SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1680, 11 May 1904, Page 81 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

Clergymen and all interested in religious / : work are invited to send news items and other contributions suitable for -publication in this column to “Mizpah,” care of Editor £l N©w Zealand .Mail,’ 'Wellington. ,

ft CITY OF TOMBS.

(JBy 'a Banker .)

: I3entetii the surface of that ■ former mistress of , the world,. that proud city ;. on seven hills”—lmperial 'Rome—lieis a.; vast underground, city or the dead,, its colonnades, and galleries stretching out in all directions for mariy>.-'miles, dark and dank, /and • .r.sepulcln'ai t the last resting place, of all that - is mortals of unnumbered thou-' sandfei who from the earliest days of old ; Rome - -and• ■ through. many centuries thereafter have been laid to rest in those rock-heiyn cavities and rudely isculptui’- . / -cd maiikpleums, Here ttefe carried the • maugled : : -remains, or wliat was 3§ft ot 'of of ortho. fV -dread ipeteecutions ;;pfthofee.ravage? Ror• f r:f: tpte^ei^iuate'imniol ated *V ten thousands ; .upon; ten.: thousands of :' women and cliildi'en, in the terrible, arena, where, 1" . midst shouts of /‘The Christians to the ■ were slaughtered wholesale wild beasts; or by fiie, 01 rfbyblobd-thiirfy. gladiators, or by mnie-. "' less tortures too dreadful to clescub And as we explore these cold dark gal? • leries, and decipher the. old Latin m- ' Ascriptions, -or gaze; reverentially.,ab-rfhe; ' bones ol‘ a brave young martyr girl slam bv a Avolf-1 found rather than recant irorn her faith, or perhaps of an honoured patriarch whose skull iis cleft alihost in twain by‘the sword of a Roman soldier or executioner,;we. are. vividly reminded a oi that ferriblo epoch, so signalised by exhibitions of cruelty, surpassing that even; of the Inquisition, and by tW displays of magnificent.fortitude and in vthe /pie^noe the'most awful forms of death Ailucmso. cliaracterfsed that; noblqarmy of nma ; - tvrs whose sainted remains;, now sui . round us. - . ... . , After passing’ a number of pagan m- ' scrip'tion, which frequently give vent to ■: a Spirit of defiannee to their gods for -snatciiing'a wife.' or a son', or- a daughter from them, we reach a gallery occupied by Christian tombs. Here we are m an ' at-Biospiiore ’ T ovnb p&r- tonib breathes the-same spirit; all is peace,

perfect peace. ‘ “Valeria sleeps in peace.” “Requiescit in pace”—He rests in peace (not the modern formula which had. not then been introduced) “ Gomel la in. peace”—“Buried in peace.” Leaving this tranquil]ising and peaceful resting place of those sainted martyrs, we now; reach. the entrance to a somewhat extensive cavern hewn out of the rock. Here those early Christians, who were forbidden to gather together ,for the purpose of worship, were wont to assemble in spite 'of that prohibition, And perhaps this very cavern. which we are now inspecting was one of those into which, as happened from time to time, a .number of Roman soldiers had rushed, ruthlessly slaughtering in cold blood'all those devout worshippers. ', : - But nothing: daunted those first Christians,; 'the most.fiery persecutions, the cruellest ,of tortures, . the most . agonising forms of death, failed to turn them from their lioly faith., For they knew that their Lord and Master, liad died for them, and was waiting with out- . stretched hand to receive into the Kingdom ;of glory all who would confess His /Name, and' who would remain faithful unto Him. > ' *