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AuthorTopic: THE WORLD’S Sixteen Crucified Saviors OR, Christianity before Christ 1878  (Read 14335 times)

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 THE WORLD’S

Sixteen Crucified Saviors

OR,

Christianity before Christ




https://archive.org/details/worldssixteencru00grav_0
 


CONTAINING

NEW, STARTLING, AND EXTRAORDINARY REVELATIONS IN RELIGIOUS
HISTORY, WHICH DISCLOSE THE ORIENTAL ORIGIN OF ALL
THE DOCTRINES, PRINCIPLES, PRECEPTS,

AND MIRACLES OF THE

CHRISTIAN NEW TESTAMENT,

AND FURNISHING A KEY FOR UNLOCKING MANY
OF ITS SACRED MYSTERIES, BESIDES
COMPRISING THE

HISTORY OF SIXTEEN HEATHEN CRUCIFIED GODS,

BY

KERSEY GRAVES,

AUTHOR OF “ THE BIOGRAPHY OF SATAN,” AND “ THE BIBLE OF BIBLES,”
(COMPRISING A DESCRIPTION OF TWENTY BIBLES.)

SIXTH EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED.

BOSTON:

COLBY AND RICH, PUBLISHERS,

No. 9 Montgomery Peace.

1878.
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 187§>
By LYDIA M. GRAVES,

111 the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

Stereotyped at the

Boston Stereotype Foundry, 19 Spring Lane,
 an

G ^

/S7*

[   CONTENTS.

PREFACE...............

EXPLANATION.

INTRODUCTION.

ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY.

CHAPTER I.

_ Rival Claims of the Saviors. .

-J

t

CHAPTER II.

Messianic Prophecies.

do

U>







5

CHAPTER III.

Prophecies by the Figure of a Serpent. •   •

CHAPTER IV.

Miraculous and Immaculate Conception of the Gods.

CHAPTER V.

Virgin Mothers and Virgin-born Gods. •   •

CHAPTER VI.

Stars point out the Time and the Saviors’ Birth-place.

CHAPTER VII.

Angels, Shepherds, and Magi visit the Infant Saviors.

OG

<CT-

CHAPTER VIII.

The Twenty-fifth of December the Birthday of the Gods.

CHAPTER IX.

Titles of the Saviors...............

o   8

VAGI

7

11

18

19

27

38

37

41

49

53

57

62

66
 4

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X.

The Saviors op Royal Descent, but Humble Birth. •   •   70

CHAPTER XI.

Christ’s Genealogy................................72

CHAPTER XII.

The World’s Saviors saved from Destruction in Infancy. 76

CHAPTER XIII.

The Saviors exhibit Early Proofs of   Divinity. •   •   •   83

CHAPTER XIY.

The Saviors’ Kingdoms not of this World...........86

CHAPTER XY.

The Saviors are real Personages.   • •   •   •   •   88

CHAPTER XYI.

Sixteen Saviors Crucified..............................92

CHAPTER XYII.

The Aphanasia, or Darkness, at the Crucifixion. •   . 120

CHAPTER XVIII.

Descent of the Saviors into Hell.   • •   •   •   •   126

CHAPTER XIX.

Resurrection of the Saviors...........................128

CHAPTER XX.

Reappearance and Ascension of the   Saviors.   •   •   .   135

CHAPTER XXI.

The Atonements its Oriental or Heathen Origin. .   . 138

CHAPTER XXII.

The Holy Ghost of Oriental Origin.....................146
 CONTEN TS.

CHAPTER XXIII.

The Divine “Word” of Oriental Origin............

CHAPTER XXIY.

The Trinity very anciently a current Heathen Doctrine.

CHAPTER XXV.

Absolution, or the Confession of Sins, of Heathen Origin.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Origin of Baptism by Water, Fire, Blood, and the Holy
Ghost...........................................

CHAPTER XXVII.

The Sacrament or Eucharist of Heathen Origin. •

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Anointing with Oil of Oriental Origin...........

CHAPTER XXIX.

How Men, including Jesus Christ, came to be worshiped
as Gods.........................................

CHAPTER XXX.

Sacred Cycles explaining the Advent of the Gods, the
Master-key to the Divinity of Jesus Christ. •

CHAPTER XXXI.

Christianity derived from Heathen and Oriental Systems.

CHAPTER XXXII.

Three Hundred and Forty-six striking Analogies between
Christ and Chrishna.............................

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Apollonius, Osiris, and Magus as Gods. .   .

CHAPTER XXXIV.

5

157

162

166

168

175

178

180

197

20?

225

26 3

The Three Pillars of the Christian Faith — Miracles,
Prophecies, and Precepts..................................

273
 6

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXXV.

Logical or Common-sense View op the Doctrine op Divine

Incarnation............................•   •   •   808

CHAPTER XXXVI,

Philosophical Absurdities op the Doctrine op the Divine

Incarnation.............................• 315

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Physiological Absurdities op the Doctrine op the Divine

Incarnation..............•   •   •   •   • 818

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

A Historical View op the Divinity op Jesus Christ. •   . 822

CHAPTER XXXIX.

The Scriptural View op Christ’s Divinity. •   •   •   •   327

CHAPTER XL.

A Metonymic View op the Divinity of Jesus Christ. • 339

CHAPTER XLI.

The Precepts and Practical Life op Jesus Christ. •   • 342

CHAPTER XLII.

Christ as a Spiritual Medium....................  357

CHAPTER XLIII.

Conversion, Repentance, and “Getting Religion” op Hea-
then Origin..................................  359

CHAPTER XLIV.

The Moral Lessons op Religious History. •   .   .   •   369

CHAPTER XLV.

Conclusion and Review.............................372

NOTE OF EXPLANATION.

378
 PREFACE.

Inversely to the remoteness of time has been man’s
ascent toward the temple of knowledge. Truth has made
its ingress into the human mind in the ratio by which
man has attained the capacity to receive and appreciate
it. Hence, as we tread back the meandering pathway of
human history, every step in the receding process brings
us to a lower plane of intelligence and a state of mind
more thoroughly encrusted with ignorance and supersti-
tion. It is, therefore, no source of surprise to learn, when
we take a survey of the world two or three thousand years
in the past, that every religious writer of that era com-
mitted errors on every subject which employed his pen,
involving a scientific principle. Hence the bible, or
sacred book, to which he was a contributor, is now found
to bear the marks of human imperfection. For the temple
of knowledge was but partially reared, and its chambers
but dimly lighted up. The intellectual brain was in a dark,
feeble, and dormant condition. Hence the moral and reli-
gious feelings were drifted about without a pilot on the
turbulent waves of superstition, and finally stranded on
the shoals of bigotry. The Christian bible, like other
bibles, having been written in an age when science was
but budding into life, and philosophy had attained but a

7
 8

PREFACE.

feeble growth, should be expected to teach many things
incompatible with the principles of modern science. And
accordingly it is found to contain, like other bibles, numer-
ous statements so obviously at war with present established
scientific truths that almost any school-boy, at the present
day, can demonstrate their falsity. Let the unbiased
reader examine and compare the oriental and Christian
bibles together, and he will note the following facts,
viz.: —

1.   That the cardinal religious conceptions of all bibles
are essentially the same — all running in parable grooves.

2.   That every chapter of every bible is but a transcript
of the mental chart of the writer.

3.   That no bible, pagan or Christian, contains anything
surpassing the natural, mental, and moral capacity of the
writer to originate. And hence no divine aid or inspira-
tion was necessary for its production.

4.   That the moral and religious teachings of no bible
reach a higher altitude than the intelligence and mental de-
velopment of the age and country which produced it.

5.   That the Christian bible, in some respects, is superior
to some of the other bibles, but only to the extent to which
the age in which it was written was superior in intelli-
gence and natural mental capacity to the era in which the
older bibles were penned; and that this superiority con-
sists not in its more exalted religious conceptions, but only
in the fact that, being of more modern origin, the progress
of mind had worn away some of the legendary rubbish of
the past. Being written in a later and more enlightened
age, it is consequently a little less encrusted with mytho-
logical tradition and oriental imagery. Though not free
 PREFACE.

9

from these elements, it possesses them in less degree. And
by comparing Christ’s history with those of the oriental
Gods, it will be found, —

1.   That he taught no new doctrine or moral precept.

2.   That he inculcated the same religion and morality,
which he elaborated, as other moral teachers, to great
extremes.

3.   That Christ differs so little in his character, preach-
ing, and practical life from some of the oriental Gods, that
no person whose mind is not deplorably warped and biased
by early training can call one divine while he considers the
other human.

4.   That if Christ was a God, then all were Gods.

THE AUTHOR.

Richmond, Indiana, 1875.

——

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

As but a few months have elapsed since the first edition of
this work was published, and a second edition is called for, the
author embraces the opportunity to lay before the reader a
few thoughts appertaining to the work. He desires, in the
first place, to say the work has been carefully reviewed and
corrected, and some additions made, embracing two chapters
from “the Bible of Bibles,” and some explanatory notes. Ow-
ing to the indisposition of the author at the time the work
went to press, the manuscripts were sent away in a somewhat
defective condition; so that the errors made by the copyist)
who transcribed most of them for the press, were not cor-
rected. And some errors also crept into the work through
the hands of the type-setters. These errors were so numer-
ous, they may have had the effect to create in some critical
 10

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

minds an unfavorable impression with respect to the charactef
of the work. But the author has carefully examined the work
since it came from the press, and is now able to place before
the reader a greatly improved edition.

The author also desires to say here, that the many flatter-
ing letters he has received from various parts of the country,
from those who have supplied themselves with the work,
excites in his mind the hope it will ultimately effect something
towards achieving the important end sought to be attained by
its publication — the banishment of that wide-spread delusion
comprehended in the belief in an incarnate, virgin-born God,
called Jesus Christ, and the infallibility of his teachings, with
the numerous evils growing legitimately out of this belief—
among the most important of which is, its cramping effect
upon the mind of the possessor, which interdicts its growth,
and thus constitutes a serious obstacle to the progress both
of the individual and of society. And such has been the
blinding effect of this delusion upon all who have fallen vic-
tims to its influence, that the numerous errors and evils of our
popular system of religious faith, which constitute its legiti-
mate fruits, have passed from age to age, unnoticed by all
except scientific and progressive minds, who are constantly
bringing these errors and evils to light. This state of things
has been a source of sorrow and regret to every philanthropist
desiring the welfare of the race. And if this wrork shall
achieve anything towards arresting this great evil, the author
will feel that he is amply compensated for the years of toil
and mental labor spent in its preparation.

Note. — As the different works consulted hare assigned different dates
for the same event, the author has, in one or two cases, followed their
example, accepting them as authority; as in the date of the birth and
death of the Gods of Mexico. The reader will also notice that the name
of the same God is found in different countries. Example — Adonis and
Bacchus are found amongst the Gods of both Greece and Egypt.
 EXPLANATION.

* The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors.” What an
imposing title for a book ! What startling developments of
religious history it implies ! Is it founded on fact or on
fiction ? If it has a basis of truth, where was such an
extraordinary mine of sacred lore discovered? Where
were such startling facts obtained as the title of the work
suggests. These queries will doubtless arise as soliloquies
in the minds of many readers on glancing at the title-page.
And the author is disposed to gratify this natural and most
probable, in some cases, excited curiosity by a brief expla-
nation. In doing this, he deems it only necessary to state
that many of the most important facts collated in this work
were derived from Sir Godfrey Higgins’ Anacalypsis, a
work as valuable as it is rare — a work comprising the
result of twenty years’ labor, devoted to the investigation
of religious history. And although embodying many im-
portant historical facts which should have commanded for
it a world-wide circulation, but a few copies of this invalu-
able treasury of religious knowledge have ever found their
way into this country. One of these copies the author of
this work obtained, at no inconsiderable expense, long
enough to glean from its pages such facts as he presumed
would be most interesting and instructive to the general
reader, some of which will be found in nearly every
chapter of this volume. With the facts and materials
derived from this source, and 200 other unimpeachable
historical records, the present work might have been
swelled to fourfold its present size without exhausting

ll
 12

EXPLANATION.

tho author’s ample store of materials and would have
possessed such unwieldy dimensions but for a strict con-
formity to the most rigid rules of eclecticism and con-
densation. A portion of the excluded materials, however,
will be found in another volume now nearly ready for the
press. In the author’s two works just noticed, the claims
of Christianity are presented and contested upon an en-
tirely new ground — that of their historical verity, differing
in this respect from any work heretofore published, ex-
cepting a few brief essays which cover a portion of the
ground only. Encouraged by the extensive demand for
his former work, “ The Biography of Satan,” which has
passed through seven editions, the author cherishes the
hope that the present work will meet with a circulation
commensurate with the importance of the many invaluable
facts which it contains. For he possesses the sad convic-
tion that the many religious errors and evils which it is
the object of this work to expose, operate very seriously
to retard the moral and intellectual growth and prosperity
of all Christian countries. They have the effect to injure
mentally, morally, and religiously the great body of Chris-
tian professors.

JK3T Dr. Prince, of Long Island (now deceased), wrote
to the author, respecting the thirty-fifth chapter of this
work, entitled “The Logical View of the Incarnation,”
after he had seen it in the columns of a newspaper, “ It is
a masterly piece of logic, and will startle, if it does not
revolutionize, the orthodox world. And the chapters com-
prising ( The Philosophical View ’ and 1 The Physiological
View,’ were afterward pronounced specimens of profound
and unanswerable logical reasoning,” We thus call the
reader’s attention to these chapters in advance, in order
to induce that thorough attention to their facts and argu-
ments which will result in banishing from his mind the last
vestiges of a belief (if he entertain any) in the doctrine of
the divine incarnation.
 INTRODUCTION.

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Important Facts constituting the Basis op this Work,

Ignorance of science and ignorance of history are the
two great bulwarks of religious error. There is scarcely
a tenet of religious faith now propagated to the world by
the professed disciples of Christ but that, if subjected to a
rigid test in the ordeal of modern science, would be found
to contain more or less error. Vast acquisitions have been
made in the fields of science and history within the last
half century, the moral lessons of which have done much
to undermine and unsettle our popular system of religious
faith, and to bring into disrepute or effectually change
many of its long-cherished dogmas. The scientific and
historical facts thus brought before the intelligent public,
have served as keys for explaining many of the doctrines
comprised in the popular creed. They have poured a flood
of light upon our whole system of religion as now taught
by its popular representatives, which have had the effect
to reveal many of its errors to those who have had the
temerity, or the curiosity, to investigate it upon these
grounds. Many of the doctrines and miraculous events
which have always been assigned a divine emanation by
the disciples of the Christian faith, are, by these scientific
and historical disclosures, shown to be explainable upon
natural grounds, and to have exclusively a natural basis.

13
 u

INTRO D UCTION

Some of them are shown to be solvable by recently de-
veloped spiritual laws, while others are proven to be
founded wholly in error. The intelligent community are
now acquainted with many of these important facts, so
that no man of science can be found in this enlightened
age who can popularly be termed a Christian. No man
can be found in any Christian country who has the estab-
lished reputation of being a man of science, or who has made
any proficiency in the whole curriculum of the sciences,
whose creed, when examined by an orthodox committee,
would not be pronounced unsound. It is true that many
of the scientific class, not possessing the conviction that
duty imposes the moral necessity of making living martyrs
of themselves, have refrained from fully avowing or dis-
closing to the public their real convictions of the popular
faith. The changes and improvements in religious ideas
now observable in the most intelligent portion of the com-
munity, are due in part to the rapid progress of scientific
discovery and the dissemination of scientific knowledge in
Christian countries. The explorer in the field of religious
history, however, comes in here for his meed of praise.
New stores of historic facts and data may be reckoned
among the recent acquisitions of the laborious archeolo-
gist; new fountains of religious history have recently
been unsealed, which have had the effect to reveal many
errors and false claims set up for the current religion of
Christendom — a religion long regarded as settled and
stereotyped. For many centuries subsequent to the estab-
lishment of the Christian religion but little was known by
its disciples of the character, claims, and doctrines of the
oriental systems of worship. These religions, in fact, were
scarcely known to exist, because they had long been vailed
in secrecy. They were found, in some cases, enshrined in
religious books printed or written in a language so very
ancient and obscure, as to bid defiance for centuries to
 INTRODUCTION.

15

the labors of the most indefatigable, profound, and erudite
archeological scholar to decipher it. That obstacle is now
partially surmounted. The recent translation for the first
time of the Hindoo Ye das into the English language (the
oldest bible now extant or ever written) has revealed to
the unwelcome gaze of the Christian reader the startling
fact that “ the heathen ” had long been in possession of
“ holy books,” possessing essentially the same character,
and teaching essentially the same doctrines, as the Christian
bible — there being, as Horace Greeley expresses it, “ no
doctrine of Christianity but what has been anticipated by
the Vedas.” (See Yol. II. Chap. 1, of this work.) If, then,
this heathen bible (compiled, according to the Christian
missionary Rev. D. 0. Allen, 1400 B. C.) contains all the
doctrines of Christianity, then away goes over the dam all
claim for the Christian bible as an original revelation, or
a work of divine inspiration. Bibles are thus shown to be
of heathen and human origin, instead of heavenly and divine
authorship, as claimed for them by their respective dis-
ciples — the Christian bible forming no exception to this
statement. The latter, being essentially like other bibles,
it must, of course, have had the same or a similar origin
— a fact which, though it may be new and startling to
millions, will be universally accepted as truth before the
lapse of many generations, and a fact which confronts with
open denial the claims of two hundred millions of Christian
professors, who assert with unscrupulous boldness that
every doctrine, principle, and precept of their bible is of
divine emanation. How utterly groundless and untenable
is such a claim when arranged by the side of modern dis-
coveries in religious history! Equally unsupportable is
the declaration that i: there is no other name given under
heaven whereby men can be saved, than that of Jesus
Christ and him crucified,” when viewed in the light of the
modern explorations of Sir Godfrey Higgins, which have
 16

INTRODUCTION,

disclosed the history of nearly a score of crucified Gods,
and sin-atoning Saviors, who, we have equal proof, died
for the sins of mankind. Thus the two prime articles of
the Christian faith — Revelation and Crucifixion — are for-
ever established as human and heathen conceptions. And
the hope might be reasonably entertained that the impor-
tant historical facts disclosed in this work will have the
effect to open the eyes of the professors of the Christian
religion to see their serious error in putting forth such
exalted claims for their bible and their religion as that of
being perfect products of infinite wisdom, did not the
past history of all religious countries furnish sad proof
that reason and logic, and even the most cogent and con-
vincing facts of science and history, often prove powerless
when arrayed against a religious conviction, enstamped
upon the mind for thousands of years in the past, and
transmitted from parent to child until it has grown to a
colossal stature, and become a part of the living tissues of
the soul. No matter how glaringly absurd, how palpably
erroneous, or how demonstrably false an opinion or doc-
trine is shown to be, they cannot see it, but will still con-
tinue to hug it to their bosoms as a divinely-revealed
truth. No facts or evidence can prove an overmatch for
the inherited convictions of a thousand generations. In
this respect the Mahomedan, the Hindoo, and the Chris-
tian, all stand upon a level. It is about as easy to con-
< vince one as the other of their easily-demonstrated errors.

Religion op Natural Origin.

Among the numerous errors traceable in the history of
every religious sect, commemorated in the annals of the
world, none possesses a more serious character, or has been
attended with more deplorable consequences, than that of
assigning a wrong origin to religion. Every bible, every
 INTRODUCTION.

17

sect, every creed, every catechism, and every orthodox
sermon teaches that u religion is the gift of God,” that
it is infused into the soul by the spirit and power of the
Lord.” Never was a greater mistake ever committed.
Every student of anthropology, every person who has
read any of the numerous modern works on mental sci-
ence, and tested their easily-demonstrated facts, knows
that religion is of natural, and not supernatural, origin;
that it is a natural element of the human mind, and not a
u direct gift from God;11 that it grows as spontaneously
out of the soul as flowers spring out of the ground. It is
as natural as eating, sleeping, or breathing. This conclu-
sion is not the offspring of mere imagination. It is no
hastily-concocted theory, but an oft-demonstrated and
scientifically-established fact, which any person can test
the truth of for himself. And this modern discovery will,
at no distant day, revolutionize all systems of religious faith
in existence, and either dissolve and dissipate them, or
modify and establish them upon a more natural and endur-
ing basis, expurgated of their dogmatic errors. Let us,
then, labor to banish the wide-spread delusion, believed
and taught by a thousand systems of worship — Jew, Pa-
gan, and Christian — that u religion is of supernatural or
divine origin,” and the many ruinous errors, senseless
dogmas, and deplorable soul-crushing superstitions so
thoroughly inwrought into the Christian system, will
vanish like fog before the morning sun, and be replaced
by a religion which sensible, intelligent, and scientific
men and women can accept, and will delight to honor and
practice.

2
 
 ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY.

Friends and brethren — teachers of the Christian faith:
Will yon believe ns when we tell yon the divine claims of
yonr religion are gone — all swept away by the “ logic of
history,” and nullified by the demonstrations of science?
The recently opened fountains of historic lore, many of
whose potent facts will be found interspersed through the
pages of this work, sweep away the last inch of ground
on which can be predicated the least show for either the
divine origin of the Christian religion, or the divinity of
Jesus Christ. For these facts demonstrate beyond all
cavil and criticism, and with a logical force which can
leave not the vestige of a doubt upon any unbiased mind,
that all its doctrines are an outgrowth from older heathen
systems. Several systems of religion essentially the same
in character and spirit as that religion now known as Chris-
tianity, and setting forth the same doctrines, principles,
and precepts, and several personages filling a chapter in
history almost identical with that of Jesus Christ, it is
now known to those who are up with the discoveries and
intelligence of the age, were venerated in the East cen-
turies before a religion called Christian, or a personage
called Jesus Christ, were known to history. Will you
not, then, give it up that your religion is merely a human
production, reconstructed from heathen materials, — from
oriental systems several thousand years older than yours,
— or will you continue, in spite of the unanimous and

19
 20

ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY.

unalterable verdict of history, science, facts, and logic, U
proclaim to the world the now historically demonstrated
error which you have so long preached, that God is the
author of your religion, and Jesus Christ a Deity-begotten
Messiah? Though you may have heretofore honestly
believed these doctrines to be true, you can now no longer
plead ignorance as an excuse for propagating such gigantic
and serious errors, as they are now overwhelmingly demon-
strated by a thousand facts of history to be untrue. You
must abandon such exalted claims for your religion, or pos-
terity will mark you as being “ blind leaders of the blind.”
They will heap upon your honored names their unmitigated
ridicule and condemnation. They will charge you as being
eilher deplorably ignorant, or disloyal to the cause of truth.
And shame and ignominy will be your portion. The fol-
lowing propositions (fatal to your claims for Christianity)
are established beyond confutation by the historical facts
cited in this work, viz.: —

1.   There were many cases of the miraculous birth of
Gods reported in history before the case of Jesus Christ.

2.   Also many other cases of Gods being born of virgin
mothers.

3.   Many of these Gods, like Christ, were (reputedly)
born on the 25th of December.

4.   Their advent into the world, like that of Jesus Christ,
is in many cases claimed to have been foretold by “ in-
spired prophets.”

5.   Stars figured at the birth of several of them, as in the
case of Christ.

6.   Also angels, shepherds, and magi, or “ wise men.”

7.   Many of them, like Christ, were claimed to be of royal
or princely descent.

8.   Their lives, like his, were also threatened in infancy
by the ruler of the country.

9.   Several of them, like him, gave early proof of divinity
 ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY.

21

10.   And,' like him, retired from the world and fasted.

11.   Also, like him, declared, “ My kingdom is not of this
world.”

12.   Some of them preached a spiritual religion, too,
like his.

13.   And were “ anointed with oil,” like him.

14.   Many of them, like him, were “ crucified for the sins
of the world.”

15.   And after three days7 interment “ rose from the dead.”

16.   And finally, like him, are reported as ascending hack
to heaven.

17.   The same violent convulsions of nature at the cruci-
fixion of several are reported.

18.   They wefe nearly all called “ Saviors/7 “ Son of God,77
“ Messiah,” “ Redeemer/7 “ Lord,” &c.

19.   Each one was the second member of the trinity of
“ Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.77

20.   The doctrines of “ Original Sin/7 u Fall of Man/7
“ The Atonement/7 “ The Trinity,” “ The Word/7 “ For-
giveness/7 “ An angry God/7 “ Future Endless Punish-
ment/7 &c., &c. (see the authors “ Biogrophy of Satan ”),
were a part of the religion of each of these sin-atoning
Gods, as found set forth in several oriental bibles and
“ holy books/7 similar in character and spirit to the Chris-
tian’s bible, and written, like it,by “inspired and holy men”
before the time of either Christ or Moses (before Moses, in
some cases, at least). All these doctrines and declara-
tions, and many others not here enumerated, the histori-
cal citations of this work abundantly prove, were taught
in various oriental heathen nations centuries before the
birth of Christ, or before Christianity, as a religion, was
known in the world. Will you, then, after learning these
facts, longer dare assert that Christianity is of divine
emanation, or claim a special divine paternity for its
author. Only the priest, who loves his salary more than
 22

ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY.

the cause of truth (and I fear this class are nutnerous), or
who is deplorably ignorant of history, will have the ef-
frontery or audacity to do so. For the historical facts
herein set forth as clearly prove such assumptions to be
false, as figures can demonstrate the truth of any mathe-
matical problem. And no logic can overthrow, and no
sophistry can set aside, these facts. They will stand till
the end of time in spite of your efforts either to evade,
ignore, or invalidate them. We will here briefly state

Why all the Ancient Religions were alike.

Two causes are obviously assignable for Christianity in
all its essential features and phases, being so strikingly
similar to the ancient pagan systems which preceded it,
as also the close analogies of all the principal systems,
whose doctrines and practical teachings have found a place
on the page of history.

