In art the martyrs are often clothed in red as a sign that they have suffered, and also as a sign that they had the enthusiasm for the cause, so that the sorrows and cruelties they endured were accounted by them nothing; for red is pre-eminently the colour of enthusiasm, of the fire which inspires a man to fight his way through all obstacles or perish in the attempt. It is thus most fitting that Moses should receive his life work when near the burning bush, which is surely the most appropriate symbol of the quality necessary before one can become the leader of a nation or change it from one of slaves to one of freemen. Red is the colour of the leader, the colour of the kingly robes.[5] Then we may remember that pretty legend of the Christmas Rose, when the shepherd’s little daughter, having no other gift to offer the infant Christ, gave him a fragrant white rose, which was no sooner touched by the Babe than it became a deep glorious red, emblematic of his future suffering. [5] In ancient Wales red robes showed honourable rank. Red is also the colour of the flame of love. As Robert Burns sings gaily:-- “Oh, my Love is like a red, red rose, That’s newly sprung in June.” Perhaps you remember that picture of Rossetti called “Dante’s Dream,” where Beatrice lies cold and still, clad in white, while Love is seen clothed in rose-red robes leading Dante to her side:-- “Then Love said, ‘Now shall all things be made clear; Come and behold our lady where she lies.’” Based on very much the same thought there was an old legend that a red carbuncle was placed at the prow of Noah’s ark to give light and guidance. This legend no doubt grew out of the appropriateness of red as a symbol for the burning love that directed the boat and brought it safely to Ararat, and also from the fact that the carbuncle gives off a faint phosphorescent glow in the dark. Psychics see this very clearly indeed, but it is visible also to persons of normal vision. Among nearly all primitive nations red berries, such as those of the mountain ash, symbolise the Spirit of God. They have been called by such names as “holy seed” or “fructifying honey dew.” In front of the high altar of a church or cathedral is seen the red lamp burning perpetually as a sign of the deep, intense, sacrificial, all-enduring love of the Creator. The communion wine also partakes of this mystic symbolism, when the joy, the fervour, and the uplift of the spiritual life is imparted to man. There is a beautiful passage in Tennyson’s “Holy Grail,” when this mystic cup is seen by Sir Percival’s sister floating down into her convent cell on a shaft of silver light, making wondrous melody in its passage:--