o would take upon himself the
sins of poor, weak human nature. By simply believing on this crucified
redeemer, man would be saved, not from sin itself, but from the penalty
of sin. To bolster up the belief in original sin and the necessity for
an atonement, the allegory of the fruit tree and the serpent in Genesis
was taken literally.

The more the religion of the past is studied the more plainly will the
fact appear, that not only have the ceremonies, symbols, festivals, and
seasons adopted by Christianity been copied from India and Persia, but
also that all the leading doctrines of the so-called Christian Church
originated in those countries. The belief in a Trinity, the Incarnation
of the Deity, a Crucified Savior, Original Sin and a Vicarious
Atonement, the last three having been elaborated after the ancient
natural truths underlying sun worship had been forgotten, are all to be
found in the East.

The doctrine of a Trinity is supposed to have been received directly
from the Platonists, who had learned it from the Persians; while that of
a Crucified Savior, and also that of the seed of the woman bruising the
serpent's head, belong, as we have seen, to the religion of Crishna.

Concerning Original Sin, which is the foundation of the doctrine of the
"Atonement," it is plain that it was not known to the earlier followers
of Christ, but that it was subsequently copied from the corrupted
religion of the Hindoos.

The symbolical meaning of the serpent and the Tree of Life was doubtless
understood by the earliest adherents to the Christian faith; it is not
surprising, therefore, that by them there is no mention of the doctrine
of Original Sin. Their theory to account for evil in the world was the
same as that of an ancient and almost forgotten race. The belief that
the soul of man is a spark from, or a part of the universal soul, that
at the death of the body it returns to its source, and in process of
time appears as the animating principle in other bodies, was believed by
Pythagoras, Aspasia, Socrates, and Plato and, in fact, for thousands of
years it was entertained by the best and wisest of the human race. It
was a part of the early Christian doctrine and is still believed by the
followers of Buddha and by the Theosophists of Europe and America.

Doubtless the doctrines of Re-incarnation and Karma were set forth by
those very ancient philosophers who were the near descendants of the
inventors of the Neros and the