THE RELATION OF SEMITICS TO RELIGION 85 



But we shall also turn with similar appreciation and sense of satis- 

 faction to the words of Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita: 



I am the ancient sage without beginning; 



I am the ruler and the all-sustainer. 



I am incomprehensible in form, 



More subtle and minute than subtlest atoms. 



I am the cause of the whole universe, i 



Through me it is created and dissolved. 



On me all things within it hang suspended 



Like pearls upon a string. I am the light 



In sun and moon, far, far beyond the darkness. 



I am the brilliancy in flame, the radiance 



In all that's radiant, the light of lights, 



The sound in ether, fragrance in the earth, 



The seed eternal of existing things, 



The life in all, the father, mother, husband, 



Forefather and sustainer of the world, 



Its priest and Lord. I am its way and refuge, 



Its habitation and receptacle, 



I am its witness. I am victory 



And energy; I watch the universe 



With eyes and face in all directions turned. 



I dwell as wisdom in the heart of all. 



I am the goodness of the good, 



I am beginning, middle, and eternal time, 



The birth, the death of all. I am the symbol A 



Among the characters. I have created all 



Out of one portion of myself. Even those 



Who are of low and unpretending birth 



May find the path to higher happiness. 



Then be not sorrowful, from all thy sins 

 I shall deliver thee. Think thou on me, 

 Have faith in me, adore and worship me, 

 And join thyself in meditation to me. 

 Thus shalt thou come to me, O Arjuna! 

 Thus shalt thou rise to my supreme abode 

 Where neither sun, nor moon, have need to shine, 

 For all the lustre they possess is mine. 



The bearing of one branch of Semitic study upon the Bible and, 

 therefore, of course, upon biblical religions, have been treated by Dr. 

 Delitzsch in his recent work, Babel und BibeL Others have written 

 along the same lines, such as the Bible, and Monuments, etc. I have 

 purposely refrained in this address from that individual method of 

 treatment. The facts which were set forth in Dr. Delitzsch's address 

 have been familiar to Assyriologists for many years, and it must have 

 come as a surprise to most of them, as I confess it did to me, that 

 such a theological furore should have been aroused by the publication 

 of his lecture. 



Before closing I wish to mention two other facts which are of 

 the greatest importance in this connection and which must be borne 

 in mind in considering any form of religion based upon the commonly 

 accepted doctrine of our sacred books or any form of that doctrine. 

 The first of these is that the idea of conscience was of late develop- 

 ment even among the foremost peoples of ancient times. There is no 

 word for conscience in any ancient literature until the time of Zeno, 



