from the third to the fifth century which dominated Hellenic and even Syrian thought. Gregory of Nazianzus (Orat. 33) definitely states that Christians in his day were free to speculate about the nature of the Judgment, and his friend Gregory of Nyssa taught, though perhaps not quite consistently, downright universalism, as did also the celebrated Syrian divine Theodore of Mopsuestia. I cannot think that there is any assertion anywhere (see p. 218) that the resurrection of the "saints who slept" must necessarily have preceded the Descent of the Saviour to Hades.

We are deeply indebted to the writer for recalling to our minds a fact which is missed by many readers of the Bible, that the Descent into Hades was foretold by our Lord Himself, and implicitly if not explicitly taught by St. Paul the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews (pp. 222, 224). And we may be thankful for a protest, though it is by no means too strongly worded, against the idea that Christ's Descent must be attributed to "Pagan sources." Many competent critics are of opinion that other religions borrowed from Christianity in this and other points, and certainly the contrary opinion cannot be said to have been placed beyond all doubt. I may express my great satisfaction that the Institute has of late broadened the basis on which papers are permitted to be read before it, and that the various developments of Christian teaching during past ages find full and free discussion at our meetings. Such a course must tend to a broadening and a steadying of our views, and the ultimate banishing of "erroneous and strange doctrines from our midst."

Communication from Lieut.-Colonel ALVES :—

The earliest recorded prophecy in the Bible concerning our Lord's Descent into Hades appears to be that of David in Psalm xvi, "thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell (Sheol or Hades).”

Though this and "Sheol" is sometimes used as a synonym for "the Grave," we have no warrant for supposing that they are one and the same thing; the latter being for the body, the former for the departed spirit.

But if the earliest prophecy that we possess dates only from some 1,000 years B.C., we are not justified in asserting that those who lived before David and Moses had no revelation on the subject. There are two passages in the New Testament which seem to me to be evidence in favour of there having been some pre-Mosaic Bible

which, or part of which, was extant in writing or tradition, even in the days of the Apostles.

Peter, in his first Epistle, Chap. iii, verses 18 to 20, tells of this descent into, and preaching to the Spirits in Prison, by Our Lord between death and resurrection. There is no ambiguity in, or dispute about, the text. No unbiassed mind could interpret it otherwise. Jude also quotes a prophecy of Enoch. Neither of these writers. writes as if he were revealing something new, as Paul does, in 1 Cor. xv, when revealing the resurrection of the dead.

Supposing that some such Bible, oral or written, existed in preMosaic days, those who were scattered abroad after the confusion of tongues at Babel would carry away the oral tradition with them— and speedily corrupt it.

The history of the Early Church, and even of the Church in our own day, shows how pure teaching can become rapidly corrupted. The idea of a coming deliverer is one of these doctrines, and that of the Descent into Hades would appear to be another. The former is outlined in Genesis iii, "It shall bruise thy head"; the latter is not hinted at in that book, or in Job, which is believed to have been written by Moses.

The fact that nations which, from a very early period, lost all right knowledge of God, have preserved a tradition, however corrupted, of the Descent into Hades-is strong evidence in favour of the earlier Patriarchs possessing a fuller Bible than Genesis i to xi. Having served its purpose, Divine Wisdom has given us in its place His complete Revelation as we now have it.

The LECTURER in reply said: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I must express my thanks to you for the kind reception you have given to my paper, and also for the honour which the Council has conferred upon me in asking one who is a stranger, to read a paper here.

Mr. Tuckwell is of opinion that I have confused "Hades" with "Hell." In reply to that I would point out that the same confusion is found generally in early Christian literature. In the New Testament "Gehenna" means roughly what we now understand by "Hell," but probably a place of punishment after judgment. "Hades" is the place of all the dead, including (as in the Jewish idea of Sheol) the wicked. "Paradise" may mean a division of Hades, or a region in one of the heavens. It has this latter sense

in the passage where St. Paul refers to his ecstatic experience, and he plainly believed, as a result of his Jewish training, that there were several heavens, in one of which Paradise was situated. In early Christian literature, such a scheme as this is often adhered to, but very frequently Gehenna and Hades are used synonymously, and, as in the Gospel of Nicodemus, Hades is itself a place of punishment apparently for all the dead, who are described as coming out of their prisons at the call of Christ. In this document Hades is also the region where Satan dwells. These confusions are inevitable, and one is bound to follow them more or less. But it is fairly certain that many of those who believed in Christ's descent into Hades. thought of it as a descent into a state where the wicked were.

