GOD AND THE WOELD. 289 



The humanization of God, or the idea that the 

 " Supreme Being " feels, thinks, and acts like man 

 (though in a higher degree), has played a most 

 important part, as anthropomorphic monotheism, in 

 the history of civilization. The most prominent in 

 this respect are the three great religions of the 

 Mediterranean peoples — the old Mosaic religion, the 

 intermediate Christian religion, and the younger 

 Mohammedanism. These three great Mediterranean 

 religions, all three arising on the east coast of the 

 most interesting of all seas, and originating in an 

 imaginative enthusiast of the Semitic race, are 

 intimately connected, not only by this external 

 circumstance of an analogous origin, but by many 

 common features of their internal contents. Just as 

 Christianity borrowed a good deal of its mythology 

 directly from ancient Judaism, so Islam has inherited 

 much from both its predecessors. All the three were 

 originally monotheistic ; all three were subsequently 

 overlaid with a great variety of polytheistic features, 

 in proportion as they extended, first along the coast 

 of the Mediterranean with its heterogeneous popula- 

 tion, and eventually into every part of the world. 



The Hebrew monotheism, as it was founded by 

 Moses (about 1600 b.c), is usually regarded as the 

 ancient faith which has been of the greatest impor- 

 tance in the ethical and religious development of 

 humanity. This high historical appreciation is cer- 

 tainly valid in the sense that the two other world- 

 conquering Mediterranean religions issued from it ; 

 Christ was just as truly a pupil of Moses as 

 Mohammed was afterwards of Christ. So also the 

 New Testament, which has become the foundation of 

 the belief of the highest civilised nations in the short 



