Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

EVOLUTION OF THE SUPERNATURAL.

47

when, just before the fatal blow, she managed to disappear. Human sacrifices were also offered up by the Jews to Moloch, Baal (the old Babylonian god Bel), Chemosh, and Apis-the Bull-god (of the zodiacal sign taurus) of the Egyptians and Carthaginians (see Ex. xiii. 2; xxii. 29; xxxii. 27; Judges xi. 31; Joshua vi. 17; 1 Samuel xv. 32; 2 Samuel xxi. 6; 1 Kings xviii. 40; 2 Kings x. 24; Jer. vii. 30). A cruel and barbarous command put into the mouth of Jehovah by the priests was that no one devoted (or consecrated) of men should be redeemed, but be surely put to death (Lev. xxvii. 28), so that there was no chance of escape by substitution, except through the intervention of the priest.

In time of war the captives were chosen for sacrifice, but in time of peace slaves were offered. In great calamities or famines the king was, on the least pretext, sacrificed, as being the highest price with which they could purchase the divine favour. Kings also offered their children. "The altar of Moloch reeked with blood." Fair virgins and children were sacrificed by being thrown into a furnace shaped like a bull, "while trumpets and flutes drowned their screams, and the mothers looked on, and were bound to restrain their tears." Carthage was a notable place for these sacrifices. The offering of human sacrifices to the sun in Mexico and Peru was extensively practised. In the hunting stage human life was freely offered; in the pastoral stage animals were substituted; and in later times came the Communion of bread and wine, as substitutes for the actual flesh and blood.

It is a popular idea that cannibalism originated from motives of hunger; but this is erroneous. Hunger may have been a motive on certain occasions; but a very ancient motive was that of imbibing the qualities and attributes— valour, bravery, strength, etc.—of the person eaten; and it was certainly from this idea that the idea of eating the god, by which they hoped to incorporate the ghost or spirit of their god with their own bodies, arose; and from which sprang the Bacchanalian "mysteries" of Rome, the Eleusinian mysteries" of Greece, and the Eucharistic "mysteries" and "Love Feasts" of the Essenes and of the Jessæans (Pisciculi, or primitive Christians). "To murder a man was to do an act of the greatest devotion,

66

and to eat his flesh was to receive the highest blessings,” says Pliny; and again: “These monstrous rites the [pagan] Roman people put an end to "; and this gives us an insight into the cause of the so-called Christian “persecutions under the Roman Emperors.

[ocr errors]

The idea of "mystery" was very ancient, and had its origin with the Chaldeans and Persians, who concealed the higher branches of science from the people under the veil of allegory. From them the Hebrews adopted it, the book of Job being allegorical and nothing more than an astrodrama. The seven sons of Job are the seven summer months, which are killed by the five winter months, but are all alive again in the next summer months, when Job (the year) is fully restored to health and happiness.

The "mysteries" were offered up by the Athenians every fifth year in honour of Ceres, the goddess of corn; she was supposed to give her "flesh to eat," and Bacchus, the god of wine (an old sun-god), his "blood to drink." Many of the forms of expression in the Mass of the Roman Catholic Church, and the Communion Service of the various Protestant Churches, are precisely the same as those appertaining to the pagan rite. In the Eleusinian mysteries was celebrated "the sacrament of the Lord's Supper" (long before the Christian Jesus arrived on the scene), and the pagan priest dismissed his congregation with "The Lord be with you," an expression retained to this day in the English Church, and in the Catholic Church as "Dominus vobiscum.” In one of the chambers dedicated to Osiris, in the temple of Phile, the dead body of the Egyptian god is represented with stalks of corn springing from it; a priest is watering the stalks, and an inscription says: "This is the form of him whom one may not name, Osiris of the Mysteries, who springs from the returning waters" (of the Nile). The ancient Egyptians annually celebrated the resurrection of their god and saviour Osiris, and at the same time commemorated his death by eating "the consecrated wafer which had become "veritable flesh of his flesh "--the body of Osiris thus eating their god, as the Christians do. Bread and wine, too, were brought to the temples as offerings. In the John Gospel we read that "I am the true vine; ye are the branches"; "I am the bread of life"; "Take, eat; this is my body," etc. In the Parable of the

[ocr errors]

EVOLUTION OF THE SUPERNATURAL.

49

Vineyard, God the Father (Yahuh) is described as the owner of a vineyard who sends his only begotten Son to receive the fruit of it, and the workers slay him. The "miracle" of Cana is distinctly Bacchanalian in character.

But not only was it believed that the attributes of the dead might be transferred to the living, but the soul of the dead might be so transferred by what is called "inspiration"; and this is handed down to modern times in the idea of apostolic succession. The ghost, or soul, of the Christian Messiah is believed by Catholics to be transferred in this manner to priests—“Receive ye the Holy Ghost," etc.

With primitive man any display of extraordinary bodily energy produced the idea of "possession" by spirits--at first only bad spirits, or demons. The ancestral ghost was generally the "possessing" spirit, manifesting itself as what we now know to be epilepsy, hysteria, rabies, insanity, etc.; and from these apparently superhuman powers were soon developed the idea of omnipresence as well as that of omnipotence.

