The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-05-15

/ most glorious sign that ever leo man
kind TO high achievement and to sub
| lime destiny. The greatness and glory
of the cross is of the earth earthly, as
we'll as spiritual and divine. OF all
/ the signs that have inspired the souls
/ and lighted the way of mankind IN the
| march of progressive cross alone has
! stood triumphantly every test of time,
/ of endurance, of antagonism and OF
| power-and yet the cross alone mas
been the emblem of humility.
The vast celestial empire, with its
/ teeming millions, whose civilization
| was ancient in the early dawn OF his
tory-undertook to sustain itself and
| its supremacy by the sign of the
! dragon the emblem of unconquerable
and Unsuitable ferocity But that
fierce sign has not awaited to dispel
the apathy that has made that people
the victim of every assailant, until now
their banner is the most despised of
| the nations of the world.
Under the divine inspiration of the
/ ark of the covenant the children OF
| Israel were brought out of the land OF
Egypt and out of the house of bond
age. BY that sign they Inherited the
| land of Canaan and smote the Phtlis-
tines hip and thigh. But the ark OF, the
! covenant did not avail to protect their
twelve tribes from dispersion to the
| four corners of the earth, people
!
alien occupation.
Rome in her pride of power perch
| ed the eagle upon her standard-the
emblem of strength, courage and SUI
| premacy, and before that sign the
world bowed to her yoke. But the sign
of the eagle with all its prowess avail
ed not to stem the tide
of corruption within and in
vasion without, that crushed the
4 mighty empire into almost as many
fragments as there are now nations of
the earth.
THE fierce fanaticism and material
genius of Mahomet spread his domin-
ions and his worship like wildflre over
| a great part of the world under the
sign of the crescent. the emblem of in
creasing growth and power. But the
sign of the crescent, with all that 1t
| implied, availed not to sustain the
Moslem government, which now sub
sists merely by the sufferance of en-
| lightened mankind.
while these mighty and once vic
torious signs have been humbled, the
humble sign of the cross has been ex-
allied and has drawn to itself from the
sign of the dragon it's ferocity, from
the ark of the covenant it's promise,
from the eagle it's supremacy, and from
the sign of the crescent its increase of
power
The Sign of the TempIars.
Nothing that has ever occurred in
the history of the world or that has
asserted itself in shaping the destinies
! of man is comparable to the potent
agency of the passion cross in human
! affairs: and the Valiant and Magnani-
mour Order of Knights Templar is a
| perpetual memorial Of its great mis-
sion. Let us briefly trace its career to
the point where it Joined its fortunes
with the sword and gave birth to
Christian knighthood.
| 10 when the passion cross was raised
on Mount Calvary. in supreme agony,
it cast its shadow athwart the splendor
of the mightiest of empires, that, then
in its prime, ruled the world. All
! roads then led to Rome, and thither
went the cross. For three hundred
years it secretly won its way into the
hearts of men despite the enmity of the
| populace, the cruel prosecutions Cf
power and the martyrdom that lay in
wait for its devotees.
"At the end Of these three hundred
years that splendid empire that, I'M
der the sign of the eagle, had subdued
the world, felt the doom of decay and
was at the beginning of the end of it's
dissolution, when, in far off Britain the
imperial purple, of Rome fell on the
shoulders of the. great Constantine,
who shared the power with colleagues,
whom one by one he subdued on many
battlefield where the contest was
eagle against eagle, until he found
himself before the gates of Rome it.
self, the seat of empire, and confront
ed by the Pretoran guard under COM
mand of the most formidable of his
| adVersaries.
"At that crucial moment in his own
career and, as it developed. at that
crucial moment in the worlds history,
he cast his firm and steady gage on the
blue ETHEREAL vault of heaven and there
beheld. clearly blazoned, the sign of
the cross, with the inscription, ON
Hoe Signo Vinces. In this sign you
conquer At that moment he yielded
to his predilectios and became d
Christian, and supplanted the far
famed eagle of Rome with the passion
cross as the emblem of battle Under
that sign of the cross his armies rushed
on to victory and he became the sole
| master of the Roman Empire Thus
the Christian religion found a patron
enthrowned in secular power and for
the first time found protection under
the shadow of the royal diadem: and
behold, it grew apace throughout his
| broad domains.
Origin of the Crusades
! Out vi lillS darkness OF
the medieval age there emerged.
bare-headed. sandals hod and of coarse
garb, a hermit. He bore cross.
Throughout the length and breadth of
Europe. with fervid speech and with
cross aloft, he told the story of the
desecrated temple, and fired with en-
thusiam the Christian nations. At the
sign of that cross the proud and sump-
tuous palaces of kings, the walled
| castles of warlike barons, as well as
the humble cottage of the peasant and
the vassal were opened to Peter
the hermit. Men and women
of high and. low degree
caught from him the contagion of
trenzied fanaticism in the cause of re-
deeming the Holy Land, its temple and
its sepulcnre. Thus inhamed, there
sprung into existence, as if by magic,
new order of soldiery.
known as knights of the Temple,
who. through cut Europe and Great
Britain, rallied about the banner of
the Cross.
1T is now known of all men and
universally recognized as true. that it
was the sword of the Knight Templar,
inspired by the passion cross, inscribed
upon its hilt, that cut the first rift
] in the sombre cloud that darkened the
Middle Ages an let in upon wanton and
| benighted mankind the bright and re-
tining sunlight of heaven. The err
/ ratio, bloody and disastrous cruSades
mark the first movement in the gerni-
nation of the new order of thought and