Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-11-16


What has he to fear? He has defied
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 disenthralI-
ment. But it is his duty, as far Is pos
sible, to preserve his life.
Now | 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
its small occupant. [ think the first
plunge that was made by the wild beast
at the apostle was made on the point
of a 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 a 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 hin-a 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-
element 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
KIopsch, 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
berry and assassination, the lost travel
err 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 fioated an artificial lake, brilliant
with painted boats, and through the
| +oI h
the sea, and ships from all parts of the
! known earth f1oated in and out carry
ing on a commerce which made Ephe-
! sus the envy of the world. Great was
| Ephesus! Its gymnasia, its hippodrome,
! its odeon, its athen8um, its forum, its
aqueducts (whose skeletons are still
strewn along the city, its towers, its
| Castle of Hadrian, its monument of
! Androclus, its quarries, which were the
! granite cradle of cities; its 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-
scented has come up at the call of ar
cheologists' powder blast and crowbar.
THE EXPLORERS REVELATIONS.
But | have now to unven the chief
wonder of this chiefest of cities. In
| 1863 under the patronage of the Eng
| lsh government, Mr.. Wood, the ex-
plOrer 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
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 its pillars, transfixed
by its sculpture and COMPOUNDED at
what was the greatest temple of idol
airy in all time As [ sat on a piece of
one of its fallen columns I said, what
earthquake rocked it down, or what
hurricane pushed it to the earth, or I'M
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 its architectural
successors.
Two hundred and twenty years was
this last temple in construction. Twice
as long as the United States has stood
was that temple in building. 1t was
nearly twice as long as st. Pauls cathe-
dral, London. Lest it should be dis
turbed by earthquakes, which have al
ways been fond of making those regions
their playground, the temple was built
on a marsh, which was made firm by
layers of charcoal covered by fleeces of
wool. The stone came from the quarry
near by. After it was decreed to build
the temple, it was thought it would be
necessary to bring the building stone
from other lands, but one day shep-
herd by the name of Pixodorus, while
watching his focks, saw two rams fight
ing, and as they missed the interlocking
Of their horns and one fell IFS horn
knocked a splinter from the rock and
showed by that splinter the lustrous
whiteness of the rock.
The shepherd ran to the city with a
piece of that stone, which revealed
quarry from which the temple was
built, and every month in all ages
since the mayor of Ephesus goes to
that quarry to offer sacrifices to the
memory of that shepherd who discov-
cred this source of splendor and wealth
for the cities of Asia Minor In re-
moving 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 a 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 dreamed 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 four hundred and twenty