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A QUESTION
OF
MIRACLES
PARALLELS IN THE LIVES OF
BUDDHA AND JESUS
A CRITICAL EXAMINATION of the SO-CALLED
MIRACLES SURROUNDING THE
BIRTH, LIFE AND DEATH OF BUDDHA
AND JESUS
AND THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF OTHER
MIRACLE-WORKERS
BIBLE MIRACLES HANDLED WITHOUT
GLOVES.
CONTAINS. IN CONCRETE FORM. THE ESSENCE OF THE
LIFE OF BUDDHA IN INDIA
AS SHOWN IN THOSE FAMOUS WORKS ON ORIENTAL
PHILOSOPHY AND EASTERN RELIGION
“The Sacred Books of the East”
BY
LOREN HARPER WHITNEY
OF THE CHICAGO BAR, AUTHOR OF
ZOROASTER, THE GREAT PERSIAN
SECOND EDITION
https://archive.org/details/questionofmiracls00whit
Arranged for publication in its present form, with new title page,
by DR. L. W. de LAURENCE, who is now sole owner of this wonderful work, the same to
now serve as "TEXT BOOK" NUMBER FOUR fcr“THE CONGRESS OF
ANCIENT, DIVINE, MENTAL and CHRISTIAN MASTERS"
PUBLISHED EXCLUSIVELY BY
de LAURENCE, SCOTT CO.
CHICAGO, ILL., U. S. A.
1910
THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
309025B
ABTIl, LENOX AND
TH.DEN FOUNDATIONS
K 1945 L
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX.
Chapter X.
Chapter XI.
Chapter XII.
Chapter XIII.
Chapter XIV.
Chapter XV.
Chapter XVI.
Chapter XVII.
Chapter XVIII.
Chapter XIX.
is t * •
The Wonderful Happenings in the
Life of Buddha.
Some Hebrew and Hindu Miracles.
The Miraculous Parentage of Jesus.
The Birth and Boyhood of Jesus.
Were there Miracles at Jesus’ Birth?
A Few More Parallels.
Buddha Seeks Religion in the Forest.
Buddha Rejects a Kingdom.
The Fastings and Temptations of
Buddha and Jesus.
Buddhism Known in Palestine Before
Jesus Was Bom.
Buddhism Known in Syria, Greece,
Rome, Before the Birth of Jesus.
The Miracles of Apollonius.
Buddha Against Brahmanism.
The Doctrine of Immortality in Pal-
estine and India.
Man a Protoplasm: The Corrected
Genesis.
Hindu and Hebrew Sacrifices.
Mode of Worship of the Jews: Wnat
Jesus Saw in Jerusalem.
The Heaven and Hell of Buddha and
Jesus.
The Doctrines of Jesus and Buddha.
CONTENTS
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
XXI. The Miracles at the Crucifixion of
Jesus.
XXII. Contradictory Testimony Concerning
the Crucifixion.
XXIII. Miracles in the Lives of Buddha and
Jesus.
XXIV. Was It Resurrection or Was It Re-
suscitation ?
XXV. The Miracles of Jesus’ Appearance to
the Disciples.
XXVI. Death—or Syncope?
XXVII. Matthew and Luke Take the Stand.
XXVIII. John and His Curious Gospel.
XXIX. Examination of Luke Resumed.
XXX. Apocryphal Miracles as Recounted in
the Apocryphal Gospels.
XXXI. The Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus
Compared with the Canonicals.
XXXII. More Apocryphal Miracles.
XXXIII. The Apocryphal Gospel of Marcion
Compared with Luke’s Canonical.
XXXIV. In Conclusion.
INTRODUCTION.
Zoroaster, Buddha and Jesus were no doubt the
greatest religious teachers that ever lived.
As I have treated of Zoroaster in a separate volume,
I will here only add, that while most marvellous things
are told of Buddha and Jesus in these pages, yet in
some matters Zoroaster surpassed them both. For the
Persian Bible earnestly tells us that Zoroaster was once
so honored by Ormazd (God) that He actually sent
an Archangel to him, who told him to lay aside his
mortal vestments and visit heaven.
As Zoroaster approached the Iranian heaven, its bril-
liancy was so dazzling that there was no shadow there.
Ormazd (God) was on his throne, and he tells
Zoroaster that the first perfection of a Saint is “Good
thoughts; the next is good words, and the third is good
deeds.”
As all religions deal in the marvellous, is it any more
wonderful that Ormazd counseled Zoroaster than that
God talked to Moses and Abraham?
We shall be told in this book that an angel actually
held down the branches of a tree and thereby saved
Buddha from being drowned in the Ganges.
We shall be told that angels came and ministered
7
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
unto Jesus. So also we shall here learn that angels
frequently ministered unto Buddha.
Jesus, it is said, could actually walk on water. The
Hindu Bible tells us that Buddha, on reaching the Nar-
angana river, found it swollen beyond its banks; He
did not wait for a skiff or a canoe, but actually walked
on air, and crossed over dry shod. Jesus, it is said,
could raise his body up in the air, even after he had
been in his grave two or three days.
The Hindus insist that a star came down to wel-
come Buddha, and they name the identical star. In
Palestine, it is said, a star came and stood over the
place where Jesus was born.
Reader, this book gives you glimpses of your ances-
tors eight or ten thousand years back.
Loren Harper Whitney.
October i, 1908.
A QUESTION of MIRACLES
PARALLELS IN
THE LIVES OF BUDDHA AND JESUS
CHAPTER I
The Wonderful Happenings in the Life of
Buddha.
Section i. It is becoming more and more apparent
every day, that at man’s advent on earth, he had
scanty knowledge of himself. In fact, he must have
looked about him and asked: Whence came I? He
knew within himself that he did not ask to come; he
found himself here, naked and compelled to battle with
the elements and the beasts of the forests for existence.
Later on, he no doubt questioned, as millions have
since done: How came I here; and what am I here
for?
At his coming, he must shortly have noticed that
he was less equipped for the struggles of life than the
wild animals of the woods.
Life was a mystery to him; and death he had never
teen. He had no language, for language is an inven-
11
12
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
tion, an acquisition. His food must have been gath-
ered from the roots and briers and brambles of the
forest. His couch was probably at the foot of a tree,
or by some friendly log. Such, in brief, was man at
his coming. But he possessed a brain that ultimately
gave him mastery over the beasts of the fields and the
fowls of the air. The sun gave him light and heat,
and the moon gave him light, and he was thankful to
them. They were his friends; he bowed down to
them, and at last worshiped them. Here was the
beginning of religion; man began to worship some-
thing that could do him some good. And that idea,
born perhaps twenty thousand, and probably forty or
fifty thousand years ago, has followed the race on
down to the present day. Man worships God, with
the expectation and hope that he will give him a
beautiful place on the eternal shores. But this also
must be said of man—his whole pathway is red with
wars, slaughter, brutality and misery. Even his
religions have reddened many a field. But the two
religions, Buddhism and Christianity, which today
almost control the destinies of the world, were not
in existence twenty-five hundred years ago. There
have been many old religions, which for a time flour-
ished, then faded, and finally passed away. Nor is it
probable that Mohammedanism can stand against the
softening influences of time. Christianity and Bud-
dhism now hold the stage, and it is doubtful if any
new-born faith can ever supersede them. Religions
teach of hells; but as time elapses, there is no doubt
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 13
that the pains of the Hells, as originally taught, will
be somewhat assuaged.
Buddhism preceded Christianity by about five hun-
dred years. Its founder was Gotama, a Hindu Prince,
born in India about two thousand four hundred years
ago (1), not far from the foot of the Himalaya
Mountains.
The birthplace of Jesus, the founder of Christianity,
five hundred years later, was Nazareth, a little hamlet
in Galilee, sixty-five or seventy miles north of Jerusa-
lem. There are some who insist that Jesus was bom
at Bethlehem, a few miles south of Jerusalem. (2)
A man’s birthplace, however, has little to do with his
subsequent career.
History is full of well known names, in proof of
this; and we readily recall Alexander, Caesar and Na-
poleon; but those men were simply destroyers of their
race.
They rolled in blood; and not one of them has left
a single line or motto to improve humanity by pon-
dering it. Statesmen there have been whose names
(1) There are those who maintain that Buddha was born 54$
years B. C. But the proof is not entirely certain. Besides, for
my purpose, a score or more of years beyond 500 B. C. is not
absolutely important.
(2) Many people stoutly maintain that Jesus was born in
Bethlehem; because Isaiah, 750 years B. C., said a virgin should
bear a son. If the reader will examine ch. 7, Isaiah, he will see
that as Ahaz would not ask a “sign,” the Lord said he would
give him a sign, etc. Now if the sign was a virgin and a son, the
supposed happening in Bethlehem did not come about until 750
years later, and Ahaz died more than 730 years before the Beth-
lehem “sign*1 2 * * * * * * 9 came. However, as that matter is to be examined
In the body of this work, I will not extend this note further.
14
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
are written in many books, but most of them were
simply schemers, who planned and plotted to rob
other countries of their lands or liberties, or both.
Section 2. Buddha and Jesus were cast in vastly
different moulds from such men.
Neither Buddha nor Jesus sought self aggrandize*
ment. Nor did they use force to disseminate their
doctrines. Buddha’s teachings, as we shall presently
see, tended to ameliorate many hard conditions of the
human family. In short, he found the Sudras a
degraded, enslaved class: and his teachings brought
them freedom.
He treated them with kindness. He gave them
sympathy and love. Yet it took nearly 2,400 years
from Buddha’s day, before any statesman was found
with heart, brain and courage sufficient to write into
a great state Declaration, that “all men are created
equal.” And that statesman was Thomas Jefferson,
an American, born in a country of which neither
Buddha nor Jesus ever heard.
And a full century more elapsed before Abraham
Lincoln came forth, another great soul, who could
say to his people: “Let us go forward, with charity
for all, but with firmness in the right, as God gives
us to see the right.” The germs for these two quo-
tations are found in the Hindu bible and the New
Testament; and we shall find further along many
striking parallels in those two books, and in the lives
of the great Hindu and the great Galilean, as well.
The births of both Buddha and Jesus, if the records
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 15
do not mislead us, were as extraordinary as their
subsequent lives were beneficent. Of Buddha it is
said he had been bom time and again in innumerable
kalpas (3); in every grade of life; yet through the
exercise of wisdom, patience, love and charity, he had
progressed upward, until as a Bodhisat, he reposed
securely in the Tusita, or fourth heaven.
But the earth was rolling in darkness; and that he
might bring salvation to man, we are told that he
voluntarily renounced his blissful abode in the Hindu
heaven, and became incarnate, to be bom a Buddha.
(4)
Whether it be true that a Bodhisat, when about to
be incarnated, can, or could, select his parents, his
time, and his country in which to be bora, also his
period of gestation, it is highly problematical; but if
Buddha made the choice herein mentioned, he was
both wise and fortunate. For at that time, 500 to
543 years b. c., Suddhodana, a raja, or prince of the
Sakhyas, held sway at Kapilavastu; an unimportant
place, fifty or sixty miles north of Benares in India.
The mighty Ganges rolled its waters a short distance
south of Kapilavastu; and here lived Suddhodana and
Maya, his Queen. Maya has a very remarkable
(3) A Kalpa ia a vast period of time, equal to millions aad
millions of years.
(4) The Hindus have seven heavens and the Tusita heaven
is the fourth. Our Gospels give us only three heavens. Paul
was eaught up to the third. (2 Cor. 12.) Jesus was carried up
into heaven (Luke 24, v. 51), and that, too, just after eating a
piece of broiled flah and honeycomb. (Luke 24:42.) However,
they eat and drink in the Jewish Heaven.)
i6
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
dream (5); and in that dream she sees a white ele-
phant hovering above her; then it vanishes, she hears
music, and beholds the devas (Hindu angels) scatter-
ing flowers about her, and she inhales their fragrance.
The seers interpret the dream, and tell her that it
means the descent of the Holy Spirit (Shing-Shin)
into her womb; and that the child to be born will be
an all-powerful monarch, ruling the world; or a
Buddha, whose mission will be to save all mankind.
When the Queen felt that her time was approaching,
she visited the garden of Lumbini, a quiet retreat,
where, it is said, with thousands of attendants and
amid flowers and fountains, her son, the future
Buddha, was born without pain, from her right side.
Angels sang for gladness, the same as they did when
Jesus was born (6) and many marvelous events tran-
spired, indicating joy at the nativity. Among other
things the star Pushya came down to welcome the
new-born wonder. It may have been the same star
that 500 years later came down and stood over another
young child, not far from Jerusalem. (7)
Section 3. The biographers of Buddha are even
more careless and extravagant in their statements
(5) The reader should notice that in our Bible Joseph dreams
the dream. Matt. 1, v. 20.
(6) Luke 2, v. 13.
(7) The Hindus grow wildly extravagant about Buddha’s
incarnation and birth, and set forth that ten thousand world
systems quaked and trembled. But the most astonishing and in-
credulous thing of all is that a star should “come down,” either
in Palestine or India, to welcome either Buddha or Jesus. But I
will notice that wild statement hereafter. ^
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
17
than Matthew and Luke; for they state that, at
Buddha’s birth, the earth was so severely shaken that
all the hilly places suddenly became smooth; that all
trees spontaneously bore fruit; that even dead trees
sprouted leaves and dowers; that great droves of lions
roamed about Kapilavastu without harming anyone,
being probably the same breed of lions that refused
to devour Daniel (8) ; that the devas (angels) caused
a perfumed rain to fall on every part of the globe;
and that fountains of pure water spontaneously gushed
forth in the king’s palace; that tens of thousands of
angels thronged together in the air; and heavenly
music sounded entrancingly through all space. It will
not be very hard to believe the statement that the sun
and moon stood still at this event; because Joshua
had accustomed them to obey orders, some nine hun-
dred years before this, when he was down there having
trouble with the Amorites at Gilgal and Gibeon. (9)
Even the wicked were benefited by Buddha’s birth;
for we read that the terrors and pains in the different
Hindu hells (and the Hindus have many of them)
were assuaged for a time; and young children that
day, born deaf and blind, were at once restored to
sight and hearing. Moreover, the spirit inhabiting the
tree under which this wonderful child was bom, bent
down its branches in silent adoration. In short, if
the record sets forth the truth, some thirty odd super-
natural events occurred, to herald forth the greatness
(8) Daniel 6, v. 22.
(9) Joshua X., v. 10 to 14.
-
18 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
of the occasion; the child himself adding to the
amazement of every one, by deliberately taking seven
steps, and declaring that he had been “bom to save
the world.” Mary at nine months, took nine steps. (io)
Heaven itself seemed willing to add to the joy of
the moment; for we are told that at the birth of
Buddha two pure streams of water, one warm and the
other cool, spouted forth and baptized the prodigy
without delay.
Malevolence and contentions for a time were ban-
ished from all minds; concord and good-will pre-
vailed; diseases cured themselves without medicine;
and if the angels (devas) did not shout “peace on
earth and good will toward men,” those Hindus pro-
claimed the same sentiment most vigorously. Mara,
the king of the evil world, alone objected. (11)
A seer of renown, in studying signs and portents,
predicted that the boy would either become a mighty
monarch, ruling empires in righteousness; or, as a
heavenly teacher, he would put an end to evil, and
bring universal deliverance to mankind.
Asita, another seer, at that time appeared before
the king, and said, “As I was coming on the Sun’s
way (12), I heard the angels in space rejoicing because
the king had bom to him a son who would teach the
(10) Protevangelium, ch. 4 and 7.
(11) Matthew, chap. 2, v. 11, says wise men brought gems of
gold and treasures. Buddha also has treasures and angels at his
birth. Vol. 10, 2nd part, Sacred Books, p. 123.
(12) That is, from the East. In the days of Herod wise
men saw a star as they came from the East. Simeon visited Jesus
(Luke, 2:25,35). He was the Asita of the East.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 19
true way of emancipation from sin. Moreover, I be-
held other portents, which constrained me to now
seek thy presence.”
Asita thereupon examined the child, and finding nu-
merous birth marks foreshowing a wonderful career,
was observed to sigh and weep. The king, alarmed at
this, and thinking that the seer had observed that his
beautiful son must shortly die, besought him to forbid
it, for his father’s sake, and for the kingdom’s weal.
To this pathetic entreaty, Asita replied: “The king
desires that his son shall live, to inherit his wealth
and his kingdom. But his son is bom to bless all that
lives: he will forsake his kingdom; and he will prac-
tice austerities; he will grasp the truth; and as the
world is led captive by lust and covetousness, he has
been bom to open out a way of salvation.”
Thereupon, the seer, it is said, ascended into space
and disappeared. (13) When the child was ten days
old he was named Siddhartha, and the king ordered
a sacrifice to the gods; Samanas (priests) invoked
blessings from heaven; and, moreover, the king be-
stowed gifts upon all the poor, and opened the prison
doors and set all captives free.
But with all this rejoicing, there was one dark
cloud of sudden grief. Queen Maya, beholding her
son, with a beauty not before seen on earth, died of
excessive joy. Gotami, his aunt, thenceforth took
(13) Hebrew writers enlarge on this, for Luke tells ns that a
anititude of angels appeared at Jens’ birth. (Lake 2, v. 10
to IS.)
90 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
and nourished the child as her own. When old
enough, teachers were assigned to him; but at one
sitting, he surpassed them all. (14)
His father, remembering meanwhile the predictions
of Asita that the son was destined to forsake home
and kingdom, become an ascetic, and establish the
law of love and charity for mankind, sought to divert
him from his purpose with every possible worldly
allurement. Therefore, at the early age of nineteen,
he caused Siddhartha to marry his cousin Yasodhara,
the beautiful daughter of a neighboring prince.
Repressing all giddy conversation, he lived with
her a restrained, virtuous, and religious life. It is
said, “he bathed his body in the waters of the Ganges,
but cleansed his heart in the waters of religion.”
The years flitted rapidly by, and the old king was
overjoyed when Rahula, his grandson, was bom; for
he reasoned that Siddhartha would now abandon the
thought of becoming an ascetic, and devote himself to
the succession. Thus would the scepter be safely
handed down, and the glory of the kingdom be en-
larged.
Now if there be such an ungodly thing as predesti-
nation, or fixed fate, then, in Buddha’s case, that
doctrine had a firm root and grew and blossomed, as
never before or since. For at every turn his royal
father sought to allure him from his ascetic notions;
(14) Jesus, at twelve, disputed with the scribes in the temple.
(Luke, ch. 2, v. 46 to 50.) It must not be forgotten that Asita
and Simeon are both ascetics; and both are represented as being
inspired.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 21
and to that end fixed beautiful gardens for him to
stroll in, musicians to charm his senses, and attendants
to anticipate his every want. But accident, or fate,
easily overcame all this; for one holiday, while riding
in his chariot, he saw at the roadside an old man,
bent and worn, clutching a stick to support his tot-
tering frame. (15) On reflection he knew, as all do
know, that life’s journey, from romping childhood to
wrinkled age, is but a steady tramp to an open grave.
Later on he saw a sick man, then a dead man; and
those objects chained his thoughts effectively. He
might well have said, “All flesh is as grass; and all
the glory of man, as the flower of the grass.” (16)
The king, knowing well that the beauty of woman
and her lustful arts, had brought many a proud spirit
to her feet, now enlisted that powerful auxiliary.
Graceful forms flitted about the prince, sweet faces
smiled upon him, and ravishing looks met him at
every turn. But the Prince remained obdurate. Then
some arranged their light drapery to catch his eye;
while others, half modestly, half amorously, with all
the little crafty arts that beauty is mistress of, strove
to move him. The prince looked on all this with a
clouded brow.
Then came Udaya, smooth of tongue, with argu-
ments unctuous yet deceptive, and urged him to get
pleasures from dalliance; for, said he, “Pleasure is the
(15) This supposed old man was a deva (an angel) with
changed form to exhibit to the prince the certain lot of all flesh.
(16) 1st Peter, 24.
as A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
foremost thought of all; the gods themselves cannot
dispense with it” (17) And he cited many cases
where great seers who had undergone long periods
of discipline, yet had been overcome by woman’s
wiles.
“If I were to consent,” replied the prince, “I should
defile my mind and body. It would be a hollow com-
pliance, and a protesting heart. Such methods are not
for me to follow.”
Section 4. The king, learning from Udaya that
all his arguments were unavailing, forthwith set about
devising other means to whet the prince’s appetite for
pleasure. The chariot and prancing steeds were again
brought forth; and, with a train of nobles, his father
sent him beyond the city to see if cool breezes and
charming scenes might not call away his thoughts to
lighter subjects. It was a fatal mistake.
For directly he saw the farmers working in the
fields, their bodies tired and bent, sweat streaming
from their faces, the oxen lashed to compel them to
draw heavy loads, and even young boys and girls
struggling to force from the earth a scanty subsist-
ence. Forthwith he dismissed his retinue; and, under
the shade of a Gambu tree, contemplated the whole
painful scene.
The prince beheld in miniature a picture of what is
transpiring in every part of the earth. Man, confined
on these dark shores, is a prisoner, doomed to trouble
(17) Fo-Sho-Hing, Section 895,
A QUESTION OF MIRACLJES
as
and death the day he is born. Neither pleadings nor
prayers will change that inexorable law. With here
and there a glint of temporary sunshine, the whole
world is pervaded with misery and sorrow.
While Gotama was thus pondering his course, it is
said an angel of the pure abode, transforming himself
into the likeness of a Bhikkhu (18) appeared before
him and said, “My name is Shaman, and being sad
at the thought of age,* disease, and death, I have left
my home to seek some way of rescue. I therefore
search for the happiness that never perishes, that heeds
not wealth nor beauty.” And, while he thus spake,
there in the presence of the prince, he gradually rose
in the air and disappeared in the heavens.
This is now the second time this unusual occurrence
has happened, and the reader will no doubt demand
some explanation of it. It is truly unique and un-
precedented; yet in Palestine people frequently as-
cended to heaven, but they generally had some means
of conveyance. Elijah was provided with a chariot
of fire, and horses of fire; and, moreover, he had a
whirlwind to give him a good fair start. (19)
(18) After Buddha’s enlightenment, and when his ehurdi was
established, he made a rule that anyone desiring to become
Bhikkhu must first have his hair and beard cut off and put on
a yellow robe; he must then salute the feet of the Bhikkhus and
sit down squatting; then raise his joined hands and say, “I take
my refuge in Buddha, I take my refuge in Dhamma (the law),
I take my refuge in the Samgha (the church).” -This he repeated
three times.
Buddha, the law, and the church, were called the “holy triad.”
Afterwards this threefold declaration was abolished, and the
Samgha voted as to whether or not an applicant should receive
the ordination or be admitted therein*
(19) Kings, cb* 2, v. 11.
24 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
And when the angel came to tell Manoah about
Samson, although he had no vehicle to make the
ascension in, the flames from off the altar (20) carried
him up without any mishap. In a very early affair, all
we have of the record is: “Enoch was not, for God
took him.” (21)
In Shaman's case, and in these others, just how
they overcame the law of gravitation I cannot tell;
and as Newton was not bom "to expound that law
until two thousand years later, the law does not seem
to have been in operation, at least in India and Jeru-
salem. I leave this matter here at present, but will
examine it further along.
Section 5. The prince, after seeing Shaman arise
and disappear in space, returned to the palace and
sought his father’s presence; from whom he begged
permission “to leave the world.” “Stop,” said the
father; “stop! you are too young to lead a religious
life. Take this kingdom’s government. Let me be-
come an ascetic. You should first win an illustrious
name, and when life’s flame bums low, seek the soli-
tudes, and devote the remnant of your years to relig-
ious duties.” (22)
“I will remain,” replied the son, “if you will grant
me life without end, no disease, nor withered age, and
the kingdom’s permanence.”
(20) Judges, eh. 13, ?. 20.
(21) Gen. 5.
(22) It had long been the custom in India for the aged to
‘leave the world”—in other words, to close their lives as ascetics.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 25
“To ask such things provokes derision,” replied the
father, “for who is able to grant them ?” And forth-
with he ordered every avenue of escape guarded; and
sent for the nobles and all the illustrious of the king-
dom, to hasten and explain to his son the rules of
filial obedience.
All this, however, was of no avail. The decisive
hour in the prince’s career had struck. His doors had
been securely bolted, lest he escape; but a deva of the
pure abode, we are told, descended and unfastened
them. “That is something supernatural,” said the
prince; and forthwith he called Kandaka to quickly
saddle and bring him his horse.
The gates also, which were before fast barred, were
found to be broad open. (23) And while Kandaka
stood considering whether he would obey the prince’s
order, the horse came round of his own accord, fully
caparisoned for a rider.
This story, marvelous as it may seem, is not as
wonderful as that told of Peter, about five hundred
years later. Herod had arrested Peter and put him in
prison; and he was sleeping between two soldiers,
bound with two chains. And the angel of the Lord
(possibly Buddha’s deva) came, and a light shone in
the prison, “and the angel smote Peter on the side and
raised him up, saying: ‘Arise up quickly.’ And his
chains fell off from his hands. (24) And the angel
(23) The Devas, in this instance, were probably some of the
Prince’s friends.
(24) The twelfth chapter of Acts, quoted above, is believed
by many to be actually true, because it is so printed in the
26 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
said unto him, ‘Gird thyself and bind on thy sandals’;
and so he did. And he said, ‘Cast thy garment about
thee, and follow me.’ And he went out and wist not
that it was true which was done by the angel; but
thought he saw a vision. And they came unto the
iron gate that leadeth to the city, which opened to them
of its own accord, and they went out, and passed on
through one street; and forthwith the angel departed
from him.” Peter was now certain that the Lord had
sent his angel to deliver him out of the hand of Herod.
I think I ought to add that the Hindu record seems
nearer the truth than the Hebrew record. For the
former says the heavenly spirits caused the barred
gates to open, while verse io, Acts 12, says ‘‘the iron
gate opened of his own accord ”
The Hindu poet would have us believe that four
spirits held up the feet of the horse, lest his trampling
might alarm the castle; and that the Prince was
cheered on his way by a great concourse of angels and
Nagas (demigods) so that when the morning light
streamed up in the East the man and horse were three
Yoganas distant (about twenty miles).
In these cases is it not safer to believe that both
Peter and the Prince escaped solely by the help of
human hands? For how is it possible that Peter’s
chains could "fall off from his hands,” unless those
chains were unlocked or filed off? And four men, not
New Testament. But belief never makes a thing true. Moreover,
if the story of Peter and the angel had been printed in the Hindu
Bible we would discredit it entirely, at once. Are either of these
stories true?
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 27
angels, no doubt managed the feet of Buddha’s horse
(padded them, probably) so as not to alarm the king.
God never does for man what man can do for him-
self. Moreover, it must not be overlooked that early
Hindu writers were fully as extravagant as were the
Hebrews, five hundred years later.
CHAPTER II
Some Hebrew and Hindu Miracles.
Section i. As we have already encountered
miracles, or supposed miracles, and in the further
progress of this work shall be compelled to make
frequent mention of them, let us at once define and
illustrate that wonderful thing, a miracle. But first
let us notice that for nearly nineteen hundred years
past, no miracle, well attested, has ever taken place.
Hence the inquiry arises: Did there ever happen any-
where, at any period of the world, such a thing as a
miracle? And is there any miracle, at any period of
the world’s history, that is well attested?
What then is a miracle? It is a supernatural event,
contrary to the known or established laws of nature.
In other words, those laws must be set aside, or
annulled, for the time being, in order that something
contrary to them can take place. To illustrate: sup-
pose a man were to be decapitated, his head would roll
from his body, his blood would gush forth from his
veins and arteries, his body would soon become cold,
pale, rigid; you would be sworn that the body of such
a man was surely dead. But here comes a Thauma-
turgus, a miracle worker, who puts that man’s head
28
-
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 29
back upon that body, fills his veins with blood, causes
his heart again to beat, and breath again to come into
his nostrils. You would watch such a performance
with protruding eyes, and be amazed at the wonderful
transforming scene, if that man came back to life.
Now if such a thing could actually take place, under
careful observation, before a jury or concourse of
reputable persons known to be such, and the proofs
or verdict duly made and attested, we might reluc-
tantly give our assent. But not a single one of the
supposed miracles recorded in either the Hindu or the
Hebrew bible, took place under conditions such as
above indicated. Ignorant and superstitious people
readily give credence to supernatural wonders. Yet
God’s laws are the same and unchangeable, yesterday,
today and forever. But where a people for genera-
tions have been taught to believe in such things as
miracles, the slightest and most flimsy evidence will
suffice.
In the Hindu sacred books (1) we find the miracu-
lous story of Mendaka; who, when he wanted his
granary filled, would bathe his head, sweep out his
granary, sit down by the side of it, and cause showers
of grain to fall dmvn from the sky and fill his granary.
His wife was also possessed of very miraculous pow-
ers. She could sit by the side of a “pint pot
and vessel for curry” and dip and dip, and so long as
she did not get up, the vessel of curry was not ex-
(1) VoL 17, p. 121, Sacred Books of the East
30 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
hausted. In fact, Mendaka’s whole family were very
miraculously endowed. Their son could take a small
bag of money and give to each serving man six
months’ wages, and so long as he held the bag in his
hand its contents were not exhausted. This easy and
comfortable way of meeting all of life’s wants soon
created such a commotion among the Hindus that
King Binbasara, so we are told, sent a minister to find
out about it. For even their slave was possessed of a
miraculous power, as when he plowed with one plow-
share seven furrows were turned over.
On reaching Mendaka, the minister made known
his mission, whereupon Mendaka bathed his head,
swept out his granary, and sat down beside it; when,
lo! to the astonishment of the minister, showers of
grain, so we are told, fell down from the sky and
filled the granary to overflowing. Mendaka’s wife
also exhibited her miraculous gift by dipping from a
pint pot until she fed a host of people.
We stoutly dispute this Hindu story because we do
not find it printed in the Hebrew bible. But many
people have no trouble in believing, and some are abso-
lutely certain, that Elijah, the Tishbite, who lived
some four hundred years before Mendaka’s time, pos-
sessed that same miraculous power.
Elijah, it seems, by the Lord’s direct command to
the ravens (2), was regularly fed by them, morning
(2) The raven is a carrion eater, and if it brought Elijah
some of its own kind of food, then Elijah’s bill of fare was hor-
rible indeed.
3i
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
and evening, until “the brook Cherith dried up”; then
the Lord told him to go to Zarephath, a little village
in Zidon, where he had commanded a widow woman
to support him.
On reaching Zarephath, Elijah found the widow
gathering sticks, and begged her to fetch him a morsel
of bread.
The woman replied, “I have put a handful of meal
in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse, and I am gath-
ering these sticks that I may dress it for me and my
son, that we may eat it and die.” Elijah told her to
fear not, “for the Lord God of Israel saith ‘the barrel
of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil
fail, until the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.’ ”
And the widow, we are told, did as Elijah directed,
for “he and she did eat many days” (some say a whole
year) “and the barrel of meal wasted not (3), neither
did the cruse of oil fail.”
Both of these stories seem fabulous in the extreme,
but nearly one thousand years later we find one greatly
more wonderful, which was written concerning Jesus
about one hundred years after his tragical death. He
had heard of the cruel butchery of John the Baptist by
Herod, and probably fearing a similar fate for him-
self, he and his disciples took ship privately on the
sea of Galilee, and landed at “a desert place” not far
from Bethsaida. (4)
Section 2. At this time Jesus had already gained
32
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
the reputation of an exorcist, or healer, and the people,
learning of his hiding place, thronged after him in
multitudes, that he might cure their sick. (5)
The day being far spent, his disciples pressed him
to “send the people to the villages and country round
about, to buy bread for themselves, for they had noth-
ing to eat.”
“How many loaves have you?” inquired Jesus.
And the apostles replied, “Five loaves and two fishes.”
(6) “Bring them hither,” said Jesus (7), and he
commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, by
fifties in a company (8), and he took the five loaves
and two small fishes, and looking up to heaven he
blessed and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples;
and they, to the multitude; and they all ate and were
all tilled.
The record says there were about five thousand men
that partook of this repast, besides women and chil-
dren. (9) And that nothing might be lost, Jesus
ordered the fragments of the feast to be gathered up,
and the fragments that remained filled twelve bas-
kets. (10)
This feeding of so great a multitude surpasses by
(5) The story about his feeding 5,000 people miraculously, took
its present form about 100 or 120 years after his death, as we
shall see hereafter.
(6) John, ch. 6, v. 9, says five barley loaves and two small
fishes. But John is always extravagant in his statements.
(7) Matt. 14, v. 18.
(8) Grass does not grow in a desert.
(9) Matt. 14, v. 21.
(10) Luke 9, v. 12 to 17.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 33
far Mendaka’s miracle, for here we have probably
more than ten thousand men, women and children.
And all these make a full meal of that which comes to
Jesus from a mysterious, unseen quarter. And the
fishes were cooked, for they surely would not eat raw
fish. Let us inquire who baked those barley loaves?
Moreover, that barley must have been first planted and
grown. It must have been reaped and winnowed. It
must have been ground and kneaded, baked and
brought to that “desert place.” That crowd would
have devoured more than two wagon loads of bread
alone. It would consume as much as ten full regi-
ments. Then there were the fish. Who caught those
fish? Who scaled and cooked them? Who brought
them thither? Mendaka is here very far surpassed,
and even Elijah is left a long way behind.
Did the bread and the fish pour down from the skies
in two great streams, into Jesus’ hands, after the man-
ner of grain into Mendaka’s bins ?
But I am told there is nothing impossible with God.
Yes, there are some things impossible even with Him.
It is impossible for Him to add two and two and make
the sum equal to five. He can not make this paper
upon which I am writing, all white and all black at the
same instant. He can not make two adjoining hills
without a hollow between them. He can not make two
parallel lines intersect each other. Besides, there is no
place in history where it can be shown that God ever
did anything for man where man could do for himself.
There was no necessity for those people to be thus fed.
34
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
They could, it seems (n), have gone into “the vil-
lages round about and bought for themselves.” More-
over, those live thousand men do not tell us that they
were thus miraculously fed. They are all silent,
mouldering in their graves more than one hundred
years, when this story of the loaves and fishes is
written about them by Matthew and others.
Jesus himself never wrote a word about it. And
right at the exact point where we want full and com-
plete information about how all those fishes and those
loaves got into Jesus’ hands, we are left in the
dark. (12)
Section 3. If the record be true, there must have
been a secret hidden spout, unseen by the multitude,
which conveyed to Jesus this marvelous amount of
food. For God can not make two small dead fishes
into a hundred or five hundred fishes, any more than
He can make two and five to be a thousand.
A seeming miracle in and of itself is not always con-
vincing, for wizards and magicians have been able to
do the same tricks; as, when the Hebrews were seek-
ing deliverance from Egypt, the Lord told Aaron to
cast his rod before Pharaoh, and the rod became a ser-
pent. (13) Pharaoh does not seem to have been as-
tounded at this, for he called his own magicians and
sorcerers, and they cast down their rods, and they
(11) Matt. 14, v. 15.
(12) I shall not stop to mention a similar performance in
ch. 15 of Matt., v. 32 to 39; if one be true the other may be
also. Both, however, are extremely doubtful.
(13) Exodus 7, 8 to 12.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 35
likewise became serpents. This curious legend is not
complete unless we mention that Aaron’s rod swal-
lowed up all the other rods. The record here discloses
more than was intended, for it makes the plain asser-
tion that magicians and sorcerers could perform mir-
acles as well as the Hebrew priests.
I mention this matter here, not for the purpose of
either affirming or denying the truth of the legend,
but to emphasize the fact that for more than fifteen
hundred years before Jesus was born, the Hebrews had
learned from their holy books, and had been taught
by their priests, so much about miracles and angels,
that such things, even if they had not become an in-
herited belief, were regarded as the particular heir-
loom of their race.
Such thoughts were in the very air, and children
from generation to generation were taught to believe
in the supernatural.
But I shall be told that no sleight-of-hand perfor-
mance or legerdemain can or could ever cause a hungry
man to be deceived as to whether he had eaten a full
meal or not. So much is true; but no one of these five
thousand men who are alleged to be present in that
desert place near Bethsaida, has ever said that he was
present, or that he knew anything about the supposed
miracle whereby he was fed.
Nor do I assert that the miracle did not take place;
but this I insist upon, viz.: that the proof to establish
it is totally insuMcient. True, there are four persons
who have written an account about that marvelous af-
/
36 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
fair, but not one of them tells us that he saw the trans-
action. Nor do they tell us how or where he, or they,
got their information.
At most their evidence is only hearsay of the cheap-
est sort. It may have its whole foundation based upon
falsehood. Does any sane person today believe that
Aaron’s rod swallowed the magicians’ rods, even if
they were turned into serpents ?
If four of the most truthful men or greatest saints
in America were to declare that they saw a similar
transaction, in some desert place, or any place, they
would be questioned and cross-questioned until every
fact, even to the minutest particular, would be known,
and the people who partook of the feast would be called
upon to confirm or disprove the matter. There was
surely no such thing in this Bethsaida affair.
Even as in India after Buddha’s death, the mar-
velous in the Hindu bible subsided somewhat, we may
notice that in Palestine about a century, or perhaps a
little more, after Jesus died, miracles took their flight
to fairyland, from whence they came, and now
for nearly nineteen hundred years they have failed to
return. As miracles suddenly ceased with the deaths
of those two great personages, we again press the
question, Did the miracles ever have a beginning?
Section 4. Henceforth in these pages when I en-
counter the marvelous I shall simply relate what the Hin-
du and the Hebrew books tell us. And if wondrous sto-
ries are pleasing to the reader, he will be enchanted as
he passes along. However, there is one thing that we
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 37
are absolutely certain about, viz.: that angels long since
ceased visiting this earth. And are we not just as
much in need of them as were the people in India and
Palestine twenty-four hundred and nineteen hundred
years ago ? If we could just see even one celestial Ayer,
how many doubts it would dispel!
But as we are in the land of the marvelous, let us
journey a little further. The Hindus, it seems, as well
as the Hebrews, were very fond of fairy tales, and
both these peoples wrote them in their books. We are
told that the venerable Pilindivaka once visited a park
where the children, decked with garlands, were cele-
brating a feast. But the family of the gatekeeper was
so poor that it could afford no ornaments for their
little girl, who ran about crying, “Give me a garland,
give me an ornament!” Pilindivaka heard the child,
and on learning why it wept, made a roll of grass
called a “chumbat” and told its mother to bind that on
the child’s head, which when done the roll of grass
instantly became a beautiful chaplet of gold. Shortly
thereafter the child’s father was arrested and thrown
into prison, charged with procuring the chaplet by
theft. On hearing this, Pilindivaka visited the king,
who said, “Surely the gatekeeper procured the chaplet
by theft; how else could he, being so poor, have got-
ten such a thing?” Thereupon Pilindivaka turned, in-
stantly, the king’s whole palace into gold, and asked,
“How did your majesty obtain so much gold, and so
quickly?” The king, it is said, saw the miracle, and
at once set the gatekeeper free. We justly dispute
38 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
this foolish Hindu tale, for we feel that it is absolutely
untrue, because it contradicts and sets at defiance a law
of universal observation. (14) But if we contradict the
Hindu fable, why should we not likewise declare the
following Hebrew fable untrue ? A company of people
about nineteen hundred years ago, we are told, were
gathered to celebrate a marriage in Galilee, and they
had no wine. They loved wine and wanted some; but
all they had was six empty water pots, containing two
or three firkins each. The servants were told to fill
these water pots with water. And they filled them up
to the brim. They were then told to “draw out and
bear unto the governor of the feast,” which they did.
That water, we are told, was instantly made into good
wine; so good, in fact, that the ruler of the feast men-
tioned its fine flavor. (15)
If there ever was such a thing on earth as that a
person, in the presence of others, could make his body
invisible to them, and make it vanish out of sight, then
in that matter Buddha set an example which the Scrip-
tures tell us Jesus followed. In Vol. XI, Sacred Books
of the East, page 49, we are told that Buddha could
not only vanish away but that he could change his
(14) Vol. 17, p. 64, Sacred Books of the East.
(15) New Testament, John 2, v. 1 to 10. It will be noticed
that both of these alleged miracles, if they were such, took
place by reason of two feasts; the one in India being a village
feast; that in Palestine because of a feast at a marriage where
some wine bibbers lacked their usual beverage. Now if Jesua
actually turned that water into wine, he must have forgotten
Proverbs, ch. 20, v. 1, which says: “Wine is a mocker; strong
drink is raging.11
-
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
color and his voice when he appeared before an audi-
ence. Moreover, he would then make such a pleasing
address that his hearers would ask, “Who is this, a
man or a God?”
Then, making himself invisible, he would vanish
away. (16) His books tell us that by virtue of his
wonderful spiritual power he could not only transport
himself, but a great congregation, dry-shod across a
river. This is just as extravagant as feeding five thou-
sand with two fishes and five loaves.
Did Jesus’ disciples, five hundred years later, copy
from Buddha? Or did the man of Galilee, in fact, pos-
sess this same marvelous power? Or are both stories,
the dreams of extravagant romancers? However that
may be, we are soberly told that when the Jews took
up stones to cast at Jesus, he went out of the temple,
through the midst of them, and thus escaped. (17)
And Luke, ch. 4, 5-30, tells us that when those
Nazarenes were about to pitch Jesus headlong
from the brow of the hill, he escaped through the midst
of them and went on his way. At another time “he
vanished out of sight.” (18) In fact, he could take
another form. (19) Were these strange occurrences
miracles? Or were Buddha and Jesus greatly gifted 16 17 18 19
(16) Vol. 17, Sacred Books of the East, p. 104.
Fo Sho King, Tsan, King, p. 251. Vol. XI, Sacred Books
of the East, p. 21.
(17) John 8, v. 59.
(18) Lnke 24, v. 31.
(19) Mark 16, v. 12.
40
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
beyond others? Or were these vanishings the children
of lively imaginations? Are they not from the realm
of dreams? This much is surely true; there are no
more vanishings in India, and there have been none for
twenty-three hundred years; and none in Palestine
for eighteen hundred yearn. And there has been no
case of feeding five thousand people a full meal on five
loaves and two small fishes for more than eighteen hun-
dred years. And there have been no more Mendakas
in India since our friend had his granary filled twenty-
three hundred years ago.
I
CHAPTER III.
The Miraculous Parentage of Jesus.
Section i. Every man born into this world comes
with clenched fist and a cry of pain. He is born with-
out his asking, and goe6 hence without his requesting.
Buddha and Jesus were no exceptions. They were
born; they lived; they grew; they died. Nature did
not turn her dial either backward or forward when
they came, or when they went.
The physical world turned on its axis at their com-
ing and at their going, with the same regularity that it
would if a mouse had been born, or had died. But the
moral world, by reason of their coming, has been im-
mensely moved and improved. One of these men
was bom in a beautiful grove, amid rejoicings; the
son of a prince, the heir to a throne. The other was
the reputed son of a humble carpenter, and was bom in
the gloom of a cave (i), or the filth of a bam; and
was wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a man-
ger. (2) He was supposed to be of an extinct line of
(1) The Protevangelinm, or book of James, ch. 18, says
Mary was taken to a cave about three miles from Bethlehem, while
Joseph went for assistance.
(2) Luke 2, v. 7* Mark’s first mention of him (ch. 1, v.
9) is that he came from Galilee. Matt. 2, v. 11, is that the
wise men found him in a ”house.” John 1, 45 and 46; Matt.
13:54; Mark 1:6 and 1:24; Acts, 2:22, designated Jesus of
Nazareth as a man. Acts 3:6 calls him “Jesus Christ of Naza-
reth.” Pilate wrote the superscription on the cross: ” Jesus of
41
42 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
kings; and if the record be true he was early sought
that he might be slain. (3)
Buddha, as we shall see, lived eighty years and died
in peace, loved and lamented. Jesus did not reach half
that period, and swooned away in agony, an innocent
man (4) nailed to a cross by the very ones whom he
sought to befriend. Both of these men commenced
the great labor of their lives when about twenty-nine
or thirty years of age, Buddha as a hermit, and Jesus
as a preacher of a Gospel new to the Jews.
As we have told of the legends and the miraculous
at Buddha’s birth, those told of Jesus at his coming
must not be overlooked.
There is, and has been for eighteen hundred years
past, an unceasing controversy about the parentage of
Jesus. As no charge similar to that laid against Mary
has been made against any young woman for now nine-
teen hundred years, let us inquire somewhat of her
parentage and youth.
Nazareth, King of the Jews.” John 19:19; Luke 18:37; Micah,
ch. 5, v. 2, 700 years B. C., is doubtful authority. John, ch. 7,
says Jesus came from Nazareth.
(3) There is no mention, except in Matt. 2nd, of Herod’s
slaying the innocents. Nor does history make mention of it. Mat-
thew, when he made his compilation, followed a wrong author-
ity. Moreover, the family of David had been extinct for more
than 900 years. Luke’s gospel, ch. 3, is fanciful and visionary.
But all his life Jesus was called a Nazarene, and the proof is not
wanting that he was born there.
(4) It has been claimed that Jesus suffered justly, because hs
antagonized the law of Moses. We shall notice this when we
come to speak of his trial.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 43
The Book of James (5), written probably about the
time of Matthew, sets forth that Joachim was lightly
regarded by the scribes and elders, because he had no
children; and that Anna, his wife, was in grief by
reason of her barrenness. Whereupon an angel an-
nounced that a child should be born to her; and the
child, a girl, being born according to the prologue, was
named Mary. (6)
When the child was three years old she was taken
to the temple, where she remained ten or twelve years,
receiving her food meantime, it is said, from the hand
of an angel. (7)
Section 2. Girls develop early under the warm
skies of Palestine, and the record is that the Lord at
this time told Zacharias, the High Priest, to summon
the widowers with their rods; and the priest took the
rods and went into the temple to pray. On coming
out and distributing the rods, a dove flew out of the
one which Joseph took, and lit upon his head.
This was a sign that Joseph was to take the virgin;
but he objected that he was an old man, and had chil-
dren, and Mary being so young, “he would appear ri-
diculous in Israel.” (8) Joseph's scruples, however,
not being hard to overcome, he took the virgin to his
home, and went away to building houses. The priests
(5) That work is called the Protevangelium, or book of James.
Luke very evidently had that work before him when he compiled
his gospel, and he copies from it very liberally.
(6) Mrs. Anna Joachim was therefore a grandmother of Jesus.
(7) Protevangelium, ch. 8 and 9.
(8) Chaps. 8 and 9, Protevangelium: Joseph was about eighty
years old and was the father of six children by a former wife.
44 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
thereafter selected Mary to spin the purple for a new
veil for the temple. (9)
Matthew says “before Joseph and Mary came to-
gether, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost;”
but Matthew fails to tell us who found her in that deli-
cate condition. (10) The Book of James (11),
however, supplies the missing link, for it says
that Joseph on returning from abroad, found her with
child and reproached her for her conduct. (12) “If I
conceal her crime, I shall be found guilty by the law
of the Lord; and if I discover her to the children of
Israel, I fear lest, she being with child by an angel, I
will be found to betray the life of an innocent person.
I will therefore put her away privately.”
Mary insisted that she knew not how it occurred.
(13) But Luke tells a different story, for he
says an angel came and told her that she had
found favor with God, that “she should conceive
and bring forth a son,” and the angel added that “the
Lord will give unto him the throne of his father David:
and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever.”
(14) Mary could not understand how that could be;
(9) Chap. 11, Book of James. If this be true Mary must
have gone back to the temple soon after her espousal.
(10) Matt. 1, v. 18.
(11) The book of James is as well attested as either one of
our four canonical Gospels, for in his colophon James says:
“I, James, wrote this history in Jerusalem; and when the dis-
turbance was, 1 retired into a desert place until the death of
Herod. And the disturbance had ceased at Jerusalem.99
(12) Ch. 13 and 14, Protevangelium. The Protevangelium was
not condemned by Pope Gelasius, who was Pope A. D. 494.
(13) Book of James, ch. 13.
(14) Luke 2, v. 27 and 35.
45
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
whereupon the angel said, “The Holy Ghost shall come
upon thee; and the power of the Highest shall over-
shadow thee; and the holy thing which shall be born of
thee shall be called the son of God.” Yet this angel was
wrong; for Jesus never gained David’s throne. More-
over the Book of James also contradicts Mary; for it
says that as she went for a pitcher of water, she heard
a voice saying, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with
thee; blessed art thou among women.” She looked to
the right and left, but could see no one; and, fright-
ened, she went into the house and sat down to work on
the purple. Another version says: “She saw a young
man of ineffable beauty” who said, “Fear not, Mary,
for thou hast found favor with God.” Luke says, “The
angel of the Lord stood beside her” and said, “Fear
not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God.” (15)
The High Priest seems to have known of the angel’s
visit to her, for when she finished the veil of the tem-
ple and took it to him, he said to her: “The Lord has
magnified thy name; and all the generations of the
earth will bless thee.” (16) This question here pre-
sents itself: Was Mary living with her parents, or in
the temple, at the time of the angel’s visit to her? In 15 16 *
(15) Luke 1, v. 30. Here the two narratives are nearly the
same, except that Luke is somewhat longer. Evidently Luke
copies James or James copies Luke. In tms matter I hold with
Dr. Schleiermacher of Germany, that the evidence seems to point
to Luke as the copyist of James. Luke certainly compiles from
4 * many.11 (Luke 1, v. 1.) Was it an angel that saluted Mary, as
Luke has it, or was it a 44young man of ineffable beauty” that
said to her she had found favor with the Lord Godf Which f
(16) Book of James, chap. 12. Luke 1, v. 28, says Mary is
blessed among women.
46 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
either case, how is it that neither parents nor priests
are mentioned as seeing the angel when he called?
True, the High Priest seems to heme known of the
matter, when she brought the veil to the temple; but
how did he find it out ? Was he present at the “over-
shadowing,” and if not, why was he so anxious to
have the widowers call and one of them take this
young girl by lot?
Section 3. We reach here some of the most ex-
traordinary statements in all history. There never was
anything like them before or since. Here is a young
Jewish girl, only about fourteen or fifteen years of
age, who has grown up in the temple or near there,
with the priests and scribes. At this immature age
she is betrothed in a peculiar manner, as we have seen,
to an aged widower. Joseph is not at home when the
angel visits his wife. (17) He knows nothing about
those visits. They are all on the sly, as to him. Mary,
Gabriel and the High Priest only are in the secret.
Nor is Joseph consulted about when the Holy Ghost
shall come upon his wife and overshadow her.
But when he finds her in a delicate situation, he up-
braids her and reproaches her, as we have already seen.
But he does not act rashly; he considers carefully, and
concludes that, as she is so very young, he will not
make her a public example, but will “put her away
privately.” (18) And while Joseph was ponder-
(17) Neither Matthew, Mark nor John names the angel; but
Luke mentions the angel Gabriel. (Ch. 1, v. 26.)
(18) Matt. 1, y. 19.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 47
ing those things, he fell into a sleep; and in his
dream the angel of the Lord appears unto him, and
says: “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take
unto thee Mary, thy wife, for that which is conceived
in her is of the Holy Ghost.” Whether the angel
awakened Joseph in talking to him we cannot say: but
“on being raised from his sleep he did as the angel of
the Lord had bidden him.” (19) In other words,
Joseph overlooked and forgave what he must have
considered, to put it mildly, a very serious youthful
indiscretion. Dreams are gossamer things to build a
gospel upon: but such is the superstructure of our
religion. “And Mary, it is said, arose in those days,
and went with haste unto the hill country, a City of
Judah” (20) to visit her cousin Elizabeth. The
book of James (ch. 12) tells us that Mary went
to her home and hid herself from the children of Israel.
Which is right?
Section 4. As to the parentage of Jesus, it would
seem that one or the other of the following proposi-
tions must be true: First: he was the son of Joseph
and Mary: or, secondly, he was the son of God and
Mary: or, thirdly, he was the son of Mary and some
unknown father. We have already seen that Chapter
One, Verses 18 to 20, of Matthew, disputes the pater-
nity of Joseph, and sets forth that he was only recon-
ciled to the situation by what the angel said to him in
(19) Matt. 1:15 to 25. How did Matthew find out that the
angel appeared to Joseph in a dreamt
(20) Luke 1:39.
48
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
his dream. Luke fully and explicitly agrees with Mat*
thew (21), save only as to Joseph’s peculiar dream
and the reconcilation which it effected.
Mark and John are both as silent as the tomb about
Joseph’s troubles and the angel’s visit to him, and the
paternity of Jesus. I can account for this only on the
ground that they were not inspired on that point.
Or they may have been wiser than the others, and be-
lieved that a man is what he is, in and of himself, and
not what his father or mother is or may have been.
Matthew, however, as to the quarrel between Joseph
and Mary, is sustained by the book of James (22),
except that James supposed that Mary was with child
by an angel.
Moreover, if we follow the genealogy given by Mat-
thew, Jesus was not a descendant of David. It is true,
some blind men called him a son of David (23); and
some people, amazed at a cure he effected, said, “Is
not this the son of David?” But Jesus made no reply.
Now, while it is true that Isaiah, some seven hun-
dred years before Jesus was bom, made a prediction
that “there should come forth a rod out of the stem
of Jesse,” he also said that the wolf should dwell with
the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the kid, and
the lion eat straw like an ox. Yet twenty-six hundred
years have slipped by since Isaiah made this prediction,
and no part of his prophecy is yet fulfilled. (24)
(21) Luke 1:26 to 35.
(22) Protevangelium, ch. 14; Matt. 1, v. 18 to 20.
(23) Matt. 9:27; Lnke 18:28; Matt. 12: v. 23.
(24) But Isaiah probably did not write Chapter 11.
-
49
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
He also said a virgin should conceive and bear a
son: but he spoiled its application to Jesus, because he
declared that the son so born must eat butter and
honey, that he might know to refuse the evil and
choose the good. (25)
Section 5. Let us dismiss prophecy as something
bordering on the miraculous: for how can any sane
person believe that the most pure saint that lives, or
ever lived, can or could look seven hundred years into
the future, and tell the happenings of that coming day?
If there ever were such things in the world as prophecy
or fortune-telling,—for they both travel the same road,
—and if they were good things for the people twenty-
six hundred years ago, they are probably good today.
Moreover, were there never any prophets outside of
Palestine, and the Hebrews? Are there not the same
needs of prophets today as ever? Or did the volume
of mystery close for good when the angel announced
to Mary that she should bring forth a son?
But even prophecies do not always turn out as
announced: for no rod has as yet come out of the stem
of Jesse: unless Luke and Matthew are both mistaken.
Even angels are not always true prophets. For Luke’s
angel who foretold that the Lord would give to Mary’s
son the throne of his father, David, did not hit the
mark.
The throne was not given to him, but instead a
crown of thorns. The dream and hope of all the
(25) Ch. 7, Isaiah, has no possible application to Jesns. Even
a strained construction will not make it apply to him.
SO A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Jews for generations had been that some great descend-
ant of David, or some one of their kings, would arise,
and not only punish their enemies but bring back the
glories of David’s or Solomon’s reign. The Jews
waited and looked for a great earthly king, and not a
great teacher to show them the paths of love, justice
and mercy.
The paternity of Jesus has been, and perhaps always
will be, a disputed question. It is possible that its
very mystery calls attention to him, and thereby to
his gentle qualities of mind and heart However that
may be, we are certain that his meekness and his love
and charity for mankind can never be surpassed.
CHAPTER IV.
The Birth and Boyhood of Jesus.
Section i. The birthplace or home of a truly great
and extraordinary man is always of importance and
interest to us. If near such a spot, we turn our foot-
steps thither, and linger about it. If distant from it,
we visit the place in imagination, and picture to our-
selves, as best we can, the home and the country
where the great soul towered above the people, as a
lofty mountain towers above the valley at its base.
Such a place is immortal in history; Shakespeare
and the Avon will never be forgotten. Will Mt.
Vernon and its canonized sleeper ever fade from the
memory of men? And there is Nazareth, in the land
of Zebulon, once so wicked that the enquiry was made,
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (i)
But, O Nazareth, Galilee, and Palestine! thou art as
immortal as the rock-ribbed hills. The love of a great
soul has enshrined these names in all memories.
Once in thy fury, Nazareth, thou didst thrust Him
forth, and would have flung the great one headlong
from a precipice to his destruction. But he escaped
thy rage, (2) and has made that deed, and thy name, 1
(1) John 1: ?. 48.
(2) Lake 4: ?. 29.
61
52 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
known for all time, to the uttermost parts of the earth.
Roll back, ye centuries! and let us see Nazareth
nineteen hundred years ago. (3)
Here on an elevated plateau, on the side of a hill, is
a small village of probably less than two thousand
souls. Its population is made up of Jews, Arabs, and
Phoenicians, with a generous sprinkle of Greeks. At
this period these Nazarenes were so utterly secluded
and unknown that no mention had ever been made of
them in history. Even the Old Testament is silent
about them. These Nazarenes speak a Syrian Dialect*
the language of Palestine.
The streets of this village, with hardly a shade tree,
are crooked and narrow; its houses are flat-roofed,
small, unfloored, irregular and squalid. Chairs they
have none; they squat or recline upon the earth, or
on a mat. Their tables are simply dressed skins, laid
upon the ground, sometimes on a low stool. Knives
and forks are unknown to them, and for plates they
use thin, round cakes, made of coarse material. They
were but little more advanced in civilization than were
our Indians one hundred years ago.
If we ascend one of the higher hills, and look off
to the southeast, we shall see Mount Tabor about six
miles distant, and yonder, dimly outlined against the
western sky, is Mount Carmel, whose base is lashed by
the waves of the Mediterranean. Jerusalem, on the
(3) The chronology of the Christian era should have been
dated four yean earlier.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 53
borders of Benjamin, is yonder to the south, sixty or
seventy miles beyond our vision.
Schools, such as we have today, were not known in
Palestine nineteen hundred years ago; nor in any part
of the earth. In Nazareth, as everywhere in Pales-
tine, the synagogue was the place where the sons of
the seers, and the great men, met to study the Thora.
(4) The instruction was oral, the children standing
in a row; whereupon the teacher recited a line, and
they repeated it and repeated it after him, until they
learned it by heart. Buddha, five hundred years be-
fore this, was taught the laws of Manu in the same
way. (5)
Section 2. From this sleepy, poverty-stricKen
mountain village of Nazareth, a great and incompar-
able man is to come forth. Joseph and Mary are there;
and Jesus is there with them. All his life he is called
“Jesus of Nazareth.” Here in Nazareth he grows
from babyhood to boyhood—
"Turning to mirth all things of earth
As only boyhood can.”
Here, undoubtedly, Jesus played marbles, and ran
foot races with the little boys of this mountain village.
And if he could say in his mature years, “Suffer little
children to come unto me, and forbid them not,” he
surely must have loved them when he himself was a
child. Perhaps when he was in the Synagogue, some
(4) The Law of Moses. The Pentateuch.
(I) John, ch. 7., t. 15, says Jesus was not leaned.
54
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
larger boy scratched him or struck him, and we won*
der whether as a boy he was ready to turn the other
cheek to be smitten also. (6)
If there was a creek or a pond nearby, he no doubt
went in swimming with his playmates, and had a fine
time. For somewhere he became very expert in
aquatic sports, as later it is said he actually could
“walk upon the water.” (7)
Joseph, this boy’s father, or stepfather, was a car-
penter ; and the boy, no doubt, often picked up shavings
and blocks for the family fire. We can believe that he
frequently ran errands for his mother; brought water
from the spring or well; and as the boys of Nazareth
all ran about bare-footed, Jesus was probably often
ordered to wash his feet before going to bed. This
little boy, all unconscious of the mighty destiny before
him, may sometimes have trudged over the mountains
to Lake Gennessaret. And there stood Chorazin, and
Bethsaida and Capernaum, upon its shores; to be de-
nounced by him, at a later day, as wicked and
unrepentant. (8)
We long to catch glimpses of the daily life of this
wonderful boy; but no word is vouchsafed to us until
he is twelve years old, unless we follow the gospel of
the infancy. (9) We see no miracles whatever, no
(6) Matt 5, v. 39.
