Part 87 (1/2)

”The _Eleusinian_ Mysteries, or, Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, was the most august of all the Pagan ceremonies celebrated, more especially by the Athenians, every fifth year,[309:4] in honor of _Ceres_, the G.o.ddess of corn, who, in allegorical language, _had given us her flesh to eat_; as _Bacchus_, the G.o.d of wine, in like sense, _had given us his blood to drink_. . . .

”From these ceremonies is derived the very name attached to our _Christian_ sacrament of the Lord's Supper,--'_those holy Mysteries_;'--and not one or two, but absolutely all and every one of the observances used in our Christian solemnity. Very many of our forms of expression in that solemnity are precisely the same as those that appertained to the Pagan rite.”[309:5]

Prodicus (a Greek sophist of the 5th century B. C.) says that, the ancients wors.h.i.+ped _bread_ as Demeter (_Ceres_) and _wine_ as Dionysos (_Bacchus_);[309:6] therefore, when they ate the bread, and drank the wine, after it had been consecrated, they were doing as the Romanists claim to do at the present day, _i. e._, _eating the flesh and drinking the blood of their G.o.d_.[309:7]

Mosheim, the celebrated ecclesiastical historian, acknowledges that:

”The profound respect that was paid to the Greek and Roman _Mysteries_, and the extraordinary sanct.i.ty that was attributed to them, induced the Christians of the second century, to give _their_ religion a _mystic_ air, in order to put it upon an equal footing in point of dignity, with that of the Pagans. For this purpose they gave the name of _Mysteries_ to the inst.i.tutions of the Gospels, and decorated particularly the 'Holy Sacrament' with that t.i.tle; they used the very terms employed in the _Heathen Mysteries_, and adopted some of the rites and ceremonies of which those renowned mysteries consisted. This imitation began in the eastern provinces; but, after the time of Adrian, who first introduced the mysteries among the Latins, it was followed by the Christians who dwelt in the western part of the empire. A great part, therefore, of the service of the Church in this--the second--century, had a certain air of the Heathen Mysteries, and resembled them considerably in many particulars.”[310:1]

_Eleusinian Mysteries_ and _Christian Sacraments Compared_.

1. ”But as the benefit of Initiation was great, such as were convicted of witchcraft, murder, even though unintentional, or any other heinous crimes, were debarred from those mysteries.”[310:2]

1. ”For as the benefit is great, if, with a true penitent heart and lively faith, we receive that holy sacrament, &c., if any be an open and notorious evil-liver, or hath done wrong to his neighbor, &c., that he presume not to come to the Lord's table.”[310:3]

2. ”At their entrance, purifying themselves, by was.h.i.+ng their hands in _holy water_, they were at the same time admonished to present themselves with pure minds, without which the external cleanness of the body would by no means be accepted.”[310:4]

2. See the fonts of _holy water_ at the entrance of every Catholic chapel in Christendom for the same purpose.

”Let us draw near with a true heart in full a.s.surance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”[310:5]

3. ”The priests who officiated in these sacred solemnities, were called Hierophants, or '_revealers of holy things_.'”[310:6]

3. The priests who officiate at these Christian solemnities are supposed to be 'revealers of holy things.'

4. The Pagan Priest dismissed their congregation with these words:

”_The Lord be with you._”[310:7]

4. The Christian priests dismiss their congregation with these words:

”_The Lord be with you._”

These Eleusinian Mysteries were accompanied with various rites, expressive of the purity and self-denial of the wors.h.i.+per, and were therefore considered to be an expiation of past sins, and to place the initiated under the special protection of the awful and potent G.o.ddess who presided over them.[310:8]

These _mysteries_ were, as we have said, also celebrated in honor of _Bacchus_ as well as _Ceres_. A consecrated cup of wine was handed around after supper, called the ”Cup of the Agathodaemon”--the Good Divinity.[311:1] Throughout the whole ceremony, the name of the _Lord_ was many times repeated, and his brightness or glory not only exhibited to the eye by the rays which surrounded his name (or his monogram, I. H.

S.), but was made the peculiar theme or subject of their triumphant exultation.[311:2]

The mystical wine and bread were used during the Mysteries of _Adonis_, the Lord and Saviour.[311:3] In fact, the communion of bread and wine was used in the wors.h.i.+p of nearly every important deity.[311:4]

The rites of _Bacchus_ were celebrated in the British Islands in heathen times,[311:5] and so were those of _Mithra_, which were spread over Gaul and Great Britain.[311:6] We therefore find that the ancient _Druids_ offered the sacrament of bread and wine, during which ceremony they were dressed in white robes,[311:7] just as the Egyptian priests of Isis were in the habit of dressing, and as the priests of many Christian sects dress at the present day.

Among some negro tribes in Africa there is a belief that ”on eating and drinking consecrated food they eat and drink the G.o.d himself.”[311:8]

The ancient _Mexicans_ celebrated the mysterious sacrament of the Eucharist, called the ”most holy supper,” during which they ate the flesh of their G.o.d. The bread used at their Eucharist was made of _corn_ meal, which they mixed with _blood_, instead of wine. This was _consecrated_ by the priest, and given to the people, who ate it with humility and penitence, _as the flesh of their G.o.d_.[311:9]

Lord Kingsborough, in his ”_Mexican Antiquities_,” speaks of the ancient Mexicans as performing this sacrament; when they made a cake, which they called _Tzoalia_. The high priest blessed it in his manner, after which he broke it into pieces, and put it into certain very clean vessels. He then took a thorn of _maguery_, which resembles a thick needle, with which he took up with the utmost reverence single morsels, _which he put into the mouth of each individual, after the manner of a communion_.[311:10]

The writer of the ”Explanation of Plates of the _Codex Vatica.n.u.s_,”--which are copies of Mexican _hieroglyphics_--says: