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that stream through happenings in the world belong to a
primordial realm into which the human mind is incapable of
gazing. The effects and influences of the Mystery of Golgotha
yes, certainly they can be discerned; but to describe the
intrinsic, essential nature of these deeds of Christ is not
possible in the writing of history.
This is only one of the many examples that could be given in
proof of the fact that the most distinguished and enlightened
minds of modern times cannot claim to celebrate the
Christmas Festival in an inner sense. For in the soul of this
historian, Christ Jesus as a living Figure, a living Being, had
not become such intense reality that he could feel His
presence in all human evolution from year to year, from week
to week, even from hour to hour. It is possible for a really
learned scholar to-day to survey the whole course of history
without perceiving that since the Mystery of Golgotha, the
Power of Christ has been working everywhere. There are many
causes to account for the fact that the Festival of the Holy
Night, the Festival of the Christmas Mystery, is not yet
celebrated in the souls of the vast majority of human beings.
A certain illumination is given by one who has spoken of these
things out of a deep and true feeling for the Christian Mystery.
This was Goethe, who so beautifully recounts the life and
travels of Wilhelm Meister. Wilhelm Meister comes to a
stately building and is conducted around it by its owner. He is
shown the gallery which contains a series of paintings of the
most important historical occurrences among various peoples
of antiquity notably among the early Hebrews from the
time of Paradise, the Fall, and on through the later epochs.
History is portrayed in impressive scenes, ending with the
destruction of Jerusalem ... but there is no single picture of a
scene from the life of Christ Jesus, although the series
continues beyond the Crucifixion as far as the destruction of
Jerusalem. Wilhelm Meister asks: Why does nothing in this
picture-gallery portray the life of the divine Man who has
brought such blessing into the evolution of humanity?
These are his words (1) : "In your historical series I find a
chasm. The Temple of Jerusalem is destroyed and the people
dispersed, yet you have not introduced the divine Man who
taught there shortly before; to whom, shortly before, they
would give no ear." The answer made to Wilhelm Meister is:
"To have done this, as you require it, would have been an
error. The life of that divine Man whom you allude to, stands
in no connection with the general history of the world in his
time. It was a private life; his teaching was a teaching for
individuals. What has publicly befallen vast masses of people
and the minor parts which compose them, belongs to the
general history of the world, to the general religion of the
world, the religion we have named the First. What inwardly
befalls individuals, belongs to the Second religion, the
Philosophical: such a religion was it that Christ taught and
practised, so long as He went about on earth."
These are deeply moving words. Every human being on the
earth is related individually to the Christ. Folk-history, as it
may be called, is woven by the affairs of the several peoples,
for it is concerned with human affairs in general, within the
orbit of general human destiny. But what Christ Jesus has
brought into the world penetrates deeply and inwardly into
the experiences of every human heart, every human soul
belonging to no matter what part of earthly evolution in so
far as it feels itself truly Man. We must realise that this feeling
of oneself as man arose for the first time from what came into
human evolution through the Mystery of Golgotha.
And now to continue. The owner of the palace leads Wilhelm
Meister to another gallery that has been kept closed, where
the events of the New Testament are portrayed. Wilhelm
Meister is therefore not permitted to see the events of the New
Testament in a place where external happenings and actions
in the world are presented, but only in an esoteric sanctuary,
for the sight of which the soul must have been prepared, have
withdrawn from things pertaining to the worldly history of the
peoples. The basis of the soul's activity must now be esoteric
and individual: then it may cross the Threshold leading to the
pictures of scenes from the New Testament. Here again the
pictures go no farther than the Last Supper. Wilhelm Meister
asks: "As you have set up the life of the divine Man for a
pattern and example, have you likewise selected his
sufferings, his death?" The answer he receives is full of
significance; it is an answer which indicates what reverent awe
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