The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-02-15
AT THE TABERNACLE.
DR.. TALMAeE ON HISTORIC CRUEL
: TIES AND MODERN PARALLELS.

NAfA0 anu ANCa1otAO EhDhCh % y 0uAo OBy
In the Coliseum of Ancient Rome.
"Christianus ad Leonis''-The Modern
Political and PugilIstic Arena
BROOKLYN, Feb. 19.-Rev. DR.. Talmage
this morning. after commenting on the
Scriptures and giving out hymns, in which
the multitude of worshipers in the Brook
lyn Tabernacle Joined, discoursed from the
text Romans i, Is, II am ready to preach
the gospel to you that are at Rome also"
Romei What a city it was when Paul
visited it'll What a city it is nowi ROnlel
The place where Virgil sang and Horace
satirized and Terence laughed and Gait
line conspired and Ovid dramatized and
Nero fiddled and Vespasian prosecuted and
sulla legislated and Cicero Numbered and
Aurelius and Decius and Caligula and Ju-
lian and Hadrian and Constantine and
Augustus reigned and Paul the apostle
preached the gospel
lam not much of a craftsman, but have
IN my memorandum book sketch which
] made in the winter OF 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 errand proposed in the text.
Palaces on either side of the street through
which the little missionary advanced. Piled
up wickedness. Enthroned accursedness.
Tempted cruelties Affairs TO sham deities-
Glorified decisions. Pillared, arched,
domed, turreted denominations Wicked
ness of all sorts at a high premium and
righteousness 9944 per cent of And now
be passes by the foundations Of a 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 some
thing enough stupendOus TO astound the
centuries Ave, it is the Coliseum started.
ANCIENT AND SINFUL SCENES.
OF the theater at Ehpesus where Paul
fought with wild beasts, of the temple Of
Diana, of the Parthenon, Of Pharaoh's pal
ace at Memphis and OF other great build
ings the ruins OF which have seen it has
been my privilege to address you, bit a
member of my family asked ne recently
why / had not spoken to you of the Coli
scum at Rome, since its moral and 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 incIr-
cerated l had measured The opening at
the top of the dungeon through which Paul
had been let down, and il was 3 inches By
Is The ceiling at its highest point was
feet from the floor, but ct the sides Of the
room the ceiling was feet inches The
room at the widest was - feet There was
seat OF rock p feet high. There was a
shelf feet high. The only furniture was
a spiders web suspended from the roof,
which / saw by the torchlight | carried
There was the subterraueous passage from
the dungeon TO the Roman forum, 50 that
the prisoner could be taken directly from
prison 10 trial.
The dungeon was built ont OF volcanic
stone from the Albano mountains. Oh, it
was dismal and terrific place, You never
saw coal hole 50 dark or 50 forbidding The
place was to me a nervous shock, for re
membered that was the best thing the
world would afford the most illustriOus be
ing except one that il ever saw, and from
that place Paul went ont 70 die From
that spot | visited the Coliseum. one OF
the most astounding miracles Of architec
ture that the wo-ld ever saw Indeed /
saw it morning, noon and night for it
threw a spell on me from which could not
break away.
Although now a vast ruin, the Coliseum
is so well preserved that we can stand in
the center and recall all that It once was
It Is in shape ellipsoidal, oval, oblOng. It
is at it, greatest length Gl2 feet After
it had furnished seats for s. 900 people it
had room for Is, 600 more to stand, so that
10000 people could ST. and stand trans
fixed by its scenes OF courage and martyr
dom and brutality and horror. Instead OF
our modern tickets Of admission, they en-
tered By ivory check, and a check dug up
near Rome within a few years was marked,
Section 6, Lowest Tier. Seat No. Is"
You understand that the building was
not constructed for an audience to be ad-
dressed by human voice, although l tested
1t with some friends and could be heard
across il, 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 Olden times was strewn with
pounded stone or sand, 50 as not TO be too
slippery with human blood, for II it were
too slippery it would spoil the fun. The
sand flashed here aud 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 II feet high, 50 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 railing hav-
ing wooden rollers which easily reyolved,
so that If a pant her should leap high enough
TO scale the wall and with his paw touch
any one Of those rollers it would revolve
and drop him back again into the arena.
Back of this marble wall surrounding the
arena was a level platform Of stone adorned
with statues of gods and goddesses and the
artistic efigies of monarChs and conquerors-
THE FILTHY ROMAN RULERS.
Here were movable seats for the emperor
and the imperial swine and swinesses with
which be surrounded himself Before the
place where the emperor sat the Clsdiators
would walk Immediately after entering the
arena, crying: Hall, Cesari Those about
to die salute theef' The different ranks OF
spectators were divided By partitions stud
aed with mosaics Of emerald and beryl and
ruby and diamond. Great masts Of wood
Hrose 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 Coli
scum having no roof
The outside wall was inerusted with mar
bic and had four ranges, and the three low
er rdnges had 50 columns each and arches
after arches, and On each arch an exquisite
statue Of goo or hero. Into $50 feet Of
altitude scared the Coliseum. II glittered
and flashed ard skone with whole sunrises
Bnd sunsets of dazziement. After the audi
Ence had assembled aromatic liquids oozed
from tubes distilled from pipes and rained
gently on the multitudes and filed the air
with odors Of hyacinth and heliotrope AMI
trankincense and balsam and myrrh and
saffron, so that Lucan, the poet, says OF it:
At once ten thousand saffron currents flow
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