CHAPTER II

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WHENCE CAME THE MANY GODS AND IDOLS?

The fair humanities of old religion, The power, the beauty and the majesty. They had their haunts in dales or piny mountain, Or forest by slow stream, or pebbly spring, Or chasms and watery depths. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.

We have seen that the first worship of the world was of one God. We have watched the world in its processes of changing as the nations were separated from each other. We have found that not long after the settlement of the nations in their new lands the worship of many gods appeared, and with this worship, or soon after it began, the worship of idols appeared also. The number of gods and their idols multiplied rapidly, until they numbered hundreds of millions. There were gods of every name and shape; gods of heaven, earth, and hell; gods of occupations and employments; gods of every living creature, and of many inanimate things. Where did they come from? Where and when did that great change occur, when man ceased to worship one God and began to multiply his gods and idols? How did it come about? What influences produced the change? Why was the world permitted to wander so far from the truth? All these, and a hundred kindred questions come to us at this time. Can we answer any of them? The sources of information are not very numerous. The course of ages has destroyed, or at least altered, many of the early records. It is like those old manuscripts from which some economical scribe has rubbed out all the writing originally there, to make way for his own work. Can these faded palimpsests be restored? We must look down beneath these uppermost records, beneath the traditions, legends and sacred writings of later ages, and we can then discover, but faintly traceable it is true, but still worthy of trust, some dim outlines of the introductions of Polytheism. In the last fifty years, wonderful treasures of information have been brought to light, and scholars skilled in Eastern learning have been raised up to aid in bringing this information more fully to the Western world. English, German and American students have given us the sacred books of Hindus, Parsees and other peoples, and the story of their work is intensely interesting.

[Illustration: ANCIENT SERPENT IDOL.]

SOURCES OF INFORMATION.

The Vedas, the sacred books of the Hindus, are the oldest existing sacred writings, excepting those from which Moses compiled the earlier chapters of Genesis. In these Vedas there is little of the confused mass of mythological statements, gross superstitions and the hosts of gods of later Brahminism. Here is presented a picture of the simple nature-worship of the people of India in their earliest history. Having been composed so soon after the dispersion of the nations, or rather the hymns contained in it having been handed down by word of mouth from generation to generation, it is a very valuable source of information just here. Before the beginning of this century the Vedas were almost unknown to European scholars. Since that time great attention has been devoted to the subject, especially since Max Müller went to England to seek the aid of Englishmen, and more particularly of the East India Company, in publishing his translation of the Vedas. At present we can read them for ourselves in tolerably accurate translations.

Until within a hundred years, there was no direct way of learning of the faith, and manners, and customs of ancient Persia. It was known that there was an authoritative record of the earliest Persian religion, a Bible of the Parsees, but no European had ever read it. In 1754, a young French student of Paris, chanced to see a few lines of an ancient manuscript in an unknown language. He at once determined to go to Persia, or India, whence the manuscript had come, and to learn more about it. As he could not secure the means for the journey, in any other why, he enlisted as a private soldier to go to India. Just before sailing, however, he received the means to go, and his discharge from the army. He traveled through India until he came to the borders of Persia. From some Parsee priests he learned the language, and gained some slight knowledge of the Zend-Avesta, the Parsees’ Bible. He pursued his investigations for four years more, and then published his translation of the Avesta. But his work was incomplete, and while he rendered a great service to the world in showing the way to a knowledge of the Avesta, it was left for later scholars more fully and accurately to prepare the translation of the book. The ancient Egyptian sacred books have been almost wholly lost, it is believed. Just enough remains to give us the outlines of their early worship.

Another source of information is the ancient monuments. It was the custom of Oriental people to preserve important parts of their history by engraving and carving descriptions of them on their memorial stones. When it is remembered that all knowledge of the characters or letters in which these inscriptions are made had faded away, we can see how difficult the task of explaining them must have been. By careful comparisons and patient investigations methods of interpreting them were devised. These were severally tried; if found not to be capable of successful application they were rejected; and thus one plan after another was tried until the right one was found. Some of the inscriptions were in the form of pictures with combinations of syllables added, or _hieroglyphics_, as they are called. From these monuments a great deal has been learned about the early history and worship of the nations.

