en, that a festival celebrating the resurrection of
their several gods was annually held among the Pagans, before the time
of Christ Jesus, and that it was almost universal. That it dates to a
period of great antiquity is very certain. The adventures of these
incarnate gods, exposed in their infancy, put to death, and rising again
from the grave to life and immortality, were acted on the _Deisuls_ and
in the sacred theatres of the ancient Pagans,[226:3] just as the
"Passion Play" is acted to-day.

Eusebius relates a _tale_ to the effect that, at one time, the
Christians were about to celebrate "the solemn vigils of Easter," when,
to their dismay, they found that _oil_ was wanted. Narcissus, Bishop of
Jerusalem, who was among the number, "commanded that such as had charge
of the _lights_, speedily to bring unto him water, drawn up out of the
next well." This water Narcissus, "by the wonderful power of God,"
changed into _oil_, and the celebration was continued.[227:1]

This tells the whole story. Here we see the _oil_--which the Pagans had
in their ceremonies, and with which the priests anointed the lips of the
Initiates--and the _lights_, which were suddenly lighted when the god
was feigned to have risen from the dead.

With her usual policy, the Christian Church endeavored to give a
_Christian_ significance to the rites borrowed from Paganism, and in
this case, as in many others, the conversion was particularly easy.

In the earliest times, the Christians did not celebrate the resurrection
of their Lord from the grave. They made the _Jewish Passover_ their
chief festival, celebrating it on the same day as the Jews, the 14th of
Nisan, no matter in what part of the week that day might fall.
Believing, according to the tradition, that Jesus on the eve of his
death had eaten the Passover with his disciples, they regarded such a
solemnity as a commemoration of the Supper and not as a memorial of the
Resurrection. But in proportion as Christianity more and more separated
itself from Judaism and imbibed paganism, this way of looking at the
matter became less easy. A new tradition gained currency among the Roman
Christians to the effect that Jesus before his death had not eaten the
Passover, but had died on the very day of the Passover, thus
substituting himself for the Paschal Lamb. The great Christian festival
was then made the Resurrection of Jesus, and was celebrated on the first
pagan holiday--_Sun-day_--after the Pass