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ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES Unfortunately in the conditions of his surroundings it was not open to him to speak out openly ; that way he might be endangering the safety of the entire community of the ' brethren' even if he disregarded his own personal danger, It was, therefore, doubly necessary that caution should be administered every now and then to prevent men from going astray. This explains why the sacred books are replete with suggestions and indications against the literal or historical sense, while deliberately couched in the vulgar phraseology of the profane. Over and over again do we come across passages stating, in the clearest language, that the reader is standing before great mysteries and things that have remained secret from “the foundation of the world.” The notions which the vulgar so readily acquired and propagated were declared to be great mysteries. St. Paul shows how the very idea of God, which the vulgar are content to cheaply dispose of as the creator, is a profound mystery; so are the terms · Father' and 'Christ' great mysteries (Colos. ii. 2). Other references may be looked up anywhere in the Epistles and the Gospels. Some of them will be mentioned here :
(1) Ephasians iii. 3–5 (Mystery of Christ); (2) , v. 32 (Mystery of Christ and the Church); 3)
vi. 19 (Mystery of the Gospel); (4) 1 Timothy iii. 9 (Mystery of the Faith); (5) 1 Cor. iv. 1 (Mysteries of God); (6) Roman xvi. 25 (Mystery which was kept secret since the World
began).
In fact, every word where the language conveys no definite meaning is a mystery of some kind or other, e.g., the phrase "to put on Christ" (Galatians iii. 27).
It was most certainly not vanity which prompted the great Apostle to say :
“I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.
“For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers : for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
“Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
"For this cause I have sent unto you Timotheus who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church."-1 Cor. iv. 14-17.
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