Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-10-12
ATTHE TABERNACLE.
DR. rALMAeE pIscouRsEs ON POM
REH AID IT'S LESSONS.


BRooKLYE. Ock ain bis sermon at the
Brooklyn tabernacle this morning Rev. Dr.
Talmage presented an arousing theme Of
The living cities Of today drawn from the
tomb Of a dead city Of the past The open
ing hymn, led by cornet and organ, was
joined by the voices Of the multitudeI
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 q defended city ruin"
A fash on the night sky greeted us as we
left the rail train at Naples, Italy. What
was the strange illumInationt It was that
wrath Of many centuries-Vesuvius Giant
son ofan earthquake Intoxicated mountain
Of Italy. Father Of many consternations
A volcano burning 20 long and yet to keep
on burning until perhaps It may be the very
torch that will kindle the last connagra-
tion and set all the world on fire. II eclipses
In violence Of behavior Cotopad and Etna
and Stromboli and Krakatoa. Awful mys-
terry. Funeral pyre of dead cities. Ever
lasting paroxysm of mountains. It seems
like a chimney Of hell It roars with fiery
"reminiscences of what it has done and with
threats Of worse things that It may yet do.
Iwouid not live in one of the villages at its
base for q present Of all Italy.
On day in December, 1881, II threw up
ashes that fioated away hundreds and hun
dreds Of miles, and dropped In Constanti-
nople, and In the Adrfatic sea, and on the
Apennines, az well as trampling out at its
own foot the lives of 5000 people. Geolo-
gists have trted to fathom its mysteries,
but the heat consumed the iron instru-
ments and drove back the scorched and
biistered explorers from the cindery and
crumbling brink. It seems like the asylum
Of maniac elements.
At one time, far back, its top had been
fortress, where Spartacus fought and was
surrounded, and would have been destroyed
had it not been for the grape vines which
clothed the mountain side from top to base,
and laying hold of them be climbed hand
under hand to safety In the valley. But
for centuries It has kept It's furnace burn
ing as we saw it that night on our arrival
in November 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 Pompeiil' 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 off my hat, as one nat
urally does In the presence Of some impos-
ing obsequies That city had been at one
time capital of beauty and pomp, the
home of grand architecture, exquisite
painting, enchanting sculpture, unrestrain-
ed carousal and rapt assemblage. A high
wall, 20 feet thick, three-quarters of it still
visible, encircled the city On those walls at
distance of only O0yards 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 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 impor-
tant Yonder stood the temple of Jupiter,
hoisted Mt an imposing elevation, and 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. Yonder see the
Temple of Hercules and the Temple of Mer-
curry, with affairs OF marble and bas-relief,
wonderful enough to astound all succeed
Ing ages or art, and the Temple OF Alscula
Plus, brilliant with sculpture and gorgeous
with painting.
Ionder are the theaters, partly cut into
surrounding hills and glorited with pic
tured walls and entered under arches OF
imposing masonry, and with rooms for
captlvated ana appiaudatory audiences,
seated or standing, In vast semlclrcle. Yon-
der are the costly and immense public
paths OF tne city, With more Than the mod
uern lngenulties OF CarisDa9 Notlce tine
Warmtn OF Gnose ancient tepldarlums with
hovering radiance OF roof, and the vapor OF
tnose caloariums with decorated alcoves,
and the cold dash OF their frigidariums with
floors OF mosaic and ceilings OF all skillful-
~ mtermingied nues and walls upholster-
co with ali tne colors OF the esettIng 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 sena-
tor, the architecture as elaborate as his
character was corrupt. There is the resi-
dence of the poet Pansa, with compressed
Louvre and Luxembourg within his walls.
There is the home OF Lucretius, with vases
and antiquities enough to turn the head of
q virtuoso. Yonder see the Forum at the
highest place of the city. 1t is entered by
two triumphal 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 filled with
bottles of rarest wine, few drops of which
were found 1880 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.
Battle scenes on walls in colors, which, all
time cannot efface. Great city of Pompeiil
so Seneca and Tacitus and Cicero pro-
nounce 1t.