James II. Looking back on the period of their sufferings, the Friends were inclined to consider themselves under the express protection of Divine providence, for not only had the individual members of their community been strengthened to bear the severe suffering, to which they had been subjected, but the sect itself had survived a persecution, that might have been expected to extinguish it altogether. This had been mainly brought about by the devoted courage of the women, among whom, as has been shown, the determined spirit and loving heart of Lilias Skene had raised her to a position of great influence. During the whole period of the persecution, while their husbands and all the leading men of the sect were in prison, they had continued to assemble for worship, at the stated times and at the appointed places, so that the utter fruitlessness of the attempts of the magistrates to suppress Quakerism became visible even to themselves, as they were obliged to confess, that, during the whole of that stormy time, they had never been able to prevent the holding of any one of the public assemblies of the Friends. From this period the Friends lived in peace, and the last seventeen years of the life of Lilias Skene presents, therefore, nothing worthy of record. Her husband, Alexander Skene, died in 1693, and, after a few years of widowhood, she herself died in 1697. Her death is thus recorded in the archives of the Meeting to which she had belonged. Upon the 21st of the 4th month, 1697, it pleased the LORD our God to bring to the sweet harbour of His everlasting rest, a long tossed vessel upon the waves of many afflictions-namely, Lilias Skene-Gillespie, the widow of Alexander Skene, sometime Bailie of Newtyle. A woman of a serious life, from her childhood, attended with much sickness of body and exercise of mind, afflictions of many sorts. Among the professors she was one of the most eminent; was brought out from them, by a strong hand, into the precious truth about the year 1667; in which she lived about thirty years, in a true measure of honesty, though attended with deep temptations and tribulations; and died in the 71st year of her age. Her body was buried on the 24th at Kingswells, beside that of her husband." 462 S. JOHN BAPTIST.1 MID-SUMMER dawns in calm repose, Fair offerings meet for hallowed Shrines. Sweet echoes of th' eternal hymn, From the far mountain heights float nigh- Let us adore and magnify : To greet the Holy Baptist's Day, When darkened souls emerged from night, Now bloom and branch to Heaven above. To rouse the faithless and the cold, And still CHRIST's Messengers are bold- C. A. M. W. A VISIT TO THE CATACOMBS. LIKE a palimpsest whose original contents are hidden under less interesting and more recent surface matter, the great catacombs lay for centuries forgotten, beneath the mean little houses and gardens which dot the Campania around the walls of Rome. After the relics of the martyrs were transferred during the eighth century to the altars of various churches throughout Christendom, the catacombs themselves were suffered to become ruinous, and gradually fell, with one small exception, "out of sight and out of mind." In the sixteenth century researches were once more instituted among them, and have been continued till the present day, bringing to light many valuable and interesting discoveries. 1 Midsummer Day, June 24th. We had anticipated that there might be some difficulty in obtaining permission for strangers to visit the catacombs; but on the contrary, the Vatican authorities afford every facility for their easy exploration. Any day before noon, an order may be procured from Cardinal Patrizi, the Pope's Vicar General, at his offices, 70, Via della Scrofa. All that is necessary is for all the members of the party to appear at the palace in person. We three ladies, therefore, having duly presented ourselves, were ushered into a small study, where a secretary of the Cardinal's was engaged at his writing table. The discomforts which surrounded this worthy man, and his patient endurance of them, moved our compassion. The day was bitterly cold, towards the end of December, yet no fire was burning in his stove, no "scaldino" stood beside him to warm the hands which seemed half frozen in fruitless attempts to master the strange orthography of our English names, yet not a trace of worry was allowed to appear in his pleasant courteous manner, as he carefully filled in the order which gave us admission to the catacomb of S. Calistus on any day and at any hour we pleased, and handed it to us with polite instructions how and where to make use of it. There is but one condition annexed to this "permit," viz. that each person should carry a "cerino," or tiny wax taper, easily obtainable at certain shops. To guard against accidents we all provided ourselves with two, at the cost of one penny per head! The next day being peculiarly bright, we took advantage of it for our expedition, and started early for the drive, which occupies rather over an hour, and is in itself most interesting. After passing down the Corso, and winding round the Capitol and Forum, we follow the Via Sacra, past the Palace of the Cæsars, through the Arch of Titus, down a steep roughly paved road nearly as far as the Coliseum. Above, in the gardens of the Palatine, is the chapel built on the spot where S. Sebastian suffered martyrdom. Turning to the right, we pass beneath the Arch of Constantine, and soon enter on the Appian Way. Many churches, some of which are of great antiquity and interest, are passed on both sides of the way, and many ruins of