THE EEV. W. ST. CLAIR TTSDALL_, D.D., ON MITHRATSM. 239 



of Caledonia. Mr. Mallock, for instance, says that the religion 

 of Mithra " resembled that of Christ in being a religion of 

 inward holiness, of austere self-discipline and purity ; but the de- 

 tails of its resemblance are incomparably more close and curious " 

 (than in the case of the religion of Isis). ..." According 

 to Mithraic theology, God, considered in His totality, is a Being 

 so infinite and so transcendent that His direct connexion with 

 man and the universe is inconceivable. In order to become the 

 Father of Man and Creator, He manifested Himself in a second 

 personality, namely Mithra, who was in his cosmic character 

 identified with the ' Unconquered Suu,' and, as a moral and 

 intellectual being, was the Divine Word or Keason,and, in more 

 senses than one, the ' Mediator ' between man and the Most 

 High. Life on earth, according to the Mithraic doctrine, is for 

 man a time of trial. The Spirit of Evil, his adversary, is always 

 seeking to destroy him, to crush him with pain and sorrow, or 

 to stain his soul with concupiscence, but in all his struggles 

 Mithra is at hand to aid him, and will at the last day be at 

 once his judge and advocate, when the graves give up their dead, 

 when the just are separated from the unjust, when the saved 

 are welcomed like children into eternal bliss, and the lost are 

 consumed in the fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. 

 This Divine Saviour came into the world as an infant. His 

 first worshippers were shepherds ; and the day of his nativity 

 was December 25th . . . His followers preached a severe and 

 rigid morality, chief among their virtues being temperance^ 

 chastity, renunciation and self-control. They kept the seventh 

 day holy . . . They had seven sacraments, of which the most 

 important were baptism, confirmation, and an Eucharistic Supper, 

 at which the communicants partook of the Divine Nature of 

 Mithra under the species of bread and wine." {Ni'iieteenth 

 Century and After, September, 1905.) 



We shall be better able to judge of the correctness of these 

 remarkable assertions when we have concluded our examination 

 of Mithraisni and seen what its real nature was and how far it 

 was from resembling Christianity in any real sense.* 



* Meanwhile Professor De Harlez' words in dealing with the once 

 notorious M. JacoUiot's similar attack on the truth of the Gospel may be 

 quoted as applicable in the present case also : " Que nos fr^res de la hbre 

 pensee nous permettent . . . cette reflexion qui est dans I'esprit 

 de tons : Quand nous les voyons user de seniblables moyens et attaquer 

 nos croyances avec des armes de cette espece, comment pourrions-nous 

 nous djfendre de suspecter leur bonne foi ? " ( Vi.dis)ne, Brahmariisme et 

 Christianisme, p. 156). 



