Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1893-10-09
AT THE TABERNACLE.
DR.. TALMAeE DlscouRsEs ON POM
PEI AND ITS LESSONS.


BROOKLYN, Oct. SIN his sermon at the
Brooklyn tabernacle this morning Rev. Dr.
Talmage presented an aronsing theme OF
the living cities OF today drawn from the
tomb Of dead city OF the past Tsie open
ing hymn, led by cornct and organ, was
Joined By the voices Of the multitude.
Arm of the Lord, awake, awake,
Put on thy strength, the nations shake.
The subject was "Pompeh and Its Les
sons" the text, Isainh ky. 2, 'arhou hast
made Of a defended city a ruin.n
A flash on the night sky greeted us as we
left the rail train at Naples, Italy. What
was the strange illumination II was that
wrath Of many centuries-Vesuvius. Giant
sonofan earthquake. Intoxicated mountain
of Italy Father Of many concentrations.
A volcano burning so long and yet TO keep
on burning until perhaps ii may be the very
torch that will kindle tho last confAKra-
ton and set all the world ON flre. 1t eclipses
IN violence OF behavior Cotopaxi and .Hstnn
and Stromboli and Krakatoa Awful mys-
terry. Funeral pyre OF dead cities. Ever
lasting paroxysm of mountains. II seems
like chimney of hell. 1t ronrs with fiery
"reminiscences Of what II has done and with
threats OF worse things that II may yet do
would not live in one of the villages ut its
base for u present Of all Italy.
On day in December, 1881, Il threw up
ashes that floated away hundreds and hun
dreds of miles, and dropped in CONSTANT
nople, and In the Adrlatlc sea, and on the
Apennines, as well as trampling out at its
own foot the lives of 5000 people. Geolo-
gists have tried to fathom its mysteries,
but the heat consumed the iron instru-
ments and drove back the scorched and
blistered explorers from tho cindery and
crumblng brink. 1t seems like the asylum
OF maniac elements.
At one time, far back, its top had been
q fortress, where Spartacus fought and was
surrounded, and would have been destroyed
had 1t not been for the grape vines which
clothed the mountain side from top to base,
and laying hold OF them he climbed hand
under hand to safety in the valley. But
for centuries It has Kept its furnace burn
ing us we saw 1t that night on our arrival
In November Of 1880
THE DEAD CITY.
OF course the next day we started to see
some OF the work wrought by that frenzied
mountain. "All out for Pompelii' was
the cry of the conductor. And now we
stand by the corpse OF that decd city. AS
we entered the gate aud passed between
the walls took off my hat, as one nat
urally does in the presence OF some impos-
ing obsequies, That city had been at one
time a capital of beauty and pomp. the
home Of grand architecture, exquisite
painting. enchanting sculpture, unrestrain-
ed carousal and rapt assembluge. A high
wall, 20 feet thick, three-quarters of It still
visible, encircled the city. On those wallsat
distance Of only lO0yards from each other
towers rose for armed men who watched
the city. The streets ran at right angles
and from wall to wall, only one street ex,
cepted.
In the days OF the city's prosperity its
towers gllttered In the sun. Eight strong
gates for ingress and egress-Gate Of the
Seashore, Gate of Herculaneum, Gate of
Vesuvius being perhaps the most impor-
tant Yonder stood the temple of Jupiter,
hoisted at an imposing elevation, and with
its six corinthian columns of immense
girth, which stood like carved ioebergs
shimmsring in the light. There stands the
Temple Of the Twelve Gods. Yonder see the
Temple Of Hercules and the Temple of Mer-
curry, with affairs of marble and bas-reief,
wonderful enough to astound all succeed
ing ages of art, and the Temple of Assculn
Plus, brilliant with sculpture and gorgeous
with painting.
Yonder are the theaters, partly cut into
surrounding hills and glorihed with pic
tured walls and entered under arches OF
imposing masonry, and with rooms for
captivated and applaudatory audiences,
seated or standing, in vast semicircle. Yon-
der arc the costly and immense public
baths Of the city, with more than the mod
dern ingenuities OF Carlsbad. Notice the
warmth Of those ancient tepidArlums with
lowering radiance of roof, and the vapor Of
those caldarlums with decorated alcoves,
and the Geld dash Of their frigidariums with
floors OF mosaic and ceilings Of all skillful-
~ intermingled hues and walls upholster-
ed with all the colors Of the setting sun and
sofas on which to recline for slumber after
the plunge.
Yonder are the barracks of the celebrated
gladiators. Yonder IS the summer home
Of Sallust, the Roman historian and scna-
tor, the architecture as elaborate as his
character was corrupt. There is the resi-
dence Of the poet Papsa, with compressed
Louvre and Luxembourg within his walls
There Is the home OF Lucretius, with vases
and antiquities enough 70 turn the head of
virtuoso. Yonder see the Forum at the
highest place of the city. 1t ID entered by
two triumphal arches. 1t Is bounded on
three sides by doric columns.
Wonder, in the suburbs of the city, Is the
home of Arrius Dloped, the mayor OF the
suburbs, terraced residence of Millionaire
dom. gardens fountained, statucd, colon
naded, the cellar OF that villa filled with
bottles Of rarest wine, a few drops Of which
were found / 800 years afterward. Along
the streets of the city are men Of might aud
women Of beauty formed into bronze that
many centuries had no power to bedim.
Battle scenes on walls in coiors, which all
time cannot efface Great city Of Pompeii
So Seneca and Tacitus aud Cicero pro-
nounce it.
A WORD PICTURE.
| Stand with me on It's walls this evening
of Aug. %, A ID. 10. See the throngs pass
ing up and down in tyrian purple and CIR
dies Of arabesque and necks enchanted with
precious stones, proud official in imposing
| toga meeting the slave carrying trays
a-eltnk with goblets and a-smoke with
| delicacies from paddock and sea, and
moralist. musing over the degradation OF
the times, passes the proAigste, doing his
best to make them worse. Hark to the
clatter and rataplan of the hoofs on the
4 streets paved with blocks Of basalt. See
/ the verdured and Powered grounds sloping
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