Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick.

  • James Bonwick
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    68/474 (page 54)
    HE A VEN. HE Egyptians, said Diodorus, applauded the good man’s death, since that set him free to join the pious in the other world. The place was a sort of celestial Egypt, with a celestial Nile, lakes, and islands. The gate by which one ascended to it from Hades was called Ammah. Heaven was symbolised as a female, with her arms above her head, swimming in celestial space. Far from being a “Nirvana,” with nothing in the shape of employment, or, rather, a loss of personality in absorp- tion with Deity, this Aahlu was the scene of activity. But it contained no Houris or Apsaras, though there were 600,000,000 in the heaven of India. Elysium was termed “ Kingdom of the blessed; ” “Heaven of good;” “Field of divine harvest;” “Country of eter- nity ; ” “ Garden of bliss ; ” “ land of the river of life ; ” “ Land like earth, but without sorrow ; ” “ Region of those approved or accepted ;” “ Pools of peace,” “ Land of the sky,” “ House of life,” “ Hall of two truths.” It was phroma, or perfect bliss, where one was ever fed by Osiris himself. The Tract Society’s work on the Antiquities of Egypt gives the following as an inscription upon the Blessed : “ They have found favour in the eyes of the great God ; they inhabit the mansions of gloiy, where they enjoy the life of heaven; the bodies which they have abandoned shall repose for ever in their tombs, while they rejoice in the presence of the Supreme God.’ The triumph of the redeemed is recorded after the