MY attention was turned to other religions, to the sacred books, the
creeds and ceremonies of other lands--of India, Egypt, Assyria, Persia,
of the dead and dying nations.
I concluded that all religions had the same foundation--a belief in
the supernatural--a power above nature that man could influence by
worship--by sacrifice and prayer.
I found that all religions rested on a mistaken conception of
nature--that the religion of a people was the science of that people,
that is to say, their explanation of the world--of life and death--of
origin and destiny.
I concluded that all religions had substantially the same origin, and
that in fact there has never been but one religion in the world. The
twigs and leaves may differ, but the trunk is the same.
The poor African that pours out his heart to his deity of stone is on an
exact religious level with the robed priest who supplicates his God. The
same mistake, the same superstition, bends the knees and shuts the eyes
of both. Both ask for supernatural aid, and neither has the slightest
thought of the absolute uniformity of nature.
It seems probable to me that the first organized ceremonial religion was
the worship of the sun. The sun was the "Sky Father," the "All Seeing,"
the source of life--the fireside of the world. The sun was regarded as a
god who fought the darkness, the power of evil, the enemy of man.
There have been many sun-gods, and they seem to have been the chief
deities in the ancient religions. They have been worshiped in many
lands--by many nations that have passed to death and dust.
Apollo was a sun-god and he fought and conquered the serpent of night.
Baldur was a sun-god. He was in love with the Dawn--a maiden. Chrishna
was a sun-god. At his birth the Ganges was thrilled from its source to
the sea, and all the trees, the dead as well as the living, burst into
leaf and bud and flower. Hercules was a sun-god and so was Samson, whose
strength was in his hair--that is to say, in his beams. He was shorn of
his strength by Delilah, the shadow--the darkness. Osiris, Bacchus, and
Mithra, Hermes, Buddha, and Quetzalcoatl, Prometheus, Zoroaster, and
Perseus, Cadom, Lao-tsze, Fo-hi, Horus and Rameses, were all sun-gods.
All of these gods had gods for fathers and their mothers were virgins.
The births of nearly all were announced by stars, celebrated by
celestial music, and voices declared that a blessing had come to the
poor world. All of these gods were born in humble places--in caves,
under trees, in common inns, and tyrants sought to kill them all
when they were babes. All of these sun-gods were born at the winter
solstice--on Christmas. Nearly all were worshiped by "wise men." All of
them fasted for forty days--all of them taught in parables--all of them
wrought miracles--all met with a violent death, and all rose from the
dead.
The history of these gods is the exact history of our Christ.
This is not a coincidence--an accident. Christ was a sun-god. Christ was
a new name for an old biography--a survival--the last of the sun-gods.
Christ was not a man, but a myth--not a life, but a legend.
I found that we had not only borrowed our Christ--but that all our
sacraments, symbols and ceremonies were legacies that we received from
the buried past. There is nothing original in Christianity.
The cross was a symbol thousands of years before our era. It was a
symbol of life, of immortality--of the god Agni, and it was chiseled
upon tombs many ages before a line of our Bible was written.
Baptism is far older than Christianity--than Judaism. The Hindus,
Egyptians, Greeks and Romans had Holy Water long before a Catholic
lived. The eucharist was borrowed from the Pagans. Ceres was the goddess
of the fields--Bacchus of the vine. At the harvest festival they made
cakes of wheat and said: "This is the flesh of the goddess." They drank
wine and cried: "This is the blood of our god."
The Egyptians had a Trinity. They worshiped Osiris, Isis and Horus,
thousands of years before the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were known.
The Tree of Life grew in India, in China, and among the Aztecs, long
before the Garden of Eden was planted.
Long before our Bible was known, other nations had their sacred books.
The dogmas of the Fall of Man, the Atonement and Salvation by Faith, are
far older than our religion.
In our blessed gospel,--in our "divine scheme,"--there is nothing
new--nothing original. All old--all borrowed, pieced and patched.
Then I concluded that all religions had been naturally produced, and
that all were variations, modifications of one,--then I felt that I knew
that all were the work of man.