The Massey Lectures Forward

Gerald Massey, a man of many talents, distinguished himself as a social reformer, a poet and an Egyptologist. His fame rested mainly on the six monumental volumes in which he dealt at length on the mythology and religion of Ancient Egypt, and on his poetry. Although he was a capable lecturer, the lectures were not widely circulated, and were privately printed in an obscure volume. It is timely that this valuable collection is once again presented to Massey's increasing public.

Relatively little is known of Massey's career. His humble birth at Gamble Wharf, Hertfordshire, England in 1829 held scant promise for the future. His parents were illiterate--his father was a poorly paid canal boatman. His own early education was meager. Only occasionally was the young Massey able to attend the neighboring school, for which he paid one penny a week. From the age of eight he labored twelve hours a day. At first he found employment in a silk mill. When it was destroyed by fire, he worked as a straw-plaiter. Doubtless there were many such jobs until at fifteen he went to London as an errand boy. Later he was fortunate enough to become a haberdasher's clerk.

It is evident that Massey improved his life at every opportunity. Not only did his positions become more responsible, but in his spare time he read literature, and was inspired to write poetry. He even composed a popular song, which was so well-received that it was exhibited in a London shop window. In passing the Editor of "The Athenaeum", London's most distinguished periodical, noticed and bought a copy. The song, "The People's Advent," caught the Editor's fancy to the extent that the composer's name--Gerald Massey--remained in his memory.

A year later, his book of poetry readied for publication, Massey brought it with hope and humility to the Editor of "The Athenaeum." The Editor, recognizing the author's name as the composer of "The People's Advent," was predisposed to like the poems before reading them. He wrote a brilliant, laudatory review of the poetry. The book-sellers of London, impressed by the review ordered the book with no hesitation. In one day the first edition was sold out.

Gerald Massey became increasingly interested in Egyptology. He studied the extensive Egyptian records housed in the British Museum. He eventually taught himself to decipher the hieroglyphics. Finally after many years of study he wrote a series of scholarly works on the Religion and Mythology of Ancient Egypt. In 1881 he published in two volumes "A Book of the Beginnings," in 1883 "The Natural Genesis" followed, and finally in 1907 he published in two volumes "Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World,".

Through those long years of devoted study at the British Museum, Massey enjoyed the friendship and wise counsel of Dr. Samuel Birch, an outstanding Egyptologist. He attracted a following of dedicated students, who later were privileged to assist in his research. Two of his most prominent co-workers were George St. Clair who authored "Creation Records Discovered in Egypt," and Dr. Albert Churchward, who wrote "The Origin and Evolution of the Human Race."

When Massey lectured in America and Canada, he found himself surrounded with able students. Miss E. Valentia Straiton, author of "The Celestial Ship of the North," and Dr. Alvin Boyd Kuhn, who wrote extensively on comparative religion. Dr. Kuhn acknowledged that in Gerald Massey had been a great inspiration to him. In fact in his posthumous work, "A Rebirth for Christianity," Dr. Kuhn called attention to the great worth of Massey's research on Christian origins, as follows:

"With brilliant scholarship and insight he pierced Egypt's enigmatic scriptology, and documented the provenance of both Old and New Testament literature from remote Egyptian sources. He forced us to ask how the four Gospels of the Christian canon could be the biography of any Messianic personality living in the first Christian century, when he traced their texts back to Egyptian documents that must have been venerable even in 3500 B.C.

"We are faced with the inescapable realization that if Jesus actually lived in the flesh in the first century A.D., and if he had been able to read the documents of old Egypt, he would have been amazed to find his own biography already substantially written some four or five thousand years previously. Tertullian, Justin Martyr and

other writers have noted that the leaders of the Christian movement confessed that many of their doctrines, rites, creeds and symbols were identical with Egyptian antetypes. The late outstanding American Egyptologist, James H. Breasted, found evidence of such similarities between the Old Testament book, Proverbs, and addresses to the Pharaoh of Egypt dating as far back as 3500 B.C. All this confirms Massey's conclusions." (pp. 39-40)

Gerald Massey so impressed the novelist, George Eliot, that she made him the hero of one of her famous romances. Thus Massey became immortalized in literature as "Felix Holt the Radical."

Among Massey's American friends and admirers was a prominent New York Journalist and publisher, D. M. Bernett. In the second edition of his "The World's Sages, Thinkers and Reformers" on page 967, Bernett says,

"Gerald Massey is a warm-hearted, genial man, and as a companion and friend he has few superiors. His interests and incentives are decidedly in the direction of Science and Rationalism. He has many years been freed from the binding and blinding theological creeds and obligations. He regards priestcraft as one of the great evils which mankind for thousands of years have been compelled to endure and support; and regards it as one of the most important works that men of the present time can engage in to demolish the idols of the past dark ages; to liberate the mind from the dwarfing and blighting effect of pagan and Christian mythology and to dispense with the officious and expensive services of a designing, useless, aristocratic and wily priesthood. He most desires to see the human race advance in knowledge and truth and mental freedom, which science and philosophy imparts to the diligent investigator. He believes ignorance to be the Devil, Science the Savior of the world."

