Some people defended the celebration of the festival because it was an ancient custom; but, as Cyprian says,
- "Custom without truth is but agedness of error."
Unfortunately, there is another powerful motive for keeping up this solemn jugglery. Large sums of money are spent in Palestine every year by the pilgrims, who come from all parts of Russia, Greece, and Turkey, and the people of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth naturally regard Easter as their harvest-time.
Priests, shopkeepers, relic-manufacturers, householders, owners of camels, horses, and other beasts of burden, would all more or less feel it, if the annual pilgrimages were to cease; and as the holy fire is the chief attraction, the temptation to encourage the delusion is very great.
Is this strange ceremony a relic of the services of the fire-worshipers of old? There are two or three Moslem shrines which are said to be miraculously illumined on certain days, and I am told that as early as the ninth century the Syrian Christians believed that an angel of God was appointed to light the lamps over the tomb of Christ on every Easter-eve.
