IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /. {/ W t 1.0 !if I.I 1.25 IIM 112.5 ^^ IM IIIII2.2 If 1^ 1.4 2.0 1.8 1.6 V] <^ /a /a ^. em oS, % >> 7 /A m ^^ « 6^ rv^ '^^ %^ CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions Institut canadien de microreproductions historiques 1980 Technical Notes / Notes techniques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Physical features of this copy which may alter any of the images in the reproduction are checked below. □ Coloured covers/ Couvertures de couleur L'institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6td possible de se procurer. Certains d^fauts susceptibles de nuire d la quality de la reproduction sont notds ci-dessous. 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The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour dtre reproduites en un seul cliche sont filmdes d partir de Tangle sup^rieure gauche, de gauche i droite et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Le diagramme suivant illustre la mdthode : 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 EsTRRSii a^j^^sliag (iQ> Ac:ii of PijJiUameBit of Cauada,. in. th« year A L>« i%$, Iby liJ'. IHqwiW $>iXQi?ix ]iv...?<'.,Iu^,, I's i Department of A^eicu!tut<^» waM«xr.£..»«!<;nMH THE BIBLE AND THE PRAYER BOOK. Mistranslations, Mutilations, AND Errors, With References to Paganism. th« BY B. HOMER DIXON, K.N.L O God, fill my heart with fear of Ihre: not with the fear of torment but with the holy, childlike fear of offending so kind a Father, so era- cious and merciful a Saviour TORONTO, CANADA : TORONTO WILLARD TRACT DEPOSITORY, Cor. Yonge and Temperance Sts. A S pamphlets are ephemeral productions which ^ have generally but a short existence, I have repeated a few articles from two brochures, (The Church of England in Canada, and Clerical Ap- parel and Bowing in the Creed) hastily written last year as it was in a measure necessary to make the present intelligible to those who may not have seen them, and especially as I have withdrawn them from sale. How long will English Churchmen still con- tinue to sing w^ithout understanding, like parrots, the concluding verses of the Venite, " When your fathers tempted me" — " in the wilderness" — " forty years long was I grieved with this generation" ? This refers only to the Jews, who were not our fathers, and to their wanderings in the Desert ot Sinai, and does not in any way apply to us, for we are Gentiles."^ More than a century agq the American Church altered this, taking instead two verses from Psalm *■ These ''fathers," as David calls them, were really the fathers or forefathers of the Jews ; but the fathers spoken of by Paul to the Corinthians (i Cor. x. i) must be understood in the sense of predecessors or forerunners, they being in a spiritual sense only the ancestors of the Christian Corinthians. 8 xciv., and when our choirs are singing, "When your fathers tempted me/' I sing in my heart: "O worship the Lord in the beauty of holi- ness; let the whole earth stand in awe of Him." "For He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth ; and with righteousnes to judge the world and the people with His truth." A great blot in our Prayer Book is that the service commences with an Absolution, which, as in the Romish Church, cannot be given by a deacon, but according to the rubric must be pronounced by the priest alone, and Wheatly (not Archbishop Whately) says, "It is not called a Declaration of Absolution, as one would think it should have been if ^it had been designed for no more : but it is positively and emphatically called TllE Absolution, to denote that it is really an absolution of sins to those who are entitled to it by repentance and faith," and when the priest, who it says has the power and commandment to do so, pronounces such absolution and remission, those who unfeign- edly believe God's holy gospel have their pardon conveyed and sealed to them at that very moment, through his ministration. Mark well. This absolution cannot be said like the prayers, by the Minister, all kneeling, but must ho, pronouncedly the Priest, alone, zvho arises, and pronounces it standing; the people still kneel- ing, and in this case is*it not evident that they are not kneeling to the Almighty, but to the Priest, to receive the Absolution which he, the Priest, stand- ing, solemnly utters as a judge pronounces a sentence, and as he does so is he not acting strictly in accordance with the authority given to him by the Bishop at his ordination, "Whose sins thou dost mid Ibut \ses^ :el- are to Ind- a :tly by lost forgive they are forgiven?" Moreover this agrees literally with the Romish doctrine, for Cardinal Vaughan has just told us that they understand ordination to be "a power to forgive the sins of men with a divine efficiencv." The Irish Church (Dublin, 1878) left this abso- lution unaltered. The changes made by others were : (ii.) By the American Church, in the Rubric, where it is called "77/^ Declaration of,'' etc. (iii.) The Book of Common Prayer Revised, used by the Free Church (London, 1874). The Rubric reads : " The Absolution or Declaration Con- cerning the Remission of Sins. To be pronounced by the Minister'' (iv.) The English Reformed Episcopal (London, 1879), ^^ The Declaration of God's Mercy'' etc. " To be said by the Minister alone',' and omits the words "hath given power and commandment," etc. (v.) The American and Canadian Reformed Episcopal. The Rubric agrees with No. iv., and the words "hath given power and commandment," etc., and "absolveth," are omitted, (vi.) The Revised Prayer Book of the Reformed Spanish Church (Dublin translation, 1889), differs somewhat from ours. The Rubric reads : " The Presbyter {or the Bishop, if he be present^ shall then say : Almighty God . . . vouchsafe to pardon all your offences, clothe you with the spotless robe of the righteousness of Christ," etc. And the people, " Ans.y God Almighty have mercy on thee also, pardon all thy sins," etc. (vii.) The Protestant Prayer Book (London, 1894). " TJie Declaration of Gods mercy in Christ, To be said by the minister standi7tg," etc. " Almighty God . . . who now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, that they may receive out of His gracious hands the 10 pardon and remission of their sins. He pardoneth and receiveth all them," etc. This last is from the Prayer Book of the Com- mittee of Revision, of which the Convener is the Rev. Charles Stirling, M. A., who, caring not for the loaves and fishes, gave up his preferment in the Church at the time of the Lincoln judgment. The root of this error is the assumption by our bishops of the words used by our most blessed Lord to His twelve Apostles. In John xx. 19 we read, "the disciples were assembled." As there were prophets and lesser prophets, so also were there disciples and lesser disciples, and that the original Twelve are here alluded to (Judas except- ed) appears from i>. 24, " But Thomas, 07/e of the twelve, who was called the Twin, was not with them." These Apostles were distinguished from the other disciples by their having acted under the immediate action of the Holy Spirit and by their having frequently exercised the power of working miracles. They had no successors. The Apos- tolate ceased on the day that St. John died at Ephesus. The whole church evidently took part in preaching ; and while the Apostles were left alone in Jerusalem (Acts i. 4), "they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word " (Acts viii. 4). They claimed no sacramental power to hear confessions, nor as God's appointed judges to forgive sins, but that " repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name." (Luke xxiv. 47.) The Greek words translated retaining and for- giving sins do not, according to Dean Stanley of 1 1 at ind >» or- of necessity mean the declaration of the innocence or lavvfuhiess of any particular act, still less does the corresponding Greek phrase necessarily mean the declaration of its unlawfulness. It may be that the words rendered "remit sin" are (as in Mark i. 4 ; Luke iii. 37) cquixalent to the abolition or dismissal of sin, and it would be the natural meaning of the word rendered *' retain sin" that it should signify, as in all other passeges of the New Testament where it occurs, " to control," "conquer," "subdue sin," but he adds that the words are not free from ambiguity. The phrase, "binding and loosing" (Matt. xviii. 18) meant, according to Bishop Lightfoot in the language of the Jewi.sh schools, declaring what is right, and what is wrong. If any Master or Rabbi or Judge declared a thing to be wrong or false, he was said to ha\ e bound it ; and if he declared a thing to be right or true, he was said to have loosed it, and this expression addressed to the first disciples meant that their decisions in cases of right or wrong would be invested with all and more than all the authority which had belonged before to the Masters of the Jewish Assembly, to the Rulers and Teachers of the Synagogues. Before the end of the first century there were no bishops. They rose out of one presbyter or elder in the Church assuming an administrative direction as an overseer or inspector, which is the meaning of the Greek word Episcopus, which title was adopted by the Roman Church. The e was dropped by the Anglo Saxons and the word became " biscop." Tertullian, who died A.D. 225, says, "Christ- ians were made priests by Christ, so that where T2 three are gathered together they make a Church, although they be all laymen ; and where no cleric is present, laymen may baptize and administer the sacraments, the distinction between clergy and laity being only of the Church's appointment." There are some who claim an Apostolic Suc- cession for our ministry, but there is no point, of history more certain than that the primacy of St. Peter was never heard of during the first three centuries of the Church. The origin of this theory was the Chronicon of Eusebius, said to have been compiled in the year 354, and the so-called Liberian Catalogue of the bishops or popes of Rome, but which is now believed to be a sixth century production. The learned Scaliger said of Peter's episcopate at Rome that "it ought to be classed with ridiculous legends," and Dean Alford used equally strong lan- guage, calling it "the veriest and silliest fable.' Before going to Rome Paul sent many saluta- tioi ^- to the Christains there, but never named Peter. He afterwards wrote from Rome and al- though he mentions by name no less than twenty- seven of his friends there he never refers to Peter by name or description. In a genealogical tree one case of illegitimacy destroys the succession and there is no remedy, and even allowing, for the sake of argument only, that the Apostles had successors, there is not a century in the past nineteen in which there have not been spurious bishops, for all who were ordained by apostate popes or bishops, and their successors also, are all illegitimate. Archbishop Whately says, "There is not a minister in all Christendom who is able to trace t3 up with any approach to certainty his own spiritual pedigree. The Roman professor Genebrand (ob. 1597) says that for nearly one hundred and fifty yea * about fifty bishops or popes of Rome were apostates rather than apostles {apostaiici quatius qnam apos- tolici). During this time there were two or three, sometimes more popes, each of whom excommuni- cated the other, and to this day no one knows which were the so-called true popes and which were the anti-popes. Platina, Librarian of the Vatican, whose Lives of the Popes ends in 1471, records twenty-seven Schisms and Baronius, a Cardinal, who died in 1607, says "What was the face of the Holy Roman Church, how exceedingly foul was it, when most powerful and sordid harlots ruled at Rome, at whose will the Sees were changed, bishops were presented, and what is horrible to hear, unutterable, false popes, their lovers, were intruded into the chair of Peter." And yet many English bishops owed their consecration to some of these popes, and since the Reformation it is said there are about twenty English bishops of whose consecration there is no record whatever. It was said that there is no re- cord of the consecration of Bishop Barlow, the principal consecrator of Archbishop Parker, of Canterbury, in 1559; but this has been disproved. The names however of the consecrators of Arch- bishop Jones of Dublin, as Bishop of Meath, in 1584 are unknown. From him the present Irish episcopal succession is derived. A list of the Popes or Anti-Popes of the Great Schism placed in juxtaposition, may not be unin- ^4 teresting, especially as one of our archbishops was created by one of them. Urban VI. (1378,0b. 1389.) Clement VII. (1378.) Boniface IX. (1389.) Clement VII. (ob. 1394). Boniface IX. (ob. (1404). Benedict XI 11. (1394). Innocent V^ 1 1.(1404, ob. 1406). Benedict XIII. Gregory XII. (1406). Benedict XIII. Gregory XII. Alexander W (1410). Benedict XIII. Gregory XI I.(ob. 141=;) John Benedict XIII. XXIII. (1410-1416). Martin V. (1417). Benedict XIII.(ob. 1424). Martin V. sole I'ope in 1424. (ob. 143 1). Chichley, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1414, consecrated English bishops for twenty-nine years. He himself however received his episcopal orders from the above Gregory XII., who was an anti- pope, and was deposed, having been declared by the Council of Constance to be neither a pope nor a bishop. In 1610, John Spotswood was consecra- ted Archbisbop ol St. Andrews by the Bishops of London, Bath and Ely, and two others were con- secrated Bishops of Brechin and Galloway, without any of them having had more than Presbyterian ordination. On their return to Scotland they con- secrated other bishops, and the beneficed Presby- terian ministers who now joined were accepted by our Episcopal Church without further ordination. It was not till after the Restoration in 1662, when Lord Clarendon introduced into the Act of Uniformity the clause that no ordination was valid but episcopal. Before the above date non-episco- pal ordination had nei^er excluded any fit person from the ministry of the English CiiUrch. 15 Bishop Seabury,the first American bishop, was consecrated by the Episcopal Church of Scotland in 1784, but there are no records of the consecra- tions of the Scottish bishops between 1662 and 1688 — twenty-six years ! Mosheim tells us that as late as the ninth century few of the clergy could either read or write — and who kept the records of their ordina- tions and what proof was there that many who professed to be bishops, and charged fies for con- secrating others, were themselves ordained, and how many of those bishops are the spiritual ances- tors of the bishops of the present day ! According to a Council of Nice at least three consecrators are necessary, but in the early British Church one alone was sufficient, and it was the same in Scotland and Ireland ; and in the latter country the number of bishops was enormous. At one time they were believed to have reached seven hundred, and were mostly so poor that according to Green, one bishop wandered through the coun- try with a pet cow at his heels, without support save from the fees he charged for ordmatioh . King John (i 199- 12 16) sold bishoprics to the highest bidder. Queen Elizabeth wanted some of the lands of the Bishop of Ely, and upon his declining, wrote to him as follows : " Proud prelate ! You know what you were before I made you what you are now. If you do not immediately comply with my request, by I will unfrock you Elizabeth." The bishop obeyed and saved his frock. Captain David Lyon, of the Royal Navy, distinguished himself so gallantly against the Spaniards, that Queen Elizabeth promised him i6 the first vacancy that offered. He took her words literally, and when the Bishopric of Ross became vacant in 1582, he applied for it, and the Queen fulfilled her promise. From his quarter-deck he stepped at once into the bishop's throne, and it is be- lieved he never received any ordination whatever, not even as a deacon. The bishopric of Ross was united to Cork in the following year. He made a good bishop, but only preached one sermon, which was on the death of his benefactress. He died in 16 18. To return to our own time. A U. S. bishop was suspended for drunkenness, and it is only as late as 1878 that the aged bishop of Michigan was deposed for immorality. Such cases, it is true, are very rare now, but George Stone, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, who died in 1765, was considered the hardest drinker in Ireland. Blackburne, who ran away from Cambridge, and shipped as a cabin boy, rose to being chosen Captain of the celebrated pirate ship, Blrck Broom. After making a large fortune by piracy he returned to England, went back to Cambridge, resumed his studies and was eventually ordained. Sir Robert VValpole was then in power, and as Blackburn was a Whig, Sir Robert found him and his money very useful, and after a variety of Church preferments, made him Arch- bishop of York and Primate of England. He is said to have retained the vices of his youth {a sailor's vices !) even when he became an Archbishop, and certainly preferred London Court life to his own diocese, where he scarcely passed a month in the year. Walpole calls him '* The jolly old Arch- bishop, and it was jestingly said of him that he gained more hearts than souls." He died in 1743. ■I. 17 John Atherton, bishop of Waterford, was hanged in 1636. Should it be hard to behave that a bishop was hanged, turn to Haydn's " Book of Dignities," where his unmentionable crime is given and for being guilty of another crime (Rom. i. 27) the bishop of Clogher fled the kingdom in 1 821, to save his life. The punishment has since I believe been changed to ten years' imprisonment. In George the Second's time a cleric paid Lady Yarmouthjthe king's favorite. Five thousand pounds for a bishopric, and in the following reign when Mrs. Clark, favorite of the Duke of York, the king's much loved son was bribed on all sides, so scandal- ous, were the disclosures made — "Doctors of Divinity sueing for bishoprics and priests for pre- ferment, at the feet of a courtezan; kissing her palm with coin," that Parliament enacted a law in 1809, declaring the brokerage of offices, either in the army, the Church or the State, to be a crime highly penal. King James IV. of Scotland made his natural son James Stuart, Archbishop of St. Andrews in 1 509, while still a babe. Of course the child re- ceived all the revenues, and George the Third made his son the Duke of York, Bishop of Osnaburg, in 1764, when he was only seven months old, and when this bishop was three years old a clergyman of the Church of England dedicated a book to him as " The Right Reverend Father-in-God." In 1848, the appointment of Dr. Hampden to the see of Hereford was distasteful to both Trac- tarians and Evangelicals, as he had been censured by the University of Oxford for heterodoxy and was latitudinarian in his ecclesiastical politics. Thirteen bishops headed the clergy and laity in l8 urging the Premier Lord John Russell to revoke the appointment : and the Dean of Hereford declared he would rather incur the penalty of prae- munire than obey the conge d'elire commanding the election of Dr. Hampden, but Lord John was obstinate in defending his patronage; the bishops were thanked for their advice; the Dean's lettev was curily acknowledged as an intimation of his "inten- tion of violating the law." A majority of the Chapter complied with the conge d'elire : the law courts decided that the reluctant Archbishop must proceed to confirmation: and the series of instruc- tive fiction was climaxed by the performance of the ceremony at Bow Church, where, notwithstanding that the objectors appeared by their proctors, and claimed to be heard, the election was pronounced unanimous ! One of the first acts of this bishop was to or- dain his own son, who was such an ignoramus that he would not have passed muster elsewhere, and to give him a living which was soon exchanged for a better, and a year or two later, when t! a best living in the bishop's gift became vacant, he gave it to this son. It is very sad to read the history of some of our bishops. Miss Pardoe in her " Episodes of French History" uses very plain language in her account of the liaisons^ on the continent, of Mansell, bishop of Bristol, who died in 1820. Sidney Smith, a Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral, said "Bishops are but men; not always the wisest of men ; not always preferred for eminent virtue and talents or for any good reason whatever known to the public. They are almost always devoid of striking and indecorous vices ; but a man may be 19 very shallow, very arrogant, and very vindictive, though a bishop, and pursue with unrelenting hatred a subordinate clergyman, whose principles he dislikes and whose genius he fears .... I have seen in the course of my life, as the mind of the prelate decayed, wife bishops, daughter bishops, butler bishops, and even cook and house- keeper bishops.' The proverb says " Bishops possess every virtue but resignation," and we remember a prelate who held on to his prelacy (for the sake of the income of course) long after he was able to perform his duties and his wife and daughters made the appoint- ments to the benefits or living in his gift. In 1875 an Episcopal Address was drawn up in England and was signed by the two archbishops and all the bishops of England, except two only, one of whom, Bishop Baring, at once entered his protest against it, saying amongst other things, that his chief objection to the manifesto was that it was so indefinite in its statements — so feeble in its conclusions — and addin (y a But this address of almost all the members of the Episcopate of the Reformed Chuch of England dared not to venture to utter a single word with reference to the two most serious errors which arc the canse of the 'em- bittered controversy* of which it speaks." And it was too true. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and all the bishops of Eng- land, two only excepted, did not dare to utter a word against the ritualistic doctrine of the Real Presence and the introduction of Auricular Con- fession by a large number of the clergy. Bishop Baring gave away all his offical income, estimated at one hundred and fifty thousand 20 pounds, leaving only his private fortune to his children. A rare case we regret to say, while on the contrary it was stated in Parliament in 185 1, that immense amounts of public property had been appropriated by Protestant prelates to their own private purposes ; that majority of the Episcopal Bench had grossly falsified returns, etc. I might add more but must keep this tractate within bounds, but remember the case of a late Bishop of Rochester who sold the tithes of a parish to a layman to raise a marriage portion for his daughter ! The non-resident layman being obliged to provide for the "Cure of Souls" out of his ;^2000 a year tithes, first let the vicarage house, and then appointed a clergyman at the magnificent salary of ^100 a year to do the work. About thirty years ago, soon after my arrival here and when Canadians were first allowed to choose their own bishops, a clergyman induced a brother cleric to canvass for him, which he per- formed so well by promises and intir^dation, warn- ing some of the country clergy, as was said at the time, that his friend would certainly be elected and if they voted against him he would owe them a grudge, that he gained his point, for some of them perhaps remembered the words of the poor poet Andrew Marvel, M.P., **A11 Litany's in this have wanted faith, There's no Deliver us from a bishop's wrath," and the bishop immediately after his consecration appointed his friend Dean and Rector of his church which had then become the cathedral, contrary to distinct pledges that if elected the people should* select their own pastor. The latter then fastened 21 the cathedral doors, but not wishing to keep them forever locked called a vestry meeting and reduced the pew rents from which the rector's stipend and other expenses were paid, to one dollar per pew, so that the intruder soon found it advisable to retire. At the Synod held in Toronto in 1893 this pre- late informed the members that the R. C. Arch- bishop had precedence over him at Government House and elsewhere and that he might not be overlooked at Government House dinners, it must be presumed, as that is almost the only place in Canada where the Tables of Precedence are strictly followed, the Synod made him an Archbishop and he is styled "Most Rev." and if this Colonial Synod's title is not a sham one he must be addressed as "Your Grace," and thus outranks His Excellency the Governor-General, as only if the latter office should be held by a Duke would he be styled His Grace the Governor-General. The C)ueen is the fountain of honour and are not therefore the titles of lord and landed titles of colonial prelates chosen by synods equally doubtful ? In England where the church is established, a man is legitimately bishop of London or elsewhere, but here where all churches are on an equal footing a prelate of our church is bishop only of his own particular denomination. The late Bishop Phillips Brooks (one of a thousand) did not allow himself to be called Lord, nor did he sign his name as Phillips Massachusetts, neither did he wear any clerical livery. He wore his proper robes in the Church, but elsewhere was not ashamed to appear like one of the laity. Although nearly all our Presbyters are it is to be hoped Christian men, still it cannot be denied that some go into the Church as a matter of busi- 22 ncss only, and in England, if there is a good living in the family if it is not sold, it is almost the rule that one of the sons studies divinity that he may retain it, and when the time comes " he gets up into his pulpit and raids his sermon, too often not the man's own, but the production of some over- burdened School Board governess at 7s. 6d. a dozen." " Only a little while ago," says the Rev. Mr. Collings of Spitalfield's Parish Church, "I had an offer of sermons on any subject for a shilling or two each." In 1 88 1, at the sale of a preferment in England, which the incumbent attended out of curiosity, the auctioneer (not knowing who was in the room) when praising his wares, as the newspapers ex- pressed it, said that the purchaser would soon come into possession as the present incumbent was a very old man with one foot in the grave already, upon which the old clergyman stamped first one foot upon the ground, and then the other, calling out " which foot is it ?" And such men, even those who buy their liv- ings, (is it not simony ?) have the right according to the P. B. to forgive or to retain our sins. Our old friend the Rev. H. Paddon in his "Fifty Years in the Church" (Dorking, 1880) blessed God that there were some faithful bishops : but added "As far as my experience goe^^, I could count those whom I conscientiously believe to have been put into the office of bishop by God the Holy Ghost, during my fifty years ministry, upon my ten fingers." And how stands the case now. One day we see a turfite, owner of a great racing stable, count- ing his winnings at the Derby by his horse Ladas, and the next day creating a bishop, ;, ^ i' i 23 his ssed but ount Dcen :loly my y we Dunt- adas, The London Church Times (July 1894) in a leadinjr article, omitting the two Archbishops and the Welsh bishops, remarks of the twenty-eight re- maining members of the Bench that " not more than eight can be said to be filled by men of the first rank, seven more prelates, at most, may be ranked as good second-rate men; and there remain thirteen, whom no stretch of charity can raise even to the second rank." These remarks were caused by the appoint- ment by Lord Rosebery of Bishop Kennion to the See of Bath and Wells and the Rev. James Ormis- ton, of Bristol, says " A horse-racing Premier ap- pointing a chief pastor over Christ's ministers and their flocks, is nothing short of a national humilia- tion, whilst in the sight of God it must, indeed, reckon as a crying national sin. In the Divine Providence such outrages on propriety and con- science are precipitating the break up of the Estab- lishment, for they bring true religion into contempt and its holy interests into ridicule." One is almost tempted to regret that some o^ the old laws are obsolete. Henry VIII , appointed bishops who by their commissions were to exercise their functions during his good pleasure only, and Edward VI., appointed them to hold their sees during good behaviour. Archbishop Sheldon, Primate of all England, must not be overlooked as we are still suffering from his deviltry. I am using plain language for I believe his influence was satanic. He was the ruling spirit of the Convocation of 1662, to whom we are indebted for our P. B., and it was he who following Archbishop Laud, changed the word " Minister" in the second P. B. of King 24 Edward to "priest" although the Puritans, who may be called the Low Churchmen of that day, but were styled Puritans because they desired the pure word of God free from tradition, objected to the word but it was retained by Sheldon in direct opposition to their wishes. * Archdeacon Farrar, a man eminently worthy of the office, says "The word 'priest' which we now hear on every side, as though it were the proudest title in the world, is not used in the sense of pres- byter, but in the sense of sacrificial priest. Yet it does not occur once in all the thirteen epistles of St. Paul ; neither does it occur in the epistles of St. Peter, St. James, nor St. John. We hear much of union with the Greek Church but Mrs. Guthrie says the Russu Greek priests "are seldom men of birth, a nobleman never enter- ing into holy orders. The secular clergy are coarse, dirty, and in condition little above the peasants with whom they associate. One may occa- sionally be chosen by a nobleman to reside in his family as chaplain, but they never mix with the family, taking their meals with the footmen." Dean Hook says the Greek secular priests, not I I I *The word "high" was used by Pepys in 1661, not in respect, however, but the contrary. His words are: "The bishops are so high that very few do love them," and again, when complaining of the fearful depravity of the Court of Charles II , " And the clergy so high that all people that I meet do protest against their practice " In i68g, Sir Thomas Maynard, first Commissioner of the Great Seal, said: "As for the clergy, I have much honor for both High and Low of them." High Church is high because it places The Church first and Christ second. Low Church on the contrary places Christ Himself firPt and the church last. 25 not having any settled or competent livinf^s, are obliged to subsist by simoniacal practices, and Marsden in his book on The Christian Churches^ says of the Russian village priests that "their ignorance is ex- treme, and their servility and avarice proverbial. It is not uncommon to see a priest who has been publickly whipped, like a miserable vagabond, per- form his religious services a few hours after before the parish which witnessed his disgrace." About's account is if possible worse still. He says among other things '* they confess people in their own houses for a slight consideration" and closes "The good old men {K a/ogef oi-c^\oyQxs), that is what the Greeks call the monks of all ages, do not err by excess of cleanliness." 1 read the French author's book in Greece, during my second visit to that country, soon after it was published, and believe it to be a faithful picture. It is not the monks alone that have the "odor of sanctity." I passed some days in quarantine with Prince Victor Bariatinski, brother of the con- queror of the Balkans and who was rewarded by the Czar with the additional title of Balkanski. When walking in the yard we were allowed to speak to others but our guard watched closely that we did not come in contact. In conversation with a Greek, speaking Lingua Franca, a language picked up easily in the Levant, the Prince made a not unpolite remark on this subject to our rather greasy looking acquaintance and wondered that the Greeks were not as particular as the Turks. "Ah," was the reply " Their religion obliges them to wash," and I believe that he considered this a valid reason why his countrymen should be care- less about it and and expected the Prince, who of 26 course belonged to the Greek Church, to af^ice with him.* All those Eastern priests, as well as those of the Roman Church, are the equals of our so-called priests, for they all have had Episcopal ordination and can therefore claim admission into our Pro- testant Church. This was the work of Sheldon, who added the ** Episcopal Clause" to the Ordinal, which gives these priests the right, but at the same time denies the lawfulness of Non-episcopal ordination,previous to which Presbyterian ministers and Protestant ministers of the European Continent could exercise the functions of our ministers without re-ordination. Archbishop Sheldon was most lavish in his expenditure, giving away at the rate of /^5,ooo yearly in public charities, and dispensed splendid hospitality at Lambeth, and must therefore have been exceedingly popular. Pe^;ys, who dined there on an orduiary day, says most of the company had gone and there were only about twenty left, so that, excluding the officials, there were probably at least fifty guests daily;! and more on great days, or up- wards of fifteen hundred a month at a low calcula- tion. It is no wonder, then, that he had such power. Every morning his chaplains and gentlemen officers met at the palace in a sort of free bar-room, *Byron, with a poet's license, wrote of the Maid of Athens, "My life, I love thee," but Thackeray, in prose, asked "Who could love a rose if it was steeped in butter?" t My estimate may he coUvsidered a large one but in the Northumberland Household Book, for 1512, we see that the Earl reckoned upon fifty-seven strangers every day. This uneven number was probably the average. j; it e. '^1 where they were provided with such liquors as they liked best,and a sumptuous dinner was spread daily. The archbishop, however, was imbued with the passions of his day, short-sighted and narrow- minded. His rulin.r passion was dcte-^tation of the Puritans, whom he considered plagues and pests to the church. Bishop Burnet says: "Me seemed not to have a deep sense of religion, if any at all, speaking of it as a matter of policy and an engine of government " After dinner, he arose and retired to the with- drawing-room; the chaplains and gentlemen officers to their lodgings to drink and smoke. Pepys (who was Secretary of the Admiralty) dined there, and, hearing that a mock sermon was to be preached, waited, when a gentleman " did pray and preach like a Presbyter Scot, with all possible imitation in grimaces and voice. And his text about hanging up their harps upon the willows . . . till it made us all burst."* P"or a wonder, the chief re- viser of the Prayer Book seems to have had some regard for public opinion, as Pepys adds that he "took good care to have the room door shut." He was as immoral a man as his royal master. His correspondence with Sir Charles Sedley con- cerning a young woman whom he called his cousin (Pepys's Diary, July 24th, 1667) will not bear tran- scribing here; and the Convocation ruled by him, in the prayer for Parliament, called Charles H. "our most religions king," an expression which the king and his witty friends often made fun of.-(* * Psalm cxxxvii. 2. i The Prayer Book of King George III. is still pre- served at Windsor. With his own hand, the good old king altered this to "a most miserable sinner." (n :';: I I 28 King Charles called for all the clergy to sub- scribe to his book, but upwards of 2,000, or about one-fifth of the whole, had conscience enough to refuse to conform, and were driven from their pul- pits; and, not satisfied therewith, Sheldon engine- ered the Five-Mile Act, which forbade any of the ejected clergy from coming within five tniles of the place where they had been "parson, priest, or vicar." " Truly," as the Rev. Mr. Mountfield says, " the mercies of angry ecclesiastics are cruel." It would be difficult to comprehend how any parliament could pass such an Act were it not for the archbishop's dinners. Not that members could be brought over by a dinner, but those who fre- quented his hospitable board would be loth to vote against him. This account is incomplete without a history of his " friend " and " honoured chaplain," Dr. Samuel Parker, whose first production was a work against the Puritans in 1655, which he dedicated to Sheldon, and was rewarded by being made one of his household chaplains. Five years after, in 1670, he wrote a virulent book against the Dis- senters, and was made Archdeacon of Canterbury.* *' Prosperity madu the man insolent. He swag- gered about the streets of London in cassock and girdle, and was so lifted up with pride that he was insufferable to all that came near him. No divine of the day excelled in profanity and scurrility the Archbishop's chaplain," \ and as a specimen of what some of the divines then in power were, we may add that Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, called "'• "The Church and tbc Puritans." By D. Mountfield, M.A., Rector of Newport, Salop. , ' t What were the others, then ? ' ^ ' ) sub- about ^h to r pul- igine- >f the of the I) i^icar. "the w any lot for ; could lo fre- to vote li story Dr. a work iicated ,de one iter, in le Dis- . rbury.