Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-02-17

the offending minister fat on his back,
some one puts his feet on the
neck of the overthrown Gospelizer
and looks up, spear in hand, TO see
whether the galleries and ecclesiastics
would have him let up or slain. And,
10! many of the thumbs are down.
In the worldly realms look at the
brutalities of the presidential election
eight years ago. Read the biographies
of Daniel Webster and Alexander IL.
Stephens and Horace Greeley and
Charles Sumner and Lucius Quintus
Lamar and James G.. Blaine, and if the
story of defamation and calumny and
standardization and diatribe and sour
rility and lampoon and billingsgate
and damnable perfidy be accurately
recorded, tell me in what respects our
political arena and the bowling and
disappearing galleries that again and
again look down upon 1T are better
than the Roman Colosseum. When l
read a few days ago that the SUI
preme Court of the United States
had appropriately adjourned to pay
honors to the two last distin-
guished men mentioned, and Ameri-
can journalism, North, South, East
and West, went into lamentations over
their departure and said all conph-
mentary things in regard to them,
asked, When did the nation lie about
these men? Was it when, during their
life, it gave them malediction, or now,
since their death, when bestowing
upon them Qualification. The same
spirit of cruelty that you deplore in
the Roman Colosseum is seen in the
sharp appetite the world seems to have
r.. Al FL - IN.
the divorce of those whose marital life
was thought accordant, ami in the alb
sconding of bank cashier. Oh, my
friends. the world wants more of
the spirit of "Let-him-up." and
less of the spirit of Thumbs
down. There are hundreds of men
in the prisons of America who
ought to be discharged, because
they were the victims of circumstances
or have suffered enough. There are
in all professions and occupations,
men who are domineered over by
others and whose whole life is strug-
pie with moustrous opposition, and
circumstances have their heel upon the
throbbing and broken hearts. For
Gods sake, let them up! Away with
the spirit of "Thumbs-down!" What
the world wants is thousand men
like Telemachus to leap out of the gal
lery into the arena, whether he be
Roman Catholic monk or a Methodist
steward, or Pre- sbyterian elder, and
go in between the contestants.
blessed are the peacemakers, for
they shall be called the children OF
God"
One-half the world is down and the
-, Ill l. h.. al l,k tc
up has it's heel on the half that is
down. IL you, as boss workman, or
as contractor, or as Bishop, or as a
State or national Official, or as potent
factor in social life, or in any way are
expressing anyone, know that the
same devil that possessed the Roman
Colosseum Expresses you. The Diocle-
tians are not all dead. The cellars
leading into the arena of LIES struggle
are not all emptied of their tigers. The
vivisection by young doctors of dogs
and cats and birds most of the time
adds nothing to human discovery, but
is only a continuation of Vespasian's
Colosseum. The cruelties of the world
generallybegin in nurseries and in home
circles and in day schools. The child
that transfixes fly with pin, or the
low feeling that sets two dogs into
combat, or that DULLES a weak or Grip
pied playmate, or the indifference that
starves a canary bird, needs only to be
developed Ia order TO make a first-class
Nero or a full armed Apollyon. 1t
would be good sentence to be writ
ten on the top line of a child's book,
and fit inscription TO be embroidered
in the armchair of the sitting-rcom.
and an appropriate motto for Judge,
and jury, and District Attorney and
Sheriff to look at in the courthouse:
blessed are the merciful, for they shall
obtain mercy"
And so the ruins of that Colosseum
preach to me. Indeed the most impress
sive things on earth are ruins The four
greatest structures ever built are in
ruins. The Parthenon in ruins. The
Temple of Diana in ruins. The Temple
of Jerusalem in ruins The Colosseum
in ruins. Indeed the earth itself will
yet be pile OF ruins, the mountains in
ruins, the seas in ruins, the cities in
ruins, the hemispheres in ruins. Yea,
further than that, al up and down
the heavens are worlds burned up,
worlds wrecked, worlds extinct, worlds
abandoned. Worlds on worlds in ruins!
But am glad to say it is the same old
heaven, and in all that world there is
not one ruin and never will be a ruin.
Not one of the pcarly gates will ever
become unhinged. Not one of the
amethystine towers will ever fall Not
one of the mansions will ever decay.
Not one of the chariots will ever be
unwheeled. Not one of the thrones
will ever rock down. Oh, make sure
of heaven, for it is an everlasting
heaven. Through Christ, the Lord,
get ready for residence in the eternal
palaces.
The last evening before leaving
Rome for Brindisi aud Athens and
Egypt and Palestine, went alone TO
the Colosseum. There was not living
soul in all the immense area. Even
those accustomed to sell curios at the
four entrances of the building had
gone away. The place was so over
whelmingly silent, / could hear my
own heart beat with the emotions
aroused by the place and hour. l
paced the arena. walked down into
the dens where the hyenas were once
kept. assembled to the place where
the Emperor used to sit. climbed up
on the galleries from which the mighty
throngs of people had gazed in err.
chantment To break the silence 7