Middletown transcript., 1895-10-05
LEssoNs LEARNED ABROAD:

] Last Sunday evening Rev. F. b. Moore
pastor of Forest Presbyterian Church
preached The fourth of his interesting ever
! ing sermons on themes illustrated and en-
forced by references to his recent travels in
Russia and Turkey.
With the words "What shall / do TO b,
saved?" as text, he spoke of the various
means by which men, in ancient times
!, sought to reach higher moral plains, and
through their own efforts to merit and OBJ.
tain salvation.
| Before referring to his own observations
| in Russia and Turkey. the speaker briefly
recounted some of the modes anciently
used in India to propitiate the Diety, such
as the Hindu women casting their babes
into the sacred waters of the Ganges: the
deyotees that threw themselves under the
car of Juggernant; and the various main
ings and cruelties practised by the Fakirs.
| After alluding to the fact that the later
Greek philosophers, such as the Neo-Plat.
onist. were cropping after purer and higher
ethical truths through the practicing of abb
staining from physical indulgences. etc.
he next gave few instances of the
most notable illustrations of monachism
and asceticisn as practised by Saint Sim
con Stylites, or Simeon of the Pillar"
who spent nearly one half of the fifth CEN
tury in the desert, perched upon the top of
pillar 60 feet. high; the Boskoi. or grazing
monks of Mesopotamia; and the gifted
Pascal who shortened a noble and glor-
iously useful life by wearing an iron band
around his body; Ximines. the Spanish
Cardinal. who after leaving his monkish
hut still wore beneath his believed ponti- |
fetal robes, his coarse, horse hair shirt.
Following this historical prelude he gave |
a highly interesting account of his visit to |
that part of Constantinople known as Pera.
where he witnessed those singular perfor-
mances of that fanatical sect or religious |
order of Northumberland called the
"Howling Dervishers," lazy, dirty vaga.
bond, religious tramps, for the most part.
who infest the Orient and live pretty much
by their wits, using tricks of ofleger-de-main,
mesmeresim, etc. He told how number
Of the filthy, turbaned fellows stood in
circle, shoulder to shoulder, swawing their
bodies back and forth and swinging one
foot inunison. He next gave minute de-
scription of catacombs underneath the
in the city of Kieff on the
Dnieper, the largest of the kind in Russia.
It was curious indeed to hear the graphic
details Of how the speaker beheld
saints perched in their
inches in the numerous cells composing
these underground caves or catacombs.
Nor was their manner Of life any less
strange;-immured for years in those dark,
1ank dens. employing every conceivable
sort of ascetic art to mortify their dying
1eshl Some, he said had with their own
hands walled up their little cells, leaving !
'nly small hole through which air and
ood might reach them, till death,
when this was closed, and thus their
rouse became their tomb; one fanatic had 9
buried himself to the shoulders in the |
'arth, until the grim destroyer canonized
him also. This spot is well called
/
ince as many as o half million pilgrims !
lave visited it in one single yearl while in
he month of A ugust in 1872 $4,000 pill
rims were counted in one night who were
orced to spend the night in the open air
rom lack of room to shelter them in the
nns Of Kieff. a city then of 125O0o people!
Mr.. Moore closed his highly instructive Q
iscourse by an earnest exhortation to his
earers that pure religion demanded no Y
uch austerities, no such foolish and vain
of pain and ignorance, but that I
0 be saved all mankind had but to be
eve on the Lord Jesus Christ with the :.
imple faith of a child and live the ra-
ional. good life of which His own fur
ished to men the divine and unapproacli-
BILE model.