The Churches and Modern Thought / An inquiry into the grounds of unbelief and an appeal for candour

ne 22.-Bor

constant tradition both of the Eastern and the Western Churches, and it is one of the few to which, though unrecorded in Gospel history, we may attach a reasonable probability" (see p. 20 of the cheap edition [1906] of Farrar's

e 6.-Krishn

, ou il fut cloué d'un coup de flèche" (quoted from Mons. Guigniaut's Religion de l'Antiquité, by Higgins; Anacalypsis, vol. i., p. 144). In the accounts given in the Mahabharata, Vishnu Purana, and Bhagavat Purana, the slaying is unintentional, but p

st every important episo

the most ancient of the Buddhistic records known to us contain statements about the life and the doctrines of Gautama Buddha which correspond in a remarkable manner,

-Buddha was mir

under of their system, was brought forth by a virgin from her side.'" In Samuel Beal's Romantic History of Buddha (from the Chinese version) we read of Buddha's miraculous birth, and that there is ground to assume the prevalence of this belief for centuries before Christ. Bunsen, again (p. x. of his Angel-Messiah), speaks of the "Virgin Maya, on whom, according to Chinese tradition, the Holy Ghost had descended"; and elsewhere (e.g., pp. 10 and 25) he adopts this version of the legend. Dr. Knowling, in his apologetic

ery early regarded as omnis

and who keeps an open mind. He says (p. 182 of Buddhism): "The belief soon sprang up that he could not have been, that he was not, born as ordinary men are; that he had no earthly father; that he

m at the hands of the authorities in 1850. Within forty years an evidently mythical version of his life was current among his followers in the form of a Gospel. Babism inculcates a high

10.-Born of t

Luxor "we have at least some elements of the glorifying of sensual desire which is so far removed from the chaste restraint and simplicity of the Evan

1.-Mexican

f a tenth volume, imperial folio, London, 1830–48). No anti-Christian spirit inspired his labours; on the contrary, he attempted to prove

ng miracles, such as t

xtant, and exhibited by Gruter in his collection (just as it was found in the ruins of the temple of ?sculapius in the Tiber island), which gives an account of two blind men restored to sight by ?sculapius, in the open view, and with the loud acclamation of the people, acknowledging the manifest power of the god. Compare St. Matthew ix. 27–30. Is it not truly marvellous to think that exactly the same sort of thing is

Athens five hundred year

me the recognised religion of the Greek world. Mr. Butler takes in turn all the main features of the Gospel narratives, and shows their close resemblance to incidents of the Greek mystery-dramas. The baptism of John, the trium

ven Bacchus ... wa

gins, Anacalypsis, vol. ii., p. 102; Knight, The Symbolical Langu

of the young incarnate divinities of

ved from figures moulded on a cross" (Apol., chap. xvi.; Ad Nationes, chap. xii.). At the present moment, both in Europe and America, the Egyptian cross or "life" sign is a fashionable ornament, under the name of

te of the origin of the story

yuen-shi-kian-mu-lu, that the Fo-pen-hing was translated into Chinese from the Sanscrit (the ancient language of Hindostan) so early as the eleventh year of the reign of Wing-ping (Ming-ti), of the Han dynasty-i e., 69 or 70 A.D. We may therefore safely suppose that the original work was in circulation in India for so

non-Christian beliefs, P

ice in a Shinto temple, I was much struck by the extraordinary similarity of the whole ceremony. It was a sort of High Mass with Gregorian music. The blessed wafers are not

eir blood was drunk

od victim, "it was inevitable that his worshippers should have seen his resurrection and em

r dates for the birth and death [a

, at the vernal equinox, the sun, which has been below the equator, suddenly appears to rise above it, and so, usually upon a date calculated by the pagan astronomers (and corresponding roughly to our Easter), we find that throughout a considerable portion of the ancient world, after mourning the sun's death (sometimes for a period of three days), the Resurrection was celebrated with great rej

is to me altogether inconceivable. It could not but raise suspicion concerning His revelation in future thinking generations. We have a certain knowledge of the dates of comparatively unimportant events in the world's history, ages before the Christian era. If these important dates could be forgotten, what else may not have been forgotten; what else may not have been substituted in the place of forgotten incidents? Again, did not the disciples and their converts celebrate the anniversaries of these great events? And, if so, on what dates? The question is of more importance than perhaps at first sight it appears to be. The public will soon be asking the Church for a satisfactory explanation, and she must be prepared to furnish it. In the Daily Telegraph, during the Christmas of 1904, the public were informed that "the most erudite arch?ologists and professors of Church history confess that there is not a particle of evidence, either Bibli

hear so little of this grea

And to what are we indebted for that potent word, which, as with the wand of a magician, has at the same moment so completely transformed our knowledge and dispelled our difficulties? To modern science, resolutely pursuing its search for truth in spite of popular obloquy and-alas that one should have to say it-in spite too often of theological denunciation!"

uld turn to the Christian worship

the devil, by the mysteries of his idols, imitates even the main parts of the divine mysteries. He also baptises his worshippers in water, and makes them believe that this purifies them of their crimes. There Mithra sets his mark on the forehead of his soldiers; he celebrates the oblation of bread; he offers an image of the resurrection, and presents at once the crown and sword; he limits his chief priest to a single marriage; he even ha