SIGNS AND SYMBOLS

Lake County Mail, Issue 22, 22 October 1947, Page 7

SIGNS AND SYMBOLS

On being introduced to a person we shake hands. Why this ancient custom? To show that we have no evil designs upon the person and that we have no weapon concealed in our hand to harm them. I think it was in the film “ The Sign of the Cross ” that the Christians in Rome under Nero, are shown making themselves known to each other cither by drawing a cross on the ground or crossing their fingers,, thus acknowledging themselves as followers of a religion which meant death to them if discovered to the authorities. That ancient sign, the gibbet, has become for all Christians a sign and reminder of the great love that God has for the world, when He gave His only begotten Son to the world. We see the cross depicted on buildings and in buildings as a perpetual reminder of the sacrifice of the death of Christ. Sometimes on a weather vane a , cockerel is erected. Again it is using Symbolism that the cock crowed and reminded S. Peter of the words of His Lorcl, Jesus Christ, “Before the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice.” The cockerel heralds the dawn, and let us be reminded by the weather vane that we are as weak as S. Peter and we are subject to temptation to deny our Lord also. If we do so deny Him God give us grace to repent as S. Peter repented of his denial. On S. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Queenstown, there is, I believe, a fish to show which way the wind blows. The fish to the first century Christians was almost as sacred a symbol as the cross, for in Greek fish is spelt thus: I-C-TH-U-S, and the Christians interpreted it acrostically :~ I Jesus. C Christ. TH God. U Man. S Saviour. It was to them an acrostic- creed. Like the handshake, there are symbolic actions also. “At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow” —and it is an ancient custom of Christians to bow their heads when they mention that wonderful and sacred name. Then again in some churches they always face cast when they recite the creed. The sun rises in the east, and so the east signifies the light, and they turn their back on the west, the realm of darkness, for Christians have put away the hidden things of darkness. Some despise any outward show of religion in such signs and symbols as these, but if they are helpful as reminders surely we should use them. Joshua, the man who brought the people of Israel into the promised land, before he died made a covenant between the people and God. They promised to serve the Lord; so he, Joshua,

“ wrote down these words in the book of the law of the Lord.”* : But there were' few copies and they preserved among the records in the Temple. Besides many of them could not.read, even if they had been able to obtain a copy of the Book of the Law; so Joshua set up a stone pillar near the Sanctuary of the Lord as a perpetual reminder of their promises made to God. Jesus Christ the new Joshua, made a New Covenant or Testament with the people and set up a wooden Cross as a perpetual reminder. Christ was always using earthly stories, earthly incidents and material things in His teaching and works of healing —'let us follow His example, using material things as aids to devotion; but beware of the latent danger —making idols of them. Phillip C. Williams.