The Pillar of Fire; Or, Israel in Bondage (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1875 Excerpt: ...and, turning round to the east, I laid my hands across my breast and bowed my head low in worship, it being the signal that the hierarch was offering incense and libations. To my surprise, the Hebrew woman pursued her work, and remained with her head, as I thought, more proudly elevated than before. "Do you not worship?" I asked, with surprise. "Yes, the One God," she answered, with dignity. I started with surprise, that a bondwoman should declare, so openly and familiarly, the mystery which even Remeses scarcely dared to receive, and which I had accepted with hesitation and awe. "How knowest thou there is One God?" I said, regarding her with deepening interest. "From our fathers." "Do all your people worship the One Unity?" "Not all," she answered, a shadow passing across her queenly brow. "The masses of our enslaved nation know only the gods of Egypt. They adore Apis with servility. They are the first to hail the new-found calf-god, if, by chance, he be found in the nome where they toil They are ignorant of the true God, and, degraded by their long servitude (for we are all born in bondage--all ), they worship the gods of their masters; and pots of flesh which are sent from the sacrifices by the proselyting priests, as bribes to make our chief men bow down to Osiris and Apis, are temptations enough to cause these elders daily to deny the God of their father Abraham, Jacob and Joseph are become Egyptians, and the knowledge of the undivided God is preserved only by a few, who have kept sacred the traditions of our fathers." This was said with deep feeling, and with an expression of anger mingled with sorrow. "What do you worship?" I asked. "The God of Abraham." "A...