Page:Heavenly Bridegrooms.djvu/70

 wedlock; its Kingdom may come on the earthly plane itsell to worthy neophytes.

It was probably to keep the knowledge of this secret from the unworthy, that the ancient mysteries of Isis and of Eleusis were designed. For this purpose, also, the sacred scriptures of all religions not excepting the Hebrew and the Christian seem to have introduced stories and aphorisms which should convey one meaning to an outsider, and quite another to an initiate.

"Woe to the man, who looks upon the law as a simple record of events expressed in ordinary language, for, if really that is all it contains, we can frame a law much more worthy of admiration. If we are to regard the ordinary meaning of the words, we need only turn to human laws and we shall often meet with a greater degree of elevation * * * * Every word of the law contains a deep and sublime mystery."

(A. Franck's "La Kabbale.")

"If the law were composed of words alone, such as the words of Esau, Hagar, Laban, and others, or those which were uttered by Balaam's ass or by Balaam himself, then why should it be called the law of truth, the perfect law, the faithful witness of God himself? Why should the sages esteem it as more valuable than gold or precious stones?

"But every word contains a higher meaning; every test reaches something besides the events which it seems to describe. This superior law is the more sacred, it is the real law." (Jewish Cabalists, quoted by Jacolliot Oc. Sci.) The following occurs in the Book of the Pitris (Pitris, according to Jacolliot, is the name applied in India to the spirits of the dead) with whom communication has long been held, after the fashion of modern Spiritualism, and with the same attendant phenomena.

"The sacred scriptures ought not to be taken in their apparent meaning, as in the case of ordinary books. Of what use would it be to forbid their revelation to the profane if their secret meaning were contained in the literal sense of the language usually employed?

"As the soul is contained in the body, "As the almond is hidden by the envelope.