News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-02-16
THE CRUEL HEATHEN
DR.. TALMAGE FINDS AN IMPRESSIVE
LESSON IN THE ROMAN COLISEUM.


Condition of Rome When st. Paul Preached
There-Empenor and People Alike Given
Over to Lust and CrueIty-C Christianity
Mighty Work.
BROOKLYN, Feb. 12-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage this morning, after commenting on
the Scriptures and giving out hymns in
which the multitude of worshipers in
the Brooklyn Tabernacle joined, dis
coursed from the text Romans i, Is, 81
am ready to preach the gospel to you
that are at Rome Also
Rome! What city it was when Paul
visited it! What city it is nowl Rome!
The place where Virgil sang and Horace
satirized and Terence laughed and Gait
line conspired and Ovid dramatized and
Nero fiddled and Vespasian prosecuted
and Sulla legislated and Cicero thun-
dered and Aurelius and Decius and Cali
gula and Julian and Hadrian and Con-
stantine and Augustus reigned and Paul
the apostle preached the gospel.
l am not much of a craftsman, but /
have in my memorandum book sketch
which 1 made in the winter of 1889,
when went out to the gate through
which Paul entered Rome and walked
up the very street he walked up to see
somewhat how the city must have looked
to him as he came in on the gospel err
rand proposed in the text. Palaces on
either side of the street through which
the little missionary advanced. Piled up
wickedness. Enthroned accursedness.
Tempted cruelties. Affairs to sham del
ties. Glorifed delusions. Pillared, arched,
domed, turreted denominations. Wicked
ness of all sorts at high premium and
righteousness 99a per cent off. And now
he passes by the foundations of build
ing which is to be almost unparalleled for
vastness. You can see by the walls,
which have begun to rise, that here is to
be something enough stupendous to as
found the centuries. Ave, it is the Coli
scum started.
THEIR MONUMENTS OF SHAME.
OF the theater at Ephesus where Paul
fought with wild beasts, the temple of
Diana, of the Parthenon, of pharaohs
palace at Memphis and of other great |
buildings the ruins of which have seen |
it has been my privilege to address you,
but a member of my family asked me
recently why ! had not spoken to you of |
the Coliseum 1T Rome, since its moral |
and religious lessons are so impressive.
Perhaps while in Rome the law of |
contrast wrought upon me. I had Wis |
tied the Mamertine dungeon where Paul
was incarcerated. l had measured the
opening at the top of the dungeon
through which Paul had been let down,
and it was % inches by 20. The ceiling
at its highest point was feet from the
floor, but at the sides of the room the
ceiling was 8 feet inches. Tie room at
the widest was Is feet. There was a seat
of rock q feet high. There was shelf
4 feet high. The only furniture was a
spiders web suspended from the roof,
which l saw by the torchlight 1 carried
There was the subterraneous passage
from the dungeon to the Roman forum,
so that the prisoner could be taken d.
rectly from prison to trial.
The dungeon was built out of volcanic
stone from the Albano mountains. Oh.
it was dismal and terrific place. You
never saw coal hole so dark or so for
bidding. The place was to me a nervous
shock, for l remembered that was the
best thing that the world would afford
the most illustrious being, except one,
that it ever saw, and that from that
place Paul went out to die. From that
spot l visited the Coliseum-one OF
the most astounding miracles of archi-
lecture that the world ever saw. In
deed l saw it morning noon and night,
for it threw spell on me from which ]
could not break away,
Although now vast ruin, the Coli
scum is so well preserved that we can
stand in the center and recall all that it
once was. 1t is in shape elipsoidal, oval,
oblong. 1t is at its greatest length 612
feet. After it had furnished seats for
81 900 people it had room for $4,000 more
to stand, so that 100000 people could sit
and stand transfxed by its scenes of
courage and martyrdom and brutality
and horror.
Instead of our modern tickets of admis-
sion, they entered by ivory check, and
check dug up near Rome within few
years was marked, ''Section 6, Lowest
Tier, Seat No. 49," You understand that
the building was not constructed for an
audience to be addressed by human voice,
tested it with some friends
and could be heard across it, but it was
made only for seeing and was circular,
and at any point allowed full view Of
the spectacle.
REFINEMENTS OF CRUELTY.
The arena in the center in olden times
was strewn with pounded stone or sand,
SO as not to be too slippery with human
blood, for if it were too slippery il
would spoil the fun. The sand flashed
here and there with sparkles of silver
and gold, and Nero added cinnabar and
Caligula added chrysocolla. The sides
of the arena were composed of smooth
marble II feet high, so that the wild
beasts of the arena could not climb up
into the audience. On the top of these
rides of smooth marble was metal rail
ing, having wooden rollers, which easily
revolved, so that if a panther should
leap high enough to scale the wall and
with his paw touch any one of those
rollers it would revolve and drop him
back again into the arena.
Back of this marble wall surrounding
the arena was level platform of stone,
adorned with statues of gods and god
esses and the artistic effigies of monarchs
BEATS for the emperor and the imperial
swine and swinesses with which he sur
rounded himself. Before the place where
The emperor sat the gladiators would
walk Immediately after entering the are
IA, crying: "Hail, Caesarl Those about
10 die salute thee"
The different ranks of spectators were
divided by partitions studded with mo-
sales of emerald and beryl and ruby and
diamond. Great masts of wood arose
from all sides of the building, from
which festoons of flowers were suspend
ed, crossing the building, or in time of
rain awnings of silk were suspended, the
Coliseum having no roof. The outside
wall was incrusted with marble and had
four ranges, and the three lower ranges
had 80 columns each and arches after
arches, and ON each arch an exquisite
statue of god or hero.
Into 100 feet of altitude scared the
Coliseum. 1t glittered and flashed and
shone with whole sunrises and sunsets of
dazzlement. After the audience had as
sembled aromatic liquids oozed from
tubes distilled from pipes and rained
gently ON the multitudes and filled the
air with doors of hyacinth and hello
trope and frankincense and balsam and
myrrh and saffron, SO that Lucan, the
poet, says of it:
At once ten thousand saffron currents flow
And rain their odors on the crowd below.
ORGANIZED MURDER AND TORTURE.
E211t whore xuaG tho snort fr, oC1I,o fr.o111S |