The Two Babylons Lamps and
Wax-Candles Alexander Hislop
Chapter V
Section V
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 thorough and complete
without lighted tapers to grace the goodly show. "The word candle
(candela, from candeo, to burn)
was introduced into the English language as an ecclesiastical term, probably as early as the eighth
century. It was known in classical times and dennoted any kind of
taper in which a wick,
not uncommonly made of a strip of papyrus, was encased in wax or
animal
fat. We need not shrink
from admitting that candles, like incense and lustral water, were
commonly employed in
pagan
worship and in
the rites paid to the dead. But the Church from a very
early period took them
into her service, just
as she adopted many other things indifferent in themselves,
which seemed proper to
enhance the splendour of religious ceremonial. We must not forget that most of
these adjuncts to worship, like music,
lights, perfumes, ablutions, floral decorations, canopies, fans,
screens, bells, vestments, etc. were not identified
with any idolatrous cult in particular; they were common to almost all
cults. The Catholic Encyclopedia 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
(See Note
Below) of Koordistan, at 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." [Note: all ancient praise
worship and still the claim of singing praise hymns is that they AID
THE LAZY or INCOMPETENT gods to accomplish their work. Often, since
ALL MUSICAL TERMS in the Bible are related to abrading or even
weapons of war, praise singing was also a way to THREATEN the gods
that if they didn't produce you might quit worshiping them]
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." See Amos 5. Yea, ye took up the tabernacle
of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to
worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon. Acts
7:43 Our fathers had the
tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed,
speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion
that he had seen. Ac.7:44 Now, so thoroughly and exclusively PAGAN was
this 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." [Sacrifices were to feed the
hungry gods, incense was to allow the gods to smell, candles were to give them light and music was to entertain them. Musical worship teams were
always "the harem of the gods.] Lactantius Chapter II.-Of the Worship of False Gods and the True
God. "Therefore they sacrifice fine
and fat victims to God, as though He were hungry; they pour forth
wine to Him, as though He were thirsty
they kindle lights to
Him, as though He were in darkness. But if they were able to conjecture or to conceive
in their mind what those heavenly goods are, the greatness of which
we cannot imagine, while we are still encompassed with an earthly
body, they would at once know that they are most foolish with their empty offices. Or if they
would contemplate that heavenly light which we call the sun, they will at once perceive how
God has no need of their
candles, who has
Himself given so clear and bright a light for the use of man.
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 (ZOE) 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 attained 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." who drew out the chariots and
horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there,
never to rise
again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: Is.43:17 They also took away the pots,
shovels, wick
trimmers, sprinkling
bowls, dishes and all the bronze articles used in the temple service.
Je.52:18 A bruised reed he will not
break, and a smoldering
wick he will not
snuff
out, till he leads
justice to victory. Mt.12:20 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, 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, the use of
wax-candles is an indispensable requisite. "In 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. See Arnobius Plea for the Christians The classic reader may remember that one of the
gods of
primeval antiquity was called Ouranos, * that is,
"The Enlightener." (Lucifer
who came equipped with pipes and tabrets) See Section225. * For Aor or our, "light," and
an, "to
act upon" or produce, the same as our English particle
en, "to
make." Ouranos, then, is "The Enlightener." This Ouranos is, by
Sanchuniathon, the Phoenician, called the son of Elioun--i.e., as he
himself, or Philo-Byblius, interprets the name, "The Most High."
(SANCH) Ouranos, in the physical sense, is "The Shiner"; and by
Hesychius it is made equivalent to Kronos, which also has
the same meaning, for Krn, the verb from which
it comes, signifies either "to put forth horns," or "to send forth
rays of light"; and, therefore, while the epithet Kronos, or "The
Horned One," had primarily reference to the physical power of
Nimrod as
a "mighty" king; when that king was deified, and made "Lord of
Heaven," that name, Kronos, was still applied to him in his new
character as "The Shiner or
Lightgiver." The distinction made by
Hesiod between Ouranos and
Kronos, is no argument against the real
substantial identity of these divinities originally as
Pagan
divinities; for Herodotus states that Hesiod had a hand in
"inventing
a theogony" for the Greeks, which implies that some at least of the
details of that theogony must have come from his own fancy; and, on
examination, it will be found, when the veil of allegory is removed,
that Hesiod's "Ouranos," though introduced as one of the Pagan gods, was
really at bottom the "God of Heaven," the living and true God.
For the worship of Nimrod Click Here 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. (Fig 42) And the beast which
I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a
bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat,
and great authority. Re.13:2 And I saw one of
his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was
healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. Rev 13:3
And they worshipped the
dragon which gave power unto the
beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying,
Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? Rev
13:4 In Gnosticism, Sophia is the
serpent and her daughter, Zoe, is called the "beast" or the female
instructing principle. Her role is much like that of Lucifer as the
false "enlightener." "This is the body of God for healing the
bitterness of the human
heart ..." declared Rev. Hill as women passed the milk and honey mixture around their tables. "We have seen the power,
rising from the earth ... Together we have
given birth to a Re-Imagining Community which extends to every corner of our world!" Resource Quoted
from a fuller end-time new vision. And there was given
unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was
given unto him to continue forty and two months. Rev 13:5
And he opened his mouth in
blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and
them that dwell in heaven. Rev 13:6 And it was given unto him to
make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given
him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. Rev 13:7
And all that dwell
upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the
book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Rev
13:8 If any man have an ear, let him
hear. Rev 13:9 We are of God: he that knoweth
God heareth
us; he that is not of
God heareth not
us. Hereby know we the
spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. 1Jn.4:6 Plato Ion 534a continues to speak of the female
musical worship team - the Muses: "and attract other
rings; so that sometimes there is formed
quite a long chain of bits of iron and rings, suspended one from
another; and they all depend for this power on that one stone.
