a local and immediate fulfilment in the circumstances of the time.  Matthew ii. 15 is only made into a prophecy by taking the second half of a historical reference in Hosea to the Exodus of Israel from Egypt; it would be as reasonable to prove in this fashion that the Bible teaches a denial of God, “as is spoken by David the prophet, There is no God.”  The fulfilment of the saying of Jeremy the prophet is as true as all the preceding (verses 17, 18); Jeremy bids Rahel not to weep for the children who are carried into bondage, “for they shall come again from the land of the enemy ... thy children shall come again to their own border” (Jer. xxxi. 16, 17).  Very applicable to the slaughtered babes, and so honest of “Matthew” to quote just so much of the “prophecy” as served his purpose, leaving out that which altered its whole meaning.  After these specimens, we are not surprised to find that—­unable to find a prophecy fit to twist to suit his object—­our evangelist quietly invents one, and (verse 23) uses a prophecy which has no existence in what was “spoken by the prophets.”  It is needless to go through all the other passages known as Messianic prophecies, for they may all be dealt with as above; the guiding rule is to refer to the Old Testament in each case, and not to trust to the quotation as given in the New, and then to read the whole context of the “prophecy,” instead of resting content with the few words which, violently wrested from their natural meaning, are forced into a superficial resemblance with the story recorded in the Gospels.

The second theory, which regards Jesus as a new hero of the ancient sun-worship, is full of intensest interest.  Dupuis, in his great work on sun-worship ("Origines de Tous les Cultes”) has drawn out in detail the various sun-myths, and has pointed to their common features.  Briefly stated, these points are as follows:  the hero is born about Dec. 25th, without sexual intercourse, for the sun, entering the winter solstice, emerges in the sign of Virgo, the heavenly virgin.  His mother remains ever-virgin, since the rays of the sun, passing through the zodiacal sign, leave it intact.  His infancy is begirt with dangers, because the new-born sun is feeble in the midst of the winter’s fogs and mists, which threaten to devour him; his life is one of toil and peril, culminating at the spring equinox in a final struggle with the powers of darkness.  At that period the day and the night are equal, and both fight for the mastery; though the night veil the sun, and he seems dead; though he has descended out of sight, below the earth, yet he rises again triumphant, and he rises in the sign of the Lamb, and is thus the Lamb of God, carrying away the darkness and death of the winter months.  Henceforth, he triumphs, growing ever stronger and more brilliant.  He ascends into the zenith, and there he glows, “on the right hand of God,” himself God, the very substance of the Father, the brightness of his glory, and the