t Ruthwell; it escaped injury at
the time of general destruction in the sixteenth century, but the
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland ordered the "many idolatrous
monuments erected and made for religious worship" to be "taken down,
demolished, and destroyed." It was not till two years later, however,
that the cross was taken down when an Act was passed "anent the
Idolatrous Monuments in Ruthwell." It was shattered, and some of the
carved emblems were nearly obliterated, and in this state the rood was
left where it had fallen, in the altarless church, and was used, it
appears, as a bench to sit upon. Later on it was removed from the church
and left out in the churchyard. But after many years, a good old
minister (God rest his soul!) collected all the pieces he could find,
and put them together, adding two new crossbeams (the original ones
were lost), and having gaps filled in with little pieces of stone.

By-and-by there was a waking up to the importance of preserving ancient
monuments (idolatrous! or not), and so the dear, beautiful old rood that
had been so near to destruction, and been indeed so greatly injured, was
brought into the church again, and set up near its old place. But, alas!
for its old surroundings!

It is a sad story, is it not?

Shall we not pray that, one day, our old crosses may be, to all, more
than "ancient monuments"?

"This stone which I have set up ... shall be called the house of God"
(Gen. xxviii, 22).

CHAPTER IX

"Judith," a great poem founded on Scripture story. Authorship uncertain.
Part of it lost. Quotations from it. Description of Holofernes'
banquet as of a Saxon feast. Story of Judith dwelt on to encourage
resistance to Danes and Northmen.

To-day we shall think about some more of the great poetry that was made
before the Norman Conquest, and we shall first take one of the finest
and most characteristic poems which remain to us, a poem founded on
Bible story; the great poem, of which we have unfortunately only a part,
the "Judith."

It is not certain who wrote this poem: it may have been Cynewulf; but we
do not know.

The story of Judith is a well-known one; the story of the Hebrew lady
who is described in the foreword to the Book of Judith as "that
illustrous woman, by whose virtue and fortitude, and armed with prayer,
the children of Israel were preserved from the destruction threatened
them by Holofernes and his great army."

The earlier pa