“express image of his person,” “upholding all things” by his heat and his life-giving power; thence he pours down life and warmth on his worshippers, giving them his very self to be their life; his substance passes into the grape and the corn, the sustainers of health; around him are his twelve followers, the twelve signs of the zodiac, the twelve months of the year; his day, the Lord’s Day, is Sunday, the day of the Sun, and his yearly course, ever renewed, is marked each year, by the renewed memorials of his career.  The signs appear in the long array of sun-heroes, making the succession of deities, old in reality, although new-named.

It may be worth noting that Jesus is said to be born at Bethlehem, a word that Dr. Inman translates as the house “of the hot one” ("Ancient Faiths,” vol. i., p. 358; ed. 1868); Bethlehem is generally translated “house of bread,” and the doubt arises from the Hebrew letters being originally unpointed, and the points—­equivalent to vowel sounds—­being inserted in later times; this naturally gives rise to great latitude of interpretation, the vowels being inserted whenever the writer or translator thinks they ought to come in, or where the traditionary reading requires them (see Part 1., pp. 13, and 31, 32).

Each point in the story of Jesus may be paralleled in earlier tales; the birth of Krishna was prophesied of; he was born of Devaki, although she was shut up in a tower, and no man was permitted to approach her.  His birth was hymned by the Devas—­the Hindoo equivalent for angels—­and a bright light shone round where he was.  He was pursued by the wrath of the tyrant king, Kansa, who feared that Krishna would supplant him in the kingdom.  The infants of the district were massacred, but Krishna miraculously escaped.  He was brought up among the poor until he reached maturity.  He preached a pure morality, and went about doing good.  He healed the leper, the sick, the injured, and he raised the dead.  His head was anointed by a woman; he washed the feet of the Brahmins; he was persecuted, and finally slain, being crucified.  He went down into hell, rose again from the dead, and ascended into heaven (see “Asiatic Researches,” vol. i.; on “The Gods of Greece, Italy, and India,” by Sir William Jones, an essay which, though very imperfect, has much in it that is highly instructive).  He is pictorially represented as standing on the serpent, the type of evil; his foot crushes its head, while the fang of the serpent pierces his heel; also, with a halo round his head, this halo being always the symbol of the Sun-god; also, with his hands and feet pierced—­the sacred stigmata—­and with a hole in his side.  In fact, some of the representations of him could not be distinguished from the representations of the crucified Jesus.