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Do we not need their presence and counsel as much as those men of Pales- tine and India and Persia ? But it is said we have the scriptures, and do not need them. I reply that I have just shown that Matthew and Luke tell two very differ- ent stories on an important point, and I am not certain which is right ; they both may be wrong. And others may be wrong too. Moreover, the Jewish mind for a thousand years had been sedulously taught to believe all such improbable things. They were fireside say- ings. They had written them in their books as true. The people of India and Persia in such matters led the way. The Jev;s simply copied the extravagances of the East. In fact, all religions two thousand years ago A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 71 preached the improbable, and the improbable has come down to us. Let the reader understand me. I do not say that angels did not appear, as Luke says (20), and that then they went away into heaven. For I zuas not there to see that remarkable pJienomenon. Luke him- self was not an eye witness of that of which he writes. He admits this, for in the very first verse of his first chapter he says that "many" having taken in hand to set forth the things believed, it seemed good to him, also, having had a perfect understanding, to write. In truth, he had manuscripts, some think more than a dozen, before him, from which to make up his gospel ; and no doubt he tried to sift them and reach the truth, just as I am doing as I write these lines. If there was a divine influence at his elbow to guide his pen aright, I pray that the same influence be not withheld from me. Section 6. Here now I must digress a little and say a few words about John the Baptist, the predecessor, and, as it were, the teacher of Jesus. John, who was a little older than Jesus, was a Nazir from his birth. That is, he was of the Priestly class (21) and sub- jected to a vow of temperance and chastity. (22) The first certain glimpse we catch of him, he is preaching to great audiences in the wilderness of Judea, clothed only in a raiment of camel's hair, and his food, it is said, was locusts and wild honey. (23) He must have (20) Ch. 2, V. 15. (21) Luke 1, V. 5. (22) Luke 1, v. 15. (23) Matt. 3, V. 1 to 5. 72 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES been an orator of wonderful power, for people flocked to him in great numbers, from "Jerusalem and all Judea." They came to him from as far north as Nazareth in Galilee. Even Jesus was drawn to him and received baptism at his hands. (24) Some of the Pharisees and Sadducees having been sent as spies to watch John, he pointed to them and ex- claimed : "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" (25) His austere life led many to believe that he was Elias, returned to the earth (26), and in truth there was a striking resemblance between the two. It is possible that later influences may have caused the Baptist to lead his anchorite life; for the Essenes or Therapeutae were grouped in plentiful numbers not far from John's scene of activity. It is highly probable that the story of Buddha's solitary life in the forests of India had reached John; as Babylon, long before Jesus was born, was seething in Buddhism. In fact, Buddha's doctrines had reached Syria and Asia Minor two centuries be- fore John the Baptist's time. Ezekiel sprinkled clean water upon his converts. (2y) Buddha, however, allowed his people to follow the customs of their own family (28), but they must, before admission to the order, remain four months on probation. (29) (24) Matt. 3, V. 13 to 16. (25) Matt. 3, V. 7; Luke 3, v. 1 to 7. (26) Malachi 4, v. 5. Matt. 11, v. 14. (27) Ch. 36; v. 25. (28) Max Mullcr; Sanskrit Lit., p. 50. (29) Vol. II, Sacred Books of the East, p. 109, and vol. 13, p. 109. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 73 With Subhadda, the last convert which Buddha re- ceived just before his death, the four months' probation was omitted and the following ceremony took place : Subhadda was taken on one side and his hair and beard shaved ofif ; then they poured water over his head and clad him in yellow robes, and had him repeat : "I take my refuge in the blessed one; I take my refuge in the Dhamma (the law) and in the fraternity of Bhik- khus." John the Baptist did not follow this plan ; he led those who sought baptism down into the river Jor- dan and washed them; and it is thought that after he had poured water on their heads he finally plunged them under the water. One of his strict conditions was that the sinner must repent. (30) Now. while John was baptizing unto repentance, Jesus came ; but why the need of his baptism if he was a sinless being ? unless it was to show that thereby he severed his connection with the Pharisees, or possibly as an example to others. Jesus, it must be remembered, was born a Pharisee, and the Jews never practiced confession and immer- sion; but the Essenes, on the Eastern shores of the Dead Sea, not far from John, practiced both. Ablu- tions were familiar to the Jews, but confession of sins and total immersion never until John ; and he no doubt caught his inspiration from the Essenes. And when Jesus began to preach, his first words are borrowed (30) Matt. 3, V. 11. 74 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES from John: "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (31) John preached against the rich and said : "He that hath two coats let him impart to him that hath none." {^2) Jesus preached the same doctrine, {^t,) Con- cerning John's diet on "locusts and wild honey," the locusts were simply a bean or seed taken from the locust trees which grew near the western shores of the Dead Sea. The wild honey was a gum made from the sweet leaves of shrubs, which were plentiful in that vicinity. The juice of these leaves was called by the people "wild honey." The seeds or beans of the locust tree, stewed with the sweet leaves, made not an unpala- table diet. John's ministry, unfortunately for the world, was cut short in the midst of its great usefulness. There is an old Persian tradition that Zoroaster lived for twenty years in the wilderness on cheese. But locusts and wild honey with cheese added, would seem to be a slim diet to build a religion upon. The evil eye of Herod was upon John, and he bound him and cast him into prison. The whole wretched story is told in ch. 14, Matthew, and Mark 6, v. 17 to 26. But in reading ch. 11, Matthew, v. 2 to 6, there is a sorry disagreement with ch. 3, Matthew, v. 14 to 17. Observe that John makes no mention of that voice from heaven. (34). Moreover, while in (31) Malt. 3, V. 2, 3, 17; Mark 1, v. 15. (32) Luke 3. v. 11. (33) Matt. 5, V. 40, 43. (34) Matt. 3, V. 17. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 75 prison he sent two of his disciples, who asked Jesus : "Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?" (35) Does not this prove that John did not know who Jesus was at the time of the baptism? If he knew before the baptism, why this inquiry later on? Josephus, Antiq., Book 18, ch. 5, tells us that Herod caused John to be beheaded lest his wonderful eloquence win so many followers that he would ulti- mately raise a rebellion. But no mention whatever is made of his being cast into prison and thereafter be- headed on account of his criticism of Herod for having married Herodias. John's note of warning to the world (36) will probably never fade from the memory of man. (35) Matt. 11, V. 1 and 2. f36) Matt. 3. V. 2. CHAPTER VI A Few More Pakallels. Section i. It may seem strange to the reader that miracles most marvelous are alleged to have taken place at the natal hours of both Buddha and Jesus, and that, thereafter, all exhibitions of the supernatural im- mediately subsided in both cases for nearly thirty years. (I) It is mentioned of Buddha that, when twelve years old, he was sent to some teachers for instruction, and at one sitting he surpassed them all. Jesus, when twelve years of age, went on a trip with his parents from Nazareth to Jerusalem, to be present at a feast of the Passover. The caravan, after traveling a whole day on its return, missed the lad, and at the end of a three days' search he was found in the temple, we are told, with the doctors of the law, both hearing and^ answering questions. "Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing (2)," said Mary, as she discovered him.