Originally published in a private edition c. 1900
Gerald Massey, though a poet, Shakespearian scholar, and
renowned Egyptologist, is best remembered by his unswerving convictions. His
research led him to the conclusion that in Africa alone could be found the
origins of myths, mysteries, symbols, languages and religions. Egypt was the
mouthpiece.
He did not hesitate to undertake to prove that all
Christendom were the dupes of delusions. His zeal caused him to challenge the
scientists, the theologians, the philologists, the anthropologists and
sociologists. However, he did not rest his case there. He was too much the
honest scholar for that. Therefore, he presented to his peers the abundant
evidence resulting from his immense amount of research, which had been sifted
through the most reliable authorities.
In these present lectures Gerald Massey renewed his
contention that the gnosis of Christianity was primarily derived from Egypt on
various lines of descent--Hebrew, Persian, Greek, Alexandrian, Essenian and
Nazarene. These converged in Rome where the history was manufactured from
identifiable matter recorded in the ancient Book of Wisdom.
It was during this period that he delivered the lecture on
GNOSTIC AND HISTORIC CHRISTIANITY. He clearly depicts the origin of Christianity
and makes it unequivocal that it was not derived from Buddhism. Jesus spoke
repeatedly about the Father. Massey said, "The Buddha is the veiled God
unveiled, the unmanifested made manifest, but not by the line of descent from
Father to Son. Buddha was begotten by his own becoming before the time of divine
paternity."
Long before man uttered a verbal prayer, he expressed
himself by actions or gesture-language. Massey discussed this at length in MAN
IN SEARCH OF HIS SOUL DURING FIFTY THOUSAND YEARS AND HOW HE FOUND IT.
Present-day psychologists recognize gesture-language as an indication of man's
true unexpressed attitudes, for unconsciously he assumes gestures revealing his
thinking. The old cliché, "Actions speak louder than words," has come
full circle and vindicated Massey.
Massey had but one desire. He wanted to gain all the
knowledge the past could afford him, and then to supplement it with all that is
known in the present. He maintained it was impossible to understand the present
without a profound knowledge of the past. Unless man comprehended the laws of
evolution and past development, and of present survival, it was impossible to
form an opinion that would be of value to anyone. With patience and
determination he carried this out in all his writings.
He had little patience with those who talked of the great
occult secrets. He was convinced the so-called ancient mysteries were
manufactured by pseudo-Esoterists and Occultists. The only interest Massey took
in such matters was to determine how they had originated, to verify their
supposed phenomena, and to ferret out their meaning. He insisted the need for
mystery vanished with the coming of the printing press and public experimental
research. It became a passion with him to publish the facts as he saw them, and
then to distribute the knowledge widely. In THE SEVEN SOULS OF MAN, he said,
"The modern manufacture of ancient mysteries is a great imposition, and
sure to be found out. The mysteries called Christian . . . I look upon them as
the greatest imposition of all."
His own meditation on facts of both abnormal or
extraordinary nature which continued and were verified over the years, proved to
him that Mind existed and operated invisibly. He did not trouble about "the
other world" at all, for it was in this world that people needed
assistance. Life to him was not worth living if something were not done to
further its work. "It is only in helping others that we can truly help
ourselves," said Mr. Massey in the lecture, THE DEVIL OF DARKNESS IN THE
LIGHT OF EVOLUTION.
To Gerald Massey it was an unforgivable pretense for the
clergy to continue to preach that man was a fallen creature. He continually
pointed out that man could not be saved through prayful intercession. Every
advance made by science for humanity had been carried out through research and
perseverance--not by praying to a jealous God. Massey proclaimed, "It is a
sad farce for you to pray for God to work a miracle . . . when you are doing all
you can to prevent it."
Speaking of creation, he saw it as beginning with the
first means of measuring and recording a cycle of time. In Genesis, the first
day was measured by the morning and the evening. To the present day time
continues to be measured by this identical method.
Through years of observation Massey recorded the outcome
of such statements as, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the
earth." He concluded that the meek did not inherit the earth and were not
about to. Teachers had been woefully mistaken and unobserving. The death of
Jesus could not save man from himself. Massey was adamant in pointing out that
man was what he was as the result of what he had done. There was no dodging the
law of cause and effect.
One of Massey's greatest contributions is his lecture on
THE COMING RELIGION. It is poignant with his sincerity. He put his own belief
into every word. To him each person must do his own thinking and have absolute
freedom of expression. He stressed that the new religion must have
"sincerity of life, in place of pretended belief; a religion of science, in
place of superstition." This religion will proclaim man's Ascent rather
than his Fall. It will be a religion of fact in the present, not of mere faith
for the future. The temple will be what it was intended to be--the human form
rather than an edifice of brick and stone. It will be a religion of
accomplishment, rather than of worship; and in place of the many creeds, it will
be a religion of life. Above all it will be a joyous religion. To realize such a
religion a man must be honest and courageous as was Gerald Massey himself.
His final plea in THE COMING RELIGION was to urge man to
bear in mind that the origin of evil in the moral domain was derived from
ignorance. It was Hermes who said, "The wickedness of a soul is its
ignorance." To this Gerald Massey fittingly added that after gaining the
consciousness to recognize the right, then it is man's permissiveness that
allows evil actions to take place.
Sibyl Ferguson