The Fo-pen-hing relates that:

"The attending spirits, who surrounded the Virgin Maya and the infant Saviour, singing praises of 'the Blessed One,' said: 'All joy be to you, Queen Maya, rejoice and be glad, for the child you have borne is holy.' Then the Rishis and Devas who dwelt on earth exclaimed with great joy: 'This day Buddha is born for the good of men, to dispel the darkness of their ignorance.' Then the four heavenly kings took up the strain and said: 'Now because Bôd hisatwa is born, to give joy and bring peace to the world, therefore is there this brightness.' Then the gods of the thirty-three heavens took up the burden of the strain, and the Yama Devas and the Tûsita Devas, and so forth, through all the heavens of the Kama, Rupa, and Arupa worlds, even up to the Akanishta heavens, all the Devas joined in this song, and said: To-day Bodhisatwa is born on earth, to give joy and peace to men and Devas, to shed light in the dark places, and to give sight to the blind."

Even the sober philosopher Confucius did not enter the world, if we may believe Chinese tradition, without premonitory symptoms of his greatness.

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.' "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."

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 god Osiris was born."

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 god Apollo was born of the virgin Latona in the Island of Delos, there was joy among the undying gods in Olympus, and the Earth laughed beneath the smile of Heaven."

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

* See Amberly: Analysis of Religious Be

lief, p. 84.

• Davis: History of China, vol. ii. p. 48. See also Thornton: Hist. China, i. 152.

See Prichard's Egyptian Mythology, p. 56, and Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 408.

Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 424, and Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 408.

See Tales of Ancient Greece, p. 4.

At the time of the birth of "Hercules the Saviour," his father Zeus, the god of gods, 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."

When Esculapius was a helpless infant, and when he was about to be put to death, a voice from the god 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."

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.

1 See Tales of Ancient Greece, p. 55.

Ibid. p. 45.

CHAPTER XV.

THE DIVINE CHILD RECOGNIZED AND PRESENTED WITH GIFTS.

THE next in order of the wonderful events which are related to have happened at the birth of Christ Jesus, is the recognition of the divine child, and the presentation of gifts.

We are informed by the Matthew narrator, that being guided by a star, the Magi from the east came to where the young child

was.

"And when they were come into the house (not stable) they saw the young child, with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh."

The Luke narrator-who seems to know nothing about the Magi from the east-informs us that shepherds came and worshiped the young child. They were keeping their flocks by night when the angel of the Lord appeared before them, saying:

"Behold, I bring you good tidings-for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

After the angel had left them, they said one to another:

"Let us go unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known to us. And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger."3

The Luke narrator evidently borrowed this story of the shepherds from the "Gospel of the Egyptians" (of which we shall speak in another chapter), or from other sacred records of the biographies of Crishna or Buddha.

It is related in the legends of Crishna that the divine child.

was cradled among shepherds, to whom were first made known the stupendous feats which stamped his character with marks of the divinity. He was recognized as the promised Saviour by Nanda, a shepherd, or cowherd, and his companions, who prostrated themselves before the heaven-born child. After the birth of Crishna, the Indian prophet Nared, having heard of his fame, visited his father and mother at Gokool, examined the stars, &c., and declared him to be of celestial descent.'

Not only was Crishna adored by the shepherds and Magi, and received with divine honors, but he was also presented with gifts. These gifts were "sandal wood and perfumes." (Why not "frankincense and myrrh ?")

Similar stories are related of the infant Buddha. He was visited, at the time of his birth, by wise men, who at once recognized in the marvellous infant all the characters of the divinity, and he had scarcely seen the day before he was hailed god of gods.'

'Mongst the strangers came

A grey-haired saint, Asita, one whose cars,

Long closed to earthly things, caught heavenly sounds,
And heard at prayer beneath his peepul-tree,

The Devas singing songs at Buudha's birth."

Viscount Amberly, speaking of him, says:*

"He was visited and adored by a very eminent Rishi, or hermit, known as Asita, who predicted his future greatness, but wept at the thought that he himself was too old to see the day when the law of salvation would be taught by the infant whom he had come to contemplate."

"I weep (said A sita), because I am old and stricken in years, and shall not see all that is about to come to pass. The Buddha Bhagavat (God Almighty Buddha) comes to the world only after many kalpas. This bright boy will be Buddha. For the salvation of the world he will teach the law. He will succor the old, the sick, the afflicted, the dying. He will release those who are bound in the meshes of natural corruption. He will quicken the spiritual vision of those whose eyes are darkened by the thick darkness of ignorance. Hundreds of thousands of millions of beings will be carried by him to the 'other shore'— will put on immortality. And I shall not see this perfect Buddha-this is why I weep."

He returns rejoicing, however, to his mountain-home, for his eyes had seen the promised and expected Saviour."

Paintings in the cave of Ajunta represent Asita with the

1 Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. pp. 129, 130, and Maurice. Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. pp. 256, 257 and 317. Also, The Vishnu Purana.

* Oriental Religions, pp. 500, 501. See also, Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 353.

Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 157.

♦ Amberly's Analysis, p. 177. See also, Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 36.

Lillie Buddha and Early Buddhism, p. 76. • Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 6, and Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 58, 60.

infant Buddha in his arms.' The marvelous gifts of this child had become known to this eminent ascetic by supernatural signs.'

Buddha, as well as Crishna and Jesus, was presented with "costly jewels and precious substances." (Why not gold and perfumes?)

Rama-the seventh incarnation of Vishnu for human deliverance from evil-is also hailed by "aged saints"-(why not "wise men"?)—who die gladly when their eyes see the long-expected

one.'

How-tseich, who was one of those personages styled, in China, "Tien-Tse," or "Sons of Heaven," and who came into the world in a miraculous manner, was laid in a narrow lane. When his mother had fulfilled her time:

"Her first-born son (came forth) like a lamb.

There was no bursting, no rending,

No injury, no hurt

Showing how wonderful he would be."

When born, the sheep and oxen protected him with loving care."

The birth of Confucius (B. c. 551), like that of all the demigods and saints of antiquity, is fabled to have been attended with allegorical prodigies, amongst which was the appearance of the Ke-lin, a miraculous quadruped, prophetic of happiness and virtue, which announced that the child would be " a king without a throne or territory." Five celestial sages, or "wise men," entered the house at the time of the child's birth, whilst vocal and instrumental music filled the air."

Mithras, the Persian Saviour, and mediator between God and man, was also visited by "wise men" called Magi, at the time of his birth. He was presented with gifts consisting of gold, frankincense and myrrh."

According to Plato, at the birth of Socrates (469 B. c.) there came three Magi from the east to worship him, bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh."

Esculapius, the virgin-born Saviour, was protected by goatherds (why not shepherds ?), who, upon seeing the child, knew at once that he was divine. The voice of fame soon published the

1 Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 36.

See Amberly's Analysis p. 231, and Bun

sen's Angel-Messiah, p. 36.

Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. 58.

• Oriental Religions, p. 491.

•See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. 1. p. 200.

See Amberly's Analysis of Religious Belief, p. 226.

See Thornton's Hist. China, vol. i. p. 152. King: The Gnostics and their Remains, pp. 134 and 149. Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 358. 10 See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 96.