the seven golden candlesticks - forgotten books · as told by xenophon in his “ hel lenics ”...

TH E

BY THE

R EV H . B . T R I ST RAM L L . D . ,FR.S.

The seven stars wh ich thou sawest m my righ t hand , and the se ven go lden cand les t i cksThe seven s tars a re the ange l s of the seven churches . and the se ven cand lest xcks wh ich thou sawest are

th e se ven qhurches REV E L AT ION i 20.

R ums qf Chmstz’

an C lzurc/z, Ep/wsus .

THE REL I G IOUS TRACT SOC IETY

5 6 , PA T E R N O ST E R R ow ; 6 5, ST . PA U L’

S C H U R C H Y A R DAN D 164, PI CCA D I L L Y.

REFAC E.

IN the hope that an attempt to i l lus

trate one of the most deeply inte

resting portions of the Apocalypti c

Epistle of S t. J ohn , by references to

the present state and past h istory

of the Seven Churches,might be

profitable to the Chri stian student,the wri ter some time ago

inserted in T/ze Sunday at H ome a series of papers conveying

the recol lections of a vis i t to those sacred sites.

These papers have since been careful ly revised and

expanded , with the addit ion of much new matter and of

an introductory chapter. E special care has been taken to

poin t out the appropriateness of the rewards promised to

the faithful in each Church,and their connection with some

special local c ircumstances of each city, —a point which

PREFACE.

seems scarcely to have been touched upon in the com

mentaries on the Epistles . The principal engravings are from

the photographs taken by S ignor Svoboda ; the small i l lus

trations and v ignettes are for the most part from rough

sketches made by the Author on the spot.

W i th the earnest prayer that these pages may,i n

however humble a degree,subserve to the eluc idation of

God’s Holy Word , they are now sent forth .

H . B. TRISTRAM.

MOD ERN EPHESUS.

THE

SEVEN GOL DENCAND LESTICKS.

J NT R O D UC T I O N .

NE"T to the land conse

crated . by the footsteps of

our blessed Lord h imself,

there i s no country in the

world so ful l of associa

tions precious to every

Christian as Asia M inor.

Those rugged and in

dented shores are studded

with bays and harbours,

with a long bold range of

irregular peaks behind

them,through the passes

of which many a l i ttl e

stream famed in story and

in poesy meanders to the

sea. There i s not a har

bour, not ai

val ley, not a plain or mountain , not a brook or

del l of that classic soi l but i s associated with memorable namesB I

THE SE VEN GOLDEN CANDLESTI CK S.

or exploits. The native land of Homer— the oldest of poets,

of Herodotus— the father of h istory, I onia has afforded many

a scene for both . I n fact,in i ts mythology and its h istory

i t i s even more characteristi cal ly Greek than was Greece i tself.

N ot only were much of the H ellen ic mythology and traditions

connected with i ts romanti c glens,I t was the field of many

of the noblest struggles and the most bri l l iant victories of

Greece. The first res istance to the power of the Persian

empire was made by its people ; the doom of that empire,when i t crumbled before -Alexander,

'

was sealed on its soi l.

We need not recapi tulate the many bloody fields of Asia

M inor,i n wh ich i s

'

traced the final establ ishment of the

dominion of Rome over the -East,and the internecine strug

gles which were the prelude of Rome's decay.

“ I n this,now almost unknown part of Ancient Greece

,

three of the seven W ise men , in the early h istory of the world ,had their birth . Poetry

,h istory

,fable

,and philosophy had

each thei r fathers in th is country. Among the wonders of

the world,i t boasted its Temple at Ephesus, i ts Mausoleum

in Caria,and its Colossus at Rhodes. The finest work of art

,

the celebrated Venus,i s attributed to th is people. The most

wealthy of kings and the greatest of heroes rose in this

region,and their tumul i remain sti l l undisturbed. The sites

of its c ities are unknown to us ; and even the language of a

considerable portion,abounding in inscriptions

,has h itherto

escaped the observation of the phi lologists of Europe.” 1

The connection of Asia M inor with Greece was as ancient

as it was close. From the earl iest to the latest period of the

Fel lowes’L yc ia.

INTR ODUCTI ON

national h istory of these lands i t i s impossible to separate thei r

annals. The earl iest ep ic i n the world,the “ I l iad ” of Homer

,

has i ts scene laid on the shores of Asia M inor. The first

struggles of Greece to l ight and to fame,whether in c ivi l i

sation , war, or commerce, were here. The great contest wi th

the despotism of Pers ia,which arrested her march to un iversal

empire,began in ci ties of I on ia ; and the

.

student of h istory

finds Greece and Asia continual ly interwoven in the annals

of H erodotus,h imself an Asiati c Greek.

And when the Pers ian had been expel led— when for the

rigidity of Ori ental despotism had been substituted the capri

cious rule,more cruel and more reckless

,of a fi ckle demo

cracy,imposed on the ci ties and i slands by their Athenian

champions— Thucydides tel l s us how the internecine struggles

between Athens and Sparta for supremacy,and thei r contests

for the balance of power, were continually on As iatic ground.

I n the pages of that master of phi losophic h istory we can

incidental ly trace the pol iti cal career of M iletus and Ephesus,of Sardis and Lesbos

,as the gal leys of Athens and Sparta

d isputed for supremacy on their coasts, or landed expedi

tions i n their rivers. The interest of the latter years of the

great Peloponnesian war,as told by Xenophon in h is “ Hel

len ics” centres in the campaigns on the shores of Asia M inor.

I ts c i t i es were ther

haple'

ss prize tossed by the chequered

fortune of war from one master to another, when the decay

ing Persian empire— taking advantage of the exhaust i on

under which,after years of civi l strife

,the republ ics of

Greece succumbed,unti l the gen ius of Ph i l ip of Macedon

welded them again into one nation,

— pushed forward its con

quests,and regained much of its foothold in Asia M inor.


The thread of its h i story may be traced at th is period in

Xenophon’s “ H istory of the Retreat of the Ten Thousand.

”

The old Lydian capital of Sardis stil l remained the seat of

government for the Persian satrapy,to which the country of

the Seven Churches was assigned. I t was at Sardis that

Xenophon met the satrap Cyrus the younger,and joined h im

,

with his mercenaries,in the rash attempt to wrest the throne

from his brother,B.C . 40 1 . From Sardis the army crossed the

RU I N S OF CH R I ST IAN CH U RCH AT SARD I S.

Mount Taurus to Tarsus in Ci l icia. Thence Cyrus led his

troops through Syria,and across the Euphrates

,ti l l forty miles

from Babylon the pretender fel l in the battle of Cunaxa. The

l i ttle band of Greek mercenaries,thus left i n the plains of

Babylon ia, were led by Xenophon , after their original leader

had been treacherously murdered by the Persian satrap Tissa

phernes, up the course of the Tigri s and across Armenia

and the eastern portion of Asia M inor,unti l they reached

Trebizond, then a Greek colony, on' the shores

‘

of the Black

INTR ODUCTION

Sea. N ot long afterwards Xenophon led another expedition,

to aid the Spartans in their war against Pers ia,through the

valley of the Caicus and the country of the Seven Churches.

I n the next generation , when Alexander took advantage

of the knowledge which the unopposed march of Xenophon

through the heart of the Persian empire had given to the

I, w

RU I NS AT SARl .

Greeks of the inter—

di al weakness of Persia, we find the coast

l ine of Asia M inor again the theatre of important events.

From the conclusion of the Peloponnesian war,when Asia

M inor fel l again under the power of Persia,the h istorian loses

s ight of the h i story of i ts ci ties,t i l l they success ively yielded

to the Macedon ian conqueror,becoming, for the most part,

no very reluctant subj e cts. Long unaccustomed to freedom,

THE SEVEN GOLDEN CANDLESTICK S.

i t was to them the change from a foreign despot to a ruler

of their own kindred. Sardis, sti ll the main station of the

Persians in Asia M inor,opened i ts gates on the approach of

the victor of the battle-fie ld of Gran icus,without a blow

,

without even waiting a summons to surrender. Aston ished

at the impregnable character of the fortifications of the ci tadel,

which he never could have subdued without a long siege,

Alexander directed a temple to be bui l t in honour of j upiter,

on the s ite of the old palace of the kings of Lydia,and

,after

garrison ing the fortress,granted municipal freedom to Sardis

,

on condition of the payment of the imperial tribute. He thus

inaugurated the system largely fol lowed in after times by suc

ceeding Roman conquerors, who, in most cases,— as we see

espec ial ly in the N ew Testament h istory of the j ews,

—left the

vanquished nation at l iberty to rule themselves,according

to their own laws and customs,so long as the imperial

supremacy in government and in foreign relations was in no

way impugned .

From Sardis Alexander marched to Ephesus,which

,torn

by internal faction,promptly received him. We learn at once

the importance attached to the Temple of D iana at that

place,when we find the coriqueror, whi le granting c ivi l privi

leges to the Greek city,not only demanding no tribute for

h imself, but assign ing the whole revenues which had formerly

been enjoyed by the Persians to the shrine of the great

goddess of the Ephesians . Before qu itting Ephesus to subdue

M iletus , Alexander took part i n one of the grandest pageants

ever witnessed in that gorgeous fane,when

,at the head of his

whole army in battle array,he proceeded th ither in solemn

procession , and there did homage to the goddess. Pergamus6

INTRODUCTI ON

and Thyatira had submitted before he reached Sardis. There

remained only of the I onian towns the great ci ty of M iletus,

which , close to the sea, and with the Persian fleet of four

hundred sai l with i n reach,determined to hold out. But the

activi ty of Alexa‘nder's far inferior squadron baffled the Pers ian

plans, and occupied the entrance to the harbou r before theadmiral of Darius arrived . After a bloody struggle Alexander

RU I N S ON THE ROAD TO M I LETU S, NEAR EPHESUS

stormed the fortress -of_. -Miletus,and when a body of Greek

mercenaries made a stout defence,he allowed them to capitu

late, took them into his servi ce, and granted to the remnant

of the M ilesians the privi leges of a ' free c i ty.

A l ittle i nc ident told by an ancient h istorian,of a discussion

between Alexander and h is general Parmenio just before the

s iege of M iletus,throws a curious l ight upon the strange power

THE SEVEN GOLDEN CANDLESTI CK S.

which superstition held over the minds of even the most

enl ightened and least bigoted heathen . The question was

whether the Macedonians should risk a sea fight against the

far superior Persian fl eet. On the sea-shore, near the rear of

the Macedonian sh ips, Parmenio had seen an eagle, and there

upon presaged victory. But Alexander refused to admit this

inference from the omen . As the eagle had been seen,i t was

a presage to him of victory,but as i t was seen over the land

,

the victory would be of h is"and troops,who should by opera

t ions on shore overcome the Asiati c fleet. The anecdote shows

how easy i t was for a shrewd interpreter to accommodate any

omen or ambiguous oracle to h is plans or h is wishes,and of

what vast importance i t was to a governor or a general to

have a quick—witted and pl iant prophet by his s ide to influ

ence and cheer h is men .

From th is period the c ities of Asia M inor shared the

varying fortunes of the conquests of A lexander,passing from

one successful general to another, being incorporated into

kingdoms which rarely survived the l ifetime of their founders .

They formed part of the dom i n ion of Lysander. On the fal l

of the Greek power they were al l included in the kingdom of

Pergamus,whose kings, as wil l be mentioned under Pergamus,

acquired and , for several generations, held the greater part of

Western Asia M inor. When the last Attalus bequeathed his

weal th to Rome,they fel l

,of course

,under the imperial sway.

Ephesus was especial ly honoured by the Western rulers,on

account of the reverence p aid to the Temple of D iana, which

had long been held an inviolable sanctuary for every class of

criminals. This privi lege was so extended by Anthony as to

embrace a great part of the c ity with in the area of asylum.

