IX. The Apocalypse of St. John

Thus the initiate learns prophetically what is to happen. And the Christian initiate learns how the Christ-Impulse intervenes and works on in earthly evolution. After it has been shown how everything perishes that clings too closely to the transitory to attain to true Christianity, there appears the mighty angel who has open in his hand a little book which he gives to St. John. “And he said unto me, Take it and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey” (X, 9) . St. John was not only to read the little book, he was to absorb it and let its contents permeate him. What avails any knowledge unless man is vitally imbued with it? Wisdom has to become life, man must not merely recognize the Divine but must himself unite with it. Such wisdom as is written in the book no doubt causes pain to the perishable part of man: “it shall make thy belly bitter;” but so much the more does it make happy the eternal part: “but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.”