Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-11-16


what was the greatest temple of lido
airy in all time AS | sat on piece {
one of it's fallen columns said, "Wha
earthquake rocked it down, or whs
hurricane pushed it to the earth, or ur
der what strong wine of centuries di
the giant stagger and fall" Ther
have been seven temples of Diana, tn
ruins of each contributing somethin
for the splendor of all its architecture
successors.
Two hundred and twenty years wa
this last temple in construction. Twic
as long as the United States has stoo'
was that temple in building. 1t wa
nearly twice as long as st. Paurs cathe
dral. London. Lest it should be dis
turbed by earthquakes, which have al
ways been fond of making those region
their playground, the temple was bull
on a marsh, which was made firm by
layers of charcoal covered by fleeces oi
wool. The stone came from the quarry
near by. After it was decreed TO build
the temple, it was thought ii would be
| IltCGHHdEf W DIlllH iiiO OuiihiiAB NbDAiN
from other lands, but one day shep
herd by the name of Pixodorus while
watching his flocks saw two rams fight
ing, and as they missed the interlocking
of their horns and one fell, his horn
knocked splinter from the rock and
showed by that splinter the lustrous
whiteness of the rock.
The shepherd ran to the city with a
piece of that stone, which revealed a
quarry from which the temple was
built, and every month in all ages
since the mayor of Ephesus goes to
that quarry to offer sacrifices to the
memory of that shepherd who discov-
cred this source of splendor and wealth
for the cities of Asia Minor. In re-
moving the great stones from the
quarry to their destined places in the
temple, it was necessary, in order to
keep the wheels. which were twelve
feet In diameter, from sinking deep
into the earth under the unparalleled
heft, that a frame of timbers be ar
ranged over which the wheels rolled.
To put the immense block of marble
in its place over the doorway of one OF
these temples was SO vast and difficult
an undertaking that the architect at
one time gave it up and in his chagrin
intended suicide. but one night in his
sleep he dreamed that the stone had set
tied to the right place, and the next
day he found that the great block of
marble had 10y it's own weight settled
to the right place. The temple of
Diana was four hundred and twenty
Eve feet long by two hundred and
twenty feet wide. All Asia was taxed
to pay for it. 1t had one hundred and
twenty-seven pillars, each sixty feet
high, and each the gift of a king, and
inscribed with the name of the donor.
Now you see the meaning of that
passage in Revelation, just as a king
presenting one of these pillars to the
temple of Diana had his own name
chiseled ON it and the name of his own
country, so says Christ, 'Him that
overcometh will l make pillar in the
temple of my God and will write upon
him the name of my God and the name
of the city of my God, which is New
Jerusalem. and will write upon him
my new name" How suggestive and
beautiful
GREAT WAS DIANA OF EPHESUS,
In addition to those pillars that
climbed over while amid the ruins Of
Diana's temple | saw afterward eight
of those pillars at Constantinople, t.
which city they had been removed, and
are now part of the Mosque of St.
Sophia Those eight columns are all
green jasper, but some of those which
stood in Diana's temple at Ephesus
were fairly drenched with brilliant col
ors. Costly metals stood up in various
parts of the temple, where they could
catch the fullest flush of the sun. A
fight of stairs was carved out of one
grapevine. Doors of cypress wood,
which had been kept in glue for years
and bordered with bronze in bas relief,
swung against pillars of brass, and re-
sounded with echo upon echo, caught
up and sent on, and hurled back
through the corridors.
In that building stood an image of
Diana, the goddess The impression
was abroad, as the Bible records, that
that image had dropped plumb out of
heaven into that temple, and the
sculptors who really made the statue
or image were put to death, SO that
they could not testify of its human
manufacture and so deny its celestial
origin. 1t was thought by intelligent
people that the material from which
this idol was formed might have dropped
out of heaven as an aerolite.
We have seen in the British museum,
and in universities of our own west,
blocks of stone hurled off from other
worlds. These aerolites were seen to
fall, and witnesses have gone to the
landing places, and scientists have pro-
nounced them to be the product of
other worlds, But the material out of
which the image of Diana was fash
ioned contradicts that notion. This
| image was carved out of ebony and
punetured here and there with open
ings kept full of spikenard SO as to him
der the statue from decaying and make
it aromatic, but this ebony was covered
with bronze and alabaster.
A necklace of acorns colled graceful
ly around her There were four lions
ON each arm, typical of strength, Hel
head was coronetod. Around this fig
ure stood statues which 10y wonderful