[382]. Douglas, Confucianism, p. 84; Beal, Buddhism in China, p. 235; Edkins, Chinese Buddhism, p. 333.
[383]. In the whole range of the Catacombs no crucifix, and only very few crosses have been found, and these generally in a disguised form. The communion of the early Church was with Christ risen and triumphant; it was only when the spirit and fervour of worship declined that it made so much of the crucifixion.—Northcote and Brownlow’s Abridgment of De Rossi’s Roma Sotterranea; Smith and Cheetham, Dict. of Christian Antiq., Art. Catacombs, pp. 294 seq.; Witherow, Catacombs, pp. 260, 281.
[384]. The efficiency of relic-worship may be said to have been established as early as the fourth century. Julian compares the churches to whited sepulchres, full of dead men’s bones. Development of image-worship proceeded pari passu with the erection of fine churches and their adornment with painting and sculpture. There were all along strong protests from individual bishops, and even prohibitions by Councils, but the fashion was too strong for their fulminations. Even in the eighth century the iconoclastic reformation of Leo the Isaurian was too late. His zeal, moreover, was wrongly directed. He assailed high art, and condemned only the truly fine paintings, sparing the ruder and more ancient productions, and leaving untouched the worship of and disgraceful traffic in relics, real and spurious. It is not to be wondered at that in opposition to all this Gregory in the West became the champion of art as an aid to devotion.—Milman, Lat. Christianity, vol. ii. p. 152.
[385]. In protesting against the Mass, the Reformed Churches maintain the universal priesthood, and therefore perpetual sacrifice, of the visible Church. As Christ’s witness on earth, the Church must be always offering itself, in thanksgiving for its own redemption, for the salvation of the world.
[386]. Fergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 67; Cunningham, Bhilsa Topes, p. 130.
[387]. Dr. Edkins, Chinese Buddhism, p. 126; Judges vi. 31.
[388]. Originally called Bódhitara, but renamed by his teacher Payantara, in token of his religious “insight.” He is said to have brought to China the famous alms-bowl, which all the Buddhas of the Kalpa have used, and will use, and whose final disappearance will indicate that the religion is about to perish. Thus Buddhism has also its San Greal. Bôdiharma is called the “wall-gazing Brahman,” though a Kshatrya, because on his arrival in China he spent nine years in silent meditation.—Eitel, Sanskrit Chinese Dict. p. 24.
[389]. Dr. Edkins, Chinese Buddhism, p. 130.
[390]. Men who have in vain sought God without have happily found Him in the witness of their own conscience and affection, but generally they who conceitedly reject the revelation without them only obscure the seeing faculty within. “When mysticism threw off external authority it went mad, as in the revolutionary pantheism of the Middle Ages. When it incorporated itself more and more in revealed truth, it became a benign power—as on the eve of the Reformation.”—Vaughan, Hours with the Mystics, vol. ii. p. 356.
[391]. “Mysticism,” A. Seth, Encyc. Brit. vol. xvii. pp. 129-136.