The Great Religions of the World.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4832, 4 July 1884, Page 2

The Great Religions of the World.

"EGYPT AND ITS EELIGION."

At the Presbyterian Church last night the Eev. S. J. Neill delivered the fourth of. his series of lectures, and in announc ing that the subject would be " Egypt and its religion," stated that as it was one of such magnitude it would be divided* the first part being taken that night, and the second,-mainly relating to the religion of the Egyptians, in the next lecture. Egypt, the lecturer said, was, so far as we knew, the oldest [country, and from her we get the oldest civilisation and the oldest religion. Our Scriptures had to So largely with her—Abraham, Joseph, and Moses ; spent years in her; great miracles were performed there, the Old Testament was first translated there (some 300 years 8.C.), and there Christ, according to Luke, received a great part of His education. Egypt was the centre of the world in more than one sense; she had been therefugefrom famine, and she was also the battlefield of the nations, for there had the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans fought, and in later times who did not remember Nelson's battle of the Nile, Napoleoa's conquest', and still later the bombardment of Alexandria and the war in the Soudan. No place was now giving so much anxiety to England as Egypt; she is the key of the East, and on her fate much of England's future depended. Egypt could boast of having given us the oldest sacred writings! the most stupendous, if not the oldest, buildings, the oldest history of man, the earliest account of civilization, the most ancient sovereignty, the earliest glimpse of man's conception of God, and the future life, and she had given us her dead—as perfect almost as they were ages before[our Scriptures, or any others, were written. For these and many other reasons, no country /should be, and was, so'" interesting to iis'as Egypt. The lecturer then graphicallyr though briefly, sketched the outlines of Egypt, noted the places famous in Bible history, and passed on to consider her as the home for civilization. From her geological configuration, with the range of granite protecting her on the south, and the deserts and hills on the east and west, the sea coast and the isthmus of Suez were the only vulnerable points; These favorable conditions, added to the fact that the country was well and regularly watered by the Nile, led in great measure to early Egypt'b safety, peace, ~ and prosperity, giving the inhabitants more time for the acts of peace (through their not being so often called upon to defend .themselves), and thus allowing them to get ahead of the other nations, which start, having once obtained, they kept for a long time. The comparative leisure enjoyed owing to the certainty of crops from the oVerflowing of the Nile, caused the early Egyptians to reason, to study the stars, and to measure, Euclid's work in geometry not having been beaten yet. It was generally conceded that the Egyptian empire was founded 5000 years B.C. ,- there was then an established reii gion, and even going back 7000 years 8.C., and there was data to do this, civilization was found to be well advanced, and the religious ideas well developed. Where did the Egyptians' religion come from ? Not from the Hindu Vedas, for some parts of the Egyptian writings were at least 2000 years older, so that 'in'" comparison to them the Hebrew Scriptures were modern, and Egypt had doubtless long passed its meridian before either Abraham or 'Noah were born. The Egyptians were far in*advance of the majority of people in their notions of the future, and it might be questioned if the majority in this Christian country had anything like, snch a clear notion of, and rest upon, a future, life as the early Egyptians had/ Their religion had been stated to have been merely a worship of Nature, or their science; but behind all their forms and ceremonies there was something recognised, though perhaps dimly, as God. The Egyptians firmly believed in the great fundamental truths that the Great Mind created the Universe, and that the thinking part of man lived after his death. The lecturer then gave an elaborate description of the Egyptian ' burying places, saying that the tombs contained almost all the evidences of the manner of life -in •'■ the age^} and were, in some respects, better than t>* written history—they were a per; feet museuti of antiquity. The offerings.given to the departed were hot made to the dead body, but to the living soul, the donors considering that by some mearii the spiritual essence of their gifts Would reach the soul of the loved one, which they believed became wiser, purer, and better after it leftthe^ body, In conclusion,Mr Neill announced that in the next lecture he would speak of some ■> of the symbols used, by the Egyptians, especially of the sign of the Cross, of; serpent, sea, and sun worship, of heaven, hell, and purgatory, and of the connection between anoient Egyptian and modern beUflfij \ The leoture was Hatched to with iiu terest, and- the; only pity was tb.at.-.-the attendance, which was a medium oneiwaa riot as large as the subject deserved,

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