* swag- ck and he was ) divine ity the men of /ere, we r, called Mintfield, 29 Charles II. a god-like man ! Nor can we wonder, for Andrew Marvel writes : " All promotions, spiritual and temporal, pass under the cognizance of the Duchess of Cleveland." Parker called Nonconformists " rebel saints a waspish sect of swollen insolence and snarling humours, rat-divines, demure precious ones, white aprons, sons of Belial, godly rebels who must have their ungoverned tongues and spirits bridled with pillories and whipping-posts." He calls another minister " a great bell-wether of disturbance and sedition, a viper, so swollen with venom, that it must either burst or spit its poison." " He thought little of prayers or of any exercises of devotion, which he seldom attended, for * as to religion he was rather impious.' One of his profane sayings, it is said, was, ' The king was indeed under God, yet he was not under Christ, but above Him.' The judicious Hooker is reverenced by most clergymen, and his Ecclesiastical Polity considered a masterpiece of calm reasoning ; Parker said of it, " Hang Mr. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity ; it is a long-winded book, and I never had the patience to read it." Such was the man honored by Shel- don's friendship, created his chaplain. Archdeacon of Canterbury, Prebendary of Canterbury, Rector of Ickham, and Rector of Lhartham. James II. appointed this sycophant. Bishop of Oxford, to bring round the clergy to Popery, which he could not profess openly, because he had a wife." And this bishop Parker was the intimate friend of the chief reviser of our Prayer Book. The convivial routs of Archbishop Cornwallis (ob. ip'83) v/ere so scandalous that King George wrote him a letter, closing as follows : " From the ^. ' 30 dissatisfaction with which you must perceive I behold these improprieties, not to speak in harsher terms, and still more pious principles, I trust you will suppress them immediately ; so that I may not have occasion to show any further marks of my displeasure, or to interfere in a different manner. " I remain, my lord primate, your gracious friend. G. R." The revenue of Archbishop Sutton, who died in 1828, was estimated at ^^^32,000, or $160,000 a year. The present Archbishop of Canterbury has ;^I 5,000, or $75,oco, nominally at least, for ther,. are generally uncounted extras, which largely increase the stipend of the prelates, and two palaces, while the Prime Minister of Great Britain has only ;£^5,ooo and no palace. What would St. Peter have said to a salary of about four hundred pounds daily, or two thousand dollars a day, besides extras and no rent to pay ? One way the bishops of England formerly had, was to grant long leases at a very low rent in consideration of a large bonus, cas/i doivn, leaving their successors saddled with these low rents ; and this was in vogue until Parliament had to prevent their granting such long leases. They manage matters differently elsewhere. In Russia, the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg has ^800, or $4,000 per annum; the archbishops, ^600, or $3,000 ; and the bishops, $2,000 ; and in France the archbishops and bishops receive the same as in Russia, viz., 15,000 francs and 10,000 francs per annum. Our Prayer Book is not that of the Reforma- ^! 31 :eive I larsher st you I may ; of my nner. racious R." lo died D,ooo a ury has r therj largely id two Britain ilary of lousand > pay ? -ly had, rent in leaving :s ; and prevent ewhere. urg has s, ^600, France ne as in ncs per eforma- tion, but is the Revision in 1662, and the Rev. Mr. Jacobs says of this revision : " Was absolute per- fection then certainly secured so ihat nothing should afterwards be done? Was that time of violent exasperation in the Church, and of debased morals in the Court and gentry, of all times in the world the one best fitted for settling a Liturgy and binding it upon all posterity for evermore ?" In the Ordering of Priests the bishop says "Receive the holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church of God, now committed unto these by the Iinposition of our hands. Whose sins thou dost forgive they are forgiven; and whose thou dost retain they are retained," and in the consecration of Bishops the " Imposition" is re- peated thus " and remember that thou stir up the grace of God which is given thee by the Imposition of our hands." No change was made in the (II.) Irish Prayer Book. (III.) The American Church also retained the above, but in the Ordering of Priests added another to be used instead of "Receive thou," with the Rubric ''or tJiis'^ "Take thou Authority to exe- cute the Office of a Priest" etc. (IV.) The English Prayer Book Revised. "Almighty God, our heaven- ly Father, grant unto thee the gift of the holy Ghost, for the Office ^nd Work of a Presbyter," etc., and the form for a bishop agrees with it. [V.] The English Reformed Episcopal. "Take thou authori- ty to execute the office and work of a presbyter" etc. and that for a bishop also agrees with it. [VI.] The American and Canadian Prayer Books are the same as the English R. E. Prayer Book. [VII.] The Spanish does not differ much from these last, and [VIII.] The Protestant Prayer Book also V ; : I ||. 32 agrees with thcni, in the Ordering of Presbyters, but has no form for Bishops. The clause in our own form "whoF ) sins thou dost forgive" etc. w^as introduced into the Roman form in the thirteenth century because of the in- crease of priestly power imparted by the deeply significant words. Before this the form consisted solely of a prayer to the Holy Ghost. Strange to say, all, except only the last, both in the Consecration of Bishops and Ordering of Priests retain the words "by the Imposition of our hands." This ceremony is well called an Imposition or Imposture, for by it the people are led to believe that the tactual succession has been brought down without a break from the time of the Apostles. On the contrary however the laying on of hands was not adopted by the Roman Church until about one thousand years after Christ, and was abandoned by them in 1439, under the authority of the Council of Florence, and the ordination with- out the imposition of hands was declared valid by the Roman Canon Law. It has never been used in the Greek Church. Dean Alford said ** It is a fiction of which I find in the New Testament no trace" and Professor Hatch, who proves that the rite was not universal anciently, adds " it is impos- sible that, if it was not universal, it can have been regarded as essential." From the time of the Apostles therefore there is first the gap of about one thousand years and secondly over two hundred years from 1439, when it was dropped by the Roman Church, until it was adopted by our church and how can these two gaps be bridged over ? 35 esbytcrs, ;ins thou Roman r the in- e deeply :onsisted ast, both iering of 3n of our osition or believe ^ht down >stles. g on of irch until and was authority ;ion with- valid by sen used 1 '' It is a iment no that the is impos- ave been ore there ears and 39, when til it was these two Tactual succession is not mentioned in the Prayer Book of 1552, but was introduced by Arch- bishop Sheldon and this FOUNDER from whom our bishops derive their so-colled Apostolic descent , although an able politician was an irreligious, im- moral man, who generally spoke of religion as a matter of policy and an engine of government. To Charles the Second's bishops, therefore, we are indebted for this doctrine, and the ceremony as now performed seems like a mockery. Three or more bishops point with their fingers spread apart and extended towards the head of the bishop elect, as if it was intended to make the [must I say the ignorant and superstitious .?] laity believe that thirty or more streams of some magnetic, or rather Apostolical fluid were passing from the ends of their fingers into the head of the bishop elect. When the Archbishop or bishop solemnly says, " Receive thou the Holy Ghost .... now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands And remember that thou stir up the grace of God which is given thee by this Imposi- tion of our hands," does neither hr, nor the clergy, reflect that this commission, granting the Holy Ghost — is it not blasphemy ? — is, I repeat, not derived from the Apostles, but from King Charles the Second's bishops, the chief of whom was Sheldon. And the tactical successors of this Archbishop, mortal men, still profess to give authority to fellow- sinners to forgive sins, or worse still, if possible, to retain them ; and this power the best men, even if acting honestly but ignorantly, cannot help .sometimes conferring upon unworthy receivers, and in a lifetime of over three score and ten we have known many such, :.'S'l iili :,l IK I I i I 34 At the late Grindcnwald Conference, the Rev Dr. Glover, a Baptist, said : " The rubric of the Church of England for ordination adopted precisely the same terms as the ritual of the Church of Rome, * Receive thou the Holy Ghost. Whosesoever sins thou remittest, they are remitted ; whosesoever sins thou dost retain, they are retained.' He quoted from the Catholic ritual. The Saviour used those words, and they fitted His divine lips, but they did not fit the lips of mortals, and it was improper, in his opinion, that mortals should use them. But the Council of Trent had said with reference to that rubric : 'If any man shall say that when the bishop says. ' Receive ye the Holy Ghost,' the Holy Ghost is not given, or that in the act of ordination a character is not imprinted upon the person receiving it, let him be anathema. A historic bishop was a bishop who transmitted ministerial grace, and to him Nonconformists would never be able to bow." And at the same Conference the Ven. Arch- deacon Sinclair said with reference to the nomina- tion of English Bishops : " The custom which confines advice to the Crown on this point to the Prime Minister, is only a traditional etiquette, and appears to me unsuitable. It would, I believe, be a very wholesome change if four other members of the Cabinet were associated with the Prime Minister in this most critical matter : the Lord Chancellor, the Lord President, the Lord Privy Seal, and either the Home Secretary, the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, or the Chancellor of the Duchy. Such a committee there was in the time of William HI." In our Baptismal Service we give thanks to I I \c Rev of the 'ccisely Rome, /er sins ^er sins quoted d those It they iproper, a. But •ence to hen the he Holy dination person historic nistcrial lever be ri. Arch- nomina- which to the 2tte, and Heve, be mbers of J Prime he Lord d Privy e Chan- )r of the the time :hanks to 35 God that it hath pleased Him to *' regenerate this Infant." It is the same also in the Irish and American books, and the Spanish, although differ- ently worded, agrees with them. In the Prayer Book Revised, however, it reads : " to bring this Infant here to be baptized," and in the English and American Reformed Episcopal it is, " to dedi- cate this child to Thee." The Priest beseeches the Almighty to " sanc- tify this water." Is not this asking the Father to make what the Romanists call holy water .? This clause, which was excluded from King Edward's second book of 1552, was restored by Sheldon, although the Puritans protested against it, as it endorsed the doctrine of transelementation. It is omitted in the last two of the above-named books. Was the river Jordan sanctified before John bap- tized our most blessed Lord ? " Not to Thy cross, but to Thyself My Living Saviour would I cling ; 'Twas Thou, and not Thy cross did'st bear My soul's dark guilt — sin's deadly sting." (( WITH THE SIGN AND DO SIGN HIM OF THE CROSS. Thus it reads in our Prayer Book as well also in the Irish, Spanish and American books, but in the latter the Rubric gives permission to the Min- ister to omit the sign if those who present the infant desire it. The sign is omitted in the other books. Although now the sign of the cross of Christ, it was originally the T (tan) or initial and emblem of Tammuz, the Sun-god, the most ancient forms of which letter were sometimes crossed below the top like our small /, and even the Scancjina,vians il; 36 i-i I!'! :(i : !■ I I I ' i i' ^ and other pagans consecrated their children with the pagan sign. Thor, the Scandinavian god of thunder, had two crosses which are often confounded. The first was the T (^tau) cross which from its resem- blance to a double-headed hammer was called Thor's hammer. The other was the fylfot or many- footed cross, being an equal armed one but with a small part of the limbs or arms continued at right angles, all in the same direction. It was a fiery one because it denoted the lightning and could only be held by Thor himself therefore with a steel glove. It was the same as the Hindu Agni, or god of fire, or Swastika cross of India. Dr. Schleiman found it on lerra-cotta disks at Troy, in strata in- dicating an Aryan civilization of two or three thou- sand years before Christ. According to Lundy to make the Agni or fire at his sacrifice the Hindu worshipper took two pieces of wood and arranged them in the form of a cross and by whirling them rapidly together with a bow obtained the desired fire by the violent friction. They had a somewhat similar custom in the Scotch Highlands. When there was a contagious disease among the cattle they extinguished all the fires in some villages around, 'Then they forced fire from a wheel," and therewith burnt juniper in the stalls .... This done the fires in the houses were rekindled from the forced fire. All this says Shaw in his History of Moray (Elgin, 1827) I have seen done. Fylfot crosses are found also in the Roman Catacombs, says Zceckler, at a very early period, in the second and first half of the third century, but later fell into disuse, • .. . 1 with r, had The esem- called many- with a t right :ry one .nly be glove, god of leiman ata in- ;e thou- indy to Hindu ranged g them desired mewhat When le cattle villages el," and . This ed from ' Moray Roman ' period, century, 37 The Egyptians fixed a ring above the T (fan), so that it became a cross with a liandle. All heathen mythology arose in Babylon be- fore the dispersion of races, and the older festivals agree in date whether in Asia, Africa, Europe or America, where they all had the cross of Tammuz. The prophet Jeremiah (li. 7) spoke truly when he said "Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord's hand, that hath made all the earth drunken." Evervwhere however their wise men believed there was a Supreme and Only God, the maker of the world and man, who was worshipped at Babylon as Bel, " the Lord," and Mcrodach the Sun-god. Of one race in Greece, the Pclasgi we are told they had no images and worshipped one Supreme God whose name they never pronounced. The Greeks believed that Zeus or Jupiter was both male and female and sang, "Zeus is the male, Zeus is the immortal female, and Arnobius tells us that some of the ancients prayed "Oh Baal, whether thou be a god or goddess hear us." In Scandinavia and in South America also they believed there was the One Supreme Un- known God to whom Paul found an altar in Athens. In the former country they did not dare to mention his name. The Elder Edda says " Yet there shall come Another mightier, Altho' Him I dare not name." Isis was called Myrionyma, or the goddess of Ten Thousand names, but out of about one hun- dred known to myself I have never yet been able to determine by which she was called in Scotland .4 38 III! 'I i where she appears to have always been worshipped by her title of Heltis or Lady. In the Litany of Ra, Osiris is worshipped under some hundreds of names. The Scandinavian Odin, who like Bacchus was the god of wine, was the same as Ad On or Adonis and Jerome tells us that Adonis and Tammuz were identical. Sophocles styles Bacchus poluominios^ or the many-named. One of those names, or rather in this case, titles, was Baal Samen, Lord of Heaven, and to shew how wonderfully they are sometimes preserved, a few years ago while writing on the subject and being uncertain of a certain word in my Gaelic Dictionary I summoned my butler, a Scotch Highlander, and asked "What do you call Hallowe'en in Gaelic ?" Without a moment's hesitation he replied ** OidcJie Samhna^ sir, oidche means night." The very name used by the Phoenicians ages before Christ, and which I think it would be difficult to find in a Classical Dictionary. It will be perceived that some of these appel- lations were sobriquets, as for instance Tammuz's name of Bacchus, or the Lamented One, which was derived from the Phoenician bakkah^ to weep or lament. " And behold there sat the women weeping for Tammuz " (Ezek. viii., B. C. 594). I do not dare to mention why they wept for him. Others may also have been translations in different languages or corruptions. The late George Smith points out that Tam- muz is the Semitic form of the Akkadian Dumu-zi, or " the only son," and that he is referred to in Jeremiah, Amos and Zechariah ; and Lenormant shows that the passage in Jer. xxii. 18 preserves a portion of the wailing cry, and should be rendered 39 lipped any of eds of acchus On or is and •acchus f those Samen, ly they D while in of a imoned "What thout a uvnhnay used by Nh.\c\i I ;^^;iassical e appel- immuz's le, which to weep women 594)- I ; for him. different lat Tam- Dumu-zi, rred to in enormant reserves a rendered *' Ah me, my brother, and ah me, my sister. Ah me, Adonis, and ah me, his lady," and in Jcr. v. 26 ; Amos viii. 10, and Zech. xii. 10, it should read the only son." This, howeve»*, does not seem to agree with Sir William Dawson's idea that Tammuz was the same as Abel, for in that case he would not have been the only son. Jerome lived in Palestine when the rites of Tammuz were observed, and his words were, " Whom we have interpreted Adonis, both the Hebrew and the Syrian languages call Tammuz, . . . . and they call the month of June by that name." " And they worshipped the sun towards the east, . . . and, lo, they put the branch to their nose." Ez. viii. 17. Why do not our Anglican sun-worshippers also put the branch to their nose ? The Parsee priests in India still do, although they would pro- bably find it difficult to explain its meaning. Drs. Smith and Cheatham absolutely dare to tell us that praying to the East was adopted by us " in accord- ance with the very wise rule which accepted all that was good and pure in the religious system it came to supplant." They do not mention the barsom however. The North American Indians turn to the east praying towards that spot where they believe the Great Hare dwells — the edge of the earth where the sun rises. It was a superstition of the early Church, not only that the Almighty dwelt in the East, but also that Satan dwelt in the West, a custom derived, without doubt from the worship of the sun which t» 40 l|,Ml ! i t 1|! t •i I is mentioned with abhorrence by Job xxxi. 26, and which was promulgated before the theory of the globular form of the earth was understood. Now, however, we know that our earth is a sphere revolving through space, and therefore when we in America are facing the east, those who are on the opposite side of the globe who are facing the same way as ourselves are looking towards the west. Where, then, is the real east of this world ? On earth east and west are relative to the earth's position. What are they relative to in Heaven ? The Almighty dwells there. Where is the east of Heaven ? The Greek Church still believes that the Devil dwells in the west. In the Baptismal Service, when the Priest says : " Dost thou renounce," &c., both he and the sponsors, infant and nurse turn their backs to the font and look tov/ards the west ; and on the last answer being made, " I have renounced him," the Priest says, " Then blow and spit upon him," setting the example by blowing gently and making the gesture of spitting, in token of hatred of the unseen enemy. In Stanton's CJiurch Dictionary^ New York, 1849, there is no mention whatever of the east or the eastward position, showing evidently that there was no turning to the east in the American Church forty years ago. Is it not wonderful that so many will be guilty of the horrible blasphemy of attempting to localize the Almighty ? Did Moses pray to the east ? No — for his words were, '' The Lord He is God in Heaven above and in the earth beneath." And David ? No — for he sang, " If I ascend up into Heaven, 41 ), and f the Now, phere we in ^n the same ,t. ^orld ? earth's aven ? east of : Devil »ervice, Dunce," [ nurse rds the I have )W and lowing token York, east or it there Church e guilty localize -for his Heaven David ? heaven, Thou art there ; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold Thou art there." And Solomon ? No — for he prayed, " Then hear Thou from Heaven Thy dwelling place." The poor publican, whose humility our Lord commended, did '* not lift up so much as his eyes to Heaven." He believed in an Omnipresent God ! As it may not be easy for those who under- stand English only to comprehend how the many changes in names could be made let me explain that our John is merely Jan to a Hollander, while in Italian it is Giovanni. Our James is Jacob in German and lago in Spanish. Three centuries ago, when it was the fashion among scholars to translate their names ^into the classical languages, a German named Schwartzerd, or Black-earth (probably because the first of the surname came from a district similar to what is called in England the Black country), translated his name into Greek, and his works soon became so celebrated that the Papal authorities placed them on the list of pro- hibited books. Soon after one of them was tran- slated, including the author's name, into Latin, and this book of Philip de Terra Nigra, was freely admitted into Rome, where it was widely circulated before the author's original name was discovered and the sale stopped. Philip Schwartzerd and Philip de Terra Nigra have long passed into oblivion, but what Protestant will even forget Philip Melancthon ? Noah was deified after death, and in the Babylonian Mysteries was called the twice born, as having lived in two worlds, both before and after the flood. He was the same as Janus with his two faces, one old and the other young, to signify as !il' I ! I I !i! 42 it were his having lived in the old world and in the new. Janus is identined with Cannes or Eanus, the man of the Sea, or sacred Man-fish, or Dagon, i.e., the fish On, whom modern writers have sometimes confounded with the Phoenician Dagon, the great god of the Philistines, who accord- ing to Philo was a corn-god and presided over agriculture, and the word dagan is translated corn in Gen. xxvii. 28. As elsewhere stated they had goddesses of corn in England and in Mexico. In the A.V. we read in the margin " the fishy part," but Rawlinson says there is nothing in the original corresponding thereto. The actual words are " only Dagon was left to him." The fish god Dagon is the same as Bacchus. Jerome calls him the Fish of sorrow, i.e. the Lamen- ted fish and Hesychius tells us he was called Bacchus Ichthys, or Bacchus the fish. Berosus tells us of a personage from the Red Sea having the shape of a fish blended with that of a man whose name is Odakon. Joseph married a daughter of the priest of On, or the Sun, the site of which city,called Bethshemish in Hebrew, or the place of the sun, is now called Heliopolis or the City of the Sun. A Fish-deity is frequently found in the Nine- vite sculptures. His name is Nin and Rawlinson says he is the true Fish-god of Berosus. His body is that of a fish but under the head of a fish is that of a man while the scaly back and tail fall down behind leaving the human limbs and feet exposed. It is always in profile and when I first saw it en- graved in Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, in 1852, it at once struck me that the open fish's mouth (in profile) was the origin of our mitre and the non- sensical explanation generally given only confirmed i„ I 43 j> id in the Eanus, -fish, or writers loenician > accord- led over ted corn hey had :ico. In ly part, ; original ords are Bacchus. I Lamen- is called ■osus tells Lving the an whose 2st of On, :hshemish ow called the Nine- lawlinson His body ish is that fall down t exposed, saw it en- n,in 1852, mouth (in I the non- confirmed me in my opinion. Dean Hook says " The two horns of the mitre are generally taken to be an allu- sion to the cloven tongues as of fire which rested on each of the Apostles on the day of Pentecost." The Dean adds (Edition of 1864) " Mitres have fallen into utter desuetude in England, even at coronations. It is now merely a heraldic decoration and as such is sometimes carried at funerals" — but we are like the dog mentioned by St. Peter ! ! The mitre cannot be said to be derived from the Jews as the cap worn by the High priest re- sembled a turban. The Sanscrit Indra, the king of gods and god of rain was another form of the Fish deity. The cross was the symbol of the deified rain- god because he was confounded with Tammuz who was also the rain-god. Davies in his British Druids identifies Noah with Bacchus and Hislop in his Two Baby Ions says that Tammuz was wor- shipped as the incarnation of Noah who floated for so many days upon the waters that he might well be called The Man of the Sea. Quetzalcoatl, the Mexican god of rain was represented wearing a white garment covered with red crosses, in connection with which it may be stated that Brinton informs us that the R. C. mis- sionaries found the cross was no new object of adoration to the red race, and were in doubt whether to ascribe the fact to the pious labors of St. Thomas or the sacrilegious subtle^} of Satan. Martin in his History of the Western Isles (London, 17 16), says of the Island of Harris, "There is a stone in the form of a cross, about five feet high, called the Water Cross, for the natives had a cus- tom of erecting this sort of cross to procure rain, (Ml iiji I: li^-'l n\ m I': I!. iillilil A4 and when they had got enough they laid it flat on the ground." This idolatry must undoubtedly have been brought from the east, for except the climate has changed they would never require to pray for rain there. With this prelude let me add that I was filled with amazement, fifteen years ago, on seeing in the London GrapJiic^ of Sept. 27, 1879, an illustration of a scene in Central Africa representing some sticks, about the size of walking canes with cross- pieces tied on just below the tops, standing erect in small mounds or piles of earth, and these crosses were described simply as " Charms erected in the vicinity of the towns and vilk^^.:, to procure rain." Here we have a corrupted legend of Noah confounded with Tammuz as the Rain-god and the cross as his emblem, not only in Asia, but also in Mexico, Scotland, and even to this very day in Central Africa ! Bacchus was also the same as Osiris, whose coffin according to Plutarch was committed to the deep, and floated on the waters. It was on the 17th day of the month of Athyr, which was the second month after the autumnal equinox, and he remained in his floating coffin (or ark) a whole year. It is wonderful that history can be so cor- rupted, but it all tends to prove the truth of the Bible narrative, where we read in Genesis, that " in the second month^ in the seventeenth day of the month . . . Noah entered into the ark," where he remained a whole year. Tammuz was probably known by that name in the British Isles, for it has been suggested that the river Thames, as well as the Tamar, Tame and Teme received their names from him, which is not 45 t flat on dly have ; climate pray for ^as filled ig in the listration ng some th cross - ng erect e crosses ed in the are rain." of Noah \ and the It also in y day in s, whose ed to the is on the 1 was the X, and he a whole DC so cor- th of the , that " in y of the where he hat name ested that fame and lich is not improbable, as rivers and fountains were dedicated to the sun. He was, however, certainly worshipped there as Grian, Gran or Grannus, and according to an ancient bard, Fingal's banner had inscribed on it Dealh Ghreine, the Image of the Sun. The Gram- pians were anciently called Granzebene, Grian's hills, and a place in Strathspey where there are some Druidical remains, and whence the Clan Grant derive their name, is called Griantach or Sliabh Grianus, the heath of Grian or the Sun. There are numerous other places, as Green cairn. Green craig, Greenhill, Greenlaw, Greenwell, Ben- greim, and the like, where there are often standing stones or remains of ruins, some of which un- doubtedly derived their names from him ; as also perhaps sorje places with their names beginning with Cran. Libations of milk were made to him, even within the present century, on his day, Sun- day, in the remote Highlands, in hollow stones called granni stones, of which there was one in every village. In relation to which it must not be forgotten that the sun and the serpent were one god (a relic of the serpent of Paradise) and Olaus Magnus (A. D. 1555) tells us that in the extreme parts of Northern Europe serpents were considered as household gods, and fed on milk with the child- ren, and even to this day in some parts of India women pour milk into the snake-holes.* The Romans often adopted foreign gods, and an altar to Apollini Granno was found in Musselburgh, Scotland, and according to du Chaillu, a bronze * Protestant Episcopal Layman's Handbook. Ry an Ex-Churchwarden, Toronto, 189 1. 46 1 i' m^ III!! li;': !, I :!i,;; ■ ' ip^'i vessel of Roman workmanship, inscribed Apollini Granno, was found in Sweden. He was also wor- shipped in Gaul and Belgium, and by the third century his worship was introduced into Rome. I might add more, but will only say that the English Druids made and adored large crosses of oak trees, sacred with the Romans to Jupiter. The wild boar was offered in sacrifice to Grannus or Grian or Tammuz, and a boar's head soused is still 1 believe the principal dish at Windsor Castle and Oxford on Christmas Day — now, I suppose brought from the forests of Germany. The river Cam was anciently called Grant, Cam- bridge, Grantebryg and Grantchester, Caer Grant or Grauntsethe. In Yorkshire there is a place called Greenfield, where there are Druidic-! re- mains, and doubtless many of the places in the British Isles commencing with Gran or Gren, or Bal or Baal, derive their name from the Sun-god. Baltimore, in Ireland, for instance, is evidently Baal ti mor, the Great House of Baal, although the word /?a/ generally signifies a place, town or village. Grian may have been a name adopted by the Kelts for their Baal or Lord after they left their primeval home in Asia at a period of unknown an- tiquity, marching over-land, but there may have also been a smaller immigration from the Mediteranean. Herodotus, who flourished B.C. 445, mentions the Cassiterides, or Tin islands, now called the Scilly Islands, which according to tradition were on once connected with Cornwall by a tract of land which is not improbable for there are no tin-mines in the Islands while Cornwall is the land of tin. Aristotle, B.C. 384, mentions England and Ireland as Albion and lerne. Polybius also mentions their producing tin. 47 Apollini Iso wor- le third ome. that the rosses of Jupiter. Grannus ;oused is r Castle suppose nt, Gam- er Grant a place die"! re- js in the Gren, or Sun-god. evidently ough the )r village. ;d by the left their novvn an- have also iteranean. mentions ailed the :ion were ct of land tin-mines ad of tin. id Ireland ;ions their Julius Caisar as we all know invaded Britain B.C. 55. Timagenes, a Greek historian who flour- ished about B.C. 51, is quoted by Ammianus Marcellinus as saying that the Kelts had a tradition that they were descended from the Trojans and Diodorus Siculus, about B.C. 44, says "The Britons lead the life of the ancients, making use of chariots in battle such as they say the ancient heroes used in the Trojan War." Moreover Solinus, A.D. 80, says that Ulysses was carried by the winds and waves to Caledonia, as was proved by an inscrip- tion on an altar existing in his day written in Greek letters, which agrees with the Odyssey where Homer, who is said to have lived B.C. 900, sends Ulysses to consult the dead and directs him to the coast of the Western Ocean, to Portugal and Spain and to the lands of the Cimmerii and CeltcU. Strabo who was born about B.C. 50 says little about Britain, but refers to the erroneous views of five writers whom he names on the geography of Great Britain, but the works of these authors have all unfortunately been lost. In Scotland the Syrian Tammuz was called Diarmad donn, and like Achilles may be styled a humanized Sun-god. ile was the beautiful hunts- man. Like the beautiful Apollo who was the god of archery he was golden-haired. McRorie says " Long yellow locks rest upon his head" — and Apollo's locks were the rays of the sun. He was invulnerable except in the sole of his foot and Achilles was invulnerable except in the heel. George Smith calls Tammuz "the young and beau- tiful Sun-god." Adonis was famed for his beauty and was ardently attached to the chase. 48 1 The grand god of Egypt, Osiris * was killed by the tusk of the monster in swine or boar shape called Typhon, who is however sometimes called a giant. Tammuz was killed by a wild boar. Adonis was killed by the tusk of a wild boar whom he had wounded. Diarmad killed a wild boar but was himself slain by a bristle of the brute which pierced the sole of his foot. In connection with which it may be stated that the chariot of the Scandinavian god Frey was drawn by a boar called Golden-bristle and boars were sacrificed to Frey. Hercules caught the Erymanthean boar. All the women wept for Tammuz, Adonis and Diarmad, but all the world, men, beasts, trees and the stones themselves wept for the Scandinavian Baldur, who was surpassingly beautiful. He was invulnerable against everything except the mistle- toe, and was killed by a twig of mistletoe thrown at him by the blind god Laki, and which pierced him through and through. The constellation Ophiuchus, i. e., holding a serpent, stood with one foot on the head of Scor- pio or the serpent, wh'le its tail is turned towards the heel of the man's other foot as though to destroy it. According to Josephus, the signs of the Zodiac were invented by Seth. They are un- doubtedly exceedingly ancient, Bel Merodach, the great god of Babylon, fought with and slew the sea-dragon Tiamtu armed with a sickle-shaped scymeter similar to that with which Perseus slew the dragfon of the sea at Joppa, ■* I have frequently had to use the word confusion, and in the case of this god there is a wonderful specimen. Bun- ser shews he was at once father, son, brother and husband of Isis, and moreover he was married before he was born. li:' ii :i 49 ,s killed ir shape called a Adonis n he had but was 1 pierced which it dinavian in-bristle is caught onis and :rees and idinavian He was e mistle- ^e thrown pierced lolding a of Scor- towards ough to ns of the are un- Babylon, tu armed that with at Joppa, fusion, and men. Bun- id husband was born. as we see on a Babylonian cylinder. On another he is armed with a bow and arrow, and on a sculp- tured stone he carries a double-headed weapon or thunderbolt in each hand. In these three the dragon is a fearful winged animal standing on his hind feet. On the fourth, a cylinder, Merodach is attacking the serpent. There is also a seal showing a tree with a male and female figure on each side of it, and behind the woman is a serpent. These Assyrian and Babylonian tablets, which are as early at least as 2,000 B.C., and founded undoubtedly on earlier writings or on tradition, are engraved in G. Smith's Chaldean Account of Genesis^ and in Kinn's Graven in the Rock. The Indian Chrishna who was invulnerable except in the heel, slew the dragon or black snake, Kalinak, and then died from an arrow in his foot shot by an archer who thought he was a deer. One account says he died on a tree to which he was pierced by the stroke of an arrow. Apollo slew the serpent Python, and although he is represented as victor, Porphyry says he was also slain by the serpent. The Anglo-Saxon Beowulf slew the dragon Grendel. The Scandinavian Thor slew the great serpent with his hammer or cross-like mace, and then died from the venemous effluvia of the serpent's breath. The Persian Mithra slew the dragon Ahriman. The Teutonic Sigfried killed the dragon. The Scandinavian Sigurd killed the dragon Tafnir. The Egyptian Horus bruised the head of the serpent Apophis, or pierced it with a spear and the Mexican Teotl bruised the serpent's head, and there is still a great serpent-sun-temple ■.