8

INTRODUCTION

But many campaigns had to be fought before the Romans

secured peaceable possession of the great Greek colon ies

of Asia M inor. King Antiochus received Hannibal near

Ephesus,and there the Carthagin ian general had frequent

interviews with the Roman embassy sent to negotiate with

the Syrian monarch . N ear Ephesus, too, i n the war which

followed, several battles were fought between the Romans and

Antiochus,t i l l the campaign was decided by the great victory

of Magnesia. Cornel ius Scip i o W intered at Ephesus and theother I on ian cities immediately after the battle

,and finally

rewarded their al ly,the K ing of Pergamus

,with Sardi s

,

Ephesus,Miletus

,and the other ci ties of Asia M inor. I n the

M ithridati c war,which fol lowed during the supremacy of Sul la,

they al l threw off the Roman yoke,but were received back by

the Romans, on their subm ission and the payment of a heavy

fine, after which they seem to have passively followed the

fortunes of the rul ing faction of the imperial c i ty,and never

again took an independent course in pol iti cs. As wil l be seen

in the a ccounts of the several c i ties, they rival led each other

in servil i ty,deifying the Roman emperors

,and erecting temples

in honour of the despot of the day.

Ephesus was the landing-place for Asia M inor. Cicero,

when appointed governor of Ci l ic ia,visi ted these ci ties on his

way. I n his letters he gives accounts of h is arrival at Ephesus,and of h is journey thence to Laodicea

,the financial capital

of the province,fol lowing very much the same route as that

subsequently taken by Paul and Barnabas. The cities appear

in early Christian history as the centres of theological contro

versy, rather than as possessing any pol i tical importance. Great

counci l s were held at Ephesus, Sardis, L aodicea, N icaea, andC 9


other of the I onian c ities . The temples were partly demoli shed

and partly converted into Christian churches by Constantine

and his successors . But the country soon fel l into pol itical

decay and spiri tual death,t i l l i t was'wrested from the feeble

s ceptre of the Byzantine emperors . I n A. D . 6 1 5, Chosroes,

king of Persia,overran and conquered the whole of Asia

Minor,except a part of the coast- l ine. Chalcedon was taken

,

and a Pers ian camp establ ished for ten years on the Bosphorus,

GATE OF l ’ERSECUT I ON AT AYASO L OUK ,NEAR EPHESUS.

with in sight of Byzantium . Most of the splendid basil icas

and Christian fanes of the Seven Churches, on which the

Eastern emperors had lavished thei r wealth,were destroyed

'or desecrated by being devoted to fi re worsh ip . The ‘ cere

mon ies of the magi were establ ished everywhere, and thou

sands of Christians were slaughtered. But in the three famous

campaigns of H eracl ius, the Persian conquests were all wrestedI O

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THE SE VEN GOLDEN CAND LESTICK S.

overrunn ing the west,and Kurds pressing from the eastern

frontier,ti l l Orchan the O ttoman establ ished the Turkish

capital of Asia at Broussa,A. D . 131 2,

and the ru in of the

Seven Churches was consummated. The invasion of Tamer

lane,the Great Mogul

,in A. D . 1402, was but a temporary

change of tyrants ; yet i t i s worthy of remark that the I ndian

prince kept h is camp and court for some months at Smyrna,

and from thence set out on an expedition to conquer the far

distant Chinese empire. But when he left Asia M inor,he

left i t without a palace,a treasure

,or a king

,and ti l l the

reun ion of the O ttoman empire,twenty years later

,the hapless

land was overspread by hordes of Tartars and Turkoman

robbers. S ince then it has lain a soul less carcase under the

leaden weight of Turkish rule.

Asia M inor, though now so fal len and obscure that for cen

turies i t has dropped out of the world’s h istory,must yet ever

be regarded as the second cradle both of c ivi l isation and of

Christian i ty. I t was the first region colon ised by Greek

settlers,‘and the foundation of its maritime cities carries us

back into the era of myth and fable,soon after the fal l of

Troy. I t was, i n fact, the America of Greece, the region

i nto which was natural ly drawn not only all the superabun

dant population , but the more ruthless, bold, and ambitious

spirits. Often , too, the bands of defeated but not dispirited

pol itical partisans from the various petty states and cities of

the mother- land found a refuge here. With a wider territory,and comparatively unl imited space for expansion

,the increase

of wealth and refinement was much more rapid among the

I on ian Greeks than in Greece i tself. N ot only did their commerce far surpass that of the parent states

,but in the arts of

INTRODUCTI ON

peace,i n architecture

,sculpture, painting, and poesy, Corinth

was the only city which rivalled them . They were the fi rst

to cast metal statues,and excel led in painting before the art

was known in Greece. They acqu ired from the Egyptians

a knowledge of al l their artisti c processes,and then appl ied

these with their own skil l and aesthetic powers,unfettered by

the slavish adherence to precedent which had dwarfed and

cramped the original conception . Hence the greater part of the

sculptors and painters of early Hellen ic art were Asiatic Greeks.

N or was i t otherwise in poetry and history. We have

already referred to Homer and Herodotus,the fathers of

their respective l i teratures. So too in ph ilosophy. The oldest

school was the Ionian . I ts founder was Thales of M iletus,the

contemporary of Solon . These I onian ph ilosophers were the

forerunners of the modern investigators into the origin of matter

and l i fe. They endeavoured,by such steps as they could find

,

to mount from a primeval chaos into the later order of

nature. Thales attributed the origin of al l l ife to water.

Fifty years later,Anax imenes of M iletus held air to be the

un iversal source of l ife. He was fol lowed by Heracl i tus of

Ephesus,who preferred fire

,or some sti l l more subtle fluid

,

and who maintained that there i s a s ingle permanent intel

l igent substance amidst the constant flux of al l sensible

T/

CTazomenae improved upon th is,and

approached the idea of the un ity of the Godhead,maintain

ing that there i s a supreme mind,distinct from the chaos to

which i t imparts motion,form

,and order. We see in these

ph i losophical speculations that same subtlety of intel lect and

fondness for metaphysical di squ isi tion which has left i ts im

press on Oriental Christ ian i ty, rending the Eastern church byI 3

objects. Anaxagoras o

THE SE VEN GOLDEN CANDLESTICK S.

sch isms, the grounds of which are scarcely appreciable by

ordinary Western minds, and which fil ls the pages of eccle

siastical history with'

b arren and profitless controversy.

Equally extensive and varied are the stores‘

of archaeolo

gical remains— fragmentary, alas"for the most part, but ful l ofinterest, and forming a

,sculptured commentary

'

on the h istory

REMA I N S OF AQU EDUCT NEAR SMYRNA .

of Asia M inor. These may be grouped into three great

classes— the , pre classic,and the Byzantine.

The pre-historic archaeology of the country has scarcely

yet been examined. The famous mounds of Sardis, the

tombs of the Lydian kings,which wil l be mentioned in their

place,are wel l known

,having been described by Herodotus,

but to th is day they remain,happi ly, unrifl ed. I t i s only

recently that close attention has been drawn to the numerous

Phrygian and,Oriental sculptures

,many of which were

noticed by Fellowes and by HamiltonI 4

An American missionary,D r. Van Lennep, has lately, in

a most interesting journal of “ Travels in . Asia M inor,

” 1 given

us‘

much ful ler details ‘

of these extraordinary monuments,left

by a race or dynasty of the ex istence of which we scarcely find

a trace in h istory . Some of the most remarkable are colossal

rock sculptures at Pterium,of royal personages

,processions

,

priests,and an imals. They have a remarkable affin ity both

to Assyrian and Egyptian rock sculptures,but are of a distinct

character,and doubtless belong to the epoch of an ancient

CAP ITAL U SED A S A WE L L -TROUG H NEAR THYAT I RA.

Phrygian dynasty. The faces are decidedly handsome and

regular,neither Egyptian nor Assyrian

,and of the Caucasian

type. There are figures of gods, probably the Baal of the

Phoen ic ians,but with the

,_Phrygian cap , marking a national

d ivin i ty,and alsoa queen rid ing on a leopard, the well-known

emblem of the Assyrian Astarte,the Astaroth of the S ido

n ians. Some of the representations seem to point to the

h ideous custom of human sacrifice. I t i s worthy of remark

“ Trayels in L ittle-known Parts of Asia M inor. ByH . J . V an L ennep,

D .D . L ondon : Murray. 1 870.

THE SE VEN GOLDEN CAI V D L ESTI CK S.

that the symbol of the two-headed eagle appears on al l these

Phrygian sculptures.

But i t i s at Euyuk that the most remarkable pre—h istori c

remains have been discovered. These consist of a vast temple,somewhat on the model of those at N ineveh

,with a peri style

flanked by colossal figures,after the manner of the Assyrian

bulls. But the type of the faces and the workmanship are

distinct i n character from the sculptures of Pterium,and seem

to point strongly to an Egyptian origin . N ot only the features

of the men , but their costumes, thei r deity— a bul l on a pedestal ,the monkey

— an African importation,human sacrifice

,and

especial ly the sphinxes,D r. Van Lennep th inks strongly sup

port th i s view. The pecul iari ties are the same as those on

the figure of Sesostris,near Nymphis, which Herodotus states

posi tively to be Egyptian. We have here some l ight cast onan Egyptian expedition mentioned in Holy Scripture

,the con

quest of Rehoboam by Shishak,or Sesostri s. Sesostri s, after

overrunn ing the land of I srael , passed under the Lebanon by

the road he constructed in the rocks near Beyrout, where h is

tablet above the Dog River commemorates h is achievements .

Pursu ing his conquering career by the plains of I ssus, the shores

of Lycia,then by the passes of Mount Tmolus, by Ephesus

and Sardis,he for a time establ i shed h imself i n Phrygia

,

where th is temple,erected to the gods of Egypt

,was after

wards adapted by the Phrygians to the worsh ip of Astarte.

The Greek remains of Asia M inor are wel l known. The

Mausoleum of Hal icarnassus,the Colossus of Rhodes

,the

Temple of Ephesus,were among the seven wonders of the

ancient world,and Lycia alone has been a mine not yet

exhausted, which has already fi l led one of the most important16

INTRODUCTION

r ooms in the Briti sh Museum . Z euxi s and Apelles, the greatest

painters of antiqui ty,are claimed as sons of Asia ; and i t i s

not too much to say that most of the ci ties of the Seven

Churches are to th is day a quarry of statuary, broken, indeed ,-and muti lated

,but attesting the ski l l wi th which the Grecian

chisel moulded stone to the ideal of beauty,too often sensuous

and voluptuous,l ike the idolatry of the land i tself.

i

The Christian,Byzantine

,and Saracen ic remains are equally

numerous,though the former have suffered more from the

ravages of Turkish barbari sm than even the fanes of classi c

Greece, save when they have been employed for the l ime

burner’

s

'

kiln . But these, and especial ly the remains of Chri s

t ian churches,wil l be more special ly mentioned in detai l in

-the accounts of the several c ities.

To turn from man and h is remains to the physical character-ofAsia M inor, there i s much in i ts rugged, varied , and moun

tainous nature to explain the important ro’Ye i t has played in

the world’

s h i story. The western part of the country is thickly

crowded with mountains,some in chains

,and others isolated

and irregular. Three Alpine chains run east and west. First

i s the chain of O lympus,runn ing from the Homeric I da into

Mysia and Bithynia,where i t i s capped with perpetual snow.

Another Smaller range,the Temnus

,forms the watershed north

of the H ermes,and on p i ts slopes stands Thyati ra. Then com

mences the chain of the historic Tmolus, overshadowing

Smyrna and Sardis. Another l ittle paral lel range crops from'the sea at Ephesus

,and separates the ferti le plains of the

'Cayster and the Meander ; while, south of the Meander and"M iletus, the lofty range _of Cadmus extends far to the east,

.t il l i t merges jn , the -Mount Taurus chain overshadowing Ci l iciaD 1 7


and Tarsus,and so

,runn ing from Asia M inor through the

north of Syria,turns to the Euphrates.

