The Dickinson press., 1891-11-28
GREAT IS DIANA,
Or Was in the Ancient Days When
Ephesus Was the Empress
of Ionia.

Ephesus Was the Empress
of Ionia.
Dr. Talmage Describes the Ruins
Which Constitute the Sixth Won
der Of the World.
BRooKLYN, N. Y.,-[Special. DIR.
!. Dewitt Talmage continued his
series of sermons entitled, "From the
Pyramids to the Acropolis." This
sermon, which is the fifth Of the series,
u concerned with the doctors visit to
Ephesus, of which city, with its won
derful temple and other buildings, he
gives a vivid description, with charac-
teristic exegetical comments on OBJ
scure passages of Scripture. His text
was: Acts, xix, "a, "Great is Diana
Of the Ephesians."
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
70 q city that has often been shaken
by earthquake, swept by conflagra-
ton, blasted by plaques and butcher
Cd by war, and here Bishop Polycarp
stood in a crowded amphitheatre and
when he vas asked to give up the ad-
vocacy of the Christian religion and
save himself from martyrdom, the
pro-counsul saying: "Swear and l re-
lease thee; reproach Christ" replied:
"Eighty and six years have l served
him, and he never did me wrong; how
then canI revilemy Kingand Savior?"
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
% I am for he who giveth me strength
to sustain the fire will enable me also
without your securing me withnails to
remain unmovedin thefire." History
Gays the fires refused toconsume him,
and under the wind the flames bent
outward 80 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 BIsHoPPoLcARP.
But we r on our way to the city
Of Ephesus about fifty miles from
Smyrna. We hire a special railway
train, and in about an hour and q
half we arrive at the city of Ephesus,
which was called "The Great Me-
tropolis of ASIA" and zone of tho
eyes Of ASIA" and 1.-THE Empress of
lonia," the capital of all learning and
magnifcence. Here, as l SAID, was
one of the seven churches of Asia, and
the first of all we visit the ruins of
that church, where once an Ecumen-
cial council of 1000 ministers of relig-
ion was held.
Mark the fulfilment of the prophecy
OF the sever churches of Asia, four
were commended in the book of Rev.
slations, and three were doomed.
The 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
$50 feet from wall to wall, capable of
holding So, 700 spectators. Here and
there the walls arise almost unbrok-
On, 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 these audiences shouted and
clapped at some great spectacular.
Their huzzas must have been enough
to stun the heavens.
NOW, WE STEP INTO THE STADIUM.
Enough of its walls and appoint
ments are left to show what a stupen-
dous place it must have been when
used for foot races and for fights with
wild beasts. 1t was a building $50 feet
long by 2OOfeet wide. Paul refers to
what transpired there in the way of
spectacle when he says: ave have been
made a spectacle" Yes, Paul says II
have fought with beasts at Ephesus,"
IN expression usually taken as fgura-
tive, but / suppose it was literally
true, for one of the amusements in
that Stadium was to put a disliked
man in the arena with a hungry lion
or tiger or panther, and let the fight
20 on until either the man or the
beast or both were slain.
In the midst of this city of Ephesus
once foated an artifciallake, 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
carrying on a commerce which made
Ephesus the envy of the world. Great
was Ephesus! Its gymnasia, its hippo
drome, its odeon, it's athenaeum, it's
forum, its aqueducts Whose skeletons
are still strewn along the city,; its
towers, its castle OF Hadrian, it's
monument of Androclus, its quarries,
which were the granite cradle of cities,
It's temples built to Apollo, to Miner
Va, to Neptune, to Mercury, to BAG
ehus, to Hercules, to Caesar. to For
tune, to Jupiter Olympus. What
history and poetry and chisel andcan-
vas haveno presented has come up at
the call of arch@ologists' powder-blast
and crowbar.
But l have now to unveil the chief
wonder of this chiefest Of cities. In
1858, under the patronage OF the
English government, Mr.. Wood, the
explorer, began at Ephesus to feel
along under theground at great depths
for roads, for walls, for towers, and
here it isKthat for which Ephesus was'
more celebrated than all else beside
the tempfaof thegoddess Diana. called
the sixth wonder OF the world, and in
1889 we stood amid the ruins of that
temple measuring its pillars, transfixed
by its sculpture and COMPOUNDED at
what was the greatest temple ofidolar
try in all time. As l sat on a piece Of
one of it's fallen columns, l said
"What earthquake rocked it down
or what hurricane pushed it to the
earth, or under what strcng wine of
centuries did the giant stagger and
eall?" There have been
SEVEN TEMPLES OF DIANA,
he ruins Of each contributing some
thing for the splendor of all its archi.
tectural successors. Two hundred and
twenty wears was this last temple in