165

murdered nor committed fraud; I have not cheated by
false weights, nor committed adultery, nor stolen; I have
loved God, clothed the naked, fed the poor, given water
to the thirsty,” Every one answered all questions favor-
ably, or he was snatched and carried off to the under-
world. Did Zoroaster change this trial of the soul before
Osiris to the trial at the Bridge? If he did he compelled
the guilty soul to speak its own condemnation. In nearly
every Gatha he assails the Lie-Demon: “Abjure the Evil
Mind, and that lying sin, which is, alas! a familiar fault
indulged in by the people. Banish falsehood from among
you. I abjure it and call earnestly on all to follow the
straight paths of truth, thereby gaining life in the Blessed
Realm.” 3

§ 2. Now, it is possible, but somewhat questionable,
that the Iranian Seer lived two thousand four hundred
years B. C. But on the other hand, ethnologists find, in
the language of Egypt, so very many Sanscrit words that
they look to India as the cradle of Egypt’s language.
Moreover, the skulls of the oldest mummies are exactly
like the skulls of the Caucasian race. The pendulum thus
swings back to the far East. The reasoning is nearly the
same, as if some great cataclysm should overtake the
earth and destroy the evidences of civilization so far as to
make it doubtful whether the English language was
formed in England or America; and the proof should be
found, that in the sixteenth century it was the language
of England. And the further proof found, that Ply-
mouth Rock and Jamestown were not settled until 1620

3   Yas. 33, §§ 4 to 8.
 166

ZOROASTER AND EGYPT

by people from England. The evidence, therefore, would
be irresistible that England was the birthplace of that
language.

The proof in favor of India being the cradle of the
Egyptian tongue may not be as certain as that England
is the original home of the English language, but it may
be added that no Egyptian words are found in the Hindu
tongue, but Hindu words are plentiful in Egypt. How
did they get there ? While language is perpetually chang-
ing, the roots of all languages remain permanent. San-
scrit, itself, is certainly the daughter of a language so
old that we know neither its age nor its origin. So that
while it is possible that Zoroaster may have copied from
Egypt, it is also possible that Egypt borrowed from him
forty-three centuries ago. But Egypt has a vast record,
and if her chronology be correct the probabilities are
against the Iranian. For her first Dynasty, that of
Menes, according to M. Mariette, began five thousand
and four years B. C., or nearly one thousand years before
the world was created, according to Genesis. Beyond
Menes, the centuries stretch out indefinitely, and some
venturesome chronologists have fixed her date more than
nine thousand years before Jesus came. It may be that
neither borrowed from the other; that each originated its
own.

The wild Indians of the West, and the wilder men in.
the Islands of the Ocean, who never heard of Egypt or
Iran, have their deities and their religions. Did they
borrow; and, if so, from whom did they borrow? The
untutored Indian of to-day “sees God in the clouds, and
hears him in the wind/’ as did the Aryans and Egyptians
 RELIGION SLOWLY CHANGING

167

eight or ten thousand years ago. Only a century or so
back, if a man had made the assertion that much of the
Christian religion was borrowed from the Persians he
would have been most fortunate to have escaped personal
injury, and he might have lost his head. Religious intol-
erance, in past centuries, has hunted to death victims by
the scores, by the hundreds, by the thousands, and by the
tens of thousands. Within a century mobs have howled
after what they termed heretics and fanatics, like wolves
on the scent of blood.4

Religions, as we have said, are not born; they grow;
they change with the changing centuries. What a revo-
lution did Jesus make in the old Mosaic religion. But
does any one believe that if Jesus had not been born that
we would still be slaughtering goats and rams to appease
an angry God? The religion of to-day is less blood-
thirsty than the Calvinism of four hundred years ago.
And as bad as Calvin was, he was surely an improvement
on many of the Popes who lived before him.

Our religion is slowly changing, and in the centuries
to come we shall have, if we keep on, a religion without
furnaces of fire, and lakes of fire and brimstone, and Kin-
vad Bridges for the wicked.

§ 3. But man, with all his infirmities of mind and
heart, has climbed out of the depths so far that nearly all

4   It is probable that if Paul had not written the eighth
chapter of Romans, all that Isaiah and Matthew had said
about “election” would have dropped to the ground. How
did Paul know that God “elected” certain ones and passed
others by?
 168 MAN'S GOD OF 1900 YEARS AGO IS ON TRIAL

transgressions are punished only with a view to reforma-
tion. Zoroaster lived in too early a day to see this. Shall
man be more gentle, loving and forgiving than his Crea-
tor? But even when man inflicts the death penalty it is
roses and sunshine by the side of roasting everlastingly
in a furnace of fire. The truth about this matter is, that
man of the twentieth century is going to put the God of
the first century and the God of the nineteen hundred
years ago on trial. Every new religion, and every refor-
mation of an old religion, puts the God of the old re-
ligion on trial, and from century to century this trial will
go on. It will go on as long as the question is asked:
Is there, after the death of the body of the wicked, a
burning in a furnace of fire? That question is, and
must ever be, of such surpassing importance to mankind
that he will not rest with the supposed prophecies, and
promises, and threatenings of ancient days.

The Iranian may ask: How did Zoroaster find out
about the abyss, and the Bridge, and the demons under
it? Every thinking man will inquire:   How did Jesus

know about the furnace of fire, and about Lazarus in
Abraham’s bosom, and the rich man in hell? Who told
him about those things? Is it any wonder that some of
us doubt, when his personal friends,5 6 his very disciples,
doubted ?

When we are told “that his body was carried up into

5   Matt. 28; 17.

6   Jesus says, after his crucifixion, when he ate the fish
and the honey-comb, that he is not a spirit; Luke 24; 39
to 51, and “he was carried up into heaven”.
 CREATION’S FINAL CHANGE

169

heaven,” why should we not doubt? How did Zoroas-
ter know that “Mazda established evil for evil, and happy
blessings for the good?” And that in Creation’s final
change, Mazda, “with bounteous spirit, and Sovereign
power, will adjudge evil to the evil, and blessings to the
righteous” ? 7 Here is the earliest mention of the Lord’s
coming, at creation’s final dissolution, to be found in any
writing. Even those who claim that the Iranian Seer
lived only about six hundred years before the Christian
era must admit that Zoroaster makes the first and earliest
direct and unqualified prediction or guess that the earth
shall pass away. Jesus copies the Seer, when he says
that the tares are children of the wicked one, and that at
the end of the world the angels will gather the good into
the kingdom, where they will shine forth as the sun, but
the wicked shall be cast into a furnace of fire. Zoroaster
does not particularize so much as Jesus, but the thoughts
are the same; and those thoughts and words had been in
the world, and had been considered and believed by many
millions of people for centuries before the man of Galilee
came.

The Zoroastrian faith was the religion of Cyrus, the
Persian King, who released the Jews from their Baby-
lonian captivity. Among the captives were the prophets

7   This is a remarkable passage (Gathas Yas. 43, §§ 5
and 6) in that here is the first direct mention that there
shall be a final change in the creation. Christ and the
apostles, from this hint, preached that the world should
be destroyed. Jesus, in Matthew 13, 37 to 55, uses Zoro-
aster’s idea.
 170

EZRA AND EZEKIEL IN BABYLON

and scribes, Ezra and Ezekiel, and many of the learned
of Jerusalem were there. Their captivity lasted for a
long generation. Those captives, we know, on their re-
turn, were filled with Persian ideas about religion, and
those ideas afterwards cropped out plainly in many ways.
The Persian Bible, the Avesta, was in Babylon and in
Persepolis written in gold letters on twelve thousand ox-
hides. Persian idjeas of God’s dealings with the just and
the unjust had floated along down the stream; were con-
sidered and believed; and, finally, were written down by
Matthew in chapter thirteen.

§ 4. Persia, from Cyrus onward to the battle of Mara-
thon, was the greatest and most civilized and powerful
nation on earth. Rome was yet in her infancy. Modern
Europe was not yet born. Greece was not a unit, her
people were divided, and only the terror of Persian arms,
for a brief period, held them together. Persia gave law
and religion at that time to the world, and that religion
was the gospel of Zoroaster. Jesus afterwards, whether
God or man, followed it; preached it; emphasized it in
every possible way; and was finally nailed to the cross
for it.

With all due honor to him who could die for opinion’s
sake, how was it, or how could it be possible for Jesus
to announce a better or purer doctrine than that so often
repeated by Zoroaster, his predecessor? viz.:   "Good

thoughts, good words and good deeds”. Do not those
three things embrace all there is, or can be, in any re-
ligion ? Can the most devout saint add anything to them ?
"Yes, he can,” says some one; "he can love Jesus.” But
if he has good thoughts he will love not only Jesus, but
 JESUS' HELL IS BARBAROUS

171

all the world besides, and God supremely. If he has good
thoughts he is pure in heart. Now, good thoughts are the
very foundations upon which are builded good words and
deeds, always and everywhere.

Love God and thy neighbor, are the two great
commandments.8 But how can a man do either unless he
be first filled with good thoughts? Paul preached the
same doctrine; and all true religions in the world are
builded upon Zoroaster’s three all-embracing words.

The trouble with Jesus’ religion (and there is a trouble
with it) is that it makes God out a very demon in punish-
ment. The infliction, by roasting a poor wretch for a
hundred millions of years, and when that time shall have
elapsed, that he will then only be, as it were, at the door-
steps of his fate, is too awful to believe. Could the very
old Devil do worse; could any monster be more cruel?
Could a mother be happy in glory, knowing that her son
or daughter was screaming in the flames? Zoroaster’s
hell, as we have said, is terrible; but it is far less barbarous
than Jesus’ hell.

Let us close this chapter by adding, that it must be that
God is a God of mercy, and that remembering our infirmi-
ties, He will deal with us as a father dealeth with an err-
ing son. Here we see “through a glass darkly”. There,
if there be a there, we will prune our faults, and try to
fill our minds with good thoughts which will bring a
plentiful harvest of good words and deeds.

8   Matt. 22; 36 to 40.
 CHAPTER XIX.

DEATH OF ZOROASTER. EXITS OF PROPHETS. ZOROASTER'S
AGE. DOWNFALL OF ZOROASTRIAN FAITH.

The final victory for Vistaspa’s forces mentioned in
chapter fourteen gave peace to Iran for fifteen or twenty
years, possibly longer. But another bloody contest is at
hand. Arjasp, during this period of peace, has been busy
gathering a great army for a second invasion. He knows
that the brave Isfander, by reason of calumnies, false and
malicious, is languishing in a dungeon. Vistaspa is en-
joying an indolent peace in Seistan. Balkh has but a
small garrison, and the opportunity is inviting. Forth-
with Arjasp launches his thunderbolts of war. Balkh
is stormed and taken, and Lorhasp, the father of Vis-
taspa, is slain. Eighty priests, at the altar are cut down,
and with them perishes Zoroaster, the father and immor-
tal founder of the Iranian religion, his blood extinguish-
ing the sacred flame, and his dying lips, we may well be-
lieve, invoking Ahura-Mazda to shelter the new-born
faith.

In this emergency, Isfander is called from his prison
and placed in command of Iran’s forces. He is a born
warrior, and his inspiring presence so nerves the defeated
troops that they turn upon Arjasp and overwhelm him
with disastrous defeat. But Isfander falls at the moment
of victory. Arjasp is, however, so signally beaten that

172
 ZOROASTER SLAIN

173

with the remnant of his army he flees back to Turan,
never again to make war on the Iranians or their faith.

If we credit the Dabistan1 a Turk, named Turbaratur,
rushed upon the Prophet, sword in hand, but the Seer
could fight as well as pray. For a time he defended him-
self with his rosary, but at last fell pierced to the heart
by his adversary's sword.1 2

The Avesta was not as kind to Zoroaster as Deuteron-
omy was to Moses; for although he fought the Lord's
battles manfully to the end, and accomplished a great
work for the Iranians, still the Lord did not, as with
Moses, even go to his funeral.3

After Zoroaster's death many marvelous versions of
his exit crept into history. This at once stamps him as a
most extraordinary character. For when he went down
it was not merely a ripple on the surface of the stream;
and then eternal silence, but there was tumult, noise, and
confusion. Distant nations heard the sound of his name,
and its echoes and reverberations are yet sounding along
the shores of time. One writer makes the Seer so extrav-
agantly great that in his life time he, with magic art,
ruled the stars, conjured with them until they became so
restive under his power that one of them, in a fit of jeal-

1   The Dabistan is a Persian work published about three
hundred years ago.

2   Dadistin, ch. 72, § 8, has it that Tur I Bradrash, the
enemy of Zoroaster’s childhood, finally killed him. But
I doubt it. It would make Tur very old to be in an army.

3   Deut., ch. 34. I never could understand, if the Lord
acted as undertaker, why he did not put up a tombstone
for Moses.
 174

MANY MIRACULOUS EXITS

ousy, shot forth a stream of fire which consumed his
body, but charioted away his soul to heaven.4

§ 2. There have been many miraculous exits since
Zoroaster’s distant day. Elijah, the Tishbite, about nine
hundred years B. C., mounted in a chariot of fire.5 But
he had fiery steeds, and they, no doubt, hauled him up in
safety. He probably was not afraid to trust himself to a
chariot of fire, for he had likely heard of the angel who
came to see Mrs. Manoah about Samson, who, when the
interview was over, ascended in a flame. But Mr. Man-
oah, thinking the angel would get burned to death in the
flame, was terribly frightened and fell down on his face,
and said to his wife: “we shall surely die.” 6 But they
did not die, for the scriptures tell us that “the woman
later on bore a son, and called his name Samson.”

