Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-10-20

| Stlu IOunu standing guard. Iner6 is I
form of gentle womanhood impressed up
the hardened ashes. Pass along, and he
we see the deep ruts in thu basaltic paw
ments worn there by the whe els Of the char
OTIS of the first century. There, over IL
doorways and in the porticoes are works
art lmmortalizing the debauchery of a cit
which. notwithstanding all its splendors. W;
vestibule of perdition.
those cutters ran with the blood OF th
giadlators, who were prizefghters of thos
ancient times, and it was sword parryin
sword, until, with one skiful and stou
plunge OF the sharp edge, the mauled an
gashed combatant reeled over dead. to b
carried out amid the huzzas of enrapturet
spectators. We stald among those suggestive
scenes after the hour that visitors are usually
| allowed there and staid until there was not
football to be heard within all that city except
| our own. Up this silent street and down tha
silent street we wandered. Into that win
dowless and roofess home we went and came
out again onto the pavements that, now for.
saEen, were once thronged with life.
Ana can 1t be that all up and down these
solemn solitudes, hearts more than 1900
years ago ached and rejoiced, and feet shut
ned with the gait of old age or danced with
childish glee, and overtasked workmen car
on that mosaic floor did glowing youth clasp
hands in marriage VOW, and cross that
threshold did pallbearers carry the beloved
dead, and gay groups once mount those now
skeletons CT staircases?
While walked and contemplated the city
seemed suddenly to be thronged with all the
population that had ever inhabited it. and
heard its laughter and groan and unclean-
n mi al hOo "a A.
OF August, 79. And vesuvius, from the mild
light with which 1t flushed the sky that sum-
mer evening as I stool in disentom5ed Pom
peif, seemed suddenly again to heave and
flame and rock with the lava and darkness
and desolation and woe with which more
than eighteen centuries ago it submerged
Pompei, as with the liturgy of fire and storm
the mountain proclaimed at the burial,
ASHES to ashes, dust 10 dust.
My friends, l cannot tell what practical
suggestion comes to your mind from this
walk through uncovered Pompeii, but the
nrst thought that absorbs me is that. while
art and culture are important, they cannot
save the morals or the life OF a great town.
Much OF the painting and sculpture of Pom
'eil was SO exquisite that, while some is kept
IN the walls where it was first penciled, to be
admired by those who go there, whole wagon
Dads and whole rooms full Of it have been
transferred to the Museo Borbonico at Ma
lies, to be admired by the centuries.
Ihose Pompeilan artists mixed such dura-
iilty OF colors that, though their paintings
Tere buried in ashes and scorie for 100
ears, ana since they were uncovered many
1 them have remained there exposed to the
aims and winds AMI winters and summers
30 years, the color is as fresh and vivid and
rue as though yesterday it had passed from
ne easel. Which of our modern paintings
ould stand all that? And yet many OF the |
oecimens of Pompeiian art show that the |
ty was sunk to such depth OF abomination
lat there was nothing deeper. Sculptured
nd petrihed and embalmed abomination.
here was n state Of public morals worse
ian belongs to any city now standing under
lie sun.
Yet how many think that all that is neces-
lry is to cultivate the mind and advance the
nowledge and improve the arts Have you
le impression that eloquence will do the
evating work? Why, Pompei had Cicero
slf of every yeai for its citizen. Have you
70 idea that literature is all that is neces-
ny TO keep city right1 Why. Sallust. with
pen that was the boast Of Roman litera-
re, had mansion in that doomed city. Do
III think that sculpture and art are quite
ficient for the production Of good morals?
len correct your delusion by examining
e statues in the Temple of Mercury at Pom
ii, or the winged figures of its Parthenon,
d the colonnades and arches OF this house
Diomed.
By all means have schools and Dusseldorf
d Dore exhibitions and galleries where
g genius OF all the centuries can bank it.
Il up in snowy sculpture, and all bric-a-
&C, and all pure art, but nothing save the
iglon OF Jesus Christ can make city
,ral. In proportion as churches and BIZ
IS and Christian printing presses and re-
'als of religion abound is a city pure and
an. What has Buddhism or Confucianism
Mohammedanism done in all the hun
DDS of years of their progress for the ele-
ion Of society? Absolutely nothing.
'eking and Madras and Cairo are Just
at they were ages ago, except as Christi
ty has modified their condition. What is
difference between our Brooklyn and
ir Pompeii? No difference, except that
ich Christianity has wrought. Favor all t
ID art, but take best care of your S
riches, and your Sabbath schools, and I
II Bibles, and your family affairs.
ca. see in our walk through uncovered
npeii what sin will do for city. We t
init to be slow to assign the Judgment of q
d. Cities are sometimes afflicted just.as
ID people are afflicted, and the earthquake,
the cyclo1e, and the epidemic are no &
/ in many cases that God is angry with a V
, but the distress Is sent for some good
kind purpose, whether we understand
not The law that applies to individ- p
may apply to Christian cities as well, g,
things work together for good to those
love Cod
ut the greatest calamity OF history came *
d Ponpeii not to improve its future con- M
IN, for it was completely obliterated ana til
never be rebuilt. 1t was so bad that p
,ededto be buried 100 years before even
uins were fit to be uncovered. So Sodom n'
Gomorrah were filed with such turpi-
that they were not only turned under, re
have for thousands of years been kept an
Or. The two greatest cemeteries are the -
etery in which the sunken ships are bur- VIZ
Ill the way between Fire Island and tel
net Lighthouse. and the other cemetery
Q cemetery of dead cities.
ret down ON my knees and read the Nc
Ipheology of a long line OF them. Here the
Babylon, once called 'the hammer Of CO.
Whole earth" Dead and buried under !
of bitumen and broken pottery and
fed brick. And hear q wolf howl and 1ro
tile hiss as am reading this epitaph Rio
ah xiii, 21), "The wild beast of the s6
t shall be there, and their house shall
II of doleful creatures
0 next tomb kneel before In this GEN. ha,
of cities is Nineveh. Her winged lions the
lown, and the slabs of alabaster nave -.
bled, and the sculpture that represented ea'
attles is as completely scattered as the u
of the heroes who fought them. Per- has
1 put my knee into the dust of her Sar- Of
palus as I stoop to read her epitaph -
laniah H., IA, "Now is Nineveh desola- u
md dry like a wilderness, and fiocks lie dlel
in the midst of her all the beasts of feyt
ations, both the cormorant and the Bit n
lodge in the upper lintels of it." And
I read it l hear an owl boot and a cou
. laugh. pho
, next entombed city pass has a monu. r