N ot less varied is i ts geology,and th is, l ike its configura

t ion,has contributed to the variety of its products. The

peninsula resembles i n many points the rest of the Medi

terranean shores in its geology. The northern part rests on

an axis of sch istose rocks,of which the northern mountain

ranges are composed. The southern parts, as Taurus, Caria,and Lycia

,are composed of the same compact white l imestone

as many of the Greek islands,the prime specimen of which

i s the Parian marble of the sculptor.M ount Tmolus and the mountains of the Ion ian coast

cons ist largely of micaceous schist and saccharine marble, but

continually with in a very short d istance of the coast-l ine we

find vast volcanic tracts,and everywhere strange contortions

of strata, convulsions and intrusions of igneous and volcan ic

rocks. One district,that to the east of Sardis

,i s named the

K atakaumene,or “ burnt—up, being, in fact, l ike an ocean of

lava wh ich had been suddenly petrified in a storm ; and craters

start ing up as sharp and black as though they had but yes

terday belched forth their l iquid fires. The region exactly

recal ls the district of Auvergne,i n Central France

,and of the

Hauran , or Bashan , east of the Lake of Gal i lee. These ex

t inct volcanoes explain also the continuous earthquakes which

have\

devastated I on ia from the earl iest period of its h istory

to the present day. Hence the geologist would cal l i t a recent

country. I ts oldest organ ic remain s belong only to the period

of our chalk formation,and the l imestones and shales of the

chalk have become,unl ike those of this country, hard and

compact, from heat and pressure, and are often crystal l ine.1 8

THE SE VEN G OLDEN CANDLESTI CK S.

i n‘

summer unrestri cted over thei

vast interiori

plains, and”

then return to the caverns and forests for the winter.

There i s l i ttle to observe on the natural h istory of the

country. I t was too long subdued by man for any of the“

larger species of wi ld an imals to have continued through

h istori c t imes secure even'

in the recesses of the mountai ns.

The bison,the aurochs, -the l ion have long since disappeared .

The wild goat,or ibex

,may be found i on a few rocky heights .

The mouflon,or wi ld sheep

,has left no trace . I ts birds are

l ike those of the neighbouring regions, less abundant i n species

than Syria,which contains several southern forms which do not

reach farther north,while the mighty range of the Caucasus

and the vast plains of Southern Russia contain others for

which Asia M inor i s not so wel l adapted . We consequently

know of few,i f any

,which are pecul iar to the country

,and

the most remarkable species seem more abundant ei ther to

the east and south of i t than in the region itself.

Of its domesti c an imals we may observe that i t i s the

north-western l imi t of the use of the camel as a beast of

burden , while the Bactrian , or two-humped camel , i s found in

the east of the pen insula. The Angora goat,celebrated for

its fine hair,i s sti l l cherished and pri zed, and i s almost con

fined to Anatol ia.~

The s ingle humped camel has probablybeen introduced

,or more largely used

,by the nomad immi i

grants than in former times. Even now West

ern innovation of rai lways has preceded settled government,

Safe roads, pol ice, or any other mark of civil i sation , and l ines

of rail from Smyrna~

to Cassaba and ‘Aidin bring the pro

ducts of the interior to the port of shipment,

—’

the long trains

of camels compete, notz unsuccessful ly, wi th the steamao

in a country'where labour costs l i ttle, and . where time i s

not yet recogn ised as a commodity of value.

The travel ler i n the East i s often struck by the gro

tesque juxtaposition of Oriental crystall isation and European

progress. N owhere is th is more startl ing than i n the rai l

ways which . he wil l use in vis iting the Seven Churches ;

English enterpri se suggested the idea‘

of a l ine with

RU I N S AT EPHESUS .

branches which should~

carry the raw produce, the h ides

wool,goats’ hair

, gumST’

dFugs, and especial ly the cotton of

the interior,to Smyrna for sh ipment. The project has been

already partial ly carried out. The branch to Cassaba from

Smyrna conveys the travel ler close to Sardis, and , turning

south , he wi l l find by h is time-table, publ i shed in I tal ian ,that he can go by rai l i n two and a half hours to Ephesus

(Ayasolouk station), where there is a newly-erected inn in

2 1

connection with the station ; and if he wishes to spend a

Sabbath morn ing among the desolate ru ins of the c ity of

S t. j ohn , return tickets from Smyrna to Ephesus are avai l

able from Saturday to Monday. From Ephesus the l ine

turns to the “south -east,passing on the way to Aidin (the

ancient Tralles) the ruins of Magnesia, where also there is

a station , at which every travel ler wi ll hal t for a day or

two to explore these remains,crowded

,as is al l th i s land ,

with associations both classi cal and Christian .

PERG AMOS. REMA I NS OF A WATERCOU RSE UNDER THE C ITY WAL L S.

EPHESUS.

T i s to themes of far greater interest

than the antiqu ities or the resources

of the country that the thoughts of the

Chri stian travel ler wi l l recur when he

stands on Mount Prion,and looks down

,

over the seats of the theatre of

Ephesus,upon that narrow marshy

plain,where the dark reeds wave

among broken friezes and marble

fragments, and mark the winding

course of the l ittle Cayster through

the morass which was once th e

harbour of Ephesus,t i l l i t enters the lonely bay

,where “ no

gallant sh ip with oars ” passes by.

Of Ephesus,no less

__than,

of Babylon,has the denunc iation

been fulfi l led : “ I wi l l make it a possession for the bittern,

and pools of water ; and I wil l sweep i t with the besom of

destruction,saith the Lord of hosts . ” “ The cormorant and

the bittern shal l possess i t ; the owl also and the raven

shall dwel l in i t ; and he shal l stretch out upon it the

l ine of confusion,and the stones of emptiness.” Who can

1: 25

TOM B AT E PH ESU S.

THE SE VEN GOLDEN CAN D LESTICK S.

gaze on that scene without recal l ing the warn ing,I wi l l come

unto thee quickly,and wil l remove thy candlest ick out of h is

place, except thou repent”"1

Out of the Holy Land itself there i s no place more inti

mately connected with apostol ic and Christian h istory. W i th

the l ives of two of the_

ch iefest of the apostles i t i s closely

bound. Here S t. Pau l remained for the space of two years ,so that al l they which dwelt in Asia (that is , the smal l

Roman province of which Ephesus was the capital ) heard

the word '

of the L ord j esus .2 Hencei “

he indited the first

epistle to the Corinth ians . To the Ephes ian church also he

addressed one of h is ch ief epistles during h is first imprison

ment at Rome ; and to its ch ief pastor, his own son in the

faith . were written two other epistles . I n that theatre S t.

Paul's companions faced the

'

infuriated crowd of idolaters , and

in i t, i n the next generation , many a saint won h is martyr’

s

crown . Here S t. j ohn passed many tranqu i l years,and to

it, first of al l the churches of Asia , he addressed h is epistle

from h is ban ishment in Patmos,and here the beloved disciple

at last ended h is days .

I t i s interesting to note how many topograph ical al lus ions

in . the N ew Testament ar e i l lustrated as we take ou r stand .

on Mount Prion . F irst there are“ the upper

through"which S t .

“

Paul having passed,came to Ephesus

,

when he was about to make that c i ty h is res idence, where

during the space of three years all they that dwelt in Asia

( that is , in the surrounding province) heard the word ;These are those upper coasts

,the h igh table-land w ith its

Rev. 11. 5. Acts x ix . 10.

3 Acts x ix. 1 .

of Mount Coressus the scarcely broken l ine of ru in which

marks the old walls of the Greek city.

.But it i s most of al l round the Temple of D iana and her

worsh ip that the associations of ante-Christian Ephesus cluster.

S trange that— while the temples of Attica and of Peloponne

sian Greece are sti l l the admiration of the world,as they

tower on their mountain tops, the fair but l i feless skeletons

of a long-perished superstition — the very site of the great

Temple of D iana of Ephesus,once one of the world’s wonders,

i s i tself a matter of dispute,that the house of her whom once

al l Asia and the world worsh ipped cannot be certainly

identified.

1 The complete disappearance of th is stupendous

edifice i s accounted for by its prox imity to the sea,by

which,on the establ ishment of Chri stian ity

,

.

i ts choicest

marbles were eas ily exported for the decoration of the

cathedrals of Byzantium and I taly. I t i s there we must

look for the actual remains of D iana’s temple. Some of the

pil lars of the church of S t. Soph ia, now the grand mosque of

Constantinople,are known to have been brought from hence

,

notably the magnificent columns of green jasper. But long

after i t was despoi led of i ts choicest ornaments,the temple

continued to be the quarry for al l the surrounding country,

and for the Genoese traders .

The temple, as i t stood when S t. Paul gazed on i t, was

not of great antiqu ity. The older bu i lding was destroyed by

fire on the n ight when Alexander the Great was born , and,

1 Since the above was written, Mr. Wood has th is year ( 187 1 ) discoveredbeyond question the site of the Temp le of D iana, outside the c ity, near thepoint ofjunction of the roads from the Magnesian and Sard ian gates. H is

invaluable researches wi l l shortly be published .

28

EPHESUS.

magnificent as i t had been , i t was replaced by another of far

more stupendous proportions, and of more costly material . I t

was the first great bui lding in the I on ic style,of which i t

was the acknowledged model . I t was round th is temple that

the pol i tical , municipal , and social system of Ephesus revolved ,and we shal l find many express ions in the Acts of the Apostlesand in the epistles i l lustrated by the D iana-worsh ip.

Moreover,not only was th is temple the great Centre

of worsh ip,i t was the first asylum or sanctuary of Asiati c

Greece, which screened any misdoer who took refuge with in

i ts precincts. I t was the great bank,or deposi tory of wealth

,

bull ion , and jewels. To the temple those who had precious

metals or valuables to hoard , intrusted them for safe keeping

in an age of constant warfare and unscrupulous rapine, as a

spot which none,not the most reckless conqueror

,would dare

to profane; I t was also the great repository of art treasures

in the ancient world. The choicest paintings , the master

p ieces of Apollodorus, Apelles, and Z eux is, were col lected on

its wall s. Monarchs and republ i cs vied with each other in

making gifts of the costl iest works of art. I ts corridors were

fi l led with the triumphs of the statuary’s art, by Prax iteles and

others,statues wh ich we know modern art has not rival led.

And besides th is,i t wat he reposi tory for trophies, gathered

by victors in al l,

parts of the known world, while rarities and

curiosities of every kind were displayed there. I t was, i n fact,the Great Exh ibition of the anc ient world, and the first of i ts

kind on record. I t was truly an exh ibition ; as many of the

works of art were simply deposi ted l ike the treasure chests,and exh ibited by the owners for a fixed or an indefinite

period.

THE SE VEN GOLDEN CAN D L ESTICRS.

The magnificent pi le, w i th i ts h istory and repeated destruc

t ion by fi re, may wel l have suggested the arch itectural al le

gory of S t. Paul’s first epistle to the Corinth ians

,written

from thi s place : “ As a wise master-bui lder,I have laid

the foundation,and another bu i ldeth thereon . I f any

man bui ld upon th is foundation gold , si lver, precious stones,

M EDA L OF E PHESUS.On Me obverse—The figure of the goddess w i th he r hounds

,and priest and p ri estess .

