A REVERIE OF HEROISM. By a Banker.

Otago Witness, Issue 2571, 24 June 1903, Page 72

A REVERIE OF HEROISM. By a Banker.

With the exception of certain sites in tne Holy Land, perhaps the one building in all the world which must for all time excite the greatest interest to the beholder is that vast half-ruined edifice, that wonder of the City of the Seven Hills, tue Coliseum. Though, from time to time despoiled by successive dignitaries and rulers, who used it a 9 a quarry whence to procure ready-hewn stone for tha election of their palaces and other buildings, yet it still remains, a colossal monument of the virile might and stupendous achievements of those Roman world-rulers of old. Andi as tho spectator stands upon the very spot where in regal splendour sat those cruel Roman Emperors, witnessing the orgies of carnage in which they tcok such ferocious delight, ancl ind\ilges in a train of reveries of the past, what a flood of reminiscences surge through tho mind, retrospects at the same time of the most atrocious malevolent savagery anil of tha rr.ost intrepid, dauntless heroi-.u and fortitude which has perhaps ever bee.i witnessed on this earth. Now it is the great inaugural display, lasting many days, with which Titus celebrated the opening of the great amphitheatre, when 5000 hungry wild beast?, collected from. Europe, Asia, and Africa, were turned into the arena, to fight and devour the miserable victims, who were placed already there awaiting the savago onslaught of the ravenous animals. Now, a number of gladiatorial contests nre proceeding; men fighting to the death with crxh other, from time to time the attendants dragging out with ropes the slain and mangled bodies of tht. vanquished. Now the arena is flooded deep with water, and two fleets of galleys engage in a desperate conflict, the fight continuing until one side ia exterminated; the artificial lakr meanwhile dyed red with bloo'T. and choked with corpses. Or it, is a bull fipht. or a cruel massacre o£ state'y, harmless giraffes by smaller wi'd animals; or. perhaps, a chariot race or other more humane form of sport. But that which chiefly absorbs the memory as wo gaze down on that fateful a-rena is the ghastly torture and martyrdom of devoted, heroic C!in«tian<3 which so often took place o» that very spot. Now perhaps a hundred_or more valiant liPioes and heroines are turned into the amphitheatre, a Tcleased horde oE loarine. half-«tarved lions, leopards, and tigers immediaHv leaping upon them. Or a number of Christians are chained to stoui posts* arrarorpi l aionnd the arena, pitch being then nciirpd over them, and then the whole set on fire to illuminate some gladiatorial display. Or a =core or more of young Christian girls, robed in white, are led in by tha heathea nnests. and, as they resolutely refuse to deny Him who had ched for them, a howling pack of s-jvage wolf hounds is let loose upon the kneeling heroines, who. limb by limb, aye scon torn to pieces and half devoured. Ah • but those floating spectators did nofc c cc all that was happening. For they did nob « "c those briphfc rn^eli who were liovr.jing over that or!?ie of b'oorl. who, as the spirit of one after the other of those young mnrtvrs was leleascd from its mithlv coils, conveyed it into tin Presence of Him whom sn'e had loved so well, Who, on His throne of glory, was waiting to welcome and to reward them. Should •we modern Cins'inns be willing to \tndergq tho oamc fate for Hi", sake?