was the religion of Persia, and was extensively received through other parts of Asia, taught that there had existed from eternity, not One, but Two, self-existent Beings—Two Creators: the one, Ormuzd, the author of all good; and the other, Ahriman, the source of all evil: and that there was a ceaseless contest between these opposing kingdoms of light and darkness. In like manner, the system of the Gnostics, a sect very numerous and widely spread in the early ages of Christianity, held that there were from eternity two distinct Existences, namely, God, the author of all good, and Matter, the source of all evil; that in man these two powers meet, and hence the constant struggle between the flesh and the spirit. Now, we may perceive that such an idea as this, received into the mind, corrupts the first principles of religion, both speculative and practical, and tends to induce despair. If there be a self-existent, eternally existent, source of evil, then evil is a part of the original constitution of things, and consequently would have existed whether man had sinned or not. This idea at once presents to the mind a dark picture of the system of the universe, which saddens all man's views; and it also materially affects the view of man's responsibility, and of all the doctrines dependent upon it. Again, if this source of evil be matter, then, in our material bodies, we are carrying about with us a load of essential evil. Such a thought is sufficient to cast a gloom over all our existence in this world, and even to throw its baneful shadow far into the next.
Now, how different is the system of Revealed Religion. This teaches that evil is not a part of the original constitution of things,—that in the beginning