(7) Mark 6: v. 48; Matt 14: v. 25.
(8) Matt. 11, 21.
(9) The gospel of the Infancy tells us of the flight into Egypt,
the same as Matt. 2, v. 14. But Matthew makes no mention of
the miracles Jesus performed when a child in Egypt. I shall
lunre something to say of this later on.
55
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
extraordinary happenings in his life—nothing beyond
the ordinary, humdrum days of those other Nazareth
boys that grew to manhood in Jesus’ time. There is
no question but that he was brought up in Nazareth
after his return from Egypt. Luke expressly affirms
it in chapter 4, v. 16, and it is not denied except in the
gospel of the Infancy.
I have purposely said this about Jesus, before men*
tioning the legends and the miraculous stories con-
cerning his birth, that gathered around his name com-
mencing about the year A. D. 80 or 100, and extend-
ing on towards us for a century and more.
Section 3. In a supposed prophecy concerning
Jesus, about 740 years B. C., Rezin, the king of
Syria, and Pekah, the king of Israel, went up to-
ward Jerusalem to make war against it and put a
king of their own in Ahaz’s place. Thereupon the
Lord sent Isaiah, a prophet, to tell Ahaz to be quiet,
the thing should not come to pass (10); and to con-
firm Ahaz that his Kingdom should not be overthrown,
the Lord said he would give him a sign. “Behold, a
virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his
name Immanuel, and before the child shall know to
refuse evil and choose the good, the land thou abhor-
rest shall be forsaken of both her kings.” (11)
This prophecy, if it be one, plainly has reference to
(10) Isaiah, ch. 7, verses 1 to 17—see also eh. 8, Isaiah.
(11) Isaiah 7:14: But if the Virgin did not bear a son until
Jesus was born, how could it be a sign to Ahazf He would
bo dead more than seven centuries.
56 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
a time more than seven centuries before Jesus was
born.
Moreover, the very next chapter of Isaiah tells us
that he went in unto the prophetess, and she conceived
and bore a son, and that before the child could say
“My Father,” the riches of Damascus and the spoil of
Samaria would be taken away.
Nevertheless, Matthew sets forth the peculiar con-
ception and birth of Jesus, and Joseph’s very strange
dream, and all this was done, he says, “that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet,
saying, ‘Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall
bring forth a son, and they shall call his name
Immanuel.’ ” (12)
How can any honest thinker, or any fair-minded
man, believe that Isaiah had a vision of Mary and
Jesus in his mind when he penned those lines to com-
fort Ahaz?
But that is not all; Matthew interprets the word
“Emmanuel” and says it means “God with us.” (13)
That makes Jesus a God. Is not that Polytheism?
John is even more extravagant than Matthew, for he
says the world was made by Jesus. (14) But neither
John nor Mark makes any mention about Isaiah’s
prophecy and the birth of Immanuel.
Section 4. Was Jesus born in Bethlehem?
Here again we encounter the same old supposed
(12) In Isaiah the son is called Immanuel; eh. 7, v. 14.
(13) Matt. 1:23.
(14) John 1:10; John 6, v. 41 and 51; John 8, v. 58. This is
more absurd than anything I ever read in the Hindu bible.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
57
prophecies which have been curiously twisted to mean
what Micah and Malachi never intended. Micah, 710
years B. C., is telling what he saw “concerning
Samaria and Jerusalem.” And he says Samaria shall
be as a heap of the field, and her graven images beaten
to pieces; that Zion is built up with blood, and Jerusa-
lem with iniquity (15) ; that the heads thereof judge
for reward, that the priests teach for hire, and the
prophets divine for money. For those sins, Zion is to
be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps.
“But in the last days the house of the Lord shall be
established,” and “nations shall beat their swords into
plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks;
neither shall they learn war any more; and every man
shall sit under his own vine and fig tree.”
In that day, unto you shall come the first dominion,
and when many “nations are gathered against her,”
then “her horn shall be iron, and her hoofs brass; and
she shall beat in pieces many people.” (16) When
siege is laid against those in Zion, “they shall smite the
Judge of Israel with a rod upon his cheek.” Micah,
it must be remembered, was a prophet of Judah; and
he was against Samaria; and her judge is to be smit-
ten on the cheek. But when he turns to the insig-
nificant village of Bethlehem, near which he himself
lived, see how to the skies he extols it.
“But thou, Bethlehem, though thou be little among
the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come
(15) 1 Micah 1:6 and 7.
(16) 3 Micah, 10 to 12.
58
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
forth a ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been
from everlasting.” (17)
And this man, he says, “shall be the peace, when
the Assyrian shall come into our land,” and with the
shepherds and princes “shall waste the land of Assyria
with the sword.”
Micah closes one part of his prophecy with these
lurid words: The Lord will execute vengeance in
anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not
heard. (18)
How can this prophecy, if it be one, have any ref-
erence to Jesus, who was bom more than seven hundred
years later? Yet Matthew (19) quotes it with appro-
bation, almost word for word. But I shall be told that it
was a spiritual ruler that was to come out of Bethle-
hem ; not some great warrior, or governor. My reply
is that Micah, in verses 5 and 6, chapter 5, says, “that
man (this ruler) is to be the peace, when the Assyrian
shall come,” and he and the shepherds and princes
“shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword.” The
world has waited twenty-six hundred years and more
since Micah’s day, and no governor or ruler from Beth-
lehem has made his appearance in all this time. More-
over, the Assyrian hath not yet come.
Suppose some old Hindu, seven hundred years be-
(17) Micah 5:2 to 6. But Jesus was never a ruler in Israel;
and there is now no Assyrian to invade Palestine; and the swords
have never yet been beaten into plow-shares; nor have the spears
yet been made into pruning hooks; it would be a blessed thing
if they were; may Heaven hasten that happy day!
(18) Micah abridged from 5 to 15, ch. 5.
(19) Matt 2, v. 6.
• A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
59
fore Buddha was bom, had said that a ruler should
come forth from (naming some insignificant village in
India), would his saying necessarily cause the child to
be bom there?
The place of a man’s birth is not an indispensable
part of his make-up. Would not Jesus have been just
as useful, just as lovely, just as great, if he had been
bom in Samaria? For the Samaritans were surely ex-
pecting a Messiah. (20)
Section 5. The last clause in Micah’s supposed
prophecy must be noticed. After mentioning that a
ruler in Israel is to come from Bethlehem, he adds:
“Whose goings forth have been from of old, from ever-
lasting?’’ Does not this make Jesus a God? Was he
truly here before the mountains were brought forth,
or the earth formed? If so, then why the necessity
that he be bom in Bethlehem or anywhere else?
But it is said an order from the governor of Syria
compelled every person to be taxed in his own city;
that therefore Joseph and Mary went from Nazareth
to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; “and
while there, Jesus was bom, in the days of Herod, the
King.” Luke is in error, here, as to the date of
this taxing or census, for it took place nine or ten
years after the period he fixes for the Birth of Jesus.
(21) Moreover, when Jesus was born, Herod was on
(20) John 4, v. 25.
(21) Matt., ch. 2; Luke 2:1 to 6. The census took place
after Archelus was deposed, and after Herod had been in his
grave several years. It is barely possible that Herod ordered
the slaughter of the children, though history makes no mention
of it, but it surely was not at the time of the taxing by Cyrenius,
and there is no sufficient proof of two taxings.
-
60 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES .
his death bed, sorely troubled over the conspiracy of
his brother, Pheroras, and his son, Antipater. Herod,
it is true, was wicked and cruel enough to have order-
ed the slaughter of the children, for his whole life was
drenched in blood. He murdered his wife, the beauti-
ful Mariamne. He caused Aristobulus, his brother,
to be treacherously drowned. He caused his two sons,
by Mariamne, to be strangled. But his nemesis was
about to overtake him. On his deathbed, tossing in
torments of pain, word was brought to him of the
conspiracy of his son and brother. But his hands
were red with blood to the last, for, while panting for
breath, he ordered the death of Antipater, his son.
This bloody-handed murderer died the year before
Jesus was born, or the very same year. It is certain
that he died between the years 4 B. C. and 3 B. C. He
was alive March 12, 4 years B. C., as he burned some
Jewish Rabbis that day for causing the destruction of
his golden eagle. (22)
Jesus, at this time, may have been six weeks or two
months old. But I find no sufficient proof, outside of
Matthew and some of the Apocryphal gospels, that
Herod, red-handed as he was, ever sought to destroy
him. (23)
(22) Jos. Antiq. 17:6. 4 and 17:8, 4.
(23) Matthew, unwittingly now for nineteen centuries, has
held up Herod’s name to the contempt and scorn of the world.
And it will probably go down loaded with execrations, to the
latest day. See also section 2, chapter 5, this work.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
61
Nor was Jesus bom December 25, Christmas (24),
in Bethlehem: for it is not likely that Joseph would
set out to travel with Mary on an ass or mule (25)
seventy or seventy-five miles in a downpour of rain,
merely to be taxed. (26) If bom in Bethlehem, it
must have been late in February, B. C., 3. But, if bom
there, it is strange that the four gospels continually
mention him as “Jesus of Nazareth.” (27)
(24) Christmas is a Christian holiday, but it was not known
or kept as such, until the third or fourth century A. D., when
it happily succeeded pagan festivals and the saturnalia of Home.
(25) The book of James, ch. 17, says he saddled an ass and
placed her on it.
(26) December the 25th, in Judea, is the very height of the
rainy season. Even the sheep and shepherds then seek shelter.
(27) John 1:45 and 46, mentions him as “Jesus of Nazareth.’9
Matt. 13, v. 54, says “he came to his country” (Nazareth).
Mark 6: “Jesus came from Nazareth to be baptized.” Acts
2:22, “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God.” Acts 3:6,
“Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” Pilate wrote the superscription
on his cross—“Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”—John
19:19. Luke 18:37, “Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.” Per
contra, John 7:42, tells us that the scripture saith “Jesus shall
come from Bethlehem.” Matt. 2:1 says Bethlehem. Did Jesus
not live some years in Egypt f Matt. 2, v. 13, gospel of infancy,
chapters 10 to 22, says he was three years in Egypt.
CHAPTER V
Were There Miracles at Jesus' Birth?
Section i. Jesus was either a God or a man; or he
was half God, and half man; his grandmother at all
events was Mrs. Anna Joachim, and his mother was
Mary Joachim, a fifteen or sixteen year old Jewish girl.
If not half a God, he was simply a very religious man
who sought to give the world a better religion than the
old Jewish superstition. And, all honor to his name,
he succeeded gloriously.
He preached to the Jews the gospel of peace, and
there was sore need of it; yet his audiences have been
millions, in lands to him unknown, and in tongues then
unborn. He preached less than three years, but his
name is upon the lips of more people than that of any
human being; Buddha alone excepted, (i)
These two men (2) began their ministries when
they were each about twenty-nine or thirty years of
age. Buddha preached fifty years, and died in peace,
(1) Jesus has of Catholics and Protestants about one hundred
and seventy millions of followers. 3uddha has upwards of four
hundred millions of followers. '
(2) I call Jesus a man. He was born and grew like any other
mortal from childhood on to maturity.
62
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 63
surrounded by friends; the Jews, more barbarous and
blood-thirsty than the Hindus, condemned Jesus to the
cross, but their very cruelty has only served to empha-
size and immortalize his life. Each of these men
brought a better faith into the world than any their
own people had ever before known. And after their
deaths, most marvelous stories began to gather about
their names.
Of Jesus, it is said some wise men came to Jerusalem
saying they had seen his star in the East, and had come
to worship him. (3)
And “Lo, the star,” it is said, “which they saw in
the East, went before them, till it came and stood over
where the young child was.” Of course, when Mat-
thew wrote that line, he had no conception of what a
star is, or was. He must have supposed that it was
a little luminous lump of nebula, about the size of a
man’s fist. He certainly did not know that the nearest
star to the earth is many millions of miles distant, and
that if it should approach us, as that star is alleged to
have done, there would be such a crash of worlds that
there would be no further use for any religion what-
ever. Jesus and Bethlehem would instantly have been
crushed out of existence. (4)
(3) Who those wise men were, we cannot tell, as neither their
names nor country are given. Nor are we told whence they
came, nor whither they returned. In fact, they at once drop
as completely out of sight as if the earth had opened and swal-
lowed them.
(4) I shall be told that it was something that had the appear-
ance of a star. I answer, that the record says “it was a star."
Matthew (ch. 2) would have saved his reputation, if he had
said it had the appearance of a star.
64
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Section 2. The Hindus went to even greater
lengths; for they specified the particular star “Pushya”
as the one that came down to welcome Buddha. But
both of these star stories must at once be set aside and
dismissed as utterly improbable.
The wise men, we are told, found Mary and the
baby in a “house,” and they “fell down and worshipped
him,” presented him treasures, etc. They must have
remained over night, for they were warned of God in a
dream “not to return to Herod.” (5) And when they
departed, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in
a dream, wherein he was told to take the child and his
mother, and flee into Egypt, and remain there until the
angel brought him word, lest Herod destroy the
child. (6)
The necessity was seemingly so great, that, it is said,
Joseph and Mary fled by night with die child into
Egypt. (7)
We are next told that “Herod was exceeding
wroth” that the wise men did not return* and there-
upon “he sent forth and slew all the children in Beth-
lehem, and the coasts thereof, from two years old and
under.” (8)
(5) Matt. 2, v. 12.
(6) This trip to Egypt is made because Hosea 760 yean be-
fore this, had said, “Out of Egypt have I brought my son.”
(Hosea, ch. 11, v. 1.) Is it not somewhat hazardous to lay the
very foundations of our faith on dreamsf (Matt. 1, v. 20, and
Matt. 2, v. 13.) Who told Matthew of these remarkable dreams Y
I shall mention this again when I come to speak of apochryphal
gospels.
(7) Matt. 2:14.
(8) I have shown in my preceding chapter, section 5, that
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 65
In regard to this monstrous order of Herod, (if he ,
ever issued such a one) it is passing strange that
neither Mark, Luke nor John makes any mention of it
whatever. Is it not reasonable to suppose that a deed
so awful, detestable, and cruel beyond description, com-
mitted against the little innocents, would call from
those writers a stinging condemnation, if such a thing
really happened?
Luke, in his story of the birth, says that some shep-
herds were keeping watch over their flocks, when an
angel came unto them, and gave them a fright; but the
angel told them to “fear not, for he brought them good
tidings.” “A Saviour,” he said, “is this day born in
the city of David” and they would “find the babe
wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.” (9)
We have seen how the angels sang for joy when
Buddha was bom, (10) and Luke tells us “that sud-
denly there was with the angel, and shepherds, a multi-
tude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying
‘peace on earth, and good will toward men.’ ” And
when the angels were gone away into heaven (11) the
there is a lack of proof that Matthew is right as to “the slaugh-
ter of the children,” but if we can rely upon the Protevangelium,
ch. 18 and 21 and 22, then Matthew does not stand alone. The
gospel of infancy, ch. 9, says Joseph was to start for Egypt at
the crowing of the cock, but it nowhere mentions the slaying of
the babes. But those who hold to the three canonicals, refuse
to credit the Protevangelium, or the gospel of the Infancy.
(9) Luke 2:8 to 20.
(10) Ch. 1, sec. 1, ante.
(11) Luke 2:10 to 21. It is remarkable that neither Matthew,
nor Mark, nor John have anything whatever to say about that
multitude of angels which Luke mentions (Luke 2, v. 15) as
going away into heaven.
66
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
shepherds went with haste, and found Mary and the
babe, as the angel had told them.
Section 3. Matthew, as we have seen, (12)
hurries Joseph off to Egypt, by night Luke says,
“When the days of her purification, according to the
laws of Moses, were accomplished, they brought Jesus
to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.” (13) Forty
days therefore elapsed from the birth, to the time they
brought him to the temple.
Bethlehem being only five or six miles southeast of
Jerusalem, if Jesus’ life was in danger, why did they
bring him to Herod’s very door? If Herod was then
alive, would he not know of this? How easy for him,
even if on his death-bed, to send a trusted messenger
and learn the whereabouts of Jesus. Devout old
Simeon, we are told, was at the temple, and took Jesus
in his arms; and Anna the prophetess was there, and a
pair of turtle doves, or young pigeons, were offered as
a sacrifice. “And when all these things were per-
formed.Luke says, “they returned unto Galilee, to
their own city, Nazareth.” (14)
Here, now, is a flat contradiction between two gos-
pel writers. They both cannot be right. One or the
(12) Ch. 2:5, 14.
(13) Luke 2, v. 21 to 25; Leviticus 12:2 to 4. If a woman
bore a man-child, she was unclean seven days, and on the eighth
day, the child was circumcised. After that she must continue
in the blood of her purifying 33 days.
(14) Luke 2:39. Matthew hurried Joseph and Mary and Jesus
off to Egypt by night. (Matt. 2, v. 14.) Luke and Matthew
seem to have been inspired differently on this point. Does a man
have to be inspired to write down sober facts!
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
67
other is surely wrong. The Protevangelium, ch. 18,
says: “Mary heard the children were to be killed, and
she wrapped the child in swaddling clothes, and laid
him in an ox-manger,” but not a word is said about the
flight into Egypt.
The gospel of the infancy says that “when Jesus was
in the temple, the angels, praising him, stood round in
a circle,” like life guards around a king, (15) but it
makes no mention of the slaughter of the children.
The flight into Egypt, and a residence there of three
years, is set forth in the gospel of the Infancy, together
with many wild and extravagant miracles performed by
Jesus as a child. It is said that a bride who had be-
come dumb, on taking Jesus in her arms instantly re-
covered her speech; (I will mention this more fully
when I come to speak of apocryphal gospels, near the
close of this book ) (16) ; that a girl whose body was
white with leprosy, was cured by sprinkling upon her
some water wherein Jesus was bathed; and a tree,
whose bark was used for healing, bent down its
branches and worshiped him, as he approached it. It
may have been the same species of tree that bent down
in silent adoration to Buddha, at his coming. At
(15) Infancy, ch. 5. Here we come across the first mention
of the mother as “Lady Mary.99
(16) Eusebius, a dishonest historian, in writing of these things
about A. D. 325, sets them down as sober facts. He is mislead-
ing about Herod. Acts 12, v. 21 to 23. Josephus says, “Herod
saw an owl sitting on a rope, which he said was an evil omen,
and a severe pain arose in Herod’s belly, and he fell sick, and
said to those who called him a God and Immortal: ‘Alas, I am
soon to be hurried away by death.’ ” Antiq. Book 19, ch. 8,
sec. 2.
68 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Buddha’s advent, we are told that even dead trees put
forth leaves and flowers. There is, no doubt, just as
much truth in one story as the other.
Zoroaster, a great religious teacher, who preceded
both Buddha and Jesus by centuries, was likewise wel-
comed in a peculiar manner. We are told that for
three days and nights before he was born the whole
village became luminous, and a divine radiance, sur-
passing the brilliancy of the sun, encircled his father’s
house. Moreover, we are told that Zoroaster laughed
outright as he came into the world. The Herod of
that day was a wicked Karap, or wizard, who sought to
kill the child by placing him in front of a herd of
cattle. But an old ox, it is said, stood guard over him
until the herd passed by. Failing in that the wizard
sought to burn the child, but the fagots would not take
fire. Then Zoroaster is flung into a wolf’s den, but two
angels, Srosh and Vohuman, close the wolfs mouth,
and he is saved. They seem to have had miracles in
Persia, as well as in India and Palestine. (17)
Section 4. We shall see further along how angels
ministered to both Buddha, Jesus and Zoroaster. In
one place it is said an angel actually held down the
branches of a tree and thereby saved Buddha from be-
ing drowned in the Ganges. We shall be told how
Jesus fasted forty days in the wilderness, and that
angels came and fed him. And that an angel actually
(17) See Whitney’s Zoroaster, chapter 3. And Dinkard, eh. 3,
sec. 16 and 46, and Dialeard, p. 146, vol. 47, Sacred Books ot
the East.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 69
introduced Zoroaster to the Almighty. But now, for
many centuries past, this wicked and perverse world
has not either seen or heard so much as the rustle of
an angel’s wing.
The Bethlehem incarnation and birth, we must re-
member, was preceded more than one thousand years
by the incarnation and birth of the Hindu God,
Krishna or Vishnu. Bhagavat Purana tells us of
Vishnu’s miraculous conception and birth; that he was
bom in a dungeon, the walls of which, at his birth,
were • strangely illuminated; that a chorus of devas
(angels) welcomed his advent, and as soon as born he
had the power of speech and conversed with his mother.
Buddha, as we have seen, possessed at his birth the
power of speech and said to his mother, “I have been
bom to save the world.” Krishna (Vishnu), like
Jesus, was cradled among shepherds.
We are told that Cansa, the ruler of the country,
fearing the loss of his kingdom, sought the life of
Krishna, and the child was only saved by being hurried
away at night and concealed in a distant region. Cansa,
the Herod of the East, finding himself “mocked”
(18) slaughtered all the young children in his king-
dom. (19)
Krishna, even when a child, we are told, performed
(18) Matt. 2, y. 16.
(19) I have followed in this matter Rev. Thomas Maurice, in
his history of Hindostan, vol. 2; he insists on the vast antiquity
of the Hindu scriptures. That great scholar, Sir William Jones,
says the birth of Chrisna is many centuries before Jesus. Col.
Wilford puts the time 1300 B. C.; others, several centuries later.
-
70
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
many miracles. He raises the dead to life, he strangles
a huge serpent, he cures lepers. While still a boy the
other boys choose him King. In the gospel of the In-
fancy (ch. 41) we are told that Jesus ranked the boys
together as if he were a king and they spread gar-
ments for him to sit upon and crowned him with flow-
ers. Is it not very remarkable that the happenings at
Jesus' birth so nearly resemble or duplicate those of
Krishna, who preceded him by more than a thousand
years?
Section 5. The lavish supply of angels in Persia,
Judea and Palestine seems to have completely ex-
hausted the entire stock. And now for nearly twenty-
four hundred years in India and three thousand years
in Persia and nineteen hundred years in Palestine, not
a single blessed flyer has ever put in an appearance.
Why have we been so slighted? Do we not need their
presence and counsel as much as those men of Pales-
tine and India and Persia? But it is said we have the
scriptures, and do not need them. I reply that I have
just shown that Matthew and Luke tell two very differ-
ent stories on an important point, and I am not certain
which is right; they both may be wrong. And others
may be wrong too. Moreover, the Jewish mind for a
thousand years had been sedulously taught to believe
all such improbable things; They were fireside say-
ings. They had written them in their books as true.
The people of India and Persia in such matters led the
way. The Jews simply copied the extravagances of
the East. In fact, all religions two thousand years ago
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 71
preached the improbable, and the improbable has come
down to us.
Let the reader understand me. I do not say that
angels did not appear, as Luke says (20), and
that then they went away into heaven. For I was not
there to see that remarkable phenomenon. Luke him-
self was not an eye witness of that of which he writes.
He admits this, for in the very first verse of his first
chapter he says that “many” having taken in hand to set
forth the things believed, it seemed good to him, also,
having had a perfect understanding, to write. In truth,
he had manuscripts, some think more than a dozen,
before him, from which to make up his gospel; and no
doubt he tried to sift them and reach the truth, just as
I am doing as I write these lines. If there was a divine
influence at his elbow to guide his pen aright, I pray
that the same influence be not withheld from me.
Section 6. Here now I must digress a little and say
a few words about John the Baptist, the predecessor,
and, as it were, the teacher of Jesus. John, who was
a little older than Jesus, was a Nazir from his birth.
That is, he was of the Priestly class (21) and sub-
jected to a vow of temperance and chastity. (22) The
first certain glimpse we catch of him, he is preaching
to great audiences in the wilderness of Judea, clothed
only in a raiment of camel’s hair, and his food, it is
said, was locusts and wild honey. (23) He must have
(20) Ch. 2, V. 15.
(21) Luke 1, v. 5.
(22) Luke 1, v. 15.
(23) Matt 3, v. 1 to 5.
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A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
been an orator of wonderful power, for people flocked
to him in great numbers, from “Jerusalem and all
Judea.” They came to him from as far north as
Nazareth in Galilee. Even Jesus was drawn to him
and received baptism at his hands. (24)
Some of the Pharisees and Sadducees having been
sent as spies to watch John, he pointed to them and ex-
claimed : “O generation of vipers, who hath warned
you to flee from the wrath to come?” (25) His
austere life led many to believe that he was Elias,
returned to the earth (26), and in truth there was a
striking resemblance between the two. It is possible
that later influences may have caused the Baptist to
lead his anchorite life; for the Essenes or Therapeutae
were grouped in plentiful numbers not far from John’s
scene of activity. It is highly probable that the story
of Buddha’s solitary life in the forests of India had
reached John; as Babylon, long before Jesus was born,
was seething in Buddhism. In fact, Buddha’s doctrines
had reached Syria and Asia Minor two centuries be-
fore John the Baptist’s time. Ezekiel sprinkled dean
water upon his converts. (27) Buddha, however,
allowed his people to follow the customs of their own
family (28), but they must, before admission to the
order, remain four months on probation. (29)
(24) Matt. 3, t. 13 to 16.
(25) Matt. 3, v. 7; Luke 3, v. 1 to 7.
(26) Malachi 4, v. 5. Matt. 11, v. 14.
(27) Ch. 36; v. 25.
(28) Max Muller; Sanskrit Lit., p. 50.
(29) Yol. II, Sacred Books of the East, p. 109, and vol. 13, p.
109.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 73
With Subhadda, the last convert which Buddha re-
ceived just before his death, the four months’ probation
was omitted and the following ceremony took place:
Subhadda was taken on one side and his hair and
beard shaved off; then they poured water over his head
and clad him in yellow robes, and had him repeat: “I
take my refuge in the blessed one; I take my refuge in
the Dhamma (the law) and in the fraternity of Bhik-
lchus.” John the Baptist did not follow this plan; he
led those who sought baptism down into the river Jor-
dan and washed them; and it is thought that after he
had poured water on their heads he finally plunged
them under the water. One of his strict conditions
was that the sinner must repent. (30)
Now, while John was baptizing unto repentance,
Jesus came; but why the need of his baptism if he was
a sinless being? unless it was to show that thereby he
severed his connection with the Pharisees, or possibly
as an example to others.
Jesus, it must be remembered, was born a Pharisee,
and the Jews never practiced confession and immer-
sion; but the Essenes, on the Eastern shores of the
Dead Sea, not far from John, practiced both. Ablu-
tions were familiar to the Jews, but confession of sins
and total immersion never until John; and he no doubt
caught his inspiration from the Essenes. And when
Jesus began to preach, his first words are borrowed
(30) Matt. 3, v. 11.
74
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
from John: “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand.” (31)
John preached against the rich and said: “He that
hath two coats let him impart to him that hath none.”
(32) Jesus preached the same doctrine. (33) Con-
cerning John’s diet on “locusts and wild honey,” the
locusts were simply a bean or seed taken from the
locust trees which grew near the western shores of the
Dead Sea. The wild honey was a gum made from the
sweet leaves of shrubs, which were plentiful in that
vicinity. The juice of these leaves was called by the
people “wild honey.” The seeds or beans of the locust
tree, stewed with the sweet leaves, made not an unpala-
table diet.
John’s ministry, unfortunately for the world, was
cut short in the midst of its great usefulness. There
is an old Persian tradition that Zoroaster lived for
twenty years in the wilderness on cheese. But locusts
and wild honey with cheese added, would seem to be a
slim diet to build a religion upon.
The evil eye of Herod was upon John, and he bound
him and cast him into prison. The whole wretched
story is told in ch. 14, Matthew, and Mark 6, v. 17
to 26. But in reading ch. 11, Matthew, v. 2 to 6,
there is a sorry disagreement with ch. 3, Matthew, v.
14 to 17. Observe that John makes no mention of
that voice from heaven. (34). Moreover, while in
(31) Matt. 3, v. 2, 3, 17: Mark 1, v. 15.
(32) Luke 3, v. 11.
(33) Matt. 5, v. 40, 43.
(34) Matt. 3, v. 17.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 75
prison he sent two of his disciples, who asked Jesus:
“Art thou He that should come, or do we look for
another?” (35) Does not this prove that John did
not know who Jesus was at the time of the baptism ?
If he knew before the baptism, why this inquiry later
on? Josephus, Antiq., Book 18, ch. 5, tells us that
Herod caused John to be beheaded lest his wonderful
eloquence win so many followers that he would ulti-
mately raise a rebellion. But no mention whatever is
made of his being cast into prison and thereafter be-
headed on account of his criticism of Herod for having
married Herodias. John’s note of warning to the
world (36) will probably never fade from the memory
of man.
(35) Matt. 11, v. 1 and 2.
(36) Matt. 3. y. 2.
CHAPTER VI
A Few More Parallels.
Section i. It may seem strange to the reader that
miracles most marvelous are alleged to have taken
place at the natal hours of both Buddha and Jesus, and
that, thereafter, all exhibitions of the supernatural im-
mediately subsided in both cases for nearly thirty years,
(i)
It is mentioned of Buddha that, when twelve years
old, he was sent to some teachers for instruction, and
at one sitting he surpassed them all. Jesus, when
twelve years of age, went on a trip with his parents
from Nazareth to Jerusalem, to be present at a feast
of the Passover. The caravan, after traveling a whole
day on its return, missed the lad, and at the end of
a three days’ search he was found in the temple, we
are told, with the doctors of the law, both hearing and,
answering questions. “Thy father and I have sought
thee sorrowing (2),” said Mary, as she discovered him.
(1) We have already noticed the miracles at Zoroaster’s birth.
See section 3, ch. 5, ante.
(2) Luke 2:41 to 48. Mary here calls Joseph the fatter of
Jesus, and she ought to know.
76
77
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Buddha lived in luxury in his father’s palace until
nineteen, when he married the beautiful Yasodhara,
who bore him a son.
Jesus never married, and, no doubt, lived in “neces-
sity’s hard pinch” all his life, for he was later on heard
to say, “the son of man hath not where to lay his
head.” (3)
Section 2. We have already seen the snares and
allurements that were strewn in Buddha’s path to en-
tice him from a religious life and make him an earthly
king. (4) His royal father spared no pains to win
him to the luxuries of an oriental kingship.
In a chariot bespangled with jewels and drawn by
prancing steeds, the streets scattered with flowers, hung
with canopies and silken banners, the people all re-
ceiving the Prince with gladness, and whispering ad-
miration of him, ministers of state attending him;
the Prince rode through it all, silent, respectful,
thoughtful.
His rooms were filled with fragrant buds and flow-
ers; and at night, with music and dancing, beautiful
women, some lavishly clad, were urged upon him, to
entrap him, and win his heart to wickedness. In all
this earth, for three thousand years, this scene no-
(3) Matt. 8, v. 20.
(4) Oh. 1, sec. 3 and 4, ante. We are told that when Buddha
was about to depart from his father’s eastle, the Hindu devil
promptly appeared and offered to make him sovereign over four
continents and two thousand adjacent isles in seven days if he
would just remain. Buddha’s answer was, “I will make ten
thousand world systems shout for joy.” Birth stories, p. 84.
78
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
where has had its counterpart. There have been many
old men who have abdicated thrones, and many, both
old and young, have been forced to such an act But
here is a prince, in the early flush of manhood, hardly
twenty-nine years old, his kingly father loving him,
fairly doting on him as his successor, the people loving
him and glad to salute him as their future king; but
his mind is not on the carnival; he is looking be-
yond the present; he sees the impermanence of all
earthly things. He turns a deaf ear about getting
an illustrious name. Great thoughts have taken pos-
session of his soul. Fortunes, palaces, empires, a life
of ease and luxury, are in the balance against religion;
and they all fly up in the scale as though they were
only a feather.
He is going in search of a pearl of matchless price,
to the swarming millions of India, and he is firm.
“I am resolved,” he said, “if I obtain not my quest,
that my body shall perish in the wilderness.” He is
now, as we have said, twenty-nine years old, and he has
renounced the world and is homeless in the forests with
the ascetics. Here he remained six years in a great
struggle, wrestling with the flesh that he might reach
perfect purity of heart and establish here on earth
the kingdom of Righteousness. (5) We leave him
here and turn back to the man of Galilee.
Section 3. After Jesus was found in the temple he
(5) Vol. 13, Sacred Books of the East, p. 96, and Vol. 11, pp.
146 and 243. St. Paul had a similar experience: Romans, ch. 7,
?. 20 to 25.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
-
79
returned to Nazareth, and was thereafter “subject to
his parents.” Immediately after this episode, he drops
out of sight utterly for eighteen years. (6) No mir-
acles, no signs, no portents of a remarkable and un-
surpassed future follow him. The world moves on
the same as if he were not in existence. His daily
life was probably that of many other young men in
Nazareth, who have now slept for nineteen centuries
in unmarked graves.
Joseph was a carpenter, and Jesus, no doubt, assisted
him in building houses. We wonder if he ever caught
a vision of the mighty future before him. Did Geth-
semane and Golgotha, grim specters, never stalk across
his pathway? Did he ever read Isaiah (n, v. i to 6),
or suspect that He was the rod (7) that should come
out of the stem of Jesse, or that he was the Lord’s
anointed, the Prince of Peace, the Wonderful Coun-
selor, the Redeemer (8) ? Was his strange paternity
ever mentioned to him ? Did he know anything about
the “overshadowing” of his mother? Did any one in
Nazareth ever talk to him about the Holy Ghost?
Was the slaughter of the Bethlehem children a house-
hold shudder? Did his brothers and sisters ever men-
tion his escape from it ? Did Mary ever tell him about
wrapping swaddling clothes about him and hiding him
(6) Luke, ch. 2, v. 45 to 52. Did he visit India in those
eighteen yearsf
(7) Isaiah 61:1, 2, 44 and 24.
(8) Matt. 1:22, says, save his people (meaning the Jews) from
their sins. Matthew was a Jew and his vision is limited to Jewry.
80 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
from Herod’s wrath, in a manger? As he grew to
manhood, was he all unconscious that he was to save
his people from their sins? About all these matters
he is silent, and nowhere makes any mention of
his birth and his lowly couch in the manger; nor of his
enemy, Herod, nor of Bethlehem as his birthplace.
(9) While assisting Joseph, the carpenter, did he ever
suspect that he was to be the Saviour of the world?
(10)
He was undoubtedly of such steady, even deport-
ment that mothers with marriageable daughters looked
upon him with favor. Did those Nazarene girls never
ogle him? Did they never try to get up a flirtation
with him ? Such a thing is not improbable, but we have
no record whatever that those Nazarene people saw in
Jesus anything different from any other sober, modest,
quiet, orderly young man. Why, therefore, should
he not receive the same attention as others of his
age, habits and sex? Both Mary and Martha seem
to have thought much of him. (11) Those Nazarenes
saw him, probably daily, in his carpenter’s apron,
(9) I have seen it published that Jesus visited India, and
there learned his creed; that he was there from the time he was
twenty until near thirty years of age; but the proof; so far, is
not absolutely convincing, although it is a mystery as to where
he spent those intervening years. With all due respect to his
memory; it would seem that if Jesus was all-wise he would not
have chosen such a lot of wicked men for his apostles; Judas be-
trayed him; Peter thrice denied him (Matt. 20, v. 70); all of
them forsook him.
(10) Luke 2, v. 11.
(11) John 12, v. 1 to 3.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 81
toiling at the bench with Joseph. They did not
know, as John, in his wild extravagance, after-
ward said, that this Nazarene boy had made the world
(12) , and they would not have believed John if he had
gone there and told them so.
Section 4. John would probably have been jeered
at and scoffed at for his absurd and silly assertion
(13) . Those Nazarenes were not unfamiliar with
Genesis, which says, “In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth.” They would have pointed
John to the very first line of Genesis, which impales
him on a barbed point.
Concerning Jesus’ education we know but little. But
if at twelve years of age he was able to discuss the
Thor (the law) with the doctors in the temple, he must
have given it much attention. Books were not then,
as now, on every hand; they were few; they were cost-
ly; and his poverty precludes the idea that he possess-
ed anything more than a copy of the law of Moses;
but with that law, his subsequent sermons show him to
be thoroughly conversant. Jesus could write, yet he
never wrote a line in the New Testament, but we are
told that when a certain woman, charged with a serious
(12) John, ch. 1, v. 10, contains one of the most wild and
wicked statements that I ever read. How can any sane man be-
lieve such stuff f Nothing that the ignorant Hindus ever put forth
equals it in exaggeration, and they very frequently excel belief.
(13) Where did John get this special information about the
creation of the world f Who told himf Jesus himself never
made such a foolish claim; and that silly stuff was not written
until about one hundred years after Jesus escaped from that
Sepulcher. It is even possible that John did not write it.
82 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
offense by the scribes and Pharisees, was brought be-
fore him, they cited him to the law of Moses, which
condemned her to death. And they said, “Master,
what sayest thou?” Jesus was more than equal to
the emergency, and stooping down, he wrote with his
finger on the ground. (14)
There was a great audience in the temple, and
Jesus had been sitting there, teaching the people, when
this terrified woman was pushed through the throng
and thrust into his very presence. She is trembling
with fear; terror is stamped upon every lineament of
her face. The scribes insist that the proof of her
guilt is beyond all possible question. Now, if he con-
demns her, they will charge him with cruelty and bar-
barity. If he lets her go, then he himself is teaching
in open defiance of the Mosaic law. Turn which way
he may, the Pharisees think they have him completely
cornered. They look about triumphantly. They ques-
tion him: “Master, what sayest thou?” Jesus is
writing on the ground. They press about him, and
look over his shoulder to see what he has written.
These men claim to be strict keepers of the law; {hey
pay their tithes; they are conspicuous at the Passover;
(14) I am indebted to Professor Gregory, of Leipsic, Saxony,
for an ingenious solution of this mystery of what Jesus wrote,
though I am not entirely certain that he is right. But Professor
Gregory cannot be far out of the way, for it can hardly be con-
ceived that words less truthful and convicting could have scat-
tered those Pharisees as did those words written on the ground,
for the law violated by the woman, Levit., ch. 20, v. 10, and
John 8, v. 1 to 10,
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 83
they claim to be sinless; they think Jesus is beaten. But
what is he writing?
These are his ominous, convicting words:
“Eldad killed his friend, Modar, in the wilderness.”
“Horan cheated Bunam’s widow out of her house.”
“Arved’s wife was compelled to yield to the power
of Muman.”
Consternation has siezed the woman’s accusers. El-
dad supposed his sin was unknown, and as he reads
of his crime, his face blanches as did the woman’s a
moment before.
Horan, who claimed to be honest and pious, is
amazed to see his fraud written out, so that all could
read it.
Muman’s guilt is even greater than that of the wo-
man he seeks to have stoned to death.
There is a shuffling in the crowd. Eldad is pressing
his way out. Jesus now turns upon the woman’s ac-
cusers: “He that is without sin among you, let him
first cast a stone at her.”
Again he writes upon the ground. Muman is squeez-
ing through the throng to hide; mortification and
fear are stamped upon his face. Horan, crestfallen
and conscience-smitten, is striving to reach the door.
One by one, all the other accusers slink away. Jesus
and the woman are left alone. Jesus looks up, “Wo-
man, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man
84
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
condemned thee?” “None, my Lord.” “Neither do
I condemn thee; go, and sin no more.” (15)
There is no record that Jesus ever wrote another
line; yet his name and fame fill the whole world with
fragrance.
(15) John 8, y. 10 and 11.
CHAPTER VII
Buddha Seeks Religion in the Forest.
Section I. If I could paint Buddha and Jesus as
compared with other men, I would paint two mighty
mountains, reaching from earth to heaven; the top of
one in India, its base reaching the other in Palestine.
On the top of one I would write the word “Jesus,”
on the top of the other “Buddha.” At the foot of
each of these mountains I would raise two insignificant
hills, scarcely perceptible, and on each crest write the
word “self-love.” These men so loved mankind that
they both devoted their lives to the welfare of the race.
The mountains represent their complete unselfishness,
the mole-hills their self-love. One of these men, after
a short and brilliant career, was cruelly nailed to a
cross; the other toiled to his dying hour to guide his
people into a sure haven of rest and peace. No man
can be truly great whose very soul is cankered with
selfishness. Greed of wealth—in other words, selfish-
ness, in one form or another—stains the whole calendar.
Some men, selfishly and unjustly, wring millions from
86
86
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
the people, and then to gain the name of being generous
and liberal donate a bagatelle to some university or
library. This has been done in America. In truth,
such men are only gigantic robbers under the forms of
law; but,
"Despite their titles, power and pelf,
The wretches concentered all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And doubly dying shall go down
To the vile dust from whence they sprung;
Unwept, unhonored and unsung ” (i)
Such men forget that Jesus said: “Love thy neigh-
bor as thyself.” They never heard (nor would they
have heeded if they had heard) that Buddha preached
and urged that “men should be kind and peaceful,
bringing hurt to no one; and that all should be truth-
ful, pure, honest, just.” (2)
Section 2. Both Jesus and Buddha, as we have
seen, are said to have come down from heaven to bless
the race; but I shall treat them simply as men "of the
very highest type; supreme in love and mercy and all
the great moral attributes. (3) 1
(1) I have changed Sir Walter Scott’s inspired stanzas to hit
the coal robbers, the oil thieves, the steel swindlers, and I might
greatly prolong the list, including all trusts and all unlawful
combinations. There are plenty of the thieving brood in Amer-
ica.
(2) Vol. 11, Sacred Books of the East, p. 144, and Vol. 13,
p. 95.
(3) I do not say as a matter of fact that they did not come
down from Heaven. 1 simply affirm that the record seems to
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 87
Their followers have given them many endearing
names. Buddha is called The Great Samana, The
Blessed One, Bodhissatta, Tathagata, Gotama, The
Enlightened One, The Master, The Holy One, The
Lord of the World, The Redeemer, The Great King
of Glory, etc.
Jesus is called The Son of God, The Redeemer, The
Saviour, The Lamb of God, The Prince of Peace, The
Everlasting Father, etc.
As Buddha preceded Jesus r;bout five hundred years,
let us follow his fortunes for a time. We have seen
him at the edge of the forest, where he dismisses
Kandaka, his servant, with the injunction that he tell
his father, the king, to stifle every feeling of affection
for him, as he has entered the mountain wilds, where
he expects to undergo a painful discipline in seeking
true religion. Again we have seen him in that great
struggle for perfect purity of heart. (4) He is now in
the forest, and a new world opens on his astonished
vision. He found men undergoing the most terrible
austerities, hoping thereby to gain, at the end of life, a
birth in heaven. Some subsisted on roots and twigs;
others captured their food and ate it, as did the
birds. (5)
Some were letting water drip continually on their
be faulty. Such proof would not stand a moment in a Court
of Justice. In truth, they were born the same as other children.
Their bodies therefore did not come down from heaven, or go
up to heaven. In fact, Buddha, as we shall see, was cremated.
(4) Ch. 1, sec. 5, and ch. 6, sec. 2.
(5) Fo Sho Hing, Varga 7, verseB 513 to 526.
88
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
shaven heads; while others submerged their bodies in
water and lived as near as possible as the fishes live.
No wonder the prince regarded those men with pity
and was staggered to think that such suffering must
be endured “in quest of heavenly reward”; thus, in the
circle of birth and death, “enduring affliction that they
might attain a felicity not granted on earth.”
Those Hindu ascetics believed that in some former
births great sins had been committed by them, and that
they were thus atoning for them. The Jews, a thou-
sand years before Buddha was born, invented a much
more convenient way of atoning for their wickedness.
Once a year they brought a bullock without the camp
and burned him in the fire to make an atonement for
all their sins. (6)
The Jews were told to wail and moan. They girded
themselves with sackcloth and scattered ashes on their
heads (7). This was common even in Jesus’ day (8),
and the Catholic Church has brought it down to a very
recent period.
Section 3. Those ascetics which Buddha found in
the forests went to awful extremes in mortifying the
flesh; they punished it terribly with every kind of afflic-
tion; all in the interest and name of religion. But
Gotama said to them: “If you regulate the mind, the
body will spontaneously go right.” (9) Whether he
uttered those words then, I know not; but they were,
(6) Levit., ch. 16, v. 27 to 34.
(7) Joel 1, ?. 13; Isaiah 22:12.
(8) Matt. 11:21.
(9) Fo Sho Hing; Varga 7, v. 627.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 89
and are, everlastingly true. The mind is the master;
the carnal body, the servant; and to macerate the ser-
vant is not “regulating the mind.” Paul copied
Buddha five hundred years later, when he said: “The
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but we bring
into captivity every thought.” (10)
There were still other rites performed by those
ascetics, such as sacrificing to fire, sprinkling butter
libations and chanting mystic prayers at the close of
the day; for all of which the prince could see no sense
or reason. They chanted mystic prayers until the sun
went down. (11)
“The law which you teach,” he said, “you inherit
from former teachers; but I seek a law more in accord
with human reason; therefore this is no halting place
for me.” And as he turned to go, the company all
followed him and besought him to remain. There-
upon he was told to visit Arada, a most wise teacher,
a great man, who could explain the laws of life and
death to him. Such was the inauspicious opening
chapter of the greatest religious ferment that up to
that hour this wicked old earth had ever seen. Buddha
himself probably never dreamed that twenty-four hun-
dred years later he would have nearly one-fourth of the
whole religious world in his train.
Meanwhile, at the palace, which the prince had de-
serted, there was great commotion. Kandaka, his
(10) 2nd Corinthian*, ch. 10, ?. S to 0.
(11) That silly old custom was also prevalent with the He-
brews. It is said they could actually walk through Are. Isaiah
42:2.
90
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A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
servant, was charged with taking him away. “Not
so,” he replied, “he sent me back. I lovingly followed
him, but he put upon himself the religious garb and
with shaven head entered the sorrowful grove.”
Gotami, his aunt, who had been a mother to the
prince, on hearing that he had become a recluse, was
broken with grief. “Oh, how can his tender feet,” she
cried, “tread the stones and thorns of the wilderness?
Nourished in the palace, clad in garments anointed
with perfumes, now shivering with the blasts of night
—how can my son endure all this?”
Then Yasodhara, his wife, broke in: “You two,”
she said, “went forth together; where is he, thou vic-
ious reptile ? You were in league against him; go and
bring him safely back to me.” Kandaka tearfully re-
plied : “The Gods are in this" “The City Gates, on
his going forth,” he said, “wide opened themselves.
(12) The whole roadway, along which he rushed,
was strangely lighted.” On hearing this Yasodhara,
with moans and tears, flung herself upon the ground.
“My Lord,” she said, “has deserted me. The Brah-
man law requires the husband and wife together to
take part in religious rites; but my Lord has fled, to
wander alone in the rugged wilds.”
I “Can he forget Rahula, our son? Or has he fled
from jealousy to find a nymph of the woods or moun-
tains?”
(12) It was a miracle, similar to the one mentioned in Acts,
ch. 12, where the iron gate opened of its own accord, to let Peter
out of prison.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
9i
Section 4. The king, on learning all this, was so
filled with grief that he at once fasted and prayed the
gods to restore his wandering son. “He was my
hope, my only joy,” he said, “yet he is gone. Here
am I, in this great palace, solitary, alone, while he
wanders footsore in the wilderness. I care no longer
to govern; but I cannot die. Once my will was stead-
fast, difficult to move as the chained hills; but now my
mind is dazed. I am tossed to and fro like a ship on
a changing tide. There is one only hope: go, my
ministers, search him out; break down his resolution
and bring him quickly back to me.” (13)
The ministers made haste to leave, and were greatly
shocked to find Gotama in a lonely forest, with his
head already shaven, his garments so soiled that they
scarcely recognized their once bejeweled prince. They
told him of his sorrowing father; how sleep had fled
from his eyelids, and that night and day the tears
streamed down his cheeks; that he had sent them hither
to urge his quick return. “Religion,” they said, (14)
“does not require wild solitudes; a thoughtful mind
and a devoted heart will bring you inward peace.”
They mentioned Gotami, the aunt, who had reared
him from infancy; her grief and her distress; that
Yasodhara had fallen in a swoon when she learned
that he had fled to the woods; that the king, the court
and the common people would all exceedingly rejoice
at his return.
(13) Fo Sho, Varga 8, verge 662.
(14) Fo Sho, Varga 9, verse 688.
92 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
These words, most kindly meant, and calculated to
shake a very firm purpose, only brought to Gotama a
most distressful state of mind. “Whoever neglects
careful consideration of the present life,” replied the
prince, “puts his all in jeopardy. I pity my kingly
father in his fathomless grief, but in this life the ties
of blood are often severed. We are born, we love, and
are loved in return; but every changing hour leaves
his mark upon us all. We grow old, wrinkles come,
we fade, and in the end death claims us.
“You would make me king, and it is hard to resist
your pleadings. You would surfeit me with sensual
pleasures; but my destiny and delight are in religion.
I renounce the kingly estate, which my father and you
would thrust upon me. I turn my back upon kingly
leadership. Shall I return to lust, passion and ignor-
ance, having once thrust them forth? To wear this
hermit vestment was my firm purpose when I left my
father’s palace. To now go back to the soft dalliances
of love would be to miss my mission.”
The ministers rejoined: “Man’s duty is to the
present. It is a question yet in suspense whether there
be, or be not, a hereafter. If there be nothing beyond
this life then you miss all present pleasures and gain
nothing. But if there be an after world, what proof
have you that your hermit garb will fit you for it better
than the mild scepter of a faithful king? Hereafter
is, or is not. But there is no certain proof of any-
thing beyond the present solid earth. All beyond is
vague, uncertain conjecture. .We may hope, we may
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
93
dream, we may pray, we may speculate, we may argue,
but old age and disease come at last, and death, like
a robber with a drawn sword, follows us all and finally
cuts us down. The curtain falls. Now tell me, what
is behind that curtain? Is it a curtain or is it a wall?
Is there truly anything but hope? But suppose there
be a hereafter? Where is if to be? Have the gods
contrived another world, different from this? If so,
will not a high moral life, which you can lead in your
father’s palace as well as in these woods, equip you for
that world? In the universe, if there be a million
worlds, truth, morality, virtue, justice and mercy must
be the same in all of them. Other princes and even
kings have for a time dwelt in these mountains; but
they returned and ruled wisely.
“How can it be wrong for you now to return, and by
your wisdom advance true religion with all your
people? Remember that every day you wander here
your royal father is sighing for your return; that
Yasodhara mourns your absence; that Gotami is in
tears; that Rahula will fly to your arms; that all the
people will give you joyful welcome.”
The prince replied briefly: “The sun and the moon
may fall to earth (15), lofty Sumeru may melt away
(15) Buddha says the sun and moon may fall to the earth; but
he ought not to have misled Jesus; for Jesus says the stars shall
fall from heaven, etc.: Matt. 24, v. 29. However, it may be that
Isaiah, who lived about two hundred years before Buddha was
born, was the first transgressor, for he says the stars shall not
give their light. Isaiah misled Mark, for Mark says the stars
of heaven shall fall. (Mark 13, v. 25.) Astronomers tell us
that there are more than three hundred and fifty millions of
stars up to the twelfth magnitude. Now some of those supposed
94 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
and disappear, and yonder snowy mountains sink
down; but my purpose shall not change. I have en-
tered on my course, and neither fierce fire nor freezing
cold shall move me from it.”
With that the prince rose and walked slowly away,
and the ministers, seeing their mission utterly hopeless,
went sorrowfully back to the king.
stars are suns; vastly larger than our Sun. Moreover, the
nearest fixed star is twenty billions of miles distant. And for
?uch stars to fall to the earth, at the rate of twenty thousand
miles a day, it would take so long that a child bora when they
began to fall, would be a graybeard long before they reached
the earth.
CHAPTER VIII
Buddha Rejects a Kingdom.
Section i. After leaving the ministers, Buddha took
up his march for Vulture Peak, about 180 miles dis-
tant from his father’s palace at Kapilavastu. On en-
tering the village at the Peak, the people were so struck
with the exceeding comeliness of his person that they
swarmed after him, and some hastened to pass him,
that they might turn back and gaze upon his hand-
some features.
We have already passed by many such incidents,
and, as we shall encounter them again, I shall here
briefly describe Buddha, as well as possible, from the
many pen pictures found in the Indian books.
The old Rishi (prophet) at Buddha’s birth, observed
that he was a most excellently endowed child. “His
eyes,” he said, “are bright and expanding; the iris a
clear blue; his face surpassingly beautiful, and so
formed as to give promise of superiority in the world.”
Gotami, his aunt, who nursed him when a child, men-
tions his dark, glossy locks (i); his broad shoulders 1
(1) Of course, as a recluse, these were shorn off.
96 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
and his lion step; broad between eyes deep and pierc-
ing, as if they would look through all the worlds.
Others have described him with a well moulded and
capacious head; a body straight as an arrow; his whole
make-up at once commanding and attractive.
He was probably a little more than six feet tall,
and of athletic build; but with a disposition mild,
gentle, winning. Such a person, among any people,
becomes at once a leader, without his seeking. It was
soon noised about that this majestic looking person
was none other than a prince of the Sakya race, now
a recluse. Whereupon Binbasara Raga (king) order-
ed his royal equipage to pay him a visit; and on see-
ing him could not understand why the descendant of
an illustrious family should leave a palace, where at-
tendants waited upon him, and where perfumed gar-
ments and anointings were his portion. Just how
he could put all these aside, and wander in the woods,
houseless, in the coarse garb of an ascetic, the king
could not understand.
“Your hand,” said the king, “instead of taking its
little stint of food, ought to grasp the reins of em-
pire.”
Binbasara then entered into a long argument to
convince Buddha that his course was wrong, and, as
an inducement to change it, offered to divide his em-
pire with him. “You are young and lusty,” added the
king; “now is the time to enjoy yourself. When
age wrinkles your brow, and desire fails, then seek
the solitudes and perform your religious duties, as have
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 97
the kings who have gone before and are now receiving
their reward in heaven.”
Section 2. The prince respectfully replied that the
king’s liberality and kindness were known to the farth-
est limit. “You, O King, would have me go back
to the wealth of a kingdom, or take a part of yours.
But I seek neither the kingdoms nor the riches of this
world. What, at best, is wealth? It is no more to a
wise man than a chip, a feather or a stone. It is trash.”
Yet, how painfully do men toil and scheme after it!
This world has gone stark mad in pursuit of it. O,
covetousness! how many crimes hast thou committed.
Thou hast robbed the unsuspecting, and plundered the
innocent. (2)
And there is lust, its wicked brother. Those two
wretched outlaws ride triumphantly through the world,
robbing innocence of its portion, and purity of its
charm. “You, O King! have asked me to share with
you the dignity of your realm. In return, I beseech you
to go with me in search of that which will put an end
to birth, disease and death.”
“We have been taught to offer sacrifices, to appease
the Gods; but why destroy life to gain religious merit ?
Does pure religion require that we must wade through
slaughter to obtain it ? Will the slaying of that which
lives, open the portals of heaven to us? There are
those who, with great austerity, practice those rites;
yet they neglect the rules of moral conduct. How can
it be that by killing an animal and burning it, some fu-
(2) Varga 11, verse 867 and following, Fo-Sho-Hing.
98 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
ture or present good shall come to us? This world is
draped in sorrow, and there has been in the past mudi
wasting of life to banish it. Yet it pursues us unceas-
ingly. I seek a mode of escape as yet untried. Slaugh-
ter and religion are opposites. They are enemies.
They cannot go hand in hand. I pray thee, O king,
put an end to slaughter.”
These words of the prince so filled the king with
new emotions, that he at once, with great reverence, re-
plied :
“Go seek that of which you are in quest; it is worthy
of all endeavor. If you obtain it, then quickly re-
turn, and in mercy let me become an early partaker of
it” (3)
Section 3. In Gotama’s severe denunciation of bloody
sacrifices, his vision must have reached beyond the con-
fines of India, for the Indians, long before he came
upon the stage, had abolished it. That senseless and
wicked abomination, the Hebrews seem to have clung
to and followed with greater pertinacity than any
other people. Less than four hundred years before
Buddha came, the King of Moab offered his eldest son
upon the walls of a city as a burnt offering to his god,
that he might win a victory over Israel and Judah.
(4)
And only about two hundred years before Buddha
and Binbasara held their conference, Ahaz, the king
of Judah, sacrificed his own children by burning them 3 4
(3) Sacred Books of the East, vol. 19.
(4) 2nd Kings, ch. 3, v. 27.
99
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
in the valley of Hinnon. (5) Those kings may have
copied Abraham, who bound Isaac upon the fagots, and
would have offered him up had not a ram just then
became tangled in the bushes. (6) However that
may be, we are certain that centuries before Moab and
Ahaz burned their children, the Hindus, being less
given to blood and more to contemplation than the He-
brews, invented a much easier method. They substi-
tuted a horse; later on, an ox; then, a sheep, and finally,
a goat. The sacrificial essence, passing on down, at
last slipped from the goat and entered the ground,
from which rice and barley sprung up. (7) Thence-
forth they offered rice cakes, milk and clarified butter.
Even when Jesus was presented to the Lord in the
temple at Jerusalem, they sacrificed two young pig-
eons. (8)
Thus while rice cakes were being offered as a sac-
rifice in India, the Hebrews were using divinations
and enchantments in Palestine, and were worshiping
(5) Second Chron., ch. 28, v. 3.
(6) Max Muller, Anc. Sanskrit Lit., 419, says: “Human
sacrifices are not incompatible with a high stage of civilization;
especially by a people who never doubted the immortality of
the soul.’9 How any sensible man can make such a reprehensible
statement, is at least astonishing. Human sacrifices had their
origin among barbarous tribes. The Hebrews, nowhere in the
Pentateuch, nor in Kings or Chronicles, teach the immortality of
the bouI. Moreover, no people in a high stage of civilization
will permit human sacrifices.
The Hindus offered up a mock-man (Kimpurusha). Some say
Kimpurusha was a monkey; others that Kimpurusha means a
wicked man.
(7) See pages 47 to 52, vol. 12, Sacred Books of the East;
also section 5 of chapter 2, part second, Whitney’s Zoroas-
ter, p. 216, on Brahmanism and the Mosaic religion compared.
(8) Luke 2, v. 24.
ioo A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
-
idols, and causing their sons and their daughters to
pass through consuming flames. (9) The logic of
these sacrifices, as blind old Homer tells us, was that
the gods were persuaded by gifts. Think of it! that
Almighty God could, or can, be moved by burning a
man, or a bull or goat, or rice cakes and butter! Yet
we continue to publish those old heathenish records
as a part of our Holy Bible. 9
(9) Second Kings, ch. 17, v. 19 to 17.
CHAPTER IX
The Fastings and Temptations of Buddha and
Jesus.
Section i. Did Jesus and Buddha, as asserted by
their followers, come down from heaven to bring salva-
tion to the race? Of Buddha, it is said he was bom for
the good and blessing of the world. (i) Jesus said,
“The Lord hath anointed me, to preach the gospel to
the poor.” (2)
Both of these men are alleged to have voluntarily
undergone an incarnation, that they might teach
righteousness to the remotest comers of the earth.
Both fasted; but that was not strange, for fasting was
then practiced in nearly all religions, and in some even
yet. Moses, it is said, fasted for forty days and forty
nights, without either bread or water. (3) He was
then up there on Sinai, we are told, with the Lord,
fixing up the ten commandments; but why it was nec-
(1) Vol. 10, Sacred Books of the East, p. 123, 2nd part.
(2) Luke 4, v. 18, quotes Isaiah 61, 1. But whether Jesus
quoted Isaiah is not certain; neither is it certain that Buddha
used the words attributed to him in Fo Sho Varga, 26, section
1991. Both of these men were establishing new religions^ and
their followers made, and still make, great claims in their behalf.
