The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, April, 1880

The Christian Foundation,
Or,
Scientific and Religious Journal
Vol. 1. No 4.
April, 1880.

It seems to us that, no sane man, who is acquainted with the ancient mythicals, can regard the religion of the Bible as a child of mythical descent. It is as deadly in its influence upon those myths, and all mythical worship, as it could be made by an infinite mind.
Voltaire says “the character of the mythical gods is ridiculous;” we will add, it is ridiculous in the extreme. Listen—Hesiod, in his theogony, says: “Chronos, the son of Ouranos, or Saturn, son of Heaven, in the beginning slew his father, and possessed himself of his rule, and, being seized with a panic lest he should suffer in the same way, he preferred devouring his children, but Curetes, a subordinate god, by craft, conveyed Jupiter away in secret and afterwards bound his brother with chains, and divided the empire, Jupiter receiving the air, and Neptune the deep, and Pluto Hades.”
“The character of all the gods was simply human character extended in all its powers, appetites, lusts and passions. Scholars say there is no language containing words that express the Scriptural ideas of holiness and abhorrence of sin, except those in which the Scriptures were given, or into which they have been translated. These attributes must be known in order to salvation from sin, so God revealed Himself and gave the world a pure religion, as a standard of right and wrong, and guide in duty, and rule of life.”
The history of the ancient nations of the earth gives a united testimony that their original progenitors possessed a knowledge of the one true and living God, who was worshiped by them, and believed to be an infinite, self-existent and invisible spirit. This notion was never entirely extinguished even among the idolatrous worshipers. Greek and Latin poets were great corrupters of theology, yet in the midst of all their Gods there is still to be found, in their writings, the notion of one supreme in power and rule, whom they confound with Jupiter.