mes rife for the Greater
Mysteries for the Gnosis, the scientific knowledge of God.'
In another place he says: 'Knowledge is more than faith.
Faith is a summary knowledge of urgent truths, suitable for
people who are in a hurry; but knowledge is scientific
faith.' And his pupil Origen writes of 'the popular,
irrational faith' which leads to what he calls physical
Christianity, based upon the gospel history, as opposed to
the spiritual Christianity conferred by the Gnosis of
Wisdom. Speaking of teaching founded upon historical
narrative, he says, 'What better method could be devised to
assist the masses?' But for those who are wise he has always
the higher teachings, which are given only to those who have
proved themselves worthy of it. This teaching is not lost;
the church cast it out when she expelled the great Gnostic
Doctors, but it has nevertheless been preserved, and it is
precisely that Wisdom which we are studying--precisely that
which we find to answer all the problems of life, to give us
a rational rule by which to live, to be to us a veritable
gospel of good news from on high."

St. Paul indicates the existence of the Secret Doctrine of
Christianity, when he says to the Corinthians:

"And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto
spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ. I
fed you with milk, not with meat; for ye were not yet able
to bear it; nay, not even now are ye able, for ye are yet
carnal." (_I Cor. 3:1._)

Jesus said: "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast
your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their
feet, and turn and rend you." (_Matt. 7:6._)

St. Clement of Alexandria has said regarding the above saying of
Jesus:

"Even now I fear, as it is said, 'to cast the pearls before
swine, lest they tread them underfoot, and turn and rend
us.' For it is difficult to exhibit the really pure and
transparent words respecting the true Light to swinish and
untrained hearers."

In the first century after Christ, the term "The Mysteries of Jesus"
was frequently used by the Christian teachers, and the Inner Circle of
Christians was recognized as a body of advanced souls who had
developed so far as to be able to comprehend these mysteries.

The following passage from St. Mark (4:10-12) is interesting in t