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blished worship of the true God in the line of Ham, whatever 
exception there may have been to the general course of events. 
I do not know whether any connection may have existed between 
Melchisedek and Shern, but it is not impossible that by descent 
such may have been the case. 
In idolatrous Egypt, however, it is clear that Shemite influ- 
ence again and again made itself felt in opposition to the 
worship of idols, and with more or less clearness, and certainly 
in favour of the worship of “ the living God.” 
The earliest period of such influence we may suppose took 
place at the time of the building of the Great Pyramid, in 
which the name of Khufu (Cheops), the Pharaoh by whom it 
was built, occurs. We have reason to believe that he worshipped 
Ptah, but the astronomical references seem to point to Chal- 
dean lore. There is a remarkable absence of the symbols of 
idolatry in the structure, and much interest has been of late 
aroused in connection with various particulars in its structure. 
Whatever may be the import of these, we find great national 
— perhaps religious — aversion to the Pharaohs, who reared this 
and the second pyramid. Manetho records, however, of the 
builder of the Great Pyramid that “he was translated to the gods, 
and wrote the sacred book.” 
I do not know whether this means “ the Book of the Dead ” 
in its first and simple edition, but it shows the king to have 
been in some sense devoted to religion. 
I shall not spend any time over various periods of Egyptian 
history, in which we find obscurely recorded the results of 
Shemite influence, but come to the visit of Abraham, whose 
attainments in astronomical science we may well suppose to 
have been considerable, owing to his ancestral connection. He is 
said by Josephus to have taught the Egyptians many things, 
and certainly he would not forget to impart that knowledge of 
the true God which was to him the most prized possession. 
His intercourse with the Pharaohs seems to have been of the 
most friendly description. 
Then we come to the period of Jacob and his family going 
down into Egypt, not forgetting, however, the most interesting 
narrative of Joseph’s history, in which we see so much of 
appeal to the knowledge of God, possessed alike by the Egyptians 
and the Israelites ; e.g., “ How can I do this great wickedness 
and sin against God?” 
The wife of Potiphar must have felt the power of this appeal 
against the commission of one of the forty-two sins, concerning 
which she would have to answer in Hades. 
Joseph says to Pharaoh’s officers, “Do not interpretations 