(3) The reasonable supposition about Moses9 fast, is that he
was there writing upon those two tables of stone; but why the
writer of chap. 24, Exodus, y. 23, should state that he faeteS
all that time, is hard to understand.
101
102 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
essary for him to fast for nearly six weeks has never
yet been explained.
The fasting of Jesus for forty days was probably
copied from Moses, but he did not in that matter, as
in many others, copy from Buddha; for Buddha, at the
utmost, only fasted four weeks; and some claim that
his fast barely extended seven days. Nor did Jesus
copy from Buddha the long and severe penance which
the latter endured in the forest of Uravila. Here,
for nearly six years, Buddha strove to repress every
bodily passion; and with purity of heart gave himself
up to meditating upon the great problems of life; the
impermanency of all things, age, disease, death and,
after the death of the body, Nirvana.
He subsisted for a time, it is said, on a grain or two
of hemp seed per day, and this he continued until
his limbs became so weak and wasted that they could
scarcely support his attenuated body. His fame as a
persistent ascetic was, meanwhile, spreading far and
wide. A Burmese writer says: “It was like the sound
of a great bell hung in the canopy of the skies.”
On further consideration Buddha concluded that
the withering of his body was not the true way of sal-
vation. Another method must be tried. He would
bathe his body, refresh it with food, and by a composed
mind seek that ecstasy which emaciation and mortifica-
tion could never bring. At his feet flowed the Naran-
gana river; and into this he plunged for a bath. On
seeking to leave it, his exhausted strength gave way,
and he fell back hopelessly into the stream.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
103
But just then when death seemed about to snatch
him, an alleged miracle takes place. A heavenly spirit,
we are told, is close at hand, and seeing Buddha’s
peril, reaches a branch to him, which he grasps, and is
safely drawn from the water. (4) Then an angel
(perhaps the same one) told Nanda, the daughter of a
nearby herdsman, to bring Gotama some rice and milk,
which, when brought, she bowed low at his feet and
offered to him.
This renewed him, but his critics were near; they
were then, as now, always at one’s elbows, ready to
pull one down. In Buddha’s case they were the five
Bhikkhus who had lived with him in the forest. For
this sensible act they said his religious zeal was Bag-
ging. And they deserted him and went back to
Benares.
Section 2. A sublime purpose of a great mind is
never thwarted by small obstacles. Buddha was now,
after six years of persevering penance, alone in a lonely
forest, barefooted, poorly clad, nothing but an alms
bowl in his possession, to call his own. Yet this man,
thus situated, thus equipped, is ultimately to shake
the whole Eastern world!
Looking back now twenty-four centuries, we seem
(4) This is the first miracle since the escape from the palace.
I suppose the angel was some person who happened to be near.
Angels from this on will be numerous. It may have been the
same angel that helped Jesus later on. (Luke 22, v. 43; Fo Sbo
Hing, verse 1017.) Arthur Lillie, in his “Buddhism in Chris-
tendom,” tells us that Mara, the Hindu devil, appeared in the
air at this moment and begged Buddha to return to his father’s
palace; that if he would return, he would become a universal
monarch in seven days.
104
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
to see that strange figure there on the banks of the
Narangana river, wandering on until he finally sits
down beneath that Bodhi tree. His whole capital in
this world’s goods consists simply in a sublime resolu-
tion. If God ever rules in the affairs of men—and
sometimes it looks as if he did; then again, it seems,
to our short vision, as if he just let things go as best
they may—he at least has not frowned either upon
Buddha or his mission. For the followers of that man
under that Bodhi tree, are greater in number than
those of any other four religions on this earth today,
combined.
The time possibly may come in the distant future,
when the man of Galilee may surpass him; but as both
religions teach a rigid morality, and that love only can
conquer hate, it may be that they will yet flourish, and
not clash, upon any part of the earth. “Love, kindness,
patience, charity; do no wrong to any one” is the
keynote to both religions.
Section 3. Both Buddha and Jesus had their temp-
tations. Buddha’s is now at hand. We are told that
the heavenly Nagas (angels), or sinless beings, seeing
Buddha firmly resolved to seek deliverance for the
world, were filled with joy. Mara, the evil one, alone
was dejected and sorrowing. This Hindu devil, we
must notice, is very much like the one in Jerusalem
five hundred years later. In both cases, they seek to
thwart the good purposes of man. The Persians, like-
wise, had a devil, and he was of the same piece of cloth.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 105
Moreover these devils are all great linguists. The
one in Eden understood Adam’s tongue completely;
the Persian devil was well up in all the ancient Aryan
texts, as his diatribes with Zoroaster plainly show; and
this Indian fiend could wax eloquent in the Pali dialect.
(5) The devils of Palestine spoke Aramaic fluently,
and were likewise masters in bribery, or graft, which
is the same thing.
The Hindu devil divined at once that Buddha’s pur-
pose was the overthrow of his kingdom, and forthwith
he threatened him with all manner of vengeance. Not
being able single-handed to move him, Mara sum-
moned a great army of goblins to his assistance. The
appearance of those monsters was enough to strike
terror to the stoutest heart. Some, it is said, were
lion-headed; some, as tigers, snarled at him; serpents
hissed at him; others filled the air with startling
sounds. Hell itself seemed to have vomited forth all
its furies.
It was in this case exactly as it is even to this day.
Withstand temptation, and help will come to you.
Here, around Buddha, it is said, there were gathered
a host of devils; enough to shake heaven and earth.
Yet he remained firm. Then, as a last resort, a win-
(5) Gotama preached in the Pali tongue, one of the dialects
of ancient India. It was spoken at Kapilavastu, where he was
born. Pali has long been a dead language. The Singhalese of
Ceylon is, however, closely allied to it. It is said that the Genius
of Buddha raised the standard of Pali to the rank of a classic.
This Hindu devil, as we shall see, was a master of Pali also.
io6 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
some woman, in lustful garb, and sweet of speech,
sought to entice him into devious paths. But she
failed; and just as this last tempting bait was rejected
we are told that voices from invisible forms (6) in the
air were heard praising the great Muni. (7) Paul de-
scribed a Muni exactly when he said: “He that over-
cometh evil,” and Paul, as we shall see further on,
heard a voice in the air calling to him. (8)
We are told that Mara’s army of goblins, hearing
those voices and seeing no one, were filled with alarm
and, throwing away their arms, fled in utter rout and
confusion.
Section 4. The statement about those Hindu voices,
“voices from invisible forms,” is not believed by Chris-
tians to be true. In fact it is utterly and completely
disbelieved, and by some laughed at and sneered at.
On the other hand the Hindus do not believe that
Brahma (God) saluted Jesus as he came up out of
the water from his baptism, by saying: “This is my
beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” Nor do the
Hindus believe that the “heavens opened” and that
(6) Mark 1:11, says that God himself spoke from the skies,
when Jesus was baptized. Who told Mark that? and who told
that Hindu writer about those voices t Both statements seem
highly improbable. Matt. 3, v. 17, is likewise imaginary.
(7) Muni: a man who has overcome all desire; one who has
weighed both sides, and has chosen the good; one who has over-
come evil. Paul to the Bomans, ch. 12, v. 21, says the same.
First Epistle of John, ch. 2, v. 13, also ch. 5, v. 4, describes per-
fectly a muni.
(8) Acts 22, v. 7.
' A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 107
something like a dove descended and lit upon Jesus,
even though John says he saw it. (9)
The story of the dove and the temptation of Jesus
is a curious piece of theological writing. (10) It has
been set aside by many as a wild and improbable Jew*
ish legend. But, on the other hand it has been stoutly
defended by great intellects; and there are about one
hundred and sixty millions out of sixteen hundred mil-
lions of people on our globe who strenuously insist that
the story as told in the gospels is not only almost, but
is altogether, true. It is simply a question of belief,
but belief never changes facts.
The “heavens opened” and the spirit descended, or it
did not descend; but what is even more curious is that
immediately thereafter that same spirit “drove or led”
Jesus “up into the wilderness,” and “he was there with
the wild beasts forty days.” What for? Simply to
be tempted by the devil. Now, if Jesus was the son
of God, and God had just said he was pleased with
him, God knew exactly how the temptation would end.
What earthly, or heavenly, good to send Jesus among
the “wild beasts for forty days?”
(9) John, eh. 1, v. 32,, if lie made such an assertion, would not
today be believed in a Court of Justice. Matt., cb. 3, v. 16 and
17; Mark, ch. 1, v. 10; Luke 3, v. 22. Tbe simple naked assertion
of any one man about such an extraordinary occurrence, would
be passed by as a foolish exaggeration.
(10) John the Baptist did not know who Jems was when he
baptized him; for he afterwards sent two disciples to make in-
quiry. (Matt. 11, v. 2 and 3.) Now if Jesus was a sinless be-
ing, why the necessity of His baptism 1 John was baptizing
unto repentance. What had Jesus done that he must needs re-
pent f
lo8 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Perhaps these wild beasts were some of Mara’s gob-
lins imported from India.
No doubt the writers of our Gospels had heard of
Buddha’s temptation and his triumphant victory, some
five hundred years before. It is not improbable that
they had; and I shall show further on that Jesus Him-
self knew of Buddha and his religion.
But where was that wilderness unto which Jesus
was led? Mark says Jesus came from Nazareth of
Galilee, to be baptized in the river Jordan. Luke tells
us He “returned from Jordan and was (then) led by
the spirit unto the wilderness, where He was tempted
forty days and did eat nothing.” (11) Later on Jesus,
like Buddha, changed his mind about fasting and did
not believe in it. (12)
The temptation, therefore, took place at, or near,
Nazareth, where Jesus had been brought up; and is it
not a little strange that he should stay out there in the
wilderness and not go home to dinner? (13)
According to the record he was there for the express
purpose of being tempted; but the angels did not forget
him, (14) though Luke says: “In those forty days he
did eat nothing.” (15) How then did the angels
minister unto Him? Did they give him a piece of
bread and butter, or a cup of water, or did they furnish
Him a blanket to keep the chill of night from him ? In
(11) Luke 4, 1 and 2.
(12) Matt. 9, v. 14.
(13) Mark 1, v. 12.
(14) Mark, ch. 1, v. 13; Matt. 4, y. 11.
(15) Luke, ch. 4, v. 1 and 2.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 109
some of those ways they must have served Him. (16)
The devil was on hand also, and seems to have
known God’s power, for he said: “If thou be the son
of God command that this stone be made bread.” Is
it possible that Jesus could have turned that stone into
a good wholesome loaf? We are certain, at least, that
he did not try it.
Section 5. This devil understood Aramaic, the lan-
guage of Jesus, for he talked to him, and Jesus under-
stood the devil, for he answered back.
But all this is not so astonishing as that the devil
should take Jesus into Jerusalem, the Holy City, and
set him conspicuously upon the pinnacle of the temple.
(17) Can the reader imagine how those two famous
personages (18) marched up through the streets of
Jerusalem ? The inference is that the evil one escorted
Jesus, for the record says, “the devil took him.” Did
they walk? Did they go arm in arm? Or did the
devil (the master of ceremonies on that occasion) call
for a conveyance and ride up to the temple in fine
style? How is this? Would not every one like to
know all about it? Here is a great transaction, world-
famous forever—the arch enemy of the human race
(16) The angel, in Buddha’s case, as we have seen, was Nanda,
who gave him some rice and milk. In fact, both religions are
well supplied with angels. Ten thousand Hindu angels (Devas)
appeared at Buddha’s birth, and more than twelve legions of
angels were subject to Jesus’ command. (Matt. 26, v. 53. P.
345, vol. 19, Sacred Books of the East.)
(17) Luke, ch. 4, v. 9: “He brought him to Jerusalem,” etc.
Matt., ch. 4:25.
(18) I say “personages,” for the Gospels make the devil a
person as much as they do John the Baptist.
no A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
is passing up the streets of Jerusalem to the temple,
with Jesus, the great unselfish lover and friend of man-
kind—they reach the temple and together climb the
stairway leading to that high and exposed point, the
pinnacle, and here the devil gives Jesus a seat. (19)
What is all this for? The devil himself tells us. He
wants to test a verse or two in the ninety-first psalm,
written by David, or some other poet, a thousand years
before Jesus was born. And he tries to get Jesus to
“cast himself down” from the pinnacle, to see whether
the angels will “in their hands, bear Him up,” and
not allow him to be crushed by the fall. It must be
noticed that this devil is not only a linguist, but is a
Hebrew scholar and a lover of poetry, for he quotes
that beautiful ninety-first psalm correctly.
-
Jesus quoted part of a verse found in Deuteronomy
(20): “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord, thy God.”
But he is careful not to cast himself down; thus show-
ing that He has no faith that the angels would save
Him harmless in the fall.
This reply of Jesus is, moreover, most startling; for
when he says, “Thou shall not tempt the Lord, thy
God,” does He not virtually say: “I am the Lord, thy
God”? (21)
Did Jesus actually say that, or have those words
been put into His mouth for a purpose? Neither
Mark nor John mentions this affair of going to Jerusa-
(19) Matt., ch. 4, v. 5 and 6, and 91st Psalm, v. 11 and 12.
(20) Ch. 6, v. 16.
(21) Dent., ch. 6, v. 16.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES hi
lem and sitting on the pinnacle. Mark leaves Him in
the wilderness, with the angels ministering unto Him
(22), and John does not even know about the trip to
the wilderness. Nor does anyone of the four Gospel
writers tell us how the devil got Jesus down from that
pinnacle, and thence through the busy streets of Jeru-
salem, to that “exceeding high mountain.”
This was, and is, a world-famous journey, of which
everyone would like to have all the incidents, even the
smallest, noted down with great particularity; yet we
are cut short in a few brief sentences. Was that
journey actually made as stated; or is it a weak copy
of Buddha’s temptations? (23)
Section 6. Luke says that the devil took Jesus up
into a high mountain; and Matthew emphasizes that by
saying it was “an exceeding high mountain.” (24)
But neither of them specifies the particular one. Now,
the mountain near Nazareth which surpasses all others
in height is Mount Carmel, on the shores of the Medi-
terranean. If Jesus stood on Mount Carmel when the
evil one, in a moment of time showed him “all the
kingdoms of the world and the glory of them,” there
was surely spread out before him a most entrancing
panorama. The blue waters of that great inland
ocean, the Mediterranean, met his vision on the west.
To the north those old cities, Tyre and Sidon, famous
(22) Mark, ch. 1, v. 13.
(23) Sec. 3 of this chapter.
(24) Luke 1, ?. 5; Matt., eh. 4:8. Matthew takes him into
Jerusalem before going to the mountains, but Luke gets him to
the mountain before going to Jerusalem.
112 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
a thousand years before His day, reposed sleepily, their
inhabitants never dreaming that from the heights of
Carmel the great enemy of mankind was trying to bar-
gain them off with the rest of the world upon a false
and fraudulent consideration. For the devil did not
own a single thing of all that he proffered. Jesus,
moreover, must have known that the devil could not
deliver any of the kingdoms he was offering.
To the east the Jordan rolled its swift and turbid
waters; and there was the sea of Galilee, and on its
shores stood Capernaum and Chorazin, villages where
Jesus afterwards dwelt, Southeast of Carmel all the
hills and valleys of Samaria, green with verdure,
spread out; and beyond them, dimly outlined it may
be, against that southern sky, rose the spires of that
famous temple of Jerusalem; famous then, but hence-
forth to be canonized in all history for all the years to
come.
Moreover, the confined, stinted borders of Palestine
were only as a leaf in the forest, compared to “all the
kingdoms of the world,” which the, devil said, “had
been delivered unto him” that he might give them unto
whomsoever he pleased. (25) That devil, we must
observe, did not tell the truth when he made that propo-
sition to Jesus. But he seems to have known that
Jewish blood was in Jesus’ veins; and therefore
thought that, like that race in those days, he could be
bribed or bought for a consideration; and so he
(25) Luke, ch. 4, v. 5, says he showed all the kingdoms of the
world in a moment. Matt., ch. 4, v. 9.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 113
promptly offered Jesus “the whole world” if He would
just fall down and worship him.
Jesus’ answer, “Get thee behind me, Satan,” is as
immortal as the stars, and ought to be stamped upon
men’s minds and hearts until the evening of the last
day. Thereupon the devil “for a season” left Jesus;
and thus ended one of the most remarkable dialogues
(if it is a dialogue) in all history. (26)
Section 7. I cannot close this chapter without re-
marking that both of these temptations have a weird
and unreal aspect. Are those devils real living things?
Or are they simply creatures of the poet’s brain? Did
old Satan really take Jesus and set him on that pin-
nacle; and also take him up into that mountain? Yet
however much we may speculate on this matter, it is
plain that Jesus believed that there were devils (27)
and He prayed God to keep evil (devil) from His
disciples (28); and Jesus, it is said, afterwards cast
out many devils. (29)
The followers of the man of Galilee persistently set
aside all other writings and pin their faith to the New
Testament; but only two men, Matthew and Luke, in
all this world, tell us that these episodes of the pin-
nacle and the mountain actually took place. In this I
omit, of course, the Apocryphal gospels.
But where did Matthew and Luke get their facts?
Matthew was a tax collector at the time Jesus is said
(26) For a season. Luke, eb. 4, v. 13.
(27) Matt. 6:13.
(28) John 17:15.
(29) Matt. 8:16.
114
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
to have been in company with the devil on the moun-
tain ; and Luke never was a disciple, and never at any
time saw Jesus. The best authorities now agree that
the four gospels were composed from older writings
founded on old traditions.
A story, we know, gains and never loses anything in
its travels. I shall not declare that these things did
not happen on the mountain and pinnacle, but simply
add that the evidence offered to prove them seems
lamentably deficient.
It may be, however, that all those explicit state-
ments and colloquies were, and are, merely subjectives,
in order to teach us that no matter what the tempta-
tion one should always stand firmly for the right, for
justice and for truth. If such was the object of
Matthew and Luke, they struck the keynote for all
men, for all time.
CHAPTER X
Buddhism Known in Palestine Before Jesus Was
Born.
Section I. In some former chapters I have said that
Jesus probably copied certain things from Buddha and
the Hindus. As that statement is likely to be con-
troverted by narrow-minded people who think that
nothing pertaining to religion ever happened beyond
the stinted confines of Palestine, I will now proceed to
show that he not only probably followed the great
Hindu teacher in many things, but will make the proof
so strong that to every fair and unprejudiced mind it
will truly equal absolute certainty.
In fact the proof will be nearly as absolute and cer-
tain as that Jesus preached in Capernaum. First it
must be borne in mind always that Buddha was born
in India about five hundred to five hundred and forty-
three years before Jesus appeared in Galilee.
If now I show that India and Palestine were en-
gaged with each other in friendly commerce centuries
before Buddha was born, I shall have established'the
possibility, yes, even a probability, that the religions of
those two peoples were more or less known to each
other.
It is certain that Palestine, India and the islands of
118
Il6 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
the sea, as far back as the days of Solomon (one thou-
sand years B. C.), were engaged in friendly commerce
with each other, along the coasts of Malabar, and as
far south as Ceylon, and perhaps even beyond that.
My proof is found in those old Hebrew records, which
tell us that Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-
geber, on the shores of the Red Sea, and that navy,
which was called “the Navy of Tarshish,” made distant
voyages, lasting three years, and brought back gold,
silver, apes and peacocks, from India or Ceylon or
both, (i) Those ships reached Ophir, and Josephus
says Ophir was in India (2), and as they returned
freighted with merchandise, including cassia and
cinnamon, peacocks and apes, we are sure that they
must have visited such hot sultry coasts as Malabar and
Ceylon, for cassia and cinnamon were not then pro-
duced west of there.
Hiram, the famous king of Tyre, was at that time
engaged in the same business. He likewise brought
cinnamon and cassia from Malabar. His ships of
Tarshish sailed every sea. (3)
Moreover, the Egyptians, long before Solomon’s
day, must likewise have sent fleets to Malabar, as cin-
namon and cassia, in the time of Moses, is mentioned
as constituting a part of the holy anointing oil. (4) 1
(1) 1st Kings, ch. 9, v. 26; also 1st Kings 10, ?. 22. Of course
it is well known that peacocks are natives of India and Ceylon,
and they were brought from there to Palestine.
(2) Joa Antiq. Book 8, ch. 6.
(3) 1 Kings 10, v. 22.
(4) Exodus, ch. 30, v. 22 to 25; Bev. 18, v. 13.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES n7
Babylon at a later day also traded in the cinnamon
and odors and ointments of Ceylon and Malabar.
When two nations or communities of people are
found trading together in a friendly way, and the same
people continue to occupy the same original territories
and produce from the soil the same products for ex-
change, the reasonable supposition is that their friendly
exchanges continue. A temporary interruption, even
war itself, we know, is never a perpetual bar to com-
merce. Those people were not only trading along the
coast in ships of three year voyages, but they also had
a land and water route, from near the mouth of the
Indus, up the Persian Gulf, and across Arabia, thence
up the Red Sea, to the present town of Akabah. (5)
From Akabah the line of travel passed northwest, not
far from the Dead Sea, where John the Baptist
preached in the wilderness. Moreover, the Phoeni-
cians, 600 years B. C., circumnavigated Africa, a much
more dangerous voyage and longer than to reach
India. (6)
Section 2. Now let us go back to India and see
what happened there after Buddha came. Within two
hundred and sixty years after his birth his doctrines
had so far supplanted the old Brahmanic religion as to
become, in the reign of King Asoka, the state religion
of a people occupying a territory greater than all
Europe, Russia alone excluded. India then had a pop-
(5) Ezion-Geber, where Solomon built his ships, is near
Akabah, but is now submerged in the Sea. What a remorse-
less destroyer is old time!
(6) Vol. 18, Br. Eney., p. 807.
Il8 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
ulation forty or fifty times greater than Palestine; and
the same disparity in numbers continued after Jesus
was bom, and so continues to this day.
Before Jesus’ birth, Buddhism had crossed the
Himalayas and was welcomed in Tibet (7); and the
swarming multitudes of China had approved it. Dago-
bas (churches) had been erected from the Punjab to
the mouth of the Ganges; Assam and Burmah had felt
its influence and surrendered to its mild sway; it had
penetrated the Indian Ocean and hoisted its victorious
banner triumphantly over Ceylon.
In fact, all that vast and populous region from the
Yellow Sea to Persia was, two hundred years B. C.,
under the religious sway of Buddhism. It is true that
the old Brahmans still offered serious opposition; but it
was ineffectual to check the rising flood. Moreover, a
great event which took place about three hundred and
thirty years B. C. had opened the gates for its migra-
tion further west.
Alexander, that great Macedonian butcher, on his
march to conquer Persia, founded a city named for
himself on the southern shores of the Mediterranean ;
and those old lines of intercourse with India, by sea,
were called into requisition more frequently than ever
before.
Towards this new city of Alexandria people of all
classes, from every known quarter of the globe, flocked
(7) Tibet held firmly to Buddha’s religion for five centuries,
when Lamaism (which is partly religious and partly political)
crept in (Br. Ency., vol. 14, p. 226).
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 119
in great numbers, and they were welcomed without
regard to their nationality or their religion.
Greeks came with their gods and their philosophy;
Egyptians with their worship of animals and their pe-
culiar ritual for the dead; Persians with their Zend
Avesta (their bible), which taught that hell was a cold,
frozen place, where the wicked suffered for a time;
and the Jew with his Thora (law), which left out both
heaven and hell, but allowed slavery and permitted
polygamy. (8) He here offered his bloody sacrifices
without hindrance or objection. All these came early
and were simply magnets which drew others to them.
Two hundred years B. C. this new city had so grown
and flourished that it was the commercial metropolis
of the world.
Does anyone suppose that this could happen and
India remain unmoved amid all this trade and tumult?
If so, let us see what Alexander himself did to open
new lines of intercourse with India. After conquering
Persia he entered the Punjab, the land of the seven
rivers; crossed the great Indus, and at the river Jhelum
.defeated Porus, an Indian King, but lost his famous
war horse, Bucephalus.
From here Alexander sent Nearchus, one of his ad-
mirals, down the Indus, with orders to examine the
route for traffic along the Indian Ocean to the mouth
of the Euphrates, and later went himself down that
great river, where, near its mouth, he planned a new
(8) Exodus 21:2; Leviticus, ch. 25, v. 39 to 44. The Jews
would even bay their own brother*. Levit. 25, v. 89.
120 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Alexandria, to trade with the one at the mouth of the
Nile.
He had encountered Buddhism in Bactra and Kabul,
but in northwest India its Samanas (priests) and its
Dagobas (temples or churches) were found in sur-
prising numbers. It is said that his officers, and even
the private soldiers of his army, were greatly interested
in Buddha’s religion. From the mouth of the Indus
Alexander turned toward Bactra, and a year or two
later died, as we know, in a drunken debauch at Baby-
lon. But he had opened up a new line of communica-
tion with India, which from that day to this has never
been closed.
After Alexander’s death Bactra and India fell to the
portion of Seleucus Nicator, one of Alexander’s gen-
erals. But meanwhile Chandra-Gupta, a Buddhist ad-
venturer, had formed a principality in the Ganges val-
ley in the present territory of Oudh, and so stoutly op-
posed Nicator’s pretensions that war followed. (9)
Section 3. Nicator found his way to the Syrian
throne beset with such serious difficulties that he
offered Chandra-Gupta peace, and all northwest India,
including the Greek settlements founded by Alexander,
on condition that he would send him five hundred ele-
phants.
Chandra agreed to accept this if Nicator would give
him his daughter in marriage. The bargain was struck,
(9) Chandra Gupta was the Grandfather of Asoka, the King.
The Greeks called him Sandrocottus. I will add that the land
of Ophir was no doubt in India. There was also a great over-
land route from India west by way of Palmyra and Mesopotamia.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
121
and thus a Greek princess became a Hindu’s wife,
and all of Alexander’s Greek colonists became Indian
subjects. Nicator moreover sent to this Ganges court
Megasthenes, that clear headed ambassador, who, in
writing his impressions of India gave to the world a
most interesting piece of history. “The people,” he
said, “are brave, truthful, industrious, sober, not quar-
relsome, and so honest that they require no locks on
their doors.”
But that which first struck his attention and called
forth his admiration was that in India men and women
could not be bought and sold. Buddha’s teachings
had set the last captive free. “Slavery,” said Megas-
thenes, “does not exist there.” This was three hun-
dred years before Jesus came.
At that time all the known world, India alone ex-
cepted, was engaged in the nefarious traffic of buying
and selling human beings. Nations then unborn af-
terwards engaged in it, and it is only ninety-eight years
ago that England abolished it. America, my own
loved country, extinguished it barely forty-five years
ago; and then only after a long and bloody war.
But India herself, before this, and under Brahmanic
rule, had been severe. When Buddha came he found
seven classes of slaves (to), and the poor Sudras were
so ground down that they were not allowed to learn
even a text or a line of the Veda.
(10) Captives in war; he who serves for his daily food; born
slaves, purchased slaves, inherited slaves those given, and those
enslaved for punishment.
122 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
-
Buddha taught that a man does not become low
caste by birth; nor by birth does one become high caste.
“High caste,” he said, “is the result of high actions.
By actions man may degrade himself to a caste that is
low.” The first move that Buddha made against slav-
ery was to take the degraded Sudra into his Samgha
(church). And here I must observe that Buddha’s
religion, like that of Jesus, found its first adherents
among the poor and the lowly. The rich Pharisees in
Jerusalem scorned the teachings of Jesus; so also the
lordly Brahman of India confronted Buddha at every
turn.
Section 4. Let us now pass on to a little later
period. About 224 years B. C., Asoka, a zealous
Buddhist, the grandson of Chandra-Gupta, came to
the throne of Gupta’s kingdom. (11)
Asoka was as intensely zealous for Buddhism as was
St. Paul afterwards for Christianity. But Asoka had
one great advantage over Paul—he was a king, and he
wielded his kingly scepter in behalf of his religion with
such amazing effect that to this day some of his edicts
are found deeply and plainly graven upon rocks and
pillars, stretching over a territory from Afghanistan on
the west to the great Brahmaputra on the east, a dis-
tance of more than two thousand miles.
Whatever Asoka did, he did systematically. First
he called a grand council, and settled the cardinal
doctrines of the Buddhist faith. Next, he published 11
(11) I shall not stop now to mention the different conncils of
Buddhists, bat take that np in a subsequent chapter.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 123
his edicts, warmly commending the faith to his sub-
jects and commanding their obedience thereto. He
sent priests and missionaries in every direction to
spread it. He founded great numbers of monasteries;
and it is said he supported from his royal revenues
more than sixty thousand priests. He set up memorial
columns in every province, and in short made it an
active, flourishing state religion. That the purity of
its doctrines might not become corrupted, he estab-
lished a department, and appointed a minister of jus-
tice and religion, to look after the morals of his people.
Asoka’s religion consisted in works, as well as faith;
he caused wells to be dug for the poor; he beautified
their grounds and the highways, by planting trees and
shrubbery. He furnished medical aid to the sick,
and won converts by kindness, and not by war. He
sent Mahinda, his son, and a band of missionaries, and,
later, his daughter and a company of nuns, to Ceylon
to convert that people. And considering the slow and
toilsome means of travel then, it was a longer and more
tedious journey than to circle the globe today. Mahin-
da’s labors, and those of his missionaries and nuns,
were not in vain, for the history of Ceylon tells us
that the pure doctrines of Buddha yet live in hearts
and minds of the people. In truth, Asoka did more
to push and extend Buddhism, than did Constantine
(A. D. 325) in behalf of Christianity. The chasm
between those two is noteworthy. Asoka’s reign was
permeated with charity and kindness. On the other
hand, Constantine’s hands were stained with blood.
124 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
He murdered Licinius, and put to death Cripus, his
own son. He also murdered Licinius, his nephew.
While it is true that he helped, rather than hindered
Christianity, yet all that he did for it was done from
motives of statecraft. (12)
The religion which Mahinda taught the people of
Ceylon, was to eschew falsehood, intemperance, dis-
honesty, anger, pride and covetousness, and to forgive
injuries, practice chastity, contentment, patience and
cheerfulness.
Asoka’s activity in behalf of Buddhism was so great
that he sent his missionaries to all barbarian countries,
and ordered them to intermingle with Brahmans and
beggars and unbelievers of every class in India, and in
all foreign lands. He not only sought to spread the
faith, but he published its doctrines in book form, in
the Magadhi dialect, and that canon, for more than,
twenty-two centuries, has been held sacred by the
southern Buddhists.
This Hindu King, who styles himself the beloved of
the Gods in one of his edicts, says he wishe^Jror all
creatures forbearance, justice and clemency. He wants
no conquest, only by the good Danamma (the law, or
religion of Buddha). And he mentions the King of
the Yavanas (the Greeks) and Antiyoga (Antiochus),
his neighbor; everywhere he wants Buddha’s good law
followed. “To make that peaceful conquest,” he says,
(12) Eusebius, who was more of the courtier than a Christian,
wrote a flaming biography of Constantine, but it is partial and
untruthful.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 125
“fills him with joy.” The only thing of worth, he says,
is that which has reference to the Beyond. He wants
his sons, and his grandsons, to the end of time, to avoid
contests; but if a contest comes, they must exercise
mercy and clemency; and they shall only regard
conquest by the law (Law of Buddha). “Such a con-
quest,” he says, “brings Salvation here to you. The
joy is in the effort. This brings Salvation here and
beyond
In my next chapter, I shall offer proof that
Buddhism was known, not only in Syria and Palestine,
but also in Rome.
CHAPTER XI.
Buddhism Known in Syria, Greece, Rome, Before
the Birth of Jesus.
Section i. In the preceding chapter I mentioned
the sending of Mahinda and others to convert Ceylon.
But just before, or about that time, Asoka sent
Maharakita at the head of a missionary delegation to
Egypt and Greece. There were most certainly amica-
ble relations between India and Greece, for Antiochus
Theos, the grandson of Seleucus Nicator, and Asoka,
the grandson of Chandra-Gupta, about 250 years B.
C., made a friendly treaty with each other. (1)
In short, those two people were then, and later, upon
such a firm footing of peace that Asoka’s inscriptions
of Buddhist texts upon the rocks at Guzerat, were not
only allowed to remain unobliterated, but on the same
rocks the name of Antiochus the Great likewise ap-
pears.
Here is one inscription: “Moreover, within the
dominions of Antiochus, the Greek King, of which his
generals are the rulers, Asoka’s double system of
medical aid is established; both medical aid for men
and for animals, together with medicants of all sorts
which are suitable for men and animals.” 1
(1) Br. Ency., Vol. 12, p. 788, 9th edition.
126
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 127
This is a Greek inscription. The storms and beat-
ings for more than twenty-one hundred years have
not yet obliterated it. This ancient landmark yet tells
its historic story. Another piece of history, deeply
engraven upon these rocks, was, and yet is, as fol-
lows : “The Greek King has been, moreover, induced
to permit the people, both here and in foreign coun-
tries, everywhere, to follow the doctrines of the re-
ligion of Asoka wheresoever it reacheth” (2). This
last incision on those rocks is especially noteworthy
in that it permits the Greeks and all others under that
flag to give up their gods and their religions and adopt
Buddhism. The Greek king here “permits” his people
to adopt or accept the Buddhist faith, and a permit
from the king to do a certain thing in those days was
the equivalent of a request, if not a command. It
should also be remembered in this connection that this
rock carving was made when the old Mosaic religion
was the only one professed by the Jews. And that
faith never did commend itself to the Greeks. Jesus
did not appear until more than two hundred years
later.
With the Greeks, therefore, it was simply a choice
between their old gods and the mild and more sensi-
ble faith of the Buddhists. We are told that somewhat
later than those rock engravings, on the erection of a
(2) King Asoka was called Deva-Nampiya, the loved of the
good Devas (angels). He sent his proselyting missionaries to
every nation, including Palestine, where the Jews were following
the old Mosaic code, and buying their brothers for bond-men.
Leviticus 25, v. 39 to 44.
128 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
great tope, or monument, over some Buddhist relics
in Ceylon, a large number of Bhikkhus, or Monks,
journeyed from the vicinity of Alassada (Alexandria)
to witness those ceremonies (3). In fact, Buddhism
had so impressed itself upon India that it was ready
to attempt distant fields. For that purpose Nagasena,
one of its devotees, about 190 years B. C., challenged
Greeks and Jews alike to a public discussion of their
and his religion in Antioch, the capital of Syria.
Palestine then formed a part of the Syrian empire, and
Jews, Greeks and Egyptians had so flocked to this new
capital that even before this discussion the city had
been compelled to enlaige its borders. Jews, no doubt,
heard that debate and probably engaged in it, but from
all that appears, they clung doggedly to their old
Mosaic superstitions.
Section 2. In further proof that Palestine before
Jesus came was in touch with Buddhism and was not
ignorant of its religion, I will cite the fact that twen-
ty-two years before Jesus was bom an elaborate Indian
embassy came as far West as Rome and presented its
credentials to Augustus. Those credentials were
written on the skins of animals, and that embassy, with
Its Buddhistic faith, was graciously received there. (4)
Pliny (5), the elder, likewise tells us that Buddhist
missionaries, generations before his day, were settled
in Palestine not far from the Western shores of the
(3) Alassada was the Buddhist name of Alexandria.
(4) Br. Ency., 9th edition: Title, India: yoI. 12, p. 788.
(5) Pliny, born 23 A. D., died A. D. 72.
129
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Dead Sea. The doctrines of Buddhism were there-
fore taught in Palestine before Christianity was heard
of, or even dreamed of. The Essenes of Palestine
were Jews by birth, and they and the Therapeutae of
Alexandria seem to have copied, at least in part, their
doctrines from Persia and from India, for they be-
lieved in the immortality of the soul, and the Old
Testament makes no certain statement or promise of
such a thing.
It is true that in the last chapter of Daniel there
is a sort of prediction that at a time of great trouble
many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall
awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame
and everlasting contempt (6). Moreover, the Essenes
and Therapeutae did not copy entirely any prevailing
religion.
They punished with death anyone who blasphemed
Moses, and at the same time they went beyond Moses
and taught that the wicked will suffer eternal punish-
ment. Perhaps here and in Tobit is where Jesus ob-
tained His idea of eternal punishment for the wicked
(7). But the Essenes followed Buddhism in teaching
the impermanence of the body and the immortality of
the soul. After the apocryphal book of Tobit ap-
(6) Daniel, eh. 12, v. 1 and 2; the hook of Daniel was written
about 164 or 166 jean B. C.—that is, centuries after the exile:
and many think it has a Persian origin, but the Essenes learned
also from India, as we Bhall see.
(7) The reader should notice that when the book of Daniel
was written, the department of Hell had not been fully organ*
ized; as the sinner was not then consigned to a furnace of fire,
but only to everlasting contempt.
130 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
peared, thenceforward we have devils and Hell and
angels without number. Jesus, it would seem, was
familiar with those doctrines in Tobit.
The Persians and Jesus taught the resurrection of
the body, but backsliders from Buddhism were simply
excommunicated. The Essenes did the same. The
Essenes taught that bodies are corruptible and imper-
manent, but that souls are immortal and live forever;
that the souls of the righteous when released from
their bodies, as from a vile prison house, mount up-
ward rejoicing, and reach a beautiful land beyond the
great ocean, where there is neither excessive heat, nor
freezing cold; that there they are fanned and refreshed
continually by gentle'breezes blowing from off the
ocean, and there they live in immortal vigor. But the
souls of the wicked, at the death of the body, are
rushed off to a dark, tempestuous den, where they
suffer a never-ceasing torment (8)
But here again the Essenes did not follow Buddha,
for he taught transmigration; that the wrong-doer,
devoid of rectitude, is full of anxiety when he dies,
and after his death is reborn into some states of dis-
tress and punishment—a state of woe; that the well-
doer, strong in rectitude, dies without anxiety, and
after his death is reborn into some happy state in
heaven. (9)
(8) Josephus, Wars of the Jews; Book 2, ch. 8, sections 9 to 12.
(9) VoL 17, Sacred Books of the East, p. 100. There are
those who falsely state that Buddha did not teach of heaven for
the just, or punishment for the wicked.
They might just as truly say, that Jesus did not teach of a
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 131
The Buddhists did not offer bloody sacrifices; and
the Essenes in that matter utterly rejected the old
Mosaic ceremony and followed the Indian method.
The Bhikkhus (monks) of India wore yellow gar-
ments and had everything in common; and here the
Essenes followed them completely, except that their
garments were white.
Section 3. That doctrine or method of having
everything in common, which the Essenes and
Therapeutae learned from India, the Apostles and their
followers adopted for a short time, but when Ananias
held back a part of his possessions, the whole Jewish
superstructure collapsed at once, and has never been
heard of in Palestine since. (10)
The Bhikkhus practiced a very severe asceticism; so
also did the Essenes and Therapeutae. We have al-
ready seen that Buddha’s teachings abolished slavery
in India. The Essenes condemned it in Palestine.
The Bhikkhus practiced the strictest rules of celibacy;
the Essenes and Therapeutae did not marry, but
adopted children and reared them to their own modes
of life and thought The Bhikkhus rejected pleasure
as an evil; so also did the Essenes. The Therapeutae
heaven for the just. Buddha taught a re-birth for the wicked,
where after a long period of discipline, they could have a new
opportunity to gain heaven by good deeds. In other words, ha
gave the wicked another chance. What earthly—or heavenly-
good to consign a wicked man to eternal flames t Punishment
should be, in the last analysis, to reclaim, to improve, to reform.
An eternal punishment makes the punisher worse than the wicked*
est.
(10) Acts, ch. 2, v. 43 to 45, and ch. 4, v. 32 to 35, and ch. 5,
V. 1 to 10.
132 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
and Essenes believed in angels; so did Buddha and the
Bhikkhus, but the former were careful to write down
the names of their heavenly messengers, and they
charged their proselytes under oath to preserve them,
(n) The Buddhists laid great stress and emphasis
on speaking the truth at all times; and in this, also,
the Essenes and Therapeut* followed them. Buddha
preached the Gospel of love and peace, and Jesus
afterwards did the same.
Now it is but reasonable to believe that as the
Buddhists preceded the Essenes by centuries in teach-
ing their asceticism, their strict love of truth, their
rejection of slavery, their community of goods, their
fastings, their prayers, their vegetable diet, their aboli-
tion of animal sacrifices, their belief in the immortality
of the soul, their doctrine of angels, and that the souls
of the wicked are punished after the death of the
body, and that, moreover, there was a beautiful place
called heaven where the souls of the righteous live in
everlasting enjoyment; that it was wrong to do harm
to any living thing; that riches were to be despised;
that, in short, as all these doctrines were in the world
and openly taught in India (12) centuries before the
(11) Josephus, Wars of the Jews; book 2, ch. 8, sections 2 to
10. At the time of Daniel, 166 B. C., the Jews had only two
angels, whom they knew by name—Michael, an Irish angel, and
Gabriel, whose nativity is uncertain.
(12) But some of these matters were not original, evta with
the Buddhists; for a thousand years before Gotama came, the
Brahmans, in their code, had set forth that no one must appro-
priate (steal) the goods of another, nor injure another in any
way; that he who gave false evidence should be deprived of his
sight, shorn and tumbled into Hell. (Manu., ch. 8, sec. 93.)
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 133
Essenes or Therapeutae came, we must conclude, there-
fore, that they were imported or learned from the
Buddhists, possibly in part from the Persians. For
when an invention is once in the world, either in re-
ligion or anything else, no patent ought or should be
granted to the later arrival. More especially is this
true if those doctrines have been simply transplanted
from some old faith, well rooted in a distant field.
Judaism, we know, combated most of those things.
(13)
-
Section 4. Our next inquiry is as to the time when
those religious doctrines were carried from India into
Egypt and Palestine. The date is not absolutely cer-
tain, but it is highly probable that Asoka’s missionaries
about 240 years B. C. led that peaceful crusade. It
was a stubborn, prolonged contest, and bore fruit
slowly, for the Jewish law punished apostates with
death.
Here may be found the reason why the Essenes
claimed to hold to the law of Moses—it saved their
necks; for in truth they held to very few things in that
old bloody Mosaic code.
The Jews being a trading, trafficking people, thirst-
ing for gain, lived mostly in cities. But the Essenes,
with their more strict morals, were safer in the coun-
try. They therefore became husbandmen, and it was
Moreover, the Brahmans used water for purificatory purposes at
least seven hundred years before Ezekiel wrote his chapter 36,
v. 25 to 30, and ch. 37 or ch. 13, Zachariah.
(13) Ctesias, a Greek historian, wrote a history of India and
her religion in the fifth century B. C. Buddha was then living.
134
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
perhaps a full century after Asoka’s missionaries
visited Palestine before they had gained numbers
numerous enough to be designated as a religious sect.
(14)
In stating that the Essenes of Palestine and the
Therapeut* of Egypt learned their rites from India, I
follow that great classical scholar, the late Dean Mil-
man of the English Church, who, after sifting all the
evidence, was forced to the conclusion that Buddhist
missionaries, 200 years B. C., were their original
teachers. In fact, Babylon, long before Jesus’ day,
had been a hot focus of Buddhism. Syria was com-
pletely permeated with it. (15)
At this point I reach the enquiry: Were the Es-
senes the vanguard of that great religious revolution
inaugurated by John the Baptist and Jesus?
Epiphanius says they who believed on Jesus were
called Jessaie, or Essenes, before they were called
Christians, either because Jesse was the father of
(14) There are some who claim that the Therapeut® and
Essenes imbibed their doctrines from the Pythagoreans, as those
people practiced celibacy, abstained from animal food, and at
one time had a community of goods. Pythagoras was born about
586 years B. C., but his system was rather philosophical and
political than religious. We are told by Ennemoser that Thales,
Pythagoras and others visited Egypt and India for the purpose
of studying theology and philosophy. Whether Pythagoras had
previously encountered Orphism or not is uncertain. Egypt and
India were then teaching the transmigration of souls, and thence-
forward that doctrine was approved by Pythagoras and his fol-
lowers.
(15) I am supported also by such thinkers as Schopenhauer,
Benan, Bohlm, Schelling and others, and, in fact, a long list
of scholars; and am only opposed by narrow-minded theologians.
Benan ’a History Gener., Des Langues Semitiques.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 135
David, or from Jesus, the name of our Lord, because
they were His disciples and derive their constitution
from Him; or from the name Jesus, which in Hebrew
signifies the same as Therapeutae; that is, savior or
physician. (16)
There is not a bit of doubt that John the Baptist’s
teachings were very similar to those of the Essenes,
for when he came preaching in the wilderness of
Judea, there were in Palestine only three religious
sects; (17) the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes;
and the Baptist, when he saw some of the Pharisees
and Sadducees at the Jordan, where he was baptizing,
called them “a generation of vipers.” The followers
of the Baptist were surely not Sadducees, for the Sad-
ducees say there is no resurrection, neither Angel nor
Spirit. (18) The Pharisees confess both, but
claim that all things are done by fate. (19) The
Baptist assailed fiercely every religious order in Pales-
tine, except the Essenes and Nazarenes. He was, in
fact, an ascetic, living in the wilderness, clothed in
the skins of beasts; Jesus believed him to be Elias bom
again and returned to earth. (20)
(16) Epiphanius. Cited also by Judge Waite in bis History of
the Christian Beligion, p. 73.
(17) Josephus, book 18, ch. 1, Antiqs. of the Jews, mentions
also Judas as a Galilean, but he mostly agreed with the Phari-
sees.
(18) Acts 23:8.
(19) Jos., Antiq., Book 18, ch. 1, sec. 3.
(20) How could Jesus make the statement in Matt. 17, v. 12,
unless somewhere he had learned about the doctrine of Buddha9*
transmigration f For if Elias had returned, had he not transr
migrated?
136 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Josephus makes John an orator of wonderful power,
whose fiery eloquence drew to his standard great
masses of people. (21) John preached charity, almost
communism, and when the soldiers demanded what
they should do, he quoted from Buddha, and said:
“Do violence to no man.” (22)
His scene of activity was very near where the Es-
senes for generations had lived in the greatest num-
bers. The simplicity of the Baptist’s diet was remark-
able; so also was that of the Essenes. They did not
drink wine or strong drinks; neither did John. (23)
Moreover, John’s mode of baptism, as we have here-
tofore observed, was by immersion, the sinner thereby
confessing his sins; and in this he followed the Essenes.
John being a Nazarite, his followers were called
Nazarenes, which was simply another name for Es-
senes. Paul, later on, was called a Nazarene, and
designated as “the ring leader of the sect.” (24)
And Jesus, when He came to John, to be baptized
in the Jordan, being a Nazarene by birth, was in faith
and belief an Essene, for in His very first sermon
He preached their doctrine, when He said: “Lay not
up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth
and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and
steal.” (25)
This same thought, though clothed in different lan-
(21) Jos., Antiq., Book 18, ch. 5, see. 2.
(22) Luke 3, v. 14.
(23) Luke 1, v. 15.
(24) Acts 24, v. 5.
(25) Matt. ch. 6, ?. 19.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 137
guage, had been uttered by Buddha nearly five hun-
dred years before, when in preaching to his disciples,
he said: “Keep pure your body, words and conduct;
put from you all concerns of daily life, lands, houses,
cattle, storing of wealth or hoarding gain. All these
avoid as you would a fiery pit”
CHAPTER XII
The Miracles of Apollonius.
Section i. I have already shown that the people of
India and Syria, including Palestine, were in friendly
communication centuries before Jesus was born, and
that even Rome itself had graciously received an em-
bassy from India. The proof is equally plain that
Apollonius of Tyania, a town of Cappadocia, visited
India and was received there royally by princes and
kings.
Who was this Apollonius who was thus honored
and feted ? Let us see.
He was bom two or three years before Jesus was
found in that manger, and for more than three hun-
dred years was worshipped as a God. We of this
age would hear only a faint echo of Apollonius, had
not Julia Domna, the wife of the Emperor Servius, be-
sought Philostratus, a distinguished scholar of the em-
pire, to compose a life of him. When that work was
composed, Apollonius had been in his grave one hun-
dred years or more. Still that is no objection to its
accuracy, for biographies of Jesus have been written
even to the present time.
138
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 139
Philostratus found a wealth of materials from which
to compose a biography, for Apollonius had corre-
sponded with kings and learned men in Egypt and
India, and with scholars in many places. Moreover
Damis, his friend, the Assyrian who had accompanied
him to India, had written a full account of the people
they had met, their customs, their religions, their
laws.
Dreams in ancient times had much to do with the
births of great men. And a dream, we are told, pre-
ceded Apollonius’ strange birth. His mother, when
near her time, was “warned in a dream” to go to a
certain meadow and gather flowers. Here, fanned by
gentle zephyrs, she fell asleep on the grass, and a flock
of swans gathered about her and sung in chorus while
she slept At that moment Apollonius, her famous
son, was bom. In our Bible it is Joseph who
dreams. (1)
As Apollonius grew up, the people said he was the
son of Jupiter, but he insisted that he was the son of
Apollonius. It was soon apparent that he possessed
a prodigious memory and was studious and thoughtful.
At an early age he became a devoted follower of
Pythagoras, and as his disciple he maintained a strict
silence for five years. The fruits of the earth were his
exclusive diet, and he resolutely declined to eat any-
thing that had ever possessed animal life.
Having resolved at the end of his long silence to 1
(1) Matt. 1, ?. 20.
140
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
visit foreign lands, he became very active in reform-
ing religious worship wherever he went.
Section 2. On visiting Babylon he was honored
by the king, but refused to join him in the sacrifice of
a horse to the Sun, lest he should be guilty of the
shedding of blood. But while the king was sacrificing
the horse, Apollonius offered frankincense as an obla-
tion. At the conclusion of his visit to Babylon, he
turned his face towards India, saying to Damis, his
companion, that it was his duty to go “where wisdom
and his guardian angel led him.” On reaching India
he was kindly received by King Pharotes, who offered
him a generous supply of gold, and, moreover, showed
him every possible courtesy. Near the king’s palace
was a wonderful hill, occupied by the Brahmins, and
here Apollonius won all hearts by freely participating
in their oblations and ceremonies.
But here is a statement most incredible, for Philos-
(ratus relates that when several Brahmins, standing
together, struck the earth with their staves or rods
they made the earth rise and fall and swell like the
waves of the sea, and they themselves were elevated in
the air two or three feet.
Iarchus, the chief of the Brahmins, after intently
gazing at Apollonius, declared that in a previous life
he had been the pilot of an Egyptian vessel. And we
are told that Apollonius admitted this to be true. The
king later on gave the Brahmins a great feast, to
which Apollonius was cordially invited. Here he wit-
nessed cupbearers, similar to the Ganymedes of the
141
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Greeks. And it is said that bread and fruits of the
season came of themselves already prepared, in better
order than they could be by the cooks. Even second
courses likewise came of themselves. And curiously
enough this strange occurrence in India happened at
about the same time that Jesus was feeding five thou-
sand men, besides women and children, in a desert
place near Bethsaida. After much careful research,
(2) I am unable to tell which of these two famous
occurrences happened first. But I am reasonably safe
in saying that they were not three years apart.
Moreover we are told that Iarchus, the chief of the
Brahmins, was a miracle worker, similar to Jesus. For
after the feast which we have just mentioned, the lame
and the blind and the diseased, with every various ail-
ment, were brought to him, and Iarchus at once healed
them all. Now this statement about Iarchus healing
the lame and the blind, is either true or it is false.
This much is at least certain: the blind Hindu needed
his sight; if Iarchus in India was healing the blind
and the sick, Jesus about the same time was healing
the blind and the sick in Palestine. (3)
Section 3. When Apollonius’ visit to India and
the Brahmins ended, he started on his return, going
South to the Sea, and taking the same route that
Alexander did on leaving India, some three hundred
years before. A great plague was at this time raging
(2) Luke, eh. 9, v. 10 to 17. Matt 14, v. 13 to 21. John 8,
y. 5 to 13.
(3) Luke 7, v. 6 to 10. Luke 8, v. 27.
>42 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
at Ephesus, and Apollonius had only reached Smyrna.
But the Ephesians having learned of his presence there
sent a deputation earnestly entreating him to come to
their assistance. Here now the improbable again ap-
pears. For Apollonius replied: “I think the journey
is not to be delayed,” and immediately on his uttering
these words, we are told he appeared in Ephesus, where
he put an end to the plague. (4)
On reaching Athens, a young man was brought to
Apollonius, possessed of an evil spirit. The demon
raved and swore, and Apollonius rebuked him and
commanded him to come out.
Section 4. Jesus about this time (whether before
or after, I cannot tell) found a man in the synagogue
“which had a spirit of an unclean devil.” (5) Jesus
- rebuked the Palestine devil, and commanded him to
come out. Now both of these devils it seems, were
gifted with fluent speech. The Hindu devil under-
stood the language of his country, and the Palestine
fiend raved furiously in the Galileean dialect.
The Jewish devils, in Paul’s time, were warriors
also; we are told that about twenty-five years after
Jesus’ death, one Palestine devil overcame six men, so
that “they fled out of the house naked and wound-
ed.” (6)
On being invited to a wedding, Apollonius saw at
(4) For more than five hundred years before Jesus’ day, there
had been continued struggles between Eastern and Western man-
ners and religions.
(5) Luke 4, v. 33.
(6) Acts 19, v. 13 to 16.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 143
once that the intended bride was a fiend in human
form. And on his making this known, all the jewels
and gold and silver vessels vanished in a flash out of
sight. This strange occurrence, we are told, hap-
pened in the central part of Greece, and was known
to many.
One day Apollonius met a funeral procession on its
way to bury a beautiful young bride, and every one
was in distress and in tears, and was condoling with
the young husband. “Set down the bier,” said Apol-
lonius, “and I will dry your tears.” He took the
young woman’s hand, then spoke a low word in her
ear, and she began to breathe; and if she was really
dead, she came back to life, to the astonishment and
joy of her weeping friends.
The historian honestly adds that it was raining at
the time, and the rain falling on the young woman’s
face may have revived her. But to all appearances,
the vital spark had fled.
In Luke, chapter 7, v. 11 to 15, a similar story is
told of a young man, who also was being carried to
his grave, and as Jesus met the procession, he came
and touched the bier, and said: “Young man, I say
unto thee, arise,” and he that was dead sat up and
began to speak. (7)
Section 5. After visiting Egypt and many cities
in Africa, Apollonius took up his residence in Smyrna,
(7) Are both, or either of these amazing stories true? One
happened in Borne, if it happened, and the other in Galilee. Bat
as near as I can compute, Apollonius * miracle, if it was such,
preceded Jesus’ miracle by about three or four years.
144
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
where he discoursed on fate and necessity, and he in*
sisted that the most absolute tyrants could not over-
come or reverse the decrees of fate. Domitian, the
then emperor of Rome, on learning of this, cited Apol-
lonius to appear before him. On reaching Rome he
was accused of being an enchanter and was thrown
into prison and loaded with chains, his friend Damis
being imprisoned with him. “When will you regain
your liberty?” asked Damis. “Tomorrow,” replied
Apollonius, “but this instant if I choose.” With this
he drew his leg out of the chain, and said to Damis:
“You see I am at liberty now.” Then he put his leg
back in the fetters and waited.
When brought before the emperor, Domitian asked
him, “Why do men call you a god?” “Because every
truly good man,” replied Apollonius, “is entitled to be
called such.” The emperor seems to have been afraid
that his prisoner possessed some secret book or charm
or amulet, and he was ordered to leave all such behind
and to look at his majesty. But instead, the prisoner
fixed his eyes on the vaulted arch above him.
A proceeding similar to that which there took place
before Domitian, would, in the United States of Amer-
ica, be considered a mockery and a travesty upon jus-
tice. The first question was, “Why is it, Apollonius,
that you do not wear the same kind of garments as
other men?” “The earth,” he replied, “supplies me
with raiment, and by wearing the garments it fur-
nishes, I offer no injury to the dumb brutes of the
fields.” Apollonius had foretold the plague at Ephesus,
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 145
-
and that was another charge against him. “How did
you do that?” he was asked, and he replied: “By liv-
ing on .a lighter diet than other men.”
Some other questions having been asked by the
emperor, which Apollonius readily answered, “I acquit
you,” said he, “of the crimes charged against you, but
shall detain you here for the present.”
“You can detain my body,” was the reply, “but not
my soul, and I will add, not even my body. Thy
deadly spear cannot slay me.” At this, we are told,
that, to the amazement of the emperor and all present,
he vanished out of sight.
His friend Damis had gone to Penteoli, a three days’
journey from Rome, and while Demetrius, the philos-
opher, and Damis were walking on the seashore and
lamenting with much sorrow, never expecting to see
Apollonius again, he suddenly appeared before them.
They thought it was an apparition, and Damis wished
to know if Apollonius were still living, whereupon
Apollonius stretched forth his hand and said, “It is I
myself; I am surely alive.”
Another curious story told about him is that on the
day and at the very moment that Stephanus assassi-
nated Domitian at Rome, Apollonius was walking and
talking with many friends in a grove at Ephesus, more
than one hundred miles distant. Directly his voice fell
to a lower key; then he became silent. Then suddenly
he cried out, “Strike the tyrant! strike!” There were
many Ephesians present, and they were all greatly
astonished at this. Directly Apollonius added, “Keep
146 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
up your courage, O Ephesians! for this day the tyrant
is killed. At this very moment, while the words are
in my mouth, I swear it by Minerva, the deed is done.”
Dion Cassius, who at one time branded Apollonius as
an impostor, tells this story of him: “On the very day
that Domitian was assassinated, as it was afterwards
known, upon a most exact search into the matter,
Apollonius got up in the city of Ephesus, upon a very
high stone, and calling the people together cried out
with a loud voice: ‘Courage, Stephanus! courage!
Strike the murderer! Thou hast struck him. Thou
hast wounded him. Thou hast killed him.’ ” And
Dion Cassius adds: "As incredible as this fact seems
to be, it is no less true.” (8)
Section 5. A few lines back, it is stated that Apol-
lonius vanished from the presence of Domitian. Now
I do not write that down as a sober fact that I believe;
for it seems impossible that the body of a human being,
composed of flesh, bones and blood, could or can van-
ish or melt away and disappear as stated above. (9)
And to say that Apollonius, who was more than one
hundred miles distant at the time of the assassination
of Domitian, could know of it at the moment that it
occurred, is beyond belief. He may have been told of
(8) Manning’s Dion Cassius, vol. 2, p. 92.
(9) It is said that Buddha could and did vanish, Vol. 11,
Sacred Books of the East, p. 21 and p. 51. It is said that Jesus
vanished out of sight, Luke 24, v. 31. Buddha, we are told, could
change his color and vanish, Vol. 11, Sacred Books of the East,
p. 48 and 49. Jesus, it is said, vanished, or made himself in-
visible and escaped (Luke 4, v. 30), when they were about to
pitch him headlong from a precipice.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 147
the tragedy very soon thereafter, but not, as Baronius
supposes, by a demon.
This much may truly be said of Apollonius: he firm-
ly believed in the immortality of the soul, and he in-
sisted that nothing ever perishes. Birth was, in his
opinion, only a change of essence into substance.
Death was simply a vanishing of substance into es-
sence. Life, he said, is merely substance coming into
sight, and at death it vanishes but is not destroyed. In
fact, he said nothing is ever created or destroyed.
In one of his letters to a friend (10) he speaks with
contempt and disdain of riches and gaudy display; but
he mentions with pleasure his love for science and his
abstinence from the use of animal foods.
One writer, in pouring out the vials of his wrath
against Apollonius, insisted that Satan was his assist-
ant. The devil, he said, may know things of the past,
and he may know what is transpiring at distant places;
and he might have made known those things to Apol-
lonious. (11)
As against such criticism I will quote a few lines
from Apollonius’ letter to his friend Hestius: “The
truth is not concealed from us; how beautiful it is to
have all the earth for one’s country; and all men for
brothers and friends; and that those who derive their
origin from God, are all endowed with one and the
same nature, with a community of reason and affec-
(10) Sidonius, in writing of Apollonius about four hundred
years after bis death, thinks all antiquity fails to equal him.
