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 THE LIBRARY 
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 San DiEGO. 

 
 THEOLOGY AND MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 AN INQUIRY INTO THE CLAIMS 
 
 OF 
 
 BIBLICAL INSPIRATION 
 
 AND 
 
 THE SUPERNATURAL ELEMENT EELI5I0H. 
 
 BY 
 
 ALFRED n. O'DONOGHUE, 
 
 COUNSELOR AT LAW, 
 Formerly of. Trinity College, Dublin.' 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 CHARLES P. SOMERBY, 
 
 iS Bond Street. 
 
 1880.
 
 Copyrighted, 
 
 By C. P. Somerby, 
 
 1879. 
 
 C. P. Soaierby, 
 
 Electrotyper and Printer, 
 
 18 Bond-st., N. Y.
 
 
 TO MY FATHEU, 
 
 JAMES O'DONOGIiUE, Esq., 
 
 FAITIIFUf- IJf TxaE DISCIIAEGE OF ALL DUTIES, OF LIBERAL 
 
 CULTUKE AND MOST GENEROUS HEART, 
 
 * 
 
 THIS LITTLE WORK IS MOST RESPECTFULLY 
 DEDICATED, 
 
 ""by 
 
 The Author. 
 
 1644113 ■
 
 Not as adventitious, therefore, will the wise man regard the 
 faith which is in him. The higliest truth he sees he will fear- 
 lessly utter ; knowing that, let what may come of it, he is 
 thus playing his right part in tlie world — knowing that if he 
 can effect the change he aims at, well : if not — well, also, 
 though not so well. — IIekceiit Spencer.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 This little work is written in no spirit hostile to the 
 religious sentiment of mankind. It seeks merely to elim- 
 inate what is pm'ely false, without foundation in fact, and 
 fictitious in Christianity as now taught. The doctrines 
 that Jesus taught — the brotherhood of man and the con- 
 demnation of priestcraft — entitle him forever to the ad- 
 miration and gratitude of his race : for he must be 
 regarded, to do him justice, not alone a Jew, but em- 
 phatically, as he claimed for himself, the Son of Man. 
 
 The author claims, at least, sincerity of conviction in 
 Ills sentiments. Born, as it is expressed, in the Episco- 
 pal Church, and carefully educated in her doctrines, it 
 Avas only after entering the Dublin University, at the ago 
 of eighteen, with the intention, at the proper time — 
 which in tliat institution is the last year of the curricu- 
 lum — of entering the Divinity School, that his mind un- 
 derwent a great change both as to the so-called truths of 
 Revelation and the sincerity of belief held in those as- 
 sumed truths by over three-fourths of the ordained and 
 educated preachers of the gospel with whom he came in 
 contact. Tlie subsequent reading, for twenty years, of
 
 viii Preface. 
 
 books written on both sides of the question convinced 
 the writer that if he would XDreservc mental independ- 
 ence and avoid tJie moral crime of hypocrisy, he must 
 abandon the theory of miraculous interventions and vio- 
 lations of the Avell-known laws of nature. 
 
 So far, personal. The subject of the supernatural 
 and miraculous is discussed, T believe, fairly in the fol- 
 lowing pao-es. The work was written in the evenings oi 
 a winter v/hen free from professional labor. Residing in 
 a portion of the country wdiere access to libraries was 
 almost impossible, the work is by no means as complete 
 as it would otherwise have been. He is aware of its 
 many deficiencies both in style of composition and ar- 
 rangement of matter; yet, such as it is, and, in view of 
 the ecclesiastical influence now warring against our free 
 schools, as a protest against the clerical domination of 
 all churches which bring their influence to bear perni- 
 cipusly both upon public affairs and domestic relations, I 
 submit this essay to the lovers of free thought and free 
 speech throughout the United States. 
 
 The Author.
 
 THEOLOGY AND MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 A DEEP and constantly increasing interest is mani- 
 fested in the vexed question of the attitude of Science to 
 Theology and of Reason to Revelation. The subject is 
 by no means a novel one. From the dim dawn of human 
 civilization, man has been engaged in speculation as to 
 his origin, his place in nature, and the possibility, proba- 
 bility or certainty of living again after he had passed off 
 the stage of mundane existence. There is no lack of 
 books written by men of great ability and learning on 
 the subject of the antiquity of man. Geologists assert 
 that the planet we inhabit has been in existence for a 
 period embracing millions of years, and, from indisputa- 
 ble prehistoric traces left behind him, have concluded 
 that hundreds of thousands of years have elapsed since 
 the primitive man first roamed the waste places of earth. 
 At the outset it must be admitted that the subject of the 
 origin of our race or of animal life upon this globe is in-
 
 10 Theology and ]\[ythology. 
 
 vols'cd in profound and almost inextricable mystery. In 
 tlic contem2:)lation of it we are lost in a wilderness of 
 perplexity. We roam in every direction, seeking a patli 
 that may lead to the clear light, and find ourselves, when 
 the slanting rays of the setting sun fall upon the close of 
 the long day's journey, as fiir from obtaining a satisfactory 
 solution of the great problem of existence as we were 
 when we first entered upon the pursuit. We shout from 
 man to man and from church to clmrcli for instruction 
 down the darkened ages ; but the only echo back is " the 
 voice of one crying in the wilderness." One church 
 cries, " Follow me — I know the way." Another, "My 
 compass is true and never deviates." But, as we travel 
 tlie paths of the self-constituted leaders, we find only the 
 tracks of those who have preceded us, whitening the way- 
 side, century after century, as the bleached bones of 
 camels that have perished from thirst in the sandy desert 
 mark the course of hapless caravans. Life to all of us 
 is a solemn fact ; to many, a sad one. Busy ourselves 
 as we may in what are considered its chief pursuits — the 
 acquisition of wealth, power, place, reputation, honorable 
 distinction in professional calling or the discharge of do- 
 mestic duties — there will nevertheless recur at times the 
 mournful consideration of the vanity of all evanescent 
 enjoyments and pursuits; and the man who thinks, aa 
 well as the man who laughs, will ask himself, " Whence 
 came I ? Where am I ? And where do I go when the 
 process called death disintegrates body and brain? 
 What is soul ? What is spirit ? What is God ? Is 
 matter eternal ? Does intelligence govern the uni- 
 verse, or is law self-evolved and inherent in matter?" 
 The remark of the Hebrew poet, that " we are fearfully
 
 Theology and Mythology. 11 
 
 and wonderfully made," though possessing no striking 
 novelty, ia profoundly true. Wo have capacities of the 
 highest order. Science enables us to traverse the path- 
 less ocean with as much ease and safety as we would the 
 streets of a familiar city. We can weigh the stars and 
 measure their distances ; yet of ourselves we know almost 
 nothing. AVe entertain tolerably accurate ideas of time 
 and space ; yet, when we extend these ideas so as to em- 
 brace infinity of space aiid eternity of duration — when 
 we endeavor in some sort to realize the necessary exist- 
 ence of infinity and eternity — we find our reasoning 
 powers confused at the vastness of the contemplation. 
 The ordinary exercise of reason almost immediately con- 
 vinces, us that time never had a becjinninof and can have 
 no termination ; yet so magnificent and appalling are 
 these very conceptions, that the mind fails to grasp them 
 in their limitless grandeur. 
 
 It has long been established as a metaphysical axiom 
 that all human knowledge is derived from sensation and 
 reflection. Theologians have, however, in all ages held 
 that there exists another source of knowledge, communi- 
 cated to man in a miraculous and supernatural manner. 
 Anciently it was vulgarly believed that God held inter- 
 course with man in dreams, by visions and oracular 
 responses. Homer makes Achilles to say, "But, come, 
 let us ask some prophet or priest, or interpreter of 
 dreams — for dreams are from Dios — why Phoebus Apollo 
 is angered." So common had tlie practice become in 
 ancient times of seeking knowledge supposed to be di- 
 vinely inspired, even embracing the most ordinary trans- 
 actions of daily Jife, that we find the so-called Jewish 
 liistorical writings abounding witli frequent reference to
 
 12 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 the practice. Saul, the first king of Israel, when he lost 
 his father's asses consulted Samuel the prophet. And in 
 this connection we are incidentally informed that, " Be- 
 fore time in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, 
 thus he spake : Come, let us go to the seer ; for he that 
 is now called a prophet was beforetime called a seer." 
 In these pages the inquiry shall be, whether trutli, com- 
 monly called divine, has been at all, miraculously, in 
 times past, conveyed to man ; ^ivhether he has had any 
 revelation, sure and unerring, made to him by a Being 
 who is the source of all light ; or whether all knowledge 
 has not been self-acquired and suggested to him by the 
 phenomena that surround him ? 
 
 No age that has elapsed since the death of Christ has 
 been marked by more mental activity and restlessness 
 than the present. In all branches of inquiry men arc 
 fiercely and aggressively in earnest. Earth, air and wa- 
 ter are daily ransacked by seekers after knowledge. In 
 the silent watches of the night sleepless sentinels sweep 
 with their telescopes the starry heavens, awaiting the 
 advent of a new world. To solve a geographical p"ob- 
 lem, men freely and eagerly abandon the pleasures of 
 civilized life and wrestle with death in the dreary and 
 silent waters of polar seas. They perish miserably amid 
 the frozen barriers of eternal ice that guard the frontiers 
 of nature, or leave their unburied bones on the burning 
 sand of some Sahara in the heart of an unexplored con- 
 tinent. Others, on whom fortune has laid no necessity 
 to labor, work into the bosom of the earth, not to snatch 
 from her the prized bauble the v»'orld worships, but the 
 greater wealth of knowledge. Science strikes the rock
 
 Theology and IFytliolorjy. 13 
 
 with a rod more potent than the magic wand of Moses, 
 and oil flows where water trickled ! The Jewish law- 
 giver wrote ten precepts on stone : Geology has written 
 on the rocks the history of the world ! 
 
 It is common to praise the past and to reverence the 
 annals of antiquity. For this there exists no valid rea- 
 son. Age alone stamps value upon nothing. The past 
 has indeed bequeathed us a few names that neither rust 
 nor mildew has fallen upon. For them, no honor tliat 
 the after ages have given is beyond their desert. They 
 shine like briglit beacons across the gloomy waste of 
 dark and barren ages. Tlie orators, poets, teachers and 
 philosophers of Greece and Rome were great men, not 
 ^relatively, but positively ; j^et, as the low sun lengthens 
 the shadow, so their reputation has been increased by the 
 medium througli which it- was reflected. The standard 
 of general culture and intelligence is far liigher now than 
 ever. For " the thoughts of men are widened with the 
 process of the suns," and men of eminence in their 
 several callings who attract no special attention, would, 
 liad they lived in the " dark ages," be considered prodi- 
 gies of learning and intellectual giants. When Paul 
 and Barnabas preached the gospel and healed the sick 
 at Lysti'a, the wonder -loving Lycaonians cried out, " The 
 gods are come down to us in the likeness of men," and 
 th.ey called Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul Mercurius be- 
 cause he was the chief speaker. 
 
 "VVe have had some very fine public speakers in mod- 
 ern times, yet blind adulation never attributed to any of 
 them a divine origin. No man who bestows attention 
 upon the tendency of modern thought can fail to perceive 
 that a silent struggle for final mastery is being daily
 
 14 Theology and Ifythology. 
 
 waged between the claims of " Divine Inspiration " and 
 scientific and philosophical inquiry. This conflict varies 
 essentially from any that has preceded it. True, indeed, 
 Galileo souglit to paint the sunrise of Science on the 
 shadow of night ; Luther, Servetus, Melancthon, Bruno 
 and others braved the terrors of the Inquisition in de- 
 fense of what they conceived to be religious truth ; but 
 these conflicts sink into insignificance compared with the 
 magnitude of the present one. Formerly, ponderous 
 books were written, full of wearisome scholarship and 
 logical refinement, and discussions by grave doctors were 
 continued, from generation to generation, on the doc- 
 trines of the Trinity, the status of the Holy Ghost, Origi- 
 nal Sin, Consubstantiation and Transnbstantiation, Sub- 
 lapsarianism and Supralapsarianisra, Predestination and 
 Free Will ; and in some cases descending, with only the 
 acrimony churchmen know, to such unimportant inquiries 
 as, whether Adam, the first man, ha,d a navel or not. This 
 doubtless was inquiry, but inquiry within narrow bounds. 
 Now that warfare has been abandoned. Even actual 
 controversial conflict no longer exists between the Catho- 
 lic church and the se%^eral dissenting Protestant churclies. 
 In tlie face of a new enemy, sapping the foundations on 
 which they all assume to stand, the churches are in a 
 condition of armed neutrality, and are preserving an 
 ominous silence that renders more palpable the fierce- 
 ness of the assault and more audible the sound of the 
 ringing blows falling upon the ancient bulwarks of faith. 
 In this conflict Science is making no direct assault 
 npon what is stjdcd Kevelution. Darwin, Tyndall, 
 Ilffickel, Mill, Spencer, Huxley and others who consti- 
 tute the brighter lights of the school of modern liberal
 
 Theology and Mythology. 15 
 
 tliouglit and scientific inqniiy, avoid almost studiously 
 an}^ conflict with the pretensions of Theology. Their 
 ^vork — and their glory, too — is not to engage in profitless 
 discussion with churchmen, but to collect facts, to ex- 
 plore nature and to wrest her secrets from her. If the 
 conclusions tliey are forced to draw should not support the 
 claims of Theology, they cease to trouble themselves 
 about the matter, and, totally indifi'erent to consequences, 
 attempt no forced theories of reconciliation between the 
 conflicting revelations of Science and Religion. The 
 Hebrew Bible tells us, if its chronology be accepted, that 
 this planet is about six thousand years old. Geological 
 science settles it beyond all doubt that a period embrac- 
 ing millions of years has elapsed since the liquified earth 
 solidified into its present form. The commonly called 
 Mosaic account informs us that, six days after the earth's 
 formation, Adam, the highest type of civihzed man, ap- 
 peared upon its surface, formed of red eartli, God having 
 breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; suddenly 
 filled with all wisdom, lie found himself in the midst of 
 the beautiful paradise of Eden ; and that he would have 
 remained immortal had he not, tempted by the devil, in 
 the form of a serpent, and at the solicitation of a beauti- 
 ful woman, in a rash moment, eaten of tlie fruit of a tree 
 which his God liad expressly forbidden him to taste. 
 That in the same garden grew another wondrous tree, 
 called the tree of life; that his Omniscient Creator wisely 
 provided against the possibility of Adam's eating of this 
 tree, and so living forever, by placing on guard over it an 
 angel with a flaming sword ; and finally, after giving the 
 creature he formed some excellent advice as to in future 
 eating his bread by the sweat of his brow, expelled him
 
 IG I'heology and Mythology. 
 
 from the garden. Science and human tradition teach 
 tliat man has been on tliis eartli at least six tliousand 
 years twenty times told ; that at first he was by no means 
 a civilized being, and is not quite so even yet ; that lie 
 was little distin<xuished in wisdom from the savao;e ani- 
 mals with whom he had to contend for existence ; that 
 his civilization, such as it is, has not been divinely com- 
 municated, but lias been the product of the slow accre- 
 tions of knowledge, by painful experience, through count- 
 less ages of failures, sufferings and trials. ■ The Bible 
 teaches that physical death was the consequence of 
 Adam's transgression. Pceleontological science demon- 
 strates, beyond the possibilit}'' of doubt, that death existed, 
 on earth and was a law of animal nature countless ac^es 
 anterior to man's advent. Here, then, at the very out- 
 let, are conflict and contradiction. 
 
 As before remarked, men of science do not diverge 
 from the path of investigation to refute some biblical 
 statement ; 3'et it is apparent that the acceptance given 
 to certain scientific deductions must lead to the virtual 
 if not open rejection of conflicting scriptural doctrines. 
 It is a fact that scientific knowledge is growing more 
 popular, while the faith given to miraculous narratives 
 and unintelligible doctrines has" lost its pristine zeal and 
 strengtli. The untrammcled spirit of free inquiry lias 
 made its impress felt even in the most conservative of 
 churches. No "Catholic ecclesiastic would have tlie te- 
 merity, at the present day, to defend the brutal cruelty 
 of the Inquisition that incarcerated Galileo for demon- 
 strating the truth of the heliocentric theory. And, as is 
 natural to expect', greater moderation has characterized 
 the tone of the Protestant churches. Men of latitudina-
 
 Theology and Ilyihology. IT 
 
 riaii views may, provided they do not take especial pains 
 to make the -profession of them particularly 'conspicuous, 
 find membership and fellowship in all the churches. In 
 the older universities, and previous to admission to orders 
 in the Episcopal and other churches, theological iron- 
 clad oaths are still administered; but, from the vigorous 
 skepticism found in the churches, it would seem that the 
 assumption of such offers but a slight barrier to the ad- 
 vance of free inquiry. Dr. Snyder, of the Church of tlie 
 Messiah, of the city of St. Louis, thus replies to a fellow- 
 preacher who had condemned him for delivering a popu- 
 lar lecture on Sunday :...." My dear sir, you will 
 find the religious indifference of the masses lies deeper 
 than any cause which tlie orthodox cluirch would be 
 likely to assign. Tlicy dislike the Clmrch because she 
 has been the consistent foe of scientific truth ; because it 
 lias denied salvation to a pure morality divorced from an 
 orthodox belief; because it has taken no intelligent and 
 impartial part in the discussion of the great social and 
 economic questions whose solution will harmonize the 
 demands of labor and capital ; because she stands apart 
 and flings the epithets of 'socialist' and 'communist' 
 upon such men as Charles Bradlaugh and John Stuart 
 Mill ; because the system of human bondage had entered 
 BO vitally into the essential life of the Church that several 
 important denominations of Christians are still in violent 
 discussion about the vanishing ghost of a political ques- 
 tion which even politicians have buried out of sight. I 
 can see, of course, that the pipes are being skillfully laid 
 for an evangelical revival during the winter : you, dear 
 sir, and other prominent orthodox ministers of the city, 
 have or may have the management and direction of this
 
 18 Theologrj and Mythology. 
 
 expected -awnkening of religious fervor. I can scarcely 
 overestimate the good effects of such a revival, if you, 
 gentlemen, will but turn your vast power into the riglit 
 channel. Suppose you try an experiment entirely new 
 in the tactics of revivals. Drop the preaching of a 
 heaven wliich every unselfish man must despise, a hell 
 which every brave man will scorn. Leave out of sight 
 the conimon vicarious form of the doctrine of the atone- 
 ment. Preach the simple gospel of Jesus Christ, a 
 religion without mystiliaation, a religion without creeds, 
 whose essence is natural morality, whose manifestation in 
 the Man of Nazareth was unbounded charity. Preacli 
 such a faith as this, a faith that makes Christianity and 
 personal righteousness synonymous ; withdraw all theo- 
 logical opprobrium from those who are striving to preach 
 the simple faith to-day, and you may live to see the time 
 when it shall be said of the church as it was said of the 
 Divine Master, The common people heard gladly."
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The orthodox churches, for the truth of every doc- 
 trine they teach, repose and rely upon statements made 
 by several Jewish writers, at widely different epochs of 
 time, and embodied in a single book called the Bible. 
 They claim for these writings a divine origin. They 
 assert that the several writers were directly and immedi- 
 ately inspired by the Omnipotent Creator of the Universe 
 to make these communications to humanity ; that the 
 writers themselves were passive, human vessels and me- 
 dia, through which the divine knowledge flowed. The 
 oldest of these inspired works are the Pentateuch and 
 historical and poetical works forming the remainder of 
 the Jewish writings. The latest are the gospels and 
 epistles of the disciples and followers of Jesus. Tiie 
 older collection of writings ends with Malachi, who, it is 
 presumed, wrote some four hundred years before tho 
 birth of Christ. The book of Genesis, the first of the 
 Pentateuch, contains an account of the creation of the 
 sun, moon and stars, the earth and animal and vegetable 
 life, and skims over the history of the world to the period 
 of the descent of the Israelites to Egypt. In the first
 
 20- Theology and Mythology. 
 
 four chapters wo are presented with an account of the 
 creation of man, his fidl and expulsion from the paradise 
 of Eden, the destruction of the new world by a deluge, 
 the confusion of tongues at the building of the tower of 
 Babel, and the consequent formation of diverse languages 
 and the dispersion of mankind. The four remaining 
 books of tlie Pentateuch are occupied with the relation 
 of the miracnlous interposition of God, exercised on be- 
 half of the Israelites, and a minute detail of their cere- 
 monial worship, and close with the entrance of the Jews 
 into the promised land of Canaan. The remaining sa- 
 cred writings are of a historical, prophetical and lyrical 
 character. Of the latter kind may be reckoned the Song 
 of Solomon, the Psalms of David and the book of Job, 
 the latter one of the oldest as well as the grandest of epic 
 poems. Its "inspiration" has never been doubted. The 
 book of Proverbs is a collection of philosophical proverbs, 
 and is undoubtedly the best work of the kind ever 
 written. 
 
 The greater number of tliese works contain accounts 
 of miraculous events, which, were they found in any 
 other work not considered inspired, would only excite 
 the astonishment and contempt of every reasonable and 
 reasoning human being. Had Hesiod given us the Mo- 
 saic Cosmogony in sober earnestness, and not as a fable, 
 we would have pitied his mental condition. Herodotus, 
 though garrulous to a degree, and fond of relating old 
 stories he had heard from Egyptian prie'sts, would un- 
 doubtedly have staggered at the story of Balaam's ass 
 answering his irascible master's complaint in choice 
 Syriac. Had Homer represented Chalcas as turning 
 rods, in his leisure moments, into snalces that swallowed
 
 Theology and Mythology. 21 
 
 Trojan reptiles, called into existence by the magic wand 
 of the raving Cassandra, he would -have added nothing 
 to his reputation as a poet. The adventures of Sinbad 
 the Sailor present nothing at all comparable in aquatic 
 prodigies to the three days' navigation of Jonah in the 
 interior of a whale. Yet it would be difficult to assign 
 any cogent reason why the supernatural stories of the 
 Jewish narrative should be received with unquestioning 
 faith, and everything of a similar character instantly and 
 indignantly rejected if found narrated elsewhere. 
 
 No claim is iiiade by the writer or writers or com- 
 pilers of the Pentateuch to inspiration. None of the 
 older Hebrew writers claim it. This most extravagant 
 and unreasonable doctrine of inspiration — this claim that 
 God Almighty wrote Jewish history, poetry, fable and 
 rom.ance — was never pretended, never thought of, never 
 admitted, until long after the institution of Christianity. 
 Then it was that priests, being unable- to defend their 
 reli2:ion against the assaults of reason, with sublime au- 
 dacity invented the doctrine of Inspiration. They stum- 
 bled upon a solitary and accidental expression of a New- 
 Testament writer, that " all scripture is given by inspir- 
 ation of God," and upon it they built the most gigantic 
 Dretense the world has ever known. It hilled all argu- 
 ment, and silenced for centuries the voice of reason and 
 conscience. That such a pretense was utterly unknown 
 to the gospel writers we have the admission of Luke 
 (i, 1-4): "Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to 
 set forth in order those things that are most assuredly 
 believed among us, it seemed good to me also, having 
 had perfect understanding from the beginning, to write 
 unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus." There
 
 22 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 is no inspiration claimed here by the only gospel writer 
 who possessed any education, and who properly prefaces 
 his narrative with an allusion to the ordinary sources of 
 his information. They who claim for the Hebrew scrip- 
 tures of the Old and New Testaments a divine and miracu- 
 lous origin place themselves in direct antagonism both 
 to scientific teaching and the enlightened spirit of the 
 present century. Between what they term " infidelity" 
 aud unquestioning credulity they leave men of liberal 
 views no alternative. The modern Christian, if in accord 
 with the Church's teaching, must believe, among a bewil- 
 dering maze of contradictions, that the Spirit of Evil, as 
 a serpent, beguiled the parents of the human race, one of 
 the consequences of which was physical death. He 
 must believe that, contrary to the law of nature, the wa- 
 ters of the Ked Sea were miraculously divided ; that the 
 water stood up like two raised walls while the Jews 
 passed through. He must believe that for fortj' years 
 a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night guided this 
 people through their wanderings in the wilderness a dis- 
 tance that mischt be traversed in three weeks ; lie must 
 also believe that this people were miraculously sustained 
 by bread from heaven while in the wilderness. He 
 must believe that at the request of Joshua — a military 
 leader of this people who needed more time to com- 
 plete the slaughter of the Araalekites, bravely defending 
 their native land against marauding invaders — the sun 
 stood still in the heavens, and " the moon hasted not to 
 go down for the space of a whole day," while God from 
 heaven rained down great stones upon the flying enemy, 
 who were as much his creatures and children as the Jews. 
 He nmst believe that when the feet of the Jewish priests
 
 Theology and Mythology. 23 
 
 touched tlic river Jordan the waters of the affrighted 
 Jordan flowed oflT, while the flood coming down, contrary 
 to the best known law of nature, " stood up in a heap." 
 He must believe that at the blowing of rams' horns by 
 the priests, the walls of a fortified city fell flat. He must 
 believe that the Creator of the Universe repeatedl}'' as- 
 sumed human form and conversed familiarly with men ; 
 that God spoke from a burning bush ;• that the angel of 
 the Lord spoke through Balaam's ass. He. must believe 
 that the most atrocious crimes were daily committed at 
 the instiiration or with the direct sanction of the Lord of 
 Eternal Right. 
 
 At the capture of Jericho (Joshua vii) a Jew stole 
 some gold and silver and a goodly Babylonish garment ; 
 he took it, in all probability, as a soldier would his booty, 
 the spoil of his spear and bow. In consequence of tliis 
 transgression on the part of an obscure individual, the 
 anger of the Almighty was excited, and, as a consequence, 
 the Jews were defeated in their next military expedition, 
 which was an attack upon the town of Ai. Joshua, guid- 
 ed by divine wisdom, selected l>y lot the offender. As 
 a punishment, he was stoned to death ; and not only he, 
 but his wife and innocent children, and his dumb cattle I 
 Sisera, the captain of the host of Jabin, the Assyrian, fly- 
 ins: from his enemies, was invited to the shelter of her 
 tent by " Jael, the wife of Hebcr the Kenite" : when he 
 was fast asleep she smote with a hammer a nail into his 
 temples and murdered him. For this, the language of 
 inspiration calls her " blessed above women in the tent" ! 
 Saul, the first king of Israel, being commanded by tlio 
 Lord to " go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all 
 that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man
 
 24: Theology and Mythology. 
 
 and Vv'oman, infant and stickling, oxen and sheep," only 
 l)artially executed the mhuman order : he spared the best 
 of the cattle, and captured Agag. For this he was de- 
 nounced by the prophet of God, and sentence of deposi- 
 tion pronounced against him. The defenseless captive 
 ■vvas brought before the man of God. The record says : 
 " Then said Samuel, Bring me hither Agag, king of the 
 Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately ; and 
 Agag said. Surely the bitterness of death is past ! And 
 Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal." 
 Were this event recorded in profane history would not 
 the voice of humanity be raised for the slaughtered cap- 
 tive king, and protest against the red butchery inflicted 
 by the savage prophet ? Shall we, through feelings of 
 false delicacy and respect for a doctrine of inspiration 
 that oucrht lono; since to have been abandoned, cease to 
 entertain any sense of right and wrong ? Shall we, 
 against the voice of conscience and the light of reason, 
 believe that the eternal and 'changeless laws of nature 
 were, on the most trivial occasions, capriciously violated, 
 and that the no less eternal moral laws were outraged, bv 
 the interference and express sanction of the Omnipotent 
 Creator? Is it not far grosser infidelity to entertain 
 such debasing conceptions of the- Deity than to deny the 
 existence of such a God ? The Hebrevr scriptures con- 
 tain narratives of many alleged events that shock the 
 universal instincts of liumanity and outrage the primary 
 principles of justice and morality. Do wc detract from 
 the divine character by refusing to ascribe to it attributes 
 and passions that would stain the reputation of any single 
 great man M'hose name history has preserved ? Is it not 
 more reasonable to believe that the Jewish rulers, priests
 
 Theology and Ifi/thology. 25 
 
 and prophets songlit palliation for national and individual 
 crimes, by falsely claiming divine direction and counte- 
 nance, than to imagine that a being possessing the attri- 
 butes ascribed to Supreme Excellence would reveal him- 
 self to us in a character utterly at variance with the 
 conceptions of our moral and intellectual development ? 
 The Cliurch, by persisting in maintaining the untenable 
 doctrine of biblical inspiration, is directly responsible for 
 the growth of modern '"infidelity." Infidelity is the re- 
 volt of the intellect of humanity against the state of 
 abject submission and mental slavery that "revelation" 
 requires as a condition precedent to its reception.
 
 CHxVPTER III. 
 
 The Founder of Christianity was wiser as well as 
 nobler than his followers. On every occasion, public 
 and private, that we have any record of, he ignored and 
 disparaged both Jewish theology and the Mosaic ceremo- 
 nial laws and observances. This he would never have 
 attempted did he believe that the old Hebrew scriptures 
 were divinely inspired and dictated by the unchanging 
 God of the Universe, who cannot have one policy for to- 
 day and a different one for to-morrow ; one code of 
 moralitv and reli2;ious teaching for the Jews and another 
 for the Greeks. Jesus better than his cotemporaries 
 understood the spirit of the times in which he lived. Had 
 belief in the inspiration of the Mosaic writings been a 
 part of the national faith, he never would have shocked 
 the popular conscience by indirectly attacking the relig- 
 ious system supposed to have the sanction of the great 
 authority of Moses. His almost constant mode of begin- 
 ning a public address was, " Ye have heard it said in tlie 
 old time" : which, so far from recognizing the theory ot 
 inspiration, does not even offer to treat with any degree 
 of respect the ancient fables and superstitions of tlie
 
 * Tkcol'Xjy and Mijtholocjy. '27 
 
 people. lie proclaimed for himself and his followers 
 complete independence of Mosaic ordinances, ceremonies 
 and observances. lie justified, by bold appeals to reason 
 and common sense, his repeated violations of the pre- 
 sumed sanctity of the Jewish Sabbath. He asserted the 
 supremacy of individual liberty over Mosaic slavery. He 
 dignified humanity by the bold assertion that the Son of 
 man -was even Lord of the Sabbath ! leaving the awak- 
 ened intelligence of the people to draw the plain infer- 
 ence that the Sabbath and other Mosaic institutions were 
 of human origin ; for had they been of divine ordination 
 they could never have been abrogated. 
 
 Similarl}^ did the great lleformer condemn the laxity 
 and cruelty of the Mosaic divine law. Under the Jcwisli 
 ecclesiastical system, when a man desired to part with 
 ]iis wife he was only required to give her a written bill of 
 divorcement drawn up by himself. This, doubtless, was 
 an extremely expeditious and inexpensive method of get- 
 ting rid of an unpleasant v»-ife ; surpassing even some 
 modern legislation on this important subject ; but the 
 justice of Jesus denounced this infamous law wliich left 
 the good name and happiness of the woman dependent 
 on the caprice of a brutal master! In the teeth of the 
 sanction of the name of Moses and the whole Jewish 
 ecclesiastical system, the grand lover of liberty and jus- 
 tice proclaimed that vvhoever put away his wife except 
 for marital infidelity was guilty of a grave crime. So 
 little regard did Jesus pay to the reputed sanctity of Old- 
 Testament worthies that ho even endangered his life by 
 abruptly shocking the feeling of reverence witli which 
 Abraham Vvas regarded, when using the strong, and, to 
 the Jewish iutejicct, the incomprehensible, lignre of
 
 28 Theol()(ju and Myihologij. 
 
 ppeecli, "Before Abraham was, I am.'' lie asserted the 
 superiority of the larger liberty of whicli lie was the ex- 
 ponent to the narrower creed of an exclusive race. Hu- 
 manity was greater than Judaism, as Jesus of Nazaretli 
 was superior to Abraham. 
 
 According to the Mosaic account, the Creator of the 
 Universe rf^piired that every male infant of the " pecu- 
 liar" people slionld be subjected to a certain pliysical 
 operation. This was an "everlasting covenant" estab- 
 lished between God and his people. We find that, when 
 the Christian religion began to assume some proportions 
 and strength, this " divinely " appointed ordinance was 
 allowed to fall into disuse. Had the infant Church of 
 Cln-ist regarded the Mosaic books divinely inspired 
 would it have dared to disregard an institution appointed 
 by God himself in the most solemn manner, and substi- 
 tute for it the painless rite of baptism, that had received 
 no divine sanction, and was totally unknown to the " in- 
 spired" writers of the Old Testament ? By wluit authority 
 liave tlie Christians of the present day, who hold all 
 scripture to be inspired, forsaken the observance of the 
 last day of tlie week as a Sabbath instituted by God liim-^ 
 self, if the Bible be true, and substituted for it tlic easy 
 observance of the first day ? 
 
 Never did the Christian Church commit a graver 
 mistake than wlicn it undertook to carry the dead weiglit 
 of the doctrin"o of the divine inspiration of the Hebrew 
 Scriptures. 
 
 We are not, liowcver, without presumptive evidence 
 of the highest character tending to establish that not only 
 has the Pentateuch no valid claims to " ins[)iration," but 
 that it was not the composition oven of Moses; that its
 
 Thcoloay and ^LijtlioUxjy. 29 
 
 inspiration was never lield bj the Jewish pco])k>, hut was 
 an aftcrthouglit of the zeak)us Christian Fathers of tlic 
 seeontl or third century, whose opinion on the snl)jcct is 
 of as little importance to the world to-day as the proceed- 
 ings of an ecumenical council or a pan-anglican meeting 
 of Protestant bishops, called together to fix up some dis- 
 puted church dogma. The Eible must he subjected to 
 the same scrntiny and criticism that would be applied to 
 any other work of antiquity. ]N"ot only so, but the Bibl5, 
 in consequence of the extravagant claims put forth on its 
 !)ehalf, sliould \)Q, subjected to greater severity of exam- 
 ination tlian any "profane" work. For, if it be all tliat 
 is claimed for it, it must be accepted by mankind not 
 only as an unerring text-book of cosmical science, tlic 
 arbiter of right and wrong, the foundation of all law, but 
 tlie exposition of the Divine Mind in all that concerns tlio 
 eternal destiny of our race. 
 
