The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-04-25

the cross naQ lnnuenJal 1rlenuS, Jnelr DOuleS wei
permitted to be inferred in the public sepulchre ii
the flesh had disappeared, when the bones migI
then be placed in the family tombs. 1t was to al
ticpate and prevent the degradation of the dunn
ing ground, the indignity of the public sepu
chre, that Joseph Of Aramathea begged from til
Roman Governor, to be allowed to bury the Body G
| Our Lord in his own tomb wherein was never ma
yet lai3"
BIRTH OF THE CROSS.
Let now, before proceed to the study o
the commanding symbolism of the Cross among tn
very remote nations of the past, glance at the posi-
ton the Cross fills in the Bible, and possibly W
may go back to its origin and from perverted ira
dition, explain why it exists in the monograph.
(mages, pictures, etc. of ancient art and religion
of the early races in the Old World and the New.
In the very Second Chapter of Genesis, verse 10
we read; "And river went out of the place o
pleasure to water paradise, which from there is di
vided into four heads that is the river with it
tributaries flowed towards the cardinal points. OF
east, west, north and south. From Adam the ira
diton of the locality of paradise and its surround
ings would have lived in the memory of his imme
diate and mediate descendants.
From them it would be handed down to their sue.
cessors, who losing the patriarcha worship and
making their own religions would still retain the
traditions, mutilated it is true of the past They
associated the rivers with fertility of the soil and
as they had now fashioned gods unto themselves
they naturally gave to the god of fertility and OF
rain the sign of the Cross, the symbol of the four
rivers, the tradition of which still fingered among
their ancientS or old men,
BLOOD OF THE LAMB
The next mention we find in the Bible of the
Cross occurs in the twelfth chapter of Exodus
where we read: "And take the blood (of the lamb
and mark the upper door posts of the houses and
the lntels.' This command is given to Moses by an
Angel speaking in the Name of God, and by Moses
delivered the people the night before the Angel
of Death strikes the first born of Egypt. st. Jer-
ONE, reasoning from the 9th Psalm, contends that
the mark of blood the doors of the enslaved Is.
raelites was IN the form of ct" and he is prob
ably right, for the lamb symbolized Our Saviour,
it was fitting the Cross on which the Lamb of God
to be crucifed should appear and complete the
symbol Once more. and for the last time, before
the real Cross. the Cross of Jesus Christ is raised
aloft for the redemption of man, the symbol of the
Cross confronts us in Holy Writ 1t is worthy of
remark that in this instance as in the case of the
redeemed Israelites, the Cross is intimately
ciated with blood and mercy. Hero is what we read
in the 9th chapter of Ezechal, 4th verse: Go
through the midst of the city God is commanding
His destroying Angel through the midst of Jeru-
salem, and mark Tau-T-upon the foreheads of
the men that sigh and mourn" By the mark of the
Al
spared them
UNNECESSARILY OF THE CHRISTIAN CROSS
Last October when / was in Lower California
began one beautiful morning the ascent of the
mount overlooking the little Indian town of San
Hjario As | advanced looked up, and something
raise itself ON the hill above me like thing alive
1t was a giant sahuaro. the Candelabrum Cactus,
and it yucca tree whose cream like bios
SONS, trembling in the glorious sunlight, seemed
strangely out of place in such forbidding sur
loundings. Further on, and to my left | adj
vsnced, | came before rough and weatherbeaten
Cross standing in isolation by the lonely path. 1t
marked the spot where. five years before, Indiar
hunter was murdered by his companion. On my
turn TO the village, | learned that it the
tom among the scattered bands of the Comachis to
raise the Cross over lonely grave, or mark the
place where murder had been committed Thl
padres-the missionary fathers-are gone, and their
chapes, built in the wilderness, are now ruins bus
the wandering savage in the desert and the
mountain yet retains the tradition of the sanctty
of the Cross. The flame the Fathers kindled yet
lives and in every scattered settlement of the dig
ger Indians" and in every half-breed xacal, a
wooden grass woven cross speaks to the Indian
of the faith once preached by the Christian priests.
"The untutored jewellers of the desert" writes
John c. Van Dyke, "have cherished what the in
habtants of the cities and the fertile plains have
thrown away"
And now may l finish this correspondence with
Longfellow's beautiful reference to the famous