the martyr's speech alone,
But every word is there depicted,
With every circumstance of pain
The crimson stream, the gash inflicted--
And not a drop is shed in vain."

CELEBRATIONS UNDER CONSTANTINE THE GREAT.

With the accession of Constantine (born at York, February 27, 274, son
of the sub-Emperor Constantius by a British mother, the "fair Helena
of York," and who, on the death of his father at York in 306, was in
Britain proclaimed Emperor of the Roman Empire) brighter days came to
the Christians, for his first act was one of favour to them. He had
been present at the promulgation of Diocletian's edict of the last and
fiercest of the persecutions against the Christians, in 303, at
Nicomedia, soon after which the imperial palace was struck by
lightning, and the conjunction of the events seems to have deeply
impressed him. No sooner had he ascended the throne than his good
feeling towards the Christians took the active form of an edict of
toleration, and subsequently he accepted Christianity, and his example
was followed by the greater part of his family. And now the
Christians, who had formerly hidden away in the darkness of the
Catacombs and encouraged one another with "Alleluias," which served as
a sort of invitatory or mutual call to each other to praise the Lord,
might come forth into the Imperial sunshine and hold their services in
basilicas or public halls, the roofs of which (Jerome tells us)
"re-echoed with their cries of Alleluia," while Ambrose says the sound
of their psalms as they sang in celebration of the Nativity "was like
the surging of the sea in great waves of sound." And the Catacombs
contain confirmatory evidence of the joy with which relatives of the
Emperor participated in Christian festivities. In the tomb of
Constantia, the sister of the Emperor Constantine, the only
decorations are children gathering the vintage, plucking the grapes,
carrying baskets of grapes on their heads, dancing on the grapes to
press out the wine. This primitive conception of the Founder of
Christianity shows the faith of these early Christians to have been of
a joyous and festive character, and the Graduals for Christmas Eve and
Christmas morning, the beautiful Kyrie Eleisons (which in later times
passed into carols), and the other festival music which has come down
to us through that wonderful compilation of Christian song, _Gregory's
Antiphonary_, show that Christmas stood out prominently in the
cele