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HISTORY OF THE CROSS

THE PAGAN

ORIGIN,

IDOLATROUS ADOPTION AND WORSHIP,

THE IMAGE.

HENRY DANA WARD,

JAMKS NISBET &

M.A.,

LONDON:
CO., 21 BERNERS STREET.

rniLADELPHIA:
n AFFELFINGEIl.
.t

CLAXTON, nr.MSEN,
810 AND 821

MAHKET
1871.

.V

STREET.

PREFACE.
In the Churches, especially of America, a flood-tide of
ritualiBm

now

threatens to overwhelm the gospel, such as

in the fourth century deluged the primitive Churches with

of martyrs, monkish legends, lying wonders, pagan

The eye is
customs, and " the invention of the cross."

relics

taken with a curious pantomime, carried on by various

actors.
and comi'an
EDINDURCIt AND LONDON

rriNTF-n nv iiai.lantvne

Any

parade with banners and sweet voices through

the streets, or into the churches,

sure to attract a crowd.

is

Excited by the mysterious movement, the rising generation

are fired to see, to fall in, and to

form a part of the brave

show, dressed in colours, or white robes, with banners and

standard-bearers for the admiration of the beholders.
sign and image of
front of the

of

God

tlie

cross

is

now, as of

pagan assault upon the simplicity of the

in Christ,

Tlierefore it

is

The

old, in the fore-

faith

timely to present to the

public a history, showing the pagan origin of the image,

with

its

among

entrance

Cliristiaus,

and

its

final

adoption

Church Catholic and Universal.

Not a few of my young readers have seen the account

in the

oi

Constantine's vision of the cross, illustrated with the image,

and signed. In hoc tincks.

when, in

tion of the author,

that this image

is

All such will feel the indignariper years,

he saw and leiu-ned

a bold forgery, a pagan counterfeit of the

emblem on Constantine's banner,

if

that

may be

called a

counterfeit which, without the least likeness of a single

'I

riiEFAOE.

ir

reverence and love of the image, which, like

tnkcs the iidine, and the place, and the office of

fontiirc,

another.

called

and

(Sk) w^^

Clirist

tlie

sign on the banner

Our

effort to all

the

monogram
476.

A.D.

after the dinsolution of the

monogram now

Tlie

Roman

empire,

Christ's

Christ)

and from the holy places

to the jilaccs of public

in honour,

ond

worn

is

for admiration,

elevated

is

by a Catholic mul" in the

titude, thinking that, with the apostle, tlipy glory

cross

Lord

of our

crucified

Yet not

.Tesus

Christ, by

wliom the world

unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal.

for crucifying self to the

vi.

is

14).

world do both young and

old ornament their person with the glitter of an image.

The

cross of Christ

living unto

God

is

valour for the image

be very cowards

death to the glory of this world, but

is

easy, while the image-bearers

Let no one imagine

for a

moment

On

It vindicates the
life,

now

glory of the cross and

by the image

and

of Christ's cross,

now

veiled

it

sets forth

and hid by

power of the cross of Christ

by the image.

It exalts the

innocent Sufferer,

now debased

foiled
its

that this work aims a

the contrary,

Christ's suffering for others' guilt,

unto eternal

may

in the cam]) of Israel.

blow at the cross of Christ.

the image.

To show

in view of the glory to come.

aims to magnify the riches of the grace

now turned to vanity by the image. The
it

cross of Christ can neither be seen, nor handled, nor loved

is

l|:
;

it

the potiently borne agony of body and soul here, in view of

the joy promised hereafter.

sible glory in the

Its

undying love and inexpres-

Lord are now

stifled

put away the images, in

by the mistaken

1^

am

the

yc see
on the right hand of power, and

,nevertheie8s, I say unto you, Hereafter shall

Son of man sitting

coming in the clouds Of heaven " (Matt.
the

amusement.

This sign of idolatry and of ancient barbarism

to

presence of the Sanhedrim, " Thou bast said (I

no longer seen, but

is

while the image reigns supreme on spire and

on book and person, from the jialace to the hamlet,

obscurely
pulpit,

image sujiplanted

Tlie

is

is

may appear. The gracious Lord bless tlio

who love His name and patiently wait for
who answered the high priest, in
appearing

again in glory,

image now pretends

occupy.

sole object

images,

pretends to

order that the death of Christ to this world, and His coming

of Constantine and of his imperial successors, which the

to

all

taken for the invisible reality it

represent.

The monogram of

PREFACK.

xxvi. 04).

CONTENTS.
INTRODDCTION,

......

PAGE
I

TUB OODNCIL Of TUENT OH TBB U8E OF IMAdES

CHAPTER

I.

THE 8CUIITDKE WORDS FOR THE CROSS DEFINKD

TUE BRAZEN SERPENT
DIPFEBENT MODMS OF IMPALINU
TUB SION OF TA^fMUZ

IS
'

II

17

.....

t^

lUAOEB AND LIKENESSES IN UOLV WORSHIP ADO.MINADLE

A GRAND MISTAKE
VARIOUS FORMS OK THE CROSS

EPISTLE,

21

22

CHAPTEK
BARNABAS HIS

21

U.

MYBTERT OF THREE LETTEEa

24

HIS PEAYINO U0SE3,

NTCODEMUS HIS

AND POWER OF THE SION OF THE CROSS

TESTIMONI TO THE POWER OF THE SION IN HADES

J08TIH MARTYR ADOPTS THE VIEWS OF BARNABAS

80

MARCOS MlfrOTIUB FELIX HALF ADMrTS THE UIAOC WOBSBIP

TERTULLIAN ABSENTS TO THE SAME THINO

32
S3

WOOD IS WOOD, WHETHER WORSHIPPED FOB THE OBOSS OB FOB OEBES

35

CYPRIAN, HIS CROSS

)

26
23

IS

X THE SION

OF OHRI.ST

87

OBEOORT THADMATDROnS, OR THE WONDER WORKER

FABLE OF Helena's invention of the cross

88

THE KEEPER AND OBOWER OF THE WOOD

HIS OLOBTINa IN THE GROWTH OF TH WOOD, AD POWEB OF THE 8I0N

43

41

CYRIL,

HISLOP'S

"TWO BABTLONS''

......

44
48

CHAPTER III.
A SOirUABT OF THE TESTIMONY

THE

LATIJI 0BO33

COKFBOKTED WITH THAT OF COHStiNTIMI

52
St

CONTENTS.

CONSTANTINKS VISION
JULIAK'b TEaTIMONT TO

....
X

tOR CHRIST

FAOR

67

UEDAU, COINS, AND LABARUU OF CONHTANTINK

ni8 DREAM

60

HIS FINAI, VICTORY OVER LICINIU8

es

THE CATAOOHD.H

.....
......

niS

HARK

ITS 00NIC80TI0N

INTO

by the open door of

forty years ago, passing

69

and seeing

78

Good Friday,

74

80
83

WITn riHAU nCTRIDOTIOM

Above

Ann

Catholic church then standing in

IV.

TBI ORASUAL OHANQE OF THE BION OF OlIRISt

HOW MAT OnS LORD REOARD THE IMAOE t
THE LATIN

68

.'

CHAPTER

INTEODUCTION.

SO

84

its

interior draped in black

Street,

New

tlio

York,

on the morning of

took a proffered seat near the chancel, to

behold the scenes never before nor since witnessed.

movements, the prayers

in Latin, the

smoking

The

incen.se, the

melodies, the candles, the bowings, and the chancel performances, were closely observed without being well understood.

But the sermon whii^h followed waH

in plain

Saxon, glorifying

the wood of the cross, which the jireacher snid " ought to be

worshipped."
worship of

idols;

was 8uq)ri8cd,
and

deny

for the Latins

charitably believing

I,

it,

their

was aston-

ished at the preacher's language in presence of the thronged

seemed

me

unguarded, and rashly to place a

house.

It

weapon

in their enemy's hands.

however, in
ableness,

to

full earnest,

and

to

The preacher proceeded,

show and to urge the reason-

to enforce the duty, of worshipping the

nood

of the cross !
First,

Because

it

was miraculously preserved, and found

with the crosses of the two

in the earth for three

Secoridly, Because

thieve.'*,

after

having lain buried

hundred years nearly.

when found,

it

was distinguished from

the crosses of the two thieves by the miracles

it

VhUe

(The father

the crosses of the thieves wrought none.

wrought,

of this quite overreached himself by finding the crosses of

the two thieves.)
Thirdly, Because the

wood of the true

itself for distribution over the

cross multiplied

whole world without diminu-

tion or loss of the original wood.

INTltODUCTION.
Tliis emjihatic

nml

Imjicnl

illustrated befcire all eyes.

INTRODUCTION.

prcnching was next practically

For the preacher,

and clerks within the chancel,

clergy,

officiating

approached

first

with the scene

in the

Ann

Street church, and with

Good Bishop Imbert of Gascony,

sense.

sembly eighteen years

aloud,

"Worship

placed on high for the purpose, and, on bended knee, with

wood"

the assembly replied

Christ;

danced before the golden

chancel-rail before the middle aisle, and the congregation

gods,

were invited to apjjroach by the two side

aisles, to

worship

numbers, they did, devoutly approaching, bowing, dropping

on their knees, rising, kissing the image on the feet, and

Yet earnest men positively deny that

done or, admitting the facts, deny that

reverently retiring.

such things are

this

is

image-worship

Even

the great Council of Trent

teaches " That the images of Christ, of the Virgin

of Qod, and of the

other saints,

ought

to

them

to be paid to

of Egypt 1"

made

their

totypes

whom

is

to represent.

All the lieathen confess that their

which

tliey represent,

Iiowever, in

common

They think,

with our brethren of Trent, that the

images, pictures, and altars before which they worship witli

sacrifices,
incense, prayers, and praise, are objects of
humble reverence, and that the image is especially dear to

not because

it

is

or because

or because

any con-

was forrnerly
trust in idols; but

paid over to the pro-

these images rejiresent.

So that, through

and before which wo uncover and prostrate ourselves, we worship Clirist, and we
venerate tho saiuts whose likeness these wear" (Scks. 25,
the images which we

Mother

fidence ought to be attached to them, such as

jnit

flic

while the deities themselves dwell in heaven.

the invisible spirit represented, whether a

cross

done by the heathen, who

"No,

calf, and shouted, " These bo thy

which have brought thee up out of the land
They knew there was no divinity or power

idols are only types of the divinities

account of which they ought to be wor8hii)pcd

because the honour paid to them

wood "

golden image but tliey worshipped before it in

honour of the invisible God whose presence the idol was

and

Israel,

in the

believed that any divinity or power resides in them, on

anything ought to be sought of them

tlie

be had and

retained especially in the churches, and that due reverence

and honour ought

not

and the wood had it for

the Archbishop of Bordeaux arraigned, tried, condemned,
and silenced Imbert for his error. Israel sacrificeil, fenstd,

downcast eyes, every one adored, silently prayed, and,

rising from his knees to retire, kissed the feet of the
image - This finished, the crucifix was removed to tho

the cross, and to retire by the centre aisle, which, in large

common

in a iniblic as-

after the Council of Trent, cried

singly in succession, with ))()wed head, toward a crucifix

kiss,

sec. 2.)

This testimony of the Great Council conflicts with tho

Second Commandment, and with the uniform testimony of the

Scriptures against likenesses in worship, and also conflicts

th(jjr

is

worship

stealthily

demon

or a saint;

Tims the image of the

seizing on the reverence and love of Proit

accordingly.

a degree neither suspected nor dreamed of by

the admirers and exalters of the symbol, leavingonly handa
testants, to

breadth between their honouring of the image and in-coming

idolatry. For the whole world regards the batiner and thelmage
of any person, people, or cause it represents with a portion
of the reverence and love due to the cause, to the nation,
or to (he person represented, whether it be our country, our
party principles, our visible or invisible friend, whether
it bo the Virgin or Jupiter, tlie kingdom or
the republic,
the

Roman or the Protestnnt Church, our ancestor or our

And that man who repudiates the image, or

brother.

despises the banner, deeply

wounds the heart of

its

be-

nnd

licvors

followers.

Jliiiiy

in training to venerate

;irc

this

image of the cross who do not yet worship

to whom it is an offence, notit with incense and klKsoa
withstanding, for any one to raise a serious question of
the propriety and innocence of exalting and honouring the

and

and on our persons

of

cross

made by

the hands of

invisible Person or things of tlie

difference between
time to comprehend the

between
time to learn the mortal enmity
evil
this
of
on the ground
the cross of Christ's blood shed
solemn
in
singing
with
"
glory cross" borne

our holy things, any material image or fancied

likeness,

It is

nn image

the Scriptures forbid the followers of Jesus to venerate,

among

the world.

man, to represent the

Godhead and humanity

world, and

and reverencing an image of that sufview of which the Lord Jesus sweat, " as it were

It is

the

procession,

fering in

"
the super-altar

praying
Boeing

in

agony that

many

this

down

to the

ference between

ground," while

hands and His

brethren and personal friends of divers deno-

minations are unconsciously filling into the fashion of

glorying in this image,

it

is

time to show that Christ's

no image, but a reality. It was no ornament of

His person, but an overwhelming burden on His shoulder,
cross

is

and on His beating heart, crushing out the fountain of life,

and pouring His blood upon the earth. To Him it was no
brilliant spectacle, but it was loathed in His soul, together
with our sins, wliich He bore in His own body on the tree.

Whereas

the image, which

is

a lying vanity, changes the

whole character of Christ's cross into an ornament of the

flesh, wreathed with flowers, or suspended in shining array

from the neck of beauty, or

lifted

up

to point a church spire,

to adorn a pulpit, channel wall, or font; or

emblazoned on

national banners in divers forms and colours.

less,

senseless,

nothing of

"
and yet deceitful vanity.
and self-denial notliing of

sacrifice

the forces of evil

it is

life-

It suggests
conflict

with

nothing of the painful and lingering

death of sinful passions in the natural heart."

trary,

It is

On the

the banner of Papal tyranny, nnd the

con-

sign of

for reverence

" to the accursed tree," and a gaudy likeHis torture unto death. Our
ness of that fell instrument of
honest Protestants on every
heart is stirred at beholding
moment to
idol, and led for one
side taken with this dumb
house,, or the
their
person,
their
think that, by adorning
they please the Father ot
house of God with this image,
bon,
the name of His only-begotten

And

cup might pass from Him.

and admiration "upon

the vast difunderstand
to
time
It is
His
Jesus nailed as a criminal through

and placed

forbids our loving

great drojis of blood falling

glory of this world, and

death to the love of the power and
the pomp and fashion of
display
to
high
set up on

Nevertheless,

and glory

pagan invention and

time to confront this iniagc? of
reality of Christ's
the
with
antichristian adoption

It is

in onr churches

woMs conversion into a blissM kingdom of millennial

or of eternal life

to love the

image

INTRODUCTION.

INTKODUCnoN.

Spirits,
oiu-

feet

and magnify

Lord Jesus

up his

stauros,

The wearer of a briUiant, taking

The bearer of
and following after Christ
Christ.

folpearl, or precious stones, a

a shining cross in gold, or

compelled a
lower of Jesus, whose murderers
stavros for

by to bear His
The wearer of
Calvary
I

burden.

Him,

faint

man

passing

and exhausted,

this ima>,o never faints

A glittering cross is oftener borne

and

to

under the

in pride of cirin heaviness of

spirit
cumstance than in poverty of
reverlove of admiration and
the
in
on
put
is
It
heart.
renunciaand
humiliation
for
ence of the imaffe; and not
It is worne fr.r
of this world.
tion of the pomp and glory
gilt
and embroidery, in carved and

distinction, in gold

and lifted up in procesimages, in prints and in flowers ;

trumpets, and with voices saying,
sions ^ith musics with,

'

INTRODUCTION.

INTRODUCTION.

" Behold the cross

the Saviour's cross

shut up the kingdom of heaven against men

go in yourselves, neither sufTer ye them that
Woe unto you, scribes and Phariare entering to go in
for ye devour widows' houses, and for n
sees, hypocrites

the cross which

crites

delivered us from the condemnation of sin,

1

meant

calf; not

God,
I

their

Redeemer.

However

honour the invisible

well intended,

it

misrepre-

sents the incompreheiiHil)lo glory of " the offering of the

truth in him.

own

for he

is

When

he spenketh a

and the father of it" (John

liar,

lie,

is

proselyte

prayers

ye compass sea and land to

Fools and blind guides, which say,

tithe

of mint and anise and cummin,

weightier

matters

faith."

no

of thc^

in our times, than for the

44).

an<l

have omitted the

law, judgment,

mercy,

and

These words contain reproof

he speaketh 9f his
viii.

shall swear by the temple or the altar, it i<

but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the
temple, or by the gift on the nitar, he is guilty and a debtor.
Woe unto you, scribes apd Pharisees, hy]iocrites for ye i)ay

the be-

ginning, and abode not in the truth, because there

make long

nothing

him who "was a murderer from

pretence

make one

Whosoever

body of Jesus Christ once for nil" (Ileb. x. 10), no less

than the molten calf misrepresented the God who redeemed
Israel from the bondage of Egypt
and this idol iu the
modern Church, no less than that idol in the ancient
Cliurch, serves

for ye

to provoke, but to

for ye neither

and from the

bondage of death the cross of our salvation "
This modern show is like that of Israel before the golden

'

for all

Jews

time

no

less for us

in the days of the Lord's

The Lord Jesus not only reproves, but threatens

them, saying, " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites
because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and
ministry.

GAENISHINQ THE TOMDS OF THE UlGnTEOUS.

Tlie

Churches of the Gentiles have no higher guaranty

against apostasy than

warned

Cluirch of Jerusalem had.

tlie

Israel of their departure

from the

faith

and worship

of God, and their consequent dispersion and reproach in

lands

garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say. If we had

been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been par-

Moses

Wherefore
takers with them in the blood of the prophets.
ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the chililren of
them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure

all

both which events have long since come to pass,

notwithstanding the ceaseless confidence of that people in

their election to

world,

while they were being carried away

Babylon
this day.

of your fathers, ye serpents, ye generation of vipers how can

ye escape the damnation of Gehenna?" (Mat. xxiii. 33).

subdue and govern the nations of this

captive

to

and again to Rome, in their dispersion to

Moses dealt very plainly with Israel, and so did

first,

',

all

the Lord's prophets

but the people hardened their

The Lord Jesus dealt very plainly with their blind

guides, who sat in Moses's seat, and taught their traditions
for the commandments of God.
But tlicy refused to listen,
and they stirred up the multitude to cry " Crucify Him,

liearts.

crucify Hiin."
face, saying,

"

Our Lord reproved them openly to their

unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo-

Woe

Knowing

that

God, and

is

"

all

Scripture

is

given by inspiration of

profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correc-

tion, for instruction in righteousness," and being pained nt

heart when I hear men, young or old, saying, " The apostles
did not know what they taught, but spoke as they thought,

and were sometimes mistaken," I was from a child unable

to BOO what in our days merits this terrible reproof and
fearfiU condemnation pronounced by the lips of the Lord,

"

able to

make

thee wise unto salvation " (2 Tim.

iii.

16, IC).

INTRODUCTION.

INTEODUCTIOK.

For

tliongli

wo

of

lie

race,

tlio

even " the children of them

table,

of the

and

prophets,

garnish

the

sepulchres

of

and

to grace the coffin of the departed

in gilt to embellish the churches

that killed the prophetH," none appear to "build the tombs

the tomb

the

in jet,

in

Ye form

it

marble to decorate

diamonds, and pearl to beautify the per-

and in colours and embroidery for proud banners of

In every form of display the images
sects and nations
before all eyes, from the cradle
elevated
and
are multiplied
to the grave. " Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves,
that ye are the children of them which crucified the Lord
son,

righteous."

