"As to _our_ Jesus curing the lame, and the paralytic, and
such as were crippled from birth, this is little more than
what you say of your _AEsculapius_."[260:5]

At a time when the Romans were infested with the plague, having
consulted their sacred books, they learned that in order to be delivered
from it, they were to go in quest of _AEsculapius_ at Epidaurus;
accordingly, an embassy was appointed of ten senators, at the head of
whom was Quintus Ogulnius, and the worship of AEsculapius was established
at Rome, A. U. C. 462, that is, B. C. 288. But the most remarkable
coincidence is that the worship of this god continued with scarcely any
diminished splendor, for several hundred years after the establishment
of Christianity.[260:6]

Hermes or Mercury, the Lord's Messenger, was a wonder-worker. The staff
or rod which Hermes received from Phoibos (Apollo), and which connects
this myth with the special emblem of Vishnu (the Hindoo Saviour), was
regarded as denoting his heraldic office. It was, however, always
endowed with magic properties, and had the power even of raising the
dead.[261:1]

Herodotus, the Grecian historian, relates a wonderful miracle which
happened among the _Spartans_, many centuries before the time assigned
for the birth of Christ Jesus. The story is as follows:

A Spartan couple of great wealth and influence, had a daughter
born to them who was a cripple from birth. Her nurse,
perceiving that she was misshapen, and knowing her to be the
daughter of opulent persons, and deformed, and seeing,
moreover, that her parents considered her form a great
misfortune, considering these several circumstances, devised
the following plan. She carried her every day to the temple of
the Goddess _Helen_, and standing before her image, prayed to
the goddess to free the child from its deformity. One day, as
the nurse was going out of the temple, a woman appeared to
her, and having appeared, asked what she was carrying in her
arms; and she answered that she was carrying an infant;
whereupon she bid her show it to her, but the nurse refused,
for she had been forbidden by the parents to show the child to
any one. The woman, however--who was none other than the
Goddess herself--urged her by all means to show it to her, and
the nurse, seeing that the woman was so very anxious to see
the child, at length showed it; upon wh