Page:Ben-Hur a tale of the Christ.djvu/33

Rh upon the Greek, saying, &quot;In the youth of Hellas, who, O Caspar, were the teachers of her teachers?&quot;

The Greek bowed, smiling.

&quot;By those records,&quot; Balthasar continued, &quot;we know that when the fathers came from the far East, from the region of the birth of the three sacred rivers, from the centre of the earth—the Old Iran of which you spoke, O Melchior—came bringing with them the history of the world before the Flood, and of the Flood itself, as given to the Aryans by the sons of Noah, they taught God, the Creator and the Beginning, and the Soul, deathless as God. When the duty which calls us now is happily done, if you choose to go with me, I will show you the sacred library of our priesthood; among others, the Book of the Dead, in which is the ritual to be observed by the soul after Death has despatched it on its journey to judgment. The ideas—God and the Immortal Soul—were borne to Mizraim over the desert, and by him to the banks of the Nile. They were then in their purity, easy of understanding, as what God intends for our happiness always is; so, also, was the first worship—a song and a prayer natural to a soul joyous, hopeful, and in love with its Maker.&quot;

Here the Greek threw up his hands, exclaiming, &quot;Oh! the light deepens within me!&quot;

&quot;And in me!&quot; said the Hindoo, with equal fervor.

The Egyptian regarded them benignantly, then went on, saying, &quot;Religion is merely the law which binds man to his Creator: in purity it has but these elements—God, the Soul, and their Mutual Recognition; out of which, when put in practice, spring Worship, Love, and Reward. This law, like all others of divine origin—like that, for instance, which binds the earth to the sun—was perfected in the beginning by its Author. Such, my brothers, was the religion of the first family; such was the religion of our father Mizraim, who could not have been blind to the formula of creation, nowhere so discernible as in the first faith and the earliest worship. Perfection is God; simplicity is perfection. The curse of curses is that men will not let truths like these alone.&quot;

He stopped, as if considering in what manner to continue.

&quot;Many nations have loved the sweet waters of the Nile,&quot;