Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-04-22

An Extraordinary Annual Ceremonial h
Jerusalem. IN fstfia


Jerusalem. t'h fHfia
Mr.. Richard Watson Glider CONTRIB
butes to the Century" an article en-
titled THE Miracle of the Greek Fire."
describing ceremonial in the Church
OF the Holy Sepulcher at Jerusalem on
the Saturday before Easter Sunday.
The attention that is now directed to-
wards the Greek Church by events In
the East gives this speciM timeliness.
Mr.. Glider says:
Now the time of the miracle APP
proaches. A flame from heaven is to
be communicated to the expectant
world. AS preliminary to this sac
red manifestation there is new, wild
outburst of cries and screams. We are
told that 1t is the Jerusalem worship
ers, who pound with their fists their
fellow Christians of Jaffa, and drag and
jerk them away one by one from the
window where the celestial fire Is to
appear.
The noise swells like tempest. A
burst of sound-the changing of bells
and stricken bars of metal! A flash
at the Greek window The fire has
come! One wild rush, one high-pitch-
ed, multitudinous scream, still the ex-
cited changing, and out springs the light
over the frantic human mass, leaping
from hand to hand, as IL each fame
were lightning and music. Around and
up and over and through, till flame Is
added to flame. spreading from candle
to candle, and floor to gallery. Now a
priest appears on the roof of the Sepul-
cher itself, and the flame runs around
the top like crown of fire. Higher
1t springs, drawn by rope up to the
people at the base of the dome. 1t IL
geon-like vaults, the chapels above and
below, every vintage ground where the
spectators have stood or crouched on
the floor, or in temporary Judgments
In mid-air.
On and on sounds the clangor and
the shouting; men women and children
are mad; they pass their hands over
the fiame--is it not from heaven? how
can 1t do harm ?-and then draw their
hands over their faces, taking the celes-
tial touch in ecstatic alteration. Over
path made clear for the runners from
the window already the fire is on its
way to the ends of the earth.
The Armenian patriarch declared to
us later. and without hesitancy, that the
Greek patriarch simply had lamp on
the tomb proper, which he blessed. This
kindly old Armenian said to us that
1t was not miraculous. 1t was rumored
that a prominent visitor was told by
the Greek patriarch that he told the
people 1t was only a symbol, and not
miracle. asked the visitor whether
this was true, and was answered: "No!
How could he tell them chat? He would
be torn to pieces" Intelligent Greeks
assure you that 1t is a symbol, that
"holy fire. is the same thing as holy
water" The Latins will have nothing
to do with this. one of the most vener-
able ceremonies and the most appalling
scandals of the Christian word.
At the height of the frensy, as the
flame leaped through the rotunda and
lighted the encircling chapels, making
more rich and glittering the affairs.
the gorgeous vestments, the whole &C.
clesiastical paraphernalia, the arms and
uniforms Of the troops, and the many
colo-ed costumes of the mad and mot
ley crowd, the thought flashed upon
me: Was there anything in all Chris
tendon so beautiful and so blasphem-
Gus?