following citations from historical authorities will clearly manifest:-- 1. Christians have a numerous _cortege_, or retinue, of angels in their system of inspired theology, as is shown in various parts of the Bible, which, in theological parlance, must be regarded as so many secondary Gods, inasmuch as they are assigned the same duties, perform the same functions, and sustain precisely the same relation to the supernal Deity as did the subordinate Gods of the pagans under the ancient systems. It is, in fact, only a change of name, in order to get rid of the illogical dilemma of holding to the existence of but one God, while virtually acknowledging the existence of many. We might cite many facts and testimonies from history in proof of this statement, but will restrict ourselves to one. Mr. Higgins says, "All nations believed in one supreme God, and many subordinates. The latter some termed angels; others called them Gods." More anciently than the Jews, we find that the Babylonians, Chaldeans, Persians, and Syrians all vested these subordinate beings with the properties of mere angels. "Angels," then, with Christians, we legitimately infer, is only another name for second-class Gods, or subordinate Deities of the Orientals. 2. Even if we should pass over, as unworthy of consideration, the historical facts which go to identify the Christian angels with the subordinate Deities of the ancient pagans, there is yet spread out before us a broad and tenable ground for charging Christians with being polytheists,--that is, for rejecting their pretensions of worshiping and preaching a unitary God; for it is a very striking and depreciating fact, that, notwithstanding their boastful and arrogating claims, there are many texts in the Old Testament which imply, in the most distinct manner, a belief in a plurality of Gods. Indeed the first passage in the book, according to Mr. Parkhurst, would read, if correctly translated, "In the beginning the _Gods_ created the heavens and the earth," thus disclosing an acknowledgment of more than one God. And we find many other passages which are made to conceal the old polytheistic idea by a wrong translation. Fortunately, however, for the disclosure of truth, there are many texts in which it comes very distinctly to the surface. As for example, in Genesis i. 26, we have the undisguised language, "Let us make man in our own image." Now "us" and "our" being plural pronouns, it would be folly and nonsense to deny that they refer to a plurality of _Gods_. "Let us make man" means, "Let us Gods make man;" for no sophistry, shifting, or dodging can make sense of it with any other construction. And several times, in this and other chapters, is similar language used. We will cut the matter short by observing, upon the authority of Parkhurst, that _Aleim_ and _Elohim_ are the Hebrew plurals used to represent God in the Old Testament; that these are much more frequently employed than the singular forms, _Al_ and _El_, thus