THE HIDDEN SIDE OF CHRISTIANITY.
_(a)_ THE TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES.
Having seen that the religions of the past claimed with one voice to
have a hidden side, to be custodians of "Mysteries," and that this claim
was endorsed by the seeking of initiation by the greatest men, we must
now ascertain whether Christianity stands outside this circle of
religions, and alone is without a Gnosis, offering to the world only a
simple faith and not a profound knowledge. Were it so, it would indeed
be a sad and lamentable fact, proving Christianity to be intended for a
class only, and not for all types of human beings. But that it is not
so, we shall be able to prove beyond the possibility of rational doubt.
And that proof is the thing which Christendom at this time most sorely
needs, for the very flower of Christendom is perishing for lack of
knowledge. If the esoteric teaching can be re-established and win
patient and earnest students, it will not be long before the occult is
also restored. Disciples of the Lesser Mysteries will become candidates
for the Greater, and with the regaining of knowledge will come again the
authority of teaching. And truly the need is great. For, looking at the
world around us, we find that religion in the West is suffering from the
very difficulty that theoretically we should expect to find.
Christianity, having lost its mystic and esoteric teaching, is losing
its hold on a large number of the more highly educated, and the partial
revival during the past few years is co-incident with the
re-introduction of some mystic teaching. It is patent to every student
of the closing forty years of the last century, that crowds of
thoughtful and moral people have slipped away from the churches, because
the teachings they received there outraged their intelligence and
shocked their moral sense. It is idle to pretend that the wide-spread
agnosticism of this period had its root either in lack of morality or in
deliberate crookedness of mind. Everyone who carefully studies the
phenomena presented will admit that men of strong intellect have been
driven out of Christianity by the crudity of the religious ideas set
before them, the contradictions in the authoritative teachings, the
views as to God, man, and the universe that no trained intelligence
could possibly admit. Nor can it be said that any kind of moral
degradation lay at the root of the revolt against the dogmas of the
Church. The rebels were not too bad for their religion; on the contrary,
it was the religion that was too bad for them. The rebellion against
popular Christianity was due to the awakening and the growth of
conscience; it was the conscience that revolted, as well as the
intelligence, against teachings dishonouring to God and man alike, that
represented God as a tyrant, and man as essentially evil, gaining
salvation by slavish submission.
The reason for this revolt lay in the gradual descent of Christian
teaching into so-called simplicity, so that the most ignorant might be
able to grasp it. Protestant religionists asserted loudly that nothing
ought to be preached save that which every one could grasp, that the
glory of the Gospel lay in its simplicity, and that the child and the
unlearned ought to be able to understand and apply it to life. True
enough, if by this it were meant that there are some religious truths
that all can grasp, and that a religion fails if it leaves the lowest,
the most ignorant, the most dull, outside the pale of its elevating
influence. But false, utterly false, if by this it be meant that
religion has no truths that the ignorant cannot understand, that it is
so poor and limited a thing that it has nothing to teach which is above
the thought of the unintelligent or above the moral purview of the
degraded. False, fatally false, if such be the meaning; for as that view
spreads, occupying the pulpits and being sounded in the churches, many
noble men and women, whose hearts are half-broken as they sever the
links that bind them to their early faith, withdraw from the churches,
and leave their places to be filled by the hypocritical and the
ignorant. They pass either into a state of passive agnosticism, or--if
they be young and enthusiastic--into a condition of active aggression,
not believing that that can be the highest which outrages alike
intellect and conscience, and preferring the honesty of open unbelief to
the drugging of the intellect and the conscience at the bidding of an
authority in which they recognise nothing that is divine.
In thus studying the thought of our time we see that the question of a
hidden teaching in connection with Christianity becomes of vital
importance. Is Christianity to survive as _the_ religion of the West? Is
it to live through the centuries of the future, and to continue to play
a part in moulding the thought of the evolving western races? If it is
to live, it must regain the knowledge it has lost, and again have its
mystic and its occult teachings; it must again stand forth as an
authoritative teacher of spiritual verities, clothed with the only
authority worth anything, the authority of knowledge. If these teachings
be regained, their influence will soon be seen in wider and deeper
views of truth; dogmas, which now seem like mere shells and fetters,
shall again be seen to be partial presentments of fundamental realities.
