Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-11-19

way of robbery and assassination, the
lost traveller appeared, to receive from
our entire party yolley of expostula-
ton for the arousal of so many aExie.
ties.
But have now to unveil the chiei
wonder of the chiefest of cities. In
1868, under the patronage of the En-.
glish government, Mr.. Wood, the ex,
plorer. began at Ephesus to feel along
the ground at great depths for roads,
for walls, for towers, and here it is
that for which Ephesus was more cell
ebrated than all else beside -the TEN.
pie of the goddess Diana, called /,
sixth wonder of the world, and in $50
we stood amid the ruins of that tenn
pie, measuring it's pillars, transfxed
by its sculpture, and COMPOUNDED at
what was the greatest temple of idola-
try in all time. AS sat on a piece of
one of its fallen columns said, what
earthquake rocked it down or what hur-
ricane pushed it to the earth, or under
what strong wine of centuries did the
giant stagger and fall?" There have
been seven temples of Diana, the ruins
of each contributing something to the
splendor of all its architectural sue
cessors. Two hundred and twenty
years was this last temple in construc-
ton. Twice as long as the United
States have stood was that temple in
building 1t was nearly twice as large
as st. Pauls cathedral, London. Lest
it should be disturbed by earthquakes,
which have always been fond of maxi
ing those regions their playground,
the temple was built on a marsh
which was made firm by layers of
charcoal covered by fleeces of wool.
In removing 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 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 dreamt that the stone had set
tied 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 425 feet long by 220 feet wide. All
Asia was taxed to pay for it. 1t had
127 pillars, each GO feet high, and each
the gift of King, and inscribed with
the name of the donor. Now you see
the meaning of that passage IN Revela-
ton, just as King presenting one of
these pillars to the temple of Diana
had his own name chiselled on it aud
the name of his own country, so says
Christ: "IIlm that overcometh will |
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.
But all the glory of Ephesus | have
described has gone now. At some sea-
sons of the year awful malarias sweep
over the place n put upon mattrass
or in graves large portion of the pop
ulation. In the approximate marshes
scorpions, centipedes and all forms of
reptllian life crawl and hiss and sting,
while hyenas and, jackals at night stink
in and out of the ruins of buildings
which once startled the nation with
their almost supernatural grandeur.
yet been drawn out. Do you not see
in that Temple of Diana an expression
of what the world needs? 1t wants
God who can provide food Diana was
huntress. In pictures on many of
the stays she held a staff by the horn
with one hand and bundle of arrows
in the other. Oh, this is hungry
world! Diana could not give
one pouno of meat. or one mouth
full of food to the millions of her
worshIppers. She was dead divinity,
an imaginary God, and so in idolatrous
lands the vast maiority of people never
have enough to eat. 1t is only in the
countries where the God of heaven and
earth is worshippeu that the vast ma
jority 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 worshipped does plenty reign.
So also in the Temple of Diana the
world expressed it's need of refuge.
To it from all parts of the land came
debtors who could not pay their debts
and the offenders of the law that they
might escape incarceration. But she
sheltered them only q little while, and
while she kept them from arrest she
could not change their hearts and the
guilty remained guilty. But our God
in Jesus Christ is a refuge into which
we may fly from all our sins and all
our pursuers, and not only be safe for
time but safe for eternity, and the
guilt is pardoned and the nature is
transformed. What Diana could not
co for her worshipers, our Christ ac-
complishes for us.