in the story of the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, an
ancient and nearly universal Sun-myth, instead of verifiable
historical events. The story of Jesus for three days in the heart of
the earth; of Jonah, three days in the belly of a fish; of Hercules,
three days in the belly of a whale, and of Little Red Riding Hood,
sleeping in the belly of a great black wolf, represent the attempt of
primitive man to explain the phenomenon of Day and Night. The Sun is
swallowed by a dragon, a wolf, or a whale, which plunges the world
into darkness; but the dragon is killed, and the Sun rises triumphant
to make another Day. This ancient Sun myth is the starting point of
nearly all miraculous religions, from the days of Egypt to the
twentieth century.

[Illustration: The Persian God, Mithra. All the Gods Have the Solar
Disc Around Their Heads, Showing That Sun-Worship Was One of the
Earliest Forms of Religion.]

The story which Mathew relates about a remarkable star, which sailing
in the air pointed out to some unnamed magicians the cradle or cave in
which the wonder-child was born, helps further to identify Jesus with
the Sun. What became of this "performing" star, or of the magicians,
and their costly gifts, the records do not say. It is more likely that
it was the astrological predilections of the gospel writer which led
him to assign to his God-child a star in the heavens. The belief that
the stars determine human destinies is a very ancient one. Such
expressions in our language as "ill-starred," "a lucky star,"
"disaster," "lunacy," and so on, indicate the hold which astrology
once enjoyed upon the human mind. We still call a melancholy man,
_Saturnine_; a cheerful man, _Jovial_; a quick-tempered man,
_Mercurial_; showing how closely our ancestors associated the