First, Esoteric Christianity will reappear in the "Holy Place," in the
Temple, so that all who are capable of receiving it may follow its lines
of published thought; and secondly, Occult Christianity will again
descend into the Adytum, dwelling behind the Veil which guards the "Holy
of Holies," into which only the Initiate may enter. Then again will
occult teaching be within the reach of those who qualify themselves to
receive it, according to the ancient rules, those who are willing in
modern days to meet the ancient demands, made on all those who would
fain know the reality and truth of spiritual things.
Once again we turn our eyes to history, to see whether Christianity was
unique among religions in having no inner teaching, or whether it
resembled all others in possessing this hidden treasure. Such a question
is a matter of evidence, not of theory, and must be decided by the
authority of the existing documents and not by the mere _ipse dixit_ of
modern Christians.
As a matter of fact both the "New Testament" and the writings of the
early Church make the same declarations as to the possession by the
Church of such teachings, and we learn from these the fact of the
existence of Mysteries--called the Mysteries of Jesus, or the Mystery of
the Kingdom--the conditions imposed on candidates, something of the
general nature of the teachings given, and other details. Certain
passages in the "New Testament" would remain entirely obscure, if it
were not for the light thrown on them by the definite statements of the
Fathers and Bishops of the Church, but in that light they became clear
and intelligible.
It would indeed have been strange had it been otherwise when we consider
the lines of religious thought which influenced primitive Christianity.
Allied to the Hebrews, the Persians, and the Greeks, tinged by the older
faiths of India, deeply coloured by Syrian and Egyptian thought, this
later branch of the great religious stem could not do other than again
re-affirm the ancient traditions, and place in the grasp of western
races the full treasure of the ancient teaching. "The faith once
delivered to the saints" would indeed have been shorn of its chief value
if, when delivered to the West, the pearl of esoteric teaching had been
withheld.
The first evidence to be examined is that of the "New Testament." For
our purpose we may put aside all the vexed questions of different
readings and different authors, that can only be decided by scholars.
Critical scholarship has much to say on the age of MSS., on the
authenticity of documents, and so on. But we need not concern ourselves
with these. We may accept the canonical Scriptures, as showing what was
believed in the early Church as to the teaching of the Christ and of His
immediate followers, and see what they say as to the existence of a
secret teaching given only to the few. Having seen the words put into
the mouth of Jesus Himself, and regarded by the Church as of supreme
authority, we will look at the writings of the great apostle S. Paul;
then we will consider the statements made by those who inherited the
apostolic tradition and guided the Church during the first centuries
A.D. Along this unbroken line of tradition and written testimony the
proposition that Christianity had a hidden side can be established. We
shall further find that the Lesser Mysteries of mystic interpretation
can be traced through the centuries to the beginning of the 19th
century, and that though there were no Schools of Mysticism recognised
as preparatory to Initiation, after the disappearance of the Mysteries,
yet great Mystics, from time to time, reached the lower stages of
exstasy, by their own sustained efforts, aided doubtless by invisible
Teachers.
The words of the Master Himself are clear and definite, and were, as we
shall see, quoted by Origen as referring to the secret teaching
preserved in the Church. "And when he was alone, they that were about
Him with the twelve asked of Him the parable. And He said unto them,
'Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but
unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables.'" And
later: "With many such parables spake He the word unto them, as they
were able to hear it. But without a parable spake He not unto them; and
when they were alone He expounded all things to His disciples."[41] Mark
the significant words, "when they were alone," and the phrase, "them
that are without." So also in the version of S. Matthew: "Jesus sent the
multitude away, and went into the house; and His disciples came unto
Him." These teachings given "in the house," the innermost meanings of
His instructions, were alleged to be handed on from teacher to teacher.
The Gospel gives, it will be noted, the allegorical mystic explanation,
that which we have called The Lesser Mysteries, but the deeper meaning
was said to be given only to the Initiates.
