SECTION IV
Every one knows how thoroughly Romanist is the use of the rosary; and
how the devotees of Rome mechanically tell their prayers upon their
beads. The rosary, however, is no invention of the Papacy. It is of the
highest antiquity, and almost universally found among Pagan nations. The
rosary was used as a sacred instrument among the ancient Mexicans. * It
is commonly employed among the Brahmins of Hindustan; and in the Hindoo
sacred books reference is made to it again and again. Thus, in an
account of the death of Sati, the wife of Shiva, we find the rosary
introduced: "On hearing of this event, Shiva fainted from
grief; then, having recovered, he hastened to the banks of the river of
heaven, where he beheld lying the body of his beloved Sati, arrayed in
white garments, holding a rosary in her hand, and glowing with splendour,
bright as burnished gold." * In Thibet it has been used from
time immemorial, and among all the millions in the East that adhere to
the Buddhist faith. The following, from Sir John F. Davis, will show how
it is employed in China: "From the Tartar religion of the
Lamas, the rosary of 108 beads has become a part of the ceremonial dress
attached to the nine grades of official rank. It consists of a necklace
of stones and coral, nearly as large as a pigeon's egg, descending to
the waist, and distinguished by various beads, according to the quality
of the wearer. There is a small rosary of eighteen beads, of inferior
size, with which the bronze count their prayers and ejaculations exactly
as in the Romish ritual. The laity in China sometimes wear this at the
wrist, performed with musk, and give it the name of Heang-choo, or
fragrant beads." * In Asiatic Greece the rosary was commonly
used, as many be seen from the image of the Ephesian Diana. * In Pagan
Rome the same appears to have been the case. The necklaces which the
Roman ladies wore were not merely ornamental bands about the neck, but
hung down the breasts, * just as the modern rosaries do; and the name by
which they were called indicates the use to which they were applied. "Monile,"
the ordinary word for a necklace, can have no other meaning than that of
a "Remembrancer." Now, whatever might be the
pretence, in the first instance, for the introduction of such "Rosaries"
or "Remembrancers." Now, whatever might be the
pretence in the first instance, for the introduction of such "Rosaries"
or "Remembrancers," the very idea of such a thing is
thoroughly Pagan. * It supposes that a certain number of prayers must be
regularly gone over; it overlooks the grand demand which God makes for
the heart, and leads those who use them to believe that form and routine
are everything, and that "they must be heard for their much
speaking."
In the Church of Rome a new kind of devotion has of late been largely
introduced, in which the beads play an important part, and which shows
what new and additional strides in the direction of the old Babylonian
Paganism the Papacy every day is steadily making. I refer to the "Rosary
of the Sacred Heart." It is not very long since the worship of
the "Sacred Heart" was first introduced; and now,
everywhere it is the favourite worship. It was so in ancient Babylon, as
is evident from the Babylonian system as it appeared in Egypt. There
also a "Sacred Heart" was venerated. The "Heart"
was one of the sacred symbols of Osiris when he was born again, and
appeared as Harpocrates, or the infant divinity, * borne in the arms of
his mother Isis. Therefore, the fruit of the Egyptian Persea was
peculiarly sacred to him, from its resemblance to the "HUMAN
HEART." * Hence this infant divinity was frequently
represented with a heart, or the heart-shaped fruit of the Persea, in
one of his hands. * The accompanying woodcut is from Pompeii; but the
following extract, from John Bell's criticism on the antiques in the
Picture Gallery of Florence, will show that the boyish divinity had been
represented elsewhere also in ancient times in the same manner. Speaking
of a statue of Cupid, he says it is "a fair, full, fleshy,
round boy, in fine and sportive action, tossing back a heart." * Thus
the boy-god came to be regarded as the "god of the heart,"
in other words, as Cupid, or the god of love. To identify this infant
divinity, with his father "the mighty hunter" he was
equipped with "bow and arrows;" and in the hands of
the poets, for the amusement of the profane vulgar, this sportive
boy-god was celebrated as taking aim with his gold-tipped shafts at the
hearts of mankind. His real character, however, as the above statement
shows, and as we have seen reason already to conclude, was far higher
and of a very different kind. He was the woman's seed. Venus and her son
