OAK-GROVE SUPERSTITION.

            In mythology, the Oak is sacred to Jupiter, or Baal. The Druids worshipped in groves of oak, and ever held them sacred. To them they were holy temples, in which were their altars and sacrifices. “The shadow of the oaks was good—an agreeable retreat from the sun’s heat in a weary land. The idolaters assembled under them, after the fashion of a camp-meeting, to “get religion,” or conscience-salvos, through the priests of Baal Jupiter, or Jove—various names for the lord of all the gods. Very discreditable practices were indulged in by the devout; too gross, indeed, to be named in print. Besides these orgies, they stormed heaven with vain repetitions and loud cries, which they termed prayers—shouting on the top of their voices for Baal to hear them, as if he were asleep, or were absent from home on a hunting expedition. A scene of the kind alluded to, is well described in the Book of Kings.

            The Israelites, contaminated by the abominations of the surrounding nations, introduced this oak-grove superstition among themselves. Having forsaken the Jerusalem-Temple worship of Jehovah for the calves of Bethel, they prepared groves of oaks, poplars, and elms, upon the tops of the hills and mountains, and then offered sacrifice and burned incense to the idol-gods of the nations. Thus, God, by the hand of Hosea, writes an accusation against the ten tribes, saying, “They have gone a whoring from their God. They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks, and poplars, and elms, because the shadow is good. Their daughters and spouses are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots; therefore the people that doth not understand, shall fall.”

            The cruelty, as well as the licentiousness of the Druidical Oak-Grove superstition appears from the inquiry put to Judah through Isaiah: —“Are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood: inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks? Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.” With their hands dyed in the blood of these murders, they passed from the valleys of slaughter to the temple of Jehovah, presuming he would accept an allegiance divided between him and Baal, and all the abominations of his idolatry. “They have committed adultery,” saith Jehovah, “and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery; and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire to devour them. They have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths. For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it”—Ezekiel 23: 37. The most celebrated of these valleys of slaughter was the Vale of Hinnom, southeast of Jerusalem, styled Gehenna in the New Testament, where it is translated “hell.” There, all these abominations were practised in the worst days of Jerusalem’s apostasy, in all their enormity. All classes of the people flocked thither to witness the horrors of the place, as the vile rabble among the Gentiles hasten in crowds to enjoy the spectacle of an execution, and to crack their ribald jests upon the scene—a scene of corporeal death, with benefit of clergy for the immortal soul! !

            The earliest account of Oak-Grove superstition is that of scripture. There can be no doubt it was the same as that described by Julius Caesar as obtaining among the aborigines of the British Isles, and termed Druidical. It was probably introduced there by the Phoenicians, or Philistines, neighbours to Israel in Palestine, and traders in the ships of Tarshish to Britannia for lead, iron, and tin; an island they are supposed to have named so from Baratanac, “the Land of Tin.” There is a society in Richmond to which several Israelites belong, styling itself that of “The Ancient Order of Druids.” One of the Jews was appointed to invite me to deliver the annual oration. Had I accepted the appointment, I must have shown them the origin of Druidism in Oak-Grove superstition, and its discreditableness to Israelites who professed to be zealous of the law, and the unity of their nation’s God. But as becoming a Druid myself would have been necessary to my appearance as an orator before them, my popularity with the society was preserved from that ruin which certainly awaits the reputation of those who convict men of wrong in the establishing of the truth.

            But the time is fast approaching when Israelites, instead of enrolling themselves in Druidical societies, will be ashamed of all things connected with the rebellion of their fathers against Jehovah. Druidism will fall into contempt when the Mighty One of Israel shall “redeem Zion with judgment, and her returned captives with righteousness. They shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.” Yea, may the time soon arrive when Druidism and all its cognate absurdities and follies, may be abandoned by the Gentiles; and instead thereof, may they rally to Jehovah’s ensign, and in the words of his servant Moses, “Rejoice with his people, when he shall be merciful to Israel, and his land”—Deuteronomy 32: 43.

EDITOR.

* * *