William Robertson Smith People Quotations

The god can no more exist without his people than the nation without its god.

In all the antique religions, mythology takes the place of dogma; that is, the sacred lore of priests and people... and these stories afford the only explanation that is offered of the precepts of religion and the prescribed rules of ritual.

The god, it would appear, was frequently thought of as the physical progenitor or first father of his people.