From these sacred books, the traditions of the nations, and from tracing back the development of religions with the aid of monumental inscriptions, we get a tolerably clear picture of the passing from the worship of the one God into the worship of many gods and idols. This change took place gradually, not abruptly. It was a result of the natural degeneration of the race. There were certain depraved tendencies of the human heart which brought it about. It was a work of time to develop these and give them full play. We must keep in mind these facts and the condition of the human race just at this time, if we would correctly apprehend this change and its slowly-moving but efficient causes.

THE TRANSITION.

The worship of one God passed into the worship of the powers and objects of nature. This grew out of a natural awe at the sight of the mighty forces evidently at work and yet inexplicable to the nations in their uncultured state. Their habits of life were simple. While they journeyed, as they tilled their fields, or fed their flocks, their attention was drawn to the sky, now clear, now cloudy; to the sun, now shining in beauty, now obscured in the darkness of night; to the day-dawn and the sunset, to the resurrection of vegetable life in the spring, the growth of crops through the heat of summer, the ripening harvests of autumn, and the cold of winter and the barrenness of earth. They gazed in awe upon the storms; upon the lightning as it glared in the midst of the dark, black clouds; upon the tall trees bending beneath the strong winds; upon the mountains shaking in the earthquake or vomiting their contents with rumblings, and flame, and smoke. They listened in astonishment to the noise of thunder, to the whistling, and sighing, and roaring of the wind. With wonder they saw the earth into which they cast their seed return it to them in the manifold harvest; they watched the fruits and grains mature and ripen. All about them mysterious processes were going on, which they could not comprehend. Were these processes moved by a Strong Arm? were they under the control of a Mighty Power? or were they self-moved and guided by their own inner, hidden forces?

Contact with nature kindles the imagination. In early days almost all of the nations were herdsmen and agriculturists. Their dwellings were simple and such as each could erect for himself; their food was such as each could provide for himself by the chase, or from his own flocks or from his own fields. A few were selected to be the rulers of the rest, or to pursue some simple mechanical pursuits. But the majority were brought into the closest contact with nature. Their poetic imaginations began to see life in nature’s powers and objects, they began to personify these and then to people them with creatures of their own minds’ making. They saw reflected their own passions and conditions in the events of nature. They credited the beings dwelling in the skies, or storms, or stars, with feelings, passions, quarrels like their own. When the sky was clear, when the winds were gentle, when the seas and lakes were unruffled in their calm repose, when the destructive powers of nature were at rest, they imagined that these beings were at peace among themselves. But when the skies were overcast, when the winds arose in fury, when earth and sea were convulsed, these beings were angry and at war with each other. Finding themselves unable to contend with these strong powers, unable to resist their overwhelming influences, they gradually recognized the beings dwelling in them as superior to themselves, and their awe and mystery led them to give these superior beings the place of gods. They could not prevent the sun from taking his departure at the close of day. They could not resist the strong force of wind or wave. They were mere driven chaff; as pygmies whom these giants could easily overthrow; as creatures of a day in the presence of these, seemingly, ever-enduring beings. So man passed from the worship of God to the worship of the works and forces which God had made; from reverence for the Creator to reverence for the created.

THE FIRST HYMNS AND PRAYERS.

Reverence for the gods was not merely a silent observance and awe-stricken contemplation of the great powers at work in nature. The observers felt that these beings held some relation to themselves, and that praises, prayers and offerings would not only be acceptable to the gods, but that they were really demanded in order to avert the anger of the gods or secure their favor. Hence the earliest literature of the race is devoted to singing the praises or invoking the aid of the gods. Priests were soon selected to represent the people at the seasons of sacrifice and to give themselves more continually to prayer than would be possible to men generally. The worship of these early days was exceedingly simple and the priests possessed no unusual powers. As Whittier has expressed it:

“The morning twilight of the race Sends down these matin psalms; And still with wondering eyes we trace The simple prayers to Luna’s grace, That Vedic verse embalms.”

The American Indians, the Aztecs of western South America, the early Hindoos, the Chinese and the Parsees all exhibit in their sacred writings this nature-worship. Traces of it are still to be seen in the Parsees’ worship of the sun, in the worship of heaven and earth among the Chinese, in the Indians’ reverence for the Great Spirit, in the Peruvian sun-worship and in many other features of worship among the heathen nations of to-day.

