, and immediately after the
death of Julius a temple to Isis was actually erected by the
government. Once firmly established in Rome, the spread of Imperial
power carried her worship over the world; emperors became her priests,
and the humble centurion in remote camps honoured her in the wilds of
France, Germany, Yorkshire, or the Sahara.

Not only Isis but also Osiris claimed the world's {91} worship. In the
new form of the Osir-hapi of Memphis, or Serapis, the Ptolemies
identified him with Zeus, both in appearance and by attributes. And,
by the time of Nero, Isis and Osiris were said to be the deities of all
the world. An interesting outline of this subject will be found in
Professor Dill's _Roman Society from Nero to Aurelius_.

Besides these parent gods their son Horus also conquered the world with
them. Isis and Horus, the Queen of Heaven and the Holy Child, became
the popular deities of the later age of Egypt, and their figures far
outnumber those of all other gods. Horus in every form of infancy was
the loved _bambino_ of the Egyptian women. Again Horus appears carried
on the arm of his mother in a form which is indistinguishable from that
adopted by Christianity soon after.

We see, then, throughout the Roman world the popular worship of the
Queen of Heaven, _Mater Dolorosa_, Mother of God, patroness of sailors,
and her infant son Horus the child, the benefactor of men, who took
captive all the powers of evil. And this worship spread and increased
in Egypt and elsewhere until the growing power of Christianity
compelled a change. The old worship continued; for the Syrian maid
became {92} transformed into an entirely different figure, Queen of
Heaven, Mother of God, patroness of sailors, occupying the position and
attributes already belonging to the world-wide goddess; and the Divine
Teacher, the Man of Sorrows, became transformed into the entirely
different figure of the Potent Child. Isis and Horus still ruled the
affections and worship of Europe with a change of names.

Egypt also exercised an immense influence upon the Church in the
Trinitarian controversy. That was a purely Egyptian dispute, between
two presbyters brought up in the atmosphere of intricacies about the
_ka_, the _khu_, the _khat_, the _ba_, the _sahu_, the _khaybat_, and
the various other entities which constituted man. To carry forward
similar refinements concerning the Divine Nature was as congenial to
such minds as it was inc