monuments are honoured by the faithful not without utility. We all
honour the memorials of the great, of the wise and of the brave; who
has not venerated the oak of a Tasso or the house of a Shakespeare?
While _We_ revere the relics of a Borromeo at Milan, of a Francois
de Sales at Annecy, of a Luigi Gonzaga, a Filippo Neri, a Camillo de
Lellis at Rome, others respect the chair and table of Wickliffe at
Lutterworth, or the room of Luther at Eisenach. If infidels unite in
paying homage to the house of the impious _philosopher_ of Ferney, let
all Christians, however they may be otherwise unhappily divided, join
in shewing their respect for the image of their Saviour, and for those
instruments which touched his sacred body, and were sanctified by his
precious blood. O let them gaze with reverential awe on that lance
which entering into his adorable side drew from it blood and water,
and on that cross to which he was nailed and on which he died for
our salvation. The early Christians, our forefathers in the faith,
manifested great respect for the bodies and the blood of the martyrs,
because they were faithful _followers_ of Christ. Thus, in the letter
of the faithful of Smyrna preserved by Eusebius, they mention that
they gathered up the bones of their bishop Polycarp, (a disciple of
S. John the Apostle) "more precious than pearls, and more tried than
gold, and buried them. In this place, God willing", say they "we shall
meet and celebrate with joy and gladness the birthday of this martyr".
SS. Praxedes and Pudentiana, and many other devout females used
to collect the blood of the martyrs with sponges and cloths, as
if they feared that one drop of it should be lost. Read the poems
of Prudentius, observe the phials of blood[109] placed before the
martyrs' tombs in the catacombs, and you will not doubt the truth of
such assertions[110]. The shadow of Peter, the handkerchiefs which
had touched the body of Paul, could cure diseases, as the Scripture
witnesseth; but here are the relics of a greater than Paul, of a