Part 96 (1/2)

A thorough investigation of this subject would require a volume, therefore, as we can devote but a chapter to it, it must necessarily be treated somewhat slightingly.

The first of the Christian Symbols which we shall notice is the CROSS.

Overwhelming historical facts show that the cross was used, _as a religious emblem_, many centuries before the Christian era, by every nation in the world. Bishop Colenso, speaking on this subject, says:--

”From the dawn of organized Paganism in the Eastern world, to the final establishment of Christianity in the West, the cross was undoubtedly one of the commonest and most sacred of symbolical monuments. Apart from any distinctions of social or intellectual superiority, of caste, color, nationality, or location in either hemisphere, it appears to have been the aboriginal possession of every people in antiquity.

”Diversified forms of the symbol are delineated more or less artistically, according to the progress achieved in civilization at the period, on the ruined walls of temples and palaces, on natural rocks and sepulchral galleries, on the h.o.a.riest monoliths and the rudest statuary; on coins, medals, and vases of every description; and in not a few instances, are preserved in the architectural proportions of subterranean as well as superterranean structures of tumuli, as well as fanes.

”Populations of essentially different culture, tastes, and pursuits--the highly-civilized and the semi-civilized, the settled and the nomadic--vied with each other in their superst.i.tious _adoration_ of it, and in their efforts to extend the knowledge of its exceptional import and virtue amongst their latest posterities.

”Of the several varieties of the cross still in vogue, as national and ecclesiastical emblems, and distinguished by the familiar appellations of St. George, St. Andrew, the Maltese, the Greek, the Latin, &c., &c., _there is not one amongst them, the existence of which may not be traced to the remotest antiquity. They were the common property of the Eastern nations._

”That each known variety has been derived from a common source, and is emblematical of one and the same truth may be inferred from the fact of forms identically the same, whether simple or complex, cropping out in contrary directions, in the Western as well as the Eastern hemisphere.”[339:1]

The cross has been adored in _India_ from time immemorial, and was a symbol of mysterious significance in Brahmanical iconography. It was the symbol of the Hindoo G.o.d Agni, the ”Light of the World.”[340:1]

In the Cave of Elephanta, over the head of the figure represented as destroying the infants, whence the story of Herod and the infants of Bethlehem (which was unknown to all the Jewish, Roman, and Grecian historians) took its origin, may be seen the Mitre, the Crosier, and the Cross.[340:2]

It is placed by Muller in the hand of Siva, Brahma, Vishnu, Crishna, Tvashtri and Jama. To it the wors.h.i.+pers of Vishnu attribute as many virtues as does the devout Catholic to the Christian cross.[340:3] Fra Paolino tells us it was used by the ancient kings of India as a sceptre.[340:4]

Two of the princ.i.p.al paG.o.das of India--Benares and Mathura--were erected in the forms of vast crosses.[340:5] The paG.o.da at Mathura was sacred to the memory of the Virgin-born and crucified Saviour Crishna.[340:6]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 21]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 22]

The cross has been an object of profound veneration among the Buddhists from the earliest times. One is the sacred Swastica (Fig. No. 21). It is seen in the old Buddhist Zodiacs, and is one of the symbols in the Asoka inscriptions. It is the sectarian mark of the Jains, and the distinctive badge of the sect of Xaca j.a.ponicus. The Vaishnavas of India have also the same sacred sign.[340:7] And, according to Arthur Lillie,[340:8]

”_the only Christian cross in the catacombs is this Buddhist Swastica_.”

The cross is adored by the followers of the Lama of Thibet.[340:9] Fig.

No. 22 is a representation of the most familiar form of Buddhist cross.

The close resemblance between the ancient religion of Thibet and that of the Christians has been noticed by many European travellers and missionaries, among whom may be mentioned Pere Grebillon, Pere Grueber, Horace de la Paon, D'Orville, and M. L'Abbe Huc. The Buddhists, and indeed all the sects of India, marked their followers on the head with the sign of the cross.[341:1] This was undoubtedly practiced by almost all heathen nations, as we have seen in the chapter on the _Eucharist_ that the initiates into the Heathen mysteries were marked in that manner.

The ancient _Egyptians_ adored the cross with the profoundest veneration. This sacred symbol is to be found on many of their ancient monuments, some of which may be seen at the present day in the British Museum.[341:2] In the museum of the London University, a cross upon a Calvary is to be seen upon the breast of one of the Egyptian mummies.[341:3] Many of the Egyptian images hold a cross in their hand.

There is one now extant of the Egyptian Saviour Horus holding a cross in his hand,[341:4] and he is represented as an infant sitting on his mother's knee, with a cross on the back of the seat they occupy.[341:5]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 23]

The commonest of all the Egyptian crosses, the CRUX ANSATA (Fig. No. 23) was adopted by the Christians. Thus, beside one of the Christian inscriptions at Phile (a celebrated island lying in the midst of the Nile) is seen both a _Maltese cross_ and a _crux ansata_.[341:6] In a painting covering the end of a church in the cemetery of El Khargeh, in the Great Oasis, are three of these crosses round the princ.i.p.al subject, which seems to have been a figure of a saint.[341:7] In an inscription in a Christian church to the east of the Nile, in the desert, these crosses are also to be seen. Beside, or in the hand of, the Egyptian G.o.ds, this symbol is generally to be seen. When the Saviour Osiris is represented holding out the _crux ansata_ to a mortal, it signifies that the person to whom he presents it has put off mortality, and entered on the life to come.[341:8]

The Greek cross, and the cross of St. Anthony, are also found on Egyptian monuments. A figure of a Shari (Fig. No. 24), from Sir Gardner Wilkinson's book, has a necklace round his throat, from which depends a pectoral cross. A third Egyptian cross is that represented in Fig. No.

25, which is apparently intended for a Latin cross rising out of a heart, like the mediaeval emblem of ”_Cor in Cruce, Crux in Corde_:” it is the hieroglyph of goodness.[342:1]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 24]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 25]

It is related by the ecclesiastical historians Socrates and Sozomon, that when the temple of Serapis, at Alexandria, in Egypt, was demolished by one of the Christian emperors, beneath the foundation was discovered a cross. The words of Socrates are as follows: