IN CHURCH HISTORY. 47 



If you ask whether they built churches and had 

 public services during these early ages, the answer 

 is that there must have been but few edifices built 

 in which to conduct Christian worship, except in 

 the lull of persecutions, and in places distant from 

 the great centres. They used the upper rooms of 

 private houses, the quiet groves by the river sides, 

 and in the city of Rome they met in the excavations 

 beneath that city, called the Catacombs. At the 

 times of their fiercest trials they found it necessary to 

 conceal from all except their own number where 

 they met ; and hence their assemblies were in secret 

 places. As the roll of the martyrs began to in- 

 crease, the tombs of the faithful dead became favor- 

 ite places for celebrating Christian rites. 



It must not be thought that during all of these 

 250 years there was one continuous, vigorous, le- 

 galized system of persecution. On the contrary 

 there were often periods of repose, for longer or 

 shorter intervals, when the work of propagating the 

 faith was earnestly pressed by the believers. 



But the days of blood were very many, and the 

 ingenuity of their adversaries was exercised to the 

 utmost to exterminate all who bore the Christian 

 name from the earth. There was power enough, 

 and there was malice enough to have annihilated 

 the Church, had it been of man, but it was of God, 

 and they could not overthrow it. 