<;:;; at Carnac* in Britanny, formed of pilj^r stones^ the highest of which is eighteen feet and fo"ow'ng its windings is eight miles long, and the temple at Shap, in Westmorland, was according to t-^a^'tio" the same length. The great serpent m the bate of Ohio, on the nearly level top of ^ h.gh h.ll, is formed of an embankment about five feet h gh by thirty feet base, and extends for seven hundred feet, but following its windings, about one thou- Is not this wonderful mystery, all the world over, another proof of the history of the Serpent ot Paradise ? The builders of the enormous rums ol Carnac, Stonehenge etc. and the great ^tone pillar at Lochmariaker in Britanny which was seventy feet high, but which has now fallen, and the dolmen of Tiafet in Algeria which is seventy-five feet long and twenty-six feet wide by nine feet thick and resting on stone supports more than thirty-nine feet from the ground, must one would think have been able to have made them of hewn stone. May not these have been derived from a com- mon original revelation given alike to all mankind, possibly when altars alone w^je made and after- wards applied to temples ? "If thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build 't of hewn stone : for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it." Ex. xx. 25- The word dragon is defined as a f^abulous mon- ster, commonly represented as a large winged lizard or serpent with erected head and powerful claws. Both Pausanias and Bunsen say that the ♦ earn hag, the serpent's cairn. Snakes are still called hagwonns in the North of England. 51 real Greek dragon was a serpent or snake. The Hebrew word tanniin may be either a land or sea- monster, and according to Funk & Wagnall's Die tionary "is variously translated whale, sea-monster, crocodile, serpent, dragon, jackal, etc." i can- not but think however that the translators were at fault in rendering it jackal, perhaps not being aware how insignificant an animal the latter is. The monster boar on the contrary, so large that Diarmad walked over his dead body to measure his length, and whose bristles were so strong and sharp that they gave Diarmad his dead-wound, thus bruising his heel, was probably only another corruption of the term dragon, and the Chaldean winged bull slain by Gilgames might come under the same name and be another form of the serpent called in Rev. xii. 9, *' the great dragon, that old serpent called the Devil and Satan." George Smith says of "The feathered monster of seven heads, like the huge serpent of seven heads," mentioned in a fragmentary Babylonian bilingual hymn, that " this fabulous serpent was originally identical with the dragon of the deep combated by Merodach." This monster of seven heads strikingly re- sembles the dragon of Revelation (xii. 2) "a great red dragon having seven heads." *' Her seed .... shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel." I have given seventeen cases in point, and more could be added. • Can any one doubt that they have all one common origin ? Of these Ophiuchus. Chrishna, Thor, Horus and Teotl bruised the serpent's head. Seven, as above stated, slew the dragon or serpent. Her- cules slew the hydra, and four more, viz., Tam- S3 1 1 I muz, Adonis and Diarmad, and according to some versions Osiris, killed the monster boar. (Osiris was venerated under the form of a bull or calf and from him the Israelites borrowed their golden calf.) Four of the above were famous for their beauty, and three were invulnerable, the former two except only in the heel, and the latter except only in the sole of his foot, and they received their death wounds on those spots. Saint George transfixed the dragon with his spear, and then cut off his head. He suffered at least seven martyrdoms, and revived after each. S. Baring Gould gives the list, but one specimen will suffice : " He was cast into a caldron of molten lead. George was uninjured by the bath." The Prayer Book, although it acknowledges him as a martyr, only gives the date, 23rd April. The feathered serpent (winged dragon) of Babylonia occurs also in South America, where evidences of sun and serpent worship abound, and Short tells us that the Ouiche's of Guatamala had a Creator, Former and Dominator called Gucumatz, or the feathered serpent, while Quetzalcoatl, the deity of the Nahuas was styled plumed serpent, and the Maya deity, Cuculkan, bore the same name, translated " feathered," or " plumed," or " winged serpent," while the descendants of Votan were known as the " Serpents," and Clavigero says, if we give credit to their tradition, that " Votan was the grandson of that respectable old man who built the great ark to save himself and family from the deluge." His great city was named Nachan, or city of the serpents, and Short says, " This Nachan is unquestionably identified with Palenque, which was the centre of the earliest American civilization." Evidences of sun and ser- 53 pent worship arc to be found also in North as well as in South America and De Nadaillac speaking of the T (taji) at Palenque says "these figures are so numerous in the buildings, ornaments, bas- reliefs, and even in the form of the lights that al- though it is impossible to pronounce an opinion on this point in the present state of our kn ;vledge, we cannot avoid noticing it." In no case we believe is the se rpent or dragon armed with any weapon, but the pagan gods and demi-gods and the Christian so called Saints, as our so-called St. George, who combated him, are invariably armed with earthly weapons, although in some cases their weapons were called the lightning. Artists too arm St. Michael with earthly weapons. Diarmad is said to have been the ancestor of the Clan Campbell, who are called the Siol or Clann Diarmaid, or The Children or race of Diarmad, and also the Siol or Clann O' Duine, or the Children of O' Duine. J^oth names are variously written in the Dean of Lismorc's M. S. as dermit, dearmit, dermoit, zarmit and M'O'Dhuin, Makozunn, O' Duine, dowyn and simply doone, and dermit doone is translated " brown haired Diarmad," but dhuin or doone was his family or clan name and not his sobriquet, as some writers say his grand- father (or perhaps ancestor ?) was named Duibhne. Besides which as before stated he was not brown- haired but like Apollo had golden locks. Ossian who was it is believed living in the third century, says "I have seen dermit doone," but if the bard referred to the god Diarmad it must have been in a dream or vision for he says elsewhere of Finn "I saw by my side a vision of the hero's S4 household yesterday." Otherwise this Diarinad was probably a Druid who had assumed the name of his god or a hero who had adopted the name of his favorite god which was not an uncommon cus- tom as the priest at Delphi who represented Bacchus was himself called by that name, the priestess of Delphi was called Pythia, from the serpent Python, the priest of Cnuphis in Egypt was called Secnuphis and in Scandinavia B. C. 70, the hero Sigge son of Fridulph assumed the name of his god Odin, and from him the kings of Norway, Sweden and Den- mark are descended. As the chiefs of the clan were lords or petty kings of Lochow A.D. 420, and the tribe have been known from time immemorial as the children of Diarmad O'Duine, their traditionary descent from before the time that Christianity was introduced into Scotland docs not appear at all improbable. The prefix O', signifying grandson or descendant, is peculiar to Ireland, and appears to have been brought from that country as early as the time of the first arrival of the Irish Gael in Argyle which ac- cording to some took place in A.D. 2 50, for the name Diarmad is still rememb "^ in the Green isle, and it would be interesting^ ^ we discover when the names of Campbell ^'Duinc were combined. According to some ti editions the Campbells derived that name ^rom the graceful curved or arched month (cam-betd) of their beautiful ancestor who had a ball seirce^ or beauty spot which no woman could resist. In a Scotch charter of the year 1266, the name is written Cambel and among the signers of Ragman Roll (or Roll of Ragimunde) before the year 1297, are seven Cambels, all men of rank. As the one name is undoubtedly nearly as old as the raofc two thousand years the other may be so also, 55 and perhaps then still older for a leader of the Gauls B.C. 279, was named Cambaul {Catnbaiilcs). There must have been considerable intercourse between the British Isles and Gaul as we learn from Ciesar and Tacitus. We have no evidence when Christianity was introduced into Scotland. Clement says that Paul went to the uttermost parts of the West and Ter- tullian, A.D. 196 uses similar lan^u^ge. These words were generally believed to apply to Britain but are now considered " rhetorical expressions," and although there is no doubt that the Christian re- ligion was established in England about the time of St. l^aul still Ikitain did not include Caledonia, and we do not know when the first missionary crossed the Roman Wall. The conversion of Ireland by St. Patrick did not take place until about A.D. 432. It is strange that Hyslop makes no mention of these gods of our ancestors. In Ireland, in the county of Leitrim, there are two cromlechs called by the common people "Leaba Dearmud is Graine," or Diarmad and Graine's beds, and the same name is generally bestowed upon cromlech's * in the north and west of Ireland. According to the legend Diarmad eloped with Graine the wife of Finn or Fingal and escaped for a year and a day during which time they never slept in the same bed for more than one night. Hence they say there are 366 of these beds in Ireland; an evident allusion to Diarmad as Apollo the Sun god and the revolu- tion of the sun.-f- * A cromlech is called bed^ in the province cf Drenthe, Netherlands, where there are several Hunebedden, or beds of the Hune. I The Image of the Cross and Lights on tiie *^Har. Toronto, 1879. 56 Moore mentions a place in Ireland called Granny's Bed. What a windfall this would have been to many of our liturgists. Those for instance who tell us that the name of Candlemas-day was derived from the candles that were carried in re- membrance of Simeon's words "a light to lighten the Gentiles" ; that Easter was derived from "urstan", to rise up; that the Ember Days were so styled from a custom of putting iive coals (embers) on the heads; that Whitsunday was named from the wit given to the Apostles on that day ; that Lammas day was so called because St. Peter said "Feed my lambs"!!! Wheatly is almost alone in coi. fessing that he does not know the origin or meaning of " Name of Jesus" (7 Aug) but other writers conveniently pass it over without notice. It is no wonder that such men believed in the his- tory of the fabled Alban and the like. How gladly these expounders would have jumped at the conclusion that in this Celtic name they had found the bed or perhaps grave of some old female ancestor, instead of Gran Beacht, the Circle of Gran or the Sun. Diarmad is also mixed up there with a curious story of a worm becoming a serpent with one hun- dred heads, reminding one of the Hydra or Dragon of the Hesperides, but it is worthy ot note that he is said to have ascended a rowan tree and killed all those who attempted to seize him, for this tree was a holy one such as perhaps no other would have dared to ascend. The rowan or mountain ash was the Scandinavian Yggdrasil or Mundane tree, the greatest and best of all trees whose branches spread over all the world and even reached above lieaven and the gods sat in council under it. In England also the rowan is looked upon with 57 a superstitious regard. l^rand mentions a cere- mony at Caiston Church, Lincohishire, where an ox-whip, ten feet long, is constructed every year. The stock is made of ash, or any other wood; it is wrapt with white leather and some small pieces of mountain ash are enclosed. The man then comes to the church porch, cracks his whip and then with much ceremony, too long to relate here, wraps the thong round the stock of the whip, puts some rods of mountain ash lengthwise upon it, and binds it all together. He then goes into the Church, ties a purse to the end of the whip and stands by the reading desk waving the purse over the clergyman's head. Certain lands in the parish of Broughton are held by the tenure of this annual custom. It was a sacred tree also in Scotland and they are still to be found growing in the neighborhood of the stone circles. When cjuestioning a man in Scotland on these subjects a few years ago he told me he had seen crosses made of the rowan tree placed over the cow houses to protect the cattle from witchcraft. When the Irish Gael removed to Scotland some of the tribe of Diarmad must have remained behind for a family who claimed descent from him were called O' Dubhdiarmas, and there is a rambling genealogy, obscure and not continuous, apparently of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, deriving him from a King of Munster. If I have speculated too much on this subject it is because it appears evident that in the song ot Diarmad the Celts had undoubtedly preserved the tradition of the bruizing the heel but (except he was exactly another form of Tammuz) not being able to find an equivalent in the North for the large serpent or dragon had changed it into a boar. 5« fi T.ogan has preserved a letter written in Scot- land in 1763, by the Rev. Alexander Pope, who having heard mention of the " Duan Dearmot," or Song of Diarmad, found an old man who could sing it. Me commenced his performance by reverently taking off his bonnet* ; but, says the writer, " I caused him to stop, and would put on his bonnet ; he made some excuses ; however, as soon as he began, he again took off his bonnet. 1 rose and pu^ ''*: on — he took it off — I put it on ; at last, as he was like to swear most horribly, he would sing no more unless I allowed him to be uncovered. I gave him his freedom, and so he sang with great spirit. I then asked him the reason ; he told me it was out of regard for that hero. I asked him if he thought the spirit of that hero was present ; he said not, but thought it well became th'^m who were descended from him to honor his memory." Was not the " regard for that hero" a remin- iscence or relic of the times when the bard's fore- gangers revered Diarmad as a god ? As in speaking of Diarmad I have alluded to the introduction of Christianity in Scotland, I ought not perhaps to pass over that of Britain, although again perhaps wandering too far. Canon Robertson says of the origin of the British Church, that it is "involved in fable. The story of Joseph of Arimathea's preaching, and even the corres- pondence of an alleged British king, Lucius, with Eleutherius, bishop of Rome, about the year 167, need not here be discussed." * The woollen cap of the Highlander is called a hoineid, or bonnet. 59 There were, however, no less than eight others to whom the honor has been ascribed, who are not mentioned by the Canon, viz.: (i) St. Paul, (2) James, the son of Zebedee, (3) St. Philip, {4) Simon Zelotes, (5) St. Peter, (6) Coel, grandfather of Con- stantine the Great, and who was called Coel the Believer, {7) Arviragus, a British king, and (8) Bran ab Llyr. I do not wish to be too rash in condemning all of these, for I remember reading an ably written French work, scouting the very idea that there could ever have been such a city as Nineveh, for it was utterly impossible that so great a city should have been utterly lost and forgotten ; but it was only a year or two after, in 1843, when Botta, followed by Layard, discovered those magnificent ruins buried in the sands. Of St. Paul we will only add that his fellow- labourer, Clement, says that Paul went to the " uttermost bounds of the West," which many believe included Britain, but as already stated, not Caledonia. Most of the others may be passed over. Arviragus, in what is generally called the " fabulous " history of Geoffrey of Monmouth, is said to have been one of the first British princes to yield to the Roman arms, that he became friendly to them and married the Roman Emperor Claudius' daughter, Genuissa. Other chronicles say that he became a Christian, and, died in Glou- cester after a reign of 44 years. Matthew, of Westminster, says he died A.D. 73, and was buried 6o Will at Chester. Claudius' expedition to Britain was in 43. He is mentioned by Juvenal (ob. 120). " Re^^em aliquem capias aut de temone Britanno Excidet Arviragus." (Some king hurled from his British chariot. Arviragus falls.) About forty years ago the remains of a Romano-British bath were discovered in the parish of Chedworth, Gloucestershire, all the bricks of which were inscribed, Arviri, and a few years after, within a short distance from it, was also discovered the remains of a villa, of the same construction, on the foundation stones of which the Greek monogram X P {^CJii rJid) of Christ, was found twice repeated. As the first certain example of this mr^nogram does not occur until A. D. 331, this would show either that the bath was built long before the villa, or that there was a second Arviragus. According to the Welsh Triads Christianity was introduced into Wales by Bran ab Llyr, father of Caradog or Caractacus as he was called by the Romans, who we know from Tacitus was carried captive to Rome in the year 51. Bran it is said accompanied his son and remained in Rome as a hostage seven years and was converted by St. Paul who arrived in Rome AD. 56. It is a curious fact that there were then two British ladies residing in Rome, one of whom Pomponia Grcecina, wife of Aulus Plautus, first Roman Governor of Britain according to Tacitus, was tried for her life on ac- count of being a Christian and the other Claudia 6i was wife of Rufus Pudens. She is celebrated by the gallant Spanish poet Martial (ob. cir. 103) who calls her a Briton and the wife of his friend Pudens. She is believed to have been the Claudia mentioned in Timothy " Pudens and Linus and Claudia." Stokes says these suppositions are utterly devoid of historical evidence, but strange to say in i, _j '' marble tablet was dug up at C hichester, w'th the names of Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus ar. jdens upon it, and the daughter of this British kmg Clau- dius would probably be called Claudia. It cannot be doubted that Christianity was established in England at a very c 'ly period, long even before 314, when the bishops of York, London and Caerlcon-on-Usk signed the decrees of the Council of Aries, for soon after Augustine arrived in 597, when he instigated the king of Northumbria to massacre the British monks there were no less than 2400 in Bangor alone. The Triads tell us there were 2400 monks, who in their turns, one hundred each hour, prayed and chanted, so that divine service was performed night and day with- out intermission, and Leland says of the famous abbey of Bangor that "the cumpace of it was as a wallid town." Such an abbey could not have been built up in a day. The relations between Rome and Britain at the commencement of the Christian era, were more intimate than we are generally led to believe, and the Britons more enlightened. Not only does the poet. Martial, praise the blue-eyed Claudia, but Juvenal even notices the British lawyers. " Gallia causidicos facunda Britannos." (And learned Gaul the British lawyers form). It was probably to learn the Roman laws that they went 62 IK ! to Gaul, for the schools of the Druids were so famous that Ccnesar tells us the Gauls of the conti- nent sent their children to Britain for their religious education. They had ships, and carried on an export and import trade. Caesar says they im- ported their brass, and Pliny mentions their exporting lead, besides which Britain was a sort of granary to the Germans as well as to the Gauls. The latter had even horse-reaping machines ! Pliny (book xviii. c. 30) describes the enormous machines with teeth set in a row, placed upon two wheels and driven through the corn. We all know that they had war-chariots with the axle-trees armed with scythes, and they must therefore have had able machinists. If Bran ab Llyr was the founder of the British Church, he undoubtedly introduced the Roman liturgy of his time, while it was altered in Rome by Pope Leo the Great (died AD. 461), and by Pope Gelasius . (died A.D. 496), which may account for the difference in the liturgy when Augustine landed in Britain in 598. When quoting the A. V. I have also adopted the Biblical chronology, although it has been long known that it is not to be depended upon, and it has been omitted in the R. V. Baldwin says, " We and the nations of Western Europe have followed Usher, a romancing archbishop of Ar- magh, who maintains with great particularity of dogmatic demonstration, that the human race began to exist on earth precisely 4,004 years before Christ." Although we are constantly making fresh discoveries in cuneiform inscriptions and Egyptian hieroglyphics, the dates of the flood and the crea- 63 tion are still unknown, albeit the events are men- tioned in the xXssyrian tablets preserved in the British Museum. The first historical kin^^ of I'^gypt was Menes, who according to Champollion, reigned about B. C. 5867, Lepsius thought 3892, and Brugsch Bey, 4445. Prof. Sayce does not pretend to give any date, but uses the expression, '' At a still earlier period, perhaps some 6,000 years ago the great sea-port of Babylonia was the city of Eridu." If so, there must then have been other sea- ports with which her merchants traded, and how much should we allow for Eridu to have become so great a sea-port, and Babylonia so large as to require so great a sea-port ? The pyramid of Meydoum was built by Senefru who according to Pctrie reigned about 4000 — 3 800 B.C. but Brugsch Bey says ^^'jCy^y. The oldest of the known monarchs of Akkad was Sargon I. who reigned about 3800 B.C. Actual inscriptions of his have been found and the Temple of the Sun at Sippar, discovered by Hormuzd Rassan,dates in all probability from about 3750 B.C. According to some authorities Rameses 1 1, was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, but the great Egyptio- logist Brugsch Bey believes it was his son Meneph- tah, whose accession to the throne was about 1300 B.C. Usher dates the Exodus 149 1 B.C. Again I return to the cross of Tammuz which was adopted by the early church and called the cross of Christ when they attempted to harmonize Christianity and Paganism and tried to make the people think there was little difference between the two religions. 64 It must be remembered that although a Chris- tian church was founded in Rome before the arrival of Paul, still the Pagan religion was not finally abolished for some centuries and there were Pagan temples and Christian Churches there until nearly the year 500, during which time many heathen errors crept into the Church, At Rouen, in PVance, there were temples to Jupiter, Apollo and Mercury still in use in the seventh century and in 716 a statue of Diana was worshipped at the Court of Dagobert II., King of France. Even as late as 794, Charlemagne found it necessary to publish an edict ordering sacred groves and trees to be cut down — but we still place them in our churches at Christmas ! The early Christians, at least from about A.D. 150 to A.D. 200, began to employ the sign of the cross to show that they were Christians. The Christian rhetorician Minucius Felix, who was living A.D. 220, says that although the Pagans worshipped crosses, the Christians did not. His words are : " Crosses we neither worship, nor wish for. You, who consecrate wooden gods, worship wooden crosses, perhaps as part of your gods ; for your very standards, as well as your banners and ensigns of your camp, what are they but crosses gilt and decked ?" Tertullian, however, who died in 225, says : " At every step, at incoming and outgoing, at the putting on of one's clothes and shoes, at bathing, at table, at the kindling of lights, going to bed, sitting down, and whatever we do, we mark the sign of the cross on the forehead ; and Chrysostom, A.D. 350, used similar language. It is difificult to reconcile the two statements, 65 except, perhaps, that M. Felix wrote early in life, and that Tertullian wrote alter he became a Mon- tanist, and adopted their stern and peculiar views. Lactantius, who flourished about A.D. 300, gives a detailed statement as to the power of the cross as signed upon the brow of the confessors of Christ, especially as to "how terrible this sign is to the demons, when they adjured by the name of Christ, fled out of the b.jdies of which they had taken possession." Athanasius (died A.D. 430) also speaks of its power against demons, magic and witchcraft, and both Chrysostom and Augustine (died A.D. 430) speak of it as a means of putting the devil to flight. In Fosbroke's Encyclopcudia we read " The heathen were much delighted with the festivals of their gods,and unwilling to part with those delights; and therefore Gregory (Thaumaturgus), who died A D. 265, and was Bishop of NeoctL\sarea, to facili- tate their conversion, instituted annual festivals. Hence the festivities of Christmas were substituted for the Bacchanalia and Saturnalia; the May games for the Floralia or games in honor of Flora, the goddess of flowers ; and the keeping of festivals to the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, and divers Apostles, in the room of the solemnities at the entrance of the sun into the signs of the zodiac, according to the JuJian calendar." This is in a measure correct, but the changes were not all made at the same time, for the wor- ship of the Virgin was introduced about the time of the First Council of Nice, A.D. 325, and Chrysostom, in a Homily delivered about A.D. 386, says that it was not ten years since Christmas was made known, and that the day was fixed in Rome in order that m 7 66 while the Pagans were occupied with their profane ceremonies the Christians might perform their holy rites undisturbed. Canon Robertson tells us that the Christian festivals which were held by churches at the tombs of the martyrs, or by families at those of their relatives took the place of the heathen Parentalia. St. Augustine mentions that his mother, while at Milan, wishing to observe her African custom of carrying cakes and wine to the tombs of the martyrs, was told that St. Ambrose had forbidden it. Augustine himself was very active in endeavor- ing to put down the practice of eating and drink- ing in churches, both within his own diocese, and by urging other bishops to act in the matter. There are five festivals of the Virgin however, all of which were instituted after the time of Gregory. Two of them are red-letter days+ or first class festivals for which there are special Col- lects, Epistles and Gospels, and three black-letter days, and how many are there who know for what political reasons these and some other days were retained ? With reference to one alone, so long as we read in the Calendar on the 23rd April " St. George. M." are we not publishing a falsehood in that book which we value next only to the Bible — for the man (if he ever existed) was neither a saint nor a martyr. And look at Fabian, Gregory, St. Clement and Silvester. It would never have done to insert them as Popes of Rome, and they are therefore — I . — — — ■ ail — ■ ,..■,.-.■,■ ... . , I. ■ .— . . I ■ - . ■ . I ■ — M< ^ ■ I ■ ■j Tlie rubrics arc no longer printed in red except in the most expensive prayer-books. Italics are used instead. 6; slightly disguised as "H. and M." (Bishop of Rome and Martyr), " M. H , B. and Bp." The Purification (Feb. 2) or Candlemas, was instituted, according to some authorities, by Justin, Emperor of Constantinople, A.D. 526, or by his son, Justinian, in the year 541 or 542 ; or as others say, by a Pope in the fifth century, in lieu of the Pagan feast of Ceres or Juno februata held on this day when the people ran about the country with lighted candles and torches in commemora- tion of the search for her daughter Proserpine, who had been carried off by Pluto ; and as they would not do away with this festival, a Feast of the Puri- fication was created (although no one knows the date of that ceremony), and the people were told to carry their candles in honor of the Virgin Mary, and this Feast of Ceres is still a red-letter day in our Calendar ! It was then called Candlemas, and Wheatly, without giving its origin, says the name is supposed to have been derived from the words of Simeon, " A light to lighten the Gentiles," and Dean Hook says the same. Until the blessed Reformation there was a service for the benediction of the candles. Part of one of the prayers to the Almighty was, " who by the labor of bees at Thy command hast brought this fluid to the perfection of wax, ... we humbly beseech Thee . . . that Thou wouldest vouchsafe to bless and sanctify these candles fashioned for the service of men. . ." The custom of exposing useless candles at noon- day was ridiculed by Tertullian, and Lactantius said, " They light up candles to God as \{ He lived in the dark ; and do not they deserve to pass for madmen who offer up lamps to the Author and Giver of light ?" 68 WorshippiriL^r the sun and other ^ods by fire was anciently universal. The Babylonians wor- shipped their gods with candles as we learn from the Book of Baruch, B C. 603. "They light them candles, yea, more than for themselves, whereof they cannot sec one," and Herodotus, B. C. 408., says that at Sais, in Egypt, on a certain night they offered the sacrifice of lights in the open air. The lamps consisted of small cups filled with salt and oil having floating wicks and it was called the festival of burning lamps. It was the same in Pagan Rome also. Eusebius tells us that Licinius, before joining battle with Constantine, A.D. 323, offered up sacrifices to the gods '' lighting up wax tapers before them," and wax candles figured largely in their processions as in Christian Rome afterwards. In Scotland the wife of Bel or l^aal was called Beltis, the very same name that was borne by the "Great Mother" in Assyria, and her day was cele- brated by fires called Beltane (/^2;/-fire) to almost within the memory of man. Tennant, writing in ^771i^ gives an account of the ceremony as it was then performed which I will transcribe in full. "On the 1st of May, the herdsmen of every village hold their Beltein, a rural sacrifice : they cut a square trench on the ground, leaving the turf in the middle; on that they make a fire of wood, on which they drop a large caudle of eggs, butter, oatmeal and milk; and bring besides the ingredients of the caudle, plenty of beer and whiskey; for each of the company must contribute something. The rites begin with spilling some of the caudle on the ground, by way of libation : on that, every one takes a cake of oatmeal, upon which are raised nine HI 69 square knots, each dedicated to some particular being, the supposed preserver of their flocks and herds, or to some particular animal, the real destroyer of them : cacli person then turns his face to the fire, breaks off a knot, and flinging it over his shoulders, says. This I give to t/tcc, preserve thou i>iy horses; this to thee, preserve thou my sheep; and so on. After that they use the same ceremony to the various animals : This I give to thee, O Fox ! spare thou my lambs; this to thee, O hooded Crow ! this to thee, Eagle!' When the ceremony is concluded they dine on the caudle. In Ezekiel xxviii. 14, 16 (B. C. 587) the pro- phet said to the prince of Tyre, '' Thou hast walked up and down in the midst o{ the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect , . . till iniquity was found in thee ; . . . thou hast sinned, . . . and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire." Alteins, called by the very same name used by the prophet, al, stone, and tein, fire ; or stones of fire, still remain in various parts of Scotland. They were anciently accompanied by stone sun circles or temples, which have generally been carried off ages ago ; the tall, rude pillar fire stones having been probably too large to be easily quarried. The primitive races of mankind deemed la vain attempt to confine their Deity in any covered structure. On their solemn festivals all fires had to be extinguished, and thr Druids made huge fires at the alteins, to which the people had to repair, and in return for their offerings to receive torches \\\ hted at this sacred fire wherewith to relight their 6 ■ 'O own hearths. At Midsummer they made the I) eas Soil, or tour from the South about with the Sun, around their fields of corn with lighted torches to obtain a blessing on the corn, and on Midsummer eve fires were kindled on the mountains throughout the British Isles, and undoubtedly also throughout the whole inhabited globe, for the Sun-god was universally worshipped. Where Kildare, in Ireland, now stands was formerly a sacred grove of the Druids. About the end of the 5th century a Druidess was converted by St. Patrick, and founded a monastery, but maintained the sacred fire in a cell, where it was guarded by virgins (like the Roman vestal virgins), often women of quality, called Inghean an Dagha or daughters of fire, and Breochuidh or the fire- keepers, and it was not extinguished until A. D. 1220, by an Archbishop of Dublin ; but so firmly rooted was the veneration for this sacred fire that it was relighted in a few years and actually kept burning until the suppression of monasteries in 1539- In Mexico there was a great temple erected by the Aztecs in honor of the god Huitzilopochtli, and forty smaller temples in the same enclosure. In all of them and before the idols burned the sacred fire which was scrupulously kept up for its extinction threatened their country with great dan- ger From the top of the principal teocalli could be counted six hundred braziers which were burning day and night. ' In the year 1753, an Iroquois chief in New York said "When the fire at Onondaga goes out wc shall no longer be a people." At Pecos in Nf w JVIej^ico the eternal fire vya^ kept up on a sm^U sccile until the year 1840 and the Guebres or Persian Suii-vvorshipptrs have a temple at Yezd where the everlasting fire has been burning since the time of Zoroaster. In England the Christians continued to extin- guish their fires at Easter and light them again with fire obtained from the priests long after the Pagan and Christian festivals were amalgamated, and so late as 1557, there was a paschal taper in Westminster Abbey which weighed 300 pounds. These fires are still maintained at mid-summer in some countries besides Persia and where Chris- tianity prevails are called St. John's fires. Even in South America "Squier was surprised at night to see fires blazing on the mountains and at first thought it was some mysterious signalling connec- ted perhaps with his visit (He was U. S. Commis- sioner to Peru) but afterwards learned it was the Eve of St. John, and added that on that night fires blaze on the hill-tops in all the inhabited district of Peru and Bolivia. The North American Indians have their Sun dances when they scarify themselves like the ancient priests of Baal and even snip out small pieces of flesh and hold them up on the points of their knives to the sun, and possibly therefore also still celebrate Midsummer eve in some places. As early as the fifth century St. Argustine protested strongly against the practice of the light- ing of fires on St. John's eve. About that time, acting according to the policy ascribed to Pope Gregory f , to meet the Pagans half-way and to bring them mto the Roman church, the day of Tammuz was incorporated as a sacred festival in the Roman Church, and as one of his many names was Oannes it was called the feast of Joh^nnQs, the J^^tin for John, 72 In the East the day bet^^an in the evening and the feast began on the evening of the 23rd and if we consult our Prayer Books it will be seen that we must observe the Even or Vigil belore St. John Baptist. Why did not the Irish Church expunge this day when they revised their Prayer Book in 1878, for these Candlemas fires on the mountains are probably still maintained in Ireland, as a friend of mine tells me he often saw them in his younger days. In the Scotch Highlands, as before stated, they " forced fire with a wheel," or by rubbing a piece of dry wood upon another, and therewith burnt juniper in the stalls Shaw, how- ever, does not say how many spokes there were to the wheel, but it was undoubtedly a Suastika cross or wheel of four spokes, for in some parts of Scotland they made whnt they called the Tein egin, or need fire, by erecting a circular booth, in which was set a perpendicular post called the augur, provided with four short spokes, by which it was moved round quickly by as many men as could be collected, until fire was produced. In the Western Isles it required e'ghty-one married men to make the " sacred fire," nine of whom, by turns, rubbed two planks together, until the fire was produced, when all the household fires were relighted from it. Here we have the mystic number nine times repeated. The so-called miraculous fire is still lighted in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalern on Easter Day by the Greek Patriarch. It is done in the closed chapel, and in these days is in ^\\ probc^-r bility ignited with a lucifer match ! 