Tacitus mentions an affair equally strange. A preter-
natural being, above the size of man, he says, appeared
unto Ptolemy in a vision, commanding him to bring the
Statue of the God, Serapis, then in Pontus, into Egypt.
That by this compliance prosperity would come to the
Kingdom, and greatness to the nation. The vision was
then seen instantly mounting to heaven in a column of
fire.7

§ 2. Another legend even more marvelous is that while
the Prophet was making one of his many pilgrimages
through the country, teaching wherever he could get a
hearing, he met two unbelieving princes, whom he be-
sought to embrace the faith. They sneered at his en-
treaty, and scoffed at his religion. Thereupon he prayed
to Ormazd, and directly a great wind began to roar
 TWO SCOFFERS PUNISHED

145

around them, which snatched the scoffers up into the air
and held them there until the birds picked out their eyes
and tore the flesh from their bones. When the bones had
fallen to the earth the Seer admonished the wondering
and terrified people that such was the fate of all who
scoffed at the good religion of Mazda. Probably the
writer of Second Kings, chapter second, had heard of the
two scoffing princes and their fate when he wrote the
story about the forty-two children down there near Bethel
who scoffed at Elisha and said:   “Go up thou Bald-

Head.” Elisha “turned back and cursed them in the name
of the Lord”; and “there came forth two she bears, out
of the wood, and tore forty and two children of them.”
This difference must, however, be noticed: The children,
the text says, were “little”. Like all other “little” children,
they were no doubt thoughtless, and merely to say to him,
“Go up thou bald-head” was no sufficient provocation for
Elisha to curse them, and get the she bears to “tear
them.” This story, if true, makes Elisha a wretch, and
if Zoroaster prayed Ormazd for the whirlwind to suspend
the two princes in the air while the birds devoured them
he must be placed in the same category.1

1   I have tried to find some reason for the children’s con-
duct, and can only give this: Elijah had just “gone up”,
and probably the children had heard of “the chariot of
fire” and the “horses of fire”, and they wanted to see
another pyrotechnic display. They told Elisha to “go up.”
They simply wanted to see the strange performance, and
got killed for their curiosity. The story of the two scof-
fing princes is a legend. I do not set it down as a fact.
But this Elisha matter is in our Bible, and it is set down
as a solemn truth. But there are some improbable things
 146

HEALING THE BLIND

A story is told of the Iranian healing a blind man. But
he did not merely say, “Receive thy sight”. * 2 He told his
friends to squeeze the juice of a certain plant (which he
named) into the man’s eyes and his vision would come
back to him. This they did, and behold the man was soon
rejoicing in a restored sight.

Tacitus relates that the Emperor Vespasian, while in
Judah healed a blind man, but he first ordered his physi-
cians to examine whether the eye-balls were totally de-
stroyed. Finding them dreadfully diseased, but not en-
tirely ruined, he ordered remedies, which fortunately
proved successful.3

§ 3. If we follow the Dinkard 4 we make the Iranian
Seer not only the founder of a new religion, but in addi-
tion, we elevate him to the highest eminence in medical
attainments. The Dinkard writers are, however, much
like those of the Old and New Testament; they are given
to great exaggerations, and delight in the marvelous.

The Prophets in both books 5 were gifted with power to

about it. How did the writer know they were she bears ?
Who told him ? They were evidently wild bears, for they
came out of the wood. Let, now, the best man in the
world get forty-two little children torn by bears, or any
other animal, he would swing for it. Prophet, or no
prophet, Elisha ought to have been punished.

2   Jesus said to a blind man: “Receive thy sight, thy
faith hath saved thee.” Luke, ch. 18, v. 42.

3   Vespasian was born nine or ten years after Jesus, and
his cure was about thirty years after the occurrence men-
tioned in Luke, ch. 18. Royalty, and noted persons, at
that period were believed to possess preternatural gifts.

4   Dk. 7, Vol. 47, ch. 5, § 8, S. B. E.

5   The Bible and Dinkard.
 THE ORIGINAL DIVES AND LAZARUS STORY 147

vanquish demons, and sorcerers, and witches; to cure dis-
eases, and call down rain, or declare a drouth.6 Moses
could stretch forth his hand, and lo! the locusts would
swarm upon Egypt; and the Dinkard says Zoroaster pos-
sessed the same preternatural power. Moses could bring
upon Egypt murrain, and flies, and hail, and snakes ;7 and
Zoroaster could banish pestilence and drive away wolves,
and spiders, and noxious creatures. He could shake the
rain from reluctant clouds to moisten the earth. Similar
parallels between Zoroaster and many others of the Jew-
ish prophets might also be made. Isaiah had a vision in
which he saw his people, a sinful nation, bringing vain
oblations, Jerusalem ruined, and Judah fallen, hell en-
larged, and the multitude gone astray.

Jeremiah beheld in a vision his people swallowed up in
trouble, “and his lamentations” are full of tears. Ezekiel
also wailed for his people, and Solomon found the “grass-
hopper to be a burden.” 8 Zoroaster likewise had a vision
in which he saw the fearful ebb-tide of his religion. Not
only that, but (after the manner of Dives and Lazarus)
he caught a glimpse of the other world. There he saw
a celebrity, whose life had been infamous, his soul was
jaundiced and in hell; in Mazda’s blessed realm a beggar’s
soul was thriving in Paradise. He beheld evil overshad-
owing his land; myriads of demons, with disheveled hair,
rushing into his country to burn and destroy. Regard for

6   Elijah, the Tishbite, gave Ahab a terrible drouth. He
controlled the rain clouds for three years. 1st Kings, ch.
i, v. 17.

7   Exodus, ch. 9 and 10.

8   Eccle. 12, 7.
 148

ZOROASTER'S SEVEN-DAY VISION

the soul had died out; the sun was spotted, and the earth
barren. Vegetation, trees and shrubs were shriveled.
Well might he exclaim, “O, Iran! return unto Mazda, thy
God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity/’ 9 But “the
wolf period,” with covetousness, want, hatred, wrath, lust,
envy, and wickedness,10 11 passes away, and the glory of
the religion of Mazda comes again with the Millennium
of Hushedar. For seven days and nights this panoramic
view, in which Zoroaster saw all the regions of the earth,
floated past the astonished vision of the Seer. “I have
seen all this, in a pleasant dream,” he said, and “I am not
surfeited.” 11 We are told in Genesis, chapter 28, that
Jacob also had a dream, and he saw a ladder reaching
up to heaven, and the angels of God were climbing up
and down it, and the Lord himself was standing above it.
Genesis 28; 12.

§ 4. It should be mentioned, in addition to the above,
that in chapter seven, of the Gospel of the Infancy of
Jesus, it is there stated that Zoroaster had a vision of
the wise men, coming from the East to Jerusalem, with
offerings of gold, etc., to the Saviour, and that he prophe-
sied the coming of Jesus.12

Prophets, both in the Jewish and in the Iranian religion,
are said to have held frequent conferences with the Al-
mighty. In fact, those two religions are the only ones
where the Lord takes supreme command, and directs the

9   Hosea, ch. 14, v. 1.

10   Bahman Yast, ch. 3, § 40.

11   Bam Yt., § 9.

12   I ought, after all these sayings about visions and
prophets, to state that I have very serious doubts whether
any man, at any period of the world, could forecast the
 ZOROASTER AND MOSES

149

battle against Satan. In nearly every chapter of the
Pentateuch it is, “The Lord said unto Moses/’ or Abra-
ham, or somebody; and in the older Avesta, “The Boun-
tiful One (the Lord) told me (Zoroaster) the best word
for mortals,” etc.* 13 And in the later Avesta and the
Vendidad, Mazda (the Lord), on request, talks to Zoro-
aster and directs him from day to day. Still the Lord is
rather partial to Moses, for he directs him without any
request whatever.

Moses could stretch forth his arm toward heaven and
call down “thick darkness in all the land,” so dark that
people could not see one another for three days.14 The
Lord further honored Moses, for he not only attended his
obsequies, but absolutely acted as his undertaker.15 But
he did not put up a tombstone, for “no man knoweth
his sepulchre unto this day.” As an offset to this, the
Lord sent his angel, Vohu-Mano, and piloted Zoroaster
up to heaven, for a special conference, where the bril-
liancy was so great that he could not see his own
shadow.16

§ 5. As marvelous as these things appear, more won-

future for any great length of time, and then not in a
vision. A clear-headed man might, on a given state of
facts, say as to a battle, or a storm, or a drouth, judge
something of the immediate future; possibly, matters con-
cerning a nation, he might predict that in a few years,
matters would be so-and-so. Possibly he might guess
correctly on ten or twenty years.

13   Yas. 45, §§ 3 to 8, Vol. 31, S. B. E.

14   Exodus 10; 22 and 23.

15   Deuteronomy, ch. 34.

16   Zad Spar., ch. 21, § 14, Vol. 47, S. B. E.
 150

THE JOSHUA FABLE

drous things are told of Joshua.17 He was battling the
Amorites, down there at Gibeon, and had chased them up
beyond Beth-horon, with great slaughter, and the day
was waning. So he said: “Sun, stand thou still, and thou
moon, in the valley of Ajalon.” And the sun stood still,
and the moon stayed until the Jews had avenged them-
selves upon their enemies. So the sun stood still in the
midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole
day.” All this, so that Joshua, and those idol-worship-
ping Hebrews, could “avenge themselves upon their ene-
mies.”

Now, the sun has eight primary planets, which circle
round him. Some of them are one thousand times larger
than our little earth. There are eighty-five asteroids, be-
sides numerous comets and moons. We know that the
sun is rushing through space at the rate of about one mil-
lion miles per day, in the direction of the Northern con-
stellation, and was going in that direction when Joshua
was down there slaying the Amorites. And the sun was,
then, as now, carrying Mercury and Venus, Earth and
Mars, the asteroids and Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Nep-
tune along with him. The sun is six hundred times
greater than all of his satellites combined, and he is mov-
ing around a center so vast that it takes him about eight-
een millions of years to complete his circuit. Yet Joshua,
so the record says, halted this whole vast, wonderful con-
stellation; so that he might murder some Amorites. He

17   Joshua, ch. io, v. 12 to 14. The writer of Joshua
believed the Earth to be stationary, and that the sun was
the Earth’s satellite. He would not have made that mis-
take in 1902. He would have been differently inspired.
 HUSH EDAR TO SURPASS JOSHUA

151

not only compelled our sun to stand still (if the record
be true), but the puny word of that robber chief, either
halted all the millions of worlds about us, at the same
time, or threw them out of balance and into confusion.
Which was it ? What a fortunate thing for the corn, the
barley, and the oats, that he compelled the sun to stand
still, only one day.

We have mentioned, elsewhere, about the three unborn
sons of Zoroaster1S who are to be born of virgins, at dif-
ferent periods of the world, and thus finally to bring
about its renovation and the millennium. The first of
these sons, Hushedar, when be becomes thirty years of
age, is to have a conference with the Lord, and when he
comes away from that meeting he will be endowed with
such infinite power that he will cry to the sun, “Stand
still!” and the sun will stand still ten days and nights.
This miracle is to prove his divine mission, so that the
people will fully believe in the good religion of Mazda.
Night settles down upon the earth, and Mithra, the Lord
of Wide Pastures, cries out: “O, Hushedar! restorer of
the Good Religion! cry to the sun thus:   ‘Move on/

for the world in all its zones, is dark.” 18 19 Hushedar orders
the sun to “move on”, and the sun obeys, and all man-
kind believe in the good religion.

Observe that the sun is not made to stand still, and
thus prolong the time for slaughtering mankind, as with
Joshua. The Persian fiction was written to give consola-
tion to those people in the dark days of their faith. But

18   See note at end of Third Chapter.

19   Bahman Yt., ch. 3, §§ 46 and 48.
 152

A PROPHESY NOT FULFILLED

the prophecy hath never yet been fulfilled; for Hushedar,
in his coming, is many centuries behind time. Possibly
the Virgin who is to give birth to him hath not yet her-
self been born. Evidently there is a miscarriage some-
where here, for I must assume that the Persian was fully
as much inspired as the writer of the Joshua fiction.
These things are mentioned here only to emphasize the
extent to which ignorant credulity will go. For the
Jews still believe in Joshua, and the remnant of Zoroas-
ter’s followers are still waiting for Hushedar to come.
 CHAPTER XVII.

SACRIFICES. THE HOLY FIRES. THE TEST AT THE BRIDGE.
HELL OF THE JEWS AND IRANIANS. THE MARVELOUS
IN ALL RELIGIONS.

§ i. Mankind, as far back as our records go (and we
now have printed books1 at least nine thousand years
old) has been a worshipper of God, and “of strange
Gods." He has worshipped the sun, the moon, the stars,
the clouds. These Gods he could see, and they were the
best Gods that he knew. Different nations have wor-
shipped different Gods. Egypt was given to animal wor-
ship, and particularly to Apis, the sacred bull. The wor-
ship of this animal was carried to such a pitch that when
the bull died he was laid away with great solemnity in a
costly sarcophagus, hewn into solid granite. The He-
brews worshipped a Golden Calf, and the struggle of
Moses and the prophets was to teach them to serve the
true God.

When destroying winds and furious storms burst upon
early man he supposed the Gods were angry, and he
poured libations and offered sacrifices to appease them.

1   Nippur, a city much older than Babylon, has discov-
ered to the world printed records three thousand years
beyond Genesis. And Babylon had stamped brick, and
a library nine or ten thousand years ago. Let us not
falter, even if we find that the worm and the lizard are
our distant relatives.

153
 154

VISTASPA SACRIFICES ANIMALS

Lambs and goats were slain and laid upon bloody altars
to appease them. But the Egyptians forbade the use of
swine as an offering. The Hebrews, during their long
bondage there, copied this and carried it with them,
hence their hatred of swine to this day.

Sometimes these bloody sacrifices reached so far that
children were burned to honor an offended Deity. The
Jews carried this matter to such an extent “that they Sac-
rificed unto devils.”2 God was supposed to be more
highly pleased with the “firstlings of the flock” than with
the fruits of the field.3 And the priests wrote it down
that none must appear before the Lord empty handed.4
This matter of blood sacrifice went to great extremes.
Solomon, at the dedication of his temple, as we have
mentioned, sacrificed vast numbers of sheep and oxen.5

The later Avesta tells us that Vistaspa offered up one
hundred horses, one thousand oxen, and ten thousand
lambs to propitiate the Goddess of Waters, and obtain
victories over the worshippers of Daevas. But nowhere
in the older Avesta is there any mention that Zoroaster
offered any sacrifice whatever. He tells his people that
his doctrines are new, and “till now unheard.”

