Is this repugnant to the spirit of Christianity? No; it is its counterpart. “I know,” says Job, in the moment of inspiration, “that my Redeemer liveth.”[322] Prophetically, you reply; and you back the opinion by our Saviour’s own appeal that “Abraham saw his day, and was glad.”[323]
Abraham certainly believed by anticipation, but Job by retrospection. And if you will not think my assertion decisive of the matter, I will produce an authority to which you will more readily subscribe.
“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship Him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”[324]
It will be in vain for you to attempt to parry the evidence of this startling text. No visionary foresight will accomplish its defeat: no ideal substitutions will shake its validity.
“How it came to pass,” says Skelton, “that the Egyptians, Arabians, and Indians, before Christ came among us, and the inhabitants of the extreme northern parts of the world, ere they had so much as heard of Him, paid a remarkable veneration to the sign of the cross, is to me unknown, but the fact itself is known. In some places this sign was given to men accused of a crime, but acquitted: and in Egypt it stood for the signification of eternal life.”[325]
“V. W.” has asserted something similar;[326] but neither one nor the other has attempted to fathom its origin.
“The Druids,” adds Schedius, “seek studiously for an oak tree, large and handsome, growing up with two principal arms, in form of a cross, beside the main stem upright. If the two horizontal arms are not sufficiently adapted to the figure, they fasten a cross-beam to it. This tree they consecrate in this manner. Upon the right branch, they cut in the back, in fair characters, the word Hesus: upon the middle or upright stem, the word Taramis: upon the left branch, Belenus: over this, above the going off of the arms, they cut the name of God, Thau: under all, the same repeated Thau.”[327]
“The form of the great temple,” observes Dr. Macculloch, “at Loch Bernera, in the Isle of Lewis the chief isle of the Hebrides, is that of a cross, containing, at the intersection, a circle with a central stone; an additional line being superadded on one side of the longest arms, and nearly parallel to it. Were this line absent, its proportion would be nearly that of the Roman cross, or common crucifix.”
And then, in reply to the supposition of its having been converted by the Christians into this form, he avers that “the whole is too consistent, and too much of one age, to admit of such; while at the same time, it could not, under any circumstances, have been applicable to a Christian worship. Its essential part, the circular area, and the number of similar structures found in the vicinity, equally bespeak its ancient origin. It must, therefore, be concluded, that the cruciform shape was given by the original contrivers of the fabric; and it will afford an object of speculation to antiquaries, who, if they are sometimes accused of heaping additional obscurity on the records of antiquity, must also be allowed the frequent merit of eliciting light from darkness. To them I willingly consign all further speculations concerning it.”[328]... “Yet it seems unquestionable that the figure of a cross was known to the Gothic nations, and also used by them before they were converted to Christianity.”[329]
I do not know whether or not would the Doctor deem me an “antiquary,” or if he did, in which class would he assign me a place. I will undertake, notwithstanding, to solve this difficulty with as much precision as I have the others before it.