t Mysteries of the Egyptian
religion. Pictures representing it appear on the walls of
temples."[122:2] He is "the second emanation of _Amon_, the son whom he
begot."[122:3] Egyptian monuments represent the infant Saviour in the
arms of his virgin mother, or sitting on her knee.[122:4] An inscription
on a monument, translated by Champollion, reads thus:

"O thou avenger, God, son of a God; O thou avenger, Horus,
manifested by Osiris, engendered of the goddess Isis."[122:5]

The Egyptian god _Ra_ was born from the side of his mother, _but was not
engendered_.[122:6]

The ancient Egyptians also deified kings and heroes, in the same manner
as the ancient Greeks and Romans. An Egyptian king became, in a sense,
"the vicar of God on earth, the infallible, and the personated
deity."[122:7]

P. Le Page Renouf, in his Hibbert Lectures on the Religion of Ancient
Egypt, says:

"I must not quit this part of my subject without a reference
to the belief that the ruling sovereign of Egypt was the
living image and vicegerent of the Sun-god (_Ra_). _He was
invested with the attributes of divinity_, and that in the
earliest times of which we possess monumental
evidence."[122:8]

_Menes_, who is said to have been the first king of Egypt, was believed
to be a god.[122:9]

Almost all the temples of the left bank of the Nile, at Thebes, had been
constructed in view of the worship rendered to the Pharaohs, their
founders, after their death.[122:10]

On the wall of one of these Theban temples is to be seen a picture
representing the god Thoth--the messenger of God--telling the _maiden_,
Queen Mautmes, that she is to give birth to a _divine son_, who is to be
King _Amunothph_ III.[123:1]

An inscription found in Egypt makes the god _Ra_ say to his son Ramses
III.:

"I am thy father; by me are begotten all thy members as
divine; I have formed thy shape like the Mendesian god; I have
begotten thee, impregnating thy venerable mother."[123:2]

_Raam-ses_, or _Ra-me-ses_, means "Son of the Sun," and _Ramses Hek An_,
a name of Ramses III., means "engendered by Ra (the Sun), Prince of An
(Heliopolis)."[123:3]

"_Thotmes_ III., on the tablet of Karnak, presents offerings to his
predecessors; so does _Ramses_ on the tablet of Abydos. Even during his
life-time the Egyptian king was denominated '_Beneficent God_.'"[123:4]

The ancient Babylonians also believed that their kings were go