73 The Annunciation (Mar. 25) is believed to date about the end of the 6th or beginning of the 7th century. Scripture does not inform us when the Annunciation occurred but the day of the Nativity of Christ having been already settled the Church actually ventured to add that the conception of Christ by the Virgin occurred exactly nine months previous on the 25th of March. This was another of the many cases of amalgamation with the Pagan sacred days for the 25th of March was anciently dedicated to Cybele, the Great Mother of the Gods. The three black letter feasts are the Visitation (July 2), instituted by the Anti-Pope Urban during the Great Schism, in 1389, the Nativity V. Mary, (Sep. 8) said to have been established by Pope Sergius, A.D. 645, on the representation of a monk who said it had been revealed to him that St Mary was born on that night, and the Conception (Dec. 8, of Mary herself) which was instituted as late as 1067 by the Abbot Helslnus. Others say it occurred in the 1 2th century, but it was condemned as early as A.D. 1 140, by (St.) Bernard as novel, heterodox and unuathorized — but still look under Dec. 8, in our Calendar ! In the Calendar the blessed Virgin is called by her name only, Mary, but in the Lessons Proper for Holy Days which precedes the Calendar, she is called by her title OUR Lady ! Does not this show that she is in our Church as well as in the Roman, Our Lady? Our Lady of the Annunciation, Our Lady of the Purification, etc. ? Among other days stamped at least as deserv- ing to be remembered are Holy-Cross Day; Inven- tion of the Cross; and Name of Jesus, of which last Wheatly says "The seventh of August was formerly t:: 74 dedicated to the memory of Afra. a courtezan of Crete ; who being converted to Christianity, by Narcissus, bishop of Jerusalem, suffered martyrdom, and was commemorated on this day: how it came afterward to be dedicated to the name of Jesus, I do not find," and Humphry, as late as 1869, corrobo- rates this. Under this class of services of which we do not know even the very meaning of the names may also be placed, Lammas (i Aug.), which was undoubtedly originally a Druidical festival, as they had four great festivals in February, May, August, and November, but our liturgists, giving only its Romish history, tell us it is a corruption of hlaf- maesse, or hmf mass, because they say it was cus- tomary to offer up on that day loaves made of the new corn, or that it signifies lamb-mass, on the ground that lambs were offered up 'on that day ; and still others, that the day in the Church of Rome was St. Peter's day, and our Lord said to him, " Feed My lambs," but Vallancey tells us that La ith-rnas, pronounced La-ee-mas, was the day dedicated to the sacrifice of the fruits of the soil, ith signifying dU kinds of grain, and mas all kinds of fruit, including acorns or mast on which they fed th. swine. The Roman Ember Days or Fasts of the Four Seasons ((2//rt/«^r tempora)^'erQ adopted in England during the Dark Ages and were not blotted out at the Reformation, and we must still fast at these times, even if there are to be no ordinations in the diocese nor elsewhere* to our knowledge. Wheatly (not Archbishop Whately), omitting the true 75 definition, gives no less than four etymologies, one of which is sprinkling ashes on the head or sitting on ashes, and another eating cakes baked on embers ; and only five years ago (1890) a Church- man's Theological Dictionar}', by Canon Eden, published in London, says, " So-called (it has been supposed) from a custom of putting embers or ashes upon their heads " ! ! ! And yet the true definition is simplicity itself. The Latin name was in the course of time corrupted to quater temper ^ quatember^ and ember. We have given up the ceremonial use of ashes on Ash Wednesday, and why do we still retain the name ? I remember seeing Pope Gregory XVL perform the present R. C. service of crossing the forehead with ashes. I went to the Vatican in company with Count Bethlen and his son. The old Count, who belonged to one of the oldest families in Hungary, thinking, perhaps, that it was not necessary for him to strictly follow the regula- tions (uniform or full dress), wore a frock coat. His son and the writer (then only twenty), although it was in the morning, were in full evening dress, and were allowed by the Swiss guard to pass inside the charmed circle {to see the sJioiv !), while the old Count, much to his disgust, was obliged to stand among the crowd outside. The Commination Service is read to this day, and the P. B. calls it a godly discipline of the Primitive Church, but it is neither one nor the other, and how ministers can still continue to read such a falsehood to us every Ash Wednesday is more than I can comprehend. The Primitive Church ended, according to the latest date allowed, in A.D. 314, lit ;6 and this is a Romish disciph'ne of the Dark Ages, dating from between the sixth and ninth centuries, and consisted in bringing penitents into the church clothed in sackcloth, with naked feet, when the bishop and clergy threw ashes upon them a^d turned them out of the church doors, "which open penance was the way sinners were punished in this world, that their souls might be saved in the day of the Lord'': and although Paul said " Bless, and curse not," and that the blood of Christ alone is sufficient, our clergy read to us on the first day of Lent the curses of the Old Dispensation, and, al- though St. Paul says " Bodily exercise profiteth little," tell us, moreover, that it is duicJl to he zvished that this Romish discipline should be restored again. When our P. B. was compiled, the epistles and gospels for Lent were continued from the old offices, and it appears strange that our Reformers did not perceive that it was impossible to find an epistle for that day, and that they had been obliged to fall back upon one of the lesser prophets of the Old Dis- pensation. Joel foresaw an impending calamity, and exhorted the Jews to keep a fast /<:>>;' that par- ticular occasion only; and yet, to this very day, it is read to us as if it were Biblical authority for a stated fast of forty days. The Commination service was excluded from the American P. B. a century ago, and is also sup- pressed in the English Revised P.B., the R E., and Spanish Prayer Pook, but is still called a godly service in the Irish Prayer Book ! Brand says *' The v/ant of this discipline is at present supplied by reading publickly on this day 77 the curses denounced against impenitent sinners, when the people repeat an Amen after each curse. Enlightened as we think ourselves at this day, there are many who consider this goieral avowal of \.\\Q justice of God's lorath against impenitent sin- ners^ as cursing their neighbours; consequently, like good Christians, they keep away from Church on the occasion." This was written nearly a century ago for I am now quoting the First Edition of 1810. I have known ministers who would not read the Com- mination service, and myself never go to Church on Ash-Wednesday. Whitsunday corresponds with the Jewish Pentecost, and Churchmen still celebrate it and boast of their P.B., zvithoui yet kuo7ving zvhat the zvord Whitsunday means ; and, as usual, fearing themselves to tell the unpleasant truth that there are too many defects in the P. B., blame those who dare to do so, preferring to let the people remain in their ignorance. Several definitions have been given, one of which is that it is derived from the white baptismal garments worn on that day ; an- other, that it is derived from the old French hiiict, Whitsunday being the huict, or eighth Sunday from Easter ;. another, that it was customary lo give milk to the poor on this day, which milk was some- times called ivhite meat ; and still another, that it is derived from the wisdom and ivit given seven- fold to the apostles on that day — " This day, Witsonday is cald, For wisdom and wit seuene fald." St. Barnabas' Day is one of our first-class Festivals, and how many are aware that no one 78 knows either the day or the year that he was born or died ? Nothing whatever is known of this Apostle except what is recorded in the New Tes- tament, the last date being about A.D. 59 (i Cor.), from which time there is a gap of over four cen- turies until 478, when there was a dispute between Peter of Antioch, and Anthemius of Cyprus, as to which should hold the see of Cyprus, which was craftily settled by Anthemius, who professed to have found the body of Barnabas, whereupon the Greek Emperor Zeno decided in his favor, and the nth June was consecrated to this saint, and we still consider the day sacred to him because for- sooth it was declared a Holy day by the Church, i.e., a Greek Emperor in the fifth century. But craving pardon for this digression, we will return to the subject of the cross. St. Paul, who despised the material cross, call- ing it the emblem of the curse (Gal. iii. 13), and believed only in the doctrine, said, " God forbid that I should glory save in the cross {i.e., in the doctrine of the cross) of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom (not by which) the world is crucified to me and I unto the world." (Gal. vi. 14.) There is an old proverb, " None so blind as those who won't see '' — and if the Dublin revisers of the year 1878 could not see this, it is passing strange that they could have overlooked the Pagan cross of Tammuz almost at their very doors, and not remembered that the pagan cross was not introduced into the Christian Church until long after Christ. ^ - 79 Q=cv,^^«--^ il New Grange. Within two hours' drive from Dublin is the cruciform cairn of New Grange, which name seems to be a corruption of Gran or Grian which covers about two acres, and is one of the most remarkable Celtic monuments in existence. At the end of a passage built of rough pillar stones, one row on each side and sixty-three feet long, is a chamber, at the head and sides of which are what would be called in a church, chancel and transepts. There is another Pagan temple or monument at Callernish, in the Hebrides, which runs north and south, and is according to Logan, five hundred and fifty-eight feet long, the stones generally six or seven feet high. The pass- age leads to a circular chamber, but instead of what I have called in the pre- ceding, chancel and transepts, are three single rows of pillar stones, making a perfect cross with the circle of the sun in the centre. The solitary central stone is thir- teen feet high. This temple is believed by some antiquarians to have been built by the Hyper- borei, who are thought to have been the earliest inhabitants of Britain, and to be the very round temple where Apollo hid the arrow with which he slew the Cyclopes, for Eratosthenes (ob. B. C. 196) says he hid it where there was a winged temple, and the cross parts of this temple might bear the appel- lation of wings. Diodorus mentions the " round Callernish. 80 Hi! in! i'ii 1! temple of the Hyperboreans — opposite Celtica." Here again is mystery — allegory. We may not understand the story of the Cyclopes, but it ^hows at least that a cross-shaped temple was known not only to Eratosthenes, but also to Diodorus, B. C. 44. The crosses in circles so common in Scotland and called lona crosses are relics of the Sun-god. There arc also numerous elaborately sculptured stones there bearing crosses which the late Sir Daniel Wilson, in his Prehistoric Sco/Zand CLondon, 1863) says, "still remain an enigma to British Antiquaries," but which I ventured in 1879 to call pre-Christian.* One at Meigle bears over the two limbs of the cross a boar sacred to Tammuz, and of course to Grian or whatever Baal was then called there, and a sow sacred in Scandinavia to Frigga and in Scotland probably to Beltis or the Lady who as elsewhere shown was the same as Astarte or Easter, and below are serpents, a nondescript animal and a hound sacred to the British Ceridwin, and of course also to some Scotch goddess. At Whiteleaf in Buckinghamshire, England, is a cross one hundred feet long carved in the face of the chalk hill similar to the well known white horses of Wiltshire and Berkshire which are cut through the thick turf down to the white chalk, all undoubt- edly the work of the Ancient Britons, for the white horse or rather a proud crested mare was a symbol of Ceridwin, and as is well known, Xerxes sacrificed white horses when he crossed the Hellespont. In the Scottish Highlands a fiery cross was used as late as the rising of 1745 to call the clans in time of war. It was a cross of wood the extremi- ties of which were searqd in fire extinguished in * The Image of the Cross and Lights on the Altar. Toronto, 1879. i !i 8i In the British the blood of a ^oat, which was kilKd by the chief himself with his own sword, and this animal, which was sacred to bacchus, and in all probability there- fore to Grian in Scotland, and was killed with so much ceremony, must have been originally a sacri- fice to that god, the chief taking the place of the pagan priest. Museum is an image in stone of Samsi-Vul, King of Assyria, B.C. 835, on whose breast is a so-called pectoral cross, exactly one quarter the size of the cut here given and there is a similar one on the breast of another Assyrian monarch, Assur-nazir-pal, B.C. 885. On some coins in the same museum, Astarte or Ishtar, the Syrian Venus and our Easter is repre- sented carrying a cross, as in the cut (which is enlarged), and her dual in stone, except that she wears a longer robe, called St. Margaret, is in Westminster Abbey. It is figured in Brock's work on The Cross. This image holding a similar cross is stamped on the cover of the Prayer Books of the S. P. C. K., be- sides which there are small crosses with the circle of the sun in the four corners of every page*^ — and yet this book contains the words * If it has not been altered within the last few years, my copy is about ten years old, S2 .'•! hi " Thou shalt not make a graven image" — to bow- down to or to worship, or even to look upon with reverence, for God is to be worshipped in spirit only, not in an emblem. But who was Astarte ? Appian says she was by some called Juno, by others Venus. I have shown several other names by which she was known, but it is impossible to explain the inexplicable confusion of heathen mythology. Wc read in our Classical Dictionaries that Bacchus, Adonis, Silenus, Priapus and the Satyrs were all men and Vesta, Rhta, Ceres, Proserpine and Themis were women. Nine in all without counting the innum'^rable Satyrs, and yet Porphyry tells us that they were all one and the same and this is attested by the Orphic Hymns, while others as already stated went further still and believed all the gods and godu.-sses were included in One Supreme Deity. I have repeated this because Astarte was the same as Juno Lucina who was invoked by the Pagan Roman women for the same reason that her successor Margaret, of Westminster Abbey and the S. P. C. K. is appealed to by women of the R. C. Church. She is again referred to herein as Easter. Champollion engraves an Egyptian kneeling with a cmx aiisatUy or cross with a handle in each hand and Wilkinson figures Egyptians of the 15th cent. B. C. with Latin crosses, or crosses with the lower limb longer than the other three, on their necks, suspended from necklaces. Constantine, called the first Christian emperor, who died in 337, wore a cross or letter X on his helmet. Jt was the X P combined, or Chi Ro (Ch jn English and R — th^ Greek P being our R), generally si ^posed to stand for Christos or Christ, but it was originally the monogram of Chronos or Saturn, and it has been supposed that he intended it for Christians as Christos, and for Pagans as Chronos, and it is by no means improbable, for he worshipped also Pagan deities, and had on his coins, *• Sol invictus," the ^nconquered Sun, and on each side of the Chi ro on his helmet he bore a sun ! He put to death on a false charge, his own son Crispus and his brother-in-law Licinius. He took up the Christian faith as a superstition which he amalgamated with his other superstitions and only consented to be baptized when on his death-bed. The X P i^C/ii ro) did not originate with him for it has been discovered on a coin of Hippostratus, King of l^actria, B. C. 130. The figure X alone as well as the -I- have also been found on pre-Christian inscriptions and coins, and even the X with a straight line through the centre forming in fact a six pointed star, and Zoeckler who describes many pagan crosses, thinks it possible that all the oldest forms of the so-called early Christian monogram have been occasionally employed on pre-Christian inscriptions and on coins of Rome and the P!ast and have in their passing over to the use of Christians undergone a ch? .ge of significations in accordance with Christian ideas. Besides that of Hippostratus some of the forms have been found upon coins of the Pontian king Mithridates, B.C. 63, and of the Armenian king Tigranes, B.C. 70 and elsewhere, perhaps in some cases as an abbreviation of the Greek Chrusos or Chronos, or as a monetary cipher or cipher of a master of the mint, ill! 84 Christians were so called first at Antioch, A.D. 41 (Acts xi. 26), but when they first adopted the cipher X is not known. When they added the straight line through the X already referred to, however, they considered it to be an I, as the initial letter of the name Jesous or Jesus. This form Ai'st occurs as a Christian symbol upon a Catacomb inscription of the Consular date of 268 or probably 279. The Emperor Julian (died in 363), once desig- nated his efforts directed to the extirpation of our religion a " warfare with the X." A C/ii ro monogram has been found in the Roman Catacombs on the inscription of a martyr named Marius, of the time of the Emperor Hadrian (A. D. 1 17-138), but Withrow thinks it was written long after the time of Marius, or the monogram may have been added by a later hand, and the others are equally apocryphal. The first certain example of this so-called Constantinian monogram is the inscription of Asellus and Lea to their father Priscus, which bears the date A. D. 331. There are two others which may be of the years 291 and 298, but they are considered doubtful. In the year '339 the second datod example occurs, enclosed in a circle. In A. D. 341 three examples are found, and in A. I). 343 it occurs four times in one inscription. After this it becomes exceedingly common, and is even employed as a mark of punctuation between words. As regards the so-called miracle of the cross appearing to Constantine, Lichtenberger (Paris, 1878,) says it has no serious historical foundation, ^i 85 and he adds that the Catacombs reveal that the cross properly so-called, did not appear regularly, but at the beginning of the fifth century, and the crucifix very much later. According to Brock (The Cross : Heathen and Christian, London, 1880) Constantine II., bore the Chi-Ro on his banner, but added a cross above and wore a sun over his head. Julian the Apostate re- jected both the CJii ro and the cross but his succes- isor Jovian (d.A.D. 364) carried a Chi ro with a Mal- tese cross above. His successor Valens (d.A.D. 378) is the first on whose standard the cross is found alone, but at the same time he is represented as being crowned with a wreath by the goddess Vic- toria ! His successor Valentinian (d.A.D. 375) carries a sceptre in the form of a double cross, (also called a patriarchal or Lorraine cross) on a globe, and Theodosius 1. (d.A.D. 395) bears a Latin cross as a sceptre. In his reign, which lasted sixteen years, the use of the cross says Brock, became common, and the Chi Ro proportionally disappears. The Empress Eudoxia (d.A.D. 460) wears in one representation a cross on her head and in an- other is seated, with a •Latin cross in each hand, the one short but the other is a long one resting on the ground and similar to that of Astarte as seen in the cut on a preceding page. Major Conder asserts that "the cross is not used on an)^ monuments known in the East till after the time of Constantine, even where the in- scription is certainly Chris*-ian." The first undoubted dated example of a dis- tinct Christian cfoss in the Catacombs of Rome, according to Withrow, is of the year 407, although 7 86 Zoeckler says there is one said to belong to the time of Pope Damasus (366-384). There may be otherSj but implicit confidence cannot be placed on the symbols in the Catacombs or in the Vatican Museum, as some have undoubtedly been restored, and not always perhaps faithfully. It is for that reason perhaps that he makes no reference to the inscription of Lannus, martyred during the Dio- cletian persecution in 303, which is surmounted by a cross. It does not appear to have found its way into England until much later still, for Matthew of Westminster, says in his Chronicle : " A. D. 790. The sign of the cress was seen on the garments of several men, which was a strange thing both to speak and to hear of." There is an incised cross slab in Ireland of the year 822, on which are two inscriptions in charac- ters similar to that in the Irish MSS. of the period. The first is " Oroit do Conaing Mac Coughal," A prayer for Conaing Mac Coughal : the second in- scription is *' Oroit do Dulcen Mac Thadggan," A prayer for Dulcen son of Thadggan. This is at Clonmacnoise. Another Tit Glendalough, inscribed "Blaimac," is the stone of Blaimac, abbot of Clon- macnoise, who died circa A.D. 896. This last ap- pears to have the sun-circle in the centre. I do not remember any in England of so early a date ' ' As elsewhere stated, crosses occur frequently in South America, but in British Columbia T (iau) crosses are also to be found. In Vancouver Island every Indian village had formerly its quota of carved posts, most of which are still remaining and new ones are constantly being erected. These 87 ) posts are slabs of cedar, averaging over thirty feet in height. On many of them are plates of copper, on each of which is an object described to me as like an Indian basket, or an inverted bee-hive, under which is a perfect T (tau) hollowed or ground in the plate. These plates, some of which ap- pear to be very old, are beaten out of lumps of virgin copper with stone hammers. After being reduced to the proper state and thickness, the cross is hammered in. 1 he plates vary in size from aboui eighteen inches to two feet high, and the cross occupies the lower half. Among the carvings, together with certain peculiar (phallic) symbols are female faces, sym- bols of the sun, whom the Indians consider feminine, and animals with men coming out of their mouths. When the notice of these crosses appeared in the papers I wrote to a gentlemen in Vancouver asking him to buy one for me. His reply was that the Hydah Indians valued them as we value heir- looms and he had never heard of any being sold. Soon after however the king (or chief) of the Gold Coast Hydahs, having learnt of his inquiries offered to sell him one, but demanded no less than five hundred dollars, showing clearly that he regarded them with a superstitious awe, but for that sum he would probably have run the risk of throwing in the bones of his ancestors also. I had to be satisfied therefore with a photo- graph which is herein engraved. 88 It will be perceived that my informant described the object as represen ing an Indian basket. Can it be possible that these Indians have preserved another Bacchic symbol ? Can this basket be the cista mystica (mystic chest) of the Bacchic rites, for a wicker basket of early fruit and seed corn was sometimes substituted for the sacred box. The Mexicans had a corn goddess called Cent- eotl, and the British Druids were celebrated as "bearers of the ears of corn." Moreover the Incas had sacred grain which was sown in the gardens of the temples and of the convents of the virgins. There are no early crucifixes in the Catacombs of Rome. The earliest known is of the seventh or eighth century. It is in the Catacomb of San Giulio. There is one in a monastery at Mount Athos, reputed to be a gift of the Empress Pulcheria, (414-453). If this is true it is probably the oldest in existence. It is of wood with the figure of our Saviour in ivory or bone and surrounded with jewels. .There is one in a small Syrian Evangelarium' in the Medician Library, Florence, of about the year 586. Our Lord wears a long robe (which does not agree with the New Testament), and the thieves have waist cloths. Our Lord's head is surrounded by a halo, but there is no top or upper limb to His cross, nor is there a title. One soldier holds a large sponge on a short reed, and another has a spear twice the length of the reed. A crucifix which was presented by Pope Grc- u. 89 gory the Great (590-^04) to Queen Theodolinda, is preserved in the Cathedral at Monza, in which our Lord is also represented as wearing a long tunic. In the last two cases there are four nails, one in each foot, although Ambrose, who died in 397, only mentions three.* Both are engraved in Smith and Cheetham's Dictionar}^ of Christian Antiquities, where, however, no mention is made of Lipsius' celebrated work on The Cross herein- after referred to. The crucifix of Tuam, in Ireland, is engraved in Lundy's Monumental Christianity, where it is said to have been " erected before Christian times, and is obviously Asiatic." It is however surrounded by a sun-circle like the Scotch lona crosses, and strange to say the figure wears a tall turretted coronet or crown similar to that of Astarte engraved herein. There is no title nor marks of nails in the hands. The feet are not shown. It may be derived from Egypt as there is a figure with a similar head dress in the temple of Kalabshee, in Nubia, and another on the Egyptian obelisk of the Lateran Basilica, Rome. No one knows the exact shape of the instru- ment on which our most blessed Lord was executed, but what we call crucifixion was unanimously con- sidered the most horrible form of death and worse even than burning. In the Greek Testament it is called Stauros, which means a stake, and men were * Calvin, in his Treatise on Relics, pointed < at where no less than fourteen nails of the cross were shown, and Count Krasinski says there were at least thirteen more, unknown probably lo Calvin. 90 m >lii sometimes impaled in different ways and sometimes nailed to the stake or fastened with cords. In the Septuagint the instrument of execution made by Haman and translated "gallows" (Esther vii. 9) is called stauroun. Herodotus, in his account of Persian executions, says Zoeckler, occasionally makes use of such expressions as "nail to a plank" or "hang." In Latin the word rendered cross was crux or stipes^ the former in Livy meaning a mere stake, and the word crucified means therefore staked, and the latter denoting alike the stem of a living tree, as also a stake or stock, or log fixed in the ground. Even the placing of a head upon a single upright pole says Smith's Bible Dictionary has been called crucifixion. Stakes as instruments of execution were used so frequently that we can hardly think the Roman soldiers would have taken any particular trouble in preparing them, and especially in faitening on a cross piece ; neither were they very tall, as the Nineveh sculptures show. Haman's stake appears to have been exceptionally high. Archdeacon Farrar, in Smith's " Dictionary of the Bible," says, " It must not be overlooked, that crosses must have been of the meanest and rudest materials, because used in such marvellous numbers. Thus /a masus crucified 800 Jews per day; Varus, 2,000 ; Hadrian^ 500 ; and Titus, so many that there was not room for the crucified, nor crosses wherewithal to crucify.'' Professor Lipsius, in his learned work, De Cruce (Louvain, 1605), was probably the first who expressed the opinion that our blessed Lord was nailed to a simple stake, with His hands above His head — and no one can prove the co7itrary, as we have 91 no cotemporary description of the instrument, all the delineations of it that we possess having been made long after the death of our Saviour. Man Nailed to a Stake. St. Andrew is generally said to have been crucified on a cross in the shape of the letter X, for which, however, there is not sufficient evidence. In Greek Martyrologies, and in one or two Western examples he is depicted as crucified on a cross of the ordinary form. According to others he was killed with the sword, but Hippolytus, bishop of Porto, circa A. D. 222, says he was crucified up- right on an olive tree. This seems to agree with the shape according I I 9^ i ! E!i to Dr. Lipsius, as it is hardly likely that they would exert themselves to fasten a transom or cross bar to a tree. Archbishop Grindall, called by Lord Bacon the greatest and gravest prelate of the land, ordered "All crosses to be utterly defaced, broken and destroyed." The cross was abolished everywhere at the Reformation, except by some strange oversight in the Baptismal Service, and until about half a cen- tury ago it would have been difficult to find one in a Protestant Church or cemetery, or on the cover of a Prayer Book, cither in Great Britain or the United States. Staunton, in his CJiurcJi Dictionary, New York, 1849 (a book from which Dean Hook says he derived his title) says, ** /;/ ancient times (the italics are ours) the figure of a cross made of wood or stone, was in common use as a church ornament, etc., being frequently placed on stetples, towers, pinnacles and the summit of arches and roofs ; besides being interwoven with all the curious and beautiful forms of Gothic ornaments in the interior of churches and sacred places." The Rev. Mr. Brailsford, in his Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury^ (London, 1873), shows when the cross was first introduced into the Eng- lish Church of the Reformation. He says : " This movement in the direction of error and idolatry ?n the English Church may be traced to about forty years ago, when a plain cross was put on the covers of books of devotion as an ornament." It was about this time that they also commenced intro- ducing crosses into the churches and cemeteries. Bishop Maltby (Durham) foresaw what was coming. 93 for in his charge in 1841, he says "We arc threat- ened with a revival of the follies of a bygone super- stition. A suspicious predilection has been mani- fested for the emblem of the cross"; and soon after Dr. Pusey's advice to his followers appeared in the British Critic for Jan. 1842, "As a general rule to disguise the cross with such conventional shapes and such decorations as render it a mere ornament to the careless and unfriendly observer, but a cross still to him that so regards it" !* And about 1875 the Rev. G. W. Butler, Rector of Broadmaynes, Eng., showing how general the use of it had then become said that it was already found "In wood, in stone, in iron, in painted glass .... in carpets and paper hangings .... Maltese crosses, plain crosses, figured crosses and crosses of every kind .... But says many a one *I do not worship the cross, or regard it with feelings of reverence. I am fond of that which has an ecclesi- astical appearance .... These things are just now the fashion .... After all it is a mere question of ornament.' But can this be innocent or even lawful ? Did the Lord of Glory, then, suffer the shame and anguish of the accursed tree {arbor vifelix) that His dying woes might furnish us with a design for decorative art ?" A late Bishop of Exeter, Dr. Phillpotts, (a High Churchman) said that instead of exciting the mind to the contemplation of the triumphant issue of our Lord's sufferings the material cross tends to chain it down to the sufferings themselves, and the late Rev. Hely H. A. Smith said "if the head of a fi* ■^ Protestant Episcopal Layman's Handbook. By an Ex-Churchwarden. Toronto, Hart & Co. 189 1. 94 :!i' i: !!!! household and father of a family, a man of high character, and deservedly revered and beloved, should, on some unjust charge, be condemned to death, and hung, what shou!d we say if his bereaved family were, after his execution, to take a gibbet as their crest, and to introduce gibbets for orna- ments on every possible occasion .... Are we really honoring Christ in making models of the in- strument of His execution and using them as articles of adornment, pride and ostentation" ? The Rev. Joseph Bardsley says that in the Coptic Church, in exorcising the devil in baptism, the priest makes the sign o^ the cross no less than seven times ; nor is this surprising, for as in the Greek Church they cross themselves continually. A Russian peasant will often cross himself before taking a glass of brandy. If, now, my readers wear an image of the cross, or place it in your churches or houses, do you not thereby accustom weak Protestants to the sight, and put a stumbling block in your brother's way? I possess a copy of Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola, which I could not bear to part with or destroy as it is not only an heirloom, but a good copy. One day, however, when a lady friend, a R. C., expressed her delight in seeing it in my house, and silently crossed herself, an idea struck me and I hesitated no longer, and at the risk of being called by some a goth, and by others a bigot, employed an artist to paint out the halos over two of the figures, and the cross in the hands of the third, and I have now what Raphael really painted in the country on the top of a wine cask, as he had no canvass there : a beautiful Italian woman and her two lovely babes. - . - ■ • .-. M 95 Making the sign of the cross, as my lady friend did, was already adopted as a Christian cus- tom in TertuUian's time as he tells us, but it was derived from the Pagans, who marked on the fore- heads those who were initiated into the mysteries with the T (tau) of Tammuz. The Buddhists as well as the Brahmins marked their young on the forehead with the fylfot cross. The Scandinavians also marked their children with the Pagan sign, and Du Chaillu informs us that at their feasts they consecrated the drinking horns and their meats by making the same sign over them, and that when Christianity was introduced the people were loth to abandon their ancient faith, and on one occasion at a feast. King Hakon, of Norway, foster-son of Athelstan, King of England, who had embraced Christianity, made the sign of the cross over his horn, which displeased the people so much that he tried to make them believe it was Thor's sign. The people asked, " Will he no longer worship the gods ?" Sigurd Jarl (Earl Sigurd) answered : * The king acts like all others who be- lieve in their own strength and might ; he signs his cups to Thor ; he made a hammer sign over it be- fore he drank it' " It would take too long to point out all the errors of our P. B. as well as in the Bible, as for instance, in the lesson for the ist of July, from i Samuel i. 22; "Also he bade them teach the chil- dren the use of the bow." This lamentation refers to the bow of the dead Jonathan, and was called "The Song of the Bow"; but not long ago our min- ister read to us that David ordered them to be taught the use of the bow ! It is correctly tran- slated "song" in the revised version. One of the lessons is from Judges: "God clave 111^ ts ,1 ^18 ■,%. W' IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) / /. SP MP // .^- «P^ t<>r / /A, 1.0 I.I 11.25 •- i« |||||2,2 lllll 1.8 JA lllll 1.6 V] (^ /a ^h o 7 is. % L^< ^* 96 a hollow place that was in the jaw and there came water thereout." The Dutch authorized version of 1637 did not, however, make this most absurd blunder. The spring of water did not burst forth from the bone itself, but from the place called Lehi, or the Jaw- bone, and the Hollanders translated it: "He clave the hollow place that is in Lehi," exactly as it is rendered in our R. V. of 1885. Lent. — The lessons from Matt. xvii. 21 ; Mark ix. 29; Acts X. 30, and i Cor. vii. 5, are still read to us from the A. V., although the word '* fast- ing" is an interpolation in all four cases. It is true that Dean Burgon objects to the word "fasting" being expunged in Matthew and Mark although he passes over the two others, but Dean Alford says of the first " This verse is omitted in our two oldest MSS!' {i.e. the Sinaitic and Vatican). Of Mark " 'and fasting' is not found in ike two most ancient MSS." Of Acts x. 30, he says " T/ie four most ancient MSS. have, * I was until this hour keep- ing the ninth hour of prayer ': omitting was fasting", and of I Cor. vii. 5. ^'The words 'fasting and ' are ivanting in all our principal oldest authorities^ Tischendorf agrees with Alford. He writes of the first "S. and V. omit this verse!' The second " S. and V. omit and fasting.""