chapter vi

.). The leading classes of the state at least having gained some measure of security and leisure, ideas of a nobler order spring up in their minds. The service of the great gods of the state is organised with befitting dignity and splendour; the best minds contribute to it all they can in the way of art, of poetry, of purified legend, of stately ceremonial. Patriotism and religion are one, the offices of worship are upheld by the whole power of the state, and the gods speak with new authority to the spirit of the worshipper. Now it is that great religious systems arise, so powerful, so highly organised, so splendidly adorned, and surrounded with such venerable traditions, that they seem to be destined for eternity. The priesthood becomes a very powerful class, and acquires a personal holiness which marks out its members as different from other men; the sacrifices acquire the character of divine mysteries, every detail of which, even the most trivial, has a sacred meaning; religious books are compiled or written, which by and by are regarded as inspired, and as possessing absolute authority. It is to be observed that the older style of religion is not at once driven out by the growth of the new, but continues to flourish beside it and under its shadow. The tribes of whom the nation is composed still cherish and adore their own special deities. That older worship is often thought to bring blessings which the new worship of the state does not command, and many a piece of ancient magic, many a practice which has no connection with the state religion, still goes on, especially among those who are not cultivated enough to appreciate the nobler faith which has arisen.

This, however, does not keep the national faith from growing in riches and consistency; and religion appears, as this growth proceeds, to have attained the highest degree of power and authority at which it can possibly arrive. Commanding as it does all the resources of the nation, enriched by all that can be brought to it of material or intellectual riches, placed in a position of absolute exaltation and inviolableness, to what further conquests can it still look forward? Yet when a national religion appears to be most firmly established, the forces are most certainly at work which must ere long lead to a far-reaching change. While the national worship has been growing up to its highest splendours, the lives of the citizens have also been growing richer and deeper, and the individual soul has become aware of wants and longings which cannot be satisfied in the national temple. The further progress of religion is apt to appear as a revolt against the system which has grown so strong. The individual sets out to seek a consistent intellectual view, and so figures as a sceptic. He aims at a higher moral law than that of the priestly system, and is accused of undermining public morality. He feels a new call to personal goodness, a new need for personal atonement with the ideal holiness which he has learned to apprehend; and as the public ritual does not meet these needs, he seeks for new religious associations and perhaps appears to preach a doctrine contrary to patriotism, as it is subversive of the established religion of his country, and to be wilfully destroying what his countrymen revere, and wilfully breaking through old ties and obligations. Thus the individualist stage of religion succeeds the national. But the individualist stage is also, in part at least, the universal stage. What the thinking mind and the pious heart seeks and cannot find in the national worship, is a religion free as the seeker himself has become free, from all that is unreasonable and artificial, a religion therefore in which every thinking mind and every pious heart can have a share. What is gained by individuals in this direction is capable, therefore, if circumstances favour, of proving an acquisition not only for the individual reformer or his nation, but for all men. But as the rise of national religion does not bring to an end the ruder worships of the tribes, which still go on beside it, so neither does the rise of individualism, even in its purest form, bring to an end the national worship. In the long run this may follow, but it does not take place at once. All three forms of religion go on together; the religion of magic, that of stately public sacrifices and ceremonials, and that of intellectual effort and pious meditation and prayer. Each no doubt influences to some extent the others, and is influenced by them in turn.

The movement thus indicated from tribal to national, and from national to individual and to universal religion, is the central development of religion, and all the minor developments which might be traced, as that of sacrifice from rude to spiritual forms, of the functions of the sacred class, of the morality dictated by religion at its various stages, or of the literature connected with piety, may be explained by reference to this one. This movement has taken place in every nation; we have seen something of it in each of our chapters. In some nations it has been early arrested, so that no important contribution has there been brought to the general religion of mankind, in others it has run its full course, and like a great river has arrived at the ocean at last, to mingle its waters with those of other mighty streams.

