Evening star., 1928-02-12

Of myth had lost its hold upon every
influential stratum of the Roman peo-
pie. The cosmopolitan character OF
the population in the capital made for
the growth OF skepticism. for where
many different religions exist together
1t becomes difiicult to believe any one
OF them completely true and the rest
completely false: comparison sets IN ana
then eclecticism and then doubt; At
last. one suspects them all. Cicero and
Lucian openly ridiculed the religion OF
Rome; Juvenal lamented that disbe.
lief In the gods had led to a riot OF
perjury, frustrating the administration
OF the law. and Caesar. as he performed
the sacred rites. smiled to his friends.
For the head of the state was by his
very Office supreme pontiff of the pagan
faith the Roman administrators were
too clever to neglect religion as an In
Strumcnt of rulc The various modes
of worship which prevailed in the Ro-
man world were all considered Dy the
people as equally true, by the philos-
pher as equally false and by the magis-
trate as equally useful"
" u
The decay of the old faith left place
and hunger for new one. Religion
will live as long as man, for hope
springs eternal In the human breast.
From the Orient. that great reservoir
of religion, new crcedS poured into
Rome. each rivalng the others In con-
ISOLATION TO the unfortunate and PROM
ises Of everlasting happiness to come
Most OF these faiths prepared the way
fo: Christianity by organizing "mys-
terieS." eSotcric ceremonies which rep
resented the death of some hero or
god, and his triumphant resurrection
The primitive Christians fell heir to
Egyptian. Persian. Judaic mythology
ritual and festivals. For the Jewish
Sabbath they substituted Sunday, in
| imitation of the worship Of the Sun
god. Mithra. and from Persia. too. they
took the feast Of Christmas, not be-
OF the birth of Christ, but because the
custom had spread, in the Orient and
at Rome. of celebrating, in the fourth
week Of December, the nativity OF the
slin-that Winter Solstice Tor halt!nc
OF the SUM when the great orb turned
north again and redeemed the cold OF
Winter with the lcngthening Of every
day. Many another Christian feast
was wisely placed to synchronze with
ancient holy days: so Easter was the
Jewish Passover. mingled with memo
ries OF the resurrection of Adonis. the
Babylonian celebration of Ishtar, and
the old vegetation festivals that
heralded the awakening OF Spring
Candles and altars were inherited from
PersianS and Jews: the magnificent
drama OF the mass was gradually put
together from the chants ceremonies Of
the old Hebraic ritual. and the first
churches were converted synagogues.
The idea Of sacrifice. common to al
most every ancient faith, was taken
over from the Mithraic sacrifice of the
sacred bull and the Jewish sacrifice
OF the Paschal Lamb; hence Christ was
the Agnus Del, the Lamb OF God. The
eucharist was an adaptation Of the
Old custom OF eating an image Of the
deity. on the theory that men absorbed
the powers OF what they ate. Baptism
was primitive rite that had once
signalized the initiation OF youths into
adult life and privileges. The idea OF
trinity had long been prepared In
the theology of Egypt and the East;
the AsSyrlanS and Persians had known
1t; the Hindus had divided God into
Brahma. Vishnu and silva: the Egyp-
tians had worShiped a triad of OSIRIS
Isis and Horus: temples had been raised
70 Isis and her divine child in all the
larger cities Of the empire: and to this
day the explorer finds images of these
gods along the Danube. the Seine and
the Rhine. The Christian faith trans
formed the worship Of isis. Astarte and
Venus into the worship Of Mary ("the
iairest flower Of all poasy", at the
same time that the Christian clergy
took over the rerb and tonsure of the
Egyptian priests.
Meanwhile at Alexandria a genera
ton OF netaphysicisns was elaborat-
ing theology for the new religion.
Fhiio Judaeus began by attempting 10
reconcile. through symbolism and ale
CORY the theorises of Plato and the re-
ngion OF the Old Testament; here rose
That doctrine OF the Logos, or word.
as the incarnate wisdom OF God,
which so appealed to the author OF
the fourth gosel. Gradually the
founder OF Christianity. the most hu-
man figure In history, was transformed
from the gentle lover OF the poor and
the passionate scorner of the rich into