^ Third (in a note) " Four days ago, until this hour I was at the ninth hour hour praying in my house" and this he credits to the Sinaitic Vatican and Alexandrian and shows also that these three codices, and they are the three oldest, render i Cor. vii. 5 "give yourselves to prayer" and omit fasting, and the R. V. agrees with the English and German translators. *The italics are the Dean's and Tischendorfs. Ml 97 We are told in the Articles that whatsoever is not read in Holy Scripture, nor can be found there- by, is not required to be believed, etc. Where, then, in the New Testament are we told to keep Lent ? It is not a Scriptural Season, but a Church Season, a Roman Church Season, derived not from Holy Scripture but from the Roman Church. If we followed the Calendar, and if we are sound P. B. Churchmen ought we not to do so, our lives would be spent almost entirely in Feasts and Fasts, of which there are over one hundred and fifty without including Sundays, nearly all of which are of Pagan origin, and it is strange that our Reformers retained these days, for as they abolished all the ecclesiastical cookery regulations we do not know when we must eat fish nor when we may eat flesh, nor when we may use dripping or lard instead of butter, except we follow the rules of the R. C. bishops which are sometimes published. The fasts of the Greek Church are stricter even than the Roman. About says " They think they do enough for their salvation in interdicting them- selves forbidden meats; and they imagine that the submission of the stomach dispenses them from that of the heart." As all the Sundays are Feast Days can we blame some of our fashionables if they interpret it as dinner-giving days ? Even in the Old Dispensation there was only one fast appointed by the Law of Moses, viz., the great fast of the Expiation, and that was a fast of one day only. All the other Jewish fasts were ap- pointed by the authority of the state. • It is true our most blessed Lord fasted forty days, but was it not part of His temptation, for it 98 'ii,. mi i if was only after He was weak from hunger that Satan made proposals to Him ? No stress whatever is laid upon it in the New Testament; in fact Mark does not even mention it and it is entirely ignored in the Epistles, and when the Roman Church added four days to their original thirty-six they probably did so to make it agree with the forty days of the Egyptian lamentation for Osiris and of the Syrian for Adonis and the forty nights wailing for Proser- pine, for so careless were the ancients about amal- gamating Christian and Pagan ceremonies that more than two centuries after the Council of Nice Gregory of Tours (ob. 595), reports it as a common saying in Spain that "it is no harm if one who has to pass between heathen altars and God's church should pay his respects to both." The Jewish religion was one of ceremony. Ours is not, and when our Lord upbraided the Jews for not keeping their fast He taught very plainly that He did not approve of ceremonial fasting. When He said that when He was taken away His disciples would fast, did He mean that they would keep a ceremonial fast, or that like David they would be so overcome with sorrow that they would not care to eat ? Exhortations to pray occur over one hundred times in the New Testament, but, omitting the four interpolations, fasting is referred to only seventeen times and as some are repetitions the number must be reduced to seven or eight, some of which refer to being short of provisions. In Acts xiii. and xiv. we read that they fasted . nd prayed, but may it not be asked whether this does not refer to a season of prayer so earnest that it involved fasting as a consequence. This occurred A. D. 45. \. 99 Paul lived more than thirty years after our Lord's death and wrote fourteen Epistles, in not one of which does he recommend fasting. On the contrary he said A. D. 64, to the Philippians, " In everything BY PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION WITH THANKSGIVING LET YOUR REQUESTS BE MADE KNOWN UNTO GOD." IN EVERYTHING—BUT NOT A WORD ABOUT FASTING. In fact he condemned it in unmistakeable lan- guage. To the Corinthians A. D. 59, he said "But meat commendeth us not to God : for neither, if we eat, are we the better ; neither if we eat not, are we the worse." He told the Hebrews, A. D. 64, that under the New Dispensation the rites of the law had passed away and that the blood of Christ alone would purge a Christian from dead works, and in the year 65, said to Timothy '* Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils . . . com- manding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving." And still we observe a Lent of forty days, and as it was impossible to find a suitable Epistle for the first day, read instead from the Old Testament, which does not apply to us in any way whatever, for the prophet Joel foresaw an impending calamity of a water famine and a plague of locusts and ex- horted the Jews to keep a fast for that particular occasion only. Lent was first established by a Pope ab )Ut the year 130, as a tithe of the year or thirty-six days, arfd this only lasted accoiding to some authorities to A. D. 487, while others say the additional four days were added as late as the time of Gregory II. who died in 731. These additional four days were i I '■ ; \\ TOO i\ ;*(; 1 ■ n ii '"■ w' not recognized however in Scotland until the end of the nth century and five centuries later the Presbyterians abolished Lent entirely. Before the Transition in i860, when Italy be- came free, the fines for not fasting were a great source of revenue to the Roman Church. The printed decrees were exposed in the sacristies of every parish church and in the houses of entertain- ment and the fines were distributed, one half for the benefit of the sacred buildings and the other half between the informer and the police if the lat- ter had anything to do with the case. The decrees added "The names of the informers and witnesses shall be kept secret." Dispensations to eat meat on prohibited days could however always be ob- tained for a price. The first time I was in Rome, in 1840, fifty- five years ago, a Roman friend who dined with me during Lent at the table d'hote of the best English hotel, where they had a dispensation to serve meat for the benefit of the foreigners, did not dare to eat it, not as a matter of conscience but that he feared there might be spies among the guests at the table, or that some of the servants might be in league with the police, and if he was not fined he would certainly have been blacklisted, which he dreaded the most, as I then learnt the Roman proverb "Hate like a priest," which I hardly dared to think of until Dean Stanley used the expression, they were for the most part laymen, "but laymen charged with all the passions of the clergy." One of the laws concerning fasting in England in the middle ages have been preserved. They are the Penitential Canons of Dunstan, who died in 988, and as he is one of the holy men (!) whose jii lOI names are preserved in our Calendar (May 19) ought they not at least to be treated with proper respect ? In these Canons one day's fast is allowed to be met by the penitent singing the Beati six times and the Fater Noster six times, or bowing down to the ground with Pater Noster, sixty times, whilst a whole year's fast might be compounded by'his paying thirty shillings, and so on in propor- tion, and as the purchasing power of money was so much greater in those days, a sheep was then dear at a shilling, and a rich man could procure a dis- pensation for one year for thirty sheep, equal at the present day, at say seven dollars each, to two hun- dred and ten dollars, and according to this doctrine, could live on the fat of the land all his days and find the gates of heaven open at the end for less than twenty dollars a month ! If our Lord intended the forty days to be an anniversary fast why did not He keep it annually; and if we are following His example why do we fast repeatedly when He only fasted once ? Why did not the Apostles keep a Lenten fast ? It was a wise man who said "Not forty days only, but the whole life of a Christian should be a continual sacrifice to God, and the less said about Fasts and Festivals the better." The Rogation Days were instituted in the year 460 (some say 452) by Mamercus, bishop of Vienne in France, and were derived from the heathen processions called Terminalia, in honor of .the god Terminus, who was considered the guardian ot fields and landmarks. These days were introduced in England as early as A.D. 847, and the clergy, attended by jnen and boys marchec^ through th^ fields singing 8 102 !i!^ i!r ! i r.lj f and supplicating blessings upon the fruits of the earth. Marriages were prohibited from the first day of Rogation week until Trinity Sunday — about twenty days, but of course dispensations could al- ways be obtained — /or a consideration. Processions were abolished at the Reformation but these were retained under the name of Perambulations to mark out the bounds of the parishes, and are to be found in the Tables and Rules of the P. B., and we must accordingly still fast on the Rog.ition days of the French Roman Catholic bishop Mamercus. Are we never to escape from the toils of the Church of Rome ? Dr. Fausset, in his "Guide to the Study of the P. B." just published, says "Our several holy sea- sons, Christmas .... and Ascension, the last pre- ceded by three days of earnest prayer, called Roga- tion days (Litany days ; dating from Mamertus, Bishop of Vienne, 460 A.D.), are a beautiful con- trivance to bring forth the whole cycle of the Lord's birth as man." Where is the Canon's authority for saying that the Rogations are three days of earnest prayer, as if they referred to the Ascension ? Part of this work was already printed (see page 75) when we received the Canon's book. He also says " Ember days from embers or ashes." The Russians have a proverb " Heaven can only be reduced by famine" and they have the Four Great Lents. Of Easter, seven weeks ; St.. Peter's Fast, from Trinity Monday for twenty to forty days; the Assumption in August seventeen days and the Christmas Fast from the 1 5th Novem- ber, thirty-nine cfays, besides which there are the 103 le six great days of prayer and repentance and thirty- one Wednesdays and as many Fridays, Total 165 to 195 days. During all this time neither meat, (nor fish during the Easter Lent), are allowed nor eggs, nor milk, nor even sugar. Marriages are prohibited, and the married must live as if they were single. "As for the rich" says Lacroix "they buy the right of living during the fasts the same as they do the rest of the year. If they conform to the rules of the Church they fast b}^ eating the most delicate fish, vegetables raised in hot houses and nourishing fruits ripened by the heat of stoves." Those who cannot afford to get dispensations have to suffer at the confessional. Professor Morley tells us of a servant who was going to be confessed and applied to him for some money for the purpose — saying "I know how to do it" The R. V. retained the shameful mistranslation in II. Cor. v. 20, and Eph. vi. 20, which only tends to the exaltafion of the priesthood ! The Hebrew words " luts" and " malak" in the O. T., translated "ambassador," signify interpreter, messenger, agent, and the Greek word "presbeuo" in the N. T., also translated "ambassador," signifies an elder or senior, and never an ambassador. An ambassador is an official of the highest rank, sent from one sovereign to another sovereign, and is deemed to represent the person of his sovereign. It is only about a year ago that the Ministers plenipotentiary between the U. S. A. and the principal foreign courts, who represented their Governments, were changed to ambassadors, the President of the U. S. A. being th^'^ recognized as the ecju^l of the sovereigns, : ill n i: ' { : :l 1 ' I' if I I !i.' '.V' • T 04 That some of our clcrf^y most bla<;phcmously claim an equality with the Almighty is an un- doubted fact, for in 1891 Bishop Courtney, of Hali- fax, N. S., told a congregation that they must re- ceive their minister "as Jesus Christ Himself," and if this bishop teaches that his clergy are the equals of the Second Person of the Trinity, does it not follow that he considers himself on an equality with the First Person of the Trinity ? At the funeral sermon of the late Premier Sir John Macdonald at St. Alban's church, Ottawa, the minister called himself "God's ambassador" ? Until four ) ears ago, although I have heard the word ambassador harped upon times without num- ber, I do not remember ever hearing the true signifi- cation given in the pulpit or out of the pulpit, but in 1 89 1 "The Declaration of the Truth of Holy Scripture," signed by Dean Goulburn, Archdeacon Denison, Dean Payne-Smith, Dean Gregory (un- derstood to be the real head of the Ritualistic party), Prebendary Webb-Peploe, and others, commenced thus : — "We, the undersigned, messengers, watch- men, and stewards of the Lord" — not ambassadors. Lest I should be called hypercritical or that it should be said that the word ambassador had for- merly a different signification I have only to add that more than two centuries ago, in 1663, Pepys, in his Diary, complained of the abuse of the word. He writes " (Lord's Day.) To church, and heard Mr. Mills preach upon the authority of the ministers, upon the words 'We are therefore embassadors of Christ.' Wherein, upon many other high expressions, he said, that such a learned man used to say, that if a minister of the word and an angel should meet him together he would salute 105 the minister first ; which mcthought was a Httle too high." When the Hon. and Rev. Baptist W. Noel, son of the Earl of Gainsborough, and one of the Queen's chaplains, left our Church half a century ago, he said : '* Priestcraft with a giant stride, Stalks the land in pomp and pride ; He who should preach only Christ, Now a semi-papal priest, Would the Church's Lord appear, Not its lowly minister ; Calling all men, great and small, Down before the priest to fall. * -^ -^ -x- -it •* None must rest on Christ alone, Till the priest his work has done. Sicraments the priest extols, For 'tis he each rite controls ; •^ -x- * -x- i(- -x- Priests, ambassadors of heaven. Can pronounce our sins forgiven — Since what e'er their want of sense They the gifts of grace dispense ; Oh ! for an hour of Luther now ! Oh ! for a frown from Calvin's brow ! Once they broke the papal chain — Who shall break it now again ? The Roman soldiers at the crucifixion were not all unfeeling men. In Matt, we read. " They gave Him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall, and when he had tasted th' reof He would not drink." Mark says, •* wine mingled with myrrh ; but He received it not." Luke says, " And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming to Him and offering Him vinegar." The mockery as mentioned by Matthew and Mark consisted, however, in tantalizing our Lord by making the vinegar bitter or nauseous, for the % Iill"l v. i I 'i i 'i i V : I, !f? )l! W' 1 06 Easterns like vinegar alone, as 1 can testify, and it is strange that the translators of Luke did not re- member the kind permission given by Boaz to Ruth to dip her morsel in the vinegar. When He called for Klias, Matthew says, " One of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it upon a reed and gave Him to drink." It was probably a small piece that could be put into the mouth, and may even have been done by the centurion who said, " Certainly this was a righteous man." John renders this passage differently, as if it was still a mockery, " And they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it upon hyssop and put it to His mouth. When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar . . ." Here, however, I feel confident that the trans- lators of both the A. V. and the R. V. have erred, for this last vinegar was not made nauseous with hyssop, and our Lord received it. Both versions omitted the one letter " a." The sponge was not put upon hyssop, but upon a hyssop stalk. This was probably the caper plant of Linn?tus, called by the Arabs asiif, and which produces a stick three or four feet in length. In the Syriac Peschito version it reads, " And they filled a sponge with the vinegar and put it on a hyssop [stalk], and b^re it to His mouth." In 1846 1 ascended the Nile. There were then no steamboats there, and I had to hire a native sail-boat. In Nubia, an Egyptian governor, or leading man, I forget his title, and his two friends took lunch with me on b ard. I told my Greek dragoman, who had foolishly placed forks all round, to say to them, that although I v^as 107 accustomed to forks, I hoped they would of course follow their own fashion ; and when I dined with him on descending the river, 1 al: ^ dispensed with a fork, which is not so very unpleasant, as they all washed their hands with soap and running water before eating.* My dragoman, to make as good a show as possible, had nearly emptied my canteen, and among other things had placed upon the table a large bottle of Cross & Blackwell's pickles. The breakfast was nearly over when the governor drew this towards him, took out two or three of the gherkins with a fork, and eat them, then filled the slop bowl, which had not been used, with the vine- gar, drank the greater part himself, and then passed the bowl to his friends, who finished it. The three men drank a good sized bowl full of vinegar. When I dined with him there was of course but one dish on the table, into which we all put the fingers and thumbs of our right hands, but there were several removes. I had put on my Dutch uniform, and the old gentleman kissed me on the cheek when I arrived, and was very polite to me as I sat next to him, cross-legged on the carpet, ■^ They do not put their hands into the soapy water, but while one slave holds a basin under the guest's hands, the other, who carries a towel over his arm, pours the water slowly on them, so that when the soap is laid down they are finally rinsed with clean water. The basin has a perforated piece of metal in it, through which the soapy water runs, so that no one sees the dirty water that has been used by his neighbor. In England, however, in 1663, before forks were in common use, Sorbiere, a French traveller, says the wash- ing of hands before meals was performed by dipping them into a basin full of water that was brought around to all the guests. \m I SI ■■!' ' i'l ! ■ ": '7 ' * m M 1 08 occasionally takinj^ titbits out of the dish and putting them in my mouth. Our Lord said " It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle." It is true He added "But with God all things are possible," but at the same time did He wish to make His parable entirely beyond the comprehension of the people ? Lord Lindsay explained this in his Travels more than half a century ago. He said the gates of walled towns have generally a large gate seldom opened at night for fear of a surprise, and a smaller one for foot passengers, and that in the symbolical language of the East the small gate was called the eye of the needle ! The people therefore could easily under- stand that there was some hope for the good rich man for a camel if forced to kneel down could possibly be squeezed through the small gate though with difficulty. When crossing the Desert I myself noticed a peculiar custom of the Bedouins which seemed to explain a passage in Kings, which the Revisors altered, but still did not seem to understand it, for the custom alluded to may have been peculiar to tribes and perhaps even to families. Jn the Bible account of David's conquest of the Jebusites it is said that they told him "Except thou take away the blind and the lame thou shalt not come in hither." So David smote the blind and the lame * that are hated of David's soul." (2 Sam. V. 6-^\ "Why (says Campbell in his 'Hittites') should David hate the lame and the blind ? Do not Hapischim and Havigrim, the lame and the blind, rather denote the worshippers of two heathen divinities one of whom was the Accadian Hubisega" called by the Assyrians Bilu or Bel ? And he 109 ga" he shows elsewhere that the Accadian Hubisega was the same as the Latin lame ^od Vulcan. Mr. Forster, in his Sinai Photogiaphed a quar- ter of a century ago, showed that the word quail in Numbers xi. 31 was a mistranslation for iiuhams, or long-legged geese or cranes, standing about two feet high, and that these '' red dusky geese " are exactly the *' red-legged cranes " seen by Dean Stanley on the very spot of the miracle. He says the Israelites were a nation of archers (Ps. Ixxviii. 9), and " when, therefore, the nuhams or long- legged geese, flew over the camp in clouds, which darkened the air, they would fall by tens of thou- sands as the arrows of six hundred thousand Israel- ites flew among them." I have always believed that Mr. Forster was right, and was surprised that the R. V. passed it over unnoticed, for the Bible says the quails fell for the space of a day's journey round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high. If now the about two cubits referred to the height of the birds, the case is clear, for the large birds could have easily bee.i split open and jerked, as they dry beef in South America ; but if on the contrary the smaller birds lay two feet deep for a day's journey all around the camp, how many day's journey of space would have been required to spread them all out to dry ? As it may be difficult for those living in settled countries to conceive even of the size of the flocks of flying birds that pass over in their migrations, I clip the following from the A^. Y. Sun ': — " Near Santa Maria, Cal , one day last week, in a little bay about six square miles in area, there were fully a quarter of a million of wild geese. The noise of their quacking and calling to one another was at 1 !' no >!' !■ iii!^ M:m| times heard two miles away. At San Pedro and at the little lake in Kern county there are said to be even greater numbers of the geese, because of the proximity of the wheat fields. Large numbers arc slain annually during their migrations hundreds of the old hunters have often got over 200 geese in a day All the markets and country grocery stores now have wild geese and duck exhibited for sale at nominal prices." And while pointing out these mistranslations I must be pardoned for repeating what I said in a former brochure. It was as follows : — Fraser, in his 'Episcopacy', just published shows how scandalously our A. V. was mutilated by adding the subscriptions to the Epistles that Timothy was ordained the first bishop of Ephesians and Titus the first bishop of Crete. This was the work of the bishops, fit apos- tolical successors of Bishop Judas, for he, accord- ing to their own authority, did have successors — "And his bisJioprick let another take ?" Acts i. 20. Did not Archbishop Bancroft over-reach him- self in thus recognizing this ancestor? Dean Al- ford, however, uses the word 'office' instead of bishoprick, and the R. V. agrees therewith, with 'overseership' in the margin. In the Syrian Peschito N. T. (Murdoch's translation), it reads 'service.' The Dutch N. T. says 'opzienaars-ambt' (overseer's office); the French 'administration'; and the Italian, 'ufficio'. Fraser says : "The statement, so added to the second Epistle to Timothy and the Epistle to Titus have probably done more than anything else to mislead people into a belief that Timothy and Titus really were prelates in Ephesus and Crete at 1 1 1 the time of the Epistles beinor written. They do not appear in the early translations of the Scrip- tures, and they could only have been invented, and they were improperly added, solely for the purpose of supporting episcopal pretensi ns. There is no foundation for the assertion that either of these men ever sustained such an office, and these sub- scriptions should be erased from every Bible as being spurionsP (These italics are mine). They are excluded from the Dutch New Testament, Alford's N. T., the Syrian, and from the R. V. In the R. V. we find in Eph. v. i. " Be ye therefore imitators of God." But how can a crea- ture imitate God ? I cannot but think it would have been better had they left it as it was in the A. V. ''followers of God." In the A. V". wc read in James iii. 3. " We put bits in the horses' mouths", but in the R. V. it is bridles ! This is revision with a vengeance — bridles in the horses' mouths ! In Acts XV. 23 we read, " Apostles and elders and brethren ;" in the German Bible (Luther's) and the Italian (Diodati's) it is the same ; in the Dutch A. V. (1637) it reads, "the apostles and elders and all the people," and in the French (Amsterdam, 1710 — from the Swiss version) '* the apostles and the elders, with all the Church." Why, then, did the revisers change this to " the apostles and the elder brethren ?" thus creat- ing a new Church order, for what else are the elder brethren ? Lord Grimthorpe, in 1892, called the R. V. " a dead imposture and an incubus," and he is no mean authority, being Vicar of the Province of York, and Chancellor of the Dioeesc. % IHlq iilili' in ,1! i ;"'M!i i. ^'! ; 112 When the Lectionar/ was revised a few years ago, why or through whose influence were the xiii. and xvii. chapters of the Revelation left out, one chapter containing the wonderful number of the beast, and the other referring to the Church of Rome? In the R. V. they dared also to tamper with that xiii. chapter by adding a note, " Some ancient authorities read 6i6." To which Dean Burgon asks, " Why is not the 2v/iok truth told ?" and after explaining the '• obsolete blunder," adds that Irenaeus (A.D. 170) remarked that 666^ which is found in all the best and oldest copies, and is attested by men who saw John face to face, is un- questionably the true reading. In one point I must differ from the Dean. He considered the change in the R. V. from " at the name " to " in the name," to be incorrect ; but if my readers will refer to the authorities quoted by me under Bowing in the Creed, I think they will agree with me that he was in error in this case. The Dean, referring to the iew Testament, which was published first in 1880, said, "I am thoroughly convinced, and am able to prove it is untrustworthy from be^^inning to end." Another false translation must not be forgot- ten, as it was an intentional fraud, for the Puritans or Low Churchmen of that day charged Arch- bishop Bancroft, principal supervisor of the A. V. of 161 1, with having incorrectly translated the passage, "in the name of Jesus every knee should bow " to " at the name," that he might have quasi Biblical authority for bowing the head at the name , in the Creed, a Romish custom, which had been generally given up at the Reformation : and al- IT3 d si though it was never proved that he himself was the guilty party, still it is an undoubted fact that his successor, Archbishop Laud, acknowledged, on his trial in 1643, that the word "in" in the P.B. (Epistle for the Sunday next before Easter) was ch.inged without authority to "at," with his cog- nizance, but said that he himself did not do it. St. Paul meant that ue should offer up our prayers on our knees in the name of the Lord Jesus. The word in the Greek Testament is en, which is the same as the Latin and English *' in." It was correctly translated t)i nomine, or in the name, in the first Latin Bible, the V^ulgate of 384 A.D., and it is so rendered in Wycliffe's, Tyndale's, Coverdale's, and Cranmer's English Bibles, and even in the Douay or R.C. Bible. Moreover, in Luther's German Bible it is also translated in {in dent Namen)y in the Dutch A.V. of 1637 {in den naani), and, lastly, in the Revised N. T., first pub- lished in 1880. How did Bancroft and his clique overlook the same Greek word en in Colossians iii., 17, for if their translation in the previous Epistle is right this should read " Do all AT the name of the Lord " ? Bancroft was notorious for his severity to the Puritans who refused to bow, and Laud even cited the son of the Lord Chief Justice of England before the Council. Ofificers were appointed, who reported all who did not stand up in the Creed and bow at the name of Jesus, and the Puritans originated the device of making the sides of the pews so high that they entirely concealed the occupants from view. ^ , Charles the Second's immoral Archbishop TT4 I 'i. m »'• 'il' Sheldon contrived in 1664 to get the Canon of 1603 made a law of the realnri, and the penalty for refusing to bow was smaller fines and imprison- ment for the first and second offences, and for the third time a fine of ;^ioo and transportation to the colonies. In 1452 B.C., the Jews worshipped idols, for they " did eat and bowed down to their gods " [Num. XXV. 2] ; and again in 1444 B.C., " they for- sook the Lord God .... and followed other gods, and bowed themselves unto them " [Judg. ii. 12]. Strange to say, an Assyrian tablet has been discovered in Babylonia giving the pagan instruc- tions for bowing the face. This tablet is, how- ever, in so broken a condition that, as Professor Sayce says, " almost anything can be made out of it. It is possible that nothing more is intended by it than instructions as to the construction of an image of a household god or spirit, and the correct mode of worshipping it." The fifth line of this ugend is perfect, and reads: "Supplication, humility and bowing of the face," and as this is believed to have been written in the time of Assur-beni-pal, when the Baby- lonian gods were almost numberless, I cannot but believe, therefore, this was only the pagan form of bowing the head in prayer, perhaps to Rim- mon [2 Kin. v. 18], B.C. 894, or to Bel and Nebo [Isa. xlvi. i], B.C. 712, or to the sun, moon and stars, the oldest form of pagan worship. Rimmon was the Air-god, Bel was the father of the gods, and Nebo, son of istar, was the god of knowledge and literature. ' , Assur-beni-pal, son of Esarhaddon, the Sar- danap^lus of thq Greeks, flourished in 670 B.C., ■:" : Ji ns Id >n id d ir- and Isaiah was living in the reign of Hezekiah, who died 698 B.C. The Druids bowed to the new moon, and in the Highlands of Scotland and in the Isle of Wight, and of course probably elsewhere, the women still courtesy to the new moon. In the fifth century Pope Leo condemned some Christians, of the weaker sort, because they turned to the rising sun and bowed down their heads. Bowing the head in the Creed is sometimes said to have been introduced at the Council of Nice, in 325. Bingham does not think so however, and it would be I may safely say impossible to prove it, for the accounts of that most famous council are very imperfect. Mosheim indeed says " there is no part of the history of the church that has been unfolded with such negligence," and of only twenty canons which are generally allowed to have been passed, many were soon neglected and forgotten. With reference to the change from in to at by Laud, Bishop Short says : — " A change which zvhether right or wrongs is sanctioned by the auth- orized and Geneva translations." The Bishop must have understood Greek, and knew^ therefore, that it was wrong ; but he probably thought that it was worse than high treason to confess that there was anything wrong in the Prayer Book. The Geneva New Testament, published in 1557, was the work of English exiles at Geneva, who were probably guided in a measure by the French New Testament in use there, in which the words are " au no7nP They were probably not perfect French scholars, for although the word au sometimes signi- fies " to the," in cases like the present it invariably signifies in, I possess original French documents I l';.f* m i ;,»!i >RI ■!'*!■ li6 of the first Napoleon and of the Bourbons. The one is headed '' Au nam de /' Eiupcreur',' the other, "/??/ noin du Red!' We ourselves say, ''In the Queen's name." Bishop Bickersteth must also understand Greek, and be aware likewise of this controversy, and yet in the last edition of his Hymnal Com- panion he has given us a hymn based on the false translation, and commencing, " At the name." Is not this wilfully deceiving the people ? In 1665, Samuel Brett (' State Papers " quoted by Stoughton) writes, " At Paris, our countrymen live peaceably and enjoy our religion without dis- turbance, . . . and for their form of worship, it is the same that was formerly in England, with the Book of Common Prayer, and the rites therein used ; and also they continue the innovations that were practised by many of our clergy — as bowing at the name of Jesus, towards the altar, etc., — which I know giveth offence to the good French Protes- tants, who, to me, did often condemn those inno- vations for Roman superstitions." The Puritans (so-called because they desired the pure Word of God free from tradition) always objected to bowing at the name of Jesus, for it appeared to them very superstitious, as if worship was to'be paid to a name, or to the name of Jesus more than to that of Christ or Immanuel, and as if greater external reverence was required to that name than to the person of our most blessed Saviour under His other names or titles. In 1603 they addressed a petition to the King, called the Millenary petition, entitled ** The hum- ble petition of Ministers of the Church of England desiring a reformation of certain ceremonies, and 'I 117 IS g' abuses of the Church," one article of which was that no minister be charged to teach the people to boiv at the name of Jesus. The looo {milie) subcribers were not complet ed, probably on account of want of time, but it was signed by Eight hundred and twenty-five beneficed clergymen of different counties, or about jne- twelfth of the clergy of England, which was really a very large number when we take into account that there were then no mails, for post communi- cation between London and most towns did not exist until thirty years later, and cross posts were only established in 1720. The King acceded to their request and called the Conference to whom we are indebted for the Canon. Bowing the head is still practised in both the Roman and Greek Churches. Grattan Guinness says of the members of the Greco-Russian Church, who stand during the entire service : — " They stand silent in the churches, bowing and crossing them- selves like dumb actors in a mediaeval pantomime ; crossing themselves and bending and bowing all the time. . . . And as to the bows ! The people's heads in the churches are just bowing all the time, with every now and then a profound stoop, till the floor is touched with the forehead ;" and Arthur, describing the ceremonies of Holy Week at Rome, says of the priests, "If I had counted the bows, and the times they were repeated, my readers would hardly believe me." This, however, is not so in- credible as the Rev. gentleman seemed to think. I have heard of a lady in a Canadian choir who bowed and courtesied no less than sixteen times in a single hymn. • v / . .• The Bible is a sealed book in both the Roman Ii8 I,' -'!;: ■■4' m ii n 3E' and Greek Churches, but is there any excuse for us if we forget the words of King David and the prophet Isaiah ? " O come, let us worship and bow down ; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." (Ir^. xcv. 6.) When Solomon dedicated the Temple, he " kneeled down upon his knees, . . . and spread forth his hands towards heaven." (i Kings viii., B. C. 1004.) And three centuries later, B. C. 712, the Almighty Himself by the mouth of His prophet Isaiah (xlv. 23) said, " Unto Me Every Knee Shall Bow," and is not that bindiug stiU — or must we follow the Church By-law of 1603 ? When Daniel was in peril (Dan. vi., B. C. 538) " he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks." And Ezra (xix. 5, B. C. 451) says, " I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God." And in the Christian Dispensation our most blessed Lord Himself '* kneeled down and prayed, saying. Father" (Luke xxii), Stephen " kneeled down and cried" Acts vii), Peter "kneeled down and prayed" (Acts ix), Paul "kneeled down and prayed" (Acts xx.) and "We kneeled down on the shore and prayed" (Acts xxi.) and in Romans Paul repeats the word of God by his prophet Isaiah. Do those who bow or courtesy with a studied grace to the Son in the Creed, on the strength of one mistranslated verse, never reflect that reverence should be made to the Father also as Christ Him- self did, instead of which how many are there who do not condescend to kneel in prayer but are satis- fied with sitting and perhaps leaning forward ? 