is nothing strange in the rise and spread of the Pagan church; in the
rapid progress of the worship of Osiris, who never existed; in the
wonderful success of the religion of Mithra, who is but a name; if the
worship of Adonis, of Attis, of Isis, and the legends of Heracles,
Prometheus, Hercules, and the Hindoo trinity,--Brahma, Shiva,
Chrishna,--with their rock-hewn temples, can be explained without
believing in the actual existence of these gods--why not Christianity?
Religions, like everything else, are born, they grow old and die. They
show the handiwork of whole races, and of different epochs, rather
than of one man or of one age. Time gives them birth, and changing
environments determine their career. Just as the portrait of Jesus we
see in shops and churches is an invention, so is his character. The
artist gave him his features, the theologian his attributes.

What are the elements out of which the Jesus story was evolved? The
Jewish people were in constant expectation of a Messiah. The belief
prevailed that his name would be Joshua, which in English is Jesus.
The meaning of the word is _savior_. In ancient Syrian mythology,
Joshua was a Sun God. The Old-Testament Joshua, who "stopped the Sun,"
was in all probability this same Syrian divinity. According to
tradition this Joshua, or Jesus, was the son of Mary, a name which
with slight variations is found in nearly all the old mythologies.
Greek and Hindoo divinities were mothered by either a Mary, Meriam,
Myrrah, or Merri. Maria or Mares is the oldest word for sea--the
earliest source of life. The ancients looked upon the sea-water as the
mother of every living thing. "Joshua (or Jesus), son of Mary," was
already a part of the religious outfit of the Asiatic world when Paul
began his missionary tours. His Jesus, or anointed one, crucified or
slain, did in no sense represent a new or original message. It is no
more strange that Paul's mythological "savior" should loom into