elements of the old Mysteries without their corruptions.  The alliance between a Mystery-religion and speculative Mysticism within the Church was at this time as close as that between the Neoplatonic philosophy and the revived pagan Mystery cults.  But when we try to determine the amount of direct influence exercised by the later paganism on Christian usages and thought, we are baffled both by the loss of documents, and by the extreme difficulty of tracing the pedigree of religious ideas and customs.  I shall here content myself with calling attention to certain features which were common to the Greek Mysteries and to Alexandrian Christianity, and which may perhaps claim to be in part a legacy of the old religion to the new.  My object is not at all to throw discredit upon modes of thought which may have been unfamiliar to Palestinian Jews.  A doctrine or custom is not necessarily un-Christian because it is “Greek” or “pagan.”  I know of no stranger perversity than for men who rest the whole weight of their religion upon “history,” to suppose that our Lord meant to raise an universal religion on a purely Jewish basis.

The Greek Mysteries were perhaps survivals of an old-world ritual, based on a primitive kind of Nature-Mysticism.  The “public Mysteries,” of which the festival at Eleusis was the most important, were so called because the State admitted strangers by initiation to what was originally a national cult. (There were also private Mysteries, conducted for profit by itinerant priests [Greek:  agyrtai] from the East, who as a class bore no good reputation.) The main features of the ritual at Eleusis are known.  The festival began at Athens, where the mystae collected, and, after a fast of several days, were “driven” to the sea, or to two salt lakes on the road to Eleusis, for a purifying bath.  This kind of baptism washed away the stains of their former sins, the worst of which they were obliged to confess before being admitted to the Mysteries.  Then, after sacrifices had been offered, the company went in procession to Eleusis, where Mystery-plays were performed in a great hall, large enough to hold thousands of people, and the votaries were allowed to handle certain sacred relics.  A sacramental meal, in which a mixture of mint, barley-meal, and water was administered to the initiated, was an integral part of the festival.  The most secret part of the ceremonies was reserved for the [Greek:  epoptai] who had passed through the ordinary initiation in a previous year.  It probably culminated in the solemn exhibition of a corn-ear, the symbol of Demeter.  The obligation of silence was imposed not so much because there were any secrets to reveal, but that the holiest sacraments of the Greek religion might not be profaned by being brought into contact with common life.  This feeling was strengthened by the belief that words are more than conventional symbols of things.  A sacred formula must not be taken in vain, or divulged to persons who might misuse it.