There is, as I have shewn, some excuse for the first impression, but nothing could be more erroneous or unjust than the conclusion to which they have arrived. I acknowledge that the robes of the Greek priests differ in no material point from those worn by the priests of Rome; and I admit that there are pictures in their churches; but I do most unhesitatingly deny—what has been stated by more than one writer—that there are images to be found in these churches, or that they are worshipped by the adherents of the Orthodox Eastern Church. { 284} The offending pictures are not prescribed by the Church.
The Orthodox Eastern Church does not include among its doctrines the worship of saints; in fact, the pictures are merely portraits of holy men, who have led blameless lives, and whose virtues the spectator is invited to imitate by witnessing the honour done to them after death. The only Mediator acknowledged by the Orthodox Eastern Church, is our Lord Jesus Christ; in proof of which I may be permitted to quote the following passage from its doctrines: “The sufferings and death of Christ are an abundant satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.”
The Virgin is, however, highly reverenced, as being according to the angel’s declaration “highly favoured and blessed among women.” Some also, but those chiefly among the most uneducated, address prayers through her to the Saviour. I may, perhaps, be permitted to establish my case still more clearly, by pointing out other and more important points on which the two Churches are at variance.
In the first place the Orthodox Eastern Church denies the power of any council to alter or to add to the articles of faith. It protested at the time against the famous council of Trent, since which period the authority of councils has formed an important article in the laws of the Romish Church. The Orthodox Eastern Church acknowledges no other guide and source of doctrine or faith than the Holy Scriptures, as contained in the Old and New Testaments, which are _open to all_—not proscribed, as is the case in the Romish Church—and are printed in all the languages of the various countries in which the Greek Church has adherents. I have even seen Bibles printed by the zealous Church Missionary Society used in the Greek Church, and many of the Greek priests requested Mr. Schlincz, while he was in Syria in 1840, on a mission of enquiry into the persecution of the Jews of Damascus, to supply them with copies of these. He left with me several boxes of these books, which I distributed amongst the people whom I thought likely to profit by them.