The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-02-13

same devil that possessed the Roman Colos-
scum Expresses you. The Diocletians are
not ell dead The cellars leading into the
arena Of LIES struggle are not all emptied
of their tigers. The vivisectiOn by young
doctors Of dogs and cats and birds most OF
the time ad Is nothing 10 human discovery,
but Is only a continuation of Nespasian's
Colosseum. The Cruelties OF the world
generally begun in nurseries and IN home
circles and in day schools. The child that
[ trausfixes a fly with pin, or the low feeling
that sets two dogs into combat, or that bull
lies a week or crippled playmate, or the in
. difference that starves a canary bird, needs
. only 70 be developed in order to make first
class Nero or a full armed Apollyon. It
would be a good sentence to be written on
the top line Of a chid's book, and fit in
/ scription TO be embroidered in the arm
chair Of the sitting ROOM ana an approprt-
/ ate motto for judge and jury and district
/ attorney and sheriff to look at in the court
I house: blessed are the merclful, for they
/ shall obtain mercy"
And go the ruins of that Colosseum preach
to me- Indeed the most impressive things
on earth are ruins. The four greatest
| structures ever built are in ruins. The Par
thenon in ruins. The Temple Of Diana III
ruins. The Temple Of Jerusalem in ruins.
The Colosseum in ruins. Indeed the earth
itself will yet be pile Of ruins, the mount
ans in ruins, the seas in ruins, the cities In
ruins, the hemispheres in ruins. Yea, fur
Their than tbRt, all up and down
the heavens are worlds burned
ND, worlds wrecked worlds ex-
tinct, worlds abandoned. Worlds on worlds
IN ruins! but l am glad 10 say it is the
same old heaven, ana in all that world there
is not one ruin and never will be ruin.
Not one Of the pearly gates will ever become
unhiuged Not one of the amethystlne
towers will ever fall. Not one Of the man
sions will ever decay. Not one OF the
chariot will ever be uuwheeled. Not one of
the thrones will ever rock down O, make
sure Of heaven, for it is an everlasting
heaven. Through Christ, the Lord, get
ready for residence in the eternal palaces.
The last evening before leaving Rome for
Brindisi and Athens and Egypt and PaleS~
tine, l went alone to the Colosseum. There
was not a living soul in all the immense
arena. Even those accustomed to sell curlos
at the four entrances of the building had
gone away. The place was SO oyerwhelm-
ingly silent could hear my own heart beat
with the emotions aroused by the place and
hour. | paced the arene. | walked down
into the dens where the byenas were once
kept. l assembled to the place where the
emperor used to sit. | climbed up on the
galleries from which the mighty throngs of
people had gazed in enchantment To
break the silence / shouted, and that seemed
to awaken the echoes, echo upon echo. And
those awakened echoes seemed to address
me, saying; "Men die but their work
lives on. Gaudentlus, the Rrchi-
tect who planned this structure, the sixty
thousand ensaYed Jews brought by Titus
from Jerusalem and who toiled on these
walls, the gladiatOrs who fought in this
arena, the emperors and expresses who had
place on wonder platform, the millions who,
during centuries, sat and rose 10 these gal
leries, have passed away, but enough Of
h., ,Tr de 70 ha ~
cruelty and pomp and power. Five hun
dred years of bloodshed." Then, as stood
there, there came to me another burst OF
echoes, which seemed throbOing with the
prayers and songs and groans Of Christians
who had expired in that arena, and they
seemed to say: How much it cost to serve
God in ages past, and how thankful modern
centuries ought 20 be that the persecution
which Redeemed the sands of this amphlthe-
ater have been abolished" And then Ques-
toned the echoes, saving: "Where in
Emperor Titus who sat hereW The an
swer came: "GOne TO judgment" where
is Emperor Trajan who sat hereN "Gone
TO Judgment "Where is Emperor Max
minus who sat hereP' "Gone to judg-
ment." Where are all the multitudes
who clapped and shouted and waved
flags TO let the vanqulshed up, OF to have
them slain, put thumbs down" The
echoes answered: "Gone to judgment"
] inquired: "AllP' And they answered:
"Allh and looked up to the sky above
the ruins, and it was full Of clouds sour
rying swiftly past, and those clouds
seemed as though they had faces, and
some OF the faces smiled and some of
them frowned, and they seemed to have
wings, and some Of the wings were NOON
gilt ard the others thunder-charged, and
the voices Of those clouds overpowered the
echoes beneath. behold he cometh with
clouds and every eye shall see him." And
as | stood looking up along the walls Of the
Colosseum, they rose higher and higher,
higher and higher, until the ampnitheater
seemed to BE- filled with ell the nations of
tho past and all the nations of
the present and all the nations of
the future, those who went down under the
paws OF Wild beasts, and those who sat wav-
ing flags to lot up the conquered, and those
who held thumbs down to command their
assassination, and small and great. the em-
peror and slave, and pastor and people, aud
righteous and wicked, the amphitheater
seeming to rise to infinite nights
ON all sides of me- and in the
center of that amphitheater, instead
of the arena of combatants, a great throne
stood, rising higher and higher, higher and
higher, and on it sat the Christ for whom
the martyrs died and against whom the
Diocletians plotted their prosecutions, and
waving one hand toward the piled up
bpleuuOES w bub IlSuJ "a ulul, ue CTlSu'
Come, ye blessed" and waving the other
hand toward. the piled up glooms on the
left of him, he cried: depart, ye cursed"
And so the Colosseum Of Rome that evening
OF 1889 seemed enlarged into the amphi-
theater of the last judgment, and passed
from under the arch of that
mighty structure, mighty even in
its ruins, praying 10 Almighty God,
through Jesus Christ, for mercy in
that day for which all other DAYS were
made, and that as l expected mercy from
God, might exercise mercy toward Others.
and have more and more Of the spirit of
"let- him-upn and less and less of the spirit OF
"thumbs-down." We may not all be able to
do sum in higher mathematics, but there is
sum in the first rule of gospel arithmetic
which we all may do. 1t is sum In sim
Pile addition. add to your faith virtue
and TO virtue knowledge and to knowledge
temperance and TO temperance patience and
to patience goodness and TO godliness
brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kind
ness charity"
WANT PAY For THEIR PRAYERS.