1.   The primary and constituent elements and properties
of human nature being essentially the same in all countries
and "&11 centuries, and the feeling called Religion being a
spontaneous outgrowth of the devotional elements of the
human mind, the coincidence would naturally produce
similar feelings, similar thoughts, similar views, and simi-
lar doctrines on the subject of religion in different coun-
tries, however widely separated. This accounts in part
for the analogous features observable in all the primary
systems of religious faith, which have flourished in the past
ages.

2.   A more potent cause, however, for the proximate
identity extending to such an elaborate detail, as is
evinced by the foregoing schedule, is found in the histori-
cal incident which brought the disciples of the various
systems of worship together, face to face, in the then
grand religious emporium of the world — the royal and
 ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY.

23

renowned city of Alexandria, the capital of Egypt. Here,
drawn together by various motives and influences, the
devotee of India (the devout disciple of Buddhism), the
ever-prayerful worshiper of u Mithra, the Mediator/7 the
representatives of the crucified Quexalcoate of Mexico, the
self-denying Essene, the superstitious Egyptian, the godly
Chaldean, the imitative Judean founders of Christianity,
and the disciples of other sin-atoning Gods, met and inter-
changed ideas, discussed their various dogmas, remolded
their doctrines, and recast and rehabilitated their systems
of religious faith by borrowing from each other, and from
other systems there represented. In this way all became
remarkably similar and alike in all their doctrines and de-
tails. And thus the mystery is solved, and the singular
resemblance of all the ancient systems of religion satis-
factorily accounted for. (For a fuller explanation of this
matter see Chapters XXX. and XXXI. of this work.) In
conclusion please note the following points : —

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1.   The religious conceptions of the Old Testament are
as easily traced to heathen sources as those of the New
Testament. But we are compelled to exclude such an ex-
position from this work.

2.   The comparative exhibition of the doctrines and
teachings of twenty bibles which proves them to be in
their leading features essentially alike (originally designed
for this volume), is found to be, when completed, of suf-
ficient magnitude to constitute a volume of itself.

3.   Here I desire to impress upon the minds of my cleri-
cal brethren the important fact, that the gospel histories
of Christ were written by men who had formerly been
Jews (see Acts xxi. 20), and probably possessing the
strong proclivity to imitate and borrow which their bible
shows was characteristic of that nation; and being written
many years after Christ’s death, according to that standard
Christian author, Dr. Lardner, it was impossible, under such
 24

ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY.

circumstances, for them to separater.(if they had desired to)
the real facts and events of his life from the innumerable
fictions and fables then afloat everywhere relative to the
heathen Gods who had pre-enacted a similar history. Two
reasons are thus furnished for their constructing a history
of Christ almost identical with that of other Gods, as shown
in Chapters XXX., XXXI., and XXXII. of this work.

4.   The singular and senseless defense of your now tot-
tering system we have known to be attempted by mem-
bers of your order, by the self-complacent soliloquy u Chris-
tianity, whether divine or human, is good enough for me.”
But such a subterfuge betrays both a weak mind and a
weak cause. The disciples of all the oriental systems
cherished a similar feeling and a similar sentiment. And
the deluded followers of Brigham Young exclaim in
like manner, u I want nothing better than Mormonism.”
“ Snakes, lizards, and frogs are good enough for me,” a
South Sea Islander once exclaimed to a missionary, when
a reform diet was proposed. Such logic, if universally
adopted, would keep the world eternally in barbarism.
No progress can be made where such sentiments prevail.
The truth is, no system of religion, whatever its ostensible
marks of perfection, can long remain “ good enough ” for
aspiring and progressive minds, unless occasionally im-
proved, like other institutions. And then it should be
borne in mind, that our controversy does not appertain
so much to the character as to the origin of the Christian
religion. Our many incontrovertible proofs, that it is of
human and heathen origin, proves at the same time that it
is an imperfect system, and as such needing occasional im-
provement, like other institutions. And its assumed per-
fection and divine origin, which have always guarded it
from improvement, amply accounts for its present corrupt,
immoral, declining, and dying condition, which a recent
number of Zion’s Watchman proclaims is now its real
 ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY.

25

condition. And it will ere long die with paralysis, unless
its assumption of divine perfection is soon exchanged for
the principles of improvement and reconstruction. This
policy alone can save it.

5.   We will here notice another feeble, futile, and foolish
expedient we have known resorted to by persons of your
order to save your sinking cause when the evidence is
presented with such cogency as to admit of no disproof,
that all the important doctrines of Christianity were taught
by older heathen systems before the era of Christ. The
plea is, that those systems were mere types, or ante-types,
of the Christian religion. But this plea is of itself a bor-
rowed subterfuge of heathenism, and is moreover devoid
of evidence. The ancient Egyptians, also the Greeks,
claimed that Brahminism was a type, or ante-type, of their
religious systems. And Mahomedans now claim that
both Judaism and Christianity were designed by God as
foreshadowing types of the religion of the Koran. And
the disciples of more than a thousand systems of religion
which have flourished in past ages, could have made such
logic equally available in showing, in each case, that every
system preceding theirs was designed by Infinite Wisdom
as simply a typical or ante-typical forerunner of theirs.
How ridiculous and senseless, therefore, is the argument
thus shown to be when critically examined in the light of
history ! so much so as scarcely to merit a serious notice.

6.   Here permit us to say that we believe Christianity to
be not only of human origin, but of natural origin also;
that is, a natural outgrowth, like other systems, of the reli-
gious elements of the human mind — a hypothesis which
accounts most beautifully for the numerous human imper-
fections now visible in nearly every line of its teachings.
Those imperfections correspond exactly to the imperfect
minds which produced it.

7.   And we believe that the principal teacher of Chris*
 26

ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY.

tianity, “ the man Christ Jesus,” possessed a very exalted
and superior mind for that age in the moral and religious
departments, and in the intellectual to some exteht also.
But his superiority in these respects was not probably
greater than that of Jenny Lind’s of the present age in the
musical department, or than those of Zera Colburn or Henry
Safford in the mathematical department. And all proba-
bly derived their peculiar extraordinary traits of mind
from the same causes — that of strong psychological in-
fluence impressed upon the mind of the mothers prior to
their births. Had these ante-natal influences been as well
understood then as now, we presume Christ would have
escaped the fate of an exaltation to the Godhead.

8.   In conclusion, permit us to say that the numerous and
overwhelming facts of this work render it utterly impos-
sible that the exalted claims you put forth for your religion
and its assumed author (that of a divine character) can be
true. And posterity will so decide, whether you do or
not. Cherishing for you naught but feelings of kindness
and brotherly love, and desiring to promote the truth, we
will answer any question, or discuss any proposition em-
braced in this work you may desire.

Your brother,

Kersey Graves.

Richmond, Indiana, 1875.
 THE WORLD’S

SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS.

CHAPTER 1/

RIVAL'CLAIMS OF THE SAVIORS.

It is claimed by the disciples of Jesus Christ, that he was of
supernatural and divine origin ; that he had a human being for
a mother, and a God for his father; that, although he was
woman-conceived, he was Deity-begotten, and molded in the
human form, but comprehending in essence a full measure of
the infinite Godhead; thus making him half human and half
divine in his sublunary origin. It is claimed that he was full
and perfect God, and perfect man; and while he was God, he
was also the son of God, and as such was sent down by his
father to save a fallen and guilty world; and that thus his
mission pertained to the whole human race; and his inspired
seers are made to declare that ultimately every nation, tongue,
kindred, and people under heaven will acknowledge allegiance
to his government, and concede his right to reign, and rule the
world; that “every knee must bow, and every tongue confess
that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

But we do not find that this prophecy has ever been or is
likely to be fulfilled. We do not observe that this claim to the
infinite deityship of Jesus Christ has been or is likely to be
universally conceded. On the contrary, it is found that by a

27
 23

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

portion, and a large portion of the people of even those nations
now called Christian, this claim has been steadily and unswerv-
ingly controverted, through the whole line of history, stretch-
ing through the nearly two thousand years which have elapsed
since his advent to earth. Even some of those who are rep-
resented to have been personally acquainted with him—ay!
some of his own brethren in the flesh, children in the same
household, children of the same mother — had the temerity
to question the tenableness of his claim to a divine emana-
tion. And when we extend our researches to other countries,
we find this claim, so far from being conceded, is denied and
contested by whole nations upon other grounds. It is met and
confronted by rival claims. Upon this ground hundreds of
millions of the established believers in divine revelation — hun-
dreds of millions of believers in the divine character and origin
of religion — reject the pretensions set up for Jesus Christ.
They admit both a God and a Savior, but do not accept Jesus
of Nazareth as being either. They admit a Messiah, but not
the Messiah: these nations contend that the title is misplaced
which makes “the man Christ Jesus” the Savior of the world.
They claim to have been honored with the birth of the true
Savior among them, and defend this claim upon the ground of
priority of date. They aver that the advent of their Messiahs
were long prior to that of the Christians’, and that this circum-
stance adjudicates for them a superiority of claim as to having
had the true Messiah born upon their soil. It is argued that,
as the story of the incarnation of the Christians’ Savior is of
more recent date than that of these oriental and ancient reli-
gions (as is conceded by Christians themselves), the origin of
the former is thus indicated and foreshadowed as being an
outgrowth from, if not a plagiarism upon, the latter — a bor-
rowed copy, of which the pagan stories furnish the original.
Here, then, we observe a rivalship of claims, as to which of
the remarkable personages who have figured in the world as
Saviors, Messiahs, and Sons of God, in different ages and differ-
ent countries, can be considered the true Savior and “ sent of
God;” or whether all should be, or the claims of all rejected.

For researches into oriental history reveal the remarkable
 RIVAL CLAIMS OF THE SAVIORS.

2S

fact that stories of incarnate Gods answering to and resem-
bling the miraculous character of Jesus Christ have been prev-
alent in most if not all the principal religious heathen nations
of antiquity; and the accounts and narrations of some of these
deific incarnations bear such a striking resemblance to that of
the Christian Savior, — not only in their general features, but in
some cases in the most minute details, from the legend of the
immaculate conception to that of the crucifixion, and subse-
quent ascension into heaven, — that one might almost be mis-
taken for the other.

More than twenty claims of this kind — claims of beings in-
vested with divine honor (deified) — have come forward and
presented themselves at the bar of the world with their creden-
tials, to contest the verdict of Christendom, in having pro-
claimed Jesus Christ, “ the only son, and sent of God twen-
ty Messiahs, Saviors, and Sons of God, according to history or
tradition, have, in past times, descended from heaven, and
taken upon themselves the form of men, clothing themselves
with human flesh, and furnishing incontestable evidence of a
divine :rigin, by various miracles, marvelous works, and super-
lative virtues; and finally these twenty Jesus Christs (accepting
their character for the name) laid the foundation for the salva-
tion of the world, and ascended back to heaven.

1.   Chrishna of Hindostan.

2.   Budha Sakia of India.

3.   Salivahana of Bermuda.

4.   Zulis, or Zhule, also Osiris

and Orus, of Egypt.

5.   Odin of the Scandinavi-

ans.

6.   Crite of Chaldea.

7.   Zoroaster and Mithra of

Persia.

8* Baal and Taut, “ the only
Begotten of God,” of
Phenicia.

9.   Indra of Thibet.

10.   Bali of Afghanistan.

11.   Jao of Nepaul.

12.   Wittoba of the Bilingo-

nese.

13.   Thammuz of Syria.

14.   Atys of Phrygia.

15.   Xamolxis of Thrace.

16.   Zoar of the Bonzes.

17.   Adad of Assyria.

18.   Deva Tat, and Sammono-

cadam of Siam.

19.   Alcides of Thebes.

20.   Mikado of the Sintoos.

21.   Beddru of Japan.
 THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

30

*

22.   Hesus or Eros, and Brem-

rillah, of the Druids.

23.   Thor, son of Odin, of the

Gauls.

24.   Cadmus of Greece.

25.   Hil and Feta of the Man-

dates.

26.   Gentaut and Quexalcote

of Mexico.

27.   Universal Monarch of the

Sibyls.

28.   Ischy of the Island }f For

mosa.

29.   Divine Teacher of Plato.

30.   Holy One of Xaca

31.   Fohi and Tien of China.

32.   Adonis, son of the virgin

Io of Greece.

33.   Ixion and Quirinus of

Rome.

34.   Prometheus of Caucasus.

35.   Mohamud, or Mahomet, of

Arabia.

These have all received divine honors, have nearly all been
worshiped as Gods, or sons of God ; were mostly incarnated as
Christs, Saviors, Messiahs, or Mediators; not a few of them were
reputedly born of virgins; some of them filling a character almost
identical with that ascribed by the Christian’s bible to Jesus
Christ; many of them, like him, are reported to have been cruci-
fied ; and all of them, taken together, furnish a prototype and par-
allel for nearly every important incident and wonder-inciting
miracle, doctrine, and precept recorded in the New Testament,
of the Christian’s Savior. Surely with so many Saviors the
world cannot, or should not, be lost. We have now presented
before us a twofold ground for doubting and disputing the claims
put forth by the Christian world in behalf of “ Our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.” In the first place, allowing the question
to be answered in the affirmative as to whether he was really a
Savior, or supernatural being, or more than a mere man, a neg-
ative answer to which seems to have been sprung (as pre-
viously intimated) at the very hour of his birth, and that by
his kindred, his own nearest relatives; as it is declared,
“his own brethren did not believe on him,” — a skepticism
which has been growing deeper and broader from that day
to this.

And now, upon the heel of this question, we find another
formidable query to be met and answered, viz.: Was he (Christ)
 RIVAL CLAIMS OF THE SAVIORS.   3i

the only Savior, seeing that a multitude of similar claims are
no\v upon our council-board to be disposed of?

We shall, however, leave the theologians of the various reli-
gious schools to adjust and settle this difficulty among them-
selves. We shall leave them to settle the question as best they
can as to whether Jesus Christ was the only son and sent of
God —“the only begotten of the Father,” as John declares
him to be (John i. 14) — in view of the fact that long prior to
his time various personages, in different nations, were invested
with the title, “ Son of God,” and have left behind them sim-
ilar proofs and credentials of the justness of their claims to
such a title, if being essentially alike — as we shall prove and
demonstrate them to be — can make their claims similar. We
shall present an array of facts and historical proofs, drawn from
numerous histories and the Holy Scriptures and bibles apper-
taining to these various Saviors, and which include a history of
their lives and doctrines, that will go to show that in nearly all
their leading features, and mostly even in their details, they are
strikingly similar.

A comparison, or parallel view, extended throughout their
sacred histories, so as to include an exhibition presented in par-
allels of the teachings of their respective bibles, would make it
clearly manifest that, with respect to nearly every important
thought, deed, word, action, doctrine, principle, precept, tenet,
ritual, ordinance, or ceremony, and even the various important
characters or personages, who figure in their religious dramas
as Saviors, prophets, apostles, angels, devils, demons, exalted or
fallen genii — in a word, nearly every miraculous or marvel-
ous story, moral precept, or tenet of religious faith, noticed in
either the Old or New Testament Scriptures of Christendom,
— from the Jewish cosmogony, or story of creation in Genesis,
to the last legendary tale in St. John’s “ Arabian Nights ” (alias
the Apocalypse), — there is to be found an antitype for, or
outline of, somewhere in the sacred records or bibles of the ori-
ental heathen nations, making equal if not higher pretension to
a divine emanation and divine inspiration, and admitted by all
historians, even the most orthodox, to be of much more ancient
date \ for while Christians only claim, for the earthly advent
 32

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THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

of their Savior and the birth of their religion, a period less than
nineteen hundred years in the past, on the contrary, most of
the deific or divine incarnations of the heathen and theii
respective religions are, by the concurrent and united verdict
of all history, assigned a date several hundred or several thou-
sand years earlier, thus leaving the inference patent that so
far as there has been any borrowing or transfer of materials
from one system to another, Christianity has been the bor-
rower. And as nearly the whole outline and constituent parts
of the Christian system are found scattered through these older,
systems, the query is at once sprung as to whether Christian
ity did not derive its materials from these sources, — that is,
from heathenism, instead of from high heaven, as it claims.
 MESSIANIC PROPHECIES.

88

CHAPTER II.

MESSIANIC PROPHECIES.

Nearly all religious history is prophetic of the coming of
Saviors, Messiahs, Redeemers, and virgin-born Gods. Most
religious countries, and more than a score of religious systems,
had a standing prophecy that a divine deliverer would descend
from heaven and relieve them from their depressed state, and
ameliorate their condition. And in most cases that prophecy
Was believed to have been fulfilled by the birth of a being, who,
as he approached the goal of moral and intellectual manhood,
exhibited such remarkable proof of superiority of mind as to
be readily accepted as the promised Messiah. We can only
find room for a few citations and illustrations in proof of this
statement. Many texts have been hunted out and marked in
the Christian bible, by interested priests, as prophetic of the
coming and mission of Christ. But a thorough, candid, and
impartial investigation will convince any reader that none of
these texts have the remotest allusion to Christ, nor were they
intended to have. On the contrary, most of them refer to
events already past. The others are the mere ebullitions of
pent-up feelings hopefully prayerful in their anticipation of
better times, but very indefinite as to the period and the agen-
cies or means in which, or by which, the desired reformation
was to be brought about. A divine man was prayed for and
hopefully expected. But no such a being as Jesus Christ is
anticipated, or alluded to, or dreamed of, by the prophecies.
And it requires the most unwarrantable distortion to make one
text refer to him. But this perversion has been wrought on
3
 34

THE WORLD S SA VIORS.

many texts. We will cite one case in proof. In Isaiah’s “ fa-
mous prophecy,” so called, the phrase “Unto us a child is
born ” (Isa. ix. 6), the context clearly shows, refers to the proph-
et’s own child, and the past tense, “is born,” is an evidence the
child was then born. And the title “ Mighty God,” found in
the text, Dr. Beard shows should have been translated “the
Mighty Hero,” thus proving it has no reference to a God. And
“ the Everlasting Father” should have been rendered, according
to this Christian writer, “the Father of the Everlasting Age.”
And other texts often quoted as prophecies by biased Christian
writers, the doctor proves, are erroneously translated, and have
no more reference to Christ than to Mahomet. It is true the
Jews, in common with other nations, cherished strong anticipa-
tions of the arrival of a Mighty Deliverer amongst them ; and
this august personage some of them supposed would be a God,
or a God-man (a demi-God). Hence such prophetic utterances
as, “ Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness ” (Isa. xxxii. 1),
“And all nations shall flow unto Zion” (Isa. ii. 2). The Hin-
doo Budhists long previously indulged similar anticipations
with respect to the triumph of their religion. Hence their seers
prophesied that at the end of the Cali Yug period, a divine
child (Avatar, or Savior) would be born, who would understand
the divine writings (the Holy Scriptures) and the sciences,
without the labor of learning them. “ He will supremely un-
derstand all things.” “ He will relieve the earth of sin, and
cause justice and truth to reign everywhere. And will bring
the whole earth into the acceptance of the Hindoo religion.”
And the Hindoo prophet Bala also predicted that a divine
Savior would “become incarnate in the house of Yadu, and
issue forth to mortal birth from the womb of Devaci” (a Holy
Virgin), and relieve the oppressed earth of its load of sin and
sorrow.” Much more similar language may be found in their
holy bible, the Vedas. Colonel Wilford tells us the advent
of their Savior Christina occurred in exact fulfillment of proph-
ecy found in their sacred books.

And the Chinese bible also contains a number of Messianic
prophecies. In one of the five volumes a prophecy runs thus:
 MESSIANIC PROPHECIES.

85

“The Holy One, when he comes, will unite in himself nil the
virtues of heaven and earth. By his justice the world will be
established in righteousness. He will labor and suffer much,
. . . and will finally offer up a sacrifice worthy of himself” i. e.,
worthy of a God. And a singular animal, called the Kilin (sig-
nifying the Lamb of God), was seen in the yard, with a stone
in its mouth, on which was inscribed a prophecy of the event.
And when the young God (Chang-ti) was born, in fulfillment
of this prophecy, heavenly music, and angels, and shepherds
attended the scene. See “History of China” by Martinus,
also Halde’s “History of China,” and “Putnam’s Maga-
zine.”

We will also give place to a Messianic prophecy of Persia.
Mr. Faber, an English writer, in his “ History of Idolatry,” tells
us that Zoroaster prophetically declared, that “ A virgin should
conceive and bear a son, and a star would appear blazing at
midday to signalize the occurrence.” “ When you behold the
star,” said he to his followers, “ follow it whithersoever it leads
you. Adore the mysterious child, offering him gifts with pro-
found humility. He is indeed the Almighty Word which cre-
ated the heavens. He is indeed your Lord and everlasting
King.” (Faber, vol. ii. p. 92.) Abulfaragius, in his “Historia
Dynastarium,” and Maurice, in his “ Indian Skeptics Refuted,”
both speak of this prophecy, fulfilled, according to Mr. Higgins,
by the advent of the Persian and Chaldean God Josa. And
Chalcidius (of the second century), in his “ Comments on the
Timeas of Plato,” speaks of “ a star which presaged neither dis-
ease nor death, but the descent of a God amongst men, and which
is attested by Chaldean astronomers, who immediately hastened
to adore the new-born deity, and present him gifts.” We are
compelled to omit, for the want of room, the notice of numer-
ous Messianic prophecies found in the sacred writings of Egypt,
Greece, Rome, Mexico, Arabia, and other countries, all of which
tend to show that the same prophetic spirit pervaded all reli-
gious countries, reliable only to the extent it might have issued
from an interior spiritual vision, or have been illuminated by de-
parted spirits. And we find as much evidence that these pagan
 36

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

prophecies were inspired, and also fulfilled, as those found in
Jew - Christian bible, thus reducing all to a common level.
The possibility of the interior vision being expanded and illu-
minated by spiritual beings, so as to enable the possessor to
forestall the occurrence of future events, we, however, by no
means deny, since we have abundant proof of it in connection
with the practical history of modern Spiritualism. (See Chap-
ter XXXIV., section 2.)
 PROPHECIES BT THE FIGURE OF A SERPENT. 37

CHAPTER III.

PROPHECIES BY THE FIGURE OF A SERPENT.

The Seed of the Woman bruising the Serpent’s Head.

“ And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Gen. iii. 15.) This text is often
cited by Christian writers and controversialists as prefiguring
the mission of the Christian Savior, viz., the destruction of
the serpent, alias the devil. St. John calls “ the grand adver-
sary of souls which deceiveth the whole world ” “ the dragon,
the serpent, the devil, and Satan.” (Rev. xii. 8.) The serpent,
then, is the devil; that is, the dragon, the serpent, the devil,
and Satan are all one. The object of this chapter is to show the
origin of the singular figure set forth in the first text quoted,
and to prove that those Christian writers who assume it to be
a revelation from heaven were profoundly ignorant of oriental
history, as the same figure is found in several heathen systems
of older date, as we will now cite the facts to prove. Some of
the saviors or demigods of Egypt, India, Greece, Persia,
Mexico, and Etruria are represented as performing the same
drama with the serpent or devil. “ Osiris of Egypt (says Mr.
Bryant) bruised the head of the serpent after it had bitten his
heel.” Descending to Greece, Mr. Faber relates, that “ on the
spheres Hercules is represented in the act of contending with
the serpent, the head of which is placed under his foot; and this
serpent guarded the tree with golden fruit in the midst of the
garden Hesperides” — Eden. (Origin of Idolatry, vol. i. p.
443.) “And we may observe,” says this author, “ the same tra-
dition in the Phenician fable of Ophion or Ophiones.” (Ibid.)
 85

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

In Genesis the serpent is the subject of two legends. But
here it will be observed they are both couched in one.

Again, it is related by more than one oriental writer that
Chrishna of India is represented on some very ancient sculp-
tures and stone monuments with his heel on the head of a ser-
pent. Mr. Maurice, in his Indian Antiquities, vol. ii., speaks of
“ Chrishna crushing the head of a serpent with his foot,” and
pronounces the striking similarity of this story with that found
in the Christian bible as “ very mysterious.” Another author
tells us, “ The image of Chrishna is sculptured in the ancient
temples of India, sometimes wreathed in the folds of a serpent
ivhich is biting his foot, and sometimes treading victoriously
on the head of a serpent.” (Prog. Rel. Ideas, vol. i.) In
the Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi., we are told, “A messenger
from heaven announced to the first woman created (Suchique-
cul), that she should bear a son who should bruise the serpent's
head, and then presented her with a rose.” Here is the origin
of the Genesis legend, the rose being the fruit of the tree of
“ the knowledge of good and evil” “The ancient Persians,”
says Yolney, in his “Ruins of Empires,” p. 169, “had the tradi-
tion of a virgin, from whom they predicted would be born, or
would spring up, a shoot (a son) that would crush the serpent’s
head, and thus deliver the world from sin.” And both the ser-
pent and the virgin, he tells us, are represented imaginarily in
the heavens, and pictured on their astronomical globes and
spheres, as on those of the Romish Christian. (See Burritt’s
Geography of the Heavens.) In the ancient Etrurian story, im
stead of “ the seed of the woman ” (the virgin), it is the woman
herself who is represented as standing with one foot on the
head of a serpent, which has the twig of an apple tree in its
mouth to which an apple is suspended (the forbidden fruit),
while its tail is tw’isted around a celestial globe, thus reminding
us of St.John’s dragon hauling down one third of the stars with
his tail. (See Rev. xii. 4.) In the ancient celestial diagram
of the Etrurians, the head of the virgin is surmounted with a
crown of stars — doubtless the same legend from which St.
John borrowed his metaphor of “a woman with a crown of
twelve stars on her head.” (Rev. xiii.) “ The Regina Stellarum99
 PROPHECIES BT THE FIGURE OF A SERPENT. 39

(Queen of the Stars), spoken of in some of the ancient systems,
appertains to the .same fable. Also the tradition of Achilles of
Greece being invulnerable in the heel, as related by Homer,
The last clause of the first text quoted reads, “ It shall bruise
thy head ” — a very curious prophetic reference to the savior of
the world, if the text refers to him, to represent him as being
of the neuter gender, for the neuter pronoun it always refers to
a thing without sex.