They are doctrinal vows which will deliver the people
from the harmful Lie, and save them to righteousness.6

2   Deut. 32; 17.

3   Gen. 4; 4 and 5.

4   Exodus 23 ; 15.

were seeds of the Evil Mind, and their deceits are found,
he said, in all the seven zones of the earth.

§ 2. With what words the opponents of Zoroaster an-
swered this severe arraignment we are not told. We can,
however, infer that these charges were met by counter-
charges which were fast leading up to blood. One Yima
Vivanghusha is pointed out as an evil teacher, a wretched
being, full of crime, who was perverting the minds of the
people. This man, Zoroaster declares, is filled with deceit
and is scheming to establish the Kavis (idolaters) in
power. Thus he would destroy the religion of the faith-
ful.

Although a warrior of note, “wielding a glittering
blade of iron,” 5 he yet was of that pestiferous class found
in all ages who will stoop to open bribery to gain advan-
tages where force cannot prevail. But this did not abate
the great reformer’s zeal, for he threatens to yet drive
hence the Kavis or Karpans and their followers.

Long after this, in a distant land, a similar scene was
enacted between Elijah, the prophet, and Ahab, the wick-
ed King of Israel. In both cases the prophets and their
adherents prevail. Ahab is slain, and the Karpans, after
a long struggle, as we shall see, were also overcome. But
not until the idolaters, in both Iran and in Israel, were
put down did the troubles of the faithful cease. This
threat to drive the Karpans hence exhibits a plain phase
of Zoroaster’s character. He is not only religious, but he
is stubbornly religious. He is willing to fight for his
religion rather than yield it. Hence, to visit vengeance

5   Yas. 32, § 7.
 126

FEARLESS FOR THE RIGHT

upon evil-doers was not thought to be inconsistent with
his duty or his religion.

He saw that the Karpans were even then planning open
hostilities against him and his followers, and, not possess-
ing the gentle, non-combative spirit of the Man of Galilee,
he would oppose them with force. Less cruel than Moses
and Joshua, for they were murderers and plunderers;6
his religion allowed him the easy latitude of all subse-
quent religions. He abjured evil, but the Lord had “not
given him the spirit of fear.” 7 In the same breath in
which he besought Ahura for blessings on the Kine (the
people) he denounced his enemies with unsparing tongue.
While this is true, it must be said of him that he was the
very buttress of the whole religious arch, and with his
absence or death his great reform would have dwindled,
withered and fallen. He knew this, and he knew also that
his arch-enemy, Yima Vivanghusha, was able at any mo-
ment to hurl his mace at him 8 and forever end his career.
Paul suffered in prison for years because of the religion
he taught; Zoroaster, centuries before Paul’s day, became
not only a “gazing-stock” for the wicked,9 but finally
gave his life in the cause of his people. Both of these

6   Moses caused all the Midianites to be murdered, ex-
cept the little girls, who were kept for a shameful pur-
pose. Ch. 31, Numbers. Moses also murdered the Egyp-
tian; Exodus, ch. 2, v. 11 and 12. Joshua plundered
Jericho and murdered all the people, both young and old,
except a harlot. Joshua, ch. 6, and he did the same with
the city of Ai, Joshua, ch. 8.

7   2d Timothy, ch. 1, v. 7.

8   Yas. 32, § 10.

9   Hebrews, ch. 10, v. 33.
 RELIGIOUS ITAtfS

127

men were great moral heroes who sought the betterment
of the race.

§ 3. A religious war in Iran was impending, and like
all religious wars since the dawn of history, it was to be
cruel and desolating. It was preceded by persecutions and
lawlessness, and perhaps murders, of which we know but
little. If Zoroaster had named one of his devils the De-
mon of Intolerance; that fiend would have been aptly des-
ignated, for Intolerance, if it be not a demon; this may
be alleged against it. It has reddened many a field; its
victims fill millions of graves. In fact, in some quarters
of the globe, even at the present day, it rears its monster
head. It was numberless ages before any herald appeared
proclaiming “Peace on earth, and good will to man.” And
if the angels really did bring those sweet words from the
skies, mankind has not very diligently pondered them.

Zoroaster was not heralded by any such heaven-born
sentiment. He lived back nearer to the birth of the race,
and, therefore, in a more cruel period. The spread of his
gospel, like all new faiths or beliefs, wherever it reached,
called forth discussion, opposition and controversy. It
went beyond this and culminated in open war. The gos-
pel of Galilee, a thousand years and more after its great
founder perished, brought upon the land of its birth in-
vasions and wars as cruel as any that ever devastated the
earth. No mortal struggle ever surpassed in fierceness
and hate, the religious wars of the Crusaders. In truth,
a religious war, seems filled to the brim with malice and
all the dregs of evil. It was the same in this war waged
against the religion taught by the great Persian. And in
 128

ZOROASTER'S PRAYER

order to be successful in the impending strife each party
invoked the higher Powers, for help.10

§ 4. Zoroaster’s Prayer:   “This I ask of Thee, O,

Ahura! that thou wilt send mighty destruction among our
enemies. Wilt Thou deliver the Lie-Demon and his fol-
lowers into the hands of the Righteous Order? O, Lord!
when the two hosts shall meet, to which of the two wilt
Thou give the day ? Lord, we smite for the protection of
Thy doctrines. Draw near with Thy good mind and sup-
port those who strive for weal and immortality. Tell us,
O Lord! how we may proceed to that consummation. And
to our deluded foes, the daeva-worshippers, have they
ever reigned worthily ? The Karpans (heretics) are given
to rapine and slaughter. They are of the Lie-Demon, and
have never brought waters to the fields of the Righteous
Order. They have never given tribal wealth or blessings
to the Kine. They are recreant to Thy Law. O, Lord!
knowing well their doom at last, let Thy conquering ho$ts,
with gifts of Grace, triumph in the coming strife. Who
but Thee hath sustained the earth from beneath}1 and the
clouds above, that they do not fall ? Who but Thee holds

10   It was the same in our civil war, when I was in the
army forty-three years ago. Our chaplains were wont to
pray fervently for the defeat and destruction of our ene-
mies. And the confederate divines (as I have since heard
and read) put up equally fervent petitions to the Almighty
for our defeat. Suppose they could have mustered a few
more battalions, would the Lord have heard them? We
know that “time and chance happeneth to all.” Eccle.
9, ii-

11   He had not yet learned that the earth is round, and
that there is no “beneath” to it.
 VISTASPA'S SACRIFICES

129

the sun and the stars in their course ? Who but Thee, O,
Great Creator! yokes the storm-clouds to the winds? O,
Ahura, Lord! use us, Thy people, as instruments to keep
those deceitful and those harsh oppressors from reaching
their aims. Let, O, Lord, that holy faith and piety, which
are of all things best, go hand in hand. And in the final
striving, for the sake of Thy Righteous Order, may Thy
Grace prevail.”12

If we were to follow the later Avesta we would see
Vistaspa offering sacrifices of one hundred horses, one
thousand oxen, and ten thousand lambs, with libations
that he might overcome, in battle, Tatherevant, of the
bad law; that he might put to flight AstaAurvant, of the
brazen helmet; and that he might slay the Hyonian mur-
derer, Arjasp; that he might slay the Hyonians by the
hundreds, by the thousands, and by the myriads.13 Hus-
ravh, he who united the Aryan clans into a kingdom, and
others of the faith offered similar sacrifices, and begged
the boon that he might kill the Iranian murderers.14
Perhaps they had heard of Exodus, where none must
appear before the Lord empty handed.

§ 5. But this praying and sacrificing was not15 all
done by the Aryans, for the same record sets forth that

12   I have here given the substance of the Prophet’s peti-
tion, which runs through Yasma 44, Vol. 31, S. B. E.

13   Gos Yast, § 29 and § 30; also Aban Yast, § 108 and
§ 109, Vol. 23, S. B. E. But these Yasts are of a later
period than Zoroaster. They, however, have crept into
his history.

14   Exodus, ch. 23, v. 15. None must appear before the
Lord empty handed.

15   This later Avesta was written after the days of Zoro-
 130

HERETICS OFFER SACRIFICES

the Turanians, Arjasp and his brother, Vandariman, of-
fered up sacrifices of one hundred horses, a thousand
oxen, and ten thousand lambs to Arda Sura Ananita (the
goddess of waters) and besought the boon that they
might conquer Vistaspa and his army, and that they might
smite the Aryan people by hundreds, by the thousands,
and by the myriads.16

It is possible that these sacrifices were offered, but
Zoroaster does not mention them, nor does it appear in
the Gathas that he offered any. The Gathas are mostly
made up of exhortations and prayers, including some
sharp denunciations of the wicked.17

The Prophet, instead of killing oxen and lambs to gain
the favor of the Almighty, falls on his knees: “Tell me,
O Lord! the end, for Thou dost know. Tell me, O Thou
Good Mind! and thus increase my strength and courage
before the encounter comes. Tell me, Lord! the future of

aster, yet these sacrifices may have been offered, for the
whole world was then likewise engaged. Solomon, we
know (2 Chron., ch. 7), offered up 22,000 oxen and 120,-
000 sheep at the dedication of his temple, a building in no
wise extraordinarily large or beautiful.

16   These Turanians were a barbarous, warlike people,
who lived near the southern extremity of the Caspian.
Their place in history is somewhat indistinct. Some schol-
ars believe their home was not far from the Jihun (Oxus).
Others identify them with the Hyonians or Chionites, and
locate them west of the Caspian.

17   Balak, king of the Moabites, also sacrificed that he
might conquer Israel. Did Balak learn this from Arjasp,
or had Arjasp heard of Balak, and did he follow him?
The sacrifices are very similar.
 ZOROASTER PRAYS AGAIN

131

the struggle. I will hope and pray, though I know not
the issue. But, O Lord, let not the evil gain the day, but
in accordance with Thy will, let the righteous prosper and
rule. They will grant us pleasing homes while we live.18
Do Thou, O Lord, let the demon of rapine be cast down.
We hold fast to our sacred refuge in Thee. Thy strug-
gling servant, with changing lot, who toils for Thy King-
dom, how shall he beseech Thee for victory? What is
the potent prayer to bring on the Holy reign ? How shall
I seek to spread Thy Righteous Order while I live?
May Piety ever be present, and may she, through the
indwelling of the Good Mind (Holy Spirit), give us bless-
ings in reward for our struggles in Thy cause.” 19

Is not this idea uppermost in all our prayers and in all
our religions? We want a quid-pro-quo, an equivalent,
for all we say and do for the Lord. We do not thank
Heaven for life. We came without our asking. We shall go
hence without our requesting. We come; we go; we
ebb; we flow; and that great mysterious Ocean, called
Time, swallows us up and we are not.

Did that something, which we call soul or mind (for
they are inseparable), live beyond the struggle which
shortly laid the Prophet’s body in the grave? That is
the question. Who can answer ? No one hath come back
to tell us.

18   The reader will notice all along that the Turanians
seem to be free-booters and plunderers. The righteous,
as Zoroaster calls them, were law-abiding.

19   Yasna 43, §§ 14 to 16, and Yasna 48, Vol. 31,
S. B. E.
 CHAPTER XIV.

THE BATTLE. DEFEAT OF IRAN. THE ARMIES. BENDVA

AND THE PROPHET. THE KARPANS. THEIR MISDEEDS.

It is probable that before any contest arose with the
surrounding tribes or nations about the new religion there
were many sharp controversies among and between the
people of Iran. Blood flowed at Jerusalem and there-
abouts before the Gospel reached any foreign land. Even
one of Jesus’ friends smote the ear from off a disbeliever.1
There were envyings and strifes, and divisions rag-
ing among the elect.1 2 No doubt Zoroaster saw the same
divisions and strifes in his own ranks. The unbelievers
were denounced as heretics, as enemies, and as the seed
of the Evil Mind. But those very disputes, in Bactria, or
wherever they occurred, served only to publish far and
wide the faith and creed of the Prophet.

It did not, therefore, fall still-born; they talked about
it; there was much wagging of tongues; much shaking
of heads. There were believers and disbelievers. Even
Jesus’ brothers did not believe in him.3 And he was
obliged to remain for a season in Galilee, lest the Jews
might kill him.

In the more desperate and savage times of the Persian
he, without question, ran many such chances. He stood,

1   Matt., ch. 26, v. 51.

2   1st Corinthians, ch. 3, v. 3.

3   St. John, ch. 7, v. 5.

132
 THE WAR OF THE RELIGIONS

133

as it were, upon the outer battlement, conspicuous, defy-
ing all the Goliaths of the Turanians. And he stood thus
for more than fifty years.4

The storm, long gathering, was about to break. Arjasp,
the Turanian leader, was marching an army to invade
Iran.

It has been said that the cause of this war was the
failure of Vistaspa to continue to pay Arjasp the tribute
agreed upon as the result of a former war. Possibly this
may have been mixed up in the controversy, yet the great
moving cause of the struggle was the differing religions.
In fact, this war was called “The War of the Religions.” 5

The battle resulted in a sore defeat to the Iranians,
and if the improbable story of the Bundahis be true, they
were only saved from destruction by a part of a mountain
breaking loose and sliding down into the plain, thereby
sheltering them from their victorious enemies. The Ira-
nians call this mountain Mount Madofryad, which means
“come to help”. Zachariah says that the Mount of Olives
shall cleave in the midst thereof, and half of the moun-
tain shall remove toward the South, and half toward the
North. Did he copy, or did the Iranians ? 6

The exact location of this battle cannot be stated. It
may have been far down on the borders of Afghanistan,
or it may have been nearer Bactria. But it is certain that
the Iranians were routed,7 for Zoroaster, to encourage his

4   Ch. 23, § 8, Vol. 47, S. B. E.

5   Bund., ch. 12, § 33; see also ch. 4, § 77, Vol. 47,

S.   B. E.

6   Zachariah, ch. 14, v. 4.

7   Bund., ch. 12, speaks of “come to help”, as the place
 134

EXTRAVAGANT NUMBERS IN BATTLE

followers, tells them that though the battle is lost all is
not yet lost.* 8 Mazda, he said, would yet save and protect
them against their unbelieving foes.