Truly now, " If we had been in the days of our fathers,

we would not have been partakers with them in the blood

of the prophets." But how do any in this generation " garThe doctrine was u

nish the sepulchres of the riglitrous?"

mystery, until

led

it

mc

to consider that Jesus himself, the

Prince of the prophets, innocently suffered a death more wan-

Of Him, more than

" Had we been in the

ton and cruel than any of the projihets.

men

of any other, are

ready to say,

days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with

Yet how do they, by garnishing His BC])nl(hre, " wilncss unto yourselves that ye are

tliem in His righteous blood."

the children of

them which

killed the

prophets?"

Jesus."
but no
Tliese are words easy to read, and hard to digest
more so than the words of our Lord in person, addressed to
the scribes and Pharisees and the doctors of the law of all
I'rdbably the \viitcr and the
nations and generations.
reader have no more idea of deserving this reproof, and of
fearing the condemnation threatened, than the scribes and
The Lord bless our rePharisees in Jerusalem of old had.
;

ginning of time have not been so lavishly garnished, as that

you may escape the just condemnation pronounced against the serpents and vipers of both the old and

of Jesus, by the image everywhere set up in gold, and pre-

of this dispensation.

All the sepulchres of the righteous together from the be-

and wood,yor a memorial of

" Wherefore ye be witnesses

cious stones, in marble, brass,

ChrisCs death upon the cross!

unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them that killed

Jlany delight

the prophets."

to displ.iy,

and

to decorate

with honour and with love, and even worship, an image of

the barbarous instrument on which the Son of

out His

life's

murderers.

God poured

blood at the hands of ambitious and envious

Ye adorn your

persons,

your walls,

churches, and your banners with the sign of that

which the Son of

believeth in
(.John

the

iii.

Him

15).

man was " lifted

up,

Ye

your

wood on

that whosoever

should not perish, but have eternal

wood on which,

life

"

delight in every shining form to glorify

after

His scourging, and having drunk

the vinegar and the gall, Jesus Christ our Lord gave up the

ghost

Ye

fashion

it

flection, that

in flowers to

adorn the font and the

FANCY PICTUKES AND IMAGES IN HOLY PLACES.

In

this age of illustrated news, of pictorial history,

of illuminated works of every kind,

with exhibitions of the

artist's

all

and

eyes are fascinated

sketches and the engraver's

Reading requires time and mind but a picture can

be seen at a glance, and its plain import perceived at once.
The buyer
If well executed, it pleases even a weary soul.
Thus the Bibles
is gratified, and the seller is rewarded.
skill.

and Prayer-books are in some editions illuminated with

images and pretended likenesses of the Lord o\m Saviour,
and of the apostles and the prophets, for the gratification of
whereby they who count it idolatrous to ornament
the eyes
with pictures and images the churches " we pray in," find
;

them

in the Sacred

Volume and Prayer-book which they de-

10

INTItODUIVriON.

vontly read and "iirnyyVow."

INTRODUCTION.

Tlio wise know

tlint,

these like-

nesses are fancy sketclies of the artist, transferred to the

page by the

skill

of the engraver and printer.

The multi-

tude and the children, however, are not wise in these matters.

They search the Bible

for truth

in sincerity of heart.

They imbibe the idea that there

they use

tlie

Prayer-book
is

lionesty in the likenesses, as in the langua;^;e of the Sacred

Volume.

Their

own

suspect the want of

The wise

know
men for

also

appointed of

not permit them to

sincerity does

it

within the covers of the Holy liook.

that Christmas and saints' days are

God

glorifying

in the

name

of Christ

But with the young and

with the multitude it is otherwise. They commemorate the
anniversaries as realities, set forth and delivered Xo them
ns such.
The harm conies when, in riper years, they find
these are inventions among tlieir holy things, weakening

and of the

a])Ostles

and martyrs.

their confidence, if not shaking their faith, with regard to

Discovering imposi-

the eterhal verities of our religion.'

tion in

some of

become

of holy teachings, notknowing what to believe.

us therefore to say, with the I'salraist, "

false

way"

all

worldly honour and enjoyment, irrespective of the Church

and of the gospel, without regard to God or to the judg-

ment-seat of Christ.

distrustful
It

esteem

becomes
all

thy

things to be right, and I hate every

(Ps. cxix. 128).

made them perfectly

and lovely. In manhood they find the grossest delusions mingled with the truth, and they opostatise altogether,
rejecting all faith in God and in Christ and His goB]i('l.
And BO it comes about that, in Roman Catholic countries,
the men are, by a great majority, avowed disbelievers.
Tares and wheat being sown by the same hand, both spring
up together, alike beautiful and promising in the green
blade the husbandman himself cannot tell them apart in
the time of the blade.
But in the ripe ear the tiiros are
empty, and worthless, and worse they have stolen away
the nourishment which should have gone to swell the ear of
the wheat.
The t^es yield nothing, and they choke the
wheat. Lord, " AVilt thou then that we go and gather them
up ? But He said. Nay lest w^hilo ye gather up the tares,
3'e root up also the wheat with them.
Let both grow tofree

gether

we

till

IN

AVOWED

INFIDELITY.

the harvest" (Matt.

wheat.

We

cannot eradicate the traditional errors of our

explains a well-known and a wonderful state of things

and can shun.

but some of them we can

whose children and early youth

fluence, their

are often the loveliest specimens of sincere piety, innocence,

unwholesorlfie

and devotion.
tent,

'

But

the paronts

and

elders, to a fearful ex-

having in riper years discovered the impositions and

We

handling.

Of

this sort are the saintly pictures

and personal

traditional

life

on principles of

can show to others,

blighting and corrupting fellowship, their

and contaminating touch, and taste, and

Bymt)ols and the crosses of

and rule their

see,

can withdraw from their evil in-

delusions practised upon their youth, cast off religious fear

restraints,

Accordingly

gromng wheat we may prevent the overspreadwe may disentangle some of the

time

Catholics,

28-30).

ing of the tares, and

Protestants have something to fear under this head, while

among Roman

xiii.

and images where they are,

to grow as they must; beautiful at first, empty at last, and
injuring the faith wherever they be.
We may, however,
leave the j)ictures, sj-mbols,

protect the

YOUTHFUL PIETY SYSTEMATICALLY REBULTINfl

it

In childhood they implicitly believed

they were taught, and the truth

all

their holy services, they

precepts concerning

11

pretensions,

human

and images, the

ond

invention, the signs

most abundant among

Roman

'

12

INTEODUCTION.
ii

Catholic,

and sometimcH found

in tlie Protestant cliurchesi

These will grow and flourish to the end of the world, aud to
the injury of faith, in spite of all that can be done to pre-

vent

it.

when "

But "

in the dispensation of the fulness of times,"

more curse, " nor sin, neither siclcncss nor sorrow, pain nor death, the coming Lord " will say
there shall he no

to the reapers, Gather ye together

them

my

in buniUes to

barn " (Matt.

burn them

xiii.

labourers together with

are God's building."

Now,

if

first

the tares, and bind

but gather the wheat into

Our God is holy. " We are

30).

God; ye are God's husbandry; ye

Our foundation is " Jesus Christ.

any man build on

this

CHAPTER

shall be revealed

work of what

sort

for the

by

fire

it is.

day

shiill

declare

it,

because

shall be burned,

he shall

himself shall be saved, yet so as by

15).

that

in the

it

and the (ire shall try every man's

If any mau's work abide which ho

hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

man's work

fire

suffer loss

" (1 Cor.

If
;

in English, or in

any other modern language.

any

essential to constitute,

11-

No image or fancy work, neither pretence nor deceit

good may come nor anything that defileth, or worketh

and

to present the Universal idea of,

No

is conveyed by the Scri])tiire words stauros

Stauros means " an upright pale," a strong

such idea

abomination, or maketh a

stake, such as farmers drive into the

fire.

fences or palisades

down from God out

of heaven for an habitation of

with His saints in everlasting

life

and glory.

God

nil (lie

material, visible cross.

and zulon.

lie, can escape that consuming

Workers of such stubble must suffer loss.
God of His grace make our work grounded on the Rock
Clirist Jesus, that when tried in that fire which shall reveal
every man's work of what sort it is, it may redound to the
praise of His glory, and be found among the gold, silver,
and precious stones of the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming

In

languages of Christendom, a cross consists of one line drawn

through another. Two sticks, one crossing the other, are

but he
iii.

I.

Sravpht Kol Bv\ov, stauros and ztdon, are the only words
Greek Testament descriptive of the wooden cross of
Christ. Neither of them admit of the radical idea of a cros.i

foundation gold, silver,

precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall

be made manifest

THE CROSS OF CHRIST NO IMAGE.

I!

Roman

no more,

soldiers nailed the

of glory, and

ground to make their

To the stauros the

less.

hands and the feet of the King

to the mockery of the chief

Him up

lifted

Over Ilini, on the stauros,

" Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the
Jews." And no mortal is at liberty to affirm any other
form of stauros on which our Saviour was lifted up than is
implied in the meaning of that word, which alone, the four

priests

and

elders of the people.

Pilate put His title

no

Evangelists in the four Gospels use to describe the wood on

which Jesus was

lifted up.

UvKov, xulon, which I write for the easier pronunciation

zulon,

means " wood cut ready

for use, a stick, cfldgel, or

u
beam

nny timber; a

live tree."

Tliis is, as I liave said,

the only wonl besides stauros employed in the

ment

to signify the cross of Christ.

word

this

to signify

tlie

Testa-

wood

or timber on

it

arrested Jesus by night in

They did not malic an inioge they worshipped with

incense, the same which Moses, by dirine command, had
made, and had elevated in the healing sight of the congregation. They worshipped it, not as the work of their hands,
but as an instrument of salvation, set np by their groot
;

it.

sense of a cross.

Zulon and stauros are alike the single

Jesus was impaled, or cniciQed.

exclusive

name given by

all

the

more nor

less,

on which

Stauros, however,

is

the

Notwithstanding, that good King Hc/.ekiah,

after him was none like him, nor any that were
Buch as
when he removed the high places and brake
him,"
before

EcangcUsts to the wood of

lawgiver.

"

The stauros Jesus bore, on it He was

taken down dead. The Evangelists
use this word olso in a figurative sense " Come, take up
thy stauros, and follow me" (Mark x. 21). "Let him
take up his stauros and follow me" (Matt. xvi. 24, Mark
" He that taketh not Ris stauros and
viii. 34, Luke ix. 23).
Christ's

cross.

honged, from

it

Ho was

down the groves, brake in pieces also

" the brazen serpent that Moses had made and he called
So, were the
xviii. 4).
it Nehushtan," i.e., brass (2 Kings

the images, and cut

followeth after me,

is

veritable

me
x. 38).
mean two sticks joining each

other at an angle, either in the

New

nny

down
wood

fiery serpents

to pas that if a serpent

when he beheld

had bitten any mon,

the serpent of brass he lived "

(Numb.

xxi.

now

before our eyes,

it

and better
it,

to reverence
to wreathe

and love an
it

Is

it

iina^e ot

with laurel, to

bow

and worship before the image, which, whether of

or stone, is man's device, wrought into shape by the
visible

form of the cross occurs in the New Testament. On the

contrary, it is the emblem of our humiliation and sorrow,

The penitent people besought Moses to pray'

Moses's prayer was
the Lord to take away the serpents.
answered, not by removing the 8orj)ents, but by providing
Israel died.

a remedy against their bite. By command of the Lord,

" MosoH made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole.

cross

hands of man ?
Not an instance of exalting or of honouring the

murmured against God, the

among them, and much people of

Israel in the wilderness

came

holier

that wood, to kiss

THE BRAZEN SERPENT.

When

Clirist's

be adored with incense, and reverence, and love.

Testament or in any

other boolc.

Lord sent

wood of

should sooner be cut in pieces, and burned for wood, than

" (Matt.

not worthy of

Neither stauros nor zulon ever

forms singly

the lapse of eight centuries, Judah came to believe there

was miraculous power in that ihiage, and they worshipped

it

which Jesus was impaled

stick, the pah^, or the stake, neither

" pole," neither was

word of the living God.

but in the faith of the word which turned the

After
eyes of the wounded to look that they might live.

Zulon, then, no more thnn stauros, conveys the English

it

in the

in the brazen serpent, but in the

or jointly,

nlive.

And

The healing power was not

Tlie healing virtue resided not in these lifeless

which the

In the Acts, and rarely in the Epistles,

Gethsemane.
signifies the

New

9).

Tlie Evangelists use

clubs or staves with

company were armed when they

15

THE BRAZEN SERPENT.

CROSS OP CHRIST NO IMAGE.

TIIV;

which being endured in the faith of our Lord Jesus Clirist,

works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
" when our
glory, through Jesus and tlie resurrection,
south,
captivity will be turned again, as the streams in the

our mouth

filled

with laughter, and our tongue with sing-

THE SIGN OF TAMMUZ.

THE CHOSS OF CHRIST NO IMAGE.

16
ing

" for

we

shall not only see

Him, having our

Him

as lie

body changed into the likeness of His

vile

and our joint inheritance of

glorious body,

but be like

is,

Christ Jesus in eternal

all

things with

there was no

crucified

THE PUNISHMENT OF THE

CROSS.

stauros, or

enemies, and on vile murderers and slaves,

renowned nations of antiquity.

among

the instrument, respecting which Smith's

Bible" gives large information.

Smith, " even cnix means a mere stake.

the

called arbor infcUx

Cicero.

the

much

as

" Dictionary of

"In

Livy," says

More

Seneca

-tjw'/,

The very name of the

flesh,

all

The manner and circum-

stances of the execution do not concern us now, so

infclix

cross

generally,
or lignum,

was abhorrent

but even to the eyes, oars, and thoughts

Cicero pro llab. .5." Yet the learned Dr

Smith himself follows the learned of every naiqe in Chris-

of Ilf)man citizens

tendom, whether

fashions,

same

scoffer or believer,

j" with the

cross

monogram

in confoundidg the
in various forms

and considering them as one and the

Books often furnish the following device, to

exhibit four prevailing forms of the stauros family

tlic

manner of apj)Iying it. Some were nailed,

hand and foot and lifted up on the stauros;

others on the tree.

Others, also, were spiked to the earth

with the stauros driven through their body, and others were
spitted on

it.

Thus the crucifying or impaling was executed

manner, and the sufferers were left to rot
to be devoured by the birds and beasts.
In

in the cruelest

unburied, or

deference to the Mosaic law, the bodies were in Judca

removed and buried, and the crosses were burned, to avoid
legal defilement by the accursed thing, as it is written
" His body shall notiremain Kll night upon the tree, but in
:

any wise thou shalt bm-y him that day

is

accursed of God)

(for he that is hanged

that the land be not defiled " (Deut.

xsi. 23).

THE SIGN OF TAMMUZ.

and Judah are often reproved in the Scriptures for
serving Baalim and Ashtaroth, or Ashtoreth, and for
Ashtoreth, the
worshipping the images of the heathen.
Israel

goddess of backsliding Israel,

I

Staurofl, or

crux simplex.

known

Compacto.

as the

of the classics.

+ Commiesn.

Dccusnatn.

is

the Syrian Astarte, better

Tammuz was

Venus of classical mythology.

the beloved of Astarte, answering to Bacchus and Adonis

Sogdian king and

others \^ere tied

and

calling

thing.

Alexander the Great

2000 Tyrians, and both the

This was inflicted on hardened criminals, and on re.solute

not only to the

the crosses, nor crosses for the

And Augustus crucified 000 Sicilians. Under such circumstances, men could not bo particular about the form of the

'

is

for

people, for their brave defence of their several countries.

life.
(

the cross

room

Smith's Diet, of the Bible.

bodies."

17

t Immis.sa.

in hunting,

was

According
slain

to the mythologists,

by a wild

boar's tusk

Tammuz,

and the Syrian

in the worship of Astartt', celebrated the anniver-

Crosses must have been commonly of the simplest form,

" because they were used in such marvellous numbers. Of

women,

Jews alone, Alexander Jannrcus crucified 800, Varus, 2000,

Hadrian, 500 a day and the gentle Titus so many that

of the anniversary was spent in a bacchanalian wake, carrying in procession, with lamps and burning torches, a cres-

sary of his death with lamenting for

Tammuz.

The night

11


TUE

18

cent uplifU'd in

Tammuz, "

of

OF CUiaSX NO IMAGE.

CltOSS

lionoiii- ol' tlic t;(j(lJesa,

ncconipaiiicd with the

THE SIGN OF TAMMUZ.

and a T in memory
most licentious and

mouth of His prophet Ezekiel, the Lord sets this

abomination before our eyes after the following manner

He
in

takes in vision and

Babylon

to

At

the city.

And He

Jealousy.

they do
Israel

among

committeth hero?

tluit

thou shalt see greater abominations than

brought

me

behold a hole in the wall.

man, dig now

in the wall

wall, behold a door.

And

of

is

And
and,

when

And

he

tliey

Go

in,

monuments of Egypt, on

coins

Whether she were the chaste Diana

among

celestials,

is

much

disputed

cir

wanton Venus

among

mortals

l)ut

evidently her worship was connected with the most impious

and beI went

and

So

do here.

xxiii. I'i).

bishop's staff or crozier, wearing the crescent on her head.

I looked,

had digged in the

he said unto me.

hold the wicked abominations that

Kings

and medals of Syria, and on the ruins dug out of

Nineveh, holding in licr hand a long sceptre, of the form
of the Roman augur's wand, whii^h is the same with the

he said unto me, Son of

when

(2

or Bel

represented as found on the

tlio

the house of

these.

to the door of the court; and,

woepin;;;-

was the acknowledged god of the

Bible nations, Ashtoreth, i.e., Astartc, was tlie goddess.
Her character was establislied from Egypt to India, and she

But turn thee again, and

mount of corruption "

Wherever Baal

image of
thou what

the

" .Son of man, seest

said,

men

the honourable

altar stood

even the groat abominations

Jerusalem, and shows him some of the hate-

the gate of the

abomination of the
high place before Jerusalem, " on the right hand of the

transports Kzekicl from his captivity

ful things secretly pnictised

house

in the gate of the Lord's

Tammuz " Ashtoreth the

Sidonians," for whom Solomon built a

the

women

with Ashtoreth for her lost

Edinhurtjh Jievicm, Jan. 1870.

unmentionable crimes."

By

pleasure,

ID

and, behold, every form of creeping things,

in and saw
and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of
And there
Israel, portrayed upon the widl round about.
stood l)cf<)re them seventy men of tlic ancients of the house
of Israel, and in the midst of Uiem stood Jaazaniah the son
and a
of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand

A single

trated History of the British

on

most virtuous, roanners

sentence from " The Illus-

licentious, as well as with the

of heathen antiquity.

this subject

" The

the form of the cross in

charm

the cross as a

Empire

in

India" tlirows light

Buddhists of Toi-tary reverence

many

ways, and use the sign of

to disjiel invisible dangers, proving

the Babylonian origin of hoirt system.

Tlie

mystic

'V

me. Son

the initial

of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of

marked on

thick cloud of incense went up.

Israel

do in the dark, every

imagery

for they sny.

hath forsaken the earth.

Then

man

said he unto

in the

chambers of

The Lord seeth us not

He

said also unto

his

the Lord

me. Turn thee

of

Tammuz, was

admitted to the mysteries.

The 'T' {tau) was half the

taiarum, the idolatrous standard of early pagan nations

yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they

the other half being the U crescent.

Then he brought mo to the door of the gate of the

Lord's house wliich was toward the north ; and, behold,

of the Babylonian Bacchus,

do.

t/iera sat

tvomen weeping for

Tammuz "

(Ezek.

viii.

Such was the symbolism of Jerusalem's idolatry

0-14).

for sinful

It was
when they wore

variouslj' written.

the forehead of the worshippers

Heaven.

tlie

The

'T'

was the emblem

H of Astarte, the Queen of

In every nation possessing a creed or philosophy,

the same sign has been used, having the same derivation.

At Nineveh

it

was found among the sacred ruins (Layard).

