Christian doctrine saved from the grave of iniquity and raised to the
faith of salvation." [21]

In Phoenicia similar Mysteries were celebrated in honor of Adonis, the
favorite lover of Venus, who, having, while hunting, been slain by a wild
boar on Mount Lebanon, was restored to life by Proserpine. The
mythological story is familiar to every classical scholar. In the popular
theology, Adonis was the son of Cinyras, king of Cyrus, whose untimely
death was wept by Venus and her attendant nymphs: in the physical theology
of the philosophers,[22] he was a symbol of the sun, alternately present
to and absent from the earth; but in the initiation into the Mysteries of
his worship, his resurrection and return from Hades were adopted as a type
of the immortality of the soul. The ceremonies of initiation in the Adonia
began with lamentation for his loss,--or, as the prophet Ezekiel expresses
it, "Behold, there sat women weeping for Thammuz,"--for such was the name
under which his worship was introduced among the Jews; and they ended with
the most extravagant demonstrations of joy at the representation of his
return to life,[23] while the hierophant exclaimed, in a congratulatory
strain,--

"Trust, ye initiates; the god is safe,
And from our grief salvation shall arise."

Before proceeding to an examination of those Mysteries which are the most
closely connected with the masonic institution, it will be as well to take
a brief view of their general organization.

The secret worship, or Mysteries, of the ancients were always divided into
the lesser and the greater; the former being intended only to awaken
curiosity, to test the capacity and disposition of the candidate, and by