Christian world, reluctantly at first, and in the end as a measure of
compromise only? The Protestants, especially, conveniently forget the
severe Puritanic legislation against the observance of this Pagan
festival, both in England and America. It is the return to Paganism
which has given to Christmas and Easter their great popularity, as it
is the revival of Paganism which is everywhere replacing the Bible
ideas of monarchic government with republicanism. And yet, repeatedly,
and without any scruples of conscience, preacher and people claim
these festivals as the gifts of their creed to humanity, and quote
them further to prove the historical existence of their god-man,
Jesus. It was this open and persistent perversion of history by the
church, the manufacture of evidence on the one hand, the suppression
of witnesses prejudiced to her interests on the other, and the
deliberate forging of documents, which provoked Carlyle into referring
to one of its branches as _the great lying Church_.

We have said enough to show that, in all probability--for let us not
be dogmatic--the story of Jesus,--his birth and betrayal by one of his
own disciples, his trial in a Roman court, his crucifixion,
resurrection and ascension,--belongs to the order of imaginative
literature. Conceived at first as a religious drama, it received many
new accretions as it traveled from country to country and from age to
age. The "piece" shows signs of having been touched and retouched to
make it acceptable to the different countries in which it was played.
The hand of the adapter, the interpolator and the reviser is
unmistakably present. As an allegory, or as a dramatic composition,
meant for the religious stage, it proved one of the strongest
productions of Pagan or Christian times. But as real history, it lacks
the fundamental requisite--probability. As a play, it is stirring and
strong; as history, it lacks naturalness and consistency. The