not as they do now, for we are born slaves, and they were born free. Therefore it required more strict laws and punishments then than now, all sorts of ideas were started, and among others the power of creating objects that could be seen was cultivated for the benefit of the wise. This introduced spiritualism among civilized tribes, at first for the benefit of the leaders. So superstition became the power to worship, and as it was necessary that some one should explain the phenomena persons would be appointed, and so priests and prophets sprang up. These men must be paid and cared for and the people were taxed to support them.
At last the tribes formed themselves into nations and
kingdoms and gave the power to the priest, so the priest stood
at the head of the nation. As the priesthood was founded on
superstition, it was necessary to keep the people superstitious,
so all sorts of inventions were created to keep the people in
ignorance, and as science was invented or discovered all the
discoveries were kept a secret from the people so that any
chemical or mechanical effect could be produced and the
people would think it came from God. Astronomy was
discovered and the priests kept it as a revelation from heaven,
and all their astronomical calculations were made, not as a
science for the masses, but as a direct revelation from God to
bring about some great design. This kept the people in a
state of nervous excitement. Whatever the prophets could
make the people believe, they would create. So all they had
to do was to start a storm of evil spirits, and the peoples'
superstition would produce the phenomena wanted. This
was proof that evil spirits did exist. Then it was not hard
to make people believe evil spirits could get hold of them. At
last evil spirits became a matter of fact, so much so that at
the time of Saul there were some fifty ways of getting
conmmunications from God, and how many ways of getting it
from the devil I know not.
MAN'S IDENTITY
We often speak of man's identity as though there were but one identity attributed to him. This is not the case. Man has as many identities as he has opinions, and the one his senses are attached to last is the one that governs him. This may seem strange but it is true. Our senses are not our identity, because they cannot change, they are principles.
