152 EEV. G. E. WHITE^ ON SURVIVALS OF PEIMITIVE 



century. Most of the people had been swept into the Church, 

 many of them without any evidence of a change of heart or of 

 comprehending the nature of the Christian life. Many had 

 but a thin veneer of Christianity laid over a pagan soul. The 

 Church was under the patronage of diplomatic and worldly 

 statesmen, like Constantine the Great, who used it, as they used 

 any other agency, to further their personal and political ends. 

 The clergy were men of slight education and sometimes of 

 inferior character. People generally were not adequately 

 instructed in the Christian faith, and in any case the human 

 heart easily becomes degenerate and degraded. 



In 431 the third (Ecumenical Council of the Church convened 

 in Ephesus, the city of Diana. The phrase " Mother of God," 

 used of the Virgin Mary, had already begun to be heard among 

 the people of Asia Minor, and by this Council its use was 

 officially authorised. Where has the Christian worship of the 

 Virgin Mary come from ? From the primitive pagan worship 

 of the people of Asia Minor. 



Among primitive practices still regnant, a leading place is 

 claimed by sacrifice. Men feel alienated from God, they are 

 burdened with a sense of sin, they feel helpless amid the 

 dangers and trials of human life, and they yearn for an act of 

 reconciliation and a means of acceptance. Moses did not so 

 much require sacrifice of the Israelites as to regulate the offerings 

 which their own hearts prompted them to bring. 



Sacrifice may be offered by an institution or an individual ; 

 it is sometimes prescribed, but far more often voluntary ; there 

 may or may not be a ministering priest. In fact, the<customs 

 in vogue vary considerably, and the prescriptions and 

 descriptions of religious authorities, even of the same man at 

 different times, vary among themselves quite as much as do the 

 Pentateuchal Codes. It is generally said that the animal must 

 be a male, but females are sometimes used ; it is preferable to 

 secure the services of a priest, but if none is present the virtue 

 of the sacrifice is not impaired ; the priest should bless the salt 

 last fed to the victim before its death, or if convenient the 

 meat and other food placed on the sacrificial table ; if the 

 offering is made at a Dervish tcJcye, strict rules place it all at 

 the disposal of the chief Sheykh, but a more liberal inter- 

 pretation usually gives him but IviU, or a good piece of meat, 

 preferably the right thigh, and the skin ; all regulations assign 

 the skin to the officiating clergyman, but in these years at the 

 Courban Festival, the great annual Molianunedan sacrifice, all 

 .skins are claimed by the Turkisli Theocracy for the benefit of the 



