"Wherefore let him be proved not less than six years, and then, according to the initiation of Moses, he (the initiator) should bring him to a river or fountain, which is living water, where the regeneration of the righteous takes place." The novice then calls to witness heaven, earth, water, and air, that he will keep secret the teachings of these holy books, and guard them from falling into profane hands, under the penalty of becoming "accursed, living and dying, and being punished with everlasting punishment." "After this let him partake of bread and salt with him who commits them to him." Now if, as is believed by Dr. Lightfoot, the chief object of Christ's mission was to establish for ever the Mosaism of the bloody altar, and combat the main teaching of the ἀσκητής, or mystic, which "postulates the false principle of the malignity of matter," why did He go to an ἀσκητής to be baptised? Whether or not Christ belonged to mystical Israel, there can be no discussion about the Baptist. He was a Nazarite "separated from his mother's womb," who had induced a whole "people" to come out to the desert and adopt the Essene rites and their community of goods. And we see, from a comparison of the Essene and early Christian initiations, what such baptism carried with it. It implied preliminary instruction and vows of implicit obedience to the instructor. It is plain too that the Essene Christ knows at first nothing of any antagonism to his teacher. "The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it." (Luke xvi, 16.) This shows that far from believing that he had come to preserve the Mosaism of the bloody altar, he considered that John and the Essenes had power to abrogate it. Listen, too, to the Essene Christ's instructions to his twelve disciples:-- "As ye go, preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand." This is the simple Gospel of John:-- "Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes."