330 THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION. 



servile priesthood. The same however was true only four cen- 

 turies ago of those who were the inheritors of the priceless 

 treasures of the Christian records. The state of a society does 

 not always keep up to the standards of morality and culture 

 which are preserved in its archives. But we must concede, I 

 think, that the early believers in the ancient Vedas of the Brah- 

 mans were the predecessors in direct line of the believers in the 

 Holy Bible of the Christians, and that there descended from the 

 one system to the other many remarkable theological tenets and 

 almost identical scripture recitals. Shall we then condemn the 

 Brahmans merely because they preceded the founding of our 

 Holy Religion? Shall we say there was no good nor reward in 

 their faith in a God and a Redeemer so closely outlining those 

 we worship? 



Shortly before the time of the Christian era Alexandrea in 

 Egypt was the seat of all the learning and culture in the world. 

 Here was the largest if not the only library of ancient times 

 700,000 volumes, all of course in manuscript. It was unfortun- 

 ately burned or destroyed in later years by Christian or Saracen 

 fanaticism. A peculiar dialect of the Greek language was in use 

 here called Hellenistic Greek. The Hebrew Bible was here 

 translated into it, 270 years B. C. ; and there is no doubt that the 

 sacred books of other nations were translated into it as well. 

 All the Books of the New Testament were first brought out 

 here, as is proved by the fact that they were written in Hellen- 

 istic Greek, which was a language little used elsewhere and not 

 at all in Judea. Here was the seat of innumerable sects of all 

 mariner of philosophies and followings, the home of religion- 

 makers, kept, boarded, and paid by the Ptolemies to add volumes 

 to their libraries. It is a matter of history that there were at 

 this time in Alexandrea well organized societies of men who 

 made it their life business to select what seemed to them best 

 from all known systems of philosophy and religion, and to pub- 

 lish their writings as gospels according to such and such a saint. 

 In the year 325 of our era, three hundred Bishops in Council at 

 Nice selected the present Books of the New Testament from at 

 least 120 different gospels, epistles, acts, and revelations that had 