In the further exposition of the serpent tradition, we are now
brought to notice, and will trace to its origin, the story of the
original transgression and fall of man — two cardinal doctrines
of the Christian religion. Like every other tenet of the Chris-
tian faith, we find these doctrines taught in heathen systems
much older than Christianity, and whose antiquity antedates
even the birth of Moses. We will first notice the Persian tra-
dition. u According to the doctrine of the Persians,” says the
Rev. J. C. Pitrat, “ Meshia and Meshiane, the first man and
first woman, were pure, and submitted to Ormuzd, their maker.
But Ahriman (the evil one) saw them, and envied them their
happiness. He approached them under the form of a serpent,
presented fruits to them, and persuaded them that he was the
maker of man, of animals, of plants, and of the beautiful uni-
verse in which they dwelt. They believed it. Since that time
Ahriman was their master. Their natures became corrupt, and
this corruption infested their whole posterity.” This story is
taken from the Yandidatsade of the Persians, pp. 305 and 428.

The Indian or Hindoo story is furnished us by the Rev.
Father Bouchat, in a letter to the bishops of Avranches, and
runs thus : “ Our Hindoos say the Gods tried by all means to
obtain immortality. After many inquiries and trials, they con-
ceived the idea that they would find it in the tree of life,
which is in the Chorcan (paradise). In fact they succeeded,
and by eating once in a while of the fruits of that tree, they
kept the precious treasure they so much valued. A famous
snake, named Cheiden, saw that the tree of life had been found
by the Gods of the second order. As probably he had been
intrusted with guarding that tree, he became so angry because
his vigilance had been deceived, that he immediately poured
 40

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

out an enormous quantity of poison, which spread over the
whole earth.” How much like this is the story of St. John,
“ And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after
the woman that he might cause her to be carried away of the
flood ” ! (Rev. xii. 15.) The idea of a snake or serpent inundat-
ing the earth from its mouth, as taught in both stories, is so
novel, and so far removed from the sphere of natural causes
and possible events, that we are compelled to the conclusion
that one is borrowed from the other, or both from a common
original. And as facts cited in other chapters prove beyond
dispute that the Hindoo system, containing this story, extends
in antiquity far beyond the time of Moses, the question is thus
settled as to which system borrowed the story from the other.

Before closing the chapter, we wish to call the attention of
the reader to the important fact that three out of four of the
cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith are taught in the two
heathen mythological stories of creation just presented, viz.,—

1.   Original sin.

2.   The fall of man caused by a serpent.

8. The consequent corruption and depravity of the human
race.

These doctrines, then, it must be admitted, are of heathen
origin, and not, as Christians claim, “ important truths revealed
from heaven.” For a historical exposition of the other cardinal
doctrine of the Christian faith, viz., man’s restoration by the
atonement achieved through the crucifixion of a God, see
Chapters xvi. and xxi.
 MIRACULOUS CONCEPTION OF THE GODS.   41

CHAPTER IV.

MIRACULOUS AND IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OP
THE GODS.

The ancients very naturally concluded that an offspring of
God (a son of God) should have a purer, higher, and holier
maternal origin than is incident to the lot of mortals, and this
was to constitute one of the evidences of his emanation from
the Deity — that is, of his supernatural or divine origin. He,
as a matter of course, must not only have a different origin, but
one in the highest degree superior and supernatural. He must
not only be able to claim the highest paternal origin, but the
highest maternal also. And on the part of the mother, a
sexual connection with the great Potentate of heaven would
evince for her offspring the very acme of superiority with re-
spect to his origin, moral perfection, and authority. That the
Savior was born of a woman could not possibly be made a
matter of concealment. But his paternal parentage was not
so obvious and apparent to general observation, being cognizant
alone to the mother. This circumstance furnished the most
propitious opportunity to concoct the story that “The Most
High ” had condescended and descended to become both a
father and a grandfather to a human being, or a being appar-
ently human at least.

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.

We say grandfather, because, if God (as the Christian bible
itself frequently asserts, both directly and by implication) is
father of the whole human family, then he was father to the
maternal parent; so that her son, though deriving existence
from him, would be his grandson as well as his son. Hence
 42

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

the corollary, Jesus Christ was a grandson of God as well as
a son of God,, and Jehovah both his father and grandfather.

Again, to make the origin and character of the God and
Saviour stand higher for purity, and partake in the highest
degree of the miraculous, the impression must go abroad that
he was born of a woman while she was yet a maiden — i. e., be-
fore she was contaminated by illicit association with the mas-
culine sex. Hence nearly all the saviors were reputedly born
of virgins. And the process of birth, too, was out of the line
of natural causes, in order to invest the character of the savior
with the ne plus ultra of the miraculous. And hence it is re-
lated of Jesus Christ (in an Apocryphal Gospel), of Chrishna
of India, and other saviors, that they were born through the
mothers’ side. It is true our present canonical gospels are
silent as to the manner of Christ’s birth; but one of the Apoc-
ryphal gospels, which gives the matter in fuller detail, and
whose authority in the earlier ages of the Christian church
was not disputed, declares that the manner of his birth was
as related above. And, besides, some of the early Christian
fathers fully indorsed the story. The same is related in the
pagan bibles of heathen Gods. The motives which originated
the reports of the immaculate conception of the Saviors, it may
be further remarked, were of a twofold character: —

1.   To establish their spotless origin (as the word immacu-
late means spotless).

2.   To make it appear that there was a Deific power and
agency concerned in their conception.

And we may observe here that it is not the Saviors alone
who are reported to have been ushered into tangible existence
without a human father, but it is declared of beings known and
acknowledged to be men, as Plato, Pythagoras, Alexander,
Augustus, and a number of others. Of Plato an author re-
marks, “He was born of Pareatonia, and begotten of Apollo,
and not Ariston, his father.” Both the manner, or process, and
the source of the influence by which the Gods and Saviors
were generated, seem to have been different in different coun-
tries, though the idea of “ overshadowing with the Holy Ghost ”
seems to have been most current. Mr. Higgins says that “ the
 MIRACULOUS CONCEPTION OF THE GODS.   43

Supreme First Cause was generally believed to overshadow, or
in some other mysterious manner to impregnate, the mother of
the God, or personage” (vol. i. 378). We are told that Py-
thais, the mother of Pythagoras, five hundred and fifty years
B. C., conceived by a specter or ghost (of course the Holy
Ghost) of the God Apollo, or God Sol.

In Malcolm’s “ History of Persia” (vol. i. 494) the author tells
us that “ Zoroaster was born of an immaculate conception by a
ray from the Divine Reason.” The immaculate conception of
Juno of Greece is thus described by the poet: —

tl Juno touched the flower;

Its wondrous virtues such,

She touched it, and grew pregnant at the touch;

Then entered Thrace — the Propontic shore;

When mistress of her touch,

God Mars she bore.”

This case may certainly be set down as the ne plus ultra of
etiquette with respect to sexual commerce or purity of concep-
tion. The sweet odor of an expanded flower, we are here
taught, is adequate to the conception and production of a God.
Here we have “the immaculate conception” in the superlative
degree, and while much more beautiful and grand, it cannot be
more senseless or unreasonable than the conception by a ghost.
It proves at least that the doctrine of the immaculate concep-
tion is of very ancient date. And this fastidious maiden lady
and immaculate virgin, Juno, not only conceived the God Mars
by the touch of a flower, but she also (so the story reads) con-
ceived Vulcan by being overshadowed by the wind — exactly
a parallel case with that of the virgin Mary, as we find that
ghost, in the original, means wind. Thus we observe that
Vulcan, long before Jesus Christ was “born of the Holy
Ghost,” i. e., both were conceived by the “ Holy Wind.” And
the author of the “ Perennial Calendar ” speaks of the miracu-
lous conception of Juno Jugulis, “the blessed virgin queen of
heaven,” and describes it as falling on the 2d of February,
the very day which the early Christians celebrated with a
festival, as being the date of the conception of the “ ever
 44

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

Blessed Virgin Mary” Of the ancient Mexicans it is said,
“they had the immaculate conception, the crucifixion, and the
resurrection after three days.” (Mex. Antiq., vol. i.) And in
an ancient work called “Codex Vaticanus,” the immaculate
conception is spoken of as a part of the history of Quexalcote,
the Mexican Savior. “ Suchiquecal,” says the Mexican Anti-
quities, “was called the Queen of Heaven. She conceived
a son without connection with a man” — a very obvious case
of immaculate conception. Alvarez Semedo, in his “History
of China,” page 89, speaks of a sect in that country who
worshiped a Savior known as Xaca, who was reputedly con-
ceived of his mother, Maia, by a white elephant, which she
saw in her sleep, and “ for greater purity, she brought him forth
from one of her sides.” Colonel Tod, of England, tells us in his
“History of the Rajahs,” page 57, that Yu, the first Chinese
monarch, was conceived by his mother being struck with a star
while traveling. In the case of Christ, it will be recollected,
Ihe star did not appear till after his birth. But here the star
is the author and agent of the conception. According to
Ranking’s “History of the Moguls,” page 178, Tamerlane’s
mother (of Bermuda) professedly conceived by having had
sexual intercourse with “ the God of Day.” The mother of
Ghengis Khan, of Tartary, “being too modest to claim that she
was the mother of the son of God, said only that he was
the son of the sun” (History of Moguls, page 65.) Both
Julis and Osiris of Egypt are spoken of by some authors as
having been honored with a divine immaculate conception —
the former being the son of the beautiful virgin Cronis
Celestine, and “begotten by the Father of all Gods.”

Both Budha and Chrishna, of India, are reported as hav-
ing been immaculately conceived. The mother of the latter
(God) was (as the Hindoo Holy Book declares) over-
shadowed by the Supreme God, Brahma, while the spirit-
author of the conception (that is, the Holy Ghost) was Nara-
an. The mother of Apollonius of Cappadocia, who was
cotemporary with Jesus Christ (according to his history by
Philostratus — and his (Apollonius’) disciple Damis testifies to
the same effect) — gave birth to this God and rival Savior of
 MIRACULOUS CONCEPTION OF THE GODS.   45

Jesus Christ, by having been previously “ overshadowed ” by
the supreme God Proteus. For the corporeal existence and
earthly career of Augustus Caesar, the world has ostensibly to
acknowledge itself indebted to the “ overshadowing ” influence
and generating power of Jove, by whose divine influence he
was immaculously conceived in the temple of Apollo, accord-
ing to the statement of Nimrod, his biographer. The virgin
mother Shing-Mon of China furnishes another case of immac-
ulate conception. Possessing a sensibility too lofty and too
refined to descend to the ordinary routine of the world, she
gave birth to the God Yu from previous conception by a water
lily. This case, with respect to the degree of procreative deli-
cacy and refinement evinced, may be classed with that of Juno
of Greece. Here it may be noted as a curious circumstance, that
several of the virgin mothers of Gods and great men are
specifically represented as going ten months between concep-
tion and delivery. The mother^ of Hercules, Sakia, Guatama,
Scipio, Arion, Solomon, and Jesus Christ may be mentioned as
samples of this character. This tradition probably grew out
of the established belief in the ten sacred cycles which con-
stitute the great prospective and portentous millennial epoch as
described in Chapter XXX. Arion, mentioned above, is repre-
sented as being both miraculously and immaculously conceived
by the Gods in the citadel of Byrsa.

In view of the foregoing facts drawn from accredited histo-
ries, the reader will readily concede that the tradition of the
miraculous conception of Gods (sons of God), Saviors, and
Messiahs was very prevalent in the world at a very ancient
period of time, and long before the mother of Jesus was “ over-
shadowed by the Most High.” Indeed, says Mr. Higgins, “ the
belief in the immaculate conception extended to every nation
in the world.” And Grote, referring to Greece, makes the
remarkable declaration, that “ the furtive pregnancy of young
women, often by a God, is one of the most frequently recurring
incidents in the legendary narratives of the country.” And
we find that both the prevalency and great antiquity of the
doctrine of the immaculate conception among the heathen is
conceded by Christian writers themselves (of former ages) in
 46

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

their attempts to find arguments and commendatory prece-
dents to justify tneir own belief in the doctrine. For proof of
this, we need only cite the Christian writer Mr. Bailey, who
remarks, “What I have said of St. Augustine, is applicable
also to Origen and Lactanius, who have endeavored to persuade
us of the immaculate virginity of the mother of Jesus Christ
by the example of similar events stored by the heathen.” Here
we have several Christian authorities cited by another writer,
also a Christian, for placing, the doctrine of the immaculate
conception among the heathen legends in ages long anterior
to Christ.

With respect to the degree of credence to be attached to
the story of the immaculate conception of the mother of Jesus,
it need only be observed that there was no other person con-
cerned in the transaction but herself who could possess positive,
absolute knowledge of his parentage. And she, let it be noted,
settles the matter forever, by# virtually affirming that Joseph
was his father in the declaration addressed to Jesus when she
found him in the temple —‘ 1 and thy father have sought thee
sorrowing.” (Luke ii. 48.) No one will dispute that the fa-
ther here spoken of was Joseph, which amounts to a positive
declaration by the mother, that Joseph was Jesus’ father.

Immaculate Conception and Miraculous Birth of the
Christian Savior.

The following considerations exhibit some of the numerous
absurdities involved in the story of the miraculous birth of
Jesus Christ.

1.   The evangelical narratives show that Christ himself did
not claim to have a miraculous birth. He did not once allude
to such an event; while if, as Christians claim, it is the princi-
pal evidence of his deityship, he certainly would have done so.

2.   His paternal genealogy, as made out by Matthew and
Luke, completely disproves the story of his miraculous concep-
tion by a virgin. For they both trace his lineage through
Joseph, which they could not do only on the assumption that
Joseph was his father. This, of course, disproves his sireship
by the Holy Ghost, ergo, his miraculous conception. It ia
 MIRACULOUS CONCEPTION OF THE GODS. 47

the lineage and parentage of Joseph, and not Mary, that is given
in tracing back his ancestry to the royal household — a fact
which completely overthrows the story of his miraculous birth.

3.   And the fact that his own disciple (Philip) declared him
to be the son of Joseph, and that several texts show that it
was the current impression, is still further confirmation of the
conclusion.

4.   We find the story of the immaculate conception resting
entirely upon the slender foundation comprised in the legends
of an angel and a dream. We are told that Mary got it by an
angel, and Joseph by a dream. And through these sources we
have the whole groundwork and foundation of the story of the
divinity of Jesus Christ.

5.   It should be noticed that we have neither Joseph’s nor
Mary’s report of these things, but only Matthew and Luke’s
version of the affair. And we are not informed that either of
them ever saw or conversed with Joseph or Mary on the sub-
ject. It is probable they got it from Dame Rumor with her
thousand tongues.

6.   If Christ were a miraculously born God, is it possible his
mother would have reproved him for misconduct when she
found him in the temple, as she must have known his char-
acter ?

7.   If Mary was miraculously conceived, why was the im-
portant secret kept so long from Joseph ? Why did she keep
the “ wool drawn over his eyes ” till an angel had to be sent
from heaven to let him into the secret.

8.   If she were a virtuously-minded woman, why did she thus
attempt to deceive him ?

9.   Why did not God inform Joseph by “ inspiration,” instead
of employing the roundabout way of sending an angel to do it?

10.   We are told that “ Mary was found with child of the
Holy Ghost.” But as we are not informed who found it out,
or who made the discovery, or how it was madp, is it not thus
left in a very suspicious aspect ?

11.   As the whole affair seems to have been based on dreams,
and was carried on through dreams, and has no better foun-
dation than dreams, why should we consider it entitled to any
 48

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

better credit than similar stories found in works on heathen
mythology ?

12.   And would it not prove that Christianity is rather a
dreamy religion ?

13.   Should not the astounding and incredible report of the
birth of a God be based on a better foundation than that of
dreams, and angels, and the legends of oriental myth61ogy, to
entitle it to the belief of an intelligent and scientific age ?

14.   Or can any man of science entertain for a moment the
superlative solecism of an Infinite God by any special act
“ overshadowing ” a finite human female, especially as modern
science teaches us that God is both male and female, and as
much one as the other?

15.   As history teaches us the ancient orientalists believed
that sexual commerce is sinful, and contaminating to the child
thus begotten and born, and hence had their incarnate Gods
sent into the world through human virgins, can any unbiased
mind resist the conviction that this is the source of the origin
of the story of Christ’s immaculate conception ?

16.   And finally, if it were necessary for Christ to come into
the world in such a way as to avoid the impure channel of
human conception and parturition, why did he not descend
directly from heaven in person ? Why could he not “ descend
on the clouds ”.by his first advent, as the bible says he will do
when he makes his second advent ?

17.   Would not this course have furnished a hundred fold
more convincing proof and demonstration of his divine power
and divine attributes than the ridiculous story and the inscru-
table mystery of the divine conception, which is not susceptible
of either investigation or proof.
 VIRGIN MOTHERS AND VIRGIN-BORN GODS. 49

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CHAPTER V.

VIRGIN MOTHERS AND VIRGIN-BORN GODS.

The report in authentic history of a case of a virtuous
woman giving birth to a child with the usual form, and pos-
sessing the usual characteristics of a human being, and who
should testify she had no male partner in the conception, might,
in an age of miracles and ignorance of natural law, be believed
with implicit credulity. But in an age of intelligence, when
the keys of science have unlocked the sacred shrines and hal-
lowed vaults of sacerdotal mysteries, and modern researches of
history have laid bare the fact that most ancient religious
countries abound in reports of this character, a profound and
general skepticism must be the result, and a total rejection of
their truth by all men of science and historic intelligence.
Many are the cases noted in history of young maidens claim-
ing a paternity for their male offspring by a God. In Greece
it became so common that the reigning king issued an edict,
decreeing the death of all young women who should offer such
an insult to deity as to lay to him the charge of begetting their
children. The virgin Alcmene fnrnishes a case of a young
woman claiming God as the father of her offspring, when she
brought forth the divine Redeemer Alcides, 1280 years B. O.
And Ceres, the virgin mother of Osiris, claimed that he was
begotten by “ the father of all Gods.” Mr. Kenrick tells us the
likeness of this virgin mother, with the divine child in her arms,
may now be seen represented in sculpture on some of the an-
cient, ruined temples of that ruined empire. And Mr. Higgins
makes the broad declaration that “ the worship of this virgin
mother, with her God-begotten child, prevailed everywhere.”
This author also quotes Mr. Riquord as saying, this son of God
4
 60

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

“ was exhibited in effigy, lying in a manger, in the same man-
ner the infant Jesus was afterward laid in the cave at Bethle-
hem.” Mr. Higgins further testifies that the worship of this
virgin God-mother (that is, the God and the mother) is of very
ancient date and universal prevalence in all the Eastern coun-
tries, as is proved by sculptured figures bearing the marks of
great age. In corroboration of this statement we might cite
many cases, if our space would permit, from the religious rec-
ords of India, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, Mexico, Thibet, &c-
Maia, mother of Sakia and Yasoda of Chrishna, Celestine,
mother of the crucified Zulis; Chimalman, mother of Quexal-
cote; Semele, mother of the Egyptian Bacchus, and Minerva,
mother of the Grecian Bacchus ; Prudence, mother of Hercules;
Alcmene, mother of Alcides ; Shing-Mon, mother of Yu, and
Mayence, mother of Hesus, were all as confidently believed to
De pure, holy, and chaste virgins, while giving birth to these
Gods, sons of God, Saviors and sin-atoning Mediators, as was
Mary, mother of Jesus, and long before her time.

Mr. Higgins remarks that the mother was still held to be a
virgin, even after she had given birth to other children besides
the deity-begotten bantling, which furnishes another striking
parallel to the history of Mary, as she was still called a virgin
after she had given birth to Jesus and his brothers James and
John. And it is an incident worth noticing here, that, in the
case of Mayence, virgin mother of the God-sired Hesus of the
Druids, the ancient traditions of the country, more than two
thousand years old, represent her body as being enveloped in
light, and a crown of twelve stars upon her head, correspond-
ing exactly to the apocalyptic figure described by the mysta-
gogue St. John, in the twelfth chapter of his Revelation. She
is also represented with her foot on the head of a serpent,
according to Davie’s “Universal Etymology.” (Vide the case
of the seed of the woman bruising the serpent’s head, Gen. iii.
15.) Auguste Nichols tells us, in his “ Philosophical Essays on
Christianity,” that Io is called, in Eschylus, “ the Chaste Vir-
gin,” and her- son “ the Son of God.” (For other similar cases,
see Guigne’s History of the Huns.) Gonzales informs us he
found on an ancient temple in India the Latin inscription Par-
 VIRGIN MOTHERS AND VIRGIN-BORN GODS. 52

turce Virginia, “the virgin about to bring forth.” And similar
inscriptions have been found on pagan temples ir the country
of the ancient Gauls, (For proof, see Riquord’s Theology of
the Ancient Gauls, Chap. X.)   “ He who hath ears to hear, let

him hear,” and treasure up these facts. According to Chinese
history there were two beings,—Tien nnd Chang-ti, — wor-
shiped in that country as Gods more tl an twenty-five hun-
dred years ago, born of virgins “ who 1 new no man.” The
mother of the mighty and almighty God 1 tercules, we are told,
“ knew only Jove.”

If history and tradition, then, are to be credited, God had
many “ well-beloved sons,” born of pious and holy virgins, be-
sides Jesus Christ. And some of them are represented as being
his “ only begotten,” and others his “ first begotten,” sons. And
all these cases appear to be equally as well authenticated as the
story of Jesus Christ. All stand upon a level, the same kind and
the same amount of evidence being offered in each case. Here
we will note it as a curious circumstance, that several of the
above-named Saviors are represented as being black, Jesus
Christ included with this number. There is as much evidence
that the Christian Savior was a black man, or at least a dark
man, as there is of his being the son of the Virgin Mary, or
that he once lived and moved upon the earth. And that evi-
dence is the testimony of his disciples, who had nearly as good
an opportunity of knowing what his complexion was as the
evangelists, who omit to say anything about it. In the pic-
tures and portraits of Christ by the early Christians, he is uni-
formly represented as being black. And to make this the more
certain, the red tinge is given to the lips; and the only text in
the Christian bible quoted by orthodox Christians, as describ-
ing his complexion, represents it as being black. Solomon’s
declaration, “I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jeru-
salem ” (Sol. i. 5), is often cited as referring to Christ. Accord-
ing to the bible itself, then, Jesus Christ was a black man. Let
us suppose that, at some future time, he makes his second
advent to the earth, as some Christians anticipate he will do,
and that he comes in the character of a sable Messiah, how
would he be received by our negro-hating Christians, of sensi-

MWXBBSITY Of ILLINOIS
LIBRARY
 52

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

tive olfactory nerves? Would they worship a negro God?
Let us imagine he enters one of our fashionable churches, with
his “rough and ready,” linsey-woolsey, seamless garment on,
made of wild sea-grass, thus presenting a very forbidding ap-
pearance, and what would be the result? Would the sexton
show him to a seat? Would he not rather point to the door,
and exclaim, “ Get out of here; no place here for niggers ” ?
What a ludicrous series of ideas is thus suggested by the
thought that Jesus Christ was a “ darky.”

And the tradition of divine Saviors being born of undefiled
and undeflowered virgins has an astronomical chapter we must
not omit to notice. The virgin, with her God-begotten child,
was pictured imaginably in the heavens from time immemorial.
They are represented on the Hindoo zodiac, at least three thou-
sand years old, and on the ancient Egyptian planispheres. And
if you will examine “ Burritt’s Geography of the Heavens,” you
will find the infant God-son (the sun) is represented as being
born into a new year on the 25th of December (the very date
assigned for Christ’s birth), and may be seen rising over the
eastern horizon, out of Mary, Maria, or Mare (the Latin for
sea), with the infant God in her arms, being heralded and pre-
ceded by a bright star, which rises immediately preceding the
virgin and her child, thus suggesting the text, u We have seen
his star in the east, and have come to worship him.” (Matt. ii.
8.) Such facts led the learned Alphonso to exclaim,w The adven-
tures of Jesus Christ are all depicted among the stars.” And
such facts fasten the conviction on our mind that the stories of
Gods cohabiting with young maids or virgins, and begetting
other Gods, is of astrological origin, — the story of Jesus
Christ included. A critical research §hows that astronomy
and religion were interblended, interwoven, and confounded
together at a very early period of time, so indissolubly, that it
now becomes impossible to separate them.

X
 THE SAVIORS’ BIRTH ANNOUNCED BT STARS. 53

CHAPTER VI.

STARS POINT OUT THE TIME AND THE SAVIORS5
BIRTH-PLACE.

A profusion of evidence is furnished, at every step along the
devious pathway of sacred history, tending to show that all the
systems of worship which have existed in the past have had a
dip in “the halo of the heavenly orbs,” and hence shine with a
light derived from that source. We find the stars acting di-
rectly a conspicuous part at the births of several of the Saviors,
besides figuring in some cases by marking important events in
their subsequent history. Mr. Higgins remarks that “ among the
ancients there seems to have been a very general idea that the
arrival of Gods and great personages, who were expected to
come, would be announced by a star.” And the cases of Abra-
ham, Caesar, Pythagoras, Vu, Chrishna, and Christ, may be
cited in proof of this declaration. A star figured either before
or at the birth of each, according to their respective histories.
And it is a historical fact that should be noted here that the
practice of calculating nativities by the stars was in vogue in
the era and country of Christ’s birth, and had been for a long
period previously in various countries. “We have seen his
star in the east, and have come to worship him.” (Matt. ii. 1.)
Now mark, here, it was not the sta?% nor a star, but “his
star;” thus disclosing its unmistakable astrological features.
Mr. Faber (in his “ Origin of Idolatry,” vol. ii. p. 77) reports
Zoroaster (600 B. C.) as prophetically announcing to “the wise
men ” of that country, that a Savior would be born, “ attended
by a star at noonday.” For a fuller exposition of this case see
Chapter II.