§ 2. If the Shah-Nama, founded upon extravagant
and careless tradition, has given the numbers of the con-
tending forces correctly, then there were potent causes
for Iran’s defeat, for her 144,000 were met by Arjasp with
300,ooo.9 But these numbers seem wild and improbable,
for if this battle, with such numbers, was fought even as
late as six hundred years B. C. there would be some men-
tion of it in history outside of the Avesta and works
copied from it.

 CHAPTER XI.

THE ALLEGORY OF THE KINE. THE DOCTRINE OF
DUALISM.

Every tribe and every people in the infancy of the race
seems to have been freebooters, murderers and plunder-
ers. It is a sad commentary, made still more gloomy be-
cause it is true.

The stealing of herds and flocks, rapine and cruelty,
were not uncommon, down to a much later period than
Zoroaster. The Aryans, in the Prophet’s day, we have
seen, were tillers of the soil; but they possessed numer-
ous herds of cattle; and these were strong allurements
to the Turanian robbers and plunderers. Marauding-
chiefs, with their armed followers, often made desolating
incursions against their honest neighbors. It was so in
Abraham’s time; they plundered Lot; drove off his cat-
tle, and carried him away as a prisoner. The same law-
lessness prevailed in Zoroaster’s day; but with keen in-
sight, he seized upon the forays and robberies, not only
to illustrate his doctrines, but to draw the people nearer
to his cause.

He composed an allegory:   It was, in truth, an alle-

gory and something more. It was an eloquent, prayerful
protest, against cruelty, and especially against cruelty to
the cow, one of the chief means of honest support of
home and family. The wail of the kine becomes the
voice of the people, and cries out, “O Lord! for whom

105
 106

THE CHOSEN LEADER

didst thou create me? The assaults of wrath, insolence
and violence encompass me about. None other can I
look to, but thee! Teach me the good tillage of my
fields” (that is, teach me the way of salvation). The
Creator, hereupon, asks Asha (Personified Righteous-
ness), “whom he had chosen to hurl back the fury of the
wicked ?” 1 Who is the chosen leader in this great battle
for righteousness, who can bring law, order, and peace?
Asha replies, “that a leader who is himself without hate,
and who is able to smite back the fury of the evil-doers
cannot be obtained.” And he adds, “that evil permeates
in some degree, all beings, but it is not permitted to be
known, even to the angels, why this is so.” His reply is
tantamount to questioning why the Almighty, if all pow-
erful in heaven and on earth, does not at once and for-
ever abolish evil?

On these matters the Prophet, somewhat yet in doubt,
but with hands outstretched in entreaty, prays Ahura,
that the righteous may not meet destruction with the
wicked. That is, that the robbers may first seize the
cattle and effects of the unbelievers; and that the right-
eous may have a blessing in being saved from pillage.
Religion, it is claimed, saves in the next world; but the
man who can save those Iranian flocks and herds will
thus assist the honest tillers of the soil. Such a man is
certain of leadership. Zoroaster, now, adroitly names

1   Asha is one of the Amshaspands of Archangels to do
and carry God’s commands to the Iranians. God speaks
to Zoroaster on request. But he talks to Moses (?) with-
out asking.
 TEACHINGS OF ZOROASTER

107

himself as a heaven-appointed leader, to protect the kine:
that is, the people.2

There must have been objection to the Prophet by
some; for directly, Ahura says:   '‘This man is found

for me here who, alone, has hearkened to my words. He
will announce my doctrines.” 3

§ 2. Zoroaster, lamenting his feebleness, prays to
Ahura for wisdom and strength for his task, that he may
acceptably carry forward the purposes of heaven. But
he wages no war against the old Aryan Gods; he simply
passes them by without mention. His purpose is to teach
his people to believe in Mazda, alone. Yet he begs the
Bountiful Immortals4 to help on his cause, in both
worlds, the corporeal and spiritual, that the faithful may
finally reach the Holy Mount, and pass Kinvad Bridge,
to their happy reward.5

We see frequent and repeated mention in the Gathas
of the good mind, and the benevolent mind of God. In
fact, Yasna 23 is devoted by the Prophet to supplications
for grace; and that he may have wisdom to teach his

2   The record says (Yasna 29, §§ 5 and 6) the Lord ap-
pointed him; but I take it that the Lord will never do
for man what he can do for himself.

3   Whether Ahura really did say this I do not know.
He probably said it in the same way and manner that
“The Lord said unto Moses.”

4   Bountiful Immortals—the seven Amshaspands or
Archangels; Vohumano, asha-Vahista, etc., etc.

5   This mention of the Holy Mount leads me to suspect
that these words in Yasna, 28; 5, are an interpolation;
for we shall see that Zoroaster’s punishment was mental,
not physical.
 108

WHY DOES EVIL EXIST

people, not what is best for time alone, but that which
will help them when the final rewards are given. He
sees evil in the world; the righteous in distress, often
wanting bread; the wicked flourishing and ruling with a
high hand. Well might he exclaim “Defend me from
those who rise up against me. For lo! they lie in wait
for my soul.,, 6 But he reasoned beyond this. His mind
is both observing and philosophical; and seeing the just,
without apparent reason or cause, often in the toils of the
wicked, he asks: “Why is this ?” If Ahura is a being of
infinite and Almighty power, why does he not strike
down evil, and end its reign? It is probable that gifted
minds before his day had asked the same question. How-
ever that may be, the Gathas, with his name, make the
earliest known record of it.

The question itself reaches back to Infinity; to the very
beginning of things.

§ 3. Zoroaster saw this, and, impatient to know, asks
Ahura to teach him from his own spirit, that he may ex-
plain to his waiting people, by what laws the moral uni-
verse is governed.* 7 Philosophers and thinkers, of all
ages and all nations, have since followed him in the vain
attempt to solve satisfactorily this mysterious problem.
Just how much time he gave to meditation upon this mat-
ter, and whether he debated it with his friends, or whether
it had been mooted before his day, we shall never know.
But the conclusion he reached has since been accepted and
followed by nearly all religions. Sometimes the copy is

• Ps. LIX.

7   Yasna 28, 12.
 TWO PRIMEVAL SPIRITS

109

not exact, but the family resemblance is there in all of
them.

He announced that there were, and are, a pair of inde-
pendent primeval spirits: Ahura-Mazda, the good, and
Aharman, the bad. And he exclaims: '‘Hear me with
your ears; it is a decision as to religions; man for man,
each individually for himself. Between these two, let the
wisely-acting choose aright. Awake ye to the great
emergency. I pray that ye do not choose the evil.” 8 He
now explains that when two spirits (not bodies) came
together “to make life and its absence,” 9 and to deter-
mine the finality of things, the wicked were assigned or
given the worst life; the holy, the best mental condition.

It is noteworthy that the wicked are not assigned to hell, '
but to 'the worst life.” Hell is not mentioned; furnaces
of fire, and lakes of fire, are later arrivals. No retribu-
tion or punishment for the wicked is here set forth, save
only the worst life. But when those spirits had finished,
each his part in creation, each chose his favorite realm.
Aharman, the evil-minded, chose the worst life; Ahura,
the more bounteous spirit, preferred righteousness.

Empedocles, a Greek philosopher, centuries later, fol-
lowed Zoroaster in this, although he named those forces
or spirits differently. He held that there are four pri-
mary divinities, or ultimate things: earth, air, fire and
water. That from these four divinities, or elements, all
organic and inorganic structures are produced. These

8   Yasna 30, §§ 2 and 3.

9   This is a peculiar phrase: “to make life and its ab-
sence; it does not say death. Through envy of the devil,
death came. Wis. Solomon, ch. 2, v. 24.
 110

LOVE AND HATRED

four elements, he says, are eternally brought together,
and eternally separated, by two divine beings or powers.
Instead of naming them Ormazd and Aharman, he calls
them love and hatred, or good and bad. Love is the
attractive force; hatred is repellent; and these two forces
pervade the whole universe.

The different proportions, in which these four elements
are combined, determines the character of man and ani-
mals. The rocks in the mountains., and the verdure of the
valleys are fixed by the same unvarying, eternal rule.
Who makes up this combination? That is the question.
If fixed by .those powers, Love and Hatred, when and
where is the combination decided upon ? Who rules, and
who overrules, in this matter? There is some love and
some hate in all men; but in some men the elements of
love greatly predominate; in others, hate seems to hold
full sway.

In Zoroaster, in Buddha, and in Jesus, love ruled them
and controlled them. It made their lives a fragrance.
In Arjasp, in Herod, in Nero, hate held them in her awful
grip to the last. Who mixed the ingredients that pro-
duced these widely differing characters? Did the God of
Love preside, or rule, when the first three were being
formed; and did the God of Hate control, in the other
cases? Or are these divinities both present in all cases,
and mix their ingredients as best they can?

§ 4. The later writings of the Parsis have fixed up
another theory about this matter. They say that in the
beginning Mazda and Ahriman were both created by
Zerana Akerana, an all-wise, eternal, omniscient, absolute
being. That when created, Mazda and Ahriman were
both wise, sinless, and divine. That Mazda, by remaining
 THE GREAT STRUGGLE

111

true to Zerana Akerana, became the God of the just; but
Aharman, having proved false and treacherous, found
himself in endless darkness.10 Instantly the great strug-
gle between these two master spirits began. The world
became one vast contending field of strife. The battle
still rages; and the prize fought for is the soul of man.
The combat will not slacken until Mazda or Ahriman is
absolute victor. Milton’s battle, in Paradise Lost, where
the angels and demons plucked the seated hills, with all
their loads, rocks, waters and woods, and hurled them at
each other, is but a sharply drawn picture of this world-
struggle between good and evil for the mastery.2

2   Fargard, 19, Vend., § 46, the Fravashi of Mazda is
worshipped. This would seem to sustain, slightly, the
theory of the text. See, also, Yast. 13, § 80, which holds
the same.
 CHAPTER XII.

DUALISM FURTHER CONSIDERED.

§ I. If there really do exist two beings, or spirits, in
the world, called Ormazd and Ahriman (God and the
Devil), they are either created or uncreated beings. Now,
if they are uncreated spirits (that is, if they have existed
from all eternity), what right has the good spirit to slay
or kill the bad one, any more than a good man has to
slay or kill a bad man? And the same rule applies if they
are created beings or spirits. Again, if they are, or were,
created by Zerana-Akerana, or some other superior being,
he must have created them for a purpose. Did he create
Ahriman on purpose to make a fuss, and, for a time, to
turn things upside down in the world, to be finally thrust
into a pit, or fiery lake? Or did He create him not
knowing that he would go astray? If so, He was not all-
wise. Or if He knew he would go astray, then He created
him for a bad purpose. Was it known to the “Great I
Am/’ in the beginning, that Ahriman would seduce many
from their allegiance to Ormazd? Who can answer?1

Perhaps he came from an infinitesimal nucleated cell,
and evolution carried him forward to his present “bad
eminence.” Perhaps, like Topsy, he “just growed.” But,
that want and misery, and wickedness and sin are here,
cloven-footed, none will deny. Theologians, for hundreds

1 See § 3, chap. 15.

112
 TWO CREATORS

113

of years, have strenuously tugged with this question;
but they have not gone a single step beyond the Persian
prophet. He tells us in a sentence, that “two spirits came
together to make life and life’s absence.”2 Farvardin
Yast says that “two spirits, the good one and the evil one,
created the world,” 3 and that Ahriman “broke into the
creation of the good.” Even Genesis shadows forth two
or more personages at creation; for God said, “Let us
make man in our image; after our likeness.” (Genesis i,
XXVI.) Moreover, after Adam had eaten of the for-
bidden fruit, God said, “Behold the man is become as one
of us; to know good and evil.” (Genesis 3, 22.) Do
those words indicate a plurality of Gods, at the Creation;
or was God soliloquizing? Was the Persian devil there,
gifted with the power of speech, talking to Eve, in the
form of a serpent; but not yet crawling on his belly, for
he had not yet been cursed by the Lord ?4 In the Persian
mythology he is the creator of evil; in our mythology,
he is the polluter, or destroyer of the good.

“My garments,” said Aharman, “are dark, evil
thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds, are my food, and I
love those whose thoughts, words and deeds are evil.”5
How, then, let us ask, if the Evil One is gifted with, or
possesses the faculty of love, can he punish those he
wins or loves? Will any being, good or bad, injure or

2   Yas. 30, § 4, Vol. 31, S. B. E.

3   Yas. 13, § 76, Vol. 23, S. B. E., p. 198.

4   The serpent while talking with Eve must have stood
on his tail for he did not have to “go on his belly” until
after the Lord cursed him. (Genesis 3, 14.)

5   Dink B. 9, ch. 30, § 6.
 114

WAR BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL

punish those he loves? The logic of the churches is, that
God punishes the wicked, because “He is angry with them
every day.” 6 But, if he sends them to Hell, will not
Satan make it easy on them, because he loves them?7

In reply to these words of Ahriman, Ozmazd says, “The
sky is my garment; good thoughts, words, and deeds, are
my food; I love those whose thoughts, words and deeds
make for righteousness.”

Whether true or false, this is dualism; plain and simple;
and this shifting, or carrying back Ormazd and Aharman,
to their Creator, does not dispose of it. If they possess
full rein, without hindrance, what matters it to man,
whether Zerana-Akerana exists or not? However, the
Great Iranian does not stop to argue about zerana-
Akerama. He finds the demons of wrath, contending with
Ormazd, for the love and allegiance of man; and Ormazd
leads in the battle for the good.

§ 2. This matter of dualism, however, cannot be dis-
posed of by a simple waiver of the hand. If you say that
evil (Aharman) is only a principle, and not a personality,
then it may be replied, that this principle possesses most
extraordinary vitality. If Aharman is simply a principle,
that principle is so active, combative and real that it
exhibits all the traits, characteristics and qualities, though
of an opposite character, to those possessed by Ormazd.
If it be said that Ahura is an actual, living, spiritual
existence, how can it be claimed that he is waging a

6   Psalms 7, n. But he does not stay angry only a
moment. Psalms 30, 5.

7   If Satan should do this, would not the Lord be frus-
trated, or outflanked?
 THE DEVIL AS A LINGUIST

115

(21)   Infancy, ch. 9, says the wise men came from the EaBt;
according to the prophecy of Zoroaster. That star story, it seems,
is an importation from Persia. Chapter 29, Gospel of the Infancy,
says Joseph and Mary resided in Memphis three years.
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

35»

with leprosy, on taking Jesus in her arms, was instant-
ly cured. A young man, for some offense, had been
changed into a mule; Jesus was placed on that mule’s
back, and at once the mule was transformed into the
young man. (22)

Traveling in a desert place, Jesus caused a cooling
fountain, it is said, to gush forth, to the great relief
of the parched sufferers.

