Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/164

136 tion says, that when our lifted up His hands to bless the Disciples on Mount Olivet, He stretched them out in the form of a Cross, in order to bring to their recollection, that from the shame of the Cross on which they had seen Him, He had derived that glory in which they beheld His ascension, according to the declaration of S. Paul; 'He humbled Himself even unto the death of the Cross; wherefore  also hath highly exalted Him,' &c. When the Disciples, as we have said, saw the Saviour in this attitude, they fell to the ground and worshipped Him, and hence arose the adoration in question. The worship of the emblem of the Cross in Churches commenced first in the Church of the 'upper chamber,' and then in the Church of Antioch. Not that these said that they worshipped the wood, or the gold, or any other material [of which the Cross might be formed,] but Himself, who is the Cross that was crucified. And hereto the heavenly Apostle Paul bears witness, when he says: 'I glory not, but in the Cross of my .' Further, what led to the veneration and worship of the wood and Emblem of the Cross, was the signs, wonders, and miracles which were wrought by it." From the Canons of a provincial Synod contained in the Sinhadòs.

See also Appendix B., Part v. c. 2, where Mar Abd Yeshua, after declaring that the word "Cross" is equivalent in meaning to what we understand by the "Crucified," and that it is to be understood in that sense, thus writes: "Hence we offer a fervent and eucharistic worship, not to the fashioned matter of the Cross; but to Him Whom we figure as upon it, and above all to, Who gave His to be a Cross for us, through Whose crucifixion He wrought out renewal and redemption for us, and through Whom He gives to such as are worthy everlasting life in the kingdom of heaven."

The Nestorians have no Relics such as are common in the Church of Rome, which of course precludes the possibility of that adoration of them which is censured in the Article; but from the following extracts it will be seen that they believe the remains of martyrs and saints to be endowed with supernatural virtues.