For those who finish the reading of these lectures and desire a further acquaintance with the works of Gerald Massey, there are his greater works beginning with "Ancient Egypt, the Light of the World."

INTRODUCTION

Gerald Massey, though a poet, Shakespearian scholar, and renowned Egyptologist, is best remembered by his unswerving convictions. His research led him to the conclusion that in Africa alone could be found the origins of myths, mysteries, symbols, languages and religions. Egypt was the mouthpiece.

He did not hesitate to undertake to prove that all Christendom were the dupes of delusions. His zeal caused him to challenge the scientists, the theologians, the philologists, the anthropologists and sociologists. However, he did not rest his case there. He was too much the honest scholar for that. Therefore, he presented to his peers the abundant evidence resulting from his immense amount of research, which had been sifted through the most reliable authorities.

In these present lectures Gerald Massey renewed his contention that the gnosis of Christianity was primarily derived from Egypt on various lines of descent--Hebrew, Persian, Greek, Alexandrian, Essenian and Nazarene. These converged in Rome where the history was manufactured from identifiable matter recorded in the ancient Book of Wisdom.

It was during this period that he delivered the lecture on GNOSTIC AND HISTORIC CHRISTIANITY. He clearly depicts the origin of Christianity and makes it unequivocal that it was not derived from Buddhism. Jesus spoke repeatedly about the Father. Massey said, "The Buddha is the veiled God unveiled, the unmanifested made manifest, but not by the line of descent from Father to Son. Buddha was begotten by his own becoming before the time of divine paternity."

Long before man uttered a verbal prayer, he expressed himself by actions or gesture-language. Massey discussed this at length in MAN IN SEARCH OF HIS SOUL DURING FIFTY THOUSAND YEARS AND HOW HE FOUND IT. Present-day psychologists recognize gesture-language as an indication of man's true unexpressed attitudes, for unconsciously he assumes gestures revealing his thinking. The old cliché, "Actions speak louder than words," has come full circle and vindicated Massey.

Massey had but one desire. He wanted to gain all the knowledge the past could afford him, and then to supplement it with all that is known in the present. He maintained it was impossible to understand the present without a profound knowledge of the past. Unless man comprehended the laws of evolution and past development, and of present survival, it was impossible to form an opinion that would be of value to anyone. With patience and determination he carried this out in all his writings.

He had little patience with those who talked of the great occult secrets. He was convinced the so-called ancient mysteries were manufactured by pseudo-Esoterists and Occultists. The only interest Massey took in such matters was to determine how they had originated, to verify their supposed phenomena, and to ferret out their meaning. He insisted the need for mystery vanished with the coming of the printing press and public experimental research. It became a passion with him to publish the facts as he saw them, and then to distribute the knowledge widely. In THE SEVEN SOULS OF MAN, he said, "The modern manufacture of ancient mysteries is a great imposition, and sure to be found out. The mysteries called Christian . . . I look upon them as the greatest imposition of all."

His own meditation on facts of both abnormal or extraordinary nature which continued and were verified over the years, proved to him that Mind existed and operated invisibly. He did not trouble about "the other world" at all, for it was in this world that people needed assistance. Life to him was not worth living if something were not done to further its work. "It is only in helping others that we can truly help ourselves," said Mr. Massey in the lecture, THE DEVIL OF DARKNESS IN THE LIGHT OF EVOLUTION.

To Gerald Massey it was an unforgivable pretense for the clergy to continue to preach that man was a fallen creature. He continually pointed out that man could not be saved through prayful intercession. Every advance made by science for humanity had been carried out through research and perseverance--not by praying to a jealous God. Massey proclaimed, "It is a sad farce for you to pray for God to work a miracle . . . when you are doing all you can to prevent it."

Speaking of creation, he saw it as beginning with the first means of measuring and recording a cycle of time. In Genesis, the first day was measured by the morning and the evening. To the present day time continues to be measured by this identical method.

Through years of observation Massey recorded the outcome of such statements as, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." He concluded that the meek did not inherit the earth and were not about to. Teachers had been woefully mistaken and unobserving. The death of Jesus could not save man from himself. Massey was adamant in pointing out that man was what he was as the result of what he had done. There was no dodging the law of cause and effect.

One of Massey's greatest contributions is his lecture on THE COMING RELIGION. It is poignant with his sincerity. He put his own belief into every word. To him each person must do his own thinking and have absolute freedom of expression. He stressed that the new religion must have "sincerity of life, in place of pretended belief; a religion of science, in place of superstition." This religion will proclaim man's Ascent rather than his Fall. It will be a religion of fact in the present, not of mere faith for the future. The temple will be what it was intended to be--the human form rather than an edifice of brick and stone. It will be a religion of accomplishment, rather than of worship; and in place of the many creeds, it will be a religion of life. Above all it will be a joyous religion. To realize such a religion a man must be honest and courageous as was Gerald Massey himself.

His final plea in THE COMING RELIGION was to urge man to bear in mind that the origin of evil in the moral domain was derived from ignorance. It was Hermes who said, "The wickedness of a soul is its ignorance." To this Gerald Massey fittingly added that after gaining the consciousness to recognize the right, then it is man's permissiveness that allows evil actions to take place.

Sibyl Ferguson

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