ld god Ea peoples the
original chaos with a variety of strange monsters. In another the
birth of the gods is narrated as well as that of the world; we find
also that chaos is itself conceived as a female monster, a dragon of
evil, and the god has to do battle with this power of darkness and
evil, and to bring light and the habitable world up from its realm.
It is certainly true that the Babylonian legends of the creation are
crude and inconsistent with each other, and that the account in
Genesis belongs to a much higher order of thought. The Babylonian
account of the deluge and the ark is more closely parallel to the
Bible narrative; the two cannot possibly be independent of each
other, and there may be no impropriety in holding that the Hebrew
writers were acquainted with myths of general diffusion in the world
they lived in.

The State Religion.--The Babylonian and Assyrian religion of which we
hear in the Bible (_cf._ Isa. xl.-lxvi.) is the splendid worship of
mighty empires; it has forgotten its humble beginnings, and under the
guidance of large priestly and learned corporations has grown much in
depth and purity. Of its outward magnificence the monuments furnish
ample proof. The temple of Bel-Merodach at Babylon was a wonder of
the world. Being the god of the prevailing city of the empire,
Merodach was the greatest of all the gods, and was reverenced and
extolled as befitted the friend and patron of the greatest of
monarchs. His son Nebo was a prophet and a god of wisdom. What
Merodach was to Babylon, Assur was to Assyria; in fact, he was the
only god peculiar to Assyria. The rule that as religion grows in
outward splendour it also gains in inward strength and spirituality
is strikingly exemplified in the case before us. The gods have come
to be moral powers, who really care for men, not only for the king,
their earthly representative, but for their worshippers in general.
Merodach is praised for his mercy; he not only accompanies the king
in his wars, of which the inscriptions give us so many a wearisome
catalogue, but he heals the sick, he brings relief to him who is
mourning for his transgressions, and he brings life out of death and
receives the soul committed to his mercy to a blessed dwelling above.
Perhaps we pass here somewhat beyond the early period of the religion
and touch on its ultimate phase. The penitential hymns of the later
literature form a strong contrast to the magical incantations, which
fill