not only the shadows cast by them on the screen of earthly
time.

CHAPTER III.

THE HIDDEN SIDE OF CHRISTIANITY(_concluded_).

(_(b)_) THE TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCH.

While it may be that some would be willing to admit the possession by
the Apostles and their immediate successors of a deeper knowledge of
spiritual things than was current among the masses of the believers
around them, few will probably be willing to take the next step, and,
leaving that charmed circle, accept as the depository of their sacred
learning the Mysteries of the Early Church. Yet we have S. Paul
providing for the transmission of the unwritten teaching, himself
initiating S. Timothy, and instructing S. Timothy to initiate others in
his turn, who should again hand it on to yet others. We thus see the
provision of four successive generations of teachers, spoken of in the
Scriptures themselves, and these would far more than overlap the writers
of the Early Church, who bear witness to the existence of the Mysteries.
For among these are pupils of the Apostles themselves, though the most
definite statements belong to those removed from the Apostles by one
intermediate teacher. Now, as soon as we begin to study the writings of
the Early Church, we are met by the facts that there are allusions which
are only intelligible by the existence of the Mysteries, and then
statements that the Mysteries are existing. This might, of course, have
been expected, seeing the point at which the New Testament leaves the
matter, but it is satisfactory to find the facts answer to the
expectation.

The first witnesses are those called the Apostolic Fathers, the
disciples of the Apostles; but very little of their writings, and that
disputed, remains. Not being written controversially, the statements are
not as categorical as those of the later writers. Their letters are for
the encouragement of the believers. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, and
fellow-disciple with Ignatius of S. John,[93] expresses a hope that his
correspondents are "well versed in the sacred Scriptures and that
nothing is hid from you; but to me this privilege is not yet
granted"[94]--writing, apparently, before reaching full Initiation.
Barnabas speaks of communicating "some portion of what I have myself
received,"[95] and after expounding the Law mystically, declares that
"we then, rightly understanding His commandments, explain them as the
Lord intended."[96] Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, a disc