The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-04-13
MIRACLE OF THE GREEK FIRE
A Ceremonial In Jerusalem That Is Spec
tacular and Blasphemous.

1 tacular and Blasphemous.
Mr.. Richard Watson Glider contributes
To the April Century an article entitled
'The Miracle of the Greek Fire" describ-
! ing ceremonial i'm the Church of the Holy
! Sepulcher at Jerusalem on the Saturday
before Easter Sunday. The attention that
Is now directed toward the Greek church
| by events in the east gives this n special
timeliness. Mr.. Glider says:
! Now the time of the miracle approaches
| A flame from heaven Is TO be communi-
Gated To the expectant world. As pre-
limnary TO this sacred manifestation
there is new, wild outburst of cries and
screams. We are told that 10 is the .Ierusa-
lem worshipers, who pound with their
| fists their fellow Christians of Yafa and
drag and jerk them away one by one from
| the window where the celestial fire is To
appear.
The noise swells like a tempest-a burst
of sound-the changing of bells and strick-
EN- bars of metal--a flash at the Greek
window. The fire has comet One wild
| rush, one high pitched multitudinous
scream, still the excited changing, and out
springs the light over the frantic human
mass, leaping from hand TO hand as if
each flame 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 priest appears on the roof of the
sepulcher itself, and the tame runs round
the top like "a crown of fire. Higher il
springs, drawn by rope up to the people
at the base of the dome 1t eliminates the
most distant and dungeonlike vaults, the
chapels above and below, every vantage
ground where the spectators have stood or
crouchcd on the floor, or in temporary
Judgments in midair.
On and on sounds the clangor and the
shouting; men women and children are
mad; they pass their hands over the flame
lis it not from heaven? how can il do
harm!-and then draw their hands over
their faces taking the celestial touch i'm &C.
static 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 kind
~ old Armenian said 10 us that il was not
miraculous. 1t was rumored that a prom
inent visitor was told by the Greek patri-
arch that he told the people that il was
only symbol, and not IA miracle. asked
the visitor whether this was true and was
answered: "No. How could he tell them
thaty He would be torn To pieces" Intel
Hgont Greeks assure you that it is a sym
Dol, that "holy fire. is the same thing ms
holy water" The Latins will have moth
ing to do with this, one of the most veneer
able ceremonies and the most appalling
scandal of the Christian world
At the height of the frenzy, as the flame
leaped through the rotunda and lighted
the encircling chapels, making more rich
and glittering the affairs, the gorgeous
vestments, the whole ecclesiastical para
phernalia, the arms and uniforms of the
troops and the many colored costumes of
the mad and motley crowd, the thought
flashed upon me- Was there ever anything
in all Christendom so beautiful and so
blasphemous?