Let us look at some specimens of early religious poetry. The first is from Monier Williams’ translations of the Vedas. Varuna is the god of the “moisting sky,” Agni is the god of fire, Sūrya, the sun-god, Indra the atmosphere-god.

“The mighty Varuna, who rules above, looks down Upon these worlds, his kingdom, as if close at hand. When men imagine they do aught by stealth, he knows it. No one can stand, or walk, or softly glide along, Or hide in dark recess, or lurk in secret cell, But Varuna detects him, and his movements spies. Two persons may devise some plot, together sitting, And think themselves alone; but he, the king, is there-- A third--and sees it all. His messengers descend Countless from his abode, forever traversing This world, and scanning with a thousand eyes its inmates. Whate’er exists within this earth, and all within the sky, Yea, all that is beyond, King Varuna perceives. The winkings of men’s eyes are numbered all by him: He wields the universe as gamesters handle dice.

“Indra, twin-brother of the god of fire, When thou wast born, thy mother Aditi, Gave thee, her lusty child, the thrilling draught Of mountain-growing Soma--source of life And never-dying vigor to thy frame. Thou art our guardian, advocate and friend, A brother, father, mother--all combined.

“Most fatherly of fathers, we are thine, And thou art ours. Oh! let thy pitying soul Turn to us in compassion when we praise thee, And slay us not for one sin or for many. Deliver us to-day, to-morrow, every day. Vainly the demon dares thy might; in vain Strives to deprive us of thy watery treasures. Earth quakes beneath the crashing of thy bolts. Pierced, shattered lies the foe--his cities crushed, His armies overthrown, his fortresses Shivered to fragments; then the pent-up waters, Released from long imprisonment, descend In torrents to the earth, and swollen rivers, Foaming and rolling to their ocean-home, Proclaim the triumph of the Thunderer.

“Agni, thou art a sage, a priest, a king, Protector, father of the sacrifice. Commissioned by us men, thou dost ascend A messenger, conveying to the sky Our hymns and offerings. Though thy origin Be threefold, now from air, and now from water, Now from the mystic double Arani, Thou art thyself a mighty god, a lord, Giver of life and immortality, One in thy essence, but to mortals three; Displaying thine eternal triple form, As fire on earth, as lightning in the air, As sun in heaven. Thou art the cherished guest In every household--father, brother, son, Friend, benefactor, guardian--all in one. Deliver, mighty lord, thy worshipers, Purge us from taint of sin, and when we die, Deal mercifully with us on the pyre, Burning our bodies with their load of guilt, But bearing our eternal part on high To luminous abodes and realms of bliss, Forever there to dwell with righteous men.

“Behold the rays of Dawn, like heralds, lead on high The Sun, that men may see the great all-knowing god. The stars slink off like thieves, in company with night, Before the all-seeing eye, whose beams reveal his presence, Gleaming like brilliant flames, to nation after nation. Sūrya, with flaming locks, clear-sighted god of day, Thy seven ruddy mares bear on thy rushing car. With these thy self-yoked steeds, seven daughters of thy chariot, Onward thou dost advance. To thy refulgent orb, Beyond this lower gloom, and upward to the light Would we ascend, O Sun, thou god among the gods.”

The Samoyedes thus addressed Jumala, the god of the air:

“Harness now thyself, Jumala, Ruler of the air, thy horses! Bring them forth, thy rapid racers, Drive the sledge with glittering colors, Passing through our bones, our ankles, Through our flesh that shakes and trembles, Through our veins which seem all broken, Knit the flesh and bones together, Fasten vein to vein more firmly, Let our joints be filled with silver, Let our veins with gold be running!”

The principal Chinese deities are called Tien-Chi, or Heaven and Earth. Confucius preserved in his writings the ancient worship of these gods. The Mongolians also worshiped the Teng-Ri, or god of the sky. The Chinese have for centuries believed in “celestial spirits,” as they call them, spirits of the sun, and moon, and stars; spirits of clouds, winds, rain and thunder; spirits of mountains, fields, rivers, grains and trees. All these were reverenced as gods. So the Egyptians worshiped natural objects and powers. Indeed, every one of the religions which existed in antiquity, and of which anything is known, possessed nature-worship as their primary element. The ancient religions which continue unto this day, also possess this characteristic, and though covered with the _débris_ and overgrowth of centuries of superstitious teachings, still it is to be distinctly traced.

