en who wrote these exasperating treatises
were men of brilliant intellect and calm judgment, the master-builders
of the Church. And to those who read them aright they are still full of
hints and suggestions, and indicate many an obscure pathway that leads
to the goal of knowledge, and that might otherwise be missed.

We have already seen that Origen, one of the sanest of men, and versed
in occult knowledge, teaches that the Scriptures are three-fold,
consisting of Body, Soul, and Spirit.[351] He says that the Body of the
Scriptures is made up of the outer words of the histories and the
stories, and he does not hesitate to say that these are not literally
true, but are only stories for the instruction of the ignorant. He even
goes so far as to remark that statements are made in those stories that
are obviously untrue, in order that the glaring contradictions that lie
on the surface may stir people up to inquire as to the real meaning of
these impossible relations. He says that so long as men are ignorant,
the Body is enough for them; it conveys teaching, it gives instruction,
and they do not see the self-contradictions and impossibilities involved
in the literal statements, and therefore are not disturbed by them. As
the mind grows, as the intellect develops, these contradictions and
impossibilities strike the attention, and bewilder the student; then he
is stirred up to seek for a deeper meaning, and he begins to find the
Soul of the Scriptures. That Soul is the reward of the intelligent
seeker, and he escapes from the bonds of the letter that killeth.[352]
The Spirit of the Scriptures may only be seen by the spiritually
enlightened man; only those in whom the Spirit is evolved can understand
the spiritual meaning: "the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit
of God ... which things also we speak, not in the words which man's
wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth."[353]

The reason for this method of Revelation is not far to seek; it is the
only way in which one teaching can be made available for minds at
different stages of evolution, and thus train not only those to whom it
is immediately given, but also those who, later in time, shall have
progressed beyond those to whom the Revelation was first made. Man is
progressive; the outer meaning given long ago to unevolved men must
needs be very limited, and unless something deeper and fuller than this
outer meaning were hidden within it, the value of the S