under groves or, more often, on "high places." For there the fancy of man has fixed the earthly dwelling of the heaven-gods, as on Sinai among the Hebrews, Asgard among the Norsemen, Alborz among the Persians, Meru among the Hindus, and Olympos among the Greeks. While the Israelites were in Goshen, we find chief place given to one of the oldest Semitic deities, El-Shaddai, the Strong or Mighty one, a god not beaming with the sunny grace and gladness of some of the Aryan deities, but a fierce and withering desert-god, awakening awe, but never love, in his worshippers. When afterwards his name gave place to Yahweh (commonly spelt Jehovah), loftier ideas had arisen about him, but he remained the same stern and dreadful one whom none could look on and live,1 who rode on the clouds, announced his approach in the thunderclap and appeared amidst fires and lightnings, to whom was dedicated and often slain the firstborn of every 1 Exod. xix. 21, xxxiii. 20. 2 Exod. xix. 16-18, xxiv. 17; Psalm xviii. 8. 2 4 thing-in short, a sun-god. Long after the Israelites had left Goshen they continued to appease him with horrid rites, and to ascertain his will by lot and soothsaying; the old notions about him enter into the latest form in which their sacred books are cast; he is there spoken of as acting like a man, walking in a garden‚1 coming down from the sky to spy out what people are doing, writing with his finger, repenting that he had made man; acting, too, as a bad man, approving cunning and deceit,5 commanding the slaughter of women and children, and praised as a "man of war "7 at whose bidding the revolting cruelties of the Israelites under their chieftains and early kings were committed. For since the god in whom a man believes stands in his mind for what seems to him the highest and the best, he strives to copy him in the things which he does, thereby both obeying and honouring him. In the sacri2 Gen. xi. 5-7, xviii. 20, 21. 4 Gen. vi. 6. 1 Gen. iii. 8. 3 Exod. xxxi. 18. 7 Exod. xv. 3; Numb. xxi. 14. fices with which he has everywhere sought, as with gifts, to win the favour of his gods or avert their anger, we find the notion widespread that they partake of the essence of the offering. The solid part is seen to remain untouched; it is the incense of fragrant spices, the "sweet savour "1 of burning sacrifices, the blood, which is "the life," that the gods are thought to enjoy. Among the hot-blooded Semites, children of the desert sun, we find the sacrifice of life, of human life too, its choicest form, prevailing. In Canaan children were offered to Molech in the belief that the yielding of one's dearest was well pleasing to the god and needful to ward off trouble from the land. Indeed, at the heart of this ghastly custom there lies the truth that the thing most precious to us must be yielded; only until long years had passed did men learn that this is not in blood and death, but in the surrender of self-love and self-will for the good of our kind. In Phoenicia and its famous colony 1 Gen. viii. 21. Carthage, the fairest and bestborn were offered in time of distress, and long after the Israelites had left Goshen, their worship of Jehovah was stained with the blood of man. In one touching story we read of a father who, going forth to war, vowed, in accordance with the old custom of promising the god a present if an undertaking succeeded,1 to offer to Jehovah whatever should first greet him on his return, if he gained the victory. As he came back from the battle which he had won, who should come forth to meet him in gladness but his dear and only daughter! Yet would not the sad father break his oath, but after giving his child leave to withdraw for a while to weep and pray, "did with her according to his vow which he had vowed." 2 Before leaving this somewhat dim and misty part of Israel's history for surer ground, let me gather into a few words the sum of what has been said. The Israelites were of Semitic race, the 2 Judges xi. 30-39. 1 Gen. xxviii. 20-22. common home of which is unknown, but believed to have been in Arabia. From thence certain tribes marched to the land around the Persian Gulf, where they found a settled population, from whom they borrowed much in science, art, and religion, and whom they at last conquered, founding in their stead the empires of Babylonia and Assyria. Tribe after tribe of Semites followed till the whole country from Syria to the Armenian mountains was covered with them. Such of them as found no settled abode or cared to find none, wandered to and fro as shepherd-tribes, among whom were the forefathers of the Israelites who, in their search after 'green pastures beside still waters," trended southward until they reached the rich corn-growing flats stretching between Egypt and Syria. They were at that time divided into clans, rough and warlike in their habits, and in their religion worshippers of both sun and stones, paying, however, chief honour among their nature gods to El, the Strong, whose worship was attended with bloody sacrifices. Among |