The story of the growth of the world's religion has therefore to be told in a number of parallel narratives, each dealing with the experience of a separate nation. There can scarcely be any general history of the religion of the world, in addition to those special histories. Some epochs, it is true, stand out as having witnessed simultaneous religious movements in many lands, as if the mind of the whole human race had then been passing through the same crisis of thought. The sixth century B.C. is the age of Confucius and of Laotsze in China, of Gautama in India, of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Unknown Prophet of the Exile, of Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Xenophanes, and also of the rise into prominence of the Greek mysteries. Widely different as the movements are which thus took place contemporaneously in these lands, we may discern in all of them alike the tendency to plant religion in the mind and heart, and to create a deeper union than the old external one, a union based on common intellectual effort and spiritual sympathy. The period immediately before and after the Christian era might also appear to be one in which the mind of the world as a whole made a great step forward. The union of many nations under the sway of Rome, and the universal diffusion of the Greek language as a means of general communication, made men conscious at this time as they had never been before, of the unity of mankind in spite of all differences of race and speech. A philosophy also was popular at this time which was cosmopolitan in its character, and occupied itself with the great problems, which are the same for all, of man's relation to the gods and of his moral duty. If we add to this the combination which took place at Rome and wherever different races met, of various rites and creeds, we see that the age was one singularly disposed to the breaking down of artificial barriers between men, and singularly fitted to promote the growth of a belief in which men of all nations might unite and feel themselves to be brethren.

In these two periods we may recognise important steps in that great Education of the Human Race which the Apostle Paul refers to in a bold philosophy of history (Galat. iv.), and which later thinkers have striven to set forth in detail. After the long servitude of mankind to irrational practices and to gods who were no gods, there comes first the period when men recognise that the true God is to be found not merely outside them but within their hearts and minds, and then the period when they find that the true God is the same to all men, that they are all children of the same Father. But while these general movements of the human mind may be acknowledged, the education of the human race proceeds for the most part in nations. As each nation has to elaborate its own art, its own literature, its own system of law, so each nation has to perfect its own religion. Even after a universal faith has appeared, religion does not cease to be a national thing. Each people moulds the universal religion which it has adopted into a special form, continues by means of it the rites and traditions of the past, and expresses through it its own national character and aspirations. Each nation as well as each individual must necessarily have a faith specially its own, arising out of its own character and experience and in great part incommunicable to others. No two nations could possibly exchange religions.

But on the other hand every nation contains within itself forms of religion which differ from each other as widely as those of two separate nations. It has been said that no religious belief or usage which has once lived can ever be destroyed; and the proof of this may be witnessed in every nation. Even after that religion has come which has its main seat in the heart and soul, the ruder forms of piety live on, and even at times aggressively assert themselves. If there are classes for whom the struggle against material hardships still continues, no lofty religion can be attained by them any more than by savage tribes. As the conditions of their life forbid the growth of their higher faculties, their religion cannot be one of thought or of refinement, but must be one which promises palpable benefits or an escape from immediate dangers. At a somewhat higher stage is the class of those who, while partly escaped from the struggle against want, have not yet fully realised themselves as thinking and spiritual beings, and to whom the benefits of religion still lie outside, rather than in the inner life. When the benefits of religion are thus conceived, its processes must be of a mechanical nature. Hence the various systems of apparatus for connecting the worshipper with a source of good distant from him in time or space, and for fetching as it were from another region, with certainty and accuracy, needed supplies of grace.

The further development of religion in a community so mixed must depend on the progressive education and elevation of the people. As more and more of them are freed first from distracting wants and cares, and then from sordid and materialistic views, their spiritual nature will expand. The need for God himself rather than for his gifts, will arise and increase in their hearts, and they will grow capable of that highest religion which is the life of the soul with God; they will feel its beauty and will drink of the deep springs which it contains, of strength and peace.

To attain this true religion the human race has had to travel far and to make many experiments. Many temples were built and fell to ruin before the true temple of the soul was reached in which, as each finds what he as an individual requires, there is also room for all mankind. Even after this highest religion has been made known to men, it has often been obscured and lost, and many a struggle has been needed to vindicate its claims and help it to retain its rightful place. But with growing experience the world becomes more assured that the simplest and broadest religion ever preached upon this earth is also the best and the truest, and that in maintaining Christianity as at first preached, and applying it in every needed direction, lies the hope of the future of mankind. To those who agree in this conclusion the history of the religion of the world, full of errors and of grievous failures as it has been seen to be, cannot appear to have been a vain and purposeless excursion in a land of shadows. Not without a divine call, and not without divine guidance did man set out so early, and persevere so constantly in spite of all his disappointments, in the search for God.

