Ebb and Flow.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3178, 26 April 1879, Page 1

Ebb and Flow.

Of the direction in which the present stage of development is tending, an ihdication may possibly be found by reviving what occurred in a far distant age. , The Egyptians were the first people upon: the earth who emerged into what is now-called civilisation./ How they lived, how they were governed during the tens of hundreds of generations which intervened between their earliest and latest monuments, their is little evidence to say. At the date when-they became distinctly risible they present the usual features of effete oriental societies ; the labor executed by slave gangs, and a rich luxurious minority spending, iheir tino in feasting jyj^ft, re*"'*,/' i *»cSm^ j ik~v\.»-. 'ot^a " ' enormous en&u-'-er'jfc: .wirka illustrated the talent or rainUi&tWJfcfr* Un vanity ,' of- the' priestly and"' m7s!™i:jy~ classes. The favored of fortune basked in perpetual sunshine. The millions sweated in the heat under the lash of the task master, and were paid with just so much of the leeks and onions and fleshpots as would continue them in a condition to work. Of these despised wretches some hundreds of thousands were enabled by Providence to shake off the yoke, to escape over the Bed Sea into the Arabian desert, and there receive from Heaven a code of laws under which 1 they were to be governed in the land where they were to be planted. What were those laws ? .

„ The Egyptians,, in the mitfsfc of their corruptions, had inherited*,'jthe doctrine from their fathers which isconsidered tho foundation of all religion. They believed in a life beyond the grave—in the judgment bar of Osiris, at which, they were to stand on leaving their bodies, and in a future of happiness or misery as they had lived well or ill upon earth. .Itwas not; a speculation of ;philosophers—rit was the popular creed; and it was held with exactly the same-kind of belief: with which | it has been,held,by the Western nations since their conversion to Christianity. But what was the practical effect of their .belief ? There is no doctrine, however :true| which Works mefcMqfdally on tho gouVHke a charm. %^ .expectation of a future Btote, r niay..be^,a/mb ttii;e"'fbr the noblest exertion,, or iji'may^bei inn excuse for acquiescence in. evijj, an^er ye to, conceal and perpetuate jh'a.'m,gst, enormous iniquities. The magnate' of Thebes or Memphis, with his large estates, his town and palaces, j'hisji retinue of eunichs, and his. slaves : whom he counted by thousands, was able to-»»y to himself, if he thought at all, true enough, there are inequalities of fortune. These serfs of mine have a miserable time of it, but it is, only•* time after^ all f'tliey have immortal souls, poor devils ! and their wretched existence here is but a drop i of water in tho ocean of their being.- HThey have as good a chance of paradise as I have—perhaps better. Osiris, will..set all right hereafter; arid for., the•upresent, rich arid poor are an ordinance oJfjProvidence, and there is no occasion to disturb estab* Uished institutions. {(For Imyself, I have drawn a prize in the lottery, and 1 hope I am grateful. I subscribe handsomely tto the temple services.'"" I am.'myself punctual in my religious duties.,, The priests, who are wiser than I am, pray for me, and they tell me I may sot my mind at rest."

Under this theory of things the Israelites had been ground to powder. They broke away. They,- too, were to become a nation. A revelation of the true God was bestowed, on them, from which, as from a fountain," a deeper knowledge of the Divine nature was to flow out over the earth; and the central thought if it was the Divine government—not in a vague hereafter, but in the living' present. The unpractical'prospective justice which had become an excuse for tyranny was superseded by an immediate justice in time. They were to rrap the harvest of their deeds, not in Heaven, but on earth. There was no life in the,grave whither they were going. The future slate was withdrawn from their siglit till the mischief which it had wrougUt>was forgotten. - It was not denied, but it was veiled in a cloud. It was left to private opinou to hope or to fear ; but it was.no longer held out either as an excitement" to piety or & terror to evil-doers. The God of Israel was a living God, and Hjs jjower %«s displayed visibly and immediately in rewarding the good and punishing tho wicked while they remained in the flesh. It would bo unbecoming ta press fho parallel,' but phenomena are showing themselves which .indicate „, that uu analogous suspension of- belief provoked by the samo causes may, possibly'bo awaiting ourselves. The relations between man and man are now supposed to be governed by natural laws which enact themselves independentofconsidiM-alions of justice. Political economy is crcctedjntoa science, and the shock to our moral nuiuro is relieved by reflections that it refers only-, to earth, and that justice m»y, tako effect hereallcr. Science, however, is an inexorable master. The cvidonce for an hereafter depends on considerations which science declines to entertain. To piety and conscientiousness it appears inherently probable : but to the calm, unprejudiced student of realities, piety and 'cop. scicntiousness are insufficient witnesses to matters of fact. The religious passions have made too many mistakes to be accepted as of conclusive authority. Scientific habits of" thought, which ara more and more controlling us, 'demand external proofs which are'difficult to find. }.i may be that we require once more to liavo the living certainties,; of tho Divino Government brought, hom.e to us more palpably ; that a doctrine which has beea the consolation of the heavy l«dcn for eighteen hundred years may have generated once more a practical infidelity ; and that by natural and intelligent agencies, in the furtherance of the everlasting purposes of our Father in Heaven, the beluf in a, life beyond the grave may. again be about to be withdrawn.—Fboude, Oi» Progress.