will continue to be sung while the Kaffir language lasts. The first ordained native Kaffir missionary and minister of the gospel, he worthily discharged the responsibility devolving on him, and gave the world a sample of the kind of men which under the gospel the Kaffirs are capable of becoming. It was fortunate for the cause of missions, fortunate for the swarthy tribes who people the "Dark Continent," that the first of the Kaffir race who received a European education of the highest class, should in all respects have shown himself the equal of his more highlyfavoured European cotemporaries. It is now some eight years since Soga entered into his rest. He was never very robust, and was somewhat slimly built, and narrow-chested, and was less able than a man of stronger constitution would have been to struggle with the disease which he contracted through exposure to damp while in the prosecution of his labours. The bodily ailments and infirmities whereby he was afflicted only rendered the heroic spirit with which he was animated all the more apparent. His zeal for the cause on which he had embarked literally ate him up; he wore himself out in his Master's service, dying at the early age of forty-two. Within the eastern wall of the church at the Mgwali, which is itself a monument of his enterprise, is fixed a tablet, bearing the following inscription in Kaffir, by the Rev. Dr. William Anderson: This stone is to keep us in remembrance of The first ordained preacher of the Kaffir race. He was a friend of God, a lover of His Son, inspired by His Spirit, an ardent patriot, a large-hearted philanthropist, a dutiful son, a loving father, a faithful friend, a learned scholar, an eloquent orator, and in manners a gentleman, a devoted missionary who spent himself in his Master's service. A MODEL KAFFIR. THE ship will sail at the turn of the tide, There sparkles a tear in his own blue eye As he whispers, "Dear granny, good-bye, goodbye!" And hears her bless him the while he stands, Grandmother's poor, but her heart well knows How great a treasure she thus bestows; For the light that illumines the holy page Has guided her feet from youth to age. Henceforth, my lad, may it ever be Your beacon too, on the stormy sea. Grandmother's poor, yet she gives him here A wonderful compass whereby to steer Through joy and sorrow, labour and sport, Dear old grandmother! haply will she 1 THE RELIGIONS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD. BY GEORGE RAWLINSON, M.A., CANON OF CANTERBURY. XI.—THE RELIGION OF THE PHOENICIANS AND CARTHAGINIANS (continued). ESHMUN is, next to Baal, Ashtoreth, and Mclkarth, the most clearly marked and distinct presentation of a separate deity that the Phoenician remains set before us. He was the especial god of Berytus (Beirut), and had characteristics which attached to no other deity. Why the Greeks should have identified him with their Asclepias or Esculapius,2 is not clear. He was the youngest son of Sadyk, and was a youth of great beauty, with whom Ashtoreth fell in love, as she hunted in the Phoenician forests. The fable relates how, being frustrated in her designs, she afterwards changed. him into a god, and transported him from earth to heaven.3 Thenceforth he was worshipped by the Phoenicians almost as much as Baal and Ashtoreth 4 themselves. His name became a frequent element in the Phoenician proper names; and his cult was taken to Cyprus, to Carthage, and to other distant colonies. With Eshmun must be placed the Kabiri, who in the mythology were his brothers, though not born of the same mother. It is doubtful whether the Kabiri are to be regarded as originally Phoenician, or as adopted into the religion of the nation from without. The word appears to be Semitic, but the ideas which attach to it seem to belong to a wide-spread superstition, whereby the discovery of fire and the original working in metals were ascribed to strong, misshapen, and generally dwarfish deities, like Phthah, in Egypt, Hephaistos and the Cyclopes in Greece, "Gav the blacksmith "in Persia, and the gnomes in the Scandinavian and Teutonic mythologies. According to Philo Byblius and Damascius 10 the Phoenician Kabiri were seven in number, and according to the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius,11 the names of four of them were Axierus, Axiokersus, Axiokersa, and Cadmilus or Casmilus. Figures supposed to represent them, or some of them, are found upon Phoenician coins, as 9 1 See Damascius ap. Phot. "Bibliothec.," p. 573. 2 This is done by Philo of Byblus (c. v. § 8), by Damascius (1. s. c.), by Strabo (xvii. 14), and others. 3 Damascius, 1. s. c. Eshmun-azar, whose tomb has been found at Sidon, is the best known instance; but the Phoenician inscriptions give also Bar-Eshmun, Han-Eshmun, Netsib-Eshmun, Abed-Eshmun, Eshmun-itten, and others. (See Gesenius, "Script. Phoen. Mon.," p. 136.) 5 Damascius, 1. s. c.; Philo Byblius, c. v. § 8. Philo Bybl. c. iv. § 16. See above, p. 581. Mr. Kenrick questions the derivation from Kabir ("Egypt of Herodotus," p. 287); but almost all other writers allow it. 8 See Mr. Kenrick's "Note on the Cabiri" in the work above especially on those of Cossura, which are exceed ingly curious. The Kabiri were said to have invente ships; and it is reasonable to regard them as COIN OF COSSURA. 3 represented by the Pataci of Herodotus, which were pigmy figures placed by the Phoenicians on the rows of their war-galleys, no doubt as tutelary divinities. The Greeks compared the Kabiri with their own Castor and Pollux, who like them presided over navigation.* Besides their original and native deities, the Phoenicians acknowledged some whom they had certainly introduced into their system from an external source, as Osiris, Ammon, and Tanith. The worship of Osiris is represented on the coins of Gaulos," which was an early Phoenician settlement; and the word "Osir" (= Osiris) occurs not unfrequently as an element in Phoe nician names, where it occu COIN OF GAULOS. pies the exact place elsewhere 1 See Gesenius, "Script. Phoen. Mon.," pl. 39. 2 Philo Byblius, c. iii. § 14. 3 Herod. iii. 37. THE RELIGIONS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD. 3 tions, being given precedence over Baal himself.1 She was worshipped at Carthage, in Cyprus,2 by the Phoenician settlers at Athens and elsewhere; but we have no proof of her being acknowledged in Phoenicia itself. The name is connected by Gesenius with that of the Egyptian goddess Neith, or Net; but it seems rather to represent the Persian Tanata, who was known as Tanaitis or Tanaïs, and also as Anaïtis or Aneitis to the Greeks. Whether there was, or was not, a remote and original connection between the goddesses Neith and Tanata is perhaps open to question; but the form of the name Tanith, or Tanath,5 shows that the Phoenicians adopted their goddess, not from Egypt, but from Persia. With regard to the character and attributes of Tanath, it can only be said that, while in most respects she corresponded closely with Ashtoreth, whom she seems to have replaced at Carthage, she had to a certain extent a more elevated and a severer aspect. The Greeks compared her not only to their Aphrodite, but to their Artemis, the huntress-deity whose noble form is known to us from many pure and exquisite statues. It may be suspected that the Carthaginians dwelling in the rough and warlike Africa, revolted against the softness and effeminacy of the old Phoenician cult, and substituted Tanath for Ashtoreth to accentuate their protest against religious sensualism." 6 8 It seems to be certain that in Phoenicia itself, and in the adjacent parts of Syria, the worship of Ashtoreth was from the first accompanied with licentious rites. As at Babylon, so in Phoenicia and Syria-at Byblus, at Ascalon, at Aphaca, at Hierapolis-the cult of the great Nature-goddess "tended to encourage dissoluteness in the relations between the sexes, and even to sanctify impurities of the most abominable description." 10 Even in Africa, where an original severity of morals had prevailed, and Tanith had been worshipped "as a virgin with martial attributes," and with "severe, not licentious, rites," corruption gradually crept in; and by the time of Augustine 12 the Carthaginian worship of the "celestial goddess" was characterised by the same impurity as that of Ashtoreth in Phoenicia and Syria. Another fearful blot on the religion of the Phoenicians, and one which belongs to Carthage quite as much as to the mother-country,13 is the 1 See Gesenius, pp. 168, 174, 175, 177; Davis, "Carthage and her Remains," 1. s. c. 2 Gesenius, p. 151. Compare p. 146, where the true reading is possibly Abed-Tanith. Ibid., p. 113. 