Astral Worship

In an article, entitled “Then and Now,” published in
the December number, 1890, of “The Arena,” its author,
a distinguished Unitarian D.D. of Boston, Mass., says.
“Astronomy has shattered the fallacies of Astrology;”
and people have found out that the stars are minding their
own business instead of meddling with theirs.” Now,
while it is true that modern Astronomy has superseded
the ancient system, and people have ceased to believe that
the stars are intervening in mundane affairs, nothing
could be further from the truth than the assertion that
“Astronomy has shattered the fallacies of Astrology;
and those of our readers who will accord to this work an
unprejudiced perusal can hardly fail to be convinced that
a large majority of the people of Christendom are dominated
as much by these fallacies as were our Pagan ancestry—the
only difference being a change of name. The
dogmatic element of religion, which was anciently designated
as Astrology, is now known as Theology.

All the evidences bearing upon the subject indicate

that the founders of the primary form of religion were a
sect of philosophers, known as Magi, or wise men, of the
Aryan race of Central Asia, who, having lived ages before
any conceptions of the supernatural had obtained in the
world, and speculating relative to the “beginnings of
things,” were necessarily confined to the contemplation
and study of nature, the elements of which they believed
to be self-existent and endless in duration; but, being
wholly without knowledge of her inherent forces, they
explained her manifold processes by conceiving the idea
that she was animated by a great and inherent soul or
spirit, emanations from which impressed all her parts
with life and motion. Thus, endowing man, and other
animals, with souls emanating alike from the imaginary
great soul of nature, they believed, and taught, that immediately
after death all souls were absorbed into their
source, where, as “the dewdrop slips into the shining
sea,” all personal identity was forever lost. Hence we see
that although recognizing the soul as immortal, considering
it, not as an entity existing independent of matter, but
as the spirit of matter itself, the primary religion was the
exponent of the purest form of Materialism.

Being the Astronomers of their day, and mistaking
the apparent for the real, the ancient Magi constructed
that erroneous system of nature known as the Geocentric,

and, in conformity thereto, composed a collection of Astronomical
Allegories, in which the emanations from the
imaginary great soul of nature, by which they believed
all materialities we’re impressed with life and motion, were
personified and made to play their respective parts. Basing
the religion they instituted upon their system of Allegorical
Astronomy, and making its personifications the
objects of worship, they thus originated the anthropomorphic
or man-like Gods, and, claiming to have composed
them under the inspiration of these self same divinities,
they designated them as sacred records, or Scriptures,
and taught the ignorant masses that they were literal histories,
and their personifications real personages, who,
having once lived upon earth, and; for the good of mankind,
performed the wondrous works imputed to them,
were then in heaven whence they came.

Thus we see that the primary religion, which is popularly
known as Paganism, was founded in the worship
of personified nature; that, according special homage to
the imaginary genii of the stars, and inculcating supreme
adoration to the divinity supposed to reside in the sun, it
was anciently known by the general name of Astrolatry,
and by the more specific one of solar worship; and that its
founders, arrogating to themselves the title of Astrologers,
gave to its dogmatic element the name of Astrology.

In studying the primitive forms of religion it will be
found that none of them taught anything relative to a
future life, for the simple reason that their founders had
no conceptions of such a state. Hence it follows that the
laws they enacted were intended solely for the regulation
of their social relations, and, to secure their observance,
they were embodied into their sacred records and made
part of their religion. One form of that most ancient
worship was known as Sabaism, or Sabism. Another
form of the same religion was the Ancient Judaism, as
portrayed in the Old Testament, and more especially in
the Pentateuch, or first five books; in the Decalogue of
which the only promise made for the observance of one of
the Commandments is length of days on earth; and, in a
general summing up of the blessings and curses to be
enjoyed or suffered, for the observance or violation of the
laws, as recorded in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, it
will be seen they are all of a temporal character only. At
the beginning of the Christian era there were still in existence
a sect of Jews known as Sadducees, who were strict
adherents to the primitive form of worship, and their belief
relative to the state of the dead we find recorded in
Ecclesiastes xii., 7, which reads: “Then shall the dust return
to earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God
who gave it.”

For ages the doctrine of soul absorption, immediately
after death, constituted the belief of mankind; but ultimately
recognizing the fact that the temporal punishments
of the existing laws were wholly inadequate to the
prevention of crime, and conceiving the idea that the
ignorant and vicious masses could be governed with a
surer hand by appealing to the sentiments of hope and
fear in relation to the rewards and punishments of an
imaginary future life, the ancient Astrologers resolved to
remodel the dogmatic elements of religion so as to include
that doctrine. But realizing the necessity, of suppressing
the belief in the absorption of all souls, immediately
after death, they ceased to teach it, and ultimately it
was embodied in that secret and unwritten system known
as the Esoteric philosophy, in which the Astrologers
formulated their own private belief, and which for many
centuries was kept from the knowledge of the uninitiated
by their successors in the priestly office. As they were
the sole custodians of the Scriptures, they made do change
in their verbiage, but, adding the doctrine of future rewards
and punishments to that written and openly taught
system of faith known as the Exoteric creed, they made it
the more impressive by instituting a system of imposing
rites and ceremonies, which they designated as Mysteries,
into which they initiated the neophytes, and in which were

portrayed, in the most vivid manner, the rewards and
punishments of the imaginary future life, which they
taught were the awards of the Gods for the observance or
violation of the laws. These teachings were inculcated in
the lesser degrees only, but those who were found worthy
of so great a distinction were also inducted into the higher
degrees, in which was imparted the knowledge of the
Esoteric philosophy. In both the lesser and higher degrees
the initiates received instruction in an oral manner
only; and all were bound by the most fearful oaths not to
reveal the secrets imparted to them.

Thus were the votaries of the ancient Astral worship
divided into two distinct classes, the Esoterics, or Gnostics;
and the Exoterics, or Agnostics; the former comprising
those who knew that the Gods were mythical and
the scriptures allegorical; and the latter, those who were
taught that the Gods were real, and the scriptures historical;
or, in other words, it was philosophy for the cultured
few, and religion for the ignorant multitude. The initiates
into the secrets of these two systems recognized
them as the two Gospels; and Paul must have had reference
to them in his Epistle to the Galatians ii., 2, where he
distinguishes the Gospel which he preached on ordinary
occasions from that Gospel which he preached “privately
to them which were of reputation.”

Such was the system of Astrolatry, which, originating
in the Orient, and becoming, after being remodelled
in Egypt, the prototype of all Occidental forms of worship,
was recognized, successively, as the state religion of
the Grecian and Roman Empires; and we propose to describe
the erroneous system of nature upon which it was
based, and to develop the origins of its cycles, dogmas,
ordinances, anniversaries, personifications and symbols,
with the view to proving that it was the very same system
which was ultimately perpetuated under the name of
Christianity. We also propose to present the origins and
abridged histories of its two forms, the Jewish, or ancient,
and the Roman, or modern; and to give an account of the
conflict between the votaries of the latter, and the adherents
to the established form of worship, which culminated
in the fourth century in the substitution of Christianity
as the state religion of the Roman Empire. We furthermore
propose to show the changes to which the creed and
scriptures were subjected during the Middle Ages, and at
the Reformation in the sixteenth century, through which
they assumed the phases as now taught in the theologies,
respectively of Catholicism and Orthodox Protestantism.
We also present an article relative to Freemasonry and
Druidism, for the purpose of showing that, primarily, they
were but different forms of the ancient Astrolatry. We

also devote a few pages to the subjects of the Sabbath, and
to that of “Pious Frauds.”

Note.—For the matter published in this work, we are
principally indebted to the writings of Robert Taylor, an erudite
but recusant minister of the church of England, who flourished
about seventy years ago, and who, being too honest to
continue to preach what, after thorough investigation, he did
not believe, began to give expression to his doubts by writing
and lecturing. Not being able to cope with his arguments, the
clergy, under the charge of the impossible crime of blasphemy,
had him imprisoned for more than two years, during which
time he wrote his great work entitled “The Diegesis,” which
should be read by all persons who are investigating the claim
of the Christian religion to Divine authenticity.

In constructing their system of nature, the ancient
Astronomers constituted it of the Earth, the Firmament,
the Planets, the Constellations and the Zodiac, and we
will refer to them in the order named.

Believing that the earth was the only world, that it
was a vast circular plane, and that it was the fixed and
immovable center around which revolved the celestial
luminaries, the ancient Astronomers, in conformity to the
requirement of the doctrine of future rewards and punishments,
as inculcated in the Egyptian Version of the
Exoteric Creed, divided it into an upper and an under,
or nether world, which they connected by a sinuous and
tenebrious passage.

The azure dome, called the firmament in the book of
Genesis, was believed to be a solid transparency, which

we find described, in the fourth chapter and sixth verse,
of that collection of Astronomical Allegories, called the
Apocalypse, or Book of Revelation, “as a sea of glass like
unto crystal.” It was represented as being supported by
four pillars, resting upon the earth, one at each of the cardinal
points, which were designated as “the pillars of
heaven.” Conceiving the idea that there were windows
in the firmament, the ancient Astronomers called them
“the windows of heaven” and taught that they were
opened when it rained, and closed when it ceased to rain.
Hence it is evident that the ancient Astronomers did not
refer to these pillars and windows in a figurative sense,
but as real appurtenances to a solid firmament, as will be
seen by reference to Gen. vii. 11, and viii. 2, Job xxvi. 11,
and Malachi iii. 10.

Believing that the stars were but mere flambeaux,
suspended beneath the firmament, and revolving round
the earth, for the sole purpose of giving it light and heat;
and observing that seven of these, answering to the Sun,
Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, had
perceptible movements, in relation to the other luminaries,
the ancient astronomers designated them as planets
or wandering stars.

Perceiving that the other celestial luminaries maintained
the same relation to each other, and designating
them as fixed stars, the ancient astronomers grouped
those visible to them into forty-eight Constellations; and
giving names to these, they also attached names to the
stars of larger magnitude, which was done for the purpose
of locating and distinguishing them with greater
ease.

Through twelve of these Constellations, mostly contained
within a belt of 16 degrees in width, and within
which the planets appeared to revolve, the ancient astronomers
inscribed a central line representing the Ecliptic, or
apparent orbit of the sun, which they divided into 360
degrees; and quartering these to denote the seasons, they
named the cardinal points the Summer and Winter Solstices,
and the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes; the
former referring to the longest and shortest days of the
year; and the latter to the two periods when the days and
nights are equal. An abbreviatory sign having been attached
to each of these constellations, the great celestial
belt containing them was called “the wheel of the signs,”

or “a wheel in the middle of a wheel,” as designated by
that old Astrologer, Ezekiel the Prophet, in chap. i. and
16th verse. But for the reason that, with only one exception,
the forms of living things, either real or mythical,
were given to them, this belt, ultimately, wad designated
as the Zodiac; or Circle of living Creatures, see Ezekiel,
chap. i. Constituting the essential feature of the ancient
Astronomy, we present, in our frontispiece, a diagram of
the Zodiac, as anciently represented, to which, as well as
to Burritts’ Celestial Atlas, our readers will be necessitated
to make frequent reference.

Recent researches among the ruins of ancient cities
have developed the fact that several centuries before the
beginning of our era the astronomers had invented the
telescope, and discovered the true or heliocentric system
of nature; but for the reason that religion had been based
upon the false, or geocentric system, it was deemed prudent
not to teach it to the masses. Hence, hiding it away
among the other secrets of the Esoteric philosophy, the
knowledge of it was lost during the Middle Ages; and
when rediscovered, the hierarchy of the Church of Rome,
upon the plea that it was contrary to the teachings of
Scripture, resorted to inquisitorial tortures to suppress
its promulgation; but, in spite of all their efforts, it has
been universally accepted; and, in this otherwise enlightened

age, we have presented to us the anomaly of a religion
based upon a false system of Astronomy, while its
votaries believe in the true system.

In reference to the planets, and the signs of the
Zodiac, the numbers seven and twelve were recognized
as sacred by the ancient Astrologers, and dedications
were made to them in all kinds and sorts of forms. In
the allegories, the genii of the planets were designated
as spirits or messengers to the Supreme Deity, imaginarily
enthroned above the firmament, which we find described
in Revelations iv. 5, as “Seven lamps of fire burning
before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God;”
and which were represented by lights burning in seven
branched candlesticks set before the altars in the temples;
the central light for the Sun; the Moon, Mercury and
Venus on one side; and Mars, Jupiter and Saturn on the
other. The seven branched candlesticks seen in all
Catholic churches, and in some Protestant ones, are intended
to represent the same planetary system.

Among the numerous dedications to the genii of the
planets we mention the seven days of the week, the seven

stories of the tower of Babylon, the seven gates of Thebes,
the seven piped flute of Pan, the seven stringed lyre of
Apollo, the seven books of fate, the book of seven seals,
the seven castes into which the Egyptians and East Indians
were divided, and the jubilee of seven times seven
years. Among the dedications to the twelve signs we
mention the twelve months of the year, the grand cycle
of 12,000 years, the twelve altars of James, the twelve
labors of Hercules, the twelve divisions of the Egyptian
Labyrinth, the twelve shields of Mars, the twelve precious
stones, ranged in threes to denote the seasons, in the
breastplate of High Priest, the twelve foundations of the
Sacred City, referred to in the Book of Revelation, the
twelve sons of Jacob, the twelve tribes of Israel, and the
twelve Disciples. In the Book of Revelation alone the
number 7 is repeated twenty-four times, and the number
12 fourteen times.

In determining the duration of the period within
which were to occur the events taught in the doctrines of
the Exoteric Creed, the ancient Astrologers dedicated
a thousand years to each of the signs of the Zodiac, and

thus inaugurating the cycle of twelve thousand years,
taught that, at its conclusion, the heaven and the earth,
which they believed to be composed of the indestructible
elements of fire, air, earth and water, would, through the
agency of the first of these, be reduced to chaos, as a
preliminary to the reorganization of a new heaven and a
new earth at the beginning of the succeeding cycle. Such
was the origin of the grand cycle of the ancient Astrolatry,
and it must be borne in mind that its authors made its
conclusion to correspond in time and circumstance to the
doctrines relating to the finale of the plan of redemption.

After conceiving the idea of a primeval chaos, constituted
of four indestructible elements of which fire was
the leading one, the Oriental astrologers began to indulge
in speculations relative to the agencies which were engaged
in its organization. Having no knowledge of the
forces inherent in nature, they imputed this work to three
intelligences, which, embodying the All in All, they personified
by the figure of a man with three heads, and to
this trinity gave the names of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva.
Such a figure, carved in stone, may be seen in the island

Cave of Elephanta, near Bombay, India, and is popularly
believed to represent the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer;
but, in determining their true signification, we
must be governed by the ancient teachings that “All
things were made by one god-head with three names, and
this God is all things.” Hence the conclusion is irresistible
that the first person represents neither the creator
nor organizer of chaos, but chaos itself; the second person,
its organizer and governor; and the third person, the
agent in nature which impresses all her parts with life and
motion; the latter being the imaginary great soul or
spirit inculcated in the Esoteric philosophy. In support
of this opinion it will be found that the Egyptian Triad of
Father, Son and Spirit is virtually the same we have assigned
to its Oriental prototype. Thus we see that to
the ancient Astrolatry Christendom is indebted for the
Trinity of

            “God the Father, God the Son,
            God the Spirit—three in one.”

But, having ascribed supreme intelligence or reason
to its second person, under the name of the Logos, or
Word, and designating its third person as the Holy Ghost,
the ancient Triad was usually formulated as the Father,
the Word and the Holy Ghost, as may be seen by reference
to the text in the allegories which we find recorded

in I John v. 7, which reads that “There are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the
Holy Ghost, and these three are one.”

Considered in some forms of Astrolatry as too
sacred to attach a name to the triune Deity, he was called
“the One,” and we find him thus designated in the 4th
chapter of Revelation, where, like Zeus and Jupiter, of the
Grecian and Roman mythologies, he is represented as
seated above the firmament, upon a throne from which
“proceeded lightnings and thunderings,” and to whom
all, the subordinate divinities were made to pay homage.
As the hurler of thunderbolts he was called “the Thunderer,”
and as the opener of the windows of heaven,
when it rained, he was designated “Jupiter Pluvius.”
Such was the ancient Triad made to say of himself, in an
inscription found in the ruins of the temple at Sais in
Egypt, “I am all that has been, all that is, and all that
shall be, and no mortal has lifted yet the veil that covers
me;” and such was the Triunity referred to as the God
Universe by Pliny, the Roman philosopher and naturalist,
who, flourishing in the first century of the Christian era,
wrote that he is “An infinite God which has never been
created, and which shall never come to an end. To look
for something else beyond it is useless labor for man and
out of his reach. Behold that truly sacred Being, eternal

and immense, which includes within itself everything; it
is All in All, or rather itself is All. It is the work of
nature, and itself is nature.”

Thus we see that, although inculcating homage to a
multitude of subordinate divinities, the ancient Astrolatry
was only an apparent Polytheism; its enlightened votaries,
recognizing the dogma of the unity of God, were in
reality Monotheists, paying supreme adoration to the
mythical genius of the Sun, to whom we will now direct
attention.

In determining the characteristics of the supreme
divinity of astral worship, it must be borne in mind that
its founders taught that he was evolved or engendered by
the Father, or first person in the sacred Triad, from his
pure substance, which as we have shown was constituted
of chaos or the primeval fire into which they supposed all
things were reduced through the agency of that element
at the conclusion of 12,000 year cycles. Hence, designating
that mythical being as the only begotten of the
Father, they personified him as God the Son, or second
person in the sacred Triad; and recognizing the Sun as the

ruling star, very appropriately made him the presiding
genius of that luminary, under the title of God Sol. According
homage to light as his chief attribute, he is referred
to in the allegories as “The true Light, which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world,” John i., 9; and,
although designated as the only begotten of the Father,
his co-existence with him, under the title of the Logos or
Word, is shown in the text which reads, “In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God,” John i., 1.

Personifying the principles of Good and Evil in God
Sol, the ancient Astrologers consecrated the six divisions
of the 12,000 year cycle, corresponding to the reproductive
months of Spring and Summer, to him as Lord of
Good, and symbolizing him by the constellation of the
Zodiac in which the Vernal Equinox successively occurred,
as explained hereafter, they dedicated the six divisions
of that cycle, corresponding to the destructive
months of Autumn and Winter, to him as Lord of Evil,
and as such, symbolizing him by the serpent, marked the
beginning of his reign by the constellation “Serpens,”
placed in conjunction with the Autumnal Equinox.
Personifying in him the opposing principles of Good and
Evil, he was to the ancients both God and Devil, or the
varied God, who, in relation to the seasons, was described

as beautiful in Spring, powerful in Summer, beneficent in
Autumn and terrible in Winter. Thus under various
names, intended to represent God Sol in relation to the
diversified seasons, we find recorded in the Scriptures, or
solar fables, numerous portrayals of imaginary conflicts,
in which the Evil principle, triumphing during Autumn
and Winter, is conquered at the Vernal Equinox by the
Good principle, who, bringing back equal days and nights,
restores the harmony of nature.

The eternal enmity between the principles of Good
and Evil, as manifested in the diversity of the seasons,
we find portrayed in the Constellations Hercules and
Draco, placed in the northern heavens, in which the heel
of the former, representing one of the most ancient of the
imaginary incarnations of God Sol, to which we will refer
hereafter, is resting upon the head of the latter, as referred
to in Genesis iii., 15, which makes God Sol, or the
Lord God, say to the serpent, “I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed;
it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
The woman alluded to in this text is the Virgo of the
Zodiac, as will be made apparent hereafter.

Of all the divinities of the ancient mythology God
Sol was the only one distinguished by the exalted title of
Lord or Lord God, for the reason that he was made the

organizer of chaos and governor of heaven and earth.
Hence, having constituted him the lord of light and darkness,
as well as good and evil, the ancient astrologers in
composing the solar fables made him say of himself, “I
form the light and create darkness; I make peace and
create evil, I the Lord do all these things,” Isaiah xlv., 7.
“Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not
done it?” Amos iii., 6. Besides the title of Lord or
Lord God, the solar divinity is also designated in the
allegories as the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings,
the Invincible, the Mighty God, etc.

Subjecting the mythical genius of the sun, in his apparent
annual revolution round the earth, to the four
stages of human life from infancy to old age, the ancient
Magi fixed the natal day of the young God Sol at the winter
solstice, the Virgo of the Zodiac was made his mother,
and the constellation in conjunction with her, which is
now known as Bootes, but anciently called Arcturus, his
foster father. He is represented as holding in leash two
hunting dogs and driving Ursa Major, or the Great Bear,
around the north pole, thus showing that the original
occupation of the celestial foster father of the young God
Sol was that of a bear driver, and that his sons, referred to
in job xxxviii., 32, are the dogs Asterion and Chara. It
will be observed that Virgo is represented in our illustration

with a child in her arms, for the reason that she is so
represented in the ancient Zodiacs, and the fact will be
readily conceded that she is the only Virgin who could
give birth to a child and be a virgin still.

Speculating relative to the order in which chaos had
been organized, the ancient Astrologers constructed a
Cosmogony, which divided the labors of God the Son, or
second person in the Trinity, into six periods of a thousand
years each; and which, answering to the six divisions
of the 12,000 year cycle corresponding to the reproductive
months of Spring and Summer, taught that in the first
period he made the earth; in the second, the firmament;
in the third, vegetation; in the fourth, the Sun and
Moon and “the stars also;” in the fifth, the animals, fishes,
birds, etc., and in the sixth, Man.

That vegetation was made before the Sun was not an
inconsistent idea to the originators of the ancient Cosmogony.
They imagined that the heat and light, emanating
from the elementary fire, were sufficient to stimulate its
growth, after which God the Son gathered it together and
made the Celestial luminaries. In the solar fables this

imaginary element is called the fire-ether, or sacred fire of
the stars.

Religion having been based upon the worship of personified
nature, it is evident that its founders fabricated
its dogmatic element from their conceptions of her destructive
and reproductive processes as manifested in the
rotation and diversity of the seasons. The apparent retreat
of the sun from the earth, in winter, and his return in
the spring, suggesting the idea of a figurative death and
resurrection of the genius of that luminary, they applied
these phenomena of the year to man, and composed the
allegories relative to his fall and redemption, as inculcated
in the Exoteric Creed. In the allegory relating to the fall,
it was taught that, after making the first human pair, the
Lord of Good or the Lord God placed them in a beautiful
garden—corresponding to the seasons of fruits and flowers
or months of Spring and Summer, with the injunction,
under a penalty, not to eat of the fruit of a certain tree.
When the Lord of Evil, or Devil, symbolized by the serpent
and represented by the constellation “Serpens”
placed in conjunction with the Autumnal Equinox, meeting

them on the confines of his dominion, and tempting
the woman, and she the man, they ate of the forbidden
fruit; thus, falling from their first estate, and committing
the original sin, they involved the whole human race in the
consequences of their disobedience. Then the Lord God,
pronouncing a curse against the serpent, clothed the man
and woman with skins to protect them against the inclemency
of his, dominion as Lord of Evil, and drove them
from the garden; after which they were necessitated to
earn their bread by tilling the ground.

In, reference to the plan of redemption, the ancient
Astrologers divided the 6,000 years appropriated to man,
as the duration of his race on earth, into ten equal cycles,
and taught that at the conclusion of each God Sol, as
Lord of Good, would manifest himself in the flesh, to destroy
his works as Lord of Evil, and through suffering
and death make an atonement for sin. Thus having originated
the doctrines of original sin, incarnation and vicarious
atonement, as parts of the plan of redemption, and
making its finale correspond, in point of time, to the conclusion
of the 12,000 year cycle, their successors in the
priestly office ultimately inculcated the additional dogmas
of the general judgment and future rewards and punishments,
as we have shown in our introduction.

Having based the fables of the fall and redemption of

man upon the idea that he was impelled, without his
volition, to pass from the dominion of God to that of the
Devil, or in other words, upon his subjection to the inexorable
necessity which makes the inclement seasons
of Autumn and Winter succeed the beneficent ones of
Spring and Summer, its authors composed the original
of the text which, found in Romans viii., 20, reads that
“The creature was made subject to vanity (Evil), not willingly,
but by reason of him who hath subjected the same
in hope.”

But for the popular teaching in favor of its being
literal history, no one could read the account of the fall of
man, as recorded in the third chapter of Genesis, without
recognizing it as simply an allegory; or fail to realize, the
force of the argument of no fall, no redemption, and if no
redemption, no God to reward or Devil to punish; no hell
to suffer, or heaven to enjoy. The fact is that these are
but antithetical ideas which came in together, and must
survive or perish together. They cannot be separated
without destroying the whole theological fabric.

Believing that God Sol was necessitated to remain at
his post to direct the course of the sun, the ancient astrologers

conceived the idea of teaching that, attended by a
retinue of subordinate genii, he descended to earth
through the medium of incarnations at the end of 600 year
cycles, to perform the work of man’s redemption and,
having made Virgo of the Zodiac the mother of the Solar
divinity, they taught in their allegorical Astronomy, or
scriptures, that his incarnations were born of a Virgin.
Hence we find that God Sol, usually designated by the
title of the Word, “was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”
John i., 14.

In a discourse upon this text delivered by Tillotson,
Archbishop of Canterbury, in the year 1680, published in
the fourth volume of Woodhouse’s edition of his Grace’s
sermons, in the year 1744, concerning the Incarnation of
our blessed Saviour, he explains the necessity of incarnation
by saying that “There was likewise a great inclination
in mankind to the worship of a visible Deity, so God was
pleased to appear in our nature, that they, who were so
fond of a visible Deity, might have one, even a true and
natural image of God the Father, the express image of
his person.” It only requires a little reflection to appreciate
the Prelate’s covert irony and want of faith.

Having ascribed to the imaginary incarnations of
God Sol the characteristics of heaven-descending, virgin-born,
earth-walking, wonder-working, dying, resuscitated

and ascending sons of God, the ancient Astrologers
attached to them the several titles of Saviour, Redeemer,
Avatar, Divine-Helper, Shiloh, Messiah, Christ; and, in
reference to their foster-father, that of Son of Man.
Teaching that they continued to make intercession for sin,
after their ascension to the right hand of the Father, they
were also called Intercessors, Mediators or Advocates
with the Father. From teaching their appearance every
600 years originated the Egyptian legend of the Phoenix,
a bird said to descend from the sun at these intervals, and,
after being consumed upon the altar in the temple of On,
or city of the sun—called Heliopolis by the Greeks—would
rise from its ashes and ascend to its source. According
to the civil laws of Egypt, manhood was not
attained until the age of thirty years. Hence the earthly
mission of incarnate Saviours was made to begin at that
age; and for the reason that, relating to the apparent transit
of the sun through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, it
was completed during the period of one year.

To impress the ignorant masses with the belief that
the scriptures were literal histories, and the incarnate
Saviours real personages, the ancient Astrologers caused
tombs to be erected in which it was claimed they were
buried. Such sepulchres were erected to Hercules at
Cadiz, to Apollo at Delphi, and to other Saviours at many

other places, to which their respective votaries were induced
to perform pilgrimages. In Egypt the pyramids
were built, partly for astronomical purposes, and partly
as tombs for Saviours, claimed to have been kings, who
had once ruled over the country; and why should we not
recognize that magnificent structure known as the Church
of the Holy Sepulchre, at Jerusalem, as but another of
those tombs of Saviours in which no Saviour was ever entombed?

