"

'height, for unto thee have I sung a song." Then, apparently identifying Jesus with the light, she continues: "Thou has sent me thy light from thyself, and "thou hast saved me. Thou hast brought me to the higher regions of chaos. . . . "The emanations of Arrogant have designed to take away my light, but have not "been able to take it; for thy light-power is with me, and they have taken counsel "together without thy commandment, O light. For this cause have they not been "able to take away my light, because I have trusted in the light. I shall not be "afraid; the light is my saviour, and I will not fear."

Jesus then explains that the redemption of Pistis Sophia from the darkness of chaos is the consummation of the first mystery. The book closes with various interpretations of David's prophecy that "Mercy and Truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other."

The second book tells of the help afforded to Pistis Sophia by archangels and a light-stream; but she is again distressed by Arrogant, who calls on all the dæmonial powers to drag her down again. At last Pistis Sophia is rescued and transfigured. She is tabernacled in the midst of the light, a mighty light being on her left and on her right, and on all sides, forming a crown on her head." New songs of praise and explanations of the mysteries follow, the details of which might prove tiresome to the readers of the present generation.

The purpose of the mysteries is explained by Jesus in these words: ''I came "not to call the righteous.' Now, therefore, I have brought the mysteries that the "sins of all men may be remitted, and they be brought into the kingdom of "light."

When the disciples lose courage to understand the mystery of the ineffable Jesus comforts them, saying: "Whosoever shall renounce the whole world and all ''therein, and shall submit himself to the divinity, to him that mystery [of the in"'effable] shall be far more easy than all the mysteries of the kingdom of light; it "is far simpler to understand than all the rest, and it is far clearer than them all. "He who shall arrive at a knowledge of that mystery, hath renounced the whole of "this world and all its cares. For this cause have I said to you aforetime, 'Come "'unto me all ye that are oppressed with cares and labor under their weight, and "I will give you rest, for my burden is light and my yoke easy.' Now, therefore, "he who shall receive that mystery, hath renounced the whole world, and all the "material cares that are therein.

Wherefore, my disciples, grieve not, thinking that ye will never understand "that mystery. Amen, I say unto you, that mystery is far simpler to understand "than all mysteries; and amen, I say unto you, that mystery is yours and also his "whosoever shall renounce the whole world and all the matter that is therein.

"Now, therefore, hearken, O my disciples, my friends and my brethren, that I "may impel you to the understanding of that mystery of the ineffable. These "things I say unto you, because I have already instructed you in every gnosis

"in the emanation of the pleroma; for the emanation of the pleroma is its "gnosis.

...

All those men who shall have received the mystery in that ineffable, "shall be fellow-kings with me, they shall sit on my right hand and on my left "in my kingdom.

"Amen, I say unto you, those men are myself, and I am these men."

The psychology of the Pistis Sophia is peculiarly interesting. The soul is said to be a compound fashioned by the five great rulers in due proportion from the sweat, the tears, and the breath of the mouth of the rulers; old souls can be refashioned by the five great rulers, but they let them first drink the draught of oblivion, which is a mixture from the seed of iniquity. This draught of oblivion produces the counterfeit of the spirit (which may be the old Egyptian idea of the double), which is distinct from the soul as an envelope or vesture that, even without the soul, may continue to lead a kind of ghost existence. After death "the coun"terfeit of the spirit bringeth that soul unto the virgin of light, and the virgin of "light, the judge, handeth over that soul to one of her receivers, and her receiver "'casteth it into the spheres of the æons, and it is not set free from transmigrations "'into bodies until it giveth signs of being in its last cycle."

....

". . . . The counterfeit of the spirit beareth witness to every sin which the soul "hath committed, . . . . sealeth every sin that it may be stamped on the soul so "that all the rulers of the torments of sinners may know that it is the soul of a sin"'ner, and may be informed of the number of sins which it hath committed, by the "number of seals which the counterfeit of the spirit hath stamped upon it, so that "they may chastise it according to the number of sins which it hath committed "This is the fashion in which they treat the soul of the sinner."

