The most remarkable object in this church is the fresco painting on the wall. This is so singular in its kind, that a cool Lutheran temperament knows not how to take it. Here all the good and evil spirits seem assembled. From every cupola the thin faces of the Russian martyrs look down upon the space below. Goliah, Samson, Abraham sacrificing his son, the Jewish prophets and Christian apostles, are all jumbled promiscuously together, with the eagle, which is bringing the quills to John, the swine possessed by the unclean spirits and plunging into the sea, the monstrous flsli whicli finds out Jonas in the midst of all this turmoil and swallows him, and the four great monarchies represented with serpents' tails and dragons' teeth. But all these must strike their flag to the evil one himself, who stands to the left, lord of the infernal rabble-rout, as he lives and moves in his own kingdom, breatliing flame and smoke, with aii infernal spear in his hand, homed, hoofed, and tailed, as if the painter of Alexis or Ivan had taken a portrait of Zamiel in the Freischutz. This picture is quite incomprehensible to me, for of all things one would least expect to find the devil among all these holy pictures and relics. However, we must not be too hasty in what we deduce therefrom concerning the Russian character. On the whole I beheve the devil plays no more important part with them than in our protestant bare white churches ; nor is any greater power attributed to him by the Russians than is allowed him in many evangelical congregrations of our fatherland.
Behind the coronation cathedral stands the house formerly belonging to the patriarchs of Moscow, now called the Synodalni Dom, because a section of the Russian Holy Synod has its offices here. It contains also the library of the patriarchs, their treasury, and their wardrobe ; and in the church belonging to it is preserved the " mir,^^ the holy oil that is used in baptizing all the children in Russia.
The old books are kept in glass presses in the church itself ; and in the middle, romid tJie pillar that sustains the vaulted roof, the vessels used in preparing and preserving the oil are ranged on semi-circular shelves. The priest crosses, with a small camel-hair pencil dipped in the oil, the mouth, eyes, ears, hands, and feet; the eyes that the child may only see good, the ears that they may only admit what is good, the mouth that he may speak as beseems a Christian, the hands that he may do no wrong, the feet that they may tread in the path of the just.
The holy oil, the mir, wliich is to answer all these difficult demands, is of course no common oil. The finest Florence oil is used, mingled with a number of essences, the quantity and quality of vhich are strictly defined, but the soul of the mixture are some drops from the oil-flask of the woman who washed the feet of the Saviour.
Two great silver kettles, the gift of Catherine II., are used for the preparation. Four weeks elapse before the mass is perfectly mingled, before the due number of prayers have been absorbed in it, and before, amid pious psalmody, every drop has been refined and signed with the cross. From the kettles, the oil is poured into silver jars, thirty in number, the gift of the Emperor Paul. These are sealed with the seal of the Synod, and placed on the stages round the central pillar of the church. The quantity made at once, about 20 vedros, supphes all Russia for a year and a halt or two years. Every bishop either comes himself or sends a confidential person to Moscow, to fetch a supply for his diocese, and receives it from the metropolitan sealed with the seal of the synod. The cost of the whole is about 5000 rubles. Every thing employed in the operation is silver, as well as the kettles and the jars to keep it in, the sieve for straining, the spoons for stirring, &c. &c.
Among the patriarchs' books there are a number of rare Bibles in different languages, so inestimably precious, that they are always kept under lock and key, and shown to no one. Thus, hi time, thoy will be eaten by the
A vcclro is equal to about three gallons and a quaiicr.
womis without any person being the wiser. Tlie four gospels, transcribed by the daughter of Michael, and sister of Alexis, are shown here. Every letter is carefully and beautifully painted. We shall hardly find in Germany such a monument of pious industry of so recent a date (160 years).