Thus we have shown that it was God Sol, the only
begotten of the Father, or second person in the sacred
Triad, to whom supreme adoration was inculcated in all
forms of the ancient Astrolatry; and that its cultured
votaries, understanding that the doctrines pertaining to
the fall and redemption of man were evolved from the
figurative death and resurrection of the solar divinity,
recognized the doctrine of incarnation as a priestly invention
intended only for the ignorant masses.

The authors of the original solar fables, having lived
in that remote age in which physical prowess was recognized
as the highest attribute of humanity, conceived the

idea that God Sol, while passing through his apparent
orbit, had to fight his way with the animals of the Zodiac,
and with others in conjunction with them. Hence, designating
him as the Mighty Hunter, and calling his exploits
the twelve labors, they made the incarnate Saviours
the heroes of similar ones on earth, which they taught
were performed for the good of mankind; and that, after
fulfilling their earthly mission, they were exhaled to
heaven through the agency of fire. When these fables
were composed the Summer Solstice was in the sign of
Leo, and making the twelve labors begin in it, the first
consisted in the killing of a lion, and the second, in rescuing
a virgin (Virgo) by the destruction of a Hydra, the
constellation in conjunction with her. Upon one of the
Assyrian marbles on exhibition in the British Museum
these two labors are represented as having been performed
by a saviour by the name of Nimroud. In the constellations
of Taurus, the bull of the Zodiac, and of Orion, originally
known as Horns, in conjunction therewith, we
have groupings of stars representing the latter as one of
the mighty hunters of the ancient Astrolatry, supporting
on his left arm the shield of the lion’s skin, the trophy of
the first labor, and holding a club in his uplifted right
hand, is engaged in performing the tenth labor by a conflict
with the former.

The fable of the twelve labors constituted the sacred
records or scriptures of the older forms of Astrolatry, one
version of which, written with the cuneiform character
upon twelve tablets of burnt clay, exhumed from the ruins
of an Assyrian city, and now on exhibition in the British
Museum, is ascribed to Nimroud, the prototype of the
Grecian Hercules, and of Nimrod, the Mighty Hunter of
the Old Testament.

With the knowledge of these facts we can readily see
that this is the Virgin and child which constituted the
originals of those exquisite paintings, by the old masters,
known as the Madonna and Child.

In reference to the twelve signs through which the
sun makes his apparent annual revolution, the twelfth
day after Christmas, answering to the 6th of January, was
observed by the votaries of the ancient Astrolatry as the
anniversary of the Epiphany or Twelfth Day. In the

solar fables, it was taught that a star appeared in the
heavens on that day to manifest the birthplace of the
infant Saviour to the Magi or Wise Men of the East, who
came to pay him homage, and to present him with the
gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, as related in Matthew ii. 11.

The reason for presenting these gifts is explained by
the facts that of the seven metals dedicated to the genii of
the planets, gold was the one consecrated to God Sol; and
frankincense and myrrh were the gums burned in censers
in his worship.

In reading the account of the Magi’s visit to the infant
Saviour, we have but to exercise our thinking faculties to
realize that it is allegory instead of literal history.

In the ancient solar fables it was taught that the persecutions
to which the incarnate Saviours were subjected
while passing through the dominion of God Sol as Lord of
Evil, raged with greatest fury during the forty days
preceding the festival of Easter, which period, beginning
when the days were perceptibly lengthening, was called
Lent, or the Lenten season. It was during this season
that the votaries of the ancient religion were taught to

manifest their sympathy for the Saviour in his imaginary
conflict with the Devil by abstaining from all festivities,
and by fasting and prayer; and, as that was the season
in which the flocks and herds were poor in flesh, while the
seas and rivers abounded with fish in good condition, the
ancient priests, making a virtue of necessity, enjoined a
diet principally of fish, and for that reason placed the constellation
Pisces at the point in the Zodiac in which the
Lenten season anciently began; which, without regard to
the day of the week, was always observed on the 15th day
of February, the name of that month having been derived
from the Februa, or feast of purification and expiation of
the old Roman calendar.

At the council of Nice the Lenten season was made
to begin on the fourth day of the week, and in reference to
the ancient custom of the more devout sprinkling ashes
upon their heads at the feast of the Februa, it is called Ash
Wednesday.

Hence we see that all years in which Ash Wednesday
does not come on the 15th of February, the Lenten
season must necessarily contain a greater or lesser number
than the original assignment of forty days.

The last seven days of Lent is called Passion Week, in
reference to the apparent passage of the sun across the
Celestial equator at the Vernal Equinox or 21st of
March; the ancient astrologers having conceived the idea
that the sun stood still for the space of three days at each
of the cardinal points, and making it represent the figurative
death of the genius of that luminary, it was observed
as the anniversary of the Vernal crucifixion or passion of
the incarnate Saviours; and in commemoration of their
imaginary sufferings and death it was the custom to expose
in the temples during the last three days of Passion
Week figures representing their dead bodies, over which
the votaries of solar worship, especially the women, made
great lamentation. It was in reference to one of these
images, laid out in the temple at Jerusalem, to which the
jealous Jehovah, considering it a great abomination in his
own house, is made to direct the attention of Ezekiel, the
prophet, who, looking, beheld “Women weeping for Tammuz”
as recorded in the eighth chapter. This divinity
was the Phoenician prototype of the Grecian Adonis, to
whom the women of Judea preferred to pay homage.

It was during the last three days of Passion Week
that the votaries of solar worship performed their severest

penance. Besides fasting and prayer, the more devout
flagellated and slashed themselves and others with knives
and thongs, and carried heavy crosses up steep acclivities.
In all ultra-Catholic countries the priests, in imitation of
the ancient custom, expose in the churches figures representing
the dead Saviour, over which the laity, especially
the women, weep and mourn; and the more devout
men cut and slash themselves, and each other, with
knives and thongs; and, in imitation of the imaginary
tramp of Jesus with his cross up Calvary’s rugged side,
bear heavy crosses up steep acclivities.

Anciently dramas representing the passion of incarnate
saviours, called Passion plays, were enacted upon the
stage. The most celebrated of these divine tragedies,
known as Prometheus Bound, and composed by the
Greek poet Æschylus, was played at Athens 500 years
before the beginning of the Christian era. To show that
this sin-atoning saviour was not chained to a rock, while
vultures preyed upon his vitals, as popularly taught, but
was nailed to a tree; we quote front Potter’s translation of
the play, that passage which, readily recognized as the
original of a Christian song, reads as follows:




            “Lo, streaming from the fatal tree,
               His all atoning blood:
            Is this the infinite? ‘Tis he—
               Prometheus and a God.
            Well might the sun in darkness hide,
               And veil his glories in,
            When God the great Prometheus died
               For man, the creature’s sin.”

The veiling of the sun, as represented in these plays,
having reference to the imaginary sympathy expressed by
God Sol for the sufferings of his incarnate son, was shown
upon the stage by shading the lights. The monks of the
Middle Ages enacted plays representing the passion of the
Christian Saviour, and the Bavarian peasantry, perpetuating
this custom, perform the play every tenth year.

In conformity to the ancient teachings, the incarnate
saviours, considered as figuratively dead for the space of
three days at the Vernal Equinox, or 21st of March, were
raised to newness of life after the expiration of that time.
Hence, the 25th of March, without regard to the day of
the week, was celebrated as the anniversary of the Vernal
resurrection. On the morning of this day it was the
custom of the astrologers to say to the mourners assembled
in the temples, “Be of good cheer, sacred band of initiates;

your God has risen from the dead, his pains and his
sufferings shall be your salvation.” Another form of
this admonition, quoted from an ancient poem in reference
to the Phoenician Tammuz, reads as follows:



            “Trust ye saints, your God restored,
            Trust ye in your risen Lord,
            For the pains which he endured,
            Your salvation hath procured.”

Then would begin the festivities of Easter, which
corrupted from Eostre, and derived from the Teutonic
mythology, was one of the many names given to the goddess
of Spring. In the observance of this festival the
temples were adorned with floral offerings; the Hilaries
sang their joyful lays; the fires upon the pyres, or the fire-altars,
were extinguished and rekindled with new fire, or
sacred fire of the stars, which the Astrologers taught was
brought down from heaven by the winged genius Perseus,
the constellation which, anciently, was in conjunction
with the Vernal Equinox; Paschal candles, lit from
the new fire, were distributed to the faithful and the Paschal
feast, Easter feast, or the feast of the passover, was
eaten in commemoration of the passion of the incarnate
saviours, or, in other words, of the passage of the sun
across the celestial equator.

In ultra-Catholic countries the descent of the sacred
fire is represented by some secretly arranged pyrotechny,
and the credulous laity, believing they have witnessed a
miraculous display, eagerly solicit Paschal candles lit
from it; and in imitation of the ancient festivities in honor
of the return of spring, all Catholic churches, and most of
Protestant ones, are adorned with flowers, the bells ring
out their merriest peals, and “Gloria in Excelsis” and
other jubilant songs, similar to the lays of the ancient Hilaries,
are sung.

The anniversary of the Nativity having been placed
on the 25th of December, according to the course of nature,
the 25th of March was anciently celebrated as the
anniversary of the annunciation, and is still observed on
that day, and the duty of saluting the Virgin (Virgo) and
announcing her conception by the Holy Ghost or third
person in the Trinity was assigned to the genius of Spring.
In the Chaldean version of the Gospel story the name of
Gabriel was given to this personification, and in the Christian
version of that story he is made to perform the same
office; see Luke i. 26-35.

Celebrating the anniversary of the ascension forty
days after Easter, it was anciently observed on the 4th of
May, and it was taught that the incarnate saviours ascended
bodily into heaven, in a golden chariot drawn by
four horses caparisoned with gilded trappings, all glittering
like fire in the fervid sunlight. Hence when we read
in II. Kings ii. 11, that “There appeared a chariot of fire
and horses of fire, . . . and Elijah went up by a
whirlwind into heaven,” we must accept this text as descriptive
of the imaginary ascension of one of the incarnate
saviours of ancient Judaism.

When the Summer solstice was in the sign of Cancer,
the sun was in that of Virgo in the month of August, and
the anniversary of the Assumption was observed on the
15th of that month, and is so observed at the present
time. The fact that the anniversary of the Ascension precedes
that of the Assumption explains why Jesus is made
to say to his mother (Virgo) soon after his resurrection,
“Touch me not: for I am not yet ascended to my Father.”
John xx. 17.

In the ancient solar worship the so-called ordinance
of the Lord’s Supper was observed just before the anniversary
of the autumnal crucifixion; and consisting of bread
and wine, in reference to the maturing of the crops and
completion of the vintage, was, like the modern festival of
the hardest home, a season of thankfulness to the Lord
(God Sol) as the giver of all good gifts. Hence being
observed but once a year, it was in reality not an ordinance
but an anniversary; and the fact that Christians
partake of these emblems so frequently during the year
indicates that the original signification of the Lord’s Supper
has been lost.

In the 26th chapter of Matthew we have an account
of the Lord administering the last supper to his Disciples
on the eve of the autumnal crucifixion, and in verse 27
it reads that “he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave
it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it.” The compilers of
the modern version of the Gospel story must surely have

inadvertently copied this text as it read in the ancient
versions of that old, old story, which, when observed in
remembrance of “Our Lord and Saviour Bacchus,” was
called the Bacchanalia, or feast, of Bacchus. At these
orgies the participants give thanks for the wine by not
only drinking all of one cup, but many more; in fact they
kept on drinking until they fell under the table.

The beneficent seasons of Spring and Summer coming
to an end at the Autumnal Equinox, the 22d of September
was made the anniversary of the Autumnal Crucifixion.
The vernal resurrection and Autumnal Crucifixion,
representing the alternate triumph of the personified
principles of Good and Evil, as manifested in the diversity
of the seasons; we find appropriately expressed in
two religious pictures. In the one, the Saviour, appealing
as a vigorous young man, surrounded by a brilliant halo,
representing the rays of the all-conquering Sun of Spring,
is rising triumphantly from the tomb, before whom the
demon of Winter, or Devil, is seen retreating in the background.
In the other, the vanquished Saviour, represented
by the figure of a lean and haggard man, with a crown of
thorns upon his head, around which appears a faint halo
of the Sun’s declining rays, and above which is placarded

the letters I. N. R. I., the initial letters of Latin words,
signifying the life to come, or the eternal life, is suspended
upon the cross, at the foot of which his mother Mary
(Virgo) is represented as kneeling in a mourning attitude,
and by her side is seen a serpent and a skull, the emblems
of Evil and of Death.

In the calendar of the ancient Astral Worship, the
fourth day after the Autumnal Equinox was dedicated to
the genius of Autumn. In the Chaldean allegories the
name of Michael was given to this personification, and
called Michaelmas, or feast of Michael. In the Catholic
calendar this anniversary is placed an the 29th of September,
instead of the 26th of that month, while that
of St. Matthew, the Christian genius of Autumn, which
should be placed on the 26th of that month, is observed
on the 21st.

Thus we have shown that the anniversaries of the
ancient Astral Worship were all fixed, and from church
history we learn that they were so observed by the Christians
until the Council of Nice in the year 325, when the
Bishops assembled at that celebrated convocation, desiring
to have the festival of Easter celebrated on Sunday,
which had been made the Sabbath by the edict of Constantine,

in the year 321, ordered that it should be observed
on the Sunday of the full moon, which comes on or next
after the Vernal Equinox. Hence, converting it into a
movable festival, its allied feasts and fast days were also
made movable.

In the ancient solar fables the several divisions of
time were personified and made to pay homage to the
Triune Deity, supposed to be enthroned above the firmament.