TUE CROSS OF CHRIST NO IMACK.

20

A OEAND MISTAKE.

In Egypt it was similarly used, as is well known (Bryant).

The Spanish priests were astonished to find the cross worshipped in Mexico (Prescott). These were all streams from
Illus. Ilia. Ind. vol. i. ch.
the same fountain, Babylon."
ii.

their

thy gods,

Israel, which brought thee up out of the land

of Egj^it ;" and though the chief Pontiff and nil Christen-

p. 50.

dom make an ornament

in reverence

two on

J).

150.

image was consecrated

They are not neccKsary

to religions uses

among

here.

The

the nations

of Europe and Asia long before the Christian era, and also

America before discovered by Columbus.

lieutenants passed over from the island of

spire,

and

and on the communion-table in the house of God,

" Behold the cross of thy Lord and Saviour be!

from the bondage of corruption

idols

the images

alike are
cross, both

dumb

of largo stone crosses, evidently objects of worship, which

God and

With

i.

"

and an abomination, supplanting, with a

the

wisdom of God"

(1 Cor.

i.

24).

a curious fact,

A GRAND MISTAKE.

in regions of the

Old, where the light of Christianity had

Hiit. Mex.

show, the presence of the living God, and closing the

" Christ, the power of
heart against Jesus Christ crucified

that the cross was consecrated as the object of religious

New World, and

which redeemed thee

the image of the calf and the image of the

are a pretence

worship, both in the

Israel,

" One of Cortez

and coasted the peninsula of Yucatan as far as

Everywhere he was struck with the evidences
civilisation.
He was astonished at the sight
of a higher
is

hold, these be thy Saviour,

Cosumel

to the

never come."

Many Romans and some

an image of the

225, 2G8.

these facts before us, showing the

many and

cross, they

others think that by exalting

honour the Lord Jesus Christ,

who exclaims " God forbid

in the spirit of the Apostle,

forms which the most learned and accurate are wont to call
by one common name, " the cross," which name qontradicts

that I should glory, save in the stauros of

oiu-

the form of the

wood on which Christ suffered according to

and further, showing the corrupt use of this
symbol in orgies of the ancient heathen, we are better prepared to take up the thread of the story from its beginning
in the counterfeit Barnabas, and to follow it down through
the labyrinth of error, until the initial ofTammuzhas come

the world" (Gal.

the Scriptures

stdurOs

monogram

of Christ on the standard of

to be exalted as the

These are no dreams, but

sition to the

divers

to supplant the

Rome, and

banner of Christendom.

realities, set forth

Church of our

not in oppo-

Christ, by

is

sufferer.

whom

the world
vi.

14).

is

crucified

They

little

death to this world with shame

They

little

consider whether

Lord Jesus

unto me,'and I unto

consider that the

and reproach on

it is

the

indeed honour-

ing an upright man, our Friend, to set up in His name an

image invented

to

conlmemorato

Him

through the igno-

minious weapon with which His relentless enemies put

Him
His

to death.

friends.

Surh honour more befits His enemies tlian

Yet the very murderers themselves would bo

understood to glory in their deed, should they make such

crucified Lord, but in fidelity to

image

For though Aaron and

polity

the glorified Lord of the Church.

lift it

on the church

their person,

say,

Campcachy.

It

of the image of the cross, and

and worship, on

continent,

he met with in various places.

ornaments the golden calf, and

it, " Behold, these be

danced, feasted, and shouted before

Layard's Nineveh gives forms of the cross found, four on

p. 115,

in

made of

Israel

nil

21

their personal badge,

and

the

.test

the recognised banner of their

of th^ir brotherhood, and a charm of

THE cnoss of christ no imack.

22
person.

their

"Worship

It

time to shout nloud with

is

the imnge of His murder

witli

Him

were nailed, and the feCt to the trunk.

surprising diKCovcrios to which an examina-

many

tion of this subject leads, is this, th.at

csscnti.ally different

from the other, and

and symbols of the cross of

Christ.

the stauros, slako, or

list

of some of

2.

Very rare and

pule.

No.

"^B^

3.

Greek

initial

^^

letters

the

This form alone

5.

device of the

is

first

CHR

found on the coins, medals,

liLs

succcssorH.

With

in the latter days of the empire.

4- equal armed, right angled Greek

cross, in

various modifications, such as

% * +
common
No.

0.

^ ^

in the Eastern or

Common Romish

"T"

Tammuz

forltcd form.

Greek Church.
Bare.

IJ

9.

Catholic cross.

or Syrian form.

Jngum, the Latin yoke,

10.

The idea of No.

9p

or

comnxm

gallows.

Russian Church in Paris.

Here are nineteen different forms recognised by great

communions and learned authors under one common name
English

them

the

cross

is

without any attempt to

distinpii:i1i

from the stauros, or from the sorrows endured on

these,

the

it.

books of heraldry supply two scon;

more images of fancy

in

which are fashionable modifications of

Np^ monogram

No.

CH

of Christ, corresponding to

and arms of Constantino and

4-

Np:< the monogram.

two Greek

4.

of Christ, answering to

Primitive.

in English.

No.

No.

Besides

jT

English.

8'.

No.

in

ancient.

No.

No.

See Minutius Felix.

contrary to

all

these throws light on the subject:

1.

7.

forms, each

the staurox, have long prevailoil in Christendom, as signs

No.

No.

IMAGE OF TtlE STAURQS.

THF,

'

tlic

23

to he accepted of the Lord.

VARIOUS FASHIONS OF

Among

VArJOUS FASHIONS OF THE IMAGE OF THE STAUROS.

forked trunk of a tree, to <hc arms of which the bands

Imbert

wood!"
Honour Christ, not
And, though rejected of men,

Christ, not the

we mny hope

'

crosses.

\!

BAHNABAS.
rain, to the

Hist.

CHAPTER

tiire,

snve that implied in

the

wood

in

man

vetler

Huly

It

was not recognised

other form, either by saint or heretic,

Epistle of Barnabas, nnd the

Who

called.

nnd

has any Scripture authority to descrihe

any other form.

these were nobody

see they were not the

men

till

we

see

it

in

any

in the

Gospel of Nicodenuis, so

knows

but we shall soon

they pretended to be.

Barna-

bas apjioars to be the inventor of the received form df

Christ's utaurox,

and

the sign of the cross

to

also of the glory

;

and he

put their trust in the

kingdom was founded.

is

the

and mighty power of

first also to

teach

men

on which he says Christ's

nnd other strange doctrines

cross,

Tliese

of Barnabas are reflected in theororks of Justin, Tertullian,

Cyprian, and others, veiled in the companionship of holy
truth.

After the fabled discovery of the wood of the cross

became current, and

hands of

its

pretended multiplication in the

Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, a.d. 350-360,

was pro-

claimed abroad, the image served to lead on other signs

nnd symbols, the legion of pagan rites and observances, in
heart of Christendom, reconciling the heathen to the

as Prescott says of the

his

homage from the

cross as the

him
emblem of

salvation."

companion and felhn-tra-

the Mijsterrj

o/2\8,I HT.
flu,'

number of Abraham's

trained servants with which he rescued Lot, ns recorded

Gen. xiv., Barnabas unfolds the power of T, as follows

" For the Scripture says that Abraham circumcised three
:

hundred and eighteen men of his house (a mistake). But

what, therefore, was the mystery made known to him?
Mark first the eightee^, and then the three hundred i for
(iota, eta), and these
the numeral letters of 10 and 8 arc I
denote Jesus. And because the cross was that by which we

were to find grace, therefore he adds

tlirce

hundred, the

T, the fgnrc. of His cross. He who has

put the engrafted gift of His doctrine within us, knows that
note of which

is

never taught any one a more certain truth

Barn.

that ye are worthy of it,"

viii.

but

trust

10-14.

Unfortunately for " the figures," the three letters, IHT,

are Greek numerals, while the Scripture of Abraham's three

hundred and eighteen trained servants is written, not

Greek rnmerals, but in Hebrew words at full length

in

(Gen.
(100)

xiv. 14.)
(10)

(3)

(S)

new

Mexican converted by

his Spanish conquerors, " It only required

calls hitnself the

sign of the cross, revealed in the

manners and customs.

So the hordes of barbarians that overthrew the Roman

power turned their idols and festivals from n profane to a
saintly use

emblem of

292.

of Paid the Apostle, on

one Satanic phalanx from expiring heathenism into the

religion without forsaking tlieir old

cross as the

'2.>

Discoursing upon the mystery of Jesus" name, and of

Scriji-

scvernl words stuuros

tlie

i.

Barnabas, nho

(lesoription of onr Tjord'H cross ih pjiven in

zulon; and no

same

ofMex.

ir.

nAHNABAB.

No

Shmr>Deh

rMllr

10

ri-(ih''ir'flh.

nntl

m'Otli.

hundrpi)

().

-/

O. Furry.

Therefore, " he that put the engrafted word" of

tery in the

mouth of Barnabas, betrays

this

mys-

his forked tongue.

a semblance of truth, however, in that T, or three

to transfer

There

the god of

hundred, bears a proportion to I H, or eighteen, not wholly

is


THE CR033 OF

20

CIiniST

NO IMAGE.

unlike that attributed in Christendom to the saving power

of

tlie

nabas to this day. The gravity with which he drops in lies

between familiar truths again appears for the glory of the
" Why were tlirec young
wood of the cross, as follows

sign and image of the cross, compared with that

attributed

|to

onr Lord Jesus Christ in person.

wayof tlie

He

Consider )iow
together

" For the Lord knowetli tlie

righteous, and the way of llie ungodly shall perisli.

Barnabns, chap.

for thus

trust in the cross,

says,

x. 9,

saith, Blessed are they

and descend

it

And

mind now

death

to the

is

yet further the Lord says by

yea, the

Holy

end that CJod might put them

Spirit put

it

into the heart of

and of

Him

that except they trust in

Moses

they cannot be saved."

xi. 1.

name

of the Holy One, in order to magnify the power

and the glory of the sign and

passed

down

nar>i. vii. C.

Biirnabas founds the

to believe itself, with all it*

kingdom of God yet to govern this world

But the Scripture teaches, " Tliere shall in

for

Christ.

nowise enter into

it

anything that

ever worketh abomination, or

defileth, neither

maketh a

Therefore Barnabas deserves our contempt until

his in^uence

Then
,

upon

all

whatso-

lie" (Rev. xxi. 27).

we

trace

the succeeding ages of clnirch history.

his teachings astonish us at their effrontery

and

at

their success, corrupting the unsearchable riches of Christ

with an imago of the cross, and founding on the

wood the kingdom of Christ, " who shiiU judge the quick
and the dead at His appearing, and His kingdom," which is
founded on the covenant-promise of the eternal God when
" Unto the Son he saith. Thy throne,
God, is for ever and
ever a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity.
crucified

These pretended quotations from the prophets, which are

not found in the prophets these bold assumptions to speak
in the

cured by hyssop."

Thus he prepares the Church

to suffer, that so they

Barn.

cross.

corruptions, the

Him that was

might know that, if they did not believe in Him, they should be overcome for ever.
Moses,
therefore, piled up armour upon annour, in the midst of
the rising ground, and standing up high above all of them,
stretched forth his arms, and so Israel conquered again.
But no sooner did he let down his hands, but they were
again slain. And why so ? To the end they might know

stick ?

that for their sins they were delivered unto

to represent both the sign of the cross,

upon n

kingdom of Christ on the wood. He inukcs it, in eommmi

with much modern opinion, begin on the cross and teaches
that in Christ's kingdom there shall bo evil and filthy days.

'

in

the wool put

Moses, when Israel was fighting wilh and being conquered

by n strange people,

To

But why was the hyssop and the wool put together ? To signify that in the kingdom of Christ there shall be evil and
filthy days, in which, however, we shall be saved because ho
that has any disease in the flesh by some filthy humours,

in the cross,

Barnabns continues, "

And why was

Because the kingdom of Jesus was founded upon the

pronounce them blessed who put their trust

and descend into the water. But thik is written,

" Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and
are not, and hast found them liars" (Rev. ii. 2).

appointed to sprinkle the nahea of the red heifer

before God.

The Scrip-

and the water together

denote Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they were great

who put their

into the water."

ture does nowhere join the cross

neither does

men

has joined both the cross and the water

He

27

BARNABA8.

figure of the cross,

have

the current of church history without particular

challenge, but with general respect for the

name

of Bar-

Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee above

thy fellows" (Heb.

i.

8).

Thus Barnabas was the

first to

indicate to the Cliurchcs

28

TIIK

kingdom of

tlint tlie

and

evil

C'lirist sliall

be in

tliiii

is

raigned Satan, as the author of

present world of

filthy days, contrary to the Scriptures,

hope of tkrael," which

and

to

" the

and

to provide

mark and banner.

his

embrace this

the

to prepare the

Now,

iiiultitudcs

To

for

But

and the

who

nations,

kingdom,

ho])0 of its universal extension over nil

by the

imago of the cross.

John the Baptist and of Christ,

Live

" the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers "
has been preached niid clicrislic<l in the form of the king-

dom

of

God

at hand,

and yet

to

room of Adam
be subject to thy dominion
Then Jesus
mine.
who
are
sons,
his
righteous
and of
stretched forth His hands and said, " Come to me, all yo
saints, who were created in my image, who were condemned

refuse to glory in the

since the days of

tree of forbidden fruit,

now by

t/ie

and by the devil and death.

rvood of my cross" (chnp.xviii. 14, and xix.

" Then the Lord, stretching forth His hand, made

"
the sign of the cross upoti Adam and upon all His saints
heavenly
glory,
the
upward
to
(chap. xix. 5), and led them
with David and Habnkkuk chanting psalms. On the way,
1, 2).

come with Jesus and the

resurrection, together with the restitution of all things.

Yet some preach the kingdom come already in the name

of Christ, and soon to subdue all the world to its sway.
The former preaching is of Christ, the latter is of Antichrist.
The one belongs to the children of this world;

they met Enoch and Elijah

and while stopping

with them, behold, there came another

figure, carrying

when

t/ia

man

sign of the cross on his shoulders.

the other to " the children of God, being the children of the

art thou

dost thou carry a cross on thy shoulders?

King

of glory everlasting.
NICODEMTJS.

ruler

the Pharisee and

who came to Jesus by night. According to this

when the King of glory came into Hades, " He

Adam
xvii.

13).

jiower,

Then Beelzebub, " with great indignation,

is

me

To which he

say right, for I was a thief,

Ye

of wickedness upon earth

all sorts

And why

like a thief s.

with Jesus.

He

gave

me

and

this sign

who com,the

Jews

of the cross,

When

I did this,

he

Counterfeit and worthless in itself as this blasphemy

is,

show him the

sign of the cross.

presently opened the gates."

it shows the original sources whence comes the glor}- of the
sign of the cross among Christians, to be followed, in due

and took our earthly father

and his race away with Him to His glory " (chap,
his

countenance

answering, said,

thee,
"

trampled on death, seized Beelzebub the prince of Hades,

him of

for thy

the angel,

witness,

deprived

"And

And if
saying. Carry this, and go to the gate of paradise.
who is the guard of paradise, will not admit

The second supporter of the glory and power of the sign

of the cross calls himself Nicodemus

mitted

crucified

to Converse

in a miserable

the saints saw him, they said unto him, AVho

all

resurrection" with Jesus, the First-born from the dead, and

the

Thou

for ever, in the

who are indifferent towards its image-banner. Many earnest

and holy men cherish the idea of Chrisfn kingdom come in
this world,

'

thy advan-

all

of I'rotcstantR

corrujition of the doctrine of Christ's

and now

this burst of grief Satan deigns no reply but to comfort

Beelzebub, the Lord himself (according to this Nicodemus)
Satan shall
said, by way of compensatimi, unto Beclzobiib

way of Anti-

pagan form of the cross

tages which thou didst acquire by the forbidden tree, and

"
the loss of paradise, thou hast lost by the Kood of the cross.'

the resurrection from the dead

Barnabas was the foremost

saying,

all this evil,

wouldst crucify the King of glory

(Acts xxviii. 20).

christ,

20

NICODEMUS.

CnORS OF CHRIST NO lAtAOR

time, by the reverence and worship of the image.

ar-

'I.

In the early

THE CEOSS OF

30

many

ages,

'th

the fables of their

grew, until

image of the

lialf-cdnvortctl licnthen readily received these

wonders in the names of the

all

own

Christendom has howed

sign and image of the cross, prompl-ly as the aiigol-guard

did at the gate of JJeclzcbub's dominions.

and love of the image

among

in

and debases the advent of glory, accord-

Again, " AVhen the people made war upon Amalek, and
the sou of Nun, who was surnamed Joshua, led the battle,
Moses himself prayed to God with his hands stretched out on

Thus the wonder

the power of the

to

cross,

ing to the ideas of Barnabas.

and mingled them

ajiostles,

superstition.

31

JUSTVN MARTYU.

NO IMACE.

CIIKTRT

and Aaron and Ilurheld them up all dny. Fur,

all from this sign, which rei)rescntcd the
cross, the people (as it is written in the Books of Moses) were
overcome but if he continued in that posture, Amalek was

cither side

And the reverence

if

America grows every hour, even

the zealous in our Evangelical connections.

he gave way at

defeated.

JUSTYN MAnTTIt.

The

as the firstling of a bullock,

and

Barnabas and Nicodeniun. And the same silence is notice" Shepherd of Hcrmas" a work of the imagina-

horns of a unicorn.

tion, belonging to the fore part of the second century.

together from the ends of the earth.

is

able in the

This

of Scripture doctrine and of saintly imagination, in

which one looks in vain

sign, or

pdwer of the wooden

Jiistyu

apostles

f(jr ;iiiy

Martyr

who

is

cross.

known

tion, one thing is clear

writer after the

speaks of the form of the cross, which he evi-

He

says,

"The

I'asclial

lamb, roasted whole, was a

symbol of the passion of the cross

for the

lamb, in roast-

ing, bears a resemblance to the figure of the cross

spit pierces

it

horizontally from the lower extremities to the

coming

in

His kingdom.

and supersti1

difficult for

Justin,

p. 239.

Not the " lamb,"

resemblance.
The scape-

Such are Barnabas and Justin, who put their own words
in the mouth of the toly prophets, and whose symbolism
takes the literal facta of Scripture, and makes of them any-

goat sent into the wilderness, according to Justin, typifies

the Lord's

fiction,

the glory of the image of the cross

our tealvation, " by water, and faith, and nood."

p. 120.

Justin, but the spits, bear this

say,

extravagance of the ideas interests some minds, like Blunchausen stories, professing even the deluge to be typical of

one

head, and another across the back on which to hang the

{oTelcgH." Justin, Lib. Path.

But no one can

a naturalist to understand Justin's

unicorn, no mortal can mistake his glorifying the form of
the cross in the spit of the Taschal lamb, and in the horns
The very
of the unicorn, and in the posture of Moses.

However

dently takes, with other crudities, from the hand of Barnabas.

AVith them he shall push the nations

Lib. Fath. p. 187.Through this cloud of symbolism,

reference to the wood, image,

the earliest

his horns are as the

or prove, that the horns of a unicorn belong to any other

thing or figure than the type which represents the cross."

work occupies eighty pages of the apocryphal Testament

full

manname of

in this

another way, the strength of the mystery of the (sign of

the) cross, saying, by Moses, blessing Joseph His beauty

Words of the protended

swi'lliiig

was not that Moses pra;/ed

ner that the people were

Jesus (Joshua) being in the forefront of the battle, he
And (Jnd shows, in
{isionc^) formed tlic sign of tlic cross.

and of their immediate

successors, Clement of Rome, Ignatius, and Polycarp, witli
regard to tlie wood, and the form, mid the sign of thocrosa,
llio

it

victorious, but that the

total silence of the apostles,

contrasts well witli

For

Thus he magnifies the

THE CEOSS OF

32
thing, the

the figure

CIIKIST

TERTUIXIAN.

