599th ordinary GENERAL MEETING, 



HELD IN COMMITTEE ROOM B, CENTRAL BUILDINGS, 

 WESTMINSTER, ON MONDAY, APRIL 15th, 1918, 



AT 4.30 P.M. 



The Rev. H. J. R. Makston, M.A., ix the Chaik. 



The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read, confirmed, and signed. 



The Hon. Secretary announced the election as Associates of the 

 Rev. Dr. M. G. Kyle and Edward P. Vining, Esq., LL.D. 



The rules regulating the discussion following the papers were read; 

 and in the absence of the Pvev. Dr. MacCuUoch the Chairman requested 

 the Secretary to read the Canon* s paper on " The Gnostic Conception of 

 the Cross." 



THE GNOSTIC CONCEPTION OF THE CROSS. By Canon 

 J. A. MacCulloch, D.D., Rector of S. Saviour's, Bridge of 

 Allan. 



IN its original form Gnosticism may be described as an extra- 

 Christian, and doubtless also a pre-Christian, rehgious 

 syncretism, which aimed at enlightening men through 

 esoteric means and ritual. Later, its prominent teachers laid 

 hold of Christian doctrines, especially those relating to the 

 Person of Christ, adapting these freely to their own views, and 

 thus presenting a misleading likeness to Christianity. A pre- 

 liminary sketch of their Christology is essential to our purpose. 



I. 



All material substance was regarded as e\-il. With this, 

 some elements of the Di\ane world had become intermixed. In 

 some men — Gnostics, elect, irvevfiariKoi, there is a spark of 

 this Divine element. In most men there is only a gross material 

 nature impossible of redemption and doomed to perish. Some 

 Gnostics admitted a third element in man or a third class of 

 men. This was the psychic element, and men who possessed it 

 might rise or fall. These were ordinary Christians ; unless 

 there was also in them the Di^ane spark they never could be 



