22 ROME, THE SCHOOL OF ART. and school of art, in music, painting, sculpture, architecture, and engraving, through which every pupil must graduate, before his ear can be regarded as educated, or his pencil or his chisel can obtain celebrity. Her museums and architecture present the most classic specimens of Egyptian, Etruscan, Grecian, and Roman art. Her libraries are inexhaustible stores of knowledge. Her picture galleries are hung with the grandest productions of the great ancient and modern masters, Cimabue, Giotto, Michael Angelo, Raphael, the Carracci, Titian, Murillo, Carlo Maratta, Bassano, Perugino, Garaffalo, Guercino, and hosts of other celebrities. Her wonderful productions in sculpture, are the amazement and admiration of the world, elaborated under the chisels, amongst others, of Polydorus, Praxiteles, Michael Angelo, and Canova. Her academies, her amusements, her genial salubrious climate, all complete the full measure of modern Rome's attractions and enjoyments. "Still Her font at which the panting mind assuages Her thirst of knowledge, quaffing them her fill, Christian Rome. HRISTIAN ROME!-How do the boundless empire and glories of ancient Rome pale before the eye of the visitor of faith and piety, when contrasted with the transcendant glories of Christian Rome! as a spark before the overwhelming blaze of the meridian sun! Rome! "A fit abode wherein appear enshrined ,, SHRINE OF OUR HOPES. 23 Contrast transitory glories with the hopes of immortality which Christian Rome unfolds to the vision of the man of faith-compared with them, they weigh not as the down of a feather poised with an ingot of gold! All her vast ancient structures are but as toys of "fragile clay", compared with "the house of our eternity!" When Rome tells the meanest beggar you are "immortal!" all the emblazoned titles of the Cæsars become in the contrast but as a drop pendant from a reed, when compared with. the waters of fathomless oceans! Rome records the Church's history from the days of the Fisherman of Galilee to the Pius now Pontiff in the Vatican!-from the first page written in the darksome depths of the Catacombs, to that inscribed on the glittering cross of bronze surmounting the altitudes of St. Peter's dome, and crimsoned by the declining beams of an Italian sun. Rome! where God established the seat of His holy Church-where her visible head, and Christ's Vicar, resides where the noblest temple that was ever raised to the Omnipotent One is erected— where four hundred other churches, are dedicated to the worship of the Most Holy-where numerous sacred relics of the passion of Christ are preserved-and those of the Princes of the Apostles are enshrined-Rome, where every pebble is a relic, every household a shrine, every grain of dust is saturated with a martyr's blood! Vain efforts of emperors and heroes to erect moles, columns, and monuments as bribes to fame to perpetuate their memories! -the very object of their erection is in most instances sunk in oblivion, and in others useless for the end intended! Adrian's mole is the Fisherman's citadel, and "The Scipio's tomb contains no ashes now: The very sepulchres lie tenantless Of their heroic dwellers !" 24 FAITH DISARMS DESTRUCTION. whilst Peter's relics are enshrined in gold, silver, and precious stones, under the glorious dome of that Basilica which transcends the olden grandeurs of Solomon's temple. A brilliant ray of holy religion, reflected from the sun of righteousness, here beams in on my dazzled vision, and from the gloomy contrast with the mouldering ruins of ancient Roman greatness, reveals to me my own indestructibility, and the greatness of my expectations, and the momentous events which await me, and wafts away my expansive contemplation and soaring hopes beyond sun and moon, beyond the most distant twinkling stars, and bursts asunder the narrow limits of infinite space, and reveals to me my eternal destinies and everlasting inheritances ! Faith, hope, and charity constitute for me the lasting materials of a shrine, where I shall repose, and be preserved securely amidst all the vicissitudes of time, the crash of matter, and the wreck of worlds,-virtues and good works shall be the aromatical embalming spices, which shall save me from, corruption and dissolution— and I shall not fear death or the tomb, shall ambition no lugubrious epitaph to elicit the tears and sympathies of surviving friends or future generations, but shall cry "O death, where is thy sting?" 660 grave, where is thy victory?" My epitaph shall be written by the finger of faith-"Surrexit! he has arisen !" "Death's terror is the mountain faith removes : "T is faith disarms destruction Believe, and look with triumph on the tomb". If ancient Rome-her monuments of emperors, of triumphs, and of warriors, be an object of curiosity to the classical scholar-how engrossing must be the interest of Christian Rome to the pilgrim of faith! Christian Rome! which presents to us monuments of victories that won for THE PARENT OF RELIGION. 25 us everlasting inheritances! Christian Rome! the patroness and school of all the fine arts! Christian Rome! our guardian and guide in the ways of religion!-Christian Rome! which in proclaiming the gospel truths to the nations presented them "The golden key That opes the palace of eternity!" "Mother of arts! as once of arms: thy hand Holy Week. URING the last week of Lent, the Church observes most solemn ceremonies. It is called by us Holy Week. Holy, because of the holy mysteries of the passion, death, and resurrec tion of our Blessed Lord, which we commemorate therein. In the Latin Church it is called the "Major Hebdomeda", or the "Great Week", as the minds of the faithful are, during that period, engrossed with the most sublime and momentous events which can engage the contemplation of man. This term "Great Week" was applied to it by St. Chrysostom, and has ever since been employed to designate it in the missals and breviaries of the Church's liturgy. During this great week, the institution of the adorable Eucharist, "the food of the strong", is commemorated, and all the faithful are invited to eat of the body of Christ, the very adorable Lamb who was sacrificed for their redemption. During this week, new children are brought forth to Christ by baptism, and obtain their title deeds to everlasting inheritances! During this week all the sacraments are administered-the materials for great mysteries are blessed-the water for solemn baptism-the oils used at baptism, confirmation, ordination, extremeunction, and at the consecration of altars and churches. Holy orders are conferred-penitent sinners are reconciled to Holy Church. The delivery of the Israelites from the slavery of Egypt, and our delivery from the slavery of sin, and our entrance into the land of liberty and grace, are solemnly commemorated. Week, great indeed! This week was sometimes called the "Pœnosa", or "Painful", from the painful sufferings our Lord endured. Ecclesiastical writers say it was also called "Hebdomeda Indulgentiæ", or the "Week of Pardon", for public penitents were solemnly received and obtained absolution during the week. The Germans call it "Char-woche", the week of sorrows, and sometimes "Marter-woche", the week of sufferings. When approaching this holy week, the Church does not permit us to rush in abruptly or inconsiderately, but, as the clever architect, who has erected a temple for the worship of the Deity, permits not the visitor to rush in abruptly from the vulgar structures of the multitude and from the glaring light of a meridian sun, but judiciously obliges him to pass through a portico, and then ingeniously draws around him the still more sombre and subdued light of the vestibule, and then initiates his entrance into the lofty aisles, that thus his soul may thereby be disposed to form a just appreciation of the creation of his genius and the sublimity of his design, and become overwhelmed with a reverential awe of the sublime mysteries which are celebrated therein-even so, the Church has instituted the season of Lent which precedes it, and which is, as it were the vestibule through which |