PRESENT DAY FACTORS IN NEW TESTAMENT STUDY. 47 



With regard to the morality of these mystery religions, we 

 must not forget that it had its good side ; it sustained a belief in 

 the unseen, it promoted human brotherhood it helped to 

 satisfy man's deepest cravings for a freedom from degradation 

 and evil, although the standard of purity in some respects 

 failed to rise above that of the pagan world. Justin Martyr 

 (and so, too, TertuUian) is often ridiculed for his statement that 

 wicked demons imitated the Christian Eucharist in the 

 mysteries of Mithra. But apart from the fact that the 

 Mithraic Eucharist was in all probability open to those only 

 who had attained the degree of Lion, and who, therefore, were 

 called Participants, such language shows us that the 

 Christians would not be likely to borrow consciously from the 

 mysteries. 



At the same time we must admit, although perhaps with 

 some qualification, that at least one of these religions, that of 

 Mithra, aimed specially at purity, and that this distinguishes 

 the mysteries of Mithra from those of all other Oriental gods. 

 " Serapis is the brother and husband of Isis, Attis the lover of 

 Cybele, every Syrian Baal is coupled with a spouse, but Mithra 

 lives alone," and from him continence receives a new reverence 

 (Cumont, Oinental Religions, p. 157, 1. 7). This purity, 

 indeed, encouraged work and action, and in its severity it 

 attained a moral elevation which appealed to heart and mind 

 alike.* " Above all," writes Chantepie de la Saussaye in his 

 famous Lehrhiich der Religionsgescldchte, II, p. 500, " the 

 religion of Mithra was a religion of action and of moral 

 strength." Mithra, indeed, claims the title of the " Invincible " 

 God. And yet it is not Mithra but the Galilean who has 

 conquered. The claim of Mithra has not been sustained, but 

 Christ still speaks to-day of an assured and universal sover- 

 eignty, Christ, the deathless King, Who lived and died for men : 

 " Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." 



Before we pass on, it is of interest to note that no one has 

 spoken more strongly as to any influence of the mystery 

 religions upon the mind and the work of St. Paul than 

 A. Schweitzer, whose name is already so familiar to us in 

 England. 



* Dr. Warde Fowler (see page 43) maintains that the word sanctus- 

 in its application to Mithra showed at least that his life was pure, 

 and that he wished his worshippers to be pure also. But here again do 

 we not come across the fatal distinction, so far, that is, as Christianity is 

 concerned, between a mythical aiid an historical record 1 Op. cit. p. 470. 