On the reverse— The facade of the Temp le ,w ith the in script i on Au“ vewk opwv 15416 17 l the two

vergers or temp le-sweepers, tran sla ted in our vers ion worsh ipper.

wood, hay, stubble ; every man’s work shal l be made manifest

for the day shal l declare i t,because i t shal l be revealed by

Whatever were the other claims of Ephesus to pre

eminence among the c i t ies of Asia,the principal one was i ts

1 Cor. i i i. 10 13.

devotion to the worsh ip of D iana. Hence its titley veducopoc,’

inadequately rendered in our version,

“ worshipper,

” 1 or in

the margin,

“ the temple keeper,” or “ warden

,

” as we might

cal l i t,l iteral ly the “ temple-sweeper of the goddess. The

t itle was not that of an individual , but was the national boast

of the Whole people. I t i s found on the ex isting inscriptions ;i t occurs as repeatedly on their coins as Fz

’

a’ez

’

D efensor does

on ours. I t was the word that kindled the enthusiasm of the

Ephesians,and this temple was the ral lying-point of heathen

fanatic ism from the time of S t. Paul to that of Polycarp.

'

The temple,we are told, was 425 feet long, 220 broad

,

and i ts colonnade was supported by 1 2 7 shafts of marbl e,

each of them 60 feet h igh , and each the gift of a king.

I t i s to be remembered that i t was open to the sky,being

in fact a series of colonnades surrounding the smal l inner

shrine,or -holy place,

‘ where the idol was concealed from

V iew.

“

I t was vi si ted by vast crowds of pi lgrims from al l

parts of the province, especial ly i n spring, and at the time

of the games in May, which was cal led the month of D iana.I t was at th i s time that S t. Paul’s preach ing aroused the

fanatic i sm of the craftsmen . I t was the custom for visi tors

to purchase and take away with them l i ttle portable shrines,

or models of the temple, which were made in various mate

rials,and trade for many arti sans.

Alexander the coppersmith , as wel l as D emetrius, was pro

bably one of these shrine-makers. The models are depicted

on many Ephesian coins. The time of the year being that

of the 'great festival,wh i ch had supplanted the old Pan- I on ian

Acts x ix. 35 .


assembly,explains the vast concourse which was gathered

together in the theatre.

But there’

i s a more defin ite al lusion to these games

in the ti tle ’

Aa tt’

tpx a t,1 translated “ ch iefs of Asia.

” These

Asiarchs were honorary dign itaries,appointed to preside over

the annual games. The office, one of high rank and much

expense,was imposed

,l ike our shrieval ty

,on persons of

wealth and station. That any of them should have been

among the friends of S t. Paul shows the hold which h is

preach ing must already have taken of the c ity.

Another incident i n the history recal ls other pecul iari ties

1n the D iana worship of Ephesus . Though a Greek city,

Ephesus was on Asiati c soi l ; and

i t would seem that Oriental super

stitions had become mingled with

Helleni c ri tes. The very image

itself was strangely out of keep

ing with the graceful and sym

metrical fane . I t was rather l ike

the grotesque idols of modern

H indostan,

-a female figure,carved

in wood,with an immense number

of breasts,and ending in a shape

less block. Her worship,i t has

wel l been observed,was not a

M EDAL OF E PHESUS, W ITH IMAGE OF vaunting ph i losophy,but a dark

THE GODDESS.I l ence

Iand Asiatic superstition .

’

i t was connected with Oriental magic ; and the“ Ephesian

Acts x ix. 3 1 .

ERHESUS.

letters,or mysterious symbols, were carried about as charms,

and used as amulets for prote ction against evi l spiri ts . I t

was against the possessors of th i s wi tchcraft that we are

told S t. Pau l was enabled to perform “ special miracles ”

(l iteral ly,“ no ordinary from which we may gather

that they were different from his usual miracles,and intended

to refute the pretenders to witchcraft. Thus,to show S t.

Paul’s superiori ty to the ordinary manufacturers of tal ismans ,from hi s body were brought unto the s ick handkerch iefs

or aprons,and the diseases departed from them , and the evi l

spi ri ts went out of them .

” 1

We soon hear of the effect of these signs upon the pos

sessors of magical arts, many of whom ,we read

,not only

abandoned their profession,but brought their books together

and burned them before al l men ; thus publ icly proving the

sinceri ty of their recantation,and acknowledging themselves

convinced by a h igher power. Costly as were al l books in

that age,these careful ly emblazoned collections of mystic

sentences,and manuals of enchantment

,would command a

price far beyond that of ordinary l i terature,easi ly reach ing

fifty thousand drachma , or about sterl ing.

With our remin iscences of the temple as connected with

S t. Paul’s h istory

,those of the Theatre of Ephesus are inter

woven,and to -

this ease“

the Scripture al lusions are many.

About i ts s i te, at the foot of Mount Prion, partly scarped out

of i ts slope,there can be no dispute. I t remains to th i s day

the only tolerably perfect rel i c of anc ient Ephesus . We can

sti l l look down from the h i l l above on to its c i rcl ing tiers of

Acts x ix. 1 2.

F


seats,which show it to have been , next to the Col iseum

and the theatre of E l Dj em,i n Africa, probably the

largest i n the world. From the narrat ive of the Acts we

find it was used not merely for games, but for great popular

assembl ies. Ephesus sti l l retained,i n great measure, i ts

powers of self-government under the Romans : the “ town

clerk,

” or keeper of the records,was an official of importance,

and the state paper office i s mentioned in an ex isting inscription. The “ deputies ”

(t’

tvOt’

mat-m) are also inscribed on coins

REMA I N S OF AMPH ITHEATRE AT EPHESU S.

of the city. They were the proconsuls who held the assi zes,

and these were going on at the time of the outcry against

S t. Paul — “ the law is open,

” l i terally,

“ the ass izes are being

held.

” Thus the town clerk reminds the rioters that they can

obtain immediate redress for any proved grievance,and pro

ceeds to warn them of the danger of imperi l l ing the freedom

of the people by their tumultuous conduct,as thei r privi leges

were only enjoyed by the sufferance of the Roman suzerain .

Probably to th is scene S t. Paul al ludes when he observes,

“ I f

34

THE SE V EZV GOLDEN CANDLESTICK 'S.

h is blood to be the seed of the martyrs that should fol low

him,but h is written words to be the l iving oracles of the

church throughout the world,ages after the E phesus to whom

they were primari ly addressed had passed away and become

a desolate wi lderness.

But i t i s not with S t. Paul only that the ecclesiastical

remin iscences of Ephesus are l inked . Another disciple— even

he whom j esus loved— seems to hover in spiri t over the

ru ined city. All we know of the later days of S t. j ohn is in

connection with i t ; but we have not, as in the case of S t.

Paul,a crowd of scriptural incidents elucidated by the place

and its h istory. Beyond his apocalyptic epistle,the Bible

yields us no evidence of h is residence in Asia ; but hi s

memory sti l l l ingers there, enshrined even in the Turkish

name of the squal id vi l lage about two miles from the ru ins,

the only inhabi ted place in the neighbourhood— Ayasolouk,

which is a corruption of the Greek ”Aytag Oeokéyog

“ the holy

theologian,

” the name un1versally given to the apostle i n the

Oriental church .

The apocalyptic epistle to each church begins by a

distinct t itle of the Son of God,differing in each case, but

all taken from the mystic symbols which surround him ,as

described in the fi rst chapter. Perhaps deeper knowledge

might discover someth ing in each appropriate to the special

c ircumstances of that church,as there certainly is in the

rewards held forth to the faithful in each . The Lord i s

described to Ephesus as holding the seven stars i n h is right

hand, and walki ng in the midst of the seven golden candle

sticks. Wa lking among them ,he i s active

,evermore trim

ming and feeding with the oi l of grace the golden lamps

36

EPHESUS.

of the sanctuary. But the church has not so trimmed her

lamp. Her first love has grown cold,the lamp is burning

dim for want of watch ing and of oil , and therefore fol lows the

warning that unless the lamp burn brighter the candlestick

shal l be removed out of i ts place. Ephesus had left her

first love. She recal led the words of the prophet : “ I

remember thee,the kindness of thy youth

,the love of thine

espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in

a land that was not sown,

” 1 when in the first devotion of

heart i t seemed as though a thankful love would never ebb.

But though noth ing has changed outwardly,everyth ing has

changed with in . Therefore the threat i s,not extinction of

the candle,but removal of the candlestick ; not the putting

out of the l ight of truth,but its removal to other places.

And this i s exactly what has occurred. The grace of God

withdrawn from Ephesus has been bestowed on other places.

The seat of the church has been changed, but Christ’

s

church sti l l survives.

The tender love of the L ord, while i t wounds, wil l also

heal, and therefore the meed of praise i s awarded where i t

can sti l l be given : “ This thou hast,that thou hatest the

deeds of the N i colaitans, which I also hate.” Who the

N icolai tans were i t i s not easy to answer. They could not

be that sect whi‘ch‘ “

spfi i hg up under the name a century

later. Perhaps as many of the other names,such as j ezebel ,

Babylon , Sodom , are . symbol ical and mystical,so th is may

also be. The N icolaitans s‘eem identified with those that

hold the doctrine of Balaam 2~ those who repeat the s in

jer. 11. 2. V er. 14, 1 5.

TH E SE VEN G OLDEN CANDLESTICK 'S.

of Balaam,and seek to overcome the people of God by l ike

temptations as those by which Balaam seduced them of old.

He sought to lead them into the fleshly s ins of heathen ism ,

so prevalent in the idolatrous worsh ip of Ephesus, to draw

them to eat idol-meats and to commit forn ication,to intro

duce a false freedom— the freedom of the flesh,into the

church of God. After the battle against j ewish legal ism

had been fought by S t. Paul, the second danger was that

of heathen l icentiousness and l ibertin ism under the mask of

freedom, by men who, the servants of corruption , turned the

grace of God into lasc iviousness.

The promise to those who have overcome is,

“ I wil l

give to eat of the tree of l ife,which is in the midst of the

paradise of God.

” Those who have abstained from the

idol-meats,from the sinful luxuries of the flesh

,shal l eat of

the tree of l ife. There is a harmony between the form of

the victory and the form of the reward . But there may be

a further appropriateness in the promise to Ephesus of“ the tree of l ife.

” The fame,the wealth

,the power

,almost

the very ex istence of Ephesus,were centred in the worship

of D iana. I n her temples and rites the thought and l ife of

every Ephesian was bonnd up. I n what sense was she

especial ly worsh ipped"D iana,or Astarte

,was the Asiati c

symbol for fecundity,the mother and l ife-giver of al l . How

comforting then to the Christian,who stood aloof from al l

th i s sensuous idolatry,to be reminded of what was in store

for h im— the tr ue source of l ife,not h idden in the recesses

of a heathen temple,not enshrined in the mysteries of a

secret and h ideous worsh ip,but which i s in the m idst of

the paradise, the open garden of God.

38

The mosque here,which is of great s ize

,i s undoubtedly

an ancient Christian church,probably the very same which

the Emperor j ustin ian bu i lt on the site of an older and

smal ler one,dedicated in honour of S t. j ohn , and in the

erection of which the marbles of D iana’s temple were em

ployed. Four splendid monol ith shafts of gran ite inside the

mosque are probably among the pi llars transferred by j us

tin ian to th is church,which has given i ts name to the vi llage.

GATEWAY IN EPHESUS.

All else which connects S t. j ohn with Ephesus i s on ly known

in the shadowy’

arm-

doubtful records of the sunset of the

apostol ic age,and gives us l i ttle certain information as to the

extent or duration of h i s work here.

We know that he must have reached Ephesus after the

date of S t. Paul’s martyrdom ; for then Timothy was its ch ief

pastor ‘

; afterwards, i n the persecution of Domitian , he either

fled or was ban ished to Patmos. On the accession of N ero

39


he seems to have returned. Here, while combating the

heresies wh ich arose,he is said to have penned his gospel

,

and,according to Eusebius

,to have attested the gospel

canon . Many a touch ing tradition,whether fact or legend it

matters l ittle,has been preserved respecting his latter days.