The genii of the hours were designated as Elders, and
we find them described in the 4th chapter of Revelation
as sitting round about the throne upon four and twenty
seats, clothed in white raiment, and crowns of gold upon
their heads.

Each day of the year was appropriately personified,
and these genii of the days constitute the saints of the
Christian calendar. Of these we will refer to but one.

According to the ancient belief that the sun stood still
for the space of three days at each of the cardinal points,
the 24th of June was made the first of the decreasing days;
and dedicating it to St. John the Baptist, he is made to say
in reference to his opposite, (the genius of the 25th of
December, and first of the increasing days,) “He must increase,
but I must decrease.” This text, found in John
iii. 30, simply means that the days of the one must increase
in length, while the days of the other must decrease.

The fable of the twelve labors having been superseded
by others, in which the genii of the twelve signs of the
Zodiac, corresponding to the months, were designated
as angels, and made to minister to God Sol while making
his apparent annual revolution; but, when constituted the
attendants of the incarnate saviours during their imaginary
earth life, they were personified as men and called
Disciples. Of these genii of the months we will refer only
to the first and the last. The first month, dedicated to the
genius known in the mythology as Janus, and from which
was derived the name January, was portrayed with two
faces, the one of an old man looking mournfully backward
over the old year, and the other of a young man looking
joyfully forward to the new year. This personification,

made the opener of the year, and represented as holding
a pair of cross-keys, was called “The carrier of the keys
of the kingdom of heaven.” Hence, the Popes of Rome,
claiming apostolic succession from Peter, the Janus of the
Christian twelve, wear cross-keys as the insignia of their
office. Sometimes a crosier, or shepherd’s crook, is substituted
for one of the keys, in reference to his arrogated
office of the leader of the sheep! The authority for the
assumption that the Popes are Peter’s successors is found
in Matthew xvi. 18, 19; but its fallacy becomes apparent
when we bear in mind that the scriptures are but collections
of astronomical allegories, and that the Peter
referred to in the text was not a man, but the mythical
genius of the month of January.

In reference to the last month, we find that the
authors of the ancient solar fables, ever doubting whether
God Sol, after inaugurating Winter by his supposed retreat
from the earth, would return to revivify nature with
his life-giving rays, gave to the genius of the twelfth
month the title of the Doubter. In the Christian calendar
this personification is known as Thomas, and a more
specific dedication of the shortest day of the year having
been made to him, the 21st day of December is called St.
Thomas day.

When the cardinal points were in the constellations
Leo, Taurus, Aquarius and Scorpio, the astrologers, objecting
to the signification of the latter, substituted the
constellation in conjunction therewith, which is known
as Aquila (Ak-we-la) or Flying Eagle. In the allegorical
astronomy of that remote period these genii of the seasons
were designated as beasts, and as such we find them
referred to in Revelation iv. 7, which reads as follows:
“And the first beast was like a lion (Leo), and the second
beast like a calf (Taurus, the bull calf), and the third
beast had a face as a man, (Aquarius, the waterman) and
the fourth beast was like a flying eagle (Aquila).” In the
first chapter of Ezekiel, the prophet, the genii of the seasons
are referred to in the same manner.

These genii of the seasons, standing, imaginarily, at
the four corners of the heavens, were called corner-keepers,
and making them witnesses to God Sol in his apparent
annual revolution, the founders of the Astral Worship
designated them as Archangels, Evangelists, God-Spellers
or Gospel-Bearers, and claiming inspiration from
them, composed four different histories of the birth and
earth-life of the incarnate saviour, to each of which they
attached a name, and called these records the Gospel

story. In its Chaldean version, the names of Gabriel,
Michael, Raphael and Uriel were given them; but while
the first two of these are mentioned in the Christian Gospel
story, its authors gave to the Evangelists the names
of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Thus knowing the
true signification of the Disciples and Evangelists, the
very pertinent question presents itself: If they are not
the genii of the months and the seasons, why are there
just twelve of the one and four of the other?

In the ancient astrolatry, the half year of increasing
days, extending from the Winter to the Summer Solstice,
was personified by the composite figure representing the
constellations of Taurus and Aquarius, which, constituted
of the winged body of a bull and the head and beard
of a man, was called the Cherubim. This personification
we find portrayed upon the Assyrian marbles on exhibition
in the British Museum.

The half year of decreasing days, extending from the
Summer to the Winter Solstice, was personified by the
figure, which, representing the constellations of Leo and
Aquila, and composed of the winged body and limbs of a
lion, with the head of an eagle, was called the Seraphim.

These last two personifications constituted the Archangels
of the ancient Astral Worship.

The last quarter of the year was personified in the
ancient allegories as a decrepit old man, who, stung by
a Scorpion (Scorpio), and fatally wounded by an arrow
from the quiver of an archer (Saggitarius) dies at the
Winter Solstice; and, after lying in the grave for the space
of three days, is brought to life again. Such was the personification
referred to in the Christian Gospel-story as
having been raised from the grave by the mandate, “Come
forth, Lazarus.” Thus have we shown that the elders
and the saints; the angels, and the Archangels; the Cherubim
and Seraphim; and also poor old Lazarus, are but
personifications of the several divisions of time.

Having shown that the founders of the ancient astrolatry
accorded homage to God Sol as Lord of Evil, under
the symbol of the serpent, and marked the beginning of
his reign, as such, by the constellation “Serpens” placed in
conjunction with the Autumnal Equinox; we will now

direct attention to the symbols under which he was worshipped
as Lord of Good, which, corresponding to the
form of the constellation in which occurred the Vernal
Equinox, and which was changed to correspond to the
form of the succeeding constellation as that Cardinal
point passed into it, by that process, known in Astronomy,
as the precession of the Equinoxes, its explanation becomes
essential to a correct understanding of our subject.

After long observation, aided by the telescope, of
which they were undoubtedly the original inventors, the
ancient Astrologers discovered that the Sun, in making
his apparent annual revolution, did not return to the same
point in the heavens, but fell behind that of the preceding
year, at the rate of 50¼ seconds of a degree annually. At
this rate of precession, which modern, calculation has confirmed,
it requires 71 2-3 years for the Cardinal points to
pass through one degree on the Ecliptic, and 2150 years
through thirty degrees, or one sign of the Zodiac. The
knowledge of this process affording an exact chronology,
we are enabled, not only to determine the origin of these
symbols, but to approximate, very nearly, to the respective
dates of their adoption.

From the teachings of Astronomy we learn that the
Summer Solstice is now occupying the point between the

signs of Taurus and Gemini, from which we know that
that Cardinal point has passed through three whole signs
since it was between the signs of Leo and Virgo, and we
have but to multiply 2,150 by 3 to determine that it has
been about 6,450 years ago. Hence, the tourist to the
Nile valley, when viewing, near the base of old Cheops,
the great Egyptian pyramid, a colossal head and bust of
a woman, carved in stone, and learns that it is attached
to a body, in the form of a lion in a crouching attitude 146
feet long, hidden beneath the shifting sands of the Libyan
desert; if possessed of the knowledge of the precession
of the Equinoxes, he will be enabled to solve the
riddle of the Sphinx by recognizing in that grotesque
monument the mid-summer symbol of solar worship,
when the Summer Solstice was between the signs of Leo
and Virgo.

When the Summer Solstice was between the signs
of Leo and Virgo, the Winter Solstice was between those
of Aquarius and Pisces, and the figure composed of the
body of a man with the tail of a fish became the mid-winter
symbol of solar worship. Such was the form of this
symbol to which the ancient Phoenicians paid homage
to the Lord under the name of Dagon.

At the same time the Summer Solstice entered the
sign of Leo, the Vernal Equinox entered that of Taurus,
and the bull becoming the spring symbol of solar worship—the
Lord was designated in the ancient allegories as the
bull of God which taketh away the sin of the world; which,
shorn of its allegorical sense, signifies the sun in Taurus,
or sun of spring, which taketh away the evil of Winter.
Such is the purport of hieroglyphical inscriptions upon
papyrus rolls found in Egypt, and engraved upon obelisks
erected in the Nile valley, one of which has been recently
brought to the City of New York and set up in Central
Park. In the East Indies this symbol was represented by
the figure of a bull with the solar disk between his horns;
and the Egyptians, who were of Hindoo origin, perpetuating
it in their “Apis,” it was reproduced in the golden calf
of the ancient Israelites. The Assyrians represented this
symbol by the figure of a winged bull with the face and
beard of a man; the Phoenicians, in their “Baal,” by the
figure of a man with a bull’s head and horns; and the
small silver bull’s heads with golden horns, recently discovered
by Dr. Schliemann in the ruins of Mycenae, were
jewels worn by the women of that ancient city, when the
Vernal Equinox was in the sign of Taurus.

By deducting 2,150 years from 6,450, we determine
that about 4,300 years; ago the Vernal Equinox entered the
sign of Aries, and the spring symbol of solar worship,
changing from the bull to the ram, was represented by
ram-headed figures, two of which, found in Egypt, are on
exhibition in the British Museum. Then the text which
read the bull of God, was changed to the Ram of God
which taketh away the sins of the world.

Ultimately attaching a meek and lowly disposition
to the imaginary incarnations of the mythical genius of
the sun, the symbol of the ram was changed to that of the
lamb, and the text in the allegories, which read the Ram of
God, was changed to read “The Lamb of God which
taketh away the sin of the World,” John i, 29. The explanation
we have given relative to the Zodiacal Symbols
of solar worship makes the assurance doubly sure that the
originals of the New Testament were composed when the
Vernal Equinox was in the sign of Aries, as will be
shown hereafter. Having adopted the symbol of the
lamb, it was represented by several forms of what is
known as Agnus Dei, or Lamb of God, one of which was
in the form of a bleeding lamb with a vase attached into

which blood is flowing, which originated in reference to
the shedding of blood as a vicarious atonement for sin.
But the most comprehensive form of this symbol in its
astronomical signification, was represented by the
figure of a lamb in a standing attitude, supporting the
circle of the Zodiac, divided into quarters to denote the
seasons. At each of the cardinal points there was a small
cross, and the lamb held in its uplifted fore-foot a larger
cross, the long arm of which was made to cut the celestial
equator at the angle of 23½ degrees, the true angle of
obliquity of the Ecliptic. This symbol is still retained in
the Catholic Church.

Among the numerous symbols of solar worship, besides
those we have already referred to, there are three
to which we will direct attention. Two of these were of
astronomical signification: the one adopted when the
Spring Equinox was in the sign of Taurus and shaped like
the letter T, was the model after which the ancient temples
were built; and the other, shaped like the letter X, in reference
to the angle of 23½ degrees made by the crossing
of the Ecliptic and the Celestial equator, is known as St.
Andrew’s Cross. The third, and most important of all the
symbols of solar worship, in its relation to the Christian
religion, which, having no astronomical signification,
originated in Egypt, in reference to the annual inundation
of the river Nile. To mark the height to which the water
should rise to secure an abundant harvest, posts were
planted upon its banks to which cross beams were attached
thus ┼. If the water should rise to the designated
height, it was called “the waters of life,” or “river
of life;” and, ultimately, this form of the cross was adopted
as the symbol of the life to come, or eternal life; and the
ancient astrologers had it engraved upon stone, encircled
with a hieroglyphical inscription to that effect, one of
which was discovered in the ruins of the temple erected

at Alexandria, and dedicated to “our Lord and Saviour
Serapis.”

But, if the water failed to rise to the required height,
and the horrors of starvation becoming the inevitable result,
it was the custom of the people to nail to these crosses
symbolical personifications of the Demon of Famine. To
indicate the sterility of the domain over which he reigned,
he was represented by the figure of a lean and haggard
man, with a crown of thorns upon his head; a reed cut
from the river’s bank was placed in his hands, as his unreal
sceptre; and, considering the inhabitants of Judea as the
most slavish and mean-spirited race in their knowledge,
they placarded this figure with the inscription: “This is
the King of the Jews.” Thus, to the ancient Egyptians,
this sign of the cross was blessed or accursed as it was
represented with, or without, this figure suspended
upon it.

When the Roman, or modern, form of Christianity
was instituted, the hieroglyphical inscription signifying
the life to come or eternal life was substituted by a placard
nailed to the cross with the letters I. N. R. I. inscribed
upon it, which are the initials of the Latin words conveying
the same meaning. But if we would learn how the
figure of a man came to be suspended upon this form of
the cross, we must refer to Mediaeval History, which

teaches that in the year 680, under the Pontificate of Agathon,
and during the reign of Constantine Pogonat, at the
sixth council of the church, and third at Constantinople, it
was ordered in Canon 82 that “Instead of a lamb, the figure
of a man nailed to a cross should be the distinguishing
symbol of the Christian religion.” Now, as this figure
is represented by that of a lean and haggard man, with a
crown of thorns upon his head, does it not look as if the
old Egyptian Demon of Famine was the model after
which it was constructed?

In the ancient Astrolatry, two different systems of
future rewards and punishments were inculcated; the
Oriental or East Indian, and the Occidental or Egyptian;
the former, ignoring the resurrection of the body, taught
but one judgment immediately after death, and the latter
inculcated an individual judgment immediately after
death, the resurrection of the body, and a general judgment
at the end of the world, or conclusion of the 12,000
year cycle.

Considering perfect happiness to consist in absolute
rest, the Oriental astrologers conceived a state of eternal
and unconscious repose, equivalent to soul absorption,
to which they gave the name of Nirvana, into which they
taught that, by the awards of the gods, the souls of the
righteous, or those who had lived what they called “the
contemplative life,” would be permitted to enter immediately
after death. But, for the souls of sinners, they invented
a system of expiatory punishments which, known
as the Metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls, taught
that they would be compelled to successively animate the
bodies of beasts, birds, fishes, etc., for a thousand years
before being permitted to enter the Nirvana.

In concocting the doctrine of the first judgment the
Egyptian astrologers, ignoring the Nirvana, inculcated
the future sentient existence of the soul; and, while retaining
the Metempsychotial expiations of the Oriental system,
taught that its rewards, and principal punishments,
would be enjoyed or suffered in the under or nether
world, the existence of which they had conceived in constructing
their system of nature. This imaginary region,
known to the Egyptians as the Amenti, to the Greeks as

Hades, and to the Hebrews as Sheol, was divided by an
impassable gulf into the two states of happiness and
misery which were designated in the Grecian mythology
as the Elysium, or Elysian Fields, and the Tartarus. In
the lower part of the latter was located the Phlegethon,
or lake of fire and brimstone, the smoke from which ascended
into an upper apartment.

In this system it was taught that the souls of the
two extremes of society, constituted of the righteous
and the great sinners, would be consigned immediately
after the first judgment, the one to the Elysium, and the
other to the Phlegethon, where they were to remain until
the second or general judgment; while the souls of less
venial sinners, constituting the greater mass of mankind,
before being permitted to enter the Elysium would be
compelled to suffer the expiatory punishments of the
Metempsychosis, or in the upper region, or “smoky row”
of the Tartarus. Such was the Egyptian purgatory, and
its denizens constituted “the spirits in prison” referred to
in I. Peter iii. 19, from which the astrologers claimed to
have the power to release, provided their surviving friends
paid liberally for their propitiatory offices; and, from this
assumption, the clergy of the Catholic church derived the
idea of saying masses for the repose of the soul. These
doctrines were carried by Pythagoras from Egypt to

Greece about 550 years before the beginning of our era;
and passing from thence to Rome, the Greek and Latin
poets vied with each other in portraying Hades and the
joys and terrors of its two states.

The Egyptian Astrologers, recognizing the soul as
a material entity, and conceiving the idea that in the
future life it would require a material organization for its
perfect action, taught that at the general judgment it
would be re-united to its resurrected body. In conformity
to this belief, Job is made to say in chapter xix. 25, 26,
“I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand
at the latter day upon the earth; and though worms destroy
this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” The
higher class Egyptians, however, fearing that their existence
would continue to be of the same shadowy and intangible
character after the second judgment, as they believed
it would be in the Amenti, if worms were allowed to
destroy their bodies, hoped to preserve them until that
time by the process of embalming.

The imaginary events to occur in connection with
the second judgment, which, constituting the finale of the
plan of redemption, and inculcated in what are known as
the doctrines of Second Adventism, were to be inaugurated

by an archangel sounding a trumpet summoning
the quick and the dead to appear before the bar of the
gods to receive their final awards. At the second judgment,
designated in the allegories as “the last day,” “day
of judgment,” “great and terrible day of the Lord,” etc.,
it was taught that the tenth and last saviour would make
his second advent by descending upon the clouds, and
after the final awards, the elect being caught up “to meet
the Lord in the air” (I. Thes. iv. 17), the heaven and the
earth would be reduced to chaos through the agency of
fire. In reference to that grand catastrophe we find it
recorded in II. Peter iii. 10, that “the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein
shall be burned up.”

After the organization of a new heaven and a new earth
it was taught that upon the latter would descend a beautiful
city, with pearly gates and golden streets, called the
City of God, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven
or New Jerusalem, in which the host of the redeemed
would, with their Lord and Saviour, enjoy the Millennium,
or thousand years of happiness unalloyed with evil;
and such was the Kingdom for the speedy coming of
which the votaries of Astral worship were taught to pray
in what is known as the Lord’s Prayer.

According to the teachings of the Allegories, there were
to be no sun, moon or stars during the Millennium, their
authors having arranged it so that the light of those luminaries
would not be needed, as we find recorded in Rev.
xxi. 23, and xxii. 5: “The city had no need of the
sun, neither of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of
God did lighten it,” and “there shall be no night there;
and they need no candle, neither the light of the sun; for
the Lord God giveth them light.” It must be remembered,
when reading the fanciful ideas relative to the City
of God, that they were composed by men who, living in
a very ignorant age, gave free rein to fervid imaginations.

It is our purpose to present the evidences showing
that a system of Astral worship, which we designate as
Jewish Christianity, was in existence more than two
centuries and a half before the institution of its
modern form. In verification of this assertion we must
find the initial point of our inquiry in ancient history,
which teaches that in the division of the Grecian Empire
among his generals, after the death of Alexander the
Great, who died 332 years before the beginning of our era,

the governorship of Egypt and adjacent provinces was secured
by Ptolemy Lagus, or Soter, who, having subsequently
suppressed a revolt in Judea, removed from that
country a large body of its inhabitants to people the new
city of Alexandria, which had been laid out by order of
and named after the great Conqueror.

The Egyptian version of the Gospel story, being
more appropriate to the Nile Valley than to the region
from whence they came, the Greek colonists of Alexandria
adopted it, but preferring to pay homage to Serapis,
one of the ninth incarnations of God Sol, which they
imported from Pontus, a Greek province of Asia Minor,
they erected to his worship that celebrated temple known
as the Grand Serapium; and, transferring the culture and
refinement of Greece to the new city, it became, under the
Ptolemian dynasty, a great seat of learning; the arts and
sciences flourished, an immense library was collected, the
various forms of Astral worship were represented and
schools for the dissemination of the several phases of Grecian
philosophy and Oriental Gnosticism were founded.

Such being the environment of the Jewish residents
of Alexandria, they soon acquired the vernacular and
adopted the religion of the Greeks, who, having ever attached
to their incarnate saviours the title signifying the
Christ, or the anointed, were known as Christians. Encouraged

by the liberal policy of Philadelphus, the second
Ptolemy, a body of their learned men, who had been educated
in the Greek schools, founded a college for the education
of their own people, which institution was ultimately
known as the University of Alexandria. Under
the auspices of Philadelphus the professors of that institution
rendered their Hebrew sacred records into the Greek
language, which translation is known as the Septuagint, or
Alexandrian version of the Old Testament.

Having acquired from the Egyptian astrologers the
arts of healing, thaumaturgy and necromancy, and teaching
them in their school, the professors of the Jewish
college of Alexandria assumed the title of Essenes, or
Therapeutae, the Egyptian and Greek words signifying
Doctors, Healers or Wonder Workers. Possessed of the
sad and gloomy characteristics of their race, they adopted
the “Contemplative Life,” or asceticism of the Oriental
Gnosticism, from which they derived the name of Ascetics.
Founding a church for the propagation of their
peculiar tenets, those who were set apart for the ministry
assumed the title of Ecclesiastics. Inculcating rigid temperance
and self-denial among their people, they were
known as Enchratites, Nazarites or Abstainers; and the
more devout among them retiring to monasteries, or to
the solitude of caves and other secluded places, were also

designated as Monks, Cenobites, Friars, Eremites, Hermits
or Solitaries.

The time having arrived, according to the cyclic
teachings of Astral worship, for the manifestation of the
tenth and last incarnation of God Sol, or, in other words,
to, give a new name to the mythical genius of the sun, the
professors of the Jewish school of Alexandria is resolved to
inaugurate their own form of worship. While retaining the
same title under which they had paid homage to Serapis
and known as Christians, Essenes or Therapeutae, they
substituted for their Christ the name of the Grecian Bacchus,
which, composed of the letters ΙΗΣ, signifies Yes,
Ies or Jes. In composing their version of the Gospel
story, having, like their race, no inventive genius, they appropriated
that of Serapis as its basis and laid its scene in
the land of their ancestry, but inconsistently retained the
sign of the cross and the phraseology connected there
with, which, having special reference to the Nile River and
its annual inundation, had no application whatever to the
sterile land of Judea. Selecting what they conceived to
be the best from other versions of the Gospel story, and assuming
the title of Eclectics, they designated their system
as the Eclectic Philosophy. In proof of the eclectic character
of the Gospel and Epistles of ancient Christianity, we
refer to the Asceticism inculcated therein, which, derived

from the Oriental Gnosticism, we find perpetuated in the
scriptures of modern Christianity; we also refer to the miracle
of converting water into wine, taken from the Gospel
story of Bacchus, and to the statements that the Saviour
was the son of a carpenter and was hung between two
thieves, copied from the story of Christna, the Eighth,
Avatar of the East Indian astrolatry. Thus we see that,
although the scene of the Gospel story of ancient Christianity
was laid in the land of Judea, its authors having
adopted a Greek version of that story as its basis, given a
Greek title and name to their Messiah, perpetuated a
Greek name for their sect and quoted exclusively from the
Septuagint, or Greek version of the Old Testament, the
facts show conclusively that it was not Jews of Judea, but
Hellenized Jews of Alexandria, who were the real authors
of the ancient Christianity.

The clergy having ever claimed that the prophecies
are Divine revelations of events yet to occur, and having
incessantly agitated society by preaching their speedy fulfillment,
we propose to expose the fallacy of their teachings
by showing that these scriptures are not the records
of future events, Divinely reavealed, but that they originated
with the founders of Astral worship, who predicated

them upon predetermined events of their own concoction,
relative to the general judgment, and setting up of the
kingdom of heaven, which were to occur as the finale of
the plan of redemption and from which were derived the
doctrines of second adventism; and, in determining the
exact time when then were to occur, we have but to prove
that it was coincident with the conclusion of the last half
of the grand cycle of 12,000 years, which, as we have
shown, was dedicated to man as the duration of his race
on earth.

As evidence that the founders of the Jewish or ancient
Christianity believed, like the votaries of other forms
of Astral worship, that the prophecies were soon to be fulfilled,
we find that the New Testament, of the original version
of which they were the authors, is replete with such
texts as “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,”
Matt. iv. 17; “There be some standing here which shall
not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His
kingdom,” Matt. xxi. 28; “The time is fulfilled, and the
Kingdom of God is at hand,” Mark i. 15. That the original
version of the New Testament was composed when the
Vernal Equinox was in the sign of Aries we are assured by
reason of the fact that it inculcates homage to the Lord
under the symbol of the Lamb; and that it was during the
last, or 30th degree of that sign, can readily be proven by

appealing to history and to astronomy, the former of which
teaches that the Jews were removed from Judea to Alexandria
twenty-five years before the accession to the throne
of Philadelphus, the Second Ptolemy, to whom we have
referred in our preceding article, and who, after reigning
thirty-nine years, died 246 years before the beginning of
our era. By reference to the Celestial atlas we will find
that the Vernal Equinox will pass out of the sign of Pisces
into that of Aquarius, or in the year 1900, and we
have but to deduct that period of time from 2150, the
number of years required for the cardinal points to pass
through one whole sign, to determine that the Spring
Equinox passed out of the sign of Aries into that of Pisces
250 years before the beginning of our era, or about 2,100
years ago. Now, from the projections of the astrological
science, we are assured that the last half of the grand cycle
of 12,000 years, which was allotted to man as the duration
of his race on earth, was made to begin at a time corresponding
to the Autumnal Equinox, when that cardinal
point was passing out of the sign of Virgo, and that of necessity
it had to come to an end at a time corresponding
to the Vernal Equinox, when that cardinal point was passing
out of the sign of Aries; from which we know why, at
the last judgment, the office of trumpeter was assigned to
the Archangel Gabriel, the genius of Spring, and why it

was a ram’s horn with which he was to “toot the crack o’
doom.”

When the time arrived for the fulfillment of the prophecies
we can well imagine that, fearing the wrath of the
Lamb, there were weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth
among the terror-stricken sinners, while those who believed
they had made their calling and election sure were
looking with feverish expectancy for the second advent of
their Lord and Saviour; and, doubtless, clothed with their
ascension robes, they watched and waited, with ears alert,
to hear the sound of Gabriel’s trumpet, summoning the
quick, and the dead to the general judgment. But not a
blast from the archangel’s ram’s horn was heard reverberating
along the skies, no Lord appeared descending
upon the clouds to meet the elect in the air, and, in the last
act of the fearful drama of “judgment day,” the curtain refused
to be rung down upon a burning world.

With the non-fulfillment of the prophecies, the more
enlightened elements of society began to scoff at the
priests, who were temporarily demoralized, but true to
their deceptive instincts, soon rallying with the plea of a
mistake having been made in the calculations based upon
the prophecies, they undoubtedly concocted scripture to
meet that very emergency, for, to the taunts of the scoffers
who, in reference to the second advent of the Lord, enquired

“Where is the sign of His coming? for, since the
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from
the beginning of creation,” they answered that “The Lord
is not slack concerning His promise,” but “as a thief in the
night” he would soon come and all things be fulfilled. See
II. Peter, chapter iii.

Following up the history of this interesting subject,
we find that the founders of modern Christianity, to which
we will refer in our next article, in composing their version
of the New Testament from that of the Jewish, or ancient
Christians, made no change in its verbiage relative to the
prophecies; but when Constantine I., Emperor of Rome,
became the patron of the church, her hierarchy, tired of
figuring upon them, secured a long respite from that troublesome
subject by claiming to have made other calculations,
which put off the time of fulfillment to the year 1000;
and from history we learn when the time arrived the whole
of Christendom was fearfully agitated upon the subject:
Since then every generation has been vexed with the fallacies
of second adventism; and the facts of the case justify
the charge that the clergy, by teaching that the prophecies
refer to events yet to occur, are perpetuating a
most stupendous fraud upon Christendom, and an earnest
and efficient protest should be inaugurated against the
further agitation of the monstrous delusion of second adventism,

which is frightening thousands of weak-minded
people into insanity and causing a vast amount of social
distress.

