The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-10-11

| portion as churches and bibles and
| Christian printing presses and REVEALS
| of religion abound is a city clean and
pure. What has Buddhism or Confuci-
/ anism or Mohammedanism done IN all
| the hundreds of years of their progress
for the elevation of society? Absolutely
nothing. Picking and Madras and Cairo
are just what they were ages ago, ex-
cept as Christianity has modified their
| What is the difference between our
| Brooklyn and their Pompei? No diff
| ference. except that which Christianity
has wrought. Favor all good art, but
| take best care of your churches, and
your Sabbath schools, and your bibles,
| and your family affairs.
Yea, see in our walk today through
uncovered Pompeiii what sin will do for
a city. We ought to be slow to assign
| the judgments of God. Cities are some
times afflicted just as good people are
| afflicted. and the earthquake. and the
| cyclone, and the epidemic are no sign
in many cases that God is angry with
| a city, but the distress is sent for some
| good and kind purpose. whether we I'M
derstand il or not. The law that APP
| plies TO individuals may apply to Chris
| tian cities as well. "All things work to-
| gether for good to those that love
| God"
Like sodoni and GomOrrah.
But the greatest calamity of history
came upon Pompeii. not to improve its
| future condition, for it was completely
| obliterated and will never be rebuilt. 1t
| was so bad that it needed TO be buried
| LOO years before even its ruins were fit
| to be uncovered. So Sodom and Go.
morrah were filled with such turpitude
| that they were not only turned under,
| but have for thousands of years been
kept under. The two greatest cemeteries
are the cemetery in which the sunken
ships are buried all the way between
| Fire island and Fastnet lighthouse, and
the other cemetery is the cemetery of
| dead cities.
1 get down on my knees and read the
| epitapheOlogy of a long line of them:
Here lies Babylon, once called THE
| hammer of the whole EARTH" dead and
buried under piles of broken pottery and
vitrefied bricks. And l hear a wolf
howl and a reptile hiss as am reading
this epitaph isaiah xiii. 2D, 1.-The wild
| beast of the desert shall be there and
their houses shall be full of doleful
| creatures"
The next tomb l kneel before in this
cemetery of cities is Nineveh. Her
winged lions are down, and the slabs
of alabaster have crumpled, and the
sculpture that represented her battles
| is as completely scattered as the dust
| OF the heroes who fought them. Per-
| haps I put my knee into the dust Of
| her Sardanapalus as 1 stoop TO read her
epitaph (Zephaniah ii, 1D: Now is
| Nineveh a desolation and dry like a
| wilderness, and fiocks lie down in the
| midst of her. All the beasts of the
nations, both the cormorant and the
| bittern, lodge in the upper lintelS Of
| it," And while 1 read 1t 1 hear an
| owl boot and hyena laugh. The next
| entombed city I pass has monument
| Of fifty PROSTATE columns OF gray and
| red granite and IL Is Tyre
| The next sepucher of a great capital
/ is covered with scattered columns and
| defaced sphinxes and the sands of the
| desert. and 1t Is Thebes. AS / pass on
| l find the resting place of Mycenae,
| city OF which Homer sang. and Corinth,
| which rejected Paul and depended upon
| her fortress AcrOcorinthus, which now
| lies dsmantled on the hill, and L move
| on in this cemetery of cities, and / find
| the tombs of Sardis and Smyrna and
| Persepolis and Memphis and Baalbek
| and Carthage, and here are the cities
| of the Plain and Herculineum and
| Stabia and Pompeii. Some of them
| have mighty sarcophagus and HERO
| glyphic entablature, but they are dead
! and buried, never to rise.
/
But the cemetery Of dead cities is not
yet filed, and II the present cities of
the world forget God and with their in
| decencles shock the heavens, let them
/ know that God, who on the oath of Au-
| gust, 70, dropped on city of Italy
perincumbrance that. staid there seven
teen centuries. is still alive and hates sin
now as much as he did then, and has at
4 -
| struction with which he whelmed their
| ubiquitous predecessors. 1t was only
| summers ago that Brooklyn and New
| York felt earthquake throb that sent
| the people affrighted into the streets,
and that suggested that there are forces
OF nature now suppressed or held in
check which, easier than a child in
| nursery knocks down a row Of block
houses, could PROSTATE city or ensulf
| a continent deeper than Pompeii was en-
| quilted.
| Our hope is in the mercy of the Lord
| continued TO our American cities 1t
| amnZes me that this city. which has the
| quietest Sabbaths on the continent, and
/ the best order, and the highest tone of
/ morals of any city that l know Of is
| now having brought into as near neigh
borhood as Coney Island carnivals OF
| pugilism as debasing as any OF the glad
| iatorial contests of Pompeii. What a
precious crew that "Coney Island Ath-
| letic club is, under whose auspices
| these orgies are enacted What degra-'
| dation to the adjective athletic" which
| ordinarily suggests health and muscle
| developed for useful purposei Instead of
| calling IL an athletic club they might
| better style Ii THE Ruffian Club for
| Smashing the Human Visage."
| vile men are turning that Coney ISL
/ and, which Is one OF the finest watering
| places on all the Atlantic coast, into a
/ place for the offscouring of The earth to
| congregate, the low horse Jockeys and
1 gamblers, and the pugilists, and the
| pickpockets. and the bloats regurgitated
| from the depths Of the worst wards of
| these cities. They invite delegates from
| universal loaferdom TO come to their
| carnival Of knuckles. But 1 do not be-
/ lieve that the pugilism contracted for
/ and advertised for next December will
| take place In our neighborhood.
| EVIL sometimes defeats itself by going
| one step too far. You may drive the
! hoop OF a barrel down so hard that IL
| breaks. / will not believe that the inter-
| national prize fight will take place on
/ Long island or In the state Of New York
| until I see the rowdy rabble rolling
drunk off the cars at Flatbush-ave. and
| with faces banged and cut and bleeding
| from the imbruting scene. Against this
| infraction of the laws of the state of
| New York / lift solemn protest. The
| curse Of Almighty God will rest upon
| any community that consents to such an
| outrage. Does any one think II cannot
/ ba atonpad and that the cOngta hillary