Again, Jesus tells even His apostles: "I have yet many things to say to
you, but ye cannot bear them now."[42] Some of them were probably said
after His death, when He was seen of His disciples, "speaking of the
things pertaining to the kingdom of God."[43] None of these have been
publicly recorded, but who can believe that they were neglected or
forgotten, and were not handed down as a priceless possession? There was
a tradition in the Church that He visited His apostles for a
considerable period after His death, for the sake of giving them
instruction--a fact that will be referred to later--and in the famous
Gnostic treatise, the _Pistis Sophia_, we read: "It came to pass, when
Jesus had risen from the dead, that He passed eleven years speaking with
His disciples and instructing them."[44] Then there is the phrase, which
many would fain soften and explain away: "Give not that which is holy to
the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine"[45]--a precept which
is of general application indeed, but was considered by the early
Church to refer to the secret teachings. It should be remembered that
the words had not the same harshness of sound in the ancient days as
they have now; for the words "dogs"--like "the vulgar," "the
profane"--was applied by those within a certain circle to all who were
outside its pale, whether by a society or association, or by a
nation--as by the Jews to all Gentiles.[46] It was sometimes used to
designate those who were outside the circle of Initiates, and we find it
employed in that sense in the early Church; those who, not having been
initiated into the Mysteries, were regarded as being outside "the
kingdom of God," or "the spiritual Israel," had this name applied to
them.
There were several names, exclusive of the term "The Mystery," or "The
Mysteries," used to designate the sacred circle of the Initiates or
connected with Initiation: "The Kingdom," "The Kingdom of God," "The
Kingdom of Heaven," "The Narrow Path," "The Strait Gate," "The
Perfect," "The Saved," "Life Eternal," "Life," "The Second Birth," "A
Little One," "A Little Child." The meaning is made plain by the use of
these words in early Christian writings, and in some cases even outside
the Christian pale. Thus the term, "The Perfect," was used by the
Essenes, who had three orders in their communities: the Neophytes, the
Brethren, and the Perfect--the latter being Initiates; and it is
employed generally in that sense in old writings. "The Little Child" was
the ordinary name for a candidate just initiated, _i.e._, who had just
taken his "second birth."
When we know this use, many obscure and otherwise harsh passages become
intelligible. "Then said one unto Him: Lord, are there few that be
saved? And He said unto them: Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for
many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able."[47]
If this be applied in the ordinary Protestant way to salvation from
everlasting hell-fire, the statement becomes incredible, shocking. No
Saviour of the world can be supposed to assert that many will seek to
avoid hell and enter heaven, but will not be able to do so. But as
applied to the narrow gateway of Initiation and to salvation from
rebirth, it is perfectly true and natural. So again: "Enter ye in at the
strait gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to
destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is
the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life; and few there be
that find it."[48] The warning which immediately follows against the
false prophets, the teachers of the dark Mysteries, is most apposite in
this connection. No student can miss the familiar ring of these words
used in this same sense in other writings. The "ancient narrow way" is
familiar to all; the path "difficult to tread as the sharp edge of a
razor,"[49] already mentioned; the going "from death to death" of those
who follow the flower-strewn path of desires, who do not know God; for
those men only become immortal and escape from the wide mouth of death,
from ever repeated destruction, who have quitted all desires.[50] The
allusion to death is, of course, to the repeated births of the soul into
gross material existence, regarded always as "death" compared to the
"life" of the higher and subtler worlds.
This "Strait Gate" was the gateway of Initiation, and through it a
candidate entered "The Kingdom." And it ever has been, and must be, true
that only a few can enter that gateway, though myriads--an exceedingly
"great multitude, which no man could number,"[51] not a few--enter into
the happiness of the heaven-world. So also spoke another great Teacher,
nearly three thousand years earlier: "Among thousands of men scarce one
striveth for perfection; of the successful strivers scarce one knoweth
me in essence."[52] For the Initiates are few in each generation, the
flower of humanity; but no gloomy sentence of everlasting woe is
pronounced in this statement on the vast majority of the human race.
The saved are, as Proclus taught,[53] those who escape from the circle
of generation, within which humanity is bound.
In this connection we may recall the story of the young man who came to
Jesus, and, addressing Him as "Good Master," asked how he might win
eternal life--the well-recognised liberation from rebirth by knowledge
of God.[54] His first answer was the regular exoteric precept: "Keep the
commandments." But when the young man answered: "All these things have I
kept from my youth up;" then, to that conscience free from all knowledge
of transgression, came the answer of the true Teacher: "If thou wilt be
perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou
shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me." "If thou wilt be
perfect," be a member of the Kingdom, poverty and obedience must be
embraced. And then to His own disciples Jesus explains that a rich man
can hardly enter the Kingdom of Heaven, such entrance being more
difficult than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle; with men
such entrance could not be, with God all things were possible.[55] Only
God in man can pass that barrier.
