The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-10-20
THE CHURCH.

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right church that we are puzzled to
know what is right and what is not.
Many are the expositions of the phrase
"The Church of the apostles" and
many can tell what it was. Their ac-
counts, however, all differ. A writer
has collected together many of the
things which the church has taken
to itself during the ages it has exis-
ted. Many of these have been in the
church so long that we imagine that
they have been there from the crea-
ton. We must remember, however,
that the Romans, as conquerors, Sc
lected the best of every nation and
made it their own, and many of these
accretions of the church have come to
it while under the Roman domination.
They are not found all in one branch
of the church, but most are found in
the Hierarchica1 Churches.
The belief, for instance, that GER
tain stones bring to bear certain in
fuences on the wearer is an old
Greek superstition. The perfection
of sculpture, painting and other arts
come to us first from the heathen, as
do mechanics and mathematics, and
philosophy. Egypt was University
when Abraham sought home. The
play and players are Greek Mnnn-
theism, the belief i'll one God, was
common with all the ancient nations,
though they worshipped many infe-
rior gods. So the Christians prayed
to God, then to angels, then to saints
to aid them here below.
The ancient sailors prayed to
Venus, the modern to Virgin Mary,
and the statues in many of the Italian
and Eastern Churches of the Virgin
are clothed statues of Venus. The
Pagans made images and carried
them about if small, or mounted them
on Pedestals. So do we today. They
burnt tapers before them all the time
as show of alteration, so do we copy
the Pagan today.
The Pagans taught that their stat.
ues came to earth from heaven, and
performed miracles and miraculous
feats. So taught the Church, and
in today's newspapers we read of
miracles performed at some of these
shrines. 1t was such statue, Diana,
which troubled St. Paul at Ephesus.
The Romans told how the shield of
Numa hung in the heavens until he
took it down and put it into the tenn
pie of Jupiter. The church found a
picture Of the Virgin in the sky, and
put it on the wall of St. Peters at
Rome. Hercules, a heathen god,
made foot prints in the rocks of
Scythia. Castor and Pollux left foot
marks on the rocks at Regillum. An
old Roman cut a milestone through
with razor. So we have foot marks
of the Saviour shown us. St. George
cut a great stone half through i'll
Venice. Finger and toe prints of
saints are shown to all gullible travel
lers to show the power of the Chris
tian Saints. The pilgrims think
that kissing the Pope's toe is the
highest honor. This can be traced
back through all the heather nations,
from Roman to Greek, to Egyptian
to Assyrian. The Druids kissed
oheir High Priests toes 1000 years
B. c. Priests of Baal kissed their
idols so. The heather Hercules of
Agrigentum lost part of his bronze
chin from being kissed. The mode
of infant baptism is Persian, though
the teaching is Old Testament.
Throwing three handfuls of ground
in the grave is Egyptian. Incense is
Pagan, and the early priests of the
Christian Church died for refusing to
useit. Holy water is heathen. Even
the style of the vessel is borrowed
from heather temples.
The days of Our feasts are copies of
heather days. The Miraculous Con-
ception is kept on February End, on
which days the Romans first celebrat-
ed the Miraculous Conception of Juno.
All Saints is on November 2nd, an
other old Roman day. Candlemas is
Roman festival stolen bodily. Pur-
! gatory is Christian adoption of Plato's
Gorgias, Phaedo and Virgil's Aenrid.
Prayers for the dead came from Asia,
for Ovid tells how he prayed for the
soul of Anchises, which custom was
then strange in Italy. Opening the
Bible and putting the finger on a pas
sage to guide us in a church is heath
en- custom. The pictures of satan are
copies of the pictures of the heather
god Pan. Janue bore the keys OF
heaven before ST. Peter. The statue
in Rome which represented Popess
Joan was a statue of Venus and
Cupid. Monks and hermits, Cell
bate and Nuns are all heather. The
Brahmins shaved their heads long be-