The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1893-12-02
deeper. sculptured and petrified and

state of public morals worse than be-
longs to any city now standing under
the sun. Yet how many think that all
that is necessary is to cultivate the
mind and advance the knowledge and
improve the arts. Have you the Inn
preston that eloquence will do the
elevating work? Why, Pompeii had
Cicero half of every year for its citizen.
Have you the idea that literature is all
that is necessary to keep the city
right? Why, Sallust, with a pen
that was the boast of Roman litera-
ture, had mansion in that doomed
city. Do you think that sculpture and
art are quite sufficient for the pro-
duction of good morals? Then correct
your delusion by examining the statues
in the temple of Mercury at Pompeii,
or the winged figures of its Parthenon,
and the colonades and arches of this
house of Diomed. BY all means have
schools and Dusseldorf and Dore exhi-
billions, and galleries where the genius
of all the centuries can bank itself up
in snowy sculpture, and all bric-a
brac, and all pure art, but nothing,
save the religion of Jesus Christ, can
make city moral. In proportion as
churches and Bibles and Christian
printing presses and revivals ofreligion
abound is city clean and pure. What
has Buddhism or Confucianism or Mo-
hammedanism done in all the hundreds
of years of their progress for the eleva-
ton of society? Absolutely nothing.
Pekin and Madras and Cairo are just
what they were ages ago, except as
Christianity has modified their condi-
ton. What is the difference between
our Brooklyn and their Pompeii? No
difference, except that which Chris
tianity has wrought. Favor all good
art, but take best care of your churches,
and your Sabbath-schools, and your
Bibles, and your family affairs.
Yea, see in our walk to-day through
uncovered Pompeii what sin will do
for city. We ought to be slow to as
sign the judgments of God.~ Cities are
sometimes afflicted just rs good people
are afflicted, and the earthquake and
the cyclone and the epidemic are no
sign in many cases that God is angry
with city. but the distress is sent for
some good and kind purpose, whether
we understand it or not. The law that
applies to individuals may apply to
work together for good to those that
love God" But the greatest calamity of
history came upon Pompeii not to i'm
prove its future condition, for it was
completely obliterated and will never
be rebuilt. 1t was so bad that it need
ed to be buried seventeen hundred
years before even its ruins were fit to
be uncovered. So Sodom and Gomor-
rah were filled with such turptitude
that they were not only turned under,
but have for thousands of years been
kept under The two greatest ceme-
teries are the cemetery in which the
sunken ships are buried all the way
between Fire island and Fastnet light
house, and the other cemetery is the
cemetery of dead cities. / get down
on my knees and read the epitapheolo-
gy of 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 vitrified brick. And hear
wolf howl and reptile hiss as l am
reading this epitaph: Isaiah xiii, 81.
1.-THE wild beast of the desert shall be
there and their houses shall be full of
doleful creatures"
Warned by the doom of other cities
that have persisted for their rufianism,
or their cruelty, or their idolatry, or
their dissoluteness, let all our Amer
lean cities lead the right way. Our
only dependence is on God and Chris
tan influences. Politics will do moth
ing but make things worse. Send
politics to moralize and save city
and you send smallpox to heal
leprosy, or carcass to relieve the air
of malodor. For what politics will do
1 refer you to the eight weeks of stul-
LITIGATION enacted at Washington by
our American senate. American poll
tics will become reformatory power
on the same day that pandemonium
becomes - church. But there are, /
am glad to say, benign and salrtary
and gracious influences organized in
all our cities which will yet take them
IOr you anu righteousness. Leu US
ply the Gospel machinery to
its utmost speed and power.
City evangelization is the thought Ac-
customed as are religious pessimists to
dwell upon statistics of evil and delor-
GUS facts we want some one with sane
titled heart and good digestion to put
in long line the statistics of natures
transformed, and profigacies balked,
and souls ransomed, and cities
redeemed. Give us pictures of
churches, of schools, of reforma-
tory associations, of asylums of
mercy. Break in upon the Misereres
of complaint and dependency with TIE
Deums and Jubilates of moral and re-
ligious victory. Show that the day is
coming when great tidal wave of sal
walton will roll over all our cities.
Show how Pompeii buried will become
Pompeii resurrected. Demonstrate the
fact that there are millions of
good men and women who will give
themselves no rest day nor night
until cities that are now of the type
of the buried cities of Italy shall take
| type from the New Jerusalem coming
down from God out of Heaven. hail
| the advancing morn. / make the same
proclamation to-day that Gideon made
| to the shivering towards of his army:
whatsoever is fearful and afraid,