The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-03-22

sIoue we Ola DenOld the nrSC tentative
efforts of the Christian imagination to
fashion its conceptions of the comforting
power of the gospel of the Son of God.
Forms are contracted with grief and lips
sigh with sorrowful desire. How long
How long they seem to cry plaintively.
And as if in answer, we see depicted on
the walls the anchor as the symbol Of
hope-the crook of the good shepherd
the lamb resigned to the holocaust-the
ship of the Church defying all tempests
the mystic vine whose branches over
shadow the world-the divine woman
walking upon the water of the sea with
her child in her arms and the star on her
forehead-the supper, frugal meal, and
one nourishing to the soul-the resurrec-
tion of Lazarus coming forth from the
sepulchre revivified by the divine word
which fell upon his mouldering flesh and
awakened it to new life, as the gospel
kindled anew the old world.
The first thing which astonishes one on
descending into the tombs, is the gigantic
labor of those who excavated them with
out having either the mechanical or chem
ical means of our civilization. The gal
leries placed one above the other-there
are as many as five stories of tombs-
their disposition, preserving a careful reg
ularity, reveals perfectly conceived and
matured plan to which the construction
of those passages has been submitted.
Even the nature of the soil has been re-
garded with scientific attention. They
have carefully avoided the argillaceous
clay and chalk, the overflow of water, and
all places that easily retain moisture.
They have dug the tombs and temples in
soft granular stone-volcanic but consist
ent-stone forged by the creating fire,
and suited to all kinds of durable build
ing. The monuments tell us that the cir
cumstances of the
Church of the cataoombs
were circumstances of poverty, of oppres-
sion, and of danger, but not one of them
refers to the torments of the primitive
Christians nor to their tormentors. There
is nothing to intimate a sense Of wrong,
nor desire of vengeance against man,
nor murmur against God. Here is a
stone bearing the expressive words, q" On
the 9th before the Kalends of November,
slept Gorgonius, friend of all and enemy
of mona" Anothor leavos MS an epitaph
that much disconcerts that dictum of DR..
johnson, where he says that matrimonial
quarrels must come, but that it is well to
defer, as long as possible, the first. Gee
cilius the husband to Cecilia Plaoidina
my wife, Of excellent memory, with whom
| lived without any quarrel. In Jesus
Christ, Son of God, the Saviour" Such
Is the evidence that in the first centuries
the home had already felt the kindly in
huence of love to Him in whom ali the
families Of the earth are to be blessed.
Turning to the right we find that in
some of the inscriptions Providence is
openly blamed. One mother cries in the
Bitterness of a soul that could Course
God !" 81, Procope, lift up my hands
against relentless fortune who snatched
away my innocent. She lived twenty
years So did the heathen mother chide
the dark powers she professed to worship.
Over against this is broken stone with
an inscription much defaced, but enough
remains to tell that it was no slight be-
reavement which drew forth the senti-
ment. "The Lord gave, and the Lord
hath taken away blessed be the name
of the Lord"
Standing before these tombs and ask
ing what do they reveal as to the spirit
of the Church in the first three centuries,
they seem to speak with silent eloquence
of community who, dwelling amid the
licentiousness Of Pagan Rome, and amid
continual persecution and danger, had
somehow been brought under the infu-
ence of spirit that shed on their homes
a new tenderness-on their suffering a
sense of triumph-on their relations with
mankind friendliness and forgiveness
and on their relations with God a strange
confidence and cheerful submission.
Here is one epitaph which fixes our
eye, for in it we see illustrated an exult-
ant faith in immortality and eternal life
" ALBANIA, wife, our Divine author gave
you to me as sacred boon. You we'll
deserving one, having left your relations,
lie in peace-in sleep, you will arise-a
temporary rest is granted you. Buried
IN peace. Placus, her husband, set up
this Such was the belief of the early
Church. They laid down the dead, know
ing that the soul was living in peace and
the body reposing till day of resurrec.
ton. And this faith Of a resurrection
made the meanest Christian at the bottom
Of these caverns feel that he carried about
him glory far beyond all that the proud
city above could shed on her chiefest ia
vorite. Caesar never dreamed that the
/ hand which wrote " Ve,1i D5lZl Bc; f''