AN INCA'S VIEWS OF SUN WORSHIP.
It is related that about A. D. 1440, at a great religious council held in Peru, an Inca rose before the assembled sun-worshiping multitude and said:— “Many tell us that the sun made all things. But he who makes must remain with what he makes; now many things happen when the sun is absent, therefore he cannot make all things. It is doubtful if he is alive, since he never seems tired. If he were living he would grow weary, as we do; were he free he would sometimes go elsewhere. He is like an animal in harness, who has to go where he is driven, like an arrow which must go where it is sent by the archer. Therefore he, our father and mother, the sun, must have another master greater than himself, who compels him to go his daily round without peace or rest.” A name was, therefore, invented for this supreme power, and a temple built for his worship near Callao, in which were no images nor sacrifices. In like manner, led by the same profound religious instinct, the king of Lescueo, in Mexico, became tired of the idols of his kingdom, having prayed to them in vain for a son. “What are they,” he cried, “but dumb stones without sense or power? They could not have made this beautiful world,—the sun, moon, and stars, the waters and trees, and all the countless creatures which inhabit the world. There must be some invisible and unknown God, the Creator of all things; he alone can console me in my sorrow and take away my affliction.” Therefore he erected a temple nine stories high, which he dedicated to the Unknown God, the Cause of Causes. He seems to have repeated, without knowing it, the argument of Paul at Athens.—Ten Great Religions.