Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1893-10-14
LESSONS OF POMPEII.
RIGHTEOUSNESS is LIFE, BUT lNlout
TY IS DEATH.

ny Is DEAF n.
Rev. DR.. Talmnges Vivid Description OF
tho Ruined City-solemnity and Awe In
spired by tho surroundIngs--A Warning
to the Wicked of Today.
BBooKLYN, Oct. SIN his 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 q dead city of the past.
The opening hymn, led by cornet and or
gan, was Joined by the voices of the null
Htude,,
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, Q, Thou
hast made of a defensed city ruin.
A flash on the night sky greeted US as
we left the rail train at Naples, Italy.
What was the strange illumination 1t
was that wrath ofmany centuries-Vesu-
vius. Giant son OF an earthquake. Intoxi-
Gated mountain Of Italy. Father of many
oonsternations. A volcano, burning 80
long, and yet to keep on burning until,
perhaps, it may be tho very torch that
will kindle the last confagraton and
set ell the world on fire. It eclipses in
violence Of behavior Cotopaxi and Etna
and Stromhoi and Krakatoa. Awful
mystery. Funeral pyre Of dead cities.
Everlasting paroxysm Of mountains. 1t
seems like chimney Of hell. 1t roars
with fiery "Reminiscences Of what 1t has
done and with threats Of worse things
that 1t may yet do. l would not live in
one of the villages OF Its base for pres
ent of all Italy.
On asday In December, 1881, 1t threw
up ashes that hoated away hundreds and
hundreds Of miles and dropped in Con-
stantinople, and In the Adriatic sea, and
on the Apennines, as we'll as trampling
out at dts own foot the lives of $4,000
peopleaM Biologists 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. 1t
seems Ike the asylum OF maniac ele-
ments.ss
Atonetime far back Its top had been
FORTRESS, where Spartacus fought and
was surrounded and would have been
destroyed had 1t not been for the grape
vines which clothed the mountainside
from Top to base, and laying hold of
them hssclimbed hand under hand to
safetyiISahe valley. Bat for centuries
1t hasskapt its furnace burning as We
saM:diss That night on our arrival In No
veinberaf. 1880.
THE DEAD CITY.
OfcoHrse the next day we started to
SEQ somsof the work wrought by til 1t
Professionalism. "All out for Pom
petit the cry Of the conductor. And
now westand by the corpse of that dead
city. sWe entered the gate and passed
between bic walls / took off my hat, as
one lsf does In the presence of
some IN Soaings obsequies. That city had
been Sc ana tlme,a capital of beauty and
:pomp Tome Of grand architecture,
Eazdnis - enchanting sculpture,
unrestrained carousal and rapt assem-
.blage. A high-wan 20 feet thick, three
fourths of 1t still visible, encircled the
city. On those walls ut 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 glittsred in the sun; eight strong
gates for ingres5 and egress; Gate of the
Seashore, Gate Of Herculaneum, Gate Of
yesuyius being perhaps the most i'm
! portant. Yonder stood the Temple Of
Jupiter, hoisted ut an imposing eleva-
ton, and with Its six corinthian col
umns of immense girth, which stood like
carved iccbergs shimmering in the light.
There stands the Temple of the Twelve
Gods. Yonder see the Temple of Her
cules and the Temple of Mercury, with
affairs of marble and bas-relief, wonder
full enough to astound al succeeding
ages Of art, and the Temple Of Escula-
Plus, brilliant with sculpture and gor-
geous 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
mense public baths of the city, with
more than the modern ingenuities OF
Carlsbad. Notice the warmth Of those
ancient tepidariums, with lowering "a
dance Of roof, and the vapor of those
caldariu1ns, 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-
mer 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 compressed Louvre and Lu1em-
bourg within his walls. There Is the
home of Lucretius, with vases and an
tiquities enough to turn the head of
y1rtuoso. Yonder see the Forum, at the
highest place In the city. 1t is entered
by two triumphal arches. 1t is bound
ed on three sides by doric columns.
yondey. In the suburbs of the city, Is
the home of Arrius Diomed, the mayor
of the suburbs, terraced residence of
bilionairedom. gardens, fountained,
statued, colonnaded, the cellar of that
villa filed with bottles Of rarest wine,
few drops of which were found 1900
yea.s afterward. Along the streets OF
the city are men of might and women of