til
almost every truth possessed by the early Christians was so hidden by
cumbrous masses of superstition, the growth of centuries of darkness,
that it is difficult, nay, almost impossible, to trace any harmony of
purpose in their outline or filling up; hence the inconsistencies that
have sprung from the efforts to revive the ornaments and usages of a
period when, the life having departed from them in a great measure, their
meaning had been lost, and their practice perverted; hence, too, the
folly often displayed by zealous ecclesiastical symbolists, in regarding
every monkey, dog, mermaid, or imp that the carvers of wood and stone
fashioned from their own barbarous conceits, or copied from the
illuminations that some old monk's overheated brain had devised for
embellishment to some fanciful legend, as embodied ideas, to be
interpreted into moral lessons or spiritual sermons.

Before, however, we enter into the detail of the remnants left us for
examination, we may take a glance over the page of the early history of
the church, and trace a little of the origin of those errors which had
grown around simple truths, converting them from beautiful realities into
monstrous absurdities.

A moment's reflection may suffice to enable us to believe that the
church, as planted by its first head and master, was a _seed_ to be
watered and nurtured by the apostles, prophets, and ministers appointed
to the work, and intended to have an outward growth of form, as well as
inward growth of spirituality. During the early period of its existence,
while suffering from the persecution of the Roman emperors, it was
impossible that the church could develop itself freely; consequently, we
are not surprised to find that "upper chambers," and afterwards the tombs
and sepulchres of their "brethren in the faith," perhaps, too, of their
risen Lord, were the places of meeting of its members. Nor is it
difficult to trace from this origin the later superstitious worship at
the shrines of the saints.

As early, however, as the peaceful interval under Valerian and
Diocletian, when there was rest from persecution, houses were built and
exclusively devoted to worship; they were called _houses of prayer_, and
_houses of the congregation_. And the idea that the Christian church
should only be a nobler copy of the Jewish temple was then clearly
recognized, the outline being as nearly as possible preserved, and the
inner part of the church, where the tab