all Israel made of their ornaments the golden calf, and danced, feasted, and shouted before it, "Behold, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt;" and though the chief Pontiff and all Christendom make an ornament of the image of the cross, and lift it in reverence and worship, on their person, on the church spire, and on the communion-table in the house of God, and say, "Behold the cross of thy Lord and Saviour! behold, these be thy Saviour, O Israel, which redeemed thee from the bondage of corruption!" the images alike are idols the image of the calf and the image of the cross, both are a pretence and an abomination, supplanting, with a dumb show, the presence of the living God, and closing the heart against Jesus Christ crucified: "Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Cor. i. 24).

A GRAND MISTAKE.

Many Romans and some others think that by exalting an image of the cross, they honour the Lord Jesus Christ, in the spirit of the Apostle, who exclaims: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the stauros of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal. vi. 14). They little consider that the stauros is death to this world with shame and reproach on the sufferer. They little consider whether it is indeed honouring an upright man, our Friend, to set up in His name an image invented to commemorate Him through the ignominious weapon with which His relentless enemies put Him to death. Such honour more befits His enemies than His friends. Yet the very murderers themselves would be landerstood to glory in their deed, should they make such image their personal badge,-the recognised banner of their polity and the test of their brotherhood, and a charm of

their person.

It is time to shout aloud with Imbert: "Worship Christ, not the wood!" Honour Christ, not the image of His murder! And, though rejected of men, we may hope with Him to be accepted of the Lord.

VARIOUS FASHIONS OF THE IMAGE OF THE STAUROS.

Among the surprising discoveries to which an examination of this subject leads, is this, that many forms, each essentially different from the other, and all contrary to the stauros, have long prevailed in Christendom, as signs and symbols of the cross of Christ. A list of some of these throws light on the subject:

No. 1. | the stauros, stake, or pale. Very rare and

ancient.

No. 2. X Greek initial of Christ, answering to CH in

English. Primitive.

No. 3.

the monogram. A device of the first

two Greek letters of Christ, corresponding to CHR

in English. This form alone is found on the coins, medals, and arms of Constantine and his successors.

the

With

No. 4. ff which are fashionable modifications of monogram in the latter days of the empire.

common in the Eastern or Greek Church.

No. 6. Y forked form. Rare.
Rare. The idea of No. 6 is a

forked trunk of a tree, to the arms of which the hands were nailed, and the feet to the trunk.

No. 7. Common Romish Catholic cross.

No. 8. † Tammuz or Syrian form.

No. 9.

Jugum, the Latin yoke, or common gallows.

Here are nineteen different forms recognised by great communions and learned authors under one common name in English—the cross-without any attempt to distinguish them from the stauros, or from the sorrows endured on it. Besides these, the books of heraldry supply two score more images of fancy crosses.

CHAPTER IL

BARNABAS.

No description of our Lord's cross is given in Holy Scripture, save that implied in the several words stauros and zulon; and no man has any Scripture authority to describe the wood in any other form. It was not recognised in any other form, either by saint or heretic, till we see it in the Epistle of Barnabas, and the Gospel of Nicodemus, so called. Who these were nobody knows; but we shall soon see they were not the men they pretended to be. Barnabas appears to be the inventor of the received form of Christ's stauros, and also of the glory and mighty power of the sign of the cross; and he is the first also to teach men to put their trust in the cross, on which he says Christ's kingdom was founded. These and other strange doctrines of Barnabas are reflected in the works of Justin, Tertullian, Cyprian, and others, veiled in the companionship of holy truth. After the fabled discovery of the wood of the cross became current, and its pretended multiplication in the hands of Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, A.D. 350–360, was proclaimed abroad, the image served to lead on other signs and symbols, the legion of pagan rites and observances, in one Satanic phalanx from expiring heathenism into the heart of Christendom, reconciling the heathen to the new religion without forsaking their old manners and customs. So the hordes of barbarians that overthrew the Roman power turned their idols and festivals from a profane to a saintly use as Prescott says of the Mexican converted by his Spanish conquerors, "It only required him to transfer his homage from the cross as the emblem of the god of

rain, to the same cross as the emblem of salvation.". Hist. of Mex. i. 292.

Barnabas, who calls himself the companion and fellow-traveller of Paul the Apostle, on the Mystery of 318, IHT.

:

Discoursing upon the mystery of Jesus' name, and of the sign of the cross, revealed in the number of Abraham's trained servants with which he rescued Lot, as recorded Gen. xiv., Barnabas unfolds the power of T, as follows:"For the Scripture says that Abraham circumcised three hundred and eighteen men of his house (a mistake). But what, therefore, was the mystery made known to him? Mark first the eighteen, and then the three hundred, for the numeral letters of 10 and 8 are I H (iota, eta), and these denote Jesus. And because the cross was that by which we were to find grace, therefore he adds three hundred, the note of which is T, the figure of His cross. He who has put the engrafted gift of His doctrine within us, knows that I never taught any one a more certain truth; but I trust that ye are worthy of it."-Barn. viii. 10-14.

Unfortunately for "the figures," the three letters, IHT, are Greek numerals, while the Scripture of Abraham's three hundred and eighteen trained servants is written, not in Greek numerals, but in Hebrew words at full length :

Therefore," he that put the engrafted word" of this mystery in the mouth of Barnabas, betrays his forked tongue. There is a semblance of truth, however, in that T, or three hundred, bears a proportion to I H, or eighteen, not wholly