 Ezra, or Esdras, v/liom biblical clironoloirv assumes to 
 liave lived 450 B. C, tells us that in his time the law of 
 Moses ]iad been burned, and tluit he rc-wrote it. His 
 account of tlie circumstance is so quaintly written that 
 we quote his language : "And it came to pass, npon the 
 tliird day, I sat under an oak, and, behold, there (^atne a 
 voice out of a bush over .igainst mc, and said, Esdras ! 
 Esdras ! And I said. Here I am. Lord ! And I stood u])- 
 upon n^.y feet. Then said he unto mc : In tlic bush I 
 did manifestly revc;d myself r.nto Moses, and talked v/ith 
 him when my people served in Egypt; aiul I sent liim 
 and led liim np unto tlie mount Sinai, wliere I held him 
 a long season, ajid told him many wondrous things, and 
 shewed him tlie secrets of tlic times, and tlic end, and 
 commanded him, saying, Tliesc words shalt tliou declare,
 
 30 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 ;iiul these shalt tliou hide. And. now I suy unto tlice, 
 that thou Lij up in thy heart the signs that I liave 
 shewed, and the dreams that thou hast seen, and the in- 
 terpretation that tliou hast licard. For thou shalt be 
 taken aAvay from all that remain, and from henceforth 
 thou shalt remain with my Son, and with such as be like 
 unto thee, until the times be ended. For the world hath 
 lost its youth, and the times begin to wax old. For the 
 world is divided into twelve parts, and the ten parts of it 
 are gone already and a half of a tenth part, and tliere 
 rcmaineth that which is after the tenth part. Now, 
 therefore, set thy house in order, and reprove the people, 
 and comfort such of them as be in trouble and now re- 
 nounce corruption. Let go from these mortal thoughts; 
 cast away the burden of num ; put off now the Aveak na- 
 ture, and set aside the thoughts that are most heavy to 
 thee, and haste thee to flee from these times : for yet 
 greater evils than thou hast seen happen shall be done 
 hereafter. For look, how mucli the world shall be 
 weaker tlirouo-h ao;e, so mucli the more shall evils in- 
 crease upon them that dwell therein. .For truth is fled 
 away and leasing is hard at hand ; for now hastetli the 
 vision to come which thou hast seen. Then answered I 
 before thee, and said : Behold, Lord, I will go as thou 
 hast commanded me, and reprove the people that are 
 present; but they that shall be born afterward, wlio shall 
 admonish them ? For thy laio is b^irnt ; and no man 
 knowcth the thino-s tliat are done of thee or the works 
 that shall begin." Further on, Esdras informs us that he 
 associated with himself, in the work of writing the law, 
 Larea, Dabria, Selemia, Ecanus and Asiel, '' five ready 
 to write swiftly."' Es(h";!S furtjicr intbrms us that a cup 
 
 1
 
 TheolGgu and Jrytholofji/. ?,V 
 
 was iiuriieulor.sly liiuuled liiiii, '* full us it were of water, 
 but tlio color like fire"; that lie and his companions sat 
 forty days, and he in that time dictated four hundred 
 and four books, which his companions committed to 
 Avritir.g. Of course, it will be said tliat the Protestant 
 churches do not consider the book of Esdras canonical, 
 or inspired. In point of composition and for profundity 
 of thought the book of Esdras is far superior to many 
 books of the Old Testament, while its miraculous narra- 
 tives are not more extravagant or outrageous than many 
 recorded in the "inspired" works. There is no valid 
 reason for its rejection. AVho, in sober truth, are the 
 judges of this great Inspirational Court of Claims ? Arc 
 they the men who wrote the works, the people to whom 
 they were addressed, or the ignorant CIn-istians who 
 l^assed upon their merits long after they were written ? 
 It was generally held in the second century — if any con- 
 sequence be attached to the opinion of zealous and 
 prejudiced churchmen — that Esdras was the author of 
 " the first five books of Moses." St. Jerome says : " Siva 
 Moseni dicere volueres auctorem Pejitateuchi, sivs Es- 
 dram ejusdaon instanratorem operis non recusoP In 
 otlier words : whether Esdras or Moses was the author 
 of tlie Pentateuch, liis saintsliip was not prepared to 
 dc ci.de. 
 
 Tb,ere are, besides, internal evidences that the Penta- 
 teuch was not written by Moses. In the greater portion 
 of the work he is tlic central figure, and, were he the 
 author, he wt)uld naturally, in speaking of himself, have 
 iallcn into the use of the first instead of tlie third person; 
 and ho certainly could not have written the account of 
 his own death. It is highly probable that the Pentateuch
 
 32 Theology and Jnjtholoyij. 
 
 v.-:a3 not tlic v.'ork of one liand. The ditieronco in tlie 
 stj'lo of the writings lias long been recognized by bibli- 
 cal scholars. The two different styles have been denom- 
 inated the Elohistic and Jehovistic, froiit the employment 
 of the primary roots of these words as appellations of the 
 Deity. The older Hebrew manuscripts do not ascribe 
 them to Moses ; nor are they called the " Books of Mo- 
 ses" either in the Septuagint or in the Yulgate. Clem- 
 ens Alexandrinns and Ireneeus both assert that the 
 original Pentateuch was destroyed in the captivity under 
 Nebuchadnezzar, and that Esdras was divinely inspired 
 to re-write them. 
 
 The first ten chapters of Genesis are devoted to the 
 general history of mankind, occupying about enough 
 space to fill one column of an ordinary daily newspaper. 
 The remaining portion of the five books is mainly occu- 
 pied with the miraculous history of the Jews. At the 
 very outset of tlie inquiry it might be asked whether it 
 is probable that such a narrative as we have presented 
 us in these five books required or received the inspira- 
 tion and supervision of the Creator of the Universe. 
 AVebster's definition of Revelation is substantially accii- 
 ratc : " The act of disclosing to others what was before 
 unknown to them ; apxjrojyr lately^ the disclosure or com- 
 munication of the truth to men l)y God himself, or by his 
 authorized agejits, the prophets and apostles ; ajypi^ojyrl- 
 ately, the sacred truth whicli God 'has communicated to 
 man for his instruction and guidance." The essence, 
 then, of a revelation must be, first, its absolute truth ; 
 second, its divine origin; and tliird,its communication by 
 God cither mediately or immediately. If it lack any of 
 these essential qualifications it is no revelation, in the
 
 Theology and Mythology. 33 
 
 biblical and cxtruordinaiy sense of tlio word, Sbonld 
 tlie Mosaic, as it is commonl)'' called, account of the cre- 
 ation, found in the book of Genesis, assert that death 
 was the consequence of man's transgression, and had 
 science unerringly demonstrated the contrary ; were 
 there, for example, found traces of the fact of animal 
 death on this planet long anterior to the advent of man — 
 then the former statement would not be "Revelation.'' 
 Should the author of Genesis assert that the time occu- 
 pied in the transformation of the earth from chaos to a 
 habitable condition was only six daj^s ; and should geol- 
 ogy unerringly demonstrate that countless ages, embrac- 
 ing millions of 3-ears, elapsed and passed into the night 
 of time while this planet was subjected to the mighty 
 processes of nature that converted it from a burning mass 
 that could tolerate life in no form into a verdure-clad 
 earth, teeming with vegetable, marine and animal life of 
 diversified forms — then, surely, no confidence should be 
 reposed in the statement of the unscientific narrator of 
 ])hysical impossibilities, no matter how just his preten- 
 sions. Should " Revelation " assert tiiat within about 
 two tliousand years after man's creation this solid globe 
 was totally covered with water, severrJ feet high above 
 the Iiighest mountain tops ; and science had pro- 
 nounced this an impossibility, or, even admitting that it 
 were possible, had still shown that, owing to the Avell- 
 ascertained laws of nature, this immense volume of water 
 asserted to have enveloped tlic earth nnist have continued 
 to do so for countless ages — w^ould we not, as reasonable 
 beings, be forced to the conclusion tliat " Revelation" in 
 this case had wandered into the field of f ible ? A<»-ain : 
 should tliis presumed"' Re\-olati<>n'' inform ir^ tliat, just pre-
 
 'A-i Theology and jSryt.lwUxjy. 
 
 vions to the advent of tliis all-enveloping delnge, eight 
 lunnan beings, together Avith ii single pair of the animals 
 denominated, for want of a better classification, " un- 
 clean, "' and seven pairs of all other known animals, had 
 entered into a rectangular floating ark, whose exact di- 
 mensions were given, and remained shut up in it for 
 nine months ; and science liad demonstrated that it 
 was simply impossible, from the dimensions of the vessel, 
 as given, that it could have afforded space for its varie- 
 gated occupants, not to mention many other impossibili- 
 ties connected with the transaction- — should the teachinac 
 of science and the conclusions of reason and intelligence 
 be stultified fur lack of correspondence with the preten- 
 sions of " Kevelation "' ? Contradictions of this kind 
 might be almost endlessly multiplied were it not a waste 
 of time and employment. Had not the Church for ages 
 obstinately, foolishly and blindly committed itself to the 
 doctrine of the inspiration of the Hebrew fables, wc 
 shonld attach now no more importance to the Assyrian 
 stor}^ of the Garden of Eden, the Fall of Man, and the 
 Deluge, than we do to the beautiful Greek myth of Diie- 
 calion and Pyrrha ; and instead of connecting a vast re- 
 ligious system with a legend whose ver}' authorship is 
 urdcnown, the world would have gladly welcomed and 
 prized it as a graceful contribution to the volume of 
 beautiful song and story, gathej-ed from all lands, that 
 has floated down on the mist of time from the barbaric 
 days cf the infancy of the world. Inspiration is a secret 
 communication made in visions, by dreams or apparition, 
 by God to man. The recipient of the divine message is 
 "inspired"; but v.hen lie publishes the communication 
 credence will be given to it in proportion to the confi-
 
 TJicohxjy and Mythology. 35 
 
 dencc to be placed in the veracity of the narrtitor,-ar.d 
 tlio nature of the communication itself. When the mes- 
 sage is retailed, second hand, it ceases to be an inspira- 
 tion, and must be subject to the like tests that would be 
 applied to a statement making no claims to inspiration. 
 There is, too, the ever-recurring possibility that the me- 
 dium through "whom the " Revelation " has been made 
 may, owing to some peculiar mental or cerebral condi- 
 tion, have been laboring under a species of hallucination 
 and therebv mistook the creations of a disordered imair- 
 ination for a divine revelation. It is not a little remark- 
 able that before putting themselves into communication 
 with the Unseen the prophets usually fasted for long 
 periods, and then saw these strange visions they have 
 recorded. Moses fasted forty days, so did Elisha, and 
 so did Jesus of Nazareth. It is a well-ascertained fact 
 that ftxsting prostrates the nervous system and renders 
 tlie imposition of hallucination of all kinds easy. Indeed in 
 Eastern countries dementedpersons were supposed to be 
 under the immediate protection of the gods. Sometimesno 
 attention was paid to vaticinations. The Trojans disre- 
 garded the prophetic Titterings of Cassandra, daughter of 
 Priam, because she was considered demented. In addi- 
 tion to this it was not easy always for the prophet him- 
 self to decide whether he was imposed upon by some 
 lying spirit. The eighteenth chapter of II Chronicles 
 i'urnishcs us with the extraordinary information that 
 God himself sometimes selected some of these evil spirits 
 to do his v/ork : " Again, he said. Therefore hear tlie 
 word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting upon his 
 throne, and all the hosts of heaven standing on his right 
 hand and on \{h left. And the Lord said. Who shall
 
 30 Theology and 2i>jthology. 
 
 cuticle Aliab, king of Israel, that he may go up and fall 
 at Ramoth-Gilead ? and one spake saying after this man- 
 ner and another saving after that manner. Then came 
 there out a spirit and stood before the Lord, and said, I 
 will entice him ; and the Xord said, Whercv.uth ? And 
 lie said, I will go out and he a lying spirit in the mouth 
 of all his 2)rophets. And tlie Lord said, Thou slialt 
 entice hira and thou shalt also prevail ; go out and do 
 
 even so." 
 
 What a perfectly anthropomorphic picture isliere pre- 
 sented ! The Lord of the limitless Universe sitting 
 upon his throne ! Like a king in council surroundcdby 
 his courtiers, devising the de^ith of a man hateful to him, 
 seeking advice from liis cabinet ministers ; hearing the 
 arguments of the heavenly officials ; patiently listening 
 to tedious speeches, ''one speaking after tliis manner 
 and another after that manner "; condescending to ac- 
 cept advice, and finally adopting tlie basest policy, com- 
 manding a lyiug spirit to "steal the livery of heaven" 
 and thereby betray an enemy to death ! Yet men are 
 called infidels and atheists by narrow-minded zealots and 
 liypocrites because they entertain loftier conceptions of 
 the God of the Universe tiian to believe for a moment 
 that a narrative representing him in tlie meanest aspect 
 it is possible to conceive is of divine origin. This same 
 veracious account informs us that though, four hundred 
 prophets, inspired by the lying spirit, advised Aluib to 
 go up to battle, yet there was one whom he refused to 
 consult until urged thereto by his ally Jehoshaphat. ^Of 
 this one he says : " There \i yet one man by v/hom we 
 may inquire of the Lord ; but I hate liini, for lie never 
 prophesies good to me, but evil." Precisely similar Ian-
 
 Theology and Mythology. 37 
 
 crunffo Homer mukcs Ai3i;pineainon use ndJres;ln2; C;il- 
 clias ! " Prophet of evil ! for never luive you spoken an 
 {igrceaLle prediction or one that Avas acconipL'shed." 
 Yet the delineation given us by Ahab of the Jewish 
 prophet Micaiah is inspired, while Agamemnon's descrip- 
 tion of Calchas is a purelj'' poetic conception ! If the 
 book of Chronicles is " inspired," the grandest epic poem 
 written in the noblest language ever framed by liuman 
 tongue can lay some claims to a divine origin. The 
 writer of the " Chronicles of the Kings of Israel," who- 
 ever he may have been, claims for himself no inspiration. 
 The writer of the Iliad, with a dash of sublimity worthy 
 of his magnificent work, in his opening verse invokes a 
 goddess to sing " the woeful wrath of Achilles, the son 
 of Pcleus."
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 A GKEAT portion of Cln-istiun people, totally niiac- 
 qiuiintcd uith tlie nrguments iu f;ivor of or against the 
 doctrine of biblical inspiration, accept it, not as the 
 result of reasonable deduction or rational inquiry, but 
 because of impression made upon the mind in tender 
 years. Yet the same people would instantly and con- 
 temptuously reject statements as extravagant as the bib- 
 lic:il narratives, if recorded in any other book. If asked 
 uhy they consider the Scriptures inspired, the easy and 
 prompt reply is. Because they were written by God. If 
 asked again, Avhy they believe God wrote them, the 
 equally easy and equally irrational answer would proba- 
 bly be, " Because the Scriptures themselves assert that 
 they were so written." God certilies for the inspiration 
 of the Scriptures, and the Scriptures in return recite the 
 fact ! That is the whole basis of arguments in favor of 
 inspiration. 
 
 The most monstrous, capricious and causeless viola- 
 tions of the undeviating laws of nature are satisfactorily 
 accounted for by.the hypothesis of miraculous interven- 
 tion !
 
 Theology and ^Lyiholoyy. 39 
 
 AVliat should v,-e tliiiik of the sanity of the individual 
 who might assert that the sum of the three angles of a 
 plane triangle was greater than two right angles, and in 
 demonstration of this mathematical absurdity gravely 
 assure us that, if we doubted the fact, he could raise the 
 dead or violate some well-ascertained natural laAv ? The 
 apologists of scriptural inspiration act in a manner 
 somewhat similar : when we call in question the divine 
 origin of the Scriptures they assure us that they nnist be 
 inspired because they contain the recitals of physical 
 impossiVjilities. Were the working of a miracle bj^ any 
 means possible, its performance, as affording a satisfac- 
 tor}' solution of some other phj^sical impossibility, would 
 be utterly valueless. For the men of the present day 
 and for all future generations, the age of miracles is 
 past. We can now afford to smile at the delusions that, 
 were practiced only two centuries ago. Yet so great 
 was the power of superstition up to a comparatively 
 recent period, and so deep the impression made by the 
 false teachinc; of the Church in the Ions; nio-ht of i<2;no- 
 ranee, and during the eclipse of the European intellect 
 for sixteen centuries, that even men of the highest intel- 
 ligence had not succeeded in emancipating themselvet^, 
 from the condition of mental slavery to which priestcraft 
 had reduced them. In England, so late as the reign ol' 
 George the Third, Sir William Blackstone, the iamor. 
 author of the Commentaries, in that noble treatise upon 
 the Common Law of England, expresses his convictio-i 
 of the existence of witchcraft, and says that though tl- 
 testimon}' upon which one ought to be convicted of that 
 crime should be of the clearest and strono-est charactei', 
 yet he asserts that the Scriptures and experience had
 
 40 Theology and Mytliology. 
 
 ucmonstratcd the fact of its cxistenO,e, :iik1 that tlioso 
 prticticiiig it should be adjudged guilty and suffer the 
 death penalty. 
 
 What court of justice ^vould to-day allow a huiuaii 
 beiufr to be arrai2;ncd for such an offense ? The world 
 moves slowlv, but still it moves ! 
 
 In theology, a miracle may be defined to be an cveiit 
 liappening in contradiction to and in violation of the 
 laws of nature. In a certain sense, indeed, in which the 
 term may be employed, every operation of nature is 
 miraculous, or tb.e subject of reverential wonder. The 
 gradual growth of tlie acorn into the oak passes huma'i 
 comprehension; bnt yet it is in strict and Jiarmonions 
 accordance with regular processes and successive changes, 
 l^e fecret working of which we are profoundly ignorant 
 of. AYe cannot detect the silent o])eration of those forces 
 and principles by which it draws nutriment, increase of 
 volume, and new form from c:irth and air and water. 
 Yet if science enabled us, as she may at no distant day, 
 to lay bare the process by which all this wonderful 
 change is accomplished, Ave should doubtless see undevi- 
 ating regularity and unbroken continuity in every trans- 
 tbrmation, from tlie lowest germ to the highest develop- 
 ment of all life, vegetable and animal. In ]Nature's 
 story there are no blanjc chapters. In the golden cliain 
 of continuity no link is missing. Cause and effect are 
 one and tlie same. There is neither present, past nor 
 future. Wliat is is but the product of wliat was, and 
 the future is only the extension of the present. \yc 
 speak erroneously of gaps in our lives and chasms in 
 our histories. Eveiy event in tlie life of the individual 
 is necessarily connected v.illi soiiie prior (M)nditions, or
 
 Theology and Injthology. 41 
 
 niiher all ])rior conditions. Kotliing is fortuitous. Man 
 is pp.rt of liis surroundings; and a corresponding sequence 
 of events marks the inarch of nations from tlic cradle to 
 the grave. Nny, further, tliis condition of dependeiu;i? 
 afiects the universe. It is only when we begin to appre- 
 ciate the relation of one thins; in nature to another — of 
 the atom to the immeasurable mass — that we are willing 
 to exclaim with d'Alembert, " The universe is but a sin- 
 gle fact; it is only one great truth." 
 
 Even in the rudest stages of hunian barbarism, the 
 reasoning faculties of man must have been quickened 
 into life and activity by the grand panorama presented 
 by day and night and the regular recurrence of the sea- 
 sons. The sun gave man light and warmth, and in con- 
 sequence becam.c the first object of his unreasoning wor- 
 ship. He must have noticed with interest and amazement 
 the full and waning moon, presenting with ever-recurring 
 regularity, every month, the same appearance. As he 
 lay out at night, guarding his flocks from the attacks of 
 ferocious animals or prowling robbers, he beguiled the 
 weary hours watching the slow processions of tlie stars 
 in the vault of lieaven, and soon learned, by simple and 
 rude contrivances, to divide the watches of tlie niglit 
 into regular periods. Sometimes a licry meteor shot 
 across his dazzled vision and filled him with feelings of 
 awe and amazement; but its IVeciuent recurrence, in 
 time, ceased to cause him alarm. \\q may imagine witli 
 wliat foreboding of imper.ding evil he regarded an ob- 
 scuration of the noonday sun, caused by the transit of a 
 planet across its disk. Histoiy has informed us how 
 frequently the latter occurrence has tlii'own di:.-ciplincd 
 :\rmirs into utter confusion, evcji among civilize;! iiations.
 
 
 Theology and Mytliology. 
 
 Jiut the careful observers of the starry heavens were soon 
 led to the conclusion tliat even this phenomenon was 
 under the domain of law and order. Hence wc find 
 among tlic nations of antiquity those skilled in astronomy 
 naturally assuminpj the offices of priests and teachers, 
 and, hy their superior knowledge and their ability to 
 predict astral changes, holding the ignorant and super- 
 stitious in absolute and abject submission. The day has 
 not long passed away in civilized Europe since the 
 crowned king trembled in the presence of the barefoot 
 priest, and the mightiest despot lowered his scepter before 
 the ring of the Fisherman. But when astronomy had 
 become a science, when the motions of the heavenly 
 bodies liad been determined with tolerable accuracy ; 
 when the recurrence of an eclipse could be calculated 
 Ions beforehand : when it was ascertained that this earth 
 was not an infinitely extended surface, but a sphere float- 
 ing in infinite space; when the appearance of a comet 
 no longer filled the world with the direst apprehension ; 
 when the entrails of chickens ceased to be inspected with 
 reverential scrutiny ; when tlie cackling of a flock of 
 geese overheard attracted no attention — then it was not 
 difficult to predict that the age of miracles was rapidly 
 passing away, and that man had outgrown the swaddling 
 clothes of his intellectual infancv. Even in Juvenal's 
 time it had become a jest among the Roman girls that 
 the gods had grown old upon the mountains, and as a 
 consequence the number of great men claiming divine 
 parentage had wonderfully diminished. In the infancy 
 of the world and in the twiliglit of reason, superstition 
 ascribed to Divine interference ever}'- occurrence for 
 which iij-norance of the law3 of nature failed to afford a
 
 Theology and J\f)jiiiulogy. 43 
 
 satisfiK-tory explanation. The luunher of tlic gods in 
 (M-eased almost as rapidly as that cf unexplained natural 
 phenomena, and disappeared as knowledge of natural 
 law prevailed. Traces of the error of ascribing grca; 
 and even insignificant events to supernatural interference 
 may yet be distinguished lingering in modern tlieology. 
 Wc arc still occasionally presented with the painfjii 
 spectacle of Christian churches invoking the Divine iu 
 terference to send plenteous harvests ; to avert plagn 
 and pestilen.ccs ; to grant success in battle ; and even t 
 regulate the quantity of rain falling in a certain arc: 
 setting apart, sometimes by legal authority, days of nn 
 tional fasts and humiliation, hoping thereby to appeas-' 
 the offended God, whose enmity has been incurred eithoi 
 by individual sins or increased general depravity. The 
 student of natural laws and phenomena sees, the more 
 deeply he investigates, no necessity in any natural oper- 
 ation for any liypothesis of miraculous interference. 
 Every jidvancing step he takes, every new truth he dis- 
 covers, and every additional fact lie becomes acquainted 
 with, all tend to the elucidation of the inevitable connec- 
 tion, sequence and correlation of all phenomena. It is 
 ordy by rigidly excluding the theory of arbitrary inter- 
 ference that he is at all enabled to recognize the exist- 
 ence of the principles, grand and simple, connected with 
 the existence of the minutest atoms equally with that of 
 -the infinite and unnumbered systems that compose that 
 which the poverty of human speech calls " the universe." 
 Had Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, LaPlace, Newton and 
 Ilerschel been impressed with the idea that the revolution 
 of the planets depended upon the exercise of arbitrary will, 
 th.ey would liavc abandoned all attempts at explanation
 
 44 . Theology and Mythology. 
 
 <.)i" the npparcntly inexplicable inoti(jns of tlic lioavoiily 
 l)odics; they would never, hampered by this false theory, 
 have been enabled to make those niafrnificent discoveries 
 that have brought glory to humanity and demonstrated 
 the possibilities raan is capable of in the ennobling pur- 
 suit of knowlcdire. 
 
 The three grand discoveries of Kepler are : tliat the 
 orbit of a planet is an ellip'sc, and not a circle, as pre- 
 viously supposed ; that the areas traversed by a line 
 drawn from the planet to the sun are proportional to the 
 times ; the last is the defining the relation between the 
 mean distances of planets from the sun and the times of 
 their revolution, establishing the grand fact that the 
 squares of the periodic times of the planets are propor- 
 tional to the cubes of their distances. This latter discov- 
 ery, considered as a triumph of pure mathematical de- 
 duction, is probably the most magnificent truth ever 
 evolved by the human intellect. Philosophically con- 
 sidered, as aifording proof of tlie complex mathematical 
 laws regulating the motions of the heaveidy bodies, and 
 striking a death-blow at the puerile doctrine of arbitrary 
 interference, that so long blinded and misled human in- 
 quiry,, it has been of incalculable importance. Yet, as 
 might naturally have been expected, this grand achieve- 
 ment in the fair field of scientific inquiry met v.ith eccle- 
 siastical censure ; for tlie Church, in its blindness, will 
 have no man reach tlie heavens except by the way she 
 ])oints out. Every astronomical discovery of any itnpor- 
 tance has been based upon the true conception that unde- 
 viating order and regularity are the conditions inseparable 
 from all natm-al laws. The planets move nearlj' cllipli(^- 
 ally aror.r.d the £r.n. Perturbations in tlic elliptical
 
 Theology and Mythology. 45 
 
 movements are caused by tlio mutually attractive influ 
 cnces of tlie planets themselves. Knowing the masses 
 and distances of certain planets, their perturbations can 
 be ascertained with mathematical accuracy ; or given any 
 two of the factors, the third can bo easily calculated. It 
 had lono; beeu a matter of observation amono- astronomers 
 that Uranus in his motion deviated very considerably 
 from the figure of a true ellipse. To account satisfac- 
 torily for tliis deviation it was necessary to suppose the 
 existence of some immense planet whose attraction upon 
 Uranus had produced the perturbation. Is^o such planet 
 was known to exist, yet patiently, for years, the educated 
 believers in the grand doctrine of the harmony of the 
 universe night after night swept the heavens with their 
 glasses. The attempt at the vei-ification of the hypothe- 
 sis lead to the discovery of Neptune. Thus science, 
 rigidly excluding the prohine assumption of miraculous 
 interference, unclouded by superstition and unaffected 
 by fabulous revelations whose antiquity forms their only 
 claim to any attention, has pursued the even tenor of her 
 w^ay, asking no quarter, enlarging the bounds of human 
 knowledge, and conferring benefits and blessino;s even 
 upon the zealots and bigots who have anathematized her, 
 and placed obstructions in her path for tv\'0 thousand 
 years. 
 
 Conceding the doctrine of the existence of an Omnip- 
 otent Intellio;ence wlio has communicated certain laws 
 of motion and coherence to all matter, yet might it not 
 be considered a libel upon his omnipotence and an insult 
 to his intelligence to assert that he has been constantly 
 engaged, on the most trivial occasions and for the most 
 inhuman purposes, i-Ji interfering with the operation of
 
 46 Theology cnid Alytfiolugy. 
 
 his own inao-niticciit laws % It is no true reverence to 
 c:ill tiic Creator of tlic Universe, as he is sometimes 
 piously called, " the Great Architect." It is actual 
 impiety to imagine, with Paley, that the universe in its . 
 mechanism resembled a watch that was constantly get- 
 ting out of order, needing brushing, adjustment of its 
 parts, and occasionally even the insertion of a mainspring, 
 while the Creator, little better than an unskilled me- 
 chanic, was occasionally soliciting the advice and co- 
 operation of men and angels at some particular juncture 
 of affairs. 
 
 " Revelation " has repeatedly asserted that the laws 
 of Nature have been frequently changed, modified, sus- 
 pended and violated, not for the benefit of humanity, but 
 often at the instance of some favored individual. To 
 prolong the slaughter of the Amalekites by the Jews the 
 motion of the earth was arrested for a whole day ! As 
 a siirn to Ivinir Ilezekiah that his life would be length- 
 ened fifteen years, the sun's shadow was brought back 
 ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz ! 
 
 Were it even conceded that miraculous interferences 
 were possible, yet the advocates of the truth of the bib- 
 lical narratives would be met with the fatal objection 
 that not a single one of these supposed miraculous inter- 
 ferences with the laws of nature lias been exercised for 
 the social, physical, moral or political benefit of man- 
 kind, the development of the eartlfs'wcalth, the propa- 
 gation of a new truth, or even the discovery of labor- 
 savino- machinerv. Even the doctrine of the immortality 
 of the soul was evolved by mental reflection long before 
 its announcement in the Hebrew Scriptures — if indeed 
 in them it ever was clearly aiinoj.mced. Isonc of llie
 
 Thcolucnj and ^lythohxjy. 4-7 
 
 prophets, priests or seers ever invented anything useful 
 to mankind. Though they had panoramic dissolving 
 views of even the Deity liimself presented gratuitously, 
 ihcy never, in a solitary instance, shed any liglit upon 
 the great prol)lcms whose solution still exercises hum:in- 
 itv. TliouMi they could in heatilic viJons trace the 
 course of liery chariots in the air — " the horses and char- 
 iots of Israel " — they knew nothing about the useful 
 application cf steam as a motive-power to carriages on 
 land or vessels on the ocean. Electricity played harm- 
 lessly about their sacred heads as they ascended the 
 mountain tops to enter into communication with licaven ; 
 but never, in their most exalted frenzy, did they dream 
 of catching the electric spark and sending it over mount- 
 ains and across desert lands, through seas and along the 
 ])ed of the ocean, carrying intelligence with the speed of 
 lightning, spreading knowledge thraugh the earth and 
 unitins: in stroncerties of brotherhood the scattered races 
 of men, all animated by the same hopes, oppressed by 
 the same fears, governed by the same laws, subject to 
 the same conditions of being, advancing and letreating 
 age by age, as wave succeeds wave, to one common des- 
 tiny. 
 
 It is a fact suggestive of signiiicant inference that all 
 n;iraculous interference wiih the operation of all natural 
 laws are reported to have occurred at times so far remote 
 as to render impossible the sifting of the evidence on 
 which they are presumed to rest; and in ages io ignorant 
 and superstitious that the most extraordinarj- revehitions 
 failed to attract any popular attention. In the age oi 
 fable every distinguished man claimed divine parentage. 
 The gods walked upon the earth an.d mingled in tm
 
 48 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 affairs of men. Naiads frequented the bunks of brooics 
 and rivers, and Dryads flitted through tlic leafy groves. 
 The image of some tutelary divinity adorned every fire- 
 side and sat upon the prow of every trireme that cut the 
 blue waters of the ^gean and Adriatic. 
 
 Paul, at Athens, still imbued with the monotheistic 
 faith of his race, rebuked the zeal of tlij Athenians, in- 
 forming them that in all things they were " too much 
 devoted to the worship of demons." Wc know also that 
 within the range of historical inquiry human experience 
 luxs failed to produce a solitary authentic case of miracu- 
 lous interference with natural law. 
 
 It has been nsual, as an argument in reply to this, to 
 assert that the necessity for miracles has ceased ; that all 
 llic divine information ihat mankind needed has been 
 couimunicated ; that miracles were necessary for the 
 < stablishment but not for the pz'opagation of Christianity. 
 If miraculous interposition v,'cro employed for tlic pur- 
 pose of attesting the divine origin of Christianity, it does 
 seem, considering the largo portion of mankind never 
 convcrtell to its doctrines, and llic almost equally great 
 number of Christians never brought practically within 
 its influence, that the miraculous interposition, consider- 
 ing the reputed onmipotent character of the Ibrces em- 
 ployed, was neither of sufficient frequency in its exposi- 
 tion nor of suflicient magnituilo to produce the desired 
 result. It is "antecedently probable, in tlic highest de- 
 gree, that had Omnipotence thought proper to luivc given 
 a divine revelation to mankind, it v^'ould liave been 
 neither partial nor imperfect, and would Inive illuminated 
 all humanity, not a select fow. lie who:n it is popularly 
 supposed causes the sun to shine for all, and the rain to
 
 Thcoloyy and Mytliology. 49 
 
 full equally upon the just and unjust, would, it is also 
 probable to suppose, in a communication v,-liosc message 
 was to affect mankind for all time, have rendered that 
 ]-cvelati(;n intelligible to all, and written it in characters 
 of li^ht across the face of nature, so that its import could 
 net be mystified by creeds nor obscured by human im- 
 perfection. 
 
 Science, seeking to throw light upon the mystery of 
 life and death, and what the hitter process leads to, is 
 patiently investigating the elements of organic and inor- 
 ganic matter, and has already succeeded in the produc- 
 tion of organic forms from inorganic elements. Despite 
 the sneers of the isrnorant and half-educated who are 
 mere gleaners following the reapers in the harvest-fields 
 of scientific inquiry, and the steady and unrelenting op- 
 position of the churches, clinging with the tenacity of 
 death to the hypothesis of a divine revelation, the great 
 doctrine of Evolution is becoming more acceptable as it 
 is better understood ; affording, as it does, tlie only ra- 
 tional attempt at a solution yet given to the ^^'Ol•ld of 
 the question of the existence and divergence of the varied 
 types of animal life found upon the earth. 
 
 The world, to day, needs a divine revelation as much 
 .•■s it did two thousand years ago. The questions as to the 
 inmiortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body 
 I'emain as unsettled as they were in the days of Plato. 
 To the uneducated and unphilosophical mind the doctrine 
 (.f final extinction is terrible and repulsive. Even to 
 many men of thought and reflection it is unwelcome. 
 We have such capacity for enjoyment and suffering, v.'e 
 are so filled with yearninirs and lonij-inirs, we entertain 
 the consciousness at times tluit on c;ulh our powers arc
 
 50" 21icolo(jy and 3fytholo(jij. 
 
 imperfectly developed, that we arc susceptible of greater 
 and more endurino; achievements than mankind, cloecired 
 \vith limited conditions of being, is capable of attaining; 
 wo feci that our tenure of terrestrial life is so short and 
 uncertain that we gladly embrace any doctrine or any 
 belief that promises the eternal fruition of an existence 
 uncircumscribed by ])hysical necessities and unafiected 
 by the ever-impending doom of inevitable extinction. 
 Take from life the hope of existence after death, and, 
 for most of us, paralysis of the noblest incentives to in- 
 tellectual labor inevitably ensues. True, for the supply 
 of his physical necessities man is doomed to labor. The 
 wants of life and physical pain, not to mention mental 
 luu'cst, will goad him to exertion. Whether he live 
 again or not, if he wants to live at all, fields nuist be 
 cultivated, roads must be constructed, cities must be 
 built, oceans and seas must be traversed, laws must bo 
 framed and executed, and a complex social system devel- 
 oped. By the very condition of our being, physical and 
 intellectual, life is a constant and endless struggle. In 
 the physical- struggle of man with natural forces, which 
 will ultimately terminate in his final mastery, the intel- 
 lectual portion of his duplex nature has been called into 
 exercise ; and doubtless from the sharp necessities of his 
 physical existence he received the primary incentives to 
 action. The savage wdio roamed the unbroken prairies 
 and forest glades ten thousand years ago, clad partially 
 with the skins of animals slain in the chase, is the true 
 ancestor of the nuui who to-day marks the course of the 
 planets, determines their distances, weighs their masses, 
 and flashes the thoughts of his buVy brain to his co-work- 
 ers as fast as Ii2;htnin2; can carrv thcui, on wires Iving^
 
 Theology and Mythologrj. 51 
 
 deep on the ocean's bed ; but in intellectual endowment 
 und development they are wider apart than the same 
 savage from the ourang-outang ! Knowledge, with man, 
 lias not been a sudden revelation that flashed like a sun- 
 beam on his soul. His progress has been essentially slow 
 and painful. Every new lesson acquired has been com- 
 mitted to memory in much suffering, in patient waiting, 
 and through repeated failures. Yet is all that he has 
 gained but an earnest of tlie goodly heritage that the 
 generations who shall succeed him shall enjoy of intel- 
 lectual development beyond his wildest imaginings. The 
 dream of yesterday is the realization of to-day; ■\yhile' 
 the magnificent achievements of the hour will in their 
 turn be merged in the mightier conquests of to-morrow ! 
 What man, standing even on the outer rim of this 
 waning century, turning his face to the past splendid 
 achievements within his ow^n memory, can dare assign a 
 limit to the future triumphs of humanity ? Yet, notwith- 
 standing our progress, no matter how great and impor- 
 tant the movements made in social and political economy; 
 liad we even succeeded in minimizino; human suffbrino; 
 and reached tlio highest degree of perfection man is 
 capable of attnining — so long as the basis of our religious 
 systems is unstable and shifting, will perplexity and 
 doubt paralyze our efforta and retard our progress.
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 It is asserted tliat the religious system of every race, 
 in every age, is the exact measure of the civilization at- 
 tained. History amply verifies the assertion. It is also 
 equally true that no religious system can long he main- 
 tained not in harmony with the existing civilization. 
 When religion is inferior ,to the civilization, it is aban- 
 doned, though not immediately. When it is superior to 
 the age, which rarely happens, it finds acceptance with 
 only a few advanced thinkers, and is not popular until a 
 higher intelligence elevates public sentiment. 
 
