1889.] 4:79 [Vaux. 



It is pointed out that the sun symbol is as universal as sun worship. It 

 is the same sj'mbol among peoples. The circle with rays, and wiih a cen- 

 tre point, is the expression of both the natural and spiritual consciousness. 

 As Divine, Superhuman, a Creator, the Origin of Life, the symbol tooiv 

 the form of tlie sun itself, and the primitive man was taught by a revela- 

 tion, the theology to which the symbol was dedicated. What more rea- 

 sonable than that the figure of the sun should be the figure of the worship? 

 Whatever may have been added to this symbol in after-time by the ingen- 

 uity of scientific hypotheticism, the fact remains that the sun symbol orig- 

 inated in the revealed conception of a purely religious significant truth. 



We think this is the consensus of authoritative opinion of many students 

 and scholars. To cite them is to catalogue the exegetical treatises from 

 Moses to ]Muhler. It is at least permissible to add that the sign on the 

 cloud and the darkness at Calvary were symbolic evidence of a superna- 

 tural revelation. 



One more example compels notice. 



The Cross. 



Christianity may be called the equator that divides the ante- and post- 

 Christian eras. In both, the Cross has been a religious symbol. In the 

 very earliest religious systems there was a more or less imperfect recog- 

 nition of one Supreme Being, the origin of created beings, qven the gods 

 themselves. This is found among the Scandinavians, the Hindoos, the 

 Teutonic and Aryan races. The Great Spirit was recognized among all 

 the Indian tribes. The circle with the central point is one ot the earliest 

 symbols of the Great Spirit from which the Hindoos taught all things 

 proceeded. 



The date of the origin of this symbol is not known. It may have been 

 prior to the interlaced triangles of the Hindoos. Its history, however, 

 shows that from the beginning it was exclusively of religious import. 

 With the sun worship, it was universal among primitive peoples. It was 

 a symbol, and it is said it is never found except to express some religious 

 idea. 



"When we see the same ideas promulgated as Divine truth on the ancient 

 banks of the Ganges, and the modern shores of the Mediterranean, we are 

 constrained to admit they have something commort,in their source. They may 

 be the result of celestial revelation, or they may alike emanate from human 

 ingenuity. Religious symbols mark the nature of man's religious aspira- 

 tions." 



When the Cross became a symbol cannot be determined. It can suc- 

 cessfully be asserted that among primitive peoples it held a conspicuous 

 place, with a spiritual and mystic significance. 



The Circle symbol identified with sun worship, crossed, added to ils 

 sacred character. In very remote antiquity, many centuries before our 

 era, the crossed Circle was a religious symbol. 



