The Ruthwell Cross and the Story it has to Tell. Ill 



of the student of vital statistics, he deserves to be remembered, 

 inasmuch as the following lines are inscribed on his tomb- 

 stone : — 



" Far from our own, 



Amid our own we lie ; 



Of our dear bairns 



Thirty-and-one us by." 



After the Cross had been thrown down, it was, there is every 

 reason to believe, dealt with as tenderly by the successive mini- 

 sters and parishioners as was possible under the circumstances. 

 Its broken pieces were allowed to remain within the church. 

 Here they happily found protection, for 130 years or more, being 

 partially buried in the earthen or clay floor. And, strange as it 

 may appear, there can be no question that the rough usage to 

 which our Cross was subjected by the General Assembly has 

 had the effect of handing it down to us in a better state of pre- 

 servation than the noble Bewcastle pillar which has stood during 

 the twelve centuries of its existence on the self same spot on which 

 it was originally set up. The rough usage of the General 

 Assembly has been merciful in its effects in comparison with the 

 ravages of the weather — of rain and hail, of storm and tempest. 

 There is no part of the carving on the English Cross which can 

 compare in clearness, freshness, and boldness of relief, with the 

 perfectly beautiful vine-tracery and the Runic characters upon 

 the west side of our Cross shaft. I may be a prejudiced witness, 

 but I strongly adhere to the opinion, which I have often expressed 

 to visitors when studying the Cross, that this part of the sculp- 

 tured work is as perfect in form and detail as when it first came 

 frotn the hands of the artist twelve centuries ago. 



A Protest against the Church of Rome. 



It would not be by any means difficult to prove, were that 

 necessary here, that the action of the Assembly in causing the 

 Cross to be thrown down was largely due to a lack of reliable 

 information with regard to its early history and the purpose for 

 which it was first erected. For nothing can be clearer to a 

 student of the first beginnings of Christian history in these islands 

 than just this, that our Cross was made and raised by the monks 

 and leaders of the Columban or Scotic Church as a protest 

 against the attempt which the masterful might of the Church of 