In the history of the Hindoo Savior, Chrishna, we are told
 54

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

that “as soon as Nared, who, having heard of his fame, had
examined the stars, he declared him to be from God; i. e., the
Son of God. The Roman Calcidius speaks of “ a wonderful
star, presaging the descent of a God amongst men.” ( See Mau-
rice’s Indian Skeptics Refuted,” p. 62.) Quite suggestive of the
star apprising “ the wise men ” of Christ’s descent from above.
And a star is said to have foretokened the birth of the Roman
Julius Caesar. The Chinese God Yu was not only heralded by
a star, but conceived and brought to mortal birth by a star. In
Numbers xxiv. 17, it is declared, “There shall come a star out
of Jacob,” &c. This is a text often quoted by Christian writers
as having a prophetic reference to the Christian Messiah. But
the same text declares further, “ It shall destroy the children
of Seth,” a prediction which no rational interpretation can make
apply to Jesus Christ. And then we find this star of Jacob or
Judah (the same) represented on astronomical maps as a prom-
inent star in the constellation Virgo (the Virgin), fancifully
termed by the Hebrew Ephraim. It was known in the Syrian,
Arabian, and Persian systems of astronomy as Messaeil (sug
gestive of Messiah), and was considered the ruling genius of the
constellation. The “ star of Jacob,” then, was simply a figure
borrowed from the ancient pagan systems of astronomy, in
which they fancifully represent a virgin rising with an infant
Messiah (Messaeil) in her arms. Messaeil is, when analyzed,
Messaeh-el (Messiah-God), and is found in the constellation
Virgo, which commences rising at midnight, on the 25th of De-
cember, with this “ star in the east ” in her arms — the star
which piloted “ the wise men.” The whole thing, then, is evi-
dently an astronomical legend.

Albert the Great, in his “Book on the Universe,” tells us,
“ The sign of the celestial virgin rises above the horizon, at the
moment we find fixed for the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
To which we will add the declaration of Sir William Drum-
mond, who, in his “CEdipus Judaicus,” p. 27, most significantly
remarks, “ The anointed of El, the male infant, who rises in the
arms of Virgo, was called Jesus by the Hebrews, . . . and was
hailed as the anointed king or Messiah ” — still further proof of
the astrological origin of the story. Dr. Hales, in his “ Chro*
 THE SAVIOR'S BIRTH ANNOUNCED BT STARS. 55

nology,” calls Christcc the star of our salvation, the true Apollo,
the sun of righteousness,”— all of which are astronomical terms.
And here we may recur to the fact that some of the early in-
habitants of the earth regarded a star as a thing of life, because
it appeared to move, and acted as though controlled by a living
spirit. And this fetchic idea we observe lurking amongst the
borrowed orientalisms of the Jewish Old Testament. The rep-
resentation of the morning stars joining in a chorus and singing
together (see Job xxxviii. 9), is an instance of this kind of
fetchic conception. And then we find a much stronger and
more conclusive case in the New Testament, where Matthew
represents a star as breaking loose from its orbit, and traveling
some millions of miles, in order to stand over the young child
Jesus, as he lay amongst the oxen and asses in a stable. (See
Matt. ii. 7.) Wonderfully accommodating star indeed ! How
did its inhabitants feel while thus traveling with the velocity
of lightning ? This achievement would not only require life,
but an active intelligence, on the part of the star, as it is repre-
sented as being an act of the planet itself. 14 All nations,” says
Mr. Higgins, 44 once believed that the planetary bodies or their
inhabitants controlled the affairs of men, and even their births.”
Hence the cant prases, 44 My stars,” 44 He is ill-starred,” &c., in
use then, and still in use at the present day. The good or
ill luck of a person was attributed to the good or evil stars
which it was believed ruled at the hour of his birth. We find
a counterpart to the story of Matthew’s traveling star in Vir-
gil’s writings, who declares (60 B. C.) that a star guided tine-
as in a journey westward from Troy. In the days of Pliny
(see his 44 Natural History,” Book II.), the people of Rome fan-
cied they saw a God in a star or comet in the form of a man.
The Apocryphal book of Seth relates that a star descended
from heaven and lighted on a mountain, in the midst of which
a divine child was seen bearing a cross. Christ betrays the
same ignorance of astronomy, when he speaks of 44 the stars
falling from heaven to the earth.” (See Matt. xxiv. 29.) For
if there could be any falling in the case, the falling would be in
the other direction, and the earth would fall to the stars, as
larger bodies always attract smaller ones. As shown above,
 56

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

the stupendous orbs of night were represented by Jew, Pagan,
and Christian, as breaking away from their orbits, and running
hither and thither, like a fly on a ceiling, or a ball from a sky-
rocket, being regarded as mere jack-a-lanterns, that could
appear anywhere at any time creative fancy might dictate 01
require; while science teaches that the stars are stupendous
orbs, some of them a thousand times larger than the planet on
which we live, and that they could not depart one rod from
their accustomed orbits without breaking up the whole plane-
tary system, and destroying the universe. And then observe
the absurdity in Matthew’s story, which teaches that the wise
men followed the star in the east, when they, coming from the
east, were, as a matter of course, traveling westward, which
would place the star to their backs. That must be a sui gene-
ris pilot or guide which follows after, instead of going before.
Omitting further citations from history, we will only observe
further, that the ancient Hindoos, Egyptians, Chaldeans, Syr-
ians, Mexicans, &c., took great account of stars, and employed
them on all important occasions, especially on long journeys
and at the births of Gods and great personages — a circum-
stance which aids in explaining the star-chapter in the gospel
history of Christ.
 VISIT OF ANGELS, SHEPHERDS,   57

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CHAPTER YII.

ANGELS, SHEPHERDS, AND MAGI VISIT THE
INFANT SAVIORS.

In an age when Gods and men were on the most familiar
terms, and when the character of one furnished a transcript for
the other, and when each consented to act a reciprocal part
towards elevating, honoring, and glorifying the other, the birth
of a God or Messiah was, as a matter of course, regarded as an
event of sufficient importance to attract the attention of the
great ones of the earth, and even the denizens of heaven also.
And hence we find it related in the history of several of the
God-begotten Saviors of antiquity, that as soon as they were
born into the world they were visited by “ wise men from a
distance ” (or Magi, as they were called by the Persians and
Brahmins). And in some cases they were likewise waited upon
and adored by the neighboring shepherds; and even celestial
spirits are reported in some instances as leaving their star-gilt
homes to wing their way to the humble mansion, the rude
tenement, containing a new-born God, that they might honor
and adore “ the Savior of men, the Savior of the world.”

The sacred biographies of both Confucius and Christ furnish
examples of the angel host forsaking their golden pavilions in
the skies to pay their devoirs to a Deity-begotten bantling, sent
down by the “ Father of Mercies,” to save a guilt-laden world.
And in both cases the Magi are reported as assembling to pre-
sent their offerings to the infant God. In the case of Confucius
(born 598 B. C.), it is declared, “Five wise men from a dis-
tance came to the house, celestial music was heard in the
skies, and angels attended the scene ” (See the Five Volumes.)
Now let us observe how strikingly similar to this ancient legend,
in each of the several characteristics, is the Christian story
 68

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

Matthew (ii. 1) speaks of “wise men from the east,” journey-
ing to Jerusalem to visit the infant Christ, soon after his
birth, amongst the mules and oxen in a stable, though he
omits to state the number of itinerant adorers who presented
themselves on the occasion. The Persian story is more specific,
as it gives the number of Magi who visited the young Savior
of that country as five.

Luke (ii. 13) speaks of “ a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God,” in gratulation of the birth of the Judean Savior.
Now, when we bear in mind that one method of praising God,
with the orientals, was by music, we will at once observe that
this is only another mode of proclaiming, as in the case of
Confucius, that “celestial music was heard in the skies.”

And “ angels attended the scene ” of Confucius' birth. So,
likewise, Luke (ii. 15) relates that the angels, after rejoicing
with the shepherds on the occasion of the birth of Christ,
“ went away into heaven.” How complete the parallel! and,
but for the digression, and monopoly of space, we might trace
it much further, and show that Confucius, like Christ, had
twelve chosen disciples; that he was descended from a royal
house of princes, as Christ from the royal house of David; that
he, in like manner, retired for a long period from the noise and
bustle of society into religious contemplative seclusion; that
he inculcated the same Golden Rule of doing to others as we
desire them to act toward us, and other moral maxims equal
in importance to anything that can be found in the Christian
Scriptures, &c.

But to the line of history. Other Saviors at birth, we are
told, were visited by both angels and shepherds, also “ wise
men,” at least great men. Chrishna, the eighth avatar of India
(1200 B. C.) (so it is related by the “ inspired penman ” of
their pagan theocracy) was visited by angels, shepherds, and
prophets (avatars). “ Immediately after his birth he was
visited by a chorus of devatas (angels), and surrounded by
shepherds, all of whom were impressed with the conviction of
his future greatness” We are informed further that “gold,
frankincense, and myrrh ” were presented to him as offerings.

The well-known modern traveler, Mr. Ditson, who visited
 VISIT OF ANGELS, SHEPHERDS,   59

India but a few years since, uses the emphatic declaration, sIn
fact, as soon as Chrishna was born he was saluted by a chorus of
devatas, or angels.” In the evangelical narrative of the Chris-
tian Savior an angel is reported to have saluted his mother
thus : “ Hail, thou that art highly favored; the Lord is with
thee; blessed art thou among women” (Luke i. 28.) And
in the next chapter the angel is reported as joining with “ the
heavenly host” in “praising God.” A similar report is found
in the Hindoo bible (the Ramayana), appertaining to the
mother of the eighth Savior, of whom it is declared u Brah-
ma and Siva, with a host of attending spirits, came to her and
sang, c In thy delivery, O favored among women, all nations
shall have cause to exult.’” And when the celestial infant
(Chrishna) appeared (it is related in a subsequent chapter)?
“ a chorus of heavenly spirits saluted him with hymns; the
whole room was illuminated by his light, and the countenance
of his father and mother shone with brightness and glory (by
reflection), their understandings were opened so that they
knew him to be the Preserver of the world, and they began to
worship him.” The last text here quoted brings to mind Luke
xxiv. 45, which declares, “Then he (Christ) opened their (his
parents) understandings.”

The ninth avatar of India (Sakia) furnishes to some extent
a similar parallel. According to the account of an exploration
made in India, and published in the New York Correspondent
of 1828, “ There is on a silver plate in a cave in India an in-
scription stating that about the time of the advent of Budha
Sakia (600 B. C.), a saint in the woods learned by inspiration
that another avatar (Messiah or Savior) had appeared in the
house of Rajah of Lailas. Learning which, he flew through the
air to the place, and when he beheld the new-born Savior, ha
declared him to be the great avator (Savior or prophet), and
that he was destined to establish a new religion ” — The New
Covenant Religion.

We next draw on the history of Greece. It is authentically
related of Pythagoras (600 B. C.), that his fame having reached
Miletas and neighboring cities, men renowned for wisdom
(wise men) came to visit him (Progress of Religious Ideas,
 60

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

vol. i.). In the Anacalypsis we are told that “Magi came from
the East to offer gifts at Socrates’ birth, bringing gold, frankin-
cense, and myrrh,” the same kind of offering as that presented
to the two divine infants, Chrishna and Christ, according to
their respective “inspired” biographers. (See Matt. ii. 4, and
the Ram ay ana.)

And the legend of Mithra, of Persia, might also be included
in our category of comparison, if we had space for it. All the
four Saviors last named (if Socrates may be called such) are
reported as having been honored and enriched with aromatic
offerings at their respective births. And we have the state-
ment from Mr. Higgins, that the same assortment of spices
(with the gold) constituted the materials offered as gifts to the
sun, in Persia more than three thousand years ago; and like-
wise in Arabia near the same era. And it may be stated here,
that an ancient historic account of Zoroaster of Persia (6000
B. C., according to Pliny and Aristotle), speaks of his having
also been visited by Magi, or “Magia,” at the period of his
earthly advent.   *

And it is, perhaps, well to note in this place, that “Magi”
is the term used in the Apocryphal Gospels to designate the
“ wise men ” who visited Christ at birth; and that Magi, Magic,
and Magician are but variations of the same word, at least
derivations from the same root, all suggesting a wisdom corre-
lated to the Gods. Osiris, an incarnate deity of Egypt, we
may cite as another case of an infantile God receiving signal
honors and eclat at birth, as he was visited while yet in the
cradle by a host of admiring adorers. “People flocked from
all parts of the world to behold the heaven-born infant.” Such
a world-wide fame must have had the effect to attract, with the
numerous crowd who thronged to see and worship him, no
small number of “wise men.”

At this stage of our historical exposition, we will suggest it
as rather a singular circumstance that the divine Father, in his
infinite wisdom, should have chosen to reveal the intelligence
of the birth of his son Jesus Christ to a set of nomadic heathen
idolaters hundreds of miles distant (though known as “wise
men ” because of their skill in astrology) before he made it
 VISIT OF ANGELS, SHEPHERDS, AND MAGI.   61

known to his own “ chosen people ” (the Jews), who had ever
regarded themselves as the recipients of his special favors.
And perhaps it is still more singular that these pagan pedes-
trians should have been denominated “ wise men,” while men
of God’s own election, according to the Christian bible, were
often stigmatized and denounced as “ fools,” a “ generation of
vipers,” &c. But it so happens that “ human reason ” finds
many incongruities in “ Divine Revelations.”
 62

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE TWENTY-FIFTH OF DECEMBER THE BIRTH-
DAY OF THE GODS.

Divested of all explanation, the announcement of the fact
that the time of the birth of many of the incarnated Gods and
Saviors of antiquity was fixed at the same period, and this peri-
od the 25th of December, celebrated all over Christendom as
the birthday of Jesus Christ, would sound marvelously strange,
especially when it is noticed that this period formerly dated the
birth of a new year—the birth of King Sol. And when we
find that the ancient pagans were in the habit of celebrating
this venerated 25th of December as the birthday of their Gods
in the same manner Christians now celebrate it as the birthday
of Christ, we are driven to admit that something more than
mere fortuitous accident must be adduced to account for the
coincidence. According to Dr. Lightfoot, the temple of Jeru-
salem was employed in celebrating the birthday of a pagan
God (Adonis) on the very night Christians assign for the birth
of Christ. And Robert Taylor informs us that nearly all
the nations of the East were once in the habit of rising at
midnight to celebrate the birthday of their Gods, on the 25th
of December. And to this statement Mr. Higgins adds, tl at,
“ at the first moment after midnight of the 24th of December,
the ancient nations celebrated the accouchement of the queen
of heaven and celestial virgin, and the birth of the God Sol,
the infant Savior, and the God of Day.”

Bacchus of Egypt, Bacchus of Greece, Adonis of Greece,
Chrishna of India, Chang-ti of China, Chris of Chaldea, Mithra
of Persia, Sakia of India, Jao Wapaul (a crucified Savior of
ancient Britain), were all born on the 25th of December, ac
 THE BIRTHDAY OF THE GODS.

63

cording to their respective histories. Chrishna is represented to
have been born at midnight on the 25th of the month Savarana,
which answers to our December, and millions of his disciples cel-
ebrated his birthday by decorating their houses with garlands
and gilt paper, and the bestowment of presents to friends. , The
Rev. Mr. Barret tells us, “ It was once common for the women
in Rome to perambulate the streets on the 25th of December,
singing in a loud voice, “ Unto us a child is born this day.” The
25th of December, then, it will be observed, was marked as the
birthday of the incarnated Gods, Saviors, and Sons of God, of
many of the religious systems of antiquity, long prior to the
birth of Christ. And why his birth was fixed at that date is
not hard to account for. According to the celebrated Chris-
tian writer Mr. Goodrich, the Christian world had no chronol-
ogy and recorded no dates for several centuries after the com-
mencement of the Christian era. (See History of all Nations,
p. 23.) No event of their history was marked by dates for
nearly four hundred years. Hence the time of Christ’s birth is
altogether a matter of conjecture, as is also every other event no-
ticed in the Christian bible. This is proved by the fact that the
ablest Christian writers and chronologists differ to the extent
of thirty-five hundred years in fixing the time of every event
in the bible. A Mr. Kennedy presents us with three hundred
different chronological systems, by different Christian writers,
all founded on the bible, and proving that the date of its vari-
ous events are inextricably involved in a labyrinth of doubt,
darkness, and uncertainty.

Relative to the time of Christ’s birth, the “ Encyclopedia Bri-
tannica” says, “Christians count one hundred and thirty-three
contrary opinions of different authors concerning the year the
Messiah appeared on earth — many of them celebrated writers.”
(Art. Chron.) Mark the declaration — one hundred and thirty-
three different opinions as to the year Christ was born in; one
hundred and thirty-three different years fixed on by different
Christian chronologists as the time of the birth of the most
extraordinary and most noted being, as Christians would have
us believe, that ever appeared on earth. Think of an omnipo-
tent God descending from heaven, performing astounding mhv
 64

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

acles, and presenting other proofs of being a God, and yet not one
of the three hundred writers of that era take any notice of him,
or make any note of his birth or any event of his life. This cir-
cumstance is of itself sufficient to banish and dissipate all faith
in his divinity. It is evident, from the facts just presented, tha*b
all systems of Christian chronology are founded on mere conjec-
ture, and hence should be rejected as worthless. What event of
Christ’s life, then, can be accepted as certain, when no record
was made of it till the time was forgotten, and none for at least
half a century after the dawn of the Christian era, according to
Dr. Lardner, when nearly all who witnessed it must have been
dead ? We think the most reasonable conclusion in the case is,
that Christ, instead of performing those Munchausen prodigies
attributed to him, — such as casting out devils, raising the
dead, controlling the elements of nature, &c., — led such an ordi-
nary, obscure life, — excelling only in healing the sick and other
noble deeds of charity and philanthropy, — that he attracted
but little notice by the higher classes, or by anybody but those
of a similar turn of mind, till he was deified by Constantine, in
the year 825 A. D. Hence the time of his birth was not re-
corded, and was forgotten. Consequently, the 25th of Decem-
ber was selected as his birthday, because it was the birthday
of other Gods, and because it was regarded by the heathen,
from time immemorial, as the birthday of Sol, the glorious
luminary of heaven, it being the period he is born again into a
new year, and “ commences again his journey and his life ; ” and
because, also, this epoch was, as Sharon Turner informs us, in
his u History of the Anglo-Saxons,” the commencement of a new
year up to the tenth century.

These events signalized the 25th of December, and made it
a period of sufficient importance to lead the early Christians
to suppose it must have been the birthday of their Messiah.
Mosheim, however, confesses that the day or the year in
which it happened “has not been fixed with certainty, not-
withstanding the profound researches of the learned.” So that
it is*still an open question as to when Christ was born. What
day of the month, what year, or what century it took place in,
is still unknown. This circumstance is, as before suggested,
 THE BIRTHDAY OF THE GODS.

65

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sufficient of itself to utterly prostrate all faith in the divine
claims for Jesus Christ. What would be thought of a witness
who should testify in court to the truth of an occurrence of
which he did not know the year, or even the century, in which
it took place, or who could come no nearer than one hundred
and thirty-three years in fixing or guessing at the time. Would
the court accept such testimony?

5
 66

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS

CHAPTER IX.

TITLES OF THE SAVIORS.

The various deific titles applied to Jesus Christ in the Hew
Testament are regarded by some Christian writers as presump-
tive evidence of his divinity. But the argument proves too
much for the case; as we find the proof in history that many
other beings, whom Christians regard as men, were honored and
addressed by the same titles, such as God, Lord, Savior, Re-
deemer, Mediator, Messiah, &c. The Hindoo Chrishna, more
than two thousand years ago, was prayerfully worshiped as
“ God, the Most High.” His disciple Amarca once addressed
him thus: “ Thou art the Lord of all things, the God of the
universe, the emblem of mercy, the bestower of salvation. Be
propitious, O Most High God,” &c. Here he is addressed both
as Lord and God. He is also styled “ God of Gods.” Adonis
of Greece was addressed as “ God Supreme,” and Osiris of
Egypt as “ the Lord of Life.” In Phrygia, it was “ Lord
Atys,” as Christians say, “Lord Jesus Christ.” Narayan of
Bermuda was styled the “Holy Living God.” The title “Son
of God ” was so common in nearly all religious countries as to
excite but little awe or attention. St. Basil says, “ Every un-
commonly good man was called c the Son of God.’ ” The “ Asi-
atic Researches ” says, “ The Tamulese adored a divine Son of
God,” and Thor of the Scandinavians was denominated “ the
first-born Son of God; ” and so was Chrishna of India, and other
demigods.

It requires, therefore, a wide stretch of faith to believe that
Jesus Christ was in any peculiar sense “the Son of God,”
because so denominated, or “the only begotten Son of God,”
when so many others are reported in history bearing that title
 TITLES OF THE SAVIORS.

67

The title Savior is found in the legends of every religious
country. So also God, Redeemer, and Mediator. “ When a
Mogul or Thibetan is asked who was Chrishna,” says the Chris-
tian missionary Hue, “ the reply is, instantly,1 the Savior of
men.’” Budha was known as “the Savior, Creator, and Wis-
dom of God,” and Mithra as both Mediator and Savior, also as
“ the Redeemer,” and Chrishna as “ the Divine Redeemer,”
also “ the Redeemer of the World.” The terms Mediator and
Intercessor were also frequently applied to him by his disci-
ples. And both he and Quexalcote were hailed as “the Mes-
siah.” In short, most ancient religious nations were honored
with or expected a Messiah.

Was Jesus Christ the “ Lamb of God ? ” (John i. 9.) So was
Chrishna styled “ the Holy Lamb.” The Mexicans, preferring
a full-grown sheep, had their “Ram of God.” The Celts had
their “ Heifer of God,” and the Egyptians their “ Bull of God.”
All these terms are ludicrous emblems of Deity, representing
him as a quadruped, as the title “ Lamb of God ” does Jesus
Christ, a term no less ludicrous than the titles of the pagan
Gods as cited above. And was Christ “ the True Light ? ” (John
i. 9.) So was Chrishna likewise called “the True Light,” also
“the Giver of Light,” “the Inward Light,” &c. Osiris was
“ the Redeemer of Light,” and Pythagoras was both “ Light
and Truth.” Apollonius was styled “ the True Light of the
world;” while Simon Magus was called “ the Light of all men.”
Several nations had also their Christs, though in many cases
the word is diiferently spelled. Chrest, the Greek mode of
spelling Christ, may be found on several of the ancient tomb-
stones of that country. The Christian writer Elsley, in his
“Annotations of the Gospels” (vol. i. p. 25), spells the word
Christ in this manner, Chrest. The people of Loretto had a
black Savior, called Ch :est, or Christ. Lucian, in his “ Philo-
patris,” admits the ancient Gentiles had the name of Christ,
which shows it was a heathen title. The Chaldeans had their
Chris, the Hindoos their Chrishna, the Greeks their Chrest, and
the Christians theft Christ, all, doubtless, derived from the
same original root.

As for Jesus, it was a common name among the Jews long
 68

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

before the advent of Christ. Josephus refers to seven or eight
persons by that name, as, “Jesus, brother of Onias,” “Jesus,
son of Phabet,” &c. Joshua in the Greek form, Jesus,
was in still more common use.

Again, was Jesus Christ w the Alpha and Omega, the Begin-
ning and the End ?” so, likewise, Chrishna proclaimed, “I am
the Beginning, the Middle, and the End.” Osiris and Chrishna
were both proclaimed u Judge of the Dead,” as Jesus was “Judge
of quick and dead.” Isaiah represents the Father as proclaim-
ing, “I am Jehovah; besides me there is no Savior.” (Isa. xliii.
11.) With what consistency, then, can Christ be called “ the
Savior,” if there is but one Savior, and that is the Father ?

And other divine titles besides those above named — in fact,
all those applied to Christ — are found used also in reference to
the older pagan Gods, and hence prove nothing.

Origin of the Terms Mediator, Intercessor, &c.

Several causes contributed to originate a belief in the offices
imaginarily assigned to divine God-descended Mediators, Re-
deemers, and Intercessors.

1.   In the first place, the Great Supreme God was believed
to be too far off and too aristocratic to be on familiar terms
with his subjects, or at all times accessible to their prayers.
Hence was gotten up a “ Mediator,” or middle God, to stand
midway between the Great Supreme and the people, and trans-
mit messages from one to the other, and thus serve as agent
for both parties. Confirmatory of this statement is the dec-
laration of Mamoides, in his “ Guide to the Erring,” that “ the
ancient Sabeans conceived the principal God, on account of
his great distance, to be inaccessible; and hence, in imitation
of the people in their conduct toward their king, who had
to address him through a person appointed for the purpose,
they imaginarily employed a middle divinity, who was called
a Mediator, to present their claims to the Supreme God.”
Here the whole secret is out, the whole thing is explained,
and we now understand why Christ is called a Mediator, In-
tercessor, “ Advocate with the Father,” &c.

2.   Again, the Supreme God was supposed to be frequently
 TITLES OF THE SAVIORS.

6<>

angry with the people, and threatening to punish if not tc de-
stroy them. “ I will punish the multitude.” (Jer. xlvi. 25.) “ I
will destroy the people.” (Ex. xxiii. 27.) Hence this middle
divinity, this second person of the trinity, stepped in to plead
and intercede on their behalf, being, as we must presume, a bet-
ter-natured and more merciful being than the Father. And
thus interceding, he received the titles of Intercessor and u Ad-
vocate with the Father.” (1 John ii. 1.)

3.   The principal circumstance, however, which led to the
conception of a divine Savior, was the desire to find some way
to continue in sin and wrong-doing, and escape its natural and
legitimate consequences; in other words, to evade the penalty.
Hence it came to be believed that people might run riot in sin,
and plunge into the indulgence of their passions and their lusts,
till the hour of death approached, when they would have noth-
ing to do but to ask forgiveness, and cast the burden of their
sins and sufferings on the merits of “ a crucified Savior and
Redeemer,” who “ suffered once for all, that we might escape,”
and thus dodge the penalty for sin. It was, as Mr. Fleurbach
expresses it, “a realised wish to be free from the laws of mo-
rality, and escape the natural consequences of wrong-doing.”
 70

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

CHAPTER X.