Reference has been made to the passages in St. Peter's epistle. One is quite aware that these are still the subject of discussion, and that such interpretations as Mr. Tuckwell and Mr. Coles have mentioned have obtained a wide currency. But if we believe in the descent it is difficult to understand why we should not take the Petrine passages in what is their obvious sense and see in them a reference to it. The idea that the apostle is referring to a preaching not in Hades, but in the days of Noah by the Spirit of Christ, strikes one alwaysas more ingenious than true. As I pointed out in the paper, manyof the Fathers do not refer to these passages when speaking of thisdoctrine, probably because they did not suit their particular theory of the Descent. But, even if they contain no hint of a presence of our Lord with the dead, and His preaching to them between His death and resurrection, there are other passages in the New Testament which clearly do refer to these. This, added to the constant belief of the early Church in the Descent, makes it easier to give up, if necessary, the Petrine texts.

As to the criticism that the " larger hope" which one seems to find in the Descent doctrine is a dangerous teaching, we must remember that it is not claimed that we shall be forced to accept forgiveness in the other world, any more than we are forced to do so here. The human will must still have its power of choosing or rejecting these as here. Yet one may trust that even the most stubborn wills shall at length bow before the love of God, whose punishments work through love, and cry aloud for His mercy which is infinite and unfailing. No Christian teacher would ever instruct people "not to worry about the Gospel," because "all will be put

right" in the Other-world, and such a popular but erroneous view is not a fair deduction from the teachings of those who trust the larger hope, or from the sentences at the close of the paper.

I should have liked more criticism directed towards what is the main purpose of the paper, viz., the inquiry regarding the sources of the doctrine-is it original to Christianity or was it entirely borrowed from pagan sources? The Descent doctrine has been much discussed in Germany, and there is hardly a German theologian of any repute who has not written a book or pamphlet on the subject. There is a strong tendency, exemplified in the writings of Professors Bousset and Pfleedeser, to regard the doctrine as borrowed from pagan sources, probably by way of the Mandæan religion. But there are two objections to this theory, both of which seem fatal: (1) We know nothing regarding the date of the documents in which the Mandæan myths occur; (2) None of those Mandæan "descent" myths has any reference to a descent to the world of the dead. Men were created after the descent of Mandæan mythical personages to the regions inhabited by demoniac beings.

I should add that I chose the account in the Gospel of Nicodemus as introductory to the study of the Christian Descent doctrine, not because it is particularly early in date, but because it gives comprehensively most of the ideas connected with this doctrine which are found as a general rule separately in other writings. Chancellor Lias's criticisms, which have reached me since reading my paper, are valuable, but I do not understand his reference to my citations from Irenaeus on p. 216, as I think I am in agreement with him that Irenaeus is not referring to a release from Hades in connection with the binding of Satan. Elsewhere, of course, he refers to a preaching in Hades. The passage in Ignatius is, I think, open to the interpretation I have put upon it. Cf. Lightfoot's note in his Apostolic Fathers to this passage (Ignatius, Ep. ad Ephes., 19).

THE 520TH ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING

WAS HELD IN

THE LECTURE HALL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS BY KIND PERMISSION, ON MONDAY, 12TH JUNE, 1911, AT 4.30 P.M.

THE VENERABLE ARCHDEACON BERESFORD POTTER TOOK THE

CHAIR.

The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read and confirmed.
The Secretary announced the election of two Associates :-

Mrs. Stuart Trotter.

Mrs. Edward Trotter.

The Rev. W. St. Clair Tisdall was then invited to read his paper :

MITHRAISM: Christianity's Greatest Rival under the Roman Emperors. By the Rev. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, D.D.

Οὐδὲν ἀνθρώπῳ λαβεῖν μεῖζον οὐδὲ χαρίσασθαι Θεῷ σεμνότερον ἀληθείας.

(Plutarch.)

NUMEROUS as were the rivals with which, during the

first few centuries of our era, Christianity had to contend for the empire of the human heart and of the world, none was more powerful, more dangerous, and (in spite of certain deceptive and merely superficial resemblances)* more opposed

* Attention is called to these outward resemblances by Tertullian, Justin Martyr, etc. Origen (Contra Celsum, Lib. VI, 22) says that Celsus accused the Christians of borrowing their seven heavens from the Mithraic mysteries. In modern times Lajard, Recherches sur le culte publique et les mystères de Mithra, has unintentionally exaggerated these resemblances : while Mr. J. M. Robertson in his Pagan Christs, Mr. Vivian Phelips ("Philip Vivian") in his The Churches and Modern Thought, Dr. Frazer in Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Mr. Mallock in Nineteenth Century and After for September, 1905, and others, have called in the aid of excited imaginations, if not also inventive talent of a very high order, with the object of making these points of outward contact between Christianity and Mithraism seem so numerous and so important as to lead their readers to infer a very close relationship between the two faiths. This will be evident in the passage we quote further on in the text.