In ancient times the emblem of life-giving energy was an orthodox
emblem; it is now a horror and its place is taken by an image of
death. We infer from the context that Laban's gods were
orthodox."
So, also, must have been the stone pillar set up by Jacob at
Bethel (place of the sun). From a study of similar stones,
examples of which are to be found in nearly every country of the
globe, it is known that they represent the male energy, and from
all the facts connected with the story of Laban's gods it is
probable that they were emblems of this power. We may suppose
then that the "strange gods," the unorthodox gods, which Jacob
ordered put away, were those representing the female energy.
It seems strange that any person can study the history of the
Israelitish Exodus by the light of later developments in biblical
research without recognizing the fact that the "Lord" which
brought the children of Israel out from the bondage of Egypt was
the male power, which by a certain sect had been proclaimed the
only actual creative agency, and therefore the "only one and true
God."
Although, at the time at which Abraham is said to have lived, the
knowledge of an abstract dual or triune God still remained, yet,
during the five hundred years which elapsed until the time of
Moses, the grossest idolatry had come to prevail.
Notwithstanding the fact that Moses had learned much from the
Egyptians, he seems not to have risen above a very gross
conception of a deity. His god was by turns angry, jealous,
revengeful, vacillating, and weak. He was in fact the embodiment
of human passions and desires. We have seen that the third
person in the ancient Trinity had, in Egypt, India, and Persia,
come to be recognized in place of the three principles originally
worshipped--that, as it really embodied the essence of the other
two, little was heard of the Creator and Preserver. Doubtless
this God was the one which Moses intended the Israelites to
worship, but as they were unable to conceive of an abstract
principle he invested it with a personality which, as we have
seen, was burdened with the frailties and weaknesses common to
themselves.
As the Regenerator or Destroyer represented the processes of
Nature,--the dying away of the sun's rays at night only to
