The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-10-25

Jour Shole tOuS vi DEdVo ueD, WHo lhlthtohJ
stood guard at their post when the tempest
of cinders began, and after 100 years were
still found standing guard. There is the
form OF gentle womanhood impressed upon
the hardened ashes. Pass along, and here
we see tho deep ruts in tn basaltic pave
ments worn there by the whe els Of the chari-
OTIS Of the first century. There, over the
doorways and In the porti Goes, are works Of
art immortalizing the debauchery OF city.
which. Notwithstanding all its splendors, was
q vestibule Of perdition.
Those cutters ran with the blood OF the
gadiatorss Who we're priSefghteTGs Of t5Gss
sword, until, with one skilful and stout
plunge Of the sharp edge, the mauled and
gashed combatant reeled over dead, to be
carried out amid the huzzas Of enraptured
spectators. We staid among those suggestive
scenes after the hour that visitors are usually
allowed there and staid until there was not q
football to be heard within all that city except
our own. Up this silent street and down that
silent street we wandered. Into that win
dowless and roodess home we went and came
out again onto the pavements that, now Tor
saken, were once thronged with life.
And can 1t be that all up and down these
solemn solitudes, hearts more than 1900
years ago ached and rejoiced, and feet shut
fed with the gait Of old age or danced with
childish glee, and overtssked workmen car
ried their burdens, and drunkards staggered?
on that mosaic floor did glowing youth clasp
nands In marriage VOW, and cross that
threshold did pallbearers carry the beloved
dead, and gay groups once mount those now
skeletons ct staircasesp -
While walked and contemplated the city
seemed suddenly to be thronged with all the
population that had ever inhabited It, and
heard its laughter and groan and unclean-
ness and internal boast as It was on the 2Sd
of August, 70. And vesuvius, from the mild
light with which it flushed the sky that sum-
mer evening as I stood in disentombed Pom
peii, seemed suddenly again to heave and
fame and rock with the lava and darkness
and desolstion and woe with which more
than eighteen centuries ago It submerged
Pompeii, as with the liturgy OF fire and storm
the mountain proclaimed at the burial,
"Ashes to ashes. dust to dust" s@(
My friends, cannot tell what practical
suggestion comes to your mind from this
walk through uncovered Pompeii, but the
first thought that absorbs me is that, while
art and culture are important. they cannot
save the morals or the life of5a great town.
Much Of the painting and sculpture OF Pom
peii was so exquisite that, while some is kept
on the walls where 1t was first penciled, to be
admired by those who go there, whole wagon
loads and whole rooms full OF 1t have been
transferred to the Museo Borbonico at Ma
pies, to be admired by the centuries.
Those Pompeiian artists mixed such dura-
bility of colors that, though their paintings
were buried In ashes and scoriB for 1700
years, and since they were uncovered many
Of them have remained there exposed to the
rains and winds and winters and summers
1870 years, the color is as fresh and vivid and
true as though yesterday II had passed from
the easel. Which OF our modern paintings
could stand all that2 And yet many OF the
specimens Of Pompeiian art show that the
city was sunk to such depth OF abomtnation
that there was nothing deeper. Sculptured
and petriled and embalmed abomination.
There was a state OF public morals worse
than belongs to any city now standing under
the sun.
Yet how many think that all that Is neces-
sary Is to cultivate the mind and advance the
and improve the arts. Have you
the impression that eloquence will do the
work. Why, Pompeii had Cicero
half of every year for its citizen. Have you
the idea that literature is all that is neces-
sary to keep city right2 Why. Salldst. with
O pen that was the boast OF Roman Itera-
ture. had mansion in that doomed city. Do
you think that sculpture and art are quite
Then correct your delusion by examining
the statues in the Temple ofMercury at Pom
paii, 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 IT.
self 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 Bi.
bles and Christian printing presses and re-
vivals Of religion abound is city pure and
clean. What has Buddhism or Confucianism
or Mohammedanism done In all the hum
dreds of years of their progress for the ele-
walton OF society? Absolutely nothing.
Peking and Madras and Cairo are Just
what they were ages ago, except as Christi
anity has modified their condition. What is
the difference between our Brooklyn and
their Pompeii? No difference, except that
which Christianity 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 through uncovered
Pompeii what sin will do for city. We
ought to be slow to assign the judgment OF
God. Cities are sometimes afflicted just as
20 I'D 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 individ-
uals may apply to Christian cities as well,
GAIL things work together for good to those
that love Cod
But the greatest calamity Of history came
upon Pompeii not to improve It's future con.
dition, for 1t was completely obliterated and
will never be rebuilt. 1t was so bad that
it neededto be buried 100 years before even
its ruins were fit to be uncovered. SO Sodom
and Gomorrah were filed with such turpi-
tude 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 bur.
led all the wsy between Fire Island and
Fastnet Lighthouse. and the other cemetery
Is the cemetery OF dead cities.
I get down on my knees and read the
eaitapheology OF q long line OF them. Here
lies Babylon, once called ''the hammer OF
the whole earth" Dead and buried under
piles OF bitumen aud broken pottery and
yitrefled brick. And hear wolf howl and
n reptile hiss as I am reading this epitaph
Gsalah xiii, Ply, "The wild beast of the
desert shall be there, and their house Shall
be full OF doleful creatures"
The next tomb kneel before In this Gem
etery of cities is Nineveh. Her winged lions
are down, ami the slabs Of alabaster have
crumbled, and the sculpture that represented
her battles Is as completely scattered rs the
dust OF the heroes who fought them. Per-
haps put my knee into the dust OF her sar-
danapalus as I stoop to read her eptaph
(Zephaniah H., H. "Now Is Nlneveh desola-
don and dry like wilderness, and focks lie
down in the midst OF her all the beasts OF
the Nations, both the cormorant and tho bit
tern. lodge in the upper lintels OF It," And
while I read 1t I hear an owl hoot and
hyena laugh.
The next entombed city pass has monu.
ment OF fifty PROSTATE columns OF gray and
red granite, and It fs Tyre. The next SO.