he divinity it is intended to represent; and through
that Idea the image is as intimately connected with the Godhead, as,
by the bond of Soul, everything else that is manifest to our senses is
connected with the phenomena of the supersensuous World. But this is
beyond you; it will be enough for you if I assure you that the statue of
Demeter, with the sheaf in her arms, is only intended to remind us to be
grateful to the Divinity for our daily bread--a hymn of praise to Apollo
expresses our thanks to the Primal One for the wings of music and song,
on which our soul is borne upwards till it feels the very presence of
the Most High. These are names, mere names that divide us; but if
you were called anything else than Agne--Ismene, for instance, or
Eudoxia--would you be at all different from what you are?--There you
see--no, stay where you are--you must listen while I tell you that
Isis, the much--maligned Isis, is nothing and represents nothing but the
kindly influences of the Divinity, on nature and on human life. What she
embodies to us is the abstraction which you call the loving-kindness of
the Father, revealed in his manifold gifts, wherever we turn our eyes.
The image of Isis reminds us of the lavish bounties of the Creator,
just as you are reminded by the cross, the fish, and the lamb, of your
Redeemer. Isis is the earth from whose maternal bosom the creative
God brings forth food and comfort for man and beast; she is the tender
yearning which He implants in the hearts of the lover and the beloved
one; she is the bond of affection which unites husband and wife, brother
and sister, which is rapture to the mother with a child at her breast
and makes her ready and able for any sacrifice for the darling she has
brought into the world. She shines, a star in the midnight sky, giving
comfort to the sorrowing heart; she, who has languished in grief, pours
balm into the wounded souls of the desolate and bereaved, and gives
health and refreshment to the suffering. When nature pines in winter
cold or in summer drought and lacks power to revive, when the sun is
darkened, when lies and evil instincts alienate the soul from its pure
first cause, then Isis uplifts her complaint, calling on her husband,
Osiris, to return, to take her once more in his arms and fill her with
new powers, to show the benevolence of God once more to the earth and
to us men. You have learnt that lament; and when you sing it at her
festival, picture yoursel