At the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, in Jerusalem, a principal incident in the Easter festivities is the bringing down of fire from heaven at the opening of the new ecclesiastical year.[596] This ceremony seems to be a survival of the primitive custom of seeking new life, in its symbol of fire, at the threshold of the home and of the new year, in the East and in the West.[597] In the sacredness of the rite of the primitive Threshold Covenant there is added emphasis to the thought which causes both the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Church to count marriage itself a sacrament. And thus again to the claim that a virgin who is devoted to a religious life is a “spouse of Christ,” and that her marriage to an earthly husband is adultery.[598] Many another religious custom points in the same direction. ----- Footnote 580: Matt. 26 : 1–5; John 13 : 1. Footnote 581: Matt. 16 : 21; 26 : 17, 18; John 2 : 13; 7 : 1–9. Footnote 582: Matt. 26 : 17–30; Mark 14 : 12–28; Luke 22 : 7–20. Footnote 583: 1 Cor. 5 : 7, 8. Footnote 584: See pp. 3–5, _supra_. Footnote 585: John 3 : 16. Footnote 586: Eph. 3 : 14, 15. Footnote 587: Heb. 10 : 28, 29. Footnote 588: John 3 : 28–30. Footnote 589: Matt. 9 : 14, 15; Mark 2 : 19, 20; Luke 5 : 34, 35. Footnote 590: 1 Cor. 11 : 3. Footnote 591: Eph. 5 : 23–33. Footnote 592: Rev. 19 : 6–9. Footnote 593: Rev. 21 : 1, 2–9, 12, 22–27. Footnote 594: _Ibid._, 22 : 17, 20. Footnote 595: J.G. Frazer in _Folk-Lore Journal_, I., 275. Footnote 596: See Maundrell’s _Journey_, pp. 127–131; Hasselquist’s _Voyages and Travels_, pp. 136–138; Thomson’s _Land and Book_, II., 556 f.; Stanley’s _Sinai and Palestine_, pp. 464–469. Footnote 597: See pp. 22 f., 39–44, _supra_. Footnote 598: See Smith and Cheetham’s _Dict. of Christian Antiq._, art. “Nun.” ----- VII. OUTGROWTHS AND PERVERSIONS OF THIS RITE. 1. ELEMENTAL BEGINNINGS. Apart from the mooted question of the origin and development of man as man,–whether it be held that he came into being as an incident in the evolutionary progress of the ages, or that his creation was by a special fiat of the Author of all things,–it is obvious that there was a beginning, when man first appeared as a higher order of being than the lower animals then in existence. The distinguishing attribute of man, as distinct from the lower animals at their best, is the capacity to conceive of spiritual facts and forces. Even at his lowest estate man is never without an apprehension of immaterial and supernatural personalities, intangible yet real and potent. The lower animals at their highest, and under the most effective training, give no indication of the possibility of such a conception on their part.