Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1857-06-05
ANTIOCH.


Eastern world cluster so many interest
ing souvenirs, whether regard be had to
its opulence, power and glory, or to its
terrible calamities. Before the conquest
of the country by the Macedonians, the
city was called Riblath; but when Sc
leucus Nicator made it the capitol of his
kingdom, he gave it the name of Antioch,
in honor of his father, Antiochus. Its
grandeur and magnifcenee secured to it
the name also of the Queen Of the East.
Under the reign of Theodosius, when
Christianity had become the religion of
the Empire, it was called Theopolis, or
the City of God While it was the cap
ital of the Selucide it was adorned with
magnificent temples and palaces, and en-
bellished with all the productions of art.
1t was also as dissolute as splendid, the
famous grove of Daphne being in its
suburbs, where Venus was worshipped
in her obscenest rites. AT one time the
population was five hundred thousand
almost equal to the city of New York
year or two since. Besieged, taken, and
burnt in turns, by Persian, Crusader and
Saracen, instinct with a sort of vitality,
it rose as often from its ashes, in new
beauty, and defed all power but that of
an invisible enemy, before whose pres
ence all human might is but Weakness
Again and again the terrible earthquake
which, for the whole Of the last year,
with short intervals, has shaken the isles
of the sea, Mount Olympus, and con-
siderable part of Asia Minor, and laid
the city of Broosa in ruins, again and
again demolished Antioch to its lowest
foundations, burying tens of thousands Of
its ill-fated inhabitants beneath its toppled
houses, walls, and palaces. At present
it presents an -unsightly mass of ruins
with a miserable population of about ter
thousand souls.
But the most interesting souvenir ot
} the city to the Christian world relates tc
its ecclesiastical history. Barnabas wen
to Tarsus to find Paul, his fellow-laborer
and found him, brought him to Antioch
to which the persecution in Jerusalem
had driven many converts, who in turI
became missionaries TO the city, and la
bored with such happy success, that tn
: Church at Jerusalem felt constrained
; upon hearing the joyful reports, to sem
Barnabas to aid them, who again sough
the assistance of Paul in a work to whicI
he felt himself unequal. They spent
: whole year in the delightful labor; an
S having instructed and converted a gres
+; number of the inhabitants, the name {
Christians was first given to them ther'
II But how soon all of Christianity perishe
u but the name till now, probably, not on
d enlightened and regenerated individual
II TO be found.
e About days travel south of Antiocl
on almost a mountain-top, is the villae
Is of Kessab, inhabited by an Armenia
% population, to whom a humble individu
d of their own community brought the 60
Ie pei he had heard preached by the mi
d sionaries in Aintab or Aleppo and, SUE
J. was the effect of his simple but hear
to announcement, that bis countrymen b
d came Protestants, church was orga
er lied, consisting at present of about fif
y members, and native pastor was G
n, dained by the American missionaries
II Aintab.
or Another new and important stati'
IN has been commenced at town in 6
IN mountains, about twenty miles south
this city, called Deir-e[Kammar, or t
x Convent of the Moon. The populati
OF is six or eight thousand, and TO gre
extent Druse, race notorious for fgl
ed ing and murders, and whose religion,
any they have, is kept profound seer
They never obtrude their religion
others they take no offence at that
lis, others; they never converse on religio
lat they never pray. They have their sm
IN, and unadorned edifces for worship;
INT none must enter them but certain +
ay who are iniated, and who in the nil
'ur and secretly, repair to these lonely te
in pies, usdally far from human habitatio
and on a height difficult of access, VIII
lon they perform their rites, the masses n
er approaching or manifesting any sy
pathy, or gaining any information of I
a solemn service within. But they abb
Use the mummeries and materialisn of
or native sects, whose worship is little
of than rank idolatry, and are therefore I
nee pectfuI and kind to the American n