The festival of lamps, which was once universal throughout Egypt, still
prevails in China. On the evening of the fifteenth day of the first
month in the year, every person is compelled to place before his door a
lantern or light, such lights differing in size and expense according to
the degree of wealth or poverty of those to whom they belong. Light
was the symbol of Muth (Perceptive Wisdom). Among the Persians, the
Egyptians, the Mexicans, the Jews, the Etruscans, the Greeks, and the
Romans, fire was venerated as the essence of the Deity; and, at the
present time, in Thibet, in China, in Japan, and in portions of Africa,
it still forms an important part of worship. The Hebrew writings show
conclusively that not only the Jews but all the surrounding nations were
fire-worshippers, and that their sacrifices were not infrequently to the
God of Fire. Of this Forlong says:

"When Rome was rearing temples to the fame and worship of Fire, we find
the prophets of Israel occasionally denouncing the wickedness of its
worship by their own and the nations around them; nevertheless, even to
Christ's time Molok always had his offerings of children."(100)

100) Rivers of Life and Faiths of Man in an Lands, vol. i., p. 325.

It is believed that Abraham introduced fire-worship among the Jews from
Ur in Mesopotamia, a land in which lights are still venerated, and fire
altars are worshipped as containing the Deity.

The real essence of fire which was identical with the life-principle was
holy. The "Lord" of the Israelites was in the fire which descended on
Mt. Sinai, Exodus xix., 18. "The bush burned with fire and the bush was
not consumed," Exodus iii., 2. Whether the signification of "bush" is
the same as "grove," I know not, but Josephus assures us that the
bush was holy before the flame appeared in it. Because of its sacred
character, it became the receptacle for the burning "Lord" of the Jews.
The ark, the religious emblem which Moses bore aloft, was simply a fire
altar on which the fire must continually burn. The fact will doubtless
be observed that although the ark and the bush (female emblems) were
invested with a certain degree of sanctity, they were nevertheless only
receptacles for the substance within them.

At the same time that the Jews kept sacred or holy fires continually
burning on their altars, they carried about a serpent on a pole
representing it to be the "healer of nations." They also kept a phallic