INDEX

Aesir, 267

Ahura Mazda, 387, 391, 397, 398, 405

Allah, 222

Allat, "The Lady," 165, 173, 219

Amartas, 44

Anaitis, 407

Ancestor-worship, primitive, 33, 40 China, 115 Aryan, 250 India, 338

Angels and demons, Persia, 400, 407

Animals, worship of, 29, 57 in Peru, 86 in Babylonia, 96 in Egypt, 130 how accounted for, 133 in Arabia, 219 in Greece, 277

Animation of Nature in savage thought, 24

Animism, meaning of, 40, 96, 308 in Roman religion, 308

Anthropomorphism, 53 Babylonia, 96 Egypt, 132 Greece, 281

Apocalypse, 213

Arabia, before Mahomet, 218 gods of, 219 Judaism and Christianity in, 223

Art, Phenician, 174 Egyptian, 132 Greece, 280, 292

Aryans, the, 245 description of, 248 in Europe, 256 religion, 250 etymology of names of gods, 250

Ascetics, Brahmanic, 350

Ashera, Canaanite goddess, 172

Ashtoreth, 176

Association, forms of religious, Totem-Clan, 70 nation, 84 Greek mysteries, 298 Greek schools, 303 new form in Israel, 212 new form in Islam, 233

Asuras, 44

Baal, Canaanite god, 171, 189

Babylon and Assyria, religion of, 93 connection with Egypt, 94, 96, 97 connection with China, 93, 98 mythology of, 100

Belief, an essential part of religion, 9, 13 less important than rite in primitive religion, 66

Brahman, etymology of, 339

Brahmanism, 338

Buddhism, 353, _sqq._ in China, 123

_Burnt Njal_, 264

Burton, Captain, _Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Mecca_, 236

Caaba, 220, 236

Cabiri, 177

Canaanites, 170 religion of, 171, 191

Caste, 338

Celts, 257

China, 106 connection with Babylonia, 107 state religion of, 111

Christianity, 411, _sqq._

Civilisation and religion advance together, 15 origin of, 19

Classification of religions, 80

Confucius, 107, 117, _sqq._

Continuity of growth in religion, 6

Curiosity, an element of religion, 12

Daniel, 213

Decalogues, 202

Definition of religion, preliminary, 8 fuller, 13

Degeneration in civilisation, 19 in religion, 38

Deuteronomy, 201

Devas, 44, 396

Development of religion, 8, 51, _sqq._, 430, _sqq._

Domestic worship, origin of, 33 China, 115 Aryans, 251 Iceland, 264 Greece, 275 Rome, 311 Brahmanic, 342

Dualism, 56

Eddas, 266

Egypt, religion of, 126, _sqq._

Elijah and Elisha, 190

Elves, 265

Ephod, 188

Etruria, religion of, 318

Exile of Israel, 202

Ezra, 204

Fairy Tales (German), 262

Fate, 289

Festivals, Greek, 294

Fetish-worship, 35

Fetishism, 38

Fire, 31

Frazer, Mr., 58, 59; _Golden Bough_, 28, 279

Frisia, religion in, 263

Functional deities, Greece, 275 Rome, 308

Funeral practices, 62 Egypt, 149 Icelandic, 264 Greece, 282, 290 India, 332 Persian, 405

Games, Greek, 294

Gautama Buddha, 356 his death, 361

Germans, the ancient, 258 their gods, 259 their gods identified with Roman, 260 working religion of, 260 later religion, 263

Ghosts, 34

Gods, the great, in Babylonia, 98 in Egypt, 137 of the Aryans, 252 German, 259 Icelandic, 266 of Homer, 285 Roman, 311 Indian, 326

Gomme, _Ethnology in Folklore_, 60, 249, 254

Greece, 274

Grimm, German Mythology, 260

Hades, 291

Hammurabi, 93, 95, 202

Hanyfs, 224

Hartmann, Edward von, 46

Heaven, 52 an object of primitive worship, 31, 53 Babylonia, 93 China, 112 Arabia, 219 India, 318, 326, 333

