"God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them: and he did it not." The religious sentiment appears, on the whole, to have been strong and deep-seated among the Assyrians.

Although religion had not the prominence in Assyria which it possessed in Egypt, or even in Greece--although the temple was subordinated to the palace, and the most imposing of the representations of the gods were degraded to mere architectural ornaments--yet the Assyrians appear to have been really, nay, even earnestly, religious.

Their religion, it must be admitted, was of a sensuous character.

They not only practised image-worship, but believed in the actual power of the idols to give protection or work mischief; nor could they rise to the conception of a purely spiritual and immaterial deity.

Their ordinary worship was less one of prayer than one by means of sacrifices and offerings.