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I have yet many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now. [42] Some of them were probably said after His death, when He was seen of His disciples,
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[43] None of these have been publicly recorded, but who can believe that they were neglected or forgotten, and were not handed down as a priceless possession? There was a tradition in the Church that He visited His apostles for a considerable period after His death, for the sake of giving them instruction--a fact that will be referred to later--and in the famous Gnostic treatise, the _Pistis Sophia_, we read:
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It came to pass, when Jesus had risen from the dead, that He passed eleven years speaking with His disciples and instructing them. [44] Then there is the phrase, which many would fain soften and explain away:
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Give not that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine [45]--a precept which is of general application indeed, but was considered by the early Church to refer to the secret teachings. It should be remembered that the words had not the same harshness of sound in the ancient days as they have now; for the words
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--like
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human
--was applied by those within a certain circle to all who were outside its pale, whether by a society or association, or by a nation--as by the Jews to all Gentiles.[46] It was sometimes used to designate those who were outside the circle of Initiates, and we find it employed in that sense in the early Church; those who, not having been initiated into the Mysteries, were regarded as being outside
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or
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The Mystery, or
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The Mysteries, used to designate the sacred circle of the Initiates or connected with Initiation:
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The Kingdom,
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The Kingdom of God,
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The Kingdom of Heaven,
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The Narrow Path,
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The Strait Gate,
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The Perfect,
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The Saved,
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Life Eternal,
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Life,
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The Second Birth,
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A Little One,
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A Little Child. The meaning is made plain by the use of these words in early Christian writings, and in some cases even outside the Christian pale. Thus the term,
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The Perfect, was used by the Essenes, who had three orders in their communities: the Neophytes, the Brethren, and the Perfect--the latter being Initiates; and it is employed generally in that sense in old writings.
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The Little Child was the ordinary name for a candidate just initiated, _i.e._, who had just taken his
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Then said one unto Him: Lord, are there few that be saved? And He said unto them: Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able. [47] If this be applied in the ordinary Protestant way to salvation from everlasting hell-fire, the statement becomes incredible, shocking. No Saviour of the world can be supposed to assert that many will seek to avoid hell and enter heaven, but will not be able to do so. But as applied to the narrow gateway of Initiation and to salvation from rebirth, it is perfectly true and natural. So again:
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Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life; and few there be that find it. [48] The warning which immediately follows against the false prophets, the teachers of the dark Mysteries, is most apposite in this connection. No student can miss the familiar ring of these words used in this same sense in other writings. The
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is familiar to all; the path
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[49] already mentioned; the going
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of those who follow the flower-strewn path of desires, who do not know God; for those men only become immortal and escape from the wide mouth of death, from ever repeated destruction, who have quitted all desires.[50] The allusion to death is, of course, to the repeated births of the soul into gross material existence, regarded always as
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compared to the
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Strait Gate was the gateway of Initiation, and through it a candidate entered
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The Kingdom. And it ever has been, and must be, true that only a few can enter that gateway, though myriads--an exceedingly
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[51] not a few--enter into the happiness of the heaven-world. So also spoke another great Teacher, nearly three thousand years earlier:
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Among thousands of men scarce one striveth for perfection; of the successful strivers scarce one knoweth me in essence.