eve. Do not deliver us unto death, though we have offended against Thy 
commandment day by day. Accept our sacrifice, forgive our offences, let us 
speak together again, like old friends. 
“ Hear this my calling, 0 Varuna, and bless me now ; I call upon Thee, 
desirous of Thy help. 
“ Thou, 0 wise God, art the king of all, of heaven and earth ; hear me on 
my path.’’ * 
These hymns Mr. M tiller considers as among the earliest of 
the Veda, and we think, from their correspondence in substance 
and tone with their contemporaries, that his judgment is 
correct. By Abraham and his descendants we are able to 
trace the existence of similar knowledge of God through five 
preceding centuries. Abraham knew the Lord and worshipped 
Him before he was bidden by Him to go from his country. 
He found the King of Salem also to be a worshipper of the 
one living God, although called by a name which especially 
proclaimed His supremacy. In his sojourn in Gerar he saw 
another king who feared the Lord and wrought righteousness. 
And, about a hundred years afterwards, Isaac found king and 
people of similar character. And as late as the end of the 
life of Moses we find Balaam, although holding the truth in 
unrighteousness, yet knowing the Lord, acknowledging His 
supreme authority, having access to Him, and, however un- 
willingly, feeling himself bound to obey His word. During 
this period, in the cases above cited, the common idea of 
religion was speaking together like old friends A The con- 
nection of sacrifice with forgiveness of sin is in full harmonv 
with the Mosaic record, and is much more distinct than in the 
later hymns. All this looks like a common source, although 
the repudiation of such a common source is declared by Mr. 
Muller as a necessary qualification for the study of the science 
of religion.f We do not see how sacrifice can be accounted 
for as an act of worship but as coming from Divine appoint- 
ment, and it is equally impossible to explain its prevalence 
but from the fact that it was a primitive institution, established 
before the various tribes commenced their wanderings. It is 
in this evidence of Aryan connexion with the one source of 
all true knowledge of God that we see no difficulty in ac- 
counting for the above doctrines at the beginning of their 
national life. And in the same way we account for so explicit 
a hope of personal immortality as that found in the following 
passages : — 
“ Where there is eternal light, in the world where the sun is placed, in 
that immortal, imperishable world place me, 0 Soma ! 
* Ch ips, ii. p. 326. 
t Ilibhert Lecture, p. 258. 
