PASSED TO A HIGHER LIFE.

BY HORACE M. RICHARDS.

So ripe and full the gathered sheaf,
Why should the harvest bring us grief?
Bowed and bent by the weight of grain,
Garnered a life not lived in vain.

Through toil and pain he carried his load,
Through briers and brambles, walked his road
So noble and true, so grand and good,
"Twas the mountain top on which he stood.

So simple his life, to others given,

In duty done he found his heaven.
The burdens lifted, the dried-up tears,
His crown of glory, through eternal years.

Give him glad welcome, O holy angels!
For he too was one of God's evangels;
Knowing no color, race or creeds,
His life one prayer of loving deeds.

Crown him, O angels! he brings his token
Of riven chains and manacles broken;
He, too, at last, unfettered, free,

Earth's bondage leaves for liberty!

Thanks unto God! O ye who still remain,
Give thanks that the reaper so lovingly came,
Thanks for a life so grandly spent,

Thanks for the reaper divinely sent.

RATHER DIE THAN SUBMIT.-The Masonic Lodge of Strasburg, having been informed that it could not be allowed to keep up its connection with the Grand Orient of France, has resolved to break up rather than be affiliated to a German superior.

A FOOL is provoked with insolent speeches; but a wise man laugheth them to scorn.

ERAS IN RELIGION.

BY JANE M. JACKSON.

The gods of Greece and Rome were deified heroes; they took the place of Christ as mediators between God and man. They were supposed to avert dangers, heal the sick, and keep off evil spirits. At the head was placed the Virgin Mary, and in 1476 indulgencies were granted to all who would celebrate an annual festival in honor of this saint. In the year 1300, Boniface VIII instituted the famous jubilee, and superstition was increased until reason was lost and the world raved in a mania. People were scourged by the Inquisition, imprisoned for life, or put to torture. Henry the II., King of England, was compelled by the Pope Alexander to walk, bare-foot, three miles on a flinty road, with only a coarse cloth over his shoulders, to the shrine of the murdered Becket, who had been canonized as a saint, where eighty monks, and four bishops whipped his bare back with a knotted cord, and made him drink water mingled with the blood of Becket, besides being compelled to give forty pounds sterling a year för tapers to burn perpetually before the tomb. The Roman Church became idolatrous in the eighth century. He who could practice some right, possess a sacred relic, pay money to the priest, had his sins forgiven, and murderers and thieves went fearless into eternity. No culture of body or mind was deemed necessary, and the masses were little above trutes. All literature went into the cells of the monasteries, and the ignorant lost sight of God and religion. Egyptians were given to divination. They had enchanters, witches and wizards, to whom they applied for advice in all events of life. The exit of the children of Israel from Egypt took place in the year 2513 of the world, (1491 years before the birth of Christ) and numbered two million souls. By dreams, by the flight or birds, did the Grecians receive answers from oracles, called "divines." This art was taught in schools by teachers whose lives were devoted to study. They wore coarse clothes, ate bread and roots, and were called Anchorites. They became a power in the land, kings sought their abodes and obeyed them. They reigned from the time of Samuel to Malachi, 700 years. Then the prophetic spirit was withdrawn for 400 years, until John the Baptist came. David, also prophesied. The dedication of the Temple of Solomon took place 3000 years from the foundation of the world, and 1004 years before Christ. Elisha, Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and 2. VOL. XVIII-NO. I—JAN. 1873.

Hosea prophesied by visions, dreams and in trances. The cross upon which Christ was hanged was an upright post of twelve feet, with a cross-piece over the top. On this the victim was laid; his arms were stretched upon the cross-piece, and spikes were driven through the palms of his hands, and his feet, fastening him to the instrument of death. The whole was then raised in the air suddenly and thrust into a hole for its support. He was then left to hang until the loss of blood and death ended his agony. In 1260 societies were founded, and were known as Dominicans, Franciseans, Carmelites, and Hermits of St. Augustine. They traveled in many countries, lived upon charities, and held offices A. D. 1221. The Mayor of London gave them a convent by the river Thames. The Franciscans settled near Canterbury in England; they went bare-headed, wore ropes around their bodiès until the flesh bled; went in rags and fasted, and were respected for their isolation. Mahomet set up a new religion. His followers were not to eat flesh or drink liquors, but could indulge their animal desires. He promised them Heaven if they obeyed his laws; some he compelled to follow his doctrines for fear of death. He became ruler of Arabia, Constantinople, and Greece, blotted out the Curistian religion, allowed no books, and people were lost to all spiritual knowledge. In the East the Saracens reduced Christians to slavery, and spread their terror even to the gates of Rome, as late as 1453.

I. H. S. V. AND I. H. S.

Persons in the habit of attending churches where ecclesiological decorations prevails, often observe in the ornamentation the above caba.istic letters. The latter are more common than the former. The question is constantly asked, what do they mean? As it is never satisfactorily answered, especially in regard to the latter, we will give the true explanation of both monograms.

