Horus, Gilgames, Apollo, Theseus, Romulus, Cyrus, and other solar heroes, Jesus has a long course before him. Like them, he grows up wise and strong, and the 'old serpent' is discomfited by him, just as the sphinx and the dragon are put to flight by others.'

"The temptation by, and victory over, the evil one, whether Mara or Satan, is the victory of the sun over the clouds of storm and darkness. In his struggle with darkness the sun remains the conqueror, and the army of Mara or Satan is broken or scattered; the Apearas, daughters of the demon, the last light vapours which float in the heaven, try in vain to clasp and retain the vanquisher; he disengages himself from their embraces, repulses them; they writhe, lose their form, and vanish." Free from every obstacle and adversary, the sun journeys across space, having defeated the attempts of his eternal foe; and, appearing in all his glory and sovereign splendour, the god has attained the summit of his course. It is the moment of triumph.

The "agony in the garden" and sweating great drops of blood has a very clear Bacchantian reference to the wine press, and the compression of the grapes-first the blood of the red grape, then the "lees" or vinegar, which was given him to drink. The process is then "finished." "And the wine press was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the wine press, even unto the horses' bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs " (Rev. xiv. 20).

The autumnal crossing, or crucifixion of the sun, is seen in the crucifixion of all "saviours." Before he dies he sees all his disciples-the stars, his retinue of light, and his twelve apostles-the twelve hours of the day, twelve months of the year, and signs of the zodiac, disappear in the sanguinary mêlée of the clouds of evening. At last he has reached his extreme southern limit, his career is ended, for he is overcome by his enemies—the powers of darkness and of winter. The bright summer sun, having been crucified, is now slain. Throughout the narrative the sun-god is but fulfilling his doom-"These things must be." "Many women were there beholding from afar." In the tender mother and the fair maidens we have the dawn (Eos) who bore him, and the fair and beautiful lights which flash the eastern sky as the sun sinks or dies in the west (these lights

can only be understood by those who have seen them; there is nothing like them in this country). Their tears are the tears of dew, such as Eos weeps at the death of her child.

All the sun gods forsake their homes and virgin mothers, and wander through different countries doing marvellous things. Finally, at the end of their career, the mother from whom they were parted is by their side to cheer them in their last hours. They were to be found at the last scene in the life of Buddha, Edipus (another sun), Hercules, Apollo, Prometheus, etc.

"There was darkness over the land." This is the sun sinking slowly down, with the ghastly hues of death upon his face, while none are nigh to cheer him, save the everfaithful women. After a long struggle against the dark clouds who are arrayed against him, he is finally overcome and dies. Blacker and blacker grow the evening shades, and finally "there is darkness on the face of the earth, and the din of its thunder crashes through the air." "He descended into hell." This is the sun's descent into the lower regions. It enters the sign Capricornus, or the Goat, the astronomical winter begins, and the days have reached their shortest span. For three days and nights he remains in Hell, the lower regions.

The "resurrection " is seen in the return of the sun from the lower or far-off regions, when spring commences, the sun rising in Aries and the equator crossing the ecliptic. The festival used to be kept on March 25th. At the winter solstice the ancients wept and mourned for Tammuz, the fair Adonis, and other sun-gods, done to death by the boar, or crucified-slain by the thorn of winter—and on the third day they rejoiced at the resurrection of their Lord of Light. The Church endeavoured to give a Christian significance to the rites, which they borrowed from heathenism; and in this case the mourning for Tammuz, the fair Adonis, became the mourning for Jesus; and joy at the rising of the natural sun became joy at the rising of the "Sun of Righteousness -at the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. Jesus, as judge of the living and the dead, is again the sun, seeing from his throne in the heavens all that is done on earth. The Vedas speaks of Surya-the sun-as seeing and hearing all things, noting the good and evil deeds of men.

The second coming of Jesus is also an astronomical allegory, with that of Vishnu (Krishna) and other sun-gods. The "white horse" which figures so conspicuously in legend and in Revelation was the universal symbol of the sun with oriental nations.

"The sacred legends abound with such expressions as can have no possible application to any other than to the 'god of day.' He is the 'light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory (or brightness) of his people.' He is come 'a light into the world, that whosoever believeth in him should not abide in darkness.' He is 'the light of the world'; and 'is light, and in him no darkness is.' 'Lighten our darkness, O Adonai, and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night.' God of god, light of light, very god of very god' (Creed). 'Merciful Adonai, we beseech thee to cast thy bright beams of light upon thy Church' (Catholic Collect St. John). To thee all angels cry aloud, the heavens, and all the powers therein. Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory (or brightness). The glorious company of the (twelve months or) apostles praise thee. Thou art the king of glory (brightness), O Christ! When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man, thou passest through the constellation or zodiacal sign-the virgin. When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of winter, thou didst open the kingdom of heaven (i.e., bring on the reign of the summer months), to all believers."

We see, then, that "Christ" Jesus, like the "Christs" Buddha, Krishna, Mithra, Osiris, Horus, Apollo, Hercules, and others, is none other than a personification of the SUN, and that the Christians, like their predecessors, the Pagans, are really sun-worshippers.

Though Sakya Muni-Prince Buddha, Cyrus King of Persia, Alexander King of Macedonia, and Joshua-benPandira (Jesus) may have lived and been historical personages, the mythical characters to whom the above names are attached never lived in the flesh.

"The sun myth has been added to the histories of these personages in a greater or less degree, just as it has been added to the history of many other real personages. After the Jews had been taken captives to Babylon, around the history of their King Solomon accumulated the tables which

P

were related of Persian heroes......When the fame of Cyrus and Alexander became known over the then known world, the popular sun-myth was interwoven with their true history."

That the biography of Jesus as recorded in the N. T. "contains some few grains of actual history is all that the historian or philosopher can rationally venture to urge. But the very process which has stripped these legends of the birth, life, and death of the sun, of all value as a chronicle of actual events, has invested them with a new interest. They present to us a form of society and a condition of thought through which all mankind had to pass before the dawn of history. Yet that state of things was as real as the time in which we live. They who spoke the language of these early tales were men and women with joys and sorrows not unlike our own.' ""*

* T. W. Doane, Bible Myths.

THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS NOT ORIGINAL-THE NONFULFILMENT OF HIS CHIEF PROPHECY, AND THE CONSEQUENT RISE OF MODERN RELIGIOUS CHARLATANISM.

WE often hear of the beauty and charm of the teachings of the Christian Messiah, and of how self-evident is their divine source. But, on investigation, we find that his doctrines do not bear the stamp of originality. Nor did he so far value them himself as to put them consistently into practice-e.g., having taught his followers that whosoever should call his brother a fool should be in danger of hellfire, he himself called the Pharisees fools, and so unconsciously pronounced his own sentence. His teachings were at variance with justice, self-respect, industry, prudence, wisdom, and knowledge of the world; and, in many instances, distinctly immoral; consisting of nonsensical platitudes, impossible advice, and ignorance of scientific knowledge. What there was good in his teaching he learned in his early youth from his ascetic teachers—the moral precepts taught by all the old Pagan religions.

If he had been a true Messiah, he would surely have utilized the opportunity afforded him when the lawyer came and asked him, before a large crowd, what he should do to inherit eternal life. Yet what happened? Did he adduce any striking proof of his divinity by enunciating new and wonderful precepts of wisdom and morality? No; he repeated, nearly word for word, certain maxims which he had culled from the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus. The commands given in Matt. vii. 22 and xxiii. 37-46 simply echo the teachings of previous sages.

In the Egyptian "Book of the Dead," the oldest scriptures in the world, we find the following: "To feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, bury the dead, loyally serve the king, forms the duty of the pious