SECTION V
Another peculiarity of the Papal worship is the use of lamps and
wax-candles. If the Madonna and child are set up in a niche, they must
have a lamp to burn before them; if mass is to be celebrated, though in
broad daylight, there must be wax-candles lighted on the altar; if a
grand procession is to be formed, it cannot be through and complete
without lighted tapers to grace the goodly show. The use of these lamps
and tapers comes from the same source as all the rest of the Papal
superstition. That which caused the "Heart," when it
became an emblem of the incarnate Son, to be represented as a heart on
fire, required also that burning lamps and lighted candles should form
part of the worship of that Son; for so, according to the established
rites of Zoroaster, was the sun-god worshipped. * When every Egyptian on
the same night was required to light a lamp before his house in the open
air, this was an act of homage to the sun, that had veiled its glory by
enshrouding itself in a human form. * When the Yezidis of Koordistan,
that this day, once a year celebrate their festival of "burning
lamps," that, too, is to the honour of Sheikh Shems, or the
Sun. * Now, what on these high occasions was done on a grand scale was
also done on a smaller scale, in the individual acts of worship to their
god, by the lighting of lamps and tapers before the favourite divinity.
In Babylon, this practice had been exceedingly prevalent, as we learn
from the Apocryphal writer of the Book of Baruch. "They (the
Babylonians)," says he, "light up lamps to their
gods, and that in greater numbers, too, than they do for themselves,
although the gods cannot see one of them, and are senseless as the beams
of their houses." * In Pagan Rome, the same practice was
observed. Thus we find Licinius, the Pagan Emperor, before joining
battle with Constantine, his rival, calling a council of his friends in
a thick wood, and there offering sacrifices to his gods, "lighting
up wax-tapers" before them, and at the same time, in his
speech, giving his gods a hint, that if they did not give him the
victory against Constantine, his enemy and theirs, he would be under the
necessity of abandoning their worship, and lighting up no more "wax-tapers
to their honour." * In the Pagan processions, also, at Rome,
the wax-candles largely figured. "At these solemnities," says
Dr. Middleton, referring to Apuleius as his authority, "at
these solemnities, the chief magistrate used frequently to assist, in
robes of ceremony, attended by the priests in surplices, with
wax-candles in their hands, carrying upon a pageant or thensa, the
images of their gods, dressed out in their best clothes; these were
usually followed by the principal youth of the place, in white linen
vestments or surplices, singing hymns in honour of the gods whose
festivals they were celebrating, accompanied by crowds of all sorts that
were initiated in the same religion, all with flambeaux or wax-candles
in their hands." * Now, so thoroughly and exclusively Pagan
was the custom of lighting up lamps and candles in daylight, that we
find Christian writers, such as Lactantius, in the fourth century,
exposing the absurdity of the practice, and deriding the Romans "for
lighting up candles to God, as if He lived in the dark," * Had
such a custom at that time gained the least footing among Christians,
Lactantius could never have ridiculed it as he does, as a practice
peculiar to Paganism. But what was unknown to the Christian Church in
the beginning of the fourth century, soon thereafter began to creep in,
and now forms one of the most marked peculiarities of that community
that boasts that it is the "Mother and mistress of all
Churches."
While Rome uses both lamps and wax-candles in her sacred rites, it is
evident, however, that she attributes some pre-eminent virtue to the
latter above all other lights. Up to the time of the Council of Trent,
she thus prayed on Easter Eve, at the blessing of the Easter candles: "Calling
upon thee in thy works, this holy Eve of Easter, we offer most humbly
unto thy Majesty this sacrifice; namely, a fire not defiled with the fat
of flesh, nor polluted with unholy oil or ointment, nor attainted with
any profane fire; but we offer unto thee with obedience, proceeding from
perfect devotion, a fire of wrought WAX and wick, kindled and made to
burn in honour of thy name. This so great a MYSTERY therefore, and the
marvellous sacrament of this holy eve, must needs be extolled with due
and deserved praises." * That there was some occult "Mystery,"
as is here declared, couched under the "wax-candles,"
in the original system of idolatry, from which Rome derived its ritual,
may be well believed, when it is observed with what unanimity nations
the most remote have agreed to use wax-candles in their sacred rites.
Among the Tungusians, near the Lake Baikal in Siberia, "wax-tapers
are placed before the Burchans," the gods or idols of that
country. * In the Molucca Islands, wax-tapers are used in the worship of
Nito, or Devil, whom these islanders adore. "Twenty or thirty
persons having assembled," says Hurd, "they summon the Nito,
by beating a small consecrated drum, whilst two or more of the company
light up wax-tapers, and pronounce several mysterious words, which they
consider as able to conjure him up." * "In the
worship of Ceylon," says the same author, "some
devotees, who are not priests, erect chapels for themselves, but in each
of them they are obliged to have an image of Buddha, and light up tapers
or wax-candles before it, and adorn it with flowers." * A
practice thus so general must have come from some primeval source, and
must have originally had some mystic reason at the bottom of it. The
wax-candle was, in fact, a hieroglyphic, like so many other things which
we have already seen, and was intended to exhibit the Babylonian god in
one of the essential characters of the Great Mediator. The classic
reader may remember that one of the gods of primeval antiquity was
called Ouranos, * that is, "The Enlightener." In this
very character was Nimrod worshipped when he was deified. As the Sun-god
he was regarded not only as the illuminator of the material world, but
as the enlightener of the souls of men, for he was recognised as the
revealer of "goodness and truth." * It is evident,
from the Old Testament, not less than the New, that the proper and
personal name of our Lord Jesus Christ is, "The Word of
God," as the Revealer of the heart and counsels of the
Godhead. Now, to identify the Sun-god with the Great Revealer of the
Godhead, while under the name of Mithra, he was exhibited in sculpture
as a Lion; that Lion had a Bee represented between his lips. * The bee
between the lips of the Sun-god was intended to point him out as "the
Word;" for Dabar, the expression which signifies in Chaldee a "Bee,"
signifies also a "Word"; and the position of that bee
in the mouth leaves no doubt as to the idea intended to be conveyed. It
was intended to impress the belief that Mithra (who says Plutarch, was
worshipped as Mesites, "The Mediator"), * in his
character as Ouranos, "The Enlightener," was no other
than that glorious one of whom the Evangelist John says, "In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. The same was in the beginning with God.....In Him was life; and the
life was THE LIGHT OF MEN." The Lord Jesus Christ ever was the
revealer of the Godhead, and must have been known to the patriarchs as
such; for the same Evangelist says, "No man hath seen God at
any time: the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He
hath declared," that is, He hath revealed "Him."