Hegira, 231

Hell, 229, 265, 392

Henotheism, 56

Heroic legends, Babylonian, 100 German, 262

Hesiod, 291

Homer, 283 worship in, 287

Homeric gods, 285

Hymns, Babylonian, 101 Egyptian, 144 Vedic, 328 Persian, 383. See Psalms

Iceland, 264 decay of old religion of, 272

Idols, none in primitive religion, 73 Arabia, 219, 220 German? 264

Immortality, China, 115 Egypt, 152

Incas, the religion of, 85-88

India, 324

Individual, the, not considered in primitive religion, 76

Individual religion, Babylonia, 104 Israel, 205 Greece, 300 India, 346 a high stage of religion, 429 the porch to universalism, 430 See Buddhism

Indo-Europeans. See Aryans

Isaiah xli.-lxvi., 203

Islam, 217. See Mahomet meaning of, 226 spread of, 237 a universal religion, 240 weakness of, 241

Israel, 179

Israel and Canaanites, 184 Prophets, 189 reforms of religion, 200 exile, 202 the return, 204

Istar, 101

Jainism, 362

Japan, 115

Jehovah, 182

Jesus Christ, 413, _sqq._

Jewish religion, 205 spiritual elements of, 209 heathenish elements of, 210 Persian influence on? 215

Jinns, 220

Job, 215

Judaism, 205 _sqq._ Hellenistic period of, 412 at time of Christ, 413

Kathenotheism, 55, 336

Koran, 225, 227, 239

Lang, Andrew, 25, 59; _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, 22

Legge, Dr., 110, 113

Literatures, sacred, 179 Babylonia, 93, 100 Buddhist, 353 China, 108 Eddas, 266 Egypt, 127, 154 Koran, 225, 227, 239 Israel, 179, 207 Sibylline books, 319 Vendidad, 406 Zend-Avesta, 382

Local nature of early religion, 60

Local observances, Aryan, 253 old German, 262 Icelandic, 264

Lockyer, _Dawn of Astronomy_, 94

Magi, 405

Magic, 74 Babylonia, 95 Egypt, 155

Mahomet, 225, _sqq._ preaching, 228 leaves Mecca, 231 at Medina, 232 breach with Judaism and Christianity, 234 domestic, 235

Manicheism, 408

Mannhardt, _Feld- und Waldkulte_, 59, 262

Manu, law of, 344

Massebah, 172

Maya, 349

McLennan, 59

Mecca, 220 becomes capital of Islam, 235

Meyer, E., 247

Mithra, 407

Moloch, 174

Monarchical Pantheon of the Aryans, 253

Monotheism, not primitive, 37, 56 in Egypt? 144 emergence of, in Israel, 196 in India, 348

Morality, in primitive religion, 77 Egyptian religion, 155 Greece, 279 Vedic religion, 335 Brahmanism, 345 of Buddhism, 372

Moslem, meaning of, 226 duties of the, 238

Müller, Mr. Max, 10, 42, 246, 250, 332 his theory of the origin of religion, 43

Mycenæ, 282

Mysteries, the Greek, 298

Mythology, origin of, 51 Babylonia, 100 Egypt, 138 Greece, 280 Icelandic, 267 Indian, 333

National religion, how different from earlier form, 81, 428 Israel, 191

Natural religion, 80

Nature gods, growth of, 51

Nature-worship, the greater, 30, 43 the minor, 32, 42, 57

Nirvana, 361, 373

Omens, 290 Roman, 312

Orientation, of temples, 100

Origin of religion, (1) Primitive revelation, 26 (2) Innate idea, 26 (3) Psychological necessity, 27

Orphism, 302

Other World, the in Egypt, 151 with the Semites, 167 Jewish beliefs about, 214 Arabia, 220 Iceland, 265, 266 Homer, 283

Pantheism, in Egypt, 148 India, 336, 348

Patriarchal society and religion of Aryans, 248

Perkunas, 36

Persia, 381 primitive religion, 385 contact of Jews with, 401, 406

Pfleiderer, Otto, 47

Phenicians, 170 religion of, 176 influence on Greece, 282

Philistines, 170

Philosophy, Greek, 301 Indian, 347

Polytheism, origin of, 53 Indian, 335

Prayer, primitive, 71 Israel, 198, 212 Indian, 339 Persian, 382, 394

Priestly code, 202, 403

Priests, none in the earliest religion, 72 not necessary in early Israel, 187 Roman, 313 Brahmans, 338

