conception and declaration of the principles, the Mysteries of Christianity. Marcellus of Ancyra, about the

middle of the fourth century, was influenced probably in the same way, when he declared that God was

along with quietness and that, as early heretics had taught, in the beginning there was God and Silence.

The importance of Silence in the mystic ritual is fully appreciated by Dr. Dieterich in his valuable and

fascinating book, Eine Mithrasliturgie (Leipzig, 1903) p. 42. Among the preparatory instructions given to the

Mystes was this: "Lay thy right finger on thy mouth and say, Silence! Silence! Silence! symbol of the living

imperishable God!" Silence is even addressed in prayer, "Guard me, Silence." Dr. Dieterich remarks that the

capital S is needed in such an invocation.

Lightfoot considers (see his note on Trall. sect. 2) that when Ignatius speaks of the mysteries of

Christianity, he has no more in his mind than "the wide sense in which the word is used by St. Paul, revealed

truths." But we cannot agree in this too narrow estimate. To Ignatius there lie s in the term a certain element

of power. To him the "mysteries" of the Faith would have been very insufficiently described by such a

coldly scientific definition as "revealed truths": such abstract lifeless terms were to him, as in Colossians 2:8,

mere "philosophy and vain deceit." The "mysteries" were living, powerful realities, things of life that could

move the heart and will of men and remake their nature. He uses the term, I venture to think, in a similar yet

slightly different sense from Paul, who employs it very frequently. Paul, too, attaches to it something of the

same idea of power; for "the mystery of iniquity" (2 Thess 2:7) is to him a real and strong enemy. But

Ignatius seems to attach to the "mysteries" even more reality and objectivity than Paul does.

Surely Ignatius derived his idea of the "mysteries" partly at least from the experiences of his Pagan days. He

had felt the strong influence of the grater Mysteries, to which some of the greatest thinkers among the

Greeks bear testimony; and the Christian principles completed and perfected the ideas which had begun in

his Pagan days.

This idea, that the religious conceptions of Paganism served as a preparatory stage leading up to

Christianity, was held by many, as well as by Ignatius. Justin Martyr gave clear expression to it, and

Eusebius works it out in his Praeparatio Evangelica. Those who were conscious that a real development of

the religious sense had begun in their own mind during their Pagan days and experiences, and had been

completed in their Christian life, must inevitably have held it; and there were many Pagans of a deeply

religious nature, some of whom became Christians.

The change of spirit involved in this development through Paganism to Christianity is well expressed by a

modern poet:--

Girt in the panther-fells, Violets in my hair, Down I ran through the woody dells, Through the morning wild

and fair,--To sit by the road till the sun was high, That I might see some god pass by.

Fluting amid the thyme I dreamed through the golden day, Calling through melody and rhyme: "Iacchus!

Come this way,--From harrowing Hades like a king, Vine leaves and glories scattering."

Twilight was all rose-red, When, crowned with vine and thorn, Came a stranger god from out the dead; And

his hands and feet were torn. I knew him not, for he came alone: I knew him not, whom I fain had known.

He said: "For love, for love, I wear the vine and thorn." He said: "For love, for love, My hands and feet were

torn: For love, the winepress Death I trod." And I cried in pain: "O Lord my God."

Mrs. Rachel Annand Taylor, Poems, 1904

That the same view should be strongly held in the Asian Churches was inevitable. That often it should be

pressed to an extreme was equally inevitable; and one of its extreme forms was the Nicolaitan heresy, which

the writer of the Seven Letters seems to have regarded as the most pressing and immediate danger to those