The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-06-05
Religious Solicitations.

A LARGE, II not the largest, class of
salutations can be traced to interces-
sion. The deeply religious character
of the Orientals showed itself specially
in their salutations. The Hebrew word
bGrak, 'to bless" had all the mean
ings of saluting, welcoming and bid
ding adieu, the person spoken to being
in each case commended to God,
Blessed be thou of the Lord; The
Lord be with thee;n And Jacob
blessed Pharaoh, and went out from
before him." are instances which illus
trated the usage of the word. They
are paralleled by the Arabian, "God
grant thee His favors," MAY God
strengthen your morning." MAY your
morning be good;" by the Persian, Il
make prayers for thy greatness and
by the Ottoman, "Be under the guard
of God, " "My prayers are for thee"
Forget me not in thy prayers" And
we cannot be surprised that this kind
of salutation is found to exist, in some
shape or other, among all national
greetings. Our religion has come from
the East, and some of their religious
salutations still survive; as. for exam
pie, in the Esthonian God guide YOU"
the "Adieu'' of the French, the {. Go
with God, Senor'' of Spain, and our
God be with ye," corrupted into
Goodbye" And here it may be re-
marked, in passing that the obviously
religious phrases have been pre-
served by nations in sense less dis
tinctly religious than the English.
while they have been lost or changed
| q la /.
macy of the Continent with Roman
Catholicism produced an effect upon
outward expression, or is the change
due to our greater reverence for sacred
names--a reverence, often, of course,
merely Pharisaic, but which had led us,
as it led the later Hebrews, to shrink
from uttering the actual name of the
Deity, and either to corrupt it as in
Goodbye" or eliminate it as in
Mercy me" "Save you, SIR" while
the French are much more lavish with
their " Non Dieu," and the Germans
with their g Mem Gott?' If these sug-
gestions will not hold, perhaps we may
find more rational solution in the uni
versal tendency of the West, and espe-
cially of the English, toward brevitv;
which tendency would find illustration
in our Good day." in the German
"Guten Tag" in the Swedish, g God
day." and in the French Boatjour."
Under the distinctly religious cate
CORY come all wishes for good health;
and here, again, we find the Easterns
retaining the name of God, and the
Westerns usually dropping it. The
rGire of the Greeks, the SalUe, .Ave
ErIo Of lfa +ho Il
aoot, the German Leben Sic Wohl, the
Esthonian and Russians Be sUeU, and
our FareWeU are all the instances of ex-
preston of the Oriental mentions of
the Deity.
The religious character of the East
ems is obvious, or obtrusive, likewise
in their answers. To the question,
elbow is your healthp" an Arab would
reply. "Praise be to God" the tone
alone showing whether he was well or
ill. els it well with theeP'' would
draw forth the response, "God bless
thee and preserve thee" These were
the stock answers which it was and is
still considered rude to vary an in
stance, by the way, of punc.ilio and
conservatism truly characteristic of ORR
entail ceremoniousness and stagnation.
This style of answer reminds MS of the
Dec 9rGtioS, a salutation of the early
Christians, who, carrying out the apos-
tolic injunction, "In all things give
thanks" laid themselves open to the
ridicule of the heretics, who said it was
only an answer. "Thank God, how are
youP' is one of the salutations in Ara
bia at the present time. In Andreas
Hofer's district of the Tyrol, the people
still salute with Praised be Jesus
Christ" Among the poorer classes in
Poland the visitor often says, "The
Lord be praised" to which the reply
is, "World without end. Amen.'-
CornhiU.