119 The custom of bowing the head had nearly fallen into disuse, but was revived by the Puseyites and in 1853, Dean Close (of Carlisle) cbmplained of ^^ neiv- J angled bozviiigs^ turnings, curtseymgs and surpliced processions," and a laay born in Dublin told me that she had never bowed in the Creed there, but when she came to Toronto more than forty years ago, she was informed that there was a canon in the Canadian Church making the prac- tice obligatory, and therefore considered it her duty to obey the law. I myself never noticed any bow- ing in the Church which I attended when a young man. In 1859, Ingoldsby complained of "private confessions, crossings, bowings, processions and other mummeries of the Romanizing party." The Rock, speaking of bowing in the Creed, said years ago, "We have been in churches where scarcely any one does so ;" and again in 1878, "There is no more authority for bowing the head at one portion of the service than at any other. Since the Puseyites began to bow wherever it occurs, many Evangelicals have given up the prac- tice altogether, which is doubtless the most con- sistent course." In 1889, the Leek (Eng.) Times published a list showing how Ritualism had gradually pro- gressed in their Parish Church during the preced- ing forty years. It corqmenced: "(i) Holy Table called 'Altar' (2) Surplice in the pulpit. (3) Bowing at the Name of Jesus, and a little lower down 'Children in day and Sunday School taught to bow and to cross themselves.'" Our clergy study divinity — but in what way ? How can they apologize for giving us the Romish M' '' .ffi h. ' 120 absolution in the morninfr and cvcninp^ prayers, in the Communion Service and in the Visitation of the Sick ; for reading what they know must be false, as the use of the bow, water from a bone, the interpolations of the word fasting, bowing at the name, styling themselves ambassadors, praying to the dead Ananias, and in the Litany to be delivered from deadly sins, implying, therefore, that there are venial sins ; and more surprising perhaps, still calling the day on which wc celebrate our Lord's Resurrection the day of the pagan goddess Easter or Venus. Are we never to have a properly revised P. B. ? When that time comes it is to be hoped they will no longer call our Saviour in the Tc Deiim by the same title as that given to the younger sons and daughters of peers. n the American P. B. He is called Thine Al)ORATU.E, true and only Son. The prayer agrinst sudden death was orig- inally " from dying suddenly and unprepared," but was altered at Sheldon's revision, although the Puritans earnestly protested against it. And where have we authority for the P>asts of the Calendar, and the so-called Holy Days } — all of which were established by Greek Emperors, Roman Popes, synods, or bishops, without any reason whatever, for the true dates are all lost. Take, for instance, St. Mark's day, which we, following Rome, celebrate April 25th, the Greek Church January nth, and the Coptic September 25th, and, if any is true, which is doubtful, the Coptic is probably the real date, as St. Mark was martyred in Alexandria. • * ' -'' . In the Primitive Church, every overseer or bishop had the right to form his own liturgy or 121 IS or or creed, and to settle at pleasure Jiis oivn time and mode of celebrating the religious festivals ; and Socrates (whose history ends in 439) assigns this as the principal cause of the endless controversies in the Church respecting the observance of Easter and other festivals. As late as the time of Thomas A' l^ecket (died I i;j) they fasted in the City of London on one side of Cheapside, whi e they did not on the other, because the bishop of London had ordered the day to be celebrated, and the archbishop of Canteibury had not, and this street was the boundary between the two dioceses. We have a very prominent English Saint, the so-called proto-martyr Alban, whose whole story, as shown by Froude, is probably a monkish fraud. He is said to have suffered during the Diocletian persecution in 303, but both the Church historian Eusebius, who was living at the time, and Sozomen, a century later, deny that the persecution reached England. The first mention we have of him is in Gildas, called the Father of British History, who died in 570. The earliest copy of this history is of the 13th century and is believed to contain many inter- polations, and Sharon Turner says "he contains so much ignorant and exaggerated narration and also so many rhetorical generalities, that he cannot be trusted alone." We are told that Alban's tomb was opened in 429 by a bishop who deposited in it some relics of saints, as if the body of this great saint required other bones to preserve it, but the use of relics had commenced long before this. Major Conder, a living authority, says "The sale of relics which appears to have comnaenced even in the 122 .t'l '■':-;. ri!i 'Wh i ^ 1 1 1, ' ■ i : ' I second century, developed into a regular trade in the fourth and fifth and the bones of saints mira- culously discovered yielded constant fresh supplies of holy bones and other remains." In 791, we are also told his body was again discovered by a miracle; a ray of fire standing over it like the Star of Bethlehem, and the body was found excellently preserved by the relics placed there by bishop Germanus three centuries before. Among many other miracles, are that like as the Israelites trod dry-foot across the Jordan, so Alban opened a path across a river, whose waters stood abrupt like preci- pices on either side; that he was ascending a hill with his persecutors and when on the top he prayed that God would give him water, and immediately a living stream broke out before his feet; that when he was beheaded as the fatal blow was struck, the eyes of the executioner dropped out of the sockets and fell to the ground with the head of the martyr, and that after the monastery of St. Alban's was built as a monk who had doubted his existence was pray- ing at his tomb the shrine burst open and a form appeared, saying "Ecce ego Albanus'' — "Behold it is I Alban, did you not see me arise out of my tomb ?" "Yes, my lo. J and master" replied the monk, where- upon Alban went back to his coffin. Well may Canon Trevor say, " Miracles were asserted in greater abundance than those of Christ and the Apostles, but their object was almost in- variably to verify a relic and increase the profit of those who exhibited it. The saints were multiplied in proportion to the demand ; but as the privilege was precious, the manufacture, once free to bishops and councils, was reserved to the Pope " at the end of the tenth century. So that all that was rec|uisite ! i:i 123 when the tomb was said to have been found and opened in 429, was for the bishop to declare the bones to be those of the holy A. B. C. or D, fabri- cating both name and history if necessary, and it became at once a matter of faith, and heresy to disbelieve it, and so also in 791. In later times the monastery of St. Albans became so notorious for its luxury, idleness and lasciviousness, that Pope Innocent VIII. (who died in 1492) enjoined Cardinal Morion to visit and report upon it. That report — the original — is still in Lambeth Palace, and Froude says of the monas- tery and its adjoining nunnery, that they were stained with every crime, even unto the sin of Sodom, and of the Cardinal's report that the details cannot be quoted, even in Latin. Froude, who wrote just before they began to restore the abbey church of St. Albans, concluded his essay " There is a talk now of restoring St. Albans. We are affecting penitence for the van- dalism of our Puritan forefathers, and are anxious to atone for it. ' Cursed is he who rebuildeth Jericho.'" And yet the church was restored and a Bishop of St. Albans created, and here in Toronto we have just commenced a cathedral dedicated to the same fabulous saint. In Smith's ''Christian Biography" we read, "St. Alban, if he ever existed." Although called the protomartyr, his name was omitted in King Edward's second P. B,, but it was restored as a black letter day (June 17) by Sheldon, I think, and if we depend entirely on our P. B., he must of course therefore, be remembered in our prayers on All Saints Day ! . . ■™P 124 ^w ii m. ii ■ I ■••:!i I I ( 1 1 ill II 1 The American Church expunged his name a century ago, and it is also expunged in the Irish and other revised Prayer Books. And must we forever hear the Minister read " He descended into hell" ? For myself I never repeat those words, for our most blessed Lord did not go down to hell. In the Ilubric the first Creed is styled " The Apostles' Creed," but in the Articles "commonly called the Apostles' Creed." Which are we to believe ? The Articles say " As Christ died for us and was buried,so also it is to be believed that He went down into Hell," but according to Kattenbusch the words "He descended into hell" do not occur in the old Roman symbol of about the year loo to 120 A.D., nor are they to be found in the earliest known form of the so-called Apostles' Creed, viz. that of Ruffinus, 390 A.D., both of which agree in that respect with the Nicene Creed of 325 A.D. Where then is the authority for the statement in the Articles. The Apostles did not write our first Creed. It is the Roman or Italian Creed of Ruffinus, bishop of Aquileia, A.D. 390, and the words used are "was crucified under Pontius Pilate and buried; the third day, — " and this according to the Christliche Welt, of Leipzig, was based upon the old Roman Symbol isy^nboluin) doubtlessly formulated between 100 and 120 A.D. it reads, "was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried. On the the third day . . ." The descent into hell is not mentioned in either nor the Greek word Catholic, but Holy Church {Sanctum Ecclesiam). The words " He descended into hell" and ''Catholic" are later additions. ' i2i; It is true I have seen it stated that the word *'inferna," translated '* hell," occurs in the Creed of Ruffinus, but, if so, it must be an interpolation, as the version now before me reads, "Crucifixus sub Pontic Pilato et sepultus, tertia die resurrexit a mortuis," i e., "Crucified under Pontius Pilate and buried. The third day He arose from the dead.' The German writer last quoted says that our form of the so-called Apostles' Creed can only be traced back to the eighth century, although it may have been older, but it is only one form out of many. Were not our Lord's last words, " It is Finished," and after He had given up His life for us, and all was finished, are we to believe that He and the penitent thief descended into the abode of evil spirits ? Of course, scholars will contend that hell means Hades, but people who are not scholars ought not to be misled. If Hades means here the abode of the blessed spirits, the word descended should not have been used. The day of an accurate revision is, I fear, still in the future; but it will come, for " Truth may languish, but can never perish." The third Creed is styled in the Rubric " com- monly called 'The Creed of St. Athanasius' " but in the Article it is called " Athanasius's Creed." Again I say which are we to believe ? It was not written by Athanasius, who died in 373, and never existed in the language in which he spoke and wrote. Some assign it to a date not later than the end of the 8th century. It is an ^ 5ii' ■.i-l ii 'ti*i if'' 126 ecclesiastical fabrication written when the princi- ples of toleration were not understood, and when it was thought that false doctrine was to be ex- tirpated by persecution and excluded by vehem- ence of denunciation and is unintelligible to most people, because it was drawn up for the purpose of contradicting and excluding certain heretical opinions which were then current. Archdeacon Farrar says, "Not one person in ten thousand has received the training in theology and metaphysics which can enable him to understand the meaning of such highly philosophical terms as * Person ' and ' Substance.' " Archbishop Tillotson condemned it two hun- dred years ago. Chillingworth went so far as to say that the damning sentences are not only false but in a high degree presumptuous. Archbishop Longley (died in 1868) declared in the presence of the whole bench of bishops that no one accepts or believes in the terms as they now stand, and the late bishop of Lichfield (Lonsdale) habitually sat down whenever it was read, as a silent but signi- ficant protest against its use. It was also con- demned by the late Archbishop Tait, Bishop Stanley and his son Dean Stanley, Dean Payne Smith and many others. George the Third would never stand up when it was read, "showing," says Goldwin Smith, " by this silent protest against its parade of paradox and its reckless denunciation, the spirit of a true Christian." V The American Church declined to accept it, in part because of its minute definitions, and still more because of its damnatory clauses, and the Reformed Episcopal Churches of the United States. i 127 and Canada followed the example. The R. E. Church of England, and the Prayer Book Revision Society (wh jse book is used by the Free Church of England) omitted the three damnatory clauses and the obligatory rubric. The Irish Church retained it, but omitted the rubric, so that no minister is obliged to read it. We, however, must still submit to that infliction. As for myself I close my book when the Athanasian Creed is read, and teach my family to do likewise for I cannot foro^et that it declares the damnation of untold millions of our fellow Christ- ians who do not accept it, and binds us under the same awful peril to ourselves to believe in that damnation of the Protestant Episcopal Ckurch of the United States, as well as the Presbyterian, Metho- dist, Baptist and other Protestant Churches. More than two score years ago a sceptic asked me if God would tempt any one to do evil ; and if not, why did we petition Him to " lead us not into temptation ?" I knew not what to reply, but after- wards felt as if it should be, and now in my heart pray, " let us not be led into temptation " — but lately appears what I believe to be the correct translation. , In the Contemporary Review, October, 1894, A. N. Jannaris, a nativ^e Greek, renders it, " and let us not fall into a tempter's snare, but deliver us from the evil one." This is a better reading than the R. V., " And bring us not into temptation." In Gen xxii. i w^e read, " God did tempt Abraham," but D'Oyly and Mant showed that this should be *' prove and try," and in the R. V. it is rendered, " God did prove Abraham." ' * 128 % I I f It-' Wycliffe, the Morning Star of the Reformation, rejected Episcopacy as a distinct order in the church, affirming that in the Apostles' time the two orders of presbyters and deacons were suf- ficient, and that the numerous distinctions which existed in his time were the inventions of men, and served but to augment their worldly pride, and when the time came the Scotch Reformers agreed with him for a leading principle of the Presbyterian system is the official equality of all ordained min- isters. They could not find in the Bible any authority for a cumbrous hierarchy, and therefore rejected the Romish system as certain to introduce pride and ambition into the church. What would he have said had he lived to see prelates of the English Church of the Reformation vying wnth the R. C. prelates for precedence as in the case of the archbishop already alluded to, who not as a Christian man, that b^ing out of the ques- tion here, but as a man of the world had no real ground of complaint as the Table of Precedence in the Domininon reads " Archbishops and Bishops according to seniority," and it would certainly seem, as if this applies only to British subjects and not to R. C. prelates who are foreigners owing alle- giance to the Pope and appointed by him. Our Canadian Archbishops seem to think differently however and it may be asked how long they will be satisfied with their present titles as the Pope is represented here by a Cardinal, and in the Vatican cardinals outrank archbishops. R.oman Catholic prelates are such legally in the Vatican, but they are not recognized in Italy or France except they have exequaturs from the King of Italy or the President of France, and such is probably the law in some other countries. 129 Not satisfied with creating Dr. Machray, Arch- bishop, the General Synod appointed him also Primate of all Canada ( ! ! !), but what authority had they for so doing, as there is no Established Church here as in England ; and we have neither territorial rights nor territorial jurisdiction, all Churches here being on an equality, except, per- haps, the R. C. Church in the Province of Quebec. Our Archbishop is not Primate of all Canada, but only of the Protestant Episcopal Church in all Canada — for the Methodists, with their Presi- dents of Conferences, and the Presbyterians with their Moderators of Synods, have each a greater number of adherents than the P. E. Church, and have the same right to appoint Primates of their respective Churches ; nor should the Baptists, Congregationalists and other evangelical Churches be overlooked. The invitations issued for the State funeral of the late Premier, Sir John Thompson, at Hali- fax, on the 3rd Jan., 1895, placed the Roman officials first probably because Sir John himself was a Roman Catholic, and our archbishops and bishops were assigned positions below the heads of the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches. In the public reports, however, the x^nglican Bishops were mentioned immediately after those of the Roman communion. There is an African Methodist Church whose bishop resides at Chatham, and has eighteen clergy, all colored, and has not Bishop Turner — I beg pardon, His Lordship the Bishop of Chatham, as good a claim to be included in the Table of Precedence as the Lord Bishops of Selkirk with two clergy, Athabasca with five, or Moosonee with seven, or our other bishops with larger dioceses .-* ■ 1' 1 i; 'V 130 Ill Of lesser dignitaries there are galore. The late bishop of Saskatchewan had twelve ministers in his diocese, all of whom were missionaries, and two only had taken University degrees. There was no cathedral, but he had given himself the additional title of Dean, and appointed three canons, one sub-canon, two rural deans and a bishop's chaplain, who was also a canon, so that one half of his army were officers and the other half privates ! Besides which he had appointed an honorary canon and a rural dean, who were not in his own diocese. In the United States on the contrary, the bishop of Pennsylvania, with 244 clergy, has none whatever,* and there are some twenty other dio- ceses in the same category. The bishop of New York, with 366 clergy, has five archdeacons and a bishop's secretary, while the bishop of Toronto has about 180 clergy, including retired ministers, col- lege professors and the like. Of these there are a sub-dean and no less than thirty-three archdeacons, canons and honorary canons, rural deans, bishop's chaplains, etc., being more than one dignitary for every live ministers, all appointed by himself, and therefore virtually his slaves bought over by empty titles. The Presbyterian Church, however, appear to manage their affairs with much less machinery, for according to the Canadian Almanac, with some 1,100 clergy, they have one official only — a Moder- ator — which appears to be an honorary office, as he is a missionary, residing in China, and two clerks of the General Assembly, besides one clerk for each of the six synods. *■ We do not count examining chaplains. ^SI The Methodists, with nearly 2,000 clergy, have only a General Superintendent, who resides in Belleville, and a President for each of the eleven Conferences, and about twenty-five Secretaries and Assistant Secretaries. To the Toronto Conference, with about 300 clergy, there arc one Secretary and three Assistant Secretaries to do the work which in our Church requires more than thirty officials for less than 200 ministers. Some of my readers may object to my use of the words " church " and " clergy." The former term, however, does not belong to the Romish, Greek and English Churches only, but to any religious society or body, as the Jewish Churchy and the latter word, although in England it usually signifies ministers of the established Church, means ministers of religion as opposed to laymen. I feel that my remarks will be objected to by many, but I have too often noticed with regret the manner that the clergy of other Protestant Churches are looked down upon by our grand rabbis, and have never forgotten the controversy, in 1874, between the humble Wesleyan clergyman and the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Lincoln. The Vicar of Owston- Ferry forbade the erection of a tombstone inscribed " In loving memory of Annie, daughter of Rev. H. Keat, Wesleyan minister," and the bishop upheld the vicar, and refused to recog- nize the Rev. Mr. Keat either as " reverend " or " minister." The papers scored the bishop as he deserved, ' and shov/ed, moreover, that the title of Rev. was ■ not a legal one for the Church of England only, but could be borne by ministers of any denomina- . tion. ••■ :. ' . ' •■' .:■■ '■'-:/ ' ■• .^" 132 n m"' ^. iilr is There would have been more dignitaries here but when the last batch were created six of them declined. I had not *ead the list but when 1 passed a friend (a High Churchman) in the street a day or two after said "Good morning Mr. ;" but immediately thinking 1 had made a blunder, turned round and said "I beg your pardon. I should have said Canon." " No," was the reply, "I'm one of the six." In England Canons Residentiary must reside three months in the year or more at the Cathedral. There is none here however although the chancel of one has been built and is burthened with an overdue mortgage of $55,000. To complete the building on the same scale, if it is ever done, will perhaps cost not far from half a million more. When that day comes, if ever, it will be an impos- ing sight to see the bishop on his throne, on grand functions, surrounded by his staff of dignitaries, and make other evangelical churches blush at their insignificance. What would be said it a General in the army could appoint all his officers, from Colonel down- wards, and make one quarter of his men officers, leaving the remainder in suspense, waiting anxious- ly to fill the dead men's shoes? I speak from ex- perience, for some time ago I met a bishop of a neighbouring diocese at a railroad station, accom- panied by two aged clergymen. One carried "Your Lordship's" bag, and the other " Your Lordship's" overcoat; and the careful way they assisted "Your Lordship" out of the car (they never dared to say "You") could not but attract notice — but was there not a vacancy in the market ? ' ■ Pomp and dignity are the curse of our church, 133 py n- *s s- s ur ^y tre which is well styled the church of the rich, for it has almost become a proverb in England that, when a man of the world acquires wealth, he joins the church ! About twelve years ago the Rev. James S. Stone, D.D., now rector of a church in Chicago, finding that of the ninety clergy in the Diocese of Montreal no fewer than twenty-four were church dignitaries, gave notice in the synod asking for the formation of a House of Dignitaries. He com- plained that the presence of so many dignitaries had a repulsive effect on the rest of the clergy. There are now twenty-two there, not including a Domestic Lhaplain, whose duty, if we may judge from his title is to read prayers in the See House to the Bishop's family and domestics. When we took over the Romish Church at the Reformation, Bishop Hooper, the martyr, and many others, wished to have all the chancels bricked up, as they involved the unscriptural idea that the clergy are a priestly caste separated by some charm from the people of God. Unfortunately this was not done. The choirs were, however, brought out of the chancels, except from the cathedrals, where they unhappily retained an ornate service. The Rubric in the Communion Service " The Table . . . shall stand in the body of the church, or in the chancel," proves clearly that they were then only considered to hold a secondary position. The Roman Church thought differently, how- ever. Bishop Durandus, in his Book of Rites, printed in Rome in 1591, says that "the chancel synibolized the priests, the Church triumphant, while the pavement of the nave signified the peo- , pie made to be trodden under foot," and those who IQ ^i .,iju:n., '34 tr il m tt call the chancel a Sanctuary and the Holy of Holies made only to be trodden by the priests and their assistants, and " not to be polluted by the feet of the laity," agree, therefore, with this Romish bishop. One of Dr. Pusey's curates, a Mr. Morris, had the effrontery to use similar language : " The ox was present at the Master's crib, To show that priests should at His altar live ; The ass was also there, Fit emblem of the patient laity, Who meekly bear the burthens on them laid." Noneof Wren's churches had chancels nor tran- septs. Sir Christopher did not erect churches ?>/ t/ie form of a cross ! The side oratories to St. Paul's Cathedral were added by order of the Duke of York (afterwards James H.) who probably was willing to have them ready for the popish service when there should be occasion. It is said that Sir Christopher actually shed tears, but the Duke absolutely insisted upon their being inserted. According to the English Churchman the late Archbishop Sumner (ob. 1862) was conversing with the Rev. W. Ackworth of Bath, concerning the restoration of his church, when the Rev. gentleman, who himself related the story, exclaimed '*But, my Lord, there is no chancel in the church," to which the Archbishop replied with great energy "And I should like to know what business a chancel has Jn any Protestant Church ?" Fifty years ago nothing more in fact was needed than a recess for the Lord's Table with a space of a few feet for the communicants in front, but ere long Pugin and the other Romanizing archi- 135 nt, hi- tects made a rule that "whatever the size of the church the depth of the chancel shall be one third of the length of the nave," and this was for the clergy alone as they had not then began to remove the choir from the gallery to the chancel. The so- called altar then became the most prominent object but in some old English churches the pulpit, with the desk in front of and below it is still standing in the middle of the centre aisle and one must pass round on either side of it to approach the Table . . There is no place there for the display of a sur- pliced choir nor tor a procession. Who would build a public hall in the shape of our churches, where those at the end of the nave cannot hear what is said in the chancel and those in the transepts can neither see nor hear. 1 remember also when the desks or low pulpits were wide enough to hold the Bible and P.B. side by side. Proctor says that about 1 549 some of the bis- hops caused a seat to be made in the great churches where the minister might sit or stand during the whole of the Divine Service. I have seen one of them The centre was slightly raised and the min- ister had his preaching desk before him and the Bible and P. B. on either side. Sideward desks were brought into general use by the Puseyites, who declared openly that when the people had become sufficiently accustomed to seeing the minister's side, they would be ready for the next step, and not object to his back being turned towards them. They gave as a reason that when the clergyman was reading the Bible he faced the people, and therefore when he was praying to God he should change his position — as if the Almighty was not Omnipresent ! M I ll I Bishop Christopher Wordsworth said, '* In whatever direction the priest (presbyter) may turn his eye ... he can plead to God, by reason of the Divine Omnipresence ; but because man is finite, he cannot plead with man unless he turns his eyes towards them. Does an orator turn his face away from those to to whom he appeals ?" Formerly the clergy were not so fond of marching about. When there were two ministers, he who was to preach would sometimes take his seat in the pulpit, in his gown, while the other would perform the service. Occasionally preach- ers, if strangers, would take their seats in the incumbent's pew and remain there until it was time to go into the vestry to put on their gowns. But a change took place, and until the last very few years, when they commenced to shorten the Morning Prayers by reading the Litany and Ante Communion Service on alternate Sundays, it was in some churches as follows — premising, however, that in speaking of the points of the compass, churches are always considered as facing the east like the old Pagan temples. The minister or ministers commenced : — 1. At the desk facing the people or the west. 2. He then turned to a sideward desk, with his side to the people and prayed facing the north, or to the side wall and half the choir. 3. At the Creed he turned again, with his back to the congregation, and adored the sun in the east as his Pagan ancestors did before him. 4. He then went in a {Procession of one, to the gaudy brass lectern, faced the west, read the Bible apd marched back again. 5. He then proceeded to the faldstool, knelt, ^aced the west, read the Litany and returned. 137 ist. rith rth, I his in ItKe Ibl.e ielt, 6. He then, instead of going to the lectern where he read the Bible previously, marched inside the rails, and when there were two, he who read the gospel went to the north end of the table and the other to the south, and they then knelt and prayed facing each other. Then the " priest " (prt'sbytcr) rehearsed the commandments ; then the Bible was read facing the people, and finally he turned to the east and said the Nicene Creed. Thus in about one hour's time facing the four points of the compass more than twice, marching and countermarching, ceremony upon ceremony, in the worship of an Almighty God, Who is a Spirit, and Whom it is blasphemy to attempt to localize. Is this the simplicity of the Gospel ? Is it Christianity or Churchianity ? The Lord's Supper is what St. Paul called it. The phrase Holy Communion does not occur in the N. T. It is not a sacrifice or offering made to God, as some think, but a sacrament, office of thanks- giving or memorial in grateful remembrance of Christ's death for us once for all. The word altar was struck out of the P. B. in 1552 and was also left out of the American P. B. at the Revision of 1789, but it is deeply to be deplored that at their last Revision in 1892, in an Office of Institution of Ministers the word has been reintroduced no less than four times and moreover the priest is given power to "perform every Act of sacerdotal Function." Bishop Hooper, when he urged the removal of altars said "for as long as the altars remain, both the ignorant people and the ignorant and evil-per- ■ u ,. .r.t 13^ W: suaded priest will dream always of sacrifice" — but the sacrifice passed away with the Mosaic law. Our most blessed Lord instituted the Supper in the evening. With Him it was like the Passover, a Supper, but now priestcraft prefers a breakfast. Whose example shall we follow — Christ's or man's ? After the building of the Temple, the lamb was killed from the ninth to the eleventh hour, />. from 3 to 5 p.m. It was immediately roasted and eaten after it was quite dark, or after the stars could be seen. This was the time our Lord and His disciples took their last supper, for St. Luke says "When t/ie Jiour was come He sat down." Our Lord waited for uie evening hour and why should not we ? The Sacerdotalist reason for a breakfast how- ever is evident. Priesthood to a great degree stands or falls with the establishment of a morning sacri- fice. With a supper the sacrifice ceases for a sup- per is not a sacrifice but a Repast, and our Lord's IS a "Remembrance" or "Memorial" in a Repast. In the P.B. the Supper is called a holy mystery, but it is a mystery only to those who ignorantly believe in transubstantiation. The bread and wine do not undergo any mysterious change. ' The bread remains bread. If it were turned into flesh it would avail nothing for the Lord Himself said "the flesh profiteth nothing" and the wine remains wine. If otherwise it would be forbidden, for twice are we commanded to abstain from blood. . v »;. .. v<\^' " No mystic power these conceal — They are but bread and wine ; , Thy Spirit, Lord, alone can give One spark of lite divine." ,.. ^ r-'\ \>\ With us the priest must consecrate the bread and wine, but our Lord did not do so, although ^i yi 139 Wheatly says He did. Our Lord did what the Jews still do at their Passover service. He blessed, />., He blessed God for these and all His mercies, or gave thanks, as it is correctly rendered in Mark, Luke and Corinthians. The word " it " — blessed it— in Matthew is printed in Italics, to show that it was not in the original, neither is it to be found in the Dutch, German, French nor Italian New Testaments, nor in the R. V. We are often told that Christ said, " This is My body," but if a man held a couple of photos in his hands, would he say, " This represents my father and this represents myself," or " This is my father. This is myself ?" In the first Canadian R. E. P. B. our Absolu- tion is changed into a prayer, the words " you " and " your " being changed to " us " and " ours." A great improvement. I made the alteration in my P. B. with a pen many years ago. The word damnation is an unhappy one, and has been known to frighten people from taking the Supper. Archbishop Whately said of it that he had known ministers who took the law in their own hands and changed it into Condemnation. The Clerical Apparel, now so common, is another step towards the exaltation of the priest- hood. It is intended to uphold their dignity and to distinguish them as members of the priestly caste from the vulgar laity. Not that they all wear it for this reason, as there are some who merely follow the crowd, little heeding however the stumb- ling blocks they may be placing in the way of their younger brethren, but, as an English paper re- 140 If- |i ; Iff I marked, "What would be said if a few zealous peers were to take to wearinj^ their robes and coro- nets in the park in order to support the dignity of the House of Lords?" Robertson tells us of the early history of the church that ''As the Bishops rose the other Clergy sank in relative position. Ordination indeed, was regarded as emancipating them ; but, w/ii/e priests to the laity, they were serfs to the Bishops. The prelates treated their subject clergy with great rudeness ; Canons of the time enact bodily chas- tisements as the penalty ior some ecclesiastical offences which other Canons were found necessary to restrain the bishops from beating their clerks at pleasure." The second Council of Macon, n. D., 585, enacts that, if a layman on horseback meets a mounted clerk, he shall uncover his head; if the clerk be on foot, the layman must dismount and salute him, under pain of being suspended from commui.ion during the bishop's pleasure. It may be said that this being "priests to the laity" was the case centuries long past and may never occur again, but we were told lately what some still consider to be our rights. At a meeting of the English Church Union in 1893, the Rev. Dr. Wirgman said *'The clergy should elect their bishops and the laity should exercise their ancient right of assenting to the election." In Laud's time the people ridiculed the car- 's cap. With a cardinal's cap, broad as a cart-wheel, with a long coat and cassock down to his heel, see anew Churchman of the times." (( T' « :he ar- 141 But they gradually fell into disuse, and were only revived less than half a century ago by the Puseyites, who were of course followed in turn by the Neo-Evangelical " priestlings " as the Bishop of Iowa and Archdeacon Farrar call them. Soon after they were introduced in Canada, I met an old friend, a D.D. and canon, and expressed my sur- prise that he had adopted the garb. He said it was the short cassock, the proper dress for a clergyman. I replied he would not have dreamt of wearing it when we were young men (he was many years my senior), and taking hold of the lapel, for it was a hot day an5 his livery coat was unbuttoned, added smilingly, " When did this come in ?" He answered, with a knowing look ani^' with emphasis as he passed on, for fear perhaps of further remarks, " By degrees." In 1858, Ingoldsby wrote : " Wherever there is a High Church bishop, there will be plenty of followers with the same cut coat and collar," and spoke also of the " straight- waist -coated divines," and some years after when the Marquis of Salis- bury appointed the Bishop of Colombo, an Eng- lish paper said : — *' Prelacy, after the lordly type with which we are favored at home, is something worse than absurdity when aped in the colonies. Here we are habituated to mitres and croziers, black silk aprons,* looped-up hats, knee-breeches and buckled shoes. They form the bijouterie of a pampered Church, and represent — not the humility and * I once asked an aged minister, who had just declined a rural deanery, why bishops wore aprons. " Be- cause they have so much dirty work to do, I suppose,*' was the reply. _ I U2 IP hit |ii< K M: ' ^HUHiF' Pil .; ) ^ b (■ ■ 1; : poverty of the lowly Jesus Christ, but — the wealth and dii^nity of the grandest empire upon the earth. No ; in our colonies let us from among the laborers in the field select the one the most pious, intelligent, laborious, and unassuming to superintend the others, not as a lord over them, but as a brother shepherd, primus inter pares Let such a man eschew the episcopal habits and the episco- pal vestments — no upturned hat, no rosette, no braided coat, no knee breeches, no buckle and no ring; and above all, no mitre, no crozier and no cathedral with its episcopal throne and its train of Church dignitaries and artificial services. Let the heathen be taught to despise, and believers to mourn, the gross folly of assuming the title of 'My Lord.' As a follower of his Divine Master he will find his place among the most humble ; and like Him, he will have power in his office and in his work." In 1882 a writer in The Rock referred to some gentlemen from Clewer "wearing the Roman collar, the limp felt hat and the long single-breasted frock coat" whom he took for R. C. priests until a rail- way porter said : — "They ain't Roman priests, but they be very good imitators of them." The Chris tiafi Leader of Cincinnati says "When you see a clergyman wearing a white cravat and a long-tailed coat buttoned up to his chin, closely shaved, you see a man who has his sign hung out, which signifies : ' I don't belong to the common herd ; I stand upon an elevated pedestal ; [ demand reverence on account of my cloth; I ex- pect that all the goods I buy will be discounted in price, and that on all occasions special favors will be meted out to me/ " and The English Churchman H3 quoted lately the Roman Catholic Weekly Register as saying "It is the happiness of the Anglican Min- ister to be mistaken for a Catholic priest. We have known Anglican Curates who felt they really had 'Orders' because an Irish orange-woman cur- tesied to them in the street. The parsonic mut- ton-chop whisker familiar to a past day has been shaved off, and the modern mmister wears even the Roman collar which had no pre-Reformation existence and cannot therefore creep in under cover of any fantastic 'continuity' theory." Bishop Perry, of Iowa, complaining lately of some extreme High Churchmen, referred with in- dignation to the " pitiful puerilities of a few half- educated priestlings, who if not papists are apists" of Roman usages, and denounces them as traitors, and their practices as treasonable. Bishop Clark, of Rhode Island, writing in the Protestant Episcopal Review^ says, " If some good churchmen who he knew in his early days should return to earth they would miss many things to which they had been accustomed and see a great many things that would strike them with astonish- ment. No more black gowns, very few old-fash- ioned choirs up in the gallery .... no more deposit- ing the alms on the floor at the head of the aisle ; everything is now converted into a ' function,' the oblations are literally oblated, lifted up, and even the entrance and exit of the clersfyman forms a part of the ceremonial. In many churches in place of the simple old table, with the Lord's Prayer, Creed and Ten Commandments inscribed on the wall, he would see a high stone altar with elaborate carvings and ornamentation, with its retable and gilded cross and beautiful flowers and candles .... and other novelties too numerous to be mentioned." 