Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-10-25
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Pompen and It's Lessons. +,

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 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. IL may be the very
torch that will kindle the last confagration
and set all the world on fire. 1t eclipses in
violence of behavior Cotopad and Etna and
StromboH and Krakatoa. Awful mystery
Funeral pyre OF dead cities. Everlasting
paroxysm of mountains. Ii seems like a
chimney OF hell. 1t roars with fiery remin-
lscence of what 1t has done and with threats
of worse things that it may yet do. 1 would
not live in one of the villages at its base for
present of all Italy.
On day in December. 1881, II threw up
ashes that foated away hundreds and hun
dreds OF miles and dropped in Constantine
pie, and in the Adriatic sea, and on tha
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 er-
plorers from the cindery and crumbling
brink. 1t 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 1t 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 1t 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 frenziei
mountain. ''AL out for Pompeii ~ was the
cry of the conductor. And now we stand by
the corpse OF that dead city As we entered
IA "a hot ha lie 7
of my hat, as one naturally does In the pres
ence OF some imposing obsequies. That city
had been at one time capital of beauty and
pomp. The home OF grand architecture. ex-
quisite painting, enchanting sculpture, unre-
strained carousal and rapt assemblage. A
high wall twenty feet thick. three-fourths of
il still visible, encirclei the city. OF 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 one street
excepted.
towers glttered in the sun ; eight strong
gates for ingress and egress Gate of the
SeashOre. Gate of Herculaneum. Gate of
Nesuvius being perhaps the most important.
GOnder stood the Temple of Jupiter. hosted
at an imposing elevation, ami with its six
cOrinthian columns of immense girth, which
stood like carved icebergs shimmering in the
light. There stands the Temple OF the
Twelve Gods. NOnder 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 ESculapus brilliant with
sculpture and gorgeous with painting.
Ionder are the theatres. partly cut into
surrounding hills, and glorifled with pic
tured walls. and entered under arches of i'm
posing masonry, and with rooms, for capti-
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 caldariums
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.
YOnder are the barracks of the celebrated
gladiatOrs. Ionier is the summer home Of
Sallust, the Roman historian and Senator,
the architecture as elaborate as his charac-
ter was corrupt. There is the residence of
the poet Pansa, with a compressed Louvre
and Luxembourg within his walls. There is
the home Of Lucretius. with vases and aatiqui-
ties enough to turn the head OF a virtuosO.
Yonder see the Forum, at the highest place
in the city. II is entered by two triunlphal
arches. 1t Is bounded on three sides by
dOric columns.
Yonder, in the suburbs Of the city, is the
home OF Arrius Diomed, the mayor OF the
suburbs, terraced residence OF billionaire-
dom. gardens, fountained. statued. colon
naded, the cellar of that villa filed with bot
ties of rarest wine, a 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
t1a nn a1lG in eplArs yEhieh I'll time
cannot efface. Great city Of Pompeii! So
Seneca and Tacitus and Cicero pronounced
II.
Stand with me on its walls this evening OF
August %. A. d. 70. See the thrOngs pass
ing up and down in Tyrian purple and CIR
dies Of arabesque. and necks enchained with
precious stones, proud official in imposing
toSa meeting the slave carrying trays a-clink
with goblets and a-smOke with delicacie5
from paddock and sea, and mOralist musiny
over the degradation Of the times passes the
prohigate 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 charlOts, carrying
convivial occupants to halls of mirth and
masquerade and carousal. Hear the loud
dash Of fountains amid the sculptured water
nymphs. Notice the weird, solemn farreach-
ing hum and din and roar of a city at the
close Of summer day. Let Pompeii sleep
well tonight, for it is the last night OF peace
full slumber before she falls into the deep
slumber of many long centuries The morn
ing Of the 25th of August, A. ID. 49, has ar
rived. and the days roll on and it is l o'clock
in the afternoon Look - | 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 ] speak. as
she pointed him in the direction in which
point you.
There is n peculiar cloud on the sky "a
spotted cloud, now white. now black. 1t is
Vesuvius in awful and unparalleled eruption.
Now the smoke and fire and steam OF that
black monster throat rise and spread, as, 10y
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, and showers OF
pumice stone and water from furnaces more
than seven times heated, and ashes in avail
anche after avalanche binding and scalding
and sutTocatinS, descend north, south, east
and west, buryinS deeper and deeper in
mammoth sepulcher. such as never before
OF since was opened, Stabiae, Hercullnsum
and Pompeii. Ashes ankle deep, girdle
deep. chin deep, ashes overhead
Out of the houses and temples and thea
beach fed many OF the frantic, but others, II
not sufTOcated 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 theatres.
No wonder the sea receded from the beach as
though in terror, until much of the shipping
was wrecked. and 10 wonder that wnen they
lifted Pliny the elder from the sailcloth on
which he was resting, under the agitations of
what he had seen, he suddenly expired
For three days the entOmbment proceeded.
Then the clouds lifted, and the cursin- of
that Apollyon of mountains subsidized. Fo.
100 years that city OF Pompeii lay buried
and without anything to show its place OF
doom. But after 100 years OF obliteration
n workmans spade. digging a well, strikes
n)me antiquities which lead TO the exhuma-
tiOn OF the city. Now walk with me through
some of the streets and into some of the
houses and amid the ruins OF basilica and
temple and amphitheatre.
From the moment the guide met US at the
gate on entering POmpeii that day in No.
vember, 1889, until he left US at the gate on
our departure, the emotion / felt was inde-
scribable for elevation and solemnity and
sorrow and awe Coma and sae tha ppt r.