Part 58 (1/2)

[212:1] See Jameson's Hist. of Our Lord in Art, vol. ii. pp. 250, 251.

[212:2] Nicodemus: Apoc. ch. xvi. and xix.

[213:1] Nicodemus: Apoc. ch. xx.

[213:2] I. Peter, iii. 17-19.

[213:3] Acts, ii. 31.

[213:4] See Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 237. Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 168, and Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 85.

[213:5] See Monumental Christianity, p. 286.

[213:6] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 256, Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, and Dunlap's Mysteries of Adoni, pp. 125, 152.

[213:7] See Chap. x.x.xIX.

[213:8] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 12.

[213:9] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 322. Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 257, and Dunlap's Mysteries of Adoni, p. 33.

[213:10] See Taylor's Mysteries, p. 40, and Mysteries of Adoni, pp.

94-96.

[213:11] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 72. Our Christian writers discover considerable apprehension, and a jealous caution in their language, when the resemblance between _Paganism_ and _Christianity_ might be apt to strike the mind too cogently. In quoting Horace's account of Mercury's descent into h.e.l.l, and his causing a cessation of the sufferings there, Mr. Spence, in ”Bell's Pantheon,” says: ”As this, perhaps, may be a mythical part of his character, _we had better let it alone_.”

[214:1] See Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 169, and Mallet, p. 448.

[214:2] See Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 166.

[214:3] See the chapter on _Explanation_.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION OF CHRIST JESUS.

The story of the resurrection of Christ Jesus is related by the four Gospel narrators, and is to the effect that, after being crucified, his body was wrapped in a linen cloth, laid in a tomb, and a ”great stone”

rolled to the door. The sepulchre was then made sure by ”sealing the stone” and ”setting a watch.”

On the first day of the week some of Jesus' followers came to see the sepulchre, when they found that, in spite of the ”sealing” and the ”watch,” the angel of the Lord had descended from heaven, had rolled back the stone from the door, and that ”_Jesus had risen from the dead_.”[215:1]

The story of his _ascension_ is told by the _Mark_[215:2] narrator, who says ”he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of G.o.d;”

by _Luke_,[215:3] who says ”he was carried up into heaven;” and by the writer of the _Acts_,[215:4] who says ”he was taken up (to heaven) and a cloud received him out of sight.”

We will find, in stripping Christianity of its robes of Paganism, that these miraculous events must be put on the same level with those we have already examined.

_Crishna_, the crucified Hindoo Saviour, _rose from the dead_,[215:5]

and _ascended bodily into heaven_.[215:6] At that time a great light enveloped the earth and illuminated the whole expanse of heaven.