ngs of peace, secure under the mild sway of its new and divine
sovereign."

There is no lack of evidence to prove that for several centuries great
numbers of Christians regarded Christ as a solar incarnation similar to
those which from time to time were born in the valleys of the Nile and
the Ganges. By the fathers in the church Jesus Christ was named the New
Sun, and in the early days of Christianity the Egyptians struck a coin
representing O. B. or the holy Basilisk, with rays of light darting from
his head, on the reverse side of which was figured "Jesus Christ as the
New Solar Deity."

The similarity if not the actual identity of the religion of Christ and
that of the pagans in the second century is shown by various writers.
The Emperor Hadrian writing to his friend Servianus says:

"Those who worship Serapis are also Christians; even those who style
themselves the Bishops of Christ are devoted to Serapis.. .. There is
but one God for them all; him do the Christians, him do the Jews, him do
all the Gentiles also worship."

It has been said that the head of Serapis supplied the first idea of the
portrait of Christ. Before the figure of Serapis, in his temple, used
to stand Isis, the Celestial Virgin, with the inscription "Immaculate is
our Lady Isis." In her hand she bore a sheaf of grain.

As Serapis, or Pan, finally became Christ, so Isis, or the Queen of
Heaven, became his mother, and to the latter were transferred all the
titles, ceremonies, festivals, and seasons which from the earliest time
had belonged to the great Goddess of Nature. Subsequently, probably
about the close of the second century, Christianity began slowly to
emerge from the worship of Mithras and Serapis, "changing the names but
not the substance."

Upon the coinage of Constantine appears Soli Invicto Comita--"To the
invincible sun my companion or guardian," and when the Greek and Roman
Christians finally separated themselves from the great body of pagan
worshippers they apologized for celebrating the birthday of their Savior
on the 25th of December, saying that "they could better perform their
rites when the heathen were busy with theirs." We are assured that the
early Christians no less than the Maji acknowledged Mithras as the first
emanation from Ormuzd, or the God of Light. He was the Savior which in
an earlier age had represented returning life--that which follows the
cold of winter. It was doubtless while they worshipped the Persian