Connecticut western news., 1891-11-19


 let the fight go on until either the man or the beast or both were slain.
 1t must have been great fun for these haters of Christianity to hear that on the morrow in the Stadium in Ephesus the missionary Paul would, in the pres ence of the crowded galleries, fight a hungry lion. The people were early there to get the best seats and & more alert and enthusiastic crowd never as sembled. 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 grand est 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 brief lnouthful of him."
 PAUL's MAGNIFICENT FIGHT.
 It is plain that all the sympathies of that crowd are with the lion. In one of the underground rooms I 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 ravenous and bloodthirsty. What chance is there for Paul2 But you cannot tell by mans size or looks how stout blow he can strike or how keen blade he can thrust Witness, heaven and earth and hell, this strug- gle of Paul with wild beast. The coolest man in the Stadium is Paul What has he to fear9 He has deaed all the powers, earthly and internal, and if his body tumble under the foot and tooth of the wild beast, his soul will only the sooner find disenthrall- ment. But it is his duty, as far as pos sible, to preserve his life.
 Now l hear the bolt of the wild beasts door shove back, and the whole audience rise to their feet as the fierce brute springs for the arena and toward it's small occupant. l think the first plunge that was made by the wild beast at the apostle was made on the point of sharp blade, and the snarling monster with a howl of pain and reek- ing with gore turns back. But now the little missionary has his turn of making attack, and with 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 ward uses for an illustration when he wants to show how Christ will triumph over death-''he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet;" yes, under his feet. Paul told the literal truth when he said, II have fought with beasts at Ephesus," and as the plural is used think he had more than one such fight, or several beasts were let loose upon him at one time. As we stood that day in the middle of the Stadium and looked around at the great structure, the whole scene came back upon us.
 But we pass out of the Stadium, for we are in haste for other places of in terest in Ephesus. To add to the ex- citement of the day one, of our party was missing. No man is safe in that region alone unless he be armed and knows how to take sure aim and not miss fire. Our companion, Dr. Louis Klopsch, now the publisher of The Christian Herald, had gone out on some explorations of his own, and through the gate where Paul had walk ed again and again, yet where no man unaccompanied should adventure now. But after some time had passed, and every minute seemed as long as an hour, and we had time to imagine everything horrible in the way of rob bery and assassination, the lost travel CT appeared, to receive from our entire party a volley of expostulation for the arousal of so many anxieties.
 In the midst of this city of Ephesus once foated an artificial lake, brilliant with painted boats, and through the River Cayster it was connected with the sea, and ships from all parts of the known earth foated in and out carry ing on a commerce which made Ephe sus the envy of the world. Great was Ephesusl Its gymnasia, it's hippodrome, it's odeon, it's athen@um, its forum, its aaueducts lwhose skeletons are still strewn along the city), it's towers it's Castle of Hadrian, it's monument of Androclus its quarries, which were the granite cradle of cities; it's temples. built to Apollo, to Minerva, to Nep tune, to Mercury, to Bacchus, to Her cules, to Caesar, to Fortune, to Jupiter Olympus. What history and poetry and chisel and canvas have not pre- sented has come up at the call of ar chwologists' powder blast and crowbar TYR EXPLORERS REVELATIONS. But l have now to unveil the chief wonder of this chiefest of cities. In 1863, under the patronage of the Eng | Ush government, MT. Wood, the ex 2lorer began at Ephesus to feel along under the ground at great depths for roads, for walls, for towers, and here it | is-that for which Ephesus was more 1 celebrated than all else besides-the Temple of the Goddess Diana, called the sixth wonder of the world, and in 1889 we stood amid the ruins of that temple, measuring it's pillars, transf1xed what was the greatest temple of idol atry in all time. As sat on piece of one of it's fallen columns said. What earthquake rocked it down, or what hurricane pushed it to the earth. or un- der what strong wine of centuries did the giant stagger and fall" There have been seven temples of Diana the ruins of each contributing something for the splendor of all it's architectural ! successors.
 Two hundred and twenty years was this last temple in construction. Twice as long as the United States has stood