Ieou, the overseer of the light, is set as a watch over the dragon, into whose mouth all the blasphemers, heretics, and irredeemable sinners are cast (p. 323), and their torments will be more painful than all former chastisement of the judgments; they will be imprisoned in relentless ice and scorching fire, and they shall perish and shall become non-existent for eternity (p. 324). But the soul that has "exhausted the cycles of transmigration, shall be brought unto the seven virgins of "light who preside over baptism, that they may baptise that soul, and seal it with "the sign of the kingdom of that ineffable, and bring it into the orders of the "light; .. they will become flames of light, or streams of light, that they may "pass through all the regions until they come into the region of the inheritance."

....

The quotations from the Books of the Saviour are written in the same spirit as Pistis Sophia, treating of the doctrine of punishment of blasphemers, heretics, and the wicked; and the salvation of those that have received the mysteries. Jesus, the great initiator, preaches this to his disciples in Amenti (which is the Egyptian Nether World), and the disciples answer: "Woe, woe unto sinners, on whom the "indifference and forgetfulness of the rulers lie heavily, until they pass out of the "body to suffer these torments! Have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us, son

"

of holiness, that we may be saved from these torments and these judgments "which are prepared for sinners, for we also have sinned, O master, our light."

The apocryphal books, especially the expositions of the various gnostic schools, are very important for the sake of comprehending that great religious movement that produced as a final result the Christian Church. But for that reason it is not necessary (as Mr. Mead believes) that the treatment of Gnosticism in a really "comprehensible manner requires not only a writer who at least believes in the "possibilities of magic, but is also a mystic himself, or at least one who is in sym"pathy with mysticism."

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DIE IRRTHUMSLosigkeit Jesu Christi und der christliche GLAUBE. Ein Nachwort zu der Schrift: "Konnte Jesus irren?" Von Dr. Paul Schwartzkopff. Giessen: J. Ricker'sche Buchhandlung. 1897. Price, M. 2.00. Professor Schwartzkopff's little pamphlet Konnte Jesus irren? has hit the central problem of modern theology, and we do not hesitate to say, in spite of the protest of Zöckler and of other prominent divines, that the solution which Schwartzkopff offers is the only one on which the traditional orthodoxy can take its stand. In reply to Professor Zöckler, Schwartzkopff says: "As far as I myself am concerned in this matter, I can assure Dr. Zöckler that the bitterest anxiety of heart alone has compelled me after years of careful investigation to recognise this error of Jesus" (viz., the prophecy concerning the second advent).

Schwartzkopff emphasises the difference of sinlessness and freedom from error; he has not lost confidence in the sinlessness of Jesus, but sinlessness does not imply omniscience. Ignorance is not a sin, and ignorance naturally and necessarily leads to error. Infallibility concerning all moral truths that have reference to God's plan of salvation does not include a general infallibility in all respects; the former is evidence of the divinity of Jesus and would prove that he was the Christ, but a general infallibility would render the humanity of Jesus impossible and thus lead to docetism.

Professor Schwartzkopff has been attacked by several prominent theologians from the orthodox ranks, but their attacks only prove the importance of the problem and the necessity of solving it. There is no use of shutting one's eyes to it after the ostrich fashion. Schwartzkopff himself comes from the orthodox ranks and has, so far as it is possible for a scholar and thinker, preserved the traditions of the old dogmatism; but he found his faith seriously jeopardised by those statements in the New Testament which contain unequivocal errors, as, for instance, the idea of Jesus, that his second advent would take place during his own generation.

Schwartzkopff characterises his solution of the problem in the following words of the conclusion:

"For those who see in Jesus a mere man, his fallibility is unquestionable and a matter of course. But they who are convinced that in the sinless Son of God

"the personal God himself is bodily revealed in his profoundest essence, will, when "'confronted with some of the accredited utterances of Jesus, certainly be led to "inquire whether his perfect community with God could have absolutely protected "him from error. If, as I have shown, the possibility, nay, the necessity of cer"tain errors is deducible from the very character and origin of human perception "and thought as such, then he who would deny this to Jesus would practically "make a docetic denial of his true humanity. But the person who does not go "thus far dare not accuse me of annulling his true divinity when I hold that the "fallibility of Jesus in matters not pertaining to salvation is possible and demon"strable.

"If my proof stands, then the widespread opinion that error can only proceed "from sin is fully refuted by the psychological facts, as is also the conclusion "therefrom that Jesus must have been absolutely errorless and absolutely sinless. "The fact remains that the saying, 'To err is human,' is also applicable to Jesus, "not because he was merely a man, but because he was truly a man.

"But if Jesus really did err in certain things, theology cannot escape from the 'obligation, not to give up—I am far from saying that—but so to conceive his di"vinity that we can squarely reckon with established facts and that no direct con"tradiction shall obtain concerning them. This forces us above all to a modifica''tion of the old ecclesiastical conception of the Dual Nature and of Anselm's doc"trine of reconciliation, which in their primitive meaning can scarcely be upheld "to-day by any theologian."

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PHILOSOPHY OF THEISM. Being the Gifford Lectures, Delivered Before the University of Edinburgh in 1894–95. By Alexander Campbell Fraser, LL. D. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons. Two series. Vol. I. 1896. Pages, 303. Vol. II. 1896. Pages, xiii, 288.

It is a fine series of volumes that have sprung from the foundation of the late Lord Gifford at Glasgow. And not the least is the last work-the present two series of lectures-by the venerable Emeritus Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh, Alexander Campbell Fraser, a man of the maturest philosophical culture, who has earned the gratitude of the thinking world by his splendid monumental editions of Locke and Berkeley. At the close of his life he is called upon to deliver his judgment, born of a ripe thought and feeling, upon the greatest problem with which the human mind has occupied itself. He says: "My first "words must give expression to the emotion which I feel on finding myself once "more admitted to speak officially within the walls of this ancient university, with "which, as student, graduate, and professor, I have been connected for sixty years. "For it is sixty years in this November since I first cast eyes of wonder on the "academic walls which now carry so many memories in my mind, and which to"day are associated with an extraordinary responsibility. In the evening of life,

"'in reluctant response to the unexpected invitation of the patrons of the Gifford "Trust, I find myself, in the presence of my countrymen, called to say honestly "the best that may be in me concerning the supreme problem of human life, our "relation to which at last determines the answers to all questions which can "engage the mind of man. No words that I can find are sufficient to represent my sense of the honor thus conferred, or the responsibility thus imposed, upon one "who believed that he had bid a final farewell to appearances in public of this "sort, in order to wind up his account with this mysterious life of sense."

How liberal were the intentions of Lord Gifford may be learned from the following words of his bequest: "The lecturers appointed shall. . . . . be sub"jected to no test of any kind, and shall not be required to take an oath, or to make "any promise of any kind; they may be of any denomination whatever, or of no denomination at all (and many earnest and highminded men prefer to belong to "no ecclesiastical denomination); they may be of any religion or way of thinking, "'or, as it is sometimes said, they may be of no religion; or they may be called "sceptics, agnostics, or free-thinkers, it being desirable that the subject be "promoted and illustrated by different minds.”

On the other hand we have something approaching a definition in the following characterisation by Lord Gifford of the subject of the lectures: "God, the Infinite, the All, the First and Only Cause, the One and the Sole Substance, the Sole Being, the Sole, Reality, and the Sole Existence."

And the definition is significant, for it is characteristic of theological thought not to examine facts and to lead them to their own interpretation, but to proceed anteriorly from abstract notions and to mould the facts to the notions. Why a theological inquirer should start with the notions of Infinite, First Cause, Sole Being, Perfect Moral Person, Sole Reality, etc., is unintelligible to the scientific inquirer who always seeks to reach his results before he postulates them. Professor Fraser after examining in his first volume the conceptions of Universal Materialism, Panegoism, Pantheism, and Agnosticism, and finding them unsatisfactory, resorts to man's personality as the principle of interpretation. He stands before the dilemma: Homo mensura, or Nulla mensura. "Does God, or the final principle, mean "only the ultimately inexplicable natural order; or does God mean ever-active "'moral reason and purpose, at the root of an always divinely sustained physical "order, in which God is Supreme?" And again: "The deepest and truest thought "man can have about the outside world, is that in which the natural universe is "conceived as the immediate manifestation of the divine or infinite Person, in "moral relation to imperfect persons, who, in and through their experience of what "'is, are undergoing intellectual and spiritual education in really divine surround"ings." And further: Man at his highest, acting freely under moral obliga"tion, with its implied intellectual and moral postulates, is suggested as a more "fitting key to the ultimate interpretation of things than man only as an animal "organism, abstracted from the moral experience that is often unconscious in the