As before remarked, this passage spans the interval of time between Moses and John the Baptist, and gives a fuller explanation than can be found in the writings of Paul or elsewhere, for the reason why and in what manner the law was added to the Gospel; and what measure of the Priesthood remained with Israel unto the coming of John; in what the mission of John consisted, and in what manner he was qualified to fulfill that mission. _6. Of Origin:_ It is a question that has been much discussed whether Christianity has been derived from the mythologies of heathen nations, or the mythologies of heathen nations--wherein they seem to be related to Christian Gospel ideas,--derived from a very early revelation of the Gospel, say in the patriarchal age. Dr. John W. Draper at the conclusion of an exhaustive review of the conclusions of Greek and Oriental philosophies, says: "On this point we may therefore accept as correct the general impression entertained by philosophers, Greek, Alexandrian, and Roman after the Christian era, that, at the bottom, the Greek and Oriental philosophies were alike, not only as respects the questions they proposed for solution, but also in the decisions they arrived at. _As we have said, this impression led to the belief that there must have been in the remote past a revelation common to both,_ though subsequently obscured and vitiated by the infirmities and wickedness of man." (Intellectual Development of Europe, p. 224.) Later the Dr. remarks: "Indeed, so complete is the parallel between the course of mental evolution in Asia and Europe, that it is difficult to designate a matter of minor detail in the philosophy of the one which cannot be pointed out in that of the other. It was not without reason, therefore, that the Alexandrian philosophers, who were profoundly initiated in the detail of both systems, time to the conclusion that such surprising coincidences could only be accounted for upon the admission that there had been an ancient revelation, the vestiges of which had descended to their time." (Ibid, p. 237.. ) The author of the "Intellectual Development of Europe," however, does not acquiesce in this conclusion, but offers the following as an explanation: "In this, however, they judged erroneously: the true explanation consisting in the fact that the process of development of the intellect of man, and the final results to which he arrives in examining similar problems, are in all countries the same." (p. 237.) Which is a most lame and impotent conclusion, and one not borne out by the facts of the history of ideas. Much juster is the conclusion presented by the late President John Taylor, who, at the end of a some what extended review of traditions respecting the mythologies of various races, wherein seemed to be reflected essential Christian facts and ideas, says: