Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-10-20
REV. DIR. TAlMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT: "PourEn Anu ITS LESSONS

TrIT: "7no. hast made Of a derenssd city
dr1iif Isaiah xxv.,2
A Hash on the night sky greeted us az we
len the rail train at Naples, Italy. What was
the strange illumination2 II was that wrath
OF many centuries-vesuvius Giant son of
an earthquake. Intoxicated mountain OF
Italy. Father OF many consternations. A
volcano, burning so long, and yet to keep on
burning until, perhaps, II may be the yery
torch that will kindle the last confiagratton
and set all the world on fire. 1t eclipses in
violence OF behavior CotopaIi and Etna and
strombou and Krakatoa. Awful mystery
Funeral pyre of dead cities. Everlasting
paroxysm OF mountains. II seems Ike a
chimney OF hell. Ii roars with fiery remln-
iscence OF what II has done and with threats
ofworse things that II may yet do. I would
not live In one Of the villages at It's base for a
present OF all Italy.
On . day In December, 1851, It threw up
ashes that hoated away hundreds and hun
dreds OF miles and dropped In Constantine
pie, and in the Adriatic sea, and on the
Apennines, as we'll as trampling out at its
own foot the lives OF Is, 900 people Geo
logists have tried to fathom its mysteries, but
the heat consumed the iron instruments and
drove back the scorched and blistered ex-
plorers from the cindery and crumbling
brink. II seems like the asylum Of maniac
elements.
At one tine far back its top had been a
fortress, where Spartacus fought and was
surrounded and would have been DESTROYED
had It not been for the grapevines 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 its furnace burning as
we saw It that night on our arrival In Novem-
Der OF 1889.
or course the next day we started to see
some OF the work wrought by that frenzied
mountain "All out for Pompeii r. 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 took
of my hat, as one naturally does In the pres
ence OF some imposing obsequies. That city
had been at one time a capital Of beauty and
pomp. The home OF grand architecture. er-
quisite painting, enchanting sculpture, unre-
strained carousal and rapt assemblage. A
high wall twenty feet thick, three-fourths Of
1t still visible, encircled the city. or those
walls, at a 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 ono street
excepted.
In the days Of the city's prosperity its
towers glttered In the sun; eight strong
gates for ingress and egress Gate OF the
Seashore, Gate OF Herculaneum, Gate OF
! Vesuvius being perhaps the most important.
fonder stood the Temple OF Jupiter, hoisted
at an imposing elevation, and with its six
corinthian columns Of immense girth, which
stood Ike carved icebergs shimmering In the
light. There stands the Temple OF the
Twelve Gods. Yonder see the Temple OF
/ Hercules and the Temple OF Mercury, with
affairs OF marble and bas-relief, wonderful
! enough to astound all succeeding ages ofart.
and the Temple OF Ksculaplus, brilliant with
sculpture and gorgeous with painting.
1onder are the theatres, partly cut into
surrounding hills, and gloriAed with pio-
tured walls, and entered under arches OF i'm
posing masonry, and with rooms, for capt..
waited and applaudatory audiences seated or
standing in vast semi-circle. Yonder are the
costly and immense public baths OF the city,
with more than the modern ingenuities OF
Carlsbad Notice the warmth OF those an
cient tepidariums, with lowering radiance
| OF roof, and the vapor OF those caldarlums
with decorated alcoves, and the cold dash OF
their frigidariums. with floors OF mosaic and
ceilings OF all skilfully intermingled hues,
and walls upholstered with all the colors OF
the setting sun, and sofas on which to recline
| for slumber after the plunge
fonder are the barracks of the celebrated
Rladiators. Yonder is the summer homo OF
Sallust, the Roman historian and Senator,
the architecture IA elaborate as his charac-
ter was corrupt. There Is the residence OF
tho poet Pansa, with compressed Louvre
and Luxembourg within his walls. There ia
the home OF Lucretius, with vases and antiqui-
ties enough to turn the head OF q virtuoso
Yonder see the Forum, at the highest place
In the city. 1t Is entered by two triumphal
arches. II Is bounded ON three sides by
dorlc columns.
Yonder, in the suburbs OF the city, Is the
home OF Arrius Diomed, the mayor OF the
suburbs, terraced residence OF Millionaire
dom, gardens, fountained, statued, colon
naded, the cellar OF that villa filled with bot
ties OF rarest wine, few drops of which
were found 1900 years afterward. Along the
| streets OF the city are men OF might and
women OF beauty formed into bronze that
many centuries had no power to bedim. Bat
tic scenes on walls in colors which all time
cannot effRce. Great city Of Pompeiil so
Seneca and Tacitus and Cicero pronounced
IL.
Stand with mo on its walls this evening OF
August 29, A. d. ~. See the throngs pass
ing up and down in Tyrlan purple and CIR
dies OF arabesque, and necks enchanted with
precious stones, proud official in imposing
toga meeting the slave carrying trays a-clink
with goblets and a-smoke with deicacies
from paddock and sea, and morallst musing
over tho degradation OF the times passes tho
proaigate doing his best to make them worse.
Hark to the clatter and rataplan OF the hoofs
on the streets paved with blocks OF basalt
See the verdured and lowered grounds slop-
Ing into the most beautiful bay of all the
earth-the bay OF Naples.
Listen TO the rumbling chariots, carrying
cornwall occupants to halls OF mlrth and
masquerade and carousal. Hear the loud
dash OF fountains amid the culptured water
nymphs Notice the weird, solemn farreach-
ing hum and din and roar OF city at the
close OF summer day. Let Pompeii sleep
well tonight, for 1t is the last night OF peace
full slumber before she falls into the deep
slumber OF many long centuries The morn.
Ing OF the oath OF August, A d. 49, has ar
rived, and the days roll on, and 1t Is O'Clock
In the afternoon. "Look!" I say to you
standing on this wall, as the sister OF Pliny
said to him, the Roman essayist and naval
commander, on the day Of which l speak, as
she pointed him In the direction in which
point you.
There Is peculiar cloud on the sky;a
spotted cloud, now white, now black. II Is
Vesuvius In awful and unparalleled eruption.
Now the smoke and fire and steam of that
black monster throat rise and spread, as, by
my gesture, l now describe II. 1t rises, a |
great column OF fiery, darkness. higher and
higher, and then spreads out like the
branches OF tree, with midnights enter
wrapped in its foliage, wider and wider.
NOW the sun goes out, ana showers OF
pumice stone and water from furnaces more
than seven times heated, and ashes In avail
anche after avalanche, binding and scalding
and suffocating, descend north, south, east
and west, burying deeper and deeper in
mammoth sepulcher. such as never before
or since was opened, stabie, Herculaneum
and Pompeii. Ashes ankle deep, grdle |
deep, chin deep, ashes overhead.
Out Of the houses and temples and thea
tres and into the streets and down to the |
beach fed many OF the frantic, but others, II |
not sufrocated OF the ashes, were scalded to |
death by the heated deluge. And then came
heavier destruction In rocks after rocks,
crushing In homes and temples and theatrea