Indeed, the ablest of the Christian Fathers never claimed that Christianity was a new religion recently and specially revealed by Jesus, but made many admissions quite to the contrary. Clarke in his Evidences says that the most ancient writers of the Church did not scruple to acknowledge the Athenian Socrates a Christian.
Clemens Alexandrinus, of the second century (a. d. 194), wrote: “And those who lived according to the Logos were really Christians that is to say, those who practically accepted the Greek conception of a divine incarnation were really Christians.” And why not, for is not John’s Gospel an elaboration of the Neo-Platonism of the Greeks? and is not the whole Christian scheme an ingenious combination of Judaism and Oriental philosophy?
Lactantius well said: “If there had been one to have collected the truth that was scattered and diffused among the sects into one, and to have reduced it into a system, there would indeed have been no difference between him and us.” Could anything be more emphatic than this admission of a Christian Father of the fourth century that Christianity is made up of fragments of other religions?
A volume might be filled with similar admissions from the highest Christian authority, for it would be easy to show that it was the main argument of Justin Martyr (a. d. 141) that the Christian religion contained nothing that might not be found in all earlier religions, and that therefore its votaries deserved toleration and protection rather than persecution.
Compare the following, furnished by Mr. Johnson, with the teachings of Jesus:
“When you have shut your doors and darkened your room, beware of saying that you are alone, for you are not alone, for God is within, and your genius is within, and what need have they of light to see what you are doing?” (Epictet., i. 14); “Dare look up to God, and say, ‘Use me as thou wilt. I am one with thee. I refuse nothing that seems good to thee. Lead me whither thou wilt’” (ii. 16); “Be not angry with the erring, but pity them rather” (i. 18); “Be patient, mild, ready to forgive, severe to none, knowing that the soul is never willingly deprived of truth” (ii. 22); “No need to lift up the hands or get close to the ears of an image, so as to be heard. God is near thee, with thee, in thee. I tell thee, Lucilius, a holy spirit dwells within us, beholder of our conduct” (Seneca, Ep., xli.); “Between God and good men is friendship, yea, necessary intimacy” (De Prov., i. 5); “What use in concealment from men? Nothing is hid from God” (Ep., lxxxiii. 1); “God escapes the eyes; he is seen by thought only” (Nat. Quest., vii. 30); “No temples are to be built to him. He must be hallowed by each in his own breast” (Seneca, quoted by Lactantius, Ind., vi. 25); “Man’s primal union is with God” (Cicero, De Leg., i. 7); “Virtue is the same in God and man; man therefore is in the likeness of God” (ibid.).
We could multiply these quotations indefinitely, but we forbear. The fact cannot be denied that Christianity is but the continuation and modification of the old pagan religions, and that Egypt has to be largely credited with supplying a great portion of the subject-matter of our so-called “special revelation.” We could take up the sun-gods of Egypt and show that all the titles and offices ascribed to them are given to Jesus, and that often the very language is used. “Out of Egypt have I called my Son” is emphatically true, but in a broader and wider sense than is generally supposed. This will be more clearly shown hereafter.
[CHAPTER XIII. A REVERENT CRITIQUE ON JESUS]
WE say “reverent” out of pure regard to the feelings of multitudes of devout persons who verily believe that Jesus was and is God, and so any criticism of him is simply blasphemous. This subject is not to be treated in a light or frivolous manner.
We say “reverent” also out of respect to a smaller number of so-called liberals who deny the divinity of Christ, but who nevertheless believe that Jesus was the one pre-eminently good and wise man, and that no man equal to him ever existed or ever will exist upon the face of this earth; that he was the special Son of God, the model man, worthy of worship as the man who possessed so much of the divine spirit as to entitle him to the place of honor and grateful remembrance among men for all time and in all countries.