Vol 13 - Dumfriesshire & Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian ...

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Ancient Egyptian Religion.
nant, aud in clue time gave birth to a son, Horus, who was destined
to wage war against Set. This seems to have been intended to
explain the continuance of good and evil on the earth, and Horus
henceforth occupies a prominent place in the Egyptian mythology.
Osiris before his death was Ka, the sun of the day, but after his
death he became the sun of the night, and appeared no more upon
earth in his own person, but in that of his son Horus, who was the
sun at sunrise, the dispeller of darkness, aud the giver of light and
life to the world. The death of Osiris appears to have been con-
sidered as a sacrifice for sin, and it was the only sacrifice of this
kind in the Egyptian religion. All the others were sacrifices of
thanksgiving, in which they offered to the gods flowers, fruits,
meat, and drink, the Egyptians believing that spiritual beings
lived on the spiritual essences of material things. Osiris, Isis, and
Horus were universally worshipped as a Triad, and there were
other Triads that were more or less local in their cultus. They
had also a moral code, in which the virtues of piety, sobriety,
gentleness, chastity, the protection of the weak, benevolence
toward the needy, deference to superiors, and respect for property
were enjoined. Maspero believes that in the earliest periods the
relio-ion of the Egyptians was comparatively pure and spiritual,
but in its later developments became grossly material, a kind of
nature worship. By degrees animals were introduced as symbols
of divine attributes, but in course of time the animals themselves
became the real objects of worship, and each of them was wor-
shipped as a separate deity. According to the language of
Paul, they became vain in their imaginations, and changed the
glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto
corruptible man, and to birds and beasts and creeping things, and
worshipped and served the creature instead of the Creator.
The belief of the ancient Egyptians with regard to human
nature bore a resemblance to that which many modern
speculators have held, that it was tripartite, consisting of body,
soul and spirit. They held that man was composed of three
parts— 1, Sahoo, the fleshy, substantial body ; 2, Ka, the double,
which was the exact counterpart of the first, only it was spiritual,
and could not be seen— an intelligence which permeated the whole
body and guided its different physical functions; and 3, Ba,
sio-nifying force, the spiritual part of our nature, which fits it for
union with God. When the Sahoo— the body—died, the Ka and