Mysticism and its Results | Page 3

secret revealed and explained to us. A man
of mature years and finished education knows that which no school-boy
can comprehend. To the elder a secret has been revealed. He is in
possession of the mystery. To the younger it is yet a secret, not
incomprehensible, but which can only be attained in the progress of
learning. To the scientific many of the mysteries of nature are unfolded,
but they are a secret to the world at large. To those Christians in the
earlier days of the church, who had attained its highest instruction, and
after the "Ite, missa est" had dismissed the rest of the congregation,
remained to participate in the "pure offering" (or "clean oblation")

prophesied by Malachi[4] to be thereafter offered in every place to Him
whose name thenceforth should be great among the Gentiles--to them
"it was given to know the mysteries of God:"[5] not to understand
things incomprehensible. That would be a contradiction in terms: a
thing impossible. How can a person comprehend that which passeth all
understanding? But it may be said, there are things which are
incomprehensible. Not so. They may be a secret to us while, in this
school-house, the earth, the {14} pedagogue Necessity is teaching us
only the rudiments of the laws of God as developed in nature or in
mind; but, when the scintilla divinitatis, hidden in these "earthen
vessels,"[6] shall have been set free, and (while "the dust returns to the
earth as it was") rises unto Him that breathed into us that "spiritus" or
"breath of life"--when we shall hereafter have been "newly born" into a
spiritual state of higher existence--then may we hope that what is secret
to us now, may become a mystery or revealed secret to us hereafter. It
is not all of life to terminate our existence on this earth. This is but the
school-house in the commencement of eternity. These mysteries, now
secrets to us, are created and maintained by the fixed laws of Him "who
is without variableness or shadow of turning." The revelations thereof
belong to a higher kingdom, which "flesh and blood can not inherit,"
yet in which every soul "shall be made alive."[7] Then shall these
secrets be unfolded in proportion to the cultivation of the mind and
talents here: for the unchangeable laws of God have placed all matter in
constant and regular mutation; and whether of matter or of mind, all is
governed by a certain law of progress, compelling us to attain
excellence and strength only by constant endeavors to surmount
difficulties: and it is thus alone we can, by severe study and deep
meditation, in investigating these laws of mutation and progress in
things physical and {15} moral, bring the mind, even in this life, to a
nearer approximation to, and capability of, appreciating the wonderful
truths we must hereafter learn. As in all other laws of God, the
cultivation of our talents must then carry its proportionate reward
hereafter.[8]
Let us then examine into the uses and abuses of secrecy in past history,
and at the present day--but more particularly will these be manifested
by "MYSTICISM;" by which is meant, the revelation of learning,

social, religious, and political, the teaching of which has been, and is,
preserved secret from the world, by societies, associations, and
confraternities.[9]
* * * * *
{16}
CHAPTER II.
The Distinction between the Early Elohistic and Jehovahstic Ages of
Primeval Patriarchal Times.--The Secrecy of Original Worship on
Mountain Tops.--The Collation and Reconciliation of the patriarchal
Traditions brought together by Moses.--The Commencement of the
Jehovahstic Age.--The Origin of Mythology.--The Magi; their
Organization and Modes of Worship.--The Deification of Nimrod, and
the Source of Political Power at its Beginning.--The Secret Writings
they adopted.--The Dead Invokers.--The Mysteries of Egypt, Greece,
and Rome.
In a critical study of the books of Moses two eras seem to be
discernible. The earlier, the Elohistic, when God was only known by
the name, "Elohim." The latter, the "Jehovahstic," beginning at a later
period.[10]
Though not altogether germain to our subject, may we here be
permitted to inquire--par parenthese--whether this simple rule does not
furnish to us the means of reconciliation of apparent contradictions?
All instruction originally was traditional alone. The patriarch was priest
and teacher, as well as ruler of his tribe. Each handed down to his
successor the {17} traditions he had received from his ancestors orally.
As tribes became nomadic, or else sought permanently new settlements
and homes, traditions in course of time necessarily became variant.
Moses seems honestly to have collated these traditions, and has, no
doubt, given them in their respective versions as he received them from
Jethro, his father-in-law, and from the patriarchal instruction among the
elders of his people in Egypt. Thus we can recognize those in which the

name Elohim is