12 "Che Conservative.
DESIGNATED DEPOSITARY OF THE UNITED STATES ,
National Bank of the Republic
OF CHICAGO.
CAJPITAJD , OJVJB MILLION DOLLARS.
I V
JOHN A. LYNCH , President. W. T. FENTON , Vice President and Cashier.
J. H. CAMERON and H. R. KENT , Asst. Cashiers. R. M. McKINNEY , 2d Asst. Cashier.
DOCTRINE OF DIVINE PATERNITY.
With regard to that mysterious pa
ternity , Matthew says that Joseph , hav
ing discovered the pregnancy of his
betrothed wife , and being disposed to
put her awar , was reassured by an
angel in a dream , and commanded to
take the woman , with her God-begotten
child , as a special favor from heaven.
Luke says that the Angel Gabriel was
sent to the Virgin Mary to announce
her approaching pregnancy , Joseph
being entirely ignored in the matter.
Now , both these stories could not be
true ; they contradict each other in every
particular. And , from the standpoint
of human knowledge and experience ,
neither of them could be true.
Every year , at Christmas , this fable
is dinned into the ears of the Christian
world , and formerly the great majority
of those who heard it may have sup
posed that this is the only instance on
record of a supernatural birth , and ,
therefore , being in the Bible , it must be
true.
But , nowadays , both clergy and laity
must know that the same distinction
has been claimed for many persons ,
mythical and real ; that the oldest re
ligions are based upon exactly such an
origin ; that the deified founders of
Oriental faiths were begotten by a god
and conceived by a virgin ; that not only
the divinities of J Greece [ and Rome
descended frequently to earth to become
fathers and mothers of fabulous demi
gods and heroes , but also historical
personages famous for wisdom , or good
ness , or worldly success , were popularly
believed to be sons of God in a natural
sense , even the reigning Roman emperor - ,
peror , Augustus Ocesar , the ruler of
Judea at the time of the alleged birth of
Jesus , being one of these favored mor
tals , while the same divine origin was
claimed by and conceded to a long line
of imperial successors.
Deification of Ruler Not Unusual.
The deification of the chief ruler is a
characteristic of all early races and
nations , the idea containing necessarily
the suggestion of divine revelation and
superhuman birth , and the tendency
continued , under modified forms , to ac
company the progress of civilization ,
until the ambitious claim to divine origin
and honors on the part of the latest
Roman emperors removed the principle
from religion to politics , since which
time the theory has existed only in a
faint and continually fading notion of
the divine right of kings.
In the time of the Roman empire the
deification of men waa a common occur
rence. Augustus , Claudius , Nero , and
others received divine honors ; even the
mother of Nero was designated as the
"Mother of God , " Atia , the mother of
Augustus Cmsar , was said to have con
ceived him in the Temple of Apollo , and
there were many legends of the dangers
to which the child was exposed on ac
count of the tidings that the future ruler
of the world was born ; while dreams
and heavenly signs gave additional
proof of the supernatural powers of
Augustus.
Other Miracles.
Many miracles are told also of Yes-
pasian at Alexandria through the power
of the god Serapis. A blind man was
cured by anointing his eyes with spittle ,
and a lame man by touching his feet.
In the time of Josephus a prophecy
was spread abroad of the coming of the
future ruler of the world out of the im
perial tent of Vespasian.
As for the Jews , their expectation of
a Messiah , a victorious temporal ruler
and a deliverer from the power of the
Romans , was much stronger and more
generally diffused during the century
following the beginning of the Christian
era than at the time of the supposed
birth of Christ.
It is a significant fact that of the four
evangelists only .two make any claim to a
divine paternity and a virgin maternity
for Jesus : Mark speaks of him as the
son of Joseph and his wife , and John
regards him from the later Gnostic
point of view , without refererce to his
earthly parentage and human birth.
Mark's gospel is now generally con
sidered the earliest , and the story of the
supernatural birth in Matthew and Luke
to have been a later addition , while the
writer of John did not compile his nar
rative until after the development of
Gnosticism in the new sect.
Other Virgin-born Saviors.
Although there were so many ex
amples of supernatural birth to serve as
a pattern for the fable of Jesus , still
various circumstances in the story of his
life seem to suggest particular instances
as the chief sources of the imaginary
details.
These instances are Krishna , Mithra ,
and Buddha.
Matthew asserts that Jesus was born
in Bethlehem , according to prophecy ,
and that soon after his birth wise men
from the East , led by a star , came to the
place to offer homage , thereby arousing
the jealousy of Herod , who ordered the
massacre of all the children in that
region of the same age as the new born
Savior.
The Magi belong to the story of
Mithra , a deity of the ancient Persians ,
originally a personification of the sun.
He was said to have been born of a
virgin in u cave , on the twenty-fifth of
December , an allegorical representation
of the emergence of the sun from the
darkness of the winter solstice. At the
period of the composition of the Gospels
the cult of Mithra was familiar to the
Western nations , and had long been
established in Rome.
Indian Mythology.
The Roman catacombs contain a pic
ture of the Virgin seated holding the
infant Mithra on her lap , and before
them three men in Persian dress are
kneeling and offering gifts.
The Massacre of the Innocents is
taken from the story of Krishna , the
favorite deity of India , the eighth in
carnation of Vishnu , and also a personi
fication of the sun.
Krishna was miraculously conceived
by divine agency , and his uncle , the
Rajah of Madura , fearing to be sup
planted in his kingdom , determined to
slay the infant at its birth , but the plan
being frustrated by the vigilance of
Krishna's protectors , the rajah ordered
the massacre of all the male children of
the same age among his subjects. Such
a deed might be performed under a
despotic Indian ruler in ancient times ,
but not in a Roman province in the
time of the Goosars.
The pride and glory of the Romans
was their carefully developed and rigor
ously executed system of law , and no
Roman governor would have ventured
to destroy a generation of the emperor's
subjects at birth without leave and
without record. If such a wholesale
murder had been accomplished there
