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how to counteract this dangerous tendency of the age towards infidelity 

 and science. The idea struck them of utilising for their purpose the 

 new sect of religious reformers, who lived according to the teaching of 

 the young socialist, Yahoshua ; they boldly declared that this man was, 

 when on earth, an incarnate deity, and proceeded to attribute to him 

 all the miraculous performances that had been previously imputed to 

 the sun-god Bacchus ; and commenced forthwith to prepare their docu- 

 mentary evidences ready for the ignorant and credulous multitudes. A 

 new sect of the Therapeut monks of Alexandria came into existence, 

 called Eclectics, whose mission was to collect all that was good and 

 useful in the religions of their neighbours, and commit them to manu- 

 script for the use of their monasteries and the priestly class generally. 

 It did not take long to fabricate a very imposing story of the young man 

 Yahoshua, whom they now called lesous (T^o-oOs, a name used by the 

 Greeks to signify a hero personification of the sun-god Bacchus, the 

 Phcenican I^s), Greek being at that time the prevailing language of 

 Lower Egypt. The performances of the ancient sun-gods of Egypt, 

 Persia, Arabia, India, Greece, Phoenicia, and Italy were recalled to 

 the minds of. these Eclectic monks, by diligent search among their old 

 musty MSS., and, after carefully and judiciously collating the fables, they 

 were enabled to clothe their new lesous, or Jesus, with all the leading 

 characteristics of these various deities. He was born of a virgin at 

 midnight between December 24th and December 25th, as were all the 

 sun-gods : his birth, like that of Mithra and that of Krishna, was fore- 

 told : a star pointed out the place of his nativity, as in the case of Mithra : 

 his birth-place was a manger in a stable, as in the case of Hercules ; or, 

 according to another account, a cave, as in the case of Mithra and 

 Horus : he cured the sick, as did ^Esculapius : he fasted in the wilder- 

 ness, as did Buddha : he performed miracles, as did Bacchus, Hercules, 

 -and others : he turned water into wine, as did the Egyptain Bacchus, and 

 .as was done at the Bacchanalian orgies : he was crucified, as were also 

 Krishna, Osiris, and Prometheus : he rose from the dead after having 

 been in the grave three days and three nights, as did all the sun-gods : 

 he descended to hell, as did all the sun-gods : he was called Saviour 

 <(2amjp, Gr., and Saotes, Egyp.) and Lamb of God (Agnus Dei)> as 

 were all the sun-gods (Zeus 2om/p, Mises Saotes, etc.) ; Amen, as was 

 Jupiter Ammon (Zeus 'A/^v) ; Christ, or the Anointed (^pio-ros), as was 

 Osiris ; Son of God, as were Plato's Logos (Ao'yos), Bacchus, Mithra, 

 and Horus ; Holy Word (of Plato and Philo), as also was Horus ; God 

 of Love, as were Adonis, Mithra, and Krishna ; Light of the World, as 

 -were all the sun-gods ; and, like his alter ego ', Krishna, The Resurrection, 

 The Incarnate, The Beginning and the End, Existing before All 

 Things, Chief of Prophets, and Messenger of Peace : he was the 



