ny by a happy combination of discords. It was
in Persia, and in the reign of Sapor, that one of the most remarkable of
these well-meaning attempts at fusion and reconciliation that the whole
of history can show was made, and with results which ought to be a
lasting warning to the apostles of comprehension. A certain Mani (or
Manes, as the ecclesiastical writers call him), born in Persia about
A.D. 240, grew to manhood under Sapor, exposed to the various religious
influences of which we have spoken. With a mind free from prejudice and
open to conviction, he studied the various systems of belief which he
found established in Western Asia--the Cabalism of the Babylonian Jews,
the Dualism of the Magi, the mysterious doctrines of the Christians, and
even the Buddhism of India. At first he inclined to Christianity, and is
said to have been admitted to priest's orders and to have ministered to
a congregation; but after a time he thought that he saw his way to the
formation of a new creed, which should combine all that was best in
the religious systems which he was acquainted with, and omit what
was superfluous or objectionable. He adopted the Dualism of the
Zoroastrians, the metempsychosis of India, the angelism and demonism
of the Talmud, and the Trinitarianism of the Gospel of Christ. Christ
himself he identified with Mithra, and gave Him his dwelling in the sun.
He assumed to be the Paraclete promised by Christ, who should guide men
into all truth, and claimed that his "Ertang," a sacred book illustrated
by pictures of his own painting, should supersede the New Testament.
Such pretensions were not likely to be tolerated by the Christian
community; and Manes had not put them forward very long when he was
expelled from the church and forced to carry his teaching elsewhere.
Under these circumstances he is said to have addressed himself to Sapor,
who was at first inclined to show him some favor; but when he found
out what the doctrines of the new teacher actually were, his feelings
underwent a change, and Manes, proscribed, or at any rate threatened
with penalties, had to retire into a foreign country.

The Zoroastrian faith was thus maintained in its purity by the Persian
monarch, who did not allow himself to be imposed upon by the specious
eloquence of the new teacher, but ultimately rejected the strange
amalgamation that was offered to his acceptance. It is scarcely to be
regretted that he so determined. Though the morality o