The Jewish instinct of trade seems to have been
strong in Mary, for she cured Caleb, a sick boy,
by giving his mother some of Jesus’ swaddling clothes,
in exchange for a beautiful carpet. The touch of the
swaddling clothes, it is said, healed Caleb (23) in-
stantly. But another woman, an enemy of Caleb,
seized him and threw him into a well. Instead of
drowning, Caleb sat calmly upon the surface of the
waters, uninjured. His persecutor, the woman, by ac-
cident fell into the well, and instantly perished.

A young woman who had been long afflicted by
Satan sucking her blood, was cured by wrapping some
of Jesus’ swaddling clothes about her head. Flames
at once burst forth from these clothes, and so badly
scorched the dragon that he cried out: “What have
I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of Mary? Whither
shall I go?” Luke, in chapter 8, v. 28, quotes this
dragon story, with this difference; that the devil, in
Luke, begs to enter into some swine, and the swine
perish by drowning in the sea.

(22)   Ch. 10 to 20, Gospel of the Infancy.

(23)   Ch. 27 to 34, Gospel of the Infancy.
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 359

Chapter 40 of the Infancy tells us that Jesus turned
some boys into kids, and he said to the kids, “Come
hither, O ye kids”; and they came. Then at a word
he changed them back into boys. Later on, he could
change water into wine, at least John so tells us.

(24)   One story is perhaps just as true as the other.

While Jesus was still a boy in Egypt, we are told

that he raised a dead boy to life. Later he met a
funeral procession bearing a young man to his grave.
He came and touched the bier, and said to the corpse,
“Arise,” and the dead sat up and began to speak.

(25)   Why condemn the Infancy story and not also
that of Luke?

Matthew makes no mention whatever of the length
of time Jesus remained in Egypt; but the Infancy
here comes to our assistance, and tells us that his resi-
dence there lasted three years. But Joseph, when he
came near Judea, on his return, hearing that Archelaus
was king, was afraid, and an angel appeared to him,
and said, “O Joseph, go into the city of Nazareth, aqd
there abide.” (26)

Section 4. Nothing is mentioned of Jesus’ boy-
hood in any of the four approved gospels, from his
birth until he is twelve years of age. Then we catch
one solitary glimpse of him (27), and he again dis-
appears utterly, until his baptism, when he is about

(24)   John 2, v. 3 to 10.

(25)   Luke 7, v. 11 to 15.

(26)   Ch. 26, Infancy.

(27)   Luke 2, v. 40 to 54.
 3&>

A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

twenty-nine or thirty years old. (26) The gospel of
the Infancy fills in this hiatus somewhat, and con-
firms Luke in his mention of the discussion with the
doctors in the temple. But the Infancy goes beyond
Luke, and tells us that Jesus went to school to Zac-
cheus, and from him to a more learned teacher. This
last teacher, for some reason untold, raised his hand
to strike Jesus, and it is said his hand instantly with-
ered, and the master presently died. Moreover, it is
said in the Infancy (29) that Jesus explained to an
astronomer the number of spheres, and heavenly bod-
ies, their triangular, square and sextile aspect; their
progressive and retrograde motions, their size, etc.
He explained to a philosopher, physics and natural
philosophy, the powers of the body, its bones and ar-
teries, and how the soul operates on the body.

The Infancy says that after the return to Nazareth,
Jesus worked with Joseph, his father (30), as a car-
penter ; and when Joseph wanted anything longer or
shorter, Jesus would stretch his hand toward it, and
it instantly became the length desired; that Joseph hav-
ing spent a long time in building a throne for the king
of Jerusalem, made it short two spans, and he was
greatly worried; so troubled in fact, that he went to
bed without his supper. In the morning Jesus took
hold of one side, and Joseph the other, and pulled, and
the throne straightway came to the right dimensions.

(28)   Mark 1, v. 9; Matt. 3, v. 13; Luke 3, v. 23.

(29)   Infancy, ch. 48 to 53.

(30)   Ch. 37 and 39.
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 361

(31) Jesus, it is said, concealed his miracles and de-
voted himself to the study of the law till thirty years
old. The Infancy concludes in these words: “The end
of the whole gospd of the Infancy, by the assistance
of the Supreme God, according to what we found in
the original.”

(31)   Li not this too much for sober belief! But did Jordan
roll back its waters for the Israelites to cross! (Joshua, ch. 3,
?.16.) Bid the winds and wares calm down at Jesus’ rebuke!
Did Buddha, when a great inundation surrounded the place where
he lived, cause the water to recede at his words! (V. 13, Sacred
Books of the Bast, p. 131.) Did Buddha walk on water! (Fo
Sho Hing, p. 222, sec. 1551.) Did Jeetts walk on water! (Mark
6, ?. 48.)
 CHAPTER XXXIII.

The Apocryphal Gospel of Marcion Compared
With Luke's Canonical.

(

Section i. Concerning the gospel of Marcion, a
ceaseless warfare has been waged for and against it,
for nearly 1,600 years, and the end is not yet. Truly,
who can look into the seeds of time and say which
grain will grow and which will wither?

When Marcion and Luke were both alive, who
could have told which gospel would become canoni-
cal? Our first inquiry, therefore, is, who was this
Marcion, and what was his gospel that has been sound-
ing down all these centuries?

As near as his period can be fixed, he was bom
at Sinope, in Pontius, on the southern shore of the
Black Sea, about the year no A. D. Tertulian, his
great enemy and detractor, said of him that “all
things in Sinope are cold and torpid; yet nothing
there is so sad as that Marcion was bom there.”

In early life Marcion was a prosperous shipowner
in Sinope. His vessels gathered wealth for him all
along the coasts of Pontius. When, between the age
of twenty-five and thirty, he became a convert from
paganism to Christianity, at once the whole tenor of
his life was changed. He became not only religious,

362
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

3^3

but intensely religious. The God of the Old Testa-
ment seemed to him to be stern and wrathful in vis-
iting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children,
even to the fourth generation. (1)

Marcion turned from this vengeful God to the new
dispensation of the Man of Galilee. The new wine
was to burst the old bottles. (2) In short, the old Jew-
ish law of vengeance was to be suspended by this new
message of love and peace.

Marcion soon became so filled with enthusiasm for
the new religion that he wrote a gospel, and hoped
to win the whole world to his standard; and had he
gained Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna (3), Marcion pos-
sibly might have taken the place of Luke in the ca-
nonicals. Moreover, the Roman Catholic church
might have waned, instead of waxing so strong and
great. Such strange destinies, from little happen-
ings, often await all human plans.

If Marcion had abstained from speculation about
the cosmogony of the universe, he might not have
been led to believe in the Demiurge—or two Gods
(4): the God who created man out of matter, and

(1)   Exodus 20, v. 5.

(2)   Luke 5, v. 7.

(3)   Polycarp was born in Asia Minor about the year 69 A. D.,
and lived to the ripe age of 90. He was arrested by the Jews and
burned at the stake, as an enemy of their religion. Even the
heathens piled fagots around him, and the Jews refused to give
up even his bones for burial.

(4)   Is it not true that the Bible mentions two Godsf What
is the devil but a great powerful wicked creature, that can only
be bound for a thousand years (Rev. 22 v. 2). In Jesus’ day,
there were many devils; He talked to them, and they answered
back. (Luke 4, v. 33 to 35).
 jf* A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

on him a bw hard to live up to, and that
other God, more merciful, who would save him.

Sectiow 2. In writing of men, doctrines and be-
liefs, in the first and second centuries, one most ex-
ercise much patience and not draw the line too closely;
for the first followers of Jesus are Jews, born and
reared under a code that was unjust, and filed with
improbable miracles. To Matthew, Luke and John, a
religion without miracles was, as they believed, no
religion at alL

Hence no writer or preacher of religions could ob-
tain a bearing at that period or later on, unless he
made frequent and repeated mention of miracles.
Marrion was no exception to the rule. He wrote a
gospel, and established churches, and between the
years 175 and 250 A. D. his followers came near
pushing the Roman church to the wall.

He preached powerfully against the Demiurge—the
bad God—and insisted that man must put bis trust in
the good God and his Son; that faith, charity, love and
good works would save the soul. The body, he said,
perishes. It will never be resurrected. The soul or
spirit alone survives. The Demiurge, he said, would
punish the wicked in Hell.

Marcion’s gospel for more than two hundred years
exerted a wide influence in the world. Then its power
began slowly to decline, and when the sixth century
arrived there were only a few scattered Marcionites
here and there, and another century saw diem in a
total eclipse.
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES jfc

But this much may be safely said of him; that
he strove to improve the old Jewish religion, and
he made the first collection of New Testament gospels
that was ever made. He wrote a gospel of his own,
which some scholars think Luke had before him when
he composed his gospel. Having said this much of
Marcion and his religion, I shall now quote numerous
passages from his gospel, and give the corresponding
verses and chapters from Luke, that thus the reader
may judge whether he borrowed from Luke, or Luke
borrowed from Marcion. Mardon, chapter i, verse
2: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius
Caesar (Luke 3, v. 1) Jesus came down to Capernaum,
a dty of Galilee, and taught diem on the Sabbath
days. (Luke 4, v. 31.) And they were exceedingly
astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with
power.” (Luke 4, v. 32, is the same as verse 3 Mar-
cion.) “And in the synagogue, there was a man who
had a spirit of an unclean devil, and he cried out with
a loud voice: (Luke 4, v. 33 is word for word the
same as Marcion in chapter 1, v. 4) ‘Let us alone;
what have we to do with Jesus? Art thou come to
destroy us? I know thee, who thou art, the holy one
of God.’ ” Luke 4, v. 34, repeats this exactly. In
verses 35 and 36, ch. 4, Lflke has the same words as
ch. 1, v. s and 6, Marcion. Chapter 4, Luke, v. 38
and 39 are identical with ch. 1, Marcion, v. 8 and 9.
Chapter 1, v. 17, Marcion: “Now when the sun was
setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases
brought diem unto him, and he laid his hands on
 366 A QUESTION OP MIRACLES

every one of them and healed them.” Luke, ch. 4, v.
40, is here identical with Mardon. Chapter 3, Mar-
cion, v. 17, is identical with Luke, ch. 6, v. 17. One
is certainly copied from the other. Chapter 4, Mar-
don, 4:30: “A sinful woman standing near, before
his feet, washed his feet with her tears, and anointed
them and kissed them.” Read Luke, ch. 7, v. 37 and
38. The only difference is that Luke says the woman
had “an alabaster box of ointment.”

Marcion, ch. 4, v. 36: “And he turned to the wo-
man, and said unto Simon, ‘See’st thou this woman?
I entered into thy house, thou gavest me no water for
my feet; she has washed my feet with her tears, and
has anointed them, and kissed them.’ ” Luke, ch. 7,
v. 44 and 45, is the same as Marcion, except that
Luke says, “she wiped the feet with the hair of her
head.” (5)

Chapter 5 of Marcion, v. 1 to 18, is identical with
ch. 8, Luke, v. 1 to 18. Marcion, ch. 5, v. 22, and
Luke, ch. 8, v. 23 and 24, both mention the incident
of Jesus rebuking the wind and the raging waters.
Chapter 6, Marcion, v. 30: “And behold two men
talked with* him, Elias and Moses in glory.” The
same words are in Luke, ch. 9, v. 30 and 31.

Chapter 7, Marcion, v. 1 to 19, wherein Jesus ap-
pointed seventy and sent them “two and two, into
every city,” are found in Luke, ch. 10, v. 1 to 20.

(5)   Mark 14, v. 3, says:   “The woman poured the ointment

on Je8us9 headLuke 7, v. 38, says she 44anointed his feet,”
and Marcion and Luke here agree. Mark seems to have been in-
spired differently.
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES   367

Section 3. The incident of a certain lawyer stand-
ing up and tempting Jesus, is told by Luke in ch. 10,
v. 5, and Marcion in ch. 7, v. 25.

Chapter 8, v. 2, Marcion: “And he said unto them,
When ye pray, say ‘Father, may thy holy spirit come
to us, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in
heaven, so on earth.’ ” This same prayer, a little im-
proved in phraseology, is found in Luke, ch. n, v.
2, 3 and 4.

“Who of you, being a father, if a son ask a fish,”
etc., is identical in Marcion, ch. 8, with Luke, ch. 11,
v. 11 and 12. In ch. 9 of Marcion are many verses
identical with ch. 12 of Luke. Chapter 10, Marcion,
v. 1 to 6: “Behold there was a woman which had
a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bound
together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And
when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said
unto her, ‘Woman, thou art loosed from thy infirm-
ity’; and he laid his hand on her, and immediately
she was made straight and glorified God.” Luke
has these identical words in ch. 13, v. 11 to 14.

Marcion, ch. 10, v. 18, says: “There shall be weep-
ing and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see all the
righteous in the Kingdom of God, and yourselves,
cast out and held back.” Luke, ch. 13, v. 28,
changes this somewhat, and says:   “There shall be

weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see
Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets
in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust
out.”
 368 A QUESTION OP MIRACLES

If the reader will turn to chapter 16 of Luke and
read the first ten verses thereof, he will have read
the first ten verses of chapter 13 of Mardon. In
short, these two men seem to have been inspired to
utter, all along, the same identical thoughts.

Sometimes, it is true, the inspiration seems to wab-
ble a little, as witness chapter 13, Mardon, verse 17,
when he says: “Heaven and earth may pass, but
not one tittle of my words shall fail.” Luke, chapter
16, verse 17: “It is easier for heaven and earth to
pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.”

Again, Luke is inspired in the first seventeen verses
of his chapter 18 exactly word for word as Mardon
is inspired in his first eighteen verses of chapter 15.
(6)

Question. Luke, do you know that you (of all the
millions of people who have ever lived) are the only
one who says that “Jesus was carried up into heaven?”

