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But I am reasonably safe in saying that they were not three years apart. Moreover we are told that larchus, the chief of the Brahmins, was a miracle worker, similar to Jesus. For after the feast which we have just mentioned, the lame and the blind and the diseased, with every various ail- ment, were brought to him, and larchus at once healed them all. Now this statement about larchus healing the lame and the blind, is either true or it is false. This much is at least certain : the blind Hindu needed his sight; if larchus in India was healing the blind and the sick, Jesus about the same time was healing the blind and the sick in Palestine. (3) Section 3. When Apollonius' visit to India and the Brahmins ended, he started on his return, going South to the Sea, and taking the same route that Alexander did on leaving India, some three hundred years before. A great plague was at this time raging (2) Luke, ch. 9, v. 10 to 17. Matt. 14, v. 13 to 21. John 8, T. 5 to 13. (3) Luke 7, v. 6 to 10. Luke 8, v. 27. 142 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES at Ephesus, and Apollonius liad only reached Smyrna. But the Ephesians having learned of his presence there sent a deputation earnestly entreating him to come to their assistance. Here now the improbable again ap- pears. For Apollonius replied: "I think the journey is not to be delayed," and immediately on his uttering these words, we are told he appeared in Ephesus, where he put an end to the plague. (4) On reaching Athens, a young man was brought to Apollonius, possessed of an evil spirit. The demon raved and swore, and Apollonius rebuked him and commanded him to come out. Section 4. Jesus about this time (whether before or after, I cannot tell) found a man in the synagogue "which had a spirit of an unclean devil." (5) Jesus rebuked the Palestine devil, and commanded him to come out. Now both of these devils it seems, were gifted with fluent speech. The Hindu devil under- stood the language of his country, and the Palestine fiend raved furiously in the Galileean dialect. The Jewish devils, in Paul's time, were warriors also; we are told that about twenty-five years after Jesus' death, one Palestine devil overcame six men, so that "they fled out of the house naked and wound- ed." (6) On being invited to a wedding, Apollonius saw at (4) For more than five hundred years before Jesus' day, there had been continued struggles between Eastern and Western man- ners and religions. (5) Luke 4, v. 33. (6) Acts 19, V. 13 to 16. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 143 once that the intended bride was a fiend in human form. And on his making this known, all the jewels and gold and silver vessels vanished in a flash out of sight. This strange occurrence, we are told, hap- pened in the central part of Greece, and was known to many. One day Apollonius met a funeral procession on its way to bury a beautiful young bride, and every one was in distress and in tears, and was condohng with the young husband. "Set down the bier," said Apol- lonius, "and I will dry your tears." He took the young woman's hand, then spoke a low word in her ear, and she began to breathe; and if she was really dead, she came back to life, to the astonishment and joy of her weeping friends. The historian honestly adds that it was raining at the time, and the rain falling on the young woman's face may have revived her. But to all appearances, the vital spark had fled. In Luke, chapter 7, v. 11 to 15, a similar story is told of a young man, who also was being carried to his grave, and as Jesus met the procession, he came and touched the bier, and said : "Young man, I say unto thee, arise," and he that was dead sat up and began to speak. (7) Section 5. After visiting Egypt and many cities in Africa, Apollonius took up his residence in Smyrna, (7) Are both, or either of these amazing stories true? One happened in Eome, if it happened, and the other in Galilee. But as near as I can compute, Apollonius' miracle, if it was iucb, preceded Jesus' miracle by about three or four jeara. 144 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES where he discoursed on fate and necessity, and he in- sisted that the most absolute tyrants cnild not over- come or reverse the decrees of fate. Doniilian, the then emperor of Rome, on learning of this, cited Apol- lonius to appear before him. On reaching Rome he was accused of being an enchanter and was thrown into prison and loaded with chains, his friend Damis being imprisoned with him. "When will you regain your liberty?" asked Damis. "Tomorrow," replied Apollonius, "but this instant if I choose." With this he drew his leg out of the chain, and said to Damis : "You see I am at liberty now." Then he put his leg back in the fetters and waited. When brought before the emperor, Domitian asked him, "W^hy do men call you a god ?" "Because every truly good man," replied Apollonius, "is entitled to be called such." The emperor seems to have been afraid that his prisoner possessed some secret book or charm or amulet, and he was ordered to leave all such behind and to look at his majesty. But instead, the prisoner fixed his eyes on the vaulted arch above him. A proceeding similar to that which there took place before Domitian, would, in the United States of Amer- ica, be considered a mockery and a travesty upon jus- tice. The first question was, "Why is it, Apollonius, that you do not wear the same kind of garments as other men?" "The earth," he replied, "supplies me with raiment, and by wearing the garments it fur- nishes, I offer no injury to the dumb brutes of the fields." Apollonius had foretold the plague at Ephesus, A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 145 and that was another charge against him. "How did you do that?" he was asked, and he repHed: "By liv- ing on a hghter diet than other men." Some other questions having been asked by the emperor, which Apollonius readily answered, "I acquit you," said he, "of the crimes charged against you, but shall detain you here for the present." "You can detain my body," was the reply, "but not my soul, and I will add, not even my body. Thy deadly spear cannot slay me." At this, we are told, that, to the amazement of the emperor and all present, he vanished out of sight. His friend Damis had gone to Penteoli, a three days' journey from Rome, and while Demetrius, the philos- opher, and Damis were walking on the seashore and lamenting with much sorrow, never expecting to see Apollonius again, he suddenly appeared before them. They thought it was an apparition, and Damis wished to know if Apollonius were still living, whereupon Apollonius stretched forth his hand and said, "It is I myself; I am surely alive." Another curious story told about him is that on the day and at the very moment that Stephanus assassi- nated Domitian at Rome, Apollonius was walking and talking with many friends in a grove at Ephesus, more than one hundred miles distant. Directly his voice fell to a lower key ; then he became silent. Then suddenly he cried out, "Strike the tyrant ! strike !" There were many Ephesians present, and they were all greatly astonished at this. Directly Apollonius added, "Keep 146 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES up your courage, O Ephesians! for this day the tyrant is killed. At this very moment, while the words are in my mouth, I swear it by Minerva, the deed is done." Dion Cassius, who at one time branded Apollonius as an impostor, tells this story of him : "On the very day that Domitian was assassinated, as it was afterwards known, upon a most exact search into the matter, Apollonius got up in the city of Ephesus, upon a very high stone, and calling the people together cried out with a loud voice : 'Courage, Stephanus ! courage ! Strike the murderer! Thou hast struck him. Thou hast wounded him. Thou hast killed him.' " And Dion Cassius adds: "As incredible as this fact seems to be, it is no less true." (8) Section 5. A few lines back, it is stated that Apol- lonius vanished from the presence of Domitian. Now I do not write that down as a sober fact that I believe ; for it seems impossible that the body of a human being, composed of flesh, bones and blood, could or can van- ish or melt away and disappear as stated above. (9) And to say that Apollonius, who was more than one hundred miles distant at the time of the assassination of Domitian, could know of it at the moment that it occurred, is beyond belief. He may have been told of (8) Manning's Dion Cassius, vol. 2, p. 92.