Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-05-05


SUNDAY READING.
REM4E0Us DOCTRINE.
BY A LAYMAE.
INTERPRETATION OF THE SCRIPTURE.
In every religion there has been an
inner circle, with an Interpretation Of
the symbols different from that which
they a V the vulgar. The Holy Doc
trine,' we learn from Plutarch, was what
was taught in the mysteries, of Egypt,
ELEUsIs and SAMoTHRACE. His book
de Lside ct OSiride' shows that very
philosophical and true doctrines as to
the Deity were disclosed in the Egyp-
tan mysteries. No doubt the Hebrews
had their mysteries. The main features
of the account Of their residence in and
departure from Egypt are, there is no
reason to doubt, true. If MOSES was
adopted by the daughter Of the reigning
monarch, and brought up at the court,
and if he marriedt the daughter of a Priest
of Heliopolis, he could not but have been
Initiated. Solomon also married an
Egyptian Princess, and was in intimate
alliance with a Phoenician monarch.
We do not imagine that the intelligent
Hebrew Priests regarded their legends
as historical, or were unable to separate
the fabulous from tbs true in their books.
When our Saviour reeited a parable, he
did not always begin or end 1t by saying,
" this is a parable" Many Of them,
taken according to the letter, purport to
be r~ecitals of facts. No church, we i'm
agine, now requires US to believe that
actual devils possessed men when he
was on earth that when he expelled
them they actually entered into q herd
Of swine. Even a Catholic, we suppose,
is at liberty to believe that the cases
miraeufcs ly cured were of epilepsy.
We are not expected to believe that
the mel of Babel really undertook to
build a tower, in order to ascend on it to
heaven, or that this caused the eonfu-
sion of tongues. We regard it as an
aIlegory, a fabulous legend in
vented to account for the diversity
of languages. We do not believe that
the food covered the whole earth or
that all the animals we're preserved in
the ark. We can easily separate such
legends from the truth. Is it not posi-
BILE that the account of the Garden of
Eden, of the Tree of knowledge, the
temptation by q snake and the eating Of
the fruit is an Eastern Allegory? The
account of the creation is palpably a COS
mogony Of human invention. 1t is not
even any where averred in the Scrip
lures, to be inspired, or literally true.
The truth of Christianity does not de-
pend upon the literal veracity of these
accounts. May not one be both philoso-
pher and Christian, reading the Sacred
Books according to their e~soteric mean
ing, as De WETTE and other R~ationalists
do? We confess that we have not been
much helped in our faith by THoLUCK,
NEANDER and HENGsTENBEEG.
The Hebrew Kabala, which must en-
body very ancient traditions and the
&INNER DOCTRINE and is itself as
enIgmadeal as Alchemy and Hermeti-
cism, gives TO every thing in the ancient
books mystical and spiritual i~nterpreta-
lions. The writers evidently did not
regard them as wholly historical, where
they purport to be so. Few intelligent
men suppose that the visions Of EZEKIEL
and of the Apocalypse were really
dreams. They are too evidently allego-
ries. 1t is very certain that q vicious
mode of Interpretation has been used
with the Bible, or so many Sects could
not have existed, all protesting to derive
their doctrines from it. Two principal
causes have, it seems to US, produced
them; a too literal Interpretation, and
misunderstanding Of symbols. Of all
modes of communicating ideas, symbol
ism, once very common, especially
among the initiated, was NEST liable to
be misinterpreted. The knowledge of
the meaning of symbols is easily lost; |
and those who hold the keys of the
e~soteric meaning have always made 1t a
practice 10 mislead the vulgar by wrong
and trivial interpretations, Symbols
were, in fact, used to conceal the truth
and meaning, from all but the Initiates.
That is made plain by HERODoTUs,
PLUTARCH and APULEIUs, all Of whom
were Initiates.
Saint AUGUSTINE admits, in his Con-
f~sssiens,' that we are at liberty to I'M
derstand the same passage of the Scrip
lures in different ways. divers things
he says, may be understood under par
ticular words; and those different things
all true, believing that the writer
speaks truly he says, We dare not
imagine him to have said any thing,
which ourselves either know or think to
be false While every man ~endeayors
then to understand in the Holy Scriptures
the same as the writer understood, what
hurt is it, il a man understand what
Thou, the Light Of all true-speaking
minds, dost show him to be true,
although he whom he reads understood
not this, seeing he also understood q truth
though not this Truth p The words, In
the Beginning'G God made the Heavens
and the Earth, he says, may be under
stood, for example, five different ways;
and each way truly. Many truths he
says, occur to the fffe1irers, in the same
words, as they are differently under
stosd.' How foolish it is, in such abund-
ance of most true meanings, as may be
extracted out of those words, rashly to
affirm which of them MOSES principally
meant If he himself had been MOSES,
he would nave wished, he ssys,so to write, |
as that, while those not competent to
understand now Con created, should not
reject the word, as beyond their capacity,
those who Were competent might find
what true opinion soever they had by
thought arrived at, not passed over in
those few words , and that should an I
other man by the light of Truth have /,
discovered another, neither should that Z
fail of being d%iscoverable in those same
Words
Thus, he says, some, reading or J
hearing these words, conceive that God,
like a msn, or some mass, endued with
unbounded power, by some new and sud I
den resolution, did, exterior to itself, as :
it were at a certain distance, create /
Heaven and Earth, two great bodies !
above and below, wherein all things
were to be contained. And when they J
hear, God said, Iet it be made! and it !
made they conceive of words begun ]
and ended, sounding in time, and pass
ing away; after whose departure, that !
into being, which was commanded !
70 to do; and whatever Of the like sort, 4
mems acquaintance with the material
world would suggest. In whom he adds, :