Issus

“ THE LEGEND OF RA AND ISIS. The Chapter of the divine (or, mighty) god, who created himself, who made the heavens and the earth, and the breath of life, and fire, and the gods, and men, and beasts, and cattle, and reptiles, and the fowl of the air, and the fish, who is the king of men and gods, [who existeth] in one Form, [to whom] periods of one hundred and twenty years axe as single years, whose names by reason of their multitude are unknowable, for [even] the gods know them not. Behold, the goddess Isis lived in the form, of a woman, who had the knowledge of words [of power] . ”

“ I began to drag myself along, but I was only half awake, my limbs only just managed to bear me along, and I did not know if I should ever reach that aperture.
"Art awake, oh, Isis, who art daughter of Ra? "Art awake, oh, Isis, who art sister and bride of Osiris?
"Art awake, oh, Isis, who art mother of Horus?
"Oh, Isis, give life to this man and to this woman, who have sought the sanctity of thy temple!
"The gods above do rejoice! the glorious company is full of joy, giving praise to thee, oh, Isis, who art pure!
"Isis who art beloved!
"Isis who art most holy!" ”

“ Isis, we adore thee!
High Priest. This year, once more, show to us by that miraculous sign of thy divine head, that still thou art our protectress. [The people repeat the incantation in a murmur] O goddess, if thou hast pity on those who suffer, thou wilt bend thy head. Pity! Pity! we suffer! The evil spirits torment us.
The People. We suffer! Drive forth the evil spirits!
High Priest. Neith! Mother of the Universe! The evil spirits torment us! Neith! Virgin genetrix! Isis, sacred earth of Egypt, bend thy head! ”

“ She lives in every soul, yet in no two souls is she the same. She is not, yet eternally she is. Invisible, intangible; ever pursued and ever fleeing; never seen and never handled, yet she answers prayer and her throne is not in the high heavens but in the heart of every creature that draws the breath of life. One day we shall behold her and not know her. Yet she will know us. Such is Isis: formless, yet in every form; dead, yet living in all that breathes; a priest-bred phantasy, yet the one great truth.”
“If Isis be thus, what of the world’s other gods?” ”

“ These are names, mere names that divide us; but if you were called anything else than Agne—Ismene, for instance, or Eudoxia—would you be at all different from what you are?—There you see—no, stay where you are—you must listen while I tell you that Isis, the much—maligned Isis, is nothing and represents nothing but the kindly influences of the Divinity, on nature and on human life. What she embodies to us is the abstraction which you call the loving-kindness of the Father, revealed in his manifold gifts, wherever we turn our eyes. ”

“ He then commanded that all the gods who had any knowledge of magical spells should come to him, and when they came, Isis, the great lady of spells, the destroyer of diseases, and the reviver of the dead, came with them. Turning to Rā she said, “What hath happened, O divine Father?” and in answer the god told her that a serpent had bitten him, that he was hotter than fire and colder than water, that his limbs quaked, and that he was losing the power of sight. Then Isis said to him with guile, “Divine Father, tell me thy name, for he who uttereth his own name shall live.” ”

“ Isaac, may God forgive you and your accomplices in this day's guilt, for the insult you have dared to utter. By his grace I declare that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of the Most High God, the expected Messiah, and the Saviour of the world. His death was the sacrifice appointed by his Father before the foundation of the world, to expiate the sins of all mankind: and it was brought about by the pride, cruelty, and unbelief of the Jews, who with wicked hands did crucify and slay him. ”

“ The image of Isis reminds us of the lavish bounties of the Creator, just as you are reminded by the cross, the fish, and the lamb, of your Redeemer. Isis is the earth from whose maternal bosom the creative God brings forth food and comfort for man and beast; she is the tender yearning which He implants in the hearts of the lover and the beloved one; she is the bond of affection which unites husband and wife, brother and sister, which is rapture to the mother with a child at her breast and makes her ready and able for any sacrifice for the darling she has brought into the world. ”

“ As a prophet, he saw a time when all mankind—recognising in one another (man in man and nation in nation) some glimpse of the divine image, and of the beauty of divine holiness—would beat their swords into ploughshares, and go up to the City of peace, righteousness, and truth, to worship the Father of the spirits of all flesh. Isaiah had foreseen this. But this prophet was also possessed with a belief, beyond Isaiah’s, in the unity of God and man. He was persuaded that the true Son of man was the Son of God, higher than the heavens. ”

“ It is a sacred scarabæus, and thou knowest that he who beholds it, when Isis’s face is turned towards the earth, and holds it tightly in the palm of his hand, sees no beauty save that of its exquisite body, sees naught that is blue save the iridescence of its wings. ”

“ I am Abraham's God, and Isaac's God, and the God of Iacob? God is not the God of the dead: but of the living. And when the people heard that, they were astonied at his doctrine.
When the pharisees had heard, how that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they drew to gether, and one of them which was a doctor of law asked him a question tempting him and saying: Master which is the great commandment in the law? Iesus said unto him: thou shalt love thy lord God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. ”

“ The babe whom thou lovest is before thy face, the heir overcoming at the beginning, the excellent son.
There proccedeth from the temple, visibly and audibly, the grieving of Isis concerning thee, upon the path to thy place.
Grant deliverance before those whom thou lovest;
They weep for thee with hair unbound,—before Un-Nofer, the lord of bounty, the prince great in his terror, the god above the heavens!
The gods produce the inundation for thee—begotten is it by thee daily.
Lo! the divine essence of the gods is spread upon his limbs:
Behold! ”

“ Jesus came as a World Prophet, not as a mere Jewish holy-man, and still less as a Hebrew Messiah destined to sit upon the throne of His father David. And He left His mark upon all of the great peoples of earth by His journey among them. Throughout Persia are found many traditions of Issa, the young Master who appeared in that land centuries ago, and who taught the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. ”