(11) Sebastian Tillemont, a French ecclesiastical historian, bom
1637.
148 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
tions; and that wheresoever anyone may be or in
whatever manner bom, whether Greek or Barbarian,
he is still a man.”
It was the firm belief of Apollonius that nothing
ever perishes; that matter changes, and is ever chang-
ing; that it comes into sight -and disappears, but it
is not annihilated. These things, he says, “are done
and permitted by the Eternal God, who is all in all, and
through all, and who if He should clothe Himself in
names and forms, would suffer damage in His own
nature.”
Section 6. As to the alleged miracles of Apol-
lonius, it is exceedingly doubtful if he, or any other
man, at any time or place ever performed one. How
can or could man, by his puny word, at any period of
the world contravene or overthrow the laws of God?
It is true that the supposed miracles of Apollonius
were extensively believed in for more than three hun-
dred years after his death; but a belief, as I have said
elsewhere, never changes a fact. I know that we are
told that a great personage, living in the time of Apol-
lonius, could and did by his word change six water
pots filled with water, of two or three firkins each, into
good wine. But we must remember that only one man
in all the millions that have ever lived, and he is of
doubtful character, tells that improbable story. (12)
Moreover, such wildly extravagant things as
miracles, having taken their flight for now nineteen
(12) John of the 4th Gospel. John 2, v. 6 to 10.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
149
hundred years, we may justly question whether there
was ever, at any time or place, such a thing as a
miracle performed by Apollonius, or anyone else.
Now while it is true that Apollonius was worshiped
as a god well into the fourth century, and that even
Christians believed that he wrought miracles, we of
this age know that he was not a god, and we are very
certain that he never performed a miracle. Neverthe-
less divine honors were paid him; and a temple at
Tyana was built to commemorate him, and his statue
was placed among the gods. In fact, his name was in-
voked for centuries as a god.
As to the manner and place of his death, there are
conflicting stories. Some writers tell us that he en-
tered a temple at Lindus, and was seen no more. Oth-
ers insist that he died at Ephesus, attended by two
handmaids, one of whom he set free.
History relates that there was a young man of
Tyana, who very seriously doubted the immortality of
the soul, and Apollonius had often tried to convince
him of his error. “After your body is dead, if you
will appear to me,” said the young man, “I will be-
lieve you.” And we are soberly told that after Apol-
lonius died, he appeared to his friend, who in amaze-
ment cried out, “I believe you now! I believe you!”
The last glimpse we catch of this extraordinary man
is at a temple in Crete, where great riches were stored
under the protection of a pack of watch dogs, trained
to guard the treasure. But when Apollonius entered
IJO A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
the temple, they did not bark, but fawned upon him as
if he were an old friend or their master.
The priests observing this, rushed out and seized
Apollonius and bound him, thinking him a robber. But
before morning he cast off his fetters, and calling the
priests before him, convinced them he was not a robber
and that he did nothing in secret. Then going to the
gates, he found them open. On passing through, it is
said the gates shut of themselves. Acts 12, v. 10, tells us
that “an iron gate opened of its own accord’’ and let
Peter and an angel out. (13)
As Apollonius makes his exit from that temple,
many voices were heard in unison singing: “Leave
the earth, and come to heaven. Come, come, come!”
(13) Acts 18, v. 23, and Acts 5, v. 19.
CHAPTER XIII
Buddha Against Brahmanism.
Section i. No one will perhaps deny that Gotama
and Jesus each sought to overthrow, or at least to im-
prove, the ancient religions of their people. Buddha’s
life struggle was against Brahmanism, and its iron-
bound caste system; and, moreover, he disbelieved in
the inspiration of the Veda, the Brahman Bible.
Jesus found in the Thora (law) of Moses, the doc-
trine that if one plucked out the eye of another, his
own eye should pay the penalty; in short, Moses’ doc-
trine was, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for
hand, (i) Jesus, to his immortal honor be it said,
gave to the Jews and to the world a milder and better
faith than the old Mosaic doctrine of revenge. He
said: “Be reconciled to thy brother, do good unto
others, love thy neighbor,” and thy neighbor was all
the world. Buddha said: “By love alone we can con-
quer wrath,” and he said, “Do unto others that which
you would have them do unto you.” Jesus said the
same five hundred years later. (2)
It is curious to note that both the Brahmic and
Mosaic religions were claimed by their founders, and 1
(1) Ex 21, 24.
(2) Luke 6, v. 31
161
153 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
are claimed to this day by their followers, to be of
divine or heavenly origin. The ancient Hindu believed
that Brahma breathed forth the Rigveda; hence it
was divine. The Brahmins in their inspired Bible, the
Veda, insist that they heard (sruti) Brahma’s (God’s)
voice, telling them in what manner to sacrifice their
oblations. The Veda is therefore, they said, by rea-
son of its divine origin, paramount to all reasoning
and beyond all questioning. He who assailed it was
a heretic and was scorned and banished. (3) Its foun-
dations were laid so far back in the dim and misty past
that it was, and is, truly venerable with hoary age. It
is the oldest composition probably on the face of the
earth. It is older than the Iliad and the Odyssey, older
than Genesis; older, probably, than the pyramids—so
old and so venerable that the very names of the
Rishis (poets or seers) who composed it, are lost in
the great ocean of oblivion.
The ancient Hindu looked about him and questioned
why he was here. He was jtaught that this passing
world would, if he led a pious life, give place to a seat
with the Gods in heaven. (4) Death to him was as
the birth of a real and happy life. He believed that
there was somewhere in the universe a self-existent
Divine Being, from whom his Atma (soul or self) had
become detached; but at the death of the body it would
return to Brahma (God) and be at rest. The body
(3) Mann, 4:30, and 9:225; Vedanta Sutras, page 20, Vol. 34,
Sacred Books of the East.
(4) Rigveda, vol* 12; Br. Ency., p. 780; title, India,
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 153
was, he thought, simply the temporary husk or shell
where the spirit or self made its abode for a time. But
the spirit or soul was immortal and without body, but
attached to the body like a horse hitched to a cart. (5)
“It is with us,” said Yajanavalkya, “when we enter
into the Divine Spirit, as if a lump of salt had been
flung into the sea. It becomes dissolved into water,
from which it was produced, and is not to be taken
out again. As the water becomes salt, and the salt
becomes water again, thus the Divine Spirit appears
from out the elements, and disappears into them again.
When we have passed away, there is no longer any
name.” (6) This was an extreme view which Buddha
did not adopt
The Hindu was more wise than Job, for Job said:
“Though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet
in my flesh I shall see God. Mine eyes shall behold
Him!” (7) As I have said, all of the Hindus did not
believe that they would, at death, be like a lump of
salt thrown into the ocean. Some of their thinkers
anticipated Bishop Butler by more than three thousand
years, for they taught that this life is as the life of an
embryo in the womb that “death might put us into a
higher and more enlarged state of life, as our birth
does.” (8)
Section 2. Now I ought, without further delay,
(5) 12th Khanda Upanishads—the Soul or Spirit was the Ego.
the I, the self.
(6) Max Mailer’s Sanskrit Lit., p. 24.
(7) Job, ch. 19, v. 26-27.
(8) Butler’s Analogy, written 1776.
154 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
to say a few words concerning the general character of
the Indian people. They have heretofore been treated
as a despised, good-for-nothing, cowardly race, clear
down at the foot of the ladder. On the contrary, they
were a learned and thinking people. They were a
nation of philosophers. They delved into the science
of language, and constructed a Vyakarana (grammar)
with nouns and verbs, pronouns and adverbs, particles
and conjunctions, syntax and prosody, and an exhaus-
tive Niruka (etymology) all complete at a time when
the Greeks had only learned the distinction between
nouns and verbs. But all this labor to construct a
grammar was probably brought about by the growth
and progress of their language, which was changing
the very idiom of their original speech.
They studied Siksha (phonetics), letters, accents,
etc., so as to give the same pronunciation to the Sacred
texts as the sages of old. They did not invade and
conquer distant nations; but, ignorantly, they were
practicing the precepts of Buddha and Jesus, when they
lived quietly at home, doing ill to no one. Students
spent from twelve to forty-eight years memorizing and
repeating the texts they had learned from their holy
books. They claimed that all that has reference to
virtue and final beatitude was taken from the Veda.
They spent their whole lives in studying religion and
philosophy.
Had they been a war-like people, and marshalled
mighty armies, they might have overrun and con-
quered Europe. That would have given them a great
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 155
page in history; possibly they might have changed the
whole current of huiftan affairs. They were not
cowards and afraid to die, for death, they considered,
was a release from a degrading bondage to the body.
In the earlier stages of their religion they wor-
shiped the sun, the earth, fire, water and heaven.
They had gods, many of them, but their chief ones
were Indra, Agni, Soma and Varuna; then Prajapati,
the father of all the gods, and lastly Brahma (God).
Back many thousands of years, they offered bloody
sacrifices to their gods, and there is some evidence
that this included human sacrifices. (9) But later on,
as we have seen, a horse was substituted, then an ox,
than a sheep, then a goat. At last all bloody sacrifices
were put aside, and rice cakes, barley and clarified
butter were offered to the gods, for they said: “Who-
soever exists, he is born owing a debt to the gods, to
the Rishis, to the Fathers, and to Men.” (10) Their
rice-eating ceremony corresponded somewhat to ours
concerning infant baptism. (11)
-
Section 3. Buddha did not believe that God either
ordered or desired any sacrifice whatever to be offered
him, except a pure mind and a heart devoid of evil.
After six years of study and penance, this unsur-
passed genius attacked the infallibility of the old
(9) I have said elsewhere that the man was Kimpurasha, a
mock man or monkey.
(10) Satapatha-Brahmana, p. 190, vol. 12, Sacred Books of the
East.
(11) Grihya-Sutras, and Max Muller, anc. Sans, Lit., p. 50;
also vol. 11, p. 1, S. B. E,
156 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Brahmanic faith. His first onslaught was against the
growing abuses of the Priests,-as they legislated for
their one Gati (caste), and to protect their own exclu-
sive privileges.
They said, “the very birth of a Brahmana is an
eternal incarnation of the sacred law; that he is bora
as the lord of all created beings; that whatever exists
in the world is the property of the Brahmanas; that
other mortals subsist through his benevolence; that he
sanctifies any company which he may enter, and he
alone deserves this whole earth.” (12)
They said, moreover, that by “Sruti” (revelation) is
meant the Veda, and by “Smriti,” the institutes of the
sacred law; and these two must not be called in ques-
tion in any manner; that he who treats with contempt
those two sources of the law must be cast out as an
atheist and a scoraer of the Veda.
Here then was the issue: for Gotama, in attacking
those laws, flatly denied their divine origin. This
made him, according to the Brahmanic code, an
atheist and an outcast, whose conduct was reprehensi-
ble in the extreme. The priests of the Veda did not
crucify him, but they sought in every possible way to
thwart him and to beat back the rising flood. They
would overlook his doctrine of being and non-being
and all other matters, if he would only admit the
divine origin of the Veda. On one point, however,
(12) Laws of Mann, ch. 1, sec. 98 to 105; also sec. 10 to 11,
ch. 2, Laws of Mann. That work is at least 2,900 years old and
possibly 3,300 years old.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 157
there was no clashing of opinions between Buddha
and the Brahmans, and that was as to the doctrine of
the transmigration of the soul.
Transmigration, according to Herodotus (2: 126),
was an ancient belief, originating in Egypt. But as
the Egyptians are the children of the Hindus, we may
well ask: Were the first germs of that old faith trans-
planted from the Ganges, or was it the creation of
some philosophic mind on the banks of the Nile?
Perhaps we shall never know to a certainty just
where the doctrine originated, but philology may yet
unlock the door; for while we can learn but little of
the history of India from its literature, and but little
from its inscriptions on carved temples, language
comes to our aid. Those fugitive and airy sounds,
which seem so fleeting and so changeable, prove to
be more durable monuments than brass or granite.
The study of the Sanskrit language has told us a long
story concerning the origin of nations. It has taught
us who were the ancestors of the nations of Europe;
and has told us that one great family, the Indo-
European, has done most of the work of the world.
“It shows us that this great family consists of seven
races—the Hindoos, Persians, Greeks and Romans,
who emigrated southwest from their ancestral home,
and the Celts, the Teutons and Slavonians, who en-
tered Europe on the northern side of the Caspian Sea.
A comparison of languages has made this too plain to
be questioned.”
In these seven linguistic families, the roots of the
158 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
most common names are one and the same. The
grammatical constructions are also the same (13), and
no scholar longer doubts that those seven lan-
guages all came from one ancestral tongue—the
Aryan.
The Laws of Manu, in existence at least five or six
hundred years before Solomon built his temple, men-
tioned all the lands from the Eastern or Indian Ocean
to the Western Ocean, as the country of the Aryans.
Manu adds: “Let the twice bom man who seeks to
dwell there sanctify his body, and purify it with holy
rites, and make it fit for a union with Brahma.” (14)
I have said that the Egyptians were the children of
the Hindus. They were certainly not Negroes. The
Negroes have never yet, to this day, built a city or
floated a ship. How then could they build the pyra-
mids? Moreover, the religion of the Egyptians was
similar to that of the Hindus in that both those peo-
ples believed the human soul to be of divine origin;
that this whole life is a warfare of good and evil. In
short, the Egyptians are Indo-German. In that great
migration from the cradle of the race in the far East
they found a home at the delta of the Nile, where they
have lived for at least eight and probably ten thousand
years. Some of their kindred were migrating, per-
haps at the same time, on parallel lines, farther north;
and the descendants of that northern stream are today
(13) J. T. Clark’s Ten Great Beligions, chapter on Brahman-
ism.
(14) Mann, 2:22 to 28. It is barely possible that the Western
Ocean, mentioned above, may have been the Mediterranean Sea.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 159
in Germany, in France, in England, and in the last
four hundred years have crossed the Atlantic, and
have only halted, in my own America, at the Golden
Gate, on the shores of the distant Pacific.
CHAPTER XIV
The Doctrine of Immortality in Palestine and
-India.
Section i. When Jesus was bom, there were in
Palestine, as we have seen, three religious sects; the
Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. Of these the
Pharisees were the most numerous and aggressive.
The origin of the sect is not surely known, but they
were probably the descendants of the returned exiles
(Benehaggola) from Babylon. They were certainly
separatists; which their Hebrew name signifies (Phar-
isee : to separate) ; and Ezra, when he returned from
Babylon about 458 B. C., spent fifteen years in getting
those Jews who had not been carried into exile, to
“put away” the wives whom they had married from
surrounding tribes. (1)
But whatever their origin, the Pharisees, in Jesus’
day, were greatly puffed up with pride and self-con-
ceit. They affected uncommon sanctity, but their
hypocrisy was so apparent that John the Baptist
severely denounced both them and the Sadducees. (2)
Their religion, if it was a religion, consisted in
bloody sacrifices and useless ceremonies. Yet they
(1) Ezra, ch. 10.
(2) Matt. 3, v. 7.
I
160
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 161
criticised Jesus (3) for eating with “publi-
cans and sinners.” They were so vain of pomp and
parade that Jesus rebuked them, and told his follow-
ers that when they went to give alms, to sound no
trumpets before them in the streets and synagogues
to have glory of men (4), as the hypocrites do.
They have been called the slaves of lust, avarice
and pride; yet they believed in the immortality of the
soul.
“Under the earth,” they said, “there will be rewards
and punishments, according as one has, in this life,
lived virtuously or viciously.” (5)
The wicked, they claimed, would be detained there in
an everlasting prison. The souls of the good, they
believed, would transmigrate into other bodies, and
live on again in this world in a blissful state. (6)
The Pharisees were full of inconsistencies and con-
tradictions. They would not walk upon the grass on
the Sabbath, lest some seeds might be shelled out, and
that would be threshing. They made broad their
phylacteries; but they laid grievous burdens on the
people, and would not lift a finger to help them, and
(3) Matt. 9:11.
(4) Matt. 6, v. 2.
(5) Jos., Antiq., Book 18, ch. 1, see. 3. We shall see further
on in this chapter, that the doctrine of the Immortality of the
soul was a new importation among the Jews, from Zoroaster’s
teachings to the Persians; or from Egypt; or from India,
Buddha’s home.
(6) The removing of Souls into other bodies (Book 2, Wars
of Jews, ch. 8, sec. 14) looks as if some one had heard from
India, Egypt or Babylon. St. Paul (Acts 24:15) **hoped” that
the just and unjust would all be resurrected.
162
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
they sought the best rooms at the feasts, and the chief
places in the synagogues. (7)
Luke justly told them they kept “the outside of the
cup and platter clean, but left the inward part full of
raving and wickedness.” (8)
Moreover, the Pharisees claimed that fate deter-
mines all things, yet not sufficiently to take away free-
dom of the will to act virtuously or viciously as one
chooses. They stuck in the letter of the Law, and
lost its Spirit; for if a flea bit one of them and he
killed it on Sunday, that was hunting.
Section 2. It is easy to determine why the Sad-
ducees were a less numerous sect than the Pharisees;
for the latter preached a hope for the soul beyond the
grave. The Sadducees followed Epicurus (9), who
taught that the soul “is only a finer species of body,
spread through this frame, and that the death of the
body is the end of everything.” In short, the Sad-
ducees said: “There is no resurrection, neither angel
nor spirit.” The Pharisees confessed both. (10)
The Sadducees said there is no such thing as fate,
but that each man is his own master; that the good
which comes to him, and the evil which befalls him,
are caused by his own wisdom or folly; and they had
scripture for their doctrine.
(7) Matt. 23, v. 4 to 8.
(8) Luke 11:39.
(9) Epicurus, bom in Samos, Greece, about 340 years B. C.
His philosophy resembled Buddha’s teaching somewhat, i. e., the
mind should be composed and the body free from taint.
L (10) Acts 23, v. 8, and Matt. 22, v. 23.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 163
They that plough iniquity and sow wickedness, they
said, reap the same. He that goeth down to the grave
shall come up no more; he shall return no more to his
house. (11)
The Sadducees were strict constructionists. They
found in the Hebrew scriptures no certain and explicit
mention of the immortality of the soul. They fol-
lowed the letter of the law, and not finding the im-
mortality doctrine taught there, they utterly rejected it
Having mentioned the Essenes in chapter XI. sec-
tion 2, I will say no more of them here, but think I
ought to state that quite a large number of both Phar-
isees and Sadducees have survived the vicissitudes of
time and country, and can be found, without much
serious search, in many parts of America, England and
Russia today. But they are as sheep without a shep-
herd.
Life, it is true, is an unsolvable mystery, and death
is a still greater enigma; yet the doctrine of the im-
mortality of the soul is old and moss-grown with age.
Two thousand three hundred years before Jesus was
bom, the Egyptians had solved that mysterious prob-
lem satisfactorily, at least to themselves (12), and had
established a court to fix the future of the dead.
Osiris and his triad were there to judge the departed,
and Set and his devils were on hand to snatch the
(11) Job 4:8; also Job 7, v. 9.
(12) To be exact, Professor Lepsiua fixes the date 2,380 years
B. C., but M. Marietta goes back about 3,000 years B. C., and
M. Chabas thinks 4,000 years elapsed before the first dynasty
was formed in Egypt. That would be about 9,000 years ago.
164 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
wicked. The Egyptian doctrine had been in vogue
about four hundred years when Abram “went up out
of Egypt.” (13) Yet no unequivocal mention and ap-
proval of it appears in Jewish writings, until centuries
after the Babylonian exile. Then it is first dimly dis-
cerned in the apocrypha, and in Daniel.
Section 3. Moreover, the doctrine of the soul’s im-
mortality was taught in India more than a thousand
years B. C., and some think far beyond that limit.
Buddha found it in the Upanishads (14) and for fifty
years he preached it with vigor and success. He had
evidently heard of the Moses fable about “seeing God
face to face” (15), and when one day two
Brahman students became engaged in a hot dis-
pute as to which was the true faith leading to a state
of union with Brahma, Buddha pursued the same
method of reasoning that Socrates did a few years
later in Athens. (16) Gotama asked Vasettha, one of
(13) If Genesis, ch. 13, is right as to date, the journey of
Abram was about 1,920 years B. C. Abram during his sojourn
in Egypt must have learned of the belief in the immortality of
the soul. But he makes no mention of it, nor does the Penta-
teuch. It is probable that Moses did not believe in the immor-
tality doctrine, else why his silence f
(14) The Upanishads are the philosophical speculations of
Hindu philosophers 800 to 1000 years B. G. about the soul or
self, and they teach that the soul is immortal. They say that
the Upanishads are Sruti—that is, revealed from heaven—but of
course they were no more revealed than a ‘ ‘ Thus said the Lord ’1
in the Pentateuch.
(15) Exodus 33, v. 11.
(16) It was the same old dispute 2400 years ago in India, that
we find in America. There were the Addharya Brahmans, the
Tittviya, the Khandokas and others. Here we have Methodists,
Catholics, Baptists, Unitarians, etc., and like the Brahmans, they
•11 claim the right path.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 165
the students, if each Brahman teacher claimed that
his special school taught the true saving path to a
union with Brahma (God). “Yes,” said Vasettha,
“they teach different paths, but each one claims his
path to be the true one.”
“Have any of those teachers versed in the three
Vedas,” asked Buddha, “ever seen Brahma face to
face?” “They do not claim to have seen him,” re-
plied Vasettha. “Do any of the Brahmans back seven
generations, say: ‘We know Brahma, we have seen
Brahma, we know where Brahma is?’ ” he asked. (17)
“No, they do not, even up to the seventh generation,
say that they have ever seen Brahma face to face,”
replied Vasettha.
“Even so,” said Buddha, “nor did the Rishis of old,
the authors of the Veda, which the Brahmans now
carefully intone and recite—even they did not pretend
to'know whence or where Brahma is. How, then, can
they say we will teach the strait path that leads to
Brahma?”
“Impossible!” replied Vasettha, “and that being so,
it follows that the Brahmans talk foolishly. That
which the Brahmans do not know, having never seen
Brahma; is it not like a string of blind men, the blind
teacher leading the blind student?” Jesus had a sim-
ilar saying, that if the blind lead the blind, they would
both fall in the ditch. (18)
(17) Brahma, the eternal, self-existent, is said to be imper-
sonal. Tevigga, Vol. 11, Sacred Books of the East, p. 172.
(18) Matt. 15:14.
I<56 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
“Even if they could see Brahma, as we see the sun
in the heavens, can they,’’ asked Buddha, “point out
a safe path that leads to the sun?”
The colloquy then proceeds on the supposition that if
a man should say he loves and longs for the most
beautiful woman in India, yet when asked of her
family and her name, her complexion, and where she
dwells, he knows nothing about her, how then could,
or how can he love her? (19)
-
Buddha then proceeds to illustrate that one, to pos-
sess moral excellence, must practice all the qualities
which lead up to that estate: that to pray for the
impossible will not avail. “This river where we
stand,” said he, “is full to the brim, and here comes
a man who desires to cross over. He invokes the
further bank to come to him. Will the bank come by
his entreaty? Certainly not. These Brahmans invoke
Soma, and Varuna, and Prajapati, but they omit prac-
ticing those things which after the death of the body
will unite them to Brahma.”
Jesus preached the same doctrine when He said:
“He that bringeth forth good fruit shall enter the
kingdom.” (20)
(19) This question has a deeper meaning than is apparent on
the surface. Did Gotama intend to impress us with the idea
that, never having seen God, and as no mortal ever did see God,
how then can we love Him, any more than the Hindu who had
never seen the woman f We may fear Him—but love and fear
are two vastly different things.
(20) Matt. 7, v. 16 to 22. See also Tevigga-Sutta, Vol. 11, p.
180, Sacred Books of the East.
*
CHAPTER XV
Man a Protoplasm : The Corrected Genesis.
Section i. It is not a very entrancing thought
when we reflect that our remote ancestors, the Hindus,
seven or eight thousand, and, more likely, ten thou-
sand years ago, were worshiping the sun, the moon,
the clouds and the winds. If the Aryans were in the
Punjab (i) and on the Ganges ten thousand years
ago, that is only a small point of time to Him “whose
day is as a thousand years.” (2) This earth, as we
have said elsewhere, is old, and no little pent-up six
thousand years doth hedge it in. Man at his coming
was a naked savage (3) ; not as well equipped in his
first years to meet the wants of life, as the low-browed
monkey. The whole world was man’s “Garden of
Eden,” and he is slowly dressing it of thorns and
(1) The Punjab includes all that vast country watered by six
rivers (originally seven rivers) in northwestern India. In the
last 1,600 years Saravasti has gone dry.
(2) “A thousand years are as one day with the Lord";
Becond Peter, ch. 3, v. 8, Psalms 90, v. 4.
(3) Even Genesis (Gen. 3, v. 7) says he was naked, and he is
somewhat savage even yet.
167
168
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
thistles (errors and sins), even although the “Lord
cursed it.” (4)
When man came, the world was a mystery to him,
and it is a mystery still. Does its author want man
to praisf Him? Does man want the ant or the worm
to praise him? What good, forsooth, will it do the
man to have the worm or the ant say: “Great and
marvelous are thy works, O man! Thou are the most
wonderful being beneath the skies. Have mercy on
us, O man!” Yet for all these thousands of years
man has been talking to a being far greater and wiser
in comparison than man is beyond the worm of the
dust. But neither from the vaulted skies, nor from
the caverns of the earth, has there ever yet been a
sure verbal response.
We know not where or when man first began to
pray, but we are reasonably certain that it was not in
Egypt, or Palestine, nor yet in Ur of the Chaldees, or
in Babylon. It was a long journey from there, and
in a warm climate.
If the cradle of the race can ever be found we shall
there find man first upon his knees. It was certainly
in the far East; but how far East? Was it on the
shores of the Indian Ocean? It could not have been
North of the Caspian, unless great climatic changes
have since taken place. In a high, cold altitude man
would not survive the first winter, even if the Lord
should make him a coat of skins, and clothe him. (5)
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 169
If he came here by the evolutionary process, the
atom from which he sprung (we all came from
atoms) must somewhere in its travels have encoun-
tered a moral principle which has clung to man, and
seems to have slowly grown during all his long pil-
grimage.
While it is true that the original forms of all or-
ganisms are one and the same, it is also true that from
that one form all forms, high and low, the snail, the
worm, and man, are developed. It may not be an in-
spirational thought, but it is nevertheless the fact, that
the snail and the worm were our equals, to all appear-
ances, when we were in the embryonic state.
Dr. Pritchard, in his natural history of man, tells us
that “the organized world presents no contrasts and
resemblances-more remarkable than those which we
discover on comparing mankind with the inferior
tribes. That creatures should exist so nearly approach-
ing to each other in all particulars of their physical
structure, and yet differing so immeasurably in their
endowments and capabilities, would be a fact hard to
believe if it were not manifest to our observation.”
The differences are everywhere striking, and they
are never contemplated without wonder by those who,
in the study of anatomy and physiology, are first made
aware how near is man in his physical constitution to
the brutes.
In all the principles of his internal structure, in the
composition and functions of his parts, man is but an
animal.
170
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
The lord of the earth, who contemplates the eternal
order of the universe, and aspires to communion with
its invisible maker, is a being composed of the same
materials and framed on the same general principles,
as the creatures which he has tamed and trained to be
the servile instruments of his will, or which he slays
for his daily food.
The points of resemblance are innumerable, and they
extend to the most recondite arrangements of the
mechanism which maintains instrumentally, the phy-
sical life of the body; which brings forward its early
developments, and admits, after a given period, its
decay; and by means of which is prepared a succession
of similar beings destined to perpetuate the race.
In short, scholars are divided into two great oppos-
ing groups, or schools; one of which is properly called
the evolution school, which teaches that man, in his
inception, was only a nucleus or simple cell, the same
perhaps as a worm or frog or monkey; that he develops
upwards, and upwards, and in his travels of ascent
passes through the gradations of inferior animals, un-
til finally he passes, and surpasses them all; with great-
er brain power, he stands supreme in development, at
the highest round of the ladder, the lord and ruler of
all animal life. Buddha and Jesus, and all the great
ones of earth, came from nucleated cells. Such is the
starting point of all life, without exception.
The other grand division is called the “creation
school,” and it clings tenaciously to Genesis, which
teaches that God formed man out of the dust of the
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 171
earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
and man became a living soul. (6) Later on,
he forms every beast of the field out of the ground.
(7) Man was not yet, by the record, immortal,
and he was driven out of Eden lest he might eat
of the tree of life and become immortal, in other
words, live forever. (8)
We may truly say this, at least, that there is appar-
ently nothing any more supernatural in the creation or
birth of a human body than in that of a rat, or cater-
pillar, or ape.
The creation school, at every turn, points us to
Genesis and Eden, that beautiful garden which has
been vainly sought for by generations. But Eden
seems to be a myth which baffles all our search.
Section 2. However all this may be, there was,
and is, a something invisible to mortal eye, whereby
one of these forms developed into a horse, or ape, or
snail, and the other into the man who has written
this line. (9) But,
“If true, through lower forms I came,
To me today it’s all the same.’’
Suppose for a moment that we admit man was
evolved from an inferior order of beings; his closest
ante-type is the monkey. But evolution is orderly; it
(6) Gen. 2, v. 7.
(7) Gen. 2, v. 19.
(8) Gen. 3, v. 22 to 24.
(9) Dr. Pritchard in his Natural History of Man, strikes the
creation theory of Genesis a crushing blow.
172
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
has a law; it is governed by law; and law presupposes
a law-maker. Then who made that law? That is
the question. The monkey did not make it. The
protoplasm did not. The nucleated cell did not
That law did not come by chance. Neither is that
law a matter of chance which sends this earth around
the sun once every year, making a great circuit of
more than five hundred millions of miles. I must
write it down that the maker of that law which sends
our earth around the sun, made also the law which
controls the protoplasm and the minutest atoms in
existence. You may call it “the first great cause;”
the Hindus call it Brahma. In other words, they
call it God, and so do I. (io)
Now if man was made, as the record says, in
God’s own image, man must, on looking about him,
have wondered who he was, and what he was, and
whence he came, and what he was here for.
Genesis ought to be corrected.
Go back with me, reader, in imagination, to that
hour. Man has just been “made;” the last touches
have just been put upon him; he breathes, he lives,
he opens his eyes, he looks about him. He knows
no language, for he is the first and only human be-
ing on this whole earth. At the moment of his coming
he has no use for language. He has no father, no
mother, no friends. He is alone in the world. If
God or an angel should speak to him, he could not
(10) See concluding remarks where this matter is more fully
discussed.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 173
answer, as there is no language that he has learned
or invented, for language is an invention.
The first man did not know that he had a tongue,
or, if so, he did not know what it was for. He was
naked and alone. (11) Even Genesis says he was
naked. When Eve was “brought unto him” (12)
Adam must have watched her with great and increas-
ing interest. Now, is it true, or is it a pretty little fic-
tion, that the serpent and Eve held that colloquy
about the fruit and good and evil at the time the Lord
was walking in the garden? (13) What did Eve
know about good or evil and death ? She had just been
made. (14) As that is all a bit of romance, I will
here give what is, perhaps, more nearly a correct sketch
of what probably happened in the first or early days
of my distant grandparents. Adam was, no doubt,
much pleased to see the fascinating beauty of this
newly-made woman. He noticed at once that she had
some resemblance to himself. Her limbs were much
more beautiful than his own. Her round and solid
breasts, he wondered what they were for. These two
young people watch each other for a time, until finally
Adam approaches the new arrival. He gestures to it—
there is a friendly gesture back. He puts out his hand
(11) Gen. 3 to 7.
(12) Gen. 2, v. 22.
(13) Gen. 3, v. 1 to 8.
(14) If Qenesis be true, Adam had been engaged in naming
the cattle, and it must have taken him a long time to name every
beast of the field and every fowl of the air. Eve was not made
until after the cattle and birds were named. (Qenesis 2, v. 19
to 22.)
174 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
and it is taken. Here is the first marriage on earth.
Marriages have always since been made on earth.
The first couple have tongues but no speech. They
can only communicate by gestures and by signs. As
yet they do not know what their tongues are for.
They may have had teeth, but they do not know what
they are for. They are mysterious even to themsdves.
Perhaps they are on the banks of some river, and the
waters are moving on to the sea. They themselves
can move; what the waters are they do not know. It
is their first sight of such a thing. We may call them
Adam and Eve, or any other fanciful name; but the
true Adam and Eve were never in any beautiful gar-
den, nor did the true Eve talk to any serpent or pluck
any forbidden fruit whereby she and her husband
were cast out of any garden whatever. Genesis is a
beautiful fancy picture: let us not cast it aside. It is
lovely prose, almost poetry, but the ground was not
and is not cursed by the Almighty. (15)
Section 3. Adam and Eve have gone down em-
balmed in history; yet they had barely wit enough to
know that they could move about like some of the
animals which they saw around them. We will sup-
pose that they have been “made” but a few hours, and
therefore have no remembrance of anything whatever.
Their bodies are healthy, but their minds are as an in-
fant’s a few hours old. They are not idiots, but they
know less than the monkeys they see in the forests.
(15) Gen. 3, v. 17.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 17$
(16) Let us follow them a little further. The sun is
sinking low in the heavens; they watch it, and it seems
to them as if it were slowly dropping yonder in the dis-
tance to the earth. They know not what it is, nor
what it is for; soon it is out of sight, and the shadows
begin to creep over the earth. They go hand in hand
to find where it disappeared; but are, of course, out-
stripped in the race; and night, black night, rayless,
catches them unawares. They wait and watch, but
the sun does not return. Then some stars are noticed
above their heads, but they know not what they are.
How could they, for they never saw any such thing
before?
Meanwhile a strange feeling begins to agitate their
stomachs. What it is they do not know, for as yet no
morsel of food has ever passed their lips. They are
weary, also; and, finding some leaves by the trunk of
a fallen tree, they cover themselves and are soon wrapt
in slumber. When the man awakes, some flies and
gnats are biting the woman’s face, and as he is brush-
ing them away she awakes and, seeing that act, gives
the man such a sweet look of love that thenceforth
they are inseparable. It was the first ever given be-
neath the skies. “What God hath joined let no man
put asunder.”
Slowly in the East the heavens begin to brighten,
and then something resembling the thing which dis-
appeared gradually lifts itself up, and they can see
(16) I am following the correct Generis, as sear as possible^
on the supposition that Adam was made.
176 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
each other again. They thought (if an infant mind
can think) that the object which they had followed
had somehow escaped them in the woods and dark-
ness, but had come to visit them again from another
quarter.
Hunger was meanwhile pressing that pair; and hun-
ger, from that day to this, has been the main spur to
man’s exertion. They shook the leaves from their
naked bodies and wandered forth, whither they knew
not. But soon they came to a little brook that ran
close by, and instinctively they paused. They watched
it; the man touched its waters; he tasted them, and his
parched tongue was cooled; he smiled and beckoned to
his mate to follow his example, which she did, and was
likewise refreshed. They saw some little lively things
moving around in the stream: what they were they
knew not; they tried to touch them, but the fishes were
too wary. The waters of the brook had quenched
their thirst, and in their joy they made a noise with
their lips like the word “Ap,” and, ever since then,
“Ap” has been the name of water in India.
At that moment the woman (we must call her a
woman, although “created” or “made” only about
twenty-four hours before) espies some peculiar look-
ing objects in the branches of a nearby tree, which in
some respects closely resembles herself. She grasps her
mate’s arm, and with much agitation points him to the
spot. Children in brain and experience, as they are,
they yet are sufficiently discriminating to notice their
resemblance to themselves. Those objects had arms
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
177
-
and legs and hands, but they were covered with some-
thing; yet the man and woman were naked. The
monkeys chattered together and seemed happy. (17)
They were putting something in their mouths; and
the man drew nearer and watched them. It was not
“ap”—that he could plainly see. Directly a young
ape, more mischievous than the rest, threw something
at the man. Fortunately it missed him and fell at his
feet; he picked it up and, imitating the monkey, he
tasted it. At once he offered it to the woman, who
seized and ate it, then held out her hand towards the
ape as if begging for more. The man took her hand
and led her cautiously toward the monkeys, which,
seeing them advance, must have concluded that they
were to be assailed.
For, after chattering a moment, they skipped off to
some trees further away (18) and left the first Aryans,
our Grandfather and Grandmother of ten thousand
generations back, in full possession of the field.
At this point Genesis and this Aryan legend agree,
for the woman found that “the tree was good for
food,” and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat,
and her husband did eat also. (19)
Now if there be such a hateful and horrible thing
(17) Professor Garner has proven that monkeys have a lan-
guage of forty-five or more words; and, as before observed, they
were much better provided by their maker than man, except as
to brains; but brains have won and will always win.
(18) I have never yet been able to learn what kind of fruit
that was; it was not an apple, as apples do not grow in hot
climates; it may have been a sweet Mango—not the stringy, sour
kind. It may have been a banana, which it probably was.
(19) Gen. 3, v. 0.
178 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
in this world as predestination, then it is possible that
when the foundations of the earth were laid it was
predestined in the councils of Heaven that that young
Ape should fling a piece of fruit at our first parents,
when they were in sore straits for sustenance.
Three things were there in conjunction: the ape,
the man and woman, and the fruit. Yet something
else was wanting, viz.: the mischievous act of that
young monkey. A believer in predestination must
hold that “in the beginning” God did know that that
young ape would cast that fruit at that juncture, and
that the man and woman would be there at that pre-
cise moment to profit by it.
Section 4. If the monkey, and the fruit, and the
man were all predestined, as above stated, then the
culmination of the matter was happy beyond all meas-
ure for that man and woman. For, having appeased
their appetite, they wandered back to the brook, where
they drank again, and then, without a care in the
world, lay down in the warm sunshine and went to
sleep. Children of a few hours require much sleep.
When they awoke they saw the Sun was disappear-
ing, as it had before; and, that it might not escape
them again, they started off briskly to find where it
hid. Of course, that was impossible; and to their
grief it left them once more in darkness.
These children of a day knew neither logic nor
poetry; in fact, as we have already said, they did not
know themselves. But instinctively they loved the
Sun—that is to say, they wanted it to stay with them,
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 179
though they knew not what it was, or why it left
them, nor why it had once come back to them.
With many misgivings they turned back and sought
the log of the first night, again covered themselves
with the friendly leaves and slept the sweet sleep of
childhood.
The next morning was an object lesson to them, for
the Moon had not gone down in the West when the
Sun came streaming up in the East. Thus they found
they had two friends; and, as near as we can now de-
termine, the Sun and Moon were the first objects of
man’s adoration. How many generations it was be-
fore they worshiped them as deities, no one can truly
tell. The next chapter will show the absurd lengths
to which Sun and Moon and Fire worship extended.
But I cannot leave this new man and woman, my dis-
tant relatives, without a feeling of depression and
sympathy for the hard and toilsome lives before them
and their children. And the same hard fate will con-
tinue until the “elements melt with fervent heat.” I
must also add that I do not find, even after much seri-
ous study, that God, at the coming of man, revealed by
any natural or supernatural means any of the essen-
tials of religion. It would seem to be more necessary
to reveal a plan how to get something to eat and to
wear. Suppose an angel had been sent to talk to this
new man and woman about Heaven and a pure life.
Their lives were pure, and, as to heaven, will not a
pure life win it? If not, what will?
Read Chapter 20, Exodus, and you will find not a
180 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
single one of the ten commandments that this new man
and new woman could break. As I have heretofore
said, every animal on the face of the earth was better
equipped to live, when it came, than was man when he
came. He was cast by a seeming cruel fortune naked
upon a friendless shore.
The horse and the dog were, and are, more favored
than man; for when they die there is no hell for them.
All their troubles are over. But man is commanded
to love a being whom he never saw; and, if he fails in
that, he is to roast in an everlasting fire (20) where
there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. (21) And
there is a law that when man would do good, evil is
present (22) to pull him back. But if he is bom with
goodness paramount in his nature, and holds to it
without wavering, he is finally blest beyond all measure
in a paradise of glory far exceeding all his merits. At
least, so I have been taught. (23)
(20) Matt. 25:41.
(21) Lake 13:28.
(22) Romans 7, v. 21 to 24.
(23) The latter part of this chapter is simply a bit of imagi-
nation, yet it seems to be more nearly exact than some parts of
Genesis.
CHAPTER XVI
Hindu and Hebrew Sacrifices.
Section i. There are persons who are absolutely
certain that the Hindu Bible was composed by men;
and that their sacrifices, to obtain the favors of their
Gods, were the inventions of scheming priests. But
the Hindus insist that it was Sruti (heard) from
heaven by their Rishis (prophets). In short, that
their Bible (the Veda) was divinely inspired from on
high. Here is one of the reasons why our mission-
aries make such slow progress in converting them to
Christianity. Their Bible, they say, is as truthful and
as perfect as ours; that ours is in two parts; and one
of our Gods, they say, was killed because he did not
conform to or preach the doctrines of Judaism (the
first part of our Bible). They claim, moreover, that
our Bible was composed by men and translated by
men, and they produce the very names of the men
who composed it and translated it.
If we reply that it was inspired from heaven, they
answer back that the two parts of our Bible do not
181
182 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
agree; that if the old part (the Pentateuch, etc.) was
inspired, then, as God changed his mind, some nineteen
hundred years ago, He may change it again. If we
insist that the Hebrew Bible is inspired, is there really
any reason that can be shown why, if God actually
spoke to Moses, he should not also speak to the chil-
dren of India? Both of these peoples were men and
women of His own “making”; and if He marked out
the road to heaven for one race, why leave the other
to grope its way in darkness?
As both India and Palestine were once given over
to sacrificings to appease God and gain his favor, let
us see how things were when Buddha and Jesus came
to preach reformation.
People living in this twentieth century would think
it downright foolishness—absolute idiocy—if they were
to witness multitudes of men and women wor-
shiping the Sun and the Moon. Yet such were the
facts for thousands of years. Even so late as five hun-
dred years B. C., Anaxagoras, a Grecian philosopher,
was sentenced to death at Athens, the college of Asia
and Europe, for teaching that the Sun was only a mass
of blazing metal, about as latge as the Peloponnesus.
And it required all the eloquence of the great Pericles
to modify his sentence to banishment.
The Hindus, being the Fathers of the race, led in
this, to us, useless and senseless ceremony; and our
sensibilities are deeply wounded when we consider that
Hindu and Hebrew—in fact, all old religions—were,
and are, stained alike with human sacrifices. The
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 183
Hindus, in their early savage state, were probably
the first to offer such oblations; they were likewise the
first to abolish them. The Hebrews immolated their
human victims a thousand years, and possibly much
more than a thousand years, after the Hindus had
ceased even animal sacrifices, and had fallen back upon
rice cakes, milk, barley and butter. The object sought
in all sacrifices, and in all religions, was, and yet is,
to gain the favor of heaven. The Aryans brought
oblations of “first fruits” to their Gods—barley in the
Spring and rice cakes in the Autumn. And the He-
brews, a thousand years later, brought “first fruits”
into the house of the Lord. (1)
As the powers of nature, the Sun and Moon, were
visible objects which brought light and comfort, it is
probable that they were the first to receive the adora-
tion of the infant world. Afterwards Agni (fire) was
added as a Deity, but it must have been centuries later,
at least; for Prometheus never stole any fire from
heaven for the Hindus. (2) Moreover, they do not
have fire in heaven, but in the other place.
Fire was obtained either by rubbing the end ®f a
hard perpendicular stick through the groove of a
softer one, or, perhaps, a bolt of lightning may have
struck and set on fire a dry tree. Whichever way it
(1) Exodus 23, v. 16 to 19; and Satapatha, Brahmans, p. 369,
?. 12, 8. B. E. Were both of these peoples inspired, or did the
priests inspire themf
(2) Prometheus is the child of a Grecian poet’s brain—Hesiod,
who lived about 900 years B. C. Besides, later investigations in
philology offer the solution that Promantha, in Sanskrit, means
“the fire stick of the Hindus,” p. 808, vol. 19, Br. Ency.
184 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
came, it was shortly elevated to the dignity ol a God,
by reason, no doubt, of the services it rendered to man.
Even now we would almost worship it, rather than
have it taken permanently from us.
Section 2. The worship of the visible forms of
nature was at first simple and informal, but it resulted
ere long in giving birth to a sacerdotal class which
claimed to be divinely inspired, and thereupon it pro*
ceeded to hedge itself about with a cumbersome code
of rules which they themselves could only repeat.
If the forms and ceremonies of India worship were
simply the inventions of men, and as ours follow in
their wake, is it not true that ours are only copies? (3)
Did not the Hindus simply lead the way? For they
probably had their new and full moon sacrifices thou-
sands of years before there was any Jewish clan or
nation whatever.
All the stupid details of Indian sacrifices would re-
quire a volume of more than seven hundred pages, and
offer little to interest the general reader; but as they
form a part of the early religious history of the hu-
man race, they claim at least a brief notice.
When a Brahman led his bride from her Father’s
house the nuptial fire was brought along, and it be-
came the duty of the family to keep it ever burning.
Should it at any* time become extinguished, the house-
holder must expiate the offense by an oblation to the
Gods. The new and full moon sacrifices were more
(3) In my next chapter I shall show the old Jewish worahip
when Jesus visited Jerusalem and the Temple.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
185
exacting and more costly. The hearth was first care-
fully swept, then lines were drawn at right angles,
from East to West, and North to South. There were
three fires built, and the Adhvaryu (4) changed them
around twice, and when a log was put on any one of
the fires the priest muttered a text: “Let there be
luster at my invocations, O Agni! ”
The garhapatya (householder) and his wife, previ-
ous to this, were required to take a vow that they
would abstain from meat and all carnal pleasures, and
observe strict silence while the oblations were being
offered.
When about to take the vow the householder dipped
his hands into a vessel of water, which was their early
mode of baptism, and thereby he became sacrificially
pure. He then prayed to Agni, the God of fire, that
he might keep his vow. Thereupon the Adhvaryu
(Priest) took a blade of grass and flung it towards the
South, the abode of the Rakshas (evil spirits), and
with that act he said: “Expelled is sin; this I proclaim
at the command of the divine Savitri (God). May the
sacrificer be on the vault of heaven! This I proclaim
to fire, wind and earth, O Lord of the world! Lord
of this great universe, we choose thee for our Brahma;
wilt thou lead in this sacrifice? ” (5)
The ceremonies of the full moon sacrifice often lasted
two days. Moreover, the devout Brahman, every
(4) Adhvaryu is the priest who performs the principal part
of the sacrifice.
(5) The formula iB very long, and I have necessarily abridged
it greatly. I have also abridged their formnla to expel evil
•pints.
186 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
morning before sunrise and every evening after sun-
set, made a burnt offering of fresh milk. This was
called his Agnihotra, and he was expected to perform
Agnihotra every day to the end of his life.
The priest’s fee for a Hindu’s first new moon sacri-
fice was a cow or pair of cattle, but if a cow she must
be four years old.
Section 3. It is beyond question that India pre-
ceded Palestine by a great many centuries, in its belief
in devils or wicked spirits. And they named them
Rakshas and Asuras. Goblins, they said, roamed
about in the air, unfettered in all directions, and Hindu
goblins could talk. The devils in Palestine later on
could also talk. In India they were always on hand to
interfere in the sacrifices, and sometimes actually for-
bade it. (6) It is said that the Gods perceived that
water was a thunderbolt which could be used against
the Rakshas, and thereafter it was employed freely as
a sort of amulet (7)
The reason, it is said, that the Asuras and Rakshas
interfered in the sacrifices was that they were contend-
ing for the supremacy.
They claimed, as did the Gods, to be the children of
Prajapati, and in the two moon sacrifices the Gods
entered upon the one that waxes and the Asuras the
one which wanes. (8)
(6) Satapatha Brahmana, vol. 12, p. 9 and p. 12, Sacred Books
of the East.
(7) Of course the Gods, in this case, were the scheming priests.
(8) Vol. 12, page 198, Sacred Books of the East
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 187
-
This whole matter, ancient as well as later on, re-
volves around this central thought: the devils (Rakshas
and Asuras) wanted the earth, and wanted worship.
The Hebrew devil, it is remembered, offered Jesus
a great many munificent things if he would just fall
down and worship him.
There has been much speculation as to who created
the Palestine devils, but the Hindus had no such
trouble. They said the Gods and the devils all sprang
from Prajapati, the father of the Gods; and at one
time the Rakshas defeated the Gods and were about
to divide up the world. (9) But the Gods regained it
by a trick: they brought forward Vishnu, a dwarf,
and asked for as much earth as he could lie down upon.
This being assented to, Vishnu stretched himself until
he covered the entire world. (10)
Those Brahman priests made a rule, as did the He-
brews later on, that no one must make an oblation
without a dakshina—that is, a gift to the officiating
priests. If a sacrificer disobeyed this rule, the guilt
was wiped off upon him. Moses must have heard of
this law and approved it when he said, “None shall
appear before the Lord empty handed.” (11)
The priests of India when they abandoned animal
(9) If Ood created all beings, then did he not create Satan
alsof if there is such a being. Yol. 12, p. 59 and 144, Sacred
Books of the East.
(10) This contending of the Gods is exemplified in Milton’s
Paradise Lost. But this stretching of Vishnu over the earth, is it
not, as Kuhn says, “simply a legend of the struggle between light
and darkness.”
(11) Exodus 23, ?. 15.
l88 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
sacrifices told the people that rice cakes possessed all
the efficacy of the sacrificial animal; that the beard
of the rice represented the hair; that when water was
poured on rice it became the skin; when mixed it be-
came the flesh; when baked it was the bone; and
sprinkling it with butter furnished the marrow. (12)
At all sacrifices, the priest made use of a straight
wooden sword (sphya), about twenty inches long, and
when he raised it he said it became a thunderbolt
against the Rakshas and all enemies. “I take it,” he
said, “with the hand of Pushan, not with my own; for
it is a thunderbolt, and no man can hold it.” (13)
The Asuras, though vanquished at the sacrifice, re-
turned to the strife continually. It was the same old
battle in India seven or eight thousand years ago, that
is waged against evil in America, and in fact all over
the world today; except that the Hotri (priest) prayed
that whoever had evil designs against the sacrificer, or
hated him, might be put down and tied with a hundred
fetters. And the Hotri added, “O Divine Savitri!
("God) him who hates us, and whom we hate, tie him
down to the farthest end of the earth, and do not re-
lease him.” (14)
Section 4. Who were those Rakshas and Asuras
that had evil designs against the sacrificers? And how
(12) Satapatha, Vol. 12, p. 51, Sacred Books of the East.
(13) Pushan was the distributor to the Gods, p. 53, voL 12,
Sacred Books of the East.
(14) The Hebrew devil was only bound for 1,000 years, ch. 20,
Bevelations.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 189
did a belief in them so possess the Indian mind that
they filled the Veda with it? They not only filled the
Veda (15) but their belief reached Persia and Baby-
lon, where Ezra and Nehemiah, while prisoners,
learned it, and carried it to Palestine. Thence it slow-
ly filtered into the Jewish mind, and is now thoroughly
embedded in the pages of the New Testament
This belief was first taught, we might say preached,
in the land of the seven rivers, in the Punjab, in north-
western India, exactly how many centuries back the
Hindus themselves cannot tell. They think the first
Aryan man lived millions of years ago. But if the first
Aryans were in the Punjab eight or ten thousand
years ago, that is a long time.
The proof is strong and convincing that the Aryans
entered India from the Northwest; that then they were
a fair-skinned, handsome people, greatly superior in
intelligence and civilization to the aborigines, a dark
or black race, which they found occupying the country.
Here at once began a race war, and it had the same
ending that all such wars have had since that day.
The lower types were flat-nosed, hideous looking crea-
tures, who battled for their homes, but without suc-
cess. The all-conquering Aryan pushed them to the
hills. He called them “Dasyus,” “enemies,” and to
distinguish them further, used the word “vama”—
color. In contempt they were called flat-nosed, and
(15) The Veda is the oldest book in the world. Max Muller,
Bans. lit., p. 557. It was memorised by many generations, but
fnally printed.
igo A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
noseless. They were twitted of eating raw flesh, and
later on were called monsters and demons.
They disturbed the Aryan sacrifices, and wherever
in any quarter they obtained a slight advantage, they
would not permit the Aryans to worship. In short,
they forbade it. And because they forbade (raksh)
they were called Rakshas, “forbidders.” (16)
The Asuras were of the same piece. They were ene-
mies of the Aryans, and so worked in conjunction with
the Rakshas that they were likewise branded as
“demons,” “monsters,” “goblins,” “fiends,” “devils.”
The Asuras must have been a tribe friendly to the
Rakshas, for they joined them in confronting the
Aryans everywhere. The Aryans, as a punishment,
and in revenge, reduced some of the natives to slavery.
This controversy or struggle between the Aryans
and the aborigines in Punjab was freighted with a
great and lasting influence upon millions and millions
of people and on nations then unborn.
For here, beyond all question, devils—personal devils
—make their first appearance in history. The imagina-
tions of some Aryan poets transformed those flat-
nosed, unsightly looking, black-skinned, despicable
human beings, from enemies into demons, monsters,
devils. (17)
(16) Forbade, in Hindu, is “Raksh,” hence Baksbas or “for-
bidders.”
(17) The serpent, or devil, mentioned in Genesis, is a later
arrival. The Hebrew devil does not actively appear until long
after the exile, and until we reach the Apocrypha. The Hindu
demons traveled West, and in the New Testament they cut a
great figure.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 191
Possibly if the Aryans, on their migration into India,
had found a handsome, white-skinned, friendly race,
the world might still be without a devil. This unhappy
meeting of those two races took place in northwestern
India, probably much more than six thousand years
ago, and it may have been two or even four thousand
years beyond that period.
Those Aryan lords, in their lofty sneers at the dark
visaged Dasyus, little dreamed that they were canoniz-
ing them in history. Zoroaster must have heard of
them, for his devils are simply reproductions of the
fiendish Dasyus.
Section 5. Whence came those flat-nosed Dasyus
who have furnished prototypes, if not actual devils, for
all our religions for all these centuries? They were in
India both before and after Noah landed in the moun-
tains of Ararat. Were they the feeble remnants of ex-
piring prehistoric man, or were they “made” in an
Eden so far beyond Adam’s day that all traces of it are
buried forever beyond recovery? This, let the anti-
quarians answer. The Dasyus had no Gods, or if they
had, they made no mention of them. On the other
hand, the early Aryans worshipped numerous Gods.
But they said, “in the beginning” Prajapati (18) alone
existed; that he created all the Gods, and all the races
of men; that of these, Indra was the greatest; that
(18) There is a line in the Upanishads that the Asnras wor-
shipped the body, and they decked the body of their dead with
flowers, 8th Khanda Prapathaka. Some translators make it that
Prajapati was this universe. Vol. 12, S. B. E., page 884.
192 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Soma was filched from heaven by a falcon. (19)
Rudra was the God of the roaring storm; Agni was
fire; Varuna was the Lord of punishment, (20) and
they propitiated him with songs. Vashnu and Siva
were later Gods, and that they might not lack for num-
bers, the Aryans invented, all told, thirty-three Gods.
But finally all these were merged in Brahma, and that
merging of Gods took place thousands of years before
Buddha was born.
(19) Soma was the juice of the moon plant from which the
Aryans made a pleasant drink.
(20) Varuna holds the scepter over Kings, Manu. 9:245.
CHAPTER XVII
Mode of Worship of the Jews: What Jesus Saw
in Jerusalem.
Section i. We have seen in the preceding chapter
that India practiced some of the most foolish and pre-
posterous modes of worship imaginable. Let us now
march forward to a period much later, and observe
what the Jews were doing in Palestine nineteen hun-
dred years ago. The world is much older, and in that
long campaign against sin, it ought to have harvested a
great amount of wisdom. But instead of advancing in
civilization with the passing centuries, the Jews are
furiously engaged in slaughtering rams and bulls and
goats, and burning parts of their bodies, to make atone-
ment for their sins.
When the victims were slain, the priests sprinkled
the blood round the altar, and they received the hides
of the animals for their fee. (i) They likewise had
their new moon offerings, wherein they burned flesh
unto the Lord. (2) In some instances they “waved
the breast” of the animal before the Lord, and then
(1) Jos., Antiq., book S, eh. 0. A thank offering was the same
except that the priest received a part of the fteih for his services.
Ezra, ch. 3, v. 3 to 6.
(2) Jos., Antiq., book 3, eh. 10, sec. 1.
103
194
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
gave it to “Aaron and his sons.” (3) But the right
shoulder they bestowed upon the priest for a heave
offering. But neither a flat-nosed man, (4) nor a
lame one, nor a dwarf, nor any one having a blemish,
could make an offering unto the Lord. Even if the
flat-nosed man salted his offering, the Lord would not
accept it. (5) The Jews seem to have loved the Hindu
God, Agni, for they delighted in burning their victims,
and even so late as 600 years B. C., they burned their
sons and daughters in the valley of Hinnon. (6)
Moses says God told him “to offer sheep and oxen,”
(7) and if it be true that the Lord desired such sacri-
fice, he must have been immensely pleased with Solo-
mon when he offered twenty-two thousand oxen and
one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. (8)
But after Hilkiah, the high priest, found the book of
Deuteronomy, all sacrifices were strictly forbidden
everywhere in Palestine except in that old Jebusite cap-
ital, Jerusalem. (9)
(81 Leviticus 7, r. 28 to 84.
(4) Leviticus, eh. 21. Moses had undoubtedly heard of the
“flat nosed Bakshas” mentioned in sections 4 and 5 in the pre-
ceding chapter.
(5) Leviticus, eh. 2, v. 12 to 14.
' (9) Jeremiah, ch. 7, v. 82, also ch. 32, v. 85; Second Sings,
eh. 17, v. 17; Ezekiel. ch. 16, v. 20 to 21; Micab, ch. 9, ?. 6 and
7. I know some writers try to apologize for the blood-loving
Jews, by offering the plea that the children were first stain, then
burned. But even if that be admitted, was not the whole thing
an abomination of horrors t
(7) Exodus, eh. 20, v. 24.
(8) First Kings, ch. 8, v. 63.
(9) The “finding" of that book (2nd Chron., ch. 34, ?. 14 to
24) is one of the strangest “finds” in all history. Moses had
been dead more than eight hundred years. Where had that book
been all those centuries! The truthjgH^ihs matter, no doubt,
Am
195
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Thither the Jews flocked in vast numbers three times
every year, (io) Nisan (March and April) was a
noted time for them, in memory of pascha (the feast
of the passover). Fifty days later came the festival of
Pentecost, wherein, in imitation of the Hindus, they
offered the first fruits of the harvest unto the priest;
also a lamb to be burned and some wine for the Lord.
This was followed by the feast of the tabernacles, cele-
brated by living in tents and booths in memory of their
long journey through the wilderness; this lasted eight
days, during which they sacrificed seventy-one bulls,
fifteen rams and one hundred and five lambs. (11)
This centering of all sacrifices in Jerusalem made it
at once, to the Jews, not only a holy city, but the most
holy place in all the earth to them. It became likewise
a great center of traffic and commerce.
The Jew would sacrifice in the Temple, but he would
also, if possible, cheat his neighbor out of his inheri-
tance.
Moreover, after the finding of Deuteronomy, the
Jews became puffed up and pride-blown; for they were
taught that they were an holy people unto the Lord
(12) and that “He had chosen them to be a special
is that Shaphan, the scribe, or Hilkiah, the high priest, wrote it.
It was to their special interest that all sacrifices should be offered
in Jerusalem.
(10) Exodus, ch. 23, v. 17 and 19. The Hindus offered first
fruits, but they did not offer wines; in lieu thereof they gave Agni
and Indra some rice, boiled in milk.
(11) Numbers, ch. 29, v. 12 to 35; Leviticus, ch. 23, v. 34 to
43; Nehemiah, ch. 8, v. 14 to 18.
