ch Primitius began now
to explain.

[Illustration: PAINTED CHAMBER IN THE CATACOMBS]

"Thou seest, my son," he said, "that central group above the arch. That
represents the Good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep. Thou
perceivest He bears the lost sheep upon His shoulders, and gently leads
those which follow Him. Even so, all we, like sheep, have gone astray,
but the blessed Saviour seeks the erring, and brings them into the safe
and true fold. Thou seest to the left the figure between the two lions.
That is Daniel in the lion's den; and to the right are the three Hebrews
in the fiery furnace. These, my son, are symbols of the Church of
Christ, amid the wild beasts and the fires of persecutions. But she
shall be delivered unhurt; she shall come forth unscathed. In the
ceiling you will observe praying figures between lambs, the emblems of
the Church, the Bride which is the Lamb's wife, perpetually engaged in
adoration and prayer."

The youth was deeply impressed, and almost awed, to see the
silvery-haired old man, a refugee from persecution, in these
subterranean crypts, with the full assurance of faith, confronting all
the power of the persecuting despot of the world, and predicting the
triumph of that oppressed Church which was compelled to seek safety in
those dens and caves of the earth.

The good old man then sought to impart the great truths of our holy
religion to his new catechumen, and to implant in his soul the same
germs of lofty faith that flourished in his own. With this object he led
him through the long corridors and chambers of the vast encampment of
death--a sort of whispering gallery of the past, eloquent with the
expression of the faith and hope of the silent sleepers in their narrow
cells.

"Listen, my son," said Primitius, "to the testimony of the dead in
Christ, and of the martyrs for the truth," and pausing from time to time
before some inscribed or painted slab, he pointed out the lofty hopes
which sustained their souls in the very presence of death.

"Here," he said, entering again the chamber he had first left, "is the
sepulchre of my own beloved wife. When depressed and lonely, I come
hither and derive strength and consolation by reading the words which
she requested, with her dying breath, should be written on her tomb,"
and with deep emotion he traced with his finger the inscription:--[24]

PARCITE VOS LACRIMIS DVLCIS CVM CONIVGE NATAE
VIVENTEMQVE DEO CREDITE FLERE NEFAS.

"R