The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-10-13
,oionnades and arches Of this house o,

colonnades and arches Of this house o.
Diomed.
BY all means have schools and Dussel-
dorf and Dore exhibitions and galleries
where the genius of all the centuriescan
bank itself up In snowy sculpture, and
all bric-a-brac, and all pure art, but
nothing save the religion of Jesus Christ
can make city moral. In proportion
as churches and Bibles and Christian
printing presses and revivals of religion
abound is city clean and pure. What
has Buddhism or Confucianism or Mo-
hammedanism done in all the hundreds
of years of their progress for the eleva-
ton of society? Absolutely nothing.
Picking and Madras and Cairo are just
what they We're ages ago, except as Chris
tianity has modified their condition.
What is the difference between our
Brooklyn and their Pompeiis No diff
ference, 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.
TWO REMARKABLE CEMETERIES.
Yea, see in our walk today through
uncovered Pompeii what sin will do for
city. We ought to be slow to assign
the judgments of God. Cities are some-
times afflicted just as good people are
afflicted, and the earthquake, and the cy-
clone, and the epidemic are no sign in
many cases that God is angry with a
city, but the distress is sent for some
good and kind purpose, whether we
understand it or not. The law that APP.
plies to individuals may apply to Chris
tan cities as well, "All things work
together for good to. those that love
God"
But the greatest calamity of history
came upon Pompeii not to improve its
future condition, for it was completely
obliterated and will never be rebuilt. 1t
was so bad that it needed to be buried
1,700 years before even its ruins were fit
to be uncovered. So Sodom and Gomor-
rah were filled with such turpitude 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 buried all the way between Fire
island and Fastnet lighthouse, and the
other cemetery is the cemetery of dead
cities.
get down on my knees and read the
epitapheology of long line of them.
Here lies Babylon, once called "the ham
mer of the whole earth" Dead and
buried under piles of bitumen and bro
ken pottery and vitrefed brick And |
hear wolf howl and reptile hiss as
sm reading this epitaph isaiah xiii, 2D,
1.-THE wild beast of the desert shall be
there, and their houses shall be full of
1oleful creatures"
The next tomb kneel before in this
cemetery of cities is Nineveh. Her
winged lions are down, and the slabs of
alabaster have crumbled, and the sculp-
ture that represented her battles is as
completely scattered as the dust of the
heroes who fought them. Perhaps
put my knee into the dust of her Sar-
danapalus as l stoop to read her epitaph
(Zephaniah ii, A. Now is Nineveh des-
olation and dry like wilderness, and
focks lie down in the midst of her; all
the beasts Of the nations, both the cor
morant and the bittern, lodge in the up
per lintels of it," And while read it
I hear an owl boot and hyena laugh.
The next entombed city pass has a
monument of 90 PROSTATE columns of
gray and red granite, and it is Tyre.
The next sepulcher of a great capital is
covered with scattered columns and de-
faced sphinxes and the sands of the des-
ert, and it is Thebes. AS pass on ] find
the resting place of Mycena, city of
which Homer sang, and Corinth, which
rejected Paul and depended upon her
fortress, Acrocorinthus, which now lies
dismantled ON the hill. and l move on in
this cemetery of cities, and l find the
tombs of Sardis and Smyrna and Per-
sepolis and Memphis and Baalbek and
Carthage, and here are the cities of the
plain and Herculaneum and Stabia and
Pompeii. Some of them have mighty
sarcophagus and hieroglyphic entabla-
ture, bat they are oend and buried never
| to rise.
But the cemetery of dead otties is not
yet filled, and if the present cities of the
| world forget God and with their indie.
cencies shock the heavens let them
| know that the God who on the Oath of
August, 70, dropped on city of Italy a
superincumbrance that staid there II
| centuries is still alive and hates sin now
| as much as he did then and has at his
| command all the armament of destruc-
ton with which he whelmed their in
iquitous predecessors.
1t was only few summers ago that
Brooklyn and New York felt an earth
| quake throb that sent the people af-
frighted into the streets, and that sug
| gested that there are forces Of nature
now suppressed or held in check which
easier than q child in nursery knocks
dawn row of block houses could pros
trate city or engulf continent deep
er than Pompeii was engulfed. Our hopt
is in the mercy of the Lord continued tt
our American cities.
1t amazes me that this city, which
has the quietest Sabbaths on the CONT
nent and the best order and the highes
tone of morals of any city that know
of, is now having brought into as neal
neighborhood as Coney Island carnival
of pugilism as debasing as any of til,
gladiatorial contests of Pompeii. Wha
precious crew that Coney Island Ath
letic club is, under whose auspice
these orgies are enacted! What degra
dation to the adjective athletic" which
ordinarily suggests health and muscl
developed for useful purpose! Insteat
of calling it an athletic club they nigh
better style it 1.-THE Ruffian Club Fo
Smashing the Human Visage."
Vile men are turning that Coney Island
which is one of the finest watering place
ON all the Atlantic coast, into aplace TO
the offscouring of the earth to congre
gate, the low horse jockeys and gamblers
and the pugilists, and the pickpockets