NO IMAGK.

more absurd, the more wonderful, to

and the power of the sign of the cross.

moved from

simplicity, they are further still

from truth, and from common sense.

demus, they form a

trio,

set

forth

Far re-

from

faith,

Together with Nico-

among whom iirst sprang the form

wood of tho

of the image, and Ihe power of the sign of the

cross,

which

lifted up in our day for a banner of universal

is

Ncitlier of them, however, hints nt

power and glory.

worship of the cross,

among
of

its

tlin

a worshij), in due time, sure to follow

the believers of their testimony to the great power

image

us, I

must

tell

you that we neither adore

You who worship wooden

them.

signs, flags,

Your

Half a century

" Apology

after

Justin,

Minutius

for Christians," sits in the chair,

him

Octavius and Cecilius, plead before

cause of Christ

Cecilius, of the gods

Felix,

and

in his

his friends,

Octavius, the

of Borne.

Cecilius

many contemptuous charges, and

exclaims: " See the crosses you are no longer to adore, but

assaults Christians with

to be

told

hanged on

and feared

to

Behold ihajires there which you fore-

come

so good at a resurrection,

Where now

wlio

is

is

that

God

of yours,

able to revive tho dead,

else are
gilt

your en-

and beautified?

victorious trophies, not only represent a simple cross,

iu( a cross n-itk

a man on

a ship, either when she

oars,

For what

deities.

and standards, but crosses,

lijce

the

is

The sign of a

it.

cross apjicars in

under sail, or rowed witli expanded

palm of your

Not a higum (the Latin

And when a

liand.

gallows) but exhibits the sign of a cross.

he makes the same

MARCUS MINUTIUS FELIX.

crosses, nor desire

gods, are the most likely

people to adore wooden crosses, as being parts of the same

substance with your

pure worshipper adores the true

fend sign.

3:i

figure.

God

with hands extended,

Thus you

sec that the sign of

the cross has either some foundation in nature, or in your

own religion, and therefore is not to be objected against

by you."
Christians were not charged with desiring, but worshipping crosses, and for the folly of that worship deseri-ing to
Instead of instinctively denying the
be hanged on them.

impeachment, Octavius half assents to

defends it against the heathen by an appeal

foul

From

it,

while he

to their

own

one might fear that so early as the

time of Minutius, reputable Christians were guilty of worHowever, the clause charging the
shipping the cross.
customs.

this

but cannot save the living?" liceve's Edition, sec. 12.

The " crosses" are those prepared for the witnesses and

pagans, not only with worshipping " a simple cross, but a

martyrs for Christ; and the "

cross with a

imder Severus

fires" are those of persecution

(a.d. 202), with a sneer at the Lord's

ing to judgment, with the resurrection of His saints.

comThe

sharp point of the charge for us, bears on Christians worshipping the posts set up for impaling them alive, which

the Roman gallows.

Octavius, in section 20, answers Cecilius tlius " Whereas you

Minutius elsewhere likens to thejugum

crucifix,

man

and

on

this

it," is

the earliest record of the idea of

among pagans

On

the testimony of

of all competent witnesses ac-

Perrett, of De Rossi, and

quainted with the catacombs and with the monuments of
Rome, it was two or three centuries after Minutius flom-ished

before a cross

among

rcith

man

on

it

was known and received

Christians, as our sequel will demonstrate.

tax our religion with the worsliipof a criminal and his cross,

you are strangely out of the way of truth

As

for the adoration of crosses,

to

imagine

tertulliaN.
either.

which you object against

Tertullian, of the

same age with M. Minutius

Felix,

THE CROSS OF CHRIST NO IMAGE.

34
in his

" Apology

ChriHtians,"

for

TERTULUAK.

repels the gross

first

charges of the pagans agaiust Christians fur their secret and

unnatural practices

such

as their habits of cannibalism,

and of worHhip|)ing the head of an

ass

uud then pro-

ceeds, snying, " I come, therefore, to those

Do

worfthip a cross also.

tlioj

who think we

not do thn same which they

charge on us, when they consecrate their wooden images

No matter about the form, while the substance is the same.

What difference is there between the wood of the cross, and
of an Athenian Pallas, or of a Ceres of Pharos, which in

workman

the rough are all pieces of wood, whereof the

3.-)

stead of indignantly, or even calmly, denying the charge,

he says that "

all the difference between us (Cliristians and

pagans) consists, it would seem, in " the groat pomposity
with which your image or Imnner is adorned bri/oiid oirs.
I
applaud you for this." The langufige admits that the sign
of the wood of the cross, or a likeness of the cross in wood,

was worshipped in the beginning of the third century, both

by pagans and Christians, each in their own way and
pleads that Christians were no worse for worshipping wood
in honour of Christ, than the heathen for worshipping wood
in honour of Jupiter and Ceres
and were not so good as
the heathen at adorning their wooden crosses
Tlie heathen
might reply that it was more sensible to worship wood in
the divine form of man, than in the odious form of a gibbet
;

forms an image
feet,

All wooden images, set by you on their

represent a part of

And

cross.

tlie

do we not better

than you, when wo worship the whole Godhead in Christ

without a cross

Moreover, those taken by you for gods,

have in the beginning been

moulds made

in

some

Besidesj you raise up

cast,

said before, in

sort after the similitude of a cross.

trojiliies

trophies are only trees

we

as

made

of victory, and inside, these

into crosses.

Roman

soldiers

in their religion adore the ensigns of the emperor.

swear by their standards, and make deities of them

They
which

ensigns and standards, however richly set, and however

covered over with cloth of gold, are

all

for the

most part

represented to the eyes under the form and figure of a cross.

So that

all

the dificrence between us consists,

in the great pomposity with

is

adorned beyond ours.

Apol.

p.

would seem,

which your imago or banner

applaud you for

do not consecrate crosses without

them." Ter.

it

all

68, L. Path.

this, that

you

manner of adorning
This admits that

all

the difference between the Christians' and pagans' crosses

of capital punishment, a cross, stauros, the very name of

which, says Cicero, was abhorrent to Roman eyes and ears

and hearts. And were Tertullian now living, he could not

applaud the heathen for their greater pomposity of adorning
their wooden images, while multitudes of Christians reverand worship their crosses in gold and silver,
and diamonds, and other precious stones, with heart-

ence, love,
pearls
felt

emotions.

According to Tertullian, wood is wood, whether

shape of a Ceres, or Apollo, or a stauros. The form

in. the
is

im-

material, whether the idol be a trophy of victory, or a

Roman

banner, or a heathen god, or a Latin cross.

In

wood still, and why may not the

Christian worship an image of wood as well as the heathen?

each case the substance

is

Thus, in after centuries. Christians learned universally to

worship the image of the wood of the cross but not in the
;

consists in pomposity, to the greater credit of the heathen.

Tertullian, like Minutius, affects to

the cross, while, by justifying

own

principles

and

practices,

it

deny the worship of

to the heathen

he virtually admits

on their
it.

In-

During many persecutions

third century.

in that century,

multitudes were brought to the cross, to the stake, to the

wild beasts, and

and they

laid

t-o

down

the tormentors, for the faith of Christ,

their lives in

martyrdom, of whom every

TUB CKOSS OF CHRIST NO IMAOE.

36

individual might have snvcd liiinself from

ovnilAN.
death,

tlie terrible

simply by bowing bis head, or oirering incense to a wooden

Jupiter, or other heathen deity, under this idea, that

only a form of the cross

Home

"

for the

gods are

under the similitude of a cross."

On

it

at length all Christendom

till

in the delusion.

was

made

all

ncss of unrighteousness,"

was enveloped

:?r

CYPRIAN.

in

heathen

general persecutions, sulforcd death in the most cruel forms,

St Cyprian, bishop of Carthage and a martyr, honoured

in life, and in death lamented, was born of a senatorial
family in Carthage about a.d. 200, and was beheaded a.d.

sooner than save their lives by worHlii]ijiing the wooden

258, ten years after his conversion to Christ.

sort

principle, they were

this

hard to satisfy, who, through

five

crosses of the heathen, richly covered over with cloth of

gold,

and " adorned with pomposity beyond ours."

])ossibly deceived

by

Many,

this false gloss of TertuUian, did

make

away from the faith, by

reverencing the heathen gods, whose restoration to church
membership after the persecution had ceased was a question that agitated nil the churches, and some it divided, as
in the parties of Novatian and Cornelius in Rome, and
peace with the persecutors, and

foil

similar ones in Carthage.

He was an
admirer of the works of his countryman Tertullian, and
followed him, as Tertullian did Justin and Barnabas, in the
matter of Joshua's victory over Amalek, with this difference

they impute the victory to the power in t\\ofonn

sign of the cross, but Cyprian imputes

and sign of

"

cross is salvation to all who are marked in their foreheads."

The pdssion and suffering was on the wood but the sign
and the mark were the initial of Christ, ns Cyprian ex-

For the custom of marking the baptized on the

incense and altars, for Christian worship, was a constant

plained

forehead with "the

Tertullian says, in

another place, " i'ou charge us that we

tiiis

altiiis

set

up neither

of any god."

Ho

charge by an appeal lo the Ciiristian

worship of the wood of the cross.

But

to the sign

he attri-

butes the highest importance, saying, " that in

all

our

and death

which

worship Minutius and Tertullian agree to justify before

the heathen.
Thus tlio wonder grew " with all deceivable-

it

written

is

of agony
of " Christ and of God,"
:

" Haxnng His own and

" Muniaturfrons,ut signum Dei incolume serve-

3).

written in their foreheads" (Rev.

of the arboris
Again, Cyprian says, " They only
;

accursed tree.

who

are born again,

signo

death, but of eternal

life

the

and signed with the sign of

Christi signatifiierint,"

of the owner's name,

signum

.\iv. 1,

the sign of God not

Signum Bet

tur."

ment

Barnabas, Nicodemus, and Justin magnify the power of

As

initial

primitive: not

staiiro.t

and xxii.

Christ

the sign, but give no hint of worshipping the cross

but with the

is

Name

escape

Lib. Fath., Tcr. Apol. p. ICO.

His Father's

candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever etnploy-

the cross."

says Cyprian.

infelicis

we mark our forehead with the sign of

it.

.^ign of Christ"
with the murderous stauros. not with the

movements, oyr travels, our going out and coming in, putting on our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lightipg our
occupies us,

all

is

reproach in the mouth of the heathen.

does not repel

and

suffering

In the primitive Church, the want of images and temples,

buildings, temples, liltciiesseK, nor

to the

" In the passion and the sign of the

virtue and power.
In the sign of the

Christ.

cross," he says,

it

marh of

and

Christ,

is

the initial

glory.
Signum Dei, Christi
which His servants put upon

the Iambs received into Christ's flock.

xi. c. 9, sec. 5, note.

which

a cross truly, not of shame and

This

is

Bingham's Ant.

holy and beautiful

b.

this is

38

and honourable

fitting
is

CUOSS OK

TlIK

CllIilST

but tbe

of

fiign

tlie

murderous crosn

quite another thing, having nothing to

from

its

birth in

Tammuz and

GREGORY THAUMATTTRGUS, OR THE WONDER-WORKER.

NO IMAaH.

recommend

it

in Barnabas to this day.

That the mark of Christ's name, and not of tlie wood of His
cross,

"

was used in baptitim, St Augustine declares, saj'ing,

hnvo the innrli of Clirist on th('ir forehead who

How many

have not the doctrine of

CliiiKt in their licart

habcnt infronte siynnm Christi,

verbum Christi."

by

Elliott's

Only

fifty

Aug.

et

in corila

Tract 50, on John

Quam multi
non

recipiitnt

xi. 55.

Quoted

HorcB Apoc.

far.

liltenesses

canon 38,

ought not

object adored

to

to declare,

he allowed in

and worRliippcd

tlic

commanded

the

wooden

crosses

quibusdam in lads a se

collocatas, adorari."

crosses

later, celebrating the

authority, to be the first to introduce the worship of

by

his

own command. Gregory Nyssen, a

memory of his great namesake,

how he brought about that conversion of the heathen

which followed. Tosave hislifeintheDecian persecution, this
Bishop Gregory fled the country. After tlie persecution had

Basil,

New

Jerome, Nazienzen,

These eminent bishops relate that, by

changed a fish-pond into a

hand stuck down a rod, for

his prayer

meadow; and with

his

itself, he returned home, and instituted festal days

commemorating the martyrs, and commanded the worship
of the wooden crosses. And says Nyssen, " When he saw
how the simple and ilHterote multitude persisted in their
false esteem of images, in order that he might by all means

spent

perfect

what

is

most excellent

in

mitted them to

joy, in honour of the hohj marlgrs

Cesarea from being drowned in the wat:ers, whicli rod

tree

His mode of converting the

them,

to wit

that forsak-

ing vain superstitions, they should turn unto God, he per-

New

became a great

Ann., a.d.

Of all bishops, this wonder-worker is declared, on the highest

a bound to the rising flood of the river Lycus, thereby saving

at once

Bar.

311., sec. 23.

century

the word of his mouth, Gregory removed a mountain-rock

by

first of aH
which were set up by him

Thaumaturgus, the bishop of Great Armenia,

on the

siiould be represented

Nysson, Eusebius, and others, magnify him and the won-

we

tells

Cesarea, in Great Armenia.

beautiful

lest

to regard the lost

wooden

GREGORY THAUMATURGUS, OR THE WONDER-WORKER.

out of the road-way

cause assigned,

and severest of the persecutions, as made against the images, and not against the
Christians, who suffered martyrdom sooner than worsliip
them. And wo further oecept his testiramiy, " that Gregory

might seem

(ihurches, lest the

This Gregory was a pupil of Orignn, and bishop of

ders he wrought.

Accepting this testimony

reject the

Homan

Rock's Hier., 374.

walls."

we

to their absence,

Spain
" That pictures or

as to cause the council of Eliberis,

(a.d. 305), in their

the reign of Constantine, was due to their utter extirpation

in the Dioclesian persecution.

in certain places, to be adored : ante omncs cruces ligncajt,

years after Cyprian, the custom of introducing

symbols of man's invention into the sanctuaries of worship

prevailed BO

39

make merry,

and riot in
" And why not? " asks

solace themselves,
!

"

Cardinal Baronius on a like occasion.

"

Is it

not lawfid to

heathen was equally original, and was deemed equally suc-

transfer to pious uses things consecrated

The official historian of the Roman Catholic Church,

Cardinal Earonius, whose annals abound with labour of the
richest authority mixed with superstitious puerility, affirms

which things were impiously used by the pagans in superthat by a high contempt of the devil, in the
Btitiorffi worship
delights
to be worshipped, Christ may be honvery way he

that the absence of all images from

oured of all?"

cessful.

all

the churches before

by a sacred

rite,

Ann.

vol.

i.

p. 198.

This laurel

is

plucked

THE CUOSS

40

from Satau's brow,

01'

CIIKIST

NO

the

IMA(!E.

plants for cultivation

entwine Emmiinuors crown, whicli

to

religion

the Cardinal graces with words of Theodoret, triumphing

over the fallen gods of the heathen, and saying

brought His own dead

" Our Lord

into the temples of your gods,

gods, vain indeed, and stript of their glory,

as

day,' where

may

among

be seen in

the walls

the sacred rites of our holy

all

Continental Europe at this

Roman

of

41

Catholic Churches are

furnished with numerous altars for the worship of favourite

which

He dismissed but

and above each

saints,

Instead of feasts of Pan, of

gave honour to His martyrs.

invention of hie wood of the cross.

altar

is

a picture or likeness of the

saint.

Jupiter, and of Bacchus, solemnities, with a feast, are per-

" THE invention OF THE WOoi) OF THE CROSS."

formed in honour of Peter, Paul, Thomas, Sergius, and

So what was done in heathen superother holy martjTs.
stition, the

same having been

This high festival in the

sanctified for the worship of

its

Bar. Ann.ycA.

i.

is

tant variations, but with a good degree of

This language allows the

p. 108.

The story

the mother of Constantine.

the true God, might be done in the service of the true religion."

Roman and Greek Churches owes

origin to the fabled discovery of the wood, by Helena,

told with impor-

harmony

in the

following particulars:

removal of the image of JupitiT, that once stood in the an-

Rome, equally

Helena, at the advanced ago of seventy-eight, made a

with the conversion of the Mexicans from worshipping the

pilgrimage to Jerusalem (a.d. 32G), seeking for the holy

symbol of the rain-god to the worship of the same image

places, of

cient capital, to a high place in St Peter's of

for the sign of salvation.

Milcom, and the

rest, lying vanities of the

been once consecrated by a sacred

to

rite,

which

all traces

were then

helped her to find tliem.

So Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and

lost.

A resident

Hero they dug

taroth then stood over the holy sepulchre.

heathen, having

might be dedicated

(a.d. 327),

and found the three

two thieves,

Paul, or Apollos, or Ceplias, or even to Christ, and

"worshipped with a high contempt of the devil, in the very

way he delights to be worshippiid," with honour to the saints,
and glory to Him, who says, " Thou shait have no other
gods but me." Thus' it came to pass, in the fifth and
sixth centuries, that pagan temples, by sprinkling with

in the

crosses of our

in a state of perfect preservation,

ground not quite three

Lord and the

though buried

To determine which

centuries.

of the three was the one sought, recourse was had to mira-

Two

cles.

of the three wrought no miracle

but the touch

of the third healed the sick, and restored the dead to

crosses of the two thieves were of no account.

and were made

adored the wood, sent one half to her

the relics of martyrs

and the more readily

and

to gain the

attendance of the people at the house of worship, eminent

bishops

suffered

the

old

idols

under the name of the patron

Apostles,

and

to

receive

the

and

man

to

remain,

saint, the Virgin, or the

honours

due to their images and likenesses.

8)Tnbolism, which

altars

supposed' to be

Such

is

the fruit of

invents for the honour of God, and

life.

This established the reputation of the true wood, while the

holy water, were converted into places of Christian worship,

receptacles for fragments of the crofes,

Jew

temple of Venus or Ash-

Constantine gave the other half

to the

lem, and died in the following year.

sions

but these are features

common

Helena

son the Emperor

Bishop of Jerusa-

Many

are the ver-

to every

known form

of the fable, never omitting the crosses of the two thieves.

By the Jewish law, the wood on whicli one was hanged

was burned
crossesi

to ashes, as

escaped the

fire^

a thing accursed.

If these three

they could not have reasonably

escaped corruption, buried three hundred years.

ptantine lived ten years after

Ensebius was then, and

it.

of Cesarea

for twelve years after,

and quick as he was

near to the scone, he takes not

Maximus,

covery.
for

but not finished

twenty years

him

nt the time

after,

Bishop of JeniRalem and

never mentions

Cyril succeeded

it.

and

in the episcopate, a.d. 350,

known

and

of the dis-

least notice

to recognise the existence of the

is

the

first

person

wood of our Lord's

till

Cyril

At

a.d. 337.

after his death,

was consecrated

!'

the

to succeed

him, by Acacias, the metropolitan of Palestine, a.d.

Bishop

to catch at marvels,

tlie

and adorned by command of Constantine,

death of Bishop Maximus,

behind neither mark nor mention to show he ever heard

left

of

built, furnished,

Con-

boasted discovery, but

tliis

43

ST CYRIL OF JERUSALEM.

THE CROSS OF CHRIST NO IMAGK.

42

3.50.

After a seven years' administration of the episcopate, Cyril

was summoned before a council of

his peers,

having robbed the church of precious

He was

ornaments, the gifts of Constantine.

guilty,

on a charge of

tilings, vessels,

tried,

and

proved

and deposed by his metropolitan, the same who con-

secrated him, A.D. 357.

