Forlong - Rivers of Life

Sun Worship.
Mr. King says, “it is in reality a head of Serapis seen in front, and covered with Persea
boughs, easily mistaken for thorns.” 1 Christians, it appears, according to the same
learned author, allow that the earliest “emblems of the Saviour were the ‘Good
Shepherd,’ ‘the Lamb’ and ‘the Fish;’” all of which are very Serapian ideas, and
show us the undoubted source of the two former popular notions of Christ, if not so
clearly the last; for the Talmudic Messiah was designated Dag or Fish, as the creature
most sacred to the Asyrian goddess, Venus-Urania, who in this form hid herself from
angry Typhon in the Euphrates; on this account Christians, like Serapians, said that a
ring inscribed with a Dolphin was a charm to drive away colic, &c. Thousands
of Christians adopted also the Frog symbol of Egypt, because they said it changes
from its strange fishy form to that of a quadruped, and they therefore exhibited it with
snakes on their sacred talismans and shrines, and at the base of the sacred Palm;
they also planted the Serapian cross upon the fish, placing a dove on each arm of the
cross, and inscribing above and below the name IHCOYC, or Jesus in this old form.
They had begun to lose the meaning of The Anointed, or Maha Deva.
It was only after the great Serapis had fallen, and his priests and powerful votaries
been slain or made outlaws or slaves, that the cruel oppressors discovercd the superstitions
and blasphemies of the faith, and this will be the case with current, and no doubt
future beliefs, if man is to make real progress. Pulpits and assemblies, political and literary,
but especially theological, were never tired of discussing Serapian horrors after “the
strong man” had fallen, and none could see or at least would then acknowledge, any good
in a faith and worship which had nevertheless satisfied millions for long centuries, and
comforted the weary and heavy-laden, the widow, the orphan, and those whom the
world had cast out; which had solaced the aching heart, and given that consolation
the world can neither give nor take away. The Christian iconoclasts now revelled in
tales regarding the misbehaviour of the Priests of Serapis, and their modes of deceiving
the people. Every calumny and unpleasant truth was bruited about, and especially
as to the “tricks of the trade,” how priests secreted themselves in the body of the god
or gods, and from thence replied to the queries of the faithful, who imagined that
heaven was answering their requests. The Christians should have been the last to
complain of this; for they themselves dealt much in similar “pious frauds” and continued
like practices down to recent times; nor indeed have they yet ceased. The
great majority of Europe to the present hour hold the “voice.of the Church” to be the
“voice of God;” and long after Serapis had ceased to give forth the oracles of heaven,
the new faith said that the ashes, bones, and sarcophagi of its martyrs and saints spoke
to all faithful and enquiring souls! Pagan miracles sank into insignificance before
those of Christians. Extraordinary and even ordinary saints and martyrs constantly
rose from the dead to counsel and guide the Church, and give forth the commands of
the new God; voices from the tombs, midnight walkers and dreamers took the place of
1 The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 137.
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