 Thus the monotheistic teaching of Mosos was forced 
 upon the Jewish race in the early stages'of its history. 
 The civilization of the people being of the crudest kind, 
 when the pressure of J\Ioses' presence was withdrawn 
 it fell naturally and inevitably into the idolatrous 
 practices and worship of the surrounding nations, and 
 which was suited to their condition. Their frequent cry 
 was, their history informs us, " Make us gods to go be- 
 fore us; for as for this Moses that brought us out of th.e 
 land of Egypt, we wot not what has become of him " ; 
 and, naturally enough, they made a golden calf and
 
 Theology and MytJiology. 53 
 
 worshiped the works of men's hands. Hence it is that 
 almost absohite failm^, considering the amount of money, 
 time and ability wasted, has marked all missionary en- 
 terprise for the " evangelization " of the savages of our 
 own or other lands. 
 
 A savage who can hardly count ten is not in the best 
 mental condition to bestow thouglit upon the complex 
 doctrines of the trinity, vicarious atonement, sanctifica- 
 tion and justification by faitli. lie may be induced to 
 submit to the process of baptism or immersion, because 
 it is urged upon him by a being whom he regards as his 
 superior; but he knows as little of the theological aspect 
 of the rite as he does of Newton's Principia. It is a 
 question worthy of serious consideration whether some 
 means sliould not be adopted to restrain amiable but de- 
 luded people from annually expending large suras of 
 money in. "bringing glad tidings" to the Ethiopian 
 wliicli he is utterly incapable of comprehending, while 
 the children of want and vice, crime and neglect in all 
 our great cities are crj'ing for bread, stunted in their 
 physical and intellectual growth, filling our prisons long 
 before they reach manhood, and corrupting the social 
 system of which they are both the victims and avengers. 
 
 If miracles have been employed in aid of Revelation 
 and the laws of nature have been violated to support 
 religious teaching, it must be admitted that the divine 
 energy exercised has not accomplished all that nn'ght 
 have reasonably been ex})ected. According to the He- 
 brew Scriptures, the performance of miracles was of 
 almost daily occurrence. Not only on occasions of na- 
 tional importance, but in the most trivial affairs of lite, 
 the Deity was invoked, and the interference of the Om-
 
 ."-I: Theology and Jfythology. 
 
 nipotent was successfully called into requisition whether 
 a vast army was to be smitten by the angel of death, or 
 a piece of iron made to float to th«r surface of a stream at 
 tlie entreat}' of a poor woodcutter. Yet, notwithstanding 
 this wanton prodigality of miraculous interferences, we 
 do not find that either the moral character or political 
 condition of the race for whose benefit these exhibitions 
 of divine energy were given diftered much from that of 
 the surrounding races npon whom no such distinguished 
 tavors were conferred. 
 
 The propagation of Christianity, it is claimed, afibrds 
 the best proof of its divine origin. Without now enter- 
 ing into a discussion of this subject, it does seem that 
 had Omnipotence actively interfered in its origin and 
 propagation, the results do not at all appear commensu- 
 rate with the extraordinary character and force of the 
 energy employed. Though two thousand years, nearly, 
 have elapsed since the institution of Christianity, yet 
 there are, to-day, two hundred millions of people, on the 
 very continent in which it originated, who have never 
 heard even tlio name of its reputed founder, and are to- 
 tally ignorant of its existence. It may also be remarked 
 that the difference existing between professing Christians 
 — difierenccs so ii;reat as to almost admit of their classifi- 
 cation as ditierent religions — are in little accord with the 
 supposition of the employment of that spirit of harmony 
 manifested in the natural phenomena expressive of Divine 
 Intelligence. 
 
 Owing to the accident of the birth of the founder of 
 Christianity', and the policy of the Christian Church in 
 after ages in grafting Judaism npon the Christian relig- 
 ion, the sublime teaching of Jesus of Nazareth has been
 
 Theology and Mythology. 55 
 
 distorted bj the unnatural mixture of tlieology an*; 
 mytliology that formed the groundwork of the religion 
 of the Jews. In its savage, merciless and bloody perse- 
 cution of scientific men, philosophical writers and relig- 
 ious reformers who were in advance of the times in 
 which tliey lived, the Christian Church endeavored, by 
 a base subterfuge, to borrow sanction for its crimes and 
 outrages, against the most enlightened exponents of hu- 
 man civilization, from the policy of the Jewish Church 
 against its enemies. The Jew^ish Church, if we except 
 the Christian, was the most intolerant in the world. 
 The prophet Elijah on one occasion dyed the waters of 
 the brook Kishon with the blood of four hundred and 
 fifty prophets who worshiped the god Baal ! However 
 suited the rehgious system of the Jews and their worship 
 of a "jealous God, visiting the sins of the fathers upon 
 the children," might have been to a "peculiar people," in 
 an age of almost universal ignorance and superstition, it 
 is evident that such a system is w^holly iinsuited, in any 
 form', to the enlightened spirit of the present age. The 
 revolt of reason, intellect and science now is not so much 
 a revolt against what Christianity, as contemplated by 
 Jesus, ought to have been, but what it has been and is — 
 hostile to tree inquiry, hostile to independence of thought, 
 hostile to scientific investigation, historical research, and 
 hostile to any effort that w^ould. emancipate mankind 
 from the intellectual thralldom that marked the history — 
 if hist^ory it ever had — of an Eastern race who have lef 
 nothing worthy of record after them except the melan- 
 choly fact that others succeeded in injecting their absurd 
 and illiberal religious conceptions into the lifeblood of 
 modern civilization.
 
 r-iC) Thcol()^y and Mythology. 
 
 That Christianity must, if it endeavors to harmonize 
 M'ith the intellectual life of the world, eject from its sys- 
 tem this foreign element hardly admits of question. 
 Should it, however, through a species of fatuity, endeavor 
 to preserve its incorporation with what the world has 
 outgrown, condemned and rejected, its own survival as 
 tlie religion of the future is equally impossible and unde- 
 girable. 
 
 Had Christianity been of Grecian or Latin origin, it 
 is probable that no taint of the mythologies of either 
 would have adhered to it. Nor would the poetical, his- 
 torical and philosophical works of Greece or Kome, 
 though ranking far higher as literary productions than 
 the Jewish writings, have been considered divinely in- 
 spired. Yet the Christian Church presents the strange 
 spectacle of rejecting as unworthy of perusal the noblest 
 monuments of an ancient civilization, while she adopts, 
 as the very expression of Divinity, the absurdities and 
 n:onstrosities of Oriental romance and fiction.
 
 CHAPTER YL 
 
 Bkfore considering the evidence npon which Chris- 
 tian Ecvelation rests, let ns sidvcrt briefly to the condi- 
 tion of the world previous to the introduction of Chris- 
 tianity. It is in the highest degree probable that the 
 first religious conceptions of mankind were polytheistic. 
 A vast interval must have elapsed before man emerged 
 from an absolutely savage condition to even the rudest 
 form of civilization. In this long tract of time, which 
 v,'e have no means now of estimating with any degree of 
 accuracy, prehistoric man entertained few religious ideas 
 and no system of religious worship. In intellectual de- 
 velopment liG differed little from the ape or baboon. 
 His laniruao-e consisted of a few guttural sounds denoting 
 pleasui-e aiid pain. In communication he made use of 
 signs and gesticulations, traces of which survive to the 
 present time. When he had fallen upon the art of mak- 
 ing a fire and became acquainted with its use, lie had 
 made important progress. So important, indeed, was 
 this discovery, that ancient mythology ascribed it to 
 Japetus, the son of Ccelus and Terra, who had stolen the 
 art from heaven. The traces that primitive man has left
 
 58 ' Theology and Mythology. 
 
 beliind liiin, wlucli geological and paleontological discov- 
 eries have exposed, afford abundant proof of man's un- 
 civilized condition in prehistoric times. They furnish 
 complete refutation, were any needed, of the absurd 
 mytli, derived from Assyrian legends, that the first man 
 v\'as the most perfect of his kind. All research has 
 brought to light novvdiere, on the surface of the earth, or 
 beneath it, any evidences of aboriginal civilization, but 
 abundant proofs of tlie contrary. If mankind had, many 
 tliousands of years ago, attained to a moderate degree of 
 culture, we would have many evidences of the fact. If, 
 owing to some catastrophe, the human race were sud- 
 denly swept out of existence, as might easily, and 
 will probably sometime, happen, and were, after the 
 lapse of centuries, succeeded in the occupancy of this 
 globe b}^ a new order of intelligent beings, they would 
 experience no difficulty in concluding that the race that 
 had preceded them possessed mental ability and physical 
 energy of the most remarkable order. How grand would 
 be their astonislnnent and intense their satisfaction in 
 readino' the outlines of human civilization in the noble 
 monuments of liis power man hfid left behind him ! 
 V/hen they came upon the ruins of our mighty bridges 
 and magnificent public buildings, our tunnels and via- 
 ducts through rivers and mountains, our telegraph wires 
 fished np from the bed of the ocean, our steam engines 
 and printing presses, our iron roads, our ships, our 
 houses and machinery, our books and our newspapers, 
 they would stand dumb in admiration as they contem- 
 plated the eloquent exponents of a mighty race extinct 
 and a marvelous civilization dead ! But what have tlie 
 primitive races left behind them indicative of civilization
 
 Theology and Ifythology. 59 
 
 and progress ? Absolutely nothing, if we except a fev 
 rude implements of stone, hatchets and arrowheads, ;■ 
 few mounds and cairns, and rude dwelling-piaces in lakes 
 and bogs, in which we would not shelter our domesti- 
 cated animals or cattle. Countless aijes must have 
 elapsed while man lived in a nomadic condition. The 
 cities of India, Egypt and Mexico belong to a compara- 
 tively recent period in human history. They had no 
 existence in what is termed the age of stone. It was 
 only when he developed the higher social qualities of 
 his nature that man began to live in communities. His 
 savage nature must have been subdued by bitter experi- 
 ence of his inability, in a condition of isolation, to con- 
 tend with animals 6tron2;er and more ferocious than 
 himself, before he acquired the control of his passions 
 and appetites sufficiently for the existence of commun- 
 istic association, lie next learned to build and inhabit 
 cities, which became his defenses against the attacks 
 of predatory bands, as w^ell as the foci from which 
 civilization radiated. Cities are generally the centers of 
 all great movements. Yfhen the intelligence of Eome 
 had overthrown the mytliology of the gods, the ancient 
 cult still flourished in the country. Those who adhered 
 to it were styled " pagans " or villagers. The Christian 
 Church improperly employed the term as designating 
 idolatrous nations. 
 
 It is a fact that the religious ideas of the primitive 
 i-accs scattered over the surface of tlie earth presented 
 many differences, totally irreconcilable witli the theory 
 of a divine revelation. It is presumed tliat these differ- 
 ences in religious conceptions were the result of difference
 
 60 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 in location, difference in mode of living, difference in 
 physical phenomena, difference in climate, food, and in 
 the difficulties that eacti race or tribe had to contend 
 with in its struggle for existence. If this hypothesis be 
 a reasonable one, it would follow that the religious ideas 
 and modes of worship of the natives of Hindostan would 
 vary very considerably from the religious conceptions 
 and practices of the inhabitants of southern Europe at 
 the same period of time. If a particular race or tribe 
 were confined to a country where the aspect of nature 
 was wild and terrible — in a land of lofty mountains 
 whoso summits were crowned witli perpetual snow, of 
 dense forests filled with ferocious animals, where mon- 
 strous serpents and s'cnomous reptiles rendered existence 
 almost intolerable, where wide and rapid rivers over- 
 flowed, at times^ a great portion of the country and swept 
 away the toil and labor of years, where lagoons were 
 infested with alligators and other terrible monsters, where 
 pestiferous malaria, noisome plagues, and epidemics an- 
 nually carried away a great portion of the population, 
 where earthquakes and hurricanes spread devastation — 
 in such circumstances and aijflicted with such appalling 
 environments, we should naturally expect that the relig- 
 ion of the race would partake of the gloom and horror 
 that tinctured every day's existence. Instead, like the 
 modern Christian, of forming extravagant pictures of 
 heaven, of dreaming of a beautiful city, through the 
 nndst of v.diich flowed a river clear as crystal, whose 
 streets were paved with pure gold, where the Deity for- 
 ever sat upon a great white throne resplendent with 
 diamonds and precious stones of all colors and hues, the 
 religious worship would be naturally exercised in at-
 
 Theology and Mythology. CI 
 
 tempting to appease the ferocity of the monstera excit- 
 ing terror, and in endeavoring to secure immunity from 
 danger by offering gifts to the priests, or decorating the 
 temple in wliich was popularly supposed to reside the 
 Divinity of the terrible spirits that wrought desolation 
 and havoc among men. 
 
 In speculating upon future existence, the power of 
 imasination is called into more exercise than the reason- 
 ing faculties. In all ages the imagination has given 
 form and color to man's religious views. The wilder 
 and m.ore exuberant the imagination, the more incongru- 
 ous and extravagant will be religious ideas and the modes 
 of worship in which they arc expressed. Conversely, in 
 the same proportion as the imagination is under the con- 
 trol of reason will all religiou& worship conform to the 
 requirements of decency and moderation. Buckle re- 
 marks : " So complete is our ignorance respecting an- 
 other life that it is no wonder if the stoutest heart should 
 quail at the sudden approach of that dark and untried 
 future. On this subject the reason is perfectly silent ; 
 the imagination therefore is uncontrolled." 
 
 In India, probably, more than any other country on 
 the surface of the globe, are the natural phenomena 
 more calculated to excite the imagination and oppress 
 and^jewildcr the reasoning powers. Hence" we should 
 naturally expect that both the ancient literature and re- 
 ligion of that land w^ould be distinguished by luxuriance 
 and extravagance of imagination, transgressing all rea- 
 sonable bounds. There the aspect of nature is grand 
 and imposing. Tlie mountains are the highest in the 
 world. Its rivers are swift, deep and turbulent. The 
 land is covered with impenetrable jnnglcsv.-liose stillness
 
 G2 Theolo(ju and Mythology. 
 
 is only broken by the tramp of the miglity elephant, the 
 liowl of the hyena, and the appalling roar of the tiger. 
 The rivers swarm with alligators of horrible aspect; 
 deadly vipers and reptiles attain to monstrous growth, 
 favored by a tro])ical sun and rank vegetation. De- 
 structive tempests that convulse the face of nature sweep 
 over land and sea with a suddenness aiid fury that ren- 
 der man utterly powerless to provide against the terrible 
 calamities that follow in their track. The heat is op- 
 pressive. Plagues more terrible than invading armies 
 sometimes sweep oif the population by millions. The 
 individual is almost appalled by the magnitude of the 
 evils with which he has to struggle for existence. His 
 physical and mental energies arc debilitated. His rea- 
 son is subjugated, while his imagination runs riot. His 
 condition beino; almost intolerable, he easilv believes 
 that his forefathers were superior to himself. The bless- 
 ed time in which they lived was the golden age. The 
 gods, now enraged, were then friendly to men — they re- 
 sided upon earth and associated in the most intimate 
 relations with humanity. This blessed age, however, he 
 assigns to an antiquity so remote as to render any at- 
 tempt to rob him of his delusion impossible. This far- 
 behind and dim past he peoples with the creations of his 
 imagination, clothes them with flesh and blood, asQj'ibes 
 to them strength of body, prolongation of life and splen- 
 dor of achievements far surpassing anything existing in 
 the degenerate daj'S that he has fallen upon. This dis- 
 position to magnify and extol the past is indeed a natu- 
 ral trait and confined to no particular race or locality. 
 Homer admirably portrays this when he represents the 
 old man Nestor boastina" that he had lived through
 
 Theology and JSFytlwlogy. G3 
 
 three generations of articulate -speaking men, that he 
 never in his hitter days saw such men as he associated 
 ^vith in his youth, that they were like the immortal gods 
 and fought with the gods. It is highly probable, had 
 Nestor a great-grandson, he also in his dotage would 
 have made a remark very similar. In the Hebrew 
 Scriptures, borrowed from Assyrian sources, we find 
 allusion to the great age attained by men in the infancy 
 of the world. Previous to the deluge, we are informed 
 tliat the duration of human life averaged eight hundred 
 years. "There were giants on the eartli inthose days; 
 and also after that when the sons of God came in unto 
 the daughters of men, that they bare children unto them, 
 and the same became mighty men which were of old, 
 men of renown." 
 
 But the imaginative power of the Jew, though un- 
 doubtedly great, was modest and within bounds com- 
 pared with that of tlie Hindu. In the Vishnu Purana 
 we are informed that for sixty thousand years " no other 
 youthful monarch except Alarka reigned over the earth." 
 Wiiford, in his "Asiatic Researches," says : "When the 
 Puranics speak of ancient times they are equally extrav- 
 airant. Accordinp; to them Kina; Yudhisther reio;ned 
 
 C? 0*0, o 
 
 seven and twenty thousand years." The same author 
 also makes mention of King Prathand, who was two 
 hundred thousand years old when he ascended the throne. 
 He only reigned six million three hundred tliousand 
 years, when he abdicated in favor of his sons, and spent 
 the few remaining days — only one hundred thousand 
 yeai-s — of his useful life in prayer, sanctity and seclusion 
 from the cares of the world. Sir William Jones, the 
 <j;reatest Oriental scholar of his day, says : " We hear of
 
 C4 Theology and Jlfythology. 
 
 a conversation between Yalnjic and Vyasa, two bards 
 whose ages were separated by a period of eiglit hundred 
 and sixty-four thousand years." The Institutes of Menu 
 are probabl}^ about three thousand years old ; yet the 
 Hindu tradition asserts tliat they were divinely revealed 
 to man some two thousand million years ago ! The 
 worship of the god Siva is the most ancient as well as 
 tlie most prevalent in India. Brahma and Yishnu sub- 
 sequently shared divine honors with him, and the three 
 compose the Hindu Trinity. Tlie representations of the 
 god Siva inspire tlie Hindu mind with terror. The cult- 
 ured Greek, loving the beautiful, would turn away in 
 disgust from the representations of a god before whom 
 the Hindu abjectl}' prostrates himself. The image of 
 Siva is encircled by a string of knotted snakes. His 
 necklace consists of luiman bones strung together. He 
 carries a human skull in his rio;ht hand.' He is a mon- 
 ster with three cj'es, and- partially clothed with tlie skin 
 of a tiger. The head of a horrible cobra di capcllo tow- 
 ers over his left shouldej-. The wife of this horrible god, 
 whose worship is the most popular in India, is represent- 
 ed in equally disgusting colors. Doorga has a body 
 painted blue. She has four arras, on one of which she 
 supports the skull of a giant. The palms of .the quad- 
 rumanous goddess are stained with blood. Her tono-ue 
 is loyg, and protrudes from her mouth lolling like that 
 of a hound afflicted with thirst. She, also, has a neck- 
 lace of human skulls ; and the liands of her victims are 
 suspended from her waist. The religious worship of 
 Hindostan is a horrible exhibition, the result of the ab- 
 ject slavery and subjugation of the intellect, suggested 
 h'.rgely by the natnral phenomena, climate and other
 
 Theology and Mythology. 65 
 
 forces tliat operated upon tlie Oriental inind. Traces of 
 bloody and ferocious character in the religion of the 
 Hindus were plainly discernible up to within a very re- 
 cent period. 
 
 Grecian literature, mythology and worship preserit a 
 strong contrast to the literature, mythology and worship 
 of India, but not stronger than the contrast presented 
 between the natural phenomena of Greece and Hindo- 
 stan. In India the vastness of natural phenomena and 
 the constant recurrence of unforeseen calamities intimi- 
 dated man and retarded his intellectual development. 
 No similar condition of things, existed in Greece. The 
 climate is genial and salubrious. Its mountains, while 
 sufficiently lofty to inspire a feeling of grandeur, inspire 
 210 terror. Great convulsions of nature are almost un- 
 known. The seas that lave its coasts are placid, and 
 dotted with pleasant islands. Yines whose generous 
 vintage quickened the blood and stimulated physical and 
 mental activity clad every hill. Wild beasts were neither 
 so numerous nor ferocioias as in India. Nature did not 
 appall man nor subdue his intellect, but kindly, with 
 moderate labor, yielded him generous sustenance. The 
 imagination was controlled by reason and was unawed 
 by phenomena which ruder races woidd have,-in their 
 ignorance, deemed supernatural. Keversing the Jewish 
 thcogony, the Greelc created his gods in his own image 
 and likeness. ,IIe brouo-ht the jrods down to earth and 
 elevated to high Olympus the heroes of humanity. No 
 licrriblo and disgusting representations of the divinities 
 disfigured Grecian temples and shrines. The good and 
 the beautiful — r6 xaXov xai TO ayaOov — were sj-mbolized 
 in tlie noblest conceptions of a cultivated intellc(;t and
 
 OG Theology and Mythology. 
 
 poetic imagination. They neither exposed their chil- 
 dren to perish on the rivers' banks nor " made them to 
 pass through the lire,"' like some of the Eastern races. 
 Kronos or Time was the father of the gods. Tie indeed 
 devom-cd his children ; bnt this probably was only a f\in- 
 ciful expression of the truism that time devours all things 
 ( Tein20us oinniuvx edax). The chief divinities were Zeus 
 (Jupiter-Juvans -Pater, or helping father), the god of 
 heaven; Poesseidon (jSTeptunc), the god of the seas; and 
 Pluto, the god of Hades. Human sacrifices were un- 
 known among them in the days of their civilization; 
 though probably this bloody and debasing mode of wor- 
 ship may have disgraced their early histor}^, as the story 
 of the sacrifice of Iphigenia in Aulis would seem to indi- 
 cate. The Greek apotheosized his own conceptions and 
 ascribed to his gods and goddesses the passions, virtues 
 and vices of men and women. Courage was deified in 
 Mars, the god of war ; music, poetry and culture in 
 Apollo. Hermes instructed in oratory and in the grace- 
 ful physical exercises of the Pselestra. Bacchus, or Evias 
 (probably derived from euuiod), was the good-natured 
 god of wine and revelry. Vulcan, whom some have 
 identified as the Tubal-Cain of the Eible, was the god of 
 blacksmiths ; he fashioned the sword and the plowshare. 
 Divine honors were equally divided with the fair sex. 
 HjBra, or Juno, spouse and sister of Jupiter, was queen 
 of heaven and the patroness of married women. Athene^ 
 or Minerva, sprang panoplied from the brain of Jupiter. 
 She was the goddess of wisdom and instructed women in 
 the industrious arts, rendering them skillful in the labors 
 of the loom and in the use of the spindle and distaff. 
 Diana, cold and chaste, a huntress, folloM'cd the chase in
 
 Theology and Mythology. G7 
 
 dark woods, attended by fair virgins, and, secluded from 
 rude eyes, bathed in tlie sparkling mountain stream. 
 Venus Aphrodite, who rose from the foam of the sea, 
 was the goddess of beauty, love and passion. Nor were 
 her amours and intrigues confined to the ambrosial- 
 eating gods. Naturally enongh, Eros or Cupid — both 
 terms signifying desire — was her son. Ceres, grand and 
 beneficent, protected the growing crops. There was, be- 
 sides, an almost limitless number of gods and goddesses 
 and heroes and heroines, some of whom were converted 
 into constellations in heaven, who occupied an inferior 
 position in Grecian mythology ; resembling in some 
 respects the angelic hosts in the Hebrew Scriptures and 
 the numerous saints of the Catholic Church. But while 
 the winged messengers of Jehovah were solemn, sedate 
 and austere personages, the satellites of Jupiter were 
 eminently sociable and frequently hilarious in their in- 
 'tercourse with humanity. " By the exercise of his intel- 
 lectual powers the Greek elevated and deified humanity. 
 His worship of the gods did not take the form of abject 
 and slavish terror." When he met a god even, contend- 
 ing in battle against him, he bravely struggled for vic- 
 tory. To reverence one's self {cci8Ei6Qai deavrov) was a 
 fundamental maxim of his education. Influenced by this 
 ennobling teaching, the Greek attained the highest men- 
 tal and physical development, and elevated the heroes of 
 his race to divine honors. This never could have resulted 
 had the imagination of Greece attributed to her deities 
 the bloody and inhuman attributes of the gods of India. 
 Hero-worship was unknown to tlio ancient religion of 
 India, and there is no trace of it in Egyptian mythology. 
 Herodotus savs that the Persians differed from the
 
 C8 Theology a?id Mythology. 
 
 Greeks, inflsmncli as they did not suppose tlic gods to 
 liave forms like men. These wide differences and di- 
 vergence of reh'gious conceptions tend to support the 
 assumption that no true conception of the nature and 
 attributes of the God of the Universe was, at any time, 
 communicated to the primitive races of tlie earth, and 
 favor the hypothesis that m.an's religious ideas in the 
 dawn of his civilization were, in a great measure, if not 
 wholly, suggested by the phenomena that surrounded 
 him. The ultimate Ijappiness of tlie Hindu, the very 
 best thing that could happen to liim, as he believed, wjis 
 final extinction, in which there was no place for either 
 hopes or fears, pleasures or pains, mental or physical 
 exertion ; where neither sun nor moon nor star rose or 
 set — a solemn condition of silence and darkness, a realm 
 of final and perfect nothingness — this ho named Nir- 
 wana. Many indications of the apprehension of final 
 extinction by death may be found both in the book of 
 Job and in Ecclesiastes, as well as scattered through the 
 older Hebrew writings. Job says to his " Comforters " : 
 " Are not mj^ days few ? Cease, then, and let me alone, 
 that I may take comfort a little, before I go whence I 
 shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the 
 shadow of death, a land of darkness as darkness itself 
 and of the shadow of- death, without any order, and 
 where tlie light is as darkness !" The grand simplicity 
 of the religious ideas of the Indians of the North Ameri- 
 can continent is, as we regard it, the natural result of 
 the simplicity of the lives and occupation of the aborig- 
 ines. They lived almost solely by the chase ; vast and 
 unbroken prairies suggested ideas of unity, continuity 
 and imnicnsity. They had to struggle for existence v.ith
 
 Theology and Mythology . 09 
 
 no savage monsters. The deer, elk, bufi'alo and bear 
 ■were easily slain. Thcj had no savage gods, in conse- 
 quence, to appease. Hence sacrificial offerings and an 
 organized priesthood -were unknown. They entertained 
 dim and indefinite conceptions of a great Spirit, and 
 their future heaven consisted of happy hunting grounds 
 where erame was abundant. The case of the Mexican 
 Indians is an exception, but susceptible of explanation 
 consistent with our hypothesis. The savage Goth of 
 Northern Europe, whose life was passed in robbing, ra- 
 pine and battle, entertained religious perceptions evolved 
 from his own experience and suggested by his brutalizing 
 environments. His heaven was a place of carousal where 
 he quaffed strong drink from the skulls of his enemies 
 slain in battle. He was not very far WTong who, invert- 
 ing the aphorism, declared that "an honest god is the 
 noblest work of man." 
 
 To investigate to what extent man's religious ideas 
 have*bcen suggested by the circumstances of his life and 
 environments would be equally interesting and important 
 in its bearing on modern theology, but is beyond this 
 inquiry that precludes more than a passing allusion to 
 tiic subject.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 When the spread of Christianity began first to at- 
 tract some attention, tlic religions system of Home avus 
 rapidly undergoing the process of disintegration. The 
 roof of the superstructure had grown too heavy for the 
 columns that sustained it. Tliough the temples of the 
 gods were still thronged Avith ostensible worshipers, 
 though the altars still smoked with incense, though the 
 favorite oracles were still consulted, and though the 
 priesthood still bore the emblems of authority, yet the 
 worship of the gods, once sacred and decent, liad fallen 
 into licentiousness and revelry. The philosophers, poets, 
 orators and historical writers of Rome, though outwardly . 
 
 conforming to tjic popular worsliip, secretly despised and J 
 ridiculed it. They liad lost all faith in the religious sys- V 
 tern that survived its usefulness. Four hundred vears 
 B. C, Socrates Avas, according to legal form, murdered, 
 cliarged with corrupting the youth by teaching that there 
 were no gods. lie drank his hemlock, as a pliilosopher 
 and good citizen should, when so ordered by the state. 
 
 The poison drank in his quiet prison cell by the best 
 and grandest of all tlic sons that Greece has given to 
 
 I 
 
 I
 
 Thculogy and MijtholcKjy. 71 
 
 huinanitj and immortality accomplished its mission. It 
 taught, by a single expression, a lesson that dignified not 
 only the Grecian character but our common humanity. 
 No more beautiful picture has been given to the world 
 than that drawn ia the matchless prose of Xenophon, 
 giving us a view of Socrates the Teacher, after his con- 
 demnation, quietly discoursing with his disciples on the 
 great doctrine of the immortality of the soul, as thougli 
 lie stood, free as the air of free Greece, in the pleasant 
 groves of Academus. His disciples who loved him hung 
 with reverence upon the words that fell from their jnas- 
 ter and teacher. More to them were they than the ora- 
 cles of the gods he had argued out of existence. Men of 
 tlic highest reputation and most honorable position in 
 the state gathered about him. They urged him to fly. 
 They besought him not to permit the ingratitude of a 
 base rabble to rob the world of his services. They rep- 
 resented that many cities would contend for the honor of 
 receiving him after his flight from thankless Athens that 
 could offer him nothing better than a cup of cold hem- 
 lock. But the arguments and entreaties of his friends 
 moved him as little as the spray of the surf falling upon 
 the cliff moves the rock-bound shore. He knew tliat it 
 was his duty as a citizen to obey the laws, and therefore 
 lie deliberately preferred death to fliglit. It lias been 
 said that " Socrates died like a philosopher, but Jesus 
 died like a god." It would be well in considering this 
 language to bear in mind that it was not Socrates that 
 said, in view of death, " Father, let this cup pass from 
 me." When Greece had giv^en to the world even one 
 heroic soul who scorned life purcliased by the sacrifice 
 of principle, wlio embraced death as gladly as a tired
 
 'i'^ Theology cuid Mythology. 
 
 traveler welcomes rest and sleep at the end of a lono- 
 day's joiirnej, she demonstrated the lieight man is capa- 
 ble of attaining when his intellect is emancipated from 
 the slavery of superstition. But the spirit of religious 
 persecution was foreign to the Grecian cliaracter, and 
 the death of Socrates on account of his reliirious teaching- 
 may be considered exceptional. While sacrilege and 
 impiety were- punishable both at Athens and Rome, 
 yet, generally, the utmost liberality of thought and ex- 
 pression was freely tolerated. The religions of both 
 Greece and Italy had no fixed metes or bounds. They 
 were both constantly enlarging the number of gods and 
 licrocs to whom divine worship was paid. Not long 
 after the increase of Cin-istianity it was proposed at 
 Rome to -add the name of Jesus to the number of the 
 lesser divinities, and the measure contemplated was only 
 defeated by a technical objection on the part of the 
 Senate. 
 
 The Jewish people — an important branch of the 
 Semitic race — had, long previous to the advent of Christ, 
 fallen into a position of almost complete political insig- 
 nificance. Israel, neitlier by its conquests, literature nor 
 political system had made any impression npon the 
 world. Its history had been neither splendid nor re- 
 markable. Its national unity was of very brief dm-ation. 
 Secession had rent it in twain. It suffered the fate of 
 all divided people of a common origin devastated by 
 fratricidal and foreign wars. It had repeatedly fallen 
 under the dominion of the invader ; and, saddest of all 
 in the history of any race, had twice suffered deportation 
 from its own land, bearing the yoke of captivity atnong 
 strangers. The literature of no people contains a wail of 
 
 V
 
 Theology- and Mythology. 73 
 
 bitterer and more sonl-piercliig misery than is found in the 
 Lamentations of Jeremiah. To what a terrible condi- 
 tion of national prostration had tiiis ancient race been 
 reduced when the strongest of their poets, Jeremiah, 
 could thus pour out his heart in gall : " Tlie liands of 
 the pitiful women have sodden their own children. They 
 were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my 
 people. . . .Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles 
 of heaven. They pursued us upon the mountains and 
 laid wait for us in the Avilderness. . . .Tlemember, O 
 Lord ! wliat is come upon us ; consider and behold our 
 reproach. Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our 
 houses to jdiens. We are orphans and fatherless, our 
 mothers are as widows. We have drunken our water 
 for money ; our wood is sold unto us. Oar necks arc 
 under persecution ; we labor and have no rest. We 
 have given the hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyri- 
 ans to be satisfied with bread. Our fathers have sinned 
 and are not ; and we have borne their iniquities. Serv- 
 ants have ruled over us ; there is none that doth deliver 
 us out of their hand. We get our bread with the peril of 
 our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness. Our 
 skin was black like an oven, because of the terrible fam- 
 ine. They ravished the women in Zion and the maids 
 in the cities of Judah. Princes arc hanged up by their 
 liand ; the faces of elders were not honored. They 
 took the young men to grind, and the children fell under 
 the wood. The elders have ceased from the gate, the 
 young men from their music. The joy of our heart is 
 ceased ; our dance is turned into mourning. The crown 
 is fallen from our head ; woe unto us that we have sinned. 
 For this our heart is faint; fur these things our eyes are
 
 74: Theology and Mythology. 
 
 dim. Because of the mountain of Zion which is dcsohite 
 the foxes walk upon it." Yet when Israel had fallen 
 into the hands of her enemies ; W'hen her altars were 
 polluted, her niagniiicent temple razed to the ground, 
 her priests slain and her prophets hiding in the wilder- 
 ness or in mountain caverns — even then she had not 
 wholly lost faith in her destiny ; she cherished the hope 
 that the Jehovah who had brought her out of the laud of 
 Egypt would at last restore her to the possession of a 
 land flowing with milk and honey. Even when crushed 
 to earth by suffering, " eating the bread of bitterness and 
 drinking the w'ater of affliction," seeing her national ex- 
 istence passing awa}^ she still indulged in dreams of the 
 coming Messiah, not in the character of a moral teacher, 
 but as a conqueror, prince and deliverer. The Koman 
 conquest of Judea had given the death blow to this ex- 
 pectation, though even after this event there were not 
 wanting a few enthusiasts ambitious to enact the role of 
 a Messiah. The distinguishing characteristic of the re- 
 ligion of the Jews was the possession of the monotheistic 
 idea. Tlie worship of the " I am," though disfigured by 
 sacrificial service, elevated the Israelites above the con- 
 temporaneous and contiguous races. It must, however, 
 be observed that monotheism was never popular. To 
 the Israelite wdio sighed for participation in the idola- 
 trous worship of the nations that surrounded him, Jeho- 
 vah was only a god superior to gods of the neighboring 
 races. Even Moses failed to grasp monotheism in all its 
 solitary grandeur. lie represented Jehovah as a jealous 
 god, not giving his glory to another, greater and mightier 
 tluin the gods of the surrounding nations, whose power 
 was also recognized and feared. So well aware were
 
 Theology and Mythology. 75 
 
 the spiritual rulers of the Jews of the tendency of the 
 people to lapse into gross idolatry on the slighest provo- 
 cation, that they prohibited the making of any graven 
 image, or the likeness of anything in the heavens above, 
 or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. 
 Though by this singular prohibition, one of the noblest 
 of arts remained undeveloped among the Jews, yet the 
 spiritual idea — of probably more importance — received 
 greater strength and held the people with a more endur- 
 ing tenacity of grasp. ISTo religious idea, except accom- 
 panied in its expression by rites and ceremonies, can ever 
 become popular. Men of culture will, no doubt, derive 
 more pleasure from the contemplation of the attributes 
 of a supreme intelligence than they would from material 
 representations or distortions of the divine principle. 
 To them the conviction of reason and experience that the 
 universe is governed by law affords more satisfaction 
 tlian could be derived from scenic representations, cur- 
 tained shrines hiding the awful presence of a god, per- 
 fumed incense, altars reeking with sacrificial blood, 
 smoke of burnt offerings ascending in circling wreaths, 
 pale-faced priests magMificently arrayed, bells" and breast- 
 ])lates on which strange devices appear, lighted tapers 
 and sounding waves of voluminous music. This is priest- 
 craft, and tliis it is that enslaves the multitude. 
 