At

Selcncin, remote from Judcn,

the jurisdiction of Acacias, Cyril procured a

Yet the high festival of the

and both Helena
and Cyril now have sainted names for the part attributed'
to them in finding and distributing it.
The inyention of
the form by Barnabas, and of the wood by Helena, absurd

and beyond

as they arc, have been

imperial throne, Cyril returned from banishment, a.d. 301.

stauros in that and after ages.

invention of the stauros

faith, to the hope,

is

widely kept

productive of evil to the

.il)uii(l.intl3'

and

to the destinies of

Christendom,

and was now banished from Judea by

stantius.

On

image
is

glorying in

books of the churches, not

in one,

but

many

denominations.

It is exhibited in the shop windows, in the private houses,

and on the robes and persons of an increasing number in
all the American cities and villages, under an impression

that

it is

a lawful banner for us, as

and that we have

lics, which is no
should believe the

as

much

right, but a
lie

it

was

for Constantine,

Roman Catho" strong delusion that they

right to

" (2 Thess.

it

ii.

as the

II).

ST CYRIL OF JUIIUSALEM, FACTOR FOR

THE DELIVERY OF

THE WOOD OF THE " STAUROS."

Cyril

was ordained presbyter and catechist

A.D. 34.5.

He

in

Jerusalem,

delivered hLs justly celebrated catechetical

lectures, a.d. 347-8, in the

church of the Holy Sepulchre,

Emperor Con-

After an absence of twelve years, he returned

and seven years

rising

the

Six years after, the Emperor Valens banished him from

since the latter half of the fourth century.

is

a second

the accession of Julian the Apostate to the

the emjiire.

The deceitful
upon the steeples, is resting upon the pulpits,
the windows, on the walls, and the sacred

By

council for his restoration to the episcopate.

council under Acacias, a.d. 300, Cyril was again dcposeil,

later,

he died at the age of seventy-one.

Cyril excused his sale of the consecrated vessels of the

church, on the plea of providing for the necessities of the

His apologists say that he was deposed by Arian
poor.
councils, to punish his orthodoxy.

Without counting on

his orthodoxy or honesty, our concern

now

is

with his dis-

wood of the cross, which he did with great

success, never by one word intimating how, or when, or by
whom the stauros was found, nor how any part of it came
Without a miracle, if Helena had
into his possession.
found the stauros, Cyril must have known the fact; and
tributing the

wholly to neglect giving her credit for it, was almost as bad
as to sell the consecrated vessels given by her son to the
church of the Holy Sepulchre.

THE GLORY OF THE WOOD OF THE "STAUROS."

OF CHItlST NO IMACE.

TIIK CEOSfi

see the cross, they are

THE

WOOD OF THE "

OF THE

OI.OllY

STAUliOS.

afraid of

I quote Cyril's own words on this subject, from the

Oxford " Librnry of the Fathers." Any one desiring to investigate the context can easily do it by the reference to the
page of Cyril's " Catechetical Lectures " for every quota-

tion.

I should

deny

it

(the cnioifixion), this Gol-

gotha confutes me, near which we are now assembled

wood

hence been distributed piecemeal to

all

the

which has from

of the cross [sfaurosi confutes mi',

the world."

Ci/r,

Cat. Led., Lib. Fatli., p. 144.

" Let us not be ashamed of the cross of Christ biit

though another hide it, do thou seal it on thy brow, that
;

may flee far away,

trembling.
But make thou this sign, when thou eatest
and drinkest, sittest or liest down
risest up, speakest,
the devil, beholding that princely sign,

walkest; in a word, on every occasion" (p. 40).

This
" princely sign " was the sign of God, the initial of Christ,

not the ignominious sign of the accursed

Christi sigmim,

X, the same handed down

tree.

to this

It

day

was

in the

customs of the Latin clergy, who cross themselves on

all

occasions, not with the sign of the murderous wood, but

with " the princely sign " of the King of glory.

" Be the stauros our seal," says Cyril, " made with boldness by our fingers on our brow, and in everything

the bread
in

we

eat

and goings out

when we awake
are

still.

Great

and the cups we drink

;

when we
is

its

grace

is

from God.

and the dread of devils

it,

for

without

toil

And

lie down and

and when we
it is

without

for the sick, since

It is the sign

He

over

in our comings

we

are in the way,

that preservative.

price, for the poor's sake

all

before our sleep, wlien

of the faithful,

has triumphed over them in

having made a show of them openly.

For when they

Crucified;

tlie

they are

that hath braised the head of the dragon

"

(p. 101).

In these words there

tlie

sign to the

a confusion of ideas, referring

is

wood sometimes,

at other times to Christ.

Tlie leading idea relates to the sign of Christ fingered on

tlie

" Though

Him

reminded uf

Roman

breast and forehead of

In Christ comes

down

all

clerics

grace from God.

on

nil occasions.

Christ triumplie<l

Christ "

made a show of
wood, but by humbly bearing

over the powers of darkness.

them openly," not by the

the wood, being patiently nailed to the wood, and lifted up,
enduring the cross, despising the shame, and by being
" obedient unto death, even the death of the sttmirofi.

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given

llim a name which is above every name; that nt the name
The sign
of Jesus every knee should bow" (Phil. ii. 8-10).
of Christ's
of Christ

name

most fitting to remind His disciples

may be more willingly reminded of Him

is

devils

that

by the sign of the wood, bruising His

Cyril eloquently enumerates,

heel.

among

the

many

witnesses

" His virgin mother," " Egypt," " the Baptist,"

and others, to which he adds " The holy wood of the cross
day, and, by
is His witness, which is seen among us to this
has from
thereof,
faith
in
means of tiiose who have taken

for Christ,

this place

now almost

filled

the whole world" (p. 108).

By Cyril's deceivableness of unrighteousness, many in all

subsequent ages have been deluded " that they should believe the lie."

" Every deed of Christ

but her boast of boasts
cross has led

is

into light

a boast of the Catholic Church

The glory of the
.
the cross.

is

those

who were

who were

blind through

held fast by sin, and

ignorance, has loosed

The
has ransomed the whole world of men " (p. 142).
of
holder of this self- propagating wood profanes the name
all


47

.KOtOKV0.THB.00O0KTn."STXUBOS."
"
THE

Ul.vi\'

devils, overthrows
in

Clirist

trumpeting

He had

price.

its

"

fame.

hns rnnsomtMl

It

tlie

The wood recoivcs the glory, and Cyril

whole world."

not courage to ask enough for

the

or

it,

lio

never would have Leon put to the shame and necessity of

and

selling the holy vessels of the church to feed the poor,

of being banished from his bishopric and from hjs country

for his benevolence.

Many

wood

like praises of the cross for the glory of the

are to be found in the " Catechetical Lectures."

with one more quotation

I close

with unbelievers concerning the cross of Christ,

make

first

with thy hnnil the sign of Chiint's cross, and the gainsaycr

dumb"

(p. \b\).

Wunie heretics taught that our

Saviour's crucifixion was illusory, not real, to

replies,

" If apy say the

from him.
then

is

For

fancy, the ascension

is

an

is

whom

if so,

and

if

salvation

is

unsubstantial.

is

from the
is

If the cross is a

and henceforth every-

Take, therefore,

first

able foundation, the cross, and build upon

it

an uuassail-

the rest of the

Deny not the Crucified for if thou deny Him, thou

many to arraign thee." Here Cyril enumerates many,
and among these
" The fire remonstrates with thee, by

faith.

hast

which Peter stood and warmed himself.

So likewise Pilate,

Herod, Caiaphas, Simon the Cyrenian, and others will

cry out against thee.

and of the

trees,

against thee.

which

to this

the

A
To

piece of

The sun, the hyssop, the sponge,

wood of the cross will cry out

The salutary trophy of Jesus, the

day heals diseases, to

this

so aMutarv

wood,

cross,

day drives away

mi-ht be cheap

tolic

^'ttle

is

any
is

(pP-

price.

apos-

^f^^^ %,
glory m
^^^'^ fooUsb, and tothe honour

the image

at

Christ's sake

glory in t^- --.

^^^he
but to glory in

is

^^ ^

^'^^r
m. tlo^s

The
Emmanuel ^^^^J
due to

of a tto the ^tock

Cyril ascribep
o_^
a
n^ver
folly Cyril
cro
the
of
worship

^hes W^

adoration, or

J ^'^

P--

power of heaUng
^.^^^ ^,i ,^,,

^^^

, ,,,,, or

.^

^^^^.

Highly as

^^^^^^,
^^^ ^^^^^
of the cross ;

^^^
and sign
'
Cynl would
it.
tions to reverence '^"'^^^^
^^^^^^ before
burn incen.c
^^,^
and
kiss,
^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^
to bow do^vn,
had --y
shocked
His object
,f jt.
V,ave been

^"^^

much --''
and by no means
^ Vorthy
w^
the
the wo d to
of
dispose
.as to
J^ adoration ashis
object oiro.ej
in
it an
.^^^^^^^^,
make
to
episcopate, he
come to be among

,ery wood

itself,

diaconate and

^^^

has

""^'^

"^'"'^^f'

crucified

If the cross

also a fancy.

also a fancy,

is

he

away

illusion, turn

salvation a fancy also.

fancy, the resurrection

thing

cross

Abhor those who say that Christ was

to our fancy only.

cross,

10--^ ^^^-

,e exalted and

" Take thine armour against the adversaries in the cause

of the cross itself
Set up the faith of the cross as a trophy
against the gainsayers. For when thou art going to dispute

will bo

charms"

< ,lrii(rs and

,
juggleries of drugs

THE CROHS OF CHRIST NO IMAOE.

40

^^^^-^^^^nS
that
His error in

'

'

^^^^^,^ the

world stands.
^^ while the

omcT Pll-d
'jr
higuer o
10).

vi.
sorrows (1 Tim.
himsef and h
confuses
Cyril
to
at one time
stauros lightly,
sign
He confounds the

him with many

word
^^ ^,;g the
,
^^^^
^^^
^^^^^
^.^^ ^^^ ,,g^ of

Christ.

Chrysostom
T'^"'"^""
the poet,
Pnidentius
-1
in
but
,
r
of the
Cynl,
beginning
Not only
^^^


48

Till!

" CliriHt, oinlirnidprotl in jcwclleil

C'lirist, tin' iTiHipiia

REV. A niSLOP'S

cnosa OF ciinisT no imagk.

(if

Rol<l,

innrkod

tlie piirpli'

tlicir Hliicldfl, iinprosHi-d

Lalxinini

T/*c cross,

Tlie coins

powers of darkness.

p. 35G.

homage only due

and medals of the age show that by the word

"Christ" on

the

Labarum and on

call

the shields, the poet

monogram

tlie

'^^c'l '^nd

hy the word " crux " he

to

The cross is adored with all the

the Most High, and for any one to

in the hearing of a

it,

tural term,

moans

'

the accursed

magic virtues attributed

genuine llomanist,by the scripThe

tree,' is a mortal oflTeuce.

to the so-called sign of the cross,

never grew out of the

God forbid that I should glory, save in
saying of Paul
The same sign of the
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.'
in the Babylonian
used
wns
worships,
cross that Kome now

and the worship bestowed on

means

may

same

the

^v^wliich

(Iguic

shines on

tlicir crests, an

be seen on the cnist of Constant iiio's helmet.

common

the jioct, in

with the writers of

Thus

times, con-

all

an

meaning only by looking to the medals and coins for

These phow the monogram alone in every

which

interpreter.

Clirysoptom says, " Everywhere the symbol of the cross,

and sculpture

We

trace

minds."

it

it

is

We

presented to us.

the Christian cross was originally

those initiated
in baptism on the foreheads of
variety of way,
every
in
used
was
and
mysteries,
in the

as a

on our souls and

it

called

marked

paint

on our houses, our walls, and our windows.

on our brows, we imprint

now

is

mystic Tau
no Christian emblem at all, but was the
Tuu was
mystic
Tliat
Egyptians.
of the Chaldeans and

instance.

rov (TTavpov, the stanros,

it,

'

same magio
mysteries, was applied by. paganism to the
That
honours.
same
the
with
honoured,
was
purposes,

founds the idea of the cross, so that no reader can be sure

of his

Rock's IHer., 352.

To

most sacred symbol.

the sun,

it

identify

was joined with the

circle

Surely this was the symbol for Christ, of which Cyprian

Prudentins

testifies,

sings,

and

tiie

imperial

coins

and

Sometimes

medals of the age distinctly speak.

REV. A. HISLOP'S "

it

was inserted in the

circle

Tammuz

of the

sun

with

"f"

.The mystic

divinity, was called

Tau, as the symbol of the great
as an amulet over the
the sign of life, and was used

TWO BABYLONS."

the priests
was marked on the official garments of
as a token
hand,
their
in
it was borne by kings
of Rome
The
authority.
divinely-conferred
or

heart

These teachings of Cyril have done their share in wedding

4i

every hour of
great refuge in every time of danger, in
all the,
temptation, as the infallible preservative from

from the top of tlieir cresta was sliLiiiiig."

Pnuiaitius cmitra Sjm. Lib. i. quoted ill Dr Rock's Hierurgia,

"TWO BABYLONS."

^rft

it

the

Roman

scribed

in

Catholic Church to the corruption fairly de-

Hislop's "

Two Babylons,"

a work of great

research and of the highest authority.

Mr

Hislop says,

" In the Papal Bysteni, it is well known the sign of the

No prayer
cross and the imago of the cross are all in all.
can be said, no worshiii engaged in, no stop almost can
be taken, without the freijuent use of the sign of the cross.

The

cross

is

looked upon as the grand

charm, as the

of their divinity
vestal virgins of
laces,

Rome wore

as the nuns do now.

suspended from their neckThe Egyptians did the same,

it

also, with whom the

and many of the barbarous nations
monumentfl
Egyptian
Egyptians had intercourse, as the
where the
tribe
pagan
a
There is hardly
bear witness.
by
worshipped
was
cross
The
been found.

cross has not

REV. A. HISLOP'S '"ra-O nABTLONS."

THE CROSS OF CHRIST NO IMAGE.

60

the pngan Celts long before

{CrM's

Christ

Maurice,

tlic

'

incarnntion and death of

'It

Mi/tholoff;f, p. 193).

is

fact,'

and beautiful

tree as

an emblem of the deity they

by the Romanisers
Church of England

several

arms of a man, and, together with the body,

places

was

also

the

inscr.ibed

'

widely worshipped, or regarded as a

band

covereil with

lie

croHHOR,

the Babylonian gOd

Sweet

all

is the wood, and sweet the weight,

sweet the nails that penetrate
Tlieo, thou sweet wood.'

" Egypt, which wos never thoroughly evangelical, appears

was represented with headThis symbol of

+ + +.

reverenced at this day in

is

tlie

O faithful cross, thou peerless tree,

No forest yields the like of thee,

And

sacred symbol, was the unequivocal symbol of Bacchus, the

liabyloninn MesBJah, for

members of

Leaf, flower, and bud.

(ifaurice's Indian Antiquities, vol. vi., p. 49.)

Tlie cross thus

use of

Thau''

letter

'

"

for the

presented the appearance of a huge cross, and on the bark

in

our only hope, increase righteousness

forth

to the highest part of the trunk,

in such a manner that those branches extended on each

side like the

cross

and pardon the offences of the guilty.'

" The London Record, of April 1842, gave the following
specimen from a book of Devotions on the Passion, set

adored, and, having cut the side branches, they affixed

two of the largest of them

triumphant wood, true salvation of the

there is none like thee in leaf, flower,

trees

to the godly,

Druids in their groves were accustomed to select the most

stately

cross,

among

and bud.

not leas remarkable than well attested, that the

'

Hail,

world,

says

51

to

have taken the lead in bringing in this pagan symbol.

first form of that which is called the Christian Cross,

The

the

found there on Cliristian monuments, is the unequivocal

pngan Tau, or Egj'ptian sign of life.' The design of its
first employment on their sepulchres, therefore, could have

wide wastes of Tartary where Buddhism prevails, and the

'

way

which

in

it is

represented forms a striking commentary

on the language applied by Rome

the cross

cross of the Manicheans, with leaves

and flowers spring-

ing from

is

It is exactly

am

is

called the divine tree, the

tree of the gods, the tree of life

and knowledge, and pro-

ductive of whatever

the

strong in those wlio adopt the Christian name, wliile

pagan in heart and feeling.
This, and this only, is
the origin of the worship of (lie cross " ( Wilkinson, vol. .5,
still

largely

This cross, putting forth leaves and flowers

it.

(and fruit also, as I

in

no reference to the crucifixion, but was simply the result of

the attachment to old and long-cherished pagan symbols,

ivorsZ/ij)

favourite
tlie

Though

to the cross.

among Buddhists,
emblem and device among them.

not an object of

terrestrial

told),

good and desirable, and

is

paradise

searches, vol. X., p. 124.

(Col. Wil/ord's

Figures, p. 292;

is

pp. 283,

placed

Asiatic Re-

Hislop's

Two

Bahylons).

" Compare

this

incidence.

of

life

; '

Rome

language with the language of

plied to the cross, and

it

will be seen

how

In the Office of the Cross,

exact

it is

is

called

and the worshippers are taught thus

'

ap-

the co-

the tree

to address it

284).Hisloy's Tno Balylons,

pp. 288-294.


A SUMMAltY.

53

patient suffering of innocence before the world for right-

Joseph bore

eousness' sake.

this

form of the stauros yf;\\\\(t

imprisoned by the captain of Pharaoh's guard,

CHAPTER

Lord delivered him

III.

faith of Christ, bore his stauros

A SUMMARY.

from Antioch to Rome,

where, in the amphitheatre, he suffered

The

Scripture sense of

Christ,

is

in

tlie

tlic

concrete

word stauroa,

for the cross

jmlo, a strong stake,

ii

post; and in the abstract,

agony and the shame.

of

stauros of Christ

a wooden

is a voluntary and patient

and tornicnt unto death, in
whatever form it may plcano God to lay it on ua, whether
by the rack, the wild beasts, the fire, or the hatred and
l)erKecution of godless men, for the sake of truth and

life.

to

The

said.

He

that taketh

Xian
III.

crucified unto rae,

and

whom

unto the world;"

the Scripture stauros, first,

sense,

stake

and, secondly, the shame,

is

Tlie third thing that exceedingly surprises

in their

and

us

is,

to

These are facts fully established, but not

up. our inquiry, wo learn how, when, and by

pagan symbol found entrance among Christians,
and we shall soon learn how it came at length to supplant
the sign of Christ in the clnu'ches and on the banners of
Christendom.
For no writer of the age and the school of
the apostles ever mentions, or alludes to any sign, image,
or form of the stauros, other than its name implies, one

Following

whom

is

not the

In every

a pale or wooden

the reproach,

make

for Christmas,

generally known.

Stauros of wood, but the self-sacrifice and offering of the

body of our Lord Jesus Christ on the wood.

Xmas

for Christian.

before our era.

i.e.,

the world
i.e.,

and

and image, commonly called the cross,

was a profane symbol in heathen mystx^ries, exalted and
honoured from Babylon to Jerusalem, from the Nile to
the Ganges, and from Syria to" Britain many centuries

contumely and reproach for believing in the suffering and

" Far be it that I should glory save in
crucified Saviour.
the stauros of our Lord Jesus Christ, by

for Christ,

find that this sign

i.e.,

the stauros of personal shame and sun'oiiiig for the truth

and rightconsnesH of God. " The preaching of the stauros
is to them thot perish, foolishness;"
i.e., they see no
sense in suffering wrong and injury patiently
" Lest they

should suffer persecution for the s^aMrc* of Christ "

tive

manuscripts

not his

me;"

not worthy of

the cross or stauros of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That the figure of the cross, used among the primiChristians, was X (ki), the Greek initial of Christ, for

a sign of Christ, as authors to this day

by the sorrows and anguish of the

" Pilate wrote a title and put it on the stauros"
rac, is

mean
II.

every case known,

" Jesus

The fact that a great variety of wholly unlike forms

are, by the common and \miversal consent of the learned,
called by the some name, "the cross," and are understood

and followeth

a living reality, and never that lying

I.

