fied King of the Jews_." This
was the youngest son of Aristobul, the heroic Maccabee. In the year 43
B. C., we find this young man--_Antigonus_--in Palestine claiming the
crown, his cause having been declared just by Julius Caesar. Allied with
the Parthians, he maintained himself in his royal position for six years
against Herod and Mark Antony. At last, after a heroic life and reign,
he fell in the hands of this Roman. "_Antony now gave the kingdom to a
certain Herod, and, having stretched Antigonus on a cross and scourged
him, a thing never done before to any other king by the Romans, he put
him to death._" (Dio Cassius, book xlix. p. 405.)

The fact that all prominent historians of those days mention this
extraordinary occurrence, and the manner they did it, show that it was
considered one of Mark Antony's worst crimes: and that the sympathy with
the "Crucified King" was wide-spread and profound. (See The Martyrdom of
Jesus of Nazareth, p. 106.)

Some writers think that there is a connection between this and the
Gospel story; that they, in a certain measure, put Jesus in the place of
Antigonus, just as they put Herod in the place of Kansa. (See Chapter
XVIII.)

[517:1] Canon Farrar thinks that Josephus' silence on the subject of
Jesus and Christianity, was as deliberate as it was dishonest. (See his
Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 63.)

[518:1] Many examples might be cited to confirm this view, but the case
of _Joseph Smith_, in our own time and country, will suffice.

The Mormons regard him very much as Christians regard Jesus; as the
Mohammedans do Mohammed; or as the Buddhists do Buddha. A coarse sort of
religious feeling and fervor appears to have been in Smith's nature. He
seems, from all accounts, to have been cracked on theology, as so many
zealots have been, and cracked to such an extent that his early
acquaintances regarded him as a downright fanatic.

The common view that he was an impostor is not sustained by what is
known of him. He was, in all probability, of unbalanced mind, a
monomaniac, as most prophets have been; but there is no reason to think
that he did not believe in himself, and substantially in what he taught.
He has declared that, when he was about fifteen, he began to reflect on
the importance of being prepared for a future state. He went from one
church to another without finding anything to satisfy the hunger of his
soul, consequently, he retired into himself; he sought solitude; he
spent