If the reader cannot here see the wooden cross, he must blame Constantine; for this monogram was "the Glory of the Army," and of the empire, until displaced by the modern cross of the Apostasy. Below is a medal showing on the face the bust of "Constantinus Augustus," with the monogram figured in the helmet on his head. The reverse of the medal I do not understand; but it has no sign of the cross. The following is a medal of the Emperor Jovian, from Bar. Ann., A.D. 367, sec. 1. This figure, universally called "the cross," is the monogram found in the Catacombs, until the Pontificate of Damasus, when the Latin cross begins to appear. The coins and medals of Constantine show the monogram on his helmet, and his shield, and his person; and in one instance wreathed with a motto, "Gloria Exercitus," the Glory of the Army. ENTOY Εν του τω νικα. (By this conquer.) The accompanying figure of the Labarum, or legionary standard, carried in battle, is found in Dr Rock's Hierurgia, p. 358, 2d ed., Lond., C. Dolmar, 1857. Dr Rock is a staunch Roman Catholic, and takes this from a terracotta lamp, and labels it, "Labarum of Constantine." The first form of a sign of our Saviour on the cross took the shape of the Greek let ters alpha and omega: á 66 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last" (Rev. i. 11). The second form came in the shape of a lamb lying or standing at the cross. The third form was that of the bleeding lamb at the foot of the cross, copied from Rock's Hier., p. 362. This third was followed by the completed image called the crucifix that is, the human body fixed on the wood of the cross, which is the full-grown idol. Were the story of Constantine's dream or vision perfectly true, this testimony demonstrates the current sign to be a counterfeit, if that be a counterfeit which has no likeness to the original but in name only. What likeness has or X to +? Yet Eusebius, Baronius, the accurate Gib bon, and all others, so far as my knowledge extends, pass over the wide difference in the form, and the wider difference in the meaning of these symbols, unnoticed. They call them in every form, the cross, and leave the reader to understand by that name, the sign of Tammuz, and also of the stauros of Christ, which it is not. The stauros is one stick, not two-one across the other; and the monogram is X or and notNow to call these by one name, and that to signify the ignominious cross of death, is confusion, is Babylon on the face, is manifest jugglery, in which one word, by a slight shift, is caused to represent Xff $ + 1 + and a multitude of other fanciful forms, which is quite ridiculous. Gibbon says, "This vision did not prevent Constantine from erecting in the midst of Rome his own statue, bearing a cross in his right hand, with an inscription which referred his victory and the deliverance of Rome to the virtue of that salutary sign-the symbol of force and courage." That sign in his right hand was the same which he placed on his helmet-the symbol of Christ our Saviour-not of the wood on which He suffered. As the historian proceeds, he continues to confound the differ †, as ing emblems under the one common name, saying, "The cross glittered on their helmets, was engraven on their shields, was interwoven in their banners; and the consecrated emblems which adorned the person of the emperor himself, were distinguished only by their richer materials, and more exquisite workmanship." These emblems, called here the cross, were the monogram XP, and not one look at the figures on the medals and coins will show; and, as the historian says himself. "But the principal standard which displayed the triumph of the cross, was called the labarum. It is described as a long pike, intersected by a transverse beam. The silken vail which hung down from the beam, was curiously wrought with the images of the reigning monarch and his children. The summit of the pike supported a crown of gold, which crown enclosed the mysterious monogram, at once expressive of the figure of the cross, and the initial letters of the name of Christ. Its honours are still preserved on the medals of the Flavian family. Their grateful devotion has placed the monogram of Christ in the midst of the ensigns of Rome."- Gibbon, ch. xx. Yes, "the monogram of Christ," " the sign of the Son of man," and not of the ignominious cross, they placed" in the midst of the ensigns of Rome." No reader would suspect, from Gibbon's description, that the stauros, the monogram, and the Latin cross, are symbols wholly different in shape and in sense. No one would sup pose that the historian, by the cross, intends the monogram. The error is palpable and universal: every eye detects it in a moment, yet the ear accepts the error in ono word" the cross"-for the name of the many differing symbols, of which the meaning is infinitely more unlike than the form. The symbol in the right hand of the statue erected by Constantine in honour of his victory over Maxentius," bore the salutary sign" of the blessed Saviour's name, and not of the wood on which He suffered, neither was it the sign of Tammuz. The sign of salvation was X, a sign to cheer the heart of the despised and persecuted Christians; a sign which the under-shepherds put upon the lambs of the flock in holy baptism;-X the initial of the chief shepherd's name, which is Christ, the owner of the flock; and never of the wood on which He bore our sins. The primitive sign of the cross is X, ki, for Christ, dead to the world, and alive unto God. The common sign for the apostasy is the Image † for a show of death to the world while glorying in the world. Therefore, neither the device seen in the heaven nor in his dream, by Constantine, nor that put on his banner and on the crown of his helmet, nor that used by his successors and placed on the shields of the soldiers of all his armies, had the slightest allusion to that cross which was an abomination to the eyes, the ears, and the heart of every Roman citizen. Nor did Constantine adopt the monogram for the imperial device on his arms and on his banner, in renunciation of the world, and of his own life, for the glory of God, and for the hope of a crown of immortality; but the device of the monogram was adopted by that politic statesman and valiant warrior, to win the empire of this world, to fire his veterans with ardour in battle, and with confidence in the divine protection, while fighting for God and the emperor. In the final struggle with Licinius for the sole empire (A. D. 323), each of the rival emperors rallied his forces, and stirred their hearts by direct appeals, on one side to the Christ of God; on the other, to the gods of old Rome, and of their fathers. The pagan worshippers supported Licinius. To Constantine and the monogram of Christ, the confessors of the faith adhered. The enthusiasm E |