Chapter 6

Chapter II.

✦

THE HIDDEN SIDE OF CHKISTIANITY.

(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 knowl-
edge. 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 pos-
sibility of rational doubt.

And that proof is the thing which Chris-
tendom at this time most sorely needs, for
the very flower of Christendom is perishing

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ick of knowledge. If the esoteric
ing can be re-established and win pa-
and earnest students, it will not be
before the occult is also restored. Dis-
ciples of the Lesser Mysteries will become
candidates for the Greater, and with the re-
gaining 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 suf-
fering from the very difficulty that theoret-
ically we should expect to find. Christian-
ity, having lost its mystic and esoteric
teaching, is losing its hold on a large num-
ber 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 stu-
dent 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 /de-
ceived there outraged their intelligence land
shocked their moral sense. It is idle to pre-
tend that the wide-spread i^gnpsticisM of

this period had its root .ea^h^ii^jlwknpf

Esoteric Christianity

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 degrada-
tion lay at the root of the revolt against the
dogmas of the Church. The rebels were
not too bad for their religion ; on the con-
trary, 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 con-
science that revolted, as well as the intelli-
gence, 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 grad-
ual descent of Christian teaching into so-
called simplicity, so that the most ignorant
might be able to grasp it. Protestant relig-

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ionists 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 re-
ligious 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 re-
ligion has no truths that the ignorant can-
not 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 pul-
pits 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 igno-
rant, They pass either into a state of pas-

Esoteric Christianity

sive agnosticism, or — if they be young and
enthusiastic — into a condition of active ag-
gression, 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 intel-
lect 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 teach-
ing in connection with Christianity becomes
of vital importance. Is Christianity to sur-
vive 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 knowl-
edge. If these teachings be regained, their
influence will soon be seen in wider and
deeper views of truth ; dogmas, which now

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seem like mere shells and fetters, shall again
be seen to be partial presentments of fun-
damental realities. First, Esoteric Chris-
tianity will reappear in the "Holy Place,"
in the Temple, so that all who are capable
of receiving it may follow its lines of pub-
lished thought ; and secondly, Occult Chris-
tianity will again descend into the Adytum,
dwelling behind the Veil which guards the
"Holy of Holies," into which only the Initi-
ate 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 teach-
ing, or whether it resembled all others in
possessing this hidden treasure. Such a
question is a matter of evidence, not of the-
ory, and must be decided by the authority
of the existing documents and not by the
mere ipse dixit of modern Christians.

Esoteric Christianity

As a matter of fact both the "New Testa-
ment " and the writings of the early Church
make the same declarations as to the posses-
sion by the Church of such teachings, and
we learn from these the fact of the exist-
ence of Mysteries — called the Mysteries of
Jesus, or the Mystery of the Kingdom — the
conditions imposed on candidates, some-
thing of the general nature of the teachings
given, and other details. Certain passages
in the "New Testament" would remain en-
tirely 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 in-
telligible.

It would indeed have been strange had it
been otherwise when we consider the lines
of religious thought which influenced primi-
tive 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 west-

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ern 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 with-
held.

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. Criti-
cal scholarship has much to say on the age
of MSS., on the authenticity of documents,
and so on. But we need not concern our-
selves with these. We may accept the ca-
nonical Scriptures, as showing what was
believed in the early Church as to the
teaching of the Christ and of His imme-
diate 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 apos-
tle S. Paul; then we will consider the state-
ments made by those who inherited the

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apostolic tradition and guided the Church
during the first centuries a.d. Along this
unbroken line of tradition and written testi-
mony 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 prepara-
tory to Initiation, after the disappearance of
the Mysteries, yet great Mystics, from time
to time, reached the lower stages of ecstasy,
by their own sustained efforts, aided doubt-
less 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

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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."1 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 Mys-
teries, 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."2 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

JS. Mark iv. 10, 11, 33, 34. See also S. Matt. xiii. 11,
34, 36, and S. Luke viii. 10. 2 S. John xvi. 12.

Esoteric Christianity

God. 5)1 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 giv-
ing them instruction — a fact that will be
referred to later — and in the famous Gnos-
tic 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."2 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 " 3 —
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 an-
cient days as they have now ; for the words

1 Acts i. 3.

2 Loc. cit. Trans, by G. R. S. Mead. I. i. 1.
3S. Matt. vii. 6.

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"dogs" — like "the vulgar," "the profane"
— was applied by those within a certain cir-
cle to all who were outside its pale, wheth-
er by a society or association, or by a nation
— as by the Jews to all Gentiles.1 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 out-
side "the kingdom of God," or "the spirit-
ual Israel," had this name applied to them.

There were several names, exclusive of
the term "The Mystery," or "The Myste-
ries," used to designate the sacred circle of
the Initiktes 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

1 As to the Greek woman : " It is not meet to take the
children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs." — S. Mark
vii. 27.