 The seer, when he desired to put his soul in commu- 
 nion with heaven, dream dreams weird and wild, see 
 those visions that silenced the pulsation of his heart, hear 
 the voice of God in the reeds shaken with the wind, or 
 in the cataract leaping down the mountain side, went far 
 apart from the din and bustle of busy life. He went out 
 into tlie Jiowliuir wilderness; he stood on the lonely
 
 76 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 crag; he wept, he prayed, he fasted. Exliaustion fell 
 upon him. The heat by day oppressed him, the dews of 
 night chilled him. lie struggled with his own nature as 
 he would with a savage beast that sought to rend him. 
 His physical energies succumbed to watching and fast- 
 ing. Imagination overshadowed reason. Then it was, 
 in ecstatic condition, that he stood before kings and 
 rulers, and hurled his fierce denunciations against the 
 enemies of Israel and Jehovah. In estimating the char- 
 a'cter of Hebraistic theology we muat bear in mind that 
 the influence of the prophets was even paramount to that 
 of the priesthood. The "seers" {nabi '\x\ \X\q Semitic) 
 were essentially the champions of the people, denouncing 
 alike, oftentimes, kingcraft and priestcraft. Samuel, the 
 first of the seers, exercised undisputed sway. He was 
 the great king-maker in Israel. Yielding to the popular 
 cry, he allowed the people to adopt the regal form of 
 government. He himself made the selection, and, con- 
 sidering that he was under Divine guidance, his choice 
 does not appear to have been a very happy one, either 
 for himself, Jehovah or the people. Samuel was jealous 
 of the power of Saul, and continually urged him to the 
 performance of tasks full of danger and difficulty. The 
 humane refusal of Saul to carry out to the bitter end the 
 entire destruction of Amalek furnished the prophet with 
 a coveted opportunity of withdraw^ing his support from 
 Saul. 
 
 Repeatedly throughout Jewish history we find the 
 prophets arraying their influence against the kings. The 
 theocratic idea was inimical to the interests of royalty. 
 Under the rule of the prophets, Israel had no military 
 strenirth. Neither had she commercial intercourse and
 
 Theology and Mythology. 77 
 
 exchange with the nations of the earth. So complete 
 was the political servitude of the people that, in the time 
 of Samuel, Saul and his son Jonathan were the only men 
 in all Israel who possessed either sword or spear. There 
 was not even a blacksmith in all the land ; when a Jew 
 desired to have a plowshare, coulter, ax or mattock, he 
 had to go to the Philistines to have this work performed. 
 Wonderful to relate, they did possess a file, as we are 
 informed, "yet they had a file for the mattocks and for 
 the coulters and for the forks and for the axes to sharpen 
 the goads." The abler rulers of the people sought to 
 wean them from tlie theocratic idea, and tried to teach 
 them that their independence as a nation was to be ob- 
 tained and pres(!rved rather by the creation of a disci- 
 plined armed force than by reliance upon supernatural 
 interferences. Though they never rudely shocked the 
 religious sentiment by any abnegation of the influence of 
 Jehovah, yet, practically, they ignored it when they 
 counted their forces on enterins: into a war with otlier 
 races. David, a man of war from his youth, appreciated 
 the efficacy of a well equipped and disciplined force. To 
 ascertain the military strength of the people, he ordered 
 a census to be taken. Tliis enlightened measure of in- 
 ternal policy at once provoked the hostility and bitter 
 denunciation of the prophet who was sent specially by 
 Jehovah to pronounce divine condemnation of this impi- 
 ous presumption. By enumerating the people and ascer- 
 taining the military strength of the nation, David was 
 blasphemously ignoring the efficacy of the outstretched 
 arm of Jehovah, who had brought his children through 
 the Ked Sea without wetting the soles of their feet, who 
 had caused the sun and the moon to stand still for their
 
 78 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 Siikes, who had rained down stones from heaven upon 
 their enemies, who had driven out before them the iu- 
 liabitauts of tlic mountains, though " he could not drive 
 out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had cliari- 
 ots of iron " (Judges i, 19). David, in recognizing the 
 fact, like a great captain of modern times, that " God 
 fought witli the strongest battalion," was guilty of un- 
 pardonable iniidelity. He was punished for this wicked- 
 ness of his by tlie destruction of seventy tliousand of the 
 people by a pestilence ; which seems a little conflicting 
 with any rational view of divine justice. We are not 
 helped much towards any solution of this enigma of Di- 
 vine dealing with his creatures by being informed in the 
 opening of the narrative that " again the anger of the 
 Lord was kindled against Israel, and ho moved David 
 jigainst them, saying, Go number Israel and Judah." It 
 would seem, at lirst glance, to the poor uninspired crea- 
 ture who exercises the reasonins; faculties that distinsfuisli 
 him from the brute, that this proceeding smacks a little 
 both of injustice and hypocrisy. If the God of the Uni- 
 verse wished to punish the Jews by carrying off seventy 
 tliousand of them by pestilence, or in any other way 
 equally agreeable to his feelings, it is within the bounds 
 of probability to imagine that he could have done so — 
 rind we proceed further to assert that he ought to have 
 done so — without descending to a miserable subterfuge 
 like the one here narrated. It Avill not do to tell us that 
 God's notions of justice are difiorent from ours. No 
 sanction of God can make a lie as respectable as the 
 truth. No divine approval of hypocrisy can make it 
 one of the virtues. A lie and a subterfuiro attributed to 
 Jehovah are more infamous than wlien co:nino^ from the
 
 Theology and 2'njthology . 79 
 
 apocryphnl Devil M'liom the Scriptures style the " father 
 of lies," though they have never fastened the parentage 
 of one npon him. The Hebrew story of the creation 
 tells us that it was Satan, not Jehovah, w^ho told "our 
 first parents " that eating the fruit of the tree of knowl- 
 edge would make them "as gods, knowing good and 
 evil," and never did a god or demon utter a prediction 
 that has been so gloriously verified. 
 
 Solomon, too, sought to break down the barriers of 
 exclusiveness that the theocratic policy of Judaism had 
 erected. He made, despite the denunciations of the 
 prophets, matrimonial alliances with Egypt ; and, as tlie 
 number of his recognized wives amounted to about three 
 hundred, it is probable that his selections extended to 
 every race and nation with which he came in contact. 
 The Queen of Sheba, who appears to have been a lady 
 of equal independence of thought and action, visited the 
 greatest ruler the Jewish race ever knew, and doubtless 
 had the sphere of her knowledge and experience in- 
 creased by contact with this wise king and man of cos- 
 mopolitan views. Hiram, king of Tyre, brought him 
 gold from Ophir ; and Solomon dispatched a navy to 
 Tavshish, in companj'- with one of Hiram's fleets, which 
 returned, after a three years' cruise, bringing back "gold 
 and silver, ivory, apes and peacocks." 
 
 Previous to the time of Solomon the Israelites were 
 satisfied with the worship of Jehovah, celebrated with 
 little, if any, external pomp. The humble ark in Avhich 
 their God once dwelt was carried about with them from 
 place to place, as the shifting fortunes of the race ren- 
 dered necessary. They even brought it into battle with 
 them ; and on one occasion it was captured by the Phil-
 
 80 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 istines and placed in the house of the god Dagon. Solo- 
 mon, having doubtless seen the magnificent structures of 
 the Egyptians, was induced to build an imposing temple 
 to the tutelary divinity of his own race at Jerusalem, 
 and, alas ! introduced the worship of foreign deities. 
 He is presumably the author of a very amorous poem, 
 smacking of licentious flavor, called the " Song of Solo- 
 mon." It is pruriently sensual in many of its passages. 
 This, however, has not deterred Christians from classing 
 it among the " inspired " works of revelation. They even 
 proceed further, and, regardless of decency of compari- 
 son, assert that this grossly impure and immoral effusion 
 is a finely-wrought description of the love existing be- 
 tween Christ the bridegroom and the Church the bride ! 
 The idea is one calculated to excite disgust ! Fancy for 
 a moment this roj'al debauchee, who never restrained a 
 licentious passion or impulse, whose seraglio M'as filled 
 with a thousand wom.eu, under the guise of a love-song 
 portra,ying the character of the poor despised and cruci- 
 fied Nazarene, whose figure, standing on the pedestal of 
 nineteen hundred years, has thrown its shadow over half 
 the world ! 
 
 Solomon, too, endeavored to assimilate the Jewish 
 policy to that of the partially civilized nations surround- 
 ing them. They were behind the latter in political in- 
 stitutions, in military efficiency, in literature, and in the 
 peaceful pursuits of agriculture, trade and commerce, 
 lie even adoj^ted for a time the religious worship of his 
 powerful ally Egypt. But the spirit of resistance to all 
 innovation, instigated by the prophets, as usual, proved 
 too strong for him. They despised all literature, art 
 and culture — so much so that the making of a graven
 
 Theology and Mythology. 81 
 
 image was a sin against God. Tliey constantly insisted 
 that Jehovah had forever separated his children from all 
 the nations of the earth, and that awful vengeance and 
 litter extinction would inevitably follow any attempt at 
 departure from the Divine command. Tlieir religion 
 was the most exclusive on earth. They neither sought 
 nor desired converts to their faith. Their God was 
 mightier and greater than all gods : he was God of gods 
 and Lord of lords, King of kings. Into the Holiest of 
 Holies, where He dwelt, the great high-priest entered 
 once a year, unaccompanied by mortal, and what he saw 
 and heard there was never revealed to the vulgar ; he 
 even veiled his face when he came out from the awful 
 interview with Jehovah, lest the glory reflected on his 
 face should strike the multitude stone dead. Tlie Jewish 
 race has not yet forgotten the impressions made in its 
 infancy. For five thousand years it has with jealous 
 care preserved its worship of Jehovah, the monothe- 
 istic idea, and the sacred skeleton of theocratic govern- 
 ment. It looks witli ineffable disdain upon the modern 
 distortion of its religion in the Christian faith. The 
 doctrines of the Trinity, tlie divinity of Jesus, and tlie 
 salvation of the world through his blood, are to it as re- 
 pulsive and foreign at present as were of old the mythol- 
 ogies of Egypt, Assyria and Greece.
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 Christianiti', as a pliase of the history of the Imman 
 ]-ace, is wonderful in all its aspects. It lias inseparably 
 interwoven itself for two thousand years with tlie exist- 
 ence of nations and individuals. It is difncult to be just 
 to this great factor in the civilization of mankind. It 
 has often filled the earth with blood ; it has, too, incul- 
 cated noble lessons of charity. It has dwarfed intellect- 
 ual growth ; it has also made the burdens of life more 
 tolerable by opening up vistas of .everlasting happiness. 
 It has roasted over slow fires men of free thought and 
 free speech, and reddened scaffolds with innocent blood ; 
 but it has sometimes stood as a barrier between the 
 mailed oppressors and robbers and their defenseless serfs. 
 It has domineered over the conscience of the individual ; 
 but it has elevated marriage to the dignity of a holy 
 sacrament. It lias often usurped authority in the state 
 and set the priest above the king ; but it has also estab- 
 lislicd hospitals for the sick, and entered lazar houses,
 
 84 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 like an angel of liglit, to carry the consolations of relig- 
 ion to plague-smitten dying men. It lias been insatiable 
 and unscrupulous in the acquisition of wealth ; but it has 
 built magnificent temples, ornamented with the glorious 
 trophies of art, for the poor. It has shut mea up in hor- 
 rible dungeons and tortured them for daring to enunciate 
 an astronomical truth ; but it has braved every species 
 of suffering and privation in carrying what it believed to 
 be Divine truth to savages across stormy seas. It has 
 denied to believers the right of the exercise of reason in 
 matters of faith ; but, at the same time, it has relieved 
 both educated and uneducated from the trouble and an- 
 guish of barren and profitless speculations. It has peo- 
 pled hell with human souls suffering endless torture; but 
 it has proclaimed the immortality of the soul. It has 
 degraded personal respect by flagellations and penances ; 
 but it has apotheosized sufifering in the person of tlie 
 crucified Nazarene. 
 
 The Reformation has atoned for many ecclesiastical 
 cruelties, open and secret, individual and ofiicial. To 
 the monkish drones of the Middle Ages is the world in- 
 debted for the preservation of many noble and priceless 
 works of antiquity. .Religious sentiment of some kind 
 must associate itself with every social system and indi- 
 vidual life. So generally admitted is this statement that 
 it has been sarcastically asserted that if Christianity did 
 not exist, it would be necessary for the benefit of the 
 world that a system of religion similar to it should be 
 invented. 
 
 In any inquiry into the origin of Christianity and the 
 assumptions upon which rest the record of the miracles 
 of the New Testament, it must be admitted that of indc-
 
 Theology and Mythology . 85 
 
 pendent testimony we liavc almost nothing. "We have 
 no historiciil testimony of an independent character con- 
 temporaneous with the gospel narratives. Wo liave a 
 very few doubtful allusions to the public life of Jesus 
 and his work in the remains of one or two Latin writers 
 contiguously subsequent. Pliny's famous letter to Tra- 
 jan is really the only outside testimony of the noticeable 
 growth of Christianity at a period not very far removed 
 from the death of Jesus. Of Jesus Christ himself we 
 know nothing except what may be gathered from the 
 gospels and epistles. In neither the historical writers of 
 Greece and Rome, nor in any of the poetical works ex- 
 tant in the Greek or Latin tongue of the time in which 
 Jesus is supposed to have lived, is there the slightest or 
 remotest allusion to his existence, his career, his alleged 
 miracles, his death, or his resurrection from the dead. 
 Born in an obscure portion of the eai'th, never moving 
 out of the province in which he passed his j^outh, never 
 visiting Athens or Rome, never having accomplished 
 anything in literature, philosophy, art, science, arms or 
 political life, totally unacquainted with the great men of 
 his age, it is within the bounds of moderation to assume 
 that, were it not for the spread of Christianity, the nar- 
 ratives of the four evangelists and the epistolary corre- 
 spondence of the apostles with the different churches, 
 the world would never have preserved the name of Jesus 
 of Nazareth. So that all that can possibly be known 
 concerning him, whose name now is familiar as the sun- 
 light in every household in every civilized land, is con- 
 tained in the meager story of his life and death to be 
 found in the gospels. All inquiry, then, of any practical 
 character must bo concentrated upon the gospel story of
 
 8G Theology and Mythology . 
 
 Jesus. The question of prime importance to be settled, 
 and to which all others are subordinate, is that of tlie 
 godship of Jesus. AVhether Jesus was a man of like 
 passions with every other human being, or whether he 
 was the Euler and Creator of the boundless Universe, 
 must be settled by every man before he can entertain 
 any profound and well-settled conviction. There is no 
 compromising this question. It will not do to assert 
 that he was the son of God in some higher and more 
 mysterious sense than every gifted creature is who de- 
 votes himself to the elevation of his race. He was either 
 a man, a myth, or a god. It will not do to assert that if 
 we believe that he was the son of God, or if all the world 
 believes it, he therefore was or is God. Our belief or 
 the belief of all the world will not alter the fact one way 
 or another. The inquiry is not devoid of either solem- 
 nity or importance. If Jesus of Nazareth, who, two 
 thousand years ago, footsore and houseless, went through 
 the wheat-fields of Palestine and plucked the ears to sat- 
 isfy his hunger ; who sat by the wayside well and begged 
 a drink of water from a poor Samaritan woman of such 
 dubious reputation for chastity that his disciples mar- 
 veled that he talked with her ; who loved Mary and 
 Martha and Lazarus their brother, and ever found a 
 brother's welcome at their humble home ; who constantly 
 associated w^ith the lowest classes ; whose intimate and 
 familiar friends were not the great, the gifted and the 
 learned, but humble fishermen and tax-collectors of very 
 moderate acquirements, and little, if any, book-learning ; 
 who began his public teaching — excluding the episode of 
 liis appearance in the temple — in rural hamlets, some- 
 times by the lake-shore, on the mountain, or stretched 
 
 I
 
 Theology and Mytkol-ogy. 87 
 
 beneath llie lig-trec and olive ; who, after three years of 
 public life, was, by the indiscreet zeal of his friends and 
 the taunts of his enemies, pushed forward to Jerusalem, 
 where, by tlie boldness of his teachinc^, his denunciation 
 of shams and hypocrisies, and the foolish assumption for 
 him, by his followers, of a regal title, he incurred the 
 hatred of the Jews and the suspicion of the Romans ; 
 and Avho finally brought a painful career to an abrupt 
 close by death inflicted in a most shameful and agonizing- 
 form; — if this man, whose life is so full of obscurity, vras 
 in reality the God, Maker and Sustainer of the Universe, 
 then, indeed, docs an awful responsibility rest upon the 
 mortal who approaches any inquiry into his life, charac- 
 ter and actions. Yet no subject falling within the do- 
 main of human investigation must be avoided because of 
 the consequences attending &ucli inquiry. It is too late 
 now to say to any human soul struggling after light and 
 knowledge, "thus far shalt thou go and no farther." 
 The only barrier that can obstruct any inquiry is the 
 intervention of insurmountable physical obstacles and 
 the limited capacity of the human understanding. 
 
 Let" us have all the light possible and at any cost. 
 Though we sliould lose faith and hope, and the dearest 
 illusions of life — that is itself almost an illusion — let us 
 know all that can be known while the lifeblood is warmly 
 beating through our hearts, and Avhile the sunlight of 
 knowledge still stands for us above the horizon : "for 
 there is no knowledge nor device in the grave, nor under- 
 standinai; in the land where all thin^is are for2;otten." 
 But the priests of all religions and thejninisters of " Kcv- 
 elation," who are all interested in the preservation of 
 organized cluirchcs, are ever ready to resist an}' investi-
 
 88 Theology and Mijtliolofjy. 
 
 gation that seeks to uncover the foundations upon which 
 their faith and rehgious ceremonies are built. To those 
 patiently and industriously striving to bring some gold 
 to the surface, covered Avitli the rubbish of two thousand 
 years of priestcraft and ignorance, they cry: "Are yon 
 specially fitted to conduct such an investigation ? "What 
 are your acquirements ? Can you speak Hebrew with 
 the same facility as your mother tongue ? Do you dream 
 in Attic Greek and say your prayers in Latin ? Have 
 you made ecclesiastical history a study from youth to old 
 age ? Do 3'ou know what views the Church Fathers for 
 fifteen centuries held concerning some disputed passages 
 of Scripture, and the status of certain books V To this 
 it may be replied that though a knowledge of ancient 
 literature is a most graceful acquirement, and reveals 
 treasures of thonglit whose beauty is often marred by 
 imperfection of translation, yet it requires no knowledge 
 of Hebrew or Greek, or even Latin, to form an opinion 
 as to whether dead men have been raised to life, and 
 those long sleeping in the graves walked about the streets 
 of Jerusalem, " being seen of many." No knowledge of 
 ecclesiastical history will help to explain to the uusancti- 
 lied how a man walked upon the waves of the stormy 
 sea, or how five thousand people were fed by five loaves 
 of bread and two small fishes, and twelve basketsful of 
 fragments collected from the repast. One might master 
 all tliat has been written on the Greek particle and yet 
 lail to understand how the Devil could take the Creator 
 of tlio L^niverse up to the pinnacle of the temple and 
 gravely tempt th(^ Almighty to fall down and worship 
 the Devil, offering as a reward for compliance with this 
 diabolical proposition the sovereignty of all the king-
 
 Theology and Mythology. 89 
 
 doms of the earth and their glory, which the Devil could 
 not bestow, and which God must have known belonged 
 to himself and not to the Devil. No amount of antiqua- 
 rian research will render intelligible the cursing by Jesus 
 of a fig-tree that bore no fruit out of season, and the im- 
 mediate withering away of the fig-tree consequent upon 
 the curse pronounced against its sterility. When we are 
 asked to accept as true statements of this and similar 
 character that are repugnant to the humblest exercise of 
 our reasoning faculties and the daily experience of our 
 existence, the fact that we are or are not entitled to write 
 after our names a university degree will make very little 
 difference in helping us to arrive at some conclusion 
 consistent with reason and the lessons of human experi- 
 ence. 
 
 No man of sense will desire to belittle the pleasures 
 of learning or underrate its importance in the civilization 
 of the world. Yet it must be admitted that, for the most 
 part, the heroes of humanity, the great warriors, the 
 wise kings, the astute statesmen, the bold adventurers in 
 unknown seas, the inventors of printing, of the steam- 
 engine and telegraph, and the men who have given im- 
 pulse to tlie great forward movements in social and moral 
 reform, were not mere bookworms, but vigorous men 
 with large human sympathies and great strength of 
 will. 
 
 We have a class who, after, in most cases, years of 
 preparatory study, undertake, or are, in the language of 
 the profession, " called " to the ofiice of public teachers 
 of religion. In the older European miiversities the clergy 
 are supposed to have undergone a course of instruction 
 fitting them for the worlc not only of public ministry but
 
 ^0 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 for investigating the cvitlenco upon whicli the assumj)- 
 tions of Cliristianitj are capable of proof. This latter 
 dr.t}^ has, as a general rule, been shamelessly neglected. 
 In the great conflict now being waged between Science 
 and Keligion, the anointed and chosen ministers of re- 
 ligion are ominously silent. 
 
 llie ablest champions of orthodoxy, as well as its 
 fiercest assailants, are laymen. It is true that Bishop 
 Colenso broke the ecclesiastical fetters that held him in 
 mental restraint; but the persecution, both legal and 
 popular, that pursued him deterred others afflicted with 
 tlie sam.e doubts that drove him into an investigation of 
 the Mosaic account of the creation and the miraculous, 
 leading to his open repudiation of the inspirational the- 
 ory, from following the course he adopted. It is ranch 
 .to be feared that the teachers of religion will never 
 greatly disturb ' themselves or the vrorld by any very 
 startling or profound investigation of the grounds of 
 Christian belief. Their interests are so interwoven with 
 the existing order of things that they can hardly be ex- 
 pected to rise superior to selflsh considerations. They 
 are, too, as a rule, unfit for the task. If one of them 
 does enter the field of biblical criticism, he does so, not 
 for the purpose of procuring new evidence or passing 
 impartially npon such as we have, but with a view to 
 repair the breaches already made and erect a great Chi- 
 nese wall to prevent the incursion of iconoclasts and 
 levelers. ■ In their attempts to fortify their position they 
 disregard the ordinary rules of warfare, and hurl upon 
 the heads of their assailants the foulest epithets that the 
 ecclesiastical mud-engines can belch forth. IS^a matter 
 liow pure and blameless mny be a man's life, the moment
 
 Theology and Mythology. 01 
 
 he questions the biblical story he is branded an atheist, 
 infidel, blasphemer, a dangerous man and an enemy to 
 society. He may have genius, but this onl}'- makes his 
 crime cf independence the more heinous. No longer 
 able to consign him to the rack, the faggot and the dun- 
 geon, as in the good pious old times gone by, the church 
 n\ilitant now contents herself with attempting to render 
 him infamous and socially an outcast. This even, little 
 as it is, is not eiiected with the same ease as formerlj,-. 
 
 Churchmen are equally unjust in their attempted in- 
 terpretation of Scripture. They strain and tv/ist passages 
 out of all shape and meaning to support the most extrav- 
 agant views. The plainest passages of the Hebrew 
 Scriptures, having reference and application to events 
 current with their utterance, are regarded as prophetic 
 descriptions of the spiritual Messiah. Thus Melchisedec, 
 the priest who met Abraham returning from the slaugh- 
 ter of the kings, was typical of, if not identical with, the 
 true Christ manifested to the world in the person of 
 Jesus, the son of the carpenter. Wlien the three angels 
 (?) appeared at Abraham's tent-door in the cool of the 
 dav, and Abraham in the Oriental manner addressed 
 them as " my Lord," biblical commentators discover in 
 this a proof of the doctrine of the Trinity. Examination 
 v/ill disclose the fact that even the often-quoted passages 
 of Isaiah — denominated the evangelical prophet — triuni- 
 phantly insisted upon as descriptive of the Savior, had 
 really ,not the slightest reference, directly or indirectly, 
 to Jesus of ITazareth, but had sole and primary reference 
 to some person or event of prominent importance in the 
 current history of the Jewish race. Cyrus, for the most 
 part, and not the poor despised Nazarcnc of subsequent '
 
 92 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 ages, is the subject of Isaiah's '* inspired '' verse. The 
 first few verses of the forty-fifth chapter of this book 
 settle the question beyond controversy : " Thus saith the 
 Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have 
 lioldcn, to subdue nations before hirii ; and I will loose 
 the loins of kings to open before him the two leaved 
 gates, and the gates shall not be shut. I will go before 
 thee, and make the crooked places straight, I will break 
 in pieces the gates of brass and cut in sunder the bars of 
 iron, and I will give thee the treasures of darkness and the 
 hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know 
 that I, the-Lord, M'hich call thee by name, am the God 
 of Israel." We care not now to consider the anthropo- 
 morphic picture here presented of the God of Israel en- 
 gaged in smashing two leaved gates of brass, and twist- 
 ing bars of iron, as a display of his power for his anointed 
 Cyrus ; we only remark that if the name of Cyrus had 
 not been specially mentioned here, there hardly remains 
 a doubt that this description would have been appi-o- 
 priated by the Church and applied altogether to Jesus. 
 So far had this speculative application of the older He- 
 brew Scriptures to the character and person of Jesus 
 been carried, that the writer of the Epistle to the He- 
 brews exercises the most refined species of ingenuity in 
 establishing the superiority of Christ's ministers to the 
 priesthood of Levi. The writer, by a bold exercise of 
 the imagination, assumes that that mysterious character 
 called Melchisedec, mentioned casually in Genesis, and 
 who is dismissed in briefest mention as " priest of tlie 
 most high God," was actually the God who was after- 
 ward manifested in tlie flesh in the person of Jesus of 
 Nazareth. Having, by this splendid conceit, established
 
 Theology and Mythology. 93 
 
 tills fiict, the writer proceeds to sliow that Abraham, the 
 progenitor of Levi, meeting Melcliiseclec, returning from 
 the slaughter of the kings, paid tithes to Melchisedec, 
 or to Jesus, V\\\o was not born until a few thousand years 
 later, and argues that therefore the Levitical order of 
 priesthood was inferior to that of Jesus ; forgetting, for 
 the moment, that if Jesus was the descendant of Abra- 
 ham, as is claimed for him, he, too, being " in the loins of 
 his father Abraham," — to use the scriptural phrase — 
 must have paid tithes to himself! Christians maybe 
 satisfied with this kind of argument, but men of ordinary 
 understanding will condemn it as despicable sophism 
 unworthy of a moment's consideration. 
 
 The gospel narrative informs us that, after the birth 
 of Jesus, Joseph and Mary went down to Egypt. There 
 was apparently no compelling cause for the undertaking 
 of this journey ; but the gospel writer, with great candor, 
 informs us that this was done in order that the prophecy 
 " Out of Egypt have I called my son" might be fulfilled. 
 This, it will be admitted, is a novel method of fulfilling 
 prophecy. Almost endless instances might be adduced 
 of the adoption of this method of the application of 
 prophecies to persons and subjects to which they had 
 not the remotest reference. 
 
 When the propagators of Christianity found it neces- 
 sary to attempt to reconcile the strange aspects of the 
 Christian faith with the expectations entertained by the 
 Jews of restoration of sovereign and national power, they 
 abandoned the plain meaning of the Hebrew Scriptures. 
 For a temporal prince and warrior they substituted a 
 spiritual Christ. For the kingdom of Israel they gave 
 the recalcitrant Jews the larger, loftier and more spa-
 
 94 Theology and Mijihology. 
 
 (•ions but less tangible kingdom of Ilciiveii. The Canaan 
 of tlieir early bloody wars became the shining shore of 
 tlie better land beyond the grave. The New Jerusalem, 
 whose streets were to be paved witli pnre gold, was not 
 to be found npon any map of Palestine. Even Jordan 
 had vmdergone a change. It was no longer the dear old 
 familiar, almost sacred river wdiose sensitive waters ran 
 from the touch of the priest's feet ; it was no longer only 
 the beautiful river by whose pleasant banks children 
 sported, young men and maidens sipped the intoxicating 
 elixir of life's opening dream, -or where the aged patri- 
 arch and white-haired prophet sat, and as they looked 
 upon its swift-flowing surface saw mirrored the picture 
 of the far-off past and the fleeting present. It was more 
 tlum all this under the new dispensation. " Saints" no\v 
 sang of meeting on the other side of Jordan, of gathering 
 at the river, and wandering in the pleasant fields of the 
 spiritual Canaan, in much the same spirit as the cxilo 
 dreams of the lakes and the mountains, the rivers and 
 the valleys, and the surf-beaten shore of his far-off native 
 land. But the unpoetic and practical Jew entertained 
 no such conceptions. His vision was obscured by no 
 such allegorical clouds. Jordan was to him a stream, 
 sacred, it is true, by its association with the history of 
 his race, but only a sti'eam. Canaan was, it is true, in 
 the flowery language of the Orientalists, a land flowing 
 with milk and honey, which he had obtained possession 
 of not by prayers, but \i-y hard fighting; and if he enter- 
 tained at times — which is very doubtful — dreams of a 
 life beyond the grave, he never thought of encumbering 
 himself with the Zions, Jordans, Canaans and Jerusalems 
 of his earthly pdgriinage. It is only the Christian v.'ho,
 
 Theology and Mytliology. 95 
 
 asserting that God is a spirit, yet witli strange inconsist- 
 ency ascribes to liini the passions, vices and virtues of 
 hnmanity. 
 
 The existence of any fact is totally independent of 
 any views that ma}^ l^e entertained concerning it. The 
 sun would shine with its wonted brightness, and rise and 
 set with its accustomed regularity, whether or not men 
 existed upon the surface of the earth to enjoy its light 
 and trace its apparent course in the heavens. Earth's 
 rivers would forever llov/ and mingle their waters, fresh 
 Xrom mountains and valleys, with the sea's salt waves, 
 whether they bore upon their surface the magnificent 
 monuments of naval architecture, freighted with the 
 products of human industry, or swept forward, into the 
 currents of the ocean, rocks, trees and vegetable matter, 
 unconscious of change. 
 
 In dealing with the record of the " miraculous" phase 
 of Christianity, some modern writers of great learning 
 and eminence, animated doubtless by an amiable dispo- 
 sition, would sacrifice truth itself, lest a shock should be 
 given to the religious sentiment by the unequivocal as- 
 sertion of what they conceive to be the truth. 
 
 Renan's "Life of Jesus" reads more like a romance 
 than a scholai-ly and philrosophical investigation of the 
 most important subject that can engage the attention of 
 any rational human being. While eminently suggestive, 
 ho almost shrinks from the duty of drawing legitimata 
 and logical conclusions from his own premises. Having 
 demonstrated the physical impossibility involved in the 
 acceptance of the theory of the resurrection of Jesus, yet, 
 v/ith reprehensible levity, ho admits that Christ did rise
 
 96 Theology and Mythology . 
 
 I'roin the dead and ascend into \\qv(.\&w for those who believe 
 it. This is trifling with a controversy only one side of 
 ->viiich can be true. Either Jesus triumphantly tram- 
 pling upon Y)hysical impossibilities, asserting liis superi- 
 ority to all laws of nature, conquered the King of Ter- 
 rors in his own gloomy and lightless stronghold, and 
 ascended bodily into the heavens, wherever they maybe; 
 or, after a heroic and godlike life, crowned with thorns 
 that a thankless world ever binds npon the brows of the 
 emancipators of humanity, scourged with the stripes that 
 ignorance and bigotry ever inflict upon the forerunners 
 of new eras of larger freedom and fuller moral and intel- 
 lectual development, his physical existence underwent 
 the same change and was subject to the inevitable condi- 
 tions that are inseparable from human life. Either one 
 or the other of these theories must be true ; both cer- 
 tainly cannot. The thought of the present day will not 
 be satisfied with faith or sentiment; it wants facts, and 
 facts only, no matter how many and dearly-cherished 
 beliefs the light of investigation may dissipate forever. 
 
 At the very threshold of an investigation into the 
 claims of a religious belief founded npon the assumption 
 of miraculous interpositions, one is met by a protest 
 against the propriety of such an investigation. It is 
 often said, in substance : " Suppose you succeed, Avhich, 
 after all, is extremely difficulL, in weakening the trusting 
 faith of the best people in the world in the assumed 
 truths of Christianity, what do you gain thereby ? Do 
 you not take from them the bread of life and offer them 
 a stone ? Why rob life, not very pleasant under the 
 best cu'cumstances, of a harmless, nay, beneficent, delu- 
 sion, if it be a delusion ? Assuming even that there is
 
 Theology and Mythology. 97 
 
 no life beyond the present, wliy trouble yourself and 
 others by perplexing doubts ? Let things be as they are 
 and let human faitli flow on as heretofore in its well- 
 defined channel. Why engage in the most thankless 
 office in tlie world — that of intimating that long-estab- 
 lished faith may be based upon erroneous teaching ? 
 AVhy vex even your brief existence with the great prob- 
 lems that the wisest men leave to others ? Life at best 
 is short, and yet it ofiers some pleasure to the man not 
 overburthened wnth thought who follows in the crowd of 
 respectable mediocrity and generously pays others who 
 professionally do his religious thinking for him." 
 
 To this it may be answered that tlie noblest and hap- 
 piest exercise of the faculties of man's higher being is in 
 the investigation of truth for truth's sake. The pleasures 
 of sense perish with the using. The " scorners of the 
 ground" made this discovery even long before the royal 
 Hebrew sensualist, who, having drank life to the lees, 
 declared that all was vanity. The knowledge of the 
 truth robs life of nothing worth cherishing. It alone 
 confers dignity upon man, and enables him, unfettered 
 by the rust-eaten chains of superstition and un appalled 
 by spiritual anathemas, to comprehend his place in na- 
 ture and accept with decent composure the inevitable. 
 Were the pioneers of humanity timorous as to where 
 truth might lead and how far from ancient landmarks 
 investigation wouLl carry them, the progress of our race 
 would have been impeded for many centuries; the toma- 
 hawk, the bow and arrow and string of beads would rep- 
 resent our civilization to-day, and not the telescope, the 
 telegraph, the steam-engine and printing-press. By the 
 very condition of his being man is imperatively urged
 
 0.8 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 into the field of investiij^ation. A knowledafe of the 
 pliysical laws in conformity with which his existence is 
 rendered pleasant or even tolerable can never be detri- 
 mental to the individual. So a knowledge of the spirit- 
 ual and moral laws that govern him is inseparable from 
 his improvement and progress in his social relations. As 
 his religious conceptions, and the forms and ceremonies 
 by which he expresses tliem, are controlling elements in 
 his civilization, in the highest sense of the term, it is 
 apparent that it becomes the duty of every rational crea- 
 ture to apply the attention to the investigation of relig- 
 ious claims that he does to the ordinary interests and 
 avocations of life. It is difficult for one accustomed from 
 the very dawn of the reasoning faculties to place unques- 
 tioned reliance in the assumptions of " Kevelation," and 
 taught to regard with reverence the religious ceremonies 
 in which spiritual conceptions have been preserved and 
 crystalizcd, to divest himself utterly of all bias, and en- 
 joy a condition of mental indiiference so necessary to 
 fearless investigation. The painful earnestness with 
 which wc sometimes endeavor to persuade ourselves and 
 others that we are perfectly unprejudiced affords the best 
 evidence of the permanence of early impressions. In an 
 investigation into the presumed truths of "Revelation"'' 
 it is useless to assert that only certain portions of it fall 
 within the scope of inquiry, while other portions must 
 be accepted witliout question or liesitation. For be'tter 
 or worse — and "we believe assuredly for the betterT— the 
 world wishes to know all that may be known of the fun- 
 damental principles and historical evidences upon which 
 revealed religion is based. True, the unthinking and the 
 ii-uorant mav, for manv years to come, continue to ac-
 
 TJiGology and Mythology.' 99 
 
 cept as absolute verities propositions abandoned as un- 
 tenable by their leaders ; but no system can long survive 
 its c'ondemnation by tlie intellect, ability and culture of 
 the ripest scholars and independent thinkers of the age.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Leaving the claims to inspiration put forward on be- 
 lialf of the ohler Hebrew Scriptures, let us inquire 
 whether or not the Kew Testament writings conform to 
 what we should consider the essentials of a divine com- 
 munication, if any such has ever been given to man. 
 
