Milford chronicle., 1893-02-17
AT THE TABERNACLE.
DR.. TALMAeE ON HISTORIC CRUEL
TIES AND MODERN PARALLELS.


''Christianus ad Leonis''-The Modern
Political and PugiIistio Arena.
BROOKLYN, Feb. 12.-Rev. DIR. 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 /, Is, Il am ready to preach
the gospel to you that are at Rome also"
Romel What a city it was when Paul
visited It'll What a city it is nowl Romel
The place where Virgil sang and Horace
satirized and Terence laughed and Cati-
line conspired and Ovid dramatized and
Nero fiddled and Vespasian prosecuted and
SulIa Iegislated and Cicero thundered and
Aurelius and Decius and Caligula and Ju-
Ian and Hadrian and Constantine and
Augustus reigned and Paul the apostle
preached the gospel.
am not much of a craftsman. but have
in my memorandum book a sketch which
l 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
/ Gloriied delusions. Pillared, arched,
domed, turreted denominations. Wicked
ness of all sorts at a high premium and
( righteousness 99s< per cent off. And now
he passes by the foundations Of 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. Aye, 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, but
member of my family asked me recently
why | had net 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. I had visited the
Mamertine dungeon where Paul was incar-
cerated. l had measured the opening at
the top of the dungeon through which Paul
had been let down, and it was % inches by
90. The ceiling at its highest point was
feet from the floor, but at the sides Of the
room the ceiling was feet inches The
room at the widest was 10 feet. There was
a seat of rock ~ feet high. There was a
shelf feet high. The only furniture was
a spiders web suspended from the roof,
which ! saw by the torchlight L carried.
There was the subterraneous passage from
the dungeon to the Roman forum, so that
Al. Iv
prison to trial.
The dungeon was built out of volcanic
stone from the Albano mountains. Oh, it
was a dismal and terrific placel You never
saw coal hole so dark or so fOrbidding. The
place was to me a nervous shock, for 1 re-
membered that was the best thing the
world would afford the most illustlious be-
ing except one that it ever saw, and from
that place Paul went out to die. From
that spot l visited the Coliseum, one Of
the most astounding miracles of architec
ture that the world ever saw. Indeed l
saw it morning., noon and night, for it
threw q spell on me from which I could not
break away
Although now a vast ruin, the Coliseum
is so well preserved that we can stand in
the center AMI recall all that it once was.
II is in shape cllipsoidal, oval, oblong 1t
is at its greatest length 6l2 feet. After
it had furnished seats for 1000 people it
had room for 1900 more to stand, so that
100000 people could sit 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 check dug up
near Rome within few years was marked,
"Section 6, Lowest Tier, Seat No 49,"
You understand that the building was
not constructed for an audience to be adj
dressed by human voice, although l 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. The arena in
the center il, olden times was strewn with
pounded stone or sand, so as not to be too
slippery with human blood, for il it were
too slippery It 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 II feet high so that the
wild beasts of the arena could not climb up
into the audience On the top of these sides
of smooth marble was n metal railing hav-
ing wooden rollers which easily revolved,
so that if panther 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 mapble wall surrounding the
arena was level platform Of stone adorned
with statues of gods and goddesses and the
artistic efligies of monarchs and conquerors.
THE FILTHY ROMAN RULERS.
Here were movable seats for the emperor
4 n with
which he surrounded himself, Before the
place where the emperor sat the gladiators
would walk Immediately after entering the
arena, crying: "Hail, Cesar Those about
to die salute theel Thedilferent ranks Of
spectators were divided by partitions stud
ded with nlosaics Of emerald and beryl and
ruby and diamond. Great masts 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 Coli
scum having no roof.
The outside wall was incrusted with mar
Bile and had four ranges, and the three low
er ranges had 80 columns each and arches
after arches, and on each arch an exquisite
statue of a god or a hero. Into $50 feet of
altitude scared the Coliseum. 1t glittereq
and flashed and shOne with whole sunrises
and sunsets of dazzlement After the audi
ence 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
frankincense and balsam and myrrh and
saffron, so that Lucan, the poet, says of it;
At once ten thousand saffron currents flow
And rain their odOrs on the crowd below.
But where was the sport TO come fromi
Well, went into the cellars opening off
from the arena, and ! saw the places where (
they kept the hyenas and lions and pam
Tiers and wild boars and beastly violences
of all sorts without food or water until
made fierce enough for the arena and
saw the underground rooms where the
Rladiators were accustomed to wait until
the clapping of the people outside demand
ed that they come forth arIned-to murder
or to be murdered. All the arrangements