144 ^m \l Si ! " He might see some other things that would astonish him in the way of clerical dress, and genu- flexions and changes of position It is to be hoped that there will be some limit to these innovations." " It would have startled him to have been told the time would come before long that it would be regarded irreverent to receive the Sacrament of the Supper without having fasted for some hours before and it would hive more than startled him to be told that the day was not very remote when a por- tion of our clergy would request their people to go to them for private confession and absolution .... The brotherhoods, mission-priests, and sisterhoods which have found a place within our borders are a striking innovation and were not dreamed of in former times . . ." " There are certain features of this system that ought to be seriously considered. One of these is the lawfulness and expediency of binding one's self in early life to perpetual vows which after a time may become a burden too grievous and heavy to be borne .... It is a very grave question whether men and women have the moral right to put their destiny in the control of a superior, and in so doing abjure forever the exercise of their own freedom". . . . Bishop Clark was born in 1812, and is now 83 years old. ' ^ At the recent American Church Congress Bishop Thomson, of Mississippi, arraigned the whole class of professional saints from the eremites of the Egyptian deserts to the "brother" and "sister" of to-day, and "thanked God that the real saint of the nineteenth century is a plain Christian gentle- man, like St. Paul, and that the working force of i~-. 1 .'i.'. .;. . 145 )W 5SS Ihe :es r" of le- of the church is found in the nornial institution of the family, rather than in the exceptional monastery or orphanage." The Bishop's paper closed as follows: "As to the great work of Christian charity, it is iiot to be done, nor was it ever done by religious orders. It is from Christian homes that the workers who best do the church's work come forth. The work of religious orders is only makeshift and apologetic. Sisters are a sad substitute for trained nurses, and the work of the Church will be left less and less to spasmodic agencies. I am not an enthusiast about societies and distrust exceptional work. Men and women have organized these things as a forlorn hope, but after all, it is the parish that does the work. It is the father of the family, and not the celibate brother, who trains the boy for service ii;i the Church; the mother, and not the sister, who brings up the children in the nurture of the Chris- tian faith. Mothers are the law; orphan asylunis the exception ; and it is God that h^s set His peo- ple in families Brotherhoods, whether they b|e of to-day or of next day, are no better than they were of old. The heirs to conventional sainthood are to be shunned. I am humbly thankful that such saiats are rare now-a days." The Rev. Leverett Bradley doubtecj whether a vow of poverty was going to help a man to do any more good, and whether the ordinary clergy were not as poor as brothers who were sure of their breakfast, and had only given up what they had to an institution which was to support them. And listen to Cardinal Vaughan in his remark- able speech at Preston on the loth of September last when speaking of a change and movement to- ■I ' * 'M • : 1 M !^ I 146 wards the Roman Church that would he says have appeared absolutely incredible at the beginning of this century and describes them thus : — "The thircy-nine articles have been banished as a rule of faith. The real presence, the sacrifice of the Mass offered for the living and the dead — sometimes even in Latin — not unfrcqucnt reservation of the Sacrament, regular auricular confession, extreme unction, purgatory, prayers for the dead, devotions to Our Lady, to her immaculate conception, the use of her rosary, and the invocation of saints,* are doctrines taught and accepted with a growing desire and relish for them in the Church of England. A celibate clergy^the institution of monks and nuns under vows, retreats for the clergy, missions for the people, fasting and other penitential exer- cises, candles, lamps, incense, crucifixes, images of the Blessed Virgin and the saints held in honour, stations of the cross, cottas, Roman collars -f- copes, vestments " ' ' As regardii Brotherhoods the Bishop of Ripon, (Dr. Boyd Carpenter) in the Contemporary Review for January 1890, condemned them Strongly and the Bishop of Winchester (Harold Brown) and the Bishop of Liverpool (Ryle) agreed with him. The late Bishop of Durham (Lightfoot) did not fail to call the Brotherhood scheme by its proper name — " monasticism," and the Rev. Hobart Seymour describes rrionasticism as "A vast body of bachelors without honest wives or children" and General Sir * And what else is our All Saint's Day collect with the list of Saints in the Calendar ? ...5. . . .. i. f As of many other marks I have heard this called a trifle, but even the Cardinal does not overlook the adop- tion of the Roman yoke. , ^ \\ M7 »ir :he Robert Phayre, in an Address before the Protes- tant Alliance quoted the Rev. Pierce Connelly, in his Letter to the Earl of Shreivsbury, as saying that " Rome has never dared to exact the vow or even the promise of chastity from any candidate for holy orders, either before, or at, or after ordination to the priesthood." Retreats, under the name of Quiet Days, have also been adopted by us within only a few years. In 1885, the Protestant Defence Association of Dublin, stated in a circular that the Quiet Days were nothing less than another name for " Retreats," which are admittedly of Romish origin, and warned the people against them. They were well defined in the English Chtirch- " in. The Rev. J. G. Potter, D.D., said : " They are pure Pharisaism, asceticism and essentially Romish, and as surely anti-Christian. They savour of voluntary humility, forbidden and denounced by St. Paul (Col. ii. 18). The Lord Jesus says : " When ye pray, enter into your closet, and pray to your Father in secret," and " Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am in the midst of them." What need, then, for this pomp and vain pretence before the world, ushered in with advertisement and parade of soi-disant sanctity ?" And to those who think a retreat niay be trivial, another paper said : " One rood screen and one retreat may not, perhaps be esteemed much in a church, but one case of scarlet fever may in its progress decimate a population," and the English Churchman remarked : " When grapes grow on thistles, then, and not till then, can Protestantism be promoted by Clerical Retreats organized by Romanizers." 148 fi- ( :, ill. m %i' ;! I w liil : It is not yet forty years since Ingoldsby,remem- bering when ministers did not wear a distinctive dress, lamented the introduction of the short cassock, but would not his soul be grieved could he behold the clerical man millinery of to-day ? The tailor's fashion plates exhibit some twenty different clerical costumes ! By whom were they designed ? The Convoca- tion of 1603 passed a canon or Church by- law on dress, which even gave directions regarding the nightcaps and the colors of the stockings. Although that canon is obsolete, there must still be some by-law on the subject, probably a secret or un- published code, or while one wears the ordinary hat, by what rule does another wear one as flat as a pancake ? Why must one have the rims of his beaver looped up with ribbons, and another wear a rosette ? Why must they wear black silk aprons, braided coats, long and short cassocks, knee breeches and stockings, or long gaiters, buckles, and the like ? It may be said of some of the younger men that they will grow wiser as they grow older, but this is quest ion ab''=' I knew an archdeacon, whose wife, after his .ntment, apologized for his absence ^s /its . J were not yet ready. Iv wstersofother denominations are beginning to adopt the short cassock and Roman yoke or clerical dog collar, as it has been called in England, and it may yet happen that churchmen who do not object to being mistaken for R. C. priests may drop their liveries for fear of being mistaken for Presbyterians, Methodists, Congrega - tionalists, and the like. ,, .The craze is spreading! I had written thus ,. A-i'* 149 far when I noticed in the Eftglish Churchman that at the Glasgow Presbytery of the Church of Scot- land the Rev. T. Sommcrville had moved that members of the Presbytery be requested to wear their gowns at ordinations, when the Rev. Peter Anton said "he was strongly in favour of vestments, but they should go into the question thoroughly. They should take into consideration at the present time the wearing of a regular dress not only by the preacher but also by the pastor. He had no sym- pathy with those preachers who walked about the streets in the garb of laymen. A preacher when going about his parish should wear such dress as would distinguish him not only as a preacher, but as not a Dissenting Minister." This is pretty hard upon us English Church- men, as he wishes a dress to distinguish himself and his brother clergy not only from the common herd but also from our ministry, as in Scotland our clergy are Dissenting Ministers, the Church of England being established in England alone. *' The Rev. Dr. Donald Macdonald hoped the Church would never prescribe a dress still he had some sympathy with what Mr. Anton had said. He had perhaps only one claim to immortality, and it rented on the fact that he believed he might claim to be the very first to introduce the dog collar. In the end the Rev. Mr. Sommerville's motion was passed, the Rev. Robert Thomson remarking that the whole thing was a farce." lus ^* Murder will out." Pardon my using the old proverb, but the question I asked is answered. There is a secret code ! Of the petit-maitres of the ^lergy alone, I hope, \yhen writing the aboye \ i:o If ' I ; ! I ' ^'f >■*'= noticed the advertisement of a book in London, and requested my bookseller to send for a copy,> and have just received the following reply : "Guide to the Clergy how to Dress — : is not supplied to the trade. The clergyman must apply direct!' As 1 have referred herein to all classes of tht: clergy. ■ may be charged with " Speaking evil of dignuio ' This ^ vould not dare to do of those w'orili) >' ill name, but should not the truth be told of such men as the chief re\ iser of the P. B., although he was Primate of all tlngland ; and of lesser dignitaries it is not necessary to go farther than this very diocese, where there is a dignitary to every half-a-dozen clergy ; and when they are thus manufactured by the quantity, can one help doubting whether they are all worthy of the honor ? Some of those who are my friends must pardon me, but I cannot draw the line here. A late N. W. bishop already alluded to, made one half of his ministers canons or rural-deans * and the present Lord Bishop of Selkirk has only two ministers, with an archdeacon to take charge of them. . . :,' The Archbishop of Canterbury, with his very large number of clergy, has two archdeacons only, but if a bishop in the North- West chooses to appoint one to look after two men who have not yet taken University degrees, is he to be compared with the former, and are those to be condemned who ask the question ? An increase of the Episcopate in Canada is gpoken of, but it is to be hoped it will not be fol-' * Did the latter c3.ll thejr dericg.! t^fi-parties xwx\% d^-cftqal chapters? i. . . ' 151 y to lOt ed ed is roi- lowed by an increase of dignitaries, as if the bishop already alluded to is copied, they will be as numer- ous as leaves in Valombrosa. That bishop also appointed an honorary c^non in another diocese. Hence arises the question, What is an honorary canon, and what are his duties, and has a prelate the right to appoint one in another bishop's diocese ? ,. .^ In a Table of Precedence, an honorary canon ranks, I presume, after a canon, and if so, as a bishop appoints all his underlings, may he not also appoint an honorary bishop, or as he creates a sub- dean, may he not also create a sub-bishop as well as an honorary rural-dean and a sub-rural-dean. Easter. Tn Tertullian's time (ob. A. D. 225) only three Holy-days besides the Lord's day are mentioned, viz., Good Friday, Pasch (or the Resur- rection) and Pentecost (or Whitsunday), and even then, less than two centuries after our Lord's death, Tertullian asks, why, in the face of St. Paul's lan- guage as to times and seasons, Pasch is celebrated. These three are the only ones that were generally observed in Origen's time (ob. A. D. 254) and Jerome (ob. A.D. 420) protested against the multi- plying of obligatory fasts. Augustine, bishop of Hippo (ob. A.D. 430), complained of the great excess of ceremonies and that they were grown to such a number that the estate of the Christian people was in worse case concerning the matter then were the Jews. And against the three Holy-days mentioned by Tertullian (not including Sundays) we have no less than one hundred and fifty-two days to be devote^ to Tea^ting or fasting ! There they arq in 'I 152 the P. B. and according to the ''Tables and Rules" we ought to observe them all ! It may be, and is often said that no one follows the Calendar and that they are there only as a matter of form. Are they not rather the seed some of which is no longer dormant ? Easter Day according to the P. B. is that " on which the rest depend^ Easter however is only the Saxon form of the Babylonian I star, whose Latin WcL.AQ was Venus, and we call the day on which we celebrate the Resurrection of our most blessed Lord the day of VENUS !!! Canon Robertson, in his History of the Chris- tian Church (London, 1867) says "the most plausible of the etymologies appears to be (i) from the old Teutonic *urstan' (to rise up) ; (2) from the name of a Saxon goddess whose festival fell about the same season." Wheatly agrees therewith and says it always has been accounted the queen or highest of festivals (the Italics are his). Canon Eden in his Churchman's Theological Dictionary (London, 1890) also gives the above definition -j in the same order. The definition "rising" refers of course to the Resurrection. Canon Blakeney in his Handbook of the Liturgy (no date, but pub- lished in London about 1886) ignores entirely the heathen goddess and says only "Easter, from Eostre, spring ; also called Pasch — the original title — is derivable from Apostolic times," and Canon Faus- sett (London, 1894), only last year, says "Easter, from the Saxon oster, a rising." And yet Bede, wiho lived about a century after Augustine, tells us decidedly that it was derived from the Pagan goddess. Why is this thus passed over ? C^n \X be, a^ LS ^53 Canon Barry, in his Teacher's P. B. (London, 1882), suggests, *' The name Easter is derived by Bede (whose authority is great) from Eastre, a Saxon goddess. Other derivations have been suggested, probibly through disinclination to find a Pagan origin for the day." Dr. Barry is Principal of King's College, and a chaplain to the CJueen, and I repeat his opinion, viz , that the true derivation of our Easter Day, on which the rest depend^ is ignored by Churchmen, probably from a dismclina- tion to own its Pagan origin ! ! I That is to say, they endeavour to conceal the truth ! ! !* In Smith & Cheetham's Dictionary we read ** The Teutonic name of our Lord's Resurrection (A.S. easier. Germ, osterny and the quotation from Bede. They might have said more instead of wast- * Canon Blakeney commences. " Alban received the crown of martyrdom " — and yet in Smith's Christian Biography we read of this fabulous so-called saint, " St. Alban, if he ever existed," He does not tell us what the Commination discipline was, nor that the Ember Days were fasts of the Dark Ages. He gives us a list of Holy Days, and adds, " Here is no day of doubtful im- port. He acknowledges that Christmas was only estab- lished in the fourth century, but adds "Its propriety can- not be questio ed " It was not acknowledged by the Primitive Church however. He tells us that the Benedicite is taken from the 3rd chap, of Daniel, but does not add that it is part 01 the Greek addition to that chapter and is not found in the original text. He says the Diocletian persecution extended to Britain, when Eusebius who was living at the time says the contrary. But most strange, he refers to the New Lection^ry but does not inform us that in 187 1 the commissioners left out the chapter in Revelation referring especially to the Church of Rome, and the 13th chapter containing the wonderful number of the beast. Is not this gross carelessness in a D.D., Canon, Rector and Rural Dean ? 154 I ICi.i ing fourteen columns on the disputes which con- vulsed the Church about the proper time for ob- serving Easter. We extract the following however "For even from the earliest times various contro- versies and dissensions were in the church concern- ing this solemnity which used yearly to bring laughter and mockery. For some, in a certain ardour of contention, began it before the week, some after the week, some at the beginning, some in the middle, some at the end. To say in a word, there was a wonderful and laborious confusion," and speaks of tumults and contentions and that Alex- ander and Crescentius wrote against each other and bitterly fought. At the Council of Nice, in 325, it was decided that all Churches should keep the Pasch or Feast of Easter on one and the same day, but Ambrose tells us that in the year 387 Easter was observed at three distinct dates, by some on March 21st, by others on April 1 8th, and others on April 25th. In Gaul, A.D. 577, they celebrated Easter on the 14th Calends of May. In England the dispute between the old British Church and Augustine's Roman Church was settled in the time of Oswy, King of Northum- bria (who probably could neither read nor write) A. D. 664, at the council of Whitby, when as Dr. Short, Bishop of St. Asaph, tells us (without daring to make any comment) Oswy decided in favor of the Roman Church, because both parties agreed that St. Peter kept the keys of heaven^ and that he had used the Roman method of computuig'^ and we, the Protestant Church of England, are following King Oswy's ruling still — because St. Peter keeps the keys of heaven I ; '."5 The Scotch gav#up the observance of the goddess Easter's dny at the Reformation. And what do our tables to find Easter signify ? They do not show the date of the Resurrection, which is unknown, and are not all those abstruse calculations therefore uselc' ? ^11 that is certain is, that it occurred on the first day of the week, and some of the best ai< rities give March 2ist, and others April 9th, between the years 28 and 33 inclusive. The word Easter in Acts xii. 4 is an error, for it was not then (A.D. 44) observed, neither does it a]^: ear to have been regarded as a Christian festival until at least half a century after the death of the last Apostle, and then when the " mystery of iniquity " was already at work, the Pagan and Christian festivals were amalgamated. The Passover was not preceded by a Lent. It is correctly rendered Passover in the R. V. If it is proper to celebrate the Nativity and the Resurrection, without knowing the true dates, why should one be on a fixed day and the other on a moveable one ? Socrates, the Church historian of the fifth century, says of Easter " The Saviour and His Apostles have enjoined us by no law to keep this feast . . . The Apostles had no thought of appointing festival days, but of promoting a life of blamelessness and piety. And it appears to me this feast has been introduced into the Church Jrom some old usage, just as many other customs have been established." ^ -^ ^ - And Socrates was right. The supposed day of the Resurrection was amalgamated with the day of Istar, Astarte or Easter. It was customary as elsewhere stated to put • s n 'ii; S'^^ \ out all the fires on Easter "five. An old English poet says of the Easter prq^esaion : *' On Easter Eve the fire all is quenched in every place And fresh again from out the flint is fetched with solemn grace : t • • • A taper great, the Passchall namde, with musicke then they blesse, And francensense herein they pricke, for greater holynesse # • • • • Nine times about the font they marche, and on the Saintes do call; Then still at length they stande, and straight the priest begins withall. And thrise the water doth he touche, and crosses thereon make; Here bigge and barbrous wordes he speaks to make the Devili quake;" The "bigge and barbrous words" signify of course the prayers of the priest in an unknown tongue or Latin. We will now endeavour to show the Pre- Christian history of our Easter, of whom San- choniathon, who lived before the Trojan war, said, " Astarte is Aphrodite," and Aphrodite is the Greek name for Venus. Fifteen centuries later, about A. D. 140, the Greek historian, Appian, says Astarte was '* by some called Juno, and by others Venus," and Layard discovered the name of Istar in Nineveh half a century ago. The Chaldean deluge tablets of baked clay recently discovered, and which are probably four thousand years old. and probably copied from older ones or traditions, introduce her to us, however, as an antediluvian goddess, and inform us, as Sir William Dawson says, that she is the deified 157 mother of men, the same with the Bibh'cal Isha or Eve. In the crisis of the deluge, as translated by George Smith and Prof Sayce : . ... - ■ -'iH ' • . . . 8. "Spake Istar like a child 9. The great goddess uttered her speech : 10. All to clay are turned. 14. I the mother have begotten my people, . 15. Like the young of the fishes they fill the sea And 16. The gods because of the spirits of earth are weeping with me." Sir William renders it as follows : " Ishtar spake like a little child, the great goddess pro- nounced her discourse. Behold how mankind has returned to clay. I am the mother it^ho brought forth men* and like the fishes they fill the sea. The gods because of the angels of the abyss are weeping with me." He informs us further that Tammuz was slain by his brother Adar and the story of Ishtar,Tammuz and Adar, the parent of so many myths is merely the familiar one of Cain and Abel. - ^ The Moon goddess was the same as the Great Diana of the Ephesians, the Isis of Egypt, the Astarte of Syria or the Syrian Venus the Ashtoreth whom the Jewish women worshipped as th(. Queen of Heaven (Jer. viii. 18), the Ceridwin of Britain whose temple in London was on the very spot where now stands St. Paul's Cathedral, the Beltis or Lady of Scotland and the Ostara, Eostur, Eoster or Easter of the Old and Anglo Saxons. ■i *The italics are Sir William's. 158 f I ; I I. i As the Syrian Venus she was said to have been hatched out of an egg which is the origin of our Easter Egg. The Egyptians must have been aware of her many names for they called Isis Myrionyma, or the Goddess of Ten Thousand names. As Diana the Classical Dictionaries say she was identified with the goddess of nature adored as Ephesus, whose symbolic figure, by its multitude of breasts and heads of animals hung around it, denoted the fecundity of nature. This would identify her with the Universal Mother of the Chaldean Tablets. She was the same, too, as the Roman goddess Ops or Tellus, z.e. Earth, whose festival as the Bona Dea, or Good goddess, was celebrated on the I St of May. The festival of Flora, the goddess of flowers was also celebrated at this time for five days from the 28th April to the 2nd of May. No bloody sacrifices were allowed, but only pui-e y?;r, flowers and incense. Whence the candles, flowers and incense in the Roman and some English Churches at Easter. At the Passover candles were used for giving light only and there was neither flowers nor incense. About the time of the First Council of Nice as the Egyptians would not give up the worship of their favorite goddess a compromise was made and she was taken into the Church as the Virgin Mary, .'/n' During my last visit to Naples in 1887, I was looking at a beautiful marble statue of Isis, found in Pompeii, and now in the National Museum. On the forepart of her head was a lily about three inches high, standing up like a small coronet. An Italian at my side said, ** That is Isis ! " *' Yes," 159 was my reply, " Isis then, but the Virgin Mary now"; but not desiring a dispute with a stran- ger I added, " What church do you belong to ?" His answer, which he would not have dared to have said before Italy was free, was " I'm a Catholic, but a liberal one^ "Very well, then," I responded, "at about the time of the first Council of Nice, the Egyptians would not give up the worship of their favorite goddess. A compromise was made, and it was agreed that she should be called the Virgin Mary. Look at the lily ; it was the symbol of Isis then, and is it not sacred to the Blessed Virgin in your church to this day ?" He turned away with- out a word. The My in its different genera was sacred to the moon goddess. At the top of the Pyramid of Babylon was a sanctuary of Merodach, the master of the gods. Nebuchadnezzar, in his " standard inscription " of the restoration of this pyramid, says : " I gave to the cupola the form of a lily, and I covered it with chased gold." - . . ' In Egypt it was the lotus or water lily. In Japan the gigantic brazen idol of Dia-Butsu about twenty miles from Yokohama, which is nearly 80 feet in height, and estimated to weigh 450 tons, is seated on a lotus flower the fifty-six le^v^es of which are each two feet long and six wide. In China their great goddess is also seated on a lotus flower and Maspero in his Dawn of Civiliza- tion gives us an engraving of the Egyptian Sun- god Horus springing from an opening lotus-flower. Isis was the tutelary goddess of Paris. Until , ^what date she was worshipped there I have been I unable to discover, but it was in all probability as late as the seventh century, when Diana was wor- 1 C'O lii shipped In France at the Court of Kw^ Dagobert, if not later, and her memory was probably regarded with a kind of reverence at least until the sixteenth century, for her statue remained in the Abbey of St. Germain des Prez until 15 14, when it was re- moved by order of the Bishop of Meaux. The arms of France were golden lilies and ac- cording to De Magny were adopted by King Louis VIL, who died in 1180, previous to which time the kings of France bore lilies on their crowns and sceptres, apparently in honor of Isis. The earliest well authenticated example of a heraldic charge is found on the seal of a Count of Flanders bearing date 1 164, which agrees very well with the French date. I once thought that the arms of France were canting arms, and that the fys or lily was a pun upon the king's name, anciently Loys, but that would hardly account for their being used on the crowns and sceptres before arms were introduced. One word more. While we Christians (?) of the nineteenth century are decorating our churches with flowers on Easter's day, we are simply com- memorating the festival of the Moon goddess. The yellow narcissus is called the Easter lily in Germany, and the lily daff dil, or narcissus, is one of the species sacred to her in Chinn, and those who desire to follow the example of the Chinese should consult their seed merchant. For their benefit, we give an extract from Simmers' catalogue, premising that a joss flower is the flow^er of a god or goddess : — . - .< . " The true Chinese sacred lily, Oriental lily, or joss flower of China." When Denys became the patron saint of Paris, or whether he was originally the tutelar god is a i6i question I have never heard mooted, but the Chal- dean god Dionysus, i.e. Judge or Ruler of men, was the same as Bacchus. He was confounded by the Church of Rome with the Dionysius mentioned Acts xvii., who they say was Bishop of Athens and was canonized as a bishop and martyr and his day in the Missale Romanum is Oct. 9, and that of St. Bacchus, Oct. 7. I must now revert to the words of the poet, "Nine times about the font they marche," as the number is one which it is difficult to comprehend. Nine appears to have been a sacred or mys- tic number in all parts of the world. When Xerxes crossed the river Strymon he buried alive nine youths and maidens. The river Styx wound nine times round the lower regions, as our English ancestors marched nine times round the water of baptism ! The South Americans had their Nine Rivers guarded like the Styx by a dog, and also by a green dragon, to conciliate which the dead were furnished with slips of paper (for they manu- factured a coarse kind of paper) by way of passport, and the Greek church to this day place a paper pass- port in the hands of the dead as they lie in their coffins. The South Americans had also their Nine Firmaments, Nine Heavens and other nines. The Samoans of Polynesia believe in Nine Heav- ens. This, to be sure, was the system of Ptolemy, who was a great traveller, and visited India, but did he go farther still, for the Ainu, the Abori- gines of Japan believe there are three heavens above and six worlds beneath. Then there were the Nine muses of Parnassus, the Nine headed Hydra, and tjie Nine bow bar'. t??irians conquered by T!^9?^?^^^^ l62 In Scandinavia, Heimdall, accordinpj to An- derson, was the son of nine maidens — ** Born was I of mothers nine, Son am I of sisters nine." Besides nine worlds du Chaillu, gives fourteen cases in the literature of the Noith where the number nine occurs. A very extraordinary custom still exists in Pembrokeshire, Eng., where the number nine is combined with a T (tan). Can it be the T of Tammuz, for many of these forms of divination have existed for untold ages and were not then confined to the lower classes. A shoulder of mutton, with nine holes bored in the blade bone, is put under the pillow to dream on. At the same time the shoes of the experi- menting damsel are placed at the foot of the bed in the shape of the letter T, and an incantation is said over them, in which it is trusted by the dam- sel that she may see her lover in his every day clothes, and in the ** Leisure Hour" for Jan., 1895, it is stated that the "Arabs of Mohammed's time occasionally took the shoulder- bones of sheep on which they carved remarkable events with a knife." . In the north of England, on St. Faith's Day, Oct. 6, a curious love charm is employed. A cake must be made by three maidens or three widows, and when baking must be turned nine times, or three times to each person. When done it is divi- ded into three parts, each one cutting her share into nine parts, and each one must eat her nine slips while undressing. In a book called Cupid^s Whirligigs published in \^\^^ a maid say§ "I could find it in my \\^^xK w6 to pray nine times to the moone, and fast three St. Agnes's Eves." . In the county of Suffolk, Eng., the kitchen- maid, when she shells green peas, never omits, if she finds one having nine peas, to lay it on the lintel of the kitchen-door, and the first clown who enters is to be her husband, or at least her lover. In the Worcester Journal (Eng.) for i?45, mention is made of a cure for the whooping-cough used by the common people, being a string with nine knots in it fastened round a child's neck, and in Surrey it is believed their cough can be cured by mounting the patient on a black ass, saddled and bridled, with trappings of white linen and red ribbons, and by leading him nine times round an oak tree. The Yule clog or Christmas block, was a huge ashen faggot, according to a poem by Thom, in 1795, quoted by Brand, which bore nine bandages : *• It blazes soon ; nine bandages it bears. And as they each disjoin (so custom wills), A mighty jug of sparkling cyder's brought, With brandy mixt, to elevate the guests." In the Isle of Wight the members of the family are warned not to look out of any west window as the new moon is visible. They will then hasten out of doors and there courtesy nine times, kiss the hand nine times, and turn the money in the pocket thrice, taking carq not to let it leave the pocket. In the parish of Strathmartine, Co. Forfar, Scotland, is an erect stone called Martin's Stone. Tradition says that a dragon which had devoured nine maidens, one after another, was killed there by a hero named Martin. At their Beltane fires the Scotch, a,s already 164 I '■*: I '■■ ! stated, had cakes with nine knobs, which they broke off, and turning to the east, threw them over the left shoulder, and in the Western Islands made their Need fires with a kind of four spoked wind- lass turned by nine times nine, or eighty-one men, nine at a time. The Etruscans had nine great gods whom they called Novensiles, who had the power of hurling thunderbolts, and were therefore held in special honor. The Egyptians, besides many triads or groups of three gods, to which number, says le Page Renouf, no special importance was attached, had also groups of nine gods called Enneads, He adds that their deities were innumerable and Maspero uses the expression "an actual rabble of gods." The Heliopolitans proclaimed the creation to be the work of the sun-god, Atumu-Ra and of the four pairs of deities who were descended from him, which says Maspero was a variant of the old doc- trine that the universe was composed of a sky-god Horus, supported by four children and their four pillars. The principal group, called the Holy Nine, was composed of Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, Osiris, Horus, Isis, Nephthys and Set. Mr. Budge men- tions double groups of nine, and they had also secondary Enneads. . ; Strange to say I do not remember having met with this mystic number in the Assyrian monuments. .. ., , , - , . . I must not forget one more. Nial Noygialloch, or Nial of the Nine Hostages, King of Ireland in the fourth century. Who or what were they r Were they the nine branches of the /igm Of /ipma or free of life pf the Zen^i Avqs^ f i65 r' a The foregoing was already set up in pag^es when I fortunately recollected that Canon Rawlin- son had pointed out that in Assyria and Babylonia, Sin, the moon god took precedence of the sun- god, and in one of the monthly dedications, sacri- fices to the moon was prescribed on nine days of the thirty, and Shamas, the sun-god, had nine festivals in the month Elul. This was four thousand years ago, perhaps six thousand or even more, and yet to this day, according to the Sunday at Homey the number is held in esteem in Ceylon, where at a mystic cere- mony in honor of Vishnu, beginning when the new moon is visible, they commence by offering a lighted lamp with nine wicks, together with nine betel leaves and nine kinds of flowers. The early Christians retained the Pagan per- petual fire in stones called cresset stones, some of which are still remaining, one being in York, Eng. There is one outside of the Church of St. Ambrose, in Milan. It is of white marble, and on the flat surface are nine cup-shaped hollows, which were originally filled with oil, and wicks held up by a small imn rod were placed in them and ignited. The Romans named and purified their child-' ren on the ninth day after th 2ir birth, and invoked the goddess Nundina, i. e., Nona dies. The Nun- dinal or ninth days were also their market days, and they cut thoir nails on the Nundinjv. And lastly — The Macduff's were a family of great antiquity, for even as early as the ninth cen- tury, in A. D. 834, one of them was Thane of Fife, and Macduff's cross near Newburgh in Fifcshire j' 1=1 i , ■ " F- ■ I-; — i ' . -' ! I 1 66 was in all probability as old, or evcrn older and pre- Christian. All that remains of it now is a large square block of freestone, the cross having been destroyed at the time of the Reformation. Near this cross is a spring called the Nine wells, where it is believed there were originally nine springs, although the Statistical Account of Scotland says that number cannot now be traced. To this cross or spring or brook was attached the privilege of sanctuary, and any murderer, being related within the ninth degree of kindred to Mac duff, by washmg off the blood stains in the Nine wells and (according to Sir John Skene, 1609) giving nine cows and a calf, which after the intro- duction of money, says Logan, was commuted into silver merks, was absolved from the slaughter committed by him. The original inscription on the cross, in which Pictish, Gothic and Latin were intermixed, is lost, but some imperfect copies have been preserved, and it is said that part of it was — •' And by their only washing at this stone. Purged is the blood shed by that generation." Fordun says the right of sanctuary was granted in 1061, but if so it may have been only the recognition of a still older custom. He only names the penance as merks of silver, but Skene who mentions the nine cows, was an advocate learned in the law. Can this be another case of the mystic num- ber — nine wells, ninth degree of kindred, and nine cows — and perhaps more nines that have been for- gotten ? [ haye j^iyep f^boMt fifty instances of the use }6y ELS y ly. 6; te le ir- SQ of this number, and am confident they might be multiph'ed ad infinitum^ as I have made reference only to my own small library. Can any one ^wo. the solution ? And let us reflect that it is only ten or eleven generations since the R. C. priests marched our ancestors nine times round the baptismal font, and led the people to believe that the devil would be frightened away by the Latin language. This rambling dissertation is nearly at an end but I must say a few words more — in conclusion. The P. B. gives us a list of Days of Abstinence, but what is Abstinence? Should it not be defined there } It is unnecessary to ask if it means total abstinence, for during the fast we may drink what- ever we please. A few years ago a fellow Synodsman, a strict High Churchman, was injuring his health by ex- cessive smoking and was recommended by his doctor to give up the practice. He determined to do so, but told me he should wait until Lent, as he thought that would be a good time to begin. Was that abstinence — following his Doctor's advice for his health's sake, but expecting to gain credit from Heaven also by doing it in Lent ? The American P. B. says "The Church requires such a measure of abstinence," etc. Where are we to find the measure ? Does the N. T. inform us. If so, where, and which is the most important, the N. T. or the Church ? Perhaps the Abyssinians might tell us for they may by some be considered good Churchmen as they keep Lent and other fasts. They sometimes fast by deputy, those who c^^n f^fford it paying the priests tQ fast for thern ! i68 ;!