l, the
experiences of love quite as much as those of religion, are mysteries,
not to be lightly or publicly spoken of. In that feeling the Greek was
at one with the Papuan, and it is interesting to observe that the
procedure of initiation into the Greek mysteries, as described by Theon
of Smyrna and other writers, followed the same course as the pubertal
initiations of savages; there was the same preliminary purification by
water, the same element of doctrinal teaching, the same ceremonial and
symbolic rubbing with sand or charcoal or clay, the same conclusion in a
joyous feast, even the same custom of wearing wreaths.

In how far the Christian sacraments were consciously moulded after the
model of the Greek mysteries is still a disputed point;[175] but the first
Christians were seeking the same spiritual initiation, and they
necessarily adopted, consciously or unconsciously, methods of procedure
which, in essentials, were fundamentally the same as those they were
already familiar with. The early Christian Church adopted the rite of
Baptism not merely as a symbol of initiation, but as an actual component
part of a process of initiation; the purifying ceremony was preceded by
long preparation, and when at last completed the baptized were sometimes
crowned with garlands. When at a later period in the history of the
Church the physical part of the initiation was divorced from the
spiritual part, and baptism was performed in infancy and confirmation at
puberty, a fatal mistake was made, and each part of the rite largely
lost its real significance.

But it still remains true that Christianity embodied in its practical
system the ancient custom of initiating the young at puberty, and that
the custom exists in an attenuated form in all the more ancient
Christian Churches. The rite of Confirmation has, however, been
devitalized, and its immense significance has been almost wholly lost.
Instead of being regarded as a real initiation into the privileges and
the responsibilities of a religious communion, of an active fellowship
for the realization of a divine life on earth, it has become a mere
mechanical corollary of the precedent rite of baptism, a formal
condition of participation in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. The
splendid and many-sided discipline by which the child of the savage was
initiated into the secrets of his own emotional nature and the sacred
tradition of his people has been degraded into the learning of a
ca