st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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54 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
repulsed by the hidden virtue of this picture, it was
found, on being taken from its concealment, to have
the lamp still burning before it. It was afterwards
removed to Byzantium. 1 The rough mountaineer of
Isauria, an emperor whose life had been spent chiefly
in the camp, was not likely to listen with more patience
to the recital of such fables, than our own Henry VIII.
to accounts of the
St.
marvels wrought by the image of
Mary of Walsingham or our Lady of Ipswich.
But our immediate concern is with the way in
which John of Damascus took up the gauntlet -thus
thrown down. As soon, probably, as the news
reached Syria, he drew up his first Apology, or dis
course in defence of the sacred images, designed for
circulation throughout the empire. In this he com
bated the position taken by the iconoclasts. To the
objection drawn from the language of the Second
Commandment, he replied that figures of the
cherubim, and of animals and plants, were used to
adorn the Temple, and that the letter killeth, but
the spirit giveth
life." If the prohibition in that
Second Commandment was directed, not against
making such images, but worshipping them, then (he
can reply) I adore not the earthly material, but its
Creator, who for my sake vouchsafed to dwell in an
earthly tabernacle, and who by the earthly material
wrought out my salvation." 2 With such a "relative
1
The story is in Georgius Cedrenus, a monk of the eleventh
century. See Mr. Wright s article on Abgar in the Dic
tionary of Christian Literature."
2
Neander, v., p. 286, where an abstract of the discourse is
given.