Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-11-16
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
DR.. TALMAGE breaches ABOUT
THE TEMPLE OF DIANA.


BROOKLYN, Nov. I5.-Dr. Talmage con
tinued this morning his series of sermons
entitled, From the Pyramids to the
Acropolis." This sermon, which is the
fifth Of the series, is concerned with the
DOCTORS visit to Iphesus, Of which city,
with its wonderful temple and other build
ings, he gives a vivid description, with
characteristic exegeticai comments on OBJ
scure passages Of Scripture. His text was
Acts xix, "a, Great is Diana of the Ephe-
slams"
We have landed this morning at Smyrna,
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 city that has often
been shaken by earthquake, swept by con-
fagration, blasted by plaques and butch
cred by war, and here Bishop Polycarp
stood In a crowded amphitheater and when
he was asked to give up the advocacy of
the Christian religion and save himself
from martyrdom, the proconsul saying,
''5wear and release thee; reproach Christ"
replied, Eighty and six years have /
served him, and he never did me wrong;
how then can Lreyle my King and Say
iourp"
When he was brought to the fires into
which he was about to be thrust, and the
officials were about to fasten him to the
stake, he said. "Let me remain MS ! am,
for he who glveth me strength to sustain
the fire will enable me also without your
securing me with nails to remain unmoved
In the fire" History 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 monu
ment to Bishop Polycarp
ON THE WAY TO EPHESUs
But we are on the way to the city of
Ephesus, about tfty miles from Smyrna.
We are advised not to go TO Ephesus. The
bandits In that region have had an ugly
practice of cutting off the ears of travellers
and sending these specimens of ears down
to Smyrna, demanding a ransom. The
bandits suggest 10 the friends Of the per.
sons from whom the ears have been sub
tracted that if they would like to have the
rest of the body they will please send an
appropriate sum OF money. If the money
is not sent the mu0ilated prisoners will be
assassinated, One traveller was carried off
to the robbers den, and $500 was paid for
his rescue. The bandits were caught and
beheaded, and pictures of these CHASTITY
heads are on sale in the shops of Smyrna
for any persons who may desire to have
something to look ut on their way to Ephe.
sus.
There have been cases where ten and
twenty and thirty and forty thousand dol
lars have been demanded by these brigands,
We did not feel like putting our friends to
such expense, and it was suggested that
we had better omit Ephesus But that
would have been disappointment from
which we would never recover. We must
see Notwithstanding with the most
wonderful apostolic scenes We hire a
special railway train, and in about an hour
and half we arrive ut the city of Ephe
sus, which was called "The Great Metrop
oils of ASIA" and "One of the Eyes of
ASIA" and "rhe Empress of Ionia," the
capital Of all learning and magnidcencc.
Here, as | said, was one of the seven
churches of Asia, and first of all we visit
the ruins of that church where once an
ecumenical council of two thousand min
listers of religion was held.
Mark the fulfllment of the prophesy.
OF the seven churches of Asia four were
commended in the Book of Revelation and
four commended churches still stand; the
cities having the three doomed churches
are wiped out. It. occurred just as the
Bible said it would occur. Drive on and
YOU come to the theater, which was 6G0
feet from wall to wall, capable of holding
80, 700 spectators. Here and there the walls
arise almost unbroken, but for the most
part the building is down. just enough
of it is left to help the Imagination build
it up as 1t was when those audiences
shouted and clapped at some great spec
tacular. Their huzzns must have been
enough 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, gal
lery upon gallery, and piled up into the
bleak skies of that winter day, and thought
that every hand that swung a trowel on
those walls, and every foot that trod those
stairs, and every eye that gazed on that
amphitheater, and every voice that greeted
the combatants in that arena had gone out
of hearing and sight for ages on ages, felt
n 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 Paups condemnation, because
what he preached collided with the idola-
try of their national goddess. Paul tried
to get into that theater and address the cX-
cited 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 people who had shrieked
for two mortal hours till their throats were
sore and they were black in the face,
"Great Is Diana of the Ephesiaus."
THE STADIUM
Now we step into the Stadium. Enough
of its walls and appointments are left 10
show what n stupendOus place it must
have been when used for foot races aud for
fights with wild beasts IL was building
$50 feet long by 200 feet wide. Paul refers
to what TRANSFERRED there in the way of
spectacle when he says, 1--WE have been
made a spectacle" YES" Paul says, 81
have fought with beasts at Ephesus," an
expression usually taken as igurative, but
l suppose it was literally true, for one of
the amusements in that Stadium was TO
put disliked man in the arena with a
hungry lion or tiger or panther, and let the
fight 90 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 presence of
the crowded galleries, fight hungry lion.
The people were early there to get the best
seats, and more alert and enthusiastic
crowd never assembled They took their
dinners with them. And was there ever a
more unequal combat proposedg Paul,
according TO tradition, small, crooked
backed and weak eyed, but the grandest
man in sixty centuries, is led to the center