t seems to have been soon very generally
embraced by the quarrymen and sand-diggers. [350:4] Thus it was that
when persecution raged in the capital, the Christian felt himself
comparatively safe in the catacombs. The parties in charge of them were
his friends; they could give him seasonable intimation of the approach
of danger; and among these "dens and caves of the earth," with countless
places of ingress and egress, the officers of government must have
attempted in vain to overtake a fugitive.

At present their appearance is most uncomfortable; they contain no
chamber sufficient for the accommodation of any large number of
worshippers; and it has even been questioned whether human life could be
long supported in such gloomy habitations. But we have the best
authority for believing that some of the early Christians remained for a
considerable time in these asylums. [351:1] Wells of water have been
found in their obscure recesses; fonts for baptism have also been
discovered; and it is beyond doubt that the disciples met here for
religious exercises. As early as the second century these vaults became
the great cemetery of the Church. Many of the memorials of the dead
which they contained have long since been transferred to the Lapidarian
Gallery in the Vatican; and there, in the palace of the Pope, the
venerable tombstones testify, to all who will consult them, how much
modern Romanism differs from ancient Christianity.

Though many of these sepulchral monuments were erected in the fourth and
fifth centuries, they indicate a remarkable freedom from superstitions
with which the religion of the New Testament has been since defiled.
These witnesses to the faith of the early Church of Rome altogether
repudiate the worship of the Virgin Mary, for the inscriptions of the
Lapidarian Gallery, all arranged under the papal supervision, contain no
addresses to the mother of our Lord. [352:1] They point only to Jesus as
the great Mediator, Redeemer, and Friend. It is also worthy of note that
the tone of these voices from the grave is eminently cheerful. Instead
of speaking of masses for the repose of souls, or representing departed
believers as still doomed to pass through purgatory, they describe the
deceased as having entered immediately into the abodes of eternal rest.
"Alexander," says one of them, "is not dead, but lives beyond the stars,
and his body rests in this tomb." "Here," says another, "lies Paulina,
in the place of th