Having presented the evidences that the Jewish, or
ancient Christianity, originated at the University of Alexandria,
under Greek rule, we now propose to show that its
modern form emanated from the same source, under Roman
rule; but, before entering upon this investigation, it
is important to become conversant with the sentiments
manifested towards religion by the cultured element of
Roman society in that enlightened era, which, designated
as the golden age of literature, was adorned by such distinguished
orators, philosophers, historians, poets and
naturalists as Cicero, Tacitus, Pliny, Horace and Virgil.
In reference to this subject, Gibbon, in his history of The
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. I., chapter 2,
says: “The various modes of worship which prevailed in
the Roman world were all considered by the people as
equally true, by the philosophers as equally false and by
the magistrate as equally useful. Both the interests of the
priests and the credulity of the people were sufficiently respected.

In their writings and conversation the philosophers
of antiquity asserted the independent dignity of reason,
but they resigned their actions to the commands of
law and custom. Viewing with a smile of pity and indulgence
the various errors of the vulgar, they diligently
practiced the ceremonies of their fathers, devoutly frequented
the temples of the gods, and sometimes condescending
to act a part on the theatre of superstition, they
concealed the sentiments of an atheist under the sacerdotal
robe. Reasoners of such a temper were scarcely inclined
to wrangle about their respective modes of faith or of worship.
It was indifferent to them what shape the folly of
the multitude might choose to assume, and they approached
with the same inward contempt and the same
external reverence to the altars of the Lybian, the Olympian
or the Capitoline Jupiter.” Upon the same subject
Mosheim, in his church history, Book I., chapter 1, says
that “The wiser part of mankind, about the time of
Christ’s birth, looked upon the whole system of religion as
a just object of contempt and ridicule.”

In determining why such adverse sentiments were
entertained towards religion by “the wiser part of mankind,”
about the time referred to in the foregoing quotations,
it will be found to have been owing to the extensive
spread of the Esoteric philosophy, which taught, as previously

stated, that the gods were mythical and the scriptures
allegorical. While attainable only through initiation,
it was necessarily confined to a limited number, but, ultimately
getting beyond the control of the priests and vast
numbers acquiring the knowledge of its secrets without
initiation, it became evident that it was but a question of
time when there would be no respectable element left to
sustain religion. At this juncture our attention is directed
to the University of Alexandria, which, at that time, was
in a flourishing condition. Having ceased to be an exclusively
Jewish school, students from all parts of the
Roman Empire, without regard to nationality, were attending
it, and its professors were drawn from the ranks
of both Jewish and Gentile scholars. Realizing the hopelessness
of reviving the ancient faith among the enlightened
clement of society, and the impossibility of proselyting
them to a new form of superstition, these professors
resolved to institute a system of worship exclusively for
the Jews and the lower and neglected classes of Gentiles,
including the slaves and criminals. To that end they rewrote
the scriptures of the Jewish or ancient Christianity,
which had been preserved among the secret archives of
the University. Retaining their teachings relative to the
finale of the plan of redemption, and its monasticism; also
the land of Judea as the scene of its version of the Gospel

story, and the name of its saviour, to which they added the
Latin terminal “us,” thus making it Iesus or Jesus, they
perpetuated the Greek name of Bacchus—the same that
was ultimately perverted into the monogram which, consisting
of the Roman letters I. H. S., is found in all Catholic
churches, and in some Protestant ones, is falsely supposed
to stand for Jesus Hominum Salvator, or Jesus,
Saviour of Men. Conforming their version of the Gospel
story to the lowly condition of its expected votaries, they
attached to the saviour the characteristics of poverty, and
made it teach that he was born in a manger, that his disciples
were but humble fishermen and that the poor would
be the only elect in the kingdom of heaven. Dropping
the name of Essenes or Therapeutae, and retaining that of
Christian, they incorporated a thread of real history corresponding
to the reign of Augustus, and arbitrarily made
the Christian era begin at that time. Having thus completed
their scheme, they prudently destroyed the original
from which they compiled their scriptures, and sending
out missionaries to all parts of the Empire commissioned
them to preach salvation only to the Gentile rabblement
and to the Jews.

That the sacred records of the ancient Essenes or
Therapeutae constituted the basis of the scriptures of
modern Christianity we have the authority of Eusebius,

the church historian of the fourth century, from whom we
learn nearly all that is reliable of its history during the first
three centuries. In his Ecclesiastical History, Book II.
chapter 17, he makes the important admission that “Those
ancient Therapeutae were Christians, and that their writtings
are our Gospels and Epistles.” As further evidence
that modern Christianity is but a survival of the Eclectic
philosophy of the ancient Therapeutae, we have another
important admission by the same historian, who, in quoting
from an apology addressed to the Roman Emperor,
Marcus Antoninus, in the year 171, by Melito, Bishop of
Sardis, in Lydia, a province of Asia Minor, makes that
apologist say, in reference to certain grievances to which
the Christians were subjected, that “the philosophy which
we profess truly flourished aforetime among the barbarous
nations; but having blossomed again in the great reign of
thy ancestor, Augustus, it proved to be, above all things,
ominous of good fortune to thy kingdom.” Thus we have
indubitable evidence that it was the Eclectic philosophy of
the Jewish, or ancient Christianity, which “blossomed
again,” in its modern form, during the reign of Augustus.

From the testimony of Philo, as referred to by Eusebius,
and from the writings of Josephus, the Jewish
historian, we learn that, at the beginning of our era, the
descendants of the ancient Essenes were still observing

the practices and customs of monasticism. But as Josephus
refers to them only as descendants of the ancient Essenes,
and makes no mention of Christ or Christians—except
in one paragraph which has been conceded by the
best authorities to be an interpolation it is evident that,
at that time, they had no connection with the University of
Alexandria, and nothing whatever to do with the institution
of modern Christianity. It is also apparent that the
Jews of Judea had no hand in its organization, for, if they
had instituted it, they would not have attached to the Messiah
the Greek title signifying the Christ, but, writing their
version of the Gospel story in their own dialect, would
have used the Hebrew word signifying the Shiloh (see
Gen. xlix. 10); and furthermore, having conceived the
idea that he would manifest himself as a great temporal
prince, who would re-establish the throne of David, and
deliver them from the oppression of foreign rulers, they
would not have attached to him the humble characteristics
of the Christ of the new Testament. Again, if they had
been the authors of modern Christianity, it would have
been a most surprising inconsistency for them to turn
right about and reject its conceptions of a savior, especially
when that rejection resulted in the dire persecutions
to which their race has ever been subjected by the Christians.

But the Gentile riffraff, attracted by the gracious
promises of enjoying in the world to come the felicities
denied them in this, eagerly attached themselves to the
new sect, which rapidly increased in numbers, and its
votaries, glorying in the opprobrious epithet of Ebionites,
or needy ones, made themselves so obnoxious by their aggression
and turbulent dispositions that, barely tolerated
by the Government and condemned by the cultured adherents
to the established religion, many of them, courting
the crown of martyrdom, suffered death at the hands
of the civil authorities; and thus was engendered that
spirit of hatred against their fancied oppressors which
only awaited the opportunity to manifest itself in deeds of
rapine and-bloodshed.

The fanacticism which prevailed among the earlier
Christians was the direct result of their dense ignorance,
and to this sole cause we may ascribe all the trouble which
the Roman Government had with them, and to become
convinced of this fact we have but to study church history.
In reference to this subject Mosheim, in his Ecclesiastical
History; Vol. 4, part 2, chap. 1, says: “It is certain
that the greatest part both of the bishops and presbyters
were men entirely destitute of learning and education.
Besides, that savage and illiterate party, who looked upon
all sorts of erudition, particularly that of a philosophical

kind, as pernicious, and even destructive of true piety
and religion, increased both in number and authority.
The ascetics, monks and hermits augmented the strength
of this barbarous faction, and not only the women, but
also all who took solemn looks, sordid garments, and a
love of solitude, for real piety, were vehemently prepossessed
in their favor.” In almost any history of England
we will find it recorded that, even in the ninth century,
King Alfred lamented that there was at that time not
a priest in his dominions who understood Latin; and even
for some centuries after the bishops and prelates of the
whole Christian community were marksmen, i. e., they
supplied by the sign of the cross the inability to write
their own names. If the bishops and priests were so
supremely ignorant what can be said in reference to the
literary attainments of the laity?

The Christians were alternately persecuted and tolerated
by the Roman Emperors until the first quarter of the
fourth century, when certain events occurred through
which the Church of Rome became the recipient of Imperial
Patronage. Constantine I., called the Great, having
made himself sole Emperor by destroying all other
claimants to the throne, applied to Sopater, one of the
priests of the established religion, for absolution, and was
informed that his crimes were of such an atrocious character

that there was no absolution for him. Believing
that the Phlegethon, or lake of fire and brimstone, awaited
him in the future life, unless he could obtain absolution, he
became very much distressed when one of his courtiers,
learning the cause and referring him to the Church of
Rome, he at once applied to her Bishop, Silvester, who,
readily granting the desired absolution, he added another
victim to his butcher bill by ordering the death of the
honest priest who had refused to grant him absolution.
The Christian sect having become a powerful and dangerous
faction, Constantine conceived the idea of strengthening
his usurped and precarious position by attaching
it to his interest, and to that end he professed himself a
convert to its tenets, and, taking the Church of Rome
under his especial patronage, elevated her Bishop to the
rank of a prince of the Empire and gave him one of his
palaces for a residence.

The Christian hierarchy, knowing that it would be a
potent means of confirming the faith of the laity in the
Gospel story as a literal history to have a tomb of the
Saviour to which pilgrimages could be made, and appealing
to Constantine to provide one, he sent his mother,
Helena, to Judea to find the place and, of course, discovering
what she went to look for, he had erected,
under her supervision, over the designated spot, that

splendid edifice which, known as the church of the Holy
Sepulchre, remains to this day. Helena, good at finding
lost things, also claimed to have discovered the veritable
cross upon which the Saviour had been crucified; and her
son, worthy of such a mother, claimed, as recorded by
Eusebius, that he had seen with his own eyes the trophy of
a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, bearing the
inscription: “In Hoc Signo Vinces,” signifying “Under
this sign, conquer.” Those were times of remarkable
and supernatural occurrences.

At the time Constantine became the patron of Christianity
the bishops and presbyters of the several churches,
seemingly ignorant of the teachings of the Esoteric philosophy
relative to the origin of the Trinity, were divided
into two factions in discussing the relation between the
Father and the Son. One party, headed by Athanasius,
a presbyter of Alexandria, and afterwards bishop of that
see, advocated the ancient belief that the three persons
in the godhead of Father, Son and Holy Ghost is but one
God, that Christ is consubstantial or co-eternal with the
Father, and that he became man to perform his mission
of redemption. Such, in brief, is what is known as the
Athanasian or Trinitarian Creed. The other party,
headed, by Arius, another presbyter of Alexandria, advocated
the belief in one God alone and that Christ, having

no existence until begotten of the Father, is not consubstantial
or co-eternal with him. Such, in substance, constitutes
what is known to the Trinitarian or Orthodox
Christians as the Arian or Unitarian heresy. Could
stronger evidence be adduced that this controversy was
the result of ignorantly making a distinction where there
is no difference, for whether Trinitarian or Unitarian the
mythical genius of the sun is the God to whom they all
paid supreme adoration, although the Christians of to-day
would deny it most emphatically.

The faction, advocating the Trinitarian creed having
converted the Emperor to their belief, and influencing
him to enforce it as a fundamental doctrine of the Christian
theology, he, in the year 325, summoned, at his own
expense, a general council of bishops and priests to meet
at Nice, in Bithynia, a province of Asia Minor. When
they had assembled he appeared among them, clad in gorgeous
attire, with a jewel-studded diadem upon his royal
brow, and, seated upon a gilded chair, presided over their
deliberations. A minority of them, holding “most contumaciously”
to the Arian heresy, and refusing to change
their views at the bidding of the Emperor, he banished
them from their respective bishoprics, while the majority
adopted the Trinitarian creed, and appealing to Constantine
to suppress the writings of Arius he issued an edict

for that purpose, which we present as follows: “Moreover
we thought that if there can be found extant any
work or book compiled by Arius the same should be
burned to ashes, so that not only his damnable doctrine
may thereby be wholly rooted out, but also that no relic
thereof may remain unto posterity. This we also straightway
command and charge, that if any man be found to
hide or conceal any book made by Arius, and not immediately
bring forth such book, and deliver it up to be
burned, that the said offender for so doing shall die the
death. For as soon as he is taken our pleasure is that his
head shall be stricken off from his shoulders.” Rather a
blood-thirsty, edict to be issued by the “puissant, the
mighty and noble Emperor,” and a very inconsistent one,
considering that he soon afterwards readopted the Unitarian
faith and restored the banished bishops to their respective
sees; but, regardless of his action, the Church of
Rome sustained the Trinitarian creed and enforced the
dogma of the supreme divinity of Christ.

Thus we see that the history of Christianity, in the
first half of the fourth century, cannot be written without
incorporating considerable from the life of Constantine,
whose ensanguined record before his pretended conversion
marks him as the most brutal tyrant that ever disgraced
the imperial purple; but the appalling crimes he

perpetrated afterwards, among which were the scalding
his inoffending wife to death in a bath of boiling water,
and the murdering, without cause, of six members of his
family, one of which was his own son, justify what a
learned writer said of him, that “The most unfortunate
event that ever befell the human race was the adoption
of Christianity by the crimson-handed cut-throat in the
possession of unlimited power,” and yet Constantine was
canonized by the Eastern church.

During the first three centuries, when Christianity
was but a weak sect, her bishops addressed numerous
apologies to the Roman Emperors, in which they claimed
tolerance from the government on the ground that their
form of worship was virtually the same as the established
religion. But after Constantine’s pretended conversion
its hierarchy began to labor for the recognition of Christianity
as the state religion, and to give to their demand
some show of consistency they insisted that their scriptures
were really historical, and that there was no resemblance
whatever between the two forms of worship; while
theirs was of Divine authenticity the Pagans was purely a
human institution.

