When the Egyptian priests offered up a sacrifice to the gods, they pronounced the following imprecations on the head of the victim:

"If any evil is about to befall either those who now sacrifice, or Egypt in general, may it be averted on this head."

This idea of atonement finally resulted in the belief that the incarnate Christ, the Anointed, the God among us, was to save mankind from a curse by God imposed. Man had sinned, and God could not and did not forgive without a propitiatory sacrifice. The curse of God must be removed from the sinful, and the sinless must bear the load of that curse. It was asserted that divine justice required BLOOD."

The belief of redemption from sin by the sufferings of a Divine Incarnation, whether by death on the cross or otherwise, was general and popular among the heathen, centuries before the time of Jesus of Nazareth, and this dogma, no matter how sacred it may have become, or how consoling it may be, must fall along with the rest of the material of which the Christian church is built.

Julius Firmicius, referring to this popular belief among the Pagans, says: "The devil has his Christs." This was the general off-hand manner in which the Christian Fathers disposed of such matters. Everything in the religion of the Pagans which corresponded to their religion was of the devil. Most Protestant divines have resorted to the type theory, of which we shall speak

anon.

As we have done heretofore in our inquiries, we will first turn to India, where we shall find, in the words of M. l'Abbé Huc, that "the idea of redemption by a divine incarnation," who came into the world for the express purpose of redeeming mankind, was 66 general and popular."

"A sense of original corruption," says Prof. Monier Williams,

1 Herodotus: bk. ii. ch. 389.

2 In the trial of Dr. Thomas (at Chicago) for 44 doctrinal heresy," one of the charges made against him (Sept. 8, 1881) was that he had said "the BLOOD of the Lamb had nothing to do with salvation." And in a sermon preached in Boston, Sept. 2, 1881, at the Columbus Avenue Presbyterian Church, by the Rev. Andrew A. Bonar, D.D., the preacher said: "No sinner dares to meet the holy God until his sin has been forgiven, or until he has received remission. The penalty of sin is death, and this penalty is not remitted by anything the sinner can do for himself, but only through the BLOOD of Jesus. If you have accepted

Jesus as your Saviour, you can take the blood of
Jesus, and with boldness present it to the Father
as payment in full of the penalties of all your sins.
Sinful man has no right to the benefits and the
beauties and glories of nature. These were all
lost to him through Adam's sin, but to the
blood of Christ's sacrifice he has a right; it
was shed for him. It is Christ's death that
does the blessed work of salvation for us.
was not his life nor his Incarnation. His Incar-
nation could not pay a farthing of our debt, but
his blood shed in redeeming love, pays it all.'
(See Boston Advertiser, Sept. 3, 1881.)

3 Habet ergo Diabolus Christos suos.
Huc's Travels, vol, i. pp. 326 and 327.

It

seems to be felt by all classes of Hindoos, as indicated by the follow. ing prayer used after the Gayatri by some Vaishnavas :

"I am sinful, I commit sin, my nature is sinful, I am conceived in sin. Save me, O thou lotus-eyed Heri (Saviour), the remover of sin." "

Moreover, the doctrine of bhakti (salvation by faith) existed among the Hindoos from the earliest times."

Crishna, the virgin-born, "the Divine Vishnu himself, "he who is without beginning, middle or end,” being moved "to relieve the earth of her load," came upon earth and redeemed man by his sufferings-to save him.

The accounts of the deaths of most all the virgin-born Saviours of whom we shall speak, are conflicting. It is stated in one place that such an one died in such a manner, and in another place we may find it stated altogether differently. Even the accounts of the death of Jesus, as we shall hereafter see, are conflicting; therefore, until the chapter on "Explanation" is read, these myths cannot really be thoroughly understood.

As the Rev. Geo. W. Cox remarks, in his Aryan Mythology, Crishna is described, in one of his aspects, as a self-sacrificing and unselfish hero, a being who is filled with divine wisdom and love, who offers up a sacrifice which he alone can make."

The Vishnu Purana' speaks of Crishna being shot in the foot with an arrow, and states that this was the cause of his death. Other accounts, however, state that he was suspended on a tree, or in other words, crucified.

Mons. Guigniaut, in his "Religion de l'Antiquité," says:

"The death of Crishna is very differently related. One remarkable and convincing tradition makes him perish on a tree, to which he was nailed by the stroke of an arrow."8

Rev. J. P. Lundy alludes to this passage of Guigniaut's in his "Monumental Christianity," and translates the passage "un bois fatal" (see note below) "a cross." Although we do not think he is justified in doing this, as M. Guigniaut has distinctly stated that this "bois fatal" (which is applied to a gibbet, a cross, a scaffold, etc.) was "un arbre" (a tree), yet, he is justified in doing so on other accounts, for we find that Crishna is represented hanging on a cross, and we know that a cross was frequently called the "ac

1 Hinduism, p. 214.

2 Ibid. p. 115.

• Vishnu Purana, p. 440.

• Ibid.

• Ibid.

• Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 182.

