230 
Lord of truth, Father of the gods : 
Maker of men, Creator of beasts, 
> % * 
In whose goodness the gods rejoice, 
To whom adoration is paid in the great house. 
* * * \ 
Lord of Eternity, Maker everlasting :, 
* * * 
Judging the poor, the poor and the oppressed : 
Lord of wisdom, whose precepts are wise.” * 
Though already there are gods, yet here remains the tradi- 
tion of OnE; and that Onz, the Creator, true, eternal, merciful, 
and wise; the giver, too, of precepts. How should this last 
idea have arisen, except on a tradition of revelation? We 
hardly come, as Mr. Spencer says, “ finally to God”; but we 
start from a God. 
In a still more ancient fragment of an Accadian liturgy, 
translated by Mr. Sayce, and inserted in vol. u. of Records of 
the Past, the antiquity of which is believed to ‘“‘go back 
beyond the second millennium B.C.,” we find the distinct 
tradition of one Supreme God. This liturgy appears to bea 
war-song, or song of triumph, and no doubt marks an age, 
and a race, of fierce conflicts ; and to a certain extent it sup- 
ports Mr. Spencer’s observation that, during the militant 
phase of activity, the chief god is conceived as holding: insubor- 
dination the greatest crime, as implacable in anger, as 
merciless in punishment.” But this god, who speaks in the 
old Accadian liturgy, is not only a great and terrible god, his 
particular attributes, so far as they are described, are those 
which accord with an exalted conception of the Deity; he 
speaks as one supreme; and apostrophising the lightning, 
not merely as lightning, but as the symbol of his power, he 
claims for that power not only conquest, but the establishment 
of heaven and earth. 
“T am Lord. The beetling mountains of the earth shake their head 
to the foundation. 
* % #6 % 
“The sun of fifty faces, the lofty weapon of my divinity, I bear. 
* “ % * 
“The defender of conquests, the great sword, the falchion of my divinity, 
I bear. 
* % * # 
“The lightning of battle, my weapon of fifty heads (I bear). 
* * * * 
* Records of the Past, vol. ii. p. 129. 
