Page:The way of Martha and the way of Mary (1915).djvu/286

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lived mystics, hermits, and writers of the early Church. We carried ikons brought from Jerusalem to be carried back to Russia. The pilgrims sang Christian hymns; the Jewish patriarchs, with phylacteries on their brows, read the Mosaic books and the prophets. Nearly every one on the boat was bound for Russia. We went thither the way these things have ever gone, from the desert northward over the sea. Not in vain does the reader of the Gospel stand facing the north; not in vain is the belfry of the cathedral built on the northern side. The direct message of Christianity has been the message that has gone northward.

The cathedral of Christianity, our St. Sophia in large, may perhaps be imagined in this guise.

                     North
                   —-||—-
                  ( )
                  | S S |
                  | U I |
                  | R A |
 +————————+ +———————-+
 | England Greece |
 | |
== WEST Stalls of the choir where stand ) JERUSALEM
 | the martyrs and the saints |
 | Rome | | | | | | |
 +————————————————————-+
                     EGYPT

Egypt is the choir of the cathedral where stand the martyrs and the saints singing in white robes. Through the gates at the north and the west come