“ If Isis is not a principle but a mere influence as stated by my critic, it is difficult to understand how this influence can discharge the duties assigned to, and be invested with, the attributes of a guardian angel in the Christian doctrine. ”

“ And the angel of God who was sent to the same virgin at that time brought her good news, saying, “Behold, thou shalt conceive of the Holy Ghost, and shalt bear a Son, and He shall be called the Son of the Highest, and thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins,” [64] —as they who have recorded all that concerns our Saviour Jesus Christ have taught, whom we believed, since by Isaiah also, whom we have now adduced, the Spirit of prophecy declared that He should be born as we intimated before. ”

“ That is, Christ is in the flesh, because he is to eat butter and honey; and he is God, because he knows how to distinguish between good and evil; and as a consequence, the divine and human nature are united in his person, and he is the incarnate God. We have shown in another part of this work that the prophecy of Isaiah had nothing to do with a future Christ, but was meant as a measure of time, governed by the period of gestation. ”

“ As Jesus taught in the synagogue this Sabbath afternoon, according to custom he took the first text from the law, reading from the Book of Exodus: “And you shall serve the Lord, your God, and he shall bless your bread and your water, and all sickness shall be taken away from you.” He chose the second text from the Prophets, reading from Isaiah: ‘Arise and shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Darkness may cover the earth and gross darkness the people, but the spirit of the Lord shall arise upon you, and the divine glory shall be seen with you. ”

“ Similarly, in the boundless plain of His eternal present, God sees all things that are to be, and they happen, not because He sees them, but He sees them because they are to happen.
Note, in verse 38, that our hearing means what has been heard from us, for the preachers of the Gospel are represented in Isaias as complaining of the small number of those who listened to them. The arm of the Lord is Christ, according to several of the fathers; or we may take it to mean the power of the Lord in the work of man's redemption. ”

“ Isis, whom you now know, and who is neither more nor less than a personification of divine mercy, will make you a return by restoring you to the freedom for which you pine. She will allow you to find a home in some Christian house through our intervention, in acknowledgment of the pious service you are rendering, not to her but to the faith in divine goodness. ”

“ The message of the cult of Isis as preached by her priests was one of hope and happiness, and coming to the Greeks and Romans, as it did, at a time when men were weary of their national cults, and when the speculations of the philosophers carried no weight with the general public, the people everywhere welcomed it with the greatest enthusiasm. ”

“ Very wonderful is the revelation we have in Isaiah of God, the Holy One, as the Redeemer and the Saviour of His people. In the midst of the people whom He created and formed for Himself, He will as the Holy One dwell, showing forth His power and His glory, filling them with joy and gladness. ”

“ Yet is there one among them who save in dreams or ecstasies has ever seen his god, or if he tries to fashion him out before his mortal eyes, can do more than carve some effigy of wood or stone?”
Then I pointed to the veiled statue of Truth behind me, saying,
“Lo! there is Isis, a beauteous thing with a hidden face ruling o’er the world. She is one of Divinity’s thousand forms. Aye, she is its essence, frozen to the shape we know in this world’s icy air, and having a countenance chiselled differently from age to age by the changeful thought of man. ”

“ Therefore, not even the greatest of sinners should despair of God’s mercy. If he does, he sins against the Holy Ghost, and is in danger of being lost eternally.
The testimony of the prophets helps and confirms our faith. The prophecies of Isaias and the other prophets were written by the inspiration of God, and have to his day been preserved in the Holy Scriptures in order to strengthen our faith. ”

“ And behold one came, and said unto him: good master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? He said unto him: why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, and that is God. But and thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He said: Which? And Iesus said: thou shalt not kill: thou shalt not break wedlock. Thou shall not steal: thou shalt not bear false witness. Honour father and mother: and thou shalt love thine neighbor as thyself. ”

“ These words spake Iesus and lift up his eyes to heaven, and said: father the hour is come glorify thy son that thy son may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. This is life eternal that they might know thee that only very God: and whom thou hast sent Iesus Christ. ”

“ For as 'tis not the length of the beard or the coarseness of the habit which makes a philosopher, so neither will these frequent shavings, or the mere wearing of a linen vestment, constitute a votary of Isis. He alone is a true servant or follower of this goddess who, after he has heard, and has been made acquainted in a proper manner with the history of the actions of these gods, searches into the hidden truths which lie concealed under them, and examines the whole by the dictates of reason and philosophy. ”

“ Isaias prophesied of the Christ whom he saw afar off, that he should be "a man of sorrows;" that he should be "despised and rejected of men;" that he should be "taken from prison and judgment, and cut off from the land of the living;" that he should be "numbered with the wicked in his death, and make his grave with the rich!" How light, how clear, how plain, all these prophecies now are to me, and to us all! How wonderfully in their minuteness they have been fulfilled, you already know.
His resurrection, also, was foretold by himself, but we did not understand his words until now. ”

“ And as Iesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth, And his disciples asked him saying. Master, who did sin: this man, or his father and mother, that he was born blind? Iesus answered: Neither this man hath sinned, nor yet his father and mother: but that the works of God should be shewed on him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day. The night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. ”

“ The more closely I joined myself to the Pharisees against the Nazarenes, and the more I saw of the cunning, and baseness, and hardness of heart of those inferior instruments by whose aid our chief priests and elders were wont to execute their designs, the more was I troubled with doubts. Sometimes when I lay down to rest at night, after a day spent in persecutions in the company of these base companions, the words of the Prophet Isaiah would rise up against me in the darkness, ‘Wash you, make you clean; cease to do evil, learn to do good ”