DECEMBER 25 IN OTHER RELIGIONS.
THE following is what W. H. Bach, of Lily Dale, N. Y., writes to the New York Journal:- "An editorial in to-day's Journal calls attention to the fact that a clergyman wants us to stop teaching the myth of Santa Claus to the children and confine ourselves to teaching matters of religion pertaining to the day. "If we are asked to refrain from teaching children myths about Christmas, why not teach them that it was celebrated in olden days as the birthday of the pagan gods? "Bacchus of Egypt, Bacchus of Greece, Adonis of Greece, Krishna of India, Chang-ti of China, Chris of Chaldea, Mithra of Persia, Sakia of India, Joa-Paul of Britain, were all said to be born on December 25, most of them hundreds of years before the beginning of the Christian era. "In the Aryan sun-worship, the sun was considered the creator, saviour and destroyer of life, the Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. When the sun went toward the south it withdrew its heat, and death and desolation followed in its wake. It was the destroyer of life. When it reached its utmost southern point it remained stationary three days, and on the morning of the 25th of December it rose a little higher than it had been the preceding mornings and was hailed as a saviour. As it traveled back toward the north, life came back to the earth, the flowers blossomed, the grass grew, and all was life; it thus became the Creator of life. Why not tell the children the plain, unvarnished truth, that Christmas is older than Christianity, older than any religion now in vogue. Every person who has taken the trouble to make an investigation of the matter knows this to be true." The fact is that in all heathen times there will be found traces of a midwinter festival on which an apostate church built Christmas, a name in itself idolatrous. However, there is an older religion than all, the religion taught by the Scriptures, and that religion ages ago warned the people of God against the observance of heathen times. Lev. 19 : 26; Deut. 18 : 10-14.