old Roman origin arrest the eye. The huge pile of the Baths of Caracalla is on the right, and many ancient burying-places, or Columbaria, among which are the tombs of the Scipios, on the left hand. Presently a small road branches to the left, leading to the Porta Latina, outside of which a little octagonal church commemorates the place where S. John was cast, unharmed, into the cauldron of boiling oil. Soon after, passing under the old Arch of Drusus, and the more modern Porta di San Sebastiano, we found ourselves in the open Campania, with its ruined aqueducts and distant hills. We halted at the tiny chapel of "Domine quo vadis" to see the Footprints left by the Blessed SAVIOUR When He here met S. Peter escaping from the Mamertine dungeon. A rude sculpture within the church represents our dear LORD thus bearing His cross, and going to be crucified a second time! These marks are said not to be genuine the spot, however, is believed to be the very same whence S. Peter, repenting of his flight, returned voluntarily to Rome-both into prison and to death! Some way beyond this the road dips rather suddenly, and here a lovely view presents itself. The blue Alban hills bound the horizon, the Campania spreading between; in front the road mounts to the picturesque tomb of Cecilia Metella, and in the foreground a plantation of vines surrounds the cross and obelisk which stand before the church of S. Sebastian, while over all bends the bluest of blue cloudless skies. Some of the many beggars seated on the steps called the Sacristan to show us the church, and a young Franciscan monk answered their summons. The chapel of S. Sebastian on the left hand is very beautiful. The altar-tomb encloses the martyr's remains, and below is a lovely statue by Bernini, representing the Saint lying half dead and pierced with arrows, his face radiant in the midst of his tortures with the joy of Heaven. One of the arrows found beside his body when his tomb was discovered is preserved in a case of relics, and was shown to us. This church is built over the catacomb of S. Sebastian, the only one which escaped oblivion in the middle ages, and then the resort of countless pilgrims. It is now the only one which can be visited without an order, but it is smaller and less wellpreserved than that of S. Calistus, which was our destination. To reach the latter it is necessary to retrace our steps a few hundred yards, until we halt at a door in the low wall skirting the road, beneath a group of cypresses. Opening the gate we enter on a wide stony field, within which is an old brick building, ascertained by the antiquarian Chevalier Rossi to be the remains of the "Oratorium Sancti Callisti in arenariis." At his advice the present Pope bought the entire field, and has instituted researches beneath its surface with great success. On seeing us, one of the men at work in the field came up, and after examining the cardinal's "pass," led us to an opening in the ground close to the building just mentioned, and descending some steep steps we found ourselves in the first gallery of the catacombs. Here our guide lighted our candles from his own taper, and we followed him slowly, each bearing a light, down a narrow lane cut in the tufa rock, descending gradually all the way. The wall on each side is pierced with deep recesses, each of which is the empty grave of a Christian, containing when first discovered the body and remains of the graveclothes, with not unfrequently a phial of blood, which was always placed to mark the resting-place of a martyr. They are cut close together in the rock, in tiers of two or three, one above the other at regular distances, so that the place is honeycombed. The openings are always twice the length of their depth and height, and do not therefore penetrate far into the rock, being in shape and position not unlike berths in a ship. Each was formerly closed by a marble or stone slab, bearing an inscription, or by tiles fitted together, but when the bodies were removed to various churches these tablets were never replaced, and are now mostly preserved in the Lateran and Kircherian Museums at Rome, and the National Museum at Naples. Following the glimmering light of our guide down several of these long narrow lanes, we turned to the right, and entered a chamber or cell called "Camera papali," where many tombs of the early popes were found. Linus, whose greetings to the Church are conveyed by S. Paul in his second epistle to Timothy, Anterus, Fabius, and others rested here; and the martyr S. Sixtus, who suffered in A.D. 258-to whose memory there is a long and curious inscription erected by Pope Damasus in the fourth century-the letters finely cut on a large slab of white marble. This pope took great delight in composing verses and epitaphs for the catacombs, while his secretary invented a peculiar style of lettering in which to convey them to posterity. Many specimens are met with throughout these chambers and passages. Other inscriptions are from the hands of pilgrims in the fourth and fifth centuries. Leaving this cell we enter a smaller one, open by a ventilating shaft to the upper air. Here was the grave of Saint Cecilia. Her remains have been transferred to the church built on the site of her house in the Trasteverine quarter of Rome, where a lovely marble figure lying beneath the altar represents the exact position in which her body was found in this place. The recess it once occupied here is empty, but hung with garlands and flowers, placed fresh yearly, as her day comes round, for on that occasion mass is solemnly sung at her tomb, and the |