whom all the deities worshipped at a certain
period in human history resolve themselves, is the sun, or if not
the actual corporeal sun, then the supreme agency within it which was
acknowledged as the great creative or life-force--that dual principle
which by the early races was recognized as Elohim, Om, Ormuzd, etc.,
and from which the productive power in human beings, in plants, and in
animals was thought to emanate.

Prior to the development of either tree or phallic worship, the sun
as an emblem of the Deity had doubtless become the principal object
of veneration. Ages would probably elapse before primitive man would
observe that all life is dependent on the warmth of the sun's rays, or
before from experience he would perceive the fact that to its agency as
well as to that of the earth he was indebted both for food and the power
of motion. However, as soon as this knowledge had been gained, the great
orb of day would assume the most prominent place among the objects of
his regard and adoration. That such has been the case, that the sun,
either as the actual Creator, or as an emblem of the great energizing
force in Nature, has been worshipped by every nation of the globe, there
is no lack of evidence to prove; neither do we lack proof to establish
the fact that, since the adoption of the sun as a divine object, or
perhaps I should say as the emblem of Wisdom and creative power, it has
never been wholly eliminated from the god-idea of mankind.

Bryant produces numberless etymological proofs to establish the fact
that all the early names of the Deity were derived or compounded from
some word which originally meant the sun.

Max Muller says that Surya was the sun as shining in the sky. Savitri
was the sun as bringing light and life. Vishnu was the sun as striding
with three steps across the sky, etc.

Inman, whose etymological researches have given him considerable
prominence as a Sanskrit and Hebrew scholar, says that Ra, Ilos,
Helos, Bil, Baal, Al, Allah, and Elohim were names given to the sun as
representative of the Creator.

We are assured by Godfrey Higgins that Brahme is the sun the same
as Surya. Brahma sprang from the navel of Brahme. Faber in his Pagan
Idolatry says that all the gods of the ancients "melt insensibly into
one, they are all equally the sun." The word Apollo signifies the
author or generator of Light. In the Rig Veda, Surya, the sun, is called
Aditya. "Truly, Surya, thou art great; truly Ad