The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-06-07

| AAANAAJ NSNAlOLtlhG elllu lIldl the GdElltSI
forms of worship are simplest and the
earliest faiths purest. The Germans,
in common with other foreign nations
to which they belonged, seemed to have
believed in the All Father-a creature
and ruling spirit by whom all things
are and whom all things must obey.
| But the simple and ancient faith had
degenerated into the worship of the
| forms and forces of nature at the time
of which I speak, The sun, moon and
stars, the earth from which fountains
| flow and which feeds the flowers and
fruits of the field, the flash of lightning
and the flame of fire were all sacred
objects worthy of divine worship, The
| qutVering leaf, the cracking flame, the
| Hight of birds, the neighing of horses,
| the movements of mans pulse and the
| entrailS of Sacritcial victims might all
| be consulted for signs of things to be
world. We find some of these signs
! believed in by people who are their
remote descendants and even the en-
trails of animals are supposed to indi-
| cate the character of coming seasons
as wild or a cold winter The names
! of certain of their divinities are yet
PSAoSNCtCu III, DIS UdIllGS VI TIE Jay
| of the week. Thus Woden their chief
divinity gives name to our Wednes-
day, and Thor, the god of strength and
victory, gives name to Thursday, and
Freija, the god or goddess of fertility,
| seed time and marriages, gives name
to Friday. Their worship was in part
| sanguinary one and it is said that
one-tenth Of the captives taken in bat
tie were offered in sacrifice to the gods.
In looking into the rock whence we
are heWn, it is well to remember that
our Anglo-Saxon ancestors were bar
barians, who worshipped nature and
who offered human sacrifices to their
| gods. They bore their barbarism and
their paganism with them into Britain
and they destroyed everything Celtic
and everything Roman which they
|. found there. The church persisted with
the civilization of which it found part.
| With the landing of Hengist and Horsa
in the fifth century of our era, the light
of Christianity was quenched or car
| ried by the fleeing faithful, faded out of
sight beyond the mountains Of Wales
or of Scotland and with the advent of
the Anglo Saxons the night of Pagan
AoAii SClliCo LII d SClillLy ONCl llA0 iollN
! of England.
| But God, whose thoughts are higher
than mans thoughts and whose ways
are higher than mans ways, has his
purpose in the movements and migra-
| lions, in the conflicts and conquests of
men. The Anglo-Saxon people virile,
energetic, enterprising. Industrious and
| courageous, capable of coloniZing and
| of providing new homes In new places,
were an elect race, pre-ordained and
| predestinated to be called to great
| mission in the world. God, who opened
| first of all the woman's heart (Lydia's)
| to receive the gospel preached by Paul
in Europe, prepared, through the heart
of one woman, hospitality for the COS
| pei in England.
Ethelbert, the most powerful man in
England, and king of Kent, had mar
| ried, Frankish, or as we would say, a
French princess. One of the conditions
of her marriage was that she should
be allowed to keep her Christian faith
and to practice her own religion without
let or hindrance. She was accompanied
to Kent by a bishop and a ruined
church near Canterbury was restored
for her use and dedicated to st. Martin,
Though this church was for the queens
benefit alone, nevertheless her influence
would tend to make the king hospitable
towards missionaries of her faith, and
God was inclining the desires of one
mans heart towards that distant land.
According to the oft-repeated and
well known story, Gregory, afterwards
the pope known as Gregory the Great
was one day passing through the mar
ket place at Rome when among some
fresh bales of merchandise he saw
three boys exposed for sale as slaves.
The fair-haired white-complexioned
blue-eyed boys won his admiration and
| filled him with compassion He in
CURED who the captive strangers were
angles" was the reply. Then with
play upon the word Gregory replied:
'Tis well. Right are they called an
gels for their faces are the faces of
angels and they ought to be fellow
heirs with the angels to heaven. What
is the name of the province from which
they have been brought" he further
asked From Deira," Ga word like two
Latin words de, from, and ira, WRATH,
designating the country known as Dur
ham and Yorkshire.
Rightly" he replied, "are they called
Deirans, plucked from wrath and called
to the mercy of Christ And Who"
he asked, once more, sis king of the
province?" "Aella," was the reply.
This suggested a Hebrew word for
praise and Gregory answered: "Alle-
luJah! the praise of God shall be
chanted in that cline Years passed
but Gregory never forgot the boys nor
their country. When he became pope
he sent Augustine, accompanied by
forty other men, to bear the gospel to
England. Some have thought that
Gregory was ambitious to win England
to obedience to the church of Rome,
even as Britain had been subject to i'm
perial Rome. Even this would have
been noble ambition; but Gregory
was man who may well be credited
with desiring to lead this people to
faith in Christ and obedience to Him.
Augustine and his companions landed
at Ebb's Fleet in the Isle of Tnanet
then an island, in the early summer of
597. They sent word to Ethelbert that
they had come with joyful tidings and
could offer him an eternal kingdom in
heaven. The king received their mes
sage in a kindly spirit and appointed a
meeting with them under an oak in the