Esoteric Christianity

writings, and in some cases even outside the
Christian pale. Thus the term, "The Per-
fect,'5 was used by the Essenes, who had
three orders in their communities : the Neo-
phytes, the Brethren, and the Perfect- — the
latter being Initiates; and it is employed
generally in that sense in old writings.
"The Little Child'5 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 intel-
ligible. "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."1 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,

1 S. Luke xiii. 23, 24.
48

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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." 1 The warn-
ing which immediately follows against the
false prophets, the teachers of the dark
Mysteries, is most apposite in this connec-
tion. 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,"2 al-
ready 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.1 The allusion to death
is, of course, to the repeated births of the
soul into gross material existence, regarded

1S. Matt. vii. 13, 14 2 Kathopanishat, II. iv. 10, 11.
3 Brihaddranyalcopani§Iiat, IV. iv. 7.
4 * 49

Esoteric Christianity

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 en-
tered "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," 1 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 know-
eth me in essence."2 For the Initiates are
few in each generation, the flower of hu-
manity; but no gloomy sentence of ever-
lasting woe is pronounced in this statement
on the vast majority of the human race.
The saved are, as Proclus taught,3 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,

1 Rev, vii, 9. 2 Baligavad Gitd, vii, 3.

'M p. 26,
50

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addressing Him as "Good Master," asked
how he might win eternal life — the well-
recognised liberation from rebirth by
knowledge of God.1 His first answer wTas
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 trans-
gression, 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 per-
fect," 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. 2
Only God in man can pass that barrier.

1 It must be remembered that the Jews believed that all
imperfect souls returned to live again on earth,
2S. Matt. xix. 16-26.

Esoteric Christianity

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 happi-
ness. 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 im-
peril their happiness after death. But if
the real meaning of the Kingdom of Heav-
en be taken, we have the expression of a
simple and direct fact. For that know-
ledge of God which is Eternal Life1 cannot
be gained till everything earthly is surren-
dered, cannot be learned until everything
has been sacrificed. The man mast give up
not only earthly wealth, which henceforth
may only pass through his hands as stew-
ard,3 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 Initia-
tion, and " poverty, obedience, chastity,"
has been the vow of the candidate.

1 S. John xvii. 3.
52

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The " second birth " is another well-recog-
nised term for Initiation ; even now in In-
dia 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."1
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 ; " 2 this is the first Initiation ;
a later one is that of " the Holy Ghost and
fire,"8 the baptism of the Initiate in his
manhood, as the first is that of birth, which
welcomes him as "the Little Child " enter-
ing the Kingdom.4 How thoroughly this
imagery was familiar among the mystics of
the Jews is shown by the surprise evinced
by Jesus when Nicodemus stumbled over
His mystic phraseology: "Art thou a mas-
ter of Israel, and knowest not these
things?"5

Another precept of Jesus which remains

1 Heb. ix. 23. 2 S. John iii. 3, 5. 3 S, Matt. iii. 11.
4 Ibid., xviii. 3. 5 S. John iii. 10.

Esoteric Christianity

as "a hard saying" to his followers is: "Be
ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect."1 The ordi-
nary Christian knows that he cannot possi-
bly obey this command ; full of ordinary
human frailties and weaknesses, how can
he become perfect as God is perfect? See-
ing 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," 2 and that in the Mys-
teries 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 great-
er explicitness and clearness. The student
should read with attention chapters ii. and
iii., and verse 1 of chaper iv. of the First

1B. Matt, v. 48. 3 Ante, p. 28.

Hidden Side of Christianity

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 testi-
mony, not alluring you with human wis-
dom 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 mys-
tery, 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

Esoteric Christianity

are beyond men's thinking, ' but God hath
revealed them unto us by his Spirit ....
the deep things of God, ' 6 which the Holy
Ghost teacheth.'1 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. 5 'As
a wise master-builder 2 I have laid the foun-
dation, ' 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."5

Can any one read this passage — and all
that has been done in the summary is to
bring out the salient points — without recog-

1 Note how this chimes in with the promise of Jesus in
S. John xvi. 12-14: "I have yet many things to say unto
you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He,
the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all

truth He will show you things to come. ... He

shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."

2 Another technical name in the Mysteries.

Hidden Side of Christianity

nising 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 techni-
cal 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 Mys-
teries. Writing to the Ephesian Christians
he says that "by revelation," by the unveil-
ing, 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."1 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

1 Eph. iii. 3, 4, 9.
57

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them was unveiled " the glory of this Mys-
tery "; 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."1 These Colossians he bids
pray "that God would open to us a door of
utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ," 2
a passage to which S. Clement refers as one
in which the apostle "clearly reveals that
knowledge belongs not to all." 3 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,4 knowledge of which was nec-
essary for the teachers of the Church.

