The Penn's Grove record., 1893-10-13

FA - ANAA hANa 'Sn5N- H
AMI natural after 100 years of burial. That
woman was found clutching her adornments
when the storm of ashes and fire began, and
for 1900 years she continued to clutch them.
There at the soldiers barracks are sixty
four skeletons of brave mer, who faithfully
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 w~omanhood impressed upon
the hardened ashes. Pass along, and here
we see the deep ruts in the basaltic pave
ments worn there by the wheels OF the chart
OTIS of the first century. There. over the
doOrwavs and in the poriicoes. are works OF
,rt tmmortalizing the d%ebauchery of n city.
which. Notwithstanding all its s%plendors, was
vestibule of periition.
Those cutters ran with the blood OF the
radiators. who were prizetighterS OF those
ancient times, and ii was sword parrylng
sword, until, with one skilful and stout
plunge Of the sharp edge, the mauled and
gashed cOmbatant reelet over dead, TO be
carried ont 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 a
football to be heard within allthat city except
our own. Up this silent street and down that
silent street we wandered. Into that WIN
dowless and roofless home we went and came
out again onto the pavements that, now Tor
Sihtu. were OICe lllIpDbNh ~ nv
And can it be that all up and down these
solemn solitudes. hearts more THAI 1900
years ago ached and rejoiced, and feet SNUFF
fled with the gait of old age or danced with
childish glee. and oyertasked workmen car
ried their burdens, and drunkards staggered:
On that mosaic floor did glowing youth Gasp
hands In marriage vow and cross that
threshold did palloearers carry the beloved
dead, and gay groups oa;t mount those now
skeletons CT staircases2
While / walked and contemplated the city
seemed suddenly to be thronged with all the
population that had ever inhabited 1t, and |
heard its laughter and groan and unelean-
ness and Internal boast as 1t was on the 23d
OF August, 70. And Vesuyius, from the mild
light with which it flushed the sky thai sum
mer evening as / stood in disentombed Pom
peii, seemed suddenly again to heave and
lame and rock with the lava and darkness
and desolation and woe with which more
than eighteen centuries ago it submerged
iPompeii, as withthe liturgy of fire and storm
the mountain proclaimed at the burial,
i"Ashes to ashes. dust to dust"
Ny friends, 1 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 of a great town.
duch oil the painting and sculpture of Pom
peii was so exquisite that, while some Is kept
in the walls where it was first penciled, to bd
admired by those who go there, whole wagon
loads and whole rooms full of it ave 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 l7OO
years, and since they were uncovered many
of them lave remainod there exposed to the
rains anl Winls and winters AMI summers
1870 years, the color is as fresh and vivid and
true as though yesterday it had passed from
,the easel. Which of our modern paintings
could stand all that? And yet many of the
specimens of Pompeiian art show that the
lefty was sunk to such adepth OF abomlnation
THAT there was nothing deeper. Sculptured
and petrihed and embalmed abomination.
There was q state of public morals worse
than belongs to any city now standing under
the sun.
Yet how many think that all that is nenes.
sary is TO cultivate the mind and advanceth the
knowledge and improve the arts. Have you
the impression that eloIuence will do the
| elevating 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 a city right2 Why. Sailust, will
"a peu that was the boast of Roman litera-
ture, had a mansion in that doomed city. Dc
lyou think that sculpture and art are quite
| sufficient for tho production OF good moraisf
| Then correct yoir delus'On by examining
The statues in the Temple of Mercury at PoT,
pei, or the winged figures of its Parthenon,
and the c~olonnades AMI arches OF this house
OF Diomed.
BY all means have schools and Dusseldorf
and Dora 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 TIT
religion of Jesus Christ can make a city
moral. 10 proportion as churches and Bi
bles and Christian printing presses and re-
viyaIs of religion abound is a city pure anG
clean. What has Buddhism or Confucianisn
or Mohammedanism done in all the hun
dreds of years of their progress for the ele
walton of society? Absolutely nothing.
Picking and Madras n Cairo are Just
what they were ages ago, except az Christi
anity has modified their condition. What |
the difference between our Brooklyn anf
their Pompeii2 Nc difference, except thai
which Christianity has wrought. Favor al
good art, but take best care of you
| churches, and your Sabbath schools, ant
your Bibles, and your family affairs.
Yea, see In our walk through uncovered
| Pompeii what sin will do for q city. w
oughtto be slow to assign the Judgment o
| God. Cities are sometimes afflicted Just a.
| good people are afflicted, and the earthquake
| ana llt tNtaOutt IL nv CIlAVhAhA' "a AN
sign in many cases that God is angry with
CITY. but the distress is sent for some goo
and kind purpose, whether We understand
it or not. The law that applies TO fndivid
| uaIs may apply to Christian cities as well
GAN things work together for good TO thos'
that love God"
But the greatest calamity of history same
| upon Pompeii not to improve its future con
dition, for it was completely obliterated ant
will never be rebuilt. 1t was SO bad tha'
it neededto be buried 100 years before ever
its ruins were At to be uncovered. So Sodon
and Gomorrah were filed with such turpi
tude that they were not only turned under
but have for thousands OF years been KEEP
under. The two greatest cemeteries are the
cemetery in which the sunken ships are bur
led all the way between Fire Island ant
Fastnet Lighthouse. and the other cemeter,
is the cemetery OF dead cities.
! get down on my knees and read the
epitapheology of long line of them. Herr
| lies Babylon, once called ''the hammer o
the whole earth" Dead and buried unde
piles OF bitumen and broken pottery ant
| vitrehed brick. And l hear a wolf how AM
| A rsus''e hiss as l am reading this epitapl
! (Isliah xiii, 81, ''rhe wild beast of tn
| desert shall be there, n their house sinai
DO full of doleful creatures"
The next tomb | kneel before in this Gem
| etery of cities is Nineveh. Her winged lion
are down., ana the slabs OF alaDaster nav
crumbled, and the sculpture that represents
her battles Is as completely scattered as tn
dust of the heroes who fought them. Per
| haps l put my knee into the dust Of her Sar
d~anapalus as 1 stoop to read her epltapl
~(Zephaniah H., A. 'Now is Nineyeh desola
ton and dry like a wilderness, and hocks lii
down in the midst of her all the beasts o
the Nations, both the cormorant and the bit
tern, lodge in the upper lintels of it," An
while 1 read it l hear an owl boot and
hyena laugh.
The next entombed city l pass has a monu
ment OF hfty PROSTATE columns OF gray an
red granite, and II is Tyre. The nex Sc
pulcher of a great capital is covered with
Icattered columns and defaced sphinxes and
he sands of the desert, n it is Thebes. As
[ pass on 1 find the resting place of MycenB
l city of which Homer sang, and Corinth
which rejected Paul and depended upon heI
i~ortress, Aerocorinthus, which now lies dis,
nantled on the hill, and move on in THU
cemetery of cities, and 1 find the tombs o
Sardls and Smyrna and Persepolis ant
Memphis and Baalbek and Carthage, ant
aere are the cities OF the, plain and Hercu
aneum and Stabia and Pompeii. Some o
hem have mighty sarcophagus and hiero,
slyphic entablature, but they are dead and
buried never to rise,
But the cemetery OF dead cities Is not yei