Spirits and ghosts were always associated with wind-by the rustling of the leaves, as we have seen, at night; the rippling of the water, etc.; and the Hebrew and Greek words for spirit, ghost, wind, and breath, or air in motion, are identical, as will be seen elsewhere. It is easy to follow the train of thought in the mind of uncivilized man from spirits entering the bodies of the living to that of being driven out. If one could occur, why not the other? Thus from "possession" were developed "exorcism," "sorcery," and "witchcraft "; and from these again "enchantment " and "miracles." "The Tahkalis priest lays his hand on the head of the nearest relation of a deceased person, and blows into him the soul or spirit of the departed, which is supposed to come to life in his next child; and not only in the theory of apostolic succession do we see this 'inspiration' and 'possession' idea carried out, but among the most sacerdotal of modern sects, such as the Quakers, Plymouth Brethren, etc., only in a slightly different form. Their 'being moved by the spirit' is only another mode of expressing being temporarily possessed' or 'inspired.'

"Along with malevolent possession' naturally was evolved benevolent possession,' which state is still prayed for under the expressions 'supernatural strength,' inspiration,' and

E

'knowledge.' The Catholic Church still retains 'exorcism,' and has specially-ordained 'exorcists'; and this office was retained in the Established Church down to 1550, when infants were exorcised before baptism as follows: 'I command thee, unclean spirit, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, that thou come out and depart from this infant.' Jesus was a believer in 'possession' by spirits, which would naturally have formed part of his education by the priests during his youth in Egypt. He is said to have cast out 'unclean' spirits, or demons, from the man in the synagogue (Mark i. 23); out of the poor epileptic boy (Luke ix. 42); and out of the two poor lunatics who lived among the tombs (Matt. viii. 31); and again 'seven devils' out of Mary Magdalene (Mark xvi. 9). And he taught that all believers should cast out devils in his name."

Witches were supposed to be in league with Satan, “the prince of the devils,” and to have power to bewitch others. They were also supposed to be given over by the gods to Satan, and to be destined to burn persons in the fires of hell. Such an idea soon led to the logical conclusion that, as these witches were condemned to hell, the sooner they were sent there the better-in fact, it was considered a solemn duty to do so, in order to prevent their malevolent practices, and, by their fearful example, deter others from having dealings with devils, and prevent souls from getting into their clutches. These ideas prevailed in England till 1736. It was a very short step from witchcraft to HERESY. A soul fallen from orthodoxy was believed to be in the hands of Satan; and, if that soul were not sent at once to hell, other souls might be led astray by their teaching or example. "At a torturing and burning which took place at Irvine in 1613, in the affair of Margaret Barclay and others, there were present the Earl of Eglinton, the ministers of Ayr, Kilmarnock, Dalry, and Irvine, when three innocent people were sacrificed." It is computed that 30,000 persons have been murdered under the inhuman O. T. order (Ex. xxii. 18), "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." At Clonmel, in 1897, a young wife was actually placed upon the fire by her husband and father, to exorcise the evil spirit out of her, they imagining she was bewitched.

Fire was a very old remedy for driving out evil

EVOLUTION OF THE SUPERNATURAL.

51

spirits, and was used in baptism-sometimes alone, and at others with water. The Romans used both in their baptisms. John is made to say in Matthew (iii. 11): “I baptize you with water; but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost [literally holy wind] and with fire." Baptism by immersion or sprinkling was a very ancient pagan custom for driving out evil spirits and remitting sins. It was practised by nearly every ancient nation. The Mithraists of Persia and the Jews, in their baptisms, marked the sign of the cross on the forehead many centuries before the Christian Messiah was born or thought of. This marking with the cross on the forehead is mentioned in the Apocalypse (Rev. xiii. 16, 18). In Mongolia and Thibet candles burn, incense is offered, and the child is dipped three times in water, accompanied by prayers, and named. In the time of Eusebius those received into the Christian Church were initiated by prayer and the laying on of hands, called by him "the ancient custom" (vii., ii.), which was followed till the time of Stephen. Controversies arose in his time as to whether members should be received "after

the ancient custom" or "by baptism, after the heathen custom." The command in Mark (xvi. 15, 16) is of comparatively recent date. The goddess Nundina took her name from the ninth day, on which all male children were sprinkled with holy water (as females were on the eighth), named, and a certificate given of "regeneration." In the Roman ritual the priest exorcises the infant's ears and nostrils with spittle before baptizing it, which is an old charm against the "evil eye.'

[ocr errors]

We must understand that the sect known in ancient times as Baptists, and more recently as Hemero-Baptists, Mandaites, Nazarites, or Gnostics, had no connection whatever with Christianism, which was a later religious development, any more than with present-day Baptists, for they detested both Jews and Christians. They were a variety of Essene ascetics, and had a book called "The Book of Adam," in which is contained the mythos of Noë and most of Genesis, for they still exist in the East--chiefly in the neighbourhood of Bussora. John was their founder, and had the usual twelve apostles, besides thirty disciples. "They hold the principle of the renewal of worlds, abhor bloody sacrifices, and do not use the rite of circumcision;

« AnteriorContinuar »