Abram Herbert Lewis - Spiritual Sabbathism

128 SPIRITUAL SABBATHISM
tinguished figure, beautiful as a god, and was taken
for a god. There is a tradition of his having raised
to life a Roman girl who was "seemingly dead."
Here was a second solar physician disputing the
claims of Christ.
Still another was Alexander of Abonoteichos, a
Paphlagonian. He began his career of magic in
company with a physician trained by Apollonius.
With him he carried a tame serpent—the serpent is
always associated with Apollo, i^sculapius,
and all
oriental sun-gods, being both the sign of the sun's
tortuous course through the ecliptic, and a sign of the
generative power of sunlight. Even before he
reached Abonoteichos a temple was prepared for
him. He established an oracle, and this became
so famous that he drew an annual revenue
of $35,000. From the mysteries which he established
he excluded all Christians. He maintained
his imposture throughout life,
and coins of lonopolis
(the new name he gave the city)
bear the device of
the serpent with a human head. Such were the
Asian Antichrists, all of them sun-magicians, who
"deceived many."
The crowning shame of Rome was her admission
of a priest of the Sun to the position of Emperor.
Elgabal of Syria, a phallic sun-god, contributed Elagabalus
the Emperor, and in 217 all gods were pro-
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