obtained a knowledge of Llie true God, it was not long before they began to worship other gods.. They adored the sun, the moon, and the stars ol heaven : because of their constant revolutions, men thought that they were living things. A name of the sun was the name given by the men of Egypt, to their kings, thai is, this name Pharaoh. When the kings of that land died, they were worshipped as the nation's gods. Many indeed were the animals and the trees which were accepted by the Egyptians as. their gods. Willi ihem, the cow was a god, and the onion also was a god. But though such was the ignorance of the people towards God, great was their ability and knowledge in building cities for themselves, and in the erection of spacious temples as residences for their gods, and sepulchres for their kings. Ai the prcseni

time men wonder as they look on those structures. Perhaps you will not believe' my word, if I write down the size of one of < those sepulchres. But the word is correct, i That sepulchre is still standing. Many Pa-! kehas have been there, to look at that wonderful thing. The length of that dead-house is 763 feet: the breadth is the same as the length: its height is 480 feet. Those! sepulchres are made with immense stones, j with stones that have been hewn. The length of one of these stones is 50 feet. The name of these burying places of the kings is called a Pyramid, which means the ''likeness of flaming fire." At the foundation it is large and the breadth diminishes till you reach the lop of the pyramid. According to the learned, those pyramids were erected before the lime of David, and iu Egypt ihey still stand, in these our days. This was the thought of the men of Egypt who erected the pyramids. They thought in this way. When man dies, bis soul flees into a horse, or a bird, or a fish. On the death of that horse or other animal into which his soul has entered, that soul transmigrates into another animal or creature: ana so il goes on continually until the resurrection of its man's (original; body, This is the reason why the corpses were so carefully preserved by the Egyptians. They did not possess the Scriptures to reveal to them the destination of the soul of man, after his death. Nor did God lalk with the voice of a man to the people of Egypt. They had forgotten the words given io their forefathers. Hence, although their knowledge went on growing, in reference to the things which sustain the body, and which create a reputation for men 'in the! world, their knowledge decreased in regard to what alTeeted the soul, and they became extremely ignorant of the ways of the God of heaven. In them was fuelled the words of Paul, which says, they ''changed the glory of tne uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds and fourfooted beasts, and creeping thingSs"