Before the Saviour came, the ancient Jews commonly spoke of the Messiah,
or the Son of God, under the name of Dabar, or the "Word."
This will appear from a consideration of what is stated in the 3rd
chapter of 1st Samuel. In the first verse of that chapter it is said,
"The WORD of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open
vision," that is, in consequence of the sin of Eli, that Lord
had not, for a long time, revealed Himself in vision to him, as He did
to the prophets. When the Lord had called Samuel, this "vision"
of the God of Israel was restored (though not to Eli), for it is said in
the last verse (v. 21), "And the Lord APPEARED again in Shiloh;
for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel by the WORD of the Lord." Although
the Lord spake to Samuel, this language implies more than speech, for it
is said, "The Lord appeared"--i.e., was seen. When
the Lord revealed Himself, or was seen by Samuel, it is said that it was
"by (Dabar) the Word of the Lord." The "Word of
the Lord" to be visible, must have been the personal
"Word of God," that is, Christ. * This had evidently been
a primitive name by which He was known; and therefore it is not
wonderful that Plato should speak of the second person of his Trinity
under the name of the Logos, which is just a translation of "Dabar,"
or "the Word." * Now, the light of the
wax-candle, as the light from Dabar, "the Bee," was
set up as the substitute of the light of Dabar, "the
Word." Thus the apostates turned away from the "True
Light," and set up a shadow in His stead. That this was really
the case is plain; for, says Crabb, speaking of Saturn, "on his
altars were placed wax-tapers lighted, because by Saturn men were
reduced from the darkness of error to the light of truth." *
In Asiatic Greece, the Babylonian god was evidently recognised as the
Light-giving "Word," for there we find the Bee
occupying such a position as makes it very clear that it was a symbol of
the great Revealer. Thus we find Muller referring to the symbols
connected with the worship of the Ephesian Diana: "Her constant
symbol is the bee, which is not otherwise attributed to Diana.....The
chief priest himself was called Essen, or the king-bee." * The
character of the chief priest shows the character of the god he
represented. The contemplar divinity of Diana, the tower-bearing
goddess, was of course the same divinity as invariably accompanied the
Babylonian goddess: and this title of the priest shows that the Bee
which appeared on her medals was just another symbol for her child, as
the "Seed of the Woman," in his assumed character, as
Dabar, "The Word" that enlightened the souls of men.
That this is the precise "Mystery" couched under the
wax-candles burning on the altars of the Papacy, we have very remarkable
evidence from its own formularies; for, in the very same place in which
the "Mystery" of the wax-candle is spoken of, thus
does Rome refer to the Bee, by which the wax is produced: "Forasmuch
as we do marvelously wonder, in considering the first beginning of this
substance, to wit, wax-tapers, then must we of necessity greatly extol
the original of Bees, for....they gather the flowers with their feed,
yet the flowers are not injured thereby; they bring forth no young ones,
but deliver their young swarms through their mouths, like as Christ (for
a wonderful example) is proceeded from His Father's MOUTH." *
Here it is evident that Christ is referred to as the "Word of
God;" and how could any imagination ever have conceived such a
parallel as is contained in this passage, had it not been for the
equivoque between "Dabar," "the Bee," and "Dabar,"
"the Word." In a Popish work already quoted, the
Pancarpium Marianum, I find the Lord Jesus expressly called by the name
of the Bee. Referring to Mary, under the title of "The Paradise
of Delight," the author thus speaks: "In this
Paradise that celestial Bee, that is, the incarnate Wisdom, did feed.
Here it found that dropping honeycomb, with which the whole bitterness
of the corrupted world has been turned into sweetness." * This
blasphemously represents the Lord Jesus as having derived everything
necessary to bless the world from His mother! Could this ever have come
from the Bible? No. It must have come only from the source where the
writer learned to call "the incarnate Wisdom" by the
name of the Bee. Now, as the equivoque from which such a name applied to
the Lord Jesus springs, is found only on the Babylonian tongue, it shows
whence his theology has come, and it proves also to demonstration that
this whole prayer about the blessing of wax-candles must have been drawn
from a Babylonian prayer-book. Surely, at every step, the reader must
see more and more the exactitude of the Divine name given to the woman
on the seven mountains, "Mystery, Babylon the Great!"
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