Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-11-19
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
rALMACE'S VISIT TO SMYRNA
AND EPHESUS.
How PrOphcsIcs OF the Bible Have
Been FuliIled-The seven Chris
tian Churches OF Diana-An In
struetiyc sermon.

been FulhIIed-Ihe seven Chris
tian Churches OF Diana-An In-
structIve sermon.
We have landed this morning at
Smyrna, a city of Asiatic Turkey. One
Of the seven churches of Asia once
stood here. You read in Revelation,
ITO the church in smyrna write" 1t
is a city that has often been shaken by
earth iua<e, swept by contlagration,
blasted by plagres and butchered by
war, and here Bishop Polycarp stood
in crowded amphitheater and when
he was asked to give up the advocacy
Of the Christian religion and save him
self from martyrdom, the pro-consul
saying: swear and release thee; re-
proach Christ" replied: Eighty and
six years have i served Him, and He
never did me wrong; how then can
| reyile my King and Savior"
When he was brought to the fires into
which he was about to be thrust, and
the officials were about to fastcn him
TO the stake, he said "Let me remain
as am foc he who giveth me strength
TO sustain the fire VIII enable me also
without your securing me with nails
TO remain unmoved in the fire." His
tory says the fires refused to consume
him, and under the winds the flames
bent outward so that they did not
touch his person, and, therefore, he
was slain by swords and spears. One
cypress bending over his grave is the
only monument to Bishop Polycarp
But we are on the way to the city of
Ephesus, about fifty miles from
smyrna. We hire a special railway
train, and in about an hour and a half
we arrive at the city of Ephesus,
which was called The Great Metrop-
oils of ASIA" and "One of the Eyes of
Asia" aud THE Empress of lonia,"
the capital of all learning and mag
nificence. Here, as | said, was one of
the seven churches, and first of all we
visit the ruins of that church, where
| once an Ecumenical council of two
thousand ministers of religion was
held.
Mark the fuifllment of the prophecy.
| OF the seven churches of Asia, four
were commended in the book of Rev
citation, and three were doomed. The
cities having the four commended
| churches still stand: the cities having
! the three doomed churches are wiped
out. 1t occurred just as the bible said
it would occur. Drive on and you
! come to the theater, which was $50
! feet from wall to wall, capable of
| holding 5000 spectators. Here and
! there the walls arise almost un broken,
! but for the most part the building is
! down. just enough of it is left to help
! the Imagination build it up as it was
when those audiences shouted and
| clapped at some great spectacular.
] 'hAt htasy IL
! to stun the heavens. As | took my
| place at the center of this theater and
| looked around at its broken layers of
stone, gallery upon gallery, and piled
up into the bleak skies of that winter
| day, and thought that every hand
| that swung trowel on those walls
| and every foot that trod those stairs,
and every eye that gazed on that
amphitheatcr, and every eye that
| greeted the combatants in that arena
had gone out of hearing and sight for
! ages on ages, | felt a thrill of
| interest that almost FRUSTRATED me
amid the ruins. Standing there, we
could not forget that in that building
once assembled riotous throng for
| Pauls condemnation, because what he
preached collided with the idolatry of
| their national goddess. Paul tried to
get INTO that theater and address the
! excited multitude. but his friends held
! him back, lest he be torn in pieces by
the mob, and the recorder OF the city
had to read the riot act among the peo-
! pie who had shrielIed for two mortal
! hours till their threats were sore and
! they were black in the face: "Great
| is Diana of the Ephesians.
Now, we step into the Stadium.
Enough of its walls and appointments
are left to show what stupendous
place it must have been when used for
! foot races and tor fights with wild
beasts. 1t was n building $50 feet long
| by 2r0 feet wide. Paul refers to what
transpired there in the way of specta-
| Gle when he says. "We have
been made a spectacle" "Yes,"
| Paul says, 81 have fought
with beasts at Ephesus." an expression
usually taken as figurative, but sup
pose it was literally true, for one of
the amusements in that Stadium
was to put a dislilied man in
the arena with hungry lion or tiger
or panther, and let the fight go on I'M
| til either the man or the beast or both
were slain. 1t must have been great
! fun for these haters of Christianity to
]
ium in Ephesus the missionary Paul
would, in the presence of the crowded
| galleries, fight a hungry lion. The
! people were early there to get the It
| seats, and more alert and enthusi-
ostic crowd never assembled. They
took their dinners with them. And
was there ever a more unequal combat
! proposed? Paul, according to
tradition, small, crooked backed
and weak-eyed, but the grandest man
in sixty centuries. is led to the center,
as the people shout: "There he comes,
the preacher who has nearly ruined
our religion. The lion will make but a
brief mouthful of him" 1t is plain
that all the sympathles of that crowd
are with the lion. In one of the under
ground rooms | hear the growl of the
wild beasts. They have been kept for
several days without food or water in
order that they may be especially
rayenous and bloodthirsty. What
chance is there for Paul? But
you can not tell by a mans size or
looks how stout blow he can strike or
how keen blade he can thrust. Wit
ness, heaven and earth and hell, this
struggle of Paul with q wild beast.
The coolest man in the Stadium is
|
deGed all the powers, earthly and in
fernal, and if his body tumble under
the foot and tooth of the wild beast,
his soul will only the sooner find dis
enthralment But it is his duty, as
far as possible, to preserve his life.
Now, near the bolt of the wild
beasts door shove back, ana the whole
audience rise to their feet as the
fierce brute springs for the arena and
toward its small occupant. think
the first plunge that was made by the
wild beast a. the Apostle was made on
the point of a sharp blade, and the
snarling monster with howl of pain
and reelSing with gore turns back.
But now the little missionary has his
turn of making attack, and with a
few well-directed thrusts the monster
lies dead in the dust of the arena, and
the Apostle puts his right foot on
the lion and shakes him, and
then puts his left foot on him and
: shakes nina scene which Paul after
wards uses for an illustration when he