INTRODUCTION.

ABOVE forty years ago, passing by the open door of the Catholic church then standing in Ann Street, New York, and seeing its interior draped in black on the morning of Good Friday, I took a proffered seat near the chancel, to behold the scenes never before nor since witnessed. The movements, the prayers in Latin, the smoking incense, the melodies, the candles, the bowings, and the chancel performances, were closely observed without being well understood. But the sermon which followed was in plain Saxon, glorifying the wood of the cross, which the preacher said “ought to be worshipped." I was surprised, for the Latins deny their worship of idols, and I, charitably believing it, was astonished at the preacher's language in presence of the thronged house. It seemed to me unguarded, and rashly to place a weapon in their enemy's hands. The preacher proceeded, however, in full earnest, to show and to urge the reasonableness, and to enforce the duty, of worshipping the wood of the cross!

First, Because it was miraculously preserved, and found with the crosses of the two thieves, after having lain buried in the earth for three hundred years nearly.

Secondly, Because when found, it was distinguished from the crosses of the two thieves by the miracles it wrought, while the crosses of the thieves wrought none. (The father of this quite overreached himself by finding the crosses of the two thieves.)

Thirdly, Because the wood of the true cross multiplied itself for distribution over the whole world without diminution or loss of the original wood.

A

This emphatic and logical preaching was next practically illustrated before all eyes. For the preacher, officiating clergy, and clerks within the chancel, first approached singly in succession, with bowed head, toward a crucifix placed on high for the purpose, and, on bended knee, with downcast eyes, every one adored, silently prayed, and, rising from his knees to retire, kissed the feet of the image! This finished, the crucifix was removed to the chancel-rail before the middle aisle, and the congregation were invited to approach by the two side aisles, to worship the cross, and to retire by the centre aisle, which, in large numbers, they did, devoutly approaching, bowing, dropping on their knees, rising, kissing the image on the feet, and reverently retiring. Yet earnest men positively deny that such things are done; or, admitting the facts, deny that this is image-worship! Even the great Council of Trent teaches "That the images of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of God, and of the other saints, ought to be had and retained especially in the churches, and that due reverence and honour ought to be paid to them; not because it is believed that any divinity or power resides in them, on account of which they ought to be worshipped; or because anything ought to be sought of them; or because any confidence ought to be attached to them, such as was formerly done by the heathen, who put their trust in idols; but because the honour paid to them is paid over to the prototypes whom these images represent. So that, through the images which we kiss, and before which we uncover and prostrate ourselves, we worship Christ, and we venerate the saints whose likeness these wear" (Sess. 25, sec. 2.)

This testimony of the Great Council conflicts with the Second Commandment, and with the uniform testimony of the Scriptures against likenesses in worship, and also conflicts

with the scene in the Ann Street church, and with common sense. Good Bishop Imbert of Gascony, in a public assembly eighteen years after the Council of Trent, cried aloud, "Worship Christ; not the wood!" "No, the wood," the assembly replied; and the wood had it; for the Archbishop of Bordeaux arraigned, tried, condemned, and silenced Imbert for his error. Israel sacrificed, feasted, danced before the golden calf, and shouted, "These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt!" They knew there was no divinity or power in the golden image; but they worshipped before it in honour of the invisible God whose presence the idol was made to represent. All the heathen confess that their idols are only types of the divinities which they represent, while the deities themselves dwell in heaven. They think, however, in common with our brethren of Trent, that the images, pictures, and altars before which they worship with sacrifices, incense, prayers, and praise, are objects of humble reverence, and that the image is especially dear to the invisible spirit represented, whether a demon or a saint; and they worship it accordingly. Thus the image of the cross is stealthily seizing on the reverence and love of Protestants, to a degree neither suspected nor dreamed of by the admirers and exalters of the symbol, leaving only a handbreadth between their honouring of the image and in-coming idolatry. For the whole world regards the banner and the image of any person, people, or cause it represents with a portion. of the reverence and love due to the cause, to the nation, or to the person represented, whether it be our country, our party principles, our visible or invisible friend,-whether it be the Virgin or Jupiter, the kingdom or the republic, the Roman or the Protestant Church, our ancestor or our brother. And that man who repudiates the image, or despises the banner, deeply wounds the heart of its be

lievers and followers. Many are in training to venerate and to love the image of the cross who do not yet worship it with incense and kisses: to whom it is an offence, notwithstanding, for any one to raise a serious question of the propriety and innocence of exalting and honouring the image in our churches and on our persons! Nevertheless, the Scriptures forbid the followers of Jesus to venerate, among our holy things, any material image or fancied likeness, made by the hands of man, to represent the invisible Person or things of the Godhead; and humanity forbids our loving and reverencing an image of that suffering in view of which the Lord Jesus sweat, "as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground,” while praying in agony that this cup might pass from Him. And seeing many brethren and personal friends of divers denominations are unconsciously falling into the fashion of glorying in this image, it is time to show that Christ's cross is no image, but a reality. It was no ornament of His person, but an overwhelming burden on His shoulder, and on His beating heart, crushing out the fountain of life, and pouring His blood upon the earth. To HIM it was no brilliant spectacle, but it was loathed in His soul, together with our sins, which He bore in His own body on the tree. Whereas the image, which is a lying vanity, changes the whole character of Christ's cross into an ornament of the flesh, wreathed with flowers, or suspended in shining array from the neck of beauty, or lifted up to point a church spire, to adorn a pulpit, chancel wall, or font; or emblazoned on national banners in divers forms and colours. It is a lifeless, senseless, and yet deceitful vanity. "It suggests nothing of sacrifice and self-denial; nothing of conflict with the forces of evil; nothing of the painful and lingering death of sinful passions in the natural heart." On the contrary, it is the banner of Papal tyranny, and the sign of

this world's conversion into a blissful kingdom of millennial or of eternal life and glory!

It is time to confront this image of pagan invention and of antichristian adoption with the reality of Christ's cross. It is time to comprehend the difference between death to the love of the power and glory of this world, and an image set up on high to display the pomp and fashion of the world. It is time to learn the mortal enmity between the cross of Christ's blood shed on the ground of this evil world, and "the glory cross" borne with singing in solemn procession, and placed for reverence and admiration "upon the super-altar!" It is time to understand the vast difference between Jesus nailed as a criminal through His hands and His feet "to the accursed tree," and a gaudy likeness of that fell instrument of His torture unto death. Our heart is stirred at beholding honest Protestants on every side taken with this dumb idol, and led for one moment to think that, by adorning their person, their house, or the house of God with this image, they please the Father of Spirits, and magnify the name of His only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The wearer of a brilliant, taking up his stauros, and following after Christ! The bearer of a shining cross in gold, or pearl, or precious stones, a follower of Jesus, whose murderers compelled a man passing by to bear His stauros for Him, faint and exhausted, to Calvary The wearer of this image never faints under the burden. A glittering cross is oftener borne in pride of circumstance than in poverty of spirit and in heaviness of heart. It is put on in the love of admiration and in reverence of the image; and not for humiliation and renunciation of the pomp and glory of this world. It is worne for distinction, in gold and embroidery, in carved and gilt images, in prints and in flowers; and lifted up in processions with music, with trumpets, and with voices saying,