In the early part of the fourth century, the day before Constantine fought his celebrated battle with his rival, Maxentius, it is related that there appeared to him in the sky a vision of a brilliant cross, with the following words over it: En tun to nika (“ Conquer in this," or Under this sign conquer.") Eusebias says that the Emperor himself assured him of the truth of the story. Tra dition adds that the night following the vision was repeated to the Emperor, who, tinding that, like Pharoah's dream, it was "doubled" to him, regarded the thing as "established." Iu consequence thereof after his victory over Maxentius, which gave him

the Empire of the Roman world, he directed the labarum, the celcbrated Imperial standard, to be made. Way it was called the labarum, or what is the derivation or meaning of the word, are matters which are lost forever. No one can shed any light on the mysterious word. History tells us that this great Christian standard, under which Constantine gained his future triumphs, and which he gained with a band of his choicest soldiers, was a goldplated lauce, with a traverse bar near the top, from which depended a silken banner, richly embroidered and adorned with precious stones. Above the bar was the sacred monogram of Christ—that is the Greek X (CH) with the Greek P (R) upon it, the two comprehending the first two letters of the name of Christ, and also involv ing a cross. The legend was " In hoc signo vinces," a latin render ing of the Greek legend which we have given above, and means "Under this sign thou shalt conquer." A medal of Constantine is still extant, bearing the labarum and the Latin legend. The intitial letters of it form the I. H. S. V., sometimes seen among the symbolic ornaments in churches.

The history of the I. H. S. is quite different, and its origin and meaning are less known in fact, though it is by sight so familiar to church-goers. But, by reference to a paper in "Hone's Ancient Mysteries," by the former curator of the manuscripts of the King or England, we are enabled to obtain the clew to the derivation of these letters, which are frequently so much misunderstood and misrepresented. It is somewhat difficult to elaborate the matter without the aid of Greek characters. Nevertheless we endeavor to make the point in question, even to those who do not understand Greek.

We premise that the leading manuscripts of the New Testament were written in Greek capital letters throughout, and that whereever the word JESOUS (Jesus) occurred, the scribes wrote only the first three letters, JES, with a dash over the middle letter as a mark of abbreviation. We may add that it was a rule with them to abbreviate well-known names, which increases the labors of the manuscript reader. Now the Greek capital Eta (H) is the English H, and thus the I. H. S. is simply an abbreviation of the English Jesus.

Subsequently the Latin scribes, whenever, in making copies of Latin versions of the Testament or other ecclesiastical writings, they had occasion to write the name Jesus, used the old abbreviation I. II. S., and not knowing the Greek character, and not understanding that the H was the Greek long E, but supposing it was really a Latin H, they got to writing the letters I. H. S., thus illustrating their own ignorance. Further, as the ages grew darker, the scribes declared that the dash over the middle letter of the I. H. S. in the old mauuscripts, was intended for the sign of the cross, and

that the letters themselves were the initials of Jesus hominum salvator ("Jesus, Savior of mankind”). These absurd errors have been handed down even to the present day, and there are many who are no wiser than the scribes of the dark ages were in their day.

But there is another phase of the matter. When Ignatius Loyola, 1540, by permission of the Pope, founded the "Order of Jesus," instead of adopting the original I. H. S., which was very appropriate for the monogram of the society, he fell into the same mistake as the scribes, and indeed enlarged it, for the I. II. S. under the cross-the letters being the initials of In hoc solus (“ In this is salvation." The idea was suggested to Loyola evidently by the error of the scribes in regard to the dash, which they mistook for a cross, their real ignorance of I. H. S., and also of the I. H. S. V. of the labarum, which we have above described. Thus the error was multiplied.

Sometimes the Jesuit monogram is made by an H with an I in the former, extending above and ending in a cross, the whole being entwined with an S, thus forming a complete eabalistic monogram.

In the middle ages the I. H. S. obtained considerable importauce from the vain supposition that it had some secret significance and exercised a mysterious influence against the powers of darkness. After the plague in Florence it was put on the walls of the Church of Santa Croce. Subsequently it was printed on cards, which were sold to the superstitious. Indeed, it was put finally upon playing cards to increase their sale.

The I. H. S. was stamped upon the large wafer out of which the host is consecrated by the Roman priest. Perhaps it adds something to the exclamation, "Mass !" or "By the Mass !" once very common. Ophelia's oath, "By St. Gis," is merely a vulgar corruption of "By I. H. S.," in use at that time. These letters were sometimes engraved on the hilt of the sword, and thus increased the solemnity of the oath which the knight or soldier swore upon his sword, or rather upon the cross which formed its handle. It has been suggested that Hamlet's sword may have been adorned with the I. H. S.

But these celebrated letters are only seen now for the most part in the symbolic ornamentation of church edifices, generally in colored windows or about the chancel. They appear in the three modes we have referred to: First, there is original I. H. S., the historic abbreviation of thh name of Jesus; second, the I. H. S., under a cross, or involved in monogram, which is the sign of the "Order of Jesus," and third. there is the I. H. S., either in Latin, Old English, or German letter, which constitutes the “perpetual triumph" of the old Latin scribe of the dark ages. We would suggest that the two letters be abandoned in the decoration of our churches, and that the old and beautiful I. H. S. be restored.