<■?: . mi r'*'li-' 1| ■ Dean Hook says the "duty of fasting was not only recommended . . . (i Cor. vii. 5)", but the word "fasting" in his quotation is shown by Dean Alford, Tischendorf and the R. V. {a/ite' p. 96) to be an interpolation. The Benedicite is taken from the Apocrypha. It is a Greek addition to the third chapter of Daniel, and is universally admitted to be a spurious pro- duction of much later date. \( it is not fit for the Bible why should it be allowed in the P. B. Did the Irish Church not know this, or rather remem- ber this, when they revised their P. B. only sixteen years since, or did they prefer to continue to invoke "Priests" and "Spirits and Souls" and three dead men ? In the Calendar, P'eb. 3 we find "Blasius, B. and M." Wheatly says "His name is not put down in some editions of the Common Prayer Book, but it occurs in the most authentic." Were there then many unauthentic versions ? The Rev. Mr. Wheatly, who was Vicar of Brent, died in 1742, bnt a new edition of his book was published by Bohn in 1852, and was then considered a standard work. He dwelt too much on the lives of so-called Saints, some of whom were probably fabulous. The accounts of two of them (^'.^'•. Agnes and Lucy) are so scandalous that no father would dare to read them to his daughters. The black letter days now consist of the names only, except "O Sapientia," but until within a few years there were also Morning and Evening Lessons besides. How many Churchmen can tell vi^hat O Sapientia means ? St. Michael and All Angels. It is an old English custom to eat roast goose on this day, 169 n called by the Ronuui Church Michaelmas. Orip^in- ally, doubtless, they were offered to the god, but eaten by the priests. Our festival was instituted in Rome about the year 800, but what Pagan god St. Michael replaced I do not know. It was un- doubtedly, however, a most ancient Pagan festival. In Egypt the goose was sacrificed to Seb, the father of the gods who was called The Great Cackler, and who laid each day a gold and silver Ggg, which were the sun and moon, it was sacred also to Osiris and Isis, and every Latin scholar knows that it was the geese sacred to Juno who by their cackling awoke the guards and saved the Roman capital from being taken by surprise. It is sacred in India to Brahma. In England, at the Oldman's Hospital, Nor- wich, the custom of serving up roast goose ad libitum on St. Michael's day has been observed since the year 1249, and in a charter of the tenth year of Edward IV., A.D. 1471, a tenant binds himself to furnish one q;oose fit for his lord's dinner on the feast of St. Michael the Archangel. Bishop Hall, in his Triumphs of Rome, when ridiculing some Romish superstitions, wrote, " A red velvet buckler is said to be still preserved in a castle of Normandy, and was believed to have been that which the archangel made use of when he combatted the dragon " Could madness go farther ? Some of us probably consider the Hymn to the Angels, " Hark, hark my soul," a suitable one for this day, but how many know what angels they are then invoking, and what right have they to invoke angels ? There is but one Mediator. Fa- ber, the pervert, must have adapted this from the Tyo I ■•'Is, "Monastic Breviary of our Most Holy Father Bene- dict," as far as he dared, " Monks and Nuns, angels of Jesus ! Singing 'mid the night shades of earth, Sing on ... . your Virgin songs, Heal the wounds of the Ever Crucified . . . Virgin choirs sing on." . Rut why should we ask these Virgin choirs, Monks and Nuns, angels of Jesus, to sing us sweet fragments of the songs above, or why should we sing hymns written by a pervert, even if presented to us by Bishop Bickersteth in his Hymnal Com- panion ? All Saint's Day. Who are the saints re- ferred to in this day's collect ? It cannot include the four evangelists for although they are styled saints in the titles of the Gospels and headings of the pages in Archbishop Bancroft's \. V., t/iey are not so-called in the 07'iginal Greek, and the Ameri- can Revision Committee desired that they should have been struck out of the R. V., but their re- quest was refused in England. George, (April 23), must however be included as we acknowjedge him in our calendar as both saint and martyr, and it is only within a few years that the morning and evenini^^ prayers for his day were expunged, and it is a pity his name also was not erased, for so long as it remains there, the great majority of churchmen will believe in him because he is recognized by the church. St. George of the P. B. and of Merry England is however the patron saint also of Russia, whose arms are St. George and the Dragon, while the arms of England are only three lions. He is also 1 I/I the patron saint of Portugal and of the Coptic church and a Mahommedan saint Hkewise, and the question might be asked, what church he belongs to ? In England he must of course be a Protestant, but in Russia a member of the Greek church, in Portugal of the Roman Catholic, in Egypt of the Coptic, and in Turkey a believer of Mohammed — and another query might be made. In case of a war between England and Russja, on which side would he be found ? The Turks say that Gher- ghis is not yet dead but flies round and round the world, and the Arabs believe that Girgis restores mad people to their senses. He does not appear to have succeeded very well in old England however. Wheatly says St. George was a colonel (!) in the army of Diocletian, but stamps as " nonsensical" the story of Dunstan's taking a she- devil by the nose with a pair of red-hot tongs. Here however I agree with the Rev. author, for Dunstan must have had common sense enough to have known that to a fine lady who came from such a very warm place a pair of tongs merely red-hot would have had no effect He tells us moreover the rea- son why St. George became patron saint of Eng- land, and this he does n:t stamp as 'nonsensical", but only calls it a strange story — "When Robert duke of Normandy, son to William the Conqueror, was prosecuting his victories against the Turks, and laying siege to the famous city of Antioch, which was like to be relieved by a mighty army of the Saracen*^, St. George appeared with an in- numerable army coming down from the hills all in white with a red cross in his banner, to reinforce the Christians; which occasioned the infidel army to fly, and the Christians to possess the town." if 172 mit ^ Baring-Gould however identifies George (who is called by Voragine a tribune of Cappadocia) with Tammuz, Osiris and Adonis and says if we look at the story of Perseus and Andromade we shall see that in all essential particulars it is the same as that of the Cappadocian saint and that the fight with the dragon is a myth common to all Aryan peoples, the Greek myth being Apollo and Python, and Perseus and the sea-monster, the Teutonic Siegfried and the dragon, the Scandinavian Sigurd and Tafnir, which resembles the latter, as well as the stories attached to saints and heroes of the middle ages, naming in England Moor of Moorhall "who slew the dragon of Wantlcy," and the Knight of Lambton "John who slew ye Worme." He overlooked however the Breton family of de Kcrgournadech, to whom 1 have already referred. Mr. Baring-Gould, who devotes about fifty pages to the subject says that " The story of St. George and the dragon first presents itself in the Legenda Aurca of Jacques de Voragine. It was accepted by the unquestioning clerks and laity of the Middle Ages, so that it found its way into the office books of the Church. O Georgi Martyr inclyte, etc. Thus sang the clerks from the Sarum Horai B. Maric-e on St. George's Day. till the Reforma- tion of the missal by Pope Clement, VII (1523- 1534), when the story of the dragon was cut out, and St. George was simply acknowledged as a martyr, reigning with Christ. His introit was fron. Ps. Ixiii. The Collect, "O God, who makest us glad through the merits and intercession of blessed George the martyr, mercifully grant that we who ask through him Thy good things, may obtain the gift of Thy grace." m I' "1 173 With this history of our patron saint before us, can we blame the Eastern church, who, accord- ing to Neale, have made Pontius Pilate one of their saints. The reason assigned being simply this, that in attesting his conviction that the Lord Jesus was a righteous man. he look water and washed his hands. Neither should we hold up to ridicule the Portuguese government for creating St. Anthony a Lieutenant-Colonel, for by a commission given by John VI., King of Portugal, dated August i, 1 8 14, the good St. Anthony was raised to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of Infantry, and it was added in the London Daily Neivs of Aug. 4, 1879 that the pay for sixty-five years to that date had been regularly drawn by somebody for this eminent member of the church militant, Lieutenant-Colonel Saint Anthony, and about the same time that he was appointed by the King of Portugal, viz., 26th July, 18 14, six years after the royal family of Portugal arrived in Brazil, the appointment of Lieutenant-Colonel was conferred upon his image in B<*azil, and it was shown in the London Titbits of Feb. 14, 1 89 1, that by a recent order of the Brazilian Minister of War, it was stated that the decree had not been revoked by any public act, "and that he shall still in future receive the pay to which he is entitled." . Napier in his "Peninsular War," records the fact that when the Catalonians rose against Napo- leon they appointed Saint Narcissus, generalissimo of the forces of sea and land, and the ensigns of authority were placed upon his coffin, but the saint and the Marquis of Palacios, who acted under him, was almost invariably beaten by the French. i '74 hi mi »,-■ It is strange that neither Saint Pontius Pilate nor Lieut. Col. St. Anthony are mentioned in Smith and Cheetham's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, which might otherwise be styled almost a perfect Hagiology. Mention is made' of a Nar- cissus, bishop of Gerona and martyr, and Gerona is a province of Cata'onia, but no reference is made to his military commission. • • • Under Alexander in this Dictionary are re- corded twenty different bishops, mariyrs or tw- bodies (as No. 2), many of whom arc undoubtedly fabulous. This name commences thus : '* Alexander (i), martyr under Decius, com- memorated Jan. 30 {Mart. Rom. Vet.) (2) Com- memorated Feb. 9 {Mart. Bedae)!' Absolutely not a word more about No. 2. No place, year date, nor whether ST., patriarch, bis- hop, confessor or martyr ! Under Martialis are thirty-five — and to these thirty-five names there is not a single year date given. Nothing but the days on which they must be invoked. Under Marcus are thirty-eight, with only one of whom we have anything to do ; but under Maximus there are no less than sixty-two. Three of the Marks only have year dates added, and nine of such dates are given to the sixty-two called Maximus. One hundred and sixty-five lines are devoted to these Maximuses, and only seven to the famous bishop of Hippo Augustine, and ten to Chrysostom, without date in either case, and only three lines to Jerome, the most learned man of his day. Before the time of Pope John XV., who in 993 claimed the right as his sole prerogative, so far as the Western Church was concerned, or III 17^ accordiniij to others, l^opc Alexander, A.D. 1170, in consequence of public worship having been accorded to a so-called saint, who was martyred when in a state of intoxication, not only councils, but even bishops could manufacture saints, and they were multiplied according to the demand. I am now at the close of this article — the root — and the root of the worship of saints is the Pagan worship of gods and dii ininores or demi-gods. The first of November, our All Saints* Day was sacred in Pagan Rome to all the gods,to whom there was a separate temple, which is still in existence, called the Pantheon, or All the gods, but in 607 this temple was transformed into a church dedicated to All the martyrs which last word was afterwards changed to Saints. In Great Britain and Ireland fires were made on the eve of the first of November before the Roman invasion, and 1 have no doubt that the words bale-fire and bon-fire signified originally fires to Baal and to Baun, a Phcenician god of night, who may have had a similar name in Britain, or to Buanawr, a great god of the Celts. ' Saints' day services and hymns howeverall tend to dtilia or saint- worshipping which is blasphemy. In the course of this little work I have some- times, without due reflection, given to prelates the titles allowed to them in England, and claimed as well for we never hear of their being disclaimed —Right Reverend and Most Reverend — but how do they agree with the words of King David : '* Holy and reverend is His name," and with such a beam in in our own eyes, how can we censure the Romanists for calling the Pope 7fi i| i m I I loly F«ther ? Dean Hook says that at the time of the Reformation many zealous Protestants ob- jected to the title of reverend, and I myself know ministers at the present day who refuse it. A writer in 77ie Christian complains that a large number of the present day Evangelical clergymen are not Protestants as well and that if the "advancing apostacy" is to be arrested, the modern Evangelicals must, by God's help, go back to the doctrines and practices of their predecessors and to that of the Reformers, and must not pan- der to Romanism in their services as many of them are doing. The late Dean Alford said ''There is a great deal of scarlet in the Prayer book," and he "fears the time has not yet come when the Evangelical clergy will rise up as .. body and insist upon that scarlet being taken out. This means a new Prayer book, if not a new Reformation. Things will have to get worse; more people must be led by Ritua lism into Romanism; the church will become more worldly still until the godly Evangelical Protestant will be forced out by God Himself, and a real Protestant Church will he formed " — and does he not speak truly ? '■1. iV '■' ■"'''.') ^11 IMPROl^ER HYMNS. The toUovvinj^ letters, and extracts which have been slightly altered were orij^inally {)iil)lished in The Mail, and other papers. They who unblushingly sing these hymns must undoubtedly, if they think at all, form their ideas of our most blessed Lord from the beautiful naked figures of Christ on the cross, or crucifixes, and look upon and love that divine Lord with the same rapture, perhaps, as the pagans formerly ad- mired and loved a naked Apollo Belvedere. Our Lord did not unclothe Himself, however, but was stripped in scorn and contempt by His enemies, and yet men and women sing " Those dear tokens of His passion still His dazzling body bears, With what rapture gaze we on those glorious scars." (Hymnal Companion, second edition. No. 64.) But is He not perfect God in Heaven, and do those scars still remain, and, moreover, will He not ap- pear clothed with a garment down to the foot (Rev. i. 13)? Do they hope to unclothe Him to see His "dazzling body," and that they may lie close to His bleeding side ("For ever here my rest shall be, close to Thy bleeding side.' No. 403;) and "Draw me nearer ! nearer ! nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side")? Do they believe that His wounds are still bleeding, and that He will point them out ("Shows His wounds," No. 146), as He showed His hands only to doubting Thomas? Do they beHeve in a living Saviour when they sing "See, your dying Lord appears" (No. 1 52), and "My dying Saviour" (No. 403). It is a vyell-knovvn feature of the R. C, religion 178 '■'■'• I III: I II . however to love to dwell upon the physical details of the sufifernfTS of our most blessed Lord. In Hynir. 170 we read, "Come, take thy stand beneath the cross; so may the blood from out His side fall gently on thee drop by drop." This only applies to a bleeding crucifix, and it is a fact, as Canon Robertson shows, that there have been cruci- fixes which, by a mechanical trick, dropped fresh blood from the side. Turn now to Hymn 171. 1. *' Sweet the moments, rich in blessing. Which BEFORE THE CROSS I Spend; (Is it not better " tuM Thee. O Lord'' ?) Life and health, and peace possessing, From the sinner's dying Friend. (Ts He not a living Friond ?) 2. Here I'll sit for ever viewing - Mercy's streams in streams of blood; Precious drops, my soul bedewing, Plead and claim my peace with God. (This verse has been altered thus — Here I find my hope of heaven While upon the Lamb I gaze Loving much and much forgiven Let my heart o'erflow in praise.) 3. Truly blessed is this station, (Which means a Romish Station of the cross.) ' ' Low before His cross to lie, (Lowly at His feet to lie, in faith and not at a Romish Station) While I see divine compassion Beaming in His languid eye (Are the eyes of our perfect God zveak or feeble f) 4. Love and grief my heart dividing, * With my tears His ^eet I'll bathe; (Which means to Ipatli^ with tears the J^ct of a cvHcifi^), 179 Would the first Bishop Bickersteth have offered us such a hymn ? Do the sinpjers of these hymns understand what it sig^nifies to see Christ by faith, and to know Him and the power of His resurrection (Phil. iii. lO), signifying, as Calvin says, that all that is carnal in Jesus Christ must be forgotten and put aside, and that we should employ and direct our whole affections to seek and profess Him according to the Spirit ? There is an ancient Jewish ceremony per- formed in the presence of men alone, but it is dwelt upon in Hymn No. S6, to be sung by young men and maidens. No Jew is allowed to read the Canticles until he arrives at manhood, a/it;^ in our church it is not appointed to be read in churches^ and should hardly therefore be resorted to for texts, and yet Bishop Bickersteth has himself based a hymn upon it (No. 396); and how many of the young and thoughtless will understand that the voluptuous Oriental meta- phor is used in a conventional sense ? We have quoted the second edition of the bishop's Hymnal, which, strange to say, is con- sidered an evangelical one, but the same hymns, or sim'lar ones, will be found in Hymns Ancient and Modern. In the Tc Uetim in the Am :.*ican Prayer Book are these words : " Thou didst humble Thyself to be born of a Virgin." It is differently worded in our Prayer Book, but we have heard our version sung by a young female soloist. Would she dare to speak to the male choristers the words she sang before them ? We cannot help wondering \vhv tbi^ one yerse was selected for the sqlpist, I* k I. '11. pi n h hfl ill S'i'^ II 180 We have heard it said, in reply, that they do not think of such things ; but, if so, is not that praying to GOD with the lips only ? Should not our service be as far as possible in such language that we can think and reflect upon every word? " Churchwoman " appears to think we are justified in worshipping or looking with rapture upo;i the naked bociy of our most blessed Lord; but w'lere have we authority for so doing in the Bible ? Bernard, of Clairvaux, commonly called St. Bernard, siid, "The beautiful is more admired than the sacred is revered"; and that the figures of our Lord on the cross, and other statues and paintings, are still often admired with the same feelings that the pagans worshipped their Apollos and Venuses is undoubted. In St. Peter's Church, Rome, is a naked recumbent white marble female figure, forming part of the monument of Pope Paul III., which a Pope had covered with a sheet of thin brass. This is now painted white, and no longer attracts the attention of the public ; but when I first saw it, more than half a century ago, it shone as if it was lacquered. Mrs. Starke's was the Guide Book in use among the very few who travelled before the introduction of railroads, and she gives the reason. Valery (Travels and Guide. Pari , 1839) uses plainer language than Mrs. S.; such, in fact, as would not now be admitted even into the police re- ports of any respectable paper. Murray's Guide Book did not venture to offend refined ears by doing so, but says: "Circumstances rendered it necessary." All who are conver«^nt with the subject know with what peculiar feelings many male Romanists iSi — especially, perhaps, Italians of the middle and lower classes — look upon paintings of the blessed Virgin: and, as regards women, is it not a matter of history that multitudes of the women of Florence, from the noblest to the most humble fell in love with the beautiful full-length painting of a naked Saint Sebastian in the Church of St Mark ? Some even, it is said, became crazy, and they were obliged to remove the painting, which was probably destroyed, as it has never been heard of since. This saint only differed from an Apollo in being wounded by arrows; and would not some of these devotees have been ready to sing to him in the words of Bickersteth's hymn. No. 403, " Let me rest close to thy bleeding side" ? With regard to the translation in the American Prayer Book, the Rev. Mr. E. blames the American Church for what he calls marring and mutilating the Te Deuni^ and dishonoring the memory of those saints, Ambrose and Augustine ; but it is doubtful whether they were the authors of the TV Deum^ which was probably composed by Hilary, Bishop of Poictiers, A.D. 355. Would the reverend gentleman dare to use the words in our version in conversation with any of his female parishioners, except, indeed, he had first prepared them for such language in the confes- sional ? He adds : " We need not be surprised if these 'purists' will proceed to alter and amend the language of the Bible." Does he possess a copy of the Revised Ver- sion ? for, if so, he will find that his so-called "purists" have already commenced. Will he kindly turn to Isaiah, Lame.tations, Ezekiel, I. Samuel and I. and II. Kings, and tell us whether he pre- 1 B, m M 'fi \^2 fers the Entjlish language of the seventeenth cen- tury or that of the nineteenth ? And, lastly, when he recommends to my con- sideration Matthew xxiii. 24-28, does he refer to the A, V. or the R. V., as they differ? In some other respects, however, I do not approve of the Revised Version, which is far from perfect Pardon me once more, and for the last time, trespassing upon your columns, but the Rev. Mr. T. has taken up the cudgel in defence of some of our, in the mildest language, improper hymns, and favors worshipping the naked body of our most blessed Lord; but why does he not reply to my enquiry, Where have we Biblical authority for so doing ? The contrary is most plainly shown in St. John. Our Lord (probably holding out His hands as He spoke) said, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; and reach hither thy hand (that is to say, come nearer still), and thrust it into my side," when, in all likelihood, the Lord Jesus guided Thomas' hand under His robe and into the wound; for, although the Roman soldiers stripped off our Lord's clothing, the reverend gentleman cannot certainly mean to imply that He was naked when He appeared among the disciples after the Resurrection. Joseph, it is true, begged the body for burial ; but are we to revere that dead body or a living Saviour, clothed, I repeat, as we are told in Reve- lations, in a garment down to the foot ? Moreover, the verse in question referring to gazing with rapture on our Lord's body was ex- punged in the first edition of Bickersteth, but re- stored in the more advanced second edition, and is •I N^3 id; )ur lot len the lal; ing Ive- to :x- ire- lis retained in the still more advanced third edition ; but it is expunged (i) in the Irish Church Hymnal, published by permission of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland ; '■2) in the Montreal Hymnal, compiled and arranged by a committee appointed by the late Bishop Oxenden, and of which the present Bishop ot Huron was a member ; (3) in Common Praise, published by the Christian Book Society, London ; (4) in the last edition of Kemble's Hymnal, London ; (5) in the American Church, Hymnal (6) in Hymns for the Service of the King, London ; (7) in Hymns for the Church Catholic, London ; (8) in Hymns for the Waiting Church, London ; and, strange to say, in that otherwise far from perfect selection, the Church Hymns of the C. K. S. It is also expunged in the hymnal of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, in Moody and Sankey, etc. As regards the Te Deiun, Mr. T. also con- demns the translation in the American Prayer Book, " Thou did'st humble Thyself to be born of a Virgin," but our version is in the English of the middle of the sixteenth century, when the language was much coarser than the present ; and if the Revising Committee of the Revised Version are jus- tified in modernizing certain words or expressions of the Bible translation of half a century later, the Americans ought also to be free from blame. The reverend gentleman condemns my ''filthy criticism," and I have no doubt, therefore, that he would also prefer Shakespeare in the original, many parts of which, however, I, an humble Christian layman, never dared to read to my children, and I was much gratified in noticing not long since that Her Royal Highness the i^incess of Wales permitted her 1^4 IJ children to read only an emendated edition of the works of that great writer. After repeating "Church woman's" words call- ing me a leper, the Rev. Mr. T. uses such sweet language as "vile," "shame upon the man," etc., and most unwisely recalls a newspaper correspondence in which, however, he and a brother cleric poured forth such a torrent of invectives, in two short letters only, that "Low Churchman" in his reply could not refrain from giving a list of them, filling nine lines. This letter may be seen by referring to the file of The Evangelical Churchman for 1886. This was probably forgotten by the reverend gentleman, or he would most likely have been more cautious before again rushing into print, as he was then politely told that it was unseemly, especially for one in holy orders, to lose his temper, and reminded of Dean Stanley's words when speaking of a ruffianly crowd at the Council of Ephesus, who were for the most part laymen, " but laymen charged with all the passions of the clergy!^ I regret that in six years your reverend corres- pondent has not yet learned to write like a gentleman. :.t".i III In my last, I said I should not again ask this favor of you. Still, as Messrs. E. and T. have once more assailed me with invectives, but not argu- ments, giving their opinions only, and not replying to my repeated enquiry, Where have we Biblical authority for adoring the naked body of our most blessed Lord ? I must crave permission for a few lines, but fear I may be guilty of repetition, as I write also for those who did not see the commen- cement of this correspondence. . . I upheld the Americans for their translation : i;»- ]8 lal I n- of the clause in the Te Denni^ and, in censuring me for so doing, these two country clergymen, in their wisdom, virtually condemn the whole American Church. I said the English language, when our Te Demn was translated, was like that of Shakespeare — coarser than at present — and that Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales allowed her child- ren to read only an emendated edition of the works of that great writer. Will they, then, dare to con- demn that universally-beloved kind mother and princess, and apply to her also the so-often misap- plied text, " To the pure all things are pure" — a saying which has even been quoted in favor of the Confessional. They blame me in most unmeasured language for objecting to the verse on gazing with rapture on our Lord's body; but in so doing they, in their astuteness, condemn also the Synod of the Church of Ireland, the Diocese of Montreal, the Presby- terian Church in Canada, the American Protestant Episcopal Church, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, and the Christian Book Society of London; for, as I stated, that verse is expunged from their hymnals, as well as from several other collections. Adoring our Lord's body in that hymn, and also " With m\' tears His feet I'll bathe," and "Let me lie close to Thy wounded side, " is wor- shipping the flesh; and St. Paul says expressly : "Though we have known Christ after the fle^h, yet now henceforth know we him no more, " II. Corin- thians V. 1 6. In conclusion, it might be asked, Which is the greater sin — that of the ignorant Roman soldiers IS^. i uho tried their utmost to disgrace our Lord by disrobing Him, or that of the enlightened and educated Christians (?) who copy the pagans by portraying Him in paintings and statuary, as well as in hymns, as still naked, contrary to Revelations i. 1 3 ? P.S. — At the risk of bein^r personal, I cannot help adding that the presumption of these country clerics in running amuck against the entire /\meri- can Church, and the six other churches and societies (English, Irish, and Canadian) above named, re- minds me of the celebrated proclamatioi] of the Three Tailors of Tooley Street: " WK, the People of England." There is a verse which was pointed out as a "test verse" about twenty years ago. It is a prayer to the Lord Jesus entrea ing Him to assume the attitude of a R. C priest administering extreme unction, and probably some of my readers may have seen the large engraving of a monk holding the crucifix before the eyes of a dying sinner. This " Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes," being the fifth verse of *' Abide with me," was altered, as early as 1881, in several Hymn Hooks, among others in the S. S. Hymnal of our lamented Dean Grasett,into"Reveal Thyself before my dying eyes." Years previous to this the line Rich banquet of His flesh and blood ' in Doddridge's "My God and is Thy table spread," was altered in the Bishop of London's book (not the present bishop) into "Memorial of His flesh and blood," and in other books in Toplady's "Rock of Ages" the word "cross" was altered to "Thyself," so that it read " Simply to Thyself 1 cling," but the Bishop-editor did not see 187 fit to accept these alterations. In "Jesus, my Strength, my Hope" the accursed gibbet on which our Lord was tortured unto death is called '*Thc consecrated cross." By whom and when was it consecrated, for St. Paul who gloried in the doctrine of the cross, when writing to the Galatians, twenty- five years after our Lord's death called the shame- ful instrument itself the emblem of the curse. In "Now the labourer's task is o'er" we find "There the sinful souls that turn to the cross their dying eyes," but would it not be better if they turned them to their Lord ? It may be said some of these hymnj were by Wesley, but Protestants then believed only in the doctrine of the cross, and used the word symbolically. In several Hymns we find the words "Holy Dove," "Heavenly Dove," "Hovering Dove," and in "My Saviour can it ever be" the Holy Spirit is made to be unmistakeablv a bird with feathers — "Soft as the plumes of Jesus* Dove." Is not this blasphemy ? The Holy Spirit descended as a dove would descend. As Canon Eden says 'Came upon Christ with a downward motion similar to that which a dove would make." Has the Bishop-editor forgotten the Declara- tion appointed in 1559 to be read by all the clergy " I do utterly disallow .... all kinds of expressing God invisible in the form of an old man (Ancient of Days), the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove, and all other vain worshipping of God" ? * To show what thus materializing the Holy Spirit leads to, the pigeon or dove is seldom eaten in Russia, in fact never by the rigidly orthodox. My authority for this is Romanoff's Rites mid Customs of the Greco-Russian ClnncJi (London, 1 88 1868) where also is to be found the account of spitting at the devil {ante p. 40) which is omitted by some writers. In "Let us with a gladsome mind ' the second verse is "For of gods He is the God," but is not this the most horrible blasphemy in us who call ourselves enlightened Christians, to compare the Almighty with the ancient heathen deities who were so numerous that, as elsewhere stated, Pro- fessor Maspero uses the expression of the Egyptian gods alone, "an actual rabble of gods" ? It may be said this hymn is from the Psalms, but David did not write all of them, and the Mercy Psalm, No. cxxxvi., is one of the anonymous ones, called by the Jews "Orphan Psalms." It is true David used the words in the Venite, and also " Among the gods there is none like unto Thee, O God," and " Before the gods will I sing praise," but all the rest of the world were then worshipping idols, and although David believed only in the One Almighty God, still the people did not understand, and may we not venture to presume he used these words by way of comparison for them in their ignorance ? Three centuries after the time of King David however the prophet Isaiah said, "Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel .... Beside Me there is no God." I will close with the words of Canon Mozley who says " The writers of our Hymn Books adapt their theory of the Divine Being and opera- tions to the exigencies of the metre and the rhyme. They invoke whatever they please and find con- venient and they abandon their theology at a mo- ment's notice for the sake of a happy fourth line," 1 89 APPENDIX. P. 35. Since writing the above I have seen it stated that the Spanish P. B. omits the word "regenerate." The words are "We give Thee praise and hearty thanks, because of this our beloved one, who, through Thy grace, has been admitted to the Sacrament of Regeneration and of the Remission of Sins." In all the other Prayer Books, ours being the only exception, parents arc allowed to be Spon.sors. P. 46 to 53. With reference to the boar's head of Grannus, who appears to have been one of the forms of Tammuz in England and Scotland, and the boar of Diarmad who seems to have been another form of Tammuz and Adonis, I should have added that the ancient rallying cry of the Campbells was Siol Diarmad an tuirc, the race (or descendants) of Diarmad of the boar, which was undoubtedly of remote antiquity as well as their crest of a boar's head, for although crests are said not to have been worn until about the thirteenth century, they may before that time have generally fallen into disuse, and been revived again, but they were worn by the ancients. Diodorus tells us that some of the Gauls who were exhibited as gladiators at Rome, derived their names from the shapes of animals on their helmets. _ ; IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 7 ^ {•/ :/ // ...<" c^ <$> p< ip.r 1.0 111 1.25 1^ = If 1^ I. 1.4 M IIIIIM IIIIM 1.6 <^ /a ^/: C-: e. \%, :>> m '/ 4^%^^i /A ^*^ ^^!^^ W '"l.^ uails, 109 ^ Quiet Day, 14 Rain god, 43 Real Presence, 19 Regeneration, 34, 189 i 192 I! Retaining sins, 10 Retreats, 147 Revenues, 30 Reverend, 175 Rich banquet of his flesh, 186 Rock of Ages, 186 Rogations, loi Russian Fasts, 105 Saints, 167, 168, 170, 174 Samsi Vul, 81 Scotland, Serpent, 45 Sisterhood, 144 Sheldon, 23 Saint's Days. 175 Sapientia, 168 See your dying Lord appears, Shows His wounds, 177 [177 Sign, 9«; Smith and Cheetham, 174 Snake, 45 Stake, 91 Station, 91 Sudden death, 1 20 Sweet the moments, 178 Tablets, 49 Tactual Succession, 33 Tammuz, 35 Tapers, 68 Te Deum, 179, 183 Temptation, 127 Thor's Hammer, 36 [sion, 172 Those dear tokens of His Pas- Timothy and Titus, no Trojans, 47 Vancouver, 87 Venite, 7, 188 Venus, 81 Vigil, 72 Vinega , 106 Virgin Mary, 65 Visitation, y-^ White H rse, 80 Whitsunday, JJ ■""SI: • ^93 ERRATA. P. 19, line 14 For ''benefits and living" read "bene- fices or livings." 6S, " 29. For "drop" read "dress." 69, lines I and 5. For "knots" read "knobs." 72, line 8. Dele "Candlemas." "no, "16. For "Ephesians" read "Ephesus." 170, '' 25. For -'prayers" read "lessons." i( (( (( (;