of the rival armies was raised to the highest pitch. They joined battle, and fought for their emperors, for the empire of the world, and for the supposed honour of their gods.

In the heat of the frantic strife, says Lactantius, Constantine seeing that wherever the labarum appeared, his soldiers were filled with invincible courage, sent the banner into the hottest of the fight. The pagans, struck with the terrible shout which told the fierce combatants of its approach, renewed their strength, and fought desperately, like the Philistines when the ark of God was received into the camp of Hophni and Phineas: "they quit themselves like men." They assailed the coming banner, they smote down the standard-bearer, and the ensign fell, while the shout of triumph went up from all their ranks. Then Constantine's chosen band for the protection of the labarum rallied, came to the rescue, raised up the fallen banner again, and turned the tide of victory, which, on that field of blood, crowned Constantine sole emperor of the Roman world.

When persecution ceased, and "the Church rose to the kingdom of this world," and when the bishops sat enthroned, and dispensed justice and judgment as civil magistrates, and all power was in the hands of Christian emperors, the multitude came to believe that the promised time had come when the saints should possess the kingdom, Dan. vii. 22. The emperors called the Ecumenical Councils, sat in person or by their chamberlain in them, and executed their canons as laws of the empire. At the same time, the fabricated wood of the cross multiplied with wonder-working energy in all the world; and the Church, departing from the faith, became changed from the love and worship of God, and the hope of His coming and kingdom, even to reverence and worship the image of the cross, and to enjoy the kingdom of this world, and extend it, with the aid of the dumb idols of the saints and relics of the martyrs.

With those changes came gradually the change of the original and primitive cross, X, concealed in the monogram

into to to to + and to retaining

the same name through all, until the idol and the Antichrist have together long held the banner and the sceptre of Christendom.

CHAPTER IV.

THE CATACOMBS, BY MONS. PERRET.

CATACOMB and cemetery are words from the same root, meaning the same thing, a dormitory, a place to sleep in, a gallery divided into several rooms for lodgers. The very name confesses, to the glory of God, the holy doctrine of the resurrection of the body;-a doctrine taught by the Old Testament in mystery, and brought to light in the New Testament by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; a doctrine preached by the apostles in Jesus' name among all nations, and confessed in every formula of the primitive faith by the words: "I believe in the resurrection of the body," or "the flesh;"-a doctrine mutilated by Popery, and neutralised by purgatory, and boldly denied by science, and philosophy so called, notwithstanding it is the everlasting gospel of God our Saviour, testified in His written word, and presented to all who walk through the galleries of the tombs of the saints and martyrs, by the very name, the catacombs or sleeping places of the dead, who shall awake at the trumpet voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth every one, both the just and the unjust (John v. 25; Acts xxiv. 15; 1 Cor. xv. 52).

The tombs in the catacombs under the city of Rome number above six millions, ranged on each side of galleries not always connected, which would, if extended in one line, reach above seven hundred miles, according to Louis Perret, who spent fourteen years in exploring them and copying their inscriptions. The French Government, at

their expense, published his work in five folio volumes, thus giving it the sanction of the best Roman Catholic authority on such a subject in Christendom. This work, with that of Cav. de Rossi, the head commissioner appointed by Pius IX. for the preservation of the monuments of Christian art in Rome, furnish ample testimony to the correctness of our views. The sepulchral inscriptions of Christians in Rome from A.D. 71 to 600, amount to about 11,000; 6000 of which are from the catacombs, the others from monuments above ground. Of those from the catacombs, 4000 are believed to ante-date the Council of Nice, A.D. 325. Of this 6000, only 1250 are dated, leaving the age of the others to be inferred on a comparison of the likeness in the form and character of the letters with those which are dated. From A.D. 71 to 300, not thirty of these inscriptions bear dates. From A.D. 325 to 410, when Alaric took Rome, every year has dated inscriptions, in all not less than 500; but that year has none. From that to the end of the fifth century, are 500 dated inscriptions; in the former half of the sixth century are about 200, and in the latter half 50. Only seven belong to the seventh century. Not until the latter years of the fourth century does the sign of the cross of wood appear. The Greek contraction. for the name of Christ was exclusively in favour from the earliest date, concealed in the device of the monogram

Interpretation of the symbols engraven on the above tomb: The anchor of our hope is in Christ, risen from the dead "with power, according to the spirit of holiness " (Rom. i. 4.)

Another tomb from Rock's Hierurg., p. 357.

The symbols on this tomb may be interpreted as follows: The fish represents the Greek initials (ix¤ús, a fish) of the words, "Jesus Christ, Son of God, our Saviour." The monogram follows, and the Comforter of them that mourn looks to Christ.

"In our walks through the catacombs," says Mons. Perret, "we were struck with the absence of all representations of martyrdom. One does not meet there with an image of Jesus on the cross" (vol. iii., p. 72). If an image appear, M. Perret is careful to testify that it does not belong to that age: "For it is noticeable that in the primitive age they did not place before the eyes of the faithful any image of Jesus Christ on the cross. They were content, out of regard to feeble souls, to paint the cross at first naked, but oftener concealed in the monogram; next, adorned with flowers, precious stones, and crowns; afterwards, it was associated with a lamb lying beneath it. It was in the sixth century they began to delineate the bust of the Saviour, as one may see it in the Vatican cross; and even the whole body, with the hands and feet pierced with nails" (vol. iii., 91. See also Schaff's Hist., vol. iii., 561). In the eighth century they enjoined the worship of this among other images, and the evil grew till A.D. 1276; Innocent V. instituted festivals sacred to the memory of the lance which pierced our Saviour's side, and to the nails