THE SAVIORS OF ROYAL DESCENT, BUT HUMBLE

BIRTH.

We have the singular coincidence presented in the histories
of several of the Saviors of their lineal descent through a line
of kings or princes, and yet commencing their probationary life
under the most humble and adverse circumstances — being
born in stables, caves, and other inauspicious situations.

The story of their royal blood was calculated to add dignity
to their characters, while their humble birth in the midst of
poverty, and unmarked by ostentation, would evince their hu-
mility, meekness, condescension, and absence of pride, and thus
proclaim a lesson of humility and resignation to their disciples
and followers. Here seems to be plainly indicated the motives
for assigning them such a birth, and such a character. Christ’s
lineal descent, it will be remembered, is professedly traced
(though in a very zigzag, disjointed manner) from the royal
house of David. And yet his royal blood did not save him
from the most ignoble and ignominious birth, and an obscure
exordium of his earth life. A singular story, and yet a simi-
lar story, is told of the Indian Savior Chrishna, who was,
according to the Rev. Mr. Allen (India, p. 379) of the royal
house of Kousa, traced back through many generations. Yet,
in order to teach the world a lesson of true humility, and
administer a just reprehension to pride, he submitted to be
born in a cave, amid the denizens of subterranean abodes. And
here let it be noted, the best and most orthodox writers concede
that while Christ is said to have been born in a manger, that
manger was in a cave. Mr. Fleecwood (a very popular Chris-
tian writer) testifies in his matter that “the Greek fathers
 SAVIORS OF ROTAL DESCENT.

71

generally agree that the place of Christ’s birth was a cave.
(Life of Christ, p. 568.) Then the coincidence in this respect
between Christ and Chrishna may be set down as complete.
We have no means of learning, how many of the Saviors
were of royal blood, as the genealogy of some of them is not
given. But those whose lineal descent is furnished us are
almost uniformly traced to or evinced as springing from royal
parentage, and practical humility, so far as it can be taught
by an unostentatious birth, is a lesson taught by nearly all.
Budha Sakia of Hindostan is directly traced through a royal
pedigree. Speaking on this point, one writer remarks, “Tra-
dition affirms that his mother was betrothed to a rajah,
and of course her son belonged to the same royal caste that
Chrishna did during his existence on earth ” (Prog. Rel.
Ideas, vol. i. 84.) “The Great Prophet” of Arabia (Ma-
homet) not only commenced his earthly career in a humble
situation, but resembled Christ in having “ nowhere to lay his
head.” It is said of the Great Prophet, “ A cloak spread on
the ground served him for a bed, and a skin filled with date
leaves was his pillow.” The genealogy of the God Yu (of
China) is traced through a line of princes to a very remote
origin, while his whole life was a lesson of practical humility,
and proclaimed at every step, “This is the way; walk ye in it.”
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THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

CHAPTER XI.

CHRIST’S GENEALOGY.

In order to exalt the dignity and character of the Christian
Messiah still higher than a mere claim for a divine origin pater-
nally would have the effect to do, two of his assumed to be
inspired biographers have set up for him a claim to a royal lin-
eage through the maternal line. Hence they tell us that he de-
scended from and through a line of kings embracing the house
of David. Butin presenting the names, and the number of
generations, in their attempts to make out this royal distinc-
tion, this kingly exaltation of birth, they exhibit a most egre-
gious bungle, and the most barefaced tissue of discrepancies.
For they not only differ widely with each other in this matter,
but differ with the Old Testament genealogy, and differ with
those texts which give the maternal ancestry of Jesus. Indeed,
though varying as wide as the poles from each other, they both
miss Jesus and arrive at Joseph in tracing down the generations
from Abraham (unless we assume they intended to represent
Joseph as being his father).

Luke, in his Gospel, names and counts off forty-one genera-
tions from David to Joseph, though he had previously repre-
sented it as being forty-two; but Matthew says that “from
Abraham to David are fourteen generations,” but according to
his own showing, and according to his own list of names, there
are but thirteen. And then he tells us there are but fourteen
generations from David to the carrying away into Babylon.
But according to the Old Testament genealogy (see 1 Chron.
iii.) there were eighteen. And then the names comprised in
 CHRIST'S GENEALOGY.

78

the two genealogies of Matthew and Luke are so widely differ-
ent from that found in Chronicles, as to set all analogy and
agreement at defiance. In fact, in their whole list of names,
from David down to Joseph, they only come together twice.
Their names are all different but two, that of Salathiel and
Zorobabel, which names alone are found in both lists. Mat-
thew tells us that the son of David, through whom Joseph de-
scended, was Solomon, but Luke says it was Nathan. The
next name in Matthew’s list is that of Roboam, but the cor-
responding name in Luke’s list is Mattatha. Matthew’s next
name is Abia, which Luke gives as Menan, while Chronicles
differs from both, and gives it as Abijah. Matthew says Joram
begat Ozias, but Chronicles virtually declares Joram had no
such son, although he had a great-great-grandson Uzziah. But
Luke says, in effect, there was no such person in the genea-
logical tree, or family line, as either Joram, Ozias, or Uzziah.
Matthew says again, “ Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren,
about the time they were carried away to Babylon.” (Matt.
L11‘)

But Chronicles declares that Jechonias was Jehoiakim’s
son, and not Josiah’s, and that Josiah had no such son. And,
besides, we learn from 2 Kings xiii. that Josiah was killed
eleven years before the exile to Babylon, and could not well
beget a son after he had been defunct a tenth of a century.
Matthew, after naming twenty-four generations as filling out
the line, and making it complete between David and Jacob,
concludes by saying, “ and Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of
Mary.” But Luke, antecedent to spinning out his list to four-
teen generations more than Matthew, i. e., making it fourteen
generations longer, declares that “Joseph was the son of Hell.”
So that Joseph either had two fathers, Jacob and Heli, or Mat-
thew or Luke, or both, were most egregiously mistaken, with
all their “inspiration.”

Again, Luke says that Salathiel was the son of Neri; but
Chronicles says he was the son of Jechonias. And after
Chronicles had registered Zorobabel as the son of Penniah,
Matthew and Luke, assuming to become “ wise above what was
written,” both declare that he was the son of Salathiel. They
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THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

agree here in contradicting Chronicles, which is the onlj
instance but one of their agreement in the whole list of pro-
genitors from David to Joseph. With this exception they
contradict each other all the way through, and in many instances
that of Chronicles too. This is a strange way indeed of prov-
ing Jesus Christ to have had two fathers! to be both the son
of God and son of David! And it is still stranger that they
should trace his genealogy to Joseph, if they did not con-
sider him Joseph’s son. Otherwise, the genealogy of “Sin-
bad the Sailor,” or “ Harry Haulaway,” would have been as
apropos.

Such are the beautiful harmony and agreement in the words
of “ divine inspiration ” which Christians prate so much about.
And all this appears to be the result of an attempt to elevate
the man Christ Jesus to a level with the demigods of antiquity,
nearly all of whom claimed to be of royal or princely descent.
Such continual blundering, guessing, cross-firing, and clashing
of names as is exhibited in the foregoing exposition, reminds
us of the Hibernian’s reply when asked for the number and
names of his brothers : —

“Well, sir, I have fourteen brothers, and they are all named
Bill but Bob,-----his name is Tom.”

Matthew and Luke’s attempt to exalt and dignify the char-
acter of Christ by making out for him a pure, holy, and royal
lineage, we find upon a critical examination not only proved a
very signal but a very singular and ludicrous failure, for all his
female ancestors who are brought to notice were persons of
libidinous or licentious tendencies, according to their own bib-
lical history. “It is remarkable,” says Dr. Alexander Walker
(a Christian writer, in his work on Woman, p. 330), “that
in the genealogy of Christ only four women are named :
Thamar, who seduced the father of her late husband, and
Rachel, a common prostitute, and Ruth, who, instead of marry-
ing one of her cousins, went to bed with another of them,
and Bathsheba, an adulteress, who espoused David, the mur-
derer of her first husband.” What a pedigree for an incar-
nate God — a being ostensibly of spotless origin! though his
 CHRIST'S GENEALOGT.

75

impure aneestral origin does not detract from the high moral
character and distinguished moral life which marks the his-
tory of wthe man Christ Jesus,” many incidents of whose
Jife show him to have been what is now known as a spirit-
ual medium.
 :6

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

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CHAPTER XII.

THE WORLD’S SAVIORS SAVED FROM DESTRUC- -
TION IN INFANCY.

Of course such an extraordinary circumstance as the birth
of a God into the world mast be marked with unusual inci-
dents and great eclat. This was first exhibited by angels, shep-
herds, prophets, magi, or uwise men,” flocking around their
cradles. In the second place we observe an unusual display
of divine power and providential care on the part of the great
Father God, who was still left in heaven to save the young
saviors through their infancy. It is certainly a remarkable cir-
cumstance that so many of the infant Saviors should have been
threatened with the most imminent danger of destruction, and
yet in every case miraculously preserved, and thus were the
Saviors saved. A jealousy seems to have existed in several
instances in the mind of the tyrant king or ruler of the country
that the young Saviors and prospective spiritual rulers (who
were mostly of royal descent) would ultimately acquire such
favor with the people, by such a display of superior power and
greatness of mind as to endanger his retaining peaceable pos-
session of the secular throne; to express it in brief, he feared
the young God would prove a rival king, and hence took
measures to destroy him.

In the case of the Christian Savior we are told that an angel,
or “the angel,” warned Joseph (the assumed father) to take the
young Savior and God, and flee with him into Egypt, because
“Herod the king sought to destroy the young child’s life,”
and had, in order to effect this end, decreed the destruction of
all the children under two years old. And Joseph heeded the
divine warning, and fled as directed. An angel and a dream,
 SAVIORS SAVED FROM DESTRUCTION.

77

then, it will be observed, were the instrumentalities used to
save the young Judean Savior from massacre. And strange as
it may seem, we find the same agencies had been previously
employed to effect the rescue of other Saviors likewise and
similarly threatened.

In the case of Chrishna of India, in particular, the similitude
is very striking in nearly every feature of the whole story.

In the first place, there is the angel warning. In the Chris-
tian story we are not specifically informed how the tyrant
Herod first became apprised of the birth of the Judean Savior.
The Hindoo story is fuller, and indicates that the angel was
not only sufficiently thoughtful to warn the parents to flee
from a danger which threatened to dispossess them of a divine
child, and the world of a Savior, but was condescending enough
to apprise the tyrant ruler (Cansa) of his danger likewise — as
we are told he heard an angel voice announcing that a rival
ruler was born in his kingdom..

And hence, like Herod, he set about concocting measures to
destroy him without a direct attack. Why either of them
should have taken such a circuitous or roundabout way of
killing an infant, when the life of the strongest man, and every
man in their kingdoms, was at their instant disposal, “ divine
inspiration” does not inform us. But so it was. And we
must not seek to “ become wise above what is written ” in their
bibles. Herod’s decree required the destruction of all infants
under two years of age (see Matt. ii. 16) —first ordering, how-
ever, “ Go, and search diligently for the young child.” (Matt. ii.

8.) Cansa’s decree ran thus: “ Let active search be made for
whatever young children there may be upon earth, and let every
boy in whom there may be found signs of unusual greatness
be slain without remorse.” Now, let it be specially noticed
that there is to this day in the cave temple at Elephanta, in
India, the sculptured likeness of a king represented with a drawn
sword, and surrounded with slaughtered infants — admitted by
all writers to be much older than Christianity. Mr. Forbes, in his
“ Oriental Memories,” vol. iii. p. 447, says, “ The figures of the
slaughtered infants in the cave of Elephanta represent them as
being all boys, who are surrounded by groups of figures of men
 78

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

And women in the act, apparently, of supplicating for those
children.” And Mr. Higgins testifies relative to the case, that
Chrishna was carried away by night, and concealed in a region
remote from his natal place, for fear of a tyrant whose de-
stroyer it had been foretold he would become, who, for that
reason, had ordered all the male children born at that time to
be slain. Sculptures in Elephanta attest the story where the
tyrant is represented as destroying the children. The date of
this sculpture is of the most remote antiquity. “ He who hath
ears to hear, let him hear,” and deduce the pregnant inference.
Joseph and Mary fled with the young Judean God into Egypt;
Chrishna’s parents likewise fled with the young Hindoo Savior
to Gokul. Now, let us observe for a moment the chain or
category of resemblance.

1.   There was an angel warning in each case relative to the
impending danger.

2.   The governor or ruler was hostile in each case to the mis-
sion of the young Savior.

3.   A bloody decree was issued in both cases, having for its
object the destruction of these infant Messiahs.

4.   The flight of the parents takes place in each case.

5.   And it may be remarked further, that the “ Gospel of the
Infancy of Jesus,” once believed by the Christian world to be
‘‘inspired,” and which for hundreds of years passed current as
divine authority, relates that Christ and his parents sojourned
for a time at a place called Matarea, or Mathura, as Sir
William Jones spell it, who says it was the birthplace of
Chrishna.

It is further related in the case of Chrishna, that as he and
his parents approached the River Jumna in their flight, the
waters “ parted hither and thither,” so that they passed over
“ dry shod,” like Moses and* the Israelites in crossing the Red
Sea. And here let it be noted that the representation of this
flight, which is said to have occurred at midnight, is like
that of the massacre perpetuated and attested by imperishable
monuments of stone bearing evidence of being now several
thousand years old.

Sir William Jones says,—
 SAVIORS SAVED FROM DESTRUCTION.

79

“The Indian incarnate God Chrishna, the Hindoos believe,
had a virgin mother of the royal race, who was sought to be
destroyed in his infancy about nine hundred years before
Christ. It appears that he passed his life in working miracles,
and preaching, and was so humble as to wash his friends’ feet;
at length dying, but rising from the dead, he ascended into
heaven in the presence of a multitude. The Cingalese relate
nearly the same things of their “ Budha.” And several authors
of Egyptian history refer to a story perpetuated in the Egyptian
legends concerning the God Osiris, who was threatened with
destruction by the tyrant Amulius, to save whom his parents
fled and concealed him in an arm of the River Nile, as Christ
was concealed in the same country, and, for aught that appears
to the contrary, in the same locality. The mother of another
and older Savior of Egypt fled by a timely warning to Epidarais
before the birth of the divine child, and was there delivered of
“our Lord and Savior” Horus. And the earthly or adopted
father of the Grecian Savior, and God, Alcides, had to flee with
him and his mother to Galem for protection from threatening
danger. In the ninth and tenth volumes of the “ Asiatic Re-
searches” we find the story of the “only begotten,” or “first
begotten son of God,” Salvahana, of Cape Comorin, son of a
virgin mother (as were all the other Saviors referred to), and
a carpenter by the name of Taishnea. (It will be remem-
bered that Joseph, “foster-father of Jesus,” was a carpenter.)
The story of this “ Son of God” presents several features very
similar to that relating to Jesus. Sir William Jones, Colonel
Wilford, and the Rev. Mr. Maurice, all confess to the antiquity
of this story, as originating before the birth of Christ. Speak-
ing of Zoroaster of Persia (another case), 600 B. C., an author
remarks, “ Tradition reports that his mother had alarming
dreams of evil spirits seeking to destroy the child to whom she
was about to give birth. But a good spirit came to rescue him,
and consoled her by saying, “ Fear not; God Ormuzd will pro-
tect the infant, who has sent him as a prophet to the people
and the world who are waiting for hirn.”

China, too, presents us with a case of the threatened destruc-
tion of a Savior in infancy, evidently recorded more than two
 80

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

thousand five hundred years ago. It is the case of the God
.Yu, who was concealed in a manner similar to that of Moses

—   a commemoration of the story of which is perpetuatd by an
image or picture of a virgin mother with a babe upon her knee

—   sometimes in her arms. Now, let it be noted that these
virgin-born Gods, who, we are told, came “ to save the world,”
could not save themselves, but had to be protected and saved by
other Gods.

Without pursuing the subject further in detail, we may men-
tion, by way of recapitulation, that Chrishna, Alcides, Zoroaster,
Salvahana, Yu, to which list we may add Bacchus, Romulus,
Moses, and Cyrus, according to their reputed history, were
threatened with death and destruction, but were providentially
and miraculously preserved. The case of Augustus is related
by Suetonius, that of Romulus by Livy, and that of Cyrus
by Herodotus. It will be recollected that Pharaoh, like Herod,
in order to reach the infant Moses, ordered the massacre of all
the male infants (Herod making no distinction of sex), in order
that he might, by this singular and circuitous method, reach the
object of his jealousy and malignity without passing a direct
sentence of death upon him.

The whole story of Herod’s slaughter edict, with the history
of its execution, like nearly every other miraculous incident
related in “ The Holy Scriptures,” which detail their histories,
are traceable in the skies. Herod, we are told, literally means
hero of the skin — a term applied also to Hercules, a personifi-
cation of the sun—because the sun, on entering the constel-
lation of the Zodiac in July, was supposed or assumed to
invest himself with the skin of the lion, and this became
“the hero of the skin,” or a hero with a new skin. Now this
solar Herod, passing through the astronomical twins and young
infants of May, was said to destroy them, though the word de-
stroy is in the Greek anairean, which any person, on turning to
the Greek lexicon, will observe means also to take away, pass
through, or withdraw from, so that Pharaoh more properly
passed through the infants than destroyed them.

The text, “ In Rama there was a voice heard,” “ Rachel weep-
ing for her children,” &c., is quoted by a writer (Strauss) as
 SAVIORS SAVED FROM DESTRUCTION.

81

referring to the children slaughtered by Pharaoh. Let two
things be noticed here: 1. Rama is the Indian and Phenician
name for the zodiac. 2. Rachel had but two children to weep
for—Joseph and Benjamin—just the number found in the
fifth sign, or May sign, of the zodiac. And Venus, among the
ancient Assyrians and Phenicians, was in tears when the sun,
in his annual cross through the heavens, passed through or
over the astronomical Twins (Gemini), doubtless fearfully appre-
hending their destruction.

The case of the massacre is an illustration, and example, of
the manner in which all the miraculous stories related in the
Christian Scriptures, as having been practically exemplified in
the life of Jesus Christ, are traceable to older sources, frequently
terminating among the stars.

Section II.—Incredibility of the Story of the
Massacre of the Hebrew Infants.

1.   It is a cogent and potent fact, calculated to render the
story of the murder of the Hebrew children by Herod wholly
incredible, that not one writer of that age, or that nation, or
any other nation, makes any mention of the circumstance.

2.   Even the Rabbinical writers who detail his wicked life so
minutely, and who bring to his charge so many flagitious acts,
fail to record any notice of this horrible and atrocious deed,
which must have been published far and wide, and known to
all the writers of that age and country, had it occurred.

3.   And still more logically ruinous to the credit of the story
is the omission of Josephus to throw out one hint that such a
wholesale slaughter ever took place in Judea. And yet he not
only lived in that country, but was related to Herod’s wife, and
regarded him as his most implacable enemy, and professes to
write out the whole history of his wicked life in the most
minute detail, devoting thirty-seven chapters of his large work
to this subject, and apparently enumerates every evil act of
his life. And yet Josephus says not a word about his in-
human and infamous butchery of the babes which Matthew
charges him with (about fourteen thousand in number) — a

6
 82

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

bloody deed, unmatched in the annals of tyranny. Such facts
prove the story not only incredible, but impossihle. Josephus
could not and would not have omitted to notice this the most
notorious and nefarious act of his life, had it occurred. It there-
fore could not have occurred. And it is almost equally incredi-
ble that Roman historians, who furnish us with a particular
account of Herod’s character, should pass over in silence such a
villainous and bloody deed.

4.   And then some of our ablest and most reliable chronolo*
gists have shown that Herod was not living at the time this
bloody decree should have been issued by him; that he died
about three years prior to that period, and hence could have
been guilty of no such villainy, and high-handed murder, and
cruel infanticide.

5.   And even if living, he would have been an old man (not
less than sixty-eight according to Josephus). Hence he could
not have calculated on surviving long enough for the son of a
village carpenter, then a babe, to oust him from his throne.

6.   It is wholly incredible, also, that Herod should have
adopted such a roundabout method of destroying the object of
his fear and envy when he could have singled him out, and put
him to death at once, and thus avoid the felonious act of break-
ing the hearts of thousands of parents, and his most loyal sub-
jects, too.

7.   From the foregoing considerations, we indorse the senti-
ment of the Rev. Edward Evanson, that it is “ an incredible,
borrowed fiction.”
 EARLT PROOF OF DIVINITT.

83

CHAPTER XIII.

THE SAVIORS EXHIBIT EARLY PROOFS OF
DIVINITY.

Of course all Gods must be heroes — physically or intel-
lectually, or both. The more danger they encounter, and the
earlier they manifest a precocious or preternatural smartness,
the more like Gods. And hence we find several of the Saviors
in very early childhood displaying great physical prowess in
meeting and conquering danger, while others exhibit their su-
periority mentally by vanquishing their opponents in argument.
Christ first began to exhibit proof of his divine character and
greatness by meeting and silencing the doctors in the temple
when only about twelve years of age. And similar proofs of
divinity at or near this age is found in the history of some of
the pagan Saviors. Of Christ it is declared, “ There went out
a fame of him through all the region round about.” (Luke
iv. 14.) And of the Grecian Esculapius it is likewise declared,
“The voice of fame soon published the birth of a miraculous
child,” and “the people flocked from all quarters to behold
him.” Of Confucius of China it is declared, “His extensive
knowledge and great wisdom soon made him known, and
kings were governed by his counsels, and the people adored
him wherever he went.” And it is further declared of this
“Divine Man” that he seemed to arrive at reason and the per-
fect use of his faculties almost from infancy. It is reported of
the God Chang-ti, that when questioned on the subject of gov-
ernment and the duties of princes and rulers while yet a child,
his answers were such as to astonish the whole empire by his
knowledge and wisdom.

It is related of a Grecian God that he demolished the
 84

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

serpents which attempted to bite or destroy him while in his
cradle. “The proof of Osiris’s divinity was a blaze of light
shining around his cradle soon after he was born. Relative to
Pythagoras of the same country, we have it upon the authority
of a Christian writer, that he exhibited such a remarkable char-
acter, even in youth, as to attract the attention of all who saw
and heard him speak.” And the author further testifies of
him that he “ never was at any time overcome with anger,
laughter, or perturbation of mind or precipitation of conduct ”
u His fame having reached Miletus and neighboring cities, it is
said by another writer, the people flocked to see and hear him,
and he was reverenced by multitudes.” Luke declares of Christ,
that the people “were astonished at his understanding and
answers.” (Luke ii. 47.) And the “Gospel of the Infancy”
tells us that his tutor Zacheas was astonished at his learning,
which reminds us of the statement found in “The Divine
Word” of the Hindoos (The Mahabarat), that the parents of
the Savior Chrishna, in making arrangements to give him an
education, sent him to a learned Brahmin as tutor, whom he
instantly astonished with his vast learning, and under whose
tuition he mastered the whole circle of sciences in a day and a
night. “Men, seeing the wonders performed by this child, told
Nanda (his adopted father) that this could not possibly be his
son.” It is told of Budha Sakia of India, that “ as soon as he
was born, a light shone around his cradle, when he stood up
and proclaimed his mission, and that the River Ganges during
this time rose in a miraculous manner, which was stilled by his
divine power, as Christ stilled the tempest on the sea. “He
was born,” says the New American Cyclopedia (vol. iv. p. 61),
“ amidst great miracles, and as soon as born, most solemnly pro-
claims his mission.” Of Narayan “the Holy,” it is declared
that “mysterious words dropped from his lips on various
occasions, giving hints of his divine nature and the purposes
for which he had come down to the earth.” (Prog. Rel. Ideas,
vol. i. p. 128.) The divine power and mission of Yu of China
was very early evinced by the display of great miracles. And
here let us observe, that some of the Old Testament or Jewish
heroes, as Moses, Solomon, and Samuel, are reported as exhibit-
 EARLY PROOF OF DIVINITY.

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85

ing great superiority of mind in very early life — thus proving
(it was thought) that if they were not Gods, they were at least
from God — that is, endowed by him with divine power while
yet mere children. Thus the histories of all Gods and divine
personages run in parallel grooves.
 86

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE SAVIORS* KINGDOMS NOT OF THIS WORLD,

Retirement and Forty Days’ Fasting.

