Page:An analysis of religious belief (1877).djvu/139

 public, was a sufficient proof of the merits they had obtained in former lives (E. Y), vol. i. p. 290-293).

Mussulmans have their holy objects, consisting of verses of the Koran, suspended or written on their dwellings, which are supposed to insure their protection. Such verses, or short Suras, are sometimes carried on the person engraved on stones (Dervishes, p. 313).

Conspicuous among holy objects for the extraordinary virtues ascribed to them, are the bread and wine of the Lord's supper. These are believed by Christians either to be or to represent (according to their several doctrines) the actual flesh and blood of Jesus; and the mere fact of eating and drinking them, in faith, is held to exercise a mystic efficacy over the life of the communicant. A more singular instance of the holiness attributed by an act of the imagination to material things can scarcely be produced. Another curious case of the same notion is the belief in holy water; which enjoys so great a power, that some drops of it dashed upon an infant's forehead contribute to ensure its eternal happiness; while it has also the gift of conferring some kind of advantage upon the worshipers who, on entering a church, sprinkle it upon their persons.

Images of the gods or saints worshiped in a country form a large and important class of holy objects. Such were the "teraphim" or "gods" stolen by Rachel from her father, and which she concealed in the furniture of her camel (Gen. xxxi. 19, 30-35). Similar images are employed by the Tartars, who place them at the heads and feet of their beds in certain fixed positions, and who carry them about with them wherever they go (Bergeron, Voyage de Rubruquis, ch. 3, p. 9).