The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-02-13
ROME'S OLD COLOSSEUM.
REV. TALMAGB MAKES IT THE
TEXT OF A SERMON.

Scores OF Names Famous In History
Recalled by the Ruins Of the Famous
Structure Accommo odations for
100000 Persons Within Its Massive
and Extensive Walls.
BROOKLYN, Feb. 12.-Rev. DR.. Talmags
this morning, after commenting on thu
scriptures and giving out hymns, in which
the multitude OF worshipers In the Brook
lyn tabernacle Joined, discoursed from the
text, Romans l. Is: liam ready 10 preach
the gospel to you that are at Rome, also"
Rome What a city it WAS when Paul
visited i'll What city it is nowl RomeI
The place where Virgil sang and Horace
satirized and Terence laughed and Cats-
line conspired and Ovid dramatiEed and
Nero lddled and Vespasian persecuted and
Sulls legislAted and Cicero thundered and
Aurelius and Decius and Caligula and
Julian and Hadrian and Constantine and
Augustus reigned, aud Paul, the apostle,
preached the gospel.
l am not much Of draughtsman, but I
have in my memorandum boo& a sketch
which made in the winter or 1889, 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 he
| came In on the gospel erraud proposed in
the text. Palaces on either side of the
street through which the little missions
ary advanced. Piled up wickedness. En-
thToned accursedness Tempted cruelties.
Affairs to sham deities. Glorihed delusions.
| Pillared. arched, domed, turreted aoomina-
| tions. Wickedness OF all sorts at q high
| premium and Righteousness ninety nine and
three-fourths per cent. off. And now he
passes by the foundations OF IA building
which Is TO be- almost unparalleled for vast
ness. You can see by the walls, which have
| begun to rise, that here Is to be something
enough stupendous to astound the centuries.
| Aye IL is the Colosseum started.
OF the theater at Ephesus, where Paul
| fought with wild beasts OF the temple OF
Diana, Of the Parthenon, os Pharaoh's pal
| ace at Memphis, and of other great build
ings, the ruins Of which | have seen, IL has
been my privilege TO address you, but @
member OF my family asked me recently
why had not spoken TO you Of the Colos-
scum at Rome, since its moral aud religious
lessons are so impressive.
Perhaps, while IN Rome, the law Of con-
trast wrought upon me. had visited the
Mamertine dungeon where Paul was incar-
cerated. l had measured the opening ae
the top OF the dungeon through which Paul
had been let down and It was twenty -three
by twsuty-six inches. The ceiling, at its
highest point, was seven feet from the floor,
but at the sides OF the room the ceiling was
five feet seven inches. The room, az the
widest was fifteen feet. There was a seat OF
rock two and a half feet high. There was
a shelf four feet high. The only furniture
was "A spiders web suspended from the roof,
which saw by the torchllght / carried.
| There was the subterraneous passage from
the dungeon TO the Roman forum, 80 that the
prisoner could be taken directly from prison
TO trial. The dungeon was built out OF vol
oanio stone from the Albano mountains. o,
10 was dismal and terrific place. You
never saw q coal hole so dark or so forbid
ding The place was 20 me nervous shock,
for remembered that was the best thing
that the world would afford the most Illus
trious being, except oue that IL ever saw,
and that from that place Paul went out to
die. From that spot, Visited the Colos-
scum, one OF the most astounding
miracles of architecture that the world ever
saw. Indeed l saw ID morning. noon and
night, for 10 threw a spell on me from which
/ could not break away. Although now a
vast ruin, the Colosseum is 90 well pre-
served that we can stand In the center aud
recall all that 1t once was. 1t Is in shape
at its greatest length, six hundred
and twelve feet. After it had fur
nished seats for eighty-seven thousand
people, IL had room for fifteen thousand
more TO stand, so shat one hundred thou
sand people could sit and stand transhxed
by its scenes OF courage and martyrdom and,
brutality and horror. Instead of our,
modern tickets Of admission, they entered
by ivory check. ana a 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 I
tested it with some friends and could be
heard across ID, but it was made only for
seeing and was circular, and at any point
allowed full view Of the spectacle. The
arena In the center in oden times was
strewn with pounded stone or sand, 80 aal
not 70 be too slippery with human blood,
for If 1t were too slippery 1t would spoil the
fun. The sand flashed Eere and there with
sparkles of silver and gold, and Nero sdded
cinnabRr and CaliRula added ohrysocolla.
The sides Of the arena we're composed Of
smooth marble, eleven feet high, 80 that the
wild beasts Of the arena could not climb up
into the audience. On the top Of these
sides of smooth marble was metal rail-
ing, having wooden rollers which easily rec
vOlved, 30 that If q panther should leap
high enough to scale the wall and with his
paw touch any one OF these rollers ID would
revolve and drop him back again into the
area. Back Of this marble wall surround
ing the arena was a level platform of stone,
adorned with statues of gods and Roddesses
and the artistic effigies Of monarohs and
oonquerors. Here were movable seata for
the emperor and the imperial swine and
swinesses with which he surrounded him
self. Before the place where the emperor
sat, the gladiAtors would walk Immediately
after entering the arena, crying: Hail,
Caesar Those about TO die salute thee"
The different ranks of spectators were
divided by partitions studded with mosaics
Of emerald and beryl and ruby and dia-
mond. Great mssts of wood arose from all
sides Of the building. from which festoons
OF flowers were suspended, crossing the
building, or In time Of rain awnings Of silk
were suspended, the Colosseum having no
roof. The outside wall was inorusted with
marble and had four ranges, and the three
lower ranges had eighty columns each and
arches after arches, aud on each arch an
exquisite statue Of god OF q
hero. Into one hundred and eighty feet
OF altitude scared the Colosseum. 10
glittered and flashed and shone with whole
sunrlses and sunsets of dazzement.
After the audience had assembled aromatic
liquids oozed from tubes distilled from pipes
and rained gently on the multitudes and
filled the air with odors Of hyacinth and
heliotrope and franklncense and balsam
and myrrh and saffron, so that Lucan. tho
poet, says Of it:
At once ten thousand saffron currents flow,
And lin hair ~. afawte hsa raanvh hal