Similar again to the secular or cycle festival in Mexico seems to have been the "Ludi Seculores" of the Romans, while the annual ceremony held on 25th December was known by the name of "Natalis Solis Invicti," the birthday of Sol the Invincible. "It was a day of universal rejoicing, illustrated by illuminations and public games. According to the Chinese writings, Buddha is said to have been born of his virgin mother, Maya, by the overshadowing power of ShingShin, "The Holy Spirit"; and the sacred books relate that his birth was announced in the heavens by an asterism which rose from the horizon, and was called the Messianic star.2 The Fo-pen-king relates that through all the heavens the Devas joined in this song. "To-day Bodhisatwa is born on earth to give joy and peace to men and Devas, to shed light in the dark places, and to give sight to the blind."3 Buddha is also described as having been visited at his birth by a Rishi named Asita, who foretold of his coming greatness, wept that he should not himself live to see his perfect Buddhahood, and departed to 1 Rev. J. B. Gross' "Heathen Religions," p. 287. his mountain hermitage rejoicing that his eyes had seen the promised Saviour.1 Buddha was also called the "King of Righteousness," and his was an immaculate conception, his mother, Maya, like the Virgin Mary, being "the best and purest of the daughters of men." He is, too, at once the Father and the Son, who of his own will became incarnate that he might, as was prophesied at his birth, "remove the veil of ignorance and sin from the world." Heaven and earth at his birth "united to pay him homage, while the angels sang their songs of victory, and archangels were present with their help." His mother had dreams of his future greatness, and to his cradle came saints and wise men to do him reverence. He excelled all his fellows in powers and in wisdom, instructed those appointed to teach him; like Jesus, was tempted in the wilderness by the Spirit of Evil, whom he overcame, and, like Jesus, finally was comforted by angels." All Christians know that the 25th December is now the recognised festival of the birth of Jesus, but few are aware that this has not always been so. There have been, it is said, 1 Amberley's "Analysis,” vol. i. p. 223; and Beal's "Legend of Sakya Buddha," pp. 58-60. 2 Rhys David's "Hibbert Lectures, 1881," p. 148. one hundred and thirty-six different dates fixed on by different Christian sects. Lightfoot gives it as 15th September, others as in February or August. Epiphanius mentions two sects, one celebrating it in June, the other in July. The matter was finally settled by Pope Julius I. in 337 A.D., and St. Chrysostom, writing in 390, says: "On this. day [i.e. 25th December] also the birth of Christ was lately fixed at Rome, in order that while the heathen were busy with their ceremonies [the Brumalia, in honour of Bacchus] the Christians might perform their rites undisturbed." Gibbon in his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," 1 writes, "The [Christian] Romans, as ignorant, as their brethren of the real date of his [Christ's] birth, fixed the solemn festival to the 25th December, the Brumalia or winter solstice, when the pagans annually celebrated the birth of the Sun." King, in his "Gnostics and their Remains," also says, "The ancient festival held on the 25th December in honour of the birthday of the 'Invincible One,' and celebrated by the great games at the Circus, was afterwards transferred to the commemoration of the birth of Christ, the precise date of 1 1 1832 ed., vol. iv. p. 21, note. 2 Page 49. which many of the Fathers confess was then unknown"; while at the present day Canon Farrar writes that "all attempts to discover the month and day of the Nativity are useless. No data whatever exist to enable us to determine them with even approximate accuracy. From the foregoing it is apparent that the great festival of the winter solstice has been celebrated during past ages, and in widely separated lands, in honour of the birth of a God, who is almost invariably alluded to as a "Saviour," and whose mother is referred to as a pure virgin. The striking resemblances, too, which have been instanced not only in the birth but in the life of so many of these Saviour-gods are far too numerous to be accounted for by any mere coincidence. 1 Farrar's "Life of Christ," p. 734. ᄂ CHAPTER III DEATH AND RESURRECTION ROUND this kernel of fact-a divine man and his death-are grouped the most solemn doctrines of every one of the world's religions, and we shall also find that the death, by whatever mode it is supposed to have taken place, has generally been regarded as a sacrifice. This idea of sacrifice seems to lie at the root of all religion. "Every one who reads the Old Testament with attention is struck with the fact that the origin and rationale of sacrifice are nowhere fully explained; that sacrifice is an essential part of religion is taken for granted as something which is not a doctrine peculiar to Israel, but is universally admitted and acted on without as well as within the limits of the chosen people." 1 Nowhere is the necessity of sacrifice more dwelt on than in the religion of ancient India. "Life in the Brahmanas (Vedas) is a sequence of sacrifices. Sacrifice makes the sun rise and 1 Robertson-Smith's "Religion of the Semites," p. 3. |