The origin of all religions, and the ignorance which is the rootof the God-idea, having been dealt with in Part I. of thisText-Book, it now becomes our duty to investigate the evidences ofthe origin and of the growth of Christianity, to examine itsmorality and its dogmas, to study the history of its supposedfounder, to trace out its symbols and its ceremonies; in fine, toshow cause for its utter rejection by the Freethinker. Thefoundation stone of Christianity, laid in Paradise by the Creationand Fall of Man 6,000 years ago, has already been destroyed in thefirst section of this work; and we may at once, therefore, proceedto Christianity itself. The history of the origin of the creed isnaturally the first point to deal with, and this may be dividedinto two parts: 1. The evidences afforded by profane history as toits origin and early growth. 2. Its story as told by itself in itsown documents.
The most remarkable thing in the evidences afforded by profanehistory is their extreme paucity; the very existence of Jesuscannot be proved from contemporary documents. A child whose birthis heralded by a star which guides foreign sages to Judæa; amassacre of all the infants of a town within the Roman Empire bycommand of a subject king; a teacher who heals the leper, theblind, the deaf, the dumb, the lame, and who raises the moulderingcorpse; a King of the Jews entering Jerusalem in triumphalprocession, [pg 194] without opposition from the Romanlegions of Cæsar; an accused ringleader of sedition arrestedby his own countrymen, and handed over to the imperial governor; arebel adjudged to death by Roman law; a three hours' darkness overall the land; an earthquake breaking open graves and rending thetemple veil; a number of ghosts wandering about Jerusalem; acrucified corpse rising again to life, and appearing to a crowd ofabove 500 people; a man risen from the dead ascending bodily intoheaven without any concealment, and in the broad daylight, from amountain near Jerusalem; all these marvellous events took place, weare told, and yet they have left no ripple on the current ofcontemporary history. There is, however, no lack of such history,and an exhaustive account of the country and age in which the heroof the story lived is given by one of his own nation—a mostpainstaking and laborious historian. "How shall we excuse thesupine inattention of the Pagan and philosophic world to thoseevidences which were presented by the hand of Omnipotence, not totheir reason, but to their senses? During the age of Christ, of hisapostles, and of their first disciples, the doctrine which theypreached was confirmed by innumerable prodigies. The lame walked,the blind saw, the sick were healed, the dead were raised, demonswere expelled, and the laws of nature were frequently suspended forthe benefit of the Church. But the sages of Greece and Rome turnedaside from the awful spectacle, and, pursuing the ordinaryoccupations of life and study, appeared unconscious of anyalterations in the moral or physical government of the world. Underthe reign of Tiberius the whole earth, or at least a celebratedprovince of the Roman Empire, was involved in a preternaturaldarkness of three hours. Even this miraculous event, which ought tohave excited the wonder, the curiosity, and the devotion ofmankind, passed without notice in an age of science and history. Ithappened during the lifetime of Seneca and the elder Pliny, whomust have experienced the immediate effects, or received theearliest intelligence