Who can fail to see that this virgin-born _Sosiosh_ was to come, _not eighteen hundred years ago_, but, in the "_latter days_," when the world is to be set on fire by a _comet_, the _judgment_ to take place, and the "new heaven and new earth" is to be established? Who can fail to see also, by a perusal of the New Testament, that the idea of a _temporal Messiah_ (a mighty king and warrior, who should liberate and rule over his people Israel), and the idea of an _Angel-Messiah_ (who had come to announce that the "kingdom of heaven was at hand," that the "stars should fall from heaven," and that all men would shortly be judged according to their deeds), are both jumbled together in a heap?
[141:1] Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 72.
[141:3] See Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 52.
[142:2] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 221.
[142:4] See Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 456.
[143:1] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, pp. 22, 23, 38.
[143:2] See Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 23, 33, 35.
[143:3] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 36.
[143:4] Williams's Indian Wisdom, p. 347.
[143:6] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 561. For that of Crishna, see Vishnu Purana, book v. ch. iii.
[143:8] Thornton: Hist. China, vol. i. p. 137.
[143:9] See Anac., i. p. 560, and Geikie's Life of Christ, i. 559.
[143:10] See Ibid., and The Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 72, and Calmet's Fragments, art. "Abraham."
[144:1] Baring-Gould: Legends of the Patriarchs, p. 149.
[144:2] Calmet's Fragments, art. "Abraham."
[144:4] Tacitus: Annals, bk. xiv. ch. xxii.
[144:5] Amberly's Analysis of Religious Belief, p. 227.
[144:6] Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 73.
[144:7] Brinton: Myths of the New World, pp. 180, 181, and Squire: Serpent Symbol.
[145:3] See Thomas Scott's English Life of Jesus for a full investigation of this subject.
The story of the Song of the Heavenly Host belongs exclusively to the _Luke_ narrator, and, in substance, is as follows:
At the time of the birth of Christ Jesus, there were shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And the angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and the angel said: "I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people; for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."