Primitive religion, the, 21 difference between it and later forms, 79

Prophets, in Israel, 189 their criticism of the old religion of Israel, 192

Psalms, 210. See Hymns

Purity, laws of, Israel, 209 Persia, 404

Rationalism, Greece, 297 India, 350

Reforms, of Israelite religion, 200 of Augustus, 322

Renouf, Le Page, 145

Revealed religion, 80

Réville, M., 25, 31, 42

Resurrection, 214

Retribution, after death, in Egypt, 155 Mahomet, 229 Israel, 214

Rig-veda, the, 325

Ritualism, Brahmanic, 343 Roman, 314 Persian, 403 Jewish, 204, 208

Rome, 305, _sqq._

Rougé, M. de la, 145

Sacred places, 59 Semitic, 165 Canaanite, 184, 200 Arabia, 219 Germany, 261

Sacred seasons, 75

Sacrifice, primitive, generally a meal, 67 in China, 114 Semitic, 164 human (Phenician), 175 human (Israel), 187 human (Icelandic), 265 early Israelite, 183 denounced by O. T. prophets, 193 Jewish, 207 Icelandic, 264 Homeric, 287 Persia, 394

Saussaye, P. D. Chantepie de la, 17

Savage elements in all the great religions, 21

Savages, their religion falls short of the definition, 8 represent the original state of mankind, 19 mental habits of, 23 all have religion, 25 the religion of, described, 29, _sqq._ their beliefs furnish the elements of the great religions, 63

Schrader (Aryans), 247, 252

Semites, 161 religion of, 162 gods of, 164, 173 goddess of, 99, 165, 219

Seraph, 220

Shin-to, 115

Sin, Babylon, 103 Israel, 205

Slavs, 256

Smith, Robertson, 61; _Religion of the Semites_, 58, 70, 162

Spencer, Mr. H., 11, 39

Spirit, the great, 36

Spirits, of dead persons, 33 worship of, the origin of all religion? 38 in Babylonia, 95 in China, 114 in Arabia, 220 in Greece, 275 in Persia, 398

Standing stones, 60

Sun, 30

Sun-gods, Babylonia, 99 Egypt, 140, 148 Phenician, 176 Arabian, 219

Supreme Being, an object of primitive worship? 36

Survival of savage state in the great religions, 21

Synagogue, 212

Syncretism, of gods in Egypt, 148

Taboo, 72

Taoism, 121

Taylor, Dr. I., 247, 248

Temples, not primitive, 72 Babylonia, 99 Egyptian, 128, 130, 136 Phenician and Jewish, 178 Greek, 292 Roman, 318, 323

Teraphim, 188

Teutons, 256. See Germans

Thunder, 30, 265, 270

Tiele, Dr. C. P., 15

Totemism, 58, 135, 277

Transmigration, 302, 351, 368

Tree-worship, primitive, 32, 59, 278 Babylonia, 101 Canaanites, 172 Arabia, 219 Greece, 278

Tribal religion, 57, 77, 427

Tylor, Mr., _Primitive Culture_, 10, 20, 25, 29, 39, 62, 63, 68

Under-world, the, Babylonia, 100, 102 Egypt, 140, 142, 152

Unity of all religion, 4

Universal deities of the Aryans, 252

Universalism, in O. T. prophets, 195 in Islam, 240 in Christianity, 419

Urim and Thummim, 188

Vedic hymns, 328

Vedic religion, 324, _sqq._ its gods, 326 is it early or late? 331

Vow, original meaning of, 75

Waitz and Gerland's _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, 29

Wellhausen, J., 163, 218

Wells, sacred, 32, 57, 59

Worship, an essential element of religion, 9 primitive, 66 Chinese, 112 Egyptian, 147 Canaanite, 173 Israelite, 187 Jewish, 207 Roman, 309 See Sacrifice

Zeus, etymology of, 250, 286, 296

Zoomorphism, 53

Zoroaster, 384 his call, 388 his doctrine, 391

PRINTED AT THE EDINBURGH PRESS, 9 AND 11 YOUNG STREET.