Answer. That may be so, but the Jewish Christians
in my day believed it.

Question. Suppose, Luke, that this earth, as here-

(6)   Luke 24, v. 51.

(7)   Mark, eh. 16, v. 19, makes only this brief statement:
1 * After the Lord had spoken unto them (his disciples) he was re-
ceived np into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.”
Matthew makes no mention of the ascension whatever. The faith
of the world in this matter, therefore, is pinned to the belief of a
few ignorant Jews. It must be remembered that careful crit-
icism of Mark closes his gospel at the eighth verse of his last
chapter, and if that be true then the ascension is mentioned by
Luke only.
 336 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

tofore stated, turns on its axis, and that it travels
around the sun once every year, and that its orbit or
path is about five hundred and eighty or ninety mil-
lions of miles? There are two brothers, James and
John, both good men: James dies in the month of May;
you believe, do you, that he goes up at once to heaven?

Answer. Yes, I believe that.

Question. His brother John, also a good man, dies
in the month of November; when the earth has trav-
eled about two hundred and ninety millions of miles
from where James “went up,” how are those two
brothers ever to be united? (

Answer. Well, I don’t see, unless heaven travels
around with the earth.

Question. Now, Luke, as neither Matthew nor
John makes any mention about Jesus’ ascension, it
turns out, therefore, that although your words contra-
dict and set at defiance the law of gravitation in this
ascension matter, yet notwithstanding all this the faith
' of the world hangs suspended on your and Mark’s un-
supported words; is not that so?

Answer. I reply again that I simply wrote down

(   A friend of mine, and a good man, too, when I pat this
question to him, had an easy way of its solution. “If it was I,”
he said, “I would just jump right back onto the earth and cling
there until she swung around to May, and then I would hop off
right where Jim went up.” I told him he would have to be very
quick hopping off, for he would be going forty times faster than
a bullet. But even then he would be more than a hundred mil-
lion miles from his brother. To be more nearly exact, he would
be one hundred and fifty millions of miles from his brother Jim.
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 337

the belief of the Jewish Christians. I am answerable
for no more than that. (9)

Question. Suppose, Luke, that the stars, or at least
some of them, which we see in the sky, are worlds like
ours, with oceans and continents, and rivers and cli-
mates and peoples: now, if Jesus is the only begotten
son of the Most High, who is there to die for the sins
of all those people; or are we of this earth the only
wicked ones in all the universe? How is this?

Answer. Your question amazes me; how could or
can anyone live up there on those little bright things in
the air? Of course the stars are not worlds; they are
only beautiful bright specks in the sky. (10)

Question. But, Luke, truly the stars are worlds;
and some of them are larger than a thousand such
globes as ours; and those worlds have mountains and
rivers and lakes and oceans and continents and forests,
and plains and atmospheres, and there is no doubt
whatever but that they are inhabited the same as our
globe. The moral law pervades the universe; sin is
sin in those worlds, as well as here. To murder a man
on Venus, or Mars, or Mercury is a crime as well as
here. (11) Now, again I ask, if Jesus is the only son of

(9)   Mark says: "Jesus was received up into heaven and eat
on the right hand of God.” (Mark 16, v. 19.) Bnt the reader
should be cautioned that the last eight verses of Mark are said to
be spurious: Vol. 10, Br. Ency., title “Gospels,” p. 801, 9th edition.

(10)   The true and proper ending of Matthew is eh. 28, v. 8, and
of Luke, ch. 24, v. 9; of Mark, ch. 16, v. 11. That waa the belief
of the early Christians.

(11)   I believe the time is coming when we will telegraph to
Mars and Venus. Sixty years ago who would have said that wo
eould telegraph across the Atlantic f
 338 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

God, is there imposed on him the sorrowful task of
making atonement for all the peoples of all the mil-
lions of worlds about us? What think you? (12)

Answer. Your question reaches deep down. Of
course, if there are such a vast number of worlds, it
would seem as if Jesus could hardly follow the busi-
ness of dying for each and all of them. It would wear
him out.

Question. But philosophers and astronomers, after
long and patient research, tell us that there are more
than three hundred and fifty millions of stars or worlds
(down to the twelfth magnitude), many of them
vastly greater than this earth. Is it believable that
this vast host are put there just for us to look at,
when, as I have said, they have mountains and rivers
and scenery and atmospheres similar to ours; what
were they made for if not to be inhabited?

Answer. Perhaps their people did not sin.

Question. What is that? All that vast host of
habitable worlds and not a sinner among them? Is
this world of ours the only degenerate? What do you
say, Mr. Luke?

Answer. I know nothing of any other world than
this one. If the stars are worlds, it is wonderful, won-
derful.

That is all, Luke.

(12)   The number of stars visible to the naked eye exceeds fifty-
five hundred. But with telescopes, more than three hundred and
fifty millions can be seen! Our earth is only a very small star
and like every human life; philosophers tell us that the stars are
as much alive as trees or plants, and that they, too, will die in the
long hereafter.
 CHAPTER XXX

Apocryphal Miracles as Recounted in the
Apocryphal Gospels.

Section i. No statement of religious teachings in
the first and second centuries A. D., is complete with-
out some mention of what are called apocryphal gos-
pels and apocryphal miracles. Those books which
have been branded for centuries as apocryphal, I pro-
pose here and now to give a brief hearing, not only
because it is just, but moreover they throw, as it were,
- side lights on many things stated in the preceding
chapters.

At the close of the first century A. D. and well on
into the second, many persons were busily engaged in
writing of the things which were believed by the new
converts of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth.
In his very first line Luke tells us that “many” before
his day had undertaken to set forth the things most
surely believed (i) by the followers of the new-born
faith.

The following named books are branded “apocry-
phal” in the Protestant Bible, viz.:

First Esdras, written probably about one hundred
and fifty years B. C.

(1)   Notice that he only writes of tfap things “most surely be-
lieved” (Lake 1, v. 1). It is very doubtful whether Luke used
the words “most surely” in the above sentence.
 340

A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

Second Esdras, written about eighty to one hun-
dred years B, C. There is much fine writing in this
last book, and Matthew and Luke must have been dili-
gent students thereof. Jesus was likewise familiar
with Esdras. (2)

Tobit, written long after the exile, has numerous
angels (3), but only one devil, who has withal a sharp
sense of smell. (4)

Judith is the story of a beautiful Hebrew widow,
who deceived Holofemes, the Assyrian General, and
finally murdered him in his tent. Thus was Judea,
through the wiles and wickedness of a woman, re-
lieved from an invasion of the Assyrians.

The chapters of Esther, in the apocryphal, are
mostly made up of efforts of a Jewish queen to bene-
fit her people. But The Wisdom of Solomon, writ-
ten in the second century B. C., in Egypt, is a work
of a far different character. Serious speculation makes
its appearance; there is doubt and questioning. We
are born, it tells us, at venture, and we shall be here-
after as though we had never been. “Our life,” it
says, “is short and tedious, and in the death of man
there is no remedy, neither was there any man known
to have returned from the grave.”

Section 2. There is a dolorous train in The Wisdom
of Solomon. “Our time,” it says, “is a very shadow

(2)   Ch. 7 and 8, 2nd Esdras; Matt 7, v. 13 and 14; Luke 13,
v. 24.

(3)   Ch. 12.

(4)   Ch. 6, y. 17.
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 341

that passeth away, and our end is fast sealed; there
is no returning.” (5)

There is a touch of modem thought, however, in
Solomon, for we are told that “no torment shall reach
the souls of the righteous,” and their hope is full of
immortality.

Here creeps in this abominable doctrine: “The
Lord hath the care of His elect” (6). The devil also
appears. Man, it is said, was created to be immortal,
but through envy of the devil, death came into the
world. (7) In truth whoever wrote The Wisdom of
Solomon sounded the key-note of the New Testament.
The righteous are said to be full of the hope of immor-
tality, and shall judge the nations; but the ungodly
shall be punished. ( The book closes with a threat
of wrath without mercy, to the ungodly.

Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus, the son of
Sirach, written 140 to 200 years B. C., contains many
beautiful sentences, with much sage advice. To il-
lustrate : “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of
Wisdom.” “The Lord is full of Compassion and
Mercy; He forgiveth sins.” (9)

And we are commanded to “be a father unto the
fatherless.” (10) If we strive for the truth unto
death, the Lord, we are told, will fight for us. We
are admonished to be sincere and not cultivate a

(5)   Ch. 2, v. 1 and 5.

(6)   Ch. 3, y. 9.

(7)   Ch. 2, v. 24.

(   Ch. 3, y. 1 to 10.

(9)   Ch. 1 and 2.

(10)   Ch. 4, y. 10.
 342 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

double tongue. Shakespeare, in his play of Hamlet,
catches his inspiration from chapter 6 when he says,
“The friends thou hast and their adoption tried, grap-
ple them to thy soul with hooks of steel.” (11)

Chapter 12, v. 7, hardly comes up to the high stand-
ard of the Sermon on the Mount; for it tells us to
“give to the good man, but help not the sinner.”

Ecclesiasticus is filled with much sage advice, and
many beautiful mottoes. One of the best is:   “He

that can rule his tongue shall live without strife.”
(12) “A thief,” he says, “is better than a liar.” (13)

The Book of Baruch is held to be apocryphal by
Protestants, and deutero-canonical by Roman Catho-
lics. In the very first verse, Baruch says he wrote
the book in Babylon. “We are in our captivity,” he
says, “in a strange country; Israel is waxen old; had
she walked with God, she would have dwelt in peace
forever.” (14)

But like many other old Jewish writers, Baruch has
not even a hope in the long hereafter. He says the
dead that are in the graves, whose souls are taken from
their bodies, will give unto the Lord neither praise nor
righteousness. (15)

Baruch held its place in the Hebrew canon for two
hundred and eighty years after Jesus came, and was 11

(11)   Ch. 6, v. 7.

(12)   Ch. 19, v. 6.

(13)   Ch. 20, v. 25.

(14)   Ch. 3, v. 8 to 13.

(15)   Ch. 2, v. 17.
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 343

read in public on the Day of Atonement, as a sacred,
or inspired book. (16)

The Song of the Three Holy Children startles us
at once with a statement so brazen that we turn it
down as absolutely false. For how could Azarias
and those other Hebrews, survive unsinged in an oven
so hot with pitch and rosin and wood that the flames
streamed up forty-nine cubits, burning the Chaldeans
who fed the furnace, and yet not a hair of Azarias’
head be singed.

But an explanation is attempted when we are told
that an angel came down into that oven and smote
the flames, and made it moist and comfortable. This
whole story is simply a supplement to the book of
Daniel (17) and both are truly apocryphal. (18)

Section 3. The History of Susanna stands On a dif-
ferent footing. It is the story of a faithful wife,
whom two villains sought to beguile; and because she
was true, they determined on her destruction. And
she was only saved from death by putting the two
witnesses apart and questioning them closely. At
once their perjury was laid bare, the woman was
saved and the villains were put to death in her stead.

In the history of Bel and the Dragon, Bel was a
Babylonian idol, very costly, for each day he devoured
forty sheep and great quantities of flour and wine.
The king told Daniel that Bel devoured all that sub-

(16)   Vol. 5, Br. Encv., p. 3.

(17)   Ch. 3.

(18)   Ch. 1, v. 23 to 27.
 344

A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

stance every day. At this, Daniel smiled and told
the king that Bel was only clay and brass, and could
not eat or drink anything. Wroth at this, the king
called his three score and ten priests and said unto
them: “If ye tell me not who this is that devoureth
these things, ye shall surely die. But if ye can certify
me that Bel devoureth them, then Daniel shall die.”
The king and Daniel then went into the temple, and
the food and wine were brought, and the door made
fast with the king’s signet. “Tomorrow when thou
comest,” said the priests, “if Bel has not eaten all, we
suffer death, or else Daniel has spoken falsely.” The
priests felt secure, for under the table they had a
secret door, whereby they had entered and consumed
the food and drink given to Bel. Now when Daniel
had scattered ashes on the floor, the king and he de-
parted.

During the night, the priests and their families en-
tered by the secret door and ate and drank everything.
In the morning the king and Daniel, finding the seal
unbroken and the table empty, the king cried out:
“Great art thou, O Bel; there is no deceit in thee.”

Then Daniel laughed and pointed the king to the
footprints in the ashes on the floor and showed him
the secret entrance, where the priests and their fami-
lies came in. The king at this grew wroth, and slew
the priests, but delivered Bel and his temple to Daniel,
who destroyed both.

The First Book of Maccabees is a book of wars, in
which Judas (called Maccabees) was for a time the
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

345

general of the Hebrews. He fought valiantly, but
was finally slain. Maccabees is a book of deception
and treachery. (19) In this same Ch. 12, v. 9, which
was written 114 to 150 years B. C., we find the first
certain mention that the Old Testament is thought to
be an inspired book. (20)

Section 4. Maccabees Second commences with
thanks to God for the death of their great enemy, An-
tiochus. The new king, on learning of the great
riches stored in the temple of Jerusalem, sends Heli-
odorus, his treasurer, to seize them. The Lord of
spirits, to save the treasures, caused a great apparition
of a horse with a terrible rider to appear;
and the horse smote Heliodorus with his feet. More-
over, two young men of great strength and beauty
scourged Heliodorus so violently that he fell to the
earth and was borne away in a litter. (22)

If the reader is of a military cast of mind, chapter
five, second Maccabees, will be a royal feast unto him.
He will there learn of apparitions, the clashing of
swords, the shaking of shields, the thrust of lances,
and the charge of battalions in the air. This, it is
said, was seen “for almost forty days.” (23)

Chapter seven is a story of the heroic death of a
mother and her seven sons, by infamous torture, be-

(19)   Ch. 12, ?. 48.

(20)   Vol. 13, page 154, Br. Ency.

(21)   Ch. 3.

(22)   The Jews said it was the Almighty Lord that appeared and
saved their treasure, ch. 3, v. 30. I think they were mistaken.
It was a shrewd trick of an ancient Shylock more likely.

(23)   Ch. 5, v. 2 and 3.
 346

A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

Answer. Well, that was a saying among the peo-
ple.

(   Matt. 28, V. 9 and 10.

