Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-11-21

| day a shepherd by the name of Pixodorus,
while watching his fiocks, saw two rams
| fighting, and as they missed the interlocking
| of their horns and one fell his horn knocked
| a splinter from the rock and showed by that
1 splinter the lustrous whiteness of the rock
| The shepherd ran to the city with piece of
that stone, which revealed a quarry from
| which place the temple was built, and every
month in ali ages since the Mayor of
Ephesus goes to that quarry to offer sacri-
fees TO the memory of that shepherd who
\ discovered this source OF splendor and
wealth of the cities Of Asia Minor.
In removing the great stones from the
quarry to taeir 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 un-
paralleled heft, that frame of timbers be
arranged over which the wheels rolled To
! put the immense block of marble in its plaza
over the doorway of one Of these temples
was so vast anddif1icult an undertaking that
the architect at one time gave it up, and ia
I his chagrin attempted suicide, but one night
/ in his sleep he dreamed that the stone had
settled to the right place, and the next day
he found that the great block of marble had,
by its own weight settled to the right
place.
The temple of Diana was four hundre and
! twenty-five feet long by two hundred and
1 twenty-five feet wide. All Asia was taxed
1 to pay for it. 1t had one hundred and
! twenty-seven pillars, each sixty feet high
and each the gift of king, and inscribed
with the name of the donor Now you sec
the meaning of that passage in Revelation,
! Just as king presenting one of these pillars
to the Temple of Diana had his own name
chiseled on it aud the name OF his own
country, SO says Christ. Kim that over
cometh will | make pillar i'll the temple of
My God, and will write upon him the name
OF My God and the name Of the city of Ny
God, which is New Jerusalem, and l will
write upon Him My new name" How sug-
Sestive and beautiful
In addition to those pillars that / climbed
over while amid tine ruins Of Diana's temple, .
! | saw afterward eisht of those pillars at
] Constantinople, to which city they had been
removed, an1 are now part of the Mosque
of st. Sophia. Those eight columns are all
green jasper, but soma of those which stood
in Diana's temple at Ephesus were fairly I
drenched with brilliant colors Costly met- |
ais stood up in various parts of the temple. I
where they could catch tae fullest flush Of
the sun. 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 has relief, swung
against pillars of brass ana resounded 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
he Bible records that that image had
dropped plumb out of heaven into that
temple, and the sculptors who really made
the image were put to death, so that they
could not testify of its human manufacture
aud so deny its celestial origin. 1t was
thought by intelligent people that the ma
terial from which this idol was formed might
nave dropped ont 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 aero
lites were seen to fall, and witnesses have
gone to the landing places and scientists have
pronounced them to be the product OF other
worlds
But the material out OF which the image
Of Diana was fashioned contradicts that,
notion. This image was c1rye1 out of ebony
and punctured here and there with openings
kept full of spikenard 50 as to hinder the
statue from decaylng and make it aromatic
but tins ebony was covered wlta bronze and
alabaster. A necklace of acorns cooled grace
fully around her. There were four lions on
each arm, typical of strength. Her heal
was coroneted. Around this figure stood
statues which by wonderful invention shed
tears The air by strange machinery was
damp with descending perfumes. The walls,
multiplied the scene by coucaved mirrors.
Fountains tossed in saeaves OF light and fell
I in showers OF diamonds.
Praxiteles, the sculptor. AMI Apalles, the
painter filed the place with their 5rIunQhs.
Croe5us, the wealthiest Of the ancient put
here and there in the temple golden he. :.
The paintings were 50 vivid and lfeli6e that
Alexander. WHO was moved at nothing OF
terror, shuddered at one battle scene on these
walls, and so true to life was a painting OF
horse that wheu Alexander's horse was let
I up toit he began to neigh, as one horse Is &C.
1aIt A ora
that temple cost &l93, 100. The treasures OF
all nations and the spoils Of kingdoms were
kept here for safe deposit. Criminals from
all lands fed to the shelter of this temple,
and the law could not touch them. 1t seemed
almost strange that tais mountain of archl-
tecturet snow outside did not melt with the
fires of color within.
The temple was surrounded with groves
in which roamed for the temptation OF
hunters, stays ami hares and wild boars, and
all styles Of game, whether winged or four
footed. There was a cave with statue SO
intensely brilliant that it extInguIshed the
eve of those who LOOKED upon it, unless, at
the command of the priest, tae hand OF the
spectator somewhat shaded the eye.
No wonder that even Anthony and Alex
ander and Darius cried out in the words OF
my text, "GreaG is Diana Of thu Ephe,
sians'
One whole month of each year the month
| of May, was devoted to her worship. Pro-
( cessions i'll CARDS of purple and violet and
4 scarlet moved through it, and there were
torches and anthems, AMI c1oirs in white,
and timhrels and triangles in music sacri-
fees AMI dances. Nations voted large
( amounts to meet the expense of the worship,
/ Fisheries Of vast resources were devoted to
/ the support of this resplendence. Horace
and Virgil and Homer went into rhapsodies
+ while describing this worship.
. ] A II artists all aycb4aaiOoiStS all centuries
( agreed N saying, Great is Diana of the
/ Ephesans.n Paul. in the presence of this
I Temple of Diana. Incorporates it in his fig-
1 ures Of speech while speaking of the spiritual
( temple snow, il any man build upon this
foundation, gold, silver precious stones,
etc, and no doubt with reference to one of
the previous temples which had been set on
fire by Herostratus just for the fame of de-
stroYing it. Paul says, "If any mans WORK
/ shall be burned, he shall suffer loss ETC.
and all UP and down Pauls writings you
1 realize that he had not only seen, but had
been nightly impressed with what he had
seen OF the Temple OF Diana.
In this city the mother Of Jesus was said
/ to have been buried. Here dwelt Aquila
and Priscilla of Bible mention, who were
+ professors in an extempOriz3d theological
4 seminary, and they taught the eloquent
Apollos how to be eloquent Tor Christ.
I Here John preached, and from here because
]
/ Paul warred against the magical arts for
which Ephesus was famous. The sorcerers
| OF this city pretended that they could cure
/ diseases, aud srform almost any miracle.
! by pronOuncing these senSsiess words ASK
/ Catasii Lix Tetrax Damnameneus Al
sion
But all the glory Of Ephesus ! have de-
! scribed has gone now. AT some seasons of
/ tue year awful malarias sweep over the
place and put upon mattress Or in graves
! a large portion of the population. In the
/ approximate marshes scorpions, celtipedes
and all forms Of reptlIian life crawl and
hiss and sting, while hyenas and jackals at
night sink in and out of the ruins of build
/ ings which once startled the nations with
! their almost supernatural grandeur.
/ But here is a lesson which has never yet
/ been drawn out. Do you not see in t at
! temple of Diana an expression OF what the
/ world needs. IL wants Col who can pro-
vide food. Diana was huntress In
/ pictures on many of the coins she held stag
by the horn with one hand and bundle Of
arrows in the other. Ga, this is a hungry
world. Diana could not give one pound Of
/ meat or one mouth(ul of food to the
/ millions of her worshipers She was dead
/ divinity, an imaginary god, and so in
1 idoiatrous lands the vast majority of people
! never have enough to eat. 1t is only in the
countries where the Col of heaven aud earth
/ is worshipej that the vast majority have
enough to eat. Let Diana have her arrows
and her hounds. Our God has the sunshine
/ and the showers and the harvests, and in
/ proportion as He is worshipe1 does plenty
reign,
I So also in the Temple of Diana the world
/ expressed its need Of i refuge. To it from
all parts Of the land came debtors who could
| not pay their debts and the offenders of the
] Lac 49,