40 



THE REV. J. J. B. COLES, ON THEOSOPHY. 



"O Father lacchos, thou art the Lord of the body, 

 God manifest in the flesh . 



Who wearest the horns of the ram, who ridest upon an ass, 

 whose symbol is the vine, and the new wine thy blood. 



Whose Father is the Lord God of Hosts ... 

 Give me to drink of the wine of thy cup, that I may live for 

 evermore. 



Evoi, Father lacchos, Lord God of Egypt ; initiate thy servants 

 in the halls of thy temple. 



Evoi, lacchos, Lord of the Sphinx . . . 



Thou turnest man to destruction ; then thou sayest, 



Come again ye children of my hand. 



Yea, blessed and holy art thou, 0 JNIaster of Earth, 



Lord of the Cross and the Tree of Salvation . . . 



Evoi, Father lacchos, Jehovah-Nissi, Lord of the Garden and of 

 the vineyard . . . 



Evoi, Father lacchos ; out of Egypt hast thou called thy Son." 



Is it possible to believe that there are professing Christians 

 who have exchanged the " living oracles of God " for such 

 profane and ludicrous theosopliical teaching as this ? 



Having given in the above extracts examples of the more 

 intellectual as well as of the baser and more repellent writings 

 of modern theosophy, I add a brief survey of other books 

 bearing on matters of interest. 



"Esoteric Christianity," by Annie Besant. 



In Esoteric Cliristianity, Mrs. Besant labours to show that 

 the Historical Christ, the Mythic Christ and the Mystic Christ 

 must be carefully distinguished — she does this by denying the 

 truth of the New Testament scriptures. Just as the early 

 Gnostics endeavoured to explain away the true teaching of 

 the New Testament as to the unique personality of the Christ 

 of God, by introducing heresies referring either to the deity 

 or holy humanity of the Lord Jesus, so theosophists profess to 

 explain away the glory of His Person which is transcendent 

 and inscrutable, by similar unsuccessful methods. 



Early Eeligion and the Constellation Figures. 



The ancient myths were perversions of early patriarchal 

 revelations concerning the coming Seed of the Woman, which 

 revelations were embodied in the constellation figures, the 

 .oldest symbols belonging to the nations of antiquity. 