4 Ibid., pp. 117-8. "Tanath" is the natural rendering of the Phoenician word, rather than "Tanith," and is preferred by some writers. (See Davis, "Carthage and her Remains," pp. 274-6.) In a bilingual inscription given by Gesenius, the Phonician Abed-Tanath becomes in the Greek "Artemidorus." Anaitis or Tanata is often called "the Persian Artemis." (See Plutarch, "Vit. Lucull.," p. 24; Bochart, "Geographia Sacra," iv. 19; Pansan. iii. 16, § 6; etc.) 7 See Davis's "Carthage," p. 264; Münter, "Religion des Karthager," c. 6. * Herod. i. 199. • Herod, i. 105; Lucian, "De Dea Syra," c. ix.; Euseb., "Vit. Constantin. Magni," iii. 55. 10 Twisleton, in Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible," vol. ii. p. 866. 11 Kenrick, "Phoenicia," p. 305. 12 Augustin, "De Civitate Dei," ii. 4. 635 systematic offering of human victims, as expiatory sacrifices, to El and other gods. The ground of this horrible superstition is to be found in the words addressed by Balak to Balaam, "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ?" As Philo Byblius expresses it,2 2It was customary among the ancients, in times of great calamity and danger, that the rulers of the city or nation should offer up the best beloved of their children, as an expiatory sacrifice to the avenging deities: and these victims were slaughtered mystically." The Phoenicians were taught that, once upon a time, the god El himself, under the pressure of extraordinary peril, had taken his only son, adorned him with royal attire, placed him as a victim upon an altar, and slain him with his own hand. Thenceforth, it could not but be the duty of rulers to follow the divine example set them; and even private individuals, when beset by difficulties, might naturally apply the lesson to themselves, and offer up their children to appease the divine anger. We have only too copious evidence that both procedures were in vogue among the Phoenicians. Porphyry declares that "the Phoenician history was full of instances, in which that people, when suffering under great calamity from war, or pestilence, or drought, chose by public vote one of those most dear to them, and sacrificed him to Saturn." Two hundred noble youths were offered on a single occasion at Carthage, after the victory of Agathocles.* Hamilcar, it is possible, offered himself as a victim on the entire defeat of his army by Gelo. When Tyre found itself unable to resist the assault of Alexander the Great, the proposition was made, but overruled, to sacrifice a boy to Saturn." Every year, at Carthage, there was at least one occasion, on which human victims, chosen by lot, were publicly offered to expiate the sins of the nation.7 8 And private sacrifices of this sort went hand in hand with public ones. Diodorus tells us, that in the temple of Saturn at Carthage, the brazen image of the god stood with out-stretched hands to receive the bodies of children offered to it. Mothers brought their infants in their arms; and, as any manifestation of reluctance would have made the sacrifice unacceptable to the god, stilled them by their caresses till the moment when they were handed over to the image, which was so contrived as to consign whatever it received to a glowing furnace underneath it. Inscriptions found at Carthage record the offering of such sacrifices. They continued even after the Gesenius, "Script. Phoen. Mon.," pp. 448-9. An inscrip tion given by Dr. Davis ("Carthage and her Remains," pp. 13 See Diod. Sic., xx. 14, 65; Justin, xviii. 6; Sil. Ital., 296-7) refers to the public annual sacrifice. Roman conquest; and at length the proconsul Tiberius, in order to put down the practice, hanged the priests of these bloody rites on the trees of their own sacred grove. The public exhibitions of the sacrifice thenceforth ceased, but in secret they still continued down to the time of Tertullian.2 The Phoenicians were not idolaters in the ordinary sense of the word; that is to say, they did not worship images of their deities. In the temple of Melkarth at Gades there was no material emblem of the god at all, with the exception of an ever-burning fire.3 Elsewhere, conical stones, called botyli, were dedicated to the various deities, and received a certain qualified worship, being regarded as possessed of a certain mystic virtue. 5 These stones seem occasionally to have been replaced by pillars, which were set up in front of the temples, and had sacrifices offered to them." The pillars might be of metal, of stone, or of wood, but were most commonly of the last named material, and were called by the Jews asherahs, " "uprights." At festive seasons they seem to have been adorned with boughs of trees, flowers, and ribands, and to have formed the central object of a worship which was of a sensual and debasing character. An emblem common in the Assyrian sculptures is thought to give a good idea of the ordinary appearance on such occasions of these asherahs. SACRED TREE-ASHERAH. Worship was conducted publicly in the mode usual in ancient times, and comprised praise, prayer and sacrifice. The victims offered were usually animals, though, as already shown, human sacrifices were not infrequent. It was usual to consume the victims entirely upon the altars." Libations of wine were copiously poured forth in honour of the chief deities, 10 and incense was burnt in lavish profusion.11 Occasionally an attempt was made to influence the deity invoked by loud and prolonged cries, and 1 Tertull., "Apologia," c. ix. 2 Ibid. 3 Silius Ital., ii. 44. Philo Bybl. c. iv. § 2; Damasc. ap. Phot., "Bibliothec." p. 1065; Hesych. ad voc. BaíTuλos. It has been proposed to explain the word batulus as equivalent to Beth-el, "House of God," and to regard the Phoenicians as believing that a deity dwelt in the stone. (Kenrick, "Phoenicia," p. 323, note 4.) 5 The original betuli were perhaps aeroliths, which were regarded as divine, since they had fallen from the sky. Philo Byblius, c. iii. § 7. On the pillar-worship of the Phoenicians, see Bunsen, "Egypt's Place in Univ. History," vol. iv. pp. 208-212. 66 Asherah is commonly translated by grove " in the Authorised Version, but its true character has been pointed out by many critics. (See "Speaker's Commentary," vol. i. pp. 416-7; "Ancient Monarchies," vol. ii. p. 8; 2nd Edition.) 8 Lucian, "De Dea Syra," § 49. • Gesenius, "Script. Phoen. Mon.," pp. 446, 7; Movers, "Das Opferwesen der Karthager," p. 71; etc. 10 Philo Bybl. c. iv. § 1. 11 Virg., "En.," i. 115. by self-inflicted wounds and mutilation.1 Frequent festivals were held, especially one at the vernal equinox, when sacrifices were made on the largest scale, and a vast concourse of persons was gathered together at the chief temples. Altogether the religion of the Phoenicians, while possessing some redeeming points, as the absence of images and the deep sense of sin which led them to sacrifice what was nearest and dearest to them to appease the divine anger, must be regarded as one of the lowest and most debasing of the forms of belief and worship prevalent in the ancient world, combining as it did impurity with cruelty, the sanction of licentiousness with the requirement of bloody rites, revolting to the conscience, and destructive of any right apprehension of the true idea of God. THE PULPIT IN THE FAMILY. ONWARD. "Behold, we go up to Jerusalem."-Luke xviii. 3. UR blessed Lord speaks thus to his disciples of the last journey that He ever made in their company. For more than three years He had been travelling about continually, dispensing the richest blessings, preaching the gospel to the poor, healing the sick, doing good to all, and enduring in his own person many persecutions and privations in return. 66 They rewarded me evil for my good," said David in the spirit of prophecy; and so it came to pass. 66 came I Jesus was now arrived at the last stage of his weary pilgrimage. He was going up to Jerusalem to die, because it could not be that a prophet should perish elsewhere. At such a time we might have expected to find the Son of God rejoicing in the prospect of his speedy return to the kingdom of his Father, looking forward to the hour of his departure, pressing on eagerly that He might finish his course with joy. We find Him, on the contrary, shrinking in spirit from this last trial as He did from no other. "How am I straitened till it be accomplished!" are his words. "Father, save me from this hour; but for this cause unto this hour." 'If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not My will, but Thine be done!" Enoch translated to heaven without seeing death, or Elijah carried up in the chariot of fire, could rejoice in their happy change; Stephen, writhing under the cruel stones, could yet see the heavens open and look up into them with rapture; Paul the aged, when the sword was waiting for him, knew that it was better for him to depart and be with Jesus; and every dying Christian in these days may calmly yield up his last breath with a sure and certain hope of everlasting life, and so go up with joy to the heavenly Jerusalem: but it was not so with Christ. For Him the last journey was the |