The Penn's Grove record., 1893-10-13
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVIVE,S SUN
DAY SEElON.
Subject: "pompeii and Its Lessons,

Text: "Thou hast mad Of a dsfeased c;t.
arain."-Isaiah XIV. 2.
A flash on the night SKY greeted us as we
left the rail train at Naples. Italy. What was
the strange illumination? II was that wrath
OF many centuries-Yesuvius Giant son OF
an earthquake. intoxicated mountain OF
Italy. Father Of many consternations. A
volcano, burning so long. and vet to keep on
burning until, perhaps. it may be the yery
torch that will kfndle the last CONFEDERATION
and set all the world on fire. II eclipses in
violence Of behavior Cotopaxi and Ftna and
Stromboli and Krakatoa. Awful mystery,
Funeral pyre of dead cities, Everlasting
paroxysm of mountains. # seems like n
chimney OF hell. 1t rOlra with fiery remin.
iscence of what 1t has done and with tbreats
of worse things that it may yet do. / wouId
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 fioated away hundreds and hun.
| dreds of miles and dropped in Constantine.
| pie, and in the Adriatic sea, and on the
| Apennines, as well as trImp!ing out at It's
own foot the lives of $4,000 people. Geo
logists have tried to fathom its mysteries. but
| the heat consumed the iron instruments and
| drove back the scorched and hlistered ex-
plorers from the einiery and crumbling
! brink. 1t seems like the asylum of maniac
| elements
AT one time far back its ton had been n
| fortress, where Spartacus fought and was
| surrounded and would have been DESTROYED
had it not been for the grapevines which
| clothed the mountainside 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 1t that night OF our nrrivalin Novem-
Der of 1889.
OF course the next day we started to see
some of the work wrought by that frenzied
mountain. Gan 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 the walls l took
| off my hat, as one naturally does in the pres
| ence of some imposing ~ohsequies. That city
! had been at one time a capital of beauty and
pomp. The HON OF grand architecture. ex-
| quisite painting, enchanting sculpture. unre-
| strained carousal and rapt assenblage. A
| high wall twenty feet thick, three-fourths OF
1t still visible, encircIei the city. OF those
walls, at n 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 10 wall, only one street
excepted.
In the days Of the city's prosperity its
towers glittered in the sun eight strong
gates for ingress HH-t "gress; Gate of the
Seashore. Gate of Hrr'u'aneum. Gate OF
Vesuvius being perhaps the most important.
Yonder stood the Temple of jupiter, hoisted
at an imposing elevation, and VITA its six
corinthian columns Of immense girth, which
stood like carved icebergs shimmeriug in the
light. There stan Is the Temple of the
Twelve Gods. Ionirr see the Temple Oi
Hercules and the Temple of Mercury, with
affairs Of marble and bas-relief, wonderful
enough TO astound alt succeeding ages ofart.
and the Temple of .iI7culipils, brilliant with
sculpture and gorgeous with painting.
Yonder are the theatres, partly cut into
surrounding hills, and gloriiled with pic
tured walls, and entered under arches of inn
posing masonry, and with rooms, for capti-
waited and appiaudatUry audiences seated OF
standing in vast semi-rirr.e. Gonder are the
costly and immense pHhIie baths OF the city,
with more than the modern i~ngenuities oil
Carlsbad. Notice the warmth of those an
cient tepidariums, with lowering radiance
of roof, and the vapor Of those csldariums.
with decorated a~lcoves. and the cold dash Of
their frigidariums. with floors OF mosaic and
ceilings of all skiliully intermingled hues,
and walls upholstered with all the coiors 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 oil
Sallust, the Roman historian and Senator,
the architecture as elaborate as his chgr3c'
ter was corrupt. There is tle residen e o.
the poet Pansa, with Il 60 1Dr'ssad Louvre
and Luxembourg within his walls. There is
the home OF Lucretius, with vases and antiqui'
ties enough to turn the head of a virtuoso.
Yonder see the Forum, at the highest place
in the city. 1t Is entered by We triumphaI
arches. 1t Is bounded on three sides by
dorle columns.
