178 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



it is obvious that they form a gradational series from orthodox 

 Judaism, on the extreme left, to paganism, whether philosophic 

 or popular, on the extreme right ; and it will further be observed 

 that, while Justin's conception of Christianity is very broad, he 

 rigorously excludes two classes of persons who, in his time, called 

 themselves Christians ; namely, those who insist on circumcision 

 and other observances of the law on the part of Gentile converts ; 

 that is to say, the strict Judseo-Christians (II), and, on the other 

 hand, those who assert the lawfulness of eating meat offered to 

 idols — whether they are gnostics or not (VII). These last I have 

 called " idolothytic " Christians, because I can not devise a better 

 name, not because it is strictly defensible etymologically. 



At the present moment I do not suppose there is an English mis- 

 sionary in any heathen land who would trouble himself whether 

 the materials of his dinner had been previously offered to idols or 

 not. On the other hand, I suppose there is no Protestant sect 

 within the pale of orthodoxy, to say nothing of the Roman and 

 Greek Churches, which would hesitate to declare the practice of 

 circumcision and the observance of the Jewish Sabbath and diet- 

 ary rules, shockingly heretical. 



Modern Christianity has, in fact, not only shifted far to the 

 right of Justin's position, but it is of much narrower compass. 



Justin. 



Judceo- Christianity. Modern Christianity. Paganism. 

 Judaism. ■ '■* -. -~- j 



I II III IV V VI VII VIII 



For, though it includes VII, and even, in saint and relic worship, 

 cuts a " monstrous cantle " out of paganism, it excludes, not only 

 all Judseo-Christians, but all who doubt that such are heretics. 

 Ever since the thirteenth century, the Inquisition would have 

 cheerfully burned, and in Spain did abundantly burn, all persons 

 who came under the categories II, III, IV, V. And the wolf would 

 play the same havoc now if it could only get its blood-stained jaws 

 free from the muzzle imposed by the secular arm. 



Further, there is not a Protestant body except the Unitarian, 

 which would not declare Justin himself a heretic, on account of 

 his doctrine of the inferior godship of the Logos ; while I am very 

 much afraid that, in strict logic, Dr. Wace would be under the 

 necessity, so painful to him, of calling him an " infidel," on the 

 same and on other grounds. 



Now let us turn to our other authority. If there is any result 

 of critical investigations of the sources of Christianity which is 

 certain,* it is that Paul of Tarsus wrote the Epistle to the Gala- 



* I guard myself against being supposed to affirm that even the four cardinal epistles 

 of Paul may not have been seriously tampered with. See no e on page 176. 