This text has been variously explained away, it being obviously
impossible to take it in its surface meaning, that a rich man cannot
enter a post-mortem state of happiness. Into that state the rich man may
enter as well as the poor, and the universal practice of Christians
shows that they do not for one moment believe that riches imperil their
happiness after death. But if the real meaning of the Kingdom of Heaven
be taken, we have the expression of a simple and direct fact. For that
knowledge of God which is Eternal Life[56] cannot be gained till
everything earthly is surrendered, cannot be learned until everything
has been sacrificed. The man must give up not only earthly wealth, which
henceforth may only pass through his hands as steward, but he must give
up his inner wealth as well, so far as he holds it as his own against
the world; until he is stripped naked he cannot pass the narrow gateway.
Such has ever been a condition of Initiation, and "poverty, obedience,
chastity," has been the vow of the candidate.
The "second birth" is another well-recognised term for Initiation; even
now in India the higher castes are called "twice-born," and the ceremony
that makes them twice-born is a ceremony of Initiation--mere husk truly,
in these modern days, but the "pattern of things in the heavens."[57]
When Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, He states that "Except a man be
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," and this birth is spoken
of as that "of water and the Spirit;"[58] this is the first Initiation;
a later one is that of "the Holy Ghost and fire,"[59] the baptism of the
Initiate in his manhood, as the first is that of birth, which welcomes
him as "the Little Child" entering the Kingdom.[60] How thoroughly this
imagery was familiar among the mystic of the Jews is shown by the
surprise evinced by Jesus when Nicodemus stumbled over His mystic
phraseology: "Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these
things?"[61]
Another precept of Jesus which remains as "a hard saying" to his
followers is: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in
heaven is perfect."[62] The ordinary Christian knows that he cannot
possibly obey this command; full of ordinary human frailties and
weaknesses, how can he become perfect as God is perfect? Seeing the
impossibility of the achievement set before him, he quietly puts it
aside, and thinks no more about it. But seen as the crowning effort of
many lives of steady improvement, as the triumph of the God within us
over the lower nature, it comes within calculable distance, and we
recall the words of Porphyry, how the man who achieves "the paradigmatic
virtues is the Father of the Gods,"[63] and that in the Mysteries these
virtues were acquired.
S. Paul follows in the footsteps of his Master, and speaks in exactly
the same sense, but, as might be expected from his organising work in
the Church, with greater explicitness and clearness. The student should
read with attention chapters ii. and iii., and verse 1 of chapter iv. of
the First Epistle to the Corinthians, remembering, as he reads, that the
words are addressed to baptised and communicant members of the Church,
full members from the modern standpoint, although described as babes and
carnal by the Apostle. They were not catechumens or neophytes, but men
and women who were in complete possession of all the privileges and
responsibilities of Church membership, recognised by the Apostle as
being separate from the world, and expected not to behave as men of the
world. They were, in fact, in possession of all that the modern Church
gives to its members. Let us summarise the Apostle's words:
"I came to you bearing the divine testimony, not alluring you with human
wisdom but with the power of the Spirit. Truly 'we speak wisdom among
them that are perfect,' but it is no human wisdom. 'We speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before
the world' began, and which none even of the princes of this world know.
The things of that wisdom are beyond men's thinking, 'but God hath
revealed them unto us by his Spirit ... the deep things of God,' 'which
the Holy Ghost teacheth.'[64] These are spiritual things, to be
discerned only by the spiritual man, in whom is the mind of Christ. 'And
I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto
carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.... Ye were not able to bear it,
neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal.' 'As a wise
master-builder[65] I have laid the foundation,' and 'ye are the temple
of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.' 'Let a man so account
of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the Mysteries of
God.'"
Can any one read this passage--and all that has been done in the summary
is to bring out the salient points--without recognising the fact that
the Apostle possessed a divine wisdom given in the Mysteries, that his
Corinthian followers were not yet able to receive? And note the
recurring technical terms: the "wisdom," the "wisdom of God in a
mystery," the "hidden wisdom," known only to the "spiritual" man, spoken
of only among the "perfect," wisdom from which the non-"spiritual," the
"babes in Christ," the "carnal," were excluded, known to the "wise
master-builder," the "steward of the Mysteries of God."