For centuries after the convocation of the council of
Nice the peace and harmony of the several churches were
disturbed by the rancorous discussion of the same old

questions of Trintarianism and Unitarianism, the Western
church adhering to the former while a majority of the
Eastern congregations maintained their faith in the latter;
but ultimately the Trinitarian party, gaining the ascendency,
and persecuting the adherents of the Unitarian
faith, the greater part of them retired into northern Arabia
where they founded numerous monasteries; and from history
we learn that, having impressed their Unitarian faith
upon the populace of that country, it was ultimately incorporated
into the Koran, the sacred book of Mohammedanism;
and, while becoming votaries of that form of
worship, still retained the belief that Christ was but one
of the prophets.

The cultured adherents to the established form of
worship, becoming alarmed at the growing power and influence
of the Christians and at the prospect of such an
ignorant and vicious rabble obtaining control of the government,
regardless of their pledge to keep the Gnosis
secret, publicly announced that the Gods were mythical
and the scriptures allegorical, and engaged in a heated
controversy with the Christians upon the subjects. The
character of their discussions is well, although supposititiously,
expressed by Gerald Massey, in his work entitled,
“The Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ;” page 179,
American edition, where he makes the Gnostics say to the

Christians, “You poor ignorant idiots; you have mistaken
the mysteries of old for modern history, and accepted
literally all that was only meant mystically.” To
which the Christians responded, “You spawn of Satan,
you are making the mystery by converting our accomplished
facts into your miserable fables; you are dissipating
and dispersing into thin air our only bit of solid foothold
in the world, stained with the red drops of Calvary.
You are giving a satanic interpretation of the word of
revelation and falsifying the oracles of God. You are
converting the solid facts of our history into your newfangled
allegories;” to which the Gnostics replied, “Nay,
it is you who have taken the allegories of Mythology for
historical facts.”

But it was impossible to stem the rising tide; the
lessons which the priesthood had taught the ignorant
masses had been too well learned. They were sure that
their scriptures were historical; that Jesus Christ was
truly the incarnate saviour who had died and rose again
for the salvation of the elect, and that being the elect it
would be pre-eminently just and proper that the old Pagan
form of worship should be abrogated and theirs recognized
as the state religion. Thus the conflict raged
until the year 381, when, under the reign of the Emperor
Theodosius the Great, this demand having been formally

made, and the Senate, fearing the tumult a refusal would
excite, with a show of fair dealing ordered the presentation,
before that body, of the respective merits of the two
forms of worship. In that memorable discussion, which
lasted a whole week, Symmachus, a senator, advocated
the old system, and Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, the new,
which resulting, as a foregone conclusion, in the triumph
of Christianity, a decree to that effect was promulgated.

Then the long deferred opportunity having arrived,
the vengeful bishops, hounding on a no less vengeful
laity, ruthlessly murdered the priests of the old religion,
and, appropriating its emoluments to their own use, they
seized upon its temples, and demolishing some, converted
others into churches. With iconoclastic hands they destroyed
some of the statues representing the ancient divinities,
or after mutilation exposed others in public places
to the derision of the populace. Subjecting the adherents
to the older form of worship, whom they designated
as infidels, to the most diabolical indignities and persecutions,
they destroyed their works of art, burned their libraries,
suppressed their schools of learning, and either killed
or exiled their professors. Among the atrocious acts
perpetrated by these fiends in human shape none was
more barbarous than the one committed in Alexandria, in
the year 415, when Hypatia, the beautiful and accomplished

daughter of Theon, who had succeeded her father
as professor of mathematics and philosophy in the Alexandrian
University, while on her way to deliver a lecture,
was, by order of Bishop Cyril, dragged from her chariot
and murdered in a most revolting manner.

One of the successors of Theodosius justified himself
in decreeing the spoliation of the old religion upon
the grounds that “It was unbecoming a Christian government
to supply the infidels with the means of persevering
in their errors.” Another one of the Emperors, more
zealous than his predecessors, decreed the death penalty
against all persons discovered practicing any of the rites
and ceremonies of the old religion. Thus the onslaught of
Christian savagery obliterated the civilization of Greece
and Rome, and inaugurated that long reign of intellectual
night known as the Dark Ages, which, materially aiding
in effecting the decline and fall of the Roman Empire,
made it possible to erect upon its ruins that Italian
Oligarchy, which, since then, has ruled the greater part of
Christendom.

The dogmatic element of the ancient astrolatry, as incorporated
into the Christian creed, underwent no material
change until the inauguration of the dark ages, when
the bishops of the several churches, in the delirium of metaphysical
speculation, concocted the previously unheard

of doctrine of pre-existence of spirit, in conformity to
which God was declared to be purely a spiritual deity,
who, existing before matter, created the universe of nothing.
Being the sole custodians of the scriptures; and
changing the six periods of a thousand years each to the
six days of creation, they altered Gen. i, 1, to read, “In
the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,”
which in the original read: “In the beginning, when the
Gods (Elohim or Alehim) had made (shaped or formed)
this heaven and this earth.” These radical changes necessitating
others, they made two distinct and independent
beings of the principles of Good and Evil personified
in the God Sol; the former they embodied in Jesus the
Christ and the latter in the Christian Devil, thus supplanting
old Pluto; the presiding genius of the under world.

Rejecting the ancient doctrines relative to the soul,
and teaching that, having proceeded from a purely spiritual
deity, it would exist eternally as an independent
spiritual entity, they substituted for the ancient system of
limited rewards and punishments the one inculcating their
endless duration. These changes in the creed, which
were confirmed at the general council of Constantinople,
in the year 553, necessitating further alterations of the
scriptures, the righteous were promised “eternal life” in
the Paradise of God beyond the stars; and, While consigning

great sinners to “everlasting punishment” in the
Tartarian fires of the under world, the less venial were to
expiate their crimes in the same old Purgatory. Thus,
having invented an endless heaven and an endless hell for
purely spiritual souls, and neglecting to expunge the doctrines
of the resurrection of the body, the setting up of the
kingdom of heaven upon a reorganized earth and other
materialistic teachings of the ancient religion, they made
of the creed and scriptures such a conglomeration of
“things new and old” that, without the Astrological key,
it would be impossible to determine what they originally
taught.

At the Reformation in the 16th century Luther and
his coadjutors, while projecting into the Protestant creed
all the cardinal tenets of Catholicism, excepting that of
Purgatory, made no change in the verbiage of the scriptures.
Thus retaining the awful doctrine of endless hell,
the reformers constructed a creed which they intended
for the government of Protestants for all time; but,
doing what had never been done before in the history
of the world, they gave the scriptures to the laity, and,
whether or not they secured the right of private judgment
or individual interpretation, it has been taken all the
same; and thus opening the door to investigation, it must
ultimately result not only in the abrogation of hell, but

in the relegation to the limbo of oblivion of the whole
dogmatic element of religion.

As a fitting conclusion to this article, we again direct
the attention of our readers to the subject of the primary
source of religious dogmas. Prior to the establishment
of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire,
the philosophers who wrote against it invariably made the
charge that its theology was derived from the ancient Paganism.
After its establishment as the state religion of
the Empire, the hierarchy of the church, knowing that
this charge was unanswerable, instigated the Emperor
Theodosius I. to promulgate an edict decreeing the destruction
of all books antagonistic to Christianity. This
edict, directed more particularly against the writings of
Celsus, was carried out so effectually that we know nothing
of what he wrote, only as quoted by Origen, the distinguished
church father of the third century, who attempted
to answer in eight books what Celsus had written
in one, entitled “The True Discourse.” In one of his
quotations from Celsus’ work he makes that philosopher
say “that the Christian religion contains nothing but what
Christians held in common with heathens, nothing that
was new or truly great.” See Bellamy’s translation,
chapter 4. During the earlier centuries the Christians
were divided into numerous sects, entertaining very divergent

views, and each faction, holding all others to be
heretical, charged them with having derived their doctrines
from the Pagan religion. Upon this subject we
find that Epiphanius, a celebrated church father of the 4th
century, freely admits that all that differed from his own
were derived from the heathen mythology. Such was the
position of all orthodox writers during the Middle Ages,
and since the Reformation the Protestant clergy have uniformly
made the same charge against the Catholic; a few
quotations from their writings we present for the edification
of our readers.

Jean Daille, a French Protestant minister of the 17th
century, in his treatise entitled La Religion Catholique
Romaine Institute par Nama Pompile, demonstrates that
“the Papists took their idolatrous worship of images, as
well as all their ceremonies, from the old heathen religion.”
Bishop Stillingfleet of the English church and a
writer of considerable eminence in the 17th century, said,
in reference to the complaisant spirit of the early church
towards the Pagans, that “it was attended by very bad
consequences, since Christianity became at last, by that
means, nothing else but reformed Paganism, as to its divine
worship.” See Stillingfleet’s defense of the charge
of idolatry against the Romanists, vol. 5, page 459.
M. Turrentin, of Geneva, Switzerland, a learned Protestant

writer of the 17th century, in one of his orations describing
the state of Christianity in the 4th century, says
“that it was not so much the Empire that was brought
over to the faith, as the faith that was brought over to the
Empire; not the Pagans who were converted to Christianity,
but the Christians who were converted to Paganism.”
Thus, having shown that the Catholics derived
all their cardinal tenets from the Pagan mythology, the
Protestants must surely have obtained theirs from the
Catholics, for they teach all of them except that of Purgatory.

The rites and ceremonies of Astral worship, under
the name of Druidism, were primarily observed in consecrated
groves by all peoples; which custom was retained
by the Scandinavian and Germanic races, and by
the inhabitants of Gaul and the British Islands; while the
East Indians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Grecians, Romans,
and other adjacent nations, ultimately observed their religious
services in temples; and we propose to show that
the modern societies of Freemasonry, and ancient order
of Druids, are but perpetuations of the grove and temple

forms of the ancient astrolatry. In determining the fact
that Freemasonry finds its prototype in the temple worship
of ancient Egypt, we have but to study the Masonic
arms, as illustrated in Fellows’ chart, in which are pictured,
as its objects of adoration, the sun and moon, the
seven stars, known as Pleiades in the sign of Taurus;
the blazing star Sirius, or Dog-star, worshipped by the
Egyptians under the name of Anubis, and whose rising
forewarned those people of the rising of the Nile River;
the seven signs of the Zodiac from Aries to Libra, inclusive,
through which the sun was supposed to pass in making
his apparent annual revolution, and which constitutes
the Royal arch from which was derived the name of one of
its higher degrees; and its armorial bearings, consisting of
pictures of the Lion, the Bull, the Waterman, and the
Flying Eagle, which representing the signs at the cardinal
points, constituted the genii of the seasons. Besides these,
we have the checkered flooring or mosaic work, representing
the earth and its variegated face, which was introduced
when temple worship succeeded its grove form;
the two columns representing the imaginary pillars of
heaven resting upon the earth at Equinoctial points, and
supporting the Royal arch; also the letter “G” standing
for Geometry, the knowledge of which was of great importance
to the natives of Egypt in establishing the boundaries

of their lands removed by the inundations of the
Nile, the square and compass, being the instruments
through which the old landmarks were restored, and
which ultimately became the symbols of justice. The
cornucopia, or horn of plenty, denoted the sun in the sign
of Capricorn, and indicated the season when the harvest
was gathered and provisions laid up for Winter use; the
cenotaph or mock coffin with the sign of the cross upon
its lid, referred to the sun’s crossing of the celestial equator
at the Autumnal Equinox, and to the figurative death
of the genius of that luminary in the lower hemisphere;
whose resurrection at the Vernal Equinox is typified by
the sprig of acacia sprouting near the head of the coffin.
The serpent, issuing from the small vessel to the left, represented
the symbol of the Lord of Evil under whose
dominion was placed the seasons of Autumn and Winter;
and the figure of a box at the right hand, represented
the sacred ark in which, anciently, the symbols of solar
worship were deposited; but which is now used by the
masons as a receptacle for their papers.

After, the promulgation, in the fifth century, of the
edict by one of the Emperors of Rome, decreeing the
death penalty against all persons discovered practicing
any of the rites and ceremonies of the ancient religion, a
body of its cultured adherents, determining to observe

them secretly, banded themselves together into a society
for that purpose. With the view to masking their real
object, they took advantage of the fact that the square and
compass, the plumbline, etc., were symbols of speculative
masonry in the temple form of Astral worship, they publicly
claimed to be only a trades-union for the prosecution
of the arts of architecture and operative masonry; but,
among themselves, were known as Free and Accepted
Masons or Freemasons. In imitation of the ancient mysteries
they instituted lower and higher degrees; in the
former they taught the Exoteric creed, and in the latter
the Esoteric philosophy, as explained in our introduction.
Inculcating supreme adoration to the solar divinity the
candidates for initiation were made to personate that
mythical being and subjected to the ceremonies representing
his figurative death and resurrection, were required
to take fearful oaths not to reveal the secrets of the
order. To enable them to recognize each other, and to
render aid to a brother in emergencies, they adopted a
system of grips, signs and calls; and to guard against the
intrusion of their Christian enemies they stationed watchmen
outside of their lodges to give timely warning of their
approach. Thus was instituted the original Grand Lodge
of Freemasonry, from which charters were issued for the
organization of subordinate lodges in all the principal
cities throughout the Roman Empire.