Scriptures never speak of the stauros as an image or a

the wood.

despising the

Inquiring about this image, three things surprise us

sign, but always as a reality, cognisable to the senses, in

stauros,

it,

every Scripture sense, the

it

righteousness, and in the hope of everlasting

i.e.,

is

In

vanity, a senseless image and sign of the wood.

Bufiering of Hhanio, reproach,

sufferer.

the

till

and so Ignatius, being condemned in

Antioch to be torn and devoured by the wild beasts for the
;

and the

this


TIIK CROSS

64
pale or stake

except a certain

name of" Barnabas,

apostle."

A SUMMARY.

OF CHRI3T NO IMAOB.

man under

the assnmed

the companion in labour of Paul, the

The counterfeit Nicodemus

same
wood in

follows in the

path, setting forth the power of the sign of the

Hades.

Minutius

Felijc

and Tertullian,

in

Tlio self-styled Infallible in the flesh,

cross, is

worse for Christians to worniiip the wooden cross,

it is

no

tlian for

no

whose mark

less confident of possessing

the

the

is

kingdom of

the whole earth now, than the Jews were in the etcpcciavoj

when they

of that kingdom,

The Greek

the beginning

of the third century, follow, coyly teaching that

5.5

memory

initial

crucified the

of Christ

is

Lord of glory.

a sign bringing to

tlio

of Christians, in the midst of the torments of

heathen persecution, both the name and the sufferings of

and His soon coming

the pagans to worship their wooden gods and trophies

Christ, with His victory over death,

and

again to judge the quick and, the dead, and to give His

eagles.

Cyiirian, A.n. 250-8,

acknowledges the sign

not the pagan image,

the symbol of Christ

in the form of the initial of Christ

but " Christi gignum, signum Dei

and of God."

And,

finally,

we

learn that Cyril, bishop

of Jerusalem, a.d. 350, comes boldly forth for the sign of

faithful followers

inheritance in His everlasting kingdom.

Hence they learned to recognise their fraternal fellowship

Gibbon snys,
in Clirist by the sign of His monogram.
" In all occasions of danger and distress, it wivs the prac-

the wood, and for the wood of the staiiros, without saying

tice

ever a word about the form of the imago of the stauros, or

bodies by the sign of the cross, which they used in

about worshipping

it.

IIo neither

made nor vended images;

of primitive Christians

to fortify their

minds

and

their ecclesiastical rites, in all the daily occurrences of

all

life,

but he protended to have the original wood, with portions

as

of which he parted, as a special favour to them that were

Gibbon, chap. xx.

and temporal evih"
That the persecuted and suffering believers should " fortify their minds and bodies by the sign of the stauros " of

and the wood grew in his keeping, so as, in his

;
words, " to fill the whole world," which many believed,

worthy

own
if

he did not.
It

wood

time to awake to the fact that the

is

an

Tammuz,

or old

infallible preservative against every species of spiritual

is

inconceivable

but

it is

natural that, in their cir-

cumstances, they should fortify their faith by the sign of

heathen cross, led the whole column of images, such as of

the initial of our Lord's name,

the virgin, of the apostles, of the saints and martyrs, and

custom came at

last to

for Christ.

be superstitious

is

That

evident.

this

After

of our blessed Lord himself, with their several altars, into

the boasted vision of Constantine, and the invention and

the Catholic Church, by degrees, from the latter half of

the multiplication of the wood, in the

the fourth to the latter half of the eighth century

image-worship was firmly and

Roman

when

for ever established in the

Church by the seventh (Ecumenical

Coancil, which was the second Council of Nice, held a.d.
787.

Catholic

It is time to awake, for the

formalism, which then

same strong

overflowed Cliristendom,

supplied the whole world,

many

name of the

cross,

had

superstitious practices of

heathen were adopted, perverting the faith, and

changing the significant sign of Christ's name into the
present sign of the murderous tree.
the

tide of
is

now

coming under the form and fashion of the same image of

the Tammuz cross, to overwhelm the Protestant world.

THE ROHAIT CATHOLIC CROSS COKFRONTBD WITH THAT OF

COKSTANTINE.
Constantine, in the

first

year of his

reig'n

over Ganl and

THE CK0S8 OF CUEIST NO

56
Britain,

most

wns culled

j<))'oiis

piiljlicly to

constantine's vision.

IJIAOE.

celebrate the saddest

and

tlifl

of religiouH ceremonies, the funeral and dei-

fication of his father,

and

own marriage with Faasta,

his

.57

apotheosis of his father Constantius Chlorus.

votive ofi'erings of Constantino

The

altars

Rome) were crowned with

of Apollo (the patron deity of

;

and the credulous multi-

the daughter of Maxiniian, the persecutor, both of which

tude were taught to believe that the emperor was per-

and observances

mitted with mortal eyes to behold the visible majesty of

he performed with

all

the splendid rites

of the pagan religion.

In the

fifth

year of his reign, ho

Gibbon, chap. xx.

their tutelar deity."

extended his dominion over Italy by conquering his wife's

Possibly, this favour of Apollo to the emperor helped

and death, when

Eusebius to fashion the following story of the stauros

brother, Moxentius,

who

Constantino entered

Rome and

fell

in defeat

celebrated his victory with

manner of Rome's pagan imperators

and the pagan Senate set up a golden image in
the Senate-house to the honour of the god who had re''
cently been the shield and the glory of Italy.
Romcc non
a public triumph after the
;

ignotam

effigiem,''''

adds Baronius

for a

former emperor,

(uTavpov rpoTraiov are his words,

his army, followed that night

Eusebius alone

the

likeness

of the

amazement by the emperor and

stauros), seen with

tells

the story,

years after he had heard

it

all

by a vision of the Lord

and then not till twenty

from the emperor's

lips

himself

alone.

Alexander, had placed a statue for Christ with Abraham

and Orpheus among

sec.

CO and 69

his household goda

{Bar. Ann., a.d. 312,

Constantino was a politician and a warrior more than a

He

Christian.
till

continued, as did his sons and successors,

the time of Gratian (above seventy years after his cap-

ture of

Rome),

to administer the office of chief pontiff to

the gods of heathen

Rome,

as well as

emperor and head of

the Church (in the very type of the

modern infallible, Ponand undisputed monarch in all

imperial, and spiritual,
pagan and

tifcx Mivximus), absolute

things,

political,

and mixed,
over all Christendom
neither
could any man, in his latter years, stand up to resist his
" Until forty years of age," snys the historian
will.
of the " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," " ConChristian

restored and enriched the temples

The medals which issued from his imperial
mint are impressed with the figures and attributes of
Jupitor and Apollo, Mars and Hercules
and his filial
piety increased the council of Olympus by the solemn
Btantine's

STORT OF constantine's VISION, BY EUSEBIfS.

Gibbon, chap. xvi.).

liberality

of the gods.

On

the eve of the battle with Maxentius, ConstAntinr,

revolviilg in his

mind

the state of the country and of hi*

gods, together with the god which his father had honoured

and had resolved

\o

servd,

became so distracted with

ond distressed, that he prayed and implored, if

there were any god, that he would manifest himself, ns
well by a sign as by propitious aid in this emergency.
doubts

(How

perfectly natural

" Then appeared a divine and wonderful vision, which

could have been hardly believed had any other man related
But since the emperor told it to him who now comit.
mits it to history a long time after, when I was honoured
with his aquaintance; and when, in familiar conversation,
he related and confirmed the story with an oath, who could
doubt that everything appeared as he represented, especially
since the events which followed jiroved the truth of tho
testimony.


THE CROSS OF

58
*'

When

the sun had a

CIiniST

little

NO IMACE.

passed mid-day, Constantine

(orau/JouTpoVatoi/) displayed in splendidlightjOutshiningthe

sun in the heavens, and upon

written, Toury

ment

vlica,

'

By

an inscription plainly

it

Great astonish-

this conquer.'

seized him, and his whole

army which accompanied

a spectator of this prodigy. He asserted that

he was yet in doubt wliy this display was made to him, and

him, and

CONSTANTINE S VISION.

he saw with his own eyes the sign of the stauros

said,

letter

(kt),

much of it till night. Then, in his sleep, the

God appeared to him with the sign shown him in
heaven, and commanded him to use a standard of the

in the

monogram,

to be

drawn on

all

Lact. Deaths of the Persecutors, sec. 44.

their shields."

Lond. 1715, Svo.

This shows unerringly the character of the vision, dream,
or sign seen of Constantine in heaven, and

helmet and the shields of his

tvas

he thought

named

59

Christ, not

soldiers.

It

marked on
was X {ki)

his
for

(tau) for his cross.

Thus, by the concurrent testimony of Eneobius and Lac-

by existing medals and coins of Con-

Christ of

tantius, confirmed

the

stantine at this day, not the sign of the accursed tree, not

pattern seen in heaven, for protection in joining battle with

the enemy.

" Rising

early the next morning, he told the vision to

He

his friends.

stones,

image

have seen with

descended,
it

me.

erect,

called for

and ordered tlicm

It

God

workmen in gold and precious

make an image like it, which

to

my

was of

was covered

form

this
all

gold.

spear, rather long

show
and

over with gold, having a transverse

yard in the form of a cross.

was

For the emperor con-

eyes.

graciously granting this, himself to

On

the top (of the spear)

crown of precious stones, woven round with

Upon

of the Saviour, expressed by only two letters

letters of the

fine

this were the salutary marks of the name

Greek name,

of the figure, and

X (hi)

Clirist,

(rlio,

the

first

two

R), in the middle

curiously inserted,

which

plainly

which letters the

whole name Christ,
Bar. Ann.,
emperor always afterward wore in his helmet."
A.D. 312, sec. 19; and Eus. Life of Constantine, b. i.,
signifies the

sec.

28

be understood, even Julian the Apostate declares in his

'Misopogon.'"

Bar. Ann. 312,

sec. 24.

Referring to that satire upon the Antiochians, I find

written:

"Neither

have hurt your

city.

the

X (hi)

nor the

K (kappa)

it

you say,

I have learned that these letters are

the initials of certain names, the one of Constantius, K, the

other of Christ, X.

Again, you say

world (alluding to his removal of the

have subverted the

monogram from

the

Labarum, and his restoration of S.P.Q.R.), and that I wage

war against the X, and that you regret the K." Sekct
Works of Julian, pp. 271 and 279. Lond. 1784, Svo.
This testimony of the Empero^ Julian confirms the fact
that in the fourth century the sign of the cross, universally

to 31.

Lactantius, the tutor of Constantine's heir, says

" Constantine was warned in sleep to put

the sign of the crux, upon the shields of
so to give battle.

the pagan sign of Tammuz, but the sign of God, the monogram of Christ, was what Constantine saw in the sky, if he
saw anjrthing, and plaoed on his shield, as iiistructed in
" You have on the Labarum," says Baronius,
his sleep.
" the name of Christ expressed by XP, (i.e., CIIR)
for that by the letter X (hi) the name of Christ used to

He

that

the divine mark,

his soldiers,

and

took care to do this, and ordered the

recognised for the

and not

Do

not

all

mark

for the

of a Christian, was

for Christ,

instrument of His most cruel death.

the histories say, and the world believe, that


60

THE CROSS OF CHRIST NO IMAGE.

COPIES OF MEDALS

was the sign of the crosH which Constantine saw, and

made his victorious banner ? Who, then, comes forth to
deny the fact?
it

COPIES OF MEDALS AKD COINS OF CONSTANTINE.

We
here

is

admit the story, the belief, and the banner and

the copy of the banner, whicli contradicts the story,
ns may bo seen and read of
;

AND COINS OF CONSTANTINE.

If the reader cannot here see the

blame Constantine

for this

wooden

61

cross, he

monogram was "

must

the Glory of

the Army," and of the empire, until displaced by the

modern cross of the Ajjoatasy.
Below is a medal showing on the face the bust of " Con-

stantinns Augustus," with the

understand

but

it

monogram

figured in the

The reverse of the medal

has no sign of the cross.

helmet on his head.

do not

all men on the coins, medals,

and monuments of Constantino to this day.
This banner

of Constantine consists of a

monogram of
in

a "wrcnth

upon

tlic

lioncatli
flagstaff,

Christ, encircled

of gold,

fixed

top of the flngstaff.

it,

appended

to the

hangs a silken

flag,

on which the head of the emperor, and others of the royal

Bar. Ann., a.d. 312,

family, appear.

This below

is

sec. 26.

a coin from the imperial mint, ns the

first

bust, with his

The face of the coin shows the emperor's

name, " Constantinns Mnximus," encircled

in a wreath.

On

is

of a modal.

monogram

the reverse

is

his banner, holding the

protected by two warriors, one on each side, and

" Gloria Exercitus,"

encircling wreath.

the

Glory of the Army, inside of the

Bar. Ann.

The following is a medal of the Emperor Jovian, from

Bar. Ann., a.d. 367, sec. 1. This figure, universally called
" the cross," is the monogram found in the Catacombs,
until the Pontificate of

begins to appear.

Damasus, when the Latin

cross

THE CROSS OF CUEIST NO IMACK.

02

on

COPIES OP coins

The coins and medals of Constantine show the monogram

his helmet, and his shield, and his person; end in one

instance wreathed witli a motto, " Gloria Exercitns," the

GloTji

of (he Arm;/.

if that

name

standard,

bon, and

found

carried
in

Dr

2d

a staunch

and takes
cotta

Lend.,

ed..

C. Dnlmar, 1857.
is

biitfh',

in

Itoek's llicr-

'

Roman

others, so far as

3k or

Baroiiius, the accurate Gib-

my knowledge extends, pass over

the wide difference in the form, and the wider difference in

the

They

meaning of these symbols, unnoticed.

them

call

in

Roclc

every form, the cross, and leave the reader to midersfaml

Catholic,

by that name, the sign of Tammuz, and also of the stauros of

Dr

from a terra-

this

all

What likeness has

oidy.

Yet Ensebius,

"f"?

to be

be a counterfeit which has no likeness

to the original but in

vrgin, p. 358,

lamp, and labels

Christ,

it,

" Labarum of Constantine."

The first form of a sign of
our 8aviour on the cross took

two
or

which

one

The slauros

it is not.

across the other

3K and

net

Now

"T~

and

one stick,

is

the

monogram

to call these by one

that to signify the ignominious cross of death,

is

not

is

jL.

name, and
confusion,

the shape of the Greek let-

Ton*

TOJ ViKO..
(/?y thit cnyi'juer

a counterfeit,

to

C3

the story of Constantine's dream or vision perfectly

true, this testimony demonstrates the current sign

The accompanying figure

of the Labarum, or legionary
is

Kf

Were

AND MED.U,S OF CONSTANTINE.

is
)

ters

alpha and omega: i

" Saying,

am Alpha and

Omega, the

and the

first

last" (Rev.

11).

i.

standing at the cross.

The third form was that of

the bleeding lamb at the foot
Roch's

copied

cross,
Ilier.

Tliis third

p.

word, by a slight

face, is
shift, is

manifest jugglery, in which one

caused to represent

and a multitude of other

The second form came in

the shape of a lamb lying or

of the

Babylon on the

from

302.

micifx

that

human body
wood of the

fixed
cross,

the fnll-ffrown

idol.

is,

the

on the
which is

quite

is

Gibbon says, " This vision did not prevent Constantino

from erecting in the midst of Rome his own statue, bearing a cross in his right hand, with an inscription which
referred his victory

and the deliverance of Rome to the

sign the symbol of force and

of that salutary

courage."

Tliat sign in his right

the completed image calle<l

the

-i-

fanciful forms, which

ridiculous.-

virtue

was followed by

which he placed on
our Saviour

his

not of the

helmet

hand was

the

s3'mbol

wood on which He

the historian proceeds; he continues to

the same

of Christ

suffered.

confound the

As

differ-


THE CROSS OF CnniST NO mAGK.

G4

ing

emhleiTiFi

under

tlie

one

common

glittered on their lielniets,

cross

COPIES OF MEDALS

iinme, saying, " Tlie

engraven on their

wiis

was interwoven in their hauners and the consecrated emblems which adorned the person of the emperor
himself, were distinguished only by their richer materials,
and more exquisite workmanship." Those emblems, called
shields,

here

tlio

cross,

were the nionognim

XP

SK, and no)

\,

as

JIaxentius, " bore the salutary sign" of the blessed Saviour's

name, and not of the wood on which He suffered, neither was

the sign of Tammuz.
The sign of salvation was X,

it

a sign to cheer the heart of the despised and persecuted

Christians

a sign which the under-shephcrds put upon the

Inmbs of the

flock in holy

transverse beam.

The

long pike, intersected by

silken vail which

hung down from

the beam, was curiously wrought with the images of the

The summit of the

jiikc su])portcd a crown of gold, which crown enclosed the
mysterious monogram, at once expressive of the figure of the
reigning mnnnrch and his children.

and the

cross,

in

X asleep

to this world,

the

awake

to

God.

The common sign

to the visible world,

and

life eternal.

Therefore, neither the device seen

in the heaven nor

dream, by Constantine, nor that jnit on his banner
and on the crown of his helmet, nor that used by his successors and placed on the shields of the soldiers of all his
in his

an abomination to the eyes, the ears, and the heart of every

Their grateful devotion has placed the monogram

Nor did Constantine adopt the monogram

on his arms and on his banner, in
renunciation of the world, and of his own life, for the glory

of Christ.

reader would suspect, from Gibbon's description, that

the staiiros, the monogram, and the Latin cross, are symbols

wholly different in shape and

in sense.

No

one would sup-

pose that the historian, by the cross, intends the

gram.

The

error

tects

in a

moment, yet the

word

for the apostasy is

awnke

armies, had the slightest allusion to that cross which was

of the

the Son of man," and not of the ignominious cross, they

placed " in the midst of the ensigns of Rome."

it

the initial of the

Its

initial letters

still

Gibbon,
of Christ in the midst of the ensigns of Rome."
ch. XX.
Yes, " the monogram of Christ," " the sign of

No

Christ, the

is

preserved on the medals of the Flavian

honours are
family.

name

owner of the
and never of the wood on which He bore onr sins
His own body. The sign of the cross for CHRIST is

dard which displayed the triumph of the cross, was called the
It is described as a

baptism

chief shepherd's name, which

flock;

one look at the figures on the medals and coins will show;
and, as the historian says himself. " But the principal stanlabarnm.

AKD COINS OF CONSTANTINE.

is

palpable and universal

" the cross"

for the

every eye de-

ear accepts the error in one

name

symbols, of which the meaning

than the form.

mono-

The symbol

is

in

of the

many

infinitely

the right

differing

more unlike
hand of the

statue erected by Constantine in honour of his victory over

Roman

citizen.

for the imperial device

of God, and for the hope of a crown of immortality

the device of the

monogram was adopted by

but

that politic

statesman and valiant warrior, to win the empire of this

world, to

fire his

veterans with ardour in battle, and with

confidence in the divine protection, while fighting for

and the emperor.

God

In the final stniggle with Licinius for

the sole empire (a. d. 323), each of the rival emperors rallied
his forces,

and

by direct appeals, on one

on the other, to the gods of old

stirred their hearts

side to the Christ of

Rome, and of their

God

fathers.
Tlie pagan worshippers supTo Constantino and the monogram of
Christ, the confessors of the faith adhered.
The enthusiasm

ported Licinius.

THE CnOSS OF CHRIST NO IMACK.

66

CoriES OF MEDALS

They

of the rival armies was raised to the hii^hest pitch.

