Part 39 (1/2)

Sir John Francis Davis, speaking of Confucius, says:

”Various prodigies, _as in other instances_, were the forerunners of the birth of this extraordinary person. On the eve of his appearance upon earth, _celestial music_ sounded in the ears of his mother; and when he was born, this inscription appeared on his breast: 'The maker of a rule for setting the World.'”[148:3]

In the case of _Osiris_, the Egyptian Saviour, at his birth, a voice was heard proclaiming that: ”The Ruler of all the Earth is born.”[148:4]

In Plutarch's ”_Isis_” occurs the following:

”At the birth of Osiris, there was heard a voice that the Lord of all the Earth was coming in being; and some say that a woman named Pamgle, as she was going to carry water to the temple of Ammon, in the city of Thebes, heard that voice, which commanded her to proclaim it with a loud voice, that the great beneficent G.o.d Osiris was born.”[148:5]

Wonderful demonstrations of delight also attended the birth of the heavenly-born _Apollonius_. According to Flavius Philostratus, who wrote the life of this remarkable man, a flock of swans surrounded his mother, and clapping their wings, as is their custom, they sang in unison, while the air was fanned by gentle breezes.

When the G.o.d _Apollo_ was born of the virgin Latona in the Island of Delos, there was joy among the undying G.o.ds in Olympus, and the Earth laughed beneath the smile of Heaven.[148:6]

At the time of the birth of ”_Hercules the Saviour_,” his father Zeus, the G.o.d of G.o.ds, spake from heaven and said:

”This day shall a child be born of the race of Perseus, who shall be the mightiest of the sons of men.”[149:1]

When _aesculapius_ was a helpless infant, and when he was about to be put to death, a voice from the G.o.d Apollo was heard, saying:

”Slay not the child with the mother; _he is born to do great things_; but bear him to the wise centaur Cheiron, and bid him train the boy in all his wisdom and teach him to do brave deeds, that men may praise his name in the generations that shall be hereafter.”[149:2]

As we stated above, the story of the Song of the Heavenly Host belongs exclusively to the _Luke_ narrator; none of the other writers of the synoptic Gospels know anything about it, which, if it really happened, seems very strange.

If the reader will turn to the apocryphal Gospel called ”_Protevangelion_” (chapter xiii.), he will there see one of the reasons why it was thought best to leave this Gospel out of the canon of the New Testament. It relates the ”Miracles at Mary's labor,” similar to the _Luke_ narrator, but in a still more wonderful form. It is probably from this apocryphal Gospel that the Luke narrator copied.

FOOTNOTES:

[147:1] Luke, ii. 8-15.

[147:2] Translated from the original Sanscrit by H. H. Wilson, M. D., F.

R. S.

[147:3] All the virgin-born Saviours are born at _midnight or early dawn_.

[147:4] Vishnu Purana, book v. ch. iii. p. 502.

[147:5] See Amberly's a.n.a.lysis, p. 226. Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 45, 46, 47, and Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 35.

[148:1] See Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 43, 55, 56, and Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 35.

[148:2] See Amberly: a.n.a.lysis of Religious Belief, p. 84.

[148:3] Davis: History of China, vol. ii. p. 48. See also Thornton: Hist. China, i. 152.

[148:4] See Prichard's Egyptian Mythology, p. 56, and Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 408.

[148:5] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 424, and Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i.