Again and again he refers to these Mysteries. Writing to the Ephesian
Christians he says that "by revelation," by the unveiling, had been
"made known unto me the Mystery," and hence his "knowledge in the
Mystery of Christ"; all might know of the "fellowship of the
Mystery."[66] Of this Mystery, he repeated to the Colossians, he was
"made a minister," "the Mystery which hath been hid from ages and from
generations, but now is made manifest to His saints"; not to the world,
nor even to Christians, but only to the Holy Ones. To them was unveiled
"the glory of this Mystery"; and what was it? "Christ _in you_"--a
significant phrase, which we shall see, in a moment, belonged to the
life of the Initiate; thus ultimately must every man learn the wisdom,
and become "perfect in Christ Jesus."[67] These Colossians he bids pray
"that God would open to us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of
Christ,"[68] a passage to which S. Clement refers as one in which the
apostle "clearly reveals that knowledge belongs not to all."[69] So
also he writes to his loved Timothy, bidding him select his deacons from
those who hold "the Mystery of the faith in a pure conscience," that
great "Mystery of Godliness," that he had learned,[70] knowledge of
which was necessary for the teachers of the Church.
Now S. Timothy holds an important position, as representing the next
generation of Christian teachers. He was a pupil of S. Paul, and was
appointed by him to guide and rule a portion of the Church. He had been,
we learn, initiated into the Mysteries by S. Paul himself, and reference
is made to this, the technical phrases once more serving as a clue.
"This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the
prophecies which went before on thee,"[71] the solemn benediction of the
Initiator, who admitted the candidate; but not alone was the Initiator
present: "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by
prophecy, by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery,"[72] of the
Elder Brothers. And he reminds him to lay hold of that "eternal life,
whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession
before many witnesses"[73]--the vow of the new Initiate, pledged in the
presence of the Elder Brothers, and of the assembly of Initiates. The
knowledge then given was the sacred charge of which S. Paul cries out so
forcibly: "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy
trust"[74]--not the knowledge commonly possessed by Christians, as to
which no special obligation lay upon S. Timothy, but the sacred deposit
committed to his trust as an Initiate, and essential to the welfare of
the Church. S. Paul later recurs again to this, laying stress on the
supreme importance of the matter in a way that would be exaggerated had
the knowledge been the common property of Christian men: "Hold fast the
form of sound words which thou hast heard of me.... That good thing
which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in
us"[75]--as serious an adjuration as human lips could frame. Further,
it was his duty to provide for the due transmission of this sacred
deposit, that it might be handed on to the future, and the Church might
never be left without teachers: "The things that thou hast heard of me
among many witnesses"--the sacred oral teachings given in the assembly
of Initiates, who bore witness to the accuracy of the transmission--"the
same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others
also."[76]
The knowledge--or, if the phrase be preferred, the supposition--that the
Church possessed these hidden teachings throws a flood of light on the
scattered remarks made by S. Paul about himself, and when they are
gathered together, we have an outline of the evolution of the Initiate.
S. Paul asserts that though he was already among the perfect, the
initiated--for he says: "Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be
thus minded"--he had not yet "attained," was indeed not yet wholly
"perfect," for he had not yet won Christ, he had not yet reached the
"high calling of God in Christ," "the power of His resurrection, and
the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His
death;" and he was striving, he says, "if by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead."[77] For this was the Initiation that
liberated, that made the Initiate the Perfect Master, the Risen Christ,
freeing Him finally from the "dead," from the humanity within the circle
of generation, from the bonds that fettered the soul to gross matter.