In the same manner also the
Muse inspires men herself, and then by means of these inspired persons the inspiration spreads to others, and holds them in a connected chain. For all the good epic poets utter all
those fine poems not
from art, but as inspired and possessed, and the good lyric poets likewise; [534a] just as
.... the
Corybantian worshippers do not dance when in their senses, ... so the lyric poets do not
indite those fine songs in their senses, but when they have started on the melody and rhythm they begin to be frantic, and it is under possession--as the bacchants are possessed, and not in their senses, when they draw honey and milk from the rivers--that the soul of the lyric poets does
the same thing, by their own report. For the poets tell us, I
believe, that the songs they bring us are the sweets they
cull from honey-dropping
founts [534b] in
certain gardens and glades of the Muses-- like the bees, and winging the air as
these do.1 And what they tell is true. (Plato then explains a lot of musical worship and
even preaching)
"For a
poet is a light
and winged
and sacred
thing, and is unable
ever to indite until he has been inspired and put
out of his senses, and
his mind is no longer in
him: every man, whilst
he retains possession of that, is powerless to indite a verse or
chant an oracle. Seeing then that it is not by
art that they compose and utter so many fine things about the deeds
of men--
Demosthenes Against Midias describes what the
clergy tried to excite Jesus to do: "[21.52] Please
take and read the actual oracles. Oracles You I address, Pandion's
townsmen and sons of Erechtheus, who appoint your
feasts by the ancient
rites of your fathers.
See you forget not
Bacchus, and joining all in the dances Down your broad-spaced streets, in thanks for the
gifts of the season, Crown
each head with a wreath, while incense reeks on the altars. For health sacrifice and
pray to
Zeus Most High, to
Heracles, and to Apollo
the Protector; for good fortune to Apollo, god of the streets, to
Leto, and to Artemis; and along the streets set wine-bowls and dances,
and wear garlands after the manner of your fathers in honor of
all gods and all goddesses of Olympus, raising right hands and left in
supplication."
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." Dabar
(h1697) daw-bawr'; from 1696; a word; by impl. a matter (as spoken
of) or thing... chronicles, commandment, * commune (-ication)...
counse.. word,
work Dabar
(h1696) daw-bar'; a prim. root; perh. prop. to arrange; but used fig.
(of words) to speak; rarely (in a destructive sense) to subdue: -
answer, appoint, bid, command, commune, declare, destroy, give, name,
promise, pronounce, rehearse, say, speak, be spokesman, subdue, talk,
teach, tell, think, use [entreaties], utter, * well, * work.
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, the Lord
had not, for a long time, revealed Himself in vision to him, as He
did to the prophets. Dr. Rubel
Shelly who suggests baptizing the S.U.N. god for the
S.O.N. God also
insists that John inwriting his account took old lost fragments of
"scripture" and using the sieve of philosophy came up with the Word
LOGOS to apply to Jesus based on "his own personal agenda." Of
course, the result is a Greek Logos or Hermes or Mercury as the
father of
musical instruments, of liars
and of thieves. He is much like the Lamech family who introduced
musical instruments "without warrant" or without authority. This
Gnostic view also introduces ZOE as the promoter of musical worship.
It also gives rise for the Seeker-Center concept promoted by Apollo
who represents Abaddon or Apollyon. 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. * * After the Babylonish
captivity,
as the Chaldee Targums or Paraphrases of the Old Testament show, Christ was
commonly called by the title "The Word
of the Lord." In these Targums of later
Chaldee, the term for "The
Word" is "Mimra"; but this word,
though a synonym for that which is used in the Hebrew Scriptures, is
never used there. Dabar is the word employed. This is so well recognised that,
in the Hebrew translation of John's
Gospel in Bagster's Polyglott, the
first verse runs thus: "In the beginning was the Word (Dabar)." 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, (Satan,
Molech) "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 marvellously
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 feet, 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." * * Review of
Epistle of DR. GENTIANUS HARVET of Louvaine. This work, which is commonly called The Beehive of the
Roman Church, contains the original Latin of the passage translated
above. The passage in question is to be found in at least two Roman
Missals, which, however, are now very rare--viz., one printed at
Vienna in 1506, with which the quotation in the text has been
compared and verified; and one printed at Venice in 1522. These dates
are antecedent to the establishment of the Reformation; and it
appears that this passage was expunged from subsequent editions, as
being unfit to stand the searching scrutiny to which everything in
regard to religion was subjected in consequence of that great event.
