Forlong - Rivers of Life

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Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
Mithras may be said to have become the sole objects of worship even in the remotest
corners of the Roman world. 1 The foundation of Mithraic worship was in the theology
of Zoroastrianism, which placed Mithras among the first of the Amshas-pands. He was
not the equal of Ormazd, but he was the Sun—the abode of his spirit, hence called by
the Greeks, Mithras, Phebus, Hyperion, Dionysus, Liber or Phan-sces; and those who
would be initiated into this faith, and partake of its most solemn rites, must first
undergo great penances, and give severetests of their courage and devotion. Owing to
Mithras being continually invoked with the Sun, he came to be considered identical,
and eventually superseded in the eyes of the masses the great Ormazd himself, just as
Jahveh did Elohim, Jupiter all the Italian gods, 2 and as Christ and Mary have with
many, practically supplantet, at least in prayer, the more remote and terrible Almighty.
The disintegration of the Serapian faith produced a powerful Gnostic and Ophite
Christian sect, who have left us a wonderful and truthful record of their beliefs, in gems
and sculpturings, known mostly as Abraxas or Abrasax, emblems which clearly symbolise
the Sun and Fertile powers. The word simply means “holy name”—the Hindoo Ineffable
name, and what the Gaytri calls “the fierce and all pervading Sun.” The title
is said to have been devised by the Basilidans of Egypt—a Christian sect following that
Father of the Church whom later Fathers found it expedient to denounce, but whom
Clement, the contemporary of Basilides calls “a philosopher devoted to the contemplation
of divine things.” 3 Dean Mansel says that the leaders of the Gnostics were persons
of great powers of reasoning and thought, and that Marcion was one of the chief.
Christianity emerged from the worship of Mithras and Serapis, changing the
names but “not substance”—possibly, say some, so as to avoid persecution; but many
Christians continued both names and symbols. 4 Constantine retained upon his coinage:
SOLI INVICTO COMITI—“To the Invincible Sun, my companion,” 5 or guardian; and
Christians latterly apologized for celebrating his birth-day on the 25th December, saying
that they could better perform their rites when the heathen were busy with theirs,
and that their God also was called the “Sun of Righteousness;” they added, that the
three Magi who came to Christ’s birth were Kasp-Ar, “The White One;” Melki-Or,
“The King of Light;” and Bal-tazar or Bel-shazar, “The Lord of Treasures.” They
and all Magi acknowledged Mithras as the first emanation from Ormazd and here Jews
and Christians picked up the first hazy ideas of Zoroaster’s system of future rewards and
punishments. the fiery lake, immortality of the soul, &c. The writer of Hebrews (i. 3)
almost copies the exact Mithraic doctrine in describing Christ; 6 for Mithras, ages before
his day, had been declared “the brightness or reflection. of the glory of the Supreme
One, and the express image of his person, better by far than the angels, and with a
more excellent inheritance.” So also Christians, with almost servile mimicry, as
1
King’s Gnostics and their Remains, p. 47.
2
Ibid., p. 50
3
Tertullian calls him a Platonist, p. 48
4
Seel. Mith., p. 287, quoted from King.
5 King tells us that the names of Serpais were
Holy Name, Glory, Light, The Sole Jupiter, The
Day-Spring, The Earth, &c., p. 70
6 King, op. cit., p. 51