1 Col. i. 23, 25-28. But S. Clement, in his Stromata,
translates "every man," as "the whole man." See bk. V.,
ch. x. 2 Col. iv. 3.

3 Ante-Nicene Library, Vol. XII. Clement of Alexan-
dria. Stromata, bk. V., ch. x. Some additional sayings
of the Apostles will be found in the quotations from Clem-
ent, showing what meaning they bore in the minds of
those who succeeded the apostles, and were living in the
same atmosphere of thought.

4 1. Tim. iii. 9, 16.

Hidden Side of Christianity

Now S. Timothy holds an important po-
sition, 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," 1 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,"2 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"3 — the vow of the
new Initiate, pledged in the presence of the
Elder Brothers, and of the assembly of Ini-
tiates. The knowledge then given was the
sacred charge of which S. Paul cries out so

1 1. Tim. i. 18. 2 Ibid., iv. 14. 3 Ibid., vi. 12.
59

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forcibly: "0 Timothy, keep that which is
committed to thy trust " 1 — not the know-
ledge 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 know-
ledge been the common property of Chris-
tian 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 dwell-
eth in us " 2 — 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 trans-

1 Ibid., 20. 2 II. Tim. i. 13, 14.

Hidden Side of Christianity

mission — "the same commit thou to faith-
ful men, who shall be able to teach others
also.551

The knowledge — or, if the phrase be pre-
ferred, 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 55 — he had not yet
"attained,55 was indeed not yet wholly
"perfect,55 for he had not yet won Christ,
he had not yet reached the "high calling of
God in Christ,55 "the power of His resurrec-
tion, and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being made conformable unto His death ; 5?
and he was striving, he says, "if by any
means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. 5 5 2 For this was the Initiation
that liberated, that made the Initiate the
Perfect Master, the Risen Christ, freeing

1 Ibid., ii. 2. 2 Phil. iii. 8, 10-12, 14, 15.

Esoteric Christianity

Him finally from the "dead," from the hu-
manity within the circle of generation,
from the bonds that fettered the soul to
gross matter. Here again we have a num-
ber 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 Chris-
tian, 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 "at-
tain " would be out of place in referring
to a universal and inevitable human expe-
rience. S. Paul could not avoid that resur-
rection, 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 cyle of rebirth, the circle of gene-
ration, 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 at-

Hidden Side of Christianity

tained the resurrection, the fellowship of
the glorified Christ, and, after that, death
had over him no power.1 This was "the
prize " towards which the great Apostle was
pressing, and he urged "as many as be per-
fect, "not the ordinary believer, thus also
to strive. Let them not be content with
what they had gained, but still press on-
wards.

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." 8

The ordinary believer had "put on
Christ;" "as many of you as have been
baptised into Christ have put on Christ."3
Then they were the "babes in Christ" to
whom reference has already been made,
and Christ was the Saviour to whom they

1 Rev. i. 18. " I am He that liveth, and was dead ; and
behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen. "
2 II. Cor. v. 16. 3 Gal. iii. 27.

Esoteric Christianity

looked for help, knowing Him " after the
flesh." But when they had conquered the
lower nature and were no longer "carnal,"
then they wrere 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 fol-
lowers: "My little children, of whom I
travail in birth again until Christ be
formed in- you."1 Already he was their
spiritual father, having "begotten you
through the gospel. 552 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";3 the Initi-
ate thus became that "Little Child";
henceforth he was to live out in his own
person the life of the Christ, until he be-
came the "perfect man," growing "unto
the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ."4 Then he, as S. Paul was doing,
filled up the sufferings of Christ in his own
flesh,5 and always bore "about in the body

1 Gal. iv. 19. 2 1. Cor. iv. 15. 3 1. S. Pet. iii. 4.
4Eph. iv. 13. 5 Col. i. 24.

Hidden Side of Christianity

the dying of the Lord Jesus,"1 so that he
could truly say: "I am crucified with
Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me."2 Thus was the Apos-
tle 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 right-
eousness."3 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."4 For after the
" Eesurrection " 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

1 II. Cor. iv. 10.
3 II. Tim. iv. 6-8.
5 65

2 Gal. ii. 20.
4 Rev. iii. 12.

Esoteric Christianity

the use of the theoretical mystic teaching in
explaining the historical events recorded in
the Scriptures. The history therein writ-
ten is not regarded by him as a mere record
of facts, which occurred on the physical
plane. A true mystic, he saw in the physi-
cal 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 pro-
ceeds to give the mystical interpretation.1
Referring to the escape of the Israelites
from Egypt, he speaks of the Eed 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.2 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

^alTTv. 22-31. 2 1 Cor. x. 1-4.

Hidden Side of Christianity

bones of the body of Christ.1 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 alle-
gory 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 hap-
pening 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 heav-
ens, and not only the shadows cast by them
on the screen of earthly time.

1 Eph. v. 23-32.
67