Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1893-02-14
THE CRUEL llEATllEN
bH thtMAee flNbs nv IMPRESSIVE
LESSON M TIE ROMAN COLISEUM

bh thtMAee FINDS nv IMPRESSIVE
LESSON M TIE ROMAN COLISEUM.
Condition " t,omc Uhcn ST. raui Preached
thefe- Emperor and People Aiite titcn
Oter to Lust ard Cfueity thristianiiy's
Mighty WORK.
BRoOKLVN Feb iq.-Rev. Dr. Tel
mage this morning. after commentngon
The Scriptures and giving out hymns in
which The multitude Of worshipers In
the Brooklyn Tabernacle joined. dis
toursed from the text f'omaus !. 10. ~
nm ready to preach Tie gospel TO you
that hre ut l,ome also"
llo1nel What city It was when Patl
visited itl What city it IL nowl Roinoi
The place where Virgil sang and Horace
satirized and Terence laughed and Gait
line conspired and Ovid Gramatized and
Nero fiddlcd and Vespasian prosecuted
and Sulla legislatod and Cicero thun-
dered md Aurclius and Deeius and Cali
gula and Julian and Hadrian and Con-
stantine and Augustus roigned and Paul
the apostle preached the gospel.
| am not much of drafts sman, but
have in my memorandum book n sketch
which / made in the winter of 1880,
when | went out TO the gate through
which Paul entered Rome and walked
up the very street he walked up to see
somewhat how the city must have looked
to him as lie cGmc in on the gospel err
rand prorofc1 in The text. Palaces on
either sido Of the street through which
the little missionary advanced. Piled up
wickedness. Enthroned accurse1ness.
Tempted cruelties. Affairs TO sham del
ties. Glorihed delusions Pillarcd, arched,
domed, turreted denominations. Wicked
ness of all sorts at high premium and
righteousness G92 per cent Off. And now
he passes by the foundations of a build
ing which is to be almost unparalleled for
vastness. You can see by the walls.
which have begun to rise, that here is to
be something enough stupendous TO as
tound the centuries. Aye, it is the Coli
scum started.
THEIR MONUMENTS OF SHAME.
OF the theater ut Ephesus where Paul
fought with wild beasts. the temple of
Diana, Of the Parthenon, Of pharaoh S
palace at Memphis and of other great
buildings the ruins of which have seen
it has been my privilege to address you,
but q member of my family asked me
recently why had not spoken to you of
the Coliseum ut Rome, since its moral
and religious lessons are SO impressive.
Perhaps while in Rome the law of
contrast wrought upon me. / had Wis
tied the Mame1tine dungeon where Paul
was incarcerated. l had measured the
opening at the top Of the dungeon
through which Paul had been let down,
and it was .3 inches Ly &c. The ceiling
at its highest point was z feet from the
floor, but at the sides of the room the
ceiling was 8 feet z inches. Tho room at
the widest was Is feet. There was q seat
of rock 2! feet high. There was shelf
4 feet high. The only furniture was Il
spiders web suspended from the roof
which saw by the torchlight carried
There was the subterraneous passage
from the dungeon to the Roman forum,
so that the prisoner could be taken di-
rectly from prison to trial.
The dungeon was built out of volcanic
stone from the Albano mountains. Oh.
it was dismal and terrific place. You
never saw coal hole so dark or so for
bidding. The place was to me a nervous
shock, for | remembered that was the
best thing that the world would afford
the mosG illustrious being, except one,
that it ever saw, and that from that
place Paul went out to die. From that
spot | visited the Coliseum-one OF
the most astounding miracles of archi-
lecture that the world ever saw. In
deed saw it morning noon and night,
for it threw spell on me from which
could not break away.
Although now vast ruin, the Coli
scum is so well preserved that we can
stand in the center and recall all that it
once was. 1t is in shape ellipsoidal, oval.
oblong. 1t is at its greatest length G12
feet. After it had furnished seats for
81 GOO people it had room for $4,000 more
to stand, SO that 100000 people could sit
and stand transfxed by its scenes of
courage and martyrdom and brutality
and horror.
Instead of our modern tickets of admis-
sion, they entered by ivory check, and Il
check dug up near Rome within a few
years was marked, Section 6, Lowest
Tier, Seat No. 49," You understand that
the building was not constructed for an
audience to be addressed by human voice,
although tested it with some friends
and could be heard across it, but it was
made only for seeing and was circular.
and at any point allowed full view of
the spectacle.
REFINEGENTS OF CRUELTY.
The arena in the center in olden times
was strewn with pounded stone or sand,
SO as not to be too slippery with human
blood, for if it were too slippery 1T
would spoil the fun. The sand flashed
here and there with sparkles OF silver
and gold, and Nero added cinnabar and
Caligula added chrysocolla. The sides
of the arena were composed of smooth
marble IL feet high, so that the wild
beasts of the arena could not climb up
into the audience. On the top Of these
Al