ommonest of all the Egyptian crosses, the CRUX ANSATA (Fig. No. 23)
was adopted by the Christians. Thus, beside one of the Christian
inscriptions at Phile (a celebrated island lying in the midst of the
Nile) is seen both a _Maltese cross_ and a _crux ansata_.[341:6] In a
painting covering the end of a church in the cemetery of El Khargeh, in
the Great Oasis, are three of these crosses round the principal subject,
which seems to have been a figure of a saint.[341:7] In an inscription
in a Christian church to the east of the Nile, in the desert, these
crosses are also to be seen. Beside, or in the hand of, the Egyptian
gods, this symbol is generally to be seen. When the Saviour Osiris is
represented holding out the _crux ansata_ to a mortal, it signifies that
the person to whom he presents it has put off mortality, and entered on
the life to come.[341:8]

The Greek cross, and the cross of St. Anthony, are also found on
Egyptian monuments. A figure of a Shari (Fig. No. 24), from Sir Gardner
Wilkinson's book, has a necklace round his throat, from which depends a
pectoral cross. A third Egyptian cross is that represented in Fig. No.
25, which is apparently intended for a Latin cross rising out of a
heart, like the mediaeval emblem of "_Cor in Cruce, Crux in Corde_:" it
is the hieroglyph of goodness.[342:1]

[Illustration: Fig. No. 24]

[Illustration: Fig. No. 25]

It is related by the ecclesiastical historians Socrates and Sozomon,
that when the temple of Serapis, at Alexandria, in Egypt, was demolished
by one of the Christian emperors, beneath the foundation was discovered
a cross. The words of Socrates are as follows:

"In the temple of Serapis, now overthrown and rifled
throughout, there were found engraven in the stones certain
letters . . . resembling the form of the cross. The which when
both Christians and Ethnics beheld, every one applied to his
proper religion. The Christians affirmed that the cross was a
sign or token of the passion of Christ, and the proper
cognizance of their profession. _The Ethnics avouched that
therein was contained something in common, belonging as well
to Serapis as to Christ._"[342:2]

It should be remembered, in connection with this, that the Emperor
Hadrian saw no difference between the worshipers of Serapis and the
worshipers of Christ Jesus. In a letter to the Consul Servanus he says:

"There are there (in Egypt) _Christians_ who