(12) Deut., ch. 7, v. 6.
196
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
people unto Himself, above all people on the face of
the earth.”
Thenceforward, in greater degree than ever, all sur-
rounding nations and peoples became gentiles or
heathen unto them, from whom they bought their
slaves, and could buy the children of people (not Jews)
who dwelt among them. (13) If they stormed a city
and took it, they murdered every male, but kept the
women and little children as slaves. (14) But when
they devastated Midian, they slew every male, old and
young; and Moses was “wroth with the officers” that
they had saved all the women alive, and he directed
that every one be killed. But he kept thirty-two thou-
sand little girls for even a worse fate. (15)
Section 2. Such was the law, and such was the
practice, nineteen hundred years ago when Jesus was
bom. If he obeyed the law of Exodus (16), he
visited Jerusalem frequently, and there met great
concourses of people gathered from every quarter of
Palestine. Josephus tells us that in A. D. 65, three mil-
lions were there at the Passover.
But as no census was then taken, his guess was per-
haps a million or so too many. This Temple was
(13) This horrible stuff is put into our Bible as being inspired
of God (Leviticus, ch. 25, v. 44 to 46). It is cruel history, not
inspiration.
(14) Dent, ch. 20, v. 10 to 14.
(15) Numbers, ch. 31, v. 9 to 48. Josephus, Wars of the Jews,
book 2, ch. 14, section 3. It is probable there were about 2,500,000
Jews in Palestine. Moses writes himself down as a bloodthirsty
wretch by giving such an order.
.(10) Ch. 23, v. 17.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 197
-
finished only a few years before Jesus was bom, at a
vast outlay of money and labor. A thousand wagons
hauled the white stones for it, and ten thousand men
polished them and put them in place. Yet it was com-
pleted in one year and a half. (17) But the Temple
itself occupied only a small portion included in the dif-
ferent enclosures or courts. The Royal Porch alone
was six hundred feet long, studded with one hundred
and sixty white marble columns, each forty feet high.
The Court of the Gentiles was wide and roomy, but
here a warning was carved, where all could see it, for
it was death for any Gentile to pass beyond it (18)
The whole space occupied by the Temple, the outer
court, the royal cloisters, the court of the Gentiles,
court of Israel, the woman’s court, priest’s court, the
Holy of Holies, the cattle yards, the sheep pens, the
dove cotes, the slaughter houses for the victims, the
stalls or booths for the money changers—all these cov-
ered about eighteen or nineteen acres. Moreover, the
Jews never sacrificed for any but circumcised Jews.
Just before the Feast of the Passover and the feast
of the Tabernacles and Pentecost, the lowing of cattle
and the bleating of flocks of sheep and the plaintive cry
of lambs were heard everywhere in the surrounding
hills, as they approached the Temple to be sacrificed to
appease God’s wrath toward the Jews. Herdsmen were
(17) That means the Temple proper—the Jews told Jesus it
was forty-six years in building. (John, eh. 2, v. 20.)
(18) Paul was arrested and came near losing his life, because
he took some Greeks beyond the court of the Gentiles (or heathen)
—that included every one not a circumcised Jew. (Acts 21.)
198
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
there, driving bargains, haggling about prices for sacri-
ficial animals; money changers were also on hand yell-
ing, “Here’s your shekels for the sanctuary.” (19)
At every feast great numbers of Jews came without
the proper sacrificial offering, hence the custom of
keeping in the Temple, sheep, oxen and doves for sale.
This custom was less repulsive to the Jews than it
would be to us, because the whole Temple was used in
a manner that would utterly shock the sensibility of
men educated in Christian churches.
“Thousands and tens of thousands of sheep, at every
Passover, as well as at every Pentecost and every feast
of the Tabernacles, were borne into the Temple, and
carried or driven into the court of the priests, and
there slain, the blood being caught by the priests in
bowls and dashed upon the altar. Hour after hour,
the whole day long, this spectacle continued. The
secret channels down through the rocks towards the
king’s garden, gurgled with blood. It was blood,
blood, blood; nor can a modern man imagine how it
could be other than intolerably shocking. We cannot
conceive how even familiarity would abate the repul-
siveness of the altar, incessantly flowing with blood,
and of the pavement and walls dripping with gore.”
(20)
Section 3. Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem every
(19) A Jew could not pay the Temple tax in foreign coin,
hence the money changers. (John, ch. 2, v. 14.)
(20) Beecher’s Life of Jems, ch. 10.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 199
year to the feast of the Passover, and when he was
twelve years old he went with them (21) and
probably between the ages of twelve and thirty years
he saw the slaughter of animals in the Temple many
times. He surely did, if he acted in obedience to the
law of Exodus (chapter 23), for that required every
male to appear there three times each year.
Yet we have no record, except one Passover, that
he ever set himself so decidedly against the Jewish
mode of worship as to drive the sheep and oxen out of
the Temple, and overthrow the tables of the money
changers. He also branded the traffickers as a den of
thieves. (22)
To all appearances, the outer courts of the Temple
were great noisy bazaars. The altar was a reeking
slaughter house. And here I must not omit to men-
tion that Jerusalem and the Temple, at the time of the
great feasts, and in fact at all times, were probably as
filthy and disgusting places as could be found any
where on earth.
The Jewish mode of worship, both before and after
Jesus denounced the traffickers as thieves, was an un-
surpassed abomination. No heathen people anywhere
had a greater agglomeration of filth and downright
absurdity in its religious observances than the Jews of
Palestine. John the Baptist must have witnessed the
same horrible sight, for he preceded Jesus in preach-
(21) Luke 2.
(22) .Luke, ch. 19, v. 46; Mark 11, v. 15 and 16.
200
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
ing the baptism or repentance (23), and it is no
wonder that John branded them as “a generation of
vipers.” (24)
Section 4. The episode in the Temple with the
hucksters and money changers drew upon Jesus the
evil eye of the Sanhedrin. From that hour the Phari-
sees took counsel how they might destroy him. (25)
They asked him if it was lawful to give tribute to
Caesar? Now if he answers no, he can be executed
as a traitor. But he perceived their design, and told
them to “render unto Caesar the things which are
Caesar’s.” (26) Defeated in their scheme, they re-
tired in confusion, only to enlist every Pharisee against
him, even unto the cross.
Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrec-
tion, came to him and said: “A certain man married
and died, leaving the woman and no issue. It is our
law that his brother shall take her. Now there were
seven brothers, and they each, in turn, took her to wife,
and died without issue. In the resurrection, whose
wife is she?”
Jesus answered them quickly: “The children of the
resurrection neither marry nor are given in marriage.
They who are accounted worthy to obtain that world
(23) Luke 3.
(24) Matt. 8:7.
(25) Jesus made at least three visits to Jerusalem. (John 2,
v. 13 to 16; John 1, v. 5; Matt. 4:5.) After driving out the
traffickers, he went to Bethany, but returned. (Matt. 21, v. 12
to 24.) Luke, ch. 19, v. 47, says he taught daily in the Temple.
John, ch. 7, says he went secretly to the feast of the Tabernacles.
(26) Matt. 22, v. 15 to 23; Mark 12, v. 18.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 201
are as the angels in heaven.” (27) He had probably
heard of the Hindu doctrine, that the devas (angels)
in the highest heaven are opapatika; that is, they come
into existence without the intervention of parents,
which is a sufficient reason that “they neither marry
nor are given in marriage.”
In that great surging crowd at the Temple, Jesus
and his corporal’s guard of Galilean followers must
have been as a few sands only on the shores of the
ocean.
We seem to see him there watching the persistent
slaughter of cattle, sheep, goats and pigeons; and as
he looked upon the bloody altar it must have impressed
him as a senseless, awful burlesque—not only on re-
ligion, but on common sense as well. Yet that out-
rageous proceeding found its complete authority in the
alleged inspired Pentateuch.
Now if Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuter-
onomy were and are inspired of heaven, then Jesus was
not justified in scourging the traffickers out of the
Temple. (28)
But we answer, those books never were inspired, for
it cannot be possible that an all-wise Being, the ruler
of millions of worlds, would ask or require such
idiotic performances. Does any one believe that God
inspired the Rishis of India to bake a cake of rice for
(27) Luke 20, ?. 27 to 38; Mark 12, 19 to 25, also Vol. 11,
8. B. E., p. 213.
(28) I must here state that I utterly disbelieve in the inspira-
tion of the Pentateuch. Moses commenced life as a murderer.
(Exodus 2.)
303 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
him? Yet the Indian priests in their holy Bible, the
Veda, have preached that doctrine to the Hindus for
fifty or sixty centuries.
Buddha twenty-four hundred years ago told his fol-
lowers not to practice the low arts of divination, and
not to sacrifice to the gods. (29)
Section 5. In Jerusalem, the man of Galilee—that
most wonderful combination of heart, brain and con-
science this world has witnessed for nineteen hundred
years—opened up a new chapter in the history of man-
kind.
His visit to the Temple impressed him with the
truth that the old Mosaic religion was wrong; that the
doctrine of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”
was the law of vengeance, and that true religion was
to love one’s enemies, do good unto them that hate
you, etc. (30)
Such radicalism the Jew could not stand. It would
uproot and overturn all his ancient notions. Moreover,
it was clearly against the law of Moses, and therefore
the Jew said it must be wrong.
The Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees quickly saw
that they would be “pushed from their stools,” hence
their instant and bitter opposition. On the other hand
Jesus felt that such sacrifices as he had witnessed were
almost, if not quite, impious.
The law of bloody sacrifices must be changed, re-
(29) Maha Silam, vol. 11, Sacred Books of the East, p. 196;
and vol. 20, S. B. E., p. 152, Kullavagga.
(30) Matt., ch. 5.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 203
pealed, abolished, and in its place must be set the doc-
trine of love, and with pure heart they were to pray
to the Father—but not standing on the comer of the
streets, as the hypocrites (Pharisees) do. (31)
India, long before Moses was bom, had without a
struggle abolished bloody sacrifices, and had fallen
back upon rice cakes. But the Jew, being a man of
blood, had no regard for animal life, and little, if any,
for human life. Hence his determination to destroy
the man of Galilee, and thus put an end forever to the
new heresy. Jesus’ doctrine was to the Jews a terrible
heresy, which they determined to punish.
Here is the issue. Jesus said the law and prophets
were until John (32), and in His sermon on the moun-
tain he said he had not come to destroy the law, but to
fulfil it. But he soon found that He could not put
“new wine into old bottles,” (33) for the new wine
would burst the old bottles, and the new piece of cloth
put upon an old garment would not agree with it. In
other words (and he was right about it), his new wine
(new doctrines) would rend asunder the old Mosaic
faith. We of the twentieth century, standing here and
calmly looking back, wonder at his temerity. The
Jewish mind, always narrow and bigoted, was ready
to persecute, even unto strange cities (34), any one
who assailed the old Mosaic superstition. That very
superstition was the pride of their clan. Nothing good
(31) Matt. 5.
(32) Luke 16, v. 16.
(33) Luke 5, v. 36 and 37; Matt. 9, v. 16 and 17.
(34) Acts, ch. 26, v. 11.
304 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
had ever come out of Nazareth (35) and here was a
young Nazarene, scarcely thirty years of age, virtually
pulling down the Temple about their ears.
A greater battle than that between David and Go-
liath is to be fought Jesus stands there teaching the
doctrine, “love thy neighbor, do good unto others,”
and he wants that published to all nations. (36) The
uncharitable Jew would brand every man as a heathen
who was not of his clan. This contest has been going
on now for nineteen hundred years; and the Jews are a
scattered, unlovely race. That young Nazarene,
though not a God, is devoutly worshiped by an hun-
dred and fifty millions of people.
(85) John 1, v. 48.
(86) Mark 13, ?. 10.
CHAPTER XVIII
The Heaven and Hell of Buddha and Jesus.
Section i. “Shall I exist during the ages of the
future, or shall I not? What shall I be, and how shall
I be, in that distant time?” asked a questioning Hindu
500 years B. C. (1) Job, in a beautiful line, asks:
“If a man die, shall he live again ?” Shakespeare says:
“To die, to sleep, and in that sleep of death, perchance
to dream—aye, there’s the rub.” Socrates said: “The
soul is uncompounded, incorporeal, invisible, indissolu-
ble, immutable, and therefore immortal.” But how
did Socrates know that the soul was uncompounded,
indissoluble and immortal? (2) “The body,” he adds,
“serves, the soul commands, therefore it is akin to the
divine.” The Upanishads, a philosophical Hindu work
composed about three thousand years ago, says the
body is mortal and always held by death, but it is the
abode of self, or soul, which is immortal, and without
body. The Hindus went so far as to claim that if the
(1) Buddha told that Bikkhu ho was still bound by tho fatten
of delusion. (Vol. 11, p. 299, 8. B. E.) Asava: love of life.
The Bhikkhu was told he must do good for its own sake alone.
(2) Socrates must have used the word “soul” in the sense
of “mind.” See Plato’s Fhaedo, voL 19, Br. Eney., p. 199.
305
206 a QUESTION OF MIRACLES
soul chiefly practiced virtue (and vice only in a small
degree), it obtained bliss in heaven. (3)
Buddha changed that plan, and had seven heavens
and ten hells: a saint or a guilty culprit, on the other
side, reached a place exactly fitting his merits or de-
merits. Moreover, his conversion was vastly different
from St. Paul’s. We have been told that Paul, on his
journey to Damascus to persecute the Christians, saw
at midday a great light from Heaven, and from the
clouds Jesus (who had been crucified some years be-
fore) spoke to him in the Hebrew tongue (4) and told
Paul that he had come to make him a minister unto the
heathen. (5)
Paul forgot, when he made that statement, that
Jesus never spoke Hebrew—he spoke Aramaic.
Buddha, when he commenced his life work, devoted
six years to strenuous penance and fasting, as we have
heretofore seen, so that at times he was wasted to al-
most a shadow. During those six years he carefully
contemplated the woes and the mysteries of the human
soul. Penance, fasting, mortification of the body, he
felt certain would not win Heaven. At last in wander-
ing about, as already mentioned, he reached the banks
of the Narangana river, (6) and sat himself down
(3) Laws of Manu, ch. 12, v. 20.; Upanishads, vol. 1, p. 140.
(4) Jesus while on earth spoke Aramaic. He then did not
understand Hebrew. Revelations punishes the wicked with fire
and brimstone, forever and ever—that is, eternally. (Ch. 14, v.
10 and 11.)
(5) Acts 26, v. 14 and 15.
(6) It is now called the Phalgu, and is in Behar. That tree is
called the Bodhi tree.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 207
-
under a tree to consider how the salvation of the race
might be accomplished.
Briefly told, he saw that a three-fold thirst, or lust,
enveloped the world: the thirst or lust of pleasure, the
thirst or desire of existence, the thirst or desire for
prosperity; and he marked out an eight-fold path,
which, if followed, would surely lead to the bliss of
heaven, namely: right belief, right speech, right aspira-
tion, right conduct, right means of livelihood, right
memory, right effort, right meditation. The turning
point in his life is yet to come. With this insight into
the miseries and mysteries of life, he is about to hide
his new-found light under a bushel when lo, we are
told that Brahma Shampati, from the world of spirits,
appeared before him and said: “May the blessed one
preach the doctrine. There are beings whose mental
eyes are darkened, and if they do not hear this doctrine,
they cannot obtain salvation. The law of Magadha is
contaminated. Thou, O wise one, hast ascended the
temple of truth. Thou hast freed thyself; look now
upon the people in bonds, O leader of the pilgrim band!
Wander through the world. (7) Preach the doc-
trine.” Paul on the road to Damascus had a similar
experience. But both of these stories are exceedingly
beyond sober fact.
Section 2. But when Shampati had three times
repeated this request, Buddha consented, and forth-
with announced that the door of immortality was wide
(7) Vol. 13, S. B. E., p. 36. Shampati precedes Paul by five
hundred years.
308 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
open to all who had ears to hear. Thereupon he com-
posed his sermon on “The foundation of the Kingdom
of Righteousness.” (8) It is not as beautiful as Jesus’
Sermon on the Mount, but if any one will follow, with-
out faltering, either Buddha or Jesus, he will—if there
be such a place as heaven or Nirvana—even if the gate
thereto is narrow, be very certain to gain admission.
The man, he said, who has given up the world, must
avoid the extremes—sensuality on one hand and asceti-
cism on the other. There is a middle path: right
thoughts, right conduct, etc., which will lead one surely
to heaven. Craving must be rooted out. Craving or
desiring a future life in Heaven is not to be considered.
Craving for success in this life must also be put
aside. (9)
Good must be done for its own sake only. Reliance
on rites and ceremonies will not avail. Hatred and
ill feeling must be cast aside. Ignorance, pride, self-
righteousness, doubt, delusions, are all fetters which
must be broken. In short, man must be pure in heart,
he must hunger and thirst after righteousness. (10)
To the Jews who would lead such spotless lives,
Jesus promised a place in the kingdom of Heaven. (11)
If a man in India, twenty-three hundred and fifty
years ago, embraced Buddhism and led a self-re-
strained, pure life; in other words, if he wrapped holi-
ness about him as a man wraps a mantle round his
(8) VoL 11, p. 146, Sacred Books of the East.
(9) Vol. 11, Sacred Books of the East, pp. 148 and ISO.
(10) Matt. 5, t. 6.
(11) Matt. 5, v. 6 to 16.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
309
body, and that man was holy in deed and in word and
in thought, will he, who never heard of Moses, or
Jesus or Bethlehem—will he be left in outer darkness?
There are millions of pious Buddhists in India who
never heard of Jesus; yet they habitually follow the
noble eight-fold path. (12) Will they be shut out of
the kingdom? How is this?
We are told that when the royal chariot-wheel of
truth had been set rolling onwards by the Blessed One,
the Gods of earth gave forth a shout, saying: “The
empire of truth has been set rolling, and no being in
the universe can turn it back.”
And the Gods of each of the heavens, it is said,
heard the shout of the inhabitants of the Heaven be-
neath, and they took up the cry, until the Gods in the
highest heavens answered back that “the wheel of the
empire of truth has been set rolling by the Blessed One,
and neither Mara (the devil) nor any God in the uni-
verse can turn it back.” (13)
This ten thousand world system, it is said, quaked
and trembled, and an immeasurable bright light ap-
peared, lighting up the universe. Thus was Buddhism
launched, as we are told, upon the world.
Now it has been asserted that while Buddha said
(12) P. 147, vol. 11, S. B. E.
(13) Paul tells us that he was caught up to the third heaven.
(2nd Gorin., ch. 12, ?. 1 to 4.) But the Buddhists have seven
heavens, and their names are as follows: 1, Bhumma; 2, Katu-
maharagika; 3, Yama; 4, Tusita; 5, Nimaurati; 6, Paranimitavi;
7, Brahmakayika. Buddha has a chapter on the Foundation of
the Kingdom of Bighteousness. (P. 143 to 155, voL 11, Sacred
Books of the East)
210 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
many beautiful things about the sweet rest in Nirvana
(Heaven), that excellent eternal place of bliss on the
other side of the ocean of existence, and that while it
is true that he proclaimed the higher life in all its purity
and perfection (14), yet after all he does not acknowl-
edge the existence of a soul as a thing distinct from
the parts and powers of man which are dissolved at
death. (15)
Let us see if the above be true. In one of his first
sermons Buddha said: “The wrongdoer, when he dies,
is full of anxiety; for after the death of his body, he
is reborn into a state of distress and punishment, a
state of woe and hell; but the welldoer, strong in recti-
tude, dies without anxiety, and is reborn into some
happy state in Heaven.” (16)
Moreover Buddha acknowledged the existence of a
spiritual body, for when Kakudha dies, he soon there-
after, it is said, appeared to Moggallana, one of
Buddha’s chief disciples, and bowed down before him,
and there told Moggallana that Devadatta was a traitor
(14) P. 125, vol. 17, Sacred B. E.; vol. 10, S. E. B., p. 35 and
126. Buddha says, “Some people go to Heaven,’’ etc.
(15) See Rhys Davids’ misleading article in vol. 4, Br. Ency.,
p. 433. He belongs to a class which can see no good in any sect
except its own. When he made the statement above mentioned,
he must have known that the laws of Manu explicitly teach the
immortality of the soul; and Buddha not only never assailed that
belief, but be assumed it as a fixed fact. Not only that, but
Davids must have read Section 15, ch. 1, Dhammapada, where it
says “the evil doer mourns in this world; he mourns in the next;
he mourns in both." Buddha here teaches two worlds. But, see
more of this further on.
(16) Mahavagga 6:28, 5, vol. 17, p. 100, Sacred B. E.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
211
to Buddha; that Kakudha then vanished away. (17)
When the Blessed One learned of this, he simpiy en-
quired if Moggallana had penetrated the mind of that
celestial being, Kakudha, so as to know that Kakudha
was not mistaken. If so, Moggallana was to keep the
secret, for Devadatta would soon prove its truth.
Section 3. As we shall see further along, Deva-
datta, for having attempted a schism in the Samgha
(church) and the life of Gotama, was meted out the
punishment, it is said, of a Kalpa—that is, millions of
years—in Hell. But whoever made peace in the Sam-
gha, when it was divided, that act, Buddha said, “Gives
birth to the highest merit, and for a Kalpa, he is happy
in heaven.” And being questioned further, Gotama
repeated that he who brings peace to the Samgha
(Church), that one act insures his happiness in Heaven
for a Kalpa. Another great soul, five hundred years
later, said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall
be called the children of God.” (18)
The Bhikkhus were told by Gotama that if any of
them desired to be no longer reborn and to “be as-
sured of final salvation, they must fulfill all righteous-
(17) The text says he appeared as big as two rice fields. If
others occupied his place, he was not incommoded. (Kullanagga,
p. 234, vol. 20, S. B. E.) This vanishing out of sight is always,
in all Bibles, questionable. Paul, in 1st Corin., ch. 1, v. 40, pos-
sibly learned of this Hindu celestial being. It seems that Buddha
believed in celestial beings, notwithstanding Bhys Davids’ asser-
tion that he was an atheist.
(18) Matt. 5, and p. 254 and p. 268, vol. 20, Saered Books of
the East. Matthew must have read the Kullavagga, or at least
heard of it.
212
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
ness.” And if one of the brethren desired to become
an inheritor of the highest Heaven, thence never to re-
turn, he was told that he must destroy every bond that
held him to the earth. In other words, the Bikkhu
must “lay up treasures in heaven,” “for where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (19)
There is no doctrine in any scripture more plainly
taught than that if a Bhikkhu adheres to the right doc-
trine, speaks no evil, is irreproachable in conduct, in
words, thoughts and deeds, he will, after the death of
his body, be bom into some happy state in Heaven.
(20) Yet nothwithstanding the many repeated state-
ments of Buddha as to the immortality of the soul,
there are many who deny that he taught that doctrine.
Nevertheless it was charged against Gotama that
he taught the doctrine of annihilation, and denied the
result of actions. Whereupon Siha, a general, who
belonged to the Nigantha sect, (21) questioned bim
squarely as to the charge. “I teach,” was the reply,
“the not doing of such actions as are unrighteous,
either by word or deed or thought. And as. to annihi-
lation, I proclaim the annihilation of lust, ill-will, delu-
sion, and all things which are evil, and not good. All
such things must be burned away, rooted out, de-
(19) Matt. 6, v. 21.
(20) Vol. 11, p. 213 and 217, Sacred Books of the East, and
Akankeyya Sutta, vol. 11, p. 211 to 218, Sacred Books of the East.
(21) The Niganthas were a non-Buddhist sect, quite numerous
in the early days of Buddhism, who ate their meals naked. (VoL
17, p. 117, Sacred Books of the East.)
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
213
stroyed.” (22) These doctrines won Siha, the gen-
eral, and he desired to become immediately a member
of the Samgha (church). At another time the same
doctrines were announced to Roga, the Malla, and
Gotama likewise preached to him of alms-giving, of
moral conduct, and of the corruption of lusts, of the
danger of vanity, and pointed him the way to Nir-
vana (Heaven). (23)
Roga at once became a disciple.
Now, while it is true ttfat there are many good
things taught by Gotama, there are some things
charged against him which, if true, greatly diminish
the respect one would like to feel for a teacher who
sought to have his followers lead pure and honest
lives. But if he taught Iddhis—that is, that one could
make his body multiform, or make it become invisible,
or make it go through a wall, or through a mountain,
as if through the air, that it could walk on water, and
reach, even in the body, up to the heaven of Brahms
(God), then he drops down to the level of a necro-
mancer, or magician. Moreover, he may be the very
one who is guilty of misleading Mark (24), where
he tells us that Jesus one night was out walk-
ing on a boisterous sea, and did not sink. And again
Buddha may likewise have misled John, who soberly
tells us that Jesus, even after he was dead, went
through some doors, the doors being shut. And lest
(22) Vol. 17, Sacred Books of the East; Mahavagga 6, 31, 3
to 10.
(23) Vol. 17, S. B. E., p. 137.
(24) Chapter 6, v. 48.
214
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
he might be misunderstood, John twice repeats that
foolish assertion. (25)
Luke is also a believer in Iddhis, for he asserts that
Jesus could vanish out of sight; and at that time Jesus
told his disciples he was not a spirit, for a “spirit hath
not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” (26)
Section 4. The Hell of Buddha is, if anything,
more just than the Hell of Jesus; for Jesus consigns
all the wicked to a “flaming furnace” for all eternity.
There are no grades in his Hell, and no possible end to
the suffering. They will wail and gnash their teeth
eternally. (27)
Buddha’s ten hells are severe beyond belief, but they
are a trifle, and only a trifle, more reasonable. His
hells are of different lengths of time, and different in-
tensities of pain; but even the most moderate and the
most brief are enough to make one shudder. He him-
self says that “all men tremble at punishment.” An
illustration or two from his own lips will show why
his followers trembled when they contemplated his
hells. (28) Devadatta was the Judas of Buddhism,
and sought, as did Judas, the death of his Master. But
it was ambition, not the love of money, that overcame
the Hindu. He desired to supplant Buddha as the
leader and founder of the new and growing faith. To
accomplish this, Devadatta sent a man fully armed,
(25) John, ch. 20, v. 19 to 26; vol. 11, S. B. E., p. 214.
(26) Luke 24, v. 31 to 34; John 20, v. 26.
(27) Matt. 13, y. 50.
(28) All men tremble at a punishment and fear death. (Ch.
10, Dhammapada, sec. 129.)
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
215
with orders to kill Gotama; but told the man he must
return by a certain path, and on that path Devadatta
stationed two other men, who were instructed to kill
any man returning that way. But the man who was
to kill Buddha, when he came in sight of him became
terrified and stood stark still. Then Gotama called to
him, and the man laid aside his bow and quiver, ap-
proached, and falling at Buddha’s feet, confessed his
sin and begged forgiveness. Gotama told him that as
he had seen his sin and made amends for it, it was
meet that he be forgiven. And he saved the man’s
life by sending him back by a side path. (29)
The two men who were to kill the first, waited long,
and finally wandered on to where Buddha was sitting
at the foot of a tree. He discoursed to them, as he
had to the first one, and two likewise desired to be-
come his followers. He saved them also by sending
them back by a safe path.
Having thus far failed, we are told that Devadatta
hurled a huge rock down a mountain slope with the
intention of killing the Blessed One, “but two moun-
tain peaks came together and thus saved him.” (30)
Still determined upon the murder of Gotama, Deva-
datta procured a great man-slaying elephant and sent
it down the road upon which Buddha was advancing,
(29) Yol. 20, Sacred Books of the East, p. 243 to 250.
(30) This is a ridiculous and foolish story, as that where the
waters of Jordan * * rose up upon a heap and stood there,9 9 so that
the people could go dry shod over against Jericho. (Joshua, ch.
3, 14 to 17.) If one is a falsehood, the other seems to be of the
tame piece of cloth. (Vol. 20, p. 245, Sacred Books of the East.)
316 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
expecting that the elephant would destroy him in a
moment. But the elephant, on approaching his sup-
posed victim, stood still and allowed Buddha to caress
him.
Moreover, Devadatta undertook to break up the
Sampha (church), and for those offenses Buddha said
Devadatta was doomed irretrievably to remain for a
Kalpa in a state of suffering and woe. A Kalpa, as
we have seen, is a vast period of time, millions and
millions of years. Devadatta’s crime was committed
about twenty-three hundred and fifty years ago. It
was an awful crime, but, if true, the punishment was
and is fiendishly excessive. For, according to the
record, he is only, as it were, just at the commence-
ment of his “woe and suffering.” The rich man men-
tioned in Luke, who for now nearly nineteen hundred
years has been suffering in a “furnace of fire,” and
Devadatta (Buddha’s would-be murderer), who has
been boiling in an iron pot for twenty-three hundred
and fifty years, represent two such fiendish inflictions
that we utterly discredit both stories.
The hell into which Devadatta was plunged is said
to be guarded four-fold, and the rich man’s hell is so
arranged that none can escape, for it is surrounded
by a great, deep, awful gulf, impassable alike to friend
or foe. (31)
Section 5. Buddha, as we have seen, had ten hells
(31) VoL 20, 8. B. E., p. 263 and 264, and Vol. 10, 8. B. E.,
p. 119 to 122; Luke, ch. 16, v. 22 to 31. Mark 9, v. 43 to 44, says
the fire is not quenched.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 217
-
of different lengths, but the lengths and the rigors of
the punishments were terrible in every one of them,
as a further illustration will show. Kakaliya, a
Bhikkhu, falsely and without cause accused Sariputta
and Naggallana, Buddha’s two chief disciples, of hav-
ing fallen into evil desires.
He was told that he was wrong, and that their lives
were pure. But he repeated the slander again and
again, and each time was told of his error.
Soon thereafter Kokaliya was struck with boils, and
died. Sahampati, a wise Brahman, having said that
Kokaliya had gone to the Paduma hell for backbiting,
Buddha was asked: “How long is Paduma hell?” and
he replied: “Take a load of Sesamum seeds, and
every one hundred years throw away one seed; that
load will dwindle to nothing before even Abbuda hell
is reached.” He then proceeds to name nine interven-
ing hells. Paduma hell is the tenth.
Meanwhile millions and millions of years are pass-
ing, during all which time Kokaliya is tossing in tor-
ment for backbiting. The Hindus say that sometimes
backbiters are laid on “spread embers.” (32)
Buddha now proceeds to lecture his followers upon
the sin of lying, of evil doing, of covetousness; all
these, he says, will go to the pool for a long time;
that a man’s evil deeds will follow him into the other
world, where he will suffer as if struck by red hot balls
of iron. Sometimes the wicked, he says, are struck
(32) Abbuda bell is the shortest one. Vol. 10, S. B. E., p. 117
to 121. Luke 16, y. 24: His hell has tormenting flames.
218 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
with iron hammers, and go to dense darkness. Some-
times they are boiled in iron pots. Thereafter, the
wicked Hindu reaches a dark abyss, and while vainly
striving to cross it, he is slashed with sharp knives, and
jackals tear him; his tongue is seized with a hook, and
Hell’s watchman pounces upon him and mangles him
further. (33)
Section 6. The reader should not overlook the
fact that the hells of both Buddha and Jesus are mate-
rial hells, and that the bodies of the wicked are sent
there. (34)
Besides, there is not much difference in the punish-
ment of the wicked in India and in Palestine. Buddha
boiled them in iron pots “for a long time,” and Jesus
roasted or broiled them in “a furnace of fire that never
shall be quenched.” (35)
Even angels were sent “down to hell’ from Jeru-
salem, and bound in “chains and darkness.” (36)
There were devils without number in both Palestine
and India; but Jesus had this advantage over Gotama
—he could cast them out, and the record is that he
cast out many. (37)
But the curious thing about the Jewish hell is, that
while the “flames” are fierce and “tormenting,” they
(33) VoL 10, Sacred Books of E., p. 122.
(34) Manu, it will be remembered, made a strong body for the
wicked, but it was a material “strong body.” (Manu, p. 142,
p. 500.)
(35) Mark 9, v. 43.
(36) 2nd Peter, eh. 2, v. 4, Jesus’ hell (Mass. 25, v. 41) was
everlasting fire.
(37) Matt. 9, v. 32 to 33; Luke 11, v. 14; Mark 3, v. 15.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 219
yet do not extinguish the eyesight of the sinners, for
they can see across “a great gulf.” (38) The ques-
tion has been asked: From whom did Buddha get his
ideas of hell? The answer is easy. He learned it
from that old code of Manu, a moral code in existence
more than a thousand years before he was bom. Manu
las twenty-one hells. (39) Buddha abridged the num-
ber somewhat. No doubt Jesus obtained his ideas
of hell from Esdras and the Essenes, but possibly
from the Buddhists. Second Esdras, chapter 7, con-
tains the key note of Jesus’ hell, and Esdras
must have learned it from the Essenes, who
imported it from India. But what did any one, or all,
of those men know about hell, any more than the
reader of these lines? Were they inspired about hell?
Or was this whole thing bom in a poet’s brain? Yet
when all this is said, it may well be asked: if there be
such a place as heaven, shall thieves and murderers
and all the evil brood enjoy it equally with the pure
in heart?
I answer: No, by no means. But just how long,
and what intensity of suffering the wicked will meet,
is not given to man, here and now, to know. There
are many problems unsolvable to us. A man may be
bom of a line of wicked ancestors. There is a vicious
strain in his blood for which he is not to blame. He
is bom without his consent. He is bom, as it were, in
(38) Luke 16, v. 19 to 31. A real fire, we know, would destroy
the eye utterly. The Hindus, more philosophical than the Jews,
made a strong body. (Manu, ch. 12, 8. 16.)
(39) Manu 4, s. 87.
900
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
the gutter; he lives in the gutter, and dies as he has
lived. Possibly he dies under the black hood, a mur-
derer.
Shall he suffer in a furnace of fire, for millions and
millions of years? Shall he boil in an iron pot for
countless ages? I answer: No; but if God is his judge,
the judgment will be exactly just and right.
CHAPTER XIX
The Doctrines of Jesus and Buddha.
“Is there a land of pure delight, to saints immortal
given?”
Section i. Two hundred years before Jesus was
born, the Jews in their religion had no certain place
called heaven into which the pious soul could go, at
the death of the body, to enjoy eternal bliss. True a
department of eschatology, more than two thousand
years B. C., had been organized in several nations—
notably the Egyptians, Persians and Hindus; yet the
Hebrews gave no heed to it.
Not until long after the Babylonish captivity did
the idea of a life beyond the grave begin slowly to
filter into the reprobate Jewish mind. Even then it
was not welcomed with hearty approval or admitted
as an article of faith. But about 160 or 170 years
B. C., the apocalyptic book of Daniel (1) appeared;
and, after telling that fabulous story about three He-
brews who were flung into a hot furnace of fire and
not a hair of their heads singed, he states in his last 1
(1) The book of Daniel, written about 167 jean B. C., is as
sorely apocryphal as Tobit and Wisdom and Maccabees, Vol. 21.
Br. Ency. P. 645.
221
222 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
chapter, that after a time of trouble, many of them
that sleep in the dust shall awake, some to everlasting
life and some to everlasting shame and contempt.
In Tobit, another apocryphal work, angels and
devils appear: and Asmodeus, one of those devils, is
a great destroyer of the human race, for he killed
several newly married men. (2)
Then follows Esdras second, wherein he says the
Lord will give the discomforted Jews the kingdom of
Jerusalem, the everlasting tabernacles, the tree of
life, and he will raise the dead and bring them out of
their graves; that if they will defend the orphan, give
to the poor, clothe the naked and judge for the father-
less, the Lord will give them the first place in the
resurrection. (3)
Still Esdras was not satisfied, for he lamented that
we pass “out of this world like grasshoppers, and
that our life is an astonishment and fear.” But he
finally reaches the conclusion that “the righteous shall
inherit the immortal fruit of heaven; but that the
ungodly shall perish.” (4) Esdras is something
of a philosopher, for he tells Uriel, the angel,
that it had been better not to have given the earth to
Adam, or “else to have restrained him from sinning;
for, as it is, men live in heaviness, and after death look
for punishment.” And he asks, “Why is there prom-
(2) Tobit, ch. 3, v. 8.
(3) Second Esdras was written about 80 to 100 years B. C., see
Ch. 2, also Ch. 7. The reader will notice that the Jew has to be
paid for defending the orphan, feeding the poor. etc.
(4) Ch. 7, v. 17.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
223
ised an everlasting hope, when we are filled with wick-
edness? Why is there a paradise, and medicine, and
security, and fruit, that endureth forever, since as we
have walked in unpleasant places, we can not reach
it?” Then Uriel, the angel, answered: “This is the
condition of the battle: man that is born upon earth
shall fight. If he be overcome, he shall suffer after
death; but if he gain the victory, his face shall shine
above the stars.” And the angel added, “The Most
High hath made this world for many; but the world
to come, for few. There be many created, but few
shall be saved.” (5)
That there might be no mistake about the many
who will be lost, Esdras says, “As a wave is greater
than a drop, so there be many more who perish than
of them which be saved.” (6) And he closes
his book with this lurid warning: “Woe be unto
them that are bound with their sins, and covered
with their iniquities, like as a field is covered with
bushes and thorns; left undressed, it is cast into the
fire to be consumed.”
Here is where Jesus found his first Jewish authority
(5) We have here the Persian idea of battle. It is the doctrine
of struggle. There is no escape from the pit, except to win in
the contest. He that overcometh reaches the kingdom; but if he
be overcome, hell is his portion. No ante-natal defects will be
considered. Tou must win the fight, or suffer with the damned.
He that overcometh shall inherit (Rev., ch. 12, v. 17). But is the
rule exactly just ? The terrible law of heredity is active, and
makes many a soul “blacker than darkness.” It is handicapped
from the beginning; and thus wages an unequal battle, and is
overcome. The ancient Hindu was more wise than Esdras, who
ought to have studied Manu.
(6) 2 Esdras 9, v. 15.
*84 a QUESTION OF MIRACLES
lor his heaven and his hell. Likewise here is the bud
from which sprouted that hateful and abominable doc-
trine of foreordination and predestination, preached
by Peter and Paul. (7)
Section 2. The reason that both Buddha and
Jesus failed to graphically describe heaven is because
they knew nothing about it. They had never visited
it, except in imagination. (8) And even now, with
all side lights turned on, there is no certain agree-
ment about it. Some think it a kind of high-grade
summer resort, where people sit by sparkling foun-
tains and watch the birds of paradise in the branches
of the tree of life. Others believe that Jesus will
stand by Matthew’s straight and narrow gate, and
shake hands with every fresh arrival. (9)
Paul, walking by faith, thought heaven was a great
house or temple in the skies, where the just would
dwell in peace forever. But before they were certain
of their fate, every one was obliged to appear before
the judgment seat and receive according to the deeds
done in the body. (10) This is all that Paul can tell
us, though he says he was caught up into the third
heaven, and heard unspeakable words. (11)
Jesus follows Buddha in dividing the whole world
(7) Second Esdras, ch. 9: v 7 and 8. Romans, ch. 8: v. 29.
First Peter, ch. 1: v. 20. Ephesians, ch. 1: v. 5 and 11.
(8) I place no reliance whatever on John, ch. 3: v. 13, and
John, ch. 6: v. 51, unless in chapter 6 we take what is said about
the “bread” as figuratively meaning the gospel, the truth.
(9) Matt. 7, v. 13.
(10) 2nd Corin., ch. 5: v. 4.
(11) 2nd Corin., ch. 12: v. 2 to 4.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 235
into two distinct, wide-apart classes, “the well doer
and the wrong doer,” and he mentions the meek, the
merciful and the pure in heart, who are certain to
reach the happy eternal shore. (12) Buddha told his
followers that their hearts must be filled with deep-
felt love for every one; that pity and sympathy, far-
reaching, must pervade them, and that as Brahma
(God) was free from anger, free from malice, pure
in mind, they, to become united with him at the death
of the body, must become like unto him.
The riches of this world, as Jesus viewed them,
were dross, were dust, not worth caring for; and he
said to his followers, “Lay not up for yourselves treas-
ures upon earth, but lay up treasures in heaven, where
thieves cannot break through and steal.” (13)
Buddha, centuries before this, had flung away a
kingdom and wealth untold. And to his disciples he
said, “Seek not to store wealth, or gather gain; ab-
stain from the getting of silver or gold; abstain from
the getting of flocks and herds, lands and fields.” (14)
“Love your enemies,” said the man of Galilee. (15)
“Be kind to all that live,” said Buddha. (16)
Jesus desired that his followers should be perfect,
even as their heavenly Father was perfect. (17)
(12) Yol. 17, p. 100, Sacred Books of the Bast. Matt., ch. 5.
(13) VoL XI, p. 202, S. B. Matt. 6: v. 19 and 20.
(14) Vol. XI, p. 191, Sacred Books of the East. Fo Sho, sec.
2029.
(15) How a man can love hie enemies is more than I can see.
Even God does not love his enemies—he punishes them; and
Jeans himself roasts them in a furnace of fire.
(16) Fo Sho, sec. 2024.
(17) Matt. 5: v. 48.
aa6
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Buddha long before this had told his disciples to
“walk in the perfect way, with steadfast aim.”
“Keep your hearts,” he said, “carefully, and earnestly
practice every good work.” (18)
“Seek ye the kingdom of God and his righteous-
ness,” said Jesus. “Proclaim a consummate, perfect,
pure life of holiness,” said Buddha. (19)
Jesus, after appointing twelve disciples, selected sev-
enty others, and he sent the seventy, two and two, “as
lambs among wolves,” into all the cities round about,
to preach the gospel And he gave them power over
devils; and if they trod on serpents and scorpions,
their sting could do no harm; nothing could hurt
them.
Buddha, when he had sixty-one followers, called
them before him and said, “Go ye now, O Bhikkhus,
and wander for the gain of the many, for the welfare
of the many, out of compassion for the world; for
the gain and for the welfare of God and man. Let
not two of you go the same way. Preach the doctrine,
glorious in letter and in spirit, the doctrine of a holy,
pure, chaste life.” (20)
Such was the feeble beginning of the two greatest
religions that have ever been preached on this earth.
Yet, strange as it may seem, both of them have been
(18) To Sbo, se. 1978 to 1981.
(19) Matt. 6: v. 33. Vol. 13, p. 113, Sacred Books of the
East.
(20) Vol. 13, p. 112, Sacred Books of the East. Luke 10: v. 1.
Jesus sends his disciples two and two; Buddha sends each one
alone.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 227
driven from the countries of their birth. The Brah-
mans of India battled Buddhism fiercely for fourteen
hundred years before they expelled it; but it found
lodging places in China, Japan, Thibet, Assam and Cey-
lon. Nor is it too much to say that, had it remained
master of India, we would have no missionaries bring-
ing back silly idols which the people there worship.
Buddha preached against idols. He ridiculed them.
Not only that, but he condemned the foolish practice of
sacrificing even rice cakes to the gods. Buddha sent
his followers from house to house (21) ; Jesus told his
disciples not to go from house to house. (22)
The seventy were greatly pleased to return and
report to Jesus that even the devils were subject unto
them. (23) In India the head devil (Mara), it
is said, came to Buddha and told him that he
had him bound in such strong fetters that he
could not escape; that he must.give up his religion
and go back to the world. Buddha confronted that
Hindu devil so resolutely that the devil, “sad and af-
flicted vanished away.” (24) Jesus believed in devils,
but he could cast them out whenever he chose. (25)
The Hindu devils all possessed the gift of speech, but
many of the Jewish devils were dumb, and sometimes
blind. (26)
(21) S. B. E., p. 112, Vol. 13.
(22) Luke 10, v. 7.
(23) Luke 10, v. 17.
(24) Vol. 13, p. 116, S. B. E.
(25) Matt. 6: v. 13, and Matt. 8: v. 16. Vol. 13, S. B. E., p.
116.
(26) Luke 11: v. 14. Matt. 12: v. 22.
aa8 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Section 3. Buddha, more than twenty-three hun-
dred years ago, said: “Few only, go to heaven.” (27)
The heaven of Jesus is also a very difficult place to
reach; the way there being so narrow, we are told,
that few only can find it. But the way to hell is
broad; so broad, in fact, that it is filled with
“many.” (28) In other words, a great procession is
continually on its march, night and day, towards that
awful “furnace of fire,” where they wail and gnash
their teeth (29) “and gnaw their tongues for pain”
(30), and “the smoke of their torment ascendeth for-
ever.”
Moreover the furnace of fire is to burn everlast-
ingly, for it was, and is, especially prepared for the
devil and his angels. (31)
Jesus, therefore, to save his followers from such
a terrible fate, said, “If thy right eye offend thee,
pluck it out and cast it from thee.” It is better that
one member should perish than “that thy whole body
should be cast into hell.”
And if a man’s hand offend, he should cut it off
and cast it away, rather than that his whole body be
cast into hell. (32)
It must not be overlooked that Jesus puts the body,
-
(27) Vol. 10, S. B. E., p. 48.
(28) Vol. 10, S. B. E., p. 48. Matt. 7: v. 13 and 14. Lnke
13: r. 24.
(29) Matt. 13: v. 50.
(30) Rev. 16, y. 10.
(31) Matt. 25: v. 41. Mark 9: v. 43. There is evidently to
be a great waste of anthracite.
(32) Matt. 5, v. 29.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
229
the whole body, of the impenitent into the furnace of
fire and burns it unceasingly. It is also a dark place,
like the Persian hell; only the Persian hell freezes in-
stead of burning the wicked.
A great burn, it is said by physicians, causes a more
intense and awful agony than any other kind of wound
or suffering. The savage Indian tribes of America
burn their prisoners; but in an hour or two that hellish
torture is ended.
The bodies of the victims were soon reduced to
ashes, and if they “wailed and gnashed their teeth”
in the flames, death soon ended the tragedy and agony.
Is it possible that Jesus of Nazareth is more cruel
than the wild savages of the wilderness? The savage
destroyed his prisoner, lest that prisoner might escape
and destroy him. Both Buddha and Jesus send men
to hell because they do not love the Lord. Then there
is the excessiveness of the punishment; the intensity
of the pain and its awful duration. To illustrate:
suppose Judas, for the betrayal of his master, was
sent to hell nineteen hundred years ago. Is Judas
still roasting in that furnace of fire? And must he
still broil on for millions of years? The question
arises, how did either of those men—Buddha or Jesus
—know about the hells they describe? Neither of
them had ever been there; nor had either of them
ever seen any one who came from there. In fact, there
is only one case in all history (and that is exceedingly
questionable) where the man in hell could ever send
back a word of warning to the wicked.
230
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
The rich man, we are told, who had enjoyed many
good things in this life, finally fetched up in hell. He
was in torment; for he was, it is said, suffering in
the flames. He was thirsty, and his tongue was
parched. There was, and is, no water in hell, and
he wanted Abraham to send the beggar Lazarus with
even a drop. Abraham refused.
But that wicked rich man in hell, it seems, had
more sympathy for mankind than Abraham, the saint,
who was safely housed in glory. For he besought
Abraham to send and warn his brothers, that they
might escape the “furnace.” Abraham replied that
his brothers had Moses and the prophets, and if they
would not hear them they would not be persuaded
even if one rose from the dead. (32)
Now, if the above be true, how is it that the flames
did not consume the body?
A man’s body in a furnace of fire would soon be
destroyed. Jesus never explains this; he was not as
philosophical as the Hindus, for they construct a
“strong body,” one that the flames cannot consume;
and when the term of punishment has expired, the
sinner, in India, is given another chance. (33)
Section 4. From what Jesus and Buddha tell us,
heaven will not be a very populous place. (34) In
(32) Luke 16: v. 19 to 31. Mann 12, see. 16 to 22. We may
also notice that heaven and hell are within speaking distance of
each other; just across a gulf, but plainly visible.
(33) Manu 12:17.
(34) Dhammapada, Vol. 10, S. B. E., says: “Few only go to
heaven.19 (P. 48, sec. 174.)
k
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 231
fact, the heaven of Jesus is so sparsely filled that when
even one sinner is reclaimed there is much rejoicing.
(35)
Nevertheless the keynote to all of Jesus' sermons
is, to teach us how to reach that delightful, blessed,
joyful, never-ending place of bliss—heaven. And he
promises that if a man will leave house or parents,
or brethren, or wife and children, for the kingdom, he
shall receive manifold more even in the present life;
and in the world to come, life everlasting.
Here we notice a seeming marked difference be-
tween the teaching of Buddha and Jesus. Buddha
insisted that good thoughts, kind words and good
deeds must fill and possess one without any ulterior
object whatever. The Jew was offered heaven on the
condition that he would forsake parents and wife and
home and follow Jesus. The Hindu was told that he
must not even long for, or desire, a life beyond the
grave. Goodness, a pure and chaste life, he was told,
must be practiced for itself alone. (36) The Jew was
promised a consideration for his piety. (37)
But after all, is not this distinction more apparent
than real? If a Buddhist turned his back upon the
(35) Luke 15, v. 7.
(30) I think I ought to add that after Jeans and 144,000 fol-
lowers reached heaven (Rev. 14) there was war in heaven and
Michael, an Irith angel, and his angels, fought the dragon and his
angels, and prevailed against the dragon and drove turn and his
angels down to the earth. (Rev. 12.) I have elsewhere quoted
Revelations as an authority, hut after more careful study I think
it is no more inspired than Milton’s Paradise Lost, or Dante's
Inferno, or Homer’s Iliad. Revelations is the work of a vigor-
ous imagination.
(37) Matt 19, v. 29.
332
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
ten fetters, he was certain to reach Nirvana (heaven)
whether the thought or hope of heaven was upper-
most in his mind or not. (38)
Jesus made the open promise, often repeated, that
a righteous life, unspotted, would win heaven. But
when he told his disciples that it was easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a
rich man to enter the kingdom, they were amazed;
and Peter anxiously inquired, “Who then can be
saved?” “We have forsaken all,” he said, “and fol-
lowed thee, and what shall we have therefor?” Jesus
replied: “When the son of man shall sit on the throne
of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel;” and he would
let them eat and drink at his table. (39)
Yet even among the twelve there was some strife
for precedence, and Salome, Zebedee’s wife, took up
the contest for James and John, her two sons. She
visited Jesus on the sly and made the petition that
her two sons might sit, one on his right hand and
the other on his left, in his kingdom. (40)
Buddha says that even the uncharitable do not go
to the world of the gods, and he adds: “The first step
in holiness is better than sovereignty over the earth”
(4i)
(38) The ten fetters were: The delusion of self, ceremonies,
doubt, bodily lusts, desire for a future life in the world of form,
pride, self-righteousness, desire for a future life in the formless
worlds, ignorance, etc.
(39) Matt. 19: v. 24 to 30. Luke 22: v. 29 and 30.
(40) Matt. 2, y. 20 to 34.
(41) Vol. 10, Sacred Books of the East, pp. 48 and 49.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
233
But this much can truly be said of the religions of
Jesus and of Buddha; that, if there be another world
and a life beyond the grave, their doctrines, though
severe, if truly lived up to, will surely carry one safely
past the pit, the furnace and the fiery lake and will
land him safely on the eternal shores.
CHAPTER XX
The Miracles at the Death of Buddha.
Section i. Buddha and Jesus, if the records be
true, were both transfigured. Upon the body of Bud-
dha there had been placed a robe of burnished cloth
of gold; but his face and skin, it is said, outshone the
splendor of the robe. Ananda, his disciple, amazed,
exclaimed: “How wonderful a thing it is, Lord, and
how marvelous, that the skin of the Blessed One should
be so clear, so exceedingly bright that the robe of
gold has lost its splendor.” “Your body,” said An-
anda, “appears like a shining flame. It is white an<J
beautiful beyond all expression.”
Buddha replied that “there are two occasions when
the skin of a Tathagata becomes exceedingly bright;
first, when he attains supreme and perfect insight;
and, again, the night on which he passes finally away.”
“To attain supreme and perfect insight,” said Buddha,
“the four noble truths must be mastered.” Sin, if it
confronts one, must be thrown aside; it must be over-
come. The mind, through earnest meditation, must
continually struggle against it. Faith and works and
high aims must go hand in hand in an earnest con-
tinued struggle to banish sin. (i) 1
(1) Who wrote this transfiguration story (Vol. XI, S. B. E.,
234
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 235
In short, Buddha told his followers that “they must
work out their salvation with diligence.” They must
be earnest, steadfast, holy, keeping watch over their
hearts; they must hold fast to the truth and the law.
If they did this, they would make an end of grief.
Paul, five hundred years later, told the Jews that noth-
ing ought to be done through strife or vainglory,
and that “each one must work out his own salvation
with fear and trembling.” (2)
It must be noticed, also, that both Buddha and
Jesus forecast their own deaths. But this forecasting
was not marvelous in either case. Gotama, as we
have seen, commenced, when twenty-nine years old,
his great life work, and for fifty-one years he had
wandered up and down India, teaching that slander
and falsehood and anger should be abandoned; and
that justice, love and mercy ought to prevail. He
was now eighty years old and he realized that his
sands of life were running low.
Jesus, although he was scarcely thirty-three, yet
must have known that his days were numbered, for
the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees were diligently
seeking his life. Yet, to the immortal honor of both
p. 81) I am unable to state. Ananda does not say that he wrote
it. But it is probably as true as that mentioned in Matt. 17, v. 2,
and Mark 9, v. 3. Peter, James and John mention it, but it is
doubtful if 2d Peter is good authority. (Vol. 8, Br. Ency. page
534.) Possibly Matthew copied from India, as the B[indu story
is the first and oldest by centuries, and it is very doubtful
whether Peter mentions it.
(2) The gospels of Buddha and Paul here travel the same road.
Either is surely safe. Vol. XI, S. B. E., p. 61. Philippians ch. 2,
v. 3 and 12. Eusebius Hist. Eccl., B. 3, ch. 25, says 2nd Peter is
doubtful authority, Jude the same.
836 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
these men, they labored to the last for the uplifting
of the race. The face of Jesus, five hundred years
after Buddha’s transfiguration, it is said, “did shine
as the sun.” (3)
Gotama desired to die in Kusinara, and thither he
bent his footsteps, but the Ganges intervened. On
reaching it he found it flooded and out of its
banks. (4) People were there building basket rafts,
and some had boats which they had decorated, and
they invited him to cross. But it is said that, by virtue
of his great spiritual power, he vanished from sight,
and, as quickly as a strong man might stretch out his
bent arm, he and his followers appeared on the further
shore.
The reader will observe that this foolish statement
surpasses in its audacity, if possible, the Red Sea
fable. (5) And as that supposed Red Sea affair pre-
ceded Gotama’s day by more than nine hundred years,
the Hindus had probably heard of it and determined to
outdo it, which they surely did.
Buddha did not have to even walk on the water, as
(3) Matt. 17, v. 2.
(4) VoL XI, 8. B. E., p. 21. VoL 8. B. E., p. 104.
(5) Vol. XI, Sacred Book of the East, p. 21. Vol. 17, S. B. E.,
p. 104. Exodus, ch. 14, v. 13 to 23. The Hebrews had a strong
East wind to blow a hole through the Bed Sea. But it would
have been more marvelous if Moses had taken Gotama’s plan.
There is probably no truth in either story. They both contradict,
or set at defiance, a law—a plain law of nature. There seems
to have been no excuse for this Hindu story, as Gotama was
offered a safe passage on a raft. But is it any more fabulous
than to tell us “that the waters were a wall on the right hand,
and the left,” as in Exodus 14, v. 13 to 23.
237
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Jesus did. (6) Moreover, we are told that Moses
and Miriam, after the passage of the Red Sea,
broke forth into song. Buddha, on crossing the
Ganges, only reached blank verse:
‘‘They who cross the ocean drear,
Treading a sure path to the farther shore,
WhUe the vain world builds its basket boats—
Those are the wise, they are the surely saved." (7)
Now, if Buddha and his followers really did cross
the Ganges, as above stated, then it is no wonder that
the people on the farther bank, with one voice, shouted
out “Marvelous! Miraculous!” (8) But all religions
seem to be filled with the miraculous, and with the
unbelievable. That of India is only as incredible as
that of Palestine. Buddha, when forecasting his
death, told his disciples that, should he desire it, he
could remain in the same birth for a Kalpa. (9) On
Buddha’s rejecting to live, there arose, we are told,
(6) Mark 6, v. 48.
(7) “The ocean drear/’ that is, they pass this life, not cross-
ing to another one. “To the farther shore” of existence. The
vain world holds to rites and gifts to the gods; the wise do not
tie to ceremonies, as a means of salvation. “The surely saved”
are those who follow the eight-fold path, and struggle against
sin.
(8) Jonah and the whale myth are of the same piece of cloth.
(9) A kalpa, as we have seen, is millions and millions of years,
yet is his statement any more startling than that of Jesus, who
said: “Destroy this body and I will raise it up again in three
dayst” (John, ch. 2, v. 19 to 21.) Could he have done that if
his head had been chopped offf
238 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
a mighty earthquake, and the thunders of heaven
broke forth. (io)
The disciples were startled at this, and, inquiring
the cause, were told that when a Samana or Brahman
has his heart and passions fully under control, if of
great intellectual power, he, by intense meditation,
having as it were weighed the world and all its vani-
ties, can make the earth “move and tremble.” Jesus
could do this and more by faith alone. By faith, we
are told, he could topple a mountain into the sea. (n)
Both of these men possessed, it seems, the marvelous
power of “vanishing away,” but, as Buddha preceded
Jesus, the latter may have learned this wonderful secret
from his predecessor. (12)
Section 2. Towards the last days of these two
men, there is not much in common between them.
Jesus, knowing that his enemies were about to tri-
umph, prayed the Father to let the cup pass; and an
angel, we are told, was sent from heaven to strengthen
him. (13) The Hindu devil seems to have known,
some months before this passage of the river, that
Tathagata was soon to leave the world, for he
promptly appeared and urged him to pass away at
once. “I shall not die,-0 evil one,” replied Buddha,
“until the brethren and sisters and lay disciples of the
order shall become wise and well trained, ready and
(10) Ch. 3, Vol. XI, S. B. E., Sec. 19, p. 48.
(11) Matt 21, v. 21.
(12) Book of Great Decease, p. 44 and 46. P. 49 and 50, Book
of Great Decease. Luke 4: v. 30. John 8: v. 59.
(13) Luke 22; v. 42 and 43.
239
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
-
learned, versed in the scriptures, fulfilling all the
greater and lesser duties, correct in life, walking ac-
cording to the precepts; until they, having themselves
learned the doctrine, shall be able to tell others of it,
make it known, establish it, minutely explain it; until
they, when others start vain doctrines, shall be able,
by the truth, to vanquish and refute them, and so to
spread the wonder-working truth abroad.” (14)
“I shall not die,” said Buddha, “until this pure re-
ligion of mine shall become widespread and prosper-
ous; until, in a word, it shall have been proclaimed
and well grounded among men.”
The devil replied: “Your religion has become all
this. Pass away now, Lord, pass away.” Buddha
answered: “Make thyself happy, O evil one. The
time of my deliverance is at hand; in three months I
shall pass to Nirvana.” (15)
A little later, Gotama and his disciples reached
Kusinara, where he wished to die. Here he was
given a couch in a grove of Sala trees; and, we are
told that, although it was out of season, those trees
were one mass of bloom, which they scattered over
and around the Tathagata.
Moreover, it is said, heavenly music and songs
sounded from the skies, “out of reverence to the suc-
cessor of the Buddhas of old.”
(14) Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XI, p. 43.
(15) A little later the devil appeared again and made the
same request and received the same answer. P. 53, Vol. XI, S.
B. E. The Hebrew devil talked to Jesus frequently, as we have
heretofore observed. Matt. 4: v. 3. Acts 19: v. 15.
240 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
We must not be startled at what is told us of the
Bodhisats, who preceded the one of whom we are
writing.