The caves which we see in the h i l l s around, remind us of

the story of his confronting a fierce robber-ch ieftain ‘ whom in

days gone by he had baptised ; and by h is loving firmness

touching the conscience of the bandit,and winning him back

to repentance. We are al l famil iar with the well -attested

tradi tion of the old and loving saint,when too infirm to

walk or preach,carried into the church— perhaps into that

very building of Ayasolouk now pe rverted to the worsh ip of

the false prophet— and day after day repeating the one charge

which embodied his Master’s teach ing,

“ L i ttl e chi ldren,love

one another.

N o tradition points out any spot as the resting-place of

the bones of S t. j ohn ; but in the outskirts of the city are

many tombs crowded together near the Gymnasium,doubt

less a Christian cemetery,from the symbols on some of

the stones, among which the cross i s conspicuous ; and one

with a cross and a‘

bul l i s said to mark the sepulchre of

S t. Luke : but these are evidently a centu ry or two later

in date.

But the apostle left behind him a more enduring monu

ment than tomb or temple,in the disciples whom he trained

at Ephesus ; such were Polycarp, Ignatius, and Papias, whocontinued to the next generation to preserve the fruit of

apostoli c doctrine i n the churches of Smyrna and other ci tiesof Asia.

40

EPHESUS.

The remin iscences of Christian Ephesus would be incom

plete ,i f we did not carry them down from the apostol i c age

for more than three hundred years,when

,i n the year A. D .

431 , a general counci l of the church assembled in the church

of S t. Mary, the very site of which is now lost, and con

demned the doctrines of N estorius. Thankful as we may

be for the deci s ion arrived at by that th ird of the general

counci ls, i t i s impossible to read the story of the unseemly

wrangl ings and fiercely retorted anathemas which character

i sed i t without a pang of shame and regret. Worse than

these contentions,even

,were the riots and actual violence

of the lawless mobs wh ich supported the orthodox and

victorious party. I n unseemly haste Cyri l and his col leagues

opened the counci l , without wait ing for the arrival of the

legates from I taly, or of j ohn of Antioch and the Oriental

prelates,who it was known would support N estorius.

I n vain did the Emperor Theodosius attempt to mediate ;and at length he dissolved the great oecumenical counci l of

Ephesus,with the stinging rebuke

,

“ God i s my witness

that I am not the author of th is confusion . H is providence

wi l l di scover and pun ish the gui lty. Return to your pro

vinces,and may your private vi rtues repair the misch ief and

scandal of your meeting.

” Two things are worthy of noti ce

in the history ‘

of‘

the"

thifd general counci l : first,that i t was

summoned and dissolved by the temporal power alone ;secondly, that the Bishop of Rome claimed no supremacy

he only attended by hi s representatives,and the decrees

were passed before they arrived. The counci l had neither

Celestine,nor any other so-called successor of S t. Peter in

their thoughts,and acknowledged no aar t/z/y being, but the

o 4 1

THE SE VEN GOLDEN CANDLESTI CK 'S.

Lord of heaven alone, as the supreme head .of the un iversal

church .

But disgraceful as are the scenes which discredit the

counci l of Ephesus, they were far surpassed in violence by

those of the second Ephesian counci l,

A. D . 449 . Here

again the Bishop of Alexandria,D ioscorus

,presided

,the

Roman legate s itting below him . The predominant party,

not content with ecclesiastical censure,cal led in their bands

of armed retainers ; and so brutal ly was the unhappy

Flavian,bishop of Byzantium

,beaten by these h irel ings

,

that he died in a few days from the injuries he had

received. Deservedly has the second Ephesian counci l been

known ever s ince as the “ L atrocin ian (that i s, the assembly

of robbers), the name with which i t was branded by Leo,bishop of Rome.

W i th this sad scene,the h istory of Ephesus i s almost

closed. The carnal championsh ip of orthodoxy availed not

to preserve its candlestick. I ts l ight soon faded ; and i t

l ingered on,a decaying c ity

,exposed to al l the horrors of the

ceaseless wars and invasions of the Latin empire,unti l final ly

the Turkish Ch ieftains Sarukhan and Aidin,i n the year A. D .

131 2 , destroyed it utterly, and the church of S t. Mary was

laid as low as the temple of D iana.

SMY RN A .

N L I K E her s ister church of

Ephesus,Smyrna occu

pies but a very scanty

space in the sacred wri t

ings. N ever even

mentioned by name,ei ther in the travels

“ m"“ S“YRN'M or the epistles of

S t. Paul , i t i s once,and once only, brought under our notice, but that in a

posi tion of the highest honour,i n the apocalyptic message.

W i th the s ingle exception of Phi ladelph ia,Smyrna i s the

only church to which that message is one of unmingled appro

bation. I t i s surely by more than an accidental coinci

dence that these twoEiti es alone of the seven have retainedtheir importance, their population , and even thei r churches

in comparative freedom , through the trials and vic issi tudes

of centuries,to the present day ; not, however, without many

reverses. Time after time has Smyrna had tribulation. Ten

times has the “ ornament of Asia”

(it'yakpa 7 77g

’

Aa t’

ag) been laid

waste by the torch of the invader, and ten times has she risen

45


SMYRNA

FRO

M

THE

SEA.

from her ashes,each time not less beautiful

than before,ti l l now she stands the undis

puted queen of the Levant, an immense city,with its roofs gl i ttering in the clear sunl ight

of the East,rising tier beyond tier from the

shore to the bold h il l s behind,and a harbour

crowded with the sh ipping of the Western

nations. The flag-staffs of the foreign consuls

along the shore, the minarets and cypresses

in thi s meeting-place of many languages,

creeds,and costumes, make us mindful of the

changes which have occurred in th is region

s ince the martyrdom of Polycarp. And thi s

consciousness of a new state of th ings cul

minates when we notice the rai lways which

now connect Smyrna with the interior of the

country.

Let us, however, review the history of

the old c ity before we come down to the

Smyrna of our own days. The h istory of

Smyrna,i t may be said

,brings before us in

epitome the story of the Greek race through

al l t ime, from the old fables of mythical tra

d ition before Homer sang, through the epoch

of Grecian supremacy in arts and arms,i n

science and letters, through the long des

perate struggles which ended in the final

triumph of the Crescent over the Cross, to

the less bloody,but no less bitter

,strife of

to-day,when the Crescent seems wan ing into

annih i lation , though the Cross as yet appears not ready to

raise i ts symbol of supremacy,and to take its place as the

dominant creed of Asia .

Founded original ly by the z’Eolian Greeks

,Smyrna sub

sequently (before the period of h istoric records) became amember of the I on ic confederacy

,having been captured by

stratagemby the people of Colophon , about 688. I t

remained independent,not without many struggles

,for two

hundred and fifty years,when i t was

,after a desperate con~

fl ict,destroyed by the Lydian king Alyattes. Thenceforward

the h istory of Smyrna i s identical w ith that of Asia M inor,

l iable to the same vic i ss i tudes, enslaved by Lydian and

Persian in turn,and only emancipated to wear a heavier

yoke under the democratic tyranny of Athens,and afterwards

of Rome. I t was not,however

,unti l four hundred years had

elapsed that i t resumed the importance i t had attained before

i ts destruction by the K ing of Lydia. During all th i s period

i t remained unfortified and open , unti l Lysimachus completed

the design of Alexander the Great, and bu ilt a new city,about three miles south of the si te of the ancient Smyrna.

I t then became and continued one of the wealth iest and most

flourish ing centres of commerce in Asia M inor and during the

struggles of Rome and M ithridates i t secured the protection ,and afterwards the favour, of the former. From thi s time it

increased in splendour,and lavished a portion of i ts wealth

not only in building temples to the poet Homer,whose

b irthplace i t claimed to be, but also, with the despicable

flattery which disgraced that age of vice and crime,to the

Roman Emperor T iberius. Once sacked during the c ivil

war which followed the death of Caesar, and twice after

47


wards overthrown by earthquake, i t was on each occas ion

rebui lt with increased magnificence, and claimed the epithets

of “ the Lovely,

” “ the Crown of I on ia. Much of the pro

sperity of Smyrna was doubtless due to the sedulous care

with which its inhabitants, regarding only their material in

terests, worsh ipped the rising sun , and habitual ly secured for

themselves the favour of each conqueror in turn . As -they

profanely worsh ipped T iberius,their fathers had given to

Antiochus the blasphemous title of “ God and Saviour,

” and

to his mother that of “ V cnus of V i ctory.

”

So when M ithri

dates was in the zen ith of h is power, they stamped h is head

upon their coins ; but the tide had scarcely turned against

h im when they erected a temple to the deified city of Rome.

As each of the I on ian ci ties had its favouri te tutelary

deity and worsh ip,so that of Smyrna was parti cularly the

celebration of the death and resurrection of the Grecian

Bacchus,and the mysteries of the god of wine were per

formed with great pomp . The priests who presided annually

over these ri tes were persons of much consideration,as

appears from several inscriptions,and at the close of their

year of office were presented with a crown by the munic i

pality. There seems to be a distinct and appropriate al lusion

to these famil iar Observances in the apocalypti c message to

the Smyrnean church ; al l the more forcible from the super

stitious regard which ancient writers tel l us the inhabitants

of that city paid to chance phrases and expressions for the

purpose of augury. Thus the message begins : “These things

saith the first and the last,which was dead and is al ive.”

The words would strike with pecul iar force on ears famil iar

with the phrases appl ied in a - very different sense to the

48

SA"YRNA.

revels of Bacchus. So also the conclusion ,“ I wi l l give thee

a ctown of at once a contrast with the gift of

the munic ipal crown , which conferred a transitory nobi l ity on

the leaders of thei r heathen worsh ip. The passage may with

equal propriety al lude to the Smyrnean O lympic games,which

came round every five years, and excited an interest s imilar

to those of Greece,while the prize was

,as in them

,merely

a perishing wreath .

Rich and beautiful as Smyrna was,the wealthy amongst its

c iti zens seem to have been too much absorbed in thei r gains

or their pleasures to give due heed to the preach ing of the

gospel ; for the message of the Lord speaks of the“tribula

tion and poverty ” of the Smyrnean church,though rich in

the possess ion of truth pure and undefiled,beyond most of

i ts neighbours. Suffering was in store for that tried and

oppressed band,and they are cheered under it by heavenly

consolations. “ Fear none of those th ings which thou shal t

suffer. Behold the devi l shall cast some of you into prison ,that ye may be tried

,and ye shal l have tribulation ten days.

Be thou faithful unto death,and I wil l give thee a crown of

l ife. But there i s no rebuke,— no threat of removing the

candlestick out of i ts place,or of the Lord coming to fight

against error with the sword of hi s mouth. The church shal l

be sifted and tried -

even'

as by fire,but i t wil l hold fast unto

the end.

And the trial which was foretold was not long delayed.

The storm of persecution was,even when the apostle wrote,

gathering over the church,and before the next generation

had passed it burst with especial fury upon the Christians of

Smyrna. The early h istory of the church is bound up closely11 49


with that of Polycarp,i ts martyred bishop ; and indeed it is

only through the records of h is l ife and death that any par

t iculars of i ts fortunes have come down to us. We know not

whether Polycarp h imself was the angel of the church to

whom our Lord addressed the epistle,but it i s not impossible ;

for a few years later,when Ignatius of Antioch passed

through Smyrna,on his way to suffer martyrdom at Rome

(A. D . 107 he was its chief min ister,and with him

Ignatius held consol ing and cheering intercourse. Both had

been fel low-disc iples and hearers of S t. j ohn , and a touch ing

story is told, probably a mere tradition , of the apostle having

committed to the care of Polycarp a young man who,once

h is fol lower,had apostatised, and become the chief of a

robber band,but was accidental ly met

,and brought again

to repentance by S t. j ohn , near Ephesus.

