The Forrest City times., 1891-11-20
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
TAImAoE,S VISIT TO SMYRNA
 AND EPHESUS.
How Prophecies of the Bihie "a'e Reen FuIfiIied-The seven Chris tsau Churches Of Diana-An i"- strucfive 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 Tn kevelati"u,
 'To the church in smyrna wrlte'
 | is a city that has often been shakeh "
 earthquake. swept by conhagrdsiT,u, l blasted by plagues and butcherea oS | war, and here Bishop Polycarp stoou
 in a crowded amphitheater ana When
 he was asked to give up the auNoSaoy
 of the Christian religion and save nm ii,
 self from martyrdom, the pro-eonsu'
 saying: swear and release thee' re
 proach Christ" replied: "Elghty anu
 six years have l served Him, anu he
 never did me wrong; how then can can reyile my King and oaVioI. When he was brought to the hres lhto
 which he was about to be thrust anu the officials were about to fasten him
 to inc stake. he said: Let me remain
 as am for he who giveth me strength in sustain the fire will enable me also | without your securing me with nalis
 10 remain uumoved 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 evp-~Ss bendinS over his grave IS the orlv monument to Bishop Polyearp
 Bas we gre on the way 10 the city of
 ErAesuS about fifty miles from S1yrnA We hirs 6 special TSlswsy tram. and in about an hour and 3 haIf
 VIC arrive at the city of Ephesus,
 which was called The Great Netrop- cgis 0: Asia. and '~lne of the Eyes ot
 Asia. and The Empress of lonia.
 the capital of all learning and mag
 riEesuce. Here, as said. was one of
 .hs 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 fulfllment of the prophecy.
 Of the seven churches of Asia, four
 were commended iu the book of Rev
 elation- and three were doomed ne
 cities having the 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 i60
 feet from wall to wall, capable of holding 56, roo 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. Their huzzas must have been enough to stun the heavens As l took my place at the center of this theater and looked around at it's 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 amphitheater, and every eye that greeted the com batants in that arena had gone out of hearing and sight for ages on ages, l felt thrill of | interest that almost prostrated me amid the ruins. Standing there, we could not forget that in that building once assembled riotous throng for Paurs condemnation, becaase what he preached collided with the idolatry of their national goddess. Paul tried to | get into that theater and address the l excited multitude. but his friends held | him back, lest he be torn in pleces by l the mob, and the recorder of the clty | had to read the riot act among the peo- | pie who had shrieked for two mortal | hours till their throats 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. It was building 6sO feet long by 2tO feet wide. Paul refers to what
 transpired there in the way of specta- l cle when he says. We have
 been made a spectacle. "Yes," !" Paul says, "I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, an exoression
 usually taken as fgurative, but I sup | pose it was literally true, for one of
 the amusements in that Stadium was to put a disliked man in
 the arena with hungry lion or tiger
 or pan her, and let the fight go on un- | til either the man or the beast or both were slain. It must have been great fun for these haters of Christianity to | hear that on the morrow in the Stad- | ium 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 enthusi-
 ostic crowd never assembled They
 took their dinners with them. And
 was there ever 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 moNthful of him" It IS plain | that all the sympathies of that crowd
 are with the lion. In one of the under | ground rooms l 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 I ravenous and bloodthirsty. What | chance is there for Paul? But you can not tell by man size ol | 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 a wild beast The coolest man in the Stadium is | Paul. What has he to fear? He has deied 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, a
 far as possible, to preserve his life
 Now, I near the bolt of the will
 beasts door shove back, ana the whol
 audience rise to their feet as tn
 fierce brute springs for the arena am
 toward its small occupant. l thin
 the first plunge that was made by tn