For India is not tied down to any little six thousand
years since the world’s creation. The pendulum of
her time swings back prodigiously in the opposite di-
rection. They have a tradition—a foolish one per-
haps, but nevertheless a tradition—that millions and
millions of years ago (16) Gotama was a Brahman
named Sumedha, and that he then made a high re-
solve to become a Buddha. That Dipankara, the
Buddha in that far-off time, then predicted that at
the end of four Asankyes, and a hundred thousand
cycles, Sumedha would become a Buddha named Go-
tama. And Dipankara then predicted further, that
Gotama would be bom in Kapilavastu, that, after
great exertion under a bo-tree, on the banks of the
Narangara river, he would reach the throne of knowl-
edge. (17)
Moreover, it is said that the angels in ten thousand
world systems, at this happy augury, scattered flowers
and shouted their applause. (18)
(16) The tradition is that he was born four AsanJcyas and one
hundred thousand cycles ago. An Asankya is a vast period of
time, so vast that if it should rain incessantly for three years
over the whole earth, the number of rain drops falling would
only equal the years of an Asankya. That places Gotama’s
ancestry millions and billions of years ago. But it seems he could
chdose his parents. Vol. 35, S. B. E., p. 270.
(17) This whole supposed prediction looks very suspicious, and
was probably written long after Gotama was born.
(18) The Hindus believe there were tens of thousands of
world systems; that our world system was only one among many.
(Hardy’s Manual, p. 8.) On that point 1 agree with them. This
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 241
Most marvelous stories are told about the Buddhas
of old. One of them, back several thousands of years
ago, when visiting a Buddha’s shrine, wrapped a
thousand wicks about his head and body and set them
on fire. Thus he spent the whole night, walking about
the shrine, and lo! in the morning not a hair of his head
was singed. (19)
For pure imagination and impudent assertion, the
Hindu and Hebrew bibles surpass all modern fiction.
Genesis would have us believe that Noah and the old
patriarchs lived from six hundred to a thousand years,
all of which is unbelievable. But it dwarfs to nothing
by the side of Hindu exaggerations, which set forth
that the Buddhas of old lived from sixty to one hun-
dred thousand years; and their bodies are alleged to
have been equally enormous, ranging in height from
forty to ninety cubits. Truly “there were giants in
those days.” (20) and it may be that Genesis is only
a faint reflection from the East. However, it is cer-
tain that India always surpassed Palestine in the num-
ber and quality of its spirits. The very air at times
was filled with them; some were large and some were
small; and to.the Sala grove, where Gotama was rest-
world of onn is, I believe, only one among mflUona of worlds.
But as it only takes six days to make a world, the Lord has
had plenty of time, if diligent, to make millions of them. See
story of Sumedha, in Buddhist birth stories.
(19) The three Hebrew children, it seems, were likewise im-
pervious to'the flames, for although in a very hot furnace, not a
hair of their heads was singed. Of course both of these stories
are utterly untrue. (Daniel, ch S: p. 34, Jatoka tales.) Both
are monumental falsehoods.
(20) Genesis, 6: v. 4. Birth Stories, p. 8 to 40.
343 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
ing, the day before he died, they came from far and
near to behold the dying Tathagata. Some of those
spirits, we are told, were so small that a dozen or
more could stand on the tip of one’s finger.
Section 3. “Now today, in the last watch of the
night,” said Gotama, “the death of a Tathagata will
take place. There are spirits in the sky, of worldly
mind, who will dishevel their hair and weep—who will
fall prostrate on the ground and cry out, ‘Too soon
has the blessed one passed away.’ (21) But those
who are self-possessed will see the impermanence of
all earthly things—that whatever is born contains'
within itself the germ and certainty of dissolution.”
Buddha then proceeded to state that there were four
places that believing hearts, with feelings of rever-
ence, ought to visit:
The birth place of a Tathagata, the spot where he
attained supreme insight, the place where the king-
dom of righteousness was established, and the place
where he finally passed away. And he added, that
“if any believing one shall die while on such a pil-
grimage, he will be re-born into the happy realms of
heaven.”
When asked what should be done with his remains,
he replied: “Treat them as men treat the remains of
a King of Kings.” Ananda, his favorite disciple,
when told that Buddha would soon pass away, com-
menced to weep: whereupon Buddha said to him:
(21) The reader must not overlook the statement that spirits
in the sky will fall on the ground and weep. It is a picture of
earth, not heaven.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 243
.“Ananda, let not your heart be troubled. (22) Do
not weep; have I not told you that it is in the very
nature of things that we must leave those most dear
to us? That whatever is bom contains within itself
the seeds of dissolution?” And he adds: “For a long
time, Ananda, you have been very near to me, by
words and acts of love beyond all measure: go now
and inform the Mallas of Kusinara that the last watch
of this night, Tathagata will pass finally away.” (23)
When the Mallas learned of this they were sorely
grieved. Some of them wept, some dishevelled their
hair, and others fell prostrate on the ground in an-
guish of heart. Then they came in great numbers,
with their wives and children, and bowed down rev-
erently at Gotama’s feet.
A little later came also Subhadda, a monk of an-
other sect, questioning whether his teachings or those
of Gotama were right. Buddha replied that in any
doctrine in which the noble eight-fold path is not
found, no true saint can be found; “that if the noble
eight-fold path is found, in any doctrine, there will
also be found saintly men and women, living the life
that is right.”
Section 4. Buddha’s last moments were now fast
approaching, and he told Ananda that when he was
gone the rules of the order, as laid down, were to be
the teacher to all the brethren. His disciples, the
(22) Vol. XI, Sacred Books of the East, p. 96. John, ch. 14:
v. 1, quotes this very sentiment and almost the exact words.
(23) Page 101, Vol. XI, Sacred Books of the East.
244 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Bhikkhus, now in great numbers came to visit him, and
he told them to inquire freely as to the truth, the path
or way, while he was face to face with them. But not
one questioned him. (24)
Turning then to Ananda, he said: “Here is fullness
of faith. In this assembly of five hundred brethren,
there is not one who doubts; they have all become
converted, are no longer liable to be bom in a state
of suffering and woe; they are assured of final salva-
tion.”
Addressing the Bhikkhus, Buddha added: “Behold
now, brethren, I exhort you, decay is inherent in all
component things; work out your salvation with dili-
gence.”
These were the last words that Buddha uttered.
Then, lapsing into unconsciousness, he soon there-
after expired. (25)
At that moment, we are told, a mighty earthquake
shook the earth terribly, and a crash of thunder rent
(24) On the noble eight-fold path, which leads to the ‘"life
that is right/’ one must have “1. Bight or correct views, free
from superstition or delusion. 2. Bight aims, high, noble, intelli-
gent, worthy of an earnest man. 3. Bight speech, kind and
truthful to every one. 4. Honest, pure and peaceful conduct at
all times. 5. So live as to bring hurt or pain to no living thing.
6. Bight effort, in self-training and self-control. 7. Mindfulness;
a watchful, active mind. 8. Bight contemplations, earnest thought,
on the great problems and mysteries of life. Searching for the
unknowable.” Does not this eight-fold path cover every possible
point in the New Testament f Some may say it does not tell yon
to love God, but if one is honest, pure, peaceful, kind and truth-
ful, doing hurt to no one, living a saintly life—what thenf Will
such a man fall into a furnace even if he does not believe the
man of Galilee to be the only Savior of the world f
(25) Vol. XI, Sacred Books of the East, p. 114.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 245
the heavens. (26) But the sun was not darkened,
nor did any of the dead come out of their graves.
Yet Ananda says: “There was terror, and the hair
stood on end;” that worldly-minded spirits, both in the
sky and on the earth, fell prostrate and moaned in
anguish; but those who were free from passion bore
their grief with calm, self-possessed minds.
When the Mallas (27) of Kusinara heard of Go-
tama’s death, they honored his remains by gathering
flowers and perfumes, and making wreaths and cano-
pies ; and with music, song and dancing. Thus for
six days they paid homage and respect to the departed
Great One. Then they treated the remains as they
treat the remains of a King of Kings. They wrapped
the body in five hundred successive layers of new cloth
and cotton wool; then placed it in an oil vessel of iron
and covered it; and afterward built a funeral pile on
which to cremate.it.
Meanwhile, we are told, that all Kusinara was
strewn knee-deep (28) with mandarava “flowers from
heaven,” and that spirits from the skies paid honor,
reverence and respect to the body of the Blessed One.
On the seventh day after Buddha’s death, eight
(26) Philippians, ch. 2, v. 12, and Vol. XI, S. 6. E., p. 114.
There was a similar earthquake, it is said, when Jesus died;
graves also opened at his death, the sun was darkened and the veil
of the temple was rent. Luke 23, v. 45; Matt. 27, v. 51 to 54; Fo
Sho, See. 2108, says the sun and moon withdrew their shining, but
I doubt very much whether the sun or moon was affected by the
death of either Buddha or Jesus.
(27) The Mallas were a religious sect friendly to Gotama.
(28) If that be true, they must have a great profusion of
flowers in heaven.
246 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Mallas chieftains bathed their heads and clad them-
selves in new- garments, intending to carry the body to
the funeral pile, but were unable to lift it up. They
were amazed at this, and, questioning the reason,
Anuruddha, one of the disciples, told the Mallas that
the spirits desired the body to be carried out by the
north gate, “while you would carry it by the south
one.”
Then they carried it out by the north gate to the
funeral pile, and here another curious incident oc-
curred. They were unable to set the funeral pile on
fire. (29)
Again Anuruddha explained the reason: “Kassapa,
a disciple,” he said, “is journeying to Kusinara with
five hundred of the brethren, and the funeral pile will
not catch fire until he has reverently saluted the feet
of the Blessed One. Such,” he said, “is the purpose
of the spirits.”
When Kassapa arrived, he clasped his hands and
thrice walked round the funeral pile; then, uncovering
the feet, he bowed down. And when the five hundred
brethren had likewise bowed at the feet of the de-
parted one, we are told that the funeral pile caught
on fire of itself. (30)
Section 5. When the body had been burned, it is
said that streams of water poured down from the
skies and burst from the earth beneath, to extinguish
the flames. On examination it was found that every
(29) Yol. XI, Sacred Books of the East, p. 128.
(30) VoL XI. Book of the great decease.—page 129.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 247
particle of the body was consumed, save only some of
the bones, and at once a strife arose for their pos-
session.
The king of Magadha desired a portion of them,
because Gotama belonged to the soldier caste; and he
promised to celebrate a feast and erect a sacred cairn
in their honor.
Many other people from different places made sim-
ilar requests and promises, but the Mallas of Kusinara
insisted on keeping them all.
Finally, Dona, a wise old saint, told them that such
a strife was unseemly, and he suggested a division of
the bones into eight parts, so that cairns might be
erected in many lands.
This being approved, the division was thus made;
but others, coming later and desiring a memento, even
scraped up the ashes and took them away.
Dona himself took the iron vessel in which the body
was consumed, and built a great Thupas or cairn
above it.
Such, in brief, were the life and the obsequies of a
man who founded a religion which at one time came
near being the faith of the world. Moreover, a thou-
sand years after his death, a curious circumstance
placed his name among the saints of the Roman Cath-
olic Church, and it happened in this wise: A Christian
monk, who was subsequently known as St. John of
Damascus, living either in Palestine or close by, com-
posed a highly wrought religious romance, entitled
“Barlaam and Joasaph.” The hero of this romance
348 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
was Joasaph, a Hindu prince, who was converted to
Christianity by Barlaam.
Under a thin veil, St. John draws a picture of this
Indian prince, who is none other than Buddha. The
picture was faithful in all its details, and the story
soon became so popular that it was published in seven
or eight different languages.
Joasaph, the pious Indian prince, was merely a mis-
spelling of Bodhisat, one of the Buddha’s numerous
titles. People finally came to accept and believe the
whole romance as absolutely true. Thence it crept
into encyclopedias and the “Lives of the Saints.”
And thus, about two thousand years after Buddha’s
death, Pope Sixtus V. canonized “the Holy Saints,
Barlaam and Joasaphat of India, whose wonderful
acts St. John of Damascus has described.”
And to this hour, Buddha is worshiped as a Reman
Catholic saint.
CHAPTER XXI
The Miracles at the Crucifixion of Jesus.
Section i. It has not been my purpose to write
a consecutive life of either Buddha or Jesus, bpt only
to make some comparisons between them—the two
greatest religious teachers the world has ever seen. I
have heretofore passed by many interesting events in
the life of Buddha, and have followed the same rule
concerning the Man of Galilee. But now we reach the
last and most important epoch in any one’s life—the
closing scene.
Jesus is now about thirty-three years old, and is on
his last visit to that rebellious, priest-ridden, cruel old
city—Jerusalem.
-
His bitter enemies, the Scribes and Pharisees, are
there in great numbers, watching for the chance to
destroy him. The last days of the month of Nisan
(March) are passing, the Passover is at hand, and the
disciples, as they approach the city, are filled with joy-
ful emotions; they think the Kingdom of God is about
to appear, (i)
But Jesus is sad; he seems to have a presentiment
of his approaching fate; there is a traitor in his camp.
“One of you,” he says, “will betray me.” (2)
1) Luke 19: ?. 11.
2) Matt. 26: v. 21.
249
250
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Yonder, before him, are the indistinct outlines of
wicked old Jerusalem. Jesus wept over it (3) once
before; he had said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! thou
that killest the prophets and stonest them which are
sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathers her brood
under her wings, and ye would not.” (4)
He is now at the Mount of Olives, and his Galileans
bring a young colt and spread their garments upon it
and place their Master thereon, and march forward,
decorating his pathway with branches of trees and
singing Hosannas as they proceed. Some even salute
him as King of Israel. (5)
His old enemies, the Pharisees and Sadducees, are
likewise on hand, and they insist that Jesus shall re-
buke his disciples for this proceeding. He has chal-
lenged the Pharisees as whited sepulchres, beautiful
outward, but within, he said, “you are full of dead
men’s bones and all uncleanness; ye are full of de-
ceit, hypocrisy and iniquity.” And he added, “Ye ser-
pents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the
damnation of hell ?” (6)
But the day of their triumph is now at hand. They
are to win by treachery and bribery. Judas, a name
that will go hissing down the generations—Judas,
one of the disciples, an infamous wretch, for a few
(3) Luke 19: v. 14.
(4) Matt. 23: v. 37. Luke 13: v. 34.
(5) John, ch. 12: v. 13. Matt. ch. 21: v. 5 to 10.
(6) In this matter Jesus seems to have copied John the Bap-
tist. Matt., v. 7. Matt. 23: v. 25 to 33.
251
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
pieces of silver resolved on the betrayal of his Master.
Possibly the reproof given him at Bethany, when Mary
anointed Jesus’ feet, may have offended him. If so,
then Judas fell by reason of two contemptible defects
of character—the sinful greed of money and that
other despicable vice, revenge. (7)
Simon Peter, another disciple, as we shall see, was
but a small grade better than the traitor Judas. Peter
protested to his Lord that he was ready to go to
prison and to death with him. Jesus replied: “Peter,
the cock shall not crow this day before thou shalt
thrice deny me.” (8) A little later, when a Jewish
damsel pointed at Peter and said, “This man was also
with him,” he flatly denied it.
And when Peter was told that his speech betrayed
him as a Galilean, he began to curse and swear (9)
that he never knew Jesus. Then the cock crew, and
Peter partially redeemed himself by weeping. But
Peter was both a coward and a traitor.
In short, the twelve apostles were dastardly cow-
ards, every one of them, for when the Sanhedrin, as
we shall see, sent to arrest Jesus, “they all forsook him
and fled.” (10) Even Jesus was somewhat shaken
in his determination to face death, for there in Geth-
semane he prayed, saying: “Father, if thou be willing,
252 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
remove this cup from me; nevertheless, not my will
but thine be done.” And an angel appeared from
heaven strengthening him. (n)
Section 2. It is now Thursday, the 13th of
Nisan, (12) and the plot to murder Jesus under that
bloody old Mosaic code is fully matured: he is to be
arrested, convicted and slain as a blasphemer, cor-
rupter and deceiver. (13) While the chief priests
and elders are planning his murder, Jesus is in Geth-
semane praying; his disciples are sleeping, but Judas
is not there—the Sanhedrin having bribed him, he is
leading the mob to arrest and murder his Master.
“Whomsoever I shall kiss,” said that traitor, “the
same is he: hold him fast.” (14) Then Judas kissed
his Lord, and an armed mob seized and bound Jesus
and led him away to Annas, the ex-high priest. (15)
There was some show of resistance by the disciples,
and Peter here partially redeemed himself, for he drew
his sword and smote the servant of the high priest
and cut off his ear. But Jesus, it is said, touched the
wounded ear and healed it on the spot. (16)
Very doubtful about the healing of that ear! Neither
(11) Luke 22: v. 42 and 43. Matt. 26: v. 39. Doubtful about
that angel.
(12) Nisan (March) it must be remembered extends over into
April. Nisan 13th is our April 2nd.
(13) Levit. 24: v. 14 and 16. Deut. 13: v. 1 to 5. Matt. 24:
v. 24. Matt. 27: v. 63.
(14) Matt. 26: v. 48.
(15) John 18: v. 13 to 15.
(16) Luke 22: v. 50 and 51. John 18: v. 10 to 14. Very
doubtful.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 253
Matthew nor Mark mention that healing, and even
John in his wild extravagance does not say it was
healed.
Then all the disciples forsook their master and fled.
When brought before Annas, Jesus, on being ques-
tioned by him as to his disciples and doctrines, replied:
“I spoke openly to the world. I taught in the syna-
gogue and in the temple: the Jews heard me. In
secret I said nothing. Why askest thou me? Ask
them.” (17) This answer was considered so imper-
tinent that one of the officers struck Jesus a blow.
Annas, a warm Sadducee, here now had it in his power
to release his prisoner, for he was the father-in-law
to Caiphas, another Sadducee, the then high priest;
and a nod from Annas at that moment would have
saved Jesus and changed the whole current of West-
ern history; there would have been no crucifixion and
no resurrection. But instead of releasing him, Annas
sent him bound unto Caiphas, at whose house the
Sanhedrin was then in session. Peter followed afar
off, and it was at this supreme moment that he three
times denied his Lord. (18)
The Sanhedrin at once set about hunting false wit-
nesses to convict their prisoner; but the witnesses did
not agree. (19) Then there came two other false
zvitnesses, who testified: “This fellow said, *1 am able
to destroy the temple of God and build it in three
(17) John 18: v. 19 to 24. Matt. 26: v. 65.
(18) Matt. 26: v. 67. Mark 14: ?. 53.
(19) Mark 14: ?. 55 to 64. Matt. 26: ?. 59 to 66. If this bo
true it is the most shameful thing in all history.
254
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
days.’ ” (20) This implied threat against the temple
was blasphemous under the old Mosaic superstition,
and was punishable with death. (21) A little later the
devout Stephen, on the evidence of suborned Jews, was
stoned to death upon the false charge of speaking
against Moses and the temple.
Section 3. The Sanhedrin now made haste to
convict Jesus of blasphemy on the perjured testimony
offered before it; but it had no power to inflict the
death penalty. Yet every member of it voted him
“guilty of death.” (22) They then blindfolded Jesus
and spit in his face, and smote him on the cheek, and
asked him to prophesy “who smote thee.” (23)
All this happened in the night-time, after Jesus was
arrested. Meanwhile Judas, we are told, became con-
science-smitten, repented, and brought his thirty pieces
of silver to the priests and flung them down, say-
ing: “I have sinned in betraying innocent blood.”
“What is that to us?” replied the priests: “see thou
to that.” (24) That one sentence condemns eternally
the whole Sanhedrin. It speaks volumes against the
whole Jewish conclave. There they are, condemning
(20) How many times in court have I seen important cases won
and lost by the addition of one or two false words. Jesus prob-
ably said: *‘Destroy this Temple (of the body) and in three
days I shall raise it up.1 ’ John 2: v. 19. Matt. 26: v. 61.
(21) Deut. 13: y. 1 to 10. Acts 6: v. 8 to 14. Levit. 24: v.
14 to 16. Acts 25: v. 8 to 12.
(22) Matt 26: v. 66. Mark 14: v. 64.
(23) Luke 22: v. 63 to 66.
(24) Matt. 27: v. 3 to 10. The inspiration of Matthew, which
says Judas hanged himself, and Acts 1: v. 18, which says he
fell headlong and hurst asunder, do not quite agree. One or the
other statement is false. Both cannot be true.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
255
an innocent man to death on the evidence of a con-
fessed perjurer, and they know it to be perjured evi-
dence; yet they proceed.
When morning came, the priests and Scribes, after
consultation, led Jesus bound unto Pontius Pilate, to
obtain his approval of the decree of death which they
had pronounced against him. Here they falsely
charged him with being a malefactor and forbidding
tribute to Caesar, and claiming to be king. (25) They
were liars, and they knew they were lying.
Pilate asked him: “Art thou king of the Jews?”
“Thou sayest it,” was the reply. “Dost thou not
hear,” said Pilate, “the many things they witness
against thee?” And Pilate marveled that Jesus made
no reply. (26) And, turning to the priests, he said:
“I find no fault in this man.” (27) At this the priests
became furious and charged Jesus with stirring up
strife from Galilee to Jerusalem. (28) Galilee being
in Herod’s jurisdiction, as soon as Pilate found that
Jesus was a Galilean, he sent him to Herod, who was
at that time in the city. The Scribes and priests
rushed headlong on after him, still demanding Jesus’
death. Herod was very desirous of seeing Jesus and
hoped to see him perform a miracle; and he ques-
tioned him for a long time, but Jesus made no reply.
The Scribes and priests were meanwhile violently ac-
(25) Luke 23: v. 2 and 3. Mark 15: v. 2 to 5. John 18: v. 20.
(26) Matt. 27: v. 11 to 14.
(27) Pilate’s wife sent out and begged him to have nothing to
do with Jesus, as she had had a troublesome dream about him.
Matt. 27: v. 19.
(28) Luke 23: v. 5, 6 and 7.
256 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
cusing him. Finally Herod sent him back to Pilate
with the message that he found no acts or words of
Jesus worthy of death. But he allowed his soldiers
to dress him like a harlequin, and mock him and jeer
him, and thus returned him to Pilate. (29)
Section 4. Jesus not being a Roman citizen, Pi-
late had no authority, as governor of Judea, to con-
demn him to death. Three times he told the Jews he
found no fault in him. But they cried out, “Crucify
him, crucify him! We have a law, and by our law
he ought to die because he hath made himself the Son
of God and he blasphemeth.” (30)
Pilate then took some water and washed his hands,
saying: “I am innocent of the blood of this just per-
son ; see ye to it.” Then all the people answered back:
“His blood be on us and on our children.” (31)
And truly, if ever a scorching, withering curse did
follow an evil deed, that curse has pursued the chil-
dren of those murderous Jews for now more than
fifty generations; and the end is not yet. For it
looks, after the lapse of nineteen hundred years, as if
Annas and Caiphas, and all those other shameless
wretches of that Sanhedrin, and their posterity, will
continue to be abhorred and detested to the very end
of time. In fact, the taint and ignominy of that hor-
rid crime has pursued them like an avenging Nemesis
—not only them, but the whole Jewish race, every
(29) Luke 23: v. 8 to 15. This is the Herod who murdered
John the Baptist. Matt. 14: v. 1 to 10. Luke 9: v. 7.
(30) John 9: v. 4 to 7. Levit 24: v. 16.
(31) Matt. 27: v. 24 and 25. Dent. 21: v. 6.
257
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
member of it, even to the uttermost parts of the earth.
And as the record lengthens, the turpitude of those
Jews increases at every turn. It was now Friday
morning, Nisan 14 (our April 3), and Passover, a
feast day, a holiday with the Jews, was at hand. At
Passover it had been a custom for generations to ask
the liberation of some prisoner—one whom the people
loved.
There were many other prisoners beside Jesus, and
among them, one Barabbas, a robber and a murderer.
Now it would naturally be supposed that a self-re-
specting people would ask the release of Jesus rather
than that of Barabbas, a thief and murderer.
Here now transpires an act so utterly cruel, so
wicked, so heinous, so despicable that it finds no par-
allel anywhere on earth. Jesus had committed no
crime; he had simply undertaken to teach those Jews
a better religion than that of Moses. It was a religion
of peace and good-will to man; no matter if he had
borrowed some ideas of Buddha; no matter if he had
adopted from Leviticus “love thy neighbor as thy-
self” (32); no matter if he had followed Macca-
bees (33) and taught the resurrection of the body; it
was better than the old Mosaic doctrine, which ex-
tinguishes man in the grave forever.
The Jews were a quarrelsome, hateful race, and
Jesus had said: “Blessed are the peace-makers.” They
were a people who knew no mercy, and he said:
(32) Levit. 19: v. 18.
(33) 2nd Maccabees, ch. 7, v. 9 to 23, is where Jesus learned
and found the doctrine of a resurrection, and a life everlasting.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
258
“Blessed are the merciful.” They were inhumanly
wicked, and he preached repentance.
Section 5. One of those prisoners is now to be
set free, and Pilate asks: “Shall I release unto you the
King of the Jews?” (34) Instantly there was a loud
clamor of voices, and the priests were leaders in this:
“Crucify him, crucify him! Release unto us Bar-
abbas,” said they. Pilate was willing to release Jesus,
but when the priests and people clamored so furiously
for his execution, he asked: “What hath he done? He
is not guilty of death. I will therefore scouige him
and let him go.” (35)
Pilate would have liked to save Jesus; but Pilate
was a politician and loved office. “If thou let this
man go,” said the Jews, “thou art not Caesar’s friend.
He who maketh himself a king, speaketh against
Caesar.”
Pilate despised the Jews, and they so hated him
that he feared they might report at home that he had
refused to destroy a rival king; he therefore let the
mob have its way; and the mob, led on by the priests,
still furiously demanding Jesus’ death, Pilate tamely
yielded and released unto them Barabbas, a murderer;
but delivered to the scourge and the cross the greatest
and best man of the age, and the greatest one Pales-
tine has ever produced.
The soldiers at once led Jesus to a hall, called Pre-
torium, where they stripped off his clothes and lashed
(34) Mark 15: v. 9, and following.
(35) Luke 23: v. 22. Mark 15: v. 11 to 14.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 259
him to a post about four feet high, and there they
whipped him with leather straps. Sometimes these
leather straps had pieces of bone or small pieces of
lead attached to the end, which cut to the blood at
every blow. Not infrequently, scourging produced
death, and Jesus must have been most terribly scourged
for he was unable afterwards to bear the cross upon
which he was to be nailed.
When they had scourged him, they clothed him in
purple and put a crown of thorns on his head, and
saluted him mockingly—“King of the Jews.” Then
they spit upon him, and in derision bowed before him;
then put his clothes back on him and led him away
to Golgotha, where they crucified him. (36)
Crucifixion was an accursed death. (37) Even the
Romans held it to be so ignominious that they crucified
only slaves, robbers, murderers and traitors. (38)
Section 6. Jesus not being a Roman citizen, it is
to the eternal disgrace of Pilate that he surrendered
to the mob a man whom he had three times declared
innocent.
-
Besides, if Jesus had been justly condemned, under
Leviticus 24 or under Deuteronomy 13 he should
have been stoned to death, which was less ignomini-
ous and less terrible than a death on the tree. (39)
But that his ignominy might be complete, they
(36) Mark 15: v. 15 to 23. Matt. 27: v. 33.
(37) Deut. 21: v. 22 to 23. Numbers 25: v. 1 to 8.
(38) Mark 15: v. 7 to 12. Luke 23: v. 2 to 23.
(39) Deut. 21, v. 22.
26o
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
nailed him up between two thieves, and even one
of these insulted him while on the cross. (40) But
the other repented, and, if the record be true, he is
now in the heavenly kingdom, while the impenitent
one is roasting in the furnace. The Jews, even while
Jesus was groaning on the tree, would not let him
die without taunts and jeers. They marched past him
and railed at him, wagging their heads, saying: “Thou
that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three
days, save thyself and come down now from the
cross,” and the priests and Scribes added their jeers:
“He saved others, himself he cannot save.” (41)
Pilate, who despised the Jews, wrote in bitter irony
this superscription, which he caused to be nailed above
Jesus’ head: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the
Jews.”
The priests, when they saw this, rushed off to Pi-
late and besought him to write—“He said he was the
King of the Jews.” Pilate replied: “What I have
written, I have written,” and he refused to change a
word. (42)
Meanwhile four soldiers were on guard at the foot
of the cross, and one of them, on hearing him say,
“Eloi, Eloi, lama, sabachthani,” thought he was call-
ing Elias, and ran and filled a sponge with vinegar
(40) Matt. 27: ?. 44, says: “The thieves,” meaning both,
bnt Luke 23: v. 42 and 43, states that one thief repented. John,
who says he was present, was not inspired on that point and says
nothing. Mark 15: v. 32, does not agree with Luka.
(41) Mark 15: v. 28 to 31.
(42) John 9: v. 21 and 22.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 361
and gave him to drink, saying, “Let us see if Elias will
come to take him down.” (43)
Directly after this, Jesus swooned away. He had
been on the cross only about three hours, and it was
now three o’clock in the afternoon, Friday (Nisan),
our April 3.
Section 7. There was an old custom among the
Jews, that the body of one who had died on the cross
should be buried that day, lest the land be defiled. (44)
Moreover, the next day being the Jewish Sabbath, the
Jews besought Pilate that the legs of the crucified
might be broken and the bodies taken away. They
broke the legs of the others, but when they came to
Jesus they found him “dead already,” and did not
break his legs; but a soldier, it is said, pierced his
side with a spear, and blood and water came forth.
John is the only one who mentions this incident of
the spear, and John is very unreliable.
It must be noticed here that Jesus was on the cross
only three hours. A young man in good health could
endure the agony of the cross for two days, and some-
times for three days, and even longer. The two
thieves were killed by breaking their legs, but Jesus,
we are told, was dead before the spear touched him.
This looks strange: he probably had swooned, only
swooned.
(43) Matt. 27: v. 46 to 49. Mark 15: v. 34 to 36. John 19:
v. 23 and 24. It was not a strong, stupefying drink. Matt. 27:
v. 34, says gall and vinegar. The drink was to lessen pain, and
gall and vinegar would not.
(44) Deut. 21, v. 23.
/
CHAPTER XXII
Contradictory Testimony Concerning the
Crucifixion.
There are cases where men of great physical vigor
have hung upon the cross four days, and then only
died of starvation. (i) There are cases where, after
a considerable period on the cross, they have been
taken down and restored to health. (2)
Jesus was not an invalid; he was able to cry with
a loud voice just before he “expired,” and “he cried
again with a loud voice.” (3) He was also able to
talk to his mother, and his aunt, and Mary Magdalene
and others, just before he swooned. No doubt he had
only swooned. (4)
Jesus’ last words were: “Father, into thy hands I
commend my Spirit;” and, after crying with a loud
voice, it is said he gave up the ghost. (5) There
was no sudden rupture of any vein or blood vessel,
or some mention would have been made of it Such
(1) Eusebius, His. Eccl. VIII, 8.
(2) Josephus, 75, vita, mentions a case where three of his
friends were hung on the cross, and, being taken down, one of
them recovered.
(3) Mark 15: v. 33 and 37. Matt. 27: v. 46 to 50. Luke 23:
v. 46.
(4) John 19: v. 25 to 30, is the only one of the four canonical
writers who mentions this incident of the spear. The three others
seem to know nothing about it.
(5) Matt. 27: v. 50. Luke 23: v. 46.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 363
a rupture would at that instant have caused the blood
to gush from his nose and mouth. Moreover, it must
not be overlooked that John is the only one of the
four New Testament writers who makes any mention
of the supposed incident that a spear was thrust into
Jesus’ side, and that is a very important circumstance
in this world-renowned event.
This alleged sudden death of a young man thirty-
two or thirty-three years of age, after only three hours
on the cross, when taken in connection with his al-
leged appearance a few hours afterwards, when he
was traveling about the country and ate a broiled fish
and a piece of honey comb, compels me to question
his absolute decease. Moreover, when Joseph of Ari-
mathea visited Pilate and begged the body of Jesus,
it is no wonder that Pilate marveled that Jesus was
already dead, and he sent the captain of the guard to
inquire about it. (6)
Joseph, having obtained leave, took the body,
wrapped it in linen cloth and laid it in a new sepulchre.
But Nicodemus, as we shall see directly, did not bring,
as John states, any aloes; neither did he assist in put-
ting Jesus’ body into that sepulchre.
Now, as to that spear-thrust. Neither Luke nor
Matthew nor Mark seem ever to have heard anything
about it. Yet they each wrote a history of the cruci-
fixion, but as to the supposed spear incident they are
absolutely silent. And when we examine all the records
and find that John of the Fourth Gospel is the only
(0) Mark 15: v. 44 and 45.
264 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
person of the four who tells us that story of the spear,
we trace his record back and find that he is always an
extremist and an uncertain guide. For he auda-
ciously says Jesus made the world (7), and (8) tells
us that Jesus was God.
There are some other things to be noticed just here.
Matthew says Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’ body
down from the cross and laid it in his own new tomb,
etc. (9), but he makes no mention whatever of Nico-
demus being present at the crucifixion, or of any spear
having been thrust into Jesus’ side.
Mark tells us (10) that the veil of the temple
was rent from top to bottom, but he does not mention
Nicodemus as being present either at the crucifixion,
or the placing of the body in the tomb.
Moreover, Mark is as silent as a dead man about the
thrusting of that spear. He seems never to have heard
a word about it. Luke (11) says Joseph went
to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus, and took
it and wrapped it in linen, etc, but he is silent
about any spear having been thrust into Jesus’
side He makes no mention of it. Nor does he men-
tion that Nicodemus was present at the crucifixion.
Not only was Nicodemus not present at the cruci-
fixion, but we shall see (12) that he believed Jesus had
escaped into the woods. In fact, Jesus was able to
(7) John 1, v. 10.
(8) John 14, v. 9.
(9) Matt. 27, y. 58 to 60.
(10) Ch. 15, v. 38-46.
(11) Ch. 23, v. 50 to 56.
(12) Ch. 31, v. 83.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
26$
travel about the country as early as Sunday morning.
(13) Mark also confirms this. (14) Matthew tells
us that Jesus was able to travel about sixty miles to
Galilee within two days after being nailed to the cross.
(15) The reader must be warned that John of the
Fourth Gospel is very careless about the truth, for he
says: “They took Jesus and led.him away. He, bear-
ing his cross, went forth,” etc. (16) Matthew con-
tradicts John here, for he says they compelled a man
of Cyrene, Simon by name, to bear the cross. (17)
Mark also contradicts John and agrees with Mat-
thew that they compelled Simon to bear the cross.
(18) Luke (19) likewise contradicts John and agrees
with Matthew and Mark that Simon bore the cross.
There is no certain proof that John’s Gospel was
in existence before A. D. 140. Nor is there any cer-
tain proof that John, the son of Zebedee, ever wrote
it. (20) In truth, John’s supposed Gospel seems to
have been made up largely from an Apocryphal writ-
ing called “The Acts of Pilate.” John (21) takes
(13) Lake 24, v. 13 to 31.
(14) Mark 16, v. 7-13.
(15) Matt 28, v. 7-10.
(16) John 19, v. 16 and 17.
(17) Matt. 27, v. 32.
(18) Mark 15, v. 21.
(19) Ch. 23, v. 26.
(20) Bev. Davidson, who wrote the article on the canon for the
British Encyclopedia, tells us that the existence of John’s Gospel
before A. D. 140 is incapable of even a probable showing. It
is said that during the persecution under Domitian, John was
taken to Borne and boiled in oil. If that be true, John must be
excused for his many wild statements, for after boiling ia oil
his mind must have been shattered.
(21) Chapter 2.
a66 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
thirty-four lines to tell us of the turning of water into
wine. The Acts of Pilate (22) tells the same story in
twelve lines. Neither Matthew nor Mark nor Luke
seem ever to have heard of this wine incident.
The same is true of the healing of the nobleman’s
son. John (23) takes thirty lines; whereas The Acts
of Pilate tells us the same in twelve lines. Chapter XI,
Acts of Pilate, tells us exactly where John copied (24)
the story that Nicodemus came with a mixture of
myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight, and
assisted in the burial of Jesus. (25) In closing this
chapter we may notice that Jesus’ body was not dis-
posed of according to either the Roman or Jewish
custom. When a Roman suffered death on the cross
his body was left suspended until devoured by the birds.
Jesus was a Jew, and under the Jewish law he should
have been buried in some place of infamy.
(22) Chapter 7.
(23) Chapter 4.
(24) This seems to be in sharp conflict with John (ch. 19: ?.
89 to 42), where John says Nicodemus assisted at the burial of
Jesus.
(25) John 19, v. 38 to 4L
CHAPTER XXIII
Miracles in the Lives of Buddha and Jesus.
Section i. When Buddha died we are told that
there arose, “at the moment of his passing,” a mighty
earthquake, terrible and awe-inspiring, and the thun-
ders of heaven burst forth: “That on every hand,
even up to the celestial mansions, the earth spouted
forth great flames of fire and the mountains and val-
leys shook with the roll and crash of thunder; that
from the four quarters of the earth a tempestuous
wind arose, scattering dust and ashes on crags and
hills in awful profusion.”
The sun and moon, at the same time, it is said,
withdrew their light; and murmuring brooks were
swollen instantly to great streams. All Kusinara (the
place of Buddha’s death) became immediately strewn
knee-deep with mandarava flowers from heaven. Dust
bins and ash heaps were covered with perfume dropped
from the skies.
So great was the universal sorrow that even flying
dragons, as they were hurtled through the air, dropped
tears of sympathy.
We are told, moreover, that angels (Devas) from
heaven hovered above the earth in mid-air; that,
267
268
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
“neither sorrowing nor rejoicing,” they watched the
impressive scene with unwonted interest. (i)
Their only grief was, it is said, that the world
would soon forget the precepts of the great teacher.
But there was one, the evil one—Mara-raga—who at
that moment rejoiced exceedingly because Gambud-
vipa (the world) was shorn of its glory. (2)
All these things are said to have happened in India,
not far from the Ganges, five hundred years before the
attempted murder of Jesus on Golgotha. And when
Jesus is taken down from the cross we meet similar
extraordinary occurrences. “The veil of the temple
is rent from top to bottom; graves are opened; and
many bodies of the Saints which slept, arise and come
out of their graves and go into the holy city and ap-
pear unto many.” (3)
At Jesus’ death, a mishap overtakes the sun, very
(1) Vol. XI, Sacred Books of the East, p. 116, and Fo Sho,
Sec. 2104 to 2114. Of course this improbable story is utterly
unbelievable; and the Hindu who wrote it ought, if within reach,
to be punished for misleading Matthew and Luke. (Matt 28: v.
1 to 5. Luke 24: v. 50 to 51.)
(2) The Hindu Devil had often before this begged Buddha to
die. Vol. XI, S. B. E., p. 42.
(3) Just who opened those graves, we are not told. Neither
are we told whether those saints went back to their graves, and
climbed down into darkness again, or whether they remained
above the ground. Is this wonderful story true! Did flesh and
blood come back to those corpses f Did articulation of the bones
take placet Or did Matthew’s imagination run away with himf
Moreover, we must remember that Matthew and Luke are the
only ones of the Gospel writers who tell this improbable story.
Neither Mark nor John makes any mention of the saints getting
out of their graves. The story is too improbable for belief. A
witness in court who would tell such an inconsistent tale would
impeach his own evidence; Matthew impeaches himself. See
Matt. 27: v. 51 to 53. Luke 23: v. 45.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 269
similar to that which occurred in India, at Buddha’s
demise, with this difference, that in India the sun and
moon both withdrew their light. But in Palestine the
moon escapes trouble; though later on it is to be over-
taken with a great calamity, for Peter foolishly says
it “shall be turned into blood.” (4)
Section 2. Of these remarkable men, most won-
derful omens precede their coming; and their exits
are likewise extraordinary. Buddha, it is said, made
himself incarnate for the benefit of mankind; (5) and
John goes to the extreme of saying that the world was
made by Jesus. (6) There was darkness, it is said,
over the whole land for three hours when Jesus
died. (7)
When Buddha’s remains were cremated we are told
that streams of water flowed down from the skies; and
at the same moment the earth from beneath opened
wide and 'Spouted other torrents upon the funeral
pyre. (8)
Both of these men underwent long fasts; both were
tempted by devils, and both talked to devils. But
Jesus was tempted only forty days, while Mara-raga,
the Hindu devil, as we have seen, tempted Buddha
continuously for six terrible years. (9)
(4) Acts 2, v. 20.
(5) Bud. Birth Stories, p. 64 to 68, and Vol. XI, 8. B. of the
E., p. 90 and p. 216.
(6) John 14: v. 9: “He that hath seen me hath seen the
Father.” John 1: v. 1 to 14. John misled Paul. Philippians
2: ?. 6.
(7) Luke 23: v. 44. Mark 15: v. 33. Matt. 27: ?. 45.
(8) Vol. XI, S. B. E., p. 130, Sacred Books of the East.
(9) Matt., eh. 4. Vol X, Sacred Books of the East; 2nd part
370 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
-
There were legions of devils in Palestine; and the
goblin troop were fully as numerous in India. The
Palestine devil, it seems, possessed a keen sense of
smell; so keen, indeed, that he could not stand the
fumes of the heart and liver of a fish, when burn-
ing. (io)
It is not strange, therefore, that both Buddha and
Jesus believed that devils were all about us.
Jesus likewise believed that devils were inside of
some people, but that he could cast them out. (u)
Both these men believed in “a change of heart/’ and
both religions had their pentecostal day. (12)
Strange as it may appear, both Buddha and Jesus,
it is said, could walk on water as on dry land. (13)
Buddha, so the Hindu Scriptures tell us, could pass
through a stone wall “without impediment” ( ?) ; and
Jesus could go through a door, “the door being shut.”
(14) Buddha, it is said, could rise in mid-air and
from 68 to 70; also Vol. 13, Sacred Books, p. 113 to 116. The
Hindu devil, it is said, was sad when he failed to overcome
Buddha.
(10) Tobit 6, v. 17.
(11) Matt. 8: v. 16; also Mark 1: v. 32; Luke 4: v. 40 and 41.
(12) Acts 2: v. 1 to 13. Great king of glory, p. 252, VoL XL
Sacred Books of the East. Hardy’s Manual of Buddhism, p. 186.
(13) Mark 6: v. 48 to 51. John 6: v. 19. Fo Sho, Sec. 1553.
Did Mark and John copy from Fo Shof or from whomf The
Buddhist story precedes the date of Jesus more than five hundred
years.
(14) Fo Sho, Sec. 1553. John 20: v. 19 to 26. It is impossible
to pass these absurd statements without comment and with no
word of dissent. They are, without doubt, both absolutely false.
A solid body passing through another solid body, whether it be
a door or a stone wall, is impossible. If you say it was done by
miracle, even then it is impossible. For two solid bodies cannot
occupy the same space at the same timer
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 271
walk to and fro, and Jesus finally, it is said, ascended
in the air. (15)
Jesus did not believe in the divine origin of the old
Hebrew scriptures, or his doctrines would have con-
formed to them. He preached, in short, a reformation
of those old records. His doctrine was not “an eye
for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” but “if a man smite
thee on one cheek, turn to him the other also.”
The law and the prophets, he said, were until John.
(16)
Neither did Buddha believe in the divine origin and
authority of the Veda (the Hindu Bible), and for this
he was called a heretic. (17)
As we have heretofore observed, even the nativity
of these two men is strikingly similar. A star came
and stood over the place where Jesus was bom; and a
star, five hundred years before this, likewise came
down to welcome Buddha; and a Hindu writer goes
to the extreme of naming Pushya as the very star (18)
that came down.
Section 3. Heretofore we have seen that when
(15) Mark 6: v. 48. Fo Sho, See. 1553. John 6: v. 19.
(16) Lake 16, v. 16.
(17) Max Mailer, S. K. Lit., p. 77 to 82. Lake 16: v. 16.
“No man,” he said, “pntteth new wine into old bottles.”
(Matt 9: ?. 17.)
(18) Vol. XXXV, Saered Books of the East, p. 271. Fo Sho,
Intro., p. 18 to 20. Vol. XI, Saered Books of the East, p. 46.
See also the chapter on the “Fonndation of the Kingdom of
Bighteonsness,” Vol. XI, Sacred Books of the East, p. 146 and
p. 243. Both of these stories abont the stars we know to be
false. The Hindu writer misled Matthew.
27* a QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Jesus was born, the angd oi the Lord proclaimed good
tidings of great joy; and immediately a heavenly host
appeared, saying, “Peace mi earth, good will toward
men”; that after that song (a blessed song, whether
sung by angels or not) the angels “went bade into
heaven.” (19)
We have also seen that when Buddha was bom, he
himself proclaimed that he “was bom to save the
world.” Instantly two streams of water, one warm,
the other cold, poured down from heaven and baptized
him. ( ?) At that moment the Devas (Angels) raised
their heavenly songs, and, descending from Heaven,
they pressed so near the child, it is said, that their gar-
ments absolutely touched his body. Angelic music, at
that moment, was heard on earth and in the skies.
Both of these men are declared to have had exist-
ences previous to their appearance on earth. The
Hindu scriptures tell us, with much particularity, that
Buddha was enjoying himself in the Tusita heaven,
when archangels from ten thousand world systems ap-
peared before him and notified him that the moment
for his advent had arrived. Here now he surpasses
Jesus; for such was his great virtue and power that
he could choose not only the continent in which his
birth was to take place, but even the mother that was
to bear him. He had undergone many incarnations;
but this was to be his last.
In short, an inhabitant of heaven, if this be true,
(10) Luke 2: v. 18 to 16.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 273
forsook his blissful abode and came to earth to teach
mankind “the way of salvation”; and the salvation
which Buddha taught meant a “change of heart (20)
and a higher life.” (21)
Jesus, likewise, so we are told, came down from
heaven. “Not to do,” he said, “mine own will, but
the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father’s
will that sent me. Every one which seeth the Son, and
believeth on him, shall have everlasting life; and I
will raise him up at the last day.” (22) But this is
not all; for we are told that Jesus, in fact, “made the
world”; and Second Timothy, ch. 1, v. 9, says Jesus
was “before the world began.” Paul, when he wrote
First Corinthians, ch. 8, v. 69, was again misled by
John as to the creation of all things. And when
Paul wrote to the Hebrews, ch. 1, v. 2, he likewise
followed a false light. (23)
But notwithstanding all these questionable state-
ments, Jesus, it is said, was made “a little lower than
(20) Vol. XXXV, Sacred Books of the East, p. 271. Fo Sho,
Intro., p. 18 to 20. Vol. XI, S. B. E., p. 46. The chapter on
the ‘ * Inundation of the Kingdom of Bighteonsness,’’ Vol XI,
S. B. E., p. 146 and p 243.
(21) Vol. XI, Sacred Books of the East, p. 187.
(22) John, ch. 6: v. 38 to 41; John 10: v. 30; John 17: v. 11.
The Jews murmured at this. They did not believe it, and as the
last day has not yet come, those sleepers are still in their graves.
(23) John had probably read the curious and extravagant
things told of Buddha, and determined to surpass them, which he
surely did. But John was either dishonest or wildly chimerical,
when he said Jesus made all things (ch. 1: v. 3)—meaning not
one world, but all the millions of worlds. Neither Buddha nor
any other of his disciples goes to the foolish extravagance of
John (ch. 1: v. 3 to 10).
374
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
the angels.” (24) Just here John and Paul hardly
agree. How is it that Paul makes Jesus lower than the
angels?
The real words of those two great teachers we do
not probably know. But of this we are certain: that
the Sermon on the Mount, while it is one of the most
beautiful compositions in all the world, is made up
almost entirely from old maxims, aphorisms, precepts
and proverbs, etc., that preceded Jesus’ day. He said,
“As ye would have men do to you, do you also unto
them.” But Tobit, one hundred and fifty years before
Jesus came, had uttered a similar thought; and Hillel,
bom about seventy-five years before Jesus, declared it
to be the essence of the law, the very keystone of the
arch. (25)
Section 4. Leviticus said, “Love thy neighbors
as thyself”; Jesus went beyond this and said, “Love
your enemies”; Buddha said, “Conquer your foe by
force, you increase his enmity; conquer by love, and
you will reap no after-sorrow.” (26)
Moreover, Buddha said, “Let your light shine be-
fore the world that you, having embraced the religious
life, may be seen to be forbearing and mild. (27)
(24) Ch. 2: v. 7 to 10, Paul to the Hebrews. Is this compat-
ible with Matt., ch. 3: v. 16 and 17, where a voice from heaven
said: “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”
John 6: v. 38.
(25) Lnke 6: v. 31. Matt. 7: v. 12. Tobit, ch. 4: v. 6 to 16.
Talmud Bab., 31 to 61. Perkeaboth, ch. 1 and 2. Talmud Jeru-
salem.
(26) Levit, eh. 19: v. 18. Matt. 5: v. 44. Fo Sho, Sec. 2241,
and VoL XVII, p 307, Sacred Books of the East.
(27) VoL 17, p. 305, Sacred Books of the East.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
275
Did Jesus copy him when he said, “Let your light
so shine before men that they may see your good
works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” ?
(28)
Buddha said, “There are beings whose words can-
not fail: there is no deviation from truth in their
speech. As sure as the fall of a clod thrown into the
air, or the death of a mortal, or sunrise at dawn, even
so the word of a Buddha cannot fail.” (29)
Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but
my words shall not pass away.” (30) The Hindu
writer adds, “The words of the glorious Buddhas are
sure and everlasting.’
Jesus said, “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust
after her, hath committed adultery already, in his
heart.” (31)
Buddha, five hundred years before Jesus came, said,
“The law is broken by even looking at the wife of
another with a lustful eye.”
But on one point those great teachers utterly dis-
agree. Jesus knew nothing and said nothing about
any other world than this one, and its heaven and hell.
On the other hand, Gotama makes frequent mention
of ten thousand world systems, all of which quaked
and trembled and were shaken violently, when he es-
tablished the kingdom of righteousness. (32)
(28) Matt. 5, v. 16.
(29) Buddhist Birth Stories, p. 18.
(30) Matt. 24, v. 35.
(31) Matt. 5, v. 28.
(32) Yol. XI, Sacred Books of the East, p. 155. Jataka tales,
p. 64.
276 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Both of those men believed that this earth will ulti-
mately pass away: and Jesus told his followers that
the end was close at hand. (33) But Jesus was not a
learned philosopher, for he said the stars in the last
day "will fall from the heavenand “all the tribes of
the earth shall mourn.” (34) Jesus likewise believed
that at the end of the world he would come back to the
earth and “sit upon the throne of his glory.” (35)
Here Jesus surpasses Buddha; for Buddhism has no
throne. All recruits to Jesus’ standards were promised
life everlasting in the long hereafter, if they remained
faithful to his precepts (36) His twelve disciples
were to sit upon twelve thrones, and eat and drink at
Jesus’ table; and likewise were to judge the twelve
(88) Matt. 24: v. 34. Mark 13: v. 30. Luke 21: v. 25. Cor.
15: v. 23 and 24, and 52. Rev., ch. 1: v. 1.
(84) Let ub see about this. Mercury is thirty-sev$n millions of
miles nearer the Bun than the earth. It is, therefore, fifty-eight
millions of miles from the earth to Mercury. As Mercury has six
and a half times as much light and heat as our earth, and as
water boils at 212°, Mercury is therefore about 100° hotter than
water at the boiling point. That being so, it would seem that the
saints would have rather a hot time, even while presiding over
the twelve tribes. (Matt. 19: v. 28.)
But how can Mercury break loose from its orbit f The Sun,
that all-powerful magnet, holds it in place, as if chained by mil-
lions of iron cables. Moreover, the sun himself is only a star,
but he is one million four hundred thousand times larger than
the earth, and five hundred times larger than all his satellites com-
bined. Will he fall to the earth f or will this little earth fall into
him! Whoever wrote Matt. 24: v. 29 and v. 3, was misled by
Isaiah 13: v. 10, and Ezra 32: v. 7, and Joel 2: v. 10 and v. 31,
and Amos 5, v. 20. Those early writers believed the earth to be
flat and that the stars were only little twinklers just a small dis-
tance above their heads; they had no conception of the distance
and magnitude of the starry host.
(35) Matt. 25: v. 31; Mark 8: v. 38; Luke 9: v. 26; 2nd Tim.,
ch. 2: v. 12.
(36) Luke 18: v. 29 and 30.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
277
tribes of Israel. (37) The wicked were then to be
roasted in furnaces of fire; but they still had teeth, for
they could "gnash” them. (38) All those doctrines
about the sun being darkened and the stars falling,
and the punishment of the wicked, and the heavens
for the saints, were in the world long before Jesus
came. He only preached them anew, or, as it were,
emphasized them.
And the same rule holds against Gotama, as cen-
turies before he was bom a priestly code and iron-
bound caste system was in full force. It was as hate-
ful and unjust as the code of Moses, for it treated the
unfortunate Sudra as rigorously as Moses treated the
unfortunate heathen.
Section 5. The old Hindu code was so strict that
if a “twice bom man” (39) even threatened bodily
injury against a Brahmana he must wander, it is said,
one hundred years in hell. (40) The Sudra under
(37) Matt. 19: v. 28; Luke 22: v. 30.
(38) Matt. 13: v. 38 to 43.
(39) The ceremony of “twice born,” or “second birth,” was
a solemn religions rite; the time of Savitri (invitation) of a
Brahman, passed at sixteen years, and of a Kshatrya at twenty*
two, of a Vaisya at twenty-four. A chord of Munga grass for a
Brahman, a hempen string for a Kshatriya, and a woolen thread
for a Vaisya, was placed over the left shoulder and under the
right arm. Even after Savitri, he must study the Veda; must
invoke the sun, morning and evening; and must lead a pure life.
He must worship his food; eating it with concentrated mind.
Tonsure was also practiced at Savitri. For women, the nuptial
ceremony was sufficient. John, ch. 3: v. 5, says a man i ‘ must be
born of water and the spirit,” to reach heaven. The Hindus one
thousand years before John, also used water in their religious
rites. Did John copy themf
(40) Law of Manu, 4, Sec. 165.
278 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Buddha’s teaching could rise if he obeyed the law.
Yet Buddha’s punishment of the wicked is like that of
Jesus, awful beyond belief; but Buddha relieved bis
hells somewhat by his doctrine of transmigration.
Whence came that old belief, or in whose brain it was
born, no one can truly tell. It is thousands of years
older than Pythagoras. (41)
It was probably born in some old Hindu’s brain;
but Herodotus thought it came from Egypt On closer
examination ethnology carries us back beyond Egypt,
and points to Asia as its birthplace. “The cradle of
mythology and the language of Egypt,” says Bunson,
“is in Asia. Sanscrit, five or six thousand years ago,
was brought by migrating Hindus from India and
planted on the Nile, and there became the root, or
foundation, of the ancient Egyptian tongue. We
know this from the numerous Sanscrit words used by
the Egyptians.” Such exact and wholesale copying
is never accidental. Sanscrit was their mother
tongue.
And with the language came also the belief in
transmigration. But, like every belief and custom
that is carried into new fields, changes and modifica-
tions slip in. So it was in this case.
The transmigration of the Hindu was a punishment
or retribution for the sins committed in the body. For
mortal sins the Hindu “passed a large number of
(41) Pythagoras was born in Samos about 582 B. C.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 279
years through dreadful hells” (42); and afterwards
was bom as a dog, or pig, or goat, or bird. For
theft he was bom a rat, or insect, or crow.
The old Hindu belief was, that the soul that chiefly
clung to vice was finally overtaken by retribution. But
when its time of retribution was past, it again entered
the goal for a new trial.
The Egyptian belief was that the soul, whether
good or bad, traveled through a circuit of animals,
fishes, birds, insects, etc., and that this “circuit of the
soul” is performed every three thousand years. (43)
In short, transmigration in India was caused by sin-
ful deeds: but in Egypt the soul transmigrated whether
good or bad. Gotama found this old Hindu doc-
trine venerable with age and undertook its over-
throw by preaching assiduously the doing of such ac-
tions as are righteous, by deed, word, and thought;
that all conditions of the heart that are evil must
be rooted out and destroyed (44); that whoever
reached this exalted state was freed from the neces-
sity of returning in the future into a mother’s womb,
and of being reborn into a new existence. Of course,
transmigration is an ancient, exploded myth; but if it
ever was visited upon the wicked as a retribution, is
there any other or more effective remedy for it than
(42) Mann. 12, Sec. 54 and following.
(43) Herodotus 11:123. Mann 6, Sec. 61. Mann is pretty
severe on a woman who violates her duty towards her husband;
for she enters the womb of a jackal, and is tormented by diseases
for her sin. Manu 6, 664.
(44) Vol. XVII, Sacred Books of the East, p. 112 to 114.
a8o
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
-
Gotama’s sensible teachings? Moreover, if Jesus ex-
isted in the beginning ( ?), it does seem as if he ought
to have interested himself to save Eve there in the
garden; for thus both hell and transmigration—fright-
ful dreams—would never have been heard of.
CHAPTER XXIV
Was it Resurrection or Was it Resuscitation?
Section i. Here now we come to the parting of
the roads. Buddha did not believe in a resurrection of
the body; and he did not teach that wild and senseless
doctrine. Neither did the Jews believe in it until
after the book of Daniel appeared, shortly to be fol-
lowed by Maccabees, which speaks of the dead being
raised up unto everlasting life. (i) .When Jesus came,
he found that doctrine in the world, and he did not
condemn it, but on the contrary he emphasized it, •
claiming that John the Baptist was Elias come back
to the earth. (2)
But the question is this: Was Jesus’ mortal body
resurrected?
That has been a disputed question for now nearly
nineteen hundred years, and the controversy is not yet
ended. Millions of good people firmly believe that his
body was actually resurrected; and other millions,
equally as good, stoutly deny it.
(1) The book of Daniel was written about 166 6. C., and not,
as Bible chronology has it, 606 B. C. Br. Ency., Vol. 6, p. 805,
Edition 9, 2nd Maccabees 7, v. 9 to 36. Jos. Antiq. 18: 1, 3.
(2) Matt. 11: v. 14; Matt. 17: v. 10 to 12; Mark 6: v. 15 to
16. Of course the sect of Sadducees did not believe in the resur-
rection.. (Matt. 22: v. 23; Luke 20: v. 27.) Neither did thf
Sadducees believe in angels or spirits. Acte 23: v. 8.
282
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
It is objected that if the body of Jesus, when taken
down from the Cross, was in fact a pale, ghastly, rigid
corpse, it could no more come back to life than any
other dead body. And it is said, suppose his throat
had been cut from ear to ear, or that he had been ac-
tually decapitated, and all his veins and arteries
emptied of life’s currents, could he resurrect himself?
Did he resurrect himself, and, if not, who did? Or
suppose the bones of his legs had been broken on the
cross, as were the legs of the thieves, could he have
walked until they had been set and bandaged and
grown together again? How about that?
A healthy young man with abundant vitality, as I
have heretofore shown, could survive the agonies of
the cross two or three days, and sometimes even four
days. Jesus was on the cross only about three hours,
and was dead, as the soldiers thought, even before that
questionable thrust of the spear. (3) In fact, John
is the only person who makes that assertion.
Joseph of Arimathea may have believed Jesus was
dead when he took his body from the cross, but he
himself says nothing about it. It is said he brought
some linen cloth with which to wrap it, as was then
the custom of the Jews. (4)
That day there was enacted the most shameful spec-
tacle ever witnessed on this earth, which brands for-
(3) John 19: v. 31 to 34. John is the only one of the four
Gospel writers who says the side of Jesus was pierced by a spear*
(4) Mark 15: v. 23 and v. 53. John 19: v. 40.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 283
ever with infamy those Roman soldiers, and the Jews
who were the actors in the tragedy.
