Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-11-14


Scene the Second.-It Is midnoon. /
am standing upon the top OF the great
| Coliseum. Before me are crowded to-
gether 100000 men and women. great
mass of humanity. rising tier above
tier. and height above height. Yonder
sits the emperor. surrounded by his
chief military officers and by the men,
bers of the famous senate. There is
the place reserved for the vestal vir-
gins Here are the rooms of the peas
ants and the middle classes. All the
sightseers are flushed and excited The
roses in the young girls checks blush
even TO deeper red than the drunken
flush on the faces of their intoxicated
lords. As the entertainment goes on
the bodies OF the slain begin to accu-
mulate. Attendants now rush in and
| drag the bleeding corpses out Of the
arena. Then the blood soaked sand is
| sprinkled with precious powders to al
lay the odor. Now an awning is drawn
over the assembly to protect the nobil-
| ity from the fiery rays of the eastern
sun. Now the air Is redolent with
aromatic perfumes. This is n national
holiday. Caesar is celebrating the vic
tories of the Roman armies. Now the
arena Is flooded with water. The ships
| float in. There Is naval battle. Now
the gladiators cut and slash and wres-
tie and die.
The Scene In the Arena.
After awhile even this sport becomes
tame. For what are they waiting2
They are saving the best until the
last. They are now going to let loose
the wild beasts upon the Christians.
| The twilight Is coming on. Some of
the Christians are bound and fastened
| to poles and covered with pitch and set
afire TO make human torches with
| which to light the dusk. While these
| flaming torches leap and spIutter and
play, in the center of the arena are
huddled together scores OF men and
women who are about TO die While
the merciless multitudes look on, the
doomed Christians all kneel, except one
old patriarch with long, white beard,
who stands I'm their midst to lead In
prayer. Now the iron gates are swung
back. With one mighty leap. huge
lion lands upon the sands. At first
the flaming torches blind his eyes and
compel him to blink. Then he looks
around upon the 100000 human eyes
watching him. Then the starving brute
suddenly sees the trembling Christians
In the center of the arena. He squats.
His claws begin to work convulsively.
He crawls nearer and nearer to his
prey. He makes one leap. There's q
woman's scream. Then with savage
ferocity the African monster drags off
the body and begins to MUNICH the
bones.
Again the sport grows tame. The
people are beginning to disperse; the
human torches are going out; darkness
is blotting out everything. With folded
arms I turn TO go down the steps, say
ing to myself as L go, els 1t not awful
that all these Christians should have
been slain for nothing; that all this
blood should have been uselessly split ~
But as l soliloQuized thus young girl
| touches my arm. l turn and look at
her. She has sweet face. She says,
You do not know mel" 'No." 1 an
swer; 81 have never seen you before
We'll" she says, 81 know you. l saw
you when you read my epitaph this
morning In the catacombs My father
and mother were eaten in this massa-
ere, but they are not dead. Come, let
me show you something. The Coli
scum at this time is deserted" But as
the young girl speaks suddenly a
strange light appears. The walls OF
the Coliseum begin to enlarge. They
grow SO high that they lift themselves
above the clouds; they grow SO wide
that they are larger than two hemi-
| spheres. Then this huge Coliseum be-
gins to oil up Angels and archangels
and all the redeemed Of heaven oil the
galleries. Men and women of all ma.
tionalities-white and black and yell
low and brown-crowd into the seats
which fill the arena. The Eskimos of
the arctic are there; the black men OF
the tropics are there; all peoples are
there. Then a musical leader takes his
place In the center OF the arena and
lifts his baton. Suddenly all these
voices swell into one great chorus as
they sing:
Must Jesus bear the cross alone
| And all the world go free?
| No; there's a cross for every one
And there's cross for me-
While that great multitude is sing
Ing ! turn 10 my companion and say,
WHO are these and whence came
theyr' "These," she answers. "are the
hosts OF heaven. Those in the arena
are the members of the living human
race which are bending the knee to the
name OF Jesus Christ. That chorus is
the echo Of Paul's valedictory I'm the
dungeon. This scene was depicted in
the superscription which was written
over the cross and which, in the Latin
language, told the Jews that Jesus was
TO be the temporal as we'll as the spir-
itual king" Oh. my brother and sis
ter, as Christ is some day to rule per-
sonaily over the two hemispheres, shall
not you and ], by consecrated lives, try
to hasten this glorious millennial day?
Shall not our voices be lifted in praise,
SO that they shall some day find their
| full diapason In the song Of Moses and
the Lamb7
The Message of the Cross.
But the Hebrew superscription ought
TO be the most important to us all. IL
ought to be the most important be-
| cause the Hebrew language has always
been the symbol OF Gods protecting
and pardoning love- The Hebrews
were Gods favored people. So, when
we read the superscription Of the cross
In the Hebrew tongue, God seems to
say to us as individuals, 81 have sent
my only begotten Son into the world
that by his blood you may be pardoned
OF your sins and become part OF my
new kingdom" We might believe that
Christ is the Son OF God. We might
even believe that some day he shall
rule from sea to sea, but that belief
VIII not make him our individual King
and Saviour unless we can read our
afonement in his death and his resur-
rection, which was by symbol written
| In the Hebrew inscription nailed upon
the top Of the cross. Can you not and
VIII you not, by the Hebrew message,
believe and accept the statement that
Jesus Christ died to save you as indi-
viduals? he died to save you, oh, man,