Christ taught, “ My kingdom is not of this world.” And
we find that most of the other Saviors virtually and practically
taught the same doctrine. The first practical ev in cement of it
was exhibited by retiring from the world ; that is, they retired
from the noise and commotion, from the busy scenes of life,
into some sequestered spot excluded from human observation.'
Christ is reported to have withdrawn from society, and to have
spent some forty days in the wilderness fasting and being
tempted by Satan — a man of straw conjured up in order to
furnish the hero God something to combat with, that he might
thereby exhibit practical proof of his divine power and prowess.
It was simply the two kings or rulers of two hostile kingdoms
(heaven and hell) contending for the mastery. Lord Kings-
borough tells us, “The ancient Mexicans had a forty days’ fast
in honor and memory of one of their demigods, or Saviors, who
was tempted forty days on a mountain. He is called “the
Morning Star.” Mr. Kingsborough (being a Christian, remarks,
“ These things are very curious and mysterious.” It is said of
“ the Son of God ” and Savior Chrishna that “he imparted his
doctrines and precepts in the silent depths of the forest.” Of
the Egyptian God Osiris, we are informed in his sacred
legends, that “he observed both fasting and penance,” while
Pythagoras of Greece spent several years in meditation and
retirement in a cave, and was much given to fasting, and often
inculcated the doctrine of “forsaking the world” and “the
tilings thereof.” He taught these things both by precept and
 SAVIORS’ KINGDOM NOT OF THIS WORLD.   8?

example, even to “ the forsaking of relations.” Both Confucius
and the Divine Savior Chang-ti of China, “ in order to attain
to a more perfect state of holiness,” spent several years in re-
tirement and “ divine meditation,” the former in a wilderness?
the latter on a mountain, and fasted, and their disciples after
them often fasted in a very devout manner. The Persian
Zoroaster also spent several years in retirement and “ contem-
plation on tiue holiness ” — partly in a wilderness and partly on
a “ holy mountain,” “ holy mountains being the favorite places
of resort of most of the holy Saviors, holy Gods, and holy men
of antiquity. One of the ancient Saviors, Thammuz, is reported
to have spent “twelve years in devout and contemplative re-
tirement from the busy world.” According to the Christian
bible, Moses, Elijah, and Christ, each fasted forty days, and
a Mexican Savior, too (Quexalcoate),spent forty days in a simi-
lar manner, and other cases are so reported. We may institute
the inquiry here, “ How happens this coincidence? The
answer is indicated by “the Hierophant,” which says, “Jesus in
his baptism and forty days’ fast imitated the passage of the
sun through the constellation Aquarius, where John, Joannes,
or Janus the baptizer had his domicile, and baptized the earth
with his yearly rains.” Having been baptized in Jordan, he
fasted forty days in the wilderness, in imitation of the passage
of the sun from the constellation Aquarius through the Fishes to
the Lamb or Ram of March. During the forty days when the
sun is among the Fishes (in the sign of the Fish) the faithful
Catholics, Episcopalians, and Mahomedans abstain from meat
and live upon the fishes during the season of Lent, as did the
Jews and pagans, and as did also Jesus, “ to fulfill all righteous-
ness.”
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THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

CHAPTER XV.

THE SAVIORS WERE REAL PERSONAGES.

It is unwarrantably assumed by Christian writers that the
incarnated Gods and crucified Saviors of the pagan religions
were all either mere fabulous characters or ordinary human
beings invested with divine titles and divine attributes; while,
on the other hand, the assumption is put forth with equal bold
ness that Jesus Christ was a real divine personage, “seen and
believed on in the world, and finally crucified on Mount
Calvary.” But we do not find the facts in history to warrant
any such assumptions or any such distinctions. They all
stand in these respects upon the same ground and on equal
footing. And their respective disciples point to the same kind
of evidence to prove their real existence and their divine char-
acter, and to prove that they once walked and talked amongst
men, as well as now sit on the eternal throne in heaven “ at the
right hand of the Father.” And we find even Christian
writers admitting the once bona fide or personal existence on
earth of most of the pagan Saviors. As to the two chief incar-
nated Gods of India, Chrishna and Sakia, there is scarcely “a
peg left to hang a doubt upon ” as to the fact of their having
descended to the earth, taken upon themselves the form of
men, and having been worshiped as veritable Gods. Indeed
we believe but few of the missionaries who have visited that
country question the statement and general belief prevalent
there of their once personal reality. Colonel 'Todd, in his
“History of the Rajahs” (p. 44), says, “We must discard the
idea that the Mahabarat, the history of Rama, of Chrishna, and
the five Padua brothers are mere allegories. Colossal figures,
undent temples, and caves inscribed with characters yet un-
 THE SAVIORS REAL PERSONAGES.

89

known, confirm the reality, and their race, their cities, and their
coins yet exist.” To argue further the personal reality of this
crucified God would be a waste of words, as it is generally
admitted, both by historical writers and missionaries. Mr.
Higgins declares, “ Chrishna lived at the conclusion of the
brazen age, which is calculated to have been eleven hundred
or twelve hundred years before Christ.” Here is a very positive
and specific declaration as to his tangible actuality. Colonel
How, Mr. Robinson, and others use similar language. Relative
to Bacchus, of whose history many writers have spoken as be-
ing wholly fabulous or fictitious, Diodorus Siculus says (lib. iii.
p. 187), “ the Libyans claim Bacchus, and say he was the son
of Ammon, a king of Libya; that he built a temple to his
father, Ammon.” And that world-wide famous historian (Mr.
Goodrich) is still more explicit, if possible, as to his material
entity. After giving it directly as his opinion that there was
such a being, he says, “ He planted vineyards and fig trees,
and erected many noble cities.” He moreover tells us, “ His
skill in legislation and agriculture is much praised ” (p. 499).
With respect to Osiris of Egypt, another God-Savior, Mr.
Hittle declares unqualifiedly that “ Herodotus saw the tomb of
Osiris, at Sais nearly five centuries before Christ ” (vol. i. p.
246). Rather a strong evidence of his previous personality
certainly, but not more so than that furnished by the New
York Journal of Commerce a few years since, relative to the
Egyptian Apis or Thulis, whose theophany was annually cele-
brated, at the rising of the Nile, with great festivities and de-
votion, several thousand years ago. The Paris correspondent
of that Journal, after speaking of Mr. Auguste Marietta’s travels,
“a distinguished scientific gentleman who for four years past
had been employed by the French government in making
Egyptian researches,” having returned home, says, “ The most
important of Mr. Marietta’s discoveries was the tomb of Apis
(Thulis), a monument excavated entirely in lime-rock. “ There
are (he says in conclusion) epitaphs, forming a chronological
record of each of the Apis buried in the common tomb. The
sculpture is of the date of the Pyramids, and the statutes are in
the best state of preservation; the colors are perfectly bright.
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THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

The execution is admirable, and they convey an exact idea of
the physical character of the primitive population.” The New
American Cyclopedia (art. Apis), in speaking of this Egyptian
God, tells us his lifetime was twenty-five years; in harmony
with one of the theologico-astronomical cycles of the Egyp-
tians. The same work and volume (p. 132), in speaking of
the real existence of Adonis of Greece, tells us, upon the
authority of the poet Panyasis, that he was a veritable son of
Theias, king of Syria. But of all the characters who figured
in the mythological works or lawless rhapsodies of the ancients,
and worshiped by them as crucified Gods and sin-atoning
Saviors, none has, perhaps, been so indubitably, so positively,
and so universally set down as mythological or fabulous as
that of Prometheus of Caucasus. And yet Mr. Lempriere, D. D.,
tells us in his Classical Dictionary that he was the son of Ja-
petus. Sir Isaac Newton says he was a descendant of the
famous African Sesostris; while that erudite and masterly his-
torian (Mr. Higgins) seems to have entertained no doubt of
his personal esse; nor, indeed, of many, if any, of the pagan
Saviors, as the following declaration will show. He says,
“Finding men in India and other countries of the same name
of the inferior Gods (as it is quite common to name men for
them) has led some to conclude that those deified men never
existed, but are merely mythological names of the sun. True,
the first supreme God of every nation (not excepting the Jews)
was the sun. But more modernly the names were transferred
to men.” Again he says, “ Inasmuch as some of them are
found to have been real bona fide human beings, there is noth-
ing unreasonable in concluding that all were.” And if we
take into consideration the true and indisputable fact that the
priests had everything at their disposal, and the strongest
motives for concealing and suppressing, not to say garbling and
destroying, evidence, it is not to be wondered at that the his-
tories of some of these Gods should be somewhat obscure and
ambiguous.” Further on he declares, “ In every case the Savior
was incarnate, and in nearly every case the place in which he
Was actually born was exhibited to the people.” And upon the
authority of the Hierophant, we will add, the memories of many
 THE SAVIORS REAL PERSONAGES.

91

of them have been consecrated and perpetuated by tombs
placed beside their temples, which is perhaps the most convin-
cing species of evidence that could be offered. The evidence,
then, is precisely of the same character as that offered in the
case of Jesus Christ to prove that the pagan Saviors did really
possess a substantial, earthly, and bodily existence. Though
it is true that it never has been universally conceded or believed
by Christians themselves that Jesus Christ ever had a personal
or corporeal existence on earth. Cotilenius, in a note on Ig-
natius, Epistle to the Trallians, written in the third century
of the Christian era, declares that “it is as absurd to deny
the doctrine which taught that Jesus Christ’s body was a
phantom as to deny that the sun shone at midday: his physical
body of course was meant, for it appear he believed in his
eternal existence as a spirit in heaven. And we find whole
sects advocating similar views in the early ages of the Christian
church. “One of the most primitive and learned sects,” says
a writer, “ were the Manicheans, who denied that Jesus Christ
ever existed in flesh and blood, but believed him to be a God
in spirit only; others denied him to be a God, but believed him
to have been a prophet, or inspired character, like the Unitarians
of the present day. Some denied his crucifixion, others asserted
it. It is more than probable that this was the cause of dispute
between Paul and Barnabas, mentioned in the Acts of the
Apostles, seeing that Paul had laid such peculiar emphasis on
“Jesus Christ and him crucified.” And this conclusion is cor-
roborated by its being expressly stated in the Gospel of Barna-
bas that “Jesus Christ was not crucified, but was carried to
heaven by four angels.” “ There was a long list,” says the same
writer, “ from the earliest times, of sincere Christians who de-
nied that Jesus Christ rose from the dead; ” while, as we may
remark here, there could not have been at that early date any
grounds for denying these things, had he really figured in the
world in the miraculous and extraordinary and public manner
as that related in the Gospels.
 92

THE WORLD9S SAVIORS.

CHAPTER XYI.

SIXTEEN SAVIORS CRUCIFIED.

“For I determined not to know anything among yon, save
Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Cor. ii. 2.) There must
have existed a considerable amount of skepticism in the com-
munity as to the truth of the report of the crucifixion of Jesus
Christ in the country and era of its occurrence to make it ne-
cessary thus to erect it into an important dogma, and make it
imperative to believe it. There must have been a large mar-
gin for distrusting its truth. The determination not to know
anything but the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was narrowing
down his knowledge to rather a small compass. And such a
resolution would necessarily preclude him from acquainting
himself with the history of any other cases of crucifixion that
might have occurred before that of his own favorite Messiah.
“ What! was there ever a case of crucifixion beside that of
Jesus Christ?” a good Christian brother or sister sometimes
exclaims, when the world’s sixteen crucified Saviors are spo-
ken of.”

We meet the question with the reply, “You seem to be a
disciple of Paul, whose position would not allow him to know
of any other cases of crucifixion but that of Jesus Christ.
Hence he may have considered it meritorious to perpetuate
his ignorance on the subject. And you, perhaps, are ignorant
from the same cause. It is the nature of all religions based on
fear and unchangeable dogmas, to deter and thus exclude its
disciples from all knowledge adverse to their own creeds. And
sometimes their own religious systems are magnified to such
an exalted appreciation above all others as to lead them to
destroy the evidence of the existence of the latter for fear ot
 SIXTEEN SAVIORS CRUCIFIED.

93

their ultimate rivalry. Mr. Taylor informs us that some of the
early disciples of the Christian faith demolished accessible
monuments representing and memorializing the crucifixion of
the ancient oriental sin-atoning Gods, so that they are now
unknown in the annals of Christian history. Hence the sur-
prise excited in the minds of Christian professors when other
cases are mentioned. Such influences as referred to above
have shut out from the minds of the disciples of several reli-
gious systems a knowledge of all crucified Gods but their
own. Hence the Hindoo rejoices in knowing only “ Christina
and him crucified.” The Persian entwines around his heart the
remembrance only of the atoning sufferings on the cross of
Mithra the Mediator. The Mexican daily sends up his earnest,
soul-breathing prayer for the return of the spirit of his crucified
Savior, Quexalcoate; while the Caucasian, with equal devo-
tion, chants daily praises to his slain “Divine Intercessor” for
voluntarily offering himself upon the cross for the sins of a
fallen race. And the Christian disciple hugs to his bosom the
bloody cross of the murdered Jesus, unhaunted by the suspicion
that other Gods died for the sins of man long anterior to the
advent of the immaculate Nazarene.

We will now lay before the reader a brief account of the
crucifixion of more than a dozen virgin-born Gods and sin-aton-
ing Saviors, predicated upon facts which have escaped the hands
of the Christian iconoclasts determined to know only Jesus
Christ crucified. We will first notice the case of the Indian
God Christina.

I. Crucifixion of Chrishna of India, 1200 B. C.

Among the sin-atoning Gods who condescended m ancient
times to forsake the throne of heaven, and descend upon the
plains of India, through human birth, to suffer and die for the
sins and transgressions of the human race, the eighth Avatar,
or Savior, may be considered the most important and the most
exalted character, as he led the most conspicuous life, and
commanded the most devout and the most universal homage.
And while some of the other incarnate demigods were invested
 94

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THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

with only a limited measure of the infinite deityship, Chrishna,
according to the teaching of their New Testament (the Rama-
zand), comprehended in himself “ a full measure of the God-
head bodily.” The evidence of his having been crucified is as
conclusive as any other sacrificial or sin-atoning God, whose
name has been memorialized in history, or embalmed as a
sacred idol in the memories of his devout worshipers. Mr.
Moore, an English traveler and writer, in a large collection of
drawings taken from Hindoo sculptures and monuments,
which he has arranged together in a work entitled u The Hin-
doo Pantheon,” has one representing, suspended on the cross,
the Hindoo crucified God and Son of God, “ our Lord and
Savior” Chrishna, with holes pierced in his feet, evidently in-
tended to represent the nail-holes made by the act of crucifix-
ion. Mr. Higgins, who examined this work, which he found
in the British Museum, makes a report of a number of the tran
script drawings, intended to represent the crucifixion of this
oriental and mediatorial God, which we will here condense.
In plate ninety-eight this Savior is represented with a hole in
the top.of one foot, just above the toes, where the nail was in-
serted in the act of crucifixion. In another drawing he is
represented exactly in the form of a Romish Christian crucifix,
but not fixed or fastened to a tree, though the legs and feet are
arranged in the usual way, with nail-holes in the latter. There
is a halo of glory over it, emanating from the heavens above,
just as we have seen Jesus Christ represented in a work by a
Christian writer, entitled Quarles’ Emblems, also in other
Christian books. In several of the icons (drawings) there are
marks of holes in both feet, and in others of holes in the hands
only. In the first drawing which he consulted the marks are
very faint, so as to be scarcely visible. In figures four and
five of plate eleven the figures have nail-holes in both feet,
while the hands are not represented. Figure six has on it the
representation of a round hole in the side. To his collar or
shirt hangs an emblem of a heart, represented in the same
manner as those attached to the imaginary likenesses of Jesus
Christ, which may now be found in some Christian coun-
tries. Figure ninety-one has a hole in one foot and a nail
 SIXTEEN SAVIORS CRUCIFIED.

95

through the other, and a round nail or pin mark in one hand
only, while the other is ornamented with a dove and a serpent
(both emblems of deity in the Christian’s bible). Now, we raise
the query here, and drive it into the innermost temple of the
Christian’s conscience, with the overwhelming force of the un-
conquerable logic of history, what does all this mean? And if
they will only let conviction have its perfect work while answer-
ing this question unhampered by the inherited prejudices of a
thousand years, they can henceforth rejoice in the discovery of
a glorious historical truth, calculated to disinthrall their minds
from the soul-cramping superstitions of crosses, crucifixions,
and bloody atonements on which they have been accustomed
to hang the salvation of the world. If the credibility of the
relation of these incidents going to prove an astonishing co-
incidence in the sacred histories of the Hindoo and Christian
Saviors, and demonstrating the doctrine of the crucifixion as
having been practically realized, and preached to the world
long anterior to the offering of a God u once for all” on Mount
Calvary; if its credibility rested upon mere ex parte testimony,
mere pagan tradition, or even upon the best digested and
most authentic annals of the past that have escaped the rav-
ages of time, there might still be a forlorn hope for the stickler
for the Christian faith now struggling in the agonies of a credal
skepticism, that the whole thing has been plagiarized from the
Christian Gospels. For paper and parchment history can be,
and has been, mutilated. But the verity of this account rests
upon no such a precarious basis. Its antiquity, reaching far
beyond the Christian era, is corroborated and demonstrated
by imperishable monuments, deep-chiseled indentures bur-
rowed into the granite rock, which bid defiance to the fingers
of time, and even the hands of the frenzied iconoclast, to de-
stroy or deface, though impelled and spurred on to the effort
by the long-cherished conviction burning in his soul, that the
salvation of the human race depends upon believing that “there
is no other name given under heaven whereby men can be
saved” than his own crucified God, and that all others are
but thieves, robbers, and antichrists. Some oi the disciples of
the oriental systems cherished this conviction, and Christians
 96

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

and Mahomedans seem to have inherited it in magnified pro-
portions. Hence we are credibly informed that some of the
earlier Christian saints, having determined, like Paul, “to know
only Jesus Christ and him crucified,” made repeated efforts to
obliterate these sacred facts (so fatally damaging to their one-
sided creeds) from the page of history. Mr. Higgins suggests
that if we could have persons less under the influence of sec-
tarian prejudice to visit, examine, and report on the sculptures
and monuments of India, covered over as they are with anti-
quated and significant figures appertaining to and illustrating
their religious history, we might accumulate still more light
bearing upon the history of the crucifixion of the Savior and
sin-atoning Chrishna. “ Most of our reports,” he declares, “ are
fragmentary, if not one-sided, having come through the hands of
Christian missionaries, bishops, and priests.” He informs us that
a report on the Hindoo religion, made out by a deputation from
the British Parliament, sent to India for the purpose of examin-
ing their sacred books and monuments, being left in the hands of
a Christian bishop at Calcutta, and with instructions to forward
it to England, was found, on its arrival in London, to be so hor-
ribly mutilated and eviscerated as to be scarcely cognizable.
The account of the crucifixion was gone — cancelled out. The
inference is patent.

And we have it upon the authority of this same reliable and
truthful writer (Sir Godfrey Higgins), that the author of the
Hindoo Pantheon (Mr. Moor), after having announced his
intention to publish it to the world, was visited and labored
with by some of his devout Christian neighbors zealous “for
the faith once delivered to the saints,” who endeavored to dis-
suade him from publishing such facts to the world as he repre-
sented his book to contain, for fear it would have the effect to
unsettle the faith of some of the weak brethren (some of the
weak-kneed church members) in the soul-saving religion of
Jesus Cfhrist, by raising doubts in their minds as to the origi-
nality of the gospel story of the crucifixion of Christ, or at least
of his having been crucified as a God for a sin-offering. His
crucifixion is a possible event. It may be thus far a true nar-
rative, but the adjunct of the atonement, with its efficacy to
 SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS.

97

obliterate the effects of sin, connected with the idea that an
infinite, omnipotent, and self-existent God was put to death,
when a human form was slain upon the cross, never, no, never:
it is a thought too monstrous to find lodgment in an enlight-
ened human mind.

Another case evincing the same spirit as that narrated above
is found in the circumstance of a Christian missionary (a Mr.
Maurice) publishing a historical account of this man-god or
demigod of the Hindoos, and omitting any allusion to his cru-
cifixion : this was entirely left out, apparently from design. His
death, resurrection, and ascension were spoken of, but the cruci-
fixion skipped over. He could not have been ignorant of this
chapter in his history, as the writers preceding him, from whom
he copied, had related it. Among this number may be men-
tioned the learned French writer Monsieur Guigniant, who, in
his “Religion of the Ancients,” speaks so specifically of the cru-
cifixion of this God, as to name the circumstance of his being
nailed to a tree. He also states, that before his exit he made
some remarkable prophecies appertaining to the crimes and
miseries of the world in the approaching future, reminding us
of the wars and rumors of wars predicted by the Christian
Messiah. Mr. Higgins names the same circumstance. We
have it upon the authority of more than one writer on Hindoo
or Indian antiquities that there is a rock temple at Mathura in
the form of a cross, and facing the four cardinal points of the
compass, which is admitted by all beholders as presenting the
proof in bold relief of extreme age, and inside of this temple
stands a statue of “the Savior of men,” Chrishna of India, pre-
senting the proof of being coeval in construction with the
temple itself by the circumstance of its being cut out of the
same rock and constituting apart of the temple. (Further cita-
tions of this character will be found under the head of Parallels,
Chapter XXXII.)

Thus we have the proof deeply and indelibly carved in the
old time-chiseled rocks of India, that their “Lord and Savior
Chrishna” atoned for the sins of a guilt-stricken world by
“pouring out his blood as a propitiatory offering” while
stretched upon the cross. No wonder, in view of such historic
7
 THE WORLD'S SAVIOR

08

bulwarks, Colonel Wiseman, for ten years a Christian mission*
ary, should have exclaimed, “ Can we be surprised that the ene-
mies of our holy religion should seize upon this legend (the cru-
cifixion of Chrishna) as containing the original of our gospel
history?” Christian reader, please ponder over the facts of this
chapter, and let conviction have its perfect work.

Life, Character, Religion, and Miracles of Chrishna.

The history of Chrishna Zeus (or Jeseus, as some writers
spell it) is contained principally in the Baghavat Gita, the epi-
sode portion of the Mahabarat bible. The book is believed to
be divinely inspired, like all other bibles; and the Hindoos
claim for it an antiquity of six thousand years. Like Christ, he
was of humble origin, and like him had to encounter opposition
and persecution. But he seems to have been more successful
in the propagation of his doctrines; for it is declared, “he
soon became surrounded by many earnest followers, and the
people in vast multitudes followed him, crying aloud, c This is
indeed the Redeemer promised to our fathers.5 55 His pathway
was thickly strewn with miracles, which consisted in healing the
sick, curing lepers, restoring the dumb, deaf, and the blind,
raising the dead, aiding the weak, comforting the sorrow-
stricken, relieving the oppressed, casting out devils, &c. He
came not ostensibly to destroy the previous religion, but to
purify it of its impurities, and preach a better doctrine. He
came, as he declared, “to reject evil and restore the reign of
good, and redeem man from the consequences of the fall, and
deliver the oppressed earth from its load of sin and suffering.”
His disciples believed him to be God himself, and millions
worshiped him as such in the time of Alexander the Great,
830 B. C,' The hundreds of counterparts to the history of
Christ, proving their histories to be almost identical, will be
found enumerated in Chapter XXXII., such as, 1. His miracu-
lous birth by a virgin; 2. The mother and child being visited
by shepherds, wise men, and the angelic host, who joyously
sang, “In thy delivery, O favored among women, all nations
shall have cause to exult;” 3. The edict of the tyrant ruler
 SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS.

99

Cansa ordering all the first born to be put to death; 4. The
miraculous escape of the mother and child from his bloody
decree by the parting of the waves of the River Jumna to per-
mit them to pass through on dry ground; 5. The early retire-
ment of Christina to a desert; 6. His baptism or ablution in the
River Ganges, corresponding to Christ’s baptism in Jordan; 7.
His transfiguration at Madura, where he assured his disciples
that “ present or absent, I will always be with you; ” 8. He
had a favorite disciple (Arjoon), who was his bosom friend, as
John was Christ’s; 9. He was anointed with oil by women, like
Christ; 10. A somewhat similar fish story is also told of him
— his disciples being enabled by him to catch large draughts
of the finny prey in their nets. (For three hundred other simi-
lar parallels, see Chapter XXXII.) Like Christ he taught much
by parables and precepts. A notable sermon preached by him *
is also reported, which we have not space for here. On one
occasion, having returned from a ministerial journey, as he
entered Madura, the people came out in crowds to meet him,
strewing the ground with the branches of cocoa-nut trees, and
desiring to hear him; he addressed them in parables — the con-
clusion and moral of one of which, called the parable of the
fishes, runs thus : “ And thus it is, O people of Madura, that you
ought to protect the weak and each other, and not retaliate
upon an enemy the wrongs he may have done you.” Here we
see the peace doctrine preached in its purity. “ And thus it
was,” says a writer, “that Chrishna spread among the people
the holy doctrines of purest morality, and initiated his hearers
into the exalted principles of charity, of self-denial, and self-
respect at a time when the desert countries of the west were
inhabited only by savage tribes; ” and we will add, long before
Christianity was thought of. Furity of life and spiritual in-
sight, we are told, were distinguishing traits ” in the character
of this oriental sin-atoning Savior, and that “he was often
moved with compassion for the down-trodden and the suffer-
ing.” A Budhist in Ceylon, who sent his son to a Christian
school, once remarked to a missionary, “ I respect Christianity
as a help to Budhism.” Thus is disclosed the fact that the
motives of some of “the heathen” in sending to Christian
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THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

schools is the promotion of their own religion, which they con
sider superior, and in many respects most of them are. (For
proof see Chapter on Bibles.) We have the remarkable admis-
sion of the Christian Examiner that “the best precepts of the
(Christian) bible are contained in the Hindoo Baghavat.”
Then it is not true that “ Christ spake as never man spake.”
And if his “best precepts ” were previously recorded in an old
heathen bible, then they afford no proof of his divinity. This
suicidal concession of the Examiner pulls up the claims of
orthodox Christianity by the roots. And many of the precepts
uttered by Chrishna display a profound wisdom and depth of
thought equal to any of those attributed to Jesus Christ. In
proof of the statement, we will cite a few examples out of the
hundreds in our possession.

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1.   Those who do not control their passions cannot act properly
toward others.

2.   The evils we inflict upon others follow us as our shadows
follow our bodies.

3.   Only the humble are beloved of God.

4.   Virtue sustains the soul as the muscles sustain the
body.

5.   When the poor man knocks at your door, take him and
administer to his wants, for the poor are the chosen of God
(Christ said, “ God hath chosen the poor”).

6.   Let your hand be always open to the unfortunate.

7.   Look not upon a woman with unchaste desires.

8.   Avoid envy, covetousness, falsehood, imposture and slan-
der, and sexual desires.

9.   Above all things, cultivate love for your neighbor.

10.   When you die you leave your worldly wealth behind
you, but your virtues and vices follow you.

11.   Contemn riches and worldly honor.

12.   Seek the company of the wicked in order to reform
them.

13.   Do good for its own sake, and expect not your reward
for it on earth.

14.   The soul is immortal, but must be pure and free from
all sin and stain before it can return to Him who gave it.
 SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS.

