A CONVERTED GODDESS.
HERE is nothing in the doctrine of the Church of Rome, which exactly answers to the evangelical belief of the conversion of a man to God by the power of the Holy Spirit. But Rome not unfrequently converts a pagan idol into a so-called Christian image, and thus the old pagan worshippers are able to retain their pagan rites while adopting the cloak of Christianity.
The Aztecs were pagans, who inhabited Mexico, and some of our friends in Mexico have sent us accounts of the grand coronation of “the Virgin of Guadalupe,” who is the patron saint of Mexico, and is so on political as well as on religious grounds.
The original goddess, “Tonantzin― the Mother of Gods,” was worshipped by the pagans, and now, where her shrine stood, is the shrine of the Mother of God, who is worshipped by “Christians.” How the “Mother of Gods” became transformed into the “Mother of God” we have not time to tell; suffice it to say it was some three hundred years ago, and that it was communicated to men by a vision. The Christian bishop was incredulous when he first heard of what had occurred, and evidence was sent him in the shape of an Indian’s blanket―one common to the country―upon which was found a picture of the Lady. This picture is held today in high reverence. We have before us a Mexican paper, which recounts the coronation of this image and also a little piety picture card of her, with a prayer on the back.
The Virgin of Guadalupe is the divinity of the Indians, who hold a festival to her on December 12th all through the republic of Mexico; indeed, “so completely is the Indian character of the festival recognized, that the church is wholly given up to the Indian worshippers. In it they conduct their celebration, unhampered by priests, in their own way.” And how much of the celebration is in honor of “Tonantzin, the Mother of Gods,” is not asked.
The picture represents a female crowned, and robed with a star spangled garment. She stands upon the horns of the moon. All of the symbols are well known, and ancient pagan in origin.
Part of the prayer referred to runs thus: “I count myself happy if I have always in sight thy pure and spotless beauty. . . . What a. despising of the inconstancy of worldly things, and what a value for the things of heaven is produced by seeing that thou didst not choose other adornings than the stars of heaven, the orbs of the firmament, and the angels of the Empyrean. . . . I offer myself completely to thy service. I devote myself to love and please thee as a tender and dutiful son. Fill thou the place of a Mother to me, and obtain from the Lord the ability to do that which I desire and purpose to do―So let it be.”
Our Christian readers will agree that in this case Rome, as she is today, is generally pagan. She keeps the idol, renames it, and then worships it. The conversion of the idol does not result in a change of its nature, the prayer of her admirer being just that sort of prayer a heathen could address to his deity.