THE RELIGIOUS IDEA. 703 



made up with the blood of a victim), was associated with a &quot;bond 

 of service to the god for a specified period. Briefly 



stringing together minor likenesses, we may note that the 

 Christian crusades to get possession of the holy sepulchre, 

 had their prototype in the sacred war of the Greeks to 

 obtain access to Delphi; that as, among Christians, part 

 of the worship consists in reciting the doings of the Hebrew 

 god, prophets, and kings, so worship among the Greeks 

 consisted partly in reciting the great deeds of the Homeric 

 gods and heroes ; that Greek temples were made rich by 

 precious gifts from kings and wealthy men to obtain divine 

 favour or forgiveness, as Christian cathedrals have been; 

 that St. Peter s at Eome was built by funds raised from 

 various catholic countries, as the temple of Delphi was 

 rebuilt by contributions from various Grecian states ; that 

 the doctrine of special providences, general over the world, 

 was as dominant among the Greeks as it has been among 

 Christians, so that, in the words of Grote, &quot;the lives of the 

 Saints bring us even back to the simple and ever-operative 

 theology of the Homeric age ;&quot; and lastly that various religions, 

 alike in the new and old worlds, show us, in common with 

 Christianity, baptism, confession, canonization, celibacy, the 

 saying of grace, and other minor observances. 



588. What are we to conclude from all tins evidence ? 

 What must we think of this unity of character exhibited 

 by religions at large ? And then, more especially, what shall 

 we say of the family likeness existing between the creed 

 of Christendom and other creeds ? Observe the facts. 



Alike in those minds among the civilized which, by 

 defective senses, have been cut off from instruction, and in 

 the minds of various primitive peoples, religious conceptions 

 do not exist. Wherever the rudiments of them exist, they 

 have, as their form, a belief in, and sacrifices to, the doubles of 

 the dead. The ghost-theory, with resulting propitiation of 

 ordinary ghosts, habitually survives along with belief in, 



