Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-03-21

tus were not the debauched valetudi-
narians from the polluted palaces of
Rome. These warriors were the phys.
ical and mental giants who came from
the rural districts of Italy as the
strength OF the French republic Is
found in the country life of France
and not in the haunts OF the dssipated
youth of Paris.
The Life Of Old Italy.
II the moral life Of old Italy was not
pure and domestically wholesome, how
can you account for the noble career
of Tiberius Gracious, the father Of the
two famous Gracchi - how for that
firm inhexible stole, the Count Leo
Tolstoi of julius Caesars time, Mar
Gus Porcius Cato? They say that Gin
cnnatus. the legendary hero of Rome,
was twice offered the dictatorship Of
Rome when in farmers dress he was
guiding the plow over his farm. 1t is
also said that as soon as Cincinnatus
left the dictatorship he again returned,
like Washgton. to his pillow. If the
moral life of Italy was not domestic
ally pure and wholesome, how can you
account for the purity and the nobility
and the virtue of Octavla, the sister Of
Augustus. whose beauty and virtue for
centuries have been sounded by every
Roman historians lip? Again, when
Julia. the only daughter Of Augustus,
became proiigate, how can you ac-
count for the fact that her father in
anger exiled her to the barren island
of Pandateria and sent one of her
guilty paramours to the grave? Would
Augustus ever have done that unless
virtue and purity were intrenched IN
thousands of moral homes? All, no;
Rome's debauchery was not the moral
type of rural Italy! 1t was not the
criterion by which the pure Preside of
Augustus boyhood home is to be
judged. II all men OF Italy were de-
based and all women their companions
in sin, Augustus would not have
wrung his hands at the periidy Of his
only child and cried out in agony, "Ah,
would that had never entered we'd
lock and had died childless man.
1t was in a pure, noble, high thinking,
simple living home of rural Italy that
I think the centurion of my text was
born.
The Scene Changes.
Again the scene changes. Now
would have you stand in the very cen
ter Of all the sin and dehauchery and
moral filth of the great capital of the
Caesars. The year Is about IL A. d
The Augustinian reign was drawing tC
close. The greatest Of Roman rulers
next to Julius Caesar himself was
about to die. The political world was
filed with plots and counterplots ant
instructions The king Is amos
dead. Who shall be the next kingT
was the question upon every lip. The
hand of Augustus, that royal master
of men, that hand which was ms sof
as velvet and yet as strong az steel
was beginning, to loose It's viselik'
grin. The splendor OF the Roman CAPT
tai had drawn the wealthy prodigal
centiousness, md unbridled passion
were running riot everywhere.
1t was into such a mad scene OF was
sail and carousal that, I think, Thu
centurion of my text then youn!
man of sixteen or eighteen summers
was indicted. In order to understand
what kind Of temptations assailed thu
moral character and the spiritual lif'
of this young man I would have 20,
for q little while wander through th'
excavated ruins of old Pompeii. 70,
know that the most famous eruption
Of Mount Vesuvius took place oul,
some threescore years after Augusta
died At that eruption OF 70 A. d. Go,
seemed to put out his hand and say: "
will cover up this city in beds of laws
Then nearly 1000 years later l will IF
my hand and show to the world how
low and vile and bestial and immoral
corrupt great capital can becom
when 1t is drunk with wealth and sir
full revelries and when man, unbridle
In his evil desires, can become viler 1
his desires than the four footed swim
shouting for their food amid the re
pusive stencil Of a city's refuse An
this Is Just what God did. In an II
slant the earth was rocking In tn
agony OF an earthquake. III an instan
the heavens were covered with leapin
flames. In an instant the great river
of molten lava were rolling down tn
sides of the volcano. In an instar
life ceased to exist in the Newport c
old Rome. Thus the sentinel wa
found dead at the gate, and the brea
was found half cooked in the over
and the mother was found dead tryin
to shield her baby underneath he
body. But what else do we find in oil
Pompeii?
Tho Life of Pompei.
, There upon the walls Of some {
these eXcavated homes of Pompeii W
find pictured the degenerate lives
those ancient inhabitants. One glanC
at some of those pictures reveals to ,
, what the besotted lives Of the men al
women who inhabited those hom'
must have been. Those pictures to
, US more than whole libraries OF write
I words could ever reveal, oh, no; Il
, charge of hypocrisy which Christ hun
ed against the ancient Pharisees cou
, not he applied to the immoral AZ
| drunken degenerates OF ancient Rom
, Then the followers Of Bacchus not on
= sinncd. but they gloried in their sin
, They not ONLY sinned, but they picture