“tree of infamy” of the old Romans—indeed! ----- Footnote 38: The earliest Christian author, Justin Martyr, calls, in his first Apology, his co-religionists _Chrestians_, χρηστιανοι—not Christians. Footnote 39: “Clemens Alexandrinus, in the second century, founds a serious argument on this paranomasia (lib. iii., cap. xvii., p. 53 _et circa_), that all who believed in _Chrest_ (_i.e._, “a good man”) both are, and are called Chrestians, that is, good men,” (Strommata, lib. ii. “Higgins’ _Anacalypsis_.”) And Lactantius (lib. iv., cap. vii.) says that it is only through _ignorance_ that people call themselves Christians, instead of Chrestians: “_qui proper ignorantium errorem cum immutata litera Chrestum solent dicere_.” Footnote 40: In England alone, there are over 239 various sects. (See Whitaker’s Almanac.) In 1883, there were 186 denominations only, and now they steadily increase with every year, an additional 53 sects having sprung up in only four years! ----- The worship of the dead-letter in the Bible is but one more form of _idolatry_, nothing better. A fundamental dogma of faith cannot exist under a double-faced Janus form. “Justification” _by Christ_ cannot be achieved at one’s choice and fancy, _either_ by “faith” or by “works” and James, therefore (ii., 25), contradicting Paul (Heb. xi., 31), and _vice versa_,[41] one of them must be wrong. Hence, the Bible is _not_ the “Word of God” but contains at best the words of fallible men and _imperfect_ teachers. Yet read _esoterically_, it does contain, if not the _whole_ truth, still, “_nothing but the truth_,” under whatever allegorical garb. Only: _Quot homines tot sententiæ_. ----- Footnote 41: It is but fair to St. Paul to remark that this contradiction is surely due to later tampering with his Epistles. Paul was a Gnostic himself, _i.e._, A “Son of Wisdom,” and an Initiate into the true _mysteries of Christos_, though he may have thundered (or was made to appear to do so) against some Gnostic sects, of which, in his day, there were many. But his Christos was not Jesus of Nazareth, nor any living man, as shown so ably in Mr. Gerald Massey’s lecture, “Paul, the Gnostic Opponent of Peter.” He was an Initiate, a true “Master-Builder” or adept, as described in “Isis Unveiled,” Vol II., pp. 90-91. -----