 Inspiration, in its ordinary acceptation and biblical 
 sense, we may assume to be the communication of knowl- 
 edge of some kind, which could not otherwise be ob- 
 tained, to a human being by God, who we may als6 
 assume to be a spiritual being having no bodily or terres- 
 trial existence, and which man could never have evolved 
 from his own inner consciousness or have acquired by 
 observation of the externals surroundino; him. 
 
 The power of limited prediction must not 1)0 con- 
 founded with what "inspiration" calls prophec3\ For 
 example, by a happy guess, or by an accurate survey of 
 political events, past and passing, one might predict, 
 and be verified in the prediction, that ten 3'ears hence 
 the Empire might be restored in France or royalty abol- 
 ished in England. Yet tlie verification of either predic- 
 tion or both of them would by no means argue the em-
 
 Theology and Mythology. 101 
 
 ployment of divine wisdom miraculously confeiYed. 
 Again, "Revelation" is only valuable when it communi- 
 cates truths that the world needs to know, is bettered by 
 knowing, and which were not discoverable by the exer- 
 cise of the reasoning}: faculties. 
 
 A " Revelation " claiming to come from the author of 
 all truth must be absolutely perfect. In it confusion, and, 
 least of all, contradiction, should find no place. In in- 
 vestigating the origin of Christianity, from the biblical 
 accounts, we find inextricable confusion in the narration 
 of the most important events. Mark, without any pref- 
 atory remarks, 'passes over in utter silence the infancy, 
 youth and early manhood of Jesus, beginning his sketch 
 of the public ministry of Christ at the period of the im- 
 prisonment of John, and introduces Jesus as entering on 
 his public career preaching by the shore of the sea of 
 Galilee, and numbering among the first converts to his 
 faith two fishermen, Simon and Andrew. Matthew be- 
 gins the g-cnealogy of Jesus at Abraham and traces it 
 down to Joseph, the husband of Mary; "of whom was 
 born Jesus, who is called the Christ." Luke, after in- 
 dulging in some prefatory remarks, disclaiming, by im- 
 putation, any other than natural and ordinary sources of 
 i'liformation, commences by saying, " And Jesus himself 
 began to be about tliirty j-ears of age, being, as was sup- 
 posed, tlic son of Joseph which was the son of Hell," 
 etc., and traces the genealogy of Jesus up to Adam, 
 "which was the son of God." Luke makes Jesus to 
 have descended from David through Nathan ; Matthew 
 makes him descended from David throu2;h Solomon. 
 Matthew says (i, 17) : " So all the generations from 
 Abraham to David arc fourteen generations ; and from
 
 102 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 David unto the carrying away into Babylon arc fourteen 
 generations ; and from the carrying away into Babylon 
 nnto Christ are fourteen generations''; making thus in 
 all forty-tw^o generations by Matthew's count from Abra- 
 ham to Jesus. By turning to Luke, and ascending the 
 genealogical tree, we find, by actual enumeration, the 
 number of generations from Jesus to Abraham to bo 
 fifty-four. Here, then, in these two accounts exists a 
 difierence of twelve generations. Both certainly cannot 
 be divinely inspired, since they involve a discrepancy 
 and contradiction irreconcilable by any hypothesis, how- 
 over ingenious. A little further on we are confronted 
 with another diSiculty. Jesus, " according to the flesli, 
 was the-son of David." Joseph, according to the "or-, 
 thodox " view, was not the true parent of Jesus. lie 
 was only the nominal husbond of Mary, the mother of 
 Jesus. If Jesus were the son of God, and not born into 
 the world in accordance with the ordinary laws of pro- 
 creation, common-sense as well as a moment's reflection 
 would suggest that the world is, and ought to be, totally 
 indifferent to the genealogy of Joseph, who is a mere 
 figurehead and amiable appendage in the group of t!ic 
 " holy family." If Jesus. was not the son of Josepli, in 
 the natural sense in which ever}'^ male child i the son of 
 his father, there exists no necessity or excuse for the 
 insertion in the sacred records of the genealogy of Jo- 
 seph. Obviously, if the "inspired" writers desired to 
 have traced the descent of Jesus from David, they onglit 
 to have shown that Mary, the mother of Jesus, and not 
 Joseph, was descended from the royal house of David. 
 This they have utterly failed to do, leaving their failure 
 inexplicable — all the more so as it does not seem tliat
 
 Theology and Mythology. 103 
 
 they ever entertained the new doctrine of the Catholic 
 Churcli of the "immaculate conception" of the Virgin 
 IMary lierself. 
 
 Without adverting to the physical absurdity involved 
 in the account of the supernatural birth of Jesus, let us 
 refer, for a moment, to the gospel narration of tliis mar- 
 velous story. Matthew,!, 18, and following: "]S[ow the 
 birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise : When as his mother 
 Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, 
 she was fbund with child of the Holy Ghost, Then Jo- 
 sepli, her husband, being a just man, and not willing to 
 make her a public example, was minded to put her away 
 privily ; but while he thought on these things, behold 
 the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, 
 saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto 
 thee Mary thy wife ; for that which is conceived in her 
 is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son, 
 and thou shalt call his name Jesus ; for lie shall save his 
 people from their sins. Ifoio, all this was done that it 
 miglit he fulfilled which was sjjohen of the Lord hy the 
 proj)het^ saying^ Behold, a -virgin shall he with child, 
 and shall hring forth a S07i, and they shall call his 7iaine 
 JEni'tnanuely ichich, heing interjjreted, is, God with us. 
 Then Jc ph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel 
 of the Ll 1 had ^bidden him, and took unto him his wife ; 
 and knew her not till she had brought forth her first- 
 born son, and he called his name Jesus." From this 
 account it must be conceded that the story of the mirac- 
 ulous birth of Jesus is based upon the unsupported state- 
 ment of Matthew and a dream of Joseph. AYe are not 
 informed that this miraculous birth was part of a divine 
 programme laid down for the salvation of mankind; but
 
 104 Theology and Mytliology. 
 
 " all this Vv'as done that it mi<rht be fulfilled wliich was 
 spoken by the Lord of the prophet." Turning to the 
 prophecy here referred to, let us quote from the seventh 
 chapter of Isaiah : " And it came to pass in the days of 
 Ahaz, the son of Jotliam, the son of Uzziah, king of Ju- 
 dah, that Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of 
 Ecmaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to 
 war against it ; but could not prevail against it. And 
 it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confeder- 
 ate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved and the 
 licart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved 
 with the wind. Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, Go 
 forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shear-Jashub thy 
 son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the 
 liighway of the fuller's field, and say unto him. Take 
 liced and be quiet, fear not, neither be faint-hearted for the 
 two tails of these smokino- firebrands : for the fierce an- 
 ger of Kezin with Syria and of the son of Remaliah, be- 
 cause Syria, Ephraim and the son of Kemaliah have 
 taken evil counsel against thee, saying. Let us go up 
 against Judah and vex it; and lot us make a breach 
 therein for us and set a king in the midst of it, even the 
 son of Tabeal. Thus saith the Lord God, It shall not 
 stand, neither shall it come to pass. Eor the head of 
 Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin ; 
 and xoithin three score and jive years shall £j)hrai)n, be 
 broken thatit he not a 2^Q0i:)le. And tlie liead of E])li- 
 raim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's 
 son. If ye w'ill not believe, surely ye shall not bo estab- 
 lished. Moreover, the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, 
 saying, Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God ; ask it either 
 in the depth or in tlic hciglit above. But Ahaz said, I will
 
 Theology and J\[ytholo(/y. 105 
 
 not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. And he Baid, 
 Hear ye now, O house of David : Is it a small thing for 
 you to weary men ; but will ye weary my God also ? 
 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. JJe- 
 holdj a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall 
 call his name Emmanuel. Mutter and honey shall 
 he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and 
 choose the good. For before the child shall know to 
 refuse the evil and choose the good, the land thou 
 abhorrcst shall be forsaken of both, her ki7igsr 
 
 We have quoted this passage in full from Isaiah lest 
 it might bo charged that we have given an improper 
 construction to an isolated passage of Scripture. Is it 
 not clear as tlie sunliijht to the humblest intelhVence, 
 from the perusal of this passage of Scripture, that the 
 sign of a virgin bringing forth a son, mentioned by the 
 prophet Isaiah, had sole reference to an event in Jewish 
 history long anterior to the birth of Jesus of Isazareth, 
 and totally unconnected with the marvelous career of the 
 founder of Christianity ? Can it be qucc-tioned that this 
 passage had not the slightest allusion to the Christ of the 
 New Testament, in either his true character as the son 
 of man, or his accepted character as a wondrous combi- 
 nation of God and man % What butter and what liouev 
 was he to eat that he might know how to refuse the evil 
 and choose the good? Is not this utterly senseless? 
 According to the orthodox theory, Jesus was born with- 
 out sin. Neither butter nor honey, as a dietary arrange- 
 ment, could give him any knowledge of either good or 
 evil. He knew all things before he was born, when he 
 vvas born, and in liis infancy, youth and manhood. He 
 was absolutely a peri'cct being, tlie God of the limiilcss
 
 106 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 Universe, incarnate. "Wliat latitude of imagination or 
 perversion of the ordinary meaning of human language 
 can apply this prophecy — so called — to the author of the 
 Sermon on the Mount ? Was Jesus ever, in the New 
 Testament, called Emmanuel ? What land was forsaken 
 by both her kings before the child Jesus, by eating butter 
 and honey, knew how to refuse the evil and choose the 
 good ? Is not this nothing but a painful eifort on tho 
 part of the zealous author of this imperfect and meager 
 biography of Jesus to apply an obscure allusion to a dis- 
 astrous juncture in Jewisli history in support of the pre- 
 tensions put forth to sustain the story of the supernatural 
 birth of Jesus ? Again, Joseph is made to undertake a 
 journey with the infant Jesus into Egypt, -in order that 
 another prophecy, so called, might be fulfilled : " Out of 
 Egypt have I called my son "; the full passage being, 
 " When Israel was a child I loved him ; out of Egypt 
 have I called my son." This manufacturing of fulfill- 
 ment of prophecy, in order to make the life of Jesus har- 
 monize with obscure allusions, called prophetical, is 
 everywhere apparent throughout the New Testament 
 writings. The probability is that in the original sketches 
 they found no place, but were subsequently clumsily in- 
 terpolated by zealots in order to present a plausible ar- 
 gument in favor of the Messianic claims of Jesus. 
 
 The account of the nativity of Jesus as given by Luke 
 differs very materially from that of Matthew. After the 
 introduction of the wonderful episode of Zacharias and 
 Elizabeth, which bears on its face evidence of the pur- 
 pose for which it was gotten uj), we are told that, in the 
 sixth month, the angel Gabriel w^as sent by God to an- 
 nounce to Mary, then espoused to Joseph, the signal
 
 T 
 
 7ieology and Mythology. 107 
 
 honor conferred upon her in being designated as the 
 mother of liini " who shall be great and shall be called 
 the son of the highest; and the Lord God shall give 
 unto him the throne of his father David." The angel 
 Gabriel, who had also been visiting Ehzabeth, informs 
 JVIary of the situation of the former, who in her old age 
 was about to become the mother of a man whose career 
 was only less remarkable, as a popular teacher, than that 
 of Jesus. Luke omits altogether the story of the appear- 
 ance of the angel to Joseph in a dream, but more tlian 
 compensates for the omission by making Mary — an un- 
 educated Jewish peasant girl — utter a remarkably fine 
 piece of composition, still deservedly popular in the re- 
 ligious services of the Churcli. Luke narrates the mir- 
 aculous announcement of the birth of Jesus to the shep- 
 lierds watching their flocks by night. Matthew, however 
 — which Luke omits — narrates the journey of the wise 
 men of the East, following a star moving through the 
 heavens until it finally stood over the house where the 
 infant Jesus was sheltered. We do not know what 
 measure of faith, unsustained by any testimony whatever, 
 is necessary to enable reasonable men to believe that a 
 star moved through the heavens and then stood directly 
 over a particular spot. Such a plienomenon would do- 
 range 'the whole stellar system, involving probably the 
 destruction of this world and others; besides, granting 
 even the appearance of a star in such a mission possil)le, 
 and overlooking the absurdity of employing a star to 
 perform the ordinary work of a human guide, yet we are 
 presented with the farther impossibihty of a star in the 
 heavens indicating with sufficient accuracy any portion 
 of the earth's surface under it within the radius of a few
 
 108 Theology and Afythology. 
 
 miles ! To give credence to sucli n, narrative is to sur- 
 render every exercise of reason and tbouglit. To give 
 credence to a statement bearing oii its face such stupen- 
 dous absurdity, upon mere legendary testimony, involves 
 such a degradation of the understanding as no man of 
 ordinary capacity could have voluntarily descended to, 
 had not implicit belief in the truth of the Scriptures 
 formed the basis of his early spiritual education. 
 
 "We do not think that in justice they who refuse to 
 give credence to the miraculous legends of either the 
 Old or New Testament Scriptures should be required to 
 furnish proof of their my thical character ; notwiihstand- 
 ing the fact that so respectable an authority in matters 
 of legal evidence as Mr. Greenleaf asserts that the bur- 
 den of proof lies upon those who deny the assumed truth 
 of the miracles of the Scriptures. All ancient literature 
 abounds in myths. Take avvay from the poetry of Greece 
 and Rome its mytliical element and little remains. Were 
 we constantly called upon to disprove every legend of 
 Greece and Home, not to mention the more ancient 
 mytliologies of Egypt and India, we would undertake an 
 endless and profitless task. Admitting tliat miracles are 
 possible, how, for example, could we from contempora- 
 neous testimony disprove the allegation of the beautiful 
 allegorical fable that Athene, the goddess of W-isdom, 
 did not spring panoplied from the brain of Jupiter, or 
 that Yulcan v.-as not lamed for life in consequence of his 
 expulsion from lieaven and fall upon the island of Lem- 
 nos ; or, even coming dovv-n to wliat may, comparatively, 
 be considered historic times, that Eomulus and Remus 
 were not the sons of Mars by a vestal virgin, were not 
 cast into the Tiber and nursed bv a fcuiale wolf; or that
 
 Theology and Mythology. 109 
 
 Numa did not receive visits and instruction from the 
 nympli Egeria ? "We cannot, from any contradictory 
 testimony current v;hen these fables were generally ac- 
 cepted as true, disprove all or any of these legends. 
 Can we even disprove the miracles of the Koran from 
 any opposing concurrent testimony ? They, and the 
 wondrous narrations of the Yedas of India, have for ages 
 been accepted as true, and become the foundations of 
 great religious systems held in complete veneration by 
 millions of the human race for ages. The worshipers of 
 Brahma and the followers of Mahomet, to-day, vastly 
 outnumber the followers of Jesus. Shall we adopt one 
 rule of criticism for the investigation of the claims of 
 these different systems ? Shall we refuse credence to 
 the record of n^iraculous events narrated in the Yedas 
 and the Koran, while we giv^e unquestioned assent to 
 every story that comes to us of the marvelous preserved 
 in the Hebrew Scriptures ? If absurdities, contradic- 
 tions and assertions of physical impossibilities character- 
 ize the crude conceptions of the primitive races, do we 
 not find an attempt at their reproduction in the angelic 
 appearances, moving stars and midnight dreams that dis- 
 figure the portion of truth contained in the early story 
 of tlie origin of Christianity ? 
 
 Schleiermacher has well said of the anjrels : " It can- 
 not be proved that no such beings exist ; nevertheless 
 the whole conception is one that could not bo born in 
 our tunc ; it belongs exclusively to the prim.itive idea of 
 the world. Not from one line of reasoning, but from 
 the whole mass of reasoning, comes this immense result : 
 nothing is supernatural." On tiie same subject, in his 
 preface to " The lyifo of Jesus," Littrc observes : '* In
 
 110 Theology and Mythologij. 
 
 rejecting miracles, the modern age has not acted from 
 deliberate purpose ; for it received the tradition of them, 
 with that of its ancestors — always dear and carefully 
 kept — but without wishing to reject them, without try- 
 ing to do BO, and by the single fact of the development 
 with which it was bursting. An experience which noth- 
 ing has ever occurred to contradict has taught it that 
 evei^y miraculous story had its origin in vivid imagina- 
 tion, in coinplaisant credxdity^ in ignorance of riatural 
 laws. With all the research that has been made, no 
 Tniracle has ever been wrought lohere it could be ob- 
 served and jprovedP Even in the glimpses the gospel 
 narratives give us of tlie alleged working of miracles, 
 Jesus seems to shrink from the forced or unnatural part 
 he was in a manner compelled to act in order to gratify 
 the love of the marvelous characteristic of his age. He 
 repeatedly declines to work miracles. ISTay, more, he 
 emphatically condemns the popular demand for miracu- 
 lous displays. He said on one occasion : " A wicked and 
 adulterous generation sceketh after a sign, but no sign 
 shall be given, save tliat of the prophet Jonas." He 
 repudiated the habit, too often indulged in by teachers 
 of religion even of our own days, of inferring special 
 providences from ordinary accidents; asking his follow- 
 ers if tliey believed tlie people upon whom the Tower of 
 Siloam fell were any guiltier than others. He warns 
 those whose mental disorders he corrected by liis sooth- 
 ing influence — "casting out devils," as it is in tlie lan- 
 guage of Scripture — to " go their way and sec they tell 
 no man " ; so little did he court notoriety or reputation 
 arising from tliauraaturgy. His true character of a moral 
 reformer appeai-s when he Avhipped from tlie porch of
 
 Theology and Mythology. Ill 
 
 the temple the usurious money-lenders, and when, stand- 
 ing on the liillside, he preaclied that noble discourse, 
 immortal as humanity, the " Sermon on_ the Mount." 
 How diiierent is the representation of his chasing dev- 
 ils into swine, stpoping down and w'riting with his finger 
 in the dust when called upon to condemn an erring wo- 
 man whose frailty he pitied, or on another occasion going 
 through the process — we hate and hesitate to call it jug- 
 gler}' — of niixing clay with his spittle and " anointing " 
 the eyes of a blind man. One of the gospel writers, in 
 a moment of charming frankness, informs us that even 
 to his thaumaturgic powers there were limits, as " Jesus 
 could do no mighty work there because of their unbe- 
 lief." When the seventy disciples returned to him after 
 preaching the new gospel, filled with the exultant enthu- 
 siasm the novelty of their mission inspired, and vaunted, 
 saying, " Lord, even the devils arc subject unto us through 
 tliy name," he dashed the cold water of temperate reason 
 upon their hot zeal, saying, " Notwithstanding, in this 
 rejoice not that spirits are subject unto you ; but rather 
 rejoice because your names are wn-itten in heaven." 
 Jesus, like all great reform.ers, was himself in advance of 
 the conscience as well as the intelligence of his age ; but 
 in order to render his mission at all successful he was 
 compelled to deal gently with the superstitions of his 
 time. Probably he was not himself alt02;ether divested 
 of them. Fevv^ Avliolly are. Socrates, whose reason 
 soared above the mythologies of Greece, yet believed 
 that there was an Inner voice, a kind of a tutelary divin- 
 it}'- within him, ever impelling or restraining liim through 
 life. He despised oracular responses ; yd he took ad- 
 vantaire of tliat cr.o tliat declared him to be tlie wisest
 
 112 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 of tho Grecians, fis it afforded liiin an opportanity of ex- 
 posing tli3 pretensions of the poets and philosophers. 
 lie showed that they knew nothing with certainty, wliilc 
 lie had reached to a higher plane of knowledge in know- 
 ing that he knew nothing.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 If wg accept tlic theory of Divine Inspiration put 
 forward on behalf of the four gospels that narrate a brief 
 portion of tlie public and private life of Jesus, we become 
 involved in inextricable difficulty. The discrepancies 
 existins: in the account of the miraculous birth of Jesus 
 are inconsistent with any idea of divine inspiration. If 
 these writings were inspired by the Author of truth, 
 they would contain no contradictions ; nor would there 
 bo any need of the laborious explanations of these con- 
 tradictions by learned commentators. When God has a 
 message for humanity there will exist no necessity for 
 explanation or modification ; nor, it is to be presumed, 
 will it be necessary for him to employ four men to do 
 vei'Y imperfectly that which one man could very easily 
 accomplish under divine direction and dictation. If, 
 however, we regard the four gospels as written by men 
 whose feelings were wrought up to the highest pitch of 
 enthusiasm, who allowed their crednlity to carry them 
 fiir beyond the limits of sober reality, who accepted easily 
 as true what they desired to believe, and who, without 
 any premeditated intention of deceit, allowed imagination
 
 114: Theology and Mijthology. 
 
 to wander freelj beyond the domain of fact ; -who wrote 
 in their old age, or in some cases doubtless dictated 
 merely to zealous amanuenses their recollections of the 
 life of Jesus, at a distance of time from the occurrence 
 of the alleged events varying from sixty to a hundred 
 years — many of the difficulties existing in the narratives, 
 irreconcilable on the theory of inspiration, may be ad- 
 justed to a certain idea of general harmony and unity. 
 
 We are not among those who believe for a moment 
 that Christianity v/as a scheme and conspiracy concocted 
 by either a few ignorant fishermen or learned rabbis for 
 instituting a new religion ; nor do we believe that the 
 four gospels'were composed and written to aid and abet 
 any such conspiracy. "VVe agree completely with Paul 
 the apostle that Christianity was not a cunningly devised 
 fable. We believe that it was the natural outcome of 
 the religious development of the age in which it germi- 
 nated, and is explainable, as such, as any other great 
 moral movement, just as mucli so as the skepticism of 
 the present day. If this view be the correct one, then 
 the conflicting statements of the gospels, though they 
 may not be made to harmonize, are yet susceptible of 
 explanation. We know that even historical v.-riters will 
 vary very considerably in their treatment of the same 
 subject. Even actual witnesses will, when testifying in 
 courts of justice under the sanctity and obligation of an 
 oath, give different accounts of the transactions that have 
 fallen under their observation. May we not then with 
 reason expect that in the four accounts of the life of 
 Jesus, written long after he passed awa}', differences 
 should inevitably exist? That they do exist is undeni- 
 able. The gospels, as we have them now, were, accord-
 
 Theology and Mythology. 115 
 
 ine; to the best research that can be had on the subject, 
 not generally in circulation, and even not compiled, 
 within less than a hundred and fifty years after the death 
 of Jesus, though it is highly probable that they existed 
 in a fragmentary and imperfect form within the first 
 centur3^ No one can read the compilations bearing the 
 reputed authorship of Matthew and Mark and not be 
 struck with the conviction that the compiler of the one 
 had before his eyes constantly the work of the other. In 
 several instances the exact language of Matthew is fol- 
 lowed by Mark in his description of the same events — 
 totally excluding any hypothesis of undesigned coinci- 
 dence. Christ in the Scriptures occupies a twofold char- 
 acter, and is viewed in a duplex aspect : one may be 
 denominated the theological view, the other the humani- 
 tarian. In the Epistles and in the Gospel of St. John 
 we are presented with the former, in the three gospels 
 we have the latter. 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth, the son of the carpenter, the 
 houseless wanderer, the enthusiast avIio lost his life be- 
 cause of his denunciation of hypocrisy and corruption, 
 the pure moralist whose life was as blameless as his doc- 
 trine, the sans cullote (republican) who enunciated the 
 leveling doctrine of the equality of all men before God 
 and the brotherhood of the human race ; who saw through 
 and exposed the pious frauds of tliose who loved to stand 
 praying at the street corners ; who opposed the arrogant 
 presumptions of ecclesiastical jugglery and priestcraft; 
 whose life was a dream of ecstasy ;*who, by the shore of 
 the lake, by the river side, in the wilderness or on the 
 mountains, so struggled with the mighty thoughts agitat- 
 ing his fine organism that his enemies charged that he
 
 116 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 was possessed of a devil ; wlio fasted long to subdue his 
 physical passions and bring his spiritual nature into 
 closer communion with the silent and mystic influences 
 he thought surrounded him ; who saw nothing insignifi- 
 cant in the most ordinary processes of nature ; who burst 
 the bands of a vigorous and exclusive Judaism, and glo- 
 ried not in being either a son of Abraham or of the royal 
 lineage of David, but sought and obtained the noblest 
 distinction of being called emphatically the '' Son of 
 Man " ; whose life was so obscure, whose exalted cliarac- 
 ter was confounded with that of a mere thaumaturgist ; 
 who Buffered every indignity possible to conceive, both 
 from a thankless rabble and a bigoted priesthood, and 
 finally was crucified as an impious blasphemer of God 
 and an enemy to the cause of order and good govern- 
 ment — this is the Jesus of the gospels, or rather of the 
 first three earlier gospels, depicted before divine honors 
 were claimed for him by others who sought to establish 
 a religious society founded upon his teachings, but who 
 incorporated into the new faith a creed totally foreign to 
 anything Jesus of Nazareth ever taught or dreamed of. 
 
 Much difficulty exists in fixing with any degree of 
 certainty tlie date of the composition of the gospels. 
 The conclusions of the best and unprejudiced scholars 
 are that none of them was written earlier than seventy 
 years after the death of Jesus. Luke was certainly writ- 
 ten after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and his 
 son Vespasian. E-enan, who labors hard for the authen- 
 ticity and genuineness of the gospels, says that they were 
 the echo of the reports of the first century after Christ, 
 It is not possible that any further light can be thrown
 
 Theology and Mythology. 117 
 
 upon the subject. Eeyond the settling of an important 
 historical question, the exact date of their composition is 
 not of prime importance to the world. We know enough 
 to know that sufficient time elapsed between the death 
 of Jesus and their composition to admit of the many ad- 
 ditions and narrations of miraculous transactions natural 
 to a condition of civilization that ever associated the 
 Kupernatural with any great result, moral or physical. 
 No impartial reader of the gospel narrative can fail to 
 be struck with the diflference between the real character 
 of Jesus then delineated and the colossal and unreal pro- 
 portions he is made to assume in the later circular letters 
 of the different apostles to the different churches. Jesus, 
 the man of sorrows, disappears. The friend of Lazarus, 
 Mary and Martha vanishes. Jesus dies. Christ is risen. 
 The Son of Man is lost not only in the Son of God, but 
 Christ is God,' the Eternal One, by whose words worlds 
 were framed, and the Savior gives way to the Awful 
 Judge, who shall deal with every man in the hereafter, 
 according to his works. The Christ of the Epistles 
 bearing the names of Peter, James and Paul in hardly a 
 single aspect resembles the Jesus of Matthew, Mark and 
 Luke. No promulgation of the doctrines of the Trinity, 
 Predestination, Justification by Faith, and the redemp- 
 tion of the world through faith in the efficacy of the 
 death of Jesus on the cross, is put forth with any degree 
 of distinctness in the narratives of the men who were 
 living when Jesus entered on his career as a public 
 teacher. No assumption of the dignity of lordsliip, 
 much less godijhip, marked liis early history and simple 
 life. He discarded even tlie title of "Master," telling
 
 118 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 his disciples to call no man master. A dreamer and vis- 
 ionary, lie pushed his ideas of liberty and equality ])e- 
 yond the bounds of reason and the necessities of social 
 life and political government. He condemned extrava- 
 gance in dress by his beautiful allusion to the lilies, 
 "which toil not, neither do they spin; and yet Solomon 
 in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." By 
 the illustration of God^s care for the sparrow he incul- 
 cated iudiiierence to the future : " Wherefore, take no 
 thought for the morrow, saying, what shall we eat or 
 what shall we drink, £)r wherewithal shall we be clothed; 
 for after all these thinsis do tlie* Gentiles seek'." As the 
 result of this communistic teaching we find his followers, 
 for a short period after his death, endeavoring to estab- 
 lish churches on the communistic plan. But, as every 
 such effort is antagonistic to the progress of civilization, 
 as well as the best interests of society, the attempt proved 
 a failure. It may be stated as a fact that the religion 
 Jesus tauQ:ht, if he ever tauo;ht a relijrion in the strict 
 sense of the word, which we doubt, differed materially 
 from the Christology of his disciples and apostles, anc 
 could hardly be recognized in subsequent Christianity — 
 invested with imperial power, having an organized hier- 
 archy, magnificent temples and imposing ceremonic 
 The real Jesus of -Nazareth lived and suffered and die 
 much in the same m'anner as many other reformers be 
 fore and since his time. The ideal Christ, as the ages 
 grew darker, and as time in its flight carried the world 
 farther awa}^ from the true story of the carpenter's son, 
 assumed magnificent proportions ; his faith overshadowed 
 man's intellect and gave form aud color to European
 
 Theology and Mythology. 119 
 
 civilization for eighteen hundred years, and, reaching 
 the sublime heights of devotion, buried out of sight the 
 mild Nazarene, placing upon the pedestal he ought to 
 have •occupied the colossal figure of an incarnate god! 
 
 i
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 Eknest Henan, in his " Critical History of Jesus," 
 says : " They say tliat Aiigehco of Fiesole never painted 
 the lieads of the Virgin or of Clirist except on his knees ; 
 it would be well for criticism to imitate his example, and 
 after having adored them to face the radiance of certain 
 ligures before which the ages have bent low." He fur- 
 ther adds : " The first duty of the philosopher is to swell 
 the chorus of humanity in worship of moral goodness 
 and beauty, exhibited in all noble characters and ele- 
 vated symbols." If a painter will paint a better picture 
 of tlie head of the Virgin, or any other head, by going 
 upon liis knees, the world, only concerned in the produc- 
 tion of a good picture, will offer no special objection to 
 ihc assumption of that or any other posture the paintef 
 may desire to assume. The picture, and not the posture 
 is all it cares for. AVhen, however, it becomes the duty 
 of criticism to discuss any historical question of impor- 
 tance, no worse attitude than the one Renan alludes to 
 can be possibly assumed. When we have "adored" any 
 figure without investigating its claims to adoration, we 
 render ourselves utterly incapable of independent criti-
 
 Tluology and Mythology. 121 
 
 « 
 
 cism. Nor is it the duty of the philosopher to " swell 
 any chorus of humanity" iiutil he first ascertains whether 
 the sons and the chorus are founded on eternal verities. 
 Because we have too many "adored figures" and 
 '• swelled choruses," he^ause from the first dawn of the 
 light of our intellectual faculties have we been too much 
 given up to the blind worship of human characters or 
 theological abstractions, do we, in after life, when reason 
 demands the grounds of belief, find the independence of 
 our judgment unsettled and the clearness of our vision 
 obstructed by the mists of superstition that have clouded 
 the morning of life. Educated as we are, one-third of 
 our life is spent in acquiring ideas and impressions that 
 the investie;ation of tlie succeeding third demonstrates 
 the falsity of, while oftentimes the remaining portion of 
 our da^'s is passed in indifference as to the truth or error 
 of any creed or dogma not affecting our immediate and 
 personal interests. 
 
 We should doubtless deal gently with the failings or 
 excesses of the great men who have conferred benefit 
 upon the race ; but we neitlier exalt them nor advance 
 the cause of truth by lifting them above the laws of hu- 
 man existence. 
 
 ■ We want to know Alexander as the son of Philip of 
 lacedon, not of Jupiter Ammon. Socrates has our 
 sj'mpath}'-, not because by one brave deed he drank hem-'' 
 lock in obedience to law, but because he endured with 
 ^morc than heroic fortitude the incompatibility of Xan- 
 tippe. Of the inner lives of the great men of even com- 
 paratively modern times we know little. Who knows 
 anything worthy of record of the private life of Shaks- 
 peare ? The authorship of even the ])lnys that bear his
 
 122 Theology and Jfythology, 
 
 name is still a matter of doubt. The acquisition of 
 knowledge is tlie object of all inquiry. Historical re- 
 search is attractive, because we desire to know what has 
 preceded our own appearance upon the stage of human 
 existence. This desire it is that lifts man above the 
 brutes that perish. Knowledge enables him to general- 
 ize, and to form some intelligent comprehension of his 
 relation not only to the phenomena of the present, but 
 to the vanished specter of the past, and, in some sort, 
 permits him to cast the horoscope of the future. It is 
 evident that, to whatever extent he allows feelings of 
 reverence, adoration or early impressions to influence 
 him, to the same extent will his conceptions of the men 
 and social or political movements of antiquity deviate 
 from the standard of rigid truth. Sallust justly remarks 
 that the exploits of the Greeks were sutficiently great 
 and glorious, but were not quite so magnificent as fame 
 had reported them, and assigns as a reason that Greece 
 had produced writers of great ability. One of tlie chief 
 impediments to historical research arises from the strug- 
 gle constantly, though silently, waged between the de- 
 ductions of reason and the influence of early impressions, 
 or, as Renan puts it, from painting pictures on our knees. 
 Almost every child born in a Christian land has been, to 
 some extent, when the receptive faculties were plasti',, 
 brought under the influence of religious instruction an4 ' 
 training. The reasoning powers were never called, at | 
 this stage, into exercise. The child is told that God/ 
 -lives in heaven, wherever that may be, and that he made ' 
 the world. He is thus left to form the childish idea of a 
 personal God. Even before he was capable of any intri- 
 cate combination of ideas, he was further informed that
 
 Theology and Mijthology. 123 
 
 Jesus Christ was both God and the Son of God as well 
 as the Son of Man. That this is a rational system of 
 education few unprejudiced minds will admit. It leads 
 naturall3'- to infidelity. "When reason asserts its inde- 
 pendence, the man will repudiate the impositions that 
 have been practiced upon him when his faith in every 
 statement made to him by those whose authority he rev- 
 erenced was unquestioned. Failing to see the harmony 
 between the God of his childhood, who loved his crea- 
 tures and yet permitted the majority of them to be cap- 
 tured by the Devil ; unable to recognize any consistency 
 in the assertion that God is omnipotent, and yet suffers 
 an inferior creature called Satan to mar his work and 
 drag down into endless perdition and unutterable torture 
 millions of God's creatures for whom God's son died — 
 nothing remains henceforth for. the enfranchised intelli- 
 gence but atheism or utter indifierence to all eo-called 
 religious teaching. The nursing mother, the Church, 
 then takes hold of him. She does not seek to undo the 
 wrong she has inflicted upon his outraged intelligence, 
 but she kindl}', with bell, book and candle, excommuni- 
 cates him from the body of the faithful. Thougli he is 
 just v.'hat she made him, he is called heretic, infidel and 
 atheist. He is dangerous to societ}^, and it were an act 
 ^f kindness to destro}'' him, lest his leprosy infect sound 
 members. Then the spirit of inquiry was extinguished 
 >y the loathsome dungeon ; he was stretched upon the 
 ick, his bones were pulled out of joint; the nails were 
 •rn from his flesh ; his poor eyes, that loved to look 
 ■)on the sun and the sweet face of nature — in default of 
 od — he adored, were rendered sightless by red hot 
 rons; his tongue was torn out by the roots; his feet
 
 121 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 were crashed in ii'on boots ; and lie was at last merci- 
 fully roasted alive over a slow fire ; while faithful Chris- 
 tians stood by and applauded the infliction of the most 
 refined and excruciating tortures upon a human crea- 
 ture that the devils in hell, if any there be, would have 
 hung their heads in shame at witnessing. Yet this ineff- 
 able infamy arose, in a great measure, from the pernicious 
 habit of painting on one's knees. Hence it is diflicult, 
 in view of the monstrous atrocities perpetrated in the 
 name of religion, to paint upon one's knees even the in- 
 nocent character of him under the " sanction " of whose 
 great name such indelible infamies have been inflicted 
 upon humanity. Hence it is, too, that if, in examining 
 too closely " the figures of antiquity," the varnish be 
 rubbed a little off of them, the fault is not with the honest 
 critic, but with the perpetrators of pious frauds, who, in 
 order to add color to these impositions, have smeared 
 over the true figures Avith incrustations of myths and 
 falsehoods. Jesus of Nazareth never claimed for himself 
 an origin different from the common heritas-e of human- 
 it}'. It is reasonable to assume that never, even in mo- 
 ments of most exalted inspiration, did he dream of such 
 a vast and overshadowing system of religion that, in the 
 process of the ages, assumed from an origin so humble 
 and obscure such magnificent proportions. How the 
 poor Galilean, who, to use his own graphic expression, 
 "had not where to lay his head," would have been daz- 
 zled and appalled had some hand thrust aside the veil 
 tliat hid the future from his view and revealed to his >4 
 bewildered intelligence the grandeur, both in its extent \ 
 and cruelty, of the ecclesiastical organization which in after ^ 
 ages elevated him not only above the gods of antiquity,
 
 Theology and Mythology. 125 
 
 but assigned liiin a position equal and identical witli 
 that of the Creator of the infinite and eternal Universe ! 
 If, as he passed through the wlieaten fields of Palestine 
 on that Sabbath morning, and, invited . by no man, 
 plucked the ears to satisfy his hunger, he could have 
 foreseen the countless millions in the future bowing down 
 at the mention of his name ; could his vision have rested 
 upon the magnificent temples to be erected in his honor, 
 altars laden with gold and precious stones, and a priest- 
 hood serving at more than ten thousand altars, engaged 
 in a new worship, surpassing in magnificence that of his 
 own nation while Solomon's temple stood — what a vista 
 of glory indescribable he would have revealed to the 
 motley company of ragged and hungry disciples who 
 followed liim ! Or how bitter would have seemed the 
 mockciy of tlic fantastic panorama to him as lie sat 
 down, tired with a weary journey, by the v/ell of Jacob, 
 and asked a Samaritan courtesan for a drink of cultl 
 water ! 
 
 The moral and spiritual utterances of Christ, such as 
 have come down to us, if collected in connected form, 
 instead of being scattered with variations and additions 
 througk the gospels, would liardly occupy as much space 
 as the column of one of our daily newspapers. Yet upon 
 the fragments of these detached utterances the wdiole sys- 
 tem of Christian theology, embodied in the Epistles and 
 incorporated into creeds and dogmas, is based. Conced- 
 ing the Sermon on the Mount to be most admirable botli 
 in its structure and the humanizing spirit it breathes, yet 
 it must be admitted that the noble truths embodied in 
 this matchless discourse were given to tlic world long 
 before their delivery in Judea. The " Golden Rule "
 
 126 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 was tanglit, we know, by Confucius iu disiirict and un- 
 mistakable language. Socrates, Aristippus, Aristotle, 
 Sextus, Marcus Aurelius and otliers taught it and lived 
 it as nearly as mortals can. Buckle, in his " History of 
 Civilization," truly remarks : " The system of morals 
 propounded in the New Testament contained no maxim 
 that had not been previously enunciated ; and that some 
 of the most beautiful passages in the apostles' writings 
 are quotations from pagan authors is well known to every 
 scholar ; and so far from supplying, as some suppose, an 
 objection against Christianity, it is a strong recommenda- 
 tion of it, as indicating the intimate relation between the 
 doctrines of Christ and the moral sympathies of mankind 
 in different ages. But to assert that Christianity com- 
 municated to man moral truths previously unknown ar- 
 gues on the part of the asserter either gross ignorance or 
 M-illful fraud." For evidence of the knowledge of moral 
 truths possessed by barbarous nations, independently of 
 Christianity, compare Mackny's '" Religious Develop- 
 ment," Muir's "History of Greek Literature," the works 
 of Sir William Jones, and Mills' " Histoiy of India." 
 The development of the Messianic idea rendered the dis- 
 ciples of Jesus favorable to his teaching and that of John 
 the Baptist. The Jewish nation, owing to its sad and 
 bitter experience of two captivities, national humiliation 
 as well as individual oppression, had, at the time of the 
 birth of Jesus, almost lost faith iu the expectation of the 
 advent of the son of David in the character of a great 
 warrior who should restore the kingdom of Israel in all 
 its pristine glory. That such expectations were indulged- 
 in is apparent from tlic question put to Jesus, "Lord, 
 wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel ?"
 
 Theology and Mythology. 127 
 
 Tliese expectations readied their burlesque climax on 
 tlic occasion of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, riding 
 upon an ass, Avliile his followers cut down palm branches 
 and threw them, and even the clothing they wore, in the 
 way, in order that the procession might assume an ap- 
 pearance of a triumphal entry. The assumption of a 
 ragged royalty was destitute of an}^ political significance, 
 though it may liave furnished the materials of a plausible 
 accusation against Jesus by his enemies the priests, who 
 were ever on the alert to bring home to him some viola- 
 tions of the laws that would bring him under the ban of 
 the Roman power. Even long anterior to the birth of 
 Jesus the Messianic idea had lost its vitality and changed 
 its form with the waning fortunes of the Jewish race. 
 Isaiah had more than once alluded to the future hero, 
 crushed with the burden of national humiliation — " a 
 man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" — and who, 
 embodying the miseries of a broken and divided nation 
 as well as a conquered people, wrs led as a sheep to the 
 slaughter. 
 
 It does seem that Jesus, when the supreme hour of 
 his career approached, was tempted for a moment into 
 a measure of armed resistance to the constituted authori- 
 ties. When lie saw the lines of the hunters closino; 
 around him, he told his disciples to procure weapons of 
 defense; telling him that had no sword to sell his coat 
 and buy one. His few followers did arm themselves 
 after a fashion, and one of his disciples, whose zeal ever 
 outran discretion, cut off the ear of one Malchus, a serv- 
 ant of the priest. This seems to have been the only 
 casualty attending the capture of Jesus. Yet one can 
 plainly see that even this sho^^' of resistance was Avholly
 
 128 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 Ibreign to the disposition of him Avho said, " If thine 
 eiieni}^ smite thee on the right cheek, turn nnto him the 
 left also." Jesns promptly rebiiked Peter, adding, "The 
 cnp which my father hath given me, shall I not drink ?" 
 Doubtless his fine nature, full of sympathy for the whole 
 Imman race, needed only this single exhibition of un- 
 seemly and undignified resistance to regain its native 
 sweetness and composure, and to meet the inevitable 
 with the serenity of a moralist and the fortitude of a mar- 
 tyr. From the whole tenor of his life and character one 
 cannot fail to perceive that Jesus never seriously enter- 
 tained any intention of enacting the part of either a war- 
 rior or statesman, by whose efforts the independence of 
 the Jewish race was to be restored. Nor did he seek by 
 the employment of force the propagation of his views. 
 On the contrary, he denounced its employment in the 
 most emphatic language : " All they that take up the 
 sword shall perish by the sword." He was not even a 
 patriot, though belonging to one of tlie most exclusive 
 races on earth. He seems to have lacked not only 
 the sentiment of patriotism, which among the Greeks 
 and tlie Romans was stronger tlian the religious senti- 
 ment, but he appears to liave ignored the ties of blood 
 and kindred, considering them as accidents of birth of] 
 little or no consequence. God w;i3 his father, and every 
 man — Jew and Gentile, rich or poor (and especially thoJ 
 poor man), saint or sinner, the maniac, supposed byj 
 a barbarous people to be possessed of a devil, and! 
 the outcast leper — was his brother. Patriotism, family! 
 affections and the ties of blood all seem to have sunk out] 
 of bight in the soundless sea of his yearning love for hu- 
 manity. If ever a man realized in all its holy and lofty
 
 Theology and M'ytholog]/. 129 
 
 significance the idea of the brotherhood of man and the 
 fatherhood of God, it was trnlj Jesns of I^azareth. 
 When it was told him, on one occasion, while engaged 
 in his service to hnmanity, that his mother and his breth- 
 ren stood withont, desiring to see him, he turned npon 
 his interrupter with almost savage abruptness, and in 
 sharp rebuke exclaimed, " Who is my mother and who 
 are mj brethren ? Whosoever doeth the will of my 
 Father in heaven, the same is my mother and brother 
 and sister." To his far-reaching sympathy his natural 
 brother was but a human being, and every human being 
 was to him both mother, brother and sister. 
 
 Certainly one entertaining the cosmopolitan sympa- 
 thies of Jesus v^'ould least of all be qualified to act the 
 part of a Messiah such as the Jews, a most unsociable 
 and exclusive race, at one period of their historj^ enter- 
 tained definite conceptions of. He emphatically declared, 
 when charged with treason, that his kingdom was not of 
 this world. When Pilate, as John's gospel relates, asked 
 him if he were king of the Jews, he repelled the assump- 
 tion of any regal claims, as though there was something 
 absurd in such an accusation, sarcastically replying, 
 "Thou savest that I am a kins: !" He added, leavinir 
 no doubt as to the nature of his mission, " To this end 
 came I into the world, and for this cause was I born : 
 that I might bear witness unto the truth." In the judg- 
 ment-hall of Pilate, when death in its most shameful 
 aspect and dreadful form awaited him ; in the supreme 
 hour when the sands of life were fast sinking in the glass 
 of time, when the substance and the shadow became alike 
 indistinct, when the past and the present seemed but a 
 vanishing dream — he claimed no divine or supernatural
 
 130 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 origin, no sovereignty or dominion over the eternal and 
 changeless laws of nature ; he did not even claim that 
 he had given to the world a new revelation ; he only as- 
 serted that he was born into the world that he inin:ht add 
 to the list of the deathless names who " have borne wit- 
 ness to the truth." 
 
 The great cardinal doctrijies of Christianity are: the 
 salvation of the world tlirougii the blood or death of 
 Clii'ist, justification by faith, and the divinity of Jesus. 
 There are, of course, many minor doctrines dependent 
 on these as corollaries from great propositions. The 
 doctrine of atonement is not a novel one. Appeasing 
 and propitiating gods and demons by sacrificial offerings 
 and gifts is older than any existing form of religion 
 among mankind. It has, in one form or another, formed 
 a distinctive feature of the religious worship of every 
 race on the face of tlie earth that ever entertahied relig- 
 ious conceptions. It has incorporated itself with relig- 
 ious service equally in Judca and in Mexico. Sacrificial 
 offerings have been tendered to heaven with bloody rites 
 by a savage priesthood in the dark recesses of the gloomy 
 forests of Gaul and Britain and amid the arid wastes of 
 Africa. The smoke of the burnt carcasses of animals 
 offered to appease ofi^ended deities has tainted the pure 
 air of heaven ascending from the lands watered by tlie 
 Ganges, the Kile, the Mississippi, the Thames, the Ori- 
 noco and the Danube. The religion of the Jews, though 
 monotheistic ostensibly, had, at almost the birtli of the 
 nation, become infected with the worst practices of pagan 
 idolatry. Thus we find Moses commanding the people 
 that they should '• make no cutting in tlie flesh," nor mu- 
 tilate themselves for the dead, nor suffer their children
 
 Theology and Mythology. 131 
 
 to pass tliror.gli tlic fire to Moloeli. The story of tlio 
 Jewish Jeptha's vow, by wliich he hound himself to sacri- 
 iice his own daughter, finds a parallel in that of Iphige- 
 nia, in Aulis. 
 
 Sacrificial worship is the outgrowth of a barbarous 
 condition of society. The uin-easouing savage regarded 
 tempests, floods, eartl) quakes, pestilences, the presence 
 of wild beasts and noxious reptiles as visitations of divine 
 anger. His savage experience, limited as it was, taught 
 him that enemies are to be appeased with gifts. AYhat 
 reasoning more natural than that he should propitiate 
 the anger of inimical gods in a similar manner ? Noali, 
 when lie escaped destruction from a flood that devastated 
 the country wdiere he dwelt, could not give the god, that 
 preserved him, food and choice gifts actually ; but he 
 could reach him M'ith the savor of burnt-offerino-s tluit 
 ascended to heaven and entered, as we are told with un- 
 affected plainness, the nostrils of Jehovah, immediately 
 after the flood. Jehovah was more than satisfied ; he 
 even repented of the evil he had wrought, and graciously 
 promised that he would no more curse the ground for 
 man's sake, nor smite any living thing as he had done ; 
 and that, while earth remaiueth, seedtime and harvest, 
 and cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and 
 night, shall not cease. (Gen. viii, 20, et seq.) C?esar 
 found Gaul and Britain, fifty-six years before the time of 
 Christ, sustaining the Druidical worship, which was one 
 of the most sanguinary and cruel that ever. prevailed in 
 Europe. Human sacrifices were repeatedly off'ered up 
 by hundreds on stone altars, the victims being usually 
 furnished from the captives taken in battle. Samuel, 
 the inspired prophet of Israel, hewed King Agag in
 
 1?'2 Theology and lyfythology. 
 
 pieces before the Lord. Elijah, anotlier inspired prophet 
 of the first rank and class, reddened the waters of the 
 brook Kishon with the blood of four hundred and fifty 
 of the prophets and priests of Baal, who failed to make 
 fire from heaven lick np the water surrounding the altar 
 of burnt sacrifices, when tlie worshipers of both gods, 
 Jehovah and Baal, had agreed to make this a test case. 
 (I Kings, xviii.) The antiquity and universality, almost, 
 of sacrificial otferings are too well established to need 
 any discussion. To trace the history of sacrificial offer- 
 ings would be to write that of every religious system. 
 In the Jewish religion the sacrificial idea had obtained 
 its highest development — so much so that it had passed 
 into a religious axiom that " without shedding of blood 
 there was no remission of sin." The author of the book 
 of Genesis seems to have been well acquainted with this 
 doctrine. He represents Jehovah accepting the bloodj' 
 sacrifices of Abel, while he spurned the bloodless fruits 
 of the earth offered by Cain. By the most ingenious 
 species of sophistry, the writer of the Epistle to the He- 
 brews attempts to show that " by faith Abel offered unto 
 God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain ; by which he 
 obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying 
 of his gifts." 
 
 Judged by the liglit of reason, by sentiment and all 
 the purest instincts of our nature, one would imagine 
 that did the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe need offer- 
 ings from human hands, he would derive more pleasure 
 from the spectacle of altars decked with flowers and 
 fruits, and the beautiful trophies of man's toil and indus- 
 try, than from those besmeared with the lifcblood of in- 
 oftensive animals, butchered for his glorj'. But blood- 
 
 I
 
 'Theology and Mythology. 133 
 
 shedding is a savage instinct, and man has, in all ages, 
 "made God in his own image and likeness." The book 
 of Leviticus is well worth perusal, if alone for the pur- 
 pose of showing how completely the idea of sacrificial 
 atonement had entered, not only. into the celebration of 
 the Jewish worship, but had penetrated every circum- 
 stance and condition of individual life. But in the slow 
 process of the development of the intelligence, the effi- 
 cacy of sacrificial oiferings began to be cpiestioned. 
 Were it not so, the Hebrew poet, with a spirit of spirit- 
 ual independence far in advance of his age, could not 
 liave said, " Shall I indeed eat bulls' flesh and drink the 
 blood of goats ? Are not all the beasts of the forests 
 mine, and the cattle upon ten thousand hills ?" But in 
 no portion of the Jewish Scriptures do we find anything 
 to support the idea that sacrificial offerings were employed 
 for the purpose of escaping punishment in a future state 
 of existence, due to sins committed in this life. Nor do 
 we find anything to sustain this view in the whole range 
 of ancient literature, previous to the propagation of 
 Christianity, whether denominated sacred or profane. 
 The Jews, as well as other nations and races, entertained 
 no definite conceptions of life after death. No traces of 
 the immortality of the soul exist in the Old Testament 
 wiitings, and as for tlic resurrection of the body, the 
 very idea of such a physical absurdity entered no man's 
 conceptions. They had recourse to sacrificial ofierings 
 to propitiate the anger of the gods, and to secure their 
 favor in the actual transactions of life. Jehovah never 
 promised his worshipers happiness beyond the grave. 
 The usual injunction was, " This do that thou shalt live.'' 
 " Honor thy father and thy mother, tliat tliy days may
 
 134 Theology and Mythology'. 
 
 bo long in the land tlic Lord thy God givetli tlieo." 
 Temporal prosperity and long life were promised to the 
 observers of the divine law. Never, in any instance that 
 we know of, was there any reference to the joys of heaven 
 or the tortures of hell. 
 
 Jesus never preached the doctrine, now so common, 
 of the salvation of the world through his blood, shed in a 
 sacrificial sense. This doctrine was painfully and inge- 
 niously elaborated by his followers, who took little from 
 him except his name to add weight to the system they, 
 after his death, established. Jesus says (John xvii, 4) : 
 " I have glorified thee on earth. I have finished the 
 work which thou gavest me to do." This expression 
 would be utterly unintelligible did Christ believe that 
 the world was to be saved through the shedding of his 
 blood. His blood was not yet shed, and therefore the 
 great work of the salvation of the human soul was yet 
 unfinished. If the " salvation" of the world has been in 
 any sense afibcted by Jesus, it has been by his life, not 
 by the cruel and shameful form of death inflicted upon 
 him by a bigoted rabble and an indifferent Roman gov- 
 ernor of a conquered province. Yet the world goes on 
 stupidly ignoring the noble life of Jesus, shocking every 
 enlightened conscience by insisting that the shedding of 
 a few drops of the physical fluid called blood that fell 
 upon the dust of Palestine two thousand years ago, when 
 a brutal Roman soldier touched with liis spear the side 
 of the expiring Jesus of Nazareth, has redeemed man- 
 kind, appeased the anger of an oflfended God, and un- 
 barred the crj^stal gates of heaven to the whole human 
 race, tliat otherwise would have rushed forever into the 
 gaping jaws of tlie insatiate pit and the lake of brimstone.
 
 Theology and ^fythology. 135 
 
 Measured by the Jewish conception of sacrificial offer- 
 ing, the death of Jesus, granting for a moment that the 
 God of the Universe would accept the blood of a man or 
 a god as an atonement for moral guilt, lacks all the es- 
 sential attributes of a sacrifice. The death of a human 
 or divine being b}'' crucifixion could be reckoned in no 
 sense a sacrifice. There was the victim, it is true, but 
 priest and fire and altar were wanting. The only priest 
 who could have ofliciated on an occasion so tragic and so 
 pregnant with the eternal destinies of mankind would 
 have been the Omnipotent God himself. He alone, to 
 preserve tlie liarmony of -the sacrificial conception, must 
 liavc stood beside the altar and plunged the knife into 
 the quivering heart of the victim. Kay, more : if the 
 claim of the New-Testament theology be true, God him- 
 self was tlie victim, and committed self-immolation to 
 appease himself ! Do all the contradictions of all the 
 religious conceptions ever evolved by the human race, 
 savage or civilized, contain an absurdity at once so re- 
 volting and offensive to conscience and intelligence as 
 this ? The sacrifice of God for the salvation of man ! 
 Yet the sacrifice was a deception, and the death a pre- 
 tense, as in a few hours after the occurrence the sacri- 
 ficial offering was alive and apparently in good health, 
 showing to his incredulous disciples the marks of the 
 wounds in his side and the imprint in his feet and hands 
 of the nails that held him to the cross. Did the Creator 
 of the world, of the eternal and indestructible stars re- 
 volving in the silent spaces of infinity, the Source of all 
 life, whose influence permeates all matter and spirit, ex- 
 pire on a cross, two thousand years ago, between two 
 miserable culprits, surrounded by a company of Roman
 
 13G Theology and Myiliology. 
 
 soldiery, a mob of jeering Jews, and a few sympathetic 
 women ? This is not a harsh and strained presentation 
 of the question. If Christian theology be true, this is 
 exactly what did occur. If Christ was not God, Chris- 
 tian theology, as it is commonly received, is a fabrica- 
 tion, and, no matter how excellent its moral teaching, its 
 claims to anything more than a mere human institution, 
 the product of natural causes and the subject of natural 
 conditions, must be forever abandoned. It is no expla- 
 nation of the contradiction to assert that Jesus was, at 
 the same time, perfect man and perfect god. The exist- 
 ence, the life and death of such a being on earth, is be- 
 yond the realm of possibilities, and wholly outside the 
 domain of reason. No amount of " testimony " can 
 make the impossible possible and the incredible credible. 
 "VYe have no testimony, we can have no testimony, that 
 Jesus was God. He did not come down from heaven 
 bodily. He was apparently born into the world like aiiy 
 other perfectly human creature. He did not tower far 
 away above the men of his own time, or those that pre- 
 ceded and succeeded liim, in intellectual endowments or 
 educational acquirements. He has given to the world 
 no elaborate work, such as the poems of Homer, the 
 oratory of Demosthenes, the historical writings of Thu- , 
 cydides, or the philosophical sysitems of Plato and Aris- 
 totle. . His sermons, parables and dialogues, unquestion- 
 ably excellent as they are, and breathing moral purity 
 and tender ^ove for liumanity, are yet sueh as could have 
 been delivered by a human being whose soul was filled 
 with noble views for the amelioration of his kind, and 
 wdiose heart was in sympathy with the progress of hu- 
 maniv;v. Ho never himself claimed to be God. He did
 
 Theology and Mythology . 137 
 
 claim to be the son of God ; thongli this is a very expan- 
 sive expression, and admits of great latitude of interpret- 
 ation. Christians call themselves, even nowadays, the 
 children of God ; and if they can do so with propriety, 
 why should not Jesus have assumed and have accorded 
 to him the distinguishing title of the " son of God"? 
 Granting, for the sake of the argument, that while on 
 earth he worked the few miracles whose performance is 
 ascribed to him, this would not be even presump- 
 tive evidence that Jesus was God. The Hebrew Script- 
 ures abound with the recitals of the working of miracles, 
 including the raising of the dead, by prophets of even 
 indifferent reputation for piety. The magicians of Egypt 
 worked some very extraordinary miracles, if we accept 
 the truth of the Bible narrative. Saul and a banished 
 witch brought the old prophet Samuel out of his grave. 
 Even Balaam's ass exhibited miraculous power of a rare 
 character. Among; the Jews the working of what are 
 called miracles attracted little attention. If the reputed 
 godsliip of Jesus were to be based upon the miracles he 
 performed, how many would be entitled to dispute his 
 claims ? It is evident that Jesus attached little impor- 
 tance to miracle-working, and never thought of claiming 
 to be God on account of any wonders he performed.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Christian tlieologians, in explaining the doctrine of 
 the atonement, assert, with compLacent self-assuranee, 
 tluit in tlie crucifixion of Jesus the attributes of God's 
 mercy and justice were reconciled and harmonized. 
 God being just, they argue, must necessarily have sent 
 every sinner to hell or a place of eternal torture, presided 
 over by the Devil in person, in consequence of the sin 
 the race originally contracted on account of Adam's dis- 
 obedience, and for actual individual depravity and unbe- 
 lief. But as God is perfectly just, so is he infinitely 
 compassionate. He does not wish the punishment of a 
 single sinner, and he would doubtless pardon the sin ot 
 .the whole human race, and render man happy on eartli, 
 and continue that happiness in the future world, were it 
 not for that dreadful principle of justice that emanates 
 from him, embodied in the expression, " The soul that 
 sinneth shall surely die." God is represented, as it were, 
 in a dilemma. Justice must be satisfied, and yet mercy, 
 too, claims consideration. The divine wisdom at last 
 triumphs. The problem is solved. God determines that 
 God shall be born into the world, of a woman. The
 
 Theology and Mythology. 139 
 
 being born is not God exactly, but is tlie son of God. 
 He has a divine and a human nature. He is born a 
 helpless babe. "He increases in stature and wisdom 
 and in favor with God and man," not as though he was 
 already God the Omnipotent — Jlnd who as such could not 
 increase in wisdom or in favor with God — ^but like any 
 ordinary youth of excellent natural disposition. After a 
 life of complete silence and obscurity he began to be 
 about " thirty years of age, being as was supposed the 
 son of Joseph " ; he commenced his public ministry, and, 
 having spent three short years in the work of gaining a 
 few followers, delivering a few discourses, and healing a 
 few sick folks and cripples, he is crucified by order of 
 the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, on a mixed accusa- 
 tion — presented in an illegal and informal manner — of 
 sedition and blasphemy. God in heaven foreordains all 
 these movements. It is the completion of a plan mapped 
 out before ever the worlds were framed. God visits upon 
 the person of Jesus, the man, who is also the equal of 
 God, and God, the punishment for sin that the wicked 
 human race ought to sufier. Jesus the man dies, but 
 only for a short time ; he descends into hell — though 
 how long he remained in pandemonium we are not in- 
 formed — and ascends into heaven to assume his pristine 
 glory and power. God's justice is satisfied and mercy 
 triumphs. This is the exact story of Jesus and the atone- 
 ment as told in the Scriptures. Many " Lives of Christ" 
 have been written and will be written ; but this is the 
 substance of the oft-told story. Taking all these assump- 
 ■ tiojis for verities, a child in reasoning powers might ask, 
 Where was the divine justice in punishing the irmocent 
 for the guilty ? If a man connnitted a capital ofiensc
 
 140 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 MTid his life bectime by judicial process forfeited to the 
 State, would the Executive "reconcile justice and mercy" 
 by accepting the substitution of an innocent man, who 
 had never violated the law, for the criminal whose life 
 was declared forfeited ? Would there be even mercy in 
 such a compromise ? Wluit human ruler would dare to 
 perpetrate such an outrage ? Yet the wisdom of the 
 Omniscient could devise no better plan for the salvation 
 of the world and for securing the happiness of his crea- 
 tures." We will doubtless be met with the assertion that 
 our ideas of justice are not in any respect similar to those 
 of God. We are thankful that they are not in accord 
 with those ascribed to the Jehovah of the Jewish Script- 
 ures! What ideas of justice and mercy can we entertain 
 than such as those that arise from the experience of life ? 
 It is useless to talk to us at all about God's justice or 
 any of his attributes, except they conform to our own 
 ideas. This appeal to our reason on some subjects, and 
 the denial of its use on other subjects, is childish trifling 
 unworthy of reasonable creatures. To ask us to accept 
 any statement or theory as being in accordance with di- 
 vine justice, and in the same breath to tell us that we 
 can entertain no accurate views of any of the attributes 
 of the Deity, is an insult to our understanding that every 
 man who is bold enough to think for himself will quickly 
 resent. The Protestant churches graciously allow men 
 to think for- themselves within prescribed limits ; but 
 when the spirit of inquiry transcends the narrow limits 
 of creeds and articles of faith, and seeks to descend be- 
 low the surface and examine the basis on which tlie 
 superstructure of Christianity rests, then the churches, 
 too late, put up a signboard warning -ofF, under pains and
 
 Theology and Mythology. 141 
 
 penalties, all trespasser?. Far more consistent is the 
 Catholic Church in denying to her members the right of 
 questioning or discussing in any manner the cardinal 
 doctrines of faith. She assumes to be the sole depository 
 of divine truth and the interpreter of the divine will as 
 revealed in the Scriptures. To her rigid adherence to 
 this policy she owes the maintenance of her colossal 
 ]iower, and will continue to maintain it until the mighty 
 sweep of thought and the revolutionary wave of univer- 
 sal intelligence shall carry away forever all barriers that 
 stand in the way of the thorough investigation of the 
 great problems to the solution of which the aggregate 
 intellectual power of man is pledged. To the apostle 
 Paul, chiefly, the world may attribute the errors and 
 evils consequent upon the preaching and acceptance of 
 what is called the doctrine of the atonement. This doc- 
 trine, taught with the sanction, presumably, of the high- 
 est Authority in the Universe, for two thousand years, has 
 contributed, more than all other errors incorporated into 
 religious systems, to debase the universal conscience and 
 confound all just ideas of right and wrong. The doc- 
 trine of vicarious punishment endured, or the application 
 of vicai'ious virtues conferred, is the incarnation of injus- 
 tice. It destroys the obligation of individual responsi- 
 bility. The common-sense of mankind has repudiated it 
 in all the relations of the individual to society or society 
 to the individual. It teaches no noble lesson of self- 
 denial; it inculcates no principle of virtue; for manly 
 fortitude and endurance it substitutes abject dependence 
 on the supposed virtue and work of another, and renders 
 the man who sincerely believes it the abject slave of 
 priestcraft and superstition.
 
 142 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 If a life after tlie disintegration of the elements that 
 constitute onr physical existence awaits mankind, is it 
 not more consonant with the deductions of reason and 
 analogy to presume that the individual attains a higher 
 plane of existence or sinks into a lower scale — if there 
 can be any retrogression — in exact proportion as he cul- 
 tivates or neglects the culture of the moral and intellect- 
 ual faculties for which this earth constitutes so diversi- 
 fied a tlieater of exhibition, than to suppose that he se- 
 cures eternal liappiness by faith in the efficacy of " the 
 blood of Jesus" (meanino^ the death of an individual cru- 
 cified two thousand years ago), or that he is doomed to 
 an eternity of inexpressible torture, without respite or 
 relief, simply because he cannot accept as a truth the 
 statement that God died for his sins ?
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 The acceptance of this doctrine of the atonement is 
 only less pernicious to individual responsibility than tlio 
 ignoble one, derived from the same source, of the total 
 depravity of mankind. The preachers of modern Chris- 
 tianity oftentimes seem to take pleasure in drawing dis- 
 gusting pictures of our fallen state and lost and ruined 
 condition. They delight in telling us that " our right- 
 eousness is as filthy rags " ; that from " the crown of the 
 head to the sole of the foot there is no soundness in us, 
 but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores"; and 
 quote largely from the Hebrew Scriptures such and sim- 
 ilar elegant and flattering descriptions of human nature. 
 This as d course of instruction is a grave error, as well 
 as the inculcation of a pernicious fiction. One of the 
 niost effectual ways of rendering a man utterly reckless 
 is to attempt to persuade him that he is totally depraved 
 and incapable of any moral improvement. When this 
 has been unhappily accomplished, self-respect, a decent 
 regard for the opinions of others, and other barriers that 
 protect society from the incursions of ignorance and un- 
 bridled passions, arc forever swept away. Nothing
 
 144 Theology and JSiythologrj. 
 
 licncefortli remains for tlie individual but the restraints 
 imposed by the law, and social ostracism. That human 
 nature is totally depraved hardly needs denial. No one 
 believes it; even those who preach it, in practice give it 
 flat contradiction. In every civilized state provision is 
 made for the support of tlie aged, the sick, infirm and 
 insane who are unable to provide for their own wants. 
 There are free scliools from which are disseminated all 
 the blessings of education. Institutions of learning are 
 liberally endowed by private individuals all over the 
 land ; and men have bestowed upon them the accumula- 
 tions of a lifetime, not to derive from them any benefit 
 themselves, but to aid in diminishing the sum of human 
 sufferins: and ameliorate the condition of the race. 
 
 It is about time that the world had heard the last of 
 this debasing doctrine of total depravity that has wrought 
 such infinite mischief in blunting the liuman conscience 
 and inculcating degrading ideas of tlie status and dignity 
 of man. Associated with the soulless doctrines of the 
 depravity of human nature and tlie atonement is what is 
 called "justification by faith." It means, if we riglitly 
 understand it, that by believing in Jesus, as it is called, 
 we are enabled to apply the benefits resulting from his 
 deatli to ourselves individually ; that Jesus has suflered 
 in our stead all the punishment that God would other- 
 wise have inflicted upon every liuman being ; his riglit- 
 eousness and sinlessness is imputed to us as though it 
 were our own ; but that our believing this is made a 
 condition precedent to our receiving the beflefit of 
 Christ's work. In the death of Jesus the requirements 
 of God's justice were completely satisfied, and, in tlie 
 language of Scripture, " by his stripes wc are healed."
 
 Theology and Mythology. 145 
 
 It is farther necessary, before vt^e can claim any benefit 
 from the death of Jesus, that we believ^c, no matter \\ovf 
 much opposed to our reason, that Jesus was, in tlie sense 
 in which it is commonly received, the son of God ; that 
 he arose on the third day from his death to another life ; 
 and that now, at the right hand of God, he ever liveth 
 to make intercession for us. Now, what is believing ? 
 Paul, the great originator of this doctrine, defines ftxith 
 to be " the substance of things hoped for, the evidence 
 of things not seen." His admirers are fond of quoting 
 this as a most accurate and lucid definition. But when 
 analyzed it is only a meaningless tliough euphonious 
 contradiction. There is no substance of tilings hoped for 
 but actual fruition. " Tlie evidence of thino-s not seen" 
 is a contradiction on its face, and might only mean cir- 
 cumstantial evidence at best. " Faith," as applied to an 
 individual, ordinarily means the trust reposed in his 
 character, or in the veracity of his statements ; and is 
 based, usually, upon our knowledge of the individual, his 
 reputation, and also upon the further consideration that 
 his statements, though for the moment incapable of veri- 
 fication, correspond with what is not improbable, and do 
 not contradict our own experience or that of others. In 
 this sense and meaning of the expression it is evident 
 that we can have no more "faith" in Jesus ,or Paul than 
 in Socrates or Julius CiBsar. Of the life of Csesar we 
 know absolutely more than that of Jesus; yet no one 
 talks of having faith in CiBsar. The employment of this 
 expression, applied to one who has long since passed off 
 the stage of terrestrial existence, is absolutely devoid of 
 intelligible comprehension. 
 
 Nowhere, that we arc aware of, has Jesus of Naza-
 
 L46 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 re til proclaimed the doctrine of justification through 
 faith. He did preach morality, charity, the brotherhood 
 of man ; contempt for rites and ceremonies, as constitut- 
 ing no part of spiritual worship. Though a Jew by 
 birth, his far-reaching sympathies extended beyond the 
 narrow confines of his race amd country. He knew no 
 race and no country. He whose clear vision penetrated 
 the shams and hypocrisies of the priests and the Phari- 
 sees would have been the last in the world to have taught 
 a doctrine by which the crimes and impurities of life 
 may be atoned for by the expression of the formula of 
 belief. How docs " faith in Christ " affect any fact in 
 tlie life of Jesus ? If Jesus were even the son of God in 
 the supernatural sense in which it is claimed he was, 
 faith has nothing whatever to do with it. He either was 
 or was not, and what we may believe or not believe on 
 the subject affects nothing. If Jesus died to save man- 
 kind, faith has nothing to do with his death. It is a cir- 
 cumstance unaffected by faith as little as the appearance 
 of the aurora borealis is. If Jesus, having actually died, 
 actually rose again from the dead — which is contrary to 
 all human experience, and an occurrence unlike any which 
 ever happened in the history of the world, at all authen- 
 ticated — faith docs not render the impossible possible. 
 No views that we may entertain, and no feelings of ours, 
 can modify in the slightest the character of an event 
 supposed to have occurred two tliousand years ago. The 
 truth seems to be that '' faith in Christ" is but another 
 name for a condition of mental exaltation that people 
 work themselves, or permit themselves to be Vv'orked, 
 into. It is founded on no reasoning process, and is 
 wholly outside the realm of logical deduction. When
 
 Theology and Mythology. lit 
 
 believers have reached this happy condition in which tlio 
 voice of reason is stifled,' they ascribe the blessed result 
 to the influence of the Holy Spirit. Faith itself is not an 
 independent act of the will. It is "the gift of God," 
 tiiat may fall upon the most obdurate unbeliever as well 
 as upon the most willing recipient of Divine favor. Now, 
 it must be admitted that since faith is by the suggestion 
 of the Holy Spirit, the individual who believes can claim 
 no credit for an act not his, and ought to be entitled to 
 no benefit for what is accomplished independent of even 
 his will. It is true that we are told that we may resist 
 the Spirit, and in the Scriptures are even commanded not 
 to do 60 ; but a moment's reflection will convince any 
 man that resistance to the Almighty is a sheer impossi- 
 bility, and that even to suggest anything of the kind 
 seems very like what is considered irreverence by many. 
 It equally follows that, since faith is not an act of the 
 individual which he can exercise at will, and its posses- 
 sion is wholly beyond his control, it would not be in har- 
 mony with God's attribute of justice to doom a human 
 being to eternal torture and damnation because he hap- 
 pened to miss the gift of faith. Paul says, " Whom he 
 will have mercy upon, he will have mercy; and whom he 
 will, he hafdencth." This certainly is a harsh and in- 
 human representation of the character of the Christians' 
 God ; but if it be the truth, we must only bear it .as best 
 we can. 
 