So great was the renown of Polycarp,that many writers

occupied themselves with compi l ing various and contradictory

memoirs of h is early l ife. The most trustworthy records of

h im are those left us by I renzeus, who had enjoyed personal

i ntercourse with h im . He states that he was instructed by

the apostles, and by them ordained and appointed Bishop of

Smyrna. So eminent was h is fame,that there is scarcely an

early Christian writer by whom he is not mentioned ; but of

h is l ife we have few details ti l l we come to the record of

h is martyrdom , preserved by Eusebius in a letter from the

church of Smyrna to their brethren in other places.I t occurred in the persecution under Marcus Aurel ius

,after

A. D . 160,but‘ the date i s not qu ite certain . Several Christians,

'

both of th is place and from Philadelphia,had been cast to

the ~wild beasts for the amusement of the populace, and

50


the ground that the games were finished. He had evidently

been touched by th is example of Christian heroism . But

the populace,th irsting for blood, cried out, “ Let h im be

burn t al ive l” —and while he stood calmly praying, the people

rapidly gathered fuel from the workshops and baths near,i n

which employment the j ews were foremost. The old man

ungirded himself,and took his place among the faggots.

When they were about to nai l h im to the stake he said,

“ L et me remain as I am ; for H e who giveth me strength to

sustain the fire wil l enable me also,without your fasten ing me

with nai ls,to endure its fierceness. Then putting his hands

behind h im,he suffered himself to be bound

,and uttered a

touch ing prayer, which has been preserved, thanking God who

had counted him worthy of the honour of martyrdom,for

the resurrection to eternal l ife of soul and body in Christ,

and ascribing glory to the blessed Trin ity. The fire was

kindled,but a strong wind blew the flames to one s ide

,so that

he was roasted rather than burned,upon which the e x ecu

tioner was directed to dispatch him with h is sword. When

the weapon was plunged into h is body,the blood which

gushed forth quenched the flames,which were immediately

rekindled,lest the Christians should bury h im with honour.

The j ews were especially anxious that the body should be

utterly consumed,lest

,said they

,these people should leave

the worsh ip of the Crucified One for th is man. On th is the

epistle remarks on their ignorance,

“ who imagined that i t

was possible for us to forsake Christ,who suffered for the

salvation of al l who are saved of the human race, or ever

to worsh ip any other. As if by antic ipation guarding against

any sanction of the saint or rel ic worsh ip of Rome and

52

Greece,

the church of Smyrna proceeds : “We adore h im

as the Son of God,but we justly love the martyrs as dis

SMYR N A FROM THE SEA .

H is ashes were colIected afterwards by the faithfu l of h is

flock,

and deposited in a spot of which the tradition has

been un interruptedly preserved , and which is stil l devoutly

vis ited by the Greeks of Smyrna. The tomb is pointed out

close by the ru ins of an anc ient church on the h il l-s ide, which

rises to the south -east of the c ity, very near the scene of h is

martyrdom,and overshadowed by an ancient tal l cypress-tree.

53


The Subsequent h istory of Christ ian Smyrna is a long

catalogue of trials and persecutions ; yet the l ight has never

been absolutely extinguished. While the place has main

tained a commercial prosperity, chequered at t imes, but sti l l‘

unrival led elsewhere in the East,the church has fallen from

its former splendour, but is yet in a better condition than

any of the other churches. Christian ity has ever maintained

its foothold even in the most intolerant epoch of Moslem

supremacy ; the l ight has been very d im ,and partial ly ob

scured,but yet the candlestick has remained ; and so large

is the proportion of native Christians, that the Moham

medans,with whom it is a hated c ity, term it in scorn “ the

infidel Smyrna.

”

Smyrna remained a portion of the Christian Greek empire

later than most other parts of Asia M inor. I t was first

taken by the Turks A. D . 1084. Again i t was taken and

retaken , and on the second occasion the Turks massacred

without mercy al l the Christian inhabitants . I t remained

in ru ins ti l l the Emperor Comnenos restored it about A. D .

1 220. Again it was taken by the Turks,who were expelled

after the Crusades by the Knights of Rhodes. Twice was it

captured by them , to be speedi ly retaken ; and the famous

Sultan Bajaz et invested i t in vain for seven years. At length

the terri ble Tam'

erlane ,

’

w ith h is Tartar hordes,stormed it

in A. D . 1402, after a s iege of only fourteen days, and butch

ered all the inhabitants without mercy,building up into a

tower with mortar the thousands of heads of the slaughtered

Christians. S ti l l the Knights of Rhodes made a last effort,and held it for a time. After their th i rd expulsion by the

Turks it was once more stormed by a Venetian fleet, when

54

SJ II YRNA .

the Venetians vis ited on the Moslems with retributive fury

the massacres which they had infl icted on the Christians.

S ince the first abandonment of al l attempts to expel the

O ttomans the city has remained under Turkish rule,but

with tolerable l iberty for the Greek Christians,who enjoy

freedom of worsh ip, and are protected from much oppression ,formerly by the ex istence of European factories

,and now by

the influence of the Christian consuls,and the many Western

res idents.

R U I NS ABOV E SMYRNA .

Smyrna has been so frequently rebuil t that unl ike

Ephesus, the remains ofe antiqu ity are comparatively un impor

tant. Of old Smyrna (the early Greek city) only a fewtraces remain

,two or three mi les inland. Of new Smyrna,

as i t existed in the time of S t. j ohn, the princ ipal rel i c i s

a portion of the castle on Mount Pagus. To the west of

th is the remains'

of the stadium may be seen , partially ex

cavated in the hi l l-s ide,much on the plan of the theatre of

55


Ephesus ; but al l the seats have been taken away for

modern build ings, except a few fragments, and the arched

dens, or amnz’

tor z’

a,where the wi ld beasts were confined for

the brutal Roman games. Here,however, we know we are

standing on the spot of the martyrdom of Polycarp, and

are close to h is tomb,which is almost at the entrance of

the theatre.

I n many of the bui ldings of modern Smyrna we may see

the fragments of anc ient sculptures,of columns

,and capitals

bu ilt,with other materials

,into the wal ls of the houses. But

there i s no trace of the ancient wal ls,which probably inclosed

a space rather less than is occupied by the modern and

expanding ci ty. The old land- locked harbour has been fi l led

in,and is now in the middle of the lower c i ty

,covered with

houses and streets. I n the centre of the old castle on the

hil l-side i s a ru ined mosque,long disused

,but original ly a

Christian church,the only undisputed Christian rel ic of the

Roman period. Although the remains of antiqu ity are thus

scanty,and the modern bui ldings, with the exception of the

Armenian church , are of no special interest, yet the general

view of Smyrna is strikingly beautiful . I t i s best seen when

approached from the sea. The gulf at the head of which i t

stands is th irty- three miles long and from five to fifteen

broad, and is entered close by the bluff headland of Kara

bournou,or “ black nose.”

Numerous headlands and islands

intervene, the latter of which once formed the favourite

resorts of Levantine pirates. The scenery on the south s ide

i s especial ly grand. S teep wooded hil l s ri se abruptly from

the sea,bare and rugged at the top

,thei r s ides covered with

evergreens and wild pear-trees ; whi le orange groves, with

56

waving masses of cane-brake intervening,clothe the mountain

foot to the water’s edge. H igher up the gulf the mountain

range reaches the height of feet,culminating in two

strangely-shaped peaks, cal led the Two Brothers, the cloud

cap on which is the weather-gauge of Smyrna. The harbour

i s formed by two long sand-pi ts runn ing out,the one on the

north being formed by the deposi t of mud from the classi c

H ermione, which here flows into the sea ; and on these spits

the salt-pans gl isten in the morning sun as though the harbour

were girt by a ci rclet of bri l l iants in s i lver setting ; while

immediately behind the wide-spreading city ri ses the bold

Mount Pagus, with the dark green groves of the cypress

which mark the cemeteries cl imbing up its base,on ei ther

s ide the castle. I n land,the h i l l s of volcan i c origin are rather

bare in appearance,but

,l ike Vesuvius, are renowned for

thei r vines ; and the soi l i s eminently adapted for fru it-trees

of every kind,the produce of which is one of the staples of

trade. From the European steamers and lateen - sai led vessels

of the Greeks we pass to the bazaars of the ci ty,where

Engl i sh navvies jostle with stately Turks and wi ld Georgians ;and then having traversed the fi l thy streets

,we emerge

,after

a walk of nearly two miles,at the caravan bridge on the

inland side,and encounter long fi les of camels with thei r

Turcoman drivers,e ach /

an imal bearing on either side a bale

of cotton from the interior,to be sh ipped for L iverpool , and

gravely moving aside for the gay equ ipages of the Western

merchants ; while the grunt of the dissatisfied and i l l -tempered

camel is drowned by the shri l l wh istle of the Engl ish engine

hard by,ready to start on the rai lway for Ephesus. So

grotesquely are East and West here brought side by side"I 57


One of the most conspicuous bu ild ings of Smyrna is the

great barrack,interesting to Engl i shmen as having been used

as a sanatorium for our s ick and wounded soldiers during

the Crimean war. The population of Smyrna is over

of whom nearly one-half are Christians,chiefly of

the Greek ri te. Among the Moslems no missionary effort

has yet been made with much success,though there i s a

much more enl ightened spiri t of inqu i ry than at Constan

tinople ; but the Church M i ss ionary Society has long had an

establ i shment here,and has done much to enl ighten and

reform the Greeks,many of whom are di l igent readers of

the Holy Scriptures ; while the Armenians have in many

cases evinced a disposi tion to support a reform of thei r

slumbering church . Let us hope and pray that the church

of Smyrna,which has been so long preserved

,may yet again

trim her lamp,and may become once more a sh in ing candle

stick ; that, long down - trodden and oppressed, she may. ri se

again in purity,and

,fai thful unto death

,inay receive the

crown of l ife.

O L D GATEWAY I N SMYRNA.

PERG AMOS.

I know thy works, and where thou dwel lest, even where Satan’

s seat (throne)is : and thou holdest fast my name

,and hast not den ied my faith, even in

those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among

you, where Satan dwel leth .

”Rev. 11. 13.

HREE days’journey

north of Smyrna,

on the banks of the

Ca1cus,i n the pro

vince of Mysia,a l i ttle

river famed in classi c

story, the travel ler

comes upon a squal id

but populous Turki sh

town , where, in theRUI NQ I N PERGAMOS .

narrow uneven plain,the straggl ing groups of modern dwel l

i ngs and dilap idated hovels'

are overshadowed by waving

cypress-trees,and massive blocks of ruin

,tel l ing of a past

magnificence in strange contrast with present meanness. The

place i s the modern Bergama,shrunk with in the ru i ns of

the ancient Pergamum,or

,as i t i s incorrectly named in our

version,Pergamos. On a bold hi l l just beh ind the modern

6 1


ci ty i s a long i rregular l ine of crumbl ing wall,enclosing

many clusters of shattered ruins,where broken friezes and

half—sunken columns of white marble sh ine forth in striking

contrast wi th the dark basalti c rock,of which the hi l l i s com

posed. This was the Acropol i s,or ci tadel

,which original ly

comprised within i ts wal ls the whole of the ancient c i ty,and

where temple and royal palace once rose majesti cal ly side by

side,and towered over the val ley of the Ca icus beneath .

Though fallen from its royal estate,Pergamum has not

,l ike

Ephesus,become a desolation

,and an abode for wi ld beasts

,

i ts appearance rather recal ls that of the ci ty “ trodden down

of the Genti les,t i l l the t ime of the Genti les be fulfi l led.

