345 
in common with it all the primitive features of the race to whom 
the tradition first applies, we have, I think, a still stronger 
ground to go upon. 
34. Before coming finally to this, let us see if there are any 
evidences of other traditions, or customs indicative of traditions 
which, if this were the cause, must have gone hand in hand with it. 
35. Tree-worship, on which I cannot enlarge, appears to have 
been a widespread custom, which, it must be admitted, is 
strongly corroborative. 
36. Some of the ceremonies of the Mosaic ritual haveso peculiar 
a tendency, that a few questioners have, on superficial examina- 
tion, mistaken them as indicating a species of solar or Sabian 
worship. The emphatic denunciations against such worship 
show that this could not have been so, and yet the question 
arises, why did they assimilate ? 
37. It must be borne in mind that the Israelites had all the 
tendencies and failings of mankind in general, and that they 
saw everywhere around them the worship of visible gods or their 
symbols. The historical account shows how great the difficulty 
was which Moses had to encounter in their case, and how soon 
the pure worship, restored through his agency, again became 
adulterated. It would have been simply impossible to have 
confined these people to the worship of a pure and invisible 
deity, such as their forefathers the patriarchs worshipped, with 
their antecedent knowledge of Egypt's gods, and with the 
acquaintance they were yet to make with the Baal-worship 
of Canaan ; for which reason it is not improbable that to 
satisfy the remarkable tendency of human nature for some- 
thing tangible in worship, rites externally somewhat similar 
were adopted, and even in some cases likeness-symbols,* as 
instanced by the brazen serpent, when obedience, even to 
promote their own cure, could be wrung from them in no other 
way, while the only really miraculous emblem in the hands 
of man that could be associated with tree-worship was to be 
found in Aaron's rod, which budded. Amongst the rites we 
find some that might per se be taken for evidence of solar 
worship, as by the undiscerning nations of Canaan the brazen 
serpent probably was, of serpent-worship, and to which adora- 
tion was finally paid by the Israelites themselves, no doubt in 
conformity with surrounding customs.f 
* Thus, Acts vii. 44, the tabernacle is called the tabernacle of witness, 
and is evidently referred to as in opposition to the tabernacle of Moloch in 
the 43rd verse. 
t A small tribe in India, claiming descent from some shipwrecked 
refugees of the tribe of Reuben, cast on the coast of Bombay, and called 
Beni-Israel, have, it is asserted, to this day, “ each in his secret chamber, a 