 We are frequently invited to "come to Jesus," though 
 in what manner we are to reach Jesus is not set forth 
 with sufficient perspicuity. "We are told to " look to 
 Jesus," to lay "hold on Jesus," and many other expres- 
 sions arc being constantly used tl'.at are wholly destitute
 
 lis Theology and Mythology. 
 
 of practical application. Instead of furnisliing those 
 seeking reasonable arguments with some rational defense 
 of Christianity, and throwing what historical light there 
 remains npon the most momentous question that ever in 
 the life of God or man riveted the attention of intelligent 
 beings, and in comparison with which all others pale 
 into utter insignificance, they are treated to common- 
 place repetitions and wearisome platitudes, often accom- 
 panied with bitter denunciations ; so that they are forced 
 to turn away from all inquiries into the origin of relig- 
 ious ideas and seek diversion in the active pursuits and 
 pleasures of life, or, if animated by a restlessness that 
 will not be appeased, they sink at last into a despondency 
 deeper than 
 
 " The Sirbonian bog 
 Between Damiata and Mount Cassius old, 
 Where armies whole have sunk."
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 Believing the story of the resurrection of Jesas, in a 
 physical sense, to be purely mythical ; holding that the 
 assumed trutli of the statement would involve a contra- 
 diction of tlie universally accepted laws of nature — it is 
 useless to attempt any reconciliation of the Gospel narra- 
 tives with actual fact upon any reasonable hypothesis. It 
 may, however, be remarked that the Gospel accounts of 
 tlie reputed resurrection of Jesus not only fail to harmo- 
 nize, but differ very essentially. 
 
 It is doubtless a humiliating task, in this boasted age 
 of enlightenment, to be compelled to devote any atten- 
 tion to the consideration of a subject that presents no 
 reasonable phase of discussion ; yet as many persons of 
 intelligence accepf in good faith the story of the resur- 
 rection, relying on the alleged truth of the Gospel narra- 
 tives, it may be as well to meet them upon their own 
 ground, descend to their line of argument, and oppose 
 them with weapons drawn from their own armory. Mat- 
 thew tells us that after the crucilixion, Joseph of Arima- 
 thea begged the body of Jesus from Pilate; that he 
 wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, laid it in a new tomb 
 
 [
 
 150 Theology and 2iythology. 
 
 licwn out of the rock and rolled a great stone to the door 
 of the sepnlcher ; that "Mary Magdalene and the other 
 Mary " were sitting over against the sepulcher ; that on 
 t]ie next day, the Pharisees, reminding Pilate of Jesus' 
 prediction of liis resurrectioa, and fearing lest his disci- 
 ples should steal him away by night, obtained permission 
 to seal up the sepulcher and set a watch ; that in the 
 end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn, toward the first 
 day of the week, Mary Magdalene and " the other Mary" 
 came to see the sepulcher ; that there was a great earth- 
 quake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven 
 and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it; 
 his countenance was like liirhtnin'2; and his raiment white 
 as snow; that for fear of this angelic apparition the 
 keepers did shake and become as dead men. We are 
 next abruptly informed, without the slightest reference 
 to any previous conversation (Matt, xxviii, 5), " And the 
 angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not, for 
 I know that ve seek Jesus which was crucified. 'lie is 
 not here, for he is risen, as lie said."' Here the angel 
 seems to be well acquainted with the sayings of Jesus ; 
 but it looks to us more like the language of Matthev/ 
 than of the angel. " Come and see where the Lord lay, 
 and go quickly and tell his disciples tbat he is risen from 
 tlie dead ; and behold, he goeth before you into Galilee ; 
 there shall ye sec him : lo ! I have told you." The re- 
 maining portion of Matthew's narrative informs us that 
 the women immediately met Jesus, who revealed himself 
 to thcra and to his disciples ; that tlie soldiers were 
 bribed by the chief priests to say that the body of Jesus 
 was stolen by his disciples, and tliat such a report was 
 current " until this day," meaning, of course, a time long
 
 Theology and Mythology. 151 
 
 subsequent to the deatlt of Jesns, when tliis gospel was 
 written. Witli reo-ard to the statement of tlie chief 
 priest tluit the soldiers were bribed to put out a report 
 that the body of Jesus was stolen, we reply that such a 
 measure would argue supreme folly on the part of tlic 
 chief priest. If the resurrection of Jesus was a matter 
 of common notoriety, and ho was " seen of many " after 
 his resurrection, the stealing of his body would offer no 
 satisfactory solution of his living appearance. 
 
 To sum up, Matthew's account of the resurrection is 
 •based upon the alleged appearance of an angel to two 
 women, whose minds must have been disordered by mid- 
 iiio-ht vijrils at the sfrave of Jesus and intense excitement 
 consequent upon his crucifixion, tlie conversation with 
 the angel, his inviting them to see where the Lord lay, 
 and the appearance of Jesus himself to the women and 
 the disciples. Matthew further adds that Jesus showed 
 himself to his eleven disciples on a mountain ; that they 
 worshiped him, but some doubted. If there ever was a 
 real appearance of the living Jesus to men so intimately 
 acquainted with him as his own chosen eleven disciples, 
 it does seem strange that either his identity or the real- 
 ity of his appearance should have ever become a question 
 of doubt with any of them. 
 
 Mark differs slightly from Matthew in his account of 
 the resurrection. I3oth tiie women mentioned by Mat- 
 thew come to the sepulcher early in the morning. They 
 find the stone rolled away. They boldly enter the sep- 
 ulcher, and find, not an angel, but a young man, sitting 
 on the right side, clothed in a long white garment, and 
 tlicy are frightened. This " young ma,n " conveys infor- 
 mation to the women sv.nilar to that Matthew represents
 
 152 Theologij and Mythology. 
 
 the anscel utterins;. Mark cnlarcjes further than Matthew 
 upon the appearance of Jesus to his disciples, and repre- 
 sents Jesus as utterins; that illiberal sentiment which has 
 been the baneful source of the most infamous system of 
 persecution that ever disgraced any religion : " He that 
 believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but lie that 
 believeth not shall be damned." The promulgation of 
 this illiberal doctrine by fire and sword, by the dungeon, 
 the torture and the rack, has held the world in intellect- 
 ual slavery f6r seventeen hundred years. But it has 
 happily now lost all pernicious vitality. The place it 
 still holds in Christian theology serves only to show the 
 wonderful emancipation from spiritual slavery that has 
 been made within a single century. 
 
 Luke, writing later on the same subject, having never 
 seen Jesus, basing his statements upon the traditions he 
 had received, which in the progress of time were con- 
 stantly receiving accretions marvelous and mythical in 
 their character, differs very materially from MatthcAv 
 and Mark, and adds to the scantiness of tlicir meager 
 narratives. In addition to the two original Marys, he 
 introduces other women, whoso number he does not des- 
 ignate, assembling at the sepulcher. They enter in and 
 find it empty. Two men in shining apparel address 
 lliem in languagt3 similar to that recorded by Matthew 
 and Mark, and quote a prediction of Jesus in support of 
 their statement of the resurrection. Peter, now appear- 
 ing for the first time in tlie drama of the "resurrection, 
 enters the sepulcher, finds the grave clothes, but nothing 
 more. Jesus afterward appears to many of his disciples 
 and establishes the fact that ho is a living human being, 
 and net a mere apparition, by eating fish and a hone}--
 
 Theology and Mythology. 153 
 
 comb. Ilis conclusion of the story of the resurrection 
 informs us that while Jesus blessed his disciples, he was 
 parted from them and carried up to heaven. 
 
 John's account of the resurrection difters materially 
 from that given by Mark. (Mark xvi, 1-5.) Mark 
 says : " And when the Sabbath was past, Mary 3Iagda- 
 lene, and Mary the mother of James and Salome, had 
 bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint 
 him. And very early in the morning the first day of 
 the week, they came unto the sepulcher, at the rising of 
 the sun. And they said among themselves, Who shall 
 roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher ? 
 And when they looked, they saw that the stone was 
 rolled away: for it was very great ; and entering into 
 the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right 
 side, clothed in a long white garment ; and they were 
 affrighted." The young man tells the women to go and 
 tell Peter and the rest of the resurrection. John (xx) says : 
 " The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene 
 early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and 
 seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher. Then 
 slie runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter and to the 
 other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them. 
 They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, 
 and we know not where they have laid him. Peter 
 therefore w^ent forth, and that other disciple, and came 
 to the sepulcher. So they ran both together ; and the 
 other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the 
 sepulcher ; and he, stooping down, and looking in, saw 
 the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then com- 
 eth Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepul- 
 cher, and sccth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that
 
 154- Theology and Ifythology. 
 
 was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but 
 wrapped together in a place by itself. Theu went in 
 also that other disciple which came first to the sepulcher, 
 and he saio and believed; for as yet they knew not the 
 scriiiture^ that he tnust rise (igain j-ronn the dead. Then 
 tlie disciples went away again unto their own home. 
 But Mary stood without at the sepulcher, A^'ceping ; and 
 as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sep- 
 ulcher, and seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at 
 the head and the other at the foot, where tlie body of 
 Jesus had lain ; and they say unto her, Womau, Avhy 
 weepest thou ? She saith unto them, Because they have 
 taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have, 
 laid him. And when slie had thus said, slie turned her- 
 self back, and sav/ Jesus standing, and knew not that it 
 was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest 
 thou ? whom seekest thou ? She, supposing him to be 
 the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if tliou have borne liim 
 hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take 
 him a'W'Tiy. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. Slie turned 
 herself and saith unto him, Rabboni ; which is to say. 
 Master. Jesus saitli unto her, Touch me not ; for I am 
 not yet ascended to my Father : but go to my brethren, 
 and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your 
 Father ; and to my God, and your God." The remainder 
 of John's narrative introduces three distinct apparitions 
 of Jesus to his disciples, including the episode of Thomas 
 pressing his fingers into the marks of the nails, the eating 
 of fish by Jesus, and tlje miraculous draught of fishes. 
 John further adds that none of the disciples durst ask 
 Jesus who he was, knowing tliat it was the Lord, and 
 makes no mention of his ascent to lieaven.
 
 Theology and Mythology. 155 
 
 The variance existing between John's account of the 
 resurrection nnd tliat of Mark — and in fact of the two 
 other writers — will be apparent to the most careless 
 reader of the Gosppls. 
 
 The other accounts substantially agree in describing 
 tlie apparition of the angel or young man, whichever it 
 was, to the women, his announcing to them the resurrec- 
 tion of Jesus, and his desiring them to tell tlie news to 
 the disciples, Peter and John visiting again the sepulcher 
 and seeing tM-o angelsTx Mark says that the women, ouj 
 their way to carry the intelligence, met Jesus, who ad- 
 dressed them, saying, " All hail!" and that tliey came 
 and held him by the feet and worshiped him. John 
 makes Jesus disclose himself to Mary alone, after shqf 
 had mistaken him for the gardener — which was a verf 
 extraordinary mistake on her part— and then immedij- 
 ately warned her 7iot to touch him,, for he was not je\ 
 ascended to his Father. Yet Jesus, who would not allow \ 
 himself to be desecrated by the contact of this poor woman,/ 
 invites and permits doubting Thomas to thrust his hand 
 into his wounds ! "We care not to magnify these die 
 crepancies and contradictions ; but would not such a 
 fatal variance as this, not to mention many others of Irko' 
 character, send the stoiy of the alleged resurrection oi 
 any one else out of a court of inquiry where any atten- 
 tion was paid to the law of "evidence ? Such confusion/ 
 and such contradictions become all the more inexplicableX 
 when we are asked to believe that these several accounts ' 
 were dictated and inspired by the Divine Spirit of uner/ 
 ring truth. From many considerations it seems apparent 
 that John, in his anxiety j:o jnit on record "proofs" of 
 the resurrection, has damaged tlie case he thought to
 
 156 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 establish^ or somo interpolator may have done so for him 
 after his Gospel was written. We are aware that it has 
 often been urged, and with apparent reasonableness, that 
 the seeming contradictions of the Gospels aftbrd the best 
 proof of their genuineness, and demonstrate the absence 
 of collusion. We wonld readily admit the fact and all 
 that might be urged as consequent upon it, though we 
 might easily show that in several instances, familiar to 
 all close readers of the Gospels, the accounts of one writer 
 are but actual transcripts, almost the literal and exact 
 language cf the others, especially in the first three Gos- 
 pels ; yet they who contend for the harmony of the Gos- 
 pels should admit that the accounts were written long 
 after the alleged transactions, and were exposed, and not 
 only exposed, but were subjected, to numerous additions, 
 mutilations, corrections and interpolations. On no hy- 
 pothesis of Divine inspiration are these variances suscep- 
 tible of explanation or reconciliation. If the doctrine of 
 inspiration be abandoned, then the Gospel narratives will 
 be received subject to the same defenses and criticisms 
 as any other writings of tlie same antiquity, scope and 
 character. Denuded of the cloak of inspiration, the nar- 
 rations of the miraculous appearances of the !New Testa- 
 ment will stand side by side with the accounts of appari- 
 tions and miraculous appearances that occupy the early 
 chapters of Eoman and Grecian histories
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 Many theories have been advanced and many specu- 
 lations indulired in to account for the " resurrection " of 
 Jesus from death. We admit that we have no theory 
 upon whicli it may be satisfactorily accounted for. Nor 
 do we believe that it devolves upon those who fail to 
 reconcile such an event with the ordinary physical laws 
 and the course of human experience to attempt to ac- 
 count for the credence given to the story of the resurrec- 
 tion of Jesus. Yet if we enter the field of speculation, 
 it may be possible that Jesus did really appear to his 
 disciples after he was crucified and laid away in the sep- 
 ulcher of Joseph of Arimathea. 
 
 From even the Gospel accounts — and we have no 
 contemporaneous history to rely upon — it may be, it is 
 possible, that Jesus never actually died upon the cross. 
 It will be remembered — accepting the scriptural accounts 
 — that the Jews besonght Pilate, the Roman governoi-, 
 that the bodies of the crucified be not suffered to remain 
 on the crosses, exposed to public gaze, on Friday, it 
 being the " preparation day " for the Sabbath, and that 
 the leo-s of the crucified might be broken. Pilate grant-
 
 158 Theology and, Mijthology. 
 
 ed this request. We are informed that "the soldiers 
 brake the les-s of the first and the other that was cruci- 
 fied with him" (Jesus); "but when thej came to Jesus 
 and saw that he was dead ah-eady they brake not liis 
 legs ; but one of the soldiers with his spear pierced liis 
 side, and forthwith came there out blood and water." 
 From this it may be inferred that when the Jews, armed 
 with the authority of Pilate, came to the fatal crosses, 
 the two malefactors crucified with Jesus were still living, 
 and that to insure their death tlieir legs were broken, 
 and that Jesus escaped this torture by presenting the 
 appearance of being dead already. It may have been — 
 for we are still dealing with the possibilities — tliat Jesus 
 had fainted on his cross from suffering, exposure to the 
 heat and loss of blood ; that he was in a lipothymous 
 condition in which the vital powers were dormant, but 
 not destroyed ; that he subsequently recovered his vital- 
 ity and consciousness in the silent liours of midnight, as 
 he lay bound in linen cloths, with spiced preparations of 
 myrrh and aloes, " in the windowless palace of rest " 
 hewn from the solid rock. He then emerged — which he 
 easily could have done, if our hypothesis is tenable at all 
 — ^from his temporary grave, either alone or aided by the 
 friendly women who followed him to the tomb when all 
 had deserted tlie fallen teacher of Nazareth. lie dis- 
 closed liimself next, for a brief time, to liis disciples, 
 though he shrank from close contact with them ; yet wo 
 are informed that he very logically demonstrated his 
 corporeal reality by the remark, " A spirit hath not flesh 
 and bones as ye see me have." Having once under- 
 gone the semblance of a disgraceful mode of death, hav- 
 ing been crucilied in company with the lowest criminals,
 
 Theology and Mythology. 150 
 
 his mission was nccomplislied, and his further appearance 
 in public would have only brought upon him derision 
 and contempt. Disgusted with the treacliery of his 
 friends, a disgust that every public man, sooner or later, 
 experiences, sick at heart of the bitter lesson experience 
 had taught of the fate that awaits all reformers who rush 
 against the adamantine walls by which ignorance, big- 
 otry, priestcraft and superstition are protected, he bade a 
 sorrowful adieu to his followers, and found in the interior 
 of Arabia, Egypt or Mesopotamia a life of placid obscur- 
 ity and a nameless grave. 
 
 Or it may be, as the gospel narrative mentions the 
 report current among the Jews, that his disciples carried 
 away his body by night; this being done — if done it was — 
 with the double object of having the remains of their 
 beloved leader in their own possession, and, by secretly 
 disposing of it, to render impossible the successful denial, 
 by actual exhibition of his remains, of the statement tliat 
 he rose from the dead. 
 
 Be this, however, as it may — and it is all conjecture 
 of the most gossamer sort — the grand fact remains, and 
 will remain, that, though Jesus of Nazareth, the son of 
 the carpenter, the dreamer, enthusiast, philanthropist 
 and thauraaturgist, actually died on the cross and surren- 
 dered to dissolution the best and purest lieart that ever 
 beat in the tabernacle of clay, yet has the Christ con- 
 quered death and hell, and inherited the largest and 
 grandest immortality that ever glorified man. What 
 matters it to us what sandliill of Judea or Arabia covered 
 his bones, or on what wind was wal'ted the odor of the 
 spices whicli loving solicitude sprinkled over his poor 
 clay, since the influence of his inner and indestructible
 
 160 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 life lias permeated Immanity and given color to the 
 thought and civilization of the human race, not only for 
 eighteen hundred years, but for all the time man shall 
 occupy a place on the surface of this planet? This is 
 the true and stupendous miracle, far surpassing in its 
 immeasurable magnificence all question and conjecture 
 about the crucifixion or rcanimation of the bodv of Jesus, ■ 
 or his apparition, real or fancied, to a few simple hearted, 
 ignorant and credulous Jew^ish peasants, women and 
 fishermen. 
 
 The favor with which, in many instances, the teach- 
 ing of Jesus was received, and his increasing popularitj", 
 led him into the abandonment, for a short time, of his 
 true mission of a teacher, and to the adoption of the role 
 of a political revolutionist. His public entry into Jeru- 
 salem, that partook of the character of a political ova- 
 tion, aiforded his enemies a long-coveted opportunity of 
 chai-ging him with a political oilense of which the Roman 
 governor would bo obliged to take ofiicial cognizance. 
 Jesus, doubtless too late, saw the fatal mistake that the 
 ignorant and intemperate zeal of his disciples led him 
 into. He then intuitively perceived that a painful and 
 ignominious form of death would bring his life and work 
 to a premature termination. He did not meet the inev- 
 itable with that superb disdain, indifference or even grim 
 triumph with which strong natures have been animated 
 in the face of death inflicted in even its most terrible 
 and appalling aspect. His nature, gentle, nervous and 
 sensitive to physical and mental jjain, seems to have 
 shrunk from a mode of deatli painful in reality and in 
 conteinplation. We catch a glimpse of his inner man in 
 the description of the scene in Gcthsemano given us by
 
 Theology and Mythology IGl 
 
 Mark (xiv, 32) : '• And they cainc to a place which was 
 named Gethsemane ; and ho saith to his disciples, Sit 
 ye here, while I shall pray; and he taketh witli him 
 Peter and James and John, and bei^an to be sore amazed, 
 and to be very heavy ; and saith unto them, My soul is 
 exceeding sorrowful unto deatli : tarry ye here and 
 watch. And he went forward a little, and fell on the 
 ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour 
 might pass from him ; and he said, Abba, Father, all 
 things are possible unto thee : take away this cup from 
 me ; nevertheless, not what I will, but w'hat thou wilt." 
 This passage affords an insight of the feelings and condi- 
 tions of the man Jesus in that hour of supreme trial that 
 develops and exposes the true nature of the individual. 
 This phase of the character of Jesus is irreconcilable 
 with the views entertained of his godship ; it even 
 demonstrates that he lacked that dauntless resolution and 
 self-sustaining courage that animated others under simi- 
 lar circumstances. Or is it possible that he then foresaw 
 the grand spiritual conquest that would result from his 
 death, and, dazzled by the magnificence of his future tri- 
 umph, was indifferent to everything else % Luke (xxi) 
 ascribes to Jesus the prediction of the destruction of 
 Jerusalem and the bondage of the Jews, the perturbation 
 of the heavenly bodies, signs iji the sun and moon and 
 stars, and that after these things had happened, thou 
 tliey should s6e the Son of Man coming in the cloud 5 
 witli power and great glory, and makes him to add, 
 " Yerily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass 
 away until all these things are fulfilled." A dying man 
 may with ]ierfect safety make as many predictions as he 
 pleases. If they arc verified ho is esteemed a pro[)het ;
 
 1G2 Tlieolofjy and 2fythology. 
 
 if they fail of accomplishment little importance is uttuclied 
 to the circumstance. Jesns, or any one else, might pre- 
 dict Avars, famines and earthquakes. They are, and have 
 been in all ages, ordinary occurrences ; but wlicn lie 
 ventured to predict violent convulsions in the great 
 lieavenly bodies and th-e coming of the Son of Man or 
 any one else in the clouds with power and great glory, 
 and gave the assurance that the generation of men he 
 addressed would not pass away until all that he predicted 
 was accomplished, he staked his reputation as a prophet 
 upon a prediction that failed of accomplishment. That 
 generation passed away and eighteen hundred years have 
 elapsed since this prophecy w^as uttered, if uttered by 
 Jesus it ever was, and tlie fulfillment of the prediction 
 seems as fiir oif now as then. The defenders of the as- 
 sumptions of inspiration in dealing with this passage of 
 Scripture ra-e driven to explain tliat "this generation" 
 did not mean the men Jesus is supposed to have ad- 
 dressed, but a future generation wlio might people the 
 earth when this prophecy should be fullilled ! It is diffi- 
 cult, in view of this explanation, to determine whether 
 the ingenuity of the apologists of inspiration is more 
 astounding than the flexibility of a language by which 
 " this generation " meant future ages. 
 
 That the impression of the almost immediate advent 
 of Jesus (after his death) to the earth, coming in tlic 
 clouds, was entertained, is evident from a well-known 
 .passage in "the writings of Paul. lie, too, fell into this 
 mistake, which he afterward attempted to correct. 
 Writing to the Thessalonians (First Epistle, iv, 15), he 
 says : " For this v/e say unto you by the word of the 
 Lord [that is, by inspiration], that vjc Avhich r.re v)A''IQ
 
 Theology and Mythology. 1G3 
 
 and remain unto tlie coming of tlic Lord sl)all not pre- 
 vent them which are asleep ; for the Lord himself shall 
 descend from heaven with a sliont, with the voice of the 
 archangel, and with the trump of God : and the dead in 
 Christ shall rise first : then vje which are alive and re- 
 main shall be caught up together with them in the 
 clouds, to meet the Lord in the air ; and so shall v.'o ever 
 be with the Lord." Paul, perceiving' tliat he had ven- 
 tured too far, and that his followers were "shaken in 
 mind " bj the apprehension or expectation of the second 
 coming of Jesus, writes to them that this cannot happen 
 " until the man of sin, the son of perdition," be revealed, 
 which gave humanity a new lease of life and aflbrded 
 inexhaustible material for speculation to Ghristian theo- 
 logians in subsequent ages. For nearly two thousand 
 years the theological telescope has been sweeping the 
 religious firmament for some appearance of the terrible 
 prognostics that are to herald the approacli in the clouds 
 of the Son of Man. But as yet wo have been given 
 nathing but false alarms. Modern interpreters of the 
 prophecies have been led to believe that the naan of sin 
 has already come, tliough they are not quite agreed as 
 to his identity. Many liave recognized his diabolic 
 power in Mahomet, some in the Pope of Rome, others 
 in Hapoleon I, a fev/ in Napoleon III and the late Czar 
 Nicliolas of Russia, The Church of Rome, if It were 
 v/eak enougli to indulge in speculations on the subject, 
 v/ould probably divide the honors between Luther and 
 Bismarck. 
 
 The absence of all reference in the works of Josep'lius 
 to the life and extraordinary career of Jesus has been 
 and still is a subject of much comment. Josephus lived
 
 104: Theology and Mythology. 
 
 at tlie time v.-lieu, it is alleged, Christianity originated, 
 lie is generally admitted to have been a painstaking 
 historian, and it is almost inexplicable that he could liave 
 passed over, as unvs^orthy of attention, the public minis- 
 try of Jesus, his many miracles — more especially the 
 raising of the dead to life — if these reputed exercises of 
 superhuman and supernatural power were well-authenti- 
 cated historical facts or had attracted national attention. 
 In the writings of Josephus there are found two very 
 brief allusions to Jesus, one of them merely alluduig to 
 him as " a man — if it be lawful to call him a man — who 
 did many wonderful things"; but it is verj'- generally 
 conceded by scholars and critics, both within and outside 
 the Church, that these passages are piously manufactured 
 interpolations, and that they found no place in the orig- 
 inal composition of Josephus. If the life and miracles 
 of Jesus were such as the Gospel writers represent, it is 
 highly improbable that Josephus or any other contem- 
 porary Jewish writer would have omitted all reference 
 to events so strange and astounding. At the time com- 
 monly assigned to the life of Jesus, the Jews were not, 
 as a people, sunk in ignorance or barl)arism. The Ro- 
 mans, the most civilized people in the world, occupied 
 and held Judea. Roman armies and Roman officers 
 were quartered through the country. The Roman law 
 was in force. The report of the miracles of Jesus must 
 have reached the Roman governor. We are told that a 
 centurion in the Roman army had a miracle performed 
 in his family; and though it was only the healing of his 
 child, which misht or misrht not have been classed as a 
 " miracle," yet it was such, from the gospel narrative, as 
 to have attracted some attention. Ev'^en in the days of 
 
 i
 
 Theology and Mythology. 165 
 
 Roman prodigies, portents and oracular responses, wliieli 
 at this time even liad become exceedingly rare and of 
 very dubious character, well-authenticated cases of the 
 raising of the dead to life were not of every-day occur- 
 rence. 
 
 Is not the inference inevitable that the mist of ob- 
 scurity enveloped both the ministration and the miracles 
 of Jesus; and that previous to his death and the promul- 
 gation of his religion, there never was given to his name 
 other than a purely local and provincial notoriety ? 
 
 This marvelous story of Jesus cannot be true^ if the 
 laiiverse is governed hy lavj. To account satisfactorily 
 at all for its origin we must believe that the three synop- 
 tical gospels were " non-apostolic digests of spoken and 
 written apostolic tradition." This is the view generally 
 entertained by unprejudiced biblical scholars who strive 
 to look at history as it is, and not at what the Church has 
 given to the world as such 
 
 It was because Jesus bore tlic titl^ of King of the 
 Jews, and not that of '-the Son of God," that Pilate con- 
 demned him to death ; though Pilate was so utterly 
 assured of the insignificance and unimportance of the as- 
 sumption of regal distinction by Jesus in a moment of 
 weakness and at the instigation of a fickle rabble, that 
 he Vv'onld instantly have dismissed the charge of treason 
 brouglit against Jesus were it not for the pressui*e brought 
 to bear upon him by the Jewish priests, who pushed so 
 far as to tell Pilate that if he let " this man " go he was 
 not Cagsar's friend. Further, it may be remarked that 
 there exists very great variance between the Gospel ac- 
 counts of the only interview that ever occurred between 
 
 ^-
 
 IGQ Theology and Mythology. 
 
 Jesus and Pilate, and irreconcikible v,'ith tlie hypothesis 
 of divine inspiration. 
 
 Mattliew, Mark and Luke all agree in representing 
 that when Pilate asked Jesus if he were the king of the 
 Jews, he only answered, " Thou sayest"; and so remark- 
 able was tlie silence of Jesus on this momentous occasion 
 that tv/o of the writers add, "And he answered him 
 never a word, insomuch that the governor greatly mar- 
 veled" (Matt, xxvii, 14; Mark xv, 5). John, liowever, 
 gives the following account (John xviii, 33, et seq.) : 
 " Tlien Pilate entered into the judgment-hall again, and 
 called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the king of the 
 Jews ? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of 
 thyself, or did others tell it thee of me ? Pilate an- 
 swered. Am I a Jew ? Thine own nation and the chief 
 ■priests liave delivered thee unto me : what hast thou 
 done ? Jesus answered. My kingdom is not of this 
 world : if my kingdom were of this world, then would 
 my servants fight, that I sliould not he delivered to the 
 Jews : but now is my kingdom not from hence. Pilate 
 therefore said unto him, Art thou a king, then ? Jesus 
 answered. Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end 
 was I born, and for this cause came I into the world :■ 
 that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one 
 that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto 
 him. What is truth? And when he liad said tliis, he 
 went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I 
 find in him no fault at all." 
 
 ISTow, if this account of the only interview between 
 Jesus and Pilate be inspired by the God of truth, and 
 if the conversation between Jesus and Pilate be accu- 
 rately recorded, what, it maybe asked, becomes of tlie
 
 Theology and Mythology. 167 
 
 statement made by the other writers, who agree in re- 
 porting that " he answered him never a word, insomuch 
 that tlie governor greatly marveled " ? On no theory 
 can snch inconsistency be reconciled if the inspiration of 
 the several conflicting accounts be insisted upon. If, 
 however, the claims to divine inspiration be abandoned — 
 as they should and soon vrill be universally — if these 
 narratives are treated as all otlier human compositions, 
 subject to inaccuracies and imperfections, then there will 
 be no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that the 
 writer of the gospel bearing John's name has blended 
 traditionary reports vrith the creations of a fanciful im- 
 ao-inotion. We should regret much to be forced to the 
 conclusion that the vv'ritcr quoted from has given the 
 world an accurate account of this interview between 
 Jesus ajid Pilate, as, no matter what may have been his 
 intention,. he has succeeded in representing Jesus, in the 
 almost supreme act of his life, descending to equivocation 
 of a very dubious kind, and trifling with very solemn 
 questions that admitted easily of plain and direct re- 
 sponses and simple explanations. Had Jesus engaged 
 in this fencing with vrords, as he is here represented, 
 eagerly grasping trivial admissions, ashing Pilate, " Say- 
 est thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell thee," as 
 if it were a matter of any consequence where Pilate's 
 information, if any he had, on the subject was derived 
 from ; then, with sarcastic scorn, may Pilate well have 
 replied, " Am I a Jew ?" But the language of this re- 
 cital bears within itself the marks of fabrication. Jesus 
 speaks of being " delivered from the Jews,'' as though' 
 he were a foreitirner who had fallen into their hands, and
 
 168 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 not a Jew liimself. No representative man would so 
 speak of liis own people and race. 
 
 In dwelling for a moment npon the view of the char- 
 acter of Jesns presented by the narratives of the closing 
 scenes of his life, one is at a loss to account for the stub- 
 born silence and indifference he maintained when brought 
 before Pilate and Herod, foreign as it is to all impres- 
 sions we have received from following him throu2;h all 
 the other scenes of his life. The patriots, reformers and 
 philosophers of the world in days gone by, when brought, 
 in consequence of their advocacy of principles they be- 
 lieved to be true, before tribunals in whose hands were 
 the issues of life and death, appear almost without ex- 
 ception to' have advanced in courage and dignity of bear- 
 ing. They seemed rather to be engaged in trying and 
 condemning their judges — and that is wl:at .in reality 
 they have done — than receiving condemnation from their 
 inferiors. Socrates condemned his judges, not the judges 
 Socrates. In that supreme moment, their proud spirits 
 scorning torture, rising far above the ignoble fear of 
 death and all the terrors that confound weak natures, 
 they have magnetized not only their senseless judges 
 but all future generations of liberty-loving men, by the 
 exhibition of titanic and almost superhuman strength of 
 will. They stepped, as it were, outside of themselves, 
 and seemed rather the incarnation of spiritual forces en- 
 gaged in a war of ideas, than creatures contending with 
 an unimportant question of life and death. History re- 
 joices that Socrates died as he died, for otherwise we 
 should have lost the " Apology." But neither in the 
 appearance of Jesus of Nazareth before his judges nor in
 
 Theology and Mythology. 169 
 
 the painful closing scenes of his life was there any grand, 
 heroic, or even manly assertion of either the purity of 
 his life, the noble aims he had in view, or the sacredness 
 of his mission. The description of Isaiah, though not 
 written for him, might be applied to him with singular 
 propriety : " As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so 
 he openeth not his mouth." The Gospel accounts ail 
 agree in conveying the idea that he fully realized the 
 fate that threatened him, so that his condemnation was 
 anticipated by him. In explanation of his silence, it 
 may have been that, conscious of his integrity, he dis- 
 dained to reply to the monstrous accusations brought 
 against him, though he did enter into a controversy with 
 the chief priests and elders. The brutal treatment he 
 received at the hands of the debased rabble, instigated 
 by a bigoted priesthood, who spat in his face and smote 
 him in derision with the palms of their hands, may have 
 shocked and humiliated him so as to render him incapa- 
 ble of all utterance except the half-stifled cry of a wound- 
 ed spirit and broken heart. The records of human 
 wrongs contain nothing sadder than the story of the 
 brutal indignities offered to the mild and tender-hearted 
 Nazarene in the halls of Caiaphas. But eternal justice 
 ever vindicates every crime committed and every out- 
 rage inflicted upon the conscience of humanity. It is 
 ever over the Bridge of Sighs that each pioneer of prog- 
 ress marches into the citadel of glory, and, high above 
 the low-lying plains, plants on its impregnable heights 
 the banner of his own immortality.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The rapid spread of Christianity doQS not argue either 
 the truth of Kevelation or the divine character of its 
 nominal founder. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the 
 means by ^vhich the "conversion" of the world was ac- 
 complished. Three hundred and thirty years elapsed 
 before Christianity received State recognition. Con- 
 stantino, Avho was subject to superstitious impressions, 
 pretended to be converted b}^ the appearance of a fiery 
 cross in the heavens ; but he did not venture upon any 
 attack upon the ancient religion of Home until after the 
 defeat of his pagan colleague Licinius: Then he.placed 
 the government of the provinces in tlie hands of Chris- 
 tians, prohibited the temple worship, and made prayer 
 to the dethroned gods punishable by deatli. There is 
 no mistake greater than the popular one that indulges 
 in the delusion that Christianity owed its propagation to 
 miraculous interposition or ^argumentative and philo- 
 sophical appeals to the intelligent. Not unfrequently 
 has the " conversion " of a pagan or barbarian chief to 
 Christianity been immediately followed by the baptism 
 into the faith of Jesus of the entire tribe over which lie
 
 Theology and ILyihology. 171 
 
 exercised undisputed sway. For the most part religions 
 liave been propagated by force and not by argument. 
 The rapidity of the spread of Mahometanisra is as mar- 
 velous as that of Christianity, and its impression has 
 been equally durable upon a great portion of the human 
 race. 
 
 The successful establishment of Mormonism on this 
 continent, in this much-boasted age of enlightenment, 
 and among a people having the reputation of being the 
 most practical in the world, introducing, too. Oriental 
 polygamy, foreign to the moral instincts of our people 
 and the laws and institutions of the Kepublic, shows how 
 rapidly religious fanaticism finds numerous followers 
 even under very adverse circumstances. 
 
