Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1893-10-09
LESSONS OF POMPEU,
RIGHTEOUSNESS IS LIFE, BUT NlouI-
TY Is DEATH.

Rev. DIR. Talmage's Vivid Dissertation q
the Ruined City-solemnity and Awe In
spired by the surroundings-A warnip
to the Wicked of To-day.
BROOKLYN, Oct. SIN his sermon a
the Brooklyn Tabernacle this mornin,
Rev. DR.. Talmage presented an arousin,
theme of the living cities of todaydrawl
from the tomb of dead city of the past
The opening hymn, led by cornet and or
gan, was Joined by the voices of the mul
titude:
Arm Of the Lord, awake, awake;
Put on thy strength; the nations shake.
The subject was "Pompeii and Its Les.
sons;" the text, Isaiah XIV, 2, "Thou
hast made Of defensed city ruin"
A fash on the night sky greeted MS as
we left the rail train at Naples, Italy.
What was the strange illumination? 1t
was that wrath of many centuries--Vesu-
vius. Giantson of an earthquake. Intoxi-
Gated mountain of Italy. Father of many
consternations. A volcano, burning SO
long, and yet to keep on burning until,
perhaps, it may be the very torch that
will kindle the last conhagration and
set all the world on fire. 1t eclipses in
violence of behavior Cotopaxi and Etna
and Stromboli and Krakatoa. Awful
mystery. Funeral pyre of dead cities.
Everlasting paroxysm of mountains. 1t
seems like chimney of hell. 1t roars
with fiery reminiscence of what it has
done and with threats of worse things
that it may yet do. / would not live in
one of the Villages at its base for pres
ent of all Italy.
On day in December, 1881, it threw
up ashes that doated away hundreds and
hundreds Of mil A nd dropped in Con-
stantinople, and IL the Adriatic sea, and
on the Apennines, as well as trampling
out at its own foot the lives Of $4,000
people. Geologists have tried to fathom
its mysteries. but the heat consumed the
iron instruments and drove back the
scorched and blistered explorers from
the cindery and crumbling brink. It
seems like the asylum of maniac ele-
ments.
At one time far back its top had been
II fortress, where Spartacus fought and
was surrounded and would have been
destroyed had it not been for the grape
vines which clothed the mountainside
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 it's furnace burning as we
saw it that night on our arrival in No
vember of 1889.
THE DEAD CITY.
OF course the next day we started to
see some of the work wrought by that
frenzied mountain. "All out for Pom
peii" was the cry of the conductor. And
now we stand by the corpse of that dead
city. AS we entered the gate and passed
between the walls 1 took off my hat, as
one naturally does in the presence of
some imposing obsequies. That city had
been ut one time capital of beauty and
pomp. The home of grand architecture,
exquisite painting, enchanting sculpture,
unrestrained carousal and rapt assem-
blage. A high wall 20 feet thick, three
fourths of it still visible, encircled the
city. On those walls at distance of
only 100 yards 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
excepted.
In the days of the city's prosperity its
towers glittered in the sun; eight strong
gates for ingress and egress; Gate of the
'Seashore, Gate of Herculaneum, Gate of
Vesuvius being perhaps the most i'm
lortant. Yonder stood the Temple OF
Jupiter, hoisted at an imposing eleva-
iion, and with its six corinthian col
umns of immense girth, which stood like
carved icebergs shimmering in the light.
There stands the Temple of the Twelve
Gods. Yonder see the Temple of Her
c,iles and the Temple of Mercury, with
nltars of marble and bas-relief, wonder
ful enough to astound all succeeding
ages of art, and the Temple of Escula-
Plus, brilliant with sculpture and gor-
gcous with painting.
Yonder are the theaters, partly cut
into surrounding hills, and glorifed with
pictured walls, and entered under arches
of imposing masonry, and with rooms
for captivated and applaudatory au-
diences seated or standing in vast semi
circle. Yonder are the costly and i'm
lnense public baths of the city, with
more than the modern ingenuities OF
Carlsbad. Notice the warmth of those
ancient tepidariums, with lowering ra-
diance of roof, and the vapor Of those
caldariums, with decorated alcoves, and
The cold dash of their frigidariums, with
floors of mosaic and ceilings of all skill
fully intermingled hues, and walls up
upholstered 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 cele-
brated gladiators. Yonder is the sum
uer home of Sallust, the Roman histo-
rian and senator, the architecture as
elaborate as his character was corrupt.
There is the residence of the poet Pansa,
with a compressed Louvre and Luxem-
hourg within his walls. There is the
home of Lucretius, with vases and an
tiauities enough TO turn the head OF a
yirtuoso. Yonder seethe Forum, at the
highest place in the city. 1t Is entered
bv two triumpaal arches. IL Is bound