The ceremonial of blessing the candles, however, which has no place
in the Pontificale
Romanum in the Edinburgh Advocates'
Library, is to be found in the Pontificale Romanum,
Venice, 1542, and in Pontificale
Romanum, Venice, 1572. In the ceremony
of blessing the candles, given in the Roman Missal, printed at
Paris, 1677, there is great praise of
the Bee, strongly resembling the
passage quoted in the text. The introduction of such an extraordinary
formula into a religious ceremony is of very ancient date, and is
distinctly traced to an Italian source; for, in the words of the
Popish Bishop Ennodius, who occupied an Italian diocese in the sixth
century, we find the counterpart of that under consideration.
Thus, in a prayer in regard to the
"Easter Candle," the reason for offering up the wax-candle is
expressly declared to be, because that through means of the
bees that produce the
wax of which it is made, "earth has an
image of what is PECULIAR TO HEAVEN," and that in regard to the very
subject of GENERATION; the bees being able, "through
the virtue of herbs, to pour forth their young through their MOUTHS
with less waste of time than all other creatures do in the ordinary
way." This prayer contains the precise
idea of the prayer in the text; and there is only one way of
accounting for the origin of such an idea. It must have come from a Chaldean Liturgy.
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 [wordplay, double meaning] 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
(Eve, Sophia,
ZOE), 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 founded 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"! Note
from III-III Among the Yezidis, or
Devil-worshippers of Modern Chaldea, the same festival
is celebrated at this day, with rites probably almost the same, so
far as circumstances will allow, as thousands of years ago, when in
the same regions the worship of
Tammuz (Jewish women Eze 8:14)
was in all its glory. Thus graphically does Mr. Layard describe a festival
of this kind at which he himself had been present: "As the twilight faded, the Fakirs, or
lower orders of priests, dressed in
brown garments of coarse
cloth, closely fitting to their bodies,
and wearing black turbans on their heads, issued from the tomb, each
bearing a light in one
hand, and a pot of oil, with a
bundle of cotton wick in the other. They filled and trimmed lamps placed in
niches in the walls of the courtyard and scattered over the buildings
on the sides of the valley, and even on isolated rocks, and in the
hollow trunks of trees. Innumerable stars appeared to glitter on the black sides of the mountain
and in the dark recesses of the forest. As the priests made their way
through the crowd to perform their task, men and women passed their right hands through the
flame; and after rubbing the right
eyebrow with the part which had been purified by the
sacred element, they devoutly carried
it to their lips. Some who bore children in their arms anointed them in
like manner, whilst others held out their hands to be touched by
those who, less fortunate than themselves, could not reach the
flame... As night advanced, those who had
assembled--they must now have amounted to nearly five thousand persons--lighted torches, which they carried with them as they
wandered through the forest. The effect was
magical: the varied groups could be
faintly distinguished through the darkness--men hurrying to and
fro--women with their children seated on the house-tops--and crowds
gathering round the pedlars, who exposed their
wares for sale in the
courtyard. Thousands of lights were reflected in the
fountains and streams, glimmered amongst the foliage of the trees,
and danced in the distance. As I was gazing on this extraordinary
scene, the hum of human voices was suddenly hushed, and a strain, solemn and
melancholy, arose from the valley. It resembled some majestic
chant which years before I had listened to in the cathedral of a
distant land. Music so pathetic and so sweet
I never before heard in the East. The voices of men and women were
blended in harmony with the soft notes of many flutes. At measured intervals the song was broken by
the loud clash of cymbals and
tambourines; and those who were within the precincts of the tomb
then joined in the melody... The tambourines, which were
struck simultaneously, only interrupted at intervals the song of the
priests. As the time quickened they
broke in more frequently. The chant gradually gave way to a lively
melody, which, increasing in measure, was finally lost in a
confusion of sounds. The tambourines were beaten
with extraordinary energy--the flutes poured forth a
rapid flood of notes--the voices were raised to the
highest pitch--the men outside joined in the cry--whilst the women
made the rocks resound with the shrill tahlehl. "The musicians, giving way to the excitement,
threw
their instruments into the air, and strained their limbs into every
contortion, until they fell exhausted to the ground. I never heard a more frightful yell than that
which rose in the valley. It was midnight. I gazed with wonder upon
the extraordinary scene around me. Thus were probably celebrated ages ago the
mysterious rites of the
Corybantes, when they met in some consecrated grove." Layard
does not state at what period of the year this festival occurred; but
his language leaves little doubt that he regarded it as a
festival of Bacchus; in other words, of the Babylonian Messiah, whose
tragic death, and subsequent restoration to life and glory, formed
the cornerstone of ancient
Paganism. The festival was avowedly held in honour at
once of Sheikh Shems, or the Sun, and of the Sheik Adi,
or "Prince of Eternity," around whose tomb nevertheless the
solemnity took place, just as the lamp festival in Egypt, in honour
of the sun-god Osiris, was celebrated in the precincts of the tomb of that god at
Sais. I'll bet that someone always
has to clean up the dropped was which proves that the gods have been
worshiped. But, the worship is of the Devil. BACK UP 
