The feature of interest to which we draw attention in this room is related to some

strange customs of the Egyptians in connection with embalming, and we venture to speak

of the rather unpleasant details because we believe there lies buried beneath the accretion

of Egyptian idolatry remnants of primitive truth.

In wall case No. 74 will be seen a collection of jars, as shown in our illustration:--

These jars are called Canopic Jars, by reason of some real or supposed connection with

Canopus, the pilot of Menelaus. These jars received the internal organs of the deceased.

Each Canopic jar was dedicated to one of the four sons of Horus, or Osiris. These were

also the gods of the four cardinal points. The jars were provided with the lids which were

fashioned to represent the god to whom they were dedicated. The names of the gods are:-

It will be seen that the vital organs, or at least some of them, are placed under the

protection of the sons of Horus. Horus was worshipped in Egypt as the child--in the

arms of his mother Isis. The Messiah in the Old Testament is sometimes called "Lord"

(Heb. Adonai), so Tammuz (another name of Horus) was called Adon or Adonis.

As Mithras he is worshipped as the Mediator. As head of the covenant he is called

Baal-berith. In India as Vishnu the Preserver, he was worshipped as the great

"Victim-Man", and in the exercise of his office as the Remedial god he is said to "extract

the thorns of the three worlds." (See Hislop's Two Babylons, Index "Horus"). It will be

seen that the four sons of Horus are somehow related to the Pagan conception of

redemption. That conception is not pure myth, but rather a distortion of the truth once

given to primitive man.

We can well imagine that the awful tragedy of the fall of Adam, and his expulsion

from the garden in Eden, would be impressed upon the mind and memories of his

children, and that however far they went into idolatry and superstition, something of the

original truth would be retained. Satan saw to it that the titles and attributes of the "Seed

of the woman" should find a fulfillment in the false Messiahs of Paganism. At the end of

Gen. 3: we read of the cherubim that were placed at the gate of Eden's garden,

connected with the flaming sword that kept the way of the tree of life. The cherubim are

described in Ezekiel and in the Revelation as having the likeness of a lion, an ox, a man,

and an eagle. Together they form a pledge that fallen creation shall be restored, that man,

with his lost dominion (the cattle, the beast of the field, the fowl of the air), shall

ultimately be restored.

The four sons of Horus, with their faces of man, dog, jackal and hawk, perpetuate the

same story. Their custody of the vitals of the deceased, speak strongly of the idea that

they stand for the preservation and restoration of man.