INCREDIBLE STATEMENTS OF OLD TESTAMENT. 17

in an ark, together with a single pair of all created animals and birds; that the progeny of these miraculously preserved men and women afterwards divided the earth among themselves, but were in no degree better than the progeny of Adam and Eve, and continually vexed the Almighty, and stirred Him to fierce wrath by their fearful wickedness; that a man named Nimrod, a great king and hunter, conceived the idea that Heaven, the abode of God was just above or in the clouds, and not more difficult of access than the tops of the highest mountains, and that he could build a tower to reach to God's throne; that God, apprehensive that he might succeed in the attempt, defeated his sacrilegious purpose by confounding the language of the men who wrought upon it, so that they could not understand each other, and had to desist from their labors-whereas all that was necessary to be done was to leave Nimrod and the ignorant work-people alone, until their means and patience were exhausted; that God chose the Jews for his peculiar people out of His mere grace and favor, and for no good that they had ever done; but that Moses never could make the Jews understand who God was, or in what respect He was wiser than, or superior to, the pretended gods of neighboring nations; that this people was enslaved by the Egyptians, remained in slavery for several hundred years, and were miraculously freed from bondage after God had caused the death of all the first born male children of Egypt, and afflicted the land and the people with innumerable plagues-not on account of the sins of the Egyptians, but solely on account of the stubbornness of Pharaoh, their king, who as often as he relented had his heart hardened by God, Himself, in order that he might be further plagued and punished; that the Jews, when

they had established themselves in Canaan, by the massacre of the original possessors of the land, grew weary of a priestly government, and demanded to have a king, like their neighbors; that God endeavored, but in vain, to dissuade them from their purpose, and, yielding at last to their importunity, chose a king for them in the person of Saul, for no other recorded reason, than that he was taller, by the head and shoulders, than any of his people; that Saul reigned indifferently well over the Jews, but offended God past all hope of forgiveness, because he was more merciful than his Maker, and would not, after he had conquered and overthrown his enemies in fair battle, rip up the bellies of women with child, put all the children, male and female, to the sword, and destroy all their horses, oxen, sheep, and other cattle; that Joshua made the sun to stand still at his bidding-an event which, if it could have occurred, would have reduced the solar system to chaos. All these and many other stories, which it is needless to recapitulate-evidently mythological, and many of them allegorical-Christianity now, as then, requires to be literally accepted as positively and divinely true, under penalty of all the plethora of curses, temporal and eternal, that angry priestcraft can pro

nounce.

And the mythology of the New Testament is imposed as ruthlessly upon the believer as that of the Old. Indeed the former was engrafted upon the latter; and both must be accepted, without question or hesitation, as equally true. As man had fallen under Adam, he was to be lifted up under Jesus; but as God required a sacrifice before He could forgive the human race for the transgression of Adam and Eve, Jesus-being himself Godoffered himself a sacrifice to his Father, who was also

THE SAME CLAIMED FOR GODAMA.

19

For

God-though there was but one God-and the sacrifice was accepted. As an evidence of this, it is asserted that when he died upon the cross all nature was convulsed by the event; the earth upheaved, and the dead rose out of their graves and walked through the streets, in sight of the awe-stricken multitudes. This was a marvel and a mystery, which no human being could understand; but it was to be received as a dogma and an article of faithwithout believing in which, no one could enjoy the benefit of the transcendent sacrifice, or live in the next world, except in fire and brimstone and eternal torment. the purpose of teaching the new theology and of performing this sacrifice, God, in the person of the man Jesus, came into the world and wrought many miracles to convince the people of the divinity alike of his character and mission. But so also was it claimed by and for Godama, who founded the theological system which now prevails in the Burmese Empire. "I, a God," said he, "having departed out of this world will preserve my laws and my disciples in it for the space of five thousand years.' Again, the people of Judea believed that the diseases of the human body were to a great extent due to the agency of devils-the number of the devils being infinite—and that they entered corporeally into the blood, the bones, the brain, and the intestines, of epileptics, cataleptics, apoplectics, lepers, lunatics, maniacs, and other unhappy persons afflicted with bodily or mental disorders. As Jesus was represented in the new mythology as casting out devils by an effort of his volition, and sometimes as speaking to them while in the bodies of tormented persons, and ordering them to come out, the Christians of the Dark Ages were of necessity taught to believe that such devils really existed, and that diseases were the

results of their agency, rather than of natural or hereditary causes, or of the contravention of the laws of health by the afflicted persons themselves. The early Christians were also taught to believe that the arch-devil-the lord and king of all these minor devils, the Satan and Beelzebub of the Jews, the Ahrimanes of the Persians, the Lucifer of the poets-ignorant of the fact that Jesus was God, and believing that he was only an able and ambitious man, took him up into a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world-which he could not have done from the top of any mountain, however lofty-and promised him dominion over them, on the sole condition that he, who was God, should kneel down and worship him, who was Devil; that Jesus, without making himself known to him, refused the offer, saying, "Get thee behind me Satan, thou art an offense unto me. Moreover, they were required to believe that Jesus raised the dead from the grave; walked upon the waters of the sea; stilled the raging of the tempest, by a motion of his hand or word of his mouth; fed thousands of people, once with five, and once with seven loaves of bread and a few small fishes-the unconsumed remnants of both, after the multitude had freely partaken, being immensely greater than the original bulk of the articles provided; and that he performed other miracles, all of which were of a beneficent, but more or less startling character, according to the circumstances. But the most remarkable thing is that, notwithstanding he is said to have performed such wonderful things as we have enumerated, he never succeeded in persuading either the Romans or the Jewish people, or the many thousands who witnessed them, or even his own immediate followers and disciples, that his mission was to introduce a new and spiritual reli

THE DIVINITY OF JESUS NOT BELIEVED. 21

gion, or that he was indeed God, or the son of God, in any other sense than that in which all men are God's children. This is a most significant fact; and a fact it must be acknowledged by the Christian Church, inasmuch as it is borne out by the Scriptures themselves. The indifference of the Romans is shown in Pilate's washing his hands of Christ's blood, and in the temperate dealings of Festus and Agrippa with Paul. How Christ impressed the leading Jews is proved by the manner in which they persecuted him and put him to death. What the multitudes thought of him may be gathered from the reiterated testimony of the Evangelists, to the effect that the people "understood not his sayings," that they "marvelled greatly," that they were "astonished at his doctrine," that they were "very attentive to hear him," and that the fullest extent of their conviction went no farther than this: "they rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him." It is nowhere recorded that they looked upon him as the veritable son of God, co-equal with God, and voluntarily sacrificing himself as an expiation for Adam's original sin-nor did he claim this himself. As to the immediate contemporaries, followers, and intimate attendants upon Christ, it is only needful to remind the reader of what happened, when all his personal influence and all the effect of his whole career culminated, in his final interview with the eleven disciples, after his resurrection. St. Mark says, that he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart. Yet St. Matthew says, with a candor that is absolutely killing-in reference also to Jesus' last intercourse with those favored individuals"but some doubted!" The disciples, therefore, in the presence of their risen Master, were very far from exhibiting an implicit and unreserved faith, at the moment of