(9)   Matt. 28, v. 16 and 17.

(10)   Matt., ch. 28, v. 2.
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 313

Question. Did you, Matthew, see that angel de-
scend from heaven which you say rolled the stone from
the tomb?

Answer. I did not see him.

Question. Who told you about that angel?

Answer. I heard that Mary Magdalen said she saw
and talked to the angel. (11)

Question. Did you see Jesus put into that tomb?

Answer. I did not see him put there.

Question. Did you see Jesus get out of the tomb?

Answer. I did not see him get out of the tomb.

Question. Were you among the disciples when “the
doors being shut,” Jesus came through those doors
and stood in the midst of them? (12)

Answer. I never heard of that or I should have
written about it. I know nothing about that.

Question. Matthew, why did you not write some-
thing about the ascension of Jesus into heaven ?

Answer. Such a thing was not an article of faith
when I wrote. I had never heard of it when I wrote.

Question. But, sir, that was and is a very impor-
tant matter. Why were you silent about it?

Answer. Some people possibly might have heard of
it, but I had not. I should have written about it if I
had heard of it.

Question. Matthew, do you claim that you were
inspired from heaven to write your Gospel?

Answer. I never claimed that I was inspired. I 11

(11)   Matt. 88, v. 1 to 7.

(12)   John 20, t. 19.
 3»4

A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

simply wrote down what was told me. There was no
such thing as inspiration when I wrote.

Question. Please state what you know about Jesus’
ascension into heaven?

Answer. I did not witness his ascension, and I
know nothing about it, or I should have written about
it.

Question. Do you, Matthew, know whether Jesus’
ascension took place in Galilee or in Bethany, a little
village about two miles from Jerusalem?

Answer. I know nothing whatever about Jesus’ as-
cension or I should have written about it.

Question. Were you, Matthew, present in Gethse-
mane when Simon Peter cut off Malchus’ ear? (13)

Answer. I was not there.

Question. In your Gospel you say: “Then all the
disciples forsook Jesus and fled.” (14) What made
them run away. Why forsake him ?

Answer. There was a multitude against him. (15)

Question. Did Jesus run away?

Answer. No; but he might have escaped.

Now, Matthew, I brand that as a base, cowardly
act, that all the disciples fled and left Jesus in the
hands of that murderous mob. Had they stood firm
they might have saved him.

********

(13)   John 18, v. 10; Mark 14, v. 47.

(14)   Matt. 26, t. 56.

(15)   Matt. 26, v. 47.
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 3*5

Mr. Mark, please take the stand.

Question. You wrote a Gospel, did you not?

Answer. Yes, I wrote one, sir.

Question. Matthew says there was an angel at the
tomb; and that the angel talked to Magdalen and
others. Now, Mark, please tell us all you know about
that matter.

Answer. Well, Matthew is wrong. It was not an
angel at all. It was that young man (16) clothed in a
white garment.

Question. Matthew says an angel came, rolled back
the stone from the door of the sepulcher; Mark, please
give us your version of that matter.

Answer. I think it was that young man clothed in
white that rolled the stone away. (17)

Question. Mark, please tell us if you know abso-
lutely that it was that young man, and not the angel,
who rolled the stone away.

Answer. What would be the use of sending an
angel way down from the skies to do such a little thing
as that? Could not that young man roll away the
stone ? A man rolled it there; and that young man no
doubt rolled it away. (18)

Question. You are sure, are you, Mark, that there
was only one young man at the tomb when Magdalen
came there that Sunday morning?

Answer. I never heard of but one, and I am sure I
am right. (19)

(16)   Mark 16, v. 5.

(17)   Mark 16, v. 5.

(18)   Mark 16, v. 5.

(19)   Mark 16, v. 6 to 8.
 3*6

A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

Question. But Luke says (20) there were two men
in shining garments at the sepulcher; how is that?

Answer. I say, as I said before, there was only one
man at the tomb when Magdalen and those other
women came.

Question. How is this, Mark, that you are contra-
dicted by John (21), who states that there were two
angels in white at the tomb when Magdalen came?

Answer. John is always extreme. He says Jesus
made the world (22), and it is a wonder that he had
not said ten angels instead of two, that were at the
tomb.

Question. Mark, you say Magdalen and Mary fled
from the sepulcher, trembling and amazed; neither
said they anything to any man; for they were afraid.

(23)   Matthew contradicts you there, for he says
those women “did run to bring the disciples word"

(24)   And Luke (25) also contradicts you, and John
(26) is against you; for he says there were two angds
in white and the angels talked to the women.

Answer. They wrote after I wrote, and while they
don’t agree with me, they do not agree with each
other; for John (27) says there were two angels, and
Luke (28) insists there were two men at the tomb, and

(20)   Ch. 24, y. 4.

(21)   Ch. 20, v. 12.

(22)   John 1, y. 10.

(23)   Mark 16, y. 8.

(24)   Matt. 28, y. 7 and 8.

(25)   Ch. 24, y. 22 to 25.

(26)   Ch. 20, y. 12.

(27)   Ch. 20, y. 12.

(28)   Ch. 24, y. 4.
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 317

Matthew (29) says there was one angel, and an earth-
quake ; and there was neither angel nor earthquake.

Question. Do you, Mark, claim that you were in-
spired to write your Gospel?

Answer. No, I never claimed any inspiration;
there was no such thing in my day.

That is all, Mr. Mark, for the present.

***?**??

Mr. Luke, please take the stand.

Question. Did you write a history of Jesus* min-
istry and crucifixion, and the placing of his body in
the sepulcher, and its disappearance therefrom?

Answer. Tradition has it that I did.

Question. Now, Luke, you have stated in chapter
24 that on Sunday morning, when those women came
bringing their spices, they found the stone already
rolled away from the sepulcher; and Matthew says an
angel descended from heaven and rolled that stone
back and sat upon it. Please tell us all you know about
that interesting matter.

Answer. There were “two men in shining gar-
ments” (30) at the sepulcher; but no angels were
there. I know nothing concerning the angels which
Matthew says descended from heaven and rolled away
the stone from that tomb. (31)

Question. But Luke, you yourself say “that cer-
 318 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

tain women there saw a vision of angels, which said
Jesus was alive.” (32) How about that?

Answer. Well, there was a tradition floating about
that Mary Magdalen saw certain strange objects,
which she took to be angels. (33)

Question. Mr. Luke, please state whether you ever
saw Jesus in the flesh, and if so, when and where you
saw him.

Answer. I never claimed to have seen him.
“Many” had undertaken to set forth the things be-
lieved among us, and “delivered unto us by eye-wit-
nesses,” and so I set forth my understanding of the
matter. (34)

Question. Then, Luke, you do not daim that the
things about which you wrote were witnessed by you ?

Answer. No, sir, I did not witness them; and I
never claimed that I did. I simply set forth the early
belief of the followers of Jesus.

Question. It was the belief, then, was it, that after
the sepulcher was found empty, Jesus could and did
walk about the country, that he had flesh and bones,
and an appetite and did eat? (35)

Answer. That certainly was the belief when I
wrote.

(32)   Luke 24, ?. 23.

(33)   Mardon wrote a Gospel about the time of Luke and he
says that there were “two men in white clothes” at the sepulcher.
Some say that Luke copied largely from Marcion. We will see
about that further along.

(34)   Luke 1, v. 1 to 3.

(35)   Luke 24, v. 29 to 43.
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 319

Question. Do you, Luke, claim that you were in-
spired when you wrote your Gospel?

Answer. I never claimed inspiration. I wrote down
simply the things believed by Jesus’ followers, in my
day and time. (36)

Question. Luke, you say that they eat and drink in
heaven. (37) How is that?

Answer. How could they live if they did not eat?

Question. Your heaven, then, is something like this
present world?

Answer: Except that the wicked are in hell. (38)

Question. You say the righteous "eat and drink in
heavennow will not the wicked in hell perish unless
they also "eat and drink?”

Answer: I never thought of that. (39)

Question: Luke, you say (40) that there was dark-
ness over all the earth from the sixth to the ninth hour
at the time of the crucifixion. Is that true?

Answer. Yes, that is true.

Question. Now, Luke, that is false; absolutely
false; for the Passover and crucifixion were at the full
of the moon? and it is impossible for an eclipse of the
sun at the full of the moon. The laws of the universe
here flatly contradict you. An eclipse of the sun con

(36)   Luke 1, v. 1.

(37)   Lake 22, v. 30.

(38)   Lnke 16, ?. 23.

(39)   The Natchez Indiana in Mississippi, answered that question
much better than Luke. The good Indians, they said, would feast
on green corn and venison and fish, and have plenty of blankets;
the bad Indians would live, they said, on stinking fish, old croco-
dile legs, and have no blankets at all.

(40)   Ch. 23, v. 44 to 45.
 320 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

only occur at new moon. To produce an eclipse of
the sun, the sun, moon and earth must be in a straight
line. The moon must be interposed between the sun
and earth. Eclipses of the sun must always come from
the west. Now, Luke, what do you say to that?

Answer. Well, I am not an astronomer and did
not know of such things when I wrote.

Question. But, don’t you see, Luke, that the sun
could only be darkened by an eclipse? and there was
no eclipse at the full moon, and the Passover and cruci-
fixion were at the full of the moon ?

Answer. I wrote down only what people believed.

Question. Luke, in chapter 24, v. 33 to 51, you
mention the meeting of Jesus and the eleven in Jerusa-
lem; and his ascension at Bethany; but Matthew says
(41) Jesus appointed Galilee as the place to meet his
disciples, and that they met him there. How is it that
you and Matthew disagree ? You both cannot be right.

Answer. Bethany was the place of the ascension;
not Galilee.

Question. But, Luke, you are contradicted by
Mark, also. He says (42) that Galilee was the ap-
pointed place to meet Jesus’ disciples. What have you
to say about that?

Answer. I was told that the ascension was from
Bethany.

Question. How soon after the crucifixion do you
place the ascension of Jesus?

(41)   Ch. 28, v. 7 to 10.

(42)   Ch. 10, v. 7.
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 321

Answer. Within two or three days following the
resurrection.

Question. Where do you say Jesus’ ascension took
place?

Answer. It took place in Bethany, about two miles
from Jerusalem.

Question. Luke, did you write that work called
“Acts of the Apostles?”

Answer. I am credited with it.

Question. In your gospel you have Jesus ascend
within a day or so after the crucifixion; but in “The
Acts” (43) he was, so you say, seen alive thereafter
by the apostles "forty days.” Please explain your con-
tradictions made by yourself of yourself.

Answer. The Acts were written some years later
and the tradition had changed.

Question. But which is right: did Jesus ascend from
Bethany, as you say in your Gospel, in a day or so
after the crucifixion; or was it forty days thereafter?
(44)

Answer. I cannot tell.

Question. You say (45) “the moon will be turned
into blood.” Don’t you know that that is all nonsense ?

Answer. Well, that is what people believed in my
day.

(43)   Ch. 1, v. 3.

(44)   Matthew and Mark send the disciples to Galilee, sixty-five
or seventy miles distant from Jerusalem. Luke contradicts them
flatly and says the ascension took place in Bethany, two miles
from Jerusalem. See Matt. 28, v. 16; Mark 16, v. 7; Luke, per
contra, ch. 24, v. 50 and 51.

(45)   Acts 2, v. 20.
 322 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

Question. And you wrote it down?

Answer. Yes, that was what the people believed.

Question. You say (46) Jesus “was taken up and
a doud received him out of sight.” Please state how
you know that.

Answer. It was the belief of the Apostles; I did not
see it.

Question. But, Luke, how is it that no one of those
Apostles utters a word about this ascension which you
mention?

Answer. I cannot answer that. I do not know.

(46)   Acts 1, v. 9 and 10.
 CHAPTER XXVIII
John and His Curious Gospel.

Section i. Some writers are so extravagant in
their statements that we are led unwillingly to utterly
discredit their whole story.

The author of the fourth Gospel is of this class.
In his very first chapter he makes the extraordinary
statement that Jesus made this world (i) and that God
begat him. (2) He misled Paul into making the same
wild, foolish statement (3) ; and many others since that
day have followed John’s false light. Moreover, John
tells us that Jesus said: ‘‘He that hath seen me, hath
seen the Father.” (4)

Now, if it was John of Galilee, the fisherman of
Nazareth, the son of Zebedee, who wrote the fourth
canonical, he ought, being a Jew, to have known that
Genesis says:   “In the beginning God created the

heavens and the earth.” That statement is easy to
believe, but when John tells us that a Nazarene boy,
“who was subject to his parents,” (5) and worked 1

(1)   John 1, v. 10.

(2)   John 1, v. 14.

(3)   Hebrews 1, v. 2.

(4)   John 14, v. 9.

(5)   Luke 2, v. 51.

323
 324 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

at the carpenter's bench, made the world, we stoutly
dispute it.

Is it any wonder that the Jews asked: “Is not this
the carpenter, the son of Mary, and are not his broth-
ers and sisters here with us?” (6) Jesus* reply, “A
prophet is not without honor save in his own country*’
was sensible and consoling. He did not reply: “I made
the world,” and we may well ask: if Jesus made this
world, who made all the millions and millions of
worlds around us? (7)

Another very improbable story, told by John, is
that Jesus turned or made some water instantly into
wine of such fine flavor that the governor of the feast
was highly pleased with it. (

Still another world-wide story told by John is that
Jesus raised Lazarus, who had been dead four days—
so long, in fact, that Martha, his sister, said: “By this
time, Lord, he stinketh.” (9)

Jesus approached the cave, or grave, and ordered

(6)   Mark 6, v. 3.

(7)   John 6, ?. 42.

(   John 2. John, it is said, wrote against Cerinthus, a Jewish
philosopher and writer, who composed a gospel wherein he insisted
that Jesus was not born of a virgin, but was the son of Joseph
and Mary, the same as their other children. Cerinthus was born
about 70 years A. D. and wrote about 120 to 140 A. D. It is said
that John, while in a bath, saw Cerinthus and leaped out and ran
away. He claimed that Cerinthus was a heretic. Irenaeus makes
this statement of the incident of the bath, but Ireneeus himself is
often carried away by his prejudices.

