The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1914-04-09
Sermon Delivered by the Rev. W. L. Pickard Pastor First
Baptist Church. Savannah Ga Sunday Night Dec 3d. 1918

Christian churches in great numbers
after Constantine united Church and
State, and these, by the thousands,
came in; being unregerenated, and
they brought their paganism with
them, SO that the Christian churches
began to be paganized by the inflow
of the pagans. For, under the de-
cree of Constantine people did not
have to be changed in heart in order
to become nominal Christians-they
only had to adopt Christianity out
Wardly to be called Christians. So,
these actual pagans became nominal
Christians, bringing with them pagan
beliefs, customs, and deities, and
among these beliefs that of female
deities. So, it was an easy step to
decreeing Mary to be divine and as
sharing the divinity of her son.
Jesus. This is the evolution of the
worship of the Mother of our Lord.
But it did not come without a
great fight One which shook the
Christian world to it's very center.
At the end of the fourth century, in
spite of the reverential sentiment
that had grown up about her charac-
ter, and the lenends that had grown
up about her, in IA sort of folklore
and nursery literature, the Christian
churches were not prepared to render
her homage.
In the fifth century, after many
pagans had come into the churches,
and Papacy had arisen, there arose
the great HISTORIAN debate. This de-
bate hinged about two Greek words:
''Theotokas," Mother of God, and
"Christokos, Mother of Christ.
Nestorius, in the Council of Ephesus,
81, denied that Mary deserved the
title Mother of Cod and held that
she was the mother of Christ in his
human nature only, that Christ, as
God, was God before He was born of
Mary. But the majority voted
against Nestorius, and as those who
opposed him went through the city
to their stopping places they cele-
brated their victory with torchlights
and by burning incense. From that
moment the worship Of Mary as the
Mother of God" may be said to have
been established in the Roman Cath
Ollie church.
But the Roman Catholic church it.
self was greatly divided on it, and it
was the subject of controversy for
centuries. In sos Pope Boniface ".
dedicated the Pantheon of Agrippa
to maria ad Martyres" and thus the
Pagan Olympus became in name, the
Christian Pantheon with Mary as
chief deity. (Euagirus, ecclesiasti-
cal History, ~. 24.)
But even this did not end the con-
troyersy. 1t still divided the churches,
and even "Infallible'' Popes differed
on it. But by the time of the Coun-
Gil of Nicea, 1877, images of the Vir-
gin became common in many
churches, Christian homes, so-calIed,
in the streets, and along the roads,
and candles and incense were burned
in front Of them. From then to the
eleventh century the claim grew up
by the Roman Catholic church that
the image of Mary worked miracles.
Preachers preached of her mot as an
humble maid, but as the Queen Of
Heaven" Then, the great Roman
Catholic painters and sculptors
painted her and chiseled her with a
crown on her head and a sceptre in
her hand Saturday was set aside
as day sacred to her homage, and
the twenty-ffth canon of Toulouse
fixed a penalty against all fathers
and mothers in the churches who
refused to go on Saturday and visit
the church in honor of the Virgin
That was persecution to enforce
Mariolatry, and, in addition to this,
the children all got the idea that the