99 



punished; * * * and thence are those exhorta- 

 tions to virtue, and dehortations from wicked- 

 ness collected; whereby good men are bettered 

 in the conduct of their life, by the hope they 

 have of reward after their death, and whereby 

 the vehement inclinations of bad men to vice are 

 restrained, by the fear and expectation they are* 

 in, that although they should lie concealed in 

 this life, they should suffer immortal punishment 

 after their death." — Josephus, (Wars Bk. II. ch. 



VIII). 



Even E. Plumptre, D. D., whose book en- 

 titled ''Spirits in Prison," written in the 

 interest of the " wider hope." bears testimony to 

 the Egyptian belief in future retribution. £[e 

 says; (p.- 35,36): — kt The fact that the judgments 

 of that unseen future were conspicuously promi- 

 nent in the religious system of the people 

 (Egyptians) in whose wisdom the Hebrew law- 

 giver had been trained, introduces a new element 

 into the problem, and may, perhaps, give the* 

 key to its solution. k The Ritual of the Dead/ the 

 sculptures and paintings which it interprets for 

 us. show what was the belief of every Egyptian. 

 When he died his soul was carried over the wat- 

 ers of the dark river to Arnenti, the land of the 

 dead. It appeared before Osiris as its judge, and 

 w T as compelled to confess its sins. Its good and 



