Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . 01 THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AMONG THE RUINS. 251 is over. Science has excavated the arena, inquiry has invaded all the vaults of theColiseum, and the sermon is silent. But what matters this change ? Greater changesstill attract our gaze,—wondrous changes ! The proud emperor who erected this mightyshow-house for Rome had destroyed a city which was flourishing many a century before. Rome—Jerusalem the Golden. He built the Coliseum, and it, too, was conquered anddestroyed by Time and Christianity. And Christianity piled high into the heavens themodern Pantheo
Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . 01 THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AMONG THE RUINS. 251 is over. Science has excavated the arena, inquiry has invaded all the vaults of theColiseum, and the sermon is silent. But what matters this change ? Greater changesstill attract our gaze,—wondrous changes ! The proud emperor who erected this mightyshow-house for Rome had destroyed a city which was flourishing many a century before. Rome—Jerusalem the Golden. He built the Coliseum, and it, too, was conquered anddestroyed by Time and Christianity. And Christianity piled high into the heavens themodern Pantheon, a monument of imperishable faith for all Catholic nations of theearth ! Yet the day will come when the gigantic dome of St. Peters must fall in its turn ;and later generations will wander amid its ruins, and listen to tales of its old splendour,and gather coloured fragments of marble from the rubbish. Then St. Peters will beadmired as the Coliseum of Christianity, wherein neither sword nor lance, but the spirit 252 ITALY. of a world-subduing idea, did battle. And as the names of powerful Caesars cling toheathen ruins, so in the marbles of this edifice are engraved the proud and ineffaceabletraces of men who ruled here in Faith, and in whose hand the humble cross of Golgothagrew mightier than the earth-compelling sword of Antique Rome. By faith, and faith alone, men are able to accomplish great deeds, let
Size: 1685px × 1482px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorcavagnasangiulianidig, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870
