Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-10-12

city moral. In proportion as churches and
| Bibles and Christian printing presses and
| REVEALS of religion abound is n city clean
and pure. What has Buddhism or Confu-
cianism or Mohammedanism done in all
the hundreds of years Of their progress for
the elevation of society? Absolutely moth
ing. Picking and Madras and Cairo are just
what they were ages ago, except as Chris
tanity has modified their condition.
What is the difference between our
Brooklyn and their Pompeii' No differ
ence except that which Christianity has
wrought. Favor all good art, but take l,est
care of your churches, and your Sabbath
schools, and your Bibles, and your family
affairs.
Yea, see in our walk today through un-
covered Pompeii what sin will do for n city.
We ought to be slow to assign the judg.
nents of God Cities are sometimes afTlict-
ed just as good people arc afflicted, and the
earthquake, and the cyclone, and the cpl.
demic are no sign in many cases that God
is angry with a city, but the distress is sent
for some good and kind purpose, whether
we understand it or not. The law that ap.
plies to individuals may apply TO Christian
cities as well, "All things work together for
good to those that love God"
LIKE soDoM AND GoMORRAH
But the greatest calamity of history came
upon Pompeii, not to improve its future
condition, for it was completely obliterated
and will never be rebuilt. lNwas so bad
that it needed to be buried / 100 years be.
fore even its ruins were fit to be uncovered.
So Sodom and Gomorrah were filled with
such turptude that they were not only
turned under, but have for thousands Of
years been kept under. The two greatest
cemeteries are the cemetery in which the
sunken ships are buried all the way be.
tween Fire island and Fastnet lighthouse,
and the other cemetery is the cemetery OF
dead cities
get down on my knees and read the
epitapheology of a long line of them: Here
lies Babylon, once called The hammer of
the whole earth" dead and buried under
piles of bitumen and broken pottery and
vitrefed bricks. Aud | hear n wolf howl
and n reptile hiss as | am reading this cpl
taph isaiah xiii, 21), THE wild beast of the
desert shall be there and their houses shall
be full Of ioleful creatures"
The next tomb kneel before in this Gem
etery of cities is Nineveh. Her winged
lions are down. and the slabs Of alabaster
have crumbled, and the sculpture that rep.
resented her battles is as completely scat.
tered as the dust of the heroes who fought
them. Perhaps | put my knee into the
dust of her Sardanapalus as | stoop to read
her cpitaph (Zephaniah ii, IA: Now is
Nineveh a desolation and dry like will
derness, and fiocks lie down in the midst
of her. All the beasts of the nations, both
the cormorant and the bittern, lodge in the
upper lintels of it," And while | read it
lear an owl hoot and hyena laugh. The
next entombcd city I pass has Il monument
of 30 PROSTATE columns of gray and red
granite, and it is Tyre.
The next sepulcher of a great capital is
covered with scattered columns and de-
faced sphinxes and the sands of the desert,
and it is Thebes. AS | pass on find the
resting place of MycenT, Il city of which
Homer sang, and Corinth. which rejected
Paul and depended upon her fortress Ac-
rocorinthus, which now lies dismantled on
the hill, and move on in this cemetery Of
cities and | find the tombs OF Sardis and
Smyrna and Pcrsepolis and Memphis and
Baalbek and Carthage, and here are the
cities of the Plain and Herculaneum and
Stabia and Pompei Some of them have
mighty sarcophagus and hieroglyphic en-
tablature, but they are dead and buried,
never to rise.
THE CEMETERY NOT YET FILLED.
But the cemetery of dead cities is not yet
filled, and if the present cities of the world
forget God and with their indecencics
shock the heavens, let them know that
God, who on the oath of August, 20.
dropped on Il city of Italy IA superincum-
brance that staid there II centuries is still
alive and hates sin now as much US he did
then, and has at his command all the arm
ament of destruction withwhich he whelm-
ed their ubiquitous predecessors. 1t was
only few summers ago that Brook lyn
and New York felt an earthquake throb
that sent the people afirighted into the
streets, and that suggested that there are
forces of nature now suppressed or held in
check which, easier than II child in n nur-
sery knocks, down n row of block houses,
could PROSTATE city or engulf "A continent
deeper than Pompeii was engulied
Our hope is i'll the mercy of the Lord con
tinued to our American cities. 1t amazes
me that this city, which has the quietest
Sabbaths on the continent, and the best or
der, and the highest tone of morals of any
city that | know Of, is now having brought
into as near mel ghborhood as Coney Island
canivals of pugilism as debasinE as any of
the gladiatorial contests of Pompeii. What
a precious crow that "Coney Island Athletic
club is, under whose auspices these orgies
are enacted What II degradation to the
adjective athletic" which ordinarily sug-
gests health and muscle developed for use
full purpose Instead of calling it an ath-
letic club they might better style it "The
Rutiian Club For Smashing the Human
Nisage."
Vile men are turning that Coney Island,
which is one of the finest watering places
on all the Atlantic coast, into place fo-
the ofIscouring of the earth 10 congregate,
the low horse jockeys and gamblers, and the
pugilists and the pickpockets, and the bloats
regurgitated from the depths of the worst
wards Of these cities. They invite delegates
from universal loaferdom To come to their
carnival of knuckles But do not believe
That the pugilisn contracted for and adver-
,sed for next December will take place in
our neigh .Jrhood.
Evil sometimes defeats itself by going
one step too far. You may drive the hoop
of a barrel down so hard that it breaks.
will not believe that the international prize
fight will take place ON Long Island or in