7 Pages 274 and 612.

8 "On reconte fort diversement la mort de Crishna. Une tradition remarquable et avérée le fait périr sur un bois fatal (un arbre), ou il fut cloué d'un coup de flèche." (Quoted by Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 144.)

cursed tree." It was an ancient custom to use trees as gibbets for crucifixion, or, if artificial, to call the cross a tree.'

A writer in Deuteronomy' speaks of hanging criminals upon a tree, as though it was a general custom, and says:

"He that is hanged (on a tree) is accursed of God."

And Paul undoubtedly refers to this text when he says:

"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, 'Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.' "3

It is evident, then, that to be hung on a cross was anciently called hanging on a tree, and to be hung on a tree was called crucifixion. We may therefore conclude from this, and from what we shall now see, that Crishna was said to have been crucified.

In the earlier copies of Moor's "Hindu Pantheon," is to be seen representations of Crishna (as Wittoba), with marks of holes in both feet, and in others, of holes in the hands. In Figures 4 and 5 of Plate 11 (Moor's work), the figures have nail-holes in both feet. Figure 6 has a round hole in the side; to his collar or shirt hangs the emblem of a heart (which we often see in pictures of Christ Jesus) and on his head he has a Yoni-Linga (which we do not see in pictures of Christ Jesus.)

Our Figure No. 7 (next page), is a pre-Christian crucifix of Asi atic origin,' evidently intended to represent Crishna crucified. Figure No. 8 we can speak more positively of, it is surely Crishna crucified. It is unlike any Christian crucifix ever made, and, with that described above with the Yoni-Linga attached to the head, would probably not be claimed as such. Instead of the crown of thorns usually put on the head of the Christian Saviour, it has the turreted coronet of the Ephesian Diana, the ankles are tied together by a cord, and the dress about the loins is exactly the style with which Crishna is almost always represented.

Rev. J. P. Lundy, speaking of the Christian crucifix, says:

1 See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 499, and Mrs. Jameson's "History of Our Lord in Art," ii. 317, where the cross is called the "accursed tree."

2 Chap. xxi. 22, 23: "If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance."

3 Galatians, iii. 13.

See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 146, and Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 402.

"I object to the crucifix because it is an image, and liable to gross abuse, just as the old Hindoo crucifix was an idol."

"Crishna, whose history so closely resembles our Lord's, was also like him in his being crucified."

The Evangelist relates that when Jesus was crucified two others (malefactors) were crucified with him, one of whom, through his favor, went to heaven. One of the malefactors reviled him, but the other said to Jesus: "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." And Jesus said unto him: "Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." According to the Vishnu Purana, the hunter who shot the arrow at Crishna afterwards said unto him: "Have pity upon me, who am consumed by my crime, for thou art able to consume me!" Crishna replied: "Fear not thou in the least. Go, hunter, through my favor, to heaven, the abode of the gods." As soon as he had thus spoken, a celestial car appeared, and the hunter, ascending it, forthwith proceeded to heaven. Then the illustrious Crishna, having united himself with his own pure, spiritual, inexhaustible, inconceivable, unborn, undecaying, imperishable and universal spirit, which is one with Vasudeva (God), abandoned his mortal body, and the condition of the threefold equalities. One of the titles of Crishna

1 Monumental Christianity, p. 128. Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 411. Luke, xxiii. 39-43.

4 Vasudeva means God. See Vishnu Purana Vishnu Purana, p 612.

p. 274.

is "Pardoner of sins," another is "Liberator from the Serpent of death.""

The monk Georgius, in his Tibetinum Alphabetum (p. 203),

FIG 9

FIG. 10.

has given plates of a crucified god who was worshiped in Nepal. These crucifixes were to be seen at the corners of roads and on eminences. He calls it the god Indra. Figures No. 9 and No. 10 are taken from this work. They are also different from any Christian crucifix yet produced. Georgius says:

"If the matter stands as Beausobre thinks, then the inhabitants of India, and the Buddhists, whose religion is the same as that of the inhabitants of Thibet, have received these new portents of fanatics nowhere else than from the Manicheans. For those nations, especially in the city of Nepal, in the month of August, being about to celebrate the festival days of the god Indra, erect crosses, wreathed with Abrotono, to his memory, everywhere. You have the description of these in letter B, the picture following after; for A is the representation of Indra himself crucified, bearing on his forehead, hands and feet the signs Telech."

P. Andrada la Crozius, one of the first Europeans who went to Nepal and Thibet, in speaking of the god whom they worshiped there-Indra-tells us that they said he spilt his blood for the salva

1 See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 72.

"Si ita se res habet, ut existimat Beausobrius, Indi, et Budista quorum religio, eadem est ac Tibetana, nonnisi a Manichæis nova hæc deliriorum portenta acceperunt. Hænamque gentes præsertim in urbe Nepal, Luna XII. Badr sen Bhadon Augusti mensis, dies festos auspicaturæ Dei Indra, erigunt ad illius

memoriam ubique locorum cruces amictas Abrotono. Earum figuram descriptam habes ad lit. B, Tabula pone sequenti. Nam A effigies est ipsius Indra crucifixi signa Telech in fronte manibus pedibusque gerentis." (Alph Tibet, p. 203. Quoted in Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 130.)