the meaning of the custom, he was informed that it was a sacred 

 mystery. During these mysteries, which took place annually, bread, 

 after sacerdotal rites, was mystically converted into the body of Osiris, 

 to be partaken of by all the faithful, who were called Christians ; and 

 an idol representing the body of the god, stretched on a cross within a 

 circle, was placed upon the mystic table for adoration and praise. 



The winter solstitial point is really December 2ist ; but the ancients 

 always kept the festival of the birth of the sun-god on December 25th, 

 because at twelve o'clock, midnight between December 24th and 25th 

 the uppermost stars in the constellation Virgo made their appearance 

 above the horizon, being the first indication of the birth of the new sun, 

 which had taken place exactly three days and three nights previously. 

 This gave rise to the popular superstition that the new sun-god was born 

 of a virgin, from whose womb he had been trying to extricate himself 

 for the space of three days and three nights. From this the idea pre- 

 vailed that the sun-god underwent similar periods of struggle also at 

 the summer solstice and the two equinoctial points ; and thus arose the 

 legend of the two crucifixions, the one at the vernal equinox, when the 

 sun in Aries crossed the Equator and was crucified as the " Lamb of 

 God" on March 2ist, commencing the ascension to heaven on March 

 25th ; and the other at the autumnal equinox, when the sun in Libra 

 (the balance of justice) crossed the Equator and was crucified as the 

 "Just Man" on September 23rd, descending to hell for three days 

 and three nights, after which he emerged into the shades until born 

 again at the winter solstice. 



A very popular deity of the Lower Nile was Mises (drawn from 

 water), the sun-god of wine and mirth, who was born on Mount Nyssa 

 (Sinai), and was found as a babe in a box floating on the Red Sea, and 

 who, by means of his magic wand, took his army dry-shod through 

 the Sea and the rivers Orontes and Hydaspes, drew water from rocks, 

 and caused the land through which he passed to flow with milk, wine, 

 and honey. He was depicted with a ram's horn on his forehead, 

 being the personification of the new-born sun delivering the world 

 from the powers- of darkness, and was afterwards worshipped in 

 Phoenicia as les, in Greece as Dionysos (Aidvwos, God of Nyssa), son 

 of Zeus, and in Rome as Bacchus. The temples dedicated to this sun- 

 god were, in the time of the Greek kings of Egypt, very gorgeous, the 

 mystic table having upon it, not only the infant in its cradle, the tran- 

 substantiated bread, and the Osirian crucifix, but also a bleeding lamb, 

 the emblem of the sun-god at the vernal equinox, over which was 

 placed the Phoenician name of Mises, les, in Greek capitals (IHS), 

 surrounded by the rays of glory, to signify that he was the risen and 

 crucified sun-god, and one with Horus and Amen-Ra. 