Cupid, then, were none other than the Madonna and the child. * Looking
at the subject in this light, the real force and meaning of the language
will appear, which Virgil puts into the mouth of Venus, when addressing
the youthful Cupid:-
"My son, my strength, whose mighty power alone
Controls the thunderer on his awful throne,
To thee thy much afflicted mother flies,
And on thy succour and thy faith relies." *
From what we have seen already as to the power and glory of the
Goddess Mother being entirely built on the divine character attributed
to her Son, the reader must see how exactly this is brought out, when
the Son is called "THE STRENGTH" of his Mother. As
the boy-god, whose symbol was the heart, was recognised as the god of
childhood, this very satisfactorily accounts for one of the peculiar
customs of the Romans. Kenneth tells us, in his Antiquities, that the
Roman youths, in their tender years, used to wear a golden ornament
suspended from their necks, called bulla, which was hollow, and
heart-shaped. * Barker, in his work on Cilicia, while admitting that the
Roman bulla was heart-shaped, * further states, that "it was
usual at the birth of a child to name it after some divine personage,
who was supposed to receive it under his care;" but that the "name
was not retained beyond infancy, when the bulla was given up." *
Who so likely to be the god under whose guardianship the Roman children
were put, as the god under one or other of his many names whose express
symbol they wore, and who, while he was recognised as the great and
mighty war-god, was also exhibited himself in his favourite form as a
little child?
The veneration of the "sacred heart" seems also to
have extended to India, for there Vishnu, the Mediatorial god, in one of
his forms, with the mark of the wound in his foot, * in consequence of
which he died, and for which such lamentation is annual made, is
represented as wearing a heart suspended on his breast . * Is it asked,
How came it that the "Heart" became the recognised
symbol of the Child of the great Mother? The answer it, "The
Heart" in Chaldee is "BEL"; and as, at
first, after the check given to idolatry, almost all the most important
elements of the Chaldean system were introduced under a veil, so under
that veil they continued to be shrouded from the gaze of the
uninitiated, after the first reason--the reason of fear--had long ceased
to operate. Now, the worship of the "Sacred Heart" was
just, under a symbol, the worship of the "Sacred Bel,"
that mighty one of Babylon, who had died a martyr for idolatry; for
Harpocrates, or Horus, the infant god, was regarded as Bel, born again.
* That this was in very deed the case, the following extract from
Taylor, in one of his notes to his translation of the Orphic Hymns, will
show. "While Bacchus," says he, was
"beholding himself" with admiration "in a
mirror, he was miserably torn to pieces by the Titans, who, not content
with this cruelty, first boiled his members in water, and afterwards
roasted them in the fire; but while they were tasting his flesh thus
dressed, Jupiter, excited by the steam, and perceiving the cruelty of
the deed, hurled his thunder at the Titans, but committed his members to
Apollo, the brother of Bacchus, that they might be properly interred.
And this being performed, Dionysius [i.e., Bacchus], (whose HEART,
during his laceration, was snatched away by Minerva and preserved) by a
new REGENERATION, again emerged, and he being restored to his pristine
life and integrity, afterwards filled up the number of the gods." *
This surely shows, in a striking light, the peculiar sacredness of the
heart of Bacchus; and that the regeneration of his heart has the very
meaning I have attached to it--viz., the new birth or new incarnation of
Nimrod or Bel. When Bel, however, was born again as a child, he was, as
we have seen, represented as an incarnation of Nimrod or Bel. When Bel,
however, was born again as a child, he was, as we have seen, represented
as an incarnation of the sun. Therefore, to indicate his connection with
the fiery and burning sun, the "sacred heart" was
frequently represented as a "heart of flame." * So
the "Sacred Heart" of Rome is actually worshipped as
a flaming heart, as may be seen on the rosaries devoted to that worship.
Of what use, then, is it to say that the "Sacred Heart"
which Rome worships is called by the name of "Jesus,"
when not only is the devotion given to a material image borrowed from
the worship of the Babylonian Antichrist, but when the attributes
ascribed to that "Jesus" are not the attributes of
the living and loving Saviour, but the genuine attributes of the ancient
Moloch or Bel?
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