main doctrines of
Christianity--namely, those of Sin and Sacrifice, the Eucharist, the
Saviour, the Second Birth, and Transfiguration--as showing that they are
by no means unique in our religion, but were common to nearly all the
religions of the ancient world. The list might be much further extended,
but there is no need to delay over a subject which is now very generally
understood. I will, however, devote a page or two to one instance, which
I think is very remarkable, and full of deep suggestion.

There is no doctrine in Christianity which is more reverenced by the
adherents of that religion, or held in higher estimation, than that God
sacrificed his only Son for the salvation of the world; also that since
the Son was not only of like nature but of the SAME nature with the
Father, and equal to him as being the second Person of the Divine
Trinity, the sacrifice amounted to an immolation of Himself for the good
of mankind. The doctrine is so mystical, so remote, and in a sense so
absurd and impossible, that it has been a favorite mark through the
centuries for the ridicule of the scoffers and enemies of the Church;
and here, it might easily be thought, is a belief which--whether it be
considered glorious or whether contemptible--is at any rate unique, and
peculiar to that Church.

And yet the extraordinary fact is that a similar belief ranges all
through the ancient religions, and can be traced back to the earliest
times. The word host which is used in the Catholic Mass for the bread
and wine on the Altar, supposed to be the transubstantiated body
and blood of Christ, is from the Latin Hostia which the dictionary
interprets as "an animal slain in sacrifice, a sin-offering." It takes
us far far back to the Totem stage of folk-life, when the tribe, as I
have already explained, crowned a victim-bull or bear or other animal
with flowers, and honoring it with every offering of food and worship,
sacrificed the victim to the Totem spirit of the tribe, and consumed it
in an Eucharistic feast--the medicine-man or priest who conducted the
ritual wearing a skin of the same beast as a sign that he represented
the Totem-divinity, taking part in the sacrifice of 'himself to
himself.' It reminds us of the Khonds of Bengal sacrificing their
meriahs crowned and decorated as gods and goddesses; of the Aztecs doing
the same; of Quetzalcoatl pricking his elbows and fingers so as to draw
blood, which he offered on his own altar; or of Od