Yonder, in the suburbs Of the city, is the
home of Arrius Diomed, the mayor OF tht
suburbs, terraced residence of Millionaire
dom, gardens, fountained, %statued, colon
naded, the cellar of that villa filled with hot
ties of rarest wine, a few drops OF which
were found 1900 years afterward. Along tht
streets of the city are men of might anf
women Of beauty formed into bronze ina
many centuries had no power to bedim; Bat
tie scenes on walls in cOlors which all time
cannot efface. Great city of Pompei! Sc
Seneca and Tacitus and Cicero pronounced
II.
Stand with me on its walls this evening Of
August 20, A. D. 70. See the throngs pass
ing up and down in Tyrian purple and CIR
dies of ar~abesque, and necks enchanted viii
precious stones, proud official in imposing
toga meeting the slave carrying trays a-clnH
with goblets and a-smoke with delicaoie:
from paddock and sea. and moralist musine
over the degradation Of the times passes INT
profigate doing his best TO make them worse
Hark to the clatter and rataplan OF the noon
on the streets paved with blocks OF basait
See the verdured and lowered grounds Stop
ing into the most beautiful buy OF All INT
earth-the bay OF Naples.
Listen to the rumbling chariots, carrying
conyiyial occupants TO halls OF mirth anC
masquerade and carousal. Hear the lou'
dash of fountains mid the sculptured ware
nymphs. Notice the weird, solemn iarreach'
ing hum and din and roar OF a city at the
close of a summer day. Let Pompeh sleeI
well tonight, for il is the last night OF peace
full slumber before she falls into the deef
slumber of many long centuries. The morn
ing of the oath OF August. A. D.. ~. mas ar
rived, and the days roll on, and it is o'clocl
in the afternoon. Look ~ | say to you
standing on this wall. as the sister OF fIihN
said to him, the Roman essaylst anu MAYA
commander, on the day OF when SPEAK, a
she pointed him in the direction IN when
point you.
There is a peculiar cloud on the skyi T.
spotted cloud, now white. now D'aek' II y
Vesuyius In aTFuland unparalleled eruption
Now the smoke and fire ana steam vi tIa
black monster throat rise and spread, as, 10y
my gesture. I now describe ii. II rises, !
great column o. fiery. darkness, higher ahd
higher. and then spreads out IKE th'
branches of a tree, with mllh'Shts enter
wrapped in its foliage, wider anu WIlel'
Now the sun goes out, and showers o
pumiee stone and water from furnaces NOR
than seven times heated, and asnes IN aVat
anche after avalanche, binding ana scaidlne
and sunocating, descend north, SOUTH cas-
and west, burying deeper and deeper II
mammoth sepulcher, surn as never uoiol'
or since was opened, ota1lie' hercu''heaii
and Pompeii. Ashes ankle ueep, Brut
deep, chin deep, ashes overhead.
Out of the houses and temples ana thsa
tres and into the streets and down TO TN
beach fed many of the frantic, out o''t9Ls' =
not suffocated OF the ashes, were a''lneut u
death by the heated deinse' An1 th'h ga u
heavier destruction IN rofNa u ger ro-A
crushing in homes and temples am thel'LeS
No wonder the sea racrted ron Tue Deacn "
though in terror, until much otthe shIPPlh.
was wrecked. and no won Ter thHt wnSh inc.
lifted Pliny the elder from inc sallcIoth vi
which he was resting, under the aSllatiohs o
what he had seen, he suddenly eApireu'
For three days the ontonoIl'I' plor9a
Then the clouds lftai, ana th9 Sui9n y
that Apollyon of mountains u Siuo'' -"
400 years that city of Pompeii lay burie,
and without ANYTHING to show its place o
doom, But after 100 years OF obliteratiol
\ workman's spade. digging u wen, strlke
some antiquities which lead 10 the eknuhla
ton OF the city. Now walk with me thr9uS
some OF the streets and into some o. IN
houses and amid the ruins OF pasiuca IL"
temple and amnhitheatre.