Here again we have a number of technical terms, and even the surface
reader should realise that the "resurrection of the dead" here spoken of
cannot be the ordinary resurrection of the modern Christian, supposed to
be inevitable for all men, and therefore obviously not requiring any
special struggle on the part of any one to attain to it. In fact the
very word "attain" would be out of place in referring to a universal and
inevitable human experience. S. Paul could not avoid _that_
resurrection, according to the modern Christian view. What then was the
resurrection to attain which he was making such strenuous efforts? Once
more the only answer comes from the Mysteries. In them the Initiate
approaching the Initiation that liberated from the cycle of rebirth, the
circle of generation, was called "the suffering Christ;" he shared the
sufferings of the Saviour of the world, was crucified mystically, "made
conformable to His death," and then attained the resurrection, the
fellowship of the glorified Christ, and, after, that death had over him
no power.[78] This was "the prize" towards which the great Apostle was
pressing, and he urged "as many as be perfect," _not the ordinary
believer_, thus also to strive. Let them not be content with what they
had gained, but still press onwards.
This resemblance of the Initiate to the Christ is, indeed, the very
groundwork of the Greater Mysteries, as we shall see more in detail when
we study "The Mystical Christ." The Initiate was no longer to look on
Christ as outside himself: "Though we have known Christ after the
flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more."[79]
The ordinary believer had "put on Christ;" "as many of you as have been
baptised into Christ have put on Christ."[80] Then they were the "babes
in Christ" to whom reference has already been made, and Christ was the
Saviour to whom they looked for help, knowing Him "after the flesh." But
when they had conquered the lower nature and were no longer "carnal,"
then they were to enter on a higher path, and were themselves to become
Christ. This which he himself had already reached, was the longing of
the Apostle for his followers: "My little children, of whom I travail in
birth again until Christ be formed _in you_."[81] Already he was their
spiritual father, having "begotten you through the gospel."[82] But now
"again" he was as a parent, as their mother to bring them to the second
birth. Then the infant Christ, the Holy Child, was born in the soul,
"the hidden man of the heart;"[83] the Initiate thus became that
"Little Child"; henceforth he was to live out in his own person the life
of the Christ, until he became the "perfect man," growing "unto the
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."[84] Then he, as S. Paul
was doing, filled up the sufferings of Christ in his own flesh,[85] and
always bore "about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,"[86] so that
he could truly say: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live;
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."[87] Thus was the Apostle himself
suffering; thus he describes himself. And when the struggle is over, how
different is the calm tone of triumph from the strained effort of the
earlier years: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my
departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness."[88] This was the crown given to "him that
overcometh," of whom it is said by the ascended Christ: "I will make him
a pillar in the temple of my God; and he shall go no more out."[89] For
after the "Resurrection" the Initiate has become the Perfect Man, the
Master, and He goes out no more from the Temple, but from it serves and
guides the worlds.
It may be well to point out, ere closing this chapter, that S. Paul
himself sanctions the use of the theoretical mystic teaching in
explaining the historical events recorded in the Scriptures. The history
therein written is not regarded by him as a mere record of facts, which
occurred on the physical plane. A true mystic, he saw in the physical
events the shadows of the universal truths ever unfolding in higher and
inner worlds, and knew that the events selected for preservation in
occult writings were such as were typical, the explanation of which
would subserve human instruction. Thus he takes the story of Abraham,
Sarai, Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac, and saying, "which things are an
allegory," he proceeds to give the mystical interpretation.[90]
Referring to the escape of the Israelites from Egypt, he speaks of the
Red Sea as a baptism, of the manna and the water as spiritual meat and
spiritual drink, of the rock from which the water flowed as Christ.[91]
He sees the great mystery of the union of Christ and His Church in the
human relation of husband and wife, and speaks of Christians as the
flesh and the bones of the body of Christ.[92] The writer of the Epistle
to the Hebrews allegorises the whole Jewish system of worship. In the
Temple he sees a pattern of the heavenly Temple, in the High Priest he
sees Christ, in the sacrifices the offering of the spotless Son; the
priests of the Temple are but "the example and shadow of heavenly
things," of the heavenly priesthood serving in "the true tabernacle." A
most elaborate allegory is thus worked out in chapters iii.-x., and the
writer alleges that the Holy Ghost thus signified the deeper meaning;
all was "a figure for the time."
In this view of the sacred writings, it is not alleged that the events
recorded did not take place, but only that their physical happening was
a matter of minor importance. And such explanation is the unveiling of
the Lesser Mysteries, the mystic teaching which is permitted to be given
to the world. It is not, as many think, a mere play of the imagination,
but is the outcome of a true intuition, seeing the patterns in the
heavens, and not only the shadows cast by them on the screen of earthly
time.