With

joined battle, and fought for their emperors, for the empire

strife,

says Lactantius,

^^

Con-

into the hottest of the light.

fierce

combatants of

its

when the ark of God was received into the

camp of Hophni and Phineas " they quit themselves like
men." They assailed the coming banner, they smote down
the Philistines

fell,

while the shout of

Then Constantine's
chosen band for the protection of the labarum rallied, came
to the rescue, raised up the fallen banner again, and turned
triumph went up from

all their

ranks.

the tide of victory, which, on that field of blood, crowned

Constantine sole emperor of the

When

Roman

world.

persecution ccaBed, and " the Chnrch rose to the

kingdom of

this

world," and when the bishops Bat en-

throned, and dispensed justice and judgment as

trates,

and

all

power was

civil

magis-

hands of Christian emperors,

believe that the promised time had
in the

the multitude came to

come when the saints should possess the kingdom, Dan.
The emperors called the Ecumenical Councils, sat
vii. 22,
in person or by their chamberlain in them, and executed
At the same time, the
their canons as laws of the empire.
fabricated wood of the cross multiplied with wonder-working energy in all the world and the Church, departing from
the faith, became changed from the love and worship of
God, and the hope of His coming and kingdom, even to
reverence and worship the image of the cross, and to
enjoy the kingdom of this morld, and extend it, with the aid
;

of the

dumb

idols of the saints

and

relics

t^n

to

;^ to

name through

of Christendom.

ap-

proach, renewed their strcnglh, and fought desperately, like

the standard-bearer, and the ensign

came gradually the change of the origiX, concealed in the monogram

P
all,

to

-J" and

to

until the idol

christ have together long held the banner

banner

The pagans, struck with the

which told the

terrible shoiit

into

the same

Btautine seeing that wherever the laburum appeared, his

soldiers were filled with invincible courage, sent the

C7

nal and primitive cross,

of the world, and for the supposed honour of their gods.

In the heat of the frantic

those changes

AND COINS OF CONSTANTINE.

of the martyrs.

"T-

retaining

and the Anti-

and the sceptre

THE CATACOMBS, BY MONS. PERRET.

their e.xpense, published

thus giving

his

work

iu five folio volumes,

the sanction of the best

it

69

Roman

authority on such a subject in Christendom.

Catholic

This work,

with that of Cav. dc Rossi, the head commissioner ap-

CHAPTER
THE

monuments
Rome, furnish ample testimony to the
correctness of our views.
The sepulchral inscriptions of
Christians in Rome from a.d. 71 to 600, amount to about
pointed by Pius IX. for the preservation of the

IV.

of Christian art in

CATACOJinfl, BY MONS. PKRUET.

Catacomb and cemetery are words from the same root,

meaning the same thing, a dormitory, a place to sleep in,

11,000

6000 of which are from the catacombs, the others

from monuments above ground.

Of

those from the cata-

'

a gallery divided into Rcvernl rooms for lodgers.

name

confuHscs, to the glory of

the resurrection of the body

Old TcBtnmciit

in mystery,

New

by the

TeHtaniciit

the dead

; a

name among

God,

(lie

combs, 4000 are believed to ante-date the Council of Nice,

holy doctrine of

A.D. 32.5.

doctrine taught by the

mid brought

to light in the

rcHMrrcrlioii of .TeHiin

Clirist

pr('n(Jii'(l

took
less

rection of the body," or " the flesh;"

this 6000, only 12.50 are dated, leaving the

likeness in the form and charnctcr of the lettors with those

which are dated. From a.d. 71 to 300, not thirty of these
From a.d. 325 to 410, when Alaric
inscriptions bear dates.

from

nations,

the primitive faith

Of

age of the others to be inferred on a comparison of the

by the upoMtles in Jesus'

and confessed in every formula of
by the words " I believe in the resur-

doctrine

all

Tlie very

a doctrine mutilated

Rome, every year has dated

than 500

end of the

by Popery, and neutralised by purgatory, and boldly denied

by science, and philosophy so called, notwithstanding it is
the everlasting gospel of God our Saviour, testified in His
written word, and presented to all who walk through the
galleries of the tombs of the saints and martyrs, by the

fifth

inscriptions, in all not

but that year has none.

latter half 50.

Not

Only seven belong

sign of the cross of

name

wood appear.

The Greek contraction

of Christ was exclusively in favour from the

of the mouogram

six millions, ranged on each side of galleries

not always connected, which would, if extended in one line,

reach
Perret,

above

seven hundred miles,

who spent

according

to

Louis

them and
The French Government, at

fourteen years in exploring

copying their inscriptions.

in the

to the seventh century.

earliest dute, concealed iu the device

awake at the trumpet voice of the Son of God,

and shall come forth every one, both the just and the unActs xxiv. 15 1 Cor. .w. 52).
just (John V. 25
The tombs in the catacombs under the city of Rome

number above

until the latter years of the fourth century does the

for the

shall

that to the

former half of the sixth century are about 200, and in the

very name, the catacombs or sleeping places of the dead,

who

From

century, are 500 dated inscri})tions

Jfo^'t Hferurv., p

CM

THE CATACOMBS, BY MONS. PERUET.

THE CROSS OF CHHIBT NO IMAGK.

70

Interpretation of

tomb

tlie

symbols engraven on the above

The anchor of om' hope

dead " with power, according
(Rom. i. 4.)
:

is

in

Christ, risen from the

to the spirit of holiness

Another tomlj from UncVi JTierurg.,

HH

"

p. 3.17,

EMILIVS IN PACE
yiX- ANN.. XV. D.

that fastened

Him

to the tree,

to the

And

this nineteenth century, they label a

It is curious that,

p. 127).

to this city

It is easy to

" {Burgon's Letters,

according to the label, the lance

was a present from the Mohammedan

The symbols on this tomb may be interpreted ns follows

The fish represents the Greek initials {l^0u<;, a fish) of the
words, "Jesus Christ, Son of God, our Saviour." The
monogram follows, and the Comforter of them that mourn

crown of thorns

xiii., p. 2, clu iv.)

most conspicuous spear on the wall of St Feter's in Rome, in large

letters, " The lance of Longinus," which pierced the Redeemer's side. And again, " Part of the cross which the
now, in

Empress Helena brought

Ill

and

which covered His head {Mos/i.,c.

71

to the Pope.

be disgusted with this madness, and then

looks to Christ.

" In our walks tlirough the

catacombs," says Mons.

we were struck with the absence of all representations of martyrdom. One does not meet there with an image
If an image apof Jesus on the cross" (vol. iii., p. 72).
pear, M. Ferret is careful to testify that it does not belong
" For it is noticeable that in the primitive age
to that age
Ferret, "

for

some with eyes open

to

walk straight into

it.

We

have

and holy ordinances,

down through these very corruptions. It was our Church
The grace of God
in which this growth of evil occurred.
alone makes us to differ from the lawful heirs of these
abominations, with the cup of which the Roman Church is

received

our

intoxicated.

Scriptures, ministry,

AVhile praising

God

for our rescue, let us

not

reproach our brethren in bondage to Pharaoh, but pray for

may

them, that they

and

be delivered from slavery to idolatry

to the father of all liars.

Yet we should mark how

they did not place before the eyes of the faithful any image
of Jesus Christ on the cross.

They were content, out of

regard to feeble souls, to paint the cross at

oftener concealed in the

monogram

first

naked, but

next, adorned with

and crowns afterwards, it was

lamb lying beneath it. It was in the
sixth century they began to delineate the bust of the
Saviour, as one may see it in the Vatican cross and even

flowers, precious stones,

Church,

is

now

repeating itself in Protestant America.

comes in the monogram, or enclosed in a

circle, or inserted in the initials IHS, or in some other
mystery, foliated and disguised from ordinary eyes. Next,
First, the cross

associated with a

the whole body, with the hands and feet pierced with
nails " (vol. iii., 91. Sec also Schaff^i Hist., vol. iii., 561).

In the eighth century they enjoined the worship of this

other images, and the evil grew till a.d. 1270
In-

among

rapidly the process, unfolded in the history of the ancient

gilt, in gems, marble, or wax wreathed

Then,
comes " the glory cross," with flowers,
with laurel.
sacred music, and pompous procession, through the congreIt only remains for the image to
gation to the holy table.

all

fashioned in

be furnished with a
course of things,

wards

is

human

figure,

which, in the present

sure to come, as the sparks to fly up-

after which, it will be kissed

and worshipped.

nocent V. instituted festivals sacred to the memory of the

lance which pierced our Saviour's side, and to the nails

The

tau sign of the cross began to appear

symbols of the

Boman Church

among the
Dama-

in the pontificate of

BUB,

whose bloody

with Ursinus for the episcopate

strife

CHANGE or THE

was nearly
three centuries later before the public heart became so
hardened as to allow an iiiiai;e of our Saviour suspended
on the cross. The Council of TruUo, A.u. 092, in canon
82, first decreed, " That Christ, represented iit the cross by

makes

his reign famous, a.d.

a lamb, should, ybr

form"

th<:futur<',

[liocli's llierurij.,

307 to 385.

of Clirist, just as

be inia^'cd under His

Three |things visibly conspired to work this change of

the sign of Christ
I.

II.

human

their

In

did 1500 years ago.

its

origin,

was a heathei^ imago of sensual worship.

cross" has become transferred from the sign of God

to " Thy kingdom be extended on earth."

In both cases,
the original names remain the cross, and the Christ, and
The
the kingdom but their spirit is utterly changed.

(/')

has become

that were

" looking

{tau) for the sign

for that blessed

and the churches

hope and the glorious

appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,"

have a long time been looking toward the Vicar who

assumes to reign over the kingdom of this world infallible
in Christ's stead.

Chirrches they were and churches they are,

X changed into T, thoroughly changed

form of worship and character of life and the kingdom of
but, like the cross

in

the Pope to that which

the bright orb of day.

is

come,

to

is

as the

It has true light,

but

form and murky.

mock sun
is

to

shapeless

While the cross was the initial letter

of Christ, the coming of the Lord in His glory was the hope
of the persecuted Christians but, afterward, the sign and
the hope gradually turned from Christ and self-sacrifice
in

to self-enjoyment in the empire of this world.

First, Helena's finding the

The vision of the monogram,

midday above the brightness of the sun, by Constantine and
The nations of the Empire believed
his whole army

wood

wood of

Second, The multiplication of that

our Saviour's cross.

self-

to

Three trumpcf-tonguetl wonders of the middle of

the fpurth, century

to the

from Christ to AntichrlHt, from

from the renunciation the acquisiof the world, from " Thy kingdom come in earth,"

sign of Taniinuz,

denial to scnHuality,

Emperor's new religion, to keep the old symbols,

and festivals, under new names. The ignorant,

III.

Now, " the

The forged testimony of Barnabas and of Nicodemus.

The natural disposition of the Pagans in adopting

who were accustomed to worship Ashtoreth, or Astart^, by

the sjTnbol of Tammuz, learned readily by the same sign
to worship after their manner the crucified Christ.

the image was never a sign of Clirist nor of His cross, but

tion

forms,

350).

it

SIGN.

It

The image of the cross ol' death, and of Taminuz, now

leads the column of symbolism and of Idolatry, in the

name

73

CltANQE OF THE SIGN.

THE CE0S3 OF CHRIST NO IMAGE.

72

in all lands.

7V/ird,

called the cross, said to have been seen in heaven at

these things all the more, seeing the

monogram supplant
now

Neither then nor

the eagles on the imperial banner.

do they discern changes of the substance,

Bome, under

name.

name and obeyed

if

they keep the

the empire, retained her republican

her emperors.

garded the obvious fact that the

stantine adopted for hia

So Christendom disre-

monogram which Con-

banner and the wooden thing

reverenced, loved, and even worshipped in the

the cross, bear no sort of resemblance

name

OTie to the other.

of

Still,

have been content to regard them as the same in

all

form and name

the

pagan

With

cross.

this sign, the

nations were familiar, and they believed the wonders told

of

its

and
cross

invention,

its

its

royal vision,

miraculous powers.

its

holy multiplication,

Thus, the pngan sign of the

possessed their imagination, and

monogram almost

disappeared.

the sign

of the

THE CROSS OF CUHIST NO IMACE.

74

All the authors of the fourth and

IS

fifth centurieR

OLOUYING IN THK IMAOK OF WOOD PLEASING TO ODD

shame

iSufferer despise the

agree

Why

should a rational

with Baronius and Gibbon that Constantine adopted the

shame.

monogram

and the imperial medals, coins,

and labarum show the indisputable form of the monogram,

instrument of it?

which can neither be hid nor counterfeited while De Rossi,

Ferret, and the present Pope Pius IX. and the French

kiss the thing with his lips

banner

for his

Government, produce from tJie monuments and catacombs

Home abundant proof that, whatever the name may be,
the true sign in the primitive Church was X for Christ, and

image of the cross

can

it

to the

is

name and

and

rence to every loving heart.

God

in

Uis house.

It is a jiretendor

monogram

cealed in the primitive ages under the form

of Christ, con-

common

in the

What

blindness."
'

place of the true

before

Lift
it,

it

and

It is monstrous.

with the spear which pierced Uis

sign, therefore,

neither primitive nor honourable, nor

be acceptable to

Bow down

the cheek, or the nails which fastened His hands and His
feet to the tree, really brought to our view, tliey would,

of

The common

it

Were the
head,
wounded
crown of thorns taken from the Saviour's
Israel
on
of
Judge
the
smote
or the rod with which they

not "T- for the evil tree.

Reverence and love the image

up and make an ornament of

75

was an infamous, a burning

man make an image of the

It

else is

We

side, be objects of abhorhear of " Israel's judicial

which leads Christendom

tliis

" Christ was once

to boast of the instrument on which
"
That it
ix. 28).
(Heb.
?
many
of
sins
bear
the
offered to
is

most unnatural

home

catacombs and on the ancient Christian monuments, and

case

adopted by the Emperor Constantine to adorn his banner

in honour,

to our

will plainly

own

and glory

appear when we bring the

Suppose we take up reverently

and even kiss a weapon which, in

heart.
in,

increasing body of Christians to the furtherance and sup-

slain
cruel hands, had, without the slightest provocation,
and
brother
elder
our
our best friend and benefactor

port of his ambitious designs.

brought him to an untimely,

and

and

his arms, with the purpose of binding the brave

death
THIS GLORYING IN

IS

IMAGE OP TlIK WOOD PLEASING

TlIJi

TO QOU

Could

He make an

nailed, then lifted up,

the gall in death

citizena to

Can

it

left to

drink the vinegar and

be pleasing in His sight for His

make an ornament

on which He was
chief priests and

evil

wood on which He was

idol of the

and

of the image of that wood

lifted up,

amid the

rulers of

His chosen people

ecoils

and jeers of the

?

Can

it

be

pleasing to the blessed Jesus to behold His disciples glory-

ing

in the

on which
the

image of that instrument of

He

shame?

capital

punishment

patiently and innocently suffered, despising

It

was a shame,

else

No

ness, while yet

how

did the innocent

shameful, and agonising

is

capable of such perverse-

many, under the delusion of the

cross, are

be conceived that such

our
honour to the evil instrument would be agreeable to
it.
on
look
spirit
immortal
departed brother, could his
daily guilty of

Could our blessed Lord himself be pleased with the

tree ?

mortal in his senses

it.

Neither can

it

in
not rather, in a burst of indignation, exclaim,
Phariand
"
scribes
you,
unto
Woe
Christ,
the language of
prophets,
hypocrites, because ye build the tombs of the

Would he
sees,

" If
and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say,
have
not
would
we
we had been in the days of our fathers,
prophets.
been partakers with them in the blood of the
the
Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are
" (Matt, xxiii. 20).
prophets
the
killed
which
children of them

THE CBOSS OF CHKIST NO IMAGE.

76

THE BEARER OF THIS CROSS DOES NOT

PASS FROM HIM.

No

language

is

Nor does

natural.

gild,

and wear

it

it

for a

make

worship, to the

an

That there should

for

It

this idol minister to the

jiridc

matter to pay this hommurderous weapon, to lift it up, to

charm of the person,

of

stamped with

life,

it.

Tin's is

tlie

No

an ornament

them that dwell on the earth (Rev. xiii. 10), is holy

Eminent divines, for above sixteen centuries,
have regarded the Antichrist of 1 John ii. 18, and the man

ceiveth

pomp

prophecy.

of public

of 8in,2The8s.

with the little horn and with

For that there should be an apostasy,
followed by the monifestation of " that son of perdition

may

it

be taken

all

Take away

things are possible unto thee.

Nevertlieless, not

thou wilt" (Mark xiv. 36).

are an abomination in

His

what

1 will,

of Christendom, and, most of

all,

eyes
this

" the glory cross," borne

the visible head of the churches

ordained festivals sacred to the

instruments of torture which
the reader will judge.

memory

afflicted

of the various

our Lord unto death,

sitteth in the temple, or church, of

God,
God," is holy scripture, is aposand confirmed by all ecclesiastical

is

and by the daily news.

can no more close

my

and to the manifestation of

wonderful power, than the infallible Church and Pope
this strofag delusion,

tdi

Antichrist,

who

destroy the Church, and shall be

shall

himself and the whole world together destroyed, at the

coming of our Lord

to the great

belief and doctrine of the

when

God

called

is

(any visible object of reverence), so

himself can close their eyes to the coming of a personal

those

in solemn procession, adorned

thirteenth century,

exalteth himself above all that

aeffaa-fia

prophecy, illustrated

history,

this

and set up in the house of

the living God, to honour the most cruel death of His beloved Son at the hand of envious murderers
How much
better such manners are in this age than those of the

is

that he as

tolic

but what

How much more

God, or

showing himself that he

All the images of the heathen

siglit.

3, as identical

who opposeth and

cup from me.

ii.

the lamb-like beast.

a make-believe croHs of pearl, gold, and precious

away from him, and which the multitude naturally covet,

should it please God to give it them
How impious and
blind to call this image the cross of Him who said, " Abba,
Father,

and that a lamb-like creature, having b dragon

which doeth great wonders, and de-

21),

does not lessen

this

stones, which the wearer cannot pray that

empire
horn of singular power, to

make war upon the saints, and to prevail against them till
the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom (Dan.
vii.

the vanity of fashion, or sale of

image.

little

voice, should arise,

pagan image
is a false cross, from which the holy apostles would shrink
in horror, however the multitude of their successors honour
article

77

arise out of the fourth or Latin

of the prophet Daniel a

iinjirove the

tlio

HAVE HEARD THAT THE ANTICHKIST SHALL COME."

" YE HAVE HEARD THAT THE ANTICHRIST SHALL COME."

MAY

conduct bo shameful, so un-

nt

of the house, and of the house of God.

the ofl'ence to

I'BAY IT

too strong to express the indignation

of our loving I$rother

age to an image of

TF.

4'

judgment, which

Roman Church from

is

the

the beginning

to this day.

Antichrist, foretold

by the prophets, and expected

in all

the Churches, wheil set before our eyes, should not appear

strange

nor should the beholder be

filled

with conceit

for we are
some measure of it, in our day and
Placed under the same temptations, no people

while calling attention to this great apostasy

every one in
generation.

it,

and

in

THE CROSS OF

78

CtlTlIST

"TF,

NO IMAOK.

could of themsclvoR have better escaped from

tlie

suaros of

tlie

world, the flesh, and the devil, in whicli great

lies

taken.

ITer Church,

till

Rome
was

the reign of Constantino,

most tried and purified by the persecutions, and after that

most corrupted, not at once, by the triumphs of the Gospel.
Her pagan senate, distinguished for lordly manners, great
authority and untold wonlth, held for two generations, after
Rome was taken by CniiHtantinc, to the old religion, in contempt of the new religion, which confessed a crucified Jew
for its author, and had neither images, incense, nor altars
in its ceremonial.
Thus the faith of the Church was
wounded in the Roman capital, and throughout tlie euijiire,
by a profane mixture of pagan manners and customs,

re-

ceived from the ancient mythology, and sustained by the

pride and grandeur of

(lie Ijaliii

aristocracy.

Succeeding

generations naturally follow in the steps of their fathers,

whether Pagan or Christian

whether in

the apostles, or of the ancient mythology.

liate the corruptions of the apostasy

with an

afilicted

judging none:

heart,

the fourth beast, according to the Scripture (Dan. vii. 7

and 20) having " two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a

do not pal-

all

raaketh thee to differ?

