Mystic masonry, or, The symbols of freemasonry and the greater ...

The Genius of Freemasonry. 69
conforms to that pursued in the Lesser Mysteries of
Antiquity, which were preparatory for the Greater
Mysteries.
It should be borne in mind that in modern Freemasonry,
in the Ancient Mysteries, and in all of the
great Religions, there was always an Exoteric portion
given out to the world, to the uninitiated, and
an Esoteric portion reserved for the initiate, and revealed
by degrees, according as the candidate demonstrated
his fitness to receive, conceal, and rightly
use the knowledge so imparted. Few professed
Christians are, perhaps, aware that such was the
case with Christianity during the first two or three
centuries. The following quotations from Albert
Pike's great work may therefore be of interest. On
page 541 (et seq.) he says:
"This, in its purity, as taught by Christ himself,
was the true primitive religion, as communicated by
God to the Patriarchs. It is no new religion, but
the reproduction of the oldest of all; and its true
and perfect morality is the morality of Masonry, as
it is the morality of every creed of antiquity."
St. Augustine says:
"What is now called the Christian Religion existed
among the ancients, and was not absent from
the human race until Christ came, from which time