INTRODUCTION.
PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
INTRODUCTION.
It
may, we think, be taken for granted, that nothing is, or has ever
been, adopted into the service of Religion, without a definite
purpose. If it be supposed that a religion is built upon the
foundation of a distinct revelation from the Almighty, as the Hebrew
is said to be, there is a full belief that every emblem, rite,
ceremony, dress, symbol, etc., has a special signification. Many
earnest Christians, indeed, see in Judaic ordinances a reference to
Jesus of Nazareth. I have, for example, heard a pious man assert that
"leprosy" was only another word for "sin"; but he
was greatly staggered in this belief when I pointed out to him that
if a person's whole body was affected he was no longer unclean (Lev.
xiii. 13), which seemed on the proposed hypothesis to demonstrate
that when a sinner was as black as hell he was the equal of a saint.
According to such an interpreter, the paschal lamb is a type of
Jesus, and consequently all whom his blood sprinkles are blocks of
wood, lintels, and side-posts (Exod. xii. 22, 28). By the same style
of metaphorical reasoning, Jesus was typified by the "scape-goat,"
and the proof is clear, for one was driven away into the wilderness,
and the other voluntarily went there—one to be destroyed, the other
to be tempted by the devil! Hence we infer that there is nothing
repugnant to the minds of the pious in an examination respecting the
use of symbols, and into that which is shadowed forth by them. What
has been done for Judaism may be attempted for other forms of
religion.As
the Hebrews and Christians believe their religion to be God-given, so
other nations, having a different theology, regard their own peculiar
tenets. Though we may, with that unreasoning prejudice and blind
bigotry which are common to the Briton and the Spaniard, and
pre-eminently so to the mass of Irish and Scotchmen amongst
ourselves, and to the Carlists in the peninsula, disbelieve a heathen
pretension to a divine revelation, we cannot doubt that the symbols,
etc., of Paganism have a meaning, and that it is as lawful to
scrutinise the mysteries which they enfold as it is to speculate upon
the Urim and Thummim of the Jews. Yet, even this freedom has, by
some, been denied; for there are a few amongst us who adhere rigidly
to the precept addressed to the followers of Moses, viz., "Take
heed that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these
nations serve their gods?" (Deut. xii. 30.) The intention of the
prohibition thus enunciated is well marked in the following words, 1
which indicate that the writer believed that the adoption of heathen
gods would follow inquiry respecting them. It is not now-a-days
feared that we may become Mahometans if we read the Koran, or
Buddhists if we study the Dhammapada; but there are priests who fear
that an inquiry into ecclesiastical matters may make their followers
Papists, Protestants, Wesleyans, Baptists, Unitarians, or some other
religion which the Presbytery object to. The dislike of inquiry ever
attends those who profess a religion which is believed or known to be
weak.