But I have always questioned whether John, the ignorant, clumsy
fisherman, was capable of such a task. Whoever was the author
of the fourth gospel, he contradicts the virgin story of Matthew.
(Matt. 1, 18 to 25) and (Luke 1, v. 26 to 36.)

(9)   John 11, v. 39.
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 325

This Golgotha case is the only one in all history
where it is alleged that three hours on the cross proved
fatal to anyone. Jesus probably had only swooned,
and in the evening revived and escaped.
 CHAPTER XXV.

The Miracles of Jesus' Appearance to the
Disciples.

Section i. The resurrection was promised to take
place the third day; though Mark says “after three
days.” But Jesus was not in the tomb three days. It
may be that he got out the very night he was put
there. No one has ever told, or ever can tell, just
when he left that sepulcher, (i)

He was put there on Friday afternoon or evening;
and he was out very early Sunday morning; but how
long had he been out when first seen? That is the
question. Mark says, “Jesus was risen early the first
day of the week.” But Mark 8, v. 31, says he shall
rise after three days. Who knows but that Joseph
may have discovered some signs of life when wrap-
ping him in that linen cloth ? But it seems that a few
hours in that sepulcher had so changed him that Mag-
dalen took him to be the gardener. (2) The farthest
stretch of time that he was in that tomb was
twenty to thirty hours. What virtue in having
him stay there three days? Is not that a feeble copy
of Jonah in the whale’s belly? Even Mark himself, in 1 2

(1)   Matt. 17:23; Lake ?. 22; Luke 8, ?. 33; Mark 8, v. 31,
?ays “after three days.”

(2)   John 20:15.

292
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 293

his vague statement, does not say that Jesus remained
in the sepulchre three days.

If he had power to lay down his life and take it up
again, could he not resurrect himself at any time? (3)

Matthew says: “There was a great earthquake and
an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came
and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon
it.” His countenance was like lightning and his rai-
ment was white as snow. (4)

That angel understood the Aramean tongue, for it
was the language of Palestine; and he spake to Mag-
dalen and others, and told them to go quickly and tell
the disciples that Jesus was risen and gone into Gali-
lee, where they would find him. But -Matthew was
mistaken about that angel; for Mark says “as Magda-
len and those others approached the sepulchre, they
began to question who should roll away the stone.
They looked, and behold it was already rolled away.
Whereupon they entered the sepulchre, and found a
young man clothed in a long white garment,” who,
seeing that the women were affrighted, calmed their

(3)   John 10, y. 17 and 18.

(4)   Matt. 28, v. 2; Mark 16, v. 2, and Mark 16, v. 9. Mat-
thew ought to have told us who informed him that an angel came
down and rolled that stone away. Luke 24, v. 1, says they came
“very early1 ’ to the tomb. John says “when it was yet dark
Magaalen came,1 ’ etc. John 20, v. 1. But John is always wild.

Matt. 28, v. 1 to 7, ought to have given his authority about that
angel. Neither Mark nor Luke, nor even John, in his wild ex-
travagance of statement, mentions any earthquake; nor does any
writer of history make any mention of an earthquake at that
time; and yet Matthew says, “It was a great earthquake.99 He
probably copied from those Hindu fables, Vol. XI, p. 116, S. B. E.,
where we are told that at the moment of Buddha’s exit a great
earthquake shook the earth (Fo Sho Sec. 2104).
 394 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

fears and bade them say to his disciples: "Jesus is
risen" and gone into Galilee. (5)

Trembling and amazed, those women fled from the
sepulchre; and when Magdalen (of the seven devils)
found the disciples, they were mourning and weeping
and refused to believe her story.

In other words, they did not believe in the resur-
rection, though they had been often told about it.
They believed Jesus to be dead beyond any earthly
or heavenly help. Those disciples must have heard
him repeatedly say that he must suffer death and be
raised again the third day. (6) Still they did not
believe it. How could they believe such an amazing
story? No such thing had ever before happened in
all this world; and nothing like it has ever happened
since. They seem never to have heard of Bethany and
Lazarus and his four days of syncope in the tomb, (7)
nor did they believe that he would be raised the third
day; otherwise they would not have stood aloof
unbelieving, weeping and disconsolate. (

Section 2. Let us now see what Luke, the Italian,
has to say about this matter. He tells the story of
those women bringing spices to the sepulcher and find-
ing the stone rolled away from the door; and that they
entered; and, behold, two men stood by them in 5 6 7 8

(5)   Mark 16, ?. 8 to 12.

(6)   Matt. 16, ?. 21; Luke 9, v. 22; Matt. 17, y. 23.

(7)   John 11, v. 32 to 44. John was not as honest as an Illinois
clergyman, who, when pressed for his opinion about Lazarus’
resurrection, replied, “I have often thought, brethren, that per-
haps Lazarus was not quite dead/’

(   Mark 16, v. 10.
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES ags

shining garments. The women were frightened and
bowed their faces to the earth. Those men said:
“Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is
risen.” (9)

When Magdalen told these things to the disciples,
“they seemed as idle tales and they believed them not.”
Peter, to test the truth thereof, ran to the sepulcher,
where he found only the linen clothes. (10) Those
“two men in shining garments” had utterly disap-
peared. Whence they came or whither they went, or
who they were, or what their mission to the sepulcher,
no human being, for now nearly nineteen hundred
years, has been able to tell.

Perhaps during all these centuries those angels in
white garments have existed only in the towering
imagination of that woman of the seven devils. (11)

John enlarges upon this story of Luke, and instead
of two men in shining garments, they became, under
his facile pen, "two angels in white ” one of them sit-
ting at the head and the other at the feet where the
body of Jesus had lain. (12)

Luke, as we have just observed, knows nothing
about any angels whatever at the tomb. But John

(0) Lake 24, v. 5.

(10)   Luke 24, v. 1 to 12.

(11)   John 20, v. 12.

(12)   John 20, v. 12, has “two angels in white.” Matthew has
only one angel (Matt. 28, t. 1), but that angel has “a counte-
nance like lightning.” Mark has but one young man in “a long
white garment” (Mark 16, t. 5). Luke 24, v. 5, has no angeU
at the tomb, but he has two men in shining garments. Which of
these four men was inspired f All those four conflicting state-
ments cannot be true.
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A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

says he ran with Peter and, in fact, he outran Peter
to the sepulcher. But John did not enter until Peter
came up and went into the tomb, then John followed
and they found the linen and the napkins; nothing
more.

Here now follows this startling line: “As yet his
disciples knew not the Scripture, that he must rise
again from the dead.” Yet Matthew (13) tells
us that Jesus had preached that doctrine to his dis-
ciples, and Luke 9, v. 22, and Mark 8, v. 31, say the
same. If John was inspired, did he forget his inspira-
tion? (14) Jesus had been preaching, so we are
told, more than a year about his death and resurrection,
John no doubt being present. (15)

Sec. 3. Moreover, John himself, if he wrote the
fourth gospel (16) mentions the miraculous about

(13)   Ch. 16, v. 21.

(14)   John 20, v. 9.

(15)   Matt. 16, v. 21; Mark 8, v. 31; Luke 9, v. 22.

(16)   John, the son of Zebedee, was an uneducated, clumsy,
phlegmatic fisherman. There is no sure unimpeachable record that
he was ever in Ephesus. Paul traveled up and down in Asia
Minor, establishing churches for fifteen or sixteen years, and he
makes no mention of John, the son of Zebedee. There were two
Johns: John the Presbyter, and John the Fisherman. Ireneus,
who wrote about 182 to 188 A. D., is the authority for John of
Galilee being in Ephesus. He is also the one who insisted that
Jesus was fifty years old at the time of the crucifixion (Ireneus
vs. Heresies, Book 2, ch. 22, sec. 6). Ireneus was born 120 to
140 A. D. and died about 202 A. D. He believed that the Father,
Son and Holy Ghost were all equal in the trinity.

Tertulian, the African, later came to the help of Ireneus, but
he broke down his own evidence by saying that John of Galilee
was banished to Patmos after having "been boiled in oil. John
the Presbyter probably wrote the Second and Third Epistles, where-
in he styles himself the Elder. John of Galilee was not a Greek
scholar. This whole question being in sharp dispute, I will only
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 397

Jesus. He says that Jesus turned water into wine;
that he came down from heaven; and that Jesus was
“before Abraham.” (17) “He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father.” (18)

Sec. 4. There are some other incomprehensible
things about this resurrection matter which now take
place. The same day that Peter and John ran to the
sepulcher and found it empty, two of the disciples
went to Emmaus, a village about seven miles from
Jerusalem; and while on their way Jesus joined them,
so we are told, and went with them, and talked with
them. They told him certain women had seen a vision
of angels, which said that Jesus was alive; and when
they reached the village they besought him to tarry
with them. (19)

All this time those men knew not to whom they
were talking; but at supper they recognized him, and
“he vanished out of sight.” (20)

Is it not surprising that those men did not notice the
nail holes in Jesus’ hands and feet? Besides, how
could he walk without limping? His feet must have
been very sore from the nail holes. Astonished at
what had happened, they returned at once to Jerusa-

observe that the author of Revelations was gifted with a glowing
imagination. John of the Fourth Gospel wrote theology, but not
a gospel of love.

(17)   John 1, v. 10 and John 2, ?. 1 to 10; John 6, v. 38; John
8, v. 58.

(18)   John 14, v. 9.

(19)   Luke 24, v. 12 and 13.

(20)   Luke 24, v. 31.
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

*98

lem, where they found the eleven; and while talking
to them “Jesus stood in their midst,” and said, “behold
my hands and feet; that it is I myself; handle me and
see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me
have.” Still they did not believe. (21) Whereupon
Jesus asked for meat, and they gave him a piece of
broiled fish and some honeycomb, and he ate before
them. (22) That spear thrust, it seems, had not in-
jured his stomach. (23)

Jesus was, therefore, at that time not a spirit. He
was flesh and blood, and had a stomach, and was
hungry, and did eat; at least such is the narrative of
Luke, and John indirectly corroborates him. (24)

At these gatherings, Thomas, one of the disciples,
was absent; and when told of these things, said he
would not believe them unless he could see the prints
of the nails, and thrust his hand into the wound made
by the spear. John now fixes this all up; wherein he
says, eight days later, the disciples, including Thomas,
were in a room, “the doors being shut” (25) and
Jesus passed through those closed doors and stood in
the midst of them and said: “Thomas, reach hither thy

(21)   Luke 24, v. 39 to 43; John 20, v. 27. John says Jesus
asked Thomas to thrust his hand into his side.

(22)   This is to show, no doubt, that if there is to be a resur-
rection, it is to be a bodily resurrection. I am staggered at this;
for if these bodies are to be resurrected and come back and
people the earth again, the question of food and raiment will
likewise come back, and it is the old strife over again.

(23)   John 19, v. 34.

(24)   The spear, while on the cross, had not injured Jesus1
stomach; for we see here that he could eat.

(25)   John 20, v. 26.
 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 299

finger and behold my hands; thrust thy hand into my
side, and be not faithless, but believing." (26)

The reader will notice that even after eight days the
nail holes were there, and that wound in the side was
still there, for doubting Thomas was told to thrust his
hand into it.

Moreover, as the soldiers at the crucifixion had di-
vided Jesus’ garments among themselves, wherewith
was Jesus clothed while wandering about the country
from Jerusalem to Galilee?

It may be that those “men in shining garments’’
who were seen at the tomb, furnished him with proper
raiment; but the record here makes no mention of his
having on any apparel whatever.

(26)   John 20, v. 24 to 30.
 CHAPTER XXVI.

Death—or Syncope?

Section i. It is a marvelous story that Matthew,
Malic and Luke tell us, but in some things, as we shall
see directly, they do not quite agree. John (i) tells
us of the thrust of the spear, but he stabs his own
evidence when he adds that “this was done” that not
a bone should be broken (lest an old Mosaic law be
violated) (2) John, however, contradicts himself,
for he says Jesus was dead, even before the spear
touched him. (3)

Upon the very point wherein we would like to be
fully informed, John fails us utterly. He thinks some
blood and water came from the pierced side; but of the
severity of the wound he is discreetly silent. Jesus’
death, as we have already said, after only three hours 1 2 * * * * * 8

(1)   Ch. 10, v. 34.

(2)   Exodus 12, v. 46, is an old rule concerning the Passover,

and has nothing in common with the crucifixion. Neither has

Numbers, ch. 9, v. 12. Psalms 34, v. 20, which is quoted to sus-
tain the spear-thrust, says “many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth
all hie bones: not one of them is broken.’1 But they would have

broken his legs if he had not swooned. A lawyer who would

quote authorities so foreign to the point would be laughed out of
court. Yet there is a great and interesting question, and a trick

and cheat is offered to show why Jesus’ legs were not broken.

(   John 19, v. 33.

300
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A QUESTION OF MIRACLES

on the cross, we may fairly doubt. (4) Suppose they
had severed his head from his body, as the executioner
did that of Charles I or Louis XVI; would we believe
that he could place his head back again, and on the
same day take a walk with those men to Emmaus?
Decapitated, his veins would be empty; how then?
Nor is that other foolish story that he was bom of a
virgin, necessary to his greatness. He was born, no
doubt, and nourished and grew the same as any other
boy in Nazareth.

His father, Joseph, was a carpenter, and Jesus as-
sisted him.

This boy, by reason of his wonderful genius, rose
above his humble parentage; and, after death, legends
and fictions gathered thickly about his great name.
John of the Fourth Gospel undertook to make him pre-
existent. But in asserting that he came down from
heaven, he only copies, in diluted form, an old Hindu
superstition, that Gotama, nearly five hundred years
before, likewise came down from heaven to save the
world.

Section 2. A copyist and imitator always goes be-
yond his original, and it is so with John; he wrote
down audaciously that this Galilean boy made the
world, and he says: “He that hath seen me, hath seen
the Father” (5), “and without him was not anything
made that was made.” (6) 4 5 6

(4)   Luke 23, v. 44; Mark 15, v. 25. Jeans swooned about the
ninth hour; Matt. 27, t. 46 to 51.

(5)   John 14, v. 0.

(6)   John 1, v. 1 to 10.
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A QUESTION OF MIRACLES