The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1909-04-09
and having between Him ana Nc Q

pretty poor kind OF aeon" The DEM
iurge was the maker OF the world.
and he was responsible for all this
evil matter. and the Demiurge was
the God of the Old Testament. Every
thing that takes place in the Old
Testament is under the control OF the
Demiurge. not OF the Supreme God,
and we may deal with IL with all the
freedom We like The Supreme Aeon,
they said, was the Christ who came
10 redeem man from the tyranny OF
the Demiurge; and Christ redeemed
man, not by the sacrifice of His death
upon the cross, because. matter being
evil, Christ had no body. That was
only an appearance. There was no
incarnation, no resurrection, or any
of the rest OF II. He saves man. not
by the death OF the cross. but by
illumination. by the shining In OF
His Spirit upon the spirit OF man.
The third antagonist OF the faith
was Competition. There came into
existence two great new religions. on
the one side the religion OF Plato Ga
revival OF philosophy, and on the
other side the religion Of Mithras Ca
revival OF Paganism). These came
in the way OF a revolt from the pro-
sale religion OF the Roman Empire.
II had in IL no emotion. IL was
bare contract between man and God.
wherein man said. up and down. Il
will give you a certain amount or
ritual IL you will give me a CORES
ponding amount of protection" II
had in II no sense OF mystery. 1t
was Just as commonplace as the NOR
ality. Now. the world was longing
for some appeal 10 emotion. for some
satisfaction of its sense OF mystery.
and these two religions came at the
place to do that work. Neoplaton-
ism, a revival OF philosophy. found
its exponent in Plotinus. From frag-
ments of books he wrote we get -ome
idea how he tried to bind together
all the truth there was into one sys-
TEN. except the truth OF Christianity.
And then opposed TO Neoplatonism
was an ideal. an ideal and not per-
son. Mithraism was the most for
midable competitor that Christianity
ever had. II seemed at one time as
II II were likely TO become the relig-
ion OF Europe. IL entered very little
into literature. and scarcely anything
was known about II until men began
to study the ruins Of Mithraic shrines
and read the inscriptions and gradu-
ally to find how far spread IL was and
what Il meant. IL came from Persia
and its supreme god was Mithras,
who was the representative or the IN
visable and eternal deity behind and
the mediator between Him and MS.
He was supernaturally born. and His
first appearance was 10 shepherds.
He fought with a wild boar that was
ravaging the country which He killed
whose blood became a wire and whose
marrow sown In the earth became the
wheat. After His victorious battle
He dined with the sun. He was TO
come again in a second advent and
hold a general judgment OF all man.
kind in which the good went one way
and the bad another-into heaven or
he'll. They had baptism OF blood
and water for newness OF life followed
bv a sealing an amounting OF CONFIRM
alton. and after that holy commun-
ion OF bread and wine. They had
sanctuaries in which liturgies were
chanted by vested priests ministering
at affairs adorned with lights.
This dav on which we meet is
called SUNDAY because OF Mithras.
When Constantine gave out his edict
in the days when the empire became
Christian he decreed that tn" first
dav OF the week should be kept as
dav OF rest and thev called N by tts
Mithraistic name, the venerable day
OF the sun. WHY is Christmas kept
on the twentv-ffth OF December? Mo-
body knows when our Lord was born.
Even the season Of the year has to-
tallv denarted from the memory or
man. The only indications OF the
time ~ year noint TO the summer
when the shepherds were abiding in
the fields. Christmas IS kept on the
twentv-ffth Of December because IL
was Mithras' birthday.
That was Nithras' birthday kept as
a dav Of rejoicing among the votaries
OF this religion scattered all over from
the desert Of Sahara TO the glens OF
Scotland, where shrines Of Mithra
have been found When Christianity
became victorious over this religion
she found Il wise TO say - the con-
verts. Keep on with your domestic
on December 25. but do All
these joyful things IN remembrs
OF Jesus Christ, our Saviour" The
essential defect, however, in this re-
ligion OF Mithra was that there was
no Mithra; he was only NTH. Nos
ticism was founded on an idea; not
a person. Mithraism was founded on
allegorv. not a person. But the hu-
man soul cries out for some manifes-
tation Of God in the form OF actual,
historic personality.
There were the four men who DO
Tended the faith D~e-eminently In the
second and fourth centuries: Justin,
the apoloeist: Irenaeus, the theolo-
gian; Clement. the instructor. and
Origen. the commentator. These
were the men who defended the faith
a against the three agnosiips-preju-
dice, heresy and competition.
\ Prayer.
L-atbor and