Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1870-05-06


as that of Sebastpool. Under its im-
perial masters, whether madmen, phi
l0sophers, or monsters, the Roman
world almost forgot the art of warfare.
and, weighted down by n general
tyrany, gave itself languidly to the
pursits of peace.
A magnificent form of civilization
at once grew up. Men everywhere
clustered together in cities, and sur
rounded themselves with the countless
appliances of luxurious life. The
theatre and amphithatrc, the nqueduct
and bath, the graceful temples of vel
low marble, the groves and gardens,
the triumphal arches, the forums filled
with statues and lined with colonades,
were repeated in all those centres of
artistic taste that sprung up, under the
fostering care of successive emperors
from the Cfesarca of Palestine to the
distant wilds of Britain or Gaul. The
Roman empire embraced within its
limits chain Of cities fairer than the
proudest capitals of modern Europe
a throng of municipalities destined to
become the future centres of Christian
thought. At the mouth o the v1ncra-
BILE Nile stood Alexandria. Its popula-
ton was nearly million. 1t controll-
vast fleets often covered the Mediterra-
mean. 1t was the Paris of the East
gay, splendid, intellectual; its univer-
sity and its library, its philosophers
and cities filled the age with active
speculation. Antioch, on the Syrian
shore, still retained-its prosperity and
its luxurious charms. In the midst of
its apocaliptic sisters, Ephesus glitter
ed with artistic decorations, and MAIN
tained in all their magnificence the
Temple and the ritual of Diana. Greece
boasted the corrupt elegance of Corinth
the higher taste of Incompatible Ath-
ems. Far to the west Carthage had ris-
en- from its ruins to new Importance.
Spain was adorned with the temples
and the aqueducts of Saragossa and
COrdova; the banks of the Rhine and
the wilds of Gaul were sown with
magnificent cities and the camps of
Britain swiftly grew into populous
capitals and peaceful homes. In the
midst of the series of provincial towns
stood conquering Rome, the mistress
of them all, slowly gathering within
her bosom the wealth the luxury, the
corruption of the world.
But of all the imperial cities the most
wonderful was still Jerusalem. In a
mysterious antiquity none of them
could rival her. The towers of Salem
had been contemporary with that of
Belus or Semiramis, of the glory of
Thebes and the youth of Memmon.
Jerusalem had seen the splendors of
her conqurors of Babylon and Egypt
sink into decay. A thousand years
| had passed since David founded the
| city of Mount Zion, and still, in the
/ rat al lat xtsta
the holy site was covered with magniii-
cent buildings, and new Temple had
risen on Mount Moriah, to surpass the
| glory of that of Solomon. When the
seven hills of Rome had been a deso-
late waste, and the Acropolis the retreat
of shepherds-when all Europe was q
| wilderness, and savage hunters rOamed
over the site of its fairest cities, Jerusa-
lem had shone over the East beacon
of light, and had observed, and, per.
haps, guided the progress of Italy and
Greece. She had been often conquered
but never subdued. More than once
levcled to the ground, she had risen
from her ashes. For thousand year,
the priests had chanted the Psiams o
David from Mount Moriah, unless II
captivity or exile, and still the Jerusa
lem of Herod and Nero was, i'm he
magnificent ritual and her sacred pomp
the rival and the peer of Athens anC
Rome.
In the midst of her contemporaries
the Jewish capital seems to have excl
ted an intense dislike. The Jews wer
noted for their biogtry and their nation
nj pride. Even in their captivity the,
despised their conquerors F; they turn
cd with contempt from the polished
| 4 ntra nd .
mingle with them as equals or as friend
To the austere Pharisee Cicero or al
Atticus was pariah and an outcast
and the chosen people, as far as posi-
BILE, shrank from the unholy society q
the gentle. But this eXclusivenes
seemed to their cultivated contempora
ries barbarous aud rude they TepaiI
IL by a shower of ridicule and sarcasm
The Roman writers, from Cicero L
Tacitus paint the Jews as the degrade
victims of a cruel superstition. Th
Roman satirist accused them of wol
: shipping the empty air or the passin
cloud the people of Rome, of adorin
the vilest animals and no author c
that intellectual age had discovere
that the lyrics of the Jewish King weT
= more sublime than those of Pindar
that the conflicts and the trials of
human soul were nobler themes tina
the Olympic sports or the triumphs {
Hero. No Roman writer had studio
with care the Jewish Scriptures, or ha
cOntrasted the syblline oracles with til
prophecies of Isaiah.
Yet even TO the Greeks and Roman
mysterious awe invested the holy city
They head with wonder of that innt
shrine where no image of deity wa
/ htaf No fnh M ax
| was allowed to gaze; of the gOlde
. candlestick, the priceless veil of tn
pOmpous worship of an invisible Goo
They knew that TO the austere jew th
=. | fairest statues of Phidias, the mo.
glorious representations of Jupiter an
| Apollo, were only an abominatior.
=. | They had learned that the despise
Israelites were looking forward TO Ill
advent of a prophetic Messiah who's
: reign should be universal, and VIII
should subject all nations 10 his sway
and empcrors and kings had been sta
/. tied and reused to cruelty by their ul
fiinching faith. But no heathen writ
could have supposed that the promise
Messiah was to he a God of boundle
n love that from the heart of the abjc
and hated race was TO come forth
generous sympathy for the sufieriI
and the sad of every land that fro
n mysterious Jerusalem was 10 descor
! upon the world faith that fought Il
i common brotherhood of man, chal
!. ty as limitless as its celestial source.
J. From "The Church of Jerusalem"
, EUGENE LAWRENCE, in HdI1oeI
q Magazine for May.
-
!, Editor Bristol NeiUs, DEAR SIR :
rs | I wish tO inform Won and my friends