Hist. of Our Lord in Art, vol. ii. pp. 250, 251.

[212:2] Nicodemus: Apoc. ch. xvi. and xix.

[213:1] Nicodemus: Apoc. ch. xx.

[213:2] I. Peter, iii. 17-19.

[213:3] Acts, ii. 31.

[213:4] See Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 237. Bonwick's Egyptian
Belief, p. 168, and Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 85.

[213:5] See Monumental Christianity, p. 286.

[213:6] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 256, Bonwick's
Egyptian Belief, and Dunlap's Mysteries of Adoni, pp. 125, 152.

[213:7] See Chap. XXXIX.

[213:8] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 12.

[213:9] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 322. Dupuis: Origin of
Religious Belief, p. 257, and Dunlap's Mysteries of Adoni, p. 33.

[213:10] See Taylor's Mysteries, p. 40, and Mysteries of Adoni, pp.
94-96.

[213:11] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 72. Our Christian writers
discover considerable apprehension, and a jealous caution in their
language, when the resemblance between _Paganism_ and _Christianity_
might be apt to strike the mind too cogently. In quoting Horace's
account of Mercury's descent into hell, and his causing a cessation of
the sufferings there, Mr. Spence, in "Bell's Pantheon," says: "As this,
perhaps, may be a mythical part of his character, _we had better let it
alone_."

[214:1] See Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 169, and Mallet, p. 448.

[214:2] See Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 166.

[214:3] See the chapter on _Explanation_.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION OF CHRIST JESUS.

The story of the resurrection of Christ Jesus is related by the four
Gospel narrators, and is to the effect that, after being crucified, his
body was wrapped in a linen cloth, laid in a tomb, and a "great stone"
rolled to the door. The sepulchre was then made sure by "sealing the
stone" and "setting a watch."

On the first day of the week some of Jesus' followers came to see the
sepulchre, when they found that, in spite of the "sealing" and the
"watch," the angel of the Lord had descended from heaven, had rolled
back the stone from the door, and that "_Jesus had risen from the
dead_."[215:1]

The story of his _ascension_ is told by the _Mark_[215:2] narrator, who
says "he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God;"
by _Luke_,[215:3] who says "he was carried up into heaven;" and by the
writer of the _Acts_,[215:4] who says "he was taken up (to heaven) and a
cloud received him out of sight."

We will