fair guide to the spread of His teaching in the prominence given to any particular thought in the resulting organized church. We have already touched upon the part played by Judaism in the development of the new religion. We see its influence but without observing any general rapprochement between Jew and Gentile thought, still less between Jew and Gentile race. And that from the first there was this strong hostile feeling to the Jews is obvious from the very gospels themselves. The facts on which these were based were obviously collected and edited by those far from sympathetic with Judaistic thought in its entirety. How a Greek must have delighted in Christ's denunciation of his old Jew enemy the Scribe and Pharisee, and in His attitude to things in which the Jew found chiefest pride. His Sabbath: that it was making a fetish of the Sabbath which Christ condemned, in common with all fetishes, might be a fact, but He condemned it. Then His associates, the outcasts of every self-respecting son of Israel-the publicans and sinners with whom He sups; the woman of Samaria with whom He talks; the Mary Magdalene in whom He finds pleasure; the woman taken in adultery whom He will not condemn; the very pariahs of society, but for whom His great heart has room, and to whom His great love extends. That his teaching is a teaching of love, a teaching of hope, of promise, and of welcome to the broken and fallen by the way, what of that to them so long as it was in condemnation of these self-satisfied arrogants. And the Greeks themselves: that the plain, simple teaching of Christ appealed to their many wrangling, quarrelsome philosophers; that many disciples were found amongst them is evident from the metaphysical cast of thought associated with it and the prominence given to their Platonic conception of the Deity. This, after much bloody fighting, was at last established as the only true faith that would ensure salvation. In turn it had been taken from the Egyptians, who delighted in visioning "The Great Unknown" in his attributes, especially in threes. The triad of Thebes

was Amon-Ra, Athor, and Chonso, or father, mother, and son. In Nubia it was Pthah, Amun-Ra, and Horus-Ra. At Phile it was Osiris, Isis, and Horus. There were other combinations, and it would seem that the attributes of the various divinities were not always regarded as the same. The Phile group is one of the most individualized. Ultimately Horus from the child becomes almost one with Ra himself; but above all our deep interest is in the group picture of Isis the "Mother" with Horus as a child in her arms, where they are seen as merciful deities who would save their suppliants from Osiris, the stern judge of departed spirits. In them we already mark reaction from the conception of God as a God of terrors alone. Thus viewed, their worship became extremely general in the days of Augustus; and Juvenal tells us that the cult spread to Italy, and that the artists of Rome almost lived by painting the goddess Isis, the Madonna of Egypt. We have already noticed how the Buddhist had a somewhat similar duality, and, in fact, mother and child is a concept that is so beautiful that it always must appeal to human nature in one form or another. Even the Comptists in their most up-to-date creed have found for it a place; and that it survived with those who saw in Christ the very spirit of the Isis and Horus, already the deities of their adoration, is only what we should expect. From Plutarch we learn that the Egyptians worshipped Osiris, Isis, and Horus under the form of the triangle. Everything perfect was in threes. In symbolism they would find substitute for words. In vain, they can rise no higher than their own thought, the fount of their own minds. And then we have schools which, after postulating-altogether most correctly—that the infinite is beyond the comprehension of the finite, proceed to stultify their most admirable premises by laying down with metes and bounds what the infinite really is. For the impossible they have achieved the absurd.

88. Probably it is through Alexandria that we must

trace the influence of Egypt on the new religion. Maybe it had already tinged with its own colouring the numerous cults and philosophies found there, as witness the correspondence between its thought and the Buddhist's in the common worship of mother and child. But that missionaries of Christ's teaching found ready hearing amongst those holding these views, is once more proved by the striking prominence given to them in the fuller development of the Christian Church. We have already observed the large part which the Day of Judgment played in the Egyptian religious life; and this certainly seems to have extended to the doctrine of the Atonement. Apparently this latter we get through the Jews, but they certainly would have found it in the Egyptian teaching. The Jewish ritual, given in considerable detail in Leviticus, shows great correspondence with that of the older religion. But amongst the Jews it was more or less an isolated doctrine; with the Egyptian it was part of one connected whole. With him, from the day of his birth to the day of his death, life was one continued preparation for the Day of Judgment. And it was this idea which gave to life itself a meaning and reality wanting in other philosophies. Our future existence was all in all: anything done here was of importance only so far as it might affect that future. Then came the supreme moment when eternal woe and eternal joy were in the balance. Which way would the scales sink? Hence, all-important that any deed which might depress the balances should be disposed of before that awful day of hearing before Osiris, so inexorably just. Hence the all-essential of atonement by sacrifice, that a soul might plead that its sins had already been blotted out. Positive virtues were to be relied on, but it was dangerous for evil deeds to be recalled. And all in keeping with this doctrine in its entirety was the intercession by Isis and Horus, which we have already considered. But as we have seen, the Deity did not await the Day of Judgment to alone visit his wrath on those making failure of duty. In

this world woe and desolation overwhelmed the nation remiss in their offerings. And arguing backwards— disaster present-and in every age it has been the same, and the hierarchies have thundered that it has been because their ministrations have been disregarded. In the Old Testament the priest is always far more implacable than the civil magistrate; it is the priest commands extermination; and so in every land. And in such times propitiation of the deity is far from limited to mere animals. We count nothing of the sacrifice of foes and captives. Any excuse servedreligion included-for glutting one's vengeance; and if a few slaves and criminals were thrown in as well, what matter? We have observed the vile reason advanced by Caiaphas for the death of Christ, and he was but conforming to a world-wide sentiment, epitome of a world's conception of its God. And danger still pressing, demand for sacrifice increases in maddening ratio. We remember the holocausts offered up by the Romans when Hannibal was at their gates. And in the awful end of Carthage we see it in its full fury-a horrible nightmare which made life past bearing. And their god had to be propitiated, and with a smile. To turn away his wrath they threw themselves and all dearest to them into the devouring flames of his altar. Nothing was too precious to offer, until we even see the proud, passionate, demented, frenzied mother throw into the raging furnace her own dearest, loved first-born. The Roman, with the sanctimonius of all ages, professed to be horrorstruck at such self-renunciation. For himself, he severely limited himself to the immolation of those he hated; and it was well within the Christian era before human sacrifice came to an end in his empire.

That Christianity has delivered mankind from such bondage is not the least of its triumphs, nor the smallest blessing that it has conferred on a mentally enslaved world.

89. It is a commonly received mot that Christianity did not capture paganism until Christianity had itself

become pagan. origin or parallel in the other. Note our very days, our festivals, our celebrations, saints, etc. So the surface show. Yet no fact is more undoubted than that Christianity never was paganism. The one stone so assiduously thrown at Christianity by the Nietsche school shows how altogether Christianity never was paganism. It is the intense selfishness of Christianity it hates. Such its profession. The one all-concern of the believer is to save his own soul. Kind he might be; generous; given to good deeds; but all to work out his own salvation. Grant it all. Better a man should be disinterested for any reason than not at all; but such selfishness is paganism, not Christianity. The pagan world was very much concerned about the saving of one's soul. Woe the Egyptian when the scales sank low with evil done; woe the Greek, reckoning with Pluto unbalanced; woe the Josephus; woe the Jew without credit on that day! But this is no teaching of Christ. His "Father" has only abounding love for every child. Maybe He asks his love in return, but given or no, He knows no change. And given, and love for his fellow man will follow; and as for works, they will take care of themselves. And the Christian does not do good works to-day, as Nietsche will have it, to save his soul, but because this love is his. To save one's soul may wring coppers out of human nature. Love will bring everythinggold, jewels, children, life itself, as offering-unconscious offering-to its God.

Not an item in the one but found

Thus creedless Christianity in its simplicity. With it other beliefs are not necessarily inconsistent; but if it be wanting, what the form, the ritual, the ceremonial that can take its place?

90. Thus we observe how entirely out of sympathy was Christ's teaching with the then prevailing belief. And this gives us clue as to how it fascinated the individual. He came to bring an enslaved world freedom and joy. And here transcendent feature of His teaching His truly glad tidings are for every race and