on the forty-two commandments of the Egyptian
religion. Bearing on its face the signs of solemnity and fear, and
carrying in its hand a feather, the symbol of veracity, it says among
other things: 'I have not blasphemed the gods, I have defrauded no man,
I have not changed the measures of Egypt, I have not prevaricated at the
courts of justice, I have not lied, I have not stolen, I have not
committed adultery, I have done no murder, I have not been idle, I have
not been drunk, I have not been cruel, I have not famished my family, I
have not been a hypocrite, I have not defiled my conscience for the sake
of my superiors, I have not smitten privily, I have lived on truth, I
have made it my delight to do what men command and the gods approve, I
have given bread to the hungry and drink to the thirsty and clothes to
the naked, my mouth and hands are pure.' Now what strikes one with great
force in this remarkable passage from the walls of the old sand-covered
tombs is the wonderful scope and fulness with which the laws of right
and wrong were stamped upon the Egyptian conscience. There is here a
recognition, not only of the great evils which man shall not commit, but
also of many of those positive duties which his moral nature requires.
It matters not that these words are wholly exculpatory; they
nevertheless recognize sin."

But perhaps no one has depicted man's sense of guilt and fear more
eloquently than Dean Stanley when speaking of the Egyptian Sphinx.
Proceeding upon the theory that that time-worn and mysterious relic is a
couchant lion whose projecting paws were long since buried in the desert
sands, and following the tradition that an altar once stood before that
mighty embodiment of power, he graphically pictures the transient
generations of men, in all the sin and weakness of their frail humanity,
coming up with their offerings and their prayers "between the paws of
deity." It is a grim spectacle, but it emphasizes the sense of human
guilt. Only the Revealed Word of God affords a complete and satisfactory
explanation of the remarkable fact that the human race universally stand
self-convicted of sin.

There is also a tribute to the truth of Christianity in certain traces
of a conception of Divine sacrifice for sin found in some of the early
religious faiths of men. All are familiar with the difference between
the offerings of Abel and those of Cain--the former disclosing a faith
in a higher expiation. In like manner