The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-10-11
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tical suggestion comes to your mind
from this walk through uncovered
Pompeii, but the first thought that abb
sorbs me is that, while art and culture
are important, they cannot save the
morals or the life Of great town.
Much Of the painting and sculpture OF !
Pompeii was so exquisite that, while
some is kept on the walls where 1t was
first penciled, to be admired by those
who 60 there, whole wagonloads and
whole rooms full Of it have been trans
ferred to the Museo Borbonico al
Naples, to be admired by the centuries.
Those Pompeiian artists mixed such
durability of colors that though their
paintings were buried in ashes and
scori@ for seventeen hundred years,
and since they were uncovered many
of them have remained there exposed
to the rains and winds and winters and
summers OF a hundred and thirty years,
the color is as fresh and vivid and true
as though yesterday 1t had passed from
the easel. Which Of our modern paint
ings could stand all that? And yet
many of the specimens Of Pompeiian
art show that the city was sunk to
such depth of abomination that there
was nothing deeper. Sculptured and
petrifed and embalmed abomination.
There was state of public morals
worse than belongs to any city now
standing under the sun. Yet, how many
think that all that is necessary Is to cul-
tivate the mind and advance the know
ledge, and improve the arts. Have you
the impression that eloquence will do
the elevating work? Why, Pompeii
had Cicero half Of every year for Its
citizen. Have you the idea that liter
ature is all that is necessary to keep
city rightp Why, Sallust, with a pen
that was the boast Of Roman litera-
ture, had a mansion in that doomed
city. Do you think that sculpture and
art are quite sufficient for the produc-
tion Of good moralsP Then, correct
your delusion by examining the statues
in the Temple of Mercury at Pompeii, or
the winged figures of its Parthenon, and
the colonnades and arches of this house
Of Diomed. BY all means have schools
and Dusseldorf and Dore exhibitions,
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 q
city moral. In proportion as churches
and Bibles and Christian printing
presses and revivals Of religion abound
is city clean and pure. What ha'
Buddhism or Confucianism or Moham
mechanism done In all the hundreds o.
years OF their progress for the elevation
Of society? Absolutely nothing. Pekir
and Madras and Cairo are just wha
they were ages ago, except as Chris
tianity has modified their condition
What Is the difference between ou
Brooklyn and their Pompeii? No dif
ference, except that which Christianit.
has wrought. Favor all good art bu
take best care Of your churches an
your Sabbath-schools and your Bible
and your family altars.
Yea, see in our walk to-day throug
. uncovered Pompeii what sin will d
for a city. We ought TO be slow to a
sign the judgments Of God Cities AZ
! sometimes afflicted just as good peopl
, are afflicted, and the earthquake an
the cyclone and the epidemic are n
. sign in many cases that God is angr
with city, but the distress Is sent fc
) some good and kind purpose, wheth'
, we understand IL or not. The law thi
I applies TO individuals may apply
, Christian cities as well "All thing
worl. together for good TO those tia
love God" But the greatest calamit
: Of history came upon Pompeii not
I improve It's future condition, for II WI
: completely obliterated and will new
4 be rebuilt twas so bad that it neede
4 10 be buried seventeen hundred yea
/. before even its ruins were fit TO be u
: covered. So Sodom and Gomorrah we
o filed with such turpitude that thu
t were not only turned under. but ha'
/. for thousands Of years been kept unde
$ The two greatest cemeteries are u
@ cemetery in which the sunken shi
= are buried all the way between Fl
IS island and Fastnet lighthouse, and q
n other cemetery Is the cemetery OF de-
v cities. get down on my knees al
i read the epitapheology Of n long III
d of them: Here lies Babylon, on
= called "The Hammer Of the who
4. earth" Dead and buried under pill
s of bitumen and broken pottery a
r. vitrified brick. And hear a wolf ho'
y and a reptile hiss as ! am readi
II this epitaph: Isaiah Kill, 2l; 'r
d wild beast OF the desert shall be the
/ and their houses shall be full of do
Q, full creatures" =,
b The next tomb l kneel before in q
"A cemetery OF cities Is Nineveh. Il
a. winged lions are down and the slabs
va alabaster have crumbled, and the scu
re ture that represented her battles is
n completely scattered as the dust OF
ID heroes who fought them Perhap
n. put my knee into the dust OF
at sardanapalus as stoop TO read
at epitaph: Zephaniah 2:l4, Now
nj Nineyeh a desolation and dry lik,
Is wilderness, and focks lie down In
ed midst Of her; all the beasts Of
nations, both the cornorant and
vn bittern, lodge In the upper lintels
re IT," And while I read II hear an {
70, hoot and a hyena laugh. The n
ed entombed city l pass has monum
tn Of fifty PROSTATE columns Of grey
en- red granite and II Ia Tyre. The n
da .a.,,icha,. ~ m oraat canital Is cove