The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1893-10-26
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: s'Pompeu and It's Lessons. :"

TEXT: "T7lou hast made Of a defensed cit,
ruin. Isaiah XIV. 2.
A fash on the night sky greeted us as We
left the rail train at Naples. Italy. What was
the strange illumination II was that wratl
Of many centurieg-Yesuvius. Giant son o
an earthquake. Intoxicated mountain o
italy. Father Of many considerations.
volcano, burning so long, and yet to keep or
burning until, perhaps, it may be the very
torch that will kindle the last con1asration
and set ell the world on fire. 7 eclipses in
violence Of behavior Cotopaxi and Ktna and
stromboh and Krakatoa. Awful mystery.
Funeral pyre OF dead cities. Everlasting
paroxysm Of mountains. IT seems ike a
chimney Of hell. II roars with fiery remin.
fscence OF what It has done and with threats
ofworse things that it may yet do. 1 would
not live in one OF the villages at its base for a
present of all Italy.
On a day in December, 1881, It threw up
ashes that tloated away hundreds and hun
dreds Of miles and dropped in Constantine
pie. and in the Adriatic sea-. and on the
Apennines, as well as tramplins out at its
own foot the lives Of $4,000 people. Geo
logist5 have tried to fathom its mysteries, but
the heat consumed the iron instruments and
drove back the scorched and blistered ex-
plorers from the cindery and crumbEng
brink. 1t seems like the asylum of maniac
elements.
At one tine far back its top had been
fortress, where Spartaeus fought and was
surrounded and would have been destroyed
had it not been for the grapevines which
clothed the nountainside from top to base.
and laying hold OF them he climbed hand
under hand to safety in the valley. But for
centuries it has kept its furnace burning as
We saw it that night on our arrival in Novem-
Der Of 1899.
OF course the next day we started to SEQ
GONE OF the work wrought by that frenzied
mountain. "All out for Pompeii !" was the
cry OF the conductor. And now we stand by
the corpse Of that dead city. As we entered
the gate and passed between tie walls | took
of my hat as one naturally does in the pres
ence OF some imposing obsequies. That city
had been at one time a capital of beauty and
pomp. The home of grand architecture. ex-
quisite painting, enchanting sculpture unre
strained carousal and rapt assemblage. A
high wall twenty feet thick, three-fourths Of
It still visible, encircled the city. OF those
walls, at a 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 citys prosperity its
towers glittered in the sun eight strong
gates for ingress and egress Gate Of the
Seashore, Gate Of Herculaneum, Gate Of
Eesuvius being perhaps the most important.
JpAtF4 sLOOsl TIC ttt PIE VI l-ltA, LtOlottL
at an imposing elevation, and with its six
corinthian columns Of immense girth, which
stood like carved icebergs shimmering in the
light. There stands the Temple of the
Twelve Gods. Yonder see the Temple of
Hercules and the Temple OF Mercury, with
affairs of marble and bas-relief, wonderful
enough to astound all succeeding ages ofart,
and the Temple OF Esculapius, brilliant with
sculpture and gorgeous with painting.
Wonder are the theatres, partly cut into
surrounding hills, and glorihed with pic
tured walls, and entered under arches of i'm
posing masonry, and with rooms, for capti-
waited and applaudatory audiences seated or
standing in vast seTni-cirele. Yonder are the
costly and immense public baths of the city,
with more than the modern ingenuities Of
Carlsbad. Notice the warmth OF those an
Gent tepidariums, with lowering radiance
OF root and the vapOr Of those caldariums
with decorated aieoves. and the cold dash Of
their frigidariums, with floors OF mosaic and
ceilings of all skilfully interningled hues
and walls 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 celebrated
gladiators. Yonder is the summer home of
Saliust, the Roman historian and Senator,
the architecture as elaborate as his charac-
ter was corrupt. There is the residence of
the poet Pansa, with a compressed Louvre
and Luxembourg within his walls. There il
the home OF Lucretius, with vases and antidui-
ties enough 10 turn the head OF a virtuoso.
yonder see the Forum, at the highest place
in the city. Ii is entered by two triumphal
arches. It is bounded on three sides by
doric columns.
Yonder. in the suburbs OF the city, is the
home OF Arrius Diomed the mayor OF the
suburbs. terraced residence Of Millionaire
dom, gardens. fountained, statued, colon
poInI +bn 0olIor. Of bo4 villa GllaA with
ties OF rarest wine, few drops Of which
were found 1900 years afterwar1. Along the
streets Of the city are men OF might and
women of beauty formed into bronze that
many centuries had no power to bedim. Bat
tie scenes on walls in eOlors which all time
cannot etlace Great city OF Pompeii SO
Seneca and Tacitus and Cicero pronounced
il.
Stand with me on its walls this evening Of
August 49, A. D. 10 See the throngs pass
ing IN and down in Tyrian purple and Cir
dies OF arabesque, and necks unclaimed with
p precious stones, proud official in imposing
tosa meeting the slave carrying trays a-ciink
with goblets and a-smoke with delicacies
from paddock and sea. and moralist musing
over the degradation OF the times passes the
prohigate doing his best to make them worse.
Hark to the clatter and ratapan Of the hoofs
on the streets paved with blocks of basalt
See the yerdured and lowered grounds slop-
ing into the most beautiful bay OF all the
earth-the bay of Naples.
Listen to the rumbling chariots, carrying
convlvial occupants to halls of mirth and
masquerade and carousal. Hear the loud
dash of fountains amid the sculptured water
nymphs. Notice the weird, solemn farreach-
ing hum and din and roar of city at the
close of a summer day. Let Pompeii sleep
well tonight, for it is the last night of peace
full slumber before she falls into the deep
slumber Of many long centuries. The morn
ing of the oath of August, A. d. 70, has ar
rived, and the days roll on, and it is / o'clock
In tho afternoon. "LookW say to you,
standing on this wall, as the sister OF Pliny
said to him, the Roman essayist and naval
commander, on the day OF which I speak, as
she pointed him in the direction in which !
point you.
There is a peculiar cloud on the sky /; a
spotted cloud, now white, now black. 1t is
Yesuvius in awful and unDaralleled eTlptlop
Now the smoke and fire and steam OF thai
black monster throat rise and spread as, by
my gesture, 1 now describe it. 1t rises, a
great column of fiery, darkness, higher and
higher, and then spreads out like the
branches of a tree, with midnights enter
wrapped in its foliage, wider and wider.
Now the sun goes out, and showers oil
pumice stone and water from furnaces more
than seven times heated, and ashes in avail