Right at the foot of the cross the soldiers are divid-
ing Jesus’ garments, and casting lots as to which shall
win his seamless robe. (5) Here comes a procession
of Jews, and they wag their heads and jeer as they
pass by: “Ah, thou that destroyest the Temple and
buildest it in three days, save thyself and come down
now from the cross!”
But worse than all this, the learned of all Jerusalem,
the chief priests and scribes, doctors of the law, are
there; and they mock him: “He saved others, himself
he cannot save”; “Let the King of Israel come
down now from the cross, that we may see and be-
lieve.” (6) Would it not have been better for the
world if Jesus had actually come down from the cross,
for even those Pharisees might then have believed on
him?
If, as Luke alleges, (7) when they were mock-
ing him in his agony he was able to say, “Father,
forgive them, they know not what they do,” then he
stands upon a pedestal above every human being who
preceded him. (8) Moreover, Jesus was not a cruel
man; and if those Jews who nailed him on that cross
(5) John 19: v. 23 and 24; Matt. 27: v. 85.
(6) Mark 15: v. 29 to 31; Matt. 27: v. 39 to 43.
(7) Ch. 23, v. 34.
(8) Some of his followers are equally devoted, as witness
Bishop Cramer, who was burned at the stake. When the flames
were consuming him, he was able to say to another sufferer:
Let us stand firm, brother, and we will kindle such a light in
England today that the world will see it.”
284
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
cry to him out of the pit, will he not have mercy? If
he has the power, he surely will forgive them.
A man’s mother is the first one to come to him in
distress, and the last to leave him. It was so at Cal-
vary. Jesus’ mother was there; she had followed him
from Galilee, and was at the sepulcher when the stone
was rolled to its door. (9)
Her mother’s heart was, without doubt, wrung with
anguish while watching her son’s agony on the cross.
If the spear was actually thrust into his side, she may
have seen the blood as it gushed from the wound.
Moreover, she with all those women who followed
him from Galilee, believed him to be dead, if the record
be true; for it is said they brought spices, intending
to come back after the Sabbath and anoint him. (to)
Section 2. He was taken down from the cross
probably sometime after four o’clock, probably a little
later, on Friday afternoon. Joseph had visited Pilate,
to beg the body; and when he obtained leave he
bought linen (11) to wrap it in, and it may have been
five o’clock in the afternoon, or even six o’clock. But
exactly when that stone was rolled to that door, no
human being can now truly tell. (12)
But if it was six o’clock when Joseph finished wrap-
ping the body, and no signs of returning consciousness
had appeared, that circumstance adds weight to the
claim of those who insist that he was really dead.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 285
And every moment beyond that point of time gives
strength to that supposition. It is all simply a guess
as to the exact time when Joseph rolled that stone to
the door of that sepulcher. But it was Friday even-
ing, Nisan 4th (April, A. D. 33).
Great things had transpired in Jerusalem in the
preceding twenty-four hours. Jesus had eaten the
Paschal supper (13); Judas had betrayed him; Peter
had denied him (14); the Scribes and elders had
arrested him; Pilate, though repeatedly saying, “I find
no fault in him,” had cruelly scourged him.
And when that Jewish mob was clamoring, “Crucify
him, crucify him!” the weak-kneed Pilate tamely
yielded; and the best man ever born in Palestine was
shamelessly nailed to the cross between two thieves.
Such a monument of infamy towers to the very
heavens. Even if we say that Jesus was only a man,
his Sermon on the Mount can never be surpassed. It
is a perpetual benediction upon all mankind, and so
it will remain forever.
Now if the record be true, all this suffering and
ignominy on the cross might have been avoided if
Jesus had so willed it. (15) For it seems as if he
really did have it in his power to escape. He knew
Judas to be a traitor. He knew the whole Sanhedrin
was arrayed against him. He could have escaped in
several ways. He could have gone back to Galilee.
He might have found shelter in the wilderness. If he
(13) Luke 22.
(14) Luke 23: v. 1 to 5.
(15) John 10, ?. 17 and 18.
286
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
could feed five thousand with “five loaves and two
small fishes,” could he not feed himself when and
where he pleased? (16) Or did he have the brave
example of those seven glorious Maccabees before
him? (17) Or did, in fact, an angel from heaven
come to give him strength and courage? (18) If so,
it may have been one of the same angels that ministered
unto him in the wilderness. (19) Or it may have been
the angel Nanda, who fed Buddha when he was fam-
ishing.
But after all these questionable statements have
been sifted, the great fact of the nailing to that cross
stands out boldly, and unchallenged. The mournful
sublimity of that innocent sufferer, on that cross,
stands unimpeached and unimpeachable. It is a monu-
mental fact; and there it will remain sure and stead-
fast until the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
(20)
Section 3. But the resurrection of the material
body of Jesus, stands upon a very different footing.
Water, we know from universal observation, will run
down hill. People will die—in fact they are dying
(16) Matt. 14, y. 15 to 21 and ch. 15, v. 32 to 38.
(17) Second Maccabees, ch. 7.
(18) This remarkable statement of Luke (ch. 22, y. 43) de-
serves observation. It is not improper to ask who told Luke about
that story of the angel. The least that can be said of it is that
there in the Mount of Olives Jesus wavered—else why does the
angel appear, if the angel did appear?
(19) Matt. 4, xi. Nanda fed Buddha at the end of his long
fast.
(20) 2nd Peter 3: v. 10.
I
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 287
all about us—and the proof is overwhelming that all
will die.
Both of those cases are self-evident. They are of
common observation, and happen every day in obedi-
ence to a law. But if we find that about nineteen hun-
dred years ago, four men—Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John—each wrote a book saying that in their day water
ran up hill of itself, we at once discredit such a story.
We pronounce against it, and a multitude of witnesses
will not convince us, for the reason that it contradicts a
law of universal observation.
And those same men—Luke, Mark, Matthew and
John (21)—each wrote a book, and every one of them
asserts therein that Jesus was crucified (that is not
hard to believe), and was pronounced dead, was taken
down from the cross, was wrapped with cloth, and
placed carefully in a tomb. (22)
But there is no statement by Marie, or Luke, or
Matthew, or John, that anyone, as a guard, remained
at that sepulcher that Friday night. So closed the day
(21) Matthew and Mark were Jews. Luke is believed to have
been an Italian. John, who wrote the fourth gospel, may have
been John the Presbyter—and he may have been John, the son
of Zebedee and Salome. This John, whoever he was, is the only
person who makes any mention that the spear was thrust into
Jesus’ side. Matthew, Luke and Mark know nothing about that
spear. John says Jesus was crucified in a garden; and in that
garden was the sepulcher where Jesus was laid (John 19, v. 41);
and John makes no mention of a guard at the tomb; neither does
Luke, neither does Mark. The whole story of the guard at the
tomb depends on Matthew.
(22) Neither Matthew, nor Luke, nor Mark seems to have
heard of the myrrh and aloes (John 19:39 and 40). John is the
only one inspired on that point.
288 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
of preparation. The next day, Saturday, being Pass-
over, was a holy day with the Jews. Nobody all that
Saturday is watching that tomb.
A chain, let us observe, is only as strong as its
weakest link. And a link in that chain, just here, is
broken. Or to be more exact, there are here two
ends of a chain; or, if you please, two chains with no
connecting link.
Now, let us see: Matt., ch. 27, says, “the next day
that followed the day of preparation, the chief priests
and Pharisees came unto Pilate, saying, ‘Sir, we re-
member that deceiver said while he was yet alive,
after three days I will rise again. Command there-
fore that the sepulcher be made secure, until the third
day; lest his disciples come by night, and steal him
away, and say unto the people he is risen from the
dead.’ ” (23)
Pilate, it is said, told those Jews to go and set a
watch and make the sepulcher secure. And we are
told that they set a watch and sealed the sepulcher.
But what hour the next day did they set the watch?
(24) Here is a great gap in the evidence; we are not
told what time the next day, the chief priests and
Pharisees visited Pilate; whether it was in the fore-
noon, or in the afternoon. All that is a matter of
guess and surmise. Meanwhile the tomb is unguarded.
I have as much right to guess that it was in the
(23) Matt. 27: v. 62 to 65.
(24) Matt. 27, v. 62 to 66.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 289
afternoon that the guard was set, as you have to say
it was in the forenoon. It was not in the morning
of the next day, or we probably would be so told.
Nor was it in the evening. It was simply “the next
day,” and so the problem must remain forever un-
solved. Syncope may have seized Jesus when suffer-
ing on the cross. That counterfeit of death has mis-
led many, and may have misled those watching the
crucifixion.
Moreover the soldiers on that watch were liars and
bribe-takers, if the story told of them be true. They
took a “large sum of money,” it is said, and foiged
the lie that his “disciples came by night and stole him
away while they slept.” (25) Matthew makes no
comment about this alleged bribery; and only adds,
“this saying is commonly reported among the Jews
until this day.” Neither Mark, nor Luke nor John
seem to have ever heard of this interesting episode of
the soldiers, and the stealing of the body.
Now I am not going to assert, that as no guard was
sent until “the next day,” Jesus’ body was meanwhile
stolen. Nor am I going to insist that the body, before
(25) This whole thing lacks probability. Those were Boman
soldiers, and for a Boman soldier to sleep on guard brought the
penalty of death. Moreover, the words, ‘‘until this day,” and
probably verses 62 to 66, are an accretion (Matt. ch. 27). This
story about the sleeping soldiers is a clumsy invention. Pilate
would probably have crucified those soldiers had they been found
sleeping while on guard. Matthew says, ‘‘The soldiers took the
money and did as they were taught,” that is they reported that
they slept while on guard! There is not an instance like this in
all Boman history!
290 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
the coining of the guard, regained consciousness and
escaped. There is a possibility that syncope, or faint-
ing terminated his suspension on the cross.
But I do assert, that if that mortal body ever re-
gained consciousness and escaped from that tomb,
there was plenty of time for it to escape between the
hours that Joseph left it there, and the coming of the
soldiers “the next day.” Because there must have
been from sixteen to twenty hours from the time the
stone was rolled to the door of the tomb, and the
arrival of the soldiers. And in those hours there was
time enough for the disciples, if they saw fit, to remove
the body, and to remove it without detection. Further-
more, there was time enough for Jesus to recover from
a syncope, if that had given him the appearance of
death. He could then escape without assistance. Or
those “two men” which Luke mentions, may have
assisted him. (26)
The guard of the soldiers not having been men-
tioned by either Mark, Luke or John, it looks like an
accretion or interpolation. Or it may be that the
others were not inspired just then, as to this particular
matter. Moreover, it seems Jesus very shortly after
being put in that tomb, made his escape from it and
journeyed with some friends to Emmaus (27); and on
his return, being hungry, he ate some fish and honey-
comb (28), and traveled to Galilee. (29)
(26) Luke 24: v. 4.
(27) Luke 24: v. 13 to 16.
(28) Luke 24, y. 42.
(29) Matt 28, v. 10.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 291
-
This Golgotha case is the only one in all history
where it is alleged that three hours on the cross proved
fatal to anyone. Jesus probably had only swooned,
and in the evening revived and escaped.
CHAPTER XXV.
The Miracles of Jesus' Appearance to the
Disciples.
Section i. The resurrection was promised to take
place the third day; though Mark says “after three
days.” But Jesus was not in the tomb three days. It
may be that he got out the very night he was put
there. No one has ever told, or ever can tell, just
when he left that sepulcher, (i)
He was put there on Friday afternoon or evening;
and he was out very early Sunday morning; but how
long had he been out when first seen? That is the
question. Mark says, “Jesus was risen early the first
day of the week.” But Mark 8, v. 31, says he shall
rise after three days. Who knows but that Joseph
may have discovered some signs of life when wrap-
ping him in that linen cloth ? But it seems that a few
hours in that sepulcher had so changed him that Mag-
dalen took him to be the gardener. (2) The farthest
stretch of time that he was in that tomb was
twenty to thirty hours. What virtue in having
him stay there three days? Is not that a feeble copy
of Jonah in the whale’s belly? Even Mark himself, in 1 2
(1) Matt. 17:23; Lake ?. 22; Luke 8, ?. 33; Mark 8, v. 31,
?ays “after three days.”
(2) John 20:15.
292
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 293
his vague statement, does not say that Jesus remained
in the sepulchre three days.
If he had power to lay down his life and take it up
again, could he not resurrect himself at any time? (3)
Matthew says: “There was a great earthquake and
an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came
and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon
it.” His countenance was like lightning and his rai-
ment was white as snow. (4)
That angel understood the Aramean tongue, for it
was the language of Palestine; and he spake to Mag-
dalen and others, and told them to go quickly and tell
the disciples that Jesus was risen and gone into Gali-
lee, where they would find him. But -Matthew was
mistaken about that angel; for Mark says “as Magda-
len and those others approached the sepulchre, they
began to question who should roll away the stone.
They looked, and behold it was already rolled away.
Whereupon they entered the sepulchre, and found a
young man clothed in a long white garment,” who,
seeing that the women were affrighted, calmed their
(3) John 10, y. 17 and 18.
(4) Matt. 28, v. 2; Mark 16, v. 2, and Mark 16, v. 9. Mat-
thew ought to have told us who informed him that an angel came
down and rolled that stone away. Luke 24, v. 1, says they came
“very early1 ’ to the tomb. John says “when it was yet dark
Magaalen came,1 ’ etc. John 20, v. 1. But John is always wild.
Matt. 28, v. 1 to 7, ought to have given his authority about that
angel. Neither Mark nor Luke, nor even John, in his wild ex-
travagance of statement, mentions any earthquake; nor does any
writer of history make any mention of an earthquake at that
time; and yet Matthew says, “It was a great earthquake.99 He
probably copied from those Hindu fables, Vol. XI, p. 116, S. B. E.,
where we are told that at the moment of Buddha’s exit a great
earthquake shook the earth (Fo Sho Sec. 2104).
394 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
fears and bade them say to his disciples: "Jesus is
risen" and gone into Galilee. (5)
Trembling and amazed, those women fled from the
sepulchre; and when Magdalen (of the seven devils)
found the disciples, they were mourning and weeping
and refused to believe her story.
In other words, they did not believe in the resur-
rection, though they had been often told about it.
They believed Jesus to be dead beyond any earthly
or heavenly help. Those disciples must have heard
him repeatedly say that he must suffer death and be
raised again the third day. (6) Still they did not
believe it. How could they believe such an amazing
story? No such thing had ever before happened in
all this world; and nothing like it has ever happened
since. They seem never to have heard of Bethany and
Lazarus and his four days of syncope in the tomb, (7)
nor did they believe that he would be raised the third
day; otherwise they would not have stood aloof
unbelieving, weeping and disconsolate. (8)
Section 2. Let us now see what Luke, the Italian,
has to say about this matter. He tells the story of
those women bringing spices to the sepulcher and find-
ing the stone rolled away from the door; and that they
entered; and, behold, two men stood by them in 5 6 7 8
(5) Mark 16, ?. 8 to 12.
(6) Matt. 16, ?. 21; Luke 9, v. 22; Matt. 17, y. 23.
(7) John 11, v. 32 to 44. John was not as honest as an Illinois
clergyman, who, when pressed for his opinion about Lazarus’
resurrection, replied, “I have often thought, brethren, that per-
haps Lazarus was not quite dead/’
(8) Mark 16, v. 10.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES ags
shining garments. The women were frightened and
bowed their faces to the earth. Those men said:
“Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is
risen.” (9)
When Magdalen told these things to the disciples,
“they seemed as idle tales and they believed them not.”
Peter, to test the truth thereof, ran to the sepulcher,
where he found only the linen clothes. (10) Those
“two men in shining garments” had utterly disap-
peared. Whence they came or whither they went, or
who they were, or what their mission to the sepulcher,
no human being, for now nearly nineteen hundred
years, has been able to tell.
Perhaps during all these centuries those angels in
white garments have existed only in the towering
imagination of that woman of the seven devils. (11)
John enlarges upon this story of Luke, and instead
of two men in shining garments, they became, under
his facile pen, "two angels in white ” one of them sit-
ting at the head and the other at the feet where the
body of Jesus had lain. (12)
Luke, as we have just observed, knows nothing
about any angels whatever at the tomb. But John
(0) Lake 24, v. 5.
(10) Luke 24, v. 1 to 12.
(11) John 20, v. 12.
(12) John 20, v. 12, has “two angels in white.” Matthew has
only one angel (Matt. 28, t. 1), but that angel has “a counte-
nance like lightning.” Mark has but one young man in “a long
white garment” (Mark 16, t. 5). Luke 24, v. 5, has no angeU
at the tomb, but he has two men in shining garments. Which of
these four men was inspired f All those four conflicting state-
ments cannot be true.
396
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
says he ran with Peter and, in fact, he outran Peter
to the sepulcher. But John did not enter until Peter
came up and went into the tomb, then John followed
and they found the linen and the napkins; nothing
more.
Here now follows this startling line: “As yet his
disciples knew not the Scripture, that he must rise
again from the dead.” Yet Matthew (13) tells
us that Jesus had preached that doctrine to his dis-
ciples, and Luke 9, v. 22, and Mark 8, v. 31, say the
same. If John was inspired, did he forget his inspira-
tion? (14) Jesus had been preaching, so we are
told, more than a year about his death and resurrection,
John no doubt being present. (15)
Sec. 3. Moreover, John himself, if he wrote the
fourth gospel (16) mentions the miraculous about
(13) Ch. 16, v. 21.
(14) John 20, v. 9.
(15) Matt. 16, v. 21; Mark 8, v. 31; Luke 9, v. 22.
(16) John, the son of Zebedee, was an uneducated, clumsy,
phlegmatic fisherman. There is no sure unimpeachable record that
he was ever in Ephesus. Paul traveled up and down in Asia
Minor, establishing churches for fifteen or sixteen years, and he
makes no mention of John, the son of Zebedee. There were two
Johns: John the Presbyter, and John the Fisherman. Ireneus,
who wrote about 182 to 188 A. D., is the authority for John of
Galilee being in Ephesus. He is also the one who insisted that
Jesus was fifty years old at the time of the crucifixion (Ireneus
vs. Heresies, Book 2, ch. 22, sec. 6). Ireneus was born 120 to
140 A. D. and died about 202 A. D. He believed that the Father,
Son and Holy Ghost were all equal in the trinity.
Tertulian, the African, later came to the help of Ireneus, but
he broke down his own evidence by saying that John of Galilee
was banished to Patmos after having "been boiled in oil. John
the Presbyter probably wrote the Second and Third Epistles, where-
in he styles himself the Elder. John of Galilee was not a Greek
scholar. This whole question being in sharp dispute, I will only
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 397
Jesus. He says that Jesus turned water into wine;
that he came down from heaven; and that Jesus was
“before Abraham.” (17) “He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father.” (18)
Sec. 4. There are some other incomprehensible
things about this resurrection matter which now take
place. The same day that Peter and John ran to the
sepulcher and found it empty, two of the disciples
went to Emmaus, a village about seven miles from
Jerusalem; and while on their way Jesus joined them,
so we are told, and went with them, and talked with
them. They told him certain women had seen a vision
of angels, which said that Jesus was alive; and when
they reached the village they besought him to tarry
with them. (19)
All this time those men knew not to whom they
were talking; but at supper they recognized him, and
“he vanished out of sight.” (20)
Is it not surprising that those men did not notice the
nail holes in Jesus’ hands and feet? Besides, how
could he walk without limping? His feet must have
been very sore from the nail holes. Astonished at
what had happened, they returned at once to Jerusa-
observe that the author of Revelations was gifted with a glowing
imagination. John of the Fourth Gospel wrote theology, but not
a gospel of love.
(17) John 1, v. 10 and John 2, ?. 1 to 10; John 6, v. 38; John
8, v. 58.
(18) John 14, v. 9.
(19) Luke 24, v. 12 and 13.
(20) Luke 24, v. 31.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
*98
lem, where they found the eleven; and while talking
to them “Jesus stood in their midst,” and said, “behold
my hands and feet; that it is I myself; handle me and
see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me
have.” Still they did not believe. (21) Whereupon
Jesus asked for meat, and they gave him a piece of
broiled fish and some honeycomb, and he ate before
them. (22) That spear thrust, it seems, had not in-
jured his stomach. (23)
Jesus was, therefore, at that time not a spirit. He
was flesh and blood, and had a stomach, and was
hungry, and did eat; at least such is the narrative of
Luke, and John indirectly corroborates him. (24)
At these gatherings, Thomas, one of the disciples,
was absent; and when told of these things, said he
would not believe them unless he could see the prints
of the nails, and thrust his hand into the wound made
by the spear. John now fixes this all up; wherein he
says, eight days later, the disciples, including Thomas,
were in a room, “the doors being shut” (25) and
Jesus passed through those closed doors and stood in
the midst of them and said: “Thomas, reach hither thy
(21) Luke 24, v. 39 to 43; John 20, v. 27. John says Jesus
asked Thomas to thrust his hand into his side.
(22) This is to show, no doubt, that if there is to be a resur-
rection, it is to be a bodily resurrection. I am staggered at this;
for if these bodies are to be resurrected and come back and
people the earth again, the question of food and raiment will
likewise come back, and it is the old strife over again.
(23) John 19, v. 34.
(24) The spear, while on the cross, had not injured Jesus1
stomach; for we see here that he could eat.
(25) John 20, v. 26.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 299
finger and behold my hands; thrust thy hand into my
side, and be not faithless, but believing." (26)
The reader will notice that even after eight days the
nail holes were there, and that wound in the side was
still there, for doubting Thomas was told to thrust his
hand into it.
Moreover, as the soldiers at the crucifixion had di-
vided Jesus’ garments among themselves, wherewith
was Jesus clothed while wandering about the country
from Jerusalem to Galilee?
It may be that those “men in shining garments’’
who were seen at the tomb, furnished him with proper
raiment; but the record here makes no mention of his
having on any apparel whatever.
(26) John 20, v. 24 to 30.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Death—or Syncope?
Section i. It is a marvelous story that Matthew,
Malic and Luke tell us, but in some things, as we shall
see directly, they do not quite agree. John (i) tells
us of the thrust of the spear, but he stabs his own
evidence when he adds that “this was done” that not
a bone should be broken (lest an old Mosaic law be
violated) (2) John, however, contradicts himself,
for he says Jesus was dead, even before the spear
touched him. (3)
Upon the very point wherein we would like to be
fully informed, John fails us utterly. He thinks some
blood and water came from the pierced side; but of the
severity of the wound he is discreetly silent. Jesus’
death, as we have already said, after only three hours 1 2 * * * * * 8
(1) Ch. 10, v. 34.
(2) Exodus 12, v. 46, is an old rule concerning the Passover,
and has nothing in common with the crucifixion. Neither has
Numbers, ch. 9, v. 12. Psalms 34, v. 20, which is quoted to sus-
tain the spear-thrust, says “many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth
all hie bones: not one of them is broken.’1 But they would have
broken his legs if he had not swooned. A lawyer who would
quote authorities so foreign to the point would be laughed out of
court. Yet there is a great and interesting question, and a trick
and cheat is offered to show why Jesus’ legs were not broken.
(8) John 19, v. 33.
300
30i
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
on the cross, we may fairly doubt. (4) Suppose they
had severed his head from his body, as the executioner
did that of Charles I or Louis XVI; would we believe
that he could place his head back again, and on the
same day take a walk with those men to Emmaus?
Decapitated, his veins would be empty; how then?
Nor is that other foolish story that he was bom of a
virgin, necessary to his greatness. He was born, no
doubt, and nourished and grew the same as any other
boy in Nazareth.
His father, Joseph, was a carpenter, and Jesus as-
sisted him.
This boy, by reason of his wonderful genius, rose
above his humble parentage; and, after death, legends
and fictions gathered thickly about his great name.
John of the Fourth Gospel undertook to make him pre-
existent. But in asserting that he came down from
heaven, he only copies, in diluted form, an old Hindu
superstition, that Gotama, nearly five hundred years
before, likewise came down from heaven to save the
world.
Section 2. A copyist and imitator always goes be-
yond his original, and it is so with John; he wrote
down audaciously that this Galilean boy made the
world, and he says: “He that hath seen me, hath seen
the Father” (5), “and without him was not anything
made that was made.” (6) 4 5 6
(4) Luke 23, v. 44; Mark 15, v. 25. Jeans swooned about the
ninth hour; Matt. 27, t. 46 to 51.
(5) John 14, v. 0.
(6) John 1, v. 1 to 10.
302
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
-
This surpasses by far what is said of Buddha; for
he was not able to “make” a world. But we are told
that when he left his Hindu heaven to descend and
become incarnate in his mother’s womb in order to
found the sublime Kingdom of righteousness, “this
earth was made to shake and tremble, and was shaken
violently.” (7)
The Jews, it seems, honestly disbelieved that Jesus
came down from Heaven. “We know Joseph, your
father,” said they, “and we know your mother; how
is it then that you say ‘I came down from heaven’ ?”
(8)
Those Jews pushed him still farther. They said:
“Is not this the carpenter, the brother of James, and
Joses, and Juda, and Simon; and are not his sisters
here with us? How is it then that you say *1 came
down from heaven’?” (9) Moreover, Jesus never
denied that Joseph was his father; and Luke (10)
says “Joseph was his parent.” Jesus never said that
(7) VoL XI, Sacred Books of the East, p. 46 to 48. Those
extravagant happenings at Buddha’s incarnation had no doubt
penetrated Palestine before John or Luke wrote, and they changed
the programme somewhat. The Hindus were more advanced In
ideas of this universe. For when Buddha became incarnate, we
are told that ten thousand world system* quaked and trembled;
that great lights appeared in all of them; that the blind received
their sight and the deaf their hearing; the dumb spake and the
lame walked; that in all the hells the flres were quenched. Of
course I ought to state that John’s extravagance about Jesus
creating the world is, as I believe, no more truthful than the
quaking of ten thousand world systems when Buddha became in-
carnate. Both are idle dreams; the imaginations of poets.
(8) John 6, v. 38.
(9) Mark 6, v. 3.
(10) Ch. 2, v. 41.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 303
his mother was “overshadowed,” and he never said a
word about the angel Gabriel visiting her. Nor did
he ever mention that flight into Egypt. (11)
Poor Mary! She no doubt led an honest, virtuous
life, and as we have seen, she became the mother of
several other children. She followed Jesus with a
mother’s love, to the cross, and for more than one
hundred years after that event her name dropped com-
pletely from the memory of men. (12) In fact, no
one up to this hour knows the time of her death or the
place of her burial.
Maya, Buddha’s mother, we must remember, was
also overshadowed, but in Maya’s case, she dreamed a
dream that the Holy Spirit (Shing-Shin) descended
and entered her side; and Maya’s son was thence like-
wise “bom to save the world.5’ (13) But Maya
dreamed her dream herself, five hundred years before
Joseph dreamed that curious one about Mary and the
Holy Ghost. Here now are two great religions, and
both of them start in the mysterious shadowland of
dreams.
But the Hindus did not dishonor the name of Maya
as did the Hebrews the Nazarene Mary: they did not 11
(11) Matt. 2, ?. 13.
(12) Acts 1, v. 14, is the last mention of Mary.
(13) Lake 1, ?. 26, Fo Sho, Varga 1; also VoL 10, Sacred Books
of the East, p. 123. Vol. 19, S. B. E., page 19. I wish to say
before I forget it, that I do not believe that the angel Gabriel
was actually sent to Mary. Nor do I believe that the Holy Spirit
(Shing-Shin) came to Maya on a white elephant; nor is it prob-
able that gods and angels danced for joy when Buddha was born.
Vol. 10, p. 123, 8. B. E.
3<H
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
wait two or three hundred years and then, in sub-
stance, say that Buddha was an illegitimate.
As to that matter, it is only necessary to add that
the church of Rome, after a long waiting, proceeded
to make Mary, the Nazarene mother of Jesus, a very
great personage. But that church has never answered if
“In Adam’s fall, we sinned aU,”
why that stain of sin did not follow the ancestral tree
down to Mr. Joachim, and Anna, his wife, the father
and mother of Mary, and from her to Jesus.
Section 3. A great name is a great light, illuminat-
ing and immortalizing the country and the age in which
it appears. It was the unsurpassed genius of Jesus
that made Galilee famous—nay, immortal—and res-
cued the name of Mary from her unmarked grave.
Who would know, or care to know, of Pilate and
Caiphas and the bloody finger-marks of the Sanhedrin,
if it were not for Jesus ? We would know very much
less about Athens and Greece if Demosthenes and Plato
had never been born.
But if the Sermon on the Mount ever becomes the
lode-star of the nations, it will enfranchise all the
people, everywhere, and when that day comes, the
fabled golden age will have arrived. The period of
Jesus will then surely be, if it is not already, immortal.
But I must hasten on and answer carefully this ques-
tion: Was Jesus resurrected?
The record does not give full and complete particu-
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
305
lars, and in fact, it is somewhat conflicting; for in-
stance, I have shown that Matthew says there “was
an angel at the tomb?” But Mark, it seems, was in-
spired differently, and says “it was a young man.”
Luke disagrees with both of them and tells us there
were two men at the tomb in shining garments. John,
always wild, and drawing upon his imagination for
the facts, says there were two angels, clothed in white.
(14)
Now here are four persons writing about the resur-
rection ; but neither of them saw Jesus when he came
out of the tomb. They were not eye-witnesses to that
marvelous event; their evidence, therefore, is hearsay
only; and no one of them seems to know exactly when
that stone was rolled away. Nor do they tell from
whom they learned these strange things. Now if we
bear in mind that Joseph, who wrapped Jesus’ body,
was his friend, he may have noticed signs of life, for
we have seen that he had been only three hours on the
cross; and there is a very strong probability that Jesus
had only fainted or swooned. In truth, a syncope is
sometimes so severe and lasting that the heart seems
to stop its beating; in fact, its beating cannot be de-
tected; there is no pulse whatever; respiration is en-
tirely suspended; the brain no longer acts; there is
entire loss of sensation and volition. The body lies
(14) Matt. 28, v. 2 to 5—aa angel.
Mark 16, ?. 5—a young man.
Luke 24, ?. 4—two men in shining garments.
John 20, ?. 12—two angels in white.
306 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
rigid and cold; and is pronounced dead. It can be
pricked or cut with a knife, and it will not bleed. There
is no heart-beat
There have been cases—numerous ones—where all
the appearances of death were as plain as that just
stated; and yet the person after many hours of appar-
ent death, has revived. It was not a resurrection; it
was resuscitation.
Jesus was not long enough on that cross to kill him.
Three hours’ suspension thereon, for a young man in
good health, were not sufficient. The thieves at the
end of that time were still alive: Jesus was young, he
was temperate, he was healthy, and probably could
have lived two or three days on that cross. (15)
Pilate, who was familiar with crucifixions, “mar-
veled” that three hours had ended Jesus’ life.
Section 4. There could not have been any sudden
rupture of the aorta to cause death; for in that case
the blood would have spouted out of the mouth and
nose; and there would somewhere have been some
mention of it.
That he was in agony there is no doubt; then syn-
cope seized him and he was taken down for dead; and
after awhile he regained consciousness and escaped
(15) Mark XV, 44.1 hare shown, heretofore, that persons nraeh
longer on the cross have been revived. Josephus, vita, 75, He-
rodotus 71,194. In section 3, ch. 31,1 have shown that Nicodemus
believed Jesus was alive, and he sent men into the woods to search
for him. Truly he was alive and had gone to Galilee. Matt
28, y. 7.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 307
from the tomb, either alone or with the assistance of
those men (16) in white garments. (17)
I must here caution the reader to remember that
neither Matthew nor Mark nor Luke knows anything
about the incident of the spear thrust. If Jesus was
in the clutch of syncope, he would not cringe or flinch,
even if pricked by the point of a spear. Now if it be
true, as John says, that Jesus could lay down his life
and take it up again (18), why need he wait three
days? Was it because Jonah was three days in the
whale’s belly?
I can believe that he came forth himself alone with-
out help from that sepulcher, because the weak and
flimsy hearsay evidence does not convince me that his
body was dead when put there. Neither Joseph nor
Nicodemus says a word about this placing of the body
in the tomb. Nicodemus did not believe Jesus was
put in that tomb. (19)
Paul, we are told, was afterwards stoned by the
Jews of Antioch and Iconium until they supposed they
had killed him; and they carried him out of the city
for dead. But a swoon, or syncope, saved him. He
was resuscitated; and the very next day was able to
travel. (20) The disciples, in Paul’s case, were the
men in white garments who rendered him assistance.
Is it true, as claimed, that Jesus descended from
(16) What is the use of trying to make us believe the angel*
were there, when those two men were there instead.
(17) Luke 24, v. 4.
3o8 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Heaven, to make intercession for man and reconcile
him to his maker? Or is that a weak imitation, or
copy, of that old Hindu legend, in the Punjab, and
on the Ganges, centuries before either Buddha or Jesus
was born ? whereby Agni, the God of Fire, to befriend
man, descended, it is said, from his blest abode and
became the messenger and mediator between God and
man. (21)
We must conclude, then, that syncope and resuscita-
tion make a complete answer to the question of Jesus’
resurrection.
(21) Max Muller, Sanscrit Lit., p. 462.
CHAPTER XXVII
Matthew and Luke Take the Stand.
Section i. If the four gospels prove anything as a
record, they furnish some evidence that Jesus’ mortal
body, somehow, got out of or was assisted out of that
sepulcher.
True, such evidence, on a trial of a similar claim
in court today, would not justify a verdict and judg-
ment in its favor. But we cannot go back nineteen
hundred years and correct the record, or add to it.
We must take it as we find it. There are some things
about Jesus which we will not question. He was no
doubt born and lived in Nazareth of Galilee. That
he lived and grew from childhood on to manhood, as
did the other boys of Nazareth in his day and time, is
no doubt also true. Such things are usual; but it is
the unusual and the marvelous which we are here to
examine.
We find Jesus mentioned as a carpenter, and as the
son of Joseph, the carpenter; and his brothers and,sis-
ters are likewise mentioned, (i) Now all of these
things stamp him beyond dispute as only a man. But
he is religious, intensely religious. So, likewise was 1
(1) Hark 6, v. 3.
300
3*0
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
John the Baptist, the predecessor and teacher of Jesus;
but John being decapitated (2) could neither be re-
suscitated nor resurrected.
Here now we face a problem vastly more difficult to
credit than that of the resuscitation and exit from the
sepulcher. Let us assume and believe, if possible, that
Jesus’ mortal body, of itself or with the help of those
“men in shining garments,” actually came forth from
that tomb. He was hungry, and it is said did eat a
broiled fish and some honeycomb, and later he ate and
drank with his disciples. Now if he did all those
things, they show that his flesh and blood body was
able to travel about; and that like any other mortal
body it required nourishment and received it. (3)
But we are staggered, and utterly discredit John
20, v. 26, wherein he states that the disciples “being
within, and the doors being shut,” Jesus came and
stood in the midst of them. (4) They were “doors,”
not curtains; how then could Jesus thrust his mortal
body through those “closed doors?” The statement
must be untrue; for it contradicts a universal law.
Yet if the above taxes our credulity, how shall we
ever scale the dizzy heights and frowning cliffs just
•before us?
(2) Marie 6, v. 25 to 27.
(3) Luke 24, ?. 42 and 43; Acts 10, v. 41, says that Jesus
“did eat and drink after he rose from the dead.”
(4) This extravagance and nonsense, as I have said before, was
probably copied by John from that told of Buddha “passing
through stone walls.” (Vol. XI, p. 214, S. B. E.) Both stories
are utterly unbelievable and false.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 311
I shall now proceed to call some witnesses as to what
happened after the exit from the tomb.
********
Mr. Matthew, please take the stand.
Question. Is your name Matthew?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Did you ever see Jesus, the son of Jo-
seph, the carpenter: and, if so, where?
Answer. Yes, sir; I saw him while I was collecting
taxes, by the sea of Galilee. (5)
Question. Did you afterwards make Jesus a great
feast where a large company of publicans and sinners
sat down with him, at the table? (6)
Answer. That is so written.
Question. You gave Jesus a feast after he had ap-
pointed you a disciple?
Answer. That is so written.
Question. Did you write that document called
“Matthew” in the New Testament?
Answer. Tradition says that I wrote it. (7)
Question. Is it true, as you say in chapter 28,
verses 5 to 7, that the angel told Magdalen that Jesus
had risen from the dead, and had gone into Galilee?
Answer. That was the tradition when I wrote.
Question. Did you see that angel?
Answer. No, I did not see the angel.
(5) Matt. 9, V. 9.
(6) Luke 5, v. 29.
(7) There is no certain proof that Matthew wrote the Gospel
which bears his name, but I have here given him the benefit of
a doubt.
312 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Question. Then how did you know that the angel
told Magdalen those things?
Answer. Well, that was the rumor and tradition
among the people.
Question. Matthew, you say that Jesus himself met
Magdalen and others near the tomb; and that he told
them to have his brethren go into Galilee, where they
would see him. (8) Is that true?
Answer. That was the rumor and the report there
in Palestine.
Question. Do you mean to tell me, sir, that you -
wrote your Gospel on rumor and report?
Answer. There were a great many curious stories
flying about, and I wrote down such things as I heard.
Question. Did you write your Gospel on rumor?
Answer. I wrote down what I heard.
Question. Matthew, you say that the eleven dis-
ciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus
had appointed, and when they saw him, some doubted.
(9) Why did they doubt?
Answer. Well, they did not believe it was Jesus
whom they saw. Else why should they doubt?
Question. Matthew, you say (10) an angel de-
scended from heaven and rolled the stone from the door
of the sepulcher. Is that true?
-
Answer. Well, that was a saying among the peo-
ple.
(8) Matt. 28, V. 9 and 10.
(9) Matt. 28, v. 16 and 17.
(10) Matt., ch. 28, v. 2.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 313
Question. Did you, Matthew, see that angel de-
scend from heaven which you say rolled the stone from
the tomb?
Answer. I did not see him.
Question. Who told you about that angel?
Answer. I heard that Mary Magdalen said she saw
and talked to the angel. (11)
Question. Did you see Jesus put into that tomb?
Answer. I did not see him put there.
Question. Did you see Jesus get out of the tomb?
Answer. I did not see him get out of the tomb.
Question. Were you among the disciples when “the
doors being shut,” Jesus came through those doors
and stood in the midst of them? (12)
Answer. I never heard of that or I should have
written about it. I know nothing about that.
Question. Matthew, why did you not write some-
thing about the ascension of Jesus into heaven ?
Answer. Such a thing was not an article of faith
when I wrote. I had never heard of it when I wrote.
Question. But, sir, that was and is a very impor-
tant matter. Why were you silent about it?
Answer. Some people possibly might have heard of
it, but I had not. I should have written about it if I
had heard of it.
Question. Matthew, do you claim that you were
inspired from heaven to write your Gospel?
Answer. I never claimed that I was inspired. I 11
(11) Matt. 88, v. 1 to 7.
(12) John 20, t. 19.
3»4
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
simply wrote down what was told me. There was no
such thing as inspiration when I wrote.
Question. Please state what you know about Jesus’
ascension into heaven?
Answer. I did not witness his ascension, and I
know nothing about it, or I should have written about
it.
Question. Do you, Matthew, know whether Jesus’
ascension took place in Galilee or in Bethany, a little
village about two miles from Jerusalem?
Answer. I know nothing whatever about Jesus’ as-
cension or I should have written about it.
Question. Were you, Matthew, present in Gethse-
mane when Simon Peter cut off Malchus’ ear? (13)
Answer. I was not there.
Question. In your Gospel you say: “Then all the
disciples forsook Jesus and fled.” (14) What made
them run away. Why forsake him ?
Answer. There was a multitude against him. (15)
Question. Did Jesus run away?
Answer. No; but he might have escaped.
Now, Matthew, I brand that as a base, cowardly
act, that all the disciples fled and left Jesus in the
hands of that murderous mob. Had they stood firm
they might have saved him.
********
(13) John 18, v. 10; Mark 14, v. 47.
(14) Matt. 26, t. 56.
(15) Matt. 26, v. 47.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 3*5
Mr. Mark, please take the stand.
Question. You wrote a Gospel, did you not?
Answer. Yes, I wrote one, sir.
Question. Matthew says there was an angel at the
tomb; and that the angel talked to Magdalen and
others. Now, Mark, please tell us all you know about
that matter.
Answer. Well, Matthew is wrong. It was not an
angel at all. It was that young man (16) clothed in a
white garment.
Question. Matthew says an angel came, rolled back
the stone from the door of the sepulcher; Mark, please
give us your version of that matter.
Answer. I think it was that young man clothed in
white that rolled the stone away. (17)
Question. Mark, please tell us if you know abso-
lutely that it was that young man, and not the angel,
who rolled the stone away.
Answer. What would be the use of sending an
angel way down from the skies to do such a little thing
as that? Could not that young man roll away the
stone ? A man rolled it there; and that young man no
doubt rolled it away. (18)
Question. You are sure, are you, Mark, that there
was only one young man at the tomb when Magdalen
came there that Sunday morning?
Answer. I never heard of but one, and I am sure I
am right. (19)
(16) Mark 16, v. 5.
(17) Mark 16, v. 5.
(18) Mark 16, v. 5.
(19) Mark 16, v. 6 to 8.
3*6
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Question. But Luke says (20) there were two men
in shining garments at the sepulcher; how is that?
Answer. I say, as I said before, there was only one
man at the tomb when Magdalen and those other
women came.
Question. How is this, Mark, that you are contra-
dicted by John (21), who states that there were two
angels in white at the tomb when Magdalen came?
Answer. John is always extreme. He says Jesus
made the world (22), and it is a wonder that he had
not said ten angels instead of two, that were at the
tomb.
Question. Mark, you say Magdalen and Mary fled
from the sepulcher, trembling and amazed; neither
said they anything to any man; for they were afraid.
(23) Matthew contradicts you there, for he says
those women “did run to bring the disciples word"
(24) And Luke (25) also contradicts you, and John
(26) is against you; for he says there were two angds
in white and the angels talked to the women.
Answer. They wrote after I wrote, and while they
don’t agree with me, they do not agree with each
other; for John (27) says there were two angels, and
Luke (28) insists there were two men at the tomb, and
(20) Ch. 24, y. 4.
(21) Ch. 20, v. 12.
(22) John 1, y. 10.
(23) Mark 16, y. 8.
(24) Matt. 28, y. 7 and 8.
(25) Ch. 24, y. 22 to 25.
(26) Ch. 20, y. 12.
(27) Ch. 20, y. 12.
(28) Ch. 24, y. 4.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 317
Matthew (29) says there was one angel, and an earth-
quake ; and there was neither angel nor earthquake.
Question. Do you, Mark, claim that you were in-
spired to write your Gospel?
Answer. No, I never claimed any inspiration;
there was no such thing in my day.
That is all, Mr. Mark, for the present.
***?**??
Mr. Luke, please take the stand.
Question. Did you write a history of Jesus* min-
istry and crucifixion, and the placing of his body in
the sepulcher, and its disappearance therefrom?
Answer. Tradition has it that I did.
Question. Now, Luke, you have stated in chapter
24 that on Sunday morning, when those women came
bringing their spices, they found the stone already
rolled away from the sepulcher; and Matthew says an
angel descended from heaven and rolled that stone
back and sat upon it. Please tell us all you know about
that interesting matter.
Answer. There were “two men in shining gar-
ments” (30) at the sepulcher; but no angels were
there. I know nothing concerning the angels which
Matthew says descended from heaven and rolled away
the stone from that tomb. (31)
Question. But Luke, you yourself say “that cer-
318 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
tain women there saw a vision of angels, which said
Jesus was alive.” (32) How about that?
Answer. Well, there was a tradition floating about
that Mary Magdalen saw certain strange objects,
which she took to be angels. (33)
Question. Mr. Luke, please state whether you ever
saw Jesus in the flesh, and if so, when and where you
saw him.
Answer. I never claimed to have seen him.
“Many” had undertaken to set forth the things be-
lieved among us, and “delivered unto us by eye-wit-
nesses,” and so I set forth my understanding of the
matter. (34)
Question. Then, Luke, you do not daim that the
things about which you wrote were witnessed by you ?
Answer. No, sir, I did not witness them; and I
never claimed that I did. I simply set forth the early
belief of the followers of Jesus.
Question. It was the belief, then, was it, that after
the sepulcher was found empty, Jesus could and did
walk about the country, that he had flesh and bones,
and an appetite and did eat? (35)
Answer. That certainly was the belief when I
wrote.
(32) Luke 24, ?. 23.
(33) Mardon wrote a Gospel about the time of Luke and he
says that there were “two men in white clothes” at the sepulcher.
Some say that Luke copied largely from Marcion. We will see
about that further along.
(34) Luke 1, v. 1 to 3.
(35) Luke 24, v. 29 to 43.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 319
Question. Do you, Luke, claim that you were in-
spired when you wrote your Gospel?
Answer. I never claimed inspiration. I wrote down
simply the things believed by Jesus’ followers, in my
day and time. (36)
Question. Luke, you say that they eat and drink in
heaven. (37) How is that?
Answer. How could they live if they did not eat?
Question. Your heaven, then, is something like this
present world?
Answer: Except that the wicked are in hell. (38)
Question. You say the righteous "eat and drink in
heavennow will not the wicked in hell perish unless
they also "eat and drink?”
Answer: I never thought of that. (39)
Question: Luke, you say (40) that there was dark-
ness over all the earth from the sixth to the ninth hour
at the time of the crucifixion. Is that true?
Answer. Yes, that is true.
Question. Now, Luke, that is false; absolutely
false; for the Passover and crucifixion were at the full
of the moon? and it is impossible for an eclipse of the
sun at the full of the moon. The laws of the universe
here flatly contradict you. An eclipse of the sun con
(36) Luke 1, v. 1.
(37) Lake 22, v. 30.
(38) Lnke 16, ?. 23.
(39) The Natchez Indiana in Mississippi, answered that question
much better than Luke. The good Indians, they said, would feast
on green corn and venison and fish, and have plenty of blankets;
the bad Indians would live, they said, on stinking fish, old croco-
dile legs, and have no blankets at all.
(40) Ch. 23, v. 44 to 45.
320 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
only occur at new moon. To produce an eclipse of
the sun, the sun, moon and earth must be in a straight
line. The moon must be interposed between the sun
and earth. Eclipses of the sun must always come from
the west. Now, Luke, what do you say to that?
Answer. Well, I am not an astronomer and did
not know of such things when I wrote.
Question. But, don’t you see, Luke, that the sun
could only be darkened by an eclipse? and there was
no eclipse at the full moon, and the Passover and cruci-
fixion were at the full of the moon ?
Answer. I wrote down only what people believed.
Question. Luke, in chapter 24, v. 33 to 51, you
mention the meeting of Jesus and the eleven in Jerusa-
lem; and his ascension at Bethany; but Matthew says
(41) Jesus appointed Galilee as the place to meet his
disciples, and that they met him there. How is it that
you and Matthew disagree ? You both cannot be right.
Answer. Bethany was the place of the ascension;
not Galilee.
Question. But, Luke, you are contradicted by
Mark, also. He says (42) that Galilee was the ap-
pointed place to meet Jesus’ disciples. What have you
to say about that?
Answer. I was told that the ascension was from
Bethany.
Question. How soon after the crucifixion do you
place the ascension of Jesus?
(41) Ch. 28, v. 7 to 10.
(42) Ch. 10, v. 7.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 321
Answer. Within two or three days following the
resurrection.
Question. Where do you say Jesus’ ascension took
place?
Answer. It took place in Bethany, about two miles
from Jerusalem.
Question. Luke, did you write that work called
“Acts of the Apostles?”
Answer. I am credited with it.
Question. In your gospel you have Jesus ascend
within a day or so after the crucifixion; but in “The
Acts” (43) he was, so you say, seen alive thereafter
by the apostles "forty days.” Please explain your con-
tradictions made by yourself of yourself.
Answer. The Acts were written some years later
and the tradition had changed.
Question. But which is right: did Jesus ascend from
Bethany, as you say in your Gospel, in a day or so
after the crucifixion; or was it forty days thereafter?
(44)
Answer. I cannot tell.
Question. You say (45) “the moon will be turned
into blood.” Don’t you know that that is all nonsense ?
Answer. Well, that is what people believed in my
day.
(43) Ch. 1, v. 3.
(44) Matthew and Mark send the disciples to Galilee, sixty-five
or seventy miles distant from Jerusalem. Luke contradicts them
flatly and says the ascension took place in Bethany, two miles
from Jerusalem. See Matt. 28, v. 16; Mark 16, v. 7; Luke, per
contra, ch. 24, v. 50 and 51.
(45) Acts 2, v. 20.
322 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Question. And you wrote it down?
Answer. Yes, that was what the people believed.
Question. You say (46) Jesus “was taken up and
a doud received him out of sight.” Please state how
you know that.
Answer. It was the belief of the Apostles; I did not
see it.
Question. But, Luke, how is it that no one of those
Apostles utters a word about this ascension which you
mention?
Answer. I cannot answer that. I do not know.
(46) Acts 1, v. 9 and 10.
CHAPTER XXVIII
John and His Curious Gospel.
Section i. Some writers are so extravagant in
their statements that we are led unwillingly to utterly
discredit their whole story.
The author of the fourth Gospel is of this class.
In his very first chapter he makes the extraordinary
statement that Jesus made this world (i) and that God
begat him. (2) He misled Paul into making the same
wild, foolish statement (3) ; and many others since that
day have followed John’s false light. Moreover, John
tells us that Jesus said: ‘‘He that hath seen me, hath
seen the Father.” (4)
Now, if it was John of Galilee, the fisherman of
Nazareth, the son of Zebedee, who wrote the fourth
canonical, he ought, being a Jew, to have known that
Genesis says: “In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth.” That statement is easy to
believe, but when John tells us that a Nazarene boy,
“who was subject to his parents,” (5) and worked 1
(1) John 1, v. 10.
(2) John 1, v. 14.
(3) Hebrews 1, v. 2.
(4) John 14, v. 9.
(5) Luke 2, v. 51.
323
324 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
at the carpenter's bench, made the world, we stoutly
dispute it.
Is it any wonder that the Jews asked: “Is not this
the carpenter, the son of Mary, and are not his broth-
ers and sisters here with us?” (6) Jesus* reply, “A
prophet is not without honor save in his own country*’
was sensible and consoling. He did not reply: “I made
the world,” and we may well ask: if Jesus made this
world, who made all the millions and millions of
worlds around us? (7)
Another very improbable story, told by John, is
that Jesus turned or made some water instantly into
wine of such fine flavor that the governor of the feast
was highly pleased with it. (8)
Still another world-wide story told by John is that
Jesus raised Lazarus, who had been dead four days—
so long, in fact, that Martha, his sister, said: “By this
time, Lord, he stinketh.” (9)
Jesus approached the cave, or grave, and ordered
(6) Mark 6, v. 3.
(7) John 6, ?. 42.
(8) John 2. John, it is said, wrote against Cerinthus, a Jewish
philosopher and writer, who composed a gospel wherein he insisted
that Jesus was not born of a virgin, but was the son of Joseph
and Mary, the same as their other children. Cerinthus was born
about 70 years A. D. and wrote about 120 to 140 A. D. It is said
that John, while in a bath, saw Cerinthus and leaped out and ran
away. He claimed that Cerinthus was a heretic. Irenaeus makes
this statement of the incident of the bath, but Ireneeus himself is
often carried away by his prejudices.
But I have always questioned whether John, the ignorant, clumsy
fisherman, was capable of such a task. Whoever was the author
of the fourth gospel, he contradicts the virgin story of Matthew.
(Matt. 1, 18 to 25) and (Luke 1, v. 26 to 36.)
(9) John 11, v. 39.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 325
-
a stone which had been placed upon it, to be removed.
Then Jesus prayed, and immediately thereafter he cried
with a loud voice: “Lazarus, come forth!” and Laza-
rus, it is said, walked out of that grave, bound hand
and foot, with his grave clothes on and his face bound
with a napkin.
Here, now, is a world-famous transaction, and
neither Matthew, nor Mark, nor Luke, all of whom
are supposed by some to have been inspired, make any
mention whatever of it. How is this? Is this true?
or is it a bit of romance? If the raising of Lazarus
ever happened, how is it that Matthew and those oth-
ers knew nothing about it ? It is more wonderful than
anything which they tell.
Is not this whole story about Lazarus on a par with
that told in the Protevangelium, or book of James
(ch. 24), wherein it is said that when the young chil-
dren were to be slaughtered by order of Herod, Eliza-
beth took her son John and fled to the mountains, and
that a friendly mountain opened and received them:
that Zacharias, because he would not disclose the hid-
ing place of his son, was murdered on the footsteps of
the temple, and that the roofs of the temple at the
moment of his death howled and were rent from top to
bottom.
The writer of this improbable incident, that a moun-
tain opened and gave shelter to Elizabeth and her
child, probably borrowed it from an old Persian myth,
where, in a “war of religions,” a friendly mountain
broke loose and slid down into the plain, thereby shel-
3a6 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
tering the Iranians from their victorious enemies, (io)
The Persians call their mountain Mount Madofryad,
which means “came to help.”
Section 2. John as a novelist or writer of fiction
would have been a great success, but as a writer of
gospel truth he is a miserable failure. Listen to his
extravagance: The disciples, we are told, were assem-
bled in a room, the doors being shut, for fear of the
Jews; Jesus came and stood in their midst and spoke
to them. (11)
And, lest he will not be believed, John tells us that
eight days later the disciples were again assembled
and the doors were again shut, and Jesus came and
stood in their midst and said: “Peace be unto you.”
(12)
How could Jesus’ body pass through those closed
doors? How can one solid body pass through another
solid body? And it was a solid body, for Thomas
thrust his hand into Jesus’ side. (13) The only way
that I can account for this is that John had probably
read the fable, or falsehood, that Buddha could pass
through a stone wall, and could walk on water as if on
solid ground. (14)
(10) See Whitney’s Zoroaster, the great Persian; Mis life and
teachings, etc., page 133. ch. 14.
(11) John 20, v. 19.
(12) John 20, v. 26.
(13) John 20, v. 27.
(14) Vol. II, Sacred Books of the East, p. 214 and 215, may
have misled John, for there we are told that if one should desire
to exercise the different Iddhis, he must fulfill all righteousness.
He must not drive back ecstacy of contemplation, etc. He then
could become visible or invisible; he could go without stopping at
the further side of a wall, or fence, or mountain. Not only that,
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 327
It is possible that John did not believe that Jesus’
mortal body could arise in the air and go up into
heaven. On that point Luke is emphatic—he says
Jesus was carried up there, but fails to tell who or
what carried him up. (15) Such a story told today
would not be believed. John’s last words in his gospel
tell us that he was at the sea of Tiberias, and one morn-
ing after the crucifixion he saw Jesus standing on the
shore.
John had gone back to his old business, that of a
fisherman, and Jesus told him to cast his net on the
right side of the ship and there was a great catch of
fish, and Jesus then dined with John and others. (16)
A few words from Jesus about feeding his lambs
and his sheep, and John closes his gospel. He has
not a word to say as to what became of Jesus after
that dinner, something that everyone would like to
know.
But it is improbable that John, the fisherman, wrote
that curious fourth gospel. It may have been John
the Presbyter. For about the year 180 A. D., Theophi-
lus, Bishop of Antioch, speaks of a gospel of John,
but he does not say that the author of that gospel
was an apostle. Moreover, John, the son of Zebedee,
as heretofore stated, was a Jew; and John of the
fourth gospel denounced the Jews as the children of
tut he could travel erote-Ugged through the tkg, or walk on
water, as if on solid ground, etc.
(15) Lnke 24, v. 51.
(16) John, ch. 20.
338 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
the devil. (17) He mentions the Jews as unbelieving.
(18), and there was a division among the Jews (19) ;
and when Jesus walked in the temple the Jews came
round about him. (20) The law of Moses is spoken
of as “your” law. And when Jesus talked to the peo-
ple, the Jews took up the stones to stone him. (21)
Jesus walked no more openly when he learned that
the Jews had taken counsel to put him to death. (22)
The Jews took Jesus and bound him. (23) Pilate told
the Jews that he found no fault in Jesus. (24) And
Pilate hated the Jews, and wrote, in contempt of them,
that world-famous, immortal superscription, and
nailed it on the cross, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of
the Jews.” (25)
Now if it was John the fisherman who wrote the
fourth gospel, it is remarkable, at least, that he makes
no mention whatever of Jesus’ ascension. (26)
If John was a disciple, he seems to have known
nothing about the ascension. (27) It is possible John
(17) John, eh. 8, v. 44.
(18) John 9, t. 18.
(19) John, ch. 10, v. 19.
(20) John 10, v. 23 and 24.
(21) John 10, v. 31 to 33.
(22) John 11, y. 53 and 54.
(23) John 18, v. 12.
(24) John 18, y. 38.
(25) Basilides, agnostic of Alexandria, wrote a gospel in which
he set forth that Jesus was not crucified—that it was Simon of
Cyrene (Luke 23, y. 26) who bore the cross and suffered on it.
(26) Ireneus, Bishop of Lyons, born 130 to 140 A. D. in
Smyrna, Asia Minor, says John’s gospel was written to confute
the errors and blunders of Cerinthus. But Gerinthus was not born
until 70 A. D. and he did not write until about 115 A. D. John
was not alive then.
(27) Matt. 28, y. 16 and 17.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 339
may have been one of the doubters, for some doubted.
Section 3. It must be noticed before we proceed
further, that the first Jewish converts to the new faith
did not cast aside the Old Testament. They had been
taught that it was of divine origin. It was the holy
book of their fathers and their grandfathers, and had
been such for many generations. And to persuade
the Jews to change their faith was as difficult as it
would be now to offer a new and different gospel to
the followers of the man of Galilee. Faiths are not
easily changed, and there was no New Testament, as
we have it at present, until about the last half of the
second century. And, strange as it may now seem,
Buddhist monks, or Essenes, for generations had been
living on the western shores of the Dead Sea (near
where John the Baptist appeared), and those Essenes
became at once friendly to the new religion. In fact,
centuries before Jesus came, Buddha had proclaimed
the higher life (28), and had likewise preached the
doctrine of punishment for the wicked. (28)
But Buddha had probably learned of this doctrine
of heaven and hell from Zoroaster, for his pupils
taught it to the Persians centuries before Buddha was
born. (29)
But in one matter, at least, John did not follow the
teachings of Buddha; for while the great Hindu
(28) Vol. 17, Sacred Books of the East, p. 125.
(28) Vol. 17, above, p. 100. See Ante., ch. 13, where this mat-
ter is treated at greater length.
(29) See chapter 10, Life and Teachings of Zoroaster, the Great
Persian, by Loren Harper Whitney, of the Chicago bar.
330 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
speaks of ten thousand world systems, John in his gos-
pel knows nothing of any other world than this one.
The transfiguration story which Matthew, and
Mark, and Luke mention with much particularity, and
which is very strikingly similar to the transfiguration
of Buddha five hundred years before, is not even men-
tioned by John, although the three other gospel writ-
ers are careful to state that John was present on that
mountain when Jesus talked to Moses and Elias. (30)
Without extending this chapter further, I will only
add that the collection of writings now called the New
Testament were not held to be holy or inspired until
about the year 170 A. D.
Then commenced the formation of the church of
Rome: and from that date to the present, the old and
new testaments have been called, by some people, holy
and inspired. (31)
(30) Matt. 17, v. 1; Mark 9, v. 28. Buddha’s transfiguration,
Vol. 11, Sacred Books of the East, p. 81 and 82 and p. 214.
(31) Rev. Dr. Davidson’s article, “Canon,” vol. 5, Br. Ency.,
CHAPTER XXIX
Examination of Luke Resumed.
Question. In the last chapter of your gospel, Luke,
you say that Jesus, after leaving the tomb, had flesh
and bones, and did eat, as other men do; and that he
preached to his disciples; and then near the close of
chapter 24, in verses 50 and 51, you say he led them
out as far as Bethany, a village about two miles from
Jerusalem, and lifted up his hands and blessed them;
and it came to pass while he blessed them, he was
parted from them and carried up into heaven.
