The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-05-14
CHURCHES. CENTURIES OLD.
ONE STRUCTURE mas BEEN BUILT
UPON ANOTHER IN TIERS.

rificed-An Ideal Roman Garden One of
the Loveliest Spots in Rome.
Dresden, April 2S, 1896.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND CouRrER:
People in every age have been reli-
gious, superstitious, fearing to offend
the great over-ruling spirit of life
which dominates the existence of the
world and of all that is contained
therein. Those ancient peoples who
dwell along the banks of the mysteri-
Gus river of Egypt, and who in the re-
hottest period of history Showed marks
of high order of civilization and re-
tinement worshipped their Idea of
God" and believed in a future exist
ence. q heard Miss Edwards in one of
her lectures upon Egypt remark that
the most ancient Of Egyptian traditions
indicates no period in history in which
Egyptians appeared Gas race unsan-
daled, which fact alone proves state or
high refinement) Even the bestial,
cruel inhabitants of the New Hebrides
offered human sacrifices to their unre-
lenting and merciless Great Spirit, and
In every age of antiquity, among all
nations, even among those of remote
islands, affairs have been erected and
sacrifices offered to appease the rage OF
their great over-reaching Spirit of Del
ty. The God of the ignorant heather
nations has ever been the incarnation
of wrath and cruelty; the God which
the Christians worshipped was con-
ception quite strange and novel in the
eyes of the Pagans, viz, a God of puri-
ty, holiness, love!
1t is as natural for the human heart
to worship God as Father and Creator
as it is for an infant to cling to its
mothers breast which supplies it with
the mysterious current of life. l do not
believe there has ever appeared a man
upon the earth who at heart believed
in no future state and in no over-ruling
Spirit-God. Men there have been who
have declared that God was impossible,
a future life fable, that the human
soul died with the human body.
When such men came to face eternity
alone, in the awfulness of approaching
dissolution, they have helplessly
stretched forth powerless hands, and
their souls have entered the portals OF
eternity crying out to God, whose exist
ence they had denied.
So died Thomas Paine and many 9TH
ers, who called themselves atheists,
foolish, erring souls whose lips denied
their maker when in their hearts they
knew their Creator existed. Now, as in
the early ages, people believed in the
existence of God, they made sure to
worship and offer sacrifices to ensure
His protection and to appease the Di-
vine wrath.
Different nations possessed different
ideas of God, thus their mode of Wor-
ship differed greatly. In the remote
ages when the human race was in its
infancy (nillions of years since, for l
cannot believe that our first parents
lived but six thousand years ago, al
though a few good people still insist
that such nevertheless is the case)
rude uncovered stone was placed with
in a shady grove or in the dark seclu-
sion of primeval forest, and this stone
became an altar where rude and UNTIL
tored savages worshipped their idea of
a Great Spirit, and no doubt this sort
of service satisfied the cravings OF
their hearts (such as they were.)
Worshipping thus in the green
woods or on pleasant verdant slopes or
within impenetrable forests, gave an
air of superstition to their religion and
the stone itself came to be worshipped
as a, god. At a later period a stone
rudely carved to represent Deity be-
came an object of special worship Cdol-
atry) and then niche was formed to
70 I'd a pa n
the inclemency of the weather and the
defilement of those who passed by. AT
still later period, perhaps many CEN
turtles later, the niche became evolved
into a portico and then the aid OF
sculpture was invoked to furnish
more imposing feature and the print,
tive altar quickly became thing OF
beauty, an idol or symbolization of De-
ity.
In the centuries which slowly fol-
lowed, luxury, civilization, education,
Increased rapidly, the aboriginal race
had faded away and there lived noble
race with broadened minds and elegant
manners, rendered such by advance
ment in culture, as we'll as by travel in
foreign lands, and possessing refine
ment of art these advanced people
considered niche or portico too lowly
a. home for their God, the subtle aid of
architecture was called in and quickly
uprose the temple of the Greeks, and
the temple worship soon followed.
This transition or gradual evolution
of rude stone altar into the beautiful
Greek Templum was growth of many
ages. during which whole nations rose
and disappeared, leaving scarcely
trace behind
1t is said that spoons were used IN
Venice long before they were known in
England, in fact the tablespoon Can in
dication of refined taste) was no less
than six hundred years finding its way
from Venice into England
In like manner the evolution of the
temple occupied very many centuries;
and when this was accomplished it re-
manned for ages, until at a still later
period the temple was further evolved
into the Christian church. larry with
me for a moment. That very ancien.
altar on the western slope of the Pala-
tine at Rome, near the Lupercal, where
the she-wolf hid herself when the shep-
herds drove her from the twins, Romu-
lus and Remus, stands an interesting
object to-day, just as it has remained
for centuries. 1t is a rough travertine
block. rudely formed with an inscrip-
ton dedicated to an Unknown God,
who had foretold the invasion of tbs