MONOD THE "CHRIST."

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1263, 14 May 1896, Page 38

MONOD THE "CHRIST."

A brief account of the lifo and doctrines of Guillatime Monod, who died in Paris recently, and who considered himself to bo a Christ, is given in the Figaro. It appears that Guillaumo Monod's belief in himself was shared by quite a number of other people, many of whom were persons of considerable culture and of highly respectable social position. The little sect of Monodists, who had a chapel on the avenue do Breteuil, numbered about 500. Guillaumo Monod was 95 years old at the time of his death. During GO years of his life he believed himself to be something more than man. Guillaumo Monod was twice a pastor of the Reformed Church in France, the first time at Saint-Quontin and tho second time in Paris. He was the last survivor of tho 12 children of Jean Monod, whoso family has produced so many remarkable men of science and good works. While he was pastor at Saint-Quontin, says the Figaro, Guillaume Monod passed through a crisis—moral, ho said, but which his friends described as mental. Monod's pretensions to deity date from this period. At first Guillaume Monod thought that ho was to lie the father of Christ, but though lie was married twice he had no children. lie then considered that tho expected Christ was incarnated in his own personality. The fact that ho was not recognised as the Christ by his own family, and even by either of his wives, was a source of deep sorrow to him. Ho also experienced terrible moral suffering on being jmt in a lunatic asylum, and applied to himself the prophecy of E/.ekiel, " They have treated mo like a madman." At one time of his life ho i - etractod almost all that he had written, describing it as tho work of a madman, and resumed his pastoral work in Paris. Put after the war his old ideas again possessed him, and he began proselytising with ardour, grouping round him several hundred disciples in Switzerland, Alsace and France, among whom were men and women of undoubted intellectual distinction.

.Asked how he came to have faith in Guillaume Monod, one of these disciples said to the Figarojcorrespondent :

" On account of tho holiness of Guillaume Monod. A man who does not sin is not a

man—ho is God. It is in that way that

the Christ was rocognisod eighteen hundred years age. it is in that way that we recognise the Christ now."

It appears that tho Monodists did not think that their master would die, and tho great ago he attained tended to confirm them in this belief.

The question is, Will this death havo the oil'ect of disbanding tho sect, or will they find another object in which to centralise their faith?