Answer. Yes, I wrote that.
Question. Now, Luke, please tell us who it was or
what it was, that carried Jesus up into heaven?
Answer. I do not know.
Question. Was it a chariot of fire, and horses of
fire, such as Elijah had when he went up? (1)
Answer. I never heard that Jesus had any chariot,
or horses of fire, to take him up.
Question. Do you know what the “Acts of the
Apostles” say about the ascension? (2)
Answer. Yes, it says that when he had spoken to
(1) 2 Kings, eh. 2.
(2) Acts 1, v. 1 to 10.
331
33a A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
his disciples “he was taken up and a cloud received
him out of their sight.”
Question. As Jesus went up two men in white gar-
ments stood by, did they?
Answer. I so understood it.
Question. Were they the same two men in shining
garments that were at the sepulcher?
Answer. Possibly, but I do not know.
Question. It was Jesus’ mortal body that went up,
was it?
Answer. Certainly, it was his crucified body.
Question. Luke, did you know when you wrote that
gospel, anything about the law of gravitation, whereby
all bodies or particles of matter, everywhere in the
universe, were and are attracted toward each other?
Answer. I never heard of such a thing; there was
no such law in Palestine.
Question. Luke, you are mistaken. That law was
in full force in Palestine, and Jesus’ body was com-
posed of particles of matter; and his body, like any
other body of matter, was held down to the earth by
that universal law of attraction of gravitation. How
then do you say “he was carried up into heaven, and
a cloud received him out of sight?” (3)
Answer. It was a tradition among the people of
Palestine that “his body went up.” I did not witness
it, and in the very first verse of my gospel I say, “I
write of the things which are most surely believed
among us.”
(3) Acts 1, v. 9.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 333
Question. Then, Luke, all you really knew about
Jesus’ ascension, when you wrote, was from a tradi-
tion floating about among the people there in Pales-
tine, was it?
Answer. Yes, it was a local tradition, believed
mostly in Galilee.
Question. At the period of your gospel, you be-
lieved the earth to be flat, and that heaven was just
a bit above it, in the sky, did you not?
Answer. Of course, everybody knew that the earth
was flat and that heaven was just above it.
Question. You did not know, did you, that the
earth was traveling through space at an enormous
velocity?
Answer. Certainly not; the earth, when I wrote,
was stationary and quiet.
Question. You mean to say that it had that appear-
ance.
Answer. What else could I say?
Question. Well, suppose I should assert that at the
time you say Jesus made his ascension, this earth was
flying through space, and that, too, without wings, at
a velocity of about sixty or seventy thousand miles
an hour, or eleven hundred and thirty or forty miles
a minute; what would you say to that ?
Answer. I would dispute it. I would say that it
was impossible. I am sure it did not move then. (4)
(4) The reader should notice that as the earth travels 68,000
miles per hour, it flies through space about eleven hundred and
thirty-three miles per minute, that being a little more than twen-
ty-two miles per second, or twenty-five tunes swifter than a bullet.
334
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Question. Now, if heaven is just above the earth,
and the earth is flying through space, as I have said,
heaven must necessarily speed along with the same
velocity, must it not, in order that good people may
safely reach it?
Answer. In the first place, I do not admit that the
earth moves, but if it does move, as you say, then
heaven must move also, and must keep pace with it.
Question. Luke, did you know when you wrote
your gospel that the sun was moving northward to-
ward Lyra, and carrying the earth along with it, about
three hundred millions of miles each year?
Answer. I never heard of such a thing.
Question. But suppose, Luke, that this earth does
revolve on its axis every day, completely—does heaven
revolve around it also, keeping pace with it so that any
good people who may happen to die can reach it
easily ?
Answer. This earth does not revolve on its axis,
for if so, all the waters in the rivers, lakes and oceans
would spill out and fly off and become lost in space.
(5)
Question. But assume that the earth does revolve
on its axis, and that it is rushing rapidly through
space, is heaven also rushing along by the side of it
for the benefit of the saints?
Add to this the movement of the sun and the turning of the earth
on its axis, and we are traveling through space more than forty
times swifter than the fastest bullet.
(5) That was the old argument centuries ago, and held mankind
in its remorseless grip for many generations.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 335
Answer. Well, if the earth moves, as you say it
does, then heaven must surely follow close by.
Question. Luke, you say that Jesus was carried up
into heaven; please tell us who or what carried him
up? (6)
Answer. I cannot tell how he was carried up, but
that was the belief of the early Christians. (7)
Question. Do you not know that the atmosphere
eight or ten miles above the earth is so excessively
cold that if a man could be lifted that high, his breath
would become labored and heavy, and the intense cold
would freeze him stiff directly? How, then, could
Jesus live up there in that worse than arctic region?
Answer. If it is, in fact, so bitterly cold up there,
I do not see how he could live, or how they can keep
warm in heaven.
-
Question. Luke, do you know that you (of all the
millions of people who have ever lived) are the only
one who says that “Jesus was carried up into heaven?”
Answer. That may be so, but the Jewish Christians
in my day believed it.
Question. Suppose, Luke, that this earth, as here-
(6) Luke 24, v. 51.
(7) Mark, eh. 16, v. 19, makes only this brief statement:
1 * After the Lord had spoken unto them (his disciples) he was re-
ceived np into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.”
Matthew makes no mention of the ascension whatever. The faith
of the world in this matter, therefore, is pinned to the belief of a
few ignorant Jews. It must be remembered that careful crit-
icism of Mark closes his gospel at the eighth verse of his last
chapter, and if that be true then the ascension is mentioned by
Luke only.
336 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
tofore stated, turns on its axis, and that it travels
around the sun once every year, and that its orbit or
path is about five hundred and eighty or ninety mil-
lions of miles? There are two brothers, James and
John, both good men: James dies in the month of May;
you believe, do you, that he goes up at once to heaven?
Answer. Yes, I believe that.
Question. His brother John, also a good man, dies
in the month of November; when the earth has trav-
eled about two hundred and ninety millions of miles
from where James “went up,” how are those two
brothers ever to be united? (8)
Answer. Well, I don’t see, unless heaven travels
around with the earth.
Question. Now, Luke, as neither Matthew nor
John makes any mention about Jesus’ ascension, it
turns out, therefore, that although your words contra-
dict and set at defiance the law of gravitation in this
ascension matter, yet notwithstanding all this the faith
' of the world hangs suspended on your and Mark’s un-
supported words; is not that so?
Answer. I reply again that I simply wrote down
(8) A friend of mine, and a good man, too, when I pat this
question to him, had an easy way of its solution. “If it was I,”
he said, “I would just jump right back onto the earth and cling
there until she swung around to May, and then I would hop off
right where Jim went up.” I told him he would have to be very
quick hopping off, for he would be going forty times faster than
a bullet. But even then he would be more than a hundred mil-
lion miles from his brother. To be more nearly exact, he would
be one hundred and fifty millions of miles from his brother Jim.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 337
the belief of the Jewish Christians. I am answerable
for no more than that. (9)
Question. Suppose, Luke, that the stars, or at least
some of them, which we see in the sky, are worlds like
ours, with oceans and continents, and rivers and cli-
mates and peoples: now, if Jesus is the only begotten
son of the Most High, who is there to die for the sins
of all those people; or are we of this earth the only
wicked ones in all the universe? How is this?
Answer. Your question amazes me; how could or
can anyone live up there on those little bright things in
the air? Of course the stars are not worlds; they are
only beautiful bright specks in the sky. (10)
Question. But, Luke, truly the stars are worlds;
and some of them are larger than a thousand such
globes as ours; and those worlds have mountains and
rivers and lakes and oceans and continents and forests,
and plains and atmospheres, and there is no doubt
whatever but that they are inhabited the same as our
globe. The moral law pervades the universe; sin is
sin in those worlds, as well as here. To murder a man
on Venus, or Mars, or Mercury is a crime as well as
here. (11) Now, again I ask, if Jesus is the only son of
(9) Mark says: "Jesus was received up into heaven and eat
on the right hand of God.” (Mark 16, v. 19.) Bnt the reader
should be cautioned that the last eight verses of Mark are said to
be spurious: Vol. 10, Br. Ency., title “Gospels,” p. 801, 9th edition.
(10) The true and proper ending of Matthew is eh. 28, v. 8, and
of Luke, ch. 24, v. 9; of Mark, ch. 16, v. 11. That waa the belief
of the early Christians.
(11) I believe the time is coming when we will telegraph to
Mars and Venus. Sixty years ago who would have said that wo
eould telegraph across the Atlantic f
338 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
God, is there imposed on him the sorrowful task of
making atonement for all the peoples of all the mil-
lions of worlds about us? What think you? (12)
Answer. Your question reaches deep down. Of
course, if there are such a vast number of worlds, it
would seem as if Jesus could hardly follow the busi-
ness of dying for each and all of them. It would wear
him out.
Question. But philosophers and astronomers, after
long and patient research, tell us that there are more
than three hundred and fifty millions of stars or worlds
(down to the twelfth magnitude), many of them
vastly greater than this earth. Is it believable that
this vast host are put there just for us to look at,
when, as I have said, they have mountains and rivers
and scenery and atmospheres similar to ours; what
were they made for if not to be inhabited?
Answer. Perhaps their people did not sin.
Question. What is that? All that vast host of
habitable worlds and not a sinner among them? Is
this world of ours the only degenerate? What do you
say, Mr. Luke?
Answer. I know nothing of any other world than
this one. If the stars are worlds, it is wonderful, won-
derful.
That is all, Luke.
(12) The number of stars visible to the naked eye exceeds fifty-
five hundred. But with telescopes, more than three hundred and
fifty millions can be seen! Our earth is only a very small star
and like every human life; philosophers tell us that the stars are
as much alive as trees or plants, and that they, too, will die in the
long hereafter.
CHAPTER XXX
Apocryphal Miracles as Recounted in the
Apocryphal Gospels.
Section i. No statement of religious teachings in
the first and second centuries A. D., is complete with-
out some mention of what are called apocryphal gos-
pels and apocryphal miracles. Those books which
have been branded for centuries as apocryphal, I pro-
pose here and now to give a brief hearing, not only
because it is just, but moreover they throw, as it were,
- side lights on many things stated in the preceding
chapters.
At the close of the first century A. D. and well on
into the second, many persons were busily engaged in
writing of the things which were believed by the new
converts of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth.
In his very first line Luke tells us that “many” before
his day had undertaken to set forth the things most
surely believed (i) by the followers of the new-born
faith.
The following named books are branded “apocry-
phal” in the Protestant Bible, viz.:
First Esdras, written probably about one hundred
and fifty years B. C.
(1) Notice that he only writes of tfap things “most surely be-
lieved” (Lake 1, v. 1). It is very doubtful whether Luke used
the words “most surely” in the above sentence.
340
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Second Esdras, written about eighty to one hun-
dred years B, C. There is much fine writing in this
last book, and Matthew and Luke must have been dili-
gent students thereof. Jesus was likewise familiar
with Esdras. (2)
Tobit, written long after the exile, has numerous
angels (3), but only one devil, who has withal a sharp
sense of smell. (4)
Judith is the story of a beautiful Hebrew widow,
who deceived Holofemes, the Assyrian General, and
finally murdered him in his tent. Thus was Judea,
through the wiles and wickedness of a woman, re-
lieved from an invasion of the Assyrians.
The chapters of Esther, in the apocryphal, are
mostly made up of efforts of a Jewish queen to bene-
fit her people. But The Wisdom of Solomon, writ-
ten in the second century B. C., in Egypt, is a work
of a far different character. Serious speculation makes
its appearance; there is doubt and questioning. We
are born, it tells us, at venture, and we shall be here-
after as though we had never been. “Our life,” it
says, “is short and tedious, and in the death of man
there is no remedy, neither was there any man known
to have returned from the grave.”
Section 2. There is a dolorous train in The Wisdom
of Solomon. “Our time,” it says, “is a very shadow
(2) Ch. 7 and 8, 2nd Esdras; Matt 7, v. 13 and 14; Luke 13,
v. 24.
(3) Ch. 12.
(4) Ch. 6, y. 17.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 341
that passeth away, and our end is fast sealed; there
is no returning.” (5)
There is a touch of modem thought, however, in
Solomon, for we are told that “no torment shall reach
the souls of the righteous,” and their hope is full of
immortality.
Here creeps in this abominable doctrine: “The
Lord hath the care of His elect” (6). The devil also
appears. Man, it is said, was created to be immortal,
but through envy of the devil, death came into the
world. (7) In truth whoever wrote The Wisdom of
Solomon sounded the key-note of the New Testament.
The righteous are said to be full of the hope of immor-
tality, and shall judge the nations; but the ungodly
shall be punished. (8) The book closes with a threat
of wrath without mercy, to the ungodly.
Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus, the son of
Sirach, written 140 to 200 years B. C., contains many
beautiful sentences, with much sage advice. To il-
lustrate : “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of
Wisdom.” “The Lord is full of Compassion and
Mercy; He forgiveth sins.” (9)
And we are commanded to “be a father unto the
fatherless.” (10) If we strive for the truth unto
death, the Lord, we are told, will fight for us. We
are admonished to be sincere and not cultivate a
(5) Ch. 2, v. 1 and 5.
(6) Ch. 3, y. 9.
(7) Ch. 2, v. 24.
(8) Ch. 3, y. 1 to 10.
(9) Ch. 1 and 2.
(10) Ch. 4, y. 10.
342 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
double tongue. Shakespeare, in his play of Hamlet,
catches his inspiration from chapter 6 when he says,
“The friends thou hast and their adoption tried, grap-
ple them to thy soul with hooks of steel.” (11)
Chapter 12, v. 7, hardly comes up to the high stand-
ard of the Sermon on the Mount; for it tells us to
“give to the good man, but help not the sinner.”
Ecclesiasticus is filled with much sage advice, and
many beautiful mottoes. One of the best is: “He
that can rule his tongue shall live without strife.”
(12) “A thief,” he says, “is better than a liar.” (13)
The Book of Baruch is held to be apocryphal by
Protestants, and deutero-canonical by Roman Catho-
lics. In the very first verse, Baruch says he wrote
the book in Babylon. “We are in our captivity,” he
says, “in a strange country; Israel is waxen old; had
she walked with God, she would have dwelt in peace
forever.” (14)
But like many other old Jewish writers, Baruch has
not even a hope in the long hereafter. He says the
dead that are in the graves, whose souls are taken from
their bodies, will give unto the Lord neither praise nor
righteousness. (15)
Baruch held its place in the Hebrew canon for two
hundred and eighty years after Jesus came, and was 11
(11) Ch. 6, v. 7.
(12) Ch. 19, v. 6.
(13) Ch. 20, v. 25.
(14) Ch. 3, v. 8 to 13.
(15) Ch. 2, v. 17.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 343
read in public on the Day of Atonement, as a sacred,
or inspired book. (16)
The Song of the Three Holy Children startles us
at once with a statement so brazen that we turn it
down as absolutely false. For how could Azarias
and those other Hebrews, survive unsinged in an oven
so hot with pitch and rosin and wood that the flames
streamed up forty-nine cubits, burning the Chaldeans
who fed the furnace, and yet not a hair of Azarias’
head be singed.
But an explanation is attempted when we are told
that an angel came down into that oven and smote
the flames, and made it moist and comfortable. This
whole story is simply a supplement to the book of
Daniel (17) and both are truly apocryphal. (18)
Section 3. The History of Susanna stands On a dif-
ferent footing. It is the story of a faithful wife,
whom two villains sought to beguile; and because she
was true, they determined on her destruction. And
she was only saved from death by putting the two
witnesses apart and questioning them closely. At
once their perjury was laid bare, the woman was
saved and the villains were put to death in her stead.
In the history of Bel and the Dragon, Bel was a
Babylonian idol, very costly, for each day he devoured
forty sheep and great quantities of flour and wine.
The king told Daniel that Bel devoured all that sub-
(16) Vol. 5, Br. Encv., p. 3.
(17) Ch. 3.
(18) Ch. 1, v. 23 to 27.
344
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
stance every day. At this, Daniel smiled and told
the king that Bel was only clay and brass, and could
not eat or drink anything. Wroth at this, the king
called his three score and ten priests and said unto
them: “If ye tell me not who this is that devoureth
these things, ye shall surely die. But if ye can certify
me that Bel devoureth them, then Daniel shall die.”
The king and Daniel then went into the temple, and
the food and wine were brought, and the door made
fast with the king’s signet. “Tomorrow when thou
comest,” said the priests, “if Bel has not eaten all, we
suffer death, or else Daniel has spoken falsely.” The
priests felt secure, for under the table they had a
secret door, whereby they had entered and consumed
the food and drink given to Bel. Now when Daniel
had scattered ashes on the floor, the king and he de-
parted.
During the night, the priests and their families en-
tered by the secret door and ate and drank everything.
In the morning the king and Daniel, finding the seal
unbroken and the table empty, the king cried out:
“Great art thou, O Bel; there is no deceit in thee.”
Then Daniel laughed and pointed the king to the
footprints in the ashes on the floor and showed him
the secret entrance, where the priests and their fami-
lies came in. The king at this grew wroth, and slew
the priests, but delivered Bel and his temple to Daniel,
who destroyed both.
The First Book of Maccabees is a book of wars, in
which Judas (called Maccabees) was for a time the
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
345
general of the Hebrews. He fought valiantly, but
was finally slain. Maccabees is a book of deception
and treachery. (19) In this same Ch. 12, v. 9, which
was written 114 to 150 years B. C., we find the first
certain mention that the Old Testament is thought to
be an inspired book. (20)
Section 4. Maccabees Second commences with
thanks to God for the death of their great enemy, An-
tiochus. The new king, on learning of the great
riches stored in the temple of Jerusalem, sends Heli-
odorus, his treasurer, to seize them. The Lord of
spirits, to save the treasures, caused a great apparition
of a horse with a terrible rider to appear;
and the horse smote Heliodorus with his feet. More-
over, two young men of great strength and beauty
scourged Heliodorus so violently that he fell to the
earth and was borne away in a litter. (22)
If the reader is of a military cast of mind, chapter
five, second Maccabees, will be a royal feast unto him.
He will there learn of apparitions, the clashing of
swords, the shaking of shields, the thrust of lances,
and the charge of battalions in the air. This, it is
said, was seen “for almost forty days.” (23)
Chapter seven is a story of the heroic death of a
mother and her seven sons, by infamous torture, be-
(19) Ch. 12, ?. 48.
(20) Vol. 13, page 154, Br. Ency.
(21) Ch. 3.
(22) The Jews said it was the Almighty Lord that appeared and
saved their treasure, ch. 3, v. 30. I think they were mistaken.
It was a shrewd trick of an ancient Shylock more likely.
(23) Ch. 5, v. 2 and 3.
346
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
-
cause they would not eat swine flesh. The whole
chapter may be simply the imagination of the writer,
but it is noteworthy that it appears about the same
date as the book of Daniel, where we get the first full
mention of the new gospel of the resurrection. The
Jews imported that doctrine from Persia or India.
(24) Zoroaster had preached it centuries and cen-
turies before either Daniel or Maccabees were
dreamed of. The last two chapters of the work wd
are considering, fumkh evidence of the Jewish faith,
one hundred and seventy years B. C. They show us
that the Persian belief, or Hindu belief, of the life
beyond the grave, was slowly filtering into the de-
praved Jewish mind. But it was to be a bodily resur-
rection. (25) We are told that Razis, one of the eld-
ers of Jerusalem, in a fierce conflict with Nicanor’s
men, being wounded unto death, seized his own bow-
els and hurled them at his enemies, calling upon the
Lord to restore his bowels again, then immediately he
expired. (26)
The Prayer of Manasses, King of Judah. He was
a captive in Babylon, and his prayer ought to have a
place in every Bible. Manasses was suffering great
tribulation as a helpless prisoner in a strange land.
(24) The legend of Daniel is nearly 700 years B. C. Ezekiel
14, v. 14, and Ezekiel 28, v. 3. The book of Daniel was written
about 165 to 175 years 6. G. But whence came this great consol-
ing thought that mankind will escape the darkness and the eternal
silence of the grave! It came from Persia. See Whitney’s
Zoroaster, p. 94 and 95.
(25) Ch. 12, v. 43 to 45.
(26) Ch. 14, y. 37 to 46, Second Maccabees.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 347
He was loaded with chains, so that he could not
lift his head. He confessed his multiplied transgres-
sions, and humbly asked forgiveness for all his of-
fenses.
I will simply add on this point that had I been pres-
ent when the Canon was settled, I should most heart-
ily have voted in Manasses’ favor.
CHAPTER XXXI
The Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus Compared
With the Canonicals.
Section i. We turn now to some ancient writings,
very similar to those of Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John; and because they are extravagant about miracles,
etc., they are ingloriously turned down. But nothing
is more certain than that for the first one hundred
and fifty years after Jesus’ death, a great number of
persons were engaged in writing histories of His time
which they called “Gospels,” and in those gospels they
tell most marvelous things.
Some of those alleg/ed gospels were written before,
and some after the canonicals; but no absolute and un-
impeachable date can be fixed for either class.
The Acts of Pilate or Gospels of Nicodemus are
either copied from Matthew and Luke and others, or
Matthew and Luke copy from Nicodemus. To illus-
trate : In chapter two, Jesus is brought before Pilate,
and Pilate’s wife sent to him saying: “Have nothing
to do with that just man, for I have suffered much
concerning him in a vision this night.” Matthew,
chapter 27, verse 19, quotes this word for word, ex-
cept that he says Pilate’s wife had a dream that day of
him. Chapter 2, Acts of Pilate, tells us that Pilate
348
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
349
called Jesus to him and said, “Hast thou heard what
they testify against thee?” Matthew (i) copies this:
Pilate says, “Hearest thou how many things they wit-
ness against thee?” (2) When the Jews were clamor-
ing for Jesus’ crucifixion, Pilate said unto them: “It is
Hot proper to crucify him; let him be whipped and sent
away.” Luke, chapter 23, verse 22, makes Pilate say
of Jesus: “I have found no cause of death in him; I
will therefore chastise him and let him go.” In the Acts
of Pilate, ch. 4, Nicodemus appears and entreats Pilate
to be merciful, for he says: “Jesus is o man who has
done many useful and glorious things, such as no man
on earth has done, or can do,” and he begs Pilate
to dismiss him, and do him no harm. And Nicode-
mus adds, “If he is from God, his wonderful works
will stand; but if from men, they will come to
naught.”
Section 2. In Acts 5, v. 38 and 39, Luke copies
Nicodemus exactly; or Nicodemus copies Luke. Which
one is the copyist? In chapter 6, Acts of Pilate, another
Jew asked to.be heard in Jesus’ behalf. Pilate permitted
him. “I lay for thirty-eight years by the sheep pool,
at Jerusalem,” said the man, “suffering a great in-
firmity. I was expecting a cure from the coming of
an angel, who disturbed the water at a certain time.
Whoever thereafter first descended into it was made
whole of every infirmity.” John, chapter 5, verses
2 to 10, says there were five porches af this “sheep 1
(1) Ch. 27, v. 13.
(2) Ch. 4, Acts of Pilate.
350
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
pool,” and that the halt, the blind, and the withered,
lay there waiting for the angel to come and move the
waters; that whoever first, after the troubling of the
waters, stepped in, was made whole. And John men-
tions this man who had lain there thirty-eight years.
Nicodemus now tells the rest of this story in one
quarter of the space of John. “Jesus finding a man
languishing there, said, “Wilt thou be made whole?”
The man answered, “Sir, I have no man, when the
water is troubled, to put me into the pool.” Jesus
said unto him, “Rise, take up thy bed and walk,” and
immediately the man was made whole and took up his
bed and walked.
Some other Jews, besides Nicodemus, interceded
for Jesus. “I was blind,” said one, “and he restored
me to sight.” "I was a leper,” said another, “and he
cured me by his word only,saying, ‘Be thou dean,’ and
immediately I was cleansed from leprosy.” Luke, in
chapter 5, verses 12 and 13, tdls this same story, but
he uses sixty words as against thirty in Nicodemus.
The story of the paralytic is told in Acts of Pilate in
ninety-three words. Luke tells the same with no im-
provements, in two hundred and thirty-two words.
The law of accretion in John and Luke, is here plain-
ly evident. (3)
In mock trial before Pilate, Nicodemus tells us
(3) A story always gains on its travels. It took John exactly
one hundred and sixty words to tell of this man waiting at the
sheep pool. Nicodemus pictures the same story as well or better
than John in fifty words less. Tertulian, the African, says: “ John
survived the ordeal of being boiled in oil. ’ ’ If that be so, it may
have unbalanced John’s mind somewhat.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
35i
(4) that a Pharisee stood forth and declared that a
great company of infirm persons came from Galilee
and the coast countries, and that Jesus healed them
all. Then others of the Jews cried out, “Even de-
mons are subject to him.” Nicodemus (5) and Mat-
thew (6) say that “Jesus healed one possessed with a
devil.” The Acts of Pilate (7) tells the story of Jesus
“casting out a devil,” just after he himself had been
driven from Nazareth; and Luke (8) later on, copies
Nicodemus almost word for word. (9)
After the crucifixion, the Jews, on learning that
Joseph of Arimathea had begged and buried the body
of Jesus, sought to arrest him and his accomplices;
but they all fled except Nicodemus. Joseph soon after
returned; whereupon the Jews seized and confined
him in a chamber, where there were no windows, and
they fastened the door and put a seal upon the lode
and placed a guard there. (10)
Although he came to Jesus by night (11), Nicode-
mus must have been a man of courage and firmness,
for we are told that in this exigency he faced the Jews
boldly and expostulated with them.
(4) Ch. 7.
(5) Ch. 8.
(6) Ch. 12.
(7) Ch. 7.
(8) Ch. 4, v. 31 to 36.
(9) “Many” had written before Luke, and he ought to have
given Nicodemus credit for this incident.
(10) Ch. 12, Acts of Pilate; Matt. 27, v. 57 to 59; Luke 23, v.
50 to 53. On the question of priority between Luke and the gospel
of Nicodemus, there are many disputants on each side; and the
absolute truth will probably never be known.
(11) John 3, v. 2.
352
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Here now appears a miracle something like that
in Acts 12, when Peter was released from prison by
an angel. When the Jews ordered Joseph to be
brought forth (12) from that dark sealed chamber,
he could not be found. Yet we are told that the same
seal, unbroken, was on the lock. The Jews did not be-
lieve the soldiers, and in the altercation which followed,
the soldiers said: “You produce Joseph, whom ye put
under guard in your own chamber, and we will produce
Jesus, whom we guarded in the sepulcher.”
Nicodemus all this time (13) believed Jesus to be
alive, and he sent men into the mountains to search for
him. They did not find Jesus, but found Joseph, who
returned and related his extraordinary escape. He said
Jesus entered that room and set him free. John (14)
tells the same kind of .a story. Jesus had then gone into
Galilee.
(12) Acts of Pilate, ch. 13.
(13) Ch. 15, Acts of Pilate.
(14) Ch. 20, y. 20.
l
CHAPTER XXXII
More Apocryphal Miracles.
Section i. The second century A. D. was re-
plete with writers of Gospels of every grade, and
each gospel, canonical and apocryphal, was filled
with alleged miracles of the most extraordinary char-
acter.
An early gospel, written probably about the time
of Luke, was the Protevangelium, or book of James.
Now, while it is true that the Protevangelium has been
branded as apocryphal, it is also true that it has a
certificate of genuineness; for at the conclusion its
colophon says: “I, James, wrote this history in Je-
rusalem, and when the disturbance was, I retired
into a desert place, until the death of Herod, and the
disturbance ceased.” (i) Moreover, no one of the
four canonicals has any colophon, nor can anyone tell
when or where they were written.
One of the improbable things which James men-
tions is that Elizabeth, hearing that her son John was
being searched for, took him and fled to the moun- 1
(1) He must mean Herod Antipas; for Herod the Great died
the year before or the same year Jesus was born. James mentions
the peculiar betrothal of Joseph and Mary. See ch. 5, ante.
363
354 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
tains; and that a friendly mountain opened wide and
safely received them. Another is that when Zacha-
rias was killed, his blood hardened into stone; and
the roofs of the temples howled and were rent from
top to bottom.
The gospel of Luke, which seems truly to have been
made up from “many” older manuscripts, quotes lib-
erally from the Protevangelium (2), but James men-
tions one thing which Luke utterly ignores; for James
says that Mary, at the time of her conception, was
only fourteen years old. (3)
Luke tells us (4) that Joseph and Mary reached
Bethlehem; but James says when within three miles
of that place her time drew near, and they were
obliged to stop; and she was taken into a cave, a place
used for the herding of sheep, and Jesus was bom
there. The gospel of the Infancy, written in the sec-
ond century, and ascribed to Thomas, the doubter (5),
mentions the taxing, and the journey, and the stopping
at that cave. The Protevangelium (6) says they
stopped three miles from Bethlehem.
Luke and the gospel of the Infancy here now con-
tradict Matthew in the most explicit terms, for they
assert that Jesus was taken to the temple in Jerusalem
(2) Luke himself mentions that 11 many*1 have written of these
things before him. (Luke 1, v. 1.)
(3) Gh. 12, James.
(4) Ch. 2, v. 4.
(5) John 20, v. 24 to 28.
(6) Ch. 18.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
355
and was there circumcised on the eighth day after his
birth. (7) And after the circumcision in the temple,
Luke says, “Joseph and Mary returned into Galilee, to
their own city of Nazareth.” (8)
Now, if Jesus was taken to Jerusalem, as Luke de-
scribes, he was not rushed off to Egypt, as Matthew
tells us. One or the other of these stories is surely
false. Which one is true? We have been taught (at
least I was) that “all scripture is given by inspira-
tion.” (9) Which one of these men was inspired
in this matter? Two witnesses in court swearing to
absolute opposites may both be false, but they cannot
both be true.
Section 2. Neither John nor Mark nor Luke
makes any mention whatever of the star which came
and stood over the young child.
But Matthew tells us that the wise men from the
East saw it and followed it. (10) And the book of
James (11) mentions it as a very large star, outshin-
ing all the other stars in the heavens. Moreover,
James divulges a secret of which neither of the ca-
nonicals makes explicit mention, though Matthew hints
at it broadly. (12) But James (13) says Joseph be-
lieved Mary was to be with child by an angel, and that
(7) Infancy, ch. 5 and 0; Luke, ch. 2.
(8) Luke 2, v. 39.
(9) Holy men of God spoke, it is said, as they were moved by
the Holy Ghost. (Second epistle of Peter, ch. 1, v. 21.)
(10) Matt. 2.
(11) Ch. 21.
(12) Matt. 1, ?. 18 to 20.
(13) Ch. 14.
35$
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
if he concealed her crime, he would be found guilty by
the law of the Lord.
Is it not a curious circumstance that Matthew
makes the birth of Jesus so great and important that
a star moves through the heavens “till it comes and
stands over this child?” (14) Then he sends the par-
ents and child in hot haste off to Egypt, where they
remain until the death of Herod. (15) Yet neither
Mark, Luke nor John mentions a word about either
the journey or the residence in Egypt. And Matthew
gives as his sole reason for that journey that Hosea
(16) , a Jewish writer seven hundred years before, bad
said: “When Israel was a child, then I loved him,
and called my son out of Egypt.”
. Leaving out the star story, and Hosea, Matthew’s
first chapter is mostly made up of Joseph’s five
dreams. First, he is in trouble about his wife, and
an angel appears to him in a dream, and soothes him.
(17) Then he is “warned of God in a dream, that
they should not return to Herod.”
Then after starting for Galilee, the angel of the
Lord appears to Joseph in another dream (18) and
bids him go to Egypt. Again after the death Of Herod,
(14) Matt. 2, v. 9 and 10.
(15) Herod the Great died the year Jesus was born, that is, 4
B. C., and he is the one charged with the slaughter of the infants.
But history makes no mention of the murder of the children, and
while it is true that Herod murdered his sons and his wife, and
was vile enough to kill the babes, yet it is not certain that Mat-
thew is right in charging him with that awful crime.
(16) Ch. 11, v. 1. -
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 357
an angel of the Lord appears in still another dream
(19) and tells him to take the child and his mother
and go into the land of Israel. On reaching Israel,
Joseph learns that Archelaus is king, and he is warned
of God in yet another dream, and he goes and dwells
in Nazareth. (20)
The thoughful reader will just here inquire who
told Matthew about those five dreams? Joseph could
not tell him, for Joseph had been in his grave a cen-
tury when Matthew was written. Does it require in-
spiration to state a sober fact? Surely we can affirm
that dreams are gossamer things upon which to build
a great historical faith.
The gospel of the Infancy, written before or about
the time of Matthew, may have somewhat misled him,
for it says, “Joseph, being warned of an angel, fled
into Egypt.” (21)
No one of the canonicals mentions a word about
the miracles which Jesus is said to have performed in
Egypt; and I can only account for this on the theory
that the alleged miracles are so astounding as to sur-
pass belief.
On being carried in his mother’s arms into a temple
in Egypt, while he was a baby, it is said all the idols,
big and little, fell down at his approach. A girl, white
(19) Matt. 2, v. 19.
(20) Matt. 2, v. 22.
-
(21) Infancy, ch. 9, says the wise men came from the EaBt;
according to the prophecy of Zoroaster. That star story, it seems,
is an importation from Persia. Chapter 29, Gospel of the Infancy,
says Joseph and Mary resided in Memphis three years.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
35»
with leprosy, on taking Jesus in her arms, was instant-
ly cured. A young man, for some offense, had been
changed into a mule; Jesus was placed on that mule’s
back, and at once the mule was transformed into the
young man. (22)
Traveling in a desert place, Jesus caused a cooling
fountain, it is said, to gush forth, to the great relief
of the parched sufferers.
The Jewish instinct of trade seems to have been
strong in Mary, for she cured Caleb, a sick boy,
by giving his mother some of Jesus’ swaddling clothes,
in exchange for a beautiful carpet. The touch of the
swaddling clothes, it is said, healed Caleb (23) in-
stantly. But another woman, an enemy of Caleb,
seized him and threw him into a well. Instead of
drowning, Caleb sat calmly upon the surface of the
waters, uninjured. His persecutor, the woman, by ac-
cident fell into the well, and instantly perished.
A young woman who had been long afflicted by
Satan sucking her blood, was cured by wrapping some
of Jesus’ swaddling clothes about her head. Flames
at once burst forth from these clothes, and so badly
scorched the dragon that he cried out: “What have
I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of Mary? Whither
shall I go?” Luke, in chapter 8, v. 28, quotes this
dragon story, with this difference; that the devil, in
Luke, begs to enter into some swine, and the swine
perish by drowning in the sea.
(22) Ch. 10 to 20, Gospel of the Infancy.
(23) Ch. 27 to 34, Gospel of the Infancy.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 359
Chapter 40 of the Infancy tells us that Jesus turned
some boys into kids, and he said to the kids, “Come
hither, O ye kids”; and they came. Then at a word
he changed them back into boys. Later on, he could
change water into wine, at least John so tells us.
(24) One story is perhaps just as true as the other.
While Jesus was still a boy in Egypt, we are told
that he raised a dead boy to life. Later he met a
funeral procession bearing a young man to his grave.
He came and touched the bier, and said to the corpse,
“Arise,” and the dead sat up and began to speak.
(25) Why condemn the Infancy story and not also
that of Luke?
Matthew makes no mention whatever of the length
of time Jesus remained in Egypt; but the Infancy
here comes to our assistance, and tells us that his resi-
dence there lasted three years. But Joseph, when he
came near Judea, on his return, hearing that Archelaus
was king, was afraid, and an angel appeared to him,
and said, “O Joseph, go into the city of Nazareth, aqd
there abide.” (26)
Section 4. Nothing is mentioned of Jesus’ boy-
hood in any of the four approved gospels, from his
birth until he is twelve years of age. Then we catch
one solitary glimpse of him (27), and he again dis-
appears utterly, until his baptism, when he is about
(24) John 2, v. 3 to 10.
(25) Luke 7, v. 11 to 15.
(26) Ch. 26, Infancy.
(27) Luke 2, v. 40 to 54.
3&>
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
twenty-nine or thirty years old. (26) The gospel of
the Infancy fills in this hiatus somewhat, and con-
firms Luke in his mention of the discussion with the
doctors in the temple. But the Infancy goes beyond
Luke, and tells us that Jesus went to school to Zac-
cheus, and from him to a more learned teacher. This
last teacher, for some reason untold, raised his hand
to strike Jesus, and it is said his hand instantly with-
ered, and the master presently died. Moreover, it is
said in the Infancy (29) that Jesus explained to an
astronomer the number of spheres, and heavenly bod-
ies, their triangular, square and sextile aspect; their
progressive and retrograde motions, their size, etc.
He explained to a philosopher, physics and natural
philosophy, the powers of the body, its bones and ar-
teries, and how the soul operates on the body.
The Infancy says that after the return to Nazareth,
Jesus worked with Joseph, his father (30), as a car-
penter ; and when Joseph wanted anything longer or
shorter, Jesus would stretch his hand toward it, and
it instantly became the length desired; that Joseph hav-
ing spent a long time in building a throne for the king
of Jerusalem, made it short two spans, and he was
greatly worried; so troubled in fact, that he went to
bed without his supper. In the morning Jesus took
hold of one side, and Joseph the other, and pulled, and
the throne straightway came to the right dimensions.
(28) Mark 1, v. 9; Matt. 3, v. 13; Luke 3, v. 23.
(29) Infancy, ch. 48 to 53.
(30) Ch. 37 and 39.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 361
(31) Jesus, it is said, concealed his miracles and de-
voted himself to the study of the law till thirty years
old. The Infancy concludes in these words: “The end
of the whole gospd of the Infancy, by the assistance
of the Supreme God, according to what we found in
the original.”
(31) Li not this too much for sober belief! But did Jordan
roll back its waters for the Israelites to cross! (Joshua, ch. 3,
?.16.) Bid the winds and wares calm down at Jesus’ rebuke!
Did Buddha, when a great inundation surrounded the place where
he lived, cause the water to recede at his words! (V. 13, Sacred
Books of the Bast, p. 131.) Did Buddha walk on water! (Fo
Sho Hing, p. 222, sec. 1551.) Did Jeetts walk on water! (Mark
6, ?. 48.)
CHAPTER XXXIII.
The Apocryphal Gospel of Marcion Compared
With Luke's Canonical.
(
Section i. Concerning the gospel of Marcion, a
ceaseless warfare has been waged for and against it,
for nearly 1,600 years, and the end is not yet. Truly,
who can look into the seeds of time and say which
grain will grow and which will wither?
When Marcion and Luke were both alive, who
could have told which gospel would become canoni-
cal? Our first inquiry, therefore, is, who was this
Marcion, and what was his gospel that has been sound-
ing down all these centuries?
As near as his period can be fixed, he was bom
at Sinope, in Pontius, on the southern shore of the
Black Sea, about the year no A. D. Tertulian, his
great enemy and detractor, said of him that “all
things in Sinope are cold and torpid; yet nothing
there is so sad as that Marcion was bom there.”
In early life Marcion was a prosperous shipowner
in Sinope. His vessels gathered wealth for him all
along the coasts of Pontius. When, between the age
of twenty-five and thirty, he became a convert from
paganism to Christianity, at once the whole tenor of
his life was changed. He became not only religious,
362
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
3^3
but intensely religious. The God of the Old Testa-
ment seemed to him to be stern and wrathful in vis-
iting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children,
even to the fourth generation. (1)
Marcion turned from this vengeful God to the new
dispensation of the Man of Galilee. The new wine
was to burst the old bottles. (2) In short, the old Jew-
ish law of vengeance was to be suspended by this new
message of love and peace.
Marcion soon became so filled with enthusiasm for
the new religion that he wrote a gospel, and hoped
to win the whole world to his standard; and had he
gained Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna (3), Marcion pos-
sibly might have taken the place of Luke in the ca-
nonicals. Moreover, the Roman Catholic church
might have waned, instead of waxing so strong and
great. Such strange destinies, from little happen-
ings, often await all human plans.
If Marcion had abstained from speculation about
the cosmogony of the universe, he might not have
been led to believe in the Demiurge—or two Gods
(4): the God who created man out of matter, and
(1) Exodus 20, v. 5.
(2) Luke 5, v. 7.
(3) Polycarp was born in Asia Minor about the year 69 A. D.,
and lived to the ripe age of 90. He was arrested by the Jews and
burned at the stake, as an enemy of their religion. Even the
heathens piled fagots around him, and the Jews refused to give
up even his bones for burial.
(4) Is it not true that the Bible mentions two Godsf What
is the devil but a great powerful wicked creature, that can only
be bound for a thousand years (Rev. 22 v. 2). In Jesus’ day,
there were many devils; He talked to them, and they answered
back. (Luke 4, v. 33 to 35).
jf* A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
on him a bw hard to live up to, and that
other God, more merciful, who would save him.
Sectiow 2. In writing of men, doctrines and be-
liefs, in the first and second centuries, one most ex-
ercise much patience and not draw the line too closely;
for the first followers of Jesus are Jews, born and
reared under a code that was unjust, and filed with
improbable miracles. To Matthew, Luke and John, a
religion without miracles was, as they believed, no
religion at alL
Hence no writer or preacher of religions could ob-
tain a bearing at that period or later on, unless he
made frequent and repeated mention of miracles.
Marrion was no exception to the rule. He wrote a
gospel, and established churches, and between the
years 175 and 250 A. D. his followers came near
pushing the Roman church to the wall.
He preached powerfully against the Demiurge—the
bad God—and insisted that man must put bis trust in
the good God and his Son; that faith, charity, love and
good works would save the soul. The body, he said,
perishes. It will never be resurrected. The soul or
spirit alone survives. The Demiurge, he said, would
punish the wicked in Hell.
Marcion’s gospel for more than two hundred years
exerted a wide influence in the world. Then its power
began slowly to decline, and when the sixth century
arrived there were only a few scattered Marcionites
here and there, and another century saw diem in a
total eclipse.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES jfc
But this much may be safely said of him; that
he strove to improve the old Jewish religion, and
he made the first collection of New Testament gospels
that was ever made. He wrote a gospel of his own,
which some scholars think Luke had before him when
he composed his gospel. Having said this much of
Marcion and his religion, I shall now quote numerous
passages from his gospel, and give the corresponding
verses and chapters from Luke, that thus the reader
may judge whether he borrowed from Luke, or Luke
borrowed from Marcion. Mardon, chapter i, verse
2: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius
Caesar (Luke 3, v. 1) Jesus came down to Capernaum,
a dty of Galilee, and taught diem on the Sabbath
days. (Luke 4, v. 31.) And they were exceedingly
astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with
power.” (Luke 4, v. 32, is the same as verse 3 Mar-
cion.) “And in the synagogue, there was a man who
had a spirit of an unclean devil, and he cried out with
a loud voice: (Luke 4, v. 33 is word for word the
same as Marcion in chapter 1, v. 4) ‘Let us alone;
what have we to do with Jesus? Art thou come to
destroy us? I know thee, who thou art, the holy one
of God.’ ” Luke 4, v. 34, repeats this exactly. In
verses 35 and 36, ch. 4, Lflke has the same words as
ch. 1, v. s and 6, Marcion. Chapter 4, Luke, v. 38
and 39 are identical with ch. 1, Marcion, v. 8 and 9.
Chapter 1, v. 17, Marcion: “Now when the sun was
setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases
brought diem unto him, and he laid his hands on
366 A QUESTION OP MIRACLES
every one of them and healed them.” Luke, ch. 4, v.
40, is here identical with Mardon. Chapter 3, Mar-
cion, v. 17, is identical with Luke, ch. 6, v. 17. One
is certainly copied from the other. Chapter 4, Mar-
don, 4:30: “A sinful woman standing near, before
his feet, washed his feet with her tears, and anointed
them and kissed them.” Read Luke, ch. 7, v. 37 and
38. The only difference is that Luke says the woman
had “an alabaster box of ointment.”
Marcion, ch. 4, v. 36: “And he turned to the wo-
man, and said unto Simon, ‘See’st thou this woman?
I entered into thy house, thou gavest me no water for
my feet; she has washed my feet with her tears, and
has anointed them, and kissed them.’ ” Luke, ch. 7,
v. 44 and 45, is the same as Marcion, except that
Luke says, “she wiped the feet with the hair of her
head.” (5)
Chapter 5 of Marcion, v. 1 to 18, is identical with
ch. 8, Luke, v. 1 to 18. Marcion, ch. 5, v. 22, and
Luke, ch. 8, v. 23 and 24, both mention the incident
of Jesus rebuking the wind and the raging waters.
Chapter 6, Marcion, v. 30: “And behold two men
talked with* him, Elias and Moses in glory.” The
same words are in Luke, ch. 9, v. 30 and 31.
Chapter 7, Marcion, v. 1 to 19, wherein Jesus ap-
pointed seventy and sent them “two and two, into
every city,” are found in Luke, ch. 10, v. 1 to 20.
(5) Mark 14, v. 3, says: “The woman poured the ointment
on Je8us9 headLuke 7, v. 38, says she 44anointed his feet,”
and Marcion and Luke here agree. Mark seems to have been in-
spired differently.
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 367
Section 3. The incident of a certain lawyer stand-
ing up and tempting Jesus, is told by Luke in ch. 10,
v. 5, and Marcion in ch. 7, v. 25.
Chapter 8, v. 2, Marcion: “And he said unto them,
When ye pray, say ‘Father, may thy holy spirit come
to us, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in
heaven, so on earth.’ ” This same prayer, a little im-
proved in phraseology, is found in Luke, ch. n, v.
2, 3 and 4.
“Who of you, being a father, if a son ask a fish,”
etc., is identical in Marcion, ch. 8, with Luke, ch. 11,
v. 11 and 12. In ch. 9 of Marcion are many verses
identical with ch. 12 of Luke. Chapter 10, Marcion,
v. 1 to 6: “Behold there was a woman which had
a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bound
together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And
when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said
unto her, ‘Woman, thou art loosed from thy infirm-
ity’; and he laid his hand on her, and immediately
she was made straight and glorified God.” Luke
has these identical words in ch. 13, v. 11 to 14.
Marcion, ch. 10, v. 18, says: “There shall be weep-
ing and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see all the
righteous in the Kingdom of God, and yourselves,
cast out and held back.” Luke, ch. 13, v. 28,
changes this somewhat, and says: “There shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see
Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets
in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust
out.”
368 A QUESTION OP MIRACLES
If the reader will turn to chapter 16 of Luke and
read the first ten verses thereof, he will have read
the first ten verses of chapter 13 of Mardon. In
short, these two men seem to have been inspired to
utter, all along, the same identical thoughts.
Sometimes, it is true, the inspiration seems to wab-
ble a little, as witness chapter 13, Mardon, verse 17,
when he says: “Heaven and earth may pass, but
not one tittle of my words shall fail.” Luke, chapter
16, verse 17: “It is easier for heaven and earth to
pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.”
Again, Luke is inspired in the first seventeen verses
of his chapter 18 exactly word for word as Mardon
is inspired in his first eighteen verses of chapter 15.
(6)
-
But Mardon in chapter 19, and Luke in chapter
22, utterly disagree on a very important matter. Luke
v. 28 to 31, says: “Jesus appoints kingdoms unto
his disciples, and that they shall sit on thrones and
judge the twelve tribes of Israel.” Moreover, they
can eat and drink in the kingdom at Jesus’ table.
Mardon thought that the body at death goes back
to dust and utterly perishes; that therefore it would
need “no food and drink,” that the soul only sur-
vives (7); that there would be no violations of law;
(6) The reader should remember that instead of flnding only
a few lines in each chapter of Luke and Marcion which are ex-
actly alike, word for word, there is not a single chapter of Mar-
cion from which Luke did not draw his inspiration—or Marcion
drew his inspiration from Luke. Bemarkable, is it notf
(7) Luke, it would seem, is a materialist (oh. 22, v. 25 to 31.)
Marcion believed that the spirit only survives at death. Matthew
also was a materialist (Matt. 8, v. 11, and Matt 24, v. 47.)
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
369
consequently neither the twelve tribes, nor any of their
members, would require judges sitting on thrones to
judge them as Luke tells us.
This open clash between these two gospel writers
led probably to Marcion’s condemnation as a heretic.
For in nearly everything else their gospels, as we
have seen, are almost exactly alike.
The incidents of the journey of the two men to
Emmaus, and Jesus joining them on the way; how
he sat at meat with them, and his vanishing out of
sight; their return to Jerusalem, and meeting the
eleven; and Jesus’ sudden appearance to the eleven,
and his telling them he is not a spirit, but has flesh
and bones, are all set forth by Mardon in his chapter
21, verses 1 to 40, and Luke has the same in chapter
24, verses 13 to 39.
In fact the last chapter of Marcion and the last
chapter of Luke are the same, except that verses 45,
52 and 53 of Luke are not found in Marcion. •
We have seen who Marcion was, we know where
and when he was born, and much of his life work,
but of Luke we know nothing to a certainty. His
name would indicate that he was an Italian. (Luca-
nus.) It is not certain that Colossians, ch. 4, v. 14,
has reference to him; yet, if so, then Luke was a phy-
sician. But it is even questioned whether Colossians
was written by Paul. Philemon 24, may and may not
have reference to Luke, the gospel writer. Second
370 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
Timothy (8) mentions a “Luke” who was with Paul,
but did that man write Luke’s gospel?
Here now is one of the revenges of time. Mar-
cion’s bitter, implacable foes, their pens dipped in gall,
give him a certain unquestioned place in history. He
is known because he established churches, and under-
took to rescue Christendom from its old false Jewish
superstitions.
Luke’s name is attached to the third gospel, and
so it will go down, no doubt, to the last day.
The question whether Marcion wrote before Luke,
or Luke before Marcion, has been disputed back and
forth, for now nearly seventeen hundred years, and,
like Banquo’s ghost, “it will not down.” I will only
add that Luke’s gospel is much longer than Marcion’s;
in fact, not a verse in the first three chapters of Luke
is found in Marcion. Otherwise they are as we have
seen, almost identical in doctrines, in historical state-
ment, in phraseology, and verse for verse.
Which one of these men is the plagiarist, Marcion
or Luke? An easy solution is that they both copied
from the same old manuscripts. They state so many
things probable and improbable, so exactly alike, that
one must have copied from the other, or both from
some older writer. Yet Marcion’s story is said to
be apocryphal — that is, uninspired — even when he
agrees with Luke, word for word and verse for verse.
(8) Ch. 4, v. 11.
CHAPTER XXXIV
In Conclusion.
Section i. As to creation, I hold that there was
a time, millions and millions of years ago, when this
earth, as we know it now, did not exist. But I cannot
conceive of a time when the elements which compose
it were not in existence. Nor can I imagine how
something can, or ever could be, created out of
nothing. In short, matter was here when God was
here.
This earth, and all the stars in our system (not to
mention millions of other worlds about us), perform
their revolutions in obedience to a law; and law al-
ways presupposes a law maker. I call that law maker
the “Eternal One,” “The Creator,” “God.” And I
cannot conceive of a time beyond which he did not
exist. Nor could He create himself. Nor could
matter create Him.
Some believe that if such a Being exists, there
must have been a time when nothing else existed.
The argument to my mind is fallacious. Matter is
eternal. You may change its form, but you cannot
annihilate it. To illustrate; you may take a stone
and crush it to an impalpable powder; divide these
atoms again and again, until the strongest micro-
871
372 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
scope fails to distinguish the infinitesimal particles;
still you have not annihilated them. You have only
destroyed the stone, but every one of its particles is
still here, and cannot get away from the earth.
On the other hand, suppose God concludes that He
will create or make a new star or planet to revolve
around our sun. In the vast space between Uranus
and Neptune there is plenty of room—millions and
millions of miles intervene between them. Now, can
God create or make a world out of nothing? Cer-
tainly not; nothing added to nothing, nothing is.
Matter can be changed and is all the while chang-
ing, but it cannot be annihilated.
Our earth is an illustration. It obeys a law with
such precision and exactness that in one thousand
years it has not varied five seconds of time in its
rapid flight around the sun.
Insensible matter did not and could not make the
law of attraction or gravitation. But just why God
created this world, and created man, and put him
here, I am at a loss to know. For man, as we see
him today, is a selfish, quarrelsome animal; and his
antecedent history is blood stained, all along his path-
way. Nevertheless, he possesses infinite possibilities.
Section 2. I have purposely used the word cre-
ated, repeatedly, just above here, because, to my view,
it makes no difference if we came by evolution. For
that great intelligence which I call God must have
made the law of evolution, which finally produced
man. God is therefore responsible for man’s being
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
373
here. The insensible clod is not responsible, for it
could not make the law of evolution, and bring man
forth. A mind somewhere in the universe made that
law that produced man upon this earth.
But I laugh at the belief that God created the world
only six thousand years ago, and finished the job com-
pletely in six of our days. (i)
The man who wrote Genesis evidently had never
studied the testimony of the rocks. And he was ab-
solutely ignorant of the evolutionary process.
Think of the builder of millions of worlds creating
Adam, and standing him up by Eden’s fence to dry;
having forgotten to make Adam a wife, he causes
a deep sleep to fall upon him; and while Adam is in
that “deep sleep,” the Lord cuts him open and takes
out one of his ribs and closes up the flesh thereof,
(2), and from that rib he constructs Eve.
This Adam story is a beautiful little nursery tale,
yet it seems to satisfy some minds, so let it stand.
Nevertheless, the evidence is convincing that man did
not come by way of Eden’s gates. But on the other
hand, the evidence is strong that life originates or
springs from a minute germ or cell with scarcely any
apparent structure, which in time absorbs other germs
or cells. The first or stronger germ, not only absorbs
(1) Herodotus, who wrote about 2,360 years ago, tells us that
the Egyptians in his day claimed a long line of Kings, reaching
back eleven thousand three hundred and forty years. Add the
twenty-three hundred and sixty years since he wrote and we have
thirteen thousand seven hundred years, and that is more than eight
thousand years beyond Jesus. Herodotus 2, Sec. 142.
(2) Gen. 2, v. 21.
374
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
the weaker germ, but it assimilates it, so that it be-
comes a part of itself. Yet no nucleated cell has yet
been found that did not contain oxygen, hydrogen,
carbon, nitrogen and water. The five elements
mixed together in a stagnant pool, where there is
plenty of warm sunshine, is the place to look for em-
bryonic life. Now who, or what, made the carbon,
and oxygen, and hydrogen, and nitrogen, and the
water, and the sunshine to warm that water?
Here now are six things that must accidentally
come together, or be brought together, somehow; else
no germ or cell can, or ever could be, formed. Omit
the oxygen, and the other five things will not pro-
duce the cell; omit the carbon—no cell.
Go back a little further, and tell me who made the
sunshine and the oxygen? For you must always
reckon with the sun, the oxygen, etc., or you will
have no cell, and no life, such as we have on this
earth.
Now I cannot bring my mind to believe that we
live in a world of chance. Nor do I believe every-
thing is a careless accident. The minutest life is here
under a law, and it dies by reason of a law; and there
was never yet a law without a law maker.
The minutest insect, the great elephant, and the
monsters of the deep, are all here in obedience to a
law. Even the learned Cuvier, in his anatomical re-
searches, was forced to admit that there are distinct
plans of organization—even among animalcules.
But how can there be a plan without a planner?
Fpr a plan means a contrivance, and that means
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 375
thought; and there is no thought without a thinker.
The nucleated cell or germ was not the thinker that
finally brought forth man. The cell or germ could
not evolve itself in and of its own unaided inherent
powers. A power was given to it, and it started upon
its mission, and that mission was a vast one; to fill
the land and the seas with various and multitudinous
forms of life.
Section 3. Man finds himself here on earth; he
came without his asking; and in a short time he will go
hence against his wish and will. He is told that there
is a place beyond this life, called Heaven—a place of re-
joicing and happiness, which we can reach by prayer
and diligence. That there is another place called
Hell, where there is an everlasting fire prepared for
the devil and his angels (3), and that in Hell there is
weeping and gnashing of teeth. (4) Both soul and
body, it is said, may be destroyed in Hell. (5)
Buddha also preached that the wicked Hindus
would suffer in terrible hells; that sinners would be
boiled for a Kalpa, in iron pots. (6) The supposed
punishment in both cases, if true, is fiendishly cruel
and excessive. To a reasonable mind it is absolutely
unbelievable. Consider this a moment; man is bom
into the world without his knowledge or consent;
furthermore, he is bom subject to that awful law of
(3) Matt. 25, v. 41.
(4) Luke 13, v. 23.
(5) Matt. 10, ?. 23.
(6) A Kalpa is a vast period of time, millions and millions of
years.
376 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
heredity (7); and it seems to be true that the iniqui-
ties of the fathers are in fact visited upon the children,
even to the third and fourth generation. Is that a just
law ? Must you suffer for the misdeeds of a wicked an-
cestor? If God, in fact, made that law, then he ought
to repeal it, for it is terribly unjust. With that law in
force, the child of the drunkard or thief is punished
for a crime of his progenitors, back perhaps an hun-
dred years. Why weigh him down with crimes he
never committed? Would it not be more just to re-
verse Exodus, and make the ancestor suffer for the
sins of his children, than to make the children suffer
for the sins of their parents ?
The progenitor has some control over his posterity;
but the children absolutely none over the ancestral
tree. Every man placed here ought to have an equal
chance in life’s struggle. But what opportunity is
there for the child of the gutter and the curbstone?
His home is a hovel, and he is taught to pilfer and lie
even in childhood, and ere long he develops into a
highwayman, and his soul becomes stained with mur-
der. Matthew’s law (just quoted) would bum that
unfortunate child of sin in an “everlasting fire.” So
also would Luke. (8) And Mark is just as severe. (9)
Another boy, bom perhaps the same day, is raised
in an atmosphere of love, with all the advantages of
ease and plenty. As he passes along through boyhood
(7) Exodus 20, v. 5.
(8) Ch. 16, v. 22 to 28.
(9) Mark 9, v. 43. Matthew and Mark may have learned
this from Buddha, (vol. 20, Sacred Books of the East, p. 254
and p. 268.)
A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 377
he is carefully taught those beautiful precepts in the
Sermon on the Mount (and every child ought to be
taught them) and he follows them through life.
Now, according to the New Testament, the unfortu-
nate child of the gutter must suffer eternally in the
flames, and all that time his more fortunate brother
will be enjoying the sweets of Paradise, whatever they
may be.
Is such the best justice that Heaven can administer?
Or is there some mistake somewhere in the record?
To us of short vision it looks as if the chancery courts
of Heaven will have to modify many a decree. To
sum this matter up, will Heaven, as the final assize,
fix an unadjustable high mark of morality and com-
pel the child of the gutter to measure up to it, or roast
eternally in the furnace? Or will Heaven in pity send
the sinning soul back to the earth for a new trial? If
not this, or some other merciful plan, then the justice
of the skies sinks to a lower level than that of the
earth!
Eternal sleep would seem to be more fitting than
eternal burning. The truth about that unknown coun-
try beyond the grave (if there is such a place) no
human being can truly tell. The most eloquent di-
vines may thunder in their pulpits and pound their
desks, but they know absolutely nothing about it. They
imagine, they dream, they hope. They picture the
joys of Heaven and the miseries of Hell; and when we
question them, they quote us Matthew and Luke; but
Matthew and Luke and Mark knew no more about
the eternal shores than you or I. Nevertheless, ideas
378 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES
of Heaven and Hell have been in this world for thou-
sands of years. So long, indeed, that they seem to
have become an inherited belief. If the churches would
devote their energies to teaching mercy and justice,
they would no doubt reap greater harvests. After all,
was not this whole matter summed up and epitomized
by old Micah (io), who lived about two hundred
and fifty years before Buddha was bom, when he
asked: “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to
do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with
thy God?”
(10) Ch. 6, v. 8.
I