He

and considers his plans for the formation of the world. first strips off the skin of Tiamat, and stretches it over the earth like a tent (see Isaiah xl. 22) to form the firmament of the heaven, stores up waters on the top, lights the interior, and appoints it as the stronghold of Anu, Bel, and Ea-the Babylonian trinity."*

The Persian "Zend-Avesta says that Ahriman threw the universe into disorder by raising an army against Ormuzd, and, after fighting against him for ninety days, was at length vanquished by Hanover, the "Divine Word."

66

The account of the war in heaven is similar to that held by nearly every nation. It was told of the infant Krishna, whose life was threatened by the tyrant Kansa, whom the former subsequently slew, and then descended into Hell to restore certain children to their sorrowing mothers. It was known to the Egyytians, Greeks, ancient Mexicans, Hindoos, and others. The Christian account is given in the Apocalypse or Revelation (xi. and xii.), which, curiously enough, instead of preceding Genesis in the Bible, is relegated to the end of the book. Michael and his angels fight against the Dragon-" that old serpent called the Devil and Satan," the latter being cast out into the earth, and his angels with him." The Assyrian Merodach becomes Michael, and the dragon Tiamat, Satan. Similar legends are given in the Apocryphal book of Nicodemus, the Talmud, and in the Hindu Aitareya Brahmana," written seven or eight centuries B.C. The Christian theory of Hell will not stand a moment's examination, for it is opposed to common sense, reason, and all sense of justice. Here we have presented to us a deity represented as a "God of love," "full of compassion" and of "tender mercy," creating man, a devil to tempt him to evil, and a hell where he may suffer to all eternity, prepared for those who "cannot believe" (John xii. 39), whom "the Father has "not drawn" (vi. 44), and to whom he has "sent a strong delusion, that they may believe a lie and be damned" (2 Thes. ii. 11). In other words, this Jewish and Christian deity creates an enormous crowd of people with the deliberate intention of seeing them tortured. The devil is expelled from heaven by the deity for rebellion, who -if the latter were omnipotent, as he is represented to be—

66

* From clay tablets discovered among the ruins of Nineveh.

H

could, by virtue of his omnipotence, have annihilated the former at once; and permits him to become "The Prince of the World," roaming about with a retinue of fallen angels, while retaining full powers for evil, to tempt man and entangle him in sin! This same rebellious and fallen angel is pictured at a later period in friendly conversation with Jesus-the deity incarnate-on a pinnacle of the temple, where he is permitted to tempt him (his God) to pay him divine honours, with the promise of becoming possessor of all he could see! Of course, such legendary nonsense is, to all intelligent people, too childish for logical argument; but there are many who willingly accept it without argument. The only way out of the difficulty regarding such a network of injustice towards man is to take up the ground that the deity was unable to destroy the devil, but was only powerful enough to expel him from heaven; by which we are landed in a serious dilemma-viz., that either the devil was equally powerful with God, by which would result two omnipotents -with the consequence that neither could have been omnipotent; or that the deity was not omnipotent, which the advocates of omnipotence would not allow. But surely, if the deity were able to annihilate the Medes, Persians, and various other nations of the world who displeased him, he could have exercised the same power over the rebellious angel in heaven? Again: man, who had no voice in his own creation, was created by the "Creator," whom, on taking a survey of his creations, he pronounced to be "good"¿.e., he was satisfied that man was perfect; though shortly after he regrets having made him, finding him not so perfect as he had at first supposed. But who was to blame for man's imperfections and frailties? The question requires no answer, it is so obvious, as is the legendary character of the whole story. Heaven," says Doane, was born of the sky, and nurtured by cunning priests, who made man a coward and a slave. Hell was built by priests, and nurtured by the fears and servile fancies of man during the ages when dungeons of torture were a recognized part of every government, and when the deity was supposed to be an infinite tyrant, with infinite resources of vengeance......the devil is an imaginary being, invented by primitive man to account for the existence of evil, and relieve the deity of his responsibility."

