All these gods, and many others that might be mentioned, _remained in hell for the space of three days and three nights_. "They descended into hell, and on the third day rose again."[214:3] FOOTNOTES: [211:1] Quoted by Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 46. [211:2] Strom, vi. c. 6. [211:3] Contra Celsus, bk. ii. c. 43. [211:4] See Jameson's Hist. of Our Lord in Art, vol. ii. pp. 354, 355. [212:1] See Jameson's Hist. of Our Lord in Art, vol. ii. pp. 250, 251. [212:2] Nicodemus: Apoc. ch. xvi. and xix. [213:1] Nicodemus: Apoc. ch. xx. [213:2] I. Peter, iii. 17-19. [213:3] Acts, ii. 31. [213:4] See Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 237. Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 168, and Maurice: Indian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 85. [213:5] See Monumental Christianity, p. 286. [213:6] See Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 256, Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, and Dunlap's Mysteries of Adoni, pp. 125, 152. [213:7] See Chap. XXXIX. [213:8] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 12. [213:9] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 322. Dupuis: Origin of Religious Belief, p. 257, and Dunlap's Mysteries of Adoni, p. 33. [213:10] See Taylor's Mysteries, p. 40, and Mysteries of Adoni, pp. 94-96. [213:11] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 72. Our Christian writers discover considerable apprehension, and a jealous caution in their language, when the resemblance between _Paganism_ and _Christianity_ might be apt to strike the mind too cogently. In quoting Horace's account of Mercury's descent into hell, and his causing a cessation of the sufferings there, Mr. Spence, in "Bell's Pantheon," says: "As this, perhaps, may be a mythical part of his character, _we had better let it alone_." [214:1] See Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 169, and Mallet, p. 448. [214:2] See Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 166. [214:3] See the chapter on _Explanation_. CHAPTER XXIII. THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION OF CHRIST JESUS. The story of the resurrection of Christ Jesus is related by the four Gospel narrators, and is to the effect that, after being crucified, his body was wrapped in a linen cloth, laid in a tomb, and a "great stone" rolled to the door. The sepulchre was then made sure by "sealing the stone" and "setting a watch." On the first day of the week some of Jesus' followers came to see the sepulchre, when they found that, in spite of the "sealing" and the "watch," the angel of the Lord had descended from heaven, had rolled back the stone from the door, and that "_Jesus had risen from the dead_."[215:1] The story of his _ascension_ is told by the _Mark_[215:2] narrator, who says "he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God;" by _Luke_,[215:3] who says "he was carried up into heaven;" and by the writer of the _Acts_,[215:4] who says "he was taken up (to heaven) and a cloud received him out of sight."