The interest wh ich attaches to the h istory of Pergamum

is rather class ical than Christian . I n fact,we have but few

records beyond the notice in the Apocalyptic epi stle,which

in any prominent manner connect Pergamum with the hi story

of the primitive church . All we know of its Christian h istory

may be summed up in the fact,that from the time of Con

stantine i t was the seat of a metropol i tan archbishop, as

indeed i t sti l l continues to be the seat of a poverty-stri cken

Greek prelate : and that i t fel l into the hands of the Turks

in the time of the Greek emperor Andron icus Comnenus.

I n fact,i ts remains tel l us more than i ts records

,for the

principal Turkish mosque is sti l l known by the Christians

as the old church of S t. Sophia, and an immense and mag

n ificent ru in, with chapel s attached, now occupied by the

Turks,with its apse entire, i s the old cathedral of S t. j ohn ,

stil l so cal led,and where the natives bel ieve St . j ohn to have

bapti sed the first Christians .

One or two expressions i n the epi stle to the Pergamene62

PER G AM OS.

church,may be i l lustrated by an acquain tance with the

history and character of the ancient c ity.

“ I know thy

works,and where thou dwellest

,even where Satan’s seat (l it.

throne) i s .’

L ike Ephesus, Pergamum was pre-eminently a

ci ty of temples. Long after i t ceased to be the abode of

royalty,i t continued to be a metropol is of heathen divin ity .

L i ke Ephesus,i t boasted on i ts coins and in inscriptions to

be a temple and l ike other Asiati c Greeks,

we may be qu ite certain that the Pergamenes were devoted

to a sensuous and l i centious worsh ip . This alone would be

sufficient to explain the express ion “ where Satan’s throne is .

But the reference may be more special . The tutelary dei ty

of Pergamum was fEsculapius, the god of heal ing . H is grave

possessed the right of sanctuary,the t itle of Z wrfip (Saviour)

was appl ied to h im,and the serpent

,among j ews and Chris

t ians the symbol of Satan,was his characteristi c emblem . I n

h is honour,a l iving serpent was kept and fed in the temple

,

while the serpent-worsh ip was so marked a character of the

place,that we find th is repti le engraved on many of its coins .

Again,the practice of the priests of fEsculapius consisted

much in charms and incantations,and crowds resorted to h is

temple,where lying miracles of heal ing were vaunted to be

performed,and wh ich were doubtless used by Satan to

obstruct and counterfeit —t he work of the apostles and the

gospel .

Again i t was just in such a city as th is, a metropol i s of

paganism,that the question of sacrificial meats would most

frequently ari se to cast difficul ties in the path of the early

Christians . Accordingly we find the rebuke,“ Thou hast

there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam , who taught63


Balak to cast a stumbl ing-block before the chi ldren of I srael

to eat things sacrificed unto idols,and to commit forn ication .

And as Balak had Balaam to seduce him,

“ So hast thou also

them that hold the doctrine of the N icolaitans,which th ing

I hate. The N i colai tans are evidently those who fel l i nto

the sin of Balaam,as at Ephesus (verse where the seduc

t ions were similar. Though the context explains to us their

errors,i t does not appear that there was then any heretical

sect known by th is name. Probably l ike j ezebel (in verse

i t i s a symbol ical name. Some have interpreted it from a

fancied derivation,

“ Destroyers of the people. ” They were

distinct from the sect of the N i colaitans of the second and

th ird centuries,who were a branch of the Gnostics

,and who

perhaps took the name they found ready to their hands.

These were evidently lawless ones who abused the doctrines

of grace ; who promised l iberty, being themselves the servants

of corruption,and turned the grace of God into lasc iviousness

,

entic ing,l ike Balaam

,h is people to eat idol meats

,and to

commit forn ication . The eating of i dol meats would,in such

a c i ty as Pergamum , be as great a stumbl ing-block as caste

at the present day in I ndia. To refuse to partake of th ings

offered to idols was not on ly to renounce idolatry,i t was

more ; i t was to abstain from almost every publ i c and private

festivi ty, to withdraw in great measure from the social l i fe

of the place. To ki ll and to sacrifice were almost identical,

and while the rich feasted his friends,the poor man after

making h is offering of a share to the temple, sold the rest i n

the market.1 But the sin of the N icolaitans was not the

See 1 Cor. x . 25.

PER G AMOS.

eatingof that which had been offered to the idol , and thenwas sold

,or used at private entertainments ; i t was taking a

place at heathen festivals in honour of the false god,and then

pleading that they did i t in Christian l iberty,and that an idol

to them was noth ing, for they knew the whole system to be

a fraud. With th is stumbl ing-block we see how closely joined

was the other. Here,as in the decrees of the counci l of

j erusalem,

1 the two sins are spoken of together,for the im

pure character of heathen festivals rendered them almost

i nseparable,especial ly in an oriental Greek city.

Of Antipas,the proto-martyr of the church of Pergamum

,

h istory tel ls us noth ing. The persecution must have been

severe from the marked way in which,after naming the faith

ful martyr,the Lord repeats emphatically,

“ where Satan

dwel leth .

”We only know that he was not the only one

suppl ied by Pergamum to the noble army. We read after

wards of Carpus, Papylus, and a lady, Agathon ice, who

suffered gloriously,soon

°

after Polycarp. Attalus too, one of

the most distingu ished of the martyrs in Gaul , during the

persecutions of Lyons and V ienne, was, we are informed by

Eusebius, a Pergamene.

The reward wh ich is held out to h im that overcometh

i n th is church,seems also to bear a covert al lusion to their

c ircumstances. “_I w ill

/ gi ve to eat of the h idden manna.”

Those who shun for consc ience’ sake the feasts of idolatry,shal l have better food

,the bread that cometh down from

heaven— the bread of l i fe,of which he who eats shal l never

hunger and never die,even that Saviour who, now with


drawn from sight,l ike the manna laid up before the ark of

the covenant,knows no corruption , reserved in heaven for us

The promise has doubtless a double fulfi lment. There is

h idden manna for the bel iever i n th is l ife, though the ful l

flavour of i ts sweetness can only be real ised in the next.

Christ i s even now“ the bread of l ife,

” “ the manna that

cometh down from heaven ,” of which whoso eateth . shal l

never die. He is even now as manna,” which the

world tasteth no t, knoweth not of : i n the sanctuary He is laid

up,withdrawn from sight

,but yet access ible to those who

,

“ kings and priests unto God,can even now enter by faith

with in the vei l. But there i s a yet further fulfi lment in store:

The manna shal l not always be h idden — e Christ shal l not

always remain withdrawn from his people’s s ight. H is glory

shal l be revealed before men and angels . And even in antici

pation’

of that t ime,those who have eaten by faith in th is l ife

,

waiting within the sanctuary,. before the throne

,del ivered from

the burden of the fl esh,shal l enjoy the ful l fru ition of that

manna of which theynow can only sl ightly taste the sweetness.To this the . L ord adds : “ And wil l give h im a white

s tone, and in the stone a name written , which no man

The white stone,

nknoweth saving he that ,rece iveth it.

perhaps the pure and sparkl ing diamond,may be placed i ii

contrast with the charms suppl ied to the votaries of fE scu

lapius, with the cabal i sti c characters inscribed on them,and

which were worn as amulets to protect them from disease.This spiritual stone

,inscribed l ike the Urim

,with a name

which no man knew,may set forth the revelation which

;

the

Lord wi l l make to h is faithful people,of mysteries h idden

before from kings and prophets,l ike the h idden manna and

66

above the plain,near the river Ca1cus

,two of the affluents

of which wash its base,and which is navigable from the sea

,

only eighteen miles distant,must ever have been a strong

natural fortification . Xenophon i s the fi rst ancient writer who

gives us any description of i t, and in h is t ime i t was settled

ch iefly by Greeks,whose c i ty occupied only the Acropol is

,

the now deserted peak,where tradition said the god j upi ter

had been born . I t was consequently invested with a sort of

sacred character. Afterwards Lysimachus, one of the general s

and successors of Alexander the Great,after h is i nvasion and

conquest of the northern part of Asia M inor,selected Per

gamum as the c itadel where best to secure h is enormous

treasury. This he entrusted to the care of Phi letaerus of

Tyana,who after Lysimachus had sacrificed his own son

Agathocles to the jealousy of h is stepmother,Arsinoe

,joined

in a revol t against h im . Seleucus, king of Syria, then invaded

the territory,and the last two survivors of the heroes of

Alexander met i n battle when over seventy years of age,and

Lysimachus fell on the plain of Sardis. But Phileta rus was

not prepared to surrender h is treasure-house to the con

queror, who at once laid s iege to the place, and the miserable

biography of the successors of the Macedon ian king i s closed

with the story of the assassination of Seleucus the last sur

vivor of the race,by the son of h i s old friend Ptolemy

,after

a seven months’ i neffectual s iege of Pergamum .

Philetaerus now contrived to assert an independent posi tion,

and founded the kingdom of Pergamum,which after a reign

of twenty years he bequeathed to h is nephew Eumenes ; who

fi rmly establ ished the monarchy against al l h is neighbours by

a signal victory over Antiochus,son of Seleucus

,on the plains

68

of Sardis. The dynasty was continued by hi s cousin,

Attalus who held the sceptre for forty-three years,and was

the founder of the great wealth and power of h is house. He

repel led the northern barbarians,who

,under the name of

Galatians, had already made irruptions into As ia M inor, and

restrained them with in the l imits of the province known by

thei r name. W i th a selfish prescience of the rising power

of Rome,he all ied h imself wi th that distant nation , and assi sted

them in their wars against Macedon,thus giving powerful aid

in the establ ishment of the fourth un iversal empire upon the

ruins of the third. He annexed Smyrna and the greater part

of Mysia and o l ia to h i s domin ions,and commenced those

sumptuous temples and publ i c bui ldings of which we may yet

trace the shattered ru ins. The magnificent schemes which he

formed,continued to be carried out by h is son and successor,

Eumenes who by h is steady support of the Romans suc

ceeded i n obtain ing their ratification of h i s acqu is ition of al l

the terri tories of Asia M inor west of Mount Taurus, after he

had assisted them to defeat and overthrow Antiochus the

Great,when the Greek kingdom of Syria final ly submitted to

the supremacy of Rome.Eumenes has

,however

,h igher claims to a place in h istory

than the mere aggrandisement of h is domin ion, or h is uncon

scious aid in the—

fulfilment of Dan iel’s prophecy. Besides

the magn ificent publ i c bu i ldings and porti cos on which he

right royally lavished the wealth which accrued from h is pre

decessors and his conquests, h is love of l iterature and art led

h im to expend almost fabulous sums in the col lection of a

publ ic l ibrary,which rival led that of Alexandria. I t i s said

that two hundred thousand manuscripts were gathered into69

THE SE VEN G OLDEN CANDLESTICK'S.

th i s sumptuous col lect ion . The world was ransacked,and

careful ly transcribed copies of every writing by every known

author,were made for the royal savan t. The great difficulty

under which Eumenes laboured was that of obtain ing durable

material on which to have his transcripts written . He there

fore establ ished manufactories at Pergamum for the prepara

tion of skins for th is purpose. These smooth and whitened

skins,so much more servi ceable and durable than the papyrus

of Egypt,obtained the name of Pergamene c/zar tz

,or “ Per

gamene papers,of which our famil iar word “ parchment i s

s imply a corruption . I t 15 not a l ittle interesting,after the

lapse of more than two thousand years, to find not only that

the identical material rema1ns the best for documents where

preservation i s of importance,but also that the name of Per

gamum i s thus crystal l i sed in our fami l iar language ; sti l l

more,that to th is day the manufacture of parchment i s the

ch ief i ndustry of Bergama, and that the banks of the l i ttle

r iver Sel inus,which flows through the modern ci ty

,are

fringed with parchment-tanneries in ful l operation . D oubtless

the parchments which S t. Paul left with Carpus at Troas, a

place not many mi les distant,were of Pergamene manufacture.

