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CHAPTER XII.

APOTHEOSIS OF MOSES.

DURING the period when the Shepherd Kings ruled the land of Egypt famine was not allowed to depopulate the world. After these Kings came their descendant Moses, the mortal to whom the Almighty spoke from the top of Mount Sinai, in the presence of a multitude of witnesses, and gave laws by which man must defend himself from an enemy more cruel than famine; for those who die from famine may still rise to enjoy life eternal, whereas death brought into the world by sin, through the instigation of Satan, is death eternal, from which there is no resurrection.

This inspired Moses taught the Israelites how to serve God, the only way by which they can secure themselves from eternal death. And when he considered them capable of continuing in the way he set them, he went to other nations, and everywhere instructed the people, that they might live for ever.

One of the moral precepts he taught in the Far East, in Hindustan, is still revered by the Hindoos to this day. In that country he assumed the name of Manu, so that the children of Israel who were in

Palestine might not recognise him and claim him as their sovereign. The precept is this :

Daily* perform thine own appointed work
Unweariedly; and to obtain a friend-
A sure companion to the future world-
Collect a store of virtue like the ants
Who garner up their treasures into heaps;
For neither father, mother, wife, nor son,
Nor kinsman, will remain beside thee then,
When thou art passing to that other home-
Thy virtue will thy only comrade be.

Single is every living creature born,
Single he passes to another world,
Single he eats the fruits of evil deeds,
Single, the fruit of good; and when he leaves
His body like a log or heap of clay

Upon the ground, his kinsmen walk away;
Virtue alone stays by him at the tomb,

And bears him through dreary trackless gloom.

Depend not on another, rather lean

Upon thyself; trust to thine own exertions.

Subjection to another's will gives pain;

True happiness consists in self-reliance.

Strive to complete the task thou hast commenced;

Wearied, renew thy efforts once again;

Again fatigued, once more the work begin;

So shalt thou earn success and fortune win.

This Law-giver's moral teaching extended all over the Eastern world, including Corea and Japan, and thence to the western shores of the American continent; so that when his earthly course was finished, the dwellers in all these countries founded religions based on his precepts, making his memory the object of their worship.

* Monier Williams, Hinduism,

The Mexicans and Peruvians held him and his followers in such reverence, and were so confident that some day he would revisit them, that, when the Spaniards appeared among them, they mistook them for the expected visitors, and were ready to worship them.

It is related that "Viracocho, the eighth Inca, beheld in a vision a man of majestic form, with a long beard, and garments reaching to the ground, who declared that he was a child of the sun. That monarch built a temple in honour of this person, and erected an image of him, resembling as nearly as possible the singular form in which he had appeared to him. In this temple divine honours were paid to him under the name of Viracocho."

All

"When the Spaniards first appeared in Peru, the length of their beards, and the dress they wore, struck everybody as so like to the image of Viracocho, that they supposed them to be children of the sun, who had descended from heaven to earth. concluded that the last days of the Peruvian Empire were at hand, and that the throne would be occupied by new rulers. Atahualpa himself, considering the Spaniards as messengers from heaven, was so far from entertaining any thoughts of resisting them, that he determined to yield implicit obedience to their commands. From these sentiments flowed his professions of love and respect; to these were owing the cordial reception of Soto and Ferdinand Pizarro in his camp, and the submissive reverence with which he himself advanced to visit the Spanish general in his quarters.

* Dr. Robertson, History of America,

The same idolatrous worship is paid in Japan and China to the memory of the Law-giver Moses, who was the founder and sovereign of these Empires. In Japan this mode of worship is called Shintoism, and in China Confucianism. The institutor of the latter was Confucius. After him came his disciple Laoutsze, who wrote a book containing five thousand characters; on this he constructed the modern Chinese religion. The book is called Taou-tih-King; the religion, Taouism.

"The first chapter of the Taou-tih-King tells us that, 'that which is nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth,' and elsewhere we are let into the secret of the processes which led up to this creation. Taou produced one, the first great cause; one produced two, the male and female principles of nature; two produced three; and three produced all things, beginning with heaven and earth.

"Heaven is treated by Laou-tsze much in the same way as by Confucius, but with far more reserve. In the utterances of both teachers we find the word used to designate the material heaven as well as a personified heaven. Just as Confucius speaks of the Sage as being the equal of heaven, Laou-tsze says that he is the associate of heaven, and that he is heaven itself.

"Heaven, also according to him, gives laws to the earth, just as it takes its laws from Taou. It has no special love, but regards all existing beings as grassdogs made for sacrificial rites, i.e. for temporary purposes. It is as unselfish as it is impartial, and because it does not aim at life it lasts long. It is great and compassionate, and is ever ready to become

the saviour of men. But it is also the material heaven, and maintains its existence by the 'clearness' which is imparted to it by its unity with Taou."*

These religious systems are at the present time to a great extent superseded by Buddhism. This religion has many followers, and its tenets are known. throughout the East, in Thibet, Central Asia, Siberia, and even as far west as Swedish Lapland.

The founder of Buddhism was born on the borders of Nepaul about B.C. 620, and was heir to the throne of Kapilavastu. Renouncing his claim, he made himself known to the world as the Buddha Gautama, whose advent was foretold by the Brahmans. It had been predicted that either he would live among men and become a Chacawati, or mighty ruler, whose sway all the human race would acknowledge; or, withdrawing from the world, he would become a recluse, and in that condition, after disentangling himself from the miseries of existence, would become a Buddha, and remove the veils of ignorance and sin from the world.

The tribe to which belonged the father of Gautama, whose name was Suddhódana, was called Sakya. His mother's name was Mâya, "daughter of Suprabuddha, chief of the neighbouring and kindred tribe of Kolyans. Both tribes were of pure Aryan race, and branches of the Suryavansi, or line of the Sun."+

All statues of Guatama represent him with short

* Douglas, Confucianism and Taouism.
Fytche, Burmah, Past and Present.