To walk up through the ash is hard work but it is possible to hire sticks to give help as the way is difficult to the summit of Mount Vesuvius in Italy. It is worth the climb as one gazes into the crater of the volcano where steam or smoke is emitted and one simply hopes that it will not erupt while standing on the rim. It did erupt, of course, on 24th August 79AD. It exploded with great intensity and sent ash and clouds upward into the sky and the nearby cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii were buried under the debris. Thousands lost their lives. The cities were excavated by archeologists hundreds of years later and it is a sobering experience to walk amongst those streets and into houses which were once thriving but now only reveal the rocklike bodies of people who died under the ash and poison gases.
One young man of seventeen years of age named Pliny saw it happen and described what he experienced. He wrote that you could hear the shrieks of women, the wailing of infants and the shouting of men; some were calling for parents, others for children or wives, trying to recognise them by their voices. For many of the people it seemed that the universe had been plunged into eternal darkness for evermore. Thankfully a good number did escape by reaching the harbour and getting on boats indeed many thousands were saved in this way.
Interestingly of all the bodies uncovered by archaeologists two were relatively close together but were very unlikely to have been related. One was a woman, clearly upper-class because she was wealthy and probably aged around forty-five. She has been described by archaeologists as “The Ring Lady” as she was found trying to flee to the wharf with two gold rings on her hand with one being set with jasper and the other with carnelian. She was also wearing heavy gold bracelets in the form of snakes as well as gold earrings. She died under the pressure of ash and gases.
Not far away was a lowly helmsman about the same age as the Ring Lady but he was poor. His vertebrae indicated that he had lived a life of hard toil and worked under the strain of heavy manual labour. He too had succumbed to the ash, dust and gases. Both had died in similar circumstances. The Ring Lady’s wealth could not save her and the poor man’s poverty could not avert the call of death.
Death is the great leveller which we must all face sooner or later. It is unavoidable and it was the famous Benjamin Franklin who said that nothing is certain in life except death and taxes. Certainly the Bible is clear that we only die once and after that the judgement. It seems incredible that so many live their lives as if they were to live forever in their present physical body. Preparation for the next life outside that body seems far from many people’s mind. There is necessity, a vital necessity, to give attention to what God says about gaining eternal life. The most abundant wealth and luxury cannot stave off the inevitable.
The Bible says: “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” also Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me.” To know Christ as our Saviour means that the fear of death is removed and we can look forward to the glory and splendour of Heaven.
DAILY MESSAGES WITH MEANING (26/09/25)
Written by PAUL YOUNG
All photos courtesy of Unsplash
No comments
Post a Comment