Chapter 4

Chapter XIV

✦

Revelation 366

Afterword ..... ... 383

FOREWORD

The object of this book is to suggest cer-
tain lines of thought as to the deep truths
underlying Christianity, truths generally
overlooked, and only too often denied. The
generous wish to share with all what is
precious, to spread broadcast priceless
truths, to shut out none from the illumina-
tion of true knowledge, has resulted in a
zeal without discretion that has vulgarised
Christianity, and has presented its teachings
in a form that often repels the heart and
alienates the intellect. The command to
"preach the Gospel to every creature"1 —
though admittedly of doubtful authenticity
— has been interpreted as forbidding the
teaching of the Gnosis to a few, and has
apparently erased the less popular saying

1 S. Mark xvi. 15.
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Foreword

of the same Great Teacher: "Give not that
which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye
your pearls before swine." 1

This spurious sentimentality — which re-
fuses to recognise the obvious inequalities of
intelligence and morality, and thereby re-
duces the teaching of the highly developed
to the level attainable by the least evolved,
sacrificing the higher to the lower in a way
that injures both — had no place in the virile
common sense of the early Christians. S.
Clement of Alexandria says quite bluntly,
after alluding to the Mysteries: "Even now
I fear, as it is said, 6 to cast the pearls before
swine, lest they tread them underfoot, and
turn and rend us. ' For it is difficult to ex-
hibit the really pure and transparent words
respecting the true Light to swinish and un-
trained hearers."2

If true knowledge, the Gnosis, is again to
form a part of Christian teachings, it can
only be under the old restrictions, and the
idea of levelling down to the capacities of

1 S. Matt. vii. 6.

2 Clarke's Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Vol. IV.
Clement of Alexandria. JStromata, bk. I., ch. xii.

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Foreword

the least developed must be definitely sur-
rendered. Only by teaching above the
grasp of the little evolved can the way be
opened up for a restoration of arcane knowl-
edge, and the study of the Lesser Mysteries
must precede .that of the Greater. The
Greater will never be published through the
printing-press; they can only be given by
Teacher to pupil, "from mouth to ear."
But the Lesser Mysteries, the partial unveil-
ing of deep truths, can even now be re-
stored, and such a volume as the present is
intended to outline these, and to show the
nature of the teachings which have to be
mastered. Where only hints are given,
quiet meditation on the truths hinted at will
cause their outlines to become visible, and
the clearer light obtained by continued
meditation will gradually show them more
fully. For meditation quiets the lower
mind, ever engaged in thinking about ex-
ternal objects, and when the lower mind is
tranquil then only can it be illuminated by
the Spirit. Knowledge of spiritual truths
must be thus obtained, from within and not

from without, from the divine Spirit whose

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Foreword

temple we are1 and not from an external
Teacher. These things are " spiritually dis-
cerned" by that divine indwelling Spirit,
that "mind of Christ," whereof speaks the
great Apostle,2 and that inner light is shed
upon the lower mind.

This is the way of the Divine Wisdom, the
true Theosophy. It is not, as some think,
a diluted version of Hinduism, or Buddhism,
or Taoism, or of any special religion. It is
Esoteric Christianity as truly as it is Eso-
teric Buddhism, and belongs equally to all
religions, exclusively to none. This is the
source of the suggestions made in this little
volume, for the helping of those who seek
the Light — that "true Light which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world,"3
though most have not yet opened their eyes
to it. It does not bring the Light. It only
says: "Behold the Light! " For thus have
we heard. It appeals only to the few who
hunger for more than the exoteric teach-
ings give them. For those who are fully
satisfied with the exoteric teachings, it is

n Cor. iii. 16. 2 Ibid., ii. 14, 16.

3S. John, i. 9.
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Foreword

not intended; for why should bread be
forced on those who are not hungry? For
those who hunger, may it prove bread, and
not a stone.

ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY