The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-08-18
For August 20 is THE Riot at Ephe-
sus.''-Acts 19:24-41.

| For August 20 is The Riot at Ephe-
sus."-Acts 19:2441.
When Big Business Mobbed Preacher.
I stood amid the marble fragments
of the old theater at Ephesus All
| about me were ruins, and memories
! In front of me extended the over
grown marble highway, Uttered with
overturned statues and columns. which
ran through the forum to the famous
marble docks of Ephesus. Not for
centuries, however, has the sea Tapped
those walls, though the outlines of the
ancient Sharbor, which once connected
the city with the Mediterranean, show
clear and strong, like huge green
frying pan. Over yonder is the sta
| dunn, now covered with a growing
| tobacco crop. The ruins of once
stately buildings are now but gaping
caverns, on which an "enterprising"
rug manufacturer has painted hideous
! advertisements directed to the occa-
sional tourist. Along the marble walks
where once trod sages and senators
and saints, see furtive serpents glide.
| The famous theater itself-the very
one in which the Ephesian mob shout
| ed itself hoarse two thousand years
ago, thirsty for the blood of the Apos-
tie Paul-still bears it's original shape,
and traces of it's former marble gran
| deur What thousands upon thou
sands could crowd into this vast
am phitheateri Now it is deserted. In
/ L a
single human being, and not a vestige
of living habitation. All is ruin, ruin,
ruin.
AS I tarry in the theater. the scene
of one of the most dramatic and sug-
| gestive events in the New Testament,
my imagination peoples the city as it
was in Pauls day. I hear again the
| throaty, frenzied mob proving-by
notes.-the supremacy and immortal
ity of their many breasted goddess. A
strange fancy seizes me, and amid
| those barren stones I lift up my voice
and cry in mockery, Great is Diana
of the Ephesiansl" The only answer
| is from a crow circling overhead, who
seems to wink at me.
| Diana is dead. In the neighboring
village, whose natives sometimes gath
er relics from the ruins of Ephesus,
could not find any token of the wor-
| ship of Diana, though there were old
| Ephesian coins bearing Christian en-
| blemS. Even the site of Diana's tenn
| pie was long in dispute and it is now
| nothing to see. The best preserved
survival of old Ephesus is the "Dou-
Bile Church of st. John the Divine
The centuries have vindicated the
| hunted and mobbed Apostle Paul.
| Demetrius, who had caused such
! loud demonstration of the verdict of
.'vox populi'' in favor of Diana, has
| been put to shame.
| In all the earth today there is not
living creature who names the name
of Diana with reverence, while Paul's
Gospel still sweeps on to new con-
| quests. In my own case, my visit to
the ruins of Ephesus visualized for me
the defeat of error and the triumph
of truth. That ancient day in old
Ephesus had seemed to belong to
Diana; but it takes time to tell where
spiritual victories lie. Where are all
the gods that combated Christianity
in the first centuries? -
i Today in an Ancient Yesterday. (
The story of that turbulent day in
the Ephesus of long ago is both his
tory and literature. So this Sunday
School Lesson rehearses a familiar
scene. The Apostle Pauls two years
of work in EphesuS had borne such
fruit that the very vogue of Diana
| was threatened. The image-makers
| felt that their business was in peril.
| The towns vested interests were en-
| dangered: for spiritual truth has a
serious habit of working out into prac-
teal affairs. Led by Demetrius, the
| silversmiths stirred up a city-wide riot
against the Christian propaganda, pro-
| Tossing great zeal for the old order,
| though really caring only for their
own pockets. Conservatism" has al
ways been a convenient cloak for sell
| fishness.
The case is paralleled today. Present
| conditions are nlirrored in the Ephe-
sian tumult. There is no denying the
sinister fact that vested interests still
follow the favorite ruse of cloaking
themselves beneath apparent zeal for
patriotism or religion or social stabil-
ity. The one foe that democracy has
had to front at all stages of its prog
ress is the established order whose
profits were affected by progress.
| Even back of the world war we may
trace the hideous hand of "big bust
| he Of
of class and of leagued self-interest is
the most imm ediate peril that con-
fronts a self-governing people.
Demetrius is busy today in Wash
ington and Ottawa and Mexico City
| and in all the other capitals of the
world. Usually his devotion to his
Diana is only an insincere cloak;
sometimes he himself does not know
the difference between his solicitude
for his faith and his concern for his
Bile he raises to support his case are
sincere worshippers of Diana of the
Ephesians.
The Madness of the Mob.
The worst about the Demetriuses,
of Ephesus and elsewhere, is that
their only argument is the big stick.
They try to answer truth with force
They mob-or discharge-the teacher
or preacher whose views they deem a
menace to their property holdings.
When progressive legislation impends,
they hire lobby, and seek to bride
or intimidate the legislators. They at
tempt to meet truth with power.
which is both stupid and futile Us we'll
as wrong. Christ crucified but tri-
umphant should have settled that
point forever: but still small boys and
big corporations are meeting unan-
Swerable argument with a leering 81
can lick you, anyway"
That mob at Ephesus, which
and other shrewd IandarS
directed, was SO carried away by the
: mass spirit that it behaved idiotically.
The men milled about like paficky
cattle. They shouted without know
ing why. Any foul deed was entirely
within their possibility. They have