Idolatry

the worship of idols. An idol is usually a carved figure resembling the figure of a person. The ruder the people, the ruder its idols. There are two sorts of idol worship; the worship of the idol by reason of godlike qualities which it is believed to possess, and the worship of idols as a means of approaching the deity or deities they are supposed to represent. A statue of a noted man, on the other hand, is an entirely different thing. While the erection of the statue is, no doubt, an outgrowth of idolatry, the statue is erected merely as a mark of respect and to keep in mind one whose qualities commend him. Idolatry appears to have prevailed among all savage nations. Idols were set up in groves and in temples more or less elaborate.

Although the Hebrews have given to the world a religion which is especially severe upon idolatry, the families of the Hebrew patriarchs themselves were not entirely free from idolatry or image worship. We learn that Rachel, Jacob's wife, had stolen "the images that were her father's," and that she put them in the camel's furniture and sat thereon that Laban might not find them. The idolatry of the surrounding people gave the prophets of Israel much trouble.

The worship of idols has ever been accompanied by bowing down in front of them, making presents, and offering sacrifices. Whenever communities were sufficiently organized to maintain a priesthood, the offerings to idols were necessarily large enough to maintain the priests. Idolatry is by no means at an end. Bejeweled idols of large proportions are still to be seen in the temples of India, and have thousands, we may say millions, of devotees. The most celebrated idol in the world is without doubt an image of Buddha in the temple of Lhasa, Tibet. In The World's Work for March, 1905, Landon, who accompanied Colonel Younghusband on a recent diplomatic mission, writes:

The first sight is uncannily impressive. Before him are rows and rows of great butter-lamps of solid gold. Lighted by the tender radiance of these twenty or thirty beads of light,. the great glowing mass of the Buddha softly looms out, ghost-like and shadowless. The crown is perhaps the most interesting of the many jewels. It is a deep coronet of gold, set round and round with turquoise, and heightened by five conventional leaves, each inclosing a golden image of Buddha and incrusted with precious stones. In the center, below the middle leaf, is a flawless turquoise six inches long and three inches wide, the largest in the world.

See Ancestor Worship; Buddha