(1

and

And
Cor.

That infant mystery of iniquity, which already worked

purple and gold, " and upon her forehead her

and familiar characters

Yet many bright eyes cannot see it, or,

Beginning in the
days of Paul and John, " that Wicked " has grown, so
"
that, although not many can see him, his " great voice
(Rev. xvii.

therein,

healed.

heard, from the jialacc to the hamlet, throughout Christ-

endom.

Is

not the Scripture warning lost on such

For,

all

the jiower of the

first

beast

and them which dwell

whose
deadly wound was
beast,
first
the
worship
to
And he doeth great wonders, so that ho maketh fire
;

the earth,

come down from heaven in the sight of men and deceiveth

them that dwell on the earth, by the means of those miracles
;

which he had power

to do, in (he sight of the first beast,

saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should

make an image to the beast, which had the wound by the

sword and did

rich

live.

and poor,
hand, or

And

he causeth

all,

free

and bond,

to receive

in their foreheads

both small and

a

mark

and that no man

had the mark, or the name of

number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let
him that hath understanding count the number of the
beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 600"
or sell, save he that

might buy

the beast, or the

Let

11).

xiii.

me

neither attempt to prognosticate future events,

nor to turn away

my

attention from what the prophets

have spoken, compared with the history of the nations

passing before our eyes. The Latin king, which is the ten-

horned creature of Daniel, was wounded

unity (a.d. 476), and yet lived in

.5).

seeing, cannot read the character right.

he exerciseth

him and causeth

before

in

century, to be a bold, proud, and lawless mother, decked

plain terms

And

dragon.

We

but beholding them

the apostle's day, slowly grew, from the fourth to the ninth

is

earth, an extraordinary creature rising out of the head of

(Rev.

written," in

have told you before

in their right

iv. 7.)

in royal

the teaching of

what hast thou that thou didst not receive?"

name

it

79

it come to pass, that when

" (John xiv. 29).
believe
might
is come to pass ye
dispensation on the
this
be,
in
to
is
yet
is,
or
l?liere

No*

great,

we would be warning

"For who

"

HAVE HEARD THAT THE ANTICHRIST SHALL COME."

its

religion

in the heart of its

laws and language, in

and many members, among the barbarians which

dismembered

Rome

its

it.

In the seventh century, the Bishop of

In the eighth, he disowned

practised and prospered.

his allegiance to the emperor,

took the government of

Rome

excommunicated him, and

into his

own

hands.

He

re-

THE CEOSB OF CnniRT NO IMAOK.

80

'

wounded empire of the West (a.d. 800), and

crowned Charlemagne its emperor, whose title has descended
through Germany and Austria from that date to 1871. For
although, in 1810, ahandoned by Austria, it is revived in
Germany now. Thus the biHhop made an image to the first
beast, which had the wound by the sword and did live and
vived

tlie

YE UA.VE HEARD THAT

TlIK

AKTICHRIST SHALL COME.'

81

authority of the emjieror and kings anointed and acknowledged by the Pope, is read in the history of Eurojie from

the beginning of the 9th to the close of this 19th, century

only that now the kings turn to hate, and rend, and strip
;

make

naked, and

desolate,

and cat the

flesh of the creature,

for

1000 years he inspired

He gave

it

a sign, or n innrlc

it

own, and defend,

if

with energy to execute his

wliicli all citizens

will.

receive,

they would have the protection of the

royal emblem, and of

its

maker.

The

kingdom, 000.

maker and

the beast, until the words of

Irenrous (a.d. 180 to 200),

counted the number of the beast, and found

for the

must

their
to whom they, with one mind in centuries past, gave
to
heiirts

their
put
in
hath
God
For
strength
power and
kingdom unto
fulfil His will, and to agree and give their

official

it

Lateinos

language of the chief

These things are foretold, not to make us prophets

" But now have I told you before it come to pass, that when
xiv. 29).
it is come to pass yc might believe" (John
Irciircus,

a-

T.

e.

V-

I-

30+1+300+5+10+C0+7O+20OJ

"

Which in the nnmber of the beast,

for it is the number of a man

Great, with

perish with the world at the Lord's

spake as a dragon" bo the Latin, then the image he made

to the

did live"

coming

judgment.

to

One Man dynasty has lorded it over Christendom for

1000 years yet many of name and note among us neither can
come
see him, nor do they apprehend him coming or having

Now

wound by the sword and

" deadly wound was healed," is the

beast which had the

whose

Cyprian, Athanasius, Leo, and Gregory the

of name and note till the 7th century, were

all

constantly ajjprehending the Antichrist to arise inside of

the empire, and to govern it, and ruin all things, himself to

(Lnteino8),andhi8numbcri8GGG."

If the beast which " had two horns as a lamb, and he

"

And

16-18).

inspirer of the imperial

A.

shall be fulfilled.

the woman (the creature) which thou sawest, is that great

.xvii.
city which reigneth over the kings of the earth" (Rev.

image is
Latin, and the reader for himself can count the name and
number of a man in Greek numerals

Pontiff, the

God

up anew by the Papacy

in the person of

his successors (a.d. 800),

and the name

imperial throne set

Charlemagne and

of the creature in Greek

is

Lateinos

which counts

this

nor are they looking ftnd waiting for the coming of our Lord
The prophecies appear to be remarkably
Jesus Christ.
" little horn" of
fulfilled so far as regards the beast and

num-

ber of his name, 660.

Again,

mark put "

serve him,

in their right

hand, or in their foreheads,"

must be conspicuous

man might buy

to all eyes.

And

who

that no

or sell, hold office or honoilr or dignity in

the Latin realm, " save he that had the mark, or the

of the beast, or the

number of

of his business

calling,

spiritual

Daniel, and in this two-horned

Latin be that wonderful creature, then his

if this

name

his name, on the front

acknowledgment of the
and of the temporal power of the Pope, and the

or

in

lamb which spake

like a dra-

gon, and deceived them that dwelt on the earth.

But where

mark

in the right

is

the

mark of the

creature, the singular

hand, or in the forehead ofhis people, conspicuous to every be-

That mark without which no man might buy or sell,

That
or be received into company, or counted honourable?
wonderful mark by which they are known of all, and are
holder

distinguished,

who buy and

and by which they are

sell in

the markets of this world,

also followed into eternity,

" who

THE CROSS OF

82

worshij) the bcnst iiud

f/ie

mark of /lis name

this is a

iiimf^c,

IiIh

{liiiv. x'w.

mark of import

NO IMAOI'

CIlIilST

until the

nml wliosoovor rccoivctU

Mean what

11).

to the inhabitants of the earth.

For, while the angel " havinp; the everlasting gospel to

l)reach

unto them that dwell on the earth,"

the midst of

" Babylon

heaven,

is fallen, is fallen,

is

flying through

angel follows,' saying:

a second

that great city."

"

And

third angel followed them, saying, with a loud voice

man

the

If any

worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark

in his forehead, or in his hand, the

wine of the. wrath of God"

(llcv.

same

And

the

first

mtirtals, of

whatever name or nation

tlioy

may bo, and these

for

he deceived them that had the mark of the beast, and. them
that worshipped his image (Rev. xix. 20).
Also, that we
may have our portion with such as " liad not worshipped

sawest

is

sitteth

known mark, and

times, Italy
this

lying vanity of the wood of the cross.

By

having " eyes

groat things"

like the eyes of

man, and

whose dragon voice has

shaken the nations of

this

world.

is

and

that

monarchy
6])eaking

Forbid to buy or

sell, to

forbid,

marry

or

even to worship God

England, France, and Germany have at
now, and England has for years, been by

publicly, or to

presumptnons nilcr subjected

to a deprivation, in his

the public consolations of the gospel,

mark is inof the lawful rule of their sovereigns.
king,
tyrannic
to this mysterious creature and
all

notorious to every reader of European history.

is

But what

If
Is it a real mark, or imaginary ?
the mark ?
hid,
be
cannot
it
forehead,
right hand or in the

the

be

visible to all

who have eyes

to see.

We invent

real, in
it

must

nothing

the harlot
neither the apostasy, nor the man of sin, nor
nor the mark, nor
city of his abode, nor the Antichrist,

thousand years
" that wicked"

for a

By

is

and

dispensable

the

mouth

interdict,

in mortal fear, to eat or

high conceit, of

that power whose well-

universally recognised banner,

under

laid

and put

hell,

to give in marriage, or

that great city which reigneth over the kings of

By

kiii.L:

doms have been often

bury their dead

and the woman which thou

the earth" (llev. xvii. 9-18).

this

under penalty of

drink, only as fasting

the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark
upon their foreheads,^'' for " on such the second death hath
no power" (Rev. xx. 4-0).
By that power, enthroned on the " seven mountains on

woman

the

which " shall speak great

words against the Jlost High, and shall wear out the saints
of the Most High, and think to change tunes and laws, and
they shall be given into His hand:" both cities and king-

By

in Christ's stead.

man's admonition, that wc may

escape when the beast shall be " taken, and with him the
false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which

which the

"consume him with

His wratli poured ujwn the earth, falls "upon the

men which had i/ie mark of the beast, and uiion them which
worBhii)pcd his imago" (Eev. xvi. 2).
These arc our fellowvial of

warnings are given

to

which assumes not only the character, but the very name
of " the Antichrist," i.e., the vicar and viceregent of
the sole monarch over the nations of this world
Christ

shall drink of the

xiv. 9).

Ancient of Days came,"

spirit of His mouth, and destroy him with the briglitnessof

His coming." By that hierorch which deceiveth them that
dwell on the earth, so that he makcth fire come down from
heaven to smite his opponents in the sight of men. By
that monorch which " as God sitteth in the temple of God,
showing himself that he is in place of God :" " whose coming is After the working of Satan, with all power, and
By that " Pope the king"
signs, and lying wonders.

may,

it

8a

YE HAVE HI'ARD THAT TUE AUTICHUIST SHALL COME.

'

the

number of his name, nor

the

manner of

are all noted in the Scripture of truth

which " made war with the saints nnd prevailed against them

<.'

his end.

These

and, except the

THE CROSS OF

84

CHIIIST

NO IMAGE.

"

YE HAVE HEAnD THAT THE ANTICHRIST SHALL COME."

S.')

world, in the well-

which our Lord foreshadows, with the overthrow and ruin of

triple-crowned bishop and mastcr-Kjiirit of the Latin

empire, revived " in that great city which reigneth over

Jerusalem, the end of this world, this sinful generation,

and these heavens. But whether this interpretation be

the kings of the earth."

accepted or despised,

Inst, tliey nro all exhibited before the

known

When

"
tion

ye therefore

see the abomination of desola-

sliall

spoken of by Daniel the prophet, Btnnding

place,

whoso

readctli, let liini inulerstiind

Speaking the truth

in

Antichrist, nor

liismnrk, concerning whieli abomination Daniel the prophet

speaks, and our blessed Lord cautions ms, I
sec

why

am

Of this abomination, which now

viii.
9-13).
" showeth himself, that he is and has been infallible,"
Tlie mark of this mysour Lord would have men beware.
terious monarch on the banner of tlic Latin empire, in jilace
of the Roman eagles, is now the image of the pagan cross,

unable to

(Dan.

the readers of the gospel, to the end of time, should

be particularly cautioned respecting the eagles of the legions

of Titus, which are usually taken for the abomination of

What

desolation here referred to by our Lord.

for

vs to understand

is

in tliern

oannoteonceive, ncilherto them

reference found in Daniel.

But the prophet does

is

ing great it waxed great even to the host of heaven yc':t,

he magnified himself even to the prince of the host and
by him was the daily sacrifice taken away, and it cast down
"
the truth to the ground, and it practised and prospered

in the holj'

" (Matt. xxiv. 16).

in lovi', neitlicr to revile

it is certain that Daniel the prophet,

another place, does speak of one " which waxed exceed-

anj'

which of old

led,

and

is

now

leading, into the sanctuary,

say, that

especially in America, the fashionable symbols, the lying

"for the oversjjreading of abominations he shall make it

desolate " (Dan. ix. 27), which is translated in the margin
of our Bible, " And upon the battlements shall be the idols

wonders, and false pretences of the mother of abomina-

These " battlements "

of the desolator."

Churches of the nations, established

faith, for the

may

tions, together

indicate the

which consign whole nations, not

for the defence of the

maintenance of the truth, and

with a growing army of images and pictures,

carnal indulgences, sacrificial masses, and noisy thunders,

own

for the further-

are purified in flaming

and peoples who

may

as

be the images set up in the Churches of the desolator

set

up both

in

Jerusalem of the Jews, and in the

siege

which were

set

Roman

and ruin by the legions of Titus

also

this

Whoso

reject his infallibility to endless burnings,

God manifest

tlie

and

at the

And

on the

this

"abo-

mination of desolation," whose mark, like every other

idol,

thrusts itself between the heart of the worshipper and the

its

same

Lord,

Gentiles in their times,

him understand."

in the flesh, sitting

Christendom has long been imposed upon by

standards

up round about Jerusalem, in

time directly to the heart of

saying, "

he were

portions over all the earth

This interpretation carries the Lord's admonition to the

or eagles

if

throne and dispensing judgment and justice in eternal

Churches of the Gentiles.

heart of his hearers, with respect to the

where his

purchase re-

demption with gold, but consigning both kings and princes

ance of the gospel; while "the idols of the desolator"

to purgatory,
excejit they

fire,

making

itself the recipient of those affections

are due to the invisible and only wise God.

which

It turns

from

thus

the fellowship of Christ's sufferings to contemplate, in the

individual and personal application of the text

pride of this world, the fashion of a brilliant or imposing

reodeth, let

accords with the spirit and sense of the whole chapter, in

ornament.
ing Saviour.

It separates the
It arrests

showy wearer from the suffermind in contemplating the

the

" YE

THE CROSS OF CHHIST NO IMAGE.

86

Bhaine and sorrows of Christ crucified for us, and turns

to

a senseless image, to n

dumb

idol, to a

it

lying vanity.

That Protestants do not bow down, and burn incense, and

put their

image,

lips to the

and loving the thing,

as

no excuse

is

for reverencing

some confess they

Few

do.

the fourth century worshipped the idol; in the ninth

did.

in
all

American Protestants arc now farther advanced in

Christendom was fifteen centuries ago

this idolatry than

and mony arc pressing forward, under

its

fashionable lead,

embrace the Mother Mystery, and

to

drink of the cup

to

of her abominations, both on this and on the other side

of the sea.

May God,

of His grace, avert the omen, and

sanctify the cross of Christ's sufferings to the heart of back-

sliding Israel

among

all

the hope of a rest for

men may

nations, that
tlio

cease from

Cluirch, or for Jacob in any

country or kingdom of this world, and that we

may

of a city which hath foundations

i.e.,

an heavenly,

moved

and

Isaac,

and

kingdom which cannot

and an inheritance with Abraham,

or shaken,

and Jacob, "

in the everlasting

Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

now and

to seek a better country

to receive a

To

kingdom

Him

of our

be glory, both

Amen."

for ever.

HAVE HEARD THAT THB ANTICHRIST SHALL

COME."

87

Laban sought in vain throughout

"
They crept from private houses "by degrees
first, by paintings into the churches, where they became
Jixed by embossing and carving while yet they were not
Rachel's images, which

Jacob's tents.

Once secure of a standing

worshipped.

in the holy jilaces,

they never give back, but they gain " favour by degrees"
among the curious, " the young, and tlie impressible the
;

and glory;" and from their

the doctrine of looking toward

lovers of this world's beauty

high places they hold forth

and reverencing

the likenesses

the iinages.

To such preach-

ing man's "natural tastes and feelings" incline him to

listen, as all experience of the "ages and nations doth too

much prove"

{Ilomihj 14).

" LET HIM THAT

give

diligence in our mortal pilgrimage to embrace the promise

be

IS

WITHOUT SIN AMONG YOU FIRST CAST

A STONK."

churches.
of the cross ia foremost of the furaily of idols in the
" the cliief priesU and the scribes and the elders
seeing that in Jcrusaleiu
priest, who was
of the people assembled together unto the palace of the high
kill Him,"
Caiaphas, and consulted that they might lake Jesus by subtiltyand
the same classes in Christendom have, for
it need not too much amaze us that
the image of that cross on
theTr own ends, also agreed together to glorify

The imago

And

race which "denied

which those of old mocked Him. Wo are of the sinful
you,
One and the .Tust, and desired a murderer to be gnnted unto
through ignorance yc
and killed the Prince of Life." "Brethren, I wot that
" Suppose ye that these were sinners above
did it, as did also your rulera."
wo are all guilty i.f
Niiy
these things?
all the OmtiUt" because they did
His own body on the tree
His blood, " who His own self bare our sins in
judge one another
by whose stripes ye were healed.'* " Let us not therefore
man put a stum(neither Jews nor Oentilea), but judge this rather, that no
bling-block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way."

the Holy

This history of the imoge of the cross will stand the

closest scrutiny

but nothing will change the manners of

the world or of the Churches.

of Vermont foresaw
ritualism will

grow

is

Tliat

which the

late

rapidly coming to pass, viz.

Bishop
" This

by degrees, until it becomes

The young, the ardent, and the
follow it more and more.
The lovers of
into favour

the prevailing system.

impressible will

beauty and glory will favour

it,

Symbols were

Idolatry

at first

it

appeals with

and feelings," &c. {IJopkiri'x

into favour by degrees."
Such were
kept privately in closets.

effect to the natural tastes

Law of Ritualism).

because

"grew

The unconquerable aversion to the use of images in the

ceased,
primitive Church died away after the persecutions
Gibbon,
impartial
The
tolerated.
were
they
length
at
till
b. v., soys

"At

first

the venerable pictures were discreetly

allowed to instruct the ignorant, to awaken the cold, and

By a
proselytes.
to gratify the prejudices of the heathen
original
slon but inevitable progression, the honours of the
revcrthe
received
idol
the
copy"
the
to
ttansferred
were

THE

88

CliOSS

OF CHRIST NO IMACE.

Many, ambitious to giiiii the

them by allowing their idols and
honours under the names of martyrs and saints. To such a
height did this evil grow that the emperors Valens, a.d. 364,
and Tlieodosius, a.d. 380, each in his time, issued, edicts
against it.
But neither preaching, nor decrees of councils,
nor laws of princes, nor any other mcanH, have been able
to resist the evil, where the likenesses and images are set
cnce due to

the

saint.

heathen, conciliated

>

on high in the churches.

The Eefonners, obedient

to the scripture,'

" Little

chil-

dren, keep yourselves from idols," ubandoncd the whole

body of them

to destruction in all the cathedrals, churches,

and chapels of Great Britain, which were full of paintings,

sculpture, needlework, and imagery, that had corrupted
former generations. They said "that imiigos which cannot
be without lies ought not to be made, or to be put to any
use of religion, or to be placed in any churches."

saw that the setting

xip

They

of these in places of worship gives

great occasion to the worshipping of them.

They were
convinced that these " teach no good lesson, either of Gtod
or of holiness ;" but as Augustine says,

"They be of more
an unhappy soul tlian to instruct it in
truth."
It is time in England, while many of the educated and higher classes are drawing nearer, and some are
going over, to Rome, to weigh well the question, " What
force to crooken

fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and

what communion hath light with darkness? and what
concord liath Christ with Belial ? and what agreement hath
the temple (Church) of

out from

among

and touch not

thcni,

God with

idols?

Wherefore, come

and be ye separate,

the unclean thing" (2 Cor.

J'RINTED DV

BALLANTVNE AND (.UMPANV

EDINDCRUH AND LONDON

saitli tlie

vi.

14-17).

Lord,

^!

MS

J'

DATE DUE
!!?'"

BE
r:::^^***^

GAYLORD

#3523PI

Printed

in

USA

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