Becoming cognizant of the true object of Freemasonry,
the Hierarchy of the Church of Rome resolved
to suppress the order, and to that end maintained such a
strict espionage upon its members that, no longer able
to assemble in their lodges, they determined to defend
themselves by an appeal to arms, and gathering together
in strongholds, for a long time successfully resisted the
armies of the church; but ultimately, being almost exterminated,
the residue disbanded, and we hear no more
of Freemasonry, as a secret order, until the conclusion
of the Dark Ages, when the Reformation, making it possible,
a form of the order, recognizing Christianity, was
revived among the Protestants; but the Church of Rome,
true to her traditions, has never ceased to hurl anathemas
against it and all other secret societies outside of her own
body. Thus, having made it apparent that Freemasonry,
as primarily instituted, was but a perpetuation of the
temple form of Astral worship, we can readily see that,
while some of its symbols are as old as the ancient Egyptian
religion, it did not, as a secret order, take its rise until
Christian persecution made it necessary. Hence it cannot
justly lay claim to a greater antiquity than the fifth
century of the Christian era.

According to Masonic annals a Grand Lodge was organized
at York, England, early in the tenth century, but,

like the lodges of Southern Europe, was suppressed by
the Church of Rome. In 1717 a Grand Lodge was organized
at London, England, and soon afterwards the old
Grand Lodge at York was revived, and its members took
the name of Free and Accepted Ancient York Masons,
from which emanated the charter of the Grand Lodge in
the United States, which was organized in Boston in 1733.
In 1813 the rivalry between the Grand Lodges of York
and London was compromised, and the supremacy of the
former was conceded.

From church history we learn that in the year 596 of
our era Pope Gregory I. dispatched Augustin, and forty
other monks of the order of St. Andrew, from Rome to
Britain, to convert the natives to Christianity; but, while
the Anglo-Saxons embraced the new faith, the Britons
rejected it, and, being persecuted by the Christians, retired
to the fastnesses of the country known as Wales,
where, for a long period, they maintained the observance
of the Druidical form of worship; and although that
country has long since become Christianized, the society
of the Ancient Order of Druids has existed with an uninterrupted
succession at Pout-y-prid, where the Arch-Druid
resides, and from, whence emanated the charter
of the Grand Lodge of the order in this country. In
reference to the Druidism on the continent, history records

the fact that when one of the reigning kings became
a convert to Christianity the whole of his subjects were
baptized into the Church of Rome by Imperial decree.

In determining the origin of the seventh day Sabbath,
we must of necessity refer to that source of all religious
ordinances, the ancient astrolatry, the founders of
which, having taught that God Sol was engaged in the reorganization
of Chaos during the first six periods of the
twelve thousand year cycle, corresponding to the months
of Spring and Summer, they conceived the idea that he
ceased to exert his energies, or rested from his labors on
the seventh period, corresponding to the first of the Autumn
months. Hence, deriving the suggestion from the
apparent septenary rest in nature, they taught that God
ordained the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath or
rest day for man.

In conformity to this ordinance the founders of ancient
Judaism enforced the observance of the seventh day
Sabbath in the fourth commandment of the Decalogue,
which, found in Gen. xx. 8-11,¹
reads as follows, viz: “Remember
the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt
thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is
the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do

any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man
servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy
stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord
made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and
rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the
Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Thus was the seventh
day of the week made the Sabbath of the Old Testament;
but the authors of the Jewish or ancient Christianity, looking
for the immediate fulfillment of the prophecies relative
to the second judgment, ignored its observance, as
may be seen by reference to Mark ii. 23, 27; John v. 2-18;
Romans xiv. 5; and Col. ii. 16; and the founders of
modern Christianity, perpetuating the belief in the speedy
fulfillment of those prophecies, made no change relative
to the Sabbath in their version of the New Testament.

After Constantine’s pretended conversion to Christianity,
and the time for the fulfillment of the prophecies
had been put off to the year 10000, as previously stated, the
hierarchy of the church appealed to the Emperor to give
them a Sabbath, and although they knew that the seventh
day of the week was the Sabbath of the Old Testament,
and that Sunday was the first of the six working days, according
to the fourth commandment, their hatred to the
Jews for refusing to accept their Christ as the Saviour induced
them to have it placed on the first day of the week.

Hence that obliging potentate, in the year 321, promulgated
the memorable edict, which, found in that Digest
of Roman law known as the Justinian Code, Book III.,
Title 12, Sec. 2 and 3, reads as follows, viz.: “Let all
judges and all people of the towns rest and all the various
trades be suspended on the venerable day of the Sun.
Those who live in the country, however, may freely and
without fault attend to the cultivation of their fields lest,
with the loss of favorable opportunity, the commodities
offered by Divine Providence shall be destroyed.” Thus
we see that the primary movement towards enforcing the
observance of Sunday, or Lord’s Day, as the Sabbath, did
not originate in a Divine command, but in the edict of an
earthly potentate.

This edict was ratified at the third council of Orleans,
in the year 538; and in order, “that the people might
not be prevented from attending church, and saying their
prayers,” a resolution was adopted at the same time recommending
the observance of the day by all classes.
From merely “recommending,” the Church of Rome soon
began to enforce the observance of the day; but, in spite
of all her efforts, it was not until the 12th century that
its observance had become so universal as to receive the
designation of “The Christian Sabbath.”

Cognizant of the manner in which Sunday was made

the Sabbath, Luther issued for the government of the
Protestant communion the following mandate: “As for
the Sabbath, or Sunday, there is no necessity for keeping
it;” see Michelet’s Life of Luther, Book IV., chapter 2.
Luther also said, as recorded in Table Talk, “If anywhere
the day (Sunday) is made holy for the mere day’s sake; if
anywhere anyone sets up its observance upon a Jewish
foundation, then I order you to work on it, to dance on it,
to ride on it, to feast on it, and to do anything that shall
reprove this encroachment on the Christian spirit of liberty.”
Melancthon, Luther’s chief coadjutor in the work
of Reformation, denied, in the most emphatic language,
that Sunday was made the Sabbath by Divine ordainment;
and in reference thereto John Milton, in reply to the
Sunday Sabbatarians, makes the pertinent inquiry: “If,
on a plea of Divine command, you impose upon us the observance
of a particular day, how do you presume, without
the authority of a Divine command, to substitute
another in its place?”

During the reign of Elizabeth, Queen of England, a
sect of fanatics, known as Dissenters or Nonconformists,
basing their action upon the fallacious arguments derived
from the fourth commandment, and upon the plea that
the Saviour was raised from the dead on the first day of
the week, inaugurated what is known as the Puritan Sabbath,

which having been transferred to our shores by the
voyagers in the Mayflower, and enforced by those statutory
enactments known as Blue Laws, caused the people
of New England to have a blue time of it while the
delusion lasted; and now a large body of Protestant clergy
perverting the teachings of scripture, and, ignoring the
authority of the Reformers, are disturbing the peace of society
by their efforts to enforce the code of sundry laws,
which were enacted through their connivance. Thus
have we shown that, originating with the Catholics and
adopted by the Protestants, the Sunday Sabbath is purely
and entirely a human institution, and, being such, we must
recognize all Sunday laws as grave encroachments upon
constitutional liberty; and it behooves the advocates of individual
rights to demand their immediate repeal; for unless
a vigilant watch is kept upon the conspirators who
secured their enactment, our fair land will soon be cursed
by a union of church and State, the tendency in that direction
having been indicated by the unprecedented opinion
recently handed down by one of the Justices of the
United States Supreme Court that this is a Christian
Government.

By claiming to be divinely appointed for the propagation
of a divinely authenticated religion, the priesthood

of all forms of worship have ever labored to deceive and
enslave the ignorant multitude; and in support of these
fallacious assumptions have resorted to all manner of
pious frauds, in reference to which we quote from both
Pagan and Christian sources with the view to showing
that the moderns have faithfully followed the ancient
example. Euripedes, an Athenian writer, who flourished
about 450 years before the beginning of our era, maintained
that, “in the early state of society, some wise men
insisted on the necessity of darkening truth with falsehood
and of persuading men that there is an immortal
deity who hears and sees and understands our actions,
whatever we may think of that matter ourselves.”
Strabo, the famous geographer and historian of Greek
extraction, who flourished about the beginning of the
Christian era, wrote that “It is not possible for a philosopher
to conduct by reasoning a multitude of women and
the low vulgar, and thus to invite them to piety, holiness
and faith; but the philosopher must make use of superstition
and not omit the invention of fables and the performance
of wonders. For the lightning and the ægis
and the trident are but fables, and so all ancient theology.
But the founders of states adopted them as bugbears to
frighten the weak-minded.” Varro, a learned Roman
scholar, who also flourished about the beginning of our

era, wrote that “There are many truths which it is useless
for the vulgar to know, and many falsehoods which it is
fit that the people should not know are falsehoods.”

So much from Pagan authorities relative to the necessity
of deceiving the ignorant masses. We will now
present some Christian authorities upon the same subject;
and first from Christ himself, who in addressing his
disciples is made to say, in Mark iv, 11, 12, “Unto you it
is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but
unto them that are without all these things are done in
parables, that seeing they may see and not perceive; and
hearing they may hear and not understand.” Paul, in his
fourteen Epistles, inculcates and avows the principle of
deceiving the common people. He speaks of having
been upbraided by his own converts with being crafty
and catching them with guile and of his known and wilful
lies abounding to the glory of God. See Romans iii. 7,
and II. Cor. xii. 16. If Christ and Paul were guilty of
deception, their followers had good excuse for the same
course of conduct. Upon this subject Beausobre, a very
learned ecclesiastical writer, who flourished about the beginning
of the 18th century, says: “We see in the history
which I have related a sort of hypocrisy that has
been, perhaps, but too common at all times; that churchmen
not only do not say what they think, but they do say

the direct contrary of what they think. Philosophers in
their cabinets; out of them they are content with fables,
though they well know that they are fables.” Historie
de Manichee, vol. 2, page 568. Bishop Synesius, the distinguished
author of religious literature and Christian
father of the 5th century, said: “I shall be a philosopher
only to myself, and I shall always be a bishop to the people.”
Mosheim, the distinguished author of Ecclesiastical
History, Vol. I., page 120, says: “The authors who
have treated of the innocence and sanctity of the primitive
Christians have fallen into the error of supposing
them to have been unspotted models of piety and virtue,
and a gross error indeed it is, as the strongest testimonies
too evidently prove.” The same author, in Vol. I., page.
198, says in the fourth century “it was an almost universally
adopted maxim that it was an act of virtue to deceive
and lie, when by such means the interest of the
church might be promoted.” In his Ecclesiastical History,
Vol. II., page 11, he says that “as regards the fifth
century, the simplicity and ignorance of the generality in
those times furnished the most favorable occasion for the
exercise of fraud; and the impudence of impostors in contriving
false miracles was artfully proportioned to the
credulity of the vulgar; while the sagacious and the wise,
who perceived these cheats, were overawed into silence

by the dangers that threatened their lives and fortunes if
they should expose the artifice.” Thomas Burnet, D.D.,
who flourished about the beginning of the 18th century,
in his treatise entitled De Statu Mortuorum, purposely
written in Latin that it might serve for the instruction of
the clergy only, and not come to the knowledge of the
laity, because, as he says, “too much light is hurtful for
weak eyes,” not only justifies, but recommends the practice
of the most consummate hypocrisy, and that, too, on
the most awful of all subjects; and would have his, clergy
seriously preach and maintain the reality and eternity of
hell torments, even though they should believe nothing
of the sort themselves. See page 304. Hugo Grotius,
the eminent writer of Holland in the 17th century, says
in his 22d Epistle: “He that reads ecclesiastical history,
reads nothing but the roguery and folly of bishops, and
churchmen.” In the language of Robert Taylor, from
whom we have taken most of the quotations under this
heading, we assert that “no man could quote higher
authorities,” to prove “the roguery and folly of bishops
and churchmen.”

When we think of the thousand millions of dollars
invested in church properties, and estimate the cost of
maintaining more than a hundred thousand priests and
ministers, in supporting foreign and domestic missions
and in publishing religious literature; besides the taxes
applied to the care of the religious insane, and realize the

fact that all of this vast sum of money is abstracted from
the resources of the people, we would not have to go outside
of our own country to appreciate the fact that religion
is the burden of all burdens to society; and when we contemplate
the great disturbance to the social relation, resulting
from sectarian strife, and the almost universal disposition
of Christians to persecute and ostracize those who
differ with them in opinion, we can readily subscribe to
the sentiment accredited to one of our revolutionary sires,
that “this would be a good world to live in if there was no
religion in it.”

If the clergy had been laboring as faithfully to impress
the observance of ethical principles as they have to
indoctrinate the people with the superstitions of religion,
we would not now be deploring the great demoralization
of society. It is a grave arraignment of the clericals to
charge them with being, indirectly, the cause of this lamentable
state of things; but it is a condition that might
have been expected, for, when entering the ministry, they
engaged themselves, not so much to teach ethics as to
propagate faith in the doctrines of their respective sects.
Thus hampered they cannot do the good to society their
better natures might desire. Hence the only hope for
improvement is for the people to wholly ignore the dogmatic
element of religion, and refusing to longer support

it, demand that moral training shall be the grand essential
of education. If this course were adopted and persistently
followed, it would be but a question of time when
mankind would come into being with such a benign
heredity that crime would be almost impossible.

Then, since religion inculcates a salvation that does
not save, let us rise superior to its false teachings and,
accepting science as the true saviour of mankind, find our
whole duty in the code of natural morality, the spirit of
which is embodied in that comprehensive precept known
as the golden rule, which, being the outgrowth of the
discovered necessities of association, without which society
could not exist, it necessarily constituted man’s sole
rule and guide long before priest or temple; and founded
in the eternal principles of right, truth and justice must remain
as man’s sole rule and guide when priest and church
are numbered among the things that were. Spirit of progress!
speed the day when all mankind, redeemed from
the bondage of superstition, will recognize the great truth
that nature, governed by her own inherent forces, is all
that has been, all that is and all that shall be; and that,
ceasing to indulge in the vain hope of a blissful immortality
in a paradise beyond the stars, will make a real paradise
of this old earth of ours.