For the first discovery of the art of parchment-making i t i s

said we are indebted to the jealousy of the rival col lector,

king Ptolemy of Egypt,who forbad theexportation of papyrus ,

lest the l ibrary of Eumenes should surpass h is own .

Eumenes was, after a reign of forty-n ine years, succeeded

by h is son Attalus whom the Romans successful ly defended

against various attacks from his Asiatic neighbours and rivals,

and who inherited the tastes of h is father. He is said to

have bid s ix hundred thousand sesterces,about an

70

enormous sum in those days,for a picture by the famous

painter Aristides,and to have given nearly double that price

,

or one hundred talents,for another pi cture by the same artist

,

a proof that the giving of immense sums for the ca s-d’

cenare

of art i s not alone a modern taste. H is capital was once

taken and pil laged by Prusias,king of B ithyn ia

,whom the

Romans compel led to make good the damage he had caused.

I n h is reign the c ity spread down between the rivers Sel inus

and Cetins , far beyond the old fortress, and he‘

e x tended the

N i cephorium, or grove of al l the gods, i n which was a col

lection of sumptuous temples to al l the principal deities of

the Greek mythology. Of these,the temple of Venus was

of most elaborate beauty, and even the outside facade was

inlaid with the choicest and rarest marbles. Apart from the

conjecture that the expression in the Revelation,

“ where

Satan’s seat i s,refers to the serpent worsh ip of ZEscu

lapi’

us,

. th is col lection of temples would of i tself explain the

phrase,while the prominence of the worship of Venus would

Wel l i l lustrate the subsequent al lusion to the Moabit ish seduot ions

‘

of Balaam .

Attalus is supposed to have been poisoned by his nephew

Attalus who did not long enjoy h is crown ; but after

a'

short reign of five years died without i ssue, R C. 133,

bequeathing by wi l l h is , wealth,and

,as they assumed, his

kingdom also,to the Romans. H is enormous fortune caused

the name of Attal ian wealth to pass into a proverb, and

noth ing more accelerated the demoral i sation and corruption

of Roman pol i ti c ians than the fortunes which they continued

:to secure out of th i s legacy.

From the time when M . Aqu ilius was sent as proconsul ,7 1


to enter on the royal bequest, the fortunes of Pergamum de

clined,but not i ts splendour. I ts prominence ,

” i t has been

wel l observed,

“ was not that of a commercial town l ike

Ephesus or Corinth,but arose from its pecul iar features. I t

was a sort of un ion of a pagan cathedral c ity,an university

town,and a royal residence

,embell i shed during a succession

of years by kings who al l had a pass ion for expenditure,and ample means of gratifying i t. M . Antony, the Roman

triumvir,robbed Pergamum of its choicest treasure, for he

granted i ts magnificent and costly l ibrary to h is paramour,Cleopatra

,queen of Egypt, who had i t removed to Alexan

dria,where

,combined with that of the Ptolemies

,i t remained

unti l,at the Mohammedan conquest of Egypt

,the K hal iph

Omar barbarously committed the whole col lection to the flames

(A. D . after i t had remained there for more than seven

hundred years.

S t i l l the rel igious eminence of the place remained. The

temple of fEsculapius was the resort of inval ids from al l parts

of Asia. Thousands used to offer their sacrifice and dedi

cate their votive gifts,after which they were to sleep in the

porticos of the temple,where it was bel ieved the god would

reveal to them in a dream the remedies or the Observances

that were to cure them . So wide-spread was th is superstition

that even emperors themselves went and lay down under the

fane, waiting for the heal ing inspiration . I t i s curious to

note how the same superstit ion,with only the object not the

form changed, has remained among both Greeks and Turks

in Asia M inor to the present day, where certain churches and

temples are supposed to be endowed with heal ing virtues ;l ike the holy wells of our own country in the days of Romish

7

PERGAM OS.

darkness . The Greeks l ight their wax candles before the

altar,pay their fee in money, and then sleep in the cloisters of

some renowned church,where the prophet E l ias i s expected

to whisper,in the vis ions of the n ight

,the means for their

recovery.

The identification of the various temples of Pergamum is

uncertain . That which is general ly bel ieved to have been the

temple of fEsculapius, being, l ike the N icephorium,outside the

city wal ls, stands between the Acropol i s and the river Sel inus,and has been transformed into a Christian cathedral

,cal led by

the Greeks the church of S t. j ohn . I t i s an oblong bu ilding

nearly two hundred feet long,and about half that breadth ,

bui l t of brick and white marble,with an apse at one end,

evidently added when i t was transformed into a basi l ica or

Christian church,and the elevated position of the altar can

be plainly seen . I t i s now roofless,but inhabited by Mussul

mans,who have bu il t hovels of mud against the inner walls .

But adjoin ing the apse,standing at each s ide of the church ,

are two circular bu ildings with vaulted stone roofs and door

ways sti l l entire,about forty feet i n diameter

,and seventy feet

h igh . These were evidently connected with the temple,perhaps chapels of the goddess of health

,and seem to have

been afterwards appropriated to Christian worsh ip, probably

as baptisteries.’

T_

h_

echurch of S t. Sophia, a Byzantine struc

ture,has been

,ever s ince

‘

the Turkish conquest,desecrated

to the worship of the false prophet,but sti l l reta ins i ts name.

The most interesting ante—Christian rel ics of Pergamum

are the wall s of the old Acropol i s,a portion of which , of

hewn gran ite or basalt,i s a hundred feet deep and its foun

dation sunk into the native rock. Above it a course of largeL 73


substructions forms a platform,strikingly recal l ing to the

traveller the platform of Solomon’s temple, now the mosque

of Omar, at j erusalem . Upon thi s once rose a temple of

M inerva,which towered over the surrounding country and

commanded a V iew of the n ean sea,i ts base being eight

hundred feet above the plain . The surface is strewn with

carvings,with friezes

,and columns

,and many more are sunk

in the ground . N ear this,but lower down , i s the outl ine

of the ancient royal palace,

first of Lysimachus and after

wards of the Attal ian dynasty. The palace was connected

wi th the Cai cus by an aqueduct, and i t extends right into

the lower city,even over the river Selinus

,which flows

through a double tunnel underneath it. This tunnel,sup

posed to be the work of the first Attalus, i s sti l l perfect, and

of marvel lously beautifu l masonry. I t i s about two hundred

yards in length,and the modern houses and bazaar are

mingled with the ruins over i t. B es ides th is, there sti l l

remain entire five other ancient bridges. The pleasure

loving Greeks had also their theatres, which may yet be

traced, but besides these there are very perfect remains of

a magn ificent and vast Roman amphitheatre, sunk in the

slope of a hi l l,about a mile out of the town , to the west.

The “ vomitoria,or places where the wi ld beasts and gladia

tors were kept for the brutal shows,are very massive. The

lower tier of galleries beneath the bu ilding may yet be

traversed,though half buried in débris ; H ere probably

the faithful Antipas was slain,and many others after h im

who held fast the name of j esus and refused to deny hi s

fai th. But the amphitheatre has long been a desolation .

~

The stream stil l flows through it,which , by contrivances

74


are frequently dis interred,but at once broken up by the

Turks,who

,unfortunately for the hopes of European col lectors,

bel ieve that treasure i s concealed in the head of these idols,

which are therefore at once demol ished ; and th is notion , com

bined with the Moslem horror of al l representations of the

human form as idolatrous, has probably destroyed more

Grecian statues at Pergamum than now grace the museums

of Europe.

Such i s Bergama, with its wilderness of ru ins, - ru ins

where once was Satan’s seat, in al l the pomp‘and splendour

of the gorgeous and sensuous ri tual of voluptuous Greece,

but now towering l ike gaunt “ vast fortresses amidst barracks

of wood,and where the very cemeteries are ful l of sculp

tured rel ics. There is sti l l a considerable population,variously

estimated at from twenty to th irty thousand— but only a few

of these are Christians— not more than four thousand ; and

under the dominant Turkish race they have never enjoyed the

comparative freedom of worsh ip permitted to their brethren

in Smyrna and Philadelph ia. One mean and inconspicuous

bui lding is the only church , and even there the worship i s

often hushed, lest i t should exasperate an outburst of fana

t icism. Satan sti l l reta ins h is sceptre,though without the

glory of h is ancient throne.

THYAT I RA .

‘I know thy works, and charity,and service, and faith, and thy patience,

and thy works ; and the last to be more than the fi rst.”

Rev. i i. 1 9.

G REAT Roman road traversed the

interior of Mysia and Lydia from

Pergamum to Sardis,and thence

across Mount Tmolus ; and the

travel ler e x plormg these ru ins and

sol i tudes fol lows,for the most part

,

the time-worn and dilap idated track.

S t i l l al l i s not sol itude. We have

seen that Pergamum,though shorn

of i ts ancient glories, i s even yet

a prosperous town . The road of

which we speak may have beenm m NEAR t m m i . famil iar to S t. j ohn , in many an

apostol i c journey ; for i t is in the

order in which the ci ties l ie on th is route that the churches

are named in the apocalyptic epistle. To the modern pi lgrim,

without appl iances and faci l it ies,i t i s a two days’ journey

from Pergamum to Thyatira. After a three hours’ ride over

79


the rich plain of Pergamum we cross the classic Ca1cus,and

ascending a low range of h i l ls, where are several busy

vil lages,we descend on the second day to the wide region

which is drained by the Hermus,where a number of gently

sloping val leys,each watered by some stream famed in

olden story, gradual ly open upon the plain once dominated

by royal Sardis . D iverg i ng a l i ttle to the right,the broad

valley of the Hyl lus opens to view,and

,as we look down in

spring or summer,we see before us a panorama resembl ing

i n kind, though not equal in extent or grandeur to, the

travel ler’s first gl impse of Damascus. The eye tracks across

the plain the si lver thread which marks the course of one of

the affluents of the Hyllus ; and in the centre, nourished by

i ts verdure,are crowded the white roofs of a wide-spread

Turkish ci ty, with here and there a minaret towering in the

midst, and many a clump of tal l cypresses rais ing their

funereal plumes on h igh ; whi le the whole is girt with a rich

fringe of orchards and watered gardens,over which the s ilver

mist, drawn up by the sun , hangs in a th in qu ivering cloud.

This i s Ak-hissar the white castle,the ancient Thyatira.

Unl ike its s isters, Thyati ra can boast but l i ttle of mytho

logi c or h istori c glori es,and the name occurs but rarely in

the olden records.

I t i s said that a c i ty,under various names

,had ex isted

on the spot for .many generations : but the first distinct

mention of the place occurs during the Macedonian period,

when Seleucus N icator,the founder of the G raeco-Syrian

monarchy, settled here a Macedonian colony,and gave i t

the name of Thyat1ra, i n commemoration of a daughter

(v émp) being born to h im . S i tuated on the confines of80

THYATIRA.

Mysia and Lydia,i t had probably been heretofore merely an

unwal led town,ti l l Seleucus planted a mil itary colony

,and

gathered with in the fortifications the inhabitants of the neigh

bouring Vi l lages. After th is the name not unfrequently occurs.

A K -H I SSAR , TH E MODERN THYAT I RA.

Antiochus the Great selected it as the first base of operations

in h is struggle against Roman power but was com

pelled to fal l back on Mysia. I n the plain between the twoM 8 1


c ities he was finally defeated by the two Scipios,when the

whole region submitted to the Roman power.

Thyatira must have at this t ime been a place of con

s iderable trade and wealth , i f we judge by the enormous booty

which was obtained there by the Romans and thei r ally the

king of Pergamum . After the downfal l of the Syrian king,Thyatira was handed over to the kingdom of Pergamum

,and

remained in obscurity during the continuance of the Attalic

dynasty. N or does i t appear to have risen to greater

celebri ty when i t came under the direct suzerainty of Rome,although i t boasted a senate

,and many corporate gu i lds of

artisans . With a ci ty as with a nation,perhaps