WHERE DID IDOL-WORSHIP COME FROM?

Thus far we have no trace of any other than the direct worship either of God; or of the invisible spirits, or _gods_, that were supposed to dwell in the objects of nature; or of those objects themselves. As yet no attempt had been made to represent them by images or idols. When, where and how did the worship of idols take its rise? These are questions difficult to answer. In the Bible the first distinct traces of idolatry are found in Genesis xxxi, 19, where we read that “Rachel had stolen the _images_ that were her father’s.” These images, or _idols_, or _gods_, as both Jacob and Laban term them, were the teraphim or luck-givers. They had a human head and were used in divination or fortune-telling. They were consulted as oracles. But these could hardly have been the first idols, for their idea was too well developed. There must have been a gradual introduction of idols and of the idea of making representations of the gods. The account in Genesis, just referred to, speaks as though it were no unusual thing to have gods; there is no expression of strangeness at the occurrence, nor anything that would indicate that these were the first known idols. What follows is suggested as the probable line of development in the idea of idols, but so far as is now known, there is no way of definitely determining the question.

[Illustration: TERAPHIM.]

Finding it difficult to fasten their thoughts on invisible, intangible beings, men, at the beginning, probably sought to aid their worship by selecting some object to represent the being worshiped. This object was not to be worshiped in and for itself, but, simply, as an aid to devotion, _representing_ the being worshiped. Then, gradually, the worship was transferred to the object and withdrawn from the being represented. Or, it may be that the being worshiped was supposed in some manner to dwell in the idol, and was worshiped thus. Or, it may be that meteoric stones were regarded as images of the gods sent down from the heavens. Or, it may have been in several of these ways, or in all combined. The æsthetic tastes of men would soon lead them to give a more shapely appearance to the meteoric masses of stone, and then, as these must of necessity be scarce, copies of them were sculptured. As men became more and more accustomed to these idols and less and less spiritual in their worship they would venture to give expression to their ideas of the unseen gods. Other materials were used and, as might be required by the materials, other shapes were of necessity given. At first, it would seem, that only representations of animals were attempted, then, as in the teraphim, the head of man was attached to various animal forms, as also in Dagon, the fish-god, which was a human figure, terminating in a fish.

[Illustration: DAGON, THE FISH-GOD.]

When this introduction of idols occurred, we cannot tell; probably, not long after the worship of nature had become established, and the worship of one God had been generally forgotten. Not very much more than one hundred and fifty years elapsed between the death of Noah and the birth of Jacob, so that in all probability idols had not long been in use when this incident of Jacob and Laban took place. Not long after this time the full human figure was used in idol representations, and in a short period a collection of idols would have represented almost every conceivable object, and being, and creature of the wild fancy of man. These were made of all manner of materials, of all shapes and sizes. The highest conceptions of art were lavished on some of these idols, and at the same time the rudest notions of the most barbarous nations were also expressed in them. The word _idol_ originally meant simply an _image_, and only in after ages was an idol regarded as itself a divine thing or being, rather than merely an image of it.

[Illustration: ANCIENT SERPENT IDOL.]

Thus we have traced the worship of the world down through the ages of antiquity. We have had to rely upon other than merely historic sources of information. We have seen the gradual introduction of Polytheism (many gods’ worship), and of idolatry (the worship of visible forms). For the rest of our way the light shines more and more clearly. Historic times are now reached, and we shall find much less difficulty in tracing the stories of religions: and we shall also find data from which we may reason back, and so find confirmation of what has thus far been of necessity somewhat shadowy.

[Illustration: GROUP OF ALTARS.

ROMAN. ASSYRIAN. EGYPTIAN. EGYPTIAN. ASSYRIAN. BABYLONIAN. GRECIAN. GRECIAN. PERSIAN.]

Before passing to these, however, we shall turn aside for a little to consider the testimony which ancient heathen records and traditions furnish on the genuineness of the Bible history, and also to notice the singular system of Hebrew worship, standing alone like a green oasis in the weary wastes of heathenism.

[Illustration: IDOL FROM HINDUSTAN.]

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