 At the time of the introduction of Christianity, all 
 circumstances were extremely favorable for the promul- 
 gation of new religious ideas, or old ideas clothed in new 
 garments. The popular religious sentiment of Europe 
 was far advanced in the process of disintegration. The 
 belief in the gods of Greece and Home had lost all vital- 
 ity. Theology had sunk into mythology. Four hun- 
 dred years before Christ, Socrates invaded high Olympus 
 and, with nothing more terrible than a legitimate syllo- 
 gism, routed the heavenly host — gods, goddesses, demi- 
 gods and heroes. Plato taught the immortality of the 
 soul, and was the fountain from which St. John drew his 
 inspiration. Pythagoras held the doctrine of transmi- 
 gration, while many learned and distinguished philoso- 
 phers regarded death as the final extinction of individual 
 existence. The religious systems and establishments 
 were resting upon popular indifierence. They had long 
 since been condemned by the educated classes. They
 
 r 
 
 172 . Theology and Mythology. 
 
 were even ridiculed by prominent writers with impunity. 
 The orators, of course, made occasional allusions to the 
 altars, shrines and temples of the immortal gods ; but 
 this was done merely to add grace and dignity to their 
 orations. The worship of the gods, once decent and 
 solemn, had degenerated into the undisguised exhibition 
 of the grossest licentiousness. The religion of Jesus, 
 dispensing with a priesthood, abolishing expensive and 
 burdensome sacrifices, of benefit only to the priests and 
 their dependents, recognizing the doctrine of the ftither- 
 hood of God and the brotlierhood of humanity, promising 
 eternal happiness to the poor and afilicted, s]3urning 
 riches and earthly honors, commended itself at once to 
 the oppressed and unfortunate, and made converts among 
 the slaves and illiterate by teaching that they were the 
 equals of the learned and powerful when they, accepted 
 the religion of Jesus. Among the early Christians the 
 distinctions of race and class were abolished. " There 
 was neither Jew nor Gentile, neither bond nor free." 
 They had all things in common. They were true Com- 
 munists. A bond of fellowship, hitherto novel in tlie 
 world, united them as one family. It must, too, be ad- 
 mitted that the purity of life that distinguished the prim- 
 itive Christians, strangely in contrast with that of their 
 successors, won over to the new belief many disgusted 
 with sacerdotal arrogance, impositions and pretensions, 
 as well as the indecencies of the established worship of 
 the gods. When Christianity, after three or four centu- 
 ries of existence, succeeded in capturing the support of 
 the Koman rulers, who merely regarded religion as a 
 matter of state policy, it abandoned, the simplicity of its 
 primitive worship. It instituted an organized priesthood,
 
 Theologij and Mytholorjy. 173 
 
 hicrarcbj, and imposing ritual. It entered tlic ten:iples\ 
 deserted by tlie detiironed gods of Olympus. From tlie 
 altars of Jnpiter incense ascended to Jehovah and Jesus. 
 AYomen no longer prayed to Juno. The " Virgin Moth- 
 er " reigned supreme. Pandering to the popular craving 
 for magnificence of worship, it appropriated, with scarcely 
 any modification, the ancient rites and ceremonies of 
 Paganism. To so great an extent did the Roman Church 
 celebrate with splendor the rites of the ancient religions 
 she incorporated with Christianity, that, as has been 
 truthfully remarked, it would have been difiicult to tell 
 whether Paganism had been Christianized or Christianity 
 Paganized. 
 
 " The pale Galilean has conquered," but it has only^ 
 been by passing nnder tlie yoke of the conquered, and 
 assuming the banners, the emblems and pass-words of 
 the enemy. It is a conquest in which genuine Christian- 
 ity has disappeared or skulks behind altars, pillars, paint- 
 ings and music. Christianity, as taught and understood 
 by Jesus and his followers, has ceased to exist for sixteen 
 hundred years. It is doubtful if it ever survived to the 
 close of the second century. Even the infant Church 
 was driven to abandon the communistic idea that distin- 
 guished the first few years of its existence. Tacitus in- 
 forms us that Pompey, in his Syrian wars, broke into 
 the temple at Jerusalem and explored the Holy of Ho- 
 lies, but found no trace of the indwelling divinity. In 
 modern Christianity hardly a trace of the religion of 
 Jesus is discernible. Jesus and his true life rai^ht be 
 taken from Christianity without impairing the integ- 
 rity of the system as it exists. It is doubtful if even 
 his abduction would excite notice, or, if noticed, cause
 
 IT'ir Theology and Mythology. 
 
 '^r.^gret, comment or surjDrisc. It is now a vast soulless 
 ecclesiastical corporation that has woven its web about 
 kings, emperors, constitutional governments and repub- 
 lics. With its maintenance mi2;htv interests are identi- 
 lied. It has permeated the social and political existence 
 of every civilized government on the face of the earth. 
 Its thoroiigh knowledge of the amiable and weak side of 
 human nature has enabled it to ally to its zealous sup- 
 port tlie almost entire female influence of the civilized 
 world, and the consequent capture of every rising gener- 
 ation. It must be admitted, too, that tlie dissenting 
 
 ■ churches have modified both the rigid doctrines of the 
 last century and the manner of their presentation, so as 
 not to offend the intelligence of the age. God is now 
 rarely represented looking down from the battlements of 
 heaven and enjoying a holy satisfaction from the specta- 
 cle of countless myriads of his creatures suffering ineffa- 
 ble torments. Heaven is no longer filled with stupid 
 saints whose sole occupation consists in standing around 
 a great white throne, with harps in their hands, singing, 
 " Glory to the Lamb." " Hell " is rarely mentioned 
 among "cultivated people. The Devil, with hoofs and 
 horns and leering aspect, that terrified the grown chil- 
 dren of the last century, has disappeared, like the myth- 
 ical ghosts, at the approach of the first gray streaks of 
 morning's dawn. It is now beginning to be understood 
 that moral evil and wrong are not spirits of pandemo- 
 nium, but the results of imperfect, stunted and erroneous 
 education. 
 
 A great truth is embodied in the story of Luther 
 flino-ine: an inkstand at the Devil's head. Witchcraft has 
 fallen dead at the door of the public school-house. The
 
 Theology and M'yihology. 175 
 
 whistle of tlie steam-engine has driven off the ghosts and 
 disembodied spirits that haunted the still hour of mid- 
 night. Individyal independence of character, in part 
 tlie cause and partly the result of free political institu- 
 tions, has checked the domineering spirit of priestcraft. 
 The doctrine of the divine right of kings, based upon 
 the teaching of the Hebrew Scriptures, once potent in 
 riveting the chains bj which the most infamous despots 
 enslaved millions, has scarcely an advocate, even among 
 nations still adhering to the monarchical form of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 In America the shackles liave fallen from the souls- 
 and bodies of five millions of people, whose only offense 
 was the color of their skin. This great work was accom- 
 plished, not by the supporters of biblical inspiration, but 
 by the awakened conscience of the American people. 
 In this connection it should not be foro-otten that from 
 the Bible itself have been drawn the strono^estarccuments 
 in support of African slavery, which so long tarnished the 
 fair name of the Republic of the United States, and 
 which for nearly a century corrupted the lifeblood of the ,^ 
 freest nation on earth. 
 
 It has been only since the Reformation, which was a 
 revolt of free thought against the overwliclming tyranny 
 of theology and ecclesiasticism, that the Indo-European 
 races have advanced by sucli marvelous strides in the 
 field of scientific investigation, the result of which has 
 been the discovery of natural laws and principles whose 
 application to the necessities of the age has been of the 
 highest importance to m.ankind. The Reformation, 
 though a very partial and incomplete emancipation, bore 
 within it the germ of the mighty progressive movement 
 
 >
 
 176 Theology and jrf/thology. 
 
 that has carried forward the European intellect during 
 the last three hundred years. Probably previous to the 
 movement of the Reformation, Europe produced as great 
 and original thinkers as at any successive period, though 
 we do not assert that this is so ; but it must be admitted 
 that the average of intelligence has advanced to a higher 
 standard than ever before attained since man's appear- 
 ance upon the earth. Three hundred years ago a man 
 who could write his name and read with facility his 
 mother speech in a printed book was considered well 
 educated. At present the man who lives by his daily 
 toil is better acquainted with the social and political 
 movements of the times than the mailed baron of the 
 Middle Ages was with the history and policy of the age 
 in which he lived. The invention of printing, the appli- 
 cation of steam to locomotion, and the discovery of the 
 electric telegraph have revolutionized the world. Yet is 
 mankind but in the infancy of intellectual growth. The 
 achievements of the past, wonderful and magnificent as 
 they confessedly are, are as toys and playthings compared 
 with the evolutions and revolutions of future generations. 
 Fifty years ago had a man been found bold enough to 
 predict that within the lapse of a few years a wire would 
 be laid between Europe and America by which a message 
 could be transmitted across the ocean in far less time 
 than occupied in delivering it, he would have been uni- 
 versally regarded as a lunatic. Who doubts that, five 
 hundred years hence, should any of our inventions re- 
 main, they will be regarded with an interest similar to 
 that we bestow upon the rude stone implements and 
 antiquarian remains of the aborigines of this continent ?
 
 Theology and Mythology. \1*l 
 
 A true poet of our o'^n days, who ever appreciates 
 with almost prophetic foresight the great movements of 
 humanity, has well sung : 
 
 " Well — were it not a pleasant thing 
 
 To fall asleep with all one's friends; 
 To pass with all our social ties 
 
 To silence from the paths of men ; 
 And every hundred years to rise 
 
 And learn the world, and sleep again; 
 To sleep through terms of mighty wars, 
 
 And wake on science grown to more, 
 On secrets of the brain, the stars. 
 
 As wild as aught of fairy lore; 
 And all that else the years will show, 
 
 The poet-forms of stronger hours, 
 The vast republics that may grow. 
 
 The federations and tlie powers; 
 Titanic forces taking birth 
 
 In divers seasons, divers climes; 
 For we are ancients of the earth, 
 
 And in the morning of the times."
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 There are branches of investigation in wliich knox^'l- 
 edge is obtainecl. There are exact sciences. There is 
 truth in arithmetic, in geometry, in geologj, in botany, 
 in astronomy, and in all the physical sciences. E"o mat- 
 ter what widely divergent and contradictory views men 
 may entertain on the subject of religion; they will unite 
 in recognizing a mathematical truth. But when the 
 claims of several writings supposed to contain the ex- 
 pression of the Divine will are made the subject of in- 
 quiry, immediately the bitterest controversy and confu- 
 sion inextricable arise. The believer in the inspiration 
 of the Hebrew Scrii3tures and the unbeliever have no 
 common ground on which to stand. The believer ac- 
 cepts them as infallibly true, without attempting to ad- 
 duce proof to convince himself or others of the correct- 
 ness of his belief, lie needs no proof. It is all with 
 him a matter of fiiith, and he believes tliat his salvation 
 would be imperiled did he attempt to doubt for an in- 
 stant their divine authenticity. Tlie infidel will assert 
 that as an embodiment of divine truth liis reason cannot 
 accept the Bible. To liim it is no more sacred than the
 
 Theology and Iftjtholoyy 1T9 
 
 poems of Horaci- or Ilesiod, the Yecks or the Koran. 
 As a picture of Oriental life and manners it is interest- 
 ing ; as marking the moral and spiritual development of 
 a portion of mankind it is probably of more value than 
 any other work tliat-has survived the accidents of time. 
 He will assert that it was composed at different epochs 
 of the world's history by men, for the most part of ordi- 
 nary ability. He will assert that parts of both the Old 
 and New Testaments are such as ought never to have 
 been translated and placed indiscriminately in the hands 
 of the youth of both sexes. He would also assert that 
 the Scriptures are full of disci-epancies, contradictions 
 and absurdities that ought to find no place in a book 
 claimino; to contain a revelation of Divine will, and con- 
 tain false recitals of miracles and physical impossibilities 
 in the economy of nature. He would contend that as 
 Eevelation it is a failure, as it contains nothing not dis- 
 coverable by the exercise of ordinary intelligent observa- 
 tion when it pretends to deal with human events ; that 
 it fails to define what is soul and what is spirit, the ori- 
 gin of the universe, if it had an origin, and the existence 
 of God ; that its writers were grossly ignorant of astron- 
 omy and Avcre very imperfectly acquainted with the 
 causes or operations of physical laws ; that they, for the 
 most part, in childlike simplicity, imagined that the 
 heaven was a solid sphere in which the stars were set ; 
 that the deluge was caused by the opening of the win- 
 dows of heaven and letting down the waters that were 
 above the firmament ; that the rainbow was placed by 
 Jehovah in the sky as a sign that he would never again 
 drown the world, when in truth its appearance is caused 
 by an ordinar}' operation of nature that every schoolboy
 
 180 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 is acquainted M'ith; that the God of the Universe ate 
 cakes Avith Abraham and wrestled with Jacob ; that 
 Moses with a magic rod divided the waters of the Ecd 
 Sea; that a pillar of fire and a cloud for forty years 
 guided a single tribe through a wilderness ; tliat God 
 dwelt in a box called an ark, and was on one occasion 
 captured in battle ; that Jehovah as a deity is not enti- 
 tled to ordinary respect, much less adoration and wor- 
 ship; that he is exhibited constantly as repenting and 
 changing his intentions ; that in moments of irritation 
 he has killed by sword, pestilence, fire from heaven, 
 famine and earthquakes, not only thousands of his crea- 
 tures whom he regards as enemies, but even his own 
 chosen people ; that he has frequently, in wanton exhibi- 
 tion of his power, worked the most senseless miracles, 
 such as making an ass speak with human speecli, and 
 creating a whale or large fish in which to imprison for 
 three days a disobedient prophet ; that one of his proph- 
 ets ascended alive to heaven in a chariot of fire; that he 
 himself assumed the form of a burning bush ; that he 
 sent lying prophets to lure liis enemies to destruction, 
 which in a human ruler would be characterized as basest 
 treachery ; that he exhibited his hind parts to JMoses ; 
 that he lias blessed murderers and assassins ; that he 
 sanctioned and directed the extermination of helpless 
 women, prattling infants and dumb cattle ; that ]ie per- 
 mitted his old enemy Satan, on an express understanding 
 between them, and to settle a dispute that originated in 
 heaven, to torment his servant Job so that he cursed the 
 day he was born ; and, finally, that, after for ages, run- 
 ning into thousands of years, endeavoring to save his 
 people from eternal hell and its torments by means of
 
 Theology and Mythology. 181 
 
 eacriiicial offerings and religious observances, he aban- 
 doned the Bclieme as impracticable, and, as a last re- 
 source, sent, some nineteen hundred years ago, his son, 
 born of a woman, into the "world, whom he caused to be 
 crucified ; that his blood spilled is the last grand sacrifice 
 that Jehovah accepts in complete satisfaction for all past 
 and future offenses of mankind. 
 
 That there existed no necessity for a " divine " com- 
 munication such as the Jewish Scriptures give us hardly 
 needs discussion. If the mere surface-reading of the 
 scattered fragments of Jewish legends, history, poetry 
 and mythology that are called the Scriptures does not 
 inevitably lead to the dissipation of all inspirational pre- 
 tenses, no argument, however reasonable, and no appeals, 
 however earnest, to the understanding and intelligence, 
 will avail to efface the almost indelible impressions of 
 superstitious reverence for the Bible that formed the 
 basis of the education of the world up to a recent period. 
 
 We concede freely and thankfully that the greater 
 portion of the New-Testament writings, aside from tlie 
 barbarous doctriije of the atonement and the story of 
 the miracles of Jesus, contain many noble enunciations 
 of divine truth — and all truth is divine — of morality, self- 
 denial, charity, and all the virtues. But it by no means 
 follows, because of these excellences, that it owes its 
 origin to any higher inspiration than ought to be ascribed 
 to the productions of many others — poets, historians, 
 •philosophers and thinkers — who have, in every age, since 
 civilization attained any advanced degree of development, 
 dignified humanity by their labors and consecration to 
 its service. Whatever of truth is contained in the Script- 
 ures will survive to sweeten and dignify life ; but all
 
 183 Theology and IiTyiJcology . 
 
 tliat is untrue, of local a.nd sectarian application, must 
 and ought to perisli. Tlie Old-Testament writings are 
 cliieflj valuable as indicating tJie progress man has made 
 in religious ideas. As man advanced in knowledge, the 
 conceptions of the deity or the gods ho worshiped under- 
 went a chans^e. Even from the Bible wc can sec the 
 bed-rock foundation of the modern temple. The hosts 
 of heaven, the sun, moon and stars, were among the first 
 objects of v/orship. Then cams serpent-worship, which 
 may be recognized even in the Mosaic dispensation. 
 Tlic sacrifice of animals succeeded human sacrifices. 
 This was a step in advance. Now the intelligence of 
 the Avorld revolts against tlic absurdity of anim^al sacri- 
 fice, and wo have the milder and bloodless substitute, 
 the sacrifice of praise and prayer. In the religion of the 
 future there will be neither altars, priests nor sacrifices. 
 ITo prayer will bo idly ofifered up to the Inevitahle and 
 Wecessary. It will bo recognized that inexorable La\v 
 permeates all nature, animate and inanimate, sentient 
 and senseless ; that its existence is proclaimed with 
 equal magnificence and significance in tiie motions of the 
 unnumbered systems of worlds that rotate in limitless 
 space as in the composition of the minutest atom tliat 
 floats on a sunbeam. On every side is impenetrable 
 mystery, for mystery is but another name for ignorance. 
 Life is a myster3^ Death is a mystery. The existence 
 of anything is a mystery, and annihilation is impossible. 
 Man is mortal. Humanity is immortal. The individual' 
 is nothing : the race is omnipotent. The soldier drops 
 out of the ranks, but the army moves on forever. Its 
 destiny is progress. Revolutions never go backward. 
 Laro-er ligh.t, fidler grov.'th, freer movement, wider views
 
 Theology and Mythology 133 
 
 and nobler aims distinguish each increasing age. • The\, 
 world is greater, freer, happier, purer and stronger now 
 tlian a hundred years ago. The golden age never did 
 exist, and least of all in the days of darkest ignorance, 
 abjectest slavery, cruelest oppression and sternest relig- 
 ions domination. The fingers of priestcraft and king- 
 craft no longer clutch tlio throat of civilization. Evei\ /' 
 the churches have abandoned preaching the doctrine of 
 eternal hell. The light of a better civilization is stream- 
 ing down upon us and our children. . Scientific inquiry 
 is expanding the bounds of knowledge and dissipating 
 the clouds of myths and superstition that enveloped the 
 human understanding. Popular education has attained 
 a high standard. The inventive faculty which so largely 
 distinguishes the present age is rapidly reducing the nat- 
 ural forces into the service of man and rendering manual 
 occupations less severe and laborious. The treasures of 
 art and literature arc no longer the exclusive possessions 
 of the rich and powerful, but are spread broadcast before ' 
 the people. It is beginning to be understood, in political 
 science, that governments are intended for the benefit of 
 the governed, alid that in the people is vested and inheres 
 all sovereign power. And though the time has not yet 
 come wlien , 
 
 " The -vvar-drum beats no longer, and the battle-flags are furled, 
 In the parliament of man, the federation of the world," 
 
 yet assuredly it is fast approaching. The intelligence of 
 mankind, that lias rendered religious persecution impos- 
 sible, that has forever svv'ept out of existence the racks, 
 the tlmmbscrews, tlie iron boots, the gibbet, the fagotj and 
 all other infernal instruments of torture by which bigotry
 
 
 184 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 sought to arrest intellectual growth, will yet obliterate 
 v.'ar, the crowning curse and crime of humanity. 
 
 When men shall become thoroughly convinced that 
 no amount of faith, no matter how fervent, can modify 
 in the slightest the immutable laws of nature ; when 
 they shall cease chasing pliantoms through quagmires 
 and treacherous morasses of speculation ; when all the 
 intellectual forces shall be directed to the improvement 
 of our earthly condition ; when all the energy, time, 
 wealth, genius and power now employed in sustaining 
 churches founded upon myths and sustained by ignorance 
 or hypocrisy shall be diverted to noble fields of labor ; 
 j when the magnificent forces now wasted and perverted, 
 I in attempting to fasten Oriental mythologies and Asiatic 
 j mysticism npon the civilization of the" present, shall en- 
 ter the domain of scientific investigation — then may we 
 look for the approach of man's conquest, not only over 
 nature, but over the vicious principles, emanating from 
 a false education, that have rendered, in the past, this 
 happy earth a hell filled with violence, oppression, crime 
 and cruelty.
 
 CHAPTER XI. ' 
 
 For nearly two thousand years Christianity has had 
 under its direction the shaping of the civilization of the 
 European races. Yet for sixteen centuries in which the 
 influence of the Church was supreme and undisputed, 
 Europe presented almost a changeless aspect of wars, 
 bloodshed, cruelty, ignorance, despotism, and the sup- 
 pression of national and individual liberty. For this 
 condition of complete barbarism the Church must be 
 held accountable. It has been only since the Church 
 began to lose its influence, both over governments and 
 individuals, that education has become at all popular. 
 All through the ages properly called dark, the priest- 
 hood was partially educated, yet we find no attempt 
 .made to convey to the people even the rudest elements 
 of instruction. The celebration of the mass and the per- 
 formance of vulgar " miracle-plays," that would now be 
 considered indecent and blasphemous, were the only in- 
 tellectual exercises, if such they might be called, oflfered 
 to the people. Yet while these " holy plays," whicli 
 served to debase the popular taste, were encouraged, the 
 legitimate drama was placed under the ban of the Church.
 
 1S6 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 The popnlrvcc delighted in such miserable productions as 
 the " Peast of Fools," and the " Feast of Asses," per- 
 formed in the churches, which consisted of indecent 
 dances, caricatures of the priesthood and parodies of the 
 mass. The ^Yriter has himself, as late as 1859, witnessed 
 in Brittany, France, the performance of one of these 
 rude plays, in which the crucifixion was represented. It 
 is hardly necessary to remark that the only feeling it 
 excited was one of inexpressible disgust ; yet the rustics 
 seemed to enjoy it. It must, however, in justice be 
 stated that the performance Avas not in a church, nor 
 under the sanction of the clergy. Yet while the noble 
 dramas of Euripides, Sophocles and ^schylus were in- 
 terdicted, these wretched burlesques were not only toler- 
 ated, but encouraged. Ignorance was canonized, but 
 the tragic muse was anathematized. Noble actors who 
 added to the sum of human happiness, who refined and 
 civilized the manners of the age by delineation of the 
 heroic characters of history or the creations of the imag- 
 ination, were regarded as moral lepers, and excommuni- 
 cated. The actress Le Couvreur, brilliant and beautiful, 
 was denied interment in consecrated ground, and was 
 buried in a field for cattle by the banks of the Seine. 
 Both Philip II and Philip IV banished actors from 
 Spain. Father Posadas caused the destruction of the 
 theater of Cordova, while the 'Council of Illiberis, one of 
 the oldest on record, prohibited any Christian woman 
 from marrying an actor. Indeed, even at present, the 
 senseless prejudice against actors and theaters still ex- 
 ists, and is fostered b}'' the churches 
 
 iSfothing is truer than that the Church, as long as it 
 had the power, has been tlio relentless op])onent of intel-
 
 Theology and Mythology. 187 
 
 lectual development and tlie Litter externiiiip.tor of every 
 advocnte of free thonglit and progress. The Freneh 
 Revolution, full of grandeur and full of shame, was as 
 much an upheaval of the people against the despotism of 
 the altar as the throne. To the unprejudiced reader of 
 liistory it is not a subject of wonderment that the people 
 of France then, intoxicated witli the strong draughts of 
 the new wine of liberty they drank, and delirious from 
 the effects of a long night of unparalleled suffering and 
 degradation, should not only have exterminated royalty, 
 but proceeded further to abolish the very name of God, 
 under whose assumed sanction so many unutterable cru- 
 elties and indignities had been inflicted upon them for 
 centuries. Crowning a beautiful ballet-girl, though of 
 lax morals, as goddess of Reason, was a significant re- 
 buke to a debauched priesthood, and a sublime defiance 
 to a despotism that had enslaved and corrupted the bril- 
 liant genius of France. It was the legitimate retort of 
 long-pent forces, though we need hardly say that as an 
 example it is unworthy of imitation. If cruelty unspeak- 
 able has disgraced one of the freest movements the world 
 ever has. known, let it not be forgotten that the head of 
 tlie Church of Christ blessed the butchers who made the ' 
 
 i 
 
 sewers of Paris run red with the blood of Protestant ' 
 Frenchmen, Frenchwomen and children on St. Barthol- 
 omew's day. Let it be remembered that Llorente him- 
 self, a secretary in the Inquisition, tells us (Hist, de I'ln- 
 cpiisition. Tome lY, pp. 271, 272) that, by the Spanish 
 Inquisition alone, excluding its infernal work in Mexico, 
 Carthagenia, the Indies, Lima, Sicily, Sardinia and Malta, 
 tliirty-onc tliousand persons of all ages, ranks, and botli 
 sexes perished in the flames, and two hundred and ninety
 
 188 Theology and Mythology. . 
 
 /thousand were condemned to minor punishment. Let it 
 ' he remembered that under Charles Y not less than fift}^ 
 thousand suffered death for religious opinions, only a 
 little over three hundred years ago. Let it be remem- 
 bered that by sentence of the Holy Office, Feb. IC, 
 1568, all the inhabitants of the Netherlands were con- 
 \ demned to death as heretics. Let it be remembered 
 ' also, in connection with all these atrocities, that the 
 wretched victims of ignorance and superstition w^ere not 
 destroyed by a painless process, but were, in many in. 
 stances, roasted alive, hung in chains over slow fires, had 
 their eyes put out with hot irons, their bones pulled out 
 of their sockets, and the flesh torn from their limbs. 
 Let it, too, be remembered that these massacres that 
 turned all Europe into an Aceldama, and every city into a 
 Golgotha, were not confined to the Catholic Church, 
 that instituted the religious persecution. The persecuting 
 spirit manifested itself equally in the Protestant Church, 
 but the clerical influence in Protestant countries was for- 
 tunately weak, sickly and short-lived. Let this be re- 
 membered, and some excuse may be found for the ex- 
 i cesses of the French Revolution. History repeats itself. 
 \ It sometimes avenges itself. 
 
 The romance of inspiration tells us that the birtji of 
 
 I Jesus of Nazareth was heralded by an angelic apparition 
 
 I to shephei:ds watching their flocks by night on the lonely 
 
 liills of Palestine, and that the heavenly messengers sang 
 
 the blessed -anthem, "Peace on earth to men of good 
 
 will !" Yet to-day, after nineteen centuries of Christian- 
 
 ' ity and Christology, all Europe is a camping-ground. 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 i 
 
 \ occupied by standing armies numbering fonr millions 
 I drilled and equipped for human slaughter ; and, doubt
 
 Theology and Mythology. , 189 
 
 less, wlicn the trumpet's blast sounds the call to battle^ 
 rapine and desolation, and lets loose the avalanche of ' 
 blootl, the silken banners of the mighty hosts will be 
 blessed by white-robed priests, while with solemn serv- 
 ices and imposing rites the favor of the God of Battles 
 will be invoked as of old. 
 
 What a commentary is this upon the "divine" origin 
 and mission of religion ! 
 
 How much is purely mythical and how much was 
 real and actual in the life of Jesus must remain forever 
 imdetermined. Jesus has passed beyond the domain of 
 satisfactory investigation. The Gospel narratives are as 
 unreliable as they are meager. Neither the authorship 
 of them nor the dates of their composition is established 
 beyond controversy. K\\ biblical scholars know that 
 many of the passages expressive of the divine and super- 
 natural origin of Jesus, as well as the doctrine of the 
 trinity, are interpolations, though had they been genuine"" 
 they would prove nothing. What additions, alterations, 
 omissions and mutilations they were undoubtedly sub- 
 jected to in the first four centuries cannot now be accu- 
 rately determined. Practically, the doctrine of biblical 
 inspiration has been abandoned except in monkish clois- 
 ters, Avhere the honest light of inquiry never beamed. 
 The Church of Rome still adheres to it, as w^ell as to the 
 extravagant legends of the early centuries; but when 
 was she ever known to abandon any doctrine she once 
 taught or recede from a single arrogant pretension ? It 
 is only within a few years that she solemnly promul- 
 gated the even grossly unscriptural doctrines of the Im- 
 maculate Conception of the mother of Jesus, and the 
 Infallibility of the Pope of Pome, amid the derisive con-
 
 ir I Tluology and Myikologxj. 
 
 Icuipt of ull dissenting churclies and against tlie earnest 
 Ihongh ineffectual protest of the intelligent element of 
 lier own episcopate. But the spirit of scientific oi:.his- 
 torical investigation never enters her portals. She has 
 stifled all free inquiry. She tolerates no dissent. She 
 kindl}'- relieves her members of all the burden of investi- 
 gation. Nor will she abandon her claims to the sover- 
 eio-nty of the heart and intellect and the control of tlie 
 human conscience until the emancipated intelligence of 
 the v.'orld sounds the tocsin of her doom. 
 
 Conceding merely for the sake of argument that the 
 influence of religious worship, based upon doctrines and 
 presumptions untrue in fact, has been on the whole ben- 
 eficial to mankind, a question arises, worthy of consider- 
 ation, whether any form of worship or any religion that 
 docs not commend itself to reason and intelligence 
 should be, for the sake of a doubtful good, sanctioned , 
 and sustained outwardly by those wlio repudiate as child- 
 ish the theory of miraculous interpositions and the divine 
 communication of Revelation, so called ? Can any sys- 
 tem of morality based upon a fiction be beneficial to 
 mankind ? Can we be elevated by continuing to express 
 belief in a religion all of whose assumptions are opposed 
 to reason, intelligence and the results of scientific inves- 
 tir^ation ? If Jesus of Nazareth was not God or the son 
 of God, born of a virgin in Judea about two thousand 
 years ago ; if Jesus never v>^6rked the miracles attributed 
 to him, never fed five thousand hungry people with five 
 loaves and two small fishes, and after they had eaten 
 took up twelve basketsful of the broken food ; if he was 
 never taken bodily up to the pinnacle of the temple by
 
 Theology and Mythology. ' 191 
 
 the Devil; if he riever raised a man to life really dead; 
 if he never raised himself from the dead, and, with the 
 wounds he received still fresh in his body, cut his "svay 
 through the clear air up to heaven, wherever it may be ; 
 if the blood that ran from him at his crucifixion was not, 
 and could not be, an atonement for the moral guilt of 
 the world, past, present and future — if not a single one 
 of these allegations be true, can humanity be improved 
 and elevated by accepting them as absolute verities, as 
 well as the early mythology of the Jewish race ? Can 
 they who refuse to accept these legends, if legends they 
 be, consistently support a popular religion based, as tliey 
 believe, on utterly false assum.ptions ? 
 
 To this it may be replied tliat noble lessons of moral- 
 ity and self-restraint may bo found in works of pure 
 fiction. This is undoubtedly true. Yet no violence is 
 done either the conscience or intelligence, because the 
 fiction is universally admitted. But it is different when 
 the fiction assumes the form of a relicrion. Is he true to 
 his own manhood who, believing the assumed miraculous 
 origin of Christianity purely mythical, lifts no voice, 
 however weak, against what he believes to be an imposi- 
 tion, and, by his silence, leads others to infer that con- 
 scious assent maybe given to error without serious detri- 
 ment to the conscience of an individual ? Does not even 
 a danger graver than that denounced as " open infidelity" 
 threaten society, when hypocrisy is practiced without 
 compunction, and men suppress free thought and honest 
 conviction through fear of being considered atheists, infi- 
 dels, free-thinkers and materialists? The atheist or 
 infidel who discharges honestly and intelligently the 
 duty he owes to himself, his family and society to tlie
 
 192 Theology and Mythology. 
 
 best of his ability, uninfluenced by hope of future reward 
 or apprehension of future punishment, exhibits far more 
 true nobleness of character than the pious man who wor- 
 ships God after the fashion, or fears the Devil from pru- 
 dential motives. To do right because it is right is the 
 highest moral development man can attain. It is this 
 quality that pre-eminently distinguishes manhood from 
 animalhood. This elevation of moral dignity can only 
 ])e attained by the freest exercise of all the faculties, 
 moral and intellectual. Absolute perfection will, of 
 course, never be attained, yet will man ever restlessly 
 pursue his El Dorado and the fabled fountains of perpet- 
 ual life. He is ever conscious that grander prospects 
 will gladden his eyes, and that his feet will press loftier 
 heights than his fathers reached. Science, and not the 
 Devil, will take the son of man of the future up to the 
 very pinnacle of the fair temple of knowledge, and re- 
 veal to his enraptured gaze all the glories of his own 
 world and the outlying sj'stems of universes, revolving 
 in the fathomless depths of originless and endless in- 
 finity. 
 
 AVhen the full light, streaming on the magnificent 
 panorama, shall have revealed to him the uniraagined 
 grandeur and harmony of nature's laws ; when his soul 
 shall have grasped, in all its completeness, the relation 
 of the atom to the universe and the universe to the atom ; 
 when, denuded of the garments with which priestcraft 
 and superstition have enveloped it, the dematerialized 
 form of Necessity shall disclose its presence, whether in 
 the dewdrop glistening in the morning grass, or in the 
 revolution of the starry heavens ; when he shall grasp 
 the idea that Eternity has no tenses, that matter is un-
 
 Theology and Mythology. 19 
 
 q 
 
 created and indestructible, and that law, and not chance 
 or arbitrary interference, disposes the relation of all ex- 
 istences one to the other — then he will trouble himself 
 little as to what form of worsliip ignorance may have 
 assumed to sa,tisfy its craving for something better than 
 it liad known. 
 
 When Science shall reveal the nature and composition 
 of the now occult forces whose existence is only discern- 
 ible by their manifestations ; when Ave shall know some- 
 thing more of attraction, gravitation, heat, motion and 
 magnetism than the mere names we give to these mighty 
 elements ; when a knowledge of the principles of life 
 ami thought itself shall constitute the basis of the educa- 
 tion of the world' — then man, divorced alike from faith 
 and superstition, twin daughters of ignorance, shall have 
 no need for any religious system, and worship shall only 
 consist in the exercise of the reasoning powers. Intelli- 
 gent inquiry and scientific investigation have almost left 
 the churches behind. The religious systems that have 
 existed are but milestones denoting the progress man 
 has made along the weary way he has trodden for count- 
 less centuries, stained with tears and blood, in his career 
 from the lowest condition of savage existence to his pres- 
 ent intellectual development. 
 
 Religions are stationary, but Science is ever advancing, 
 making new conquests. The assumptions of the miracu- 
 lous origin of Christianity and many of its doctrines are 
 no longer in harmony with the advanced spirit of the 
 asre. The Church stands still and views the changed 
 aspect of the age with well-grounded alarm. She no 
 longer anathematizes Science, because Science has escaped 
 from her grasp and refuses to turn aside from her legiti-
 
 194: Theology and Mythology. 
 
 /iiijite course cither nt entreaty or denunciation. The in- 
 I'aliiLle Pope occasionally hurls his ecclesiastical thunder- 
 bolts at the head of his rebellious subjects ; but his lofty 
 pretensions, at variance Avith the spirit of the times, ex- 
 cite only profound commiseration. Faith has lost con- 
 trol of the intellect of the world. It is well satisfied if 
 let alone. It asks the world to respect its ago and not 
 view too cynically its threadbare garments. Science, 
 caring nothing for the past, except to regret it, is un- 
 moved by the attitude of faith. In no vandalistic or 
 iconoclastic spirit docs it seek the destruction of any 
 religious systems. It busies itself with neither their 
 maintenance nor dissolution. Its mission is to widen 
 the field of human inquiry, to define man's place in na- 
 ture, and purify and sweeten life, as well as dignify 
 humanity by making man acquainted with the laws of 
 
 , his being and existence. If, however, the result of in- 
 creased intellectual development shall be to dissipate all 
 faith in miraculous interpositions of the past, and render 
 impossible the reception by intelligence of any Revela- 
 tion based upon hypotheses that involve the most glaring 
 contradictions of the well-established natur'al laws on a 
 
 , knowledge of which our very existence is dependent, 
 then, and in such an event, may we rest fully assured 
 that such a result, instead of being injurious morally, 
 spiritually or materially, will subserve the interests of 
 humanity in the present and in the future. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 1
 
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