at almost every stage with that of Babylonia, only in the dreamy land
of the Nile the pantheon and the vast body of variant myths were never
so thoroughly cooerdinated. The result is that its religion forever
remains a labyrinth. Since all interest centred about the future life,
instead of commercial pursuits, there is no evidence that the Egyptians
ever produced a legal code at all comparable with that of Hammurabi.
They did, however, develop a doctrine of sin which anticipates that of
the Hebrew prophets. While the Babylonians conceived of sin as simply
the failure to bring offerings, or to observe the demands of the ritual,
or, in general, to pay proper homage to the gods, the Egyptians held
that each individual was answerable, not only to the state, but also to
the gods, for his every act and thought.

[Sidenote: _Significance of this early religious progress_]

If they admitted of a comparison, it would be safe to say that the
Babylonian religion and law in the days of Hammurabi were as far removed
from the crude belief in spirits and the barbarous cults and practices
of primitive man as the teachings of Jesus were from those of the kingly
Babylonian lawgiver and his priestly advisers. Humanity's debt is
exceedingly great to the thousands of devoted souls who, in ancient
Babylonia and Egypt, according to their dim light, groped for God and
the right. In part they found what they sought, although they never
ceased to look through, a glass darkly.

[Sidenote: _Its arrest and decline_]

The sad and significant fact is that from the days of Hammurabi to those
of Nebuchadrezzar, Babylonian religion, law, and ethics almost entirely
ceased to develop. No other great kings with prophetic insight appear to