King Saul, in a state of despair, receiving no reply from the prophets,
none from the Urim and Thumim, deeply fallen as he was, went in disguise
to the Witch of Endor. Goethe's Faust, in imitation thereof, receiving
no answer to his questions addressed to heaven and eternity, no answer
through his knowledge of nature's laws and nature's forces, no answer
from the philosophy of his century and the theology of his priests,
throws himself into the embrace of Mephistopheles. That is human nature.
Exactly the same thing was done in the days of Paul, and exactly the
same thing he himself did. There was the indescribable misery of the
age, and there were the knowledge and theories of that overburdened
century, and no answer, no reply to the questions addressed to heaven
and eternity; and they went to the fountains of mysticism and secret
knowledge to quench the thirst of the soul. There sprung up the
visionary Gnostics among the Gentiles, and the Cabalistic Mystics among
the Jews. History notices the same rotation continually--idealism,
sensualism, scepticism, and finally mysticism.