LABYRINTH. A place full of inextricable windings. In the ancient mysteries the passages through which the initiate made his mystical pilgrimage.
*Dr. Oliver, in his "Historical Landmarks," (Am. ed., p. 89,) furnisher the following illustration and explanation of the vision of Constantine. "The Red Cross of Constantine commemorates the following stance, which is attested by Eusebius: The army of Constantine being on the march to meet the enemies of the cross, it happened one evening when the sun was declining, and the peror was engaged in devotion, that there suddenly appeared a pillar of light in the heavens like a cross, whereon was an inscription expressed in letters formed by a configuration of NIKA, in this overcome. Constantine was not a little startled at this sight, and so was the whole my that beheld it.. They looked upon it as an inauspicious omen, and even the emperor himself was confounded But at night our Lord appeared tc him in a dream, with the cross in his hand, commanding him to make a royal standard like that which he had seen in the heavens, and cause it to be borne before him in his wars as an ensign of victory."
"Constantine, in his contest with Maxentius, and on his march to Rome, is said to have seen in the sky a luminous cross with the inscrip tion, iv T0674, visa, by this, conquer; and on the night before the last and decisive battle With Maxentius a vision is said to have appeared to Constantine in his sleep, bidding him inscribe the shields of his soldiers with the sacred monogram of the name of Christ. The miracle of his conversion to Christianity was commemorated by the imperial standard of tue labarum, at the summit of which was the monograni of the name of Christ." —SMITH'S CLASSICAL DICTIONARY.