West-Jersey pioneer., 1876-12-28
"THE INVENTION OF THE CROSS.
BY JAMES NJ. LUDLOW, D. D.

Many English words have so changed
their meaning within a comparatively few
years that the modern reader of an old book
is often puzzled to understand the sentences
in which they occur, and sometimes reads
downright error in phrases which once ex-
pressed the simplest truth. But we occa-
sionally meet with word which is SO used
that its new meaning makes the sentence
in which it appears tell more truth than
was in the mind of the old writer. Such is
the word ipgeastioa, in the phrase above;
phrase by which old Romish writers meant
the alleged discovery of the identical wood
of the Holy Cross. SO venerated by the
faithful A careful reading of the story of
this inoention will suggest that the word is
correctly used only in its modern sense of
wilful Fabrication.
For three hundred years after the cruci-
fxion, neither Jew nor Christian knew of
the continued existence of the sacred
wood" The early disciples, not yet taught
to worship either imgae or relic, did not
treasure it, and unbelievers had no interest
but to destroy any memorial of the tragedy
whose shock was disintegrating the entire
civilization of the ancient world. But in
the year A. D. 326, the Empress Helena,
mother of Constantine, inspired by the
political effect of her sons wondrous vision
of the Cross in the sky, was seized with the
desire to exalt the identical cross ON which
the Saviour suffered as symbol ofimperial
policy and popular worship. Learning,
says the Romish chronicler, that it was the
custom among the Jews to bury with the
body of the executed criminal all that be-
longed to his execution (and, we may add,
not remembering that the execution of
Jesus was Roman transaction she order
ed the debris which covered the site of the
holy sepulchre to be ding away, profane
buildings and statues to be removed, and
there discovered three crosses, the nails
and the inscription which PLATE had order
ed to be placed above the Saviour's head
In order to determine which of the three
was the sacred Cross, they were in turn
carried to the couch of sick man, who,
when touched by one of them, Immediately
recovered his health. Other traditions say
he was dead man, who was then restored
to life. Although it was not according to
the analogy of Gods ways to work mira
Gle for the promotion of relic-worship, since
He had so signally disapproved of that
scheme of religious vanity by inspiring
King Hezekiah to break in pieces the brazen
serpent which Moses had made when the
people burnt incense to it; yet this was no
impedimeut to the credulity of the people
when an adored Enperor's will was behind
the new article of faith Nor did Helena S
zeal for the relic stay her hands from break
ing it in pieces-not as Hezekiah did, to
destroy it, but to scatter its sacred fibres
over the earth. John Calvin estimated that
in his day there was fully large shipload
of this holy lumber in the different churches
of Europe. But this does not stumble the
faithful; for certainly even the logician
Calvin must have admitted that He who
multiplied the loaves and the fishes to feed
the crowds who followed Him, could multi
ply the Cross ami made it feed, by the
pence paid for the sight of it, the hosts of
priests who adhered to His cause, as the
others thronged His person.
The inscription upon the Cross was de-
posted in Rome, where it was discovered,
after long neglect, in 14s2. That the saints
at Rome should have forgotten this relic
for thousand years, and found it at that
particular juncture, when the superstition
OF the Church was SO thick that it was
about to discharge itself by spontaneous
combustion, shows popularity of Romish
temperament that we need not analyze.--
The lettering of this writing, in Hebrew,
Greek, and Latin, was then, in 1892, in
bright red colors; but adds the chronicler,
"they have since faded" Why they should
have kept their lustre for 1400 years. and
faded since, we cannot explain, unless it
was due to the peculiar light and atmos-
phere OF the Reformation, which have made
very much that was clear in the Dark Ages
to become indistinct in modern times. Upon
the same hypothesis perhaps, we may ac
count for the fact that the board upon
which the inscription was written, not a
fibre OF which had rotted since it was cut
began at the same time to be seaten away."
so that the words "Jesus' and sJudeorum''
are no longer upon it. Alas, this spirit of
inquiry How it corrodes the best attem-
pied conceits of men, and blanches out
their fairest visions, and rots the most
labored meshes of mancraft The nail of
the Cross which, worn in Constantine's
bride, was his protection in war; is now an
lmpotent relic at Rome, while the Pope is
In sore need of all it's talismanic power
The holy lance which opened our Saviour's
side, and which was the defense of the i'm
perial treasury, in that it was pawned for
ready money, now lies, with broken point,
in its beautiful case, and its Papal custodian
begs his support from the charity of the
Catholic world. We must disinfect our
school-houses of the Bible influences: we
must guard our literature by an Jndes Es
4ourgdtoruna; we must supervize our modern
thought with the keen eye Of Jesuitism, or
soon their mighty spirits of sacred impos-
ture, which once strobe the earth and reach
ed to heaven, will be as dead as the skele-
tons of mitred saints one sees in old cathe-
drals, and the old pretences as apparent as
the paste-diamonds which now decorate
their bones.-Tbe Christian at Work.
. -e----