66

The apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus gives an account of the descent of the Christian Messiah into Hell, of his liberating the saints, rising again on the third day, and ascending, with them and Adam, into heaven; and of the attempt of Satan and the Prince of Hell to close the gates of Hell against him; when, in a voice as of thunder, accompanied by the rushing of winds, was heard: "Lift up your gates (of Hell), O ye Princes, and be ye lifted up, O ye everlasting gates, and the King of Glory shall come in." When the Prince of Hell heard this, he said to his impious officers: "Shut the brass gates..............and make them fast with iron bars, and fight courageously." The saints, having heard what had been said on both sides, immediately spoke with a loud voice, saying: "Open thy gates, that the King of Glory may come in." Again the voice of Jesus was heard, saying: "Lift up your gates, O Prince, and be ye lifted up, ye gates of Hell, and the King of Glory will enter in." The Prince of Hell then cried out: "Who is the King of Glory?" upon which the Prophet David commenced to reply to him; but, while he was speaking, the mighty Lord Jesus appeared in the form of a man, and broke asunder the fetters which before could not be broken, and, crying aloud, said: "Come to me, all ye saints, who were created in my image, who were condemned by the tree of the forbidden fruit......live now by the word of my cross." Then all the saints joined together hand in hand, and the Lord Jesus laid hold of Adam's hand, and ascended from Hell; and all the saints of God followed him. When the saints arrived in Paradise two " very ancient men" met them, and were asked by the saints: "Who are ye, who have not been with us in Hell, and have had your bodies placed in Paradise ?" One of the ancient men then answered: "I am Enoch, who was translated by the word of God; and this man who is with me is Elijah the Tishbite, who was translated in a fiery chariot." The story is interesting as showing the ideas held on the subject by the monkish writers. The first part of the narrative, "Lift up your gates," etc., is taken from Psalm xxiv. 7, but is incorrectly copied. The quotation is: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in." David is here singing a song to Yahuh about Heaven: it is made by the so-called

Fathers of the Church to refer to Hades, and by the English translators to foreshadow the Ascension. The above gospel has every evidence of being, like most of the others, of monkish origin, and probably not earlier than the fifteenth century; for the cross, as an emblem of salvation, was not known among early Christians; it was a Pagan emblem.

The following gods are said to have descended into Hell, and remained there for three days and nights, as the sun did at the winter stolstice; rising again as the sun did, when, at midnight on December 24th and 25th, he commenced his annual ascension :-Krishna, the Hindu Savior; Zoroaster, the Persian Saviour; Osiris and Horus, of Egypt; Adonis; Bacchus; and Hercules, who fetched the three-headed Cerberus from the region of the shades; also Mercury, Baldur, Quetzalcoatl, etc. A painted representation of Orpheus descending to Hades, and taming wild beasts there, is to be found in the catacombs.

The "descent into hell" was not added to the Apostles' Creed until after the sixth century. The Creed before that stood as follows :-"I believe in God the Father almighty; and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, our Lord; who was born of the Holy Ghost and Virgin Mary; and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and was buried; and the third day rose again from the dead; ascended into heaven; sitteth on the right hand of the Father; whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead; and in the Holy Ghost; the Holy Church; the remission of sins; and the resurrection of the flesh.—Amen." It is not to be understood that this Creed was framed by the apostles, or that it existed as a creed in their time. It was an invention of a much later period.

The descent into Hell was part of the universal mythos, the sun being the original hero. The saviours of mankind had all descended; therefore Jesus, to be a saviour, must also do so.

It was not, however, till the end of the thirteenth century that the Church of Rome, which, from an Apostolic primacy, had expanded into a colossal monarchy, hit upon the idea that Purgatory might be made to yield an immense revenue, and that the Pope could empty it by indulgences.

HEAVEN, ELYSIUM, and PARADISE.-All theories of

Heaven have had an astronomical origin, and the sky among ancient nations was always solid. Primitive man could not understand that a star could stand alone in space, or have a free motion of its own. The universe was supposed to be made up of concentric layers, like an onion. The Heaven of the Chaldæans consisted of three layers-the Heaven of the Planets, the Ethereal Heaven (containing the stars), and the Empyreal Heaven, or solid firmament of fire. The Persian Heavens were the same, only that they had separate Heavens for the sun and moon. But the system which was most popular was that which placed round the solid firmament a heaven of water, and, beyond this, a primum mobile, or prime mover of all the motions; and around the whole the Empyreal Heaven, or abode of the blessed. Some believed that the heavens moved on two pivots. The system of Ptolemy, as given by Cicero, consisted of nine circles. The outermost sphere was that of the Crystalline Heaven which surrounds all the others, the abode of the blessed; within this was the heaven of the firmament, in which were fixed the stars. Within these revolved the seven planets-Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. In the centre were the earth and water, surrounded by air; and outside that was fire, behind which, again, were ether and meteors.

We must understand that the earth of the Vedic priests was round and flat, like a table, and supported on twelve pillars, which the priests said were supported by the sacrifices made to the gods. The Hindu earth was hemispherical and supported on four huge elephants, which stood on an immense tortoise; that of the Chaldæans was hollow and boat-shaped; that of Anaximander, Lucippus, Democritus, Heraclitus, and Anaxagoras was a cylinder; that of Plato was a cube; that of Cosmas, an oblong, shaped like the Tabernacle; and that of the Egyptians, the most curious of them all, was a reclining figure partially covered with leaves; the vault of the heavens was formed by the elongated body of a goddess, bespattered with stars. Two boats were represented floating over her body-one upwards, carrying the rising sun; the other downwards, carrying the setting sun. In the centre was the god of divine intelligence, Maon, presiding over the equilibrium of the universe, and having a crux ansata suspended from arms and hands.