om, played their
parts. The Egyptians were not savages.

* * * * *

About five hundred years before the birth of Moses there lived in Arabia
a powerful Sheik or Chief, known as Abraham. This man had a familiar
spirit, or guide, or guardian-angel known as Yaveh or Jehovah. All of
the desert tribes had such tutelary gods; and all of these gods were
once men of power who lived on earth. The belief in special gods has
often been held by very great men: Socrates looked to his "demon" for
guidance; Themistocles consulted his oracle; a President of the United
States visited a clairvoyant, who consented to act as a medium and
interpret the supernatural. This idea, which is a variant of ancestor
worship, still survives, and very many good people do not take journeys
or make investments until they believe they are being dictated to by
Shakespeare, Emerson, Beecher or Phillips Brooks. These people also
believe that there are bad spirits to which we must not harken.

Abraham was led by Jehovah; what Jehovah told him to do he did; when
Jehovah told him to desist or change his plans, he obeyed. Jehovah
promised him many things, and some of these promises were fulfilled.

Whether these tutelary gods or controlling spirits had any actual
existence outside of the imagination of the people who believed in
them--whether they were merely pictures thrown upon the screen by a
subconscious spiritual stereopticon--is not the question now under
discussion. Something must be left for a later time: the fact remains
that special providences are yet relied upon by sincere and intelligent
people.

Abraham had a son named Isaac. And Isaac was the father of Jacob, or
Israel, "the Soldier of God," so called on account of his successful
wrestling with the angel. And Jacob was the father of twelve sons. All
of these people believed in Jehovah, the god of their tribe; and while
they did not disbelieve in the gods of the neighboring tribes, they yet
doubted their power and had grave misgivings as to their honesty.
Therefore, they had nothing to do with them, praying to their own god
only and looking to him for support. They were the chosen people of
Jehovah, just as the Babylonians were the chosen people of Baal; the
Canaanites the chosen people of Ishitar; the Moabites the chosen people
of Chemos; the Ammonites the chosen people of Rimmon.

Now Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob, and his brethren were
naturally jeal