101

15.   The soul is inclined to good when it follows the inward
light.

16.   The soul is responsible to God for its actions, who has
established rewards and punishments.

17.   Cultivate that inward knowledge which teaches what is
right and wrong.

18.   Never take delight in another’s misfortunes.

19.   It is better to forgive an injury than avenge it.

20.   You can accomplish by kindness what you cannot by
force.

21.   A noble spirit finds a cure for injustice by forget-
ting it.

22.   Pardon the offense of others, but not your own.

28.   What you blame in others do not practice yourself.

24.   By forgiving an enemy you make many friends.

25.   Do right from hatred of evil, and not from fear of pun-
ishment.

26.   A wise man corrects his own errors by observing those
of others.

27.   He who rules his temper conquers his greatest en-
emy.

28.   The wise man governs his passions, but the fool obeys
them.

29.   Be at war with men’s vices, but at peace with their
persons.

30.   There should be no disagreement between your lives
and your doctrine.

31.   Spend every day as though it were the last.

32.   Lead not one life in public and another in private.

33.   Anger in trying to torture others punishes itself.

34.   A disgraceful death is honorable when you die in a good
cause.

35.   By growing familiar with vices, we learn to tolerate them
easily.

36.   We must master our evil propensities, or they will mas-
ter us.

87.   He who has conquered his propensities rules over a
kingdom.
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THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

38.   Protect love, and assist others, if you would serve God.

39.   From thought springs the will, and from the will action,
true or false, just or unjust.

40.   As the sandal tree perfumes the ax which fells it, so the
good man sheds fragrance on his enemies.

41.   Spend a portion of each day in pious devotion.

42.   To love the virtues of others is to brighten your own.

43.   He who gives to the needy loses nothing himself.

44.   A good, wise, and benevolent man cannot be rich.

45.   Much riches is a curse to the possessor.

46.   The wounds of the soul are more important than those
of the body.

47.   The virtuous man is like the banyan tree, which shelters
and protects all around it.

48.   Money does not satisfy the love of gain, but only stimu-
lates it.

49.   Your greatest enemy is in your own bosom.

50.   To flee when charged is to confess your guilt.

51.   The wounds of conscience leave a scar.

Compare these fifty-one precepts of Chrishna with the forty-
two precepts of Christ, and you must confess they suffer noth*
ing by the comparison. If we had space we would like to
quote also from the Vedas. We will merely cite a few exam-
ples relative to woman.

1.   He who is cursed by woman is cursed by God.

2.   God will punish him who laughs at woman’s sufferings.

3.   When woman is honored, God is honored.

4.   The virtuous woman will have but one husband, and the
right-minded man but one wife.

5.   It is the highest crime to take advantage of the weakness
of woman.

6.   Woman should be loved, respected, and protected by
husbands, fathers, and brothers, &c. (For more, see Chapter
on Bibles.)

Before we close this chapter we must anticipate and answer
an objection. It will be said that the reported amours of
Chrishna and his rencounter with Cansa constitute a criticism
on his character. If so, we will point to Christ’s fight or angry
 SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS.

108

combat with the money-changers in the temple as an offset to it.
And then it should be remembered that Chrishna’s disciples
claim that these stories are mere fable, or allegorical, and are
not found in the most approved or canonical writings.

II. Crucifixion of the Hindoo Sakia, 600 B. C.

How many Gods who figured in Hindoo history suffered
death upon the cross as atoning offerings for the sins of man-
kind is a point not clearly established by their sacred books.
But the death of the God above named, known as Sakia,
Budha Sakia, or Sakia Muni, is distinctly referred to by several
writers, both oriental and Christian, though there appears
to be in Budhist countries different accounts of the death
of the famous and extensively worshiped sin-atoning Saviors.
In some countries the story runs a God was crucified by an
arrow being driven through his body, which fastened him to
a tree: the tree, with the arrow thus projecting at right an-
gles, formed the cross, emblematical of the atoning sacrifice.
Sakia, an account states, was crucified by his enemies for the
humble act of plucking a flower in a garden — doubtless seized
on as a mere pretext, rather than as being considered a crime.
One of the accusations brought against Christ, it will be re-
membered, was that of plucking the ripened ears of corn on
the Sabbath. And it is a remarkable circumstance, that in
the pictures of Christian countries representing the virgin
Mary with the infant Jesus in her arms, either the child or the
mother is frequently represented with a bunch of flowers in the
hand. Here let it be noted, the association of flowers with
divinely born Saviors, in India, is indicated in the religious
books of that country to have originated from the conception
of the virgin parting with the flowers of her virginity by giv-
ing birth to a divine child, whereby she lost the immortality of
her physical nature, it being transferred by that act to her
Deity-begotten son. And from this circumstance, Sakia is
represented as having been crucified for abstracting a flower
from a garden. That his crucifixion was designed as a sin«
atoning offering, is evident from the following declaration
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found in his sacred biography, viz., “ He in mercy left Paradise,
and came down to earth because he was filled with compassion
for the sins and miseries of mankind. He songht to lead them
into better paths, and took their sufferings upon himself that
he might expiate their crimes and mitigate the punishment
they must otherwise inevitably undergo.” t (Prog. Rel. Ideas,
vol. i. p. 86.)

He believed and taught his followers that all sin is inevitably
punished, either in this or the future life; and so great were
his sympathy and tenderness, that he condescended to suffer
that punishment himself, by an ignominious death upon the
cross, after which he descended into Hades (Hell), to suffer for
a time (three days) for the inmates of that dreadful and hor-
rible prison, that he might show he sympathized with them.
After his resurrection, and before his ascension to heaven, as
well as during his earthly sojourn, he imparted to the world
some beautiful, lofty, and soul-elevating precepts.

“The object of his mission,” says a writer, “ was to instruct
those who were straying from the right path, and expiate the
sins of mortals by his own suffering, and procure for them a
happy entrance into Paradise by obedience to his precepts and
prayers to his name.” (Ibid.) “ His followers always speak of
him as one with God from all eternity.” (Ibid.) His most
common title was “the Savior of the World.” He was also
called “ the Benevolent One,” “ the Dispenser of Grace,” “ the
Source of Life,” “the Light of the World,” “the True Light,”
&c. His mother was a very pure, refined, pious, and devout
woman; never indulged in any impure thoughts, words, or
actions. She was so much esteemed for her virtues and for
being the mother of a God, that an escort of ladies attended
her wherever she went. The trees bowed before her as she
passed through the forest, and flowers sprang up wherever her
foot pressed the ground. She was saluted as “ the Holy Virgin,
Queen of Heaven.” It is said that when her divine child was
born, he stood upright and proclaimed, “ I will put an end to
the sufferings and sorrows of the world.” And immediately a
light shone round about the young Messiah. He spent much
time in retirement, and, like Christ in another respect, was once
 SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS.

10ft

tempted by a demon who offered him all the honors and wealth
of the world. But he rebuked the devil, saying, “Be gone;
hinder me not.” He began, like Christ, to preach his gospel
and heal the sick when about twenty-eight years of age. And
it is declared, “The blind saw, the deaf heard, the dumb spoke,
the lame danced, and the crooked became straight.” Hence the
people declared, “He is no mortal child, but an incarnation of
the Deity.” His religion was of a very superior character. He
proclaimed, “My law is a law of grace for all.” His religion
knew no race, no sex, no caste, and no aristocratic priesthood.
“It taught,” says Max Muller, “ the equality of all men, and the
brotherhood of the human race.” “ All men, without regard to
rank, birth, or nation,” says Dunckar, “ form, according to
Bud ha’s view, one great suffering association in this earthly
vale of tears; therefore the commandments of love, forbear-
ance, patience, compassion, pity, brotherliness of all men.”
Klaproth (a German professor of oriental languages) says this
religion is calculated to ennoble the human race. “ It is diffi-
cult to comprehend,” says a French writer (M. Laboulay),
“ how men, not assisted by revelation, could have soared so
high, and approached so near the truth.” Dunckar says this
oriental God “ taught self-denial, chastity, temperance, the con-
trol of the passions, to bear injustice from others, to suffer death
quietly, and without hate of your persecutor, to grieve not
for one’s own misfortunes, but for those of others.” An in-
vestigation of their history will show that they lived up to
these moral injunctions. “ Besides the five great command-
ments,” says a Wesleyan missionary (Spense Hardy) in his
Dahmma Padam, “ every shade of vice, hypocrisy, anger, pride,
suspicion, greediness, gossiping, and cruelty to animals is
guarded against by special precepts. Among the virtues
recommended, we find not only reverence for parents, care
for children, submission to authority, gratitude, moderation in
all things, submission in time of trial, equanimity at all times,
but virtues unknown in some systems of morality, such as
the duty of forgiving injuries, and not rewarding evil for
evil.” And we will add, both charity and love are specially
recommended. We have it also upon the authority of Dunckai
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that u Budha proclaimed that salvation and redemption have
come for all, even the lowest and most abject classes.” For he
broke down the iron caste of the Brailtninical code which had
so long ruled India, and aimed to place all mankind upon a
level. His followers have been stigmatized by Christian pro-
fessors as “ idolaters; ” but Sir John Bowring, in his “ King-
dom and People of Siam,” denies that they are idolaters, “ be-
cause,” says he, “ no Budhist believes his image to be God, or
anything more than an outward representation of Deity.”
Their deific images are looked upon with the same views and
feelings as a Christian venerates the photograph of his deceased
friend. Hence, if one is an idolater, the other is also. With
respect to the charge of polytheism, Missionary Hue says, “ that
although their religion embraces many inferior deities, who fill
the same offices that angels do under the Christian system;
yet,” adds M. Hue, “ monotheism is the real character of
Budhism,” and confirms the statement by the testimony of a
Thibetan.

It should be noted here that although Budhism succeeded in
converting about three hundred millions, or one third of the
inhabitants of the globe, it was never propagated by the sword,
and never persecuted the disciples of other religions. Its con-
quests were made by a rational appeal to the human mind.
Mr. Hodgson says, “It recognizes the infinite capacity of the
human intellect.” And St. Hilaire declares, “ Love for all beings
is its nucleus; and to love our enemies, and not persecute, are
the virtues of this people.” Max Muller says, “ Its moral code,
taken by itself, is one of the most perfect the world has ever
known.” Its five commandments are,—

1.   Thou shalt not kill.

2.   Thou shalt not steal.

S.   Thou shalt not commit adultery or any impurity.

4.   Thou shalt not lie.

5.   Thou shalt not intoxicate thyself.

To establish the above cited doctrines and precepts, Budha
sent forth his disciples into the world to preach his gospel to
every creature. And if any convert had committed a sin in
word, thought^ or deed, he was to confess and repent. One of
 SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS.

107

the tracts which they distributed declares, “There is undoubt-
edly a life after this in which the virtuous may expect the
reward of their good deeds. . . . Judgment takes place im-
mediately after death.” Budha and his followers set an ex-
ample to the world of enduring opposition and persecution with
great patience and non-resistance. And some of them suffered
martyrdom rather than abandon their principles, and gloried in
thus sealing their doctrines with their lives. A story is told of
a rich merchant, by the name of Puma, forsaking all to follow
his lord and master; and also of his encountering and talking
with a woman of low caste at a well, which reminds us of similar
incidents in the history of Christ. But his enemies, becoming
jealous and fearful of his growing power, finally crucified him
near the foot of the Nepaul mountains, about 600 B. C. But
after his death, burial, and resurrection, we are told he ascended
back to heaven, where millions of his followers believed he had
existed with Brahma from all eternity.

[Note. In the cases of crucifixion which follow, nothing like accuracy
can be expected with respect to the dates of their occurrence, as all his-
tory covering the period beyond the modern era, or prior to the time of
Alexander the Great (330 B. C.) is involved in a labyrinth of uncertainty
with respect to dates. Hence bible chronologists differ to the extent of
three thousand years with respect to the time of every event recorded in
the Old Testament. Compare the Hebrew and Septuagint versions of
the bible: the former makes the world three thousand nine hundred and
forty-four, and the latter five thousand two hundred and seventy years
old at the birth of Christ — a difference of thirteen hundred and twenty-
six years. And other translations differ still more widely. All the cases
of crucifixion which follow occurred before the time of Christ, but the ex-
act time of many of them cannot be fixed .with certainty.]

III. Thammuz of Syria Crucified, 1160 B. C.

The history of this God is furnished us in fragments by
several writers, portions of which will be found in other chap-
ters of this work. The fullest history extant of this God-
Savior is probably that of Ctesias (400 B. C.), author of “ Per-
eika.” The poet has perpetuated his memory in rhyme.
 108

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

“Trust, ye saints, your Lord restored;

Trust ye in your risen Lord;

For the pains which Thamrauz endured
Our salvation have procured.”

Mr. Higgins informs us (Anac. vol. i. p. 246) that this God
was crucified at the period above named, as a sin-atoning offer-
ing. The stanza just quoted is predicated upon the follow-
ing Greek text, translated by Godwin: “ Trust ye in God, for
out of his loins salvation is come unto us.” Julius Firmicus
speaks of this God “ rising from the dead for the salvation of
the world.” The Christian writer Parkhurst alludes to this
Savior as preceding the advent of Christ, and as filling to some
extent the same chapter in sacred history.

IY. Crucifixion- of Wittoba of the Telingonese,
552 B. C.

We have a very conclusive historical proof of the crucifixion
of this heathen God. Mr. Higgins tells us, “ He is represented
in his history with nail-holes in his bands and the soles of his
feet.” Nails, hammers, and pincers are constantly seen repre-
sented on his crucifixes, and are objects of adoration among his
followers. And the iron crown of Lombardy has within it a
nail of what is claimed as his true original cross, and is much
admired and venerated on* that account. The worship of this
crucified God, according to our author, prevails chiefly in the
Travancore and other southern countries in the region of
Madura.

V.   Iao of Nepaul Crucified, 622 B. C.

With respect to the crucifixion of this ancient Savior, we
have this very definite and specific testimony that “he was
crucified on a tree in Nepaul.” (See Georgius, p. 202.) The
name of this incarnate God and oriental Savior occurs fre-
quently in the holy bibles and sacred books of other countries.
Some suppose that Iao (often spelt Jao) is the root of the name
of the Jewish God Jehovah.
 SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS.

109

VI.   Hesus of the Celtic Druids Crucified, 834 B. C.

Mr. Higgins informs us that the Celtic Druids represent their
God Hesus as having been crucified with a lamb on one side
and an elephant on the other, and that this occurred long be-
fore the Christian era. Also that a representation of it may
now be seen upon “the fire tower of Brechin.”

In this symbolical representation of the crucifixion, the ele-
phant, being the largest animal known, was chosen to represent
the magnitude of the sins of the world, while the lamb, from its
proverbial innocent nature, was chosen to represent the inno-
cency of the victim (the God offered as a propitiatory sacrifice).
And thus we have “the Lamb of God taking away the sins of
the world ” — symbolical language used with respect to the
offering of Jesus Christ. And here is indicated very clearly
the origin of the figure. It is evidently borrowed from the
Druids. We have the statement of the above writer that this
legend was found amongst the Canutes of Gaul long before
Jesus Christ was known to history. (See Anac. vol. ii. p. 130.)

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VII.   Quexalcote of Mexico Crucified, 587 B. C.

Historical authority, relative to the crucifixion of this Mexi-
can God, and to his execution upon the cross as a propitiatory
sacrifice for the sins of mankind, is explicit, unequivocal, and in-
effaceable. The evidence is tangible, and indelibly engraven
upon steel and metal plates. One of these plates represents
him as having been crucified on a mountain ; another represents
him as having been crucified in the heavens, as St. Justin tells
us Christ was. According to another writer, he is sometimes
represented as having been nailed to a cross, and by other
accounts as hanging with a cross in his hand. The “ Mexican
Antiquities ” (vol. vi. p. 166) says, “ Quexalcote is represented
in the paintings of c Codex Borgianus ’ as nailed to the cross.”
Sometimes two thieves are represented as having been crucified
with him. That the advent of this crucified Savior and Mexi-
can God was long anterior to the era of Christ, is admitted by
Christian writers, as we have shown elsewhere. In the work
 no

THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

above named, “ Codex Borgianus,” maybe found the account, not
only of his crucifixion, but of his death, burial, descent into hell,
and resurrection on the third day. And another work, entitled
“ Codex Vaticanus,” contains the story of his immaculate birth
by a virgin mother by the name of Chimalman. Many other
incidences are found related of him in his sacred biography, in
which we find the most striking counterparts to the more
modern gospel story of Jesus Christ, such as his forty days’
temptation, and fasting, his riding on an ass, his purifica-
tion in the temple, his baptism and regeneration by water, his
forgiving of sins, being anointed with oil, &c. “All these
things, and many more, found related of this Mexican God in
their sacred books,” says Lord Kingsborough (a Christian
writer) “ are curious and mysterious.” (See the books above
cited.)

VIII.   Quirinus of Rome Crucified, 506 B. C.

The crucifixion of this Roman Savior is briefly noticed by
Mr. Higgins, and is remarkable for presenting (like other cruci-
fied Gods) several parallel features to that of the Judean Savior,
not only in the circumstances related as attending his crucifix-
ion, but also in a considerable portion of liis antecedent life.
He is represented, like Christ, —

1.   As having been conceived and brought forth by a virgin.

2.   His life was sought by the reigning king (Amulius).

8.   He was of royal blood, his mother being of kingly de-
scent.

4.   He was “ put to death by wicked hands ” — i. e., cru-
cified.

5.   At his mortal exit the whole earth is said to have been
enveloped in darkness, as in the cases of Christ, Chrishna, and
Prometheus.

6.   And finally he is resurrected, and ascends back to heaven.

IX.   (JEschylus) Prometheus Crucified, 547 B. C.

In the account of the crucifixion of Prometheus of Caucasus,
 SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVxURS.

Ill

as furnished by Seneca, Hesiod, and other writers, it is stated,
that he was nailed to an upright beam of timber, to which were
affixed extended arms of wood, and that this cross was situated
near the Caspian Straits. The modern story of this crucified
God, which represents him as having been bound to a rock for
thirty years, while vultures preyed upon his vitals, Mr. Higgins
pronounces an impious Christian fraud. “ For,” says this
learned historical writer, “I have seen the account which de-
clares he was nailed to a cross with hammer and nails.” (Anac.
vol. i. 327.) Confirmatory of this statement is the declaration
of Mr. Southwell, that “ he exposed himself to the wrath of
God in his zeal to save mankind.” The poet, in portraying his
propitiatory offering, says, —

“Lo, streaming from the fatal tree
His all-atoning blood,

Is this the Infinite; yes, ’tis he,

Prometheus, and a God.

“ Well might the sun in darkness hide,

And veil his glories in,

When God, the great Prometheus, died
For man the creature’s sin.”

The “ New American Cyclopedia ” (vol. i. p. 157) contains
the following significant declaration relative to this sin-atoning,
oriental Savior: “ It is doubtful whether there is to be found
in the whole range of Greek letters deeper pathos than that
of the divine woe of the beneficent demigod Prometheus, cru-
cified on his Scythian crags for his love to mortals.” Here we
have first-class authority for the truth of the crucifixion of this
oriental God.

In Lempriere’s “ Classical Dictionary,” Higgins’“Anacalyp-
sis,” and other works, may be found the following particulars
relative to the final exit of the God above named, viz.: —

1.   That the whole frame of nature became convulsed.

2.   The earth shook, the rocks were rent, the graves were
opened, and in a storm, which seemed to threaten the disso-
lution of the universe, the solemn scene forever closed, and
“ Our Lord and Savior ” Prometheus gave up the ghost. “ The
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THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

cause for which he suffered,” says Mr. Southwell, “ was his love
for the human race.” Mr. Taylor makes the statement in his
Syntagma (p. 95), that the whole story of Prometheus’ cruci-
fixion, burial, and resurrection was acted in pantomime in
Athens five hundred years before Christ, which proves its great
antiquity. Minutius Felix, one of the most popular Christian
writers of the second century (in his “ Octavius,” sect. 29), thus
addresses the people of Rome: “ Your victorious trophies not
only represent a simple cross, but a cross with a man on it,”
and this man St. Jerome calls a God. These coincidences
furnish still further proof that the tradition of the crucifixion
of Gods has been very long prevalent among the heathen.

X.   Crucifixion of Thulis of Egypt, 1700 B. C.

Thulis of Egypt, whence comes “ Ultima Thule,” died the
death of the cross about thirty-five hundred years ago.
Ultima Thule was the island which marked the ultimate bounds
of the extensive empire of this legitimate descendant of the
Gods. This Egyptian Savior appears also to have been known
as Zulis, and with this name Mr. Wilkison tells us, “his his-
tory is curiously illustrated in the sculptures, made seventeen
hundred years B. C., of a small, retired chamber lying nearly
over the western adytum of the temple.” We are told twenty-
eight lotus plants near his grave indicate the number of years
he lived on the earth. After suffering a violent death, he was
buried, but rose again, ascended into heaven, and there became
“ the judge of the dead,” or of souls in a future state. Wilki-
son says he came down from heaven to benefit mankind, and
that he was said to be “ full of grace and truth.”

XI.   Crucifixion of Indra of Thibet, 725 B. C.

The account of the crucifixion of the God and Savior Indra
may be found in Georgius, Thibetinum Alphabetum, p. 230.
A brief notice of the case is all we have space for here. In the
work just referred to may be found plates representing this
Thibetan Savior as having been nailed to the cross. There
 SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS.

113

are five wounds, representing the nail-holes and the piercing of
the side. The antiquity of the story is beyond dispute. Mar-
velous stories were told of the birth of the Divine Redeemer.
His mother was a virgin of black complexion, and hence his
complexion was of the ebony hue, as in the case of Christ and
some other sin-atoning Saviors. He descended from heaven on
a mission of benevolence, and ascended back to the heavenly
mansion after his crucifixion. He led a life of strict celibacy,
which, he taught, was essential to true holiness. He inculcated
great tenderness towards all living beings. He could walk
upon the water or upon the air; could foretell future events
with great accuracy. He practiced the most devout contempla-
tion, severe discipline of the body and mind, and acquired the
most complete subjection of his passions. He was worshiped
as a God who had existed as a spirit from all eternity, and
nis followers were called “ Heavenly Teachers.”

XII.   Alcestos op Euripides Crucified, 600 B. C.

The “English Classical Journal” (vol.xxxvii.) furnishes us
with the story of another crucified God, known as Alcestos —
a female God or Goddess; and in this respect, it is a novelty in
sacred history, being the first, if not the only, example of a
feminine God atoning for the sins of the world upon the cross.
The doctrine of the trinity and atonining offering for sin was
inculcated as a part of her religion.

XIII. Atys of Phrygia Crucified, 1170 B. C.

Speaking of this crucified Messiah, the Anacalypsis informs
us that several histories are given of him, but all concur in rep-
resenting him as having been an atoning offering for sin. And
the Latin phrase “suspensus lingo,” found in his history, indi-
cates the manner of his death. He was suspended on a tree,
crucified, buried, and rose again.

XIY. Crite of Chaldea Crucified, 1200 B. C.

The Chaldeans, as Mr. Higgins informs us, have noted in
their sacred books the account of the crucifixion of a God with
8
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THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

the above name. He was also known as “the Redeemer,” and
was styled “the Ever Blessed Son of God,” “the Savior of the
Race,” “the Atoning Offering for an angry God,” &c. And
when he was offered up, both heaven and earth were shaken to
their foundations.

XV. Bali of Orissa Crucified, 725 B. C.

We learn by the oriental books, that in the district of coun-
try known as Orissa, in Asia, they have the story of a crucified
God, known by several names, including the above, all of which,
we are told, signify “ Lord Second,” having reference to him
as the second person or second member of the trinity, as most
of the crucified Gods occupied that position in the triad of dei-
ties constituting the trinity, as indicated by the language
“ Father, Son. and Holy Ghost,” — the Son, in all cases, being
the atoning offering, “ the Crucified Redeemer,” and the second
person of the trinity. This God Bali was also called Baliu, and
sometimes Bel. The Anacalypsis informs us (vol. i. 257) that
monuments of this crucified God, bearing great age, may be
found amid the ruins of the magnificent city of Mahabalipore,
partially buried amongst the figures in the temple.

XVI. Mithra of Persia Crucified, 600 B. C.

This Persian God, according to Mr. Higgins, was “slain upon
the cross to make atonement for mankind, and to take away
the sins of the world.” He was reputedly born on the twenty-
fifth day of December, and crucified on a tree. It is a remark-
able circumstance that two Christian writers (Mr. Faber and
Mr. Bryant) both speak of his “ being slain,” and yet both omit
to speak of the manner in which he was put to death. And the
same policy has been pursued with respect to other crucified
Gods of the pagans, as we have shown elsewhere.

Our list is full, or we might note other cases of crucifixion.
Devatat of Siam, Ixion of Rome, Apollonius of Tyana in Cappa-
docia, are all reported in history a having “died the death of
 SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS.   lift

the cross.” Ixion, 400 B. C., according to Nimrod, was ciuci-
fied on a wheel, the rim representing the world, and the spokes
constituting the cross. It is declared, “ He bore the burden of
the world ” (that is, “ the sins of the world”) on his back while
suspended on the cross. Hence he was sometimes called “ the
crucified spirit of the world.” With respect to Apollonius, it
is a remarkable, if not a suspicious circumstance that should
not be passed unnoticed, that several Christian writers, while
they recount a long list of miracles and remarkable incidents
in the life of this Cappadocian Savior, extending through his
whole life, and forming a parallel to similar incidents of the
Christian Savior, not a word is said about his crucifixion.
And a similar policy has been pursued with respect to Mithra
and other sin-atoning Gods, including Chrishna and Prometheus,
as before noticed. This important chapter in their history has
been omitted by Christian writers for fear the relation of it
would damage the credibility of the crucifixion of Christ, or
lessen its spiritual force. For, like Paul, they were “deter-
mined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified”
(1 Cor. ii. 2), i. e., to know no other God had been crucified but
Jesus Christ. They thus exalted the tradition of the crucifix-
ion into the most important dogma of the Christian faith.
Hence their efforts to conceal from the public a knowledge of
the fact that it is of pagan origin.

