Felix, we find that this Father wrote

"We assuredly see the sign of a cross naturally, in the
ship when it is carried along with swelling sails, when
it glides forward with expanded oars; and when the
military yoke is lifted up it is the sign of a cross;
and when a man adores God with a pure mind, with arms
outstretched. Thus the sign of the cross either is
sustained by a natural reason or your own religion is
formed with respect to it."[7]


Various other pronouncements to a similar effect are to be found in the
writings of other Christian Fathers, and such passages are often quoted
as conclusive evidence of the Christian origin of what is now our
symbol. In reality, however, it is somewhat doubtful if we can fairly
claim them as such; for the question arises whether, if the writers in
their hearts believed their cross to be a representation of the
instrument of execution to which Jesus was affixed, they would have
omitted, as they did in every instance, to mention that as the right
and proper and all-sufficient reason for venerating the figure of the
cross.

Moreover it is quite clear that while, as will be shown hereafter, the
symbol of the cross had for ages been a Pagan symbol of Life, it can,
as already stated, scarcely be said to have become a Christian _symbol_
before the days of Constantine. No cross-shaped symbol of wood or of
any other material had any part in the Christianity of the second and
third centuries; and the only cross which had any part in the
Christianity of those days was the immaterial one traced upon the