[Illustration: The Unsexed Christ, Naked In the Church of St. Antoine,
Tours, France.]

Instead of producing historical evidence or appealing to creditable
documents, as one would to prove the existence of a Caesar or an
Alexander, Justin Martyr draws upon pagan mythology in his reply to
the critics of Christianity. All he seems to ask for is that Jesus be
given a higher place among the divinities of the ancient world.

To help their cause the Christian apologists not infrequently also
changed the sense of certain Old Testament passages to make them
support the miraculous stories in the New Testament. For example,
having borrowed from Oriental books the story of the god in a manger,
surrounded by staring animals, the Christian fathers introduced a
prediction of this event into the following text from the book of
Habakkuk in the Bible: "Accomplish thy work in the midst of the
_years_, in the midst of the years make known, etc." [Footnote: Hab.
iii. 2.] This Old Testament text appeared in the Greek translation as
follows: "Thou shalt manifest thyself in the midst of _two animals_"
which was fulfilled of course when Jesus was born in a stable. How
weak must be one's case to resort to such tactics in order to command
a following! And when it is remembered that these follies were deemed
necessary to prove the reality of what has been claimed as the most
stupendous event in all history, one can readily see upon how fragile
a foundation is built the story of the Christian God-man.

Let us continue: Abraham Lincoln's associates and contemporaries are
all known to history. The immediate companions of Jesus appear to be,
on the other hand, as mythical as he is himself. Who was Matthew? Who
was Mark? Who were John, Peter, Judas, and Mary? There is absolutely