By reference to Mackey’s “ Lexicon of Freemasonry ” (p. 85)
we learn that Freemasons secretly taught the doctrine of the
crucifixion, atonement, and resurrection long anterior to the
Christian era, and that similar doctrines were taught in “all
the ancient mysteries,” thus proving that the conception of these
tenets of faith existed at a very early period of time.

And it may be noted here, that the doctrine of salvation by
crucifixion had likewise, with most of the ancient forms of re-
ligious faith, an astronomical representation—i. e., a repre-
sentation in astronomical symbols. According to the emblemat-
ical figures comprised in their astral worship, people were saved
by the sun’s crucifixion or crossification, realized by crossing
over the equinoctial line into the season of spring, apd thereby
gave out a saving heat and light to the world, and stimulated
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THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

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the generative organs of animal and vegetable life. It waa
from this conception that the ancients were in the habit of carv*
mg or painting the organs of generation upon the walls of
their holy temples. The blood of the grape, which was ripened
by the heat of the sun, as he crossed over by resurrection into
spring (i. e., was crucified), was symbolically “ the blood of the
cross,” or “ the blood of the Lamb.”

If we should be met here with the statement, that the stories
of the ancient crucifixions of Gods were mere myths or fables,
unwarrantably saddled on to their histories as mere romance,
and have no foundation in fact, we reply, there is as much
ground for suspecting the same thing as being true of Jesus
Christ. One of the most celebrated and most frequently
quoted Christian writers of the ancient bishops (Irenaeus) de-
clares upon the authority of the martyr Polycarp, who claimed
to have got it from St. John and all the elders of Asia, that Jesus
Christ was not crucified, but lived to be about fifty years old.
We fincl there always has been a margin for doubt amongst his
own followers as to the fact of his crucifixion. Many of the
early Christians, and cotemporary Jews and Gentiles doubted
it, and some openly disputed its ever having taken place.
Others bestowed upon it a mere spiritual signification, and not
a few considered it symbolical of a “holy life.” One circum-
stance, calculated to lead to the entire discredit of the story
of the crucifixion of Christ, is the relation, in connection with
it, of a violent convulsion of nature, and the resurrection of the
long-buried saints—events not supported by any authentic
cotemporaneous history, sacred or profane. (See Chap. XVII.,
Aphanasia.) And as these events must be set down as fabu-
lous, they leave the mind in doubt with respect to the fact of
the crucifixion itself, especially when the many absurdities in-
volved in the doctrine of the crucifixion are brought to view,
in connection with it, some of them so palpably erroneous, that
an unlettered savage could see and point them out. The
Indian chief Red Jacket is reported to have replied to the
Christian missionaries, when they urged upon his attention the
benefits of Christ’s death by crucifixion, “ Brethren, if you
white men murdered the son of the Great Spirit, we Indians
 SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS.

Ill

have nothing to do with it, and it is none of our affair. If he
had come among us, we would not have killed him. We would
have treated him well. You must make amends for that crime
yourselves.” This view of the crucifixion suggested to the mind
of an illiterate heathen we deem more sensible and rational
than that of the orthodox Christians, which makes it a meri-
torious act, and a moral necessity. For this would not only
exonerate Judas from any criminality or guilt for the part he
took in the affair, but would entitle him as well as Christ to
the honorable title of a “ Savior ” for performing an act with-
out which the crucifixion and consequent salvation of the world
could not have been effected. If it was necessary for Christ to
suffer death upon the cross as an atonement for sin, then the
act of crucifixion was right, and a monument should be erected
to the memory of Judas for bringing it about. We challenge
Christian logic to find a flaw in this argument. And another
important consideration arises here. If the inhabitants of this
planet required the murderous death of a God as an atonement,
we must presume that the eighty-five millions of inhabited
worlds recently discovered by astronomers are, or have been, in
equal need of a divine atonement. And this would require
the crucifixion of eighty-five millions of Gods. Assuming
one of these Gods to be crucified every minute, the whole
would occupy a period of nearly twenty years. This would
be killing off Gods at rather a rapid rate, and would make
the work of the atonement and salvation a very murderous
and bloody affair — a conception which brings to the mind a
series of very revolting reflections. The conception of Gods
coming down from heaven, and being born of virgins, and
dying a violent death for the moral blunders of the people,
originated in an age of the world when man was a savage,
and dwelt exclusively upon the animal plane, and blood was
the requisition for every offense. And it was an age when no
world was known to exist but the one we inhabit. The stars
Were then supposed to be mere blazing tapers set in the azure
vault to light this pygmy planet, or peep-holes for Gods to look
out of heaven, to see and learn what was going on below.
Such conceptions are in perfect keeping with the doctrine of
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THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

the atoning crucifixion of Gods, which could never have origi*
nated or been entertained for a moment by an astronomer,
with a knowledge of the existence of innumerable inhabited
wrorlds. For as there is to the monotheistic Christian but one
God, or Son of God, to be offered, he must be incarnated and
crucified every day for a thousand years to make a sin-offering
for each of these worlds — a conception too monstrous and pre-
posterous to find a lodgment in a rational mind.

Origin of the Belief in the Crucifixion of Gods.

It had always been presumed that death, and especially death
by crucifixion, involved the highest state of suffering possible
to be endured by mortals. Hence the Gods must suffer in this
way as an example of courage and fortitude, and to show them-
selves willing to undergo all the affliction and misery incident
to the lot, and unavoidable to the lives, of their devoted wor-
shipers. They must not only be equal, but superior to their
subjects in this respect. Hence they would not merely die,
but choose, or at least uncomplainingly submit to, the most
ignoble and ignominious mode of suffering death that could
be devised, and that was crucifixion. This gave the highest
finishing touch to the drama. And thus the legend of the cru-
cifixion became the crowning chapter, the aggrandizing episode
in the history of their lives. It was presumed that nothing less
than a God could endure such excruciating tortures without
complaining. Hence, when the victim was reported to have
submitted with such fortitude that no murmur was heard to
issue from his lips, this circumstance of itself was deemed suffi-
cient evidence of his Godship. The story of the crucifixion,
therefore, whether true or false, deified or helped. deify many
great men, and exalt them to the rank of Gods. Though some
of the disciples of Budhism, and some of the primitive profess-
ors of Christianity also (including, according to Christian his-
tory, Peter and his brother Andrew), voluntarily chose this
mode of dying in imitation of their crucified Lord, without ex-
periencing, however, the desired promotion to divine honors.
 SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS.

119

They failed of an exaltation to the deityship, and hence are
not now worshiped as Gods. Christian reader, what can you
now make of the story of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ but a
borrowed legend—at least the story of his being crucified as
a God?

Note. — The author desires it to be understood with respect to the cases
of crucifixion here briefly narrated, that they are not vouched for as ac-
tual occurrences, of which there is much ground to doubt. It has neither
been his aim or his desire to prove them to be real historical events, nor
to establish any certain number of cases. Indeed, he deems it unimpor-
tant to know, if it could be determined, whether they are fact or fiction,
or whether one God was crucified, or many. The moral lesson designed
to be taught by this chapter is, simply, that the belief in the crucifixion
of Gods was prevalent m various oriental or heathen countries long prior
to the reported crucifixion of Christ. If this point is established, —which
he feels certain no reader will dispute, — then he is not concerned to
know whether he has made out sixteen cases of crucifixion or not. Six
will prove it as well as sixteen. In fact, one case is sufficient to estab-
lish the important proposition in view. The reader is therefore left to
decide each case for himself, according as he may value the evidence
presented. More authorities could have been adduced, and a more ex-
tended history presented of each God brought to notice. But this wo aid
have operated to exclude other matter, which the author considers of
more importance.
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THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE APHANASIA, OR DARKNESS AT THE CRU-
CIFIXION.

1. Matthew tells us (xxvii. 31) that when Christ was cruci-
fied, there was darkness over all the land for three hours, and
“ the earth did quake, and the rocks were rent, and many of
the saints came out of their graves.” Here we have a series
of events spoken of so strange, so unusual, and so extraordi-
nary, that had they occurred, they must have attracted the
attention of the whole world, especially the amazing scene of
the sun’s withdrawing his light, and ceasing to shine, and
thereby causing an almost total darkness near the middle of
the day. And yet no writer of that age or conn try, or any
other age or country, mentions the circumstance but Matthew.
A phenomenon so terrible and so serious in its effects as literally
to unhinge the planets and partially disorganize the universe
must have excited the alarm and amazement of the whole
world, and caused a serious disturbance in the affairs of nations.
And yet strange, superlatively strange, not one of the numer-
ous historians of that age makes the slightest allusion to such
an astounding event. Even Seneca and the elder Pliny, who
so particularly and minutely chronicle the events of those times,
are as silent as the grave relative to this greatest event in the
history of the world. Nor do Mark, Luke, or John, who all
furnish us with a history of the crucifixion, make the slightest
hint at any of these wonder-exciting events, except Mark’s in-
cidental allusion to the darkness. Gibbon says, “ It happened
during the life of Seneca and the elder Pliny, who must have
experienced its immediate effects, or received the earliest
 DARKNESS AT THE CRUCIFIXION.

121

intelligence of the prodigy. Each of these philosophers, in
a labored work, has recorded all the phenomena of Nature’s
earthquakes, meteors, and eclipses, which his indefatigable
curiosity could collect. Both the one and the other have
omitted to mention the greatest phenomenon, to which the
mortal eye has been witness since the creation of the world.
(Gibbon, p. 451.)

2.   With reference to the “bodies” of the dead saints coming
out of their tombs (for it is declared their “ bodies arose; see
Matt, xxvii. 52), many rather curious and puzzling questions
might be started, which would at once disclose its utter absurd-
ity. We might ask, for example, —

1. Who were those “ many saints ” who came out of their
graves, seeing there were as yet but few Christians to occupy
graves, if they had been all dead, as the enumeration at Antioch
made out only one hundred and twenty ? (See Acts.) 2. How
long had they lain in their graves ?   3. How long since their

bodies had turned to dust, and been food for worms? 4. And
would not those worms have to be hunted up and required to
disgorge the contents of their stomachs in order to furnish the
saints with the materials for their bodies again ?   5. And were

the shrouds or grave clothes of those saints also resurrected ? or
did they travel about in a state of nudity ?   6. For what pur-

pose were they reanimated? 7. And should not Matthew have
furnished us, by way of proof, with the names of some of these
ghostly visitors ?   8. How long did they live this second time?

9.   Did they die again, or did they ascend to heaven with their
new-made bodies? 10. What business did they engage in?
11. Why have we not some account of what they said and
did ? 12. And what finally became of them ? Until these ques-
tions are rationally answered, the story must be regarded as too
incredible and too ludicrous to merit serious notice.

3.   Nearly all the phenomena represented as occurring at the
crucifixion of Christ are reported to have been witnessed also at
the final exit of Senerus, an ancient pagan demigod, who figured
in history at a still more remote period of time. And similar
incidents are related likewise in the legendary histories of
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THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

several other heathen demigods and great mer partially pro-
moted to the honor of Gods. In the time-honored records of the
oldest religion in the world, it is declared, “ A cloud surround-
ed the moon; and the sun was darkened at noonday, and the
sky rained fire and ashes during the crucifixion of the Indian
God Chrishna. In the case of Osiris of Egypt, Mr. Southwell
says, “ As his birth had been attended by an eclipse of the sun,
so his death was attended by a still greater darkness of the
solar orb.” At the critical juncture of the crucifixion of Prome-
theus, it is declared, “ The whole frame of nature became con-
vulsed, the earth shook, the rocks were rent, the graves opened,
and in a storm which threatened the disolution of the universe,
the scene closed.” (Higgins.) According to Livy, the last hours
of the mortal demise of Romulus were marked by a storm and
by a solar eclipse. And similar stories are furnished us by
several writers of Caesar and Alexander the Great. With re-
spect to the latter, Mr. Nimrod says, u Six hours of darkness
formed his aphanasia, and his soul, like Polycarp’s, was seen to
fly away in the form of a dove.” (Nimrod, vol. iii. p, 458.)
“ It is remarkable,” says a writer, “ what a host of respectable
authorities vouch for an acknowledged fable — the preternatural
darkness which followed Caesar’s death.” Gibbon alludes to
this event when he speaks of “ the singular defect of light
which followed the murder of Caesar.” He likewise says,
wThis season of darkness had already been celebrated by most
of the poets and historians of that memorable age ” (Gibbon,
p. 452.) It is very remarkable that Pliny speaks of a darkness
attending Caesar’s death, but omits to mention such a scene as
attending the crucifixion of Christ. Virgil also seeks to exalt
this royal personage by relating this prodigy. (See his
Georgius, p. 465.) Another writer says, “ Similar prodigies were
supposed or said to accompany the great men of former days.”
Let the reader make a note of this fact, that the same story was
told of the graves opening, and the dead rising at the final
mortal exit of several heathen Gods and several great men long
before it was penned as a chapter in the history of Christ
Shakespeare in his Hamlet says,—
 DARKNESS AT THE CRUCIFIXION.

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128

“ In the most high and palmy days of Rome,

A little ere the mighty Julius fell,

The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.”

These historical citations strongly press the conclusion that
this portion of the history of Christ was borrowed from old
pagan legends.

4.   Many cases are recorded in history of the light of the sun
being obscured at midday so as to result in almost total dark-
ness, when it was known not to be produced by an eclipse.
And it is probable that these natural events furnish the basis
in part for those wild legends we have brought to notice.
Humboldt relates in his Cosmos, that “ in the year 358, before
the earthquake of Numidia, the darkness was very dense for two
or three hours.” Another obscuration of the sun took place
in the year 360, which lasted five or six hours, and was so dense
that the stars were visible at midday. Another circumstance
of this kind was witnessed on the 19th of May, 1730, which
lasted eight hours. And so great was the darkness, that candles
and lamps had to be lighted at midday to dine by. Similar
events are chronicled for the years 1094, 1206, 1241, 1547,
and 1730. And if any such solar obscurations occurred near
the mortal exit of any of the Gods above named, of course
they would be seized on as a part of their practical history
wrought up into hyperbole, and interwoven in their narratives,
to give eclat to the pageantry of their biographies — a fact
which helps to solve the mystery.

Oeigin of the Stoey of the Aphanasia at the
Cetjcifixion.

There is but little ground to doubt but that the various
stories of a similar character then current in different countries,
as shown above, first suggested the thought to Christ’s biog-
raphers of investing his history with the incredible events re-
ported as being connected with the crucifixion. The principal
motive, however, seems to have grown out of a desire to fulfill
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THE WORLD'S SAVIORS.

a prophecy of the Jewish prophet Joel, as we find many of the
important miraculous events ingrafted into Christ’s history
were recorded by way of fulfilling some prophecy. “ That the
prophecy might be fulfilled ” is the very language his evangeli-
cal biographers use. Joel’s prediction runs thus : “ And I will
show wonders in the heavens, and in the earth, flood and fire,
and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness,
and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of
the Lord come.” (Joel ii. 80.) A little impartial investigation
will satisfy any unprejudiced mind that this poetic rhapsody
has not the most remote allusion to the closing events in the
life of Christ, and was not intended to have. But his biog-
raphers, writing a long time after his death, supposing and
assuming that this and various other texts, which they quote
from the prophets, had reference to him, and had been fulfilled,
incorporated it into his history as a part of his practical life.
The conviction that the prophecy must have been fulfilled, with-
out knowing that it had, added to similar stories of other Gods,
with which Christ’s history became confounded, misled them
into the conclusion that they were warranted in assuming that
the incredible events they name were really witnessed at the
mortal termination of Christ’s earthly career, when they did
not know it, and could not have known it. This view of the
case becomes very rational and very forcible when we observe
various texts quoted from the prophets by the gospel writers,
or rather most butcheringly misquoted, tortured or distorted into
Messianic prophecies, when the context shows they have no
reference to Christ whatever.
 DESCENT OF THE SAVIORS INTO HELL, 125

CHAPTER XVIII.

DESCENT OE THE SAVIORS INTO HELL.

The next mo^i important event in the histories of the
Saviors after their crucifixion, and the act of giving up the
ghost, is that of their descent into the infernal regions. That
Jesus Christ descended into hell after his crucifixion is not
expressly taught in the Christian bible, but it is a matter of
such obvious inference from several passages of scripture, the
early Christians taught it as a scriptural doctrine. Mr. Sears,
a Christian writer, tells us that “ on the doctrine of Christ’s
underground mission the early Christians were united. . . .
It was a point too well settled to admit of dispute.” (See
Foregleams of Immortality, p. 262.) And besides this testi-
mony, the “ Apostles’ Creed ” teaches the doctrine explicitly,
which was once as good authority throughout Christendom as
the bible itself; indeed, it may be considered as constituting a
part of the bible prior to the council of Nice (A. D. 325), being
supposed to have been written by the apostles themselves. It
declares that “Jesus Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate, was
crucified (dead) and buried. He descended into hell; the third
day he rose again from the dead,” &c. This testimony is very
explicit. And Peter is supposed to refer to the same event
when he says, “ being put to death in the flesh, but quickened
by the spirit, by which also he went and preached unto the
spirits in prison.” (1 Peter iii. 18.) The word prison, which
occurs in this text, has undoubted reference to the Christian
fabled hell. For no possible sense can be attached to the word
prison in this connection without such a construction. Where
have spirits ever been supposed to be imprisoned but in hell ?
And then we find a text in the Acts of the Apostles, which
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seems to remove all doubt in the case, and banishes at once all
ground for dispute. It is explicitly stated that “his soul was
not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption ” (Acts ii.
31.) Why talk about his soul not being left in hell if it had
never been there ? Language could hardly be plainer. The
most positive declaration that Christ did descend into hell
could not make it more certainly a scriptural Christian doctrine.
We then rest the case here, and proceed to enumerate other
cases of Gods and Saviors descending into Pandemonium
(the realms of Pluto) long before Jesus Christ walked on
the water or on the earth. It is unquestionably stated in the
Hindoo bible, written more than three thousand years ago,
that the Savior Chrishna “went down to hell to preach to the
inmates of that dark and dreary prison, with the view of re-
forming them, and getting them back to heaven, and was will-
ing himself to suffer to abridge the period of their torment.”
And certainly, in the midst of the fire and smoke of brimstone,
it could not have been hard to effect their conversion or repent-
ance. One writer tells us that “ so great was his (Chrishna’s)
tenderness, that he even descended into hell to teach souls in
bondage.” Now observe how much “ teaching souls in bon-
dage ” sounds like “ preaching to souls in prison,” as Peter rep-
resents Christ as doing. And can any reader doubt that the
meaning in the two cases is the same? And must we not con-
fess that we are gratefully indebted to the Hindoo bible for an
explanation of the two occult and mysterious texts which I
have quoted from the Christian bible, and which have puzzled
so many learned critics to explain, or find a meaning for? We
have another case of a God descending into hell in the per-
son or spirit of the Savior Quexalcote of -Mexico. (300
B. C.) The story will be found in the Codex Borgianus,
wherein is related the account of his death, and burial after
crucifixion, his descent into hell, and subsequent resurrection.
Of Adonis of Greece it is declared, that “ after his descent into
hell, he rose again to life and immortality.” Prometheus of
Caucasus (600 B. C.) likewise is represented as “ suffering
and descending into hell, rising again from the dead, and
ascending to heaven.” Horus of Greece is described as “ first
 DESCENT OF THE SAVIORS INTO HELL.   12?

reigning a thousand years, then dying, and being buried for
three days, at the end of which time he triumphed over Typhon,
the evil principle, and rose again to life evermore.” And
Osiris of Egypt also is represented as making a descent into
hell, and after a period of three days rose again. Homer and
Virgil speak of several cases of descent into Pluto’s dominions.
Hercules, Ulysses, and^Eneas are represented as performing the
hellward journey on, as we infer, benevolent missions. Hig-
gins remarks, “ The Gods became incarnate, and descended into
hell to teach humility and set an example of suffering.” The
story of their descent into hell was doubtless invented to find
employment for them during their three days of hibernation or
conservation in the tomb, that they might not appear to be
really dead nor idle in the time, and as a still further proof of
their matchless and unrivaled capacity and fortitude for suffer-
ing. And the story of the three days’ entombment is likewise
clearly traceable in appearance to the astronomical incident of
the sun’s lying apparently dead, and buried, and motionless, for
nearly three days at the period of the vernal epoch, from the
21st to the 25th of March. It was a matter of belief or fancy,
that the sun remained stationary for about three days, when he
gradually rose again “ into newness of life.” And hence this
period or era was chosen to figuratively represent the three
days’ descent of the Gods into hell. We are told that the Per-
sians have an ancient astronomical figure representing the de-
scent of a God, divine, into hell, and returning at the time that
Orsus, the goddess of spring, had conquered the God or genus
of winter, after the manner St. John describes the Lamb of God
(see Rev. xii.) as conquering the dragon, which may be inter-
preted as the Scorpion or Dragon of the first month of winter
(October) being conquered by the Lamb of March or spring.
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CHAPTER XIX.

RESURRECTION OF THE SAVIORS.

We find presented in the canonized histories of several of
the demigod Saviors the following remarkable coincidences
appertaining to their death: —

1.   Their resurrection from the dead.

2.   Their lying in the tomb just three days.

3.   The resurrection of several of them about the time of the
vernal equinox.

The 25th of March is the period assigned by the Christian
world generally for the resurrection of Christ, though some
Christian writers have assigned other dates for this event.
They all agree, however, that Christ rose from the dead, and
that this ocrurred three days after the entombment. Bishop
Theophilus of Cesarea remarks, relative to this event, “ Since
the birth of Christ is celebrated on the 25th of December, . . .
so also should the resurrection of Jesus be celebrated on
the 25th of March, on whatever day of the week it may fall,
the Lord having risen again on that day.” (Cent.ii. Call.p. 118.)
“All the ancient Christians,” says a writer, “ were persuaded
that Christ was crucified on the 23d of March, and rose from
the dead on the 25th.” And accordingly Constantine and
cotemporary Christians celebrated the 25th of March with great
eclat as the date of the resurrection. The 23d and 25th, in-
cluding the 24th, would comprise a period of three days, the
time of the entombment. Now mark, Quexalcote of Mexico,
Chris of Chaldea, Quirinus of Rome, Prometheus of Caucasus)
Osiris of Egypt, Atys of Phrygia, and “ Mitlira the Mediator5
of Persia, did, according to their respective histories, rise from
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129

the dead after three days’ burial, and the time of their resurrec
tion is in several cases fixed for the 25th of March. And there
is an account more than three thousand years old of the Hindoo
crucified Savior Chrishna, three days after his interment, for-
saking “the silent bourn, whence (as we are told) no traveler
ever returns,” and laying aside the moldy cerements of the
dead, again walking forth to mortal life, to be again seen, recog-
nized, admired, and adored by his pious, devout, and awe-
stricken followers, and thus present to the gaze of a hoping yet
doubting world “the first fruits of the resurrection.” Of Tham-
muz of Syria the poet says,—

“ Trust, ye saints, your God restored;

Trust ye in your risen Lord;

For the pains which Thammuz endured
Your salvation have procured.”

At the annual celebration of the resurrection of the Persian
• Savior “Mithra the Mediator,” more than three thousand years
ago, the priests were in the habit of exclaiming in a solemn and
loud voice, “Cheer up, holy mourners; your God is come again
to life; his sorrows and his sufferings will save you.” (See
Pitrat, p. 105.) The 25th of March was with the ancient Per-
sians the commencement of a new year, and on that day was
celebrated “the feast of the Neurone,” and by the ancient
Romans “ the festival of the Hilaria.” And we find the
ancients had both the crucifixion and resurrection of a God
symbolically and astronomically represented among the plants.

“ Their foundation,” says Clement of Alexandria, “ was the ficti-
tious death and resurrection of the sun, the soul of the world,
the principle of life and motion.” The inauguration of spring
(the 25th of March), and the summer solstice (the 25th of June)5 *
were both important periods with the ancients. Hence the
latter period was fixed on as the birthday of John the Baptist
(as marked in the almanacs), when the sun begins to decline
southward — that is, decrease. How appropriately, therefore,
John is made to say, “I shall decrease, but he shall increase.”
And the consecrated 25th of March is also the day marked in
our calendars as the date of the conception and annunciation
9
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of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And it was, likewise, the period
of the conception of the ancient Roman virgin Asteria, and of
the ever-chaste and holy virgin Iris, as well as the time of the
conjugal embrace of the solar and lunar potentates of the visible
universe. May we not, then, very appropriately exclaim of re-
ligion and astronomy “what God hath joined together, let no
man put asunder.”

Resurrection op Jesus Christ.

With respect to the physical resurrection of the Christian
Savior, it may be observed that, aside from the physical impossi-
bility of such an occurrence, the account, as reported to us by
his four “ inspired ” Gospel biographers, are so palpably at vari-
ance with each other, so entirely contradictory in their reports, as
to render their testimony as infallible writers utterly unworthy of
credence, and impels us to the conclusion that the event is both
physically and historically incredible. There is scarcely one
incident or particular in which they all agree. They are at
loggerheads, 1. With respect to the time of its discovery; 2.
The persons who made the discovery (for no witness claims to
have seen it) ; 8. With respect to what took place at the sepul-
cher; 4. What Peter saw and did there; 5. And as to what
occurred afterward, having a relation to that event.

1.   Relative to the time the witness or witnesses visited the
sepulcher and learned of the resurrection, Matthew (chap,
xxviii.) tells us, “It was at the end of the Sabbath, as it began
to dawn; ” but according to Mark (xvi.), the Sabbath was past,
and the sun was rising; while John (chap, xx.) declares it was
yet dark. Now there is certainly some difference between the
three periods, “ the dawning of the day,” “ the rising of the sun,”
and “ the darkness of night.” If the writers were divinely in-
spired, there would be a perfect agreement.

2.   With respect to the persons who first visited the sepul
cher, Matthew states that it was Mary Magdalene and anothei
Mary; but Luke says it was “ Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and
Mary the mother of James, and other women; ” while, according
to John (and he virtually reiterates it), Mary Magdalene went
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133