the dark places_, and
to give sight to the blind."[480:1]

5. _He was visited by the Magi._ This is very natural, for the Magi were
_Sun-worshipers_, and at early dawn on the 25th of December, the
astrologers of the Arabs, Chaldeans, and other Oriental nations, greeted
the infant Saviour with gold, frankincense and myrrh. They started to
salute their God long before the rising of the Sun, and having ascended
a high mountain, they waited anxiously for his birth, facing the East,
and there hailed his first rays with incense and prayer.[480:2] The
shepherds also, who remained in the open air watching their flocks by
night, were in the habit of prostrating themselves, and paying homage to
their god, the Sun. And, like the poet of the Veda, they said:

"Will the powers of darkness be conquered by the _god of light_?"

And when the Sun rose, they wondered how, just born, he was so mighty.
They greeted him:

"Hail, Orient Conqueror of Gloomy Night."

And the human eye felt that it could not bear the brilliant majesty of
him whom they called, "The Life, the Breath, the Brilliant Lord and
Father." And they said:

"Let us worship again the _Child of Heaven_, the Son of
Strength, Arusha, the Bright Light of the Sacrifice." "He
rises as a mighty flame, he stretches out his wide arms, he is
even like the wind." "His light is powerful, and his (virgin)
mother, the Dawn, gives him the best share, the first worship
among men."[480:3]

6. _He was born in a Cave._ In this respect also, the history of
_Christ_ Jesus corresponds with that of other Sun-gods and Saviours,
for they are nearly all represented as being born in a cave or dungeon.
This is the dark abode from which the wandering _Sun_ starts in the
morning.[481:1] As the Dawn springs fully armed from the forehead of the
cloven Sky, so the eye first discerns the blue of heaven, as the first
faint arch of light is seen in the East. This arch is the cave in which
the infant is nourished until he reaches his full strength--in other
words, until the day is fully come.

As the hour of his birth drew near, the mother became more beautiful,
her form more brilliant, while the dungeon was filled with a heavenly
light as when Zeus came to Danae in a golden shower.[481:2]

At length the child is born, and a halo of serene light encircles his
cradle, just as the Sun appears at early dawn in the East, in all its
splendor. His presence reveals