The religion of Jesus Christ was by no means established peaceably and immediately in the days following his crucifixion and resurrection. By a close reading of several of the Epistles of the New Testament you will see that during the first and second centuries many were the beliefs and even schisms among those who thought that they believed in Christ. In the second Epistle to the Corinthians there is evidence that the learned doctors raised altar in opposition to altar. None of them were avowedly reared by the Gnostics, yet the Apostle Paul recognized their opposition to the orthodox growing faith and combated them, knowing that Christianity at that critical moment was constantly losing adherents who, through the sophistries of the Abraxas, were daily relinquishing their ardent hold on the new hope in Christ. Undoubtedly this Abraxas sect, who made so many cabalistic talismans, which were so blindly accepted and worn by their disciples, had among them many who knew of our Saviour. It appears from history, and from their mystic characters, that they had a clearer appreciation of Christ than a just or reasonable fear of the prince of the region of darkness, as Zoroaster termed the chief of inferno. They derived their idea of Satan, the arch tempter, from the appellation given him by certain sects in Central Asia, where, to better deceive their victims, they spoke of him as an angel of light. In modern times the lives of many men have proved that they had no desire to repulse Satan, but rather lived harmoniously in fellowship with him as their guide. St. Paul besought the Christians to guard well the precious truths revealed and confided to them, and to fear and fly from the profane novelties that were threatening the welfare of their souls (I. Timothy, vi). In a word, these great pagan monuments were the forerunners and the models of many of the small and portable talismans that were freely disseminated by the priests of the Abraxas to their disciples and their followers. One important fact must be understood. The signs, symbols, the unintelligible hieroglyphs of the Gnostics, the Basilidians, which we find on the Abraxas gems--almost all talismans--are the mystic representations of a sect thus made up of people of several nations, all of whom in their aspirations sought for knowledge of the invisible power, that unquestionably had created and who governed all things, whom, though unseen, they served and feared. [Illustration] SOMMERVILLE COLLECTION. [Illustration: 561 obverse.] [Illustration: 561 reverse.] [Illustration: 1431] [Illustration: 568 obverse.] [Illustration: 568 reverse.] [Illustration: 565] ABRAXAS OR GNOSTIC GEMS. EARLY CHRISTIANS. The events narrated in the New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ resulted in the drawing together of his followers, who daily sought to worship their risen Redeemer, notwithstanding the terrible opposition of the heathen autocrats of Rome.