of his fall by
transgression and his banishment from Eden, of the conflict of good with
evil represented by a serpent, of the Deluge and the dispersion of the
human race, have all been the subjects of ridicule by anti-Christian
writers:--though by turns they have recognized these same facts and have
used them as proofs that Christianity had borrowed them from old myths.
The idea of sacrifice, or atonement, of Divine incarnation, of a
trinity, of mediation, of a salvation by faith instead of one's own
merits, have been represented as unphilosophical, and therefore
improbable in the nature of the case.

It becomes an important question, therefore, whether other religions of
mankind show similar traditions, however widely they have dwelt apart,
and however diversified their languages, literatures, and institutions
may have been in other respects. And it is also an important question,
whether even under heathen systems, the consciousness of sin and the
deepest moral yearnings of men have found expression along the very
lines which are represented by the Christian doctrines of grace. To
these questions we now address ourselves. What are the lessons of the
various ethnic traditions? And how are we to account for their striking
similarities? The most obvious theory is, that a common origin must be
assigned to them, that they are dim reminiscences of a real knowledge
once clear and distinct. The fact that with their essential unity they
differ from each other and differ from our Scriptural record, seems to
rather strengthen the theory that all--our own included--have been
handed down from the pre-Mosaic times--ours being divinely edited by an
inspired and infallible author. Their differences are such as might have
been expected from separate transmissions, independently made.

We have, first of all, the various traditions of the Creation. In most
heathen races there have appeared, in their later stages, grave and
grotesque cosmogonies; and a too common impression is, that these
represent the real teachings of their sacred books or their earliest
traditions. But when one enters upon a careful study of the
non-Christian religions, and traces them back to their sources, he finds
more rational accounts of the Creation and the order of nature, and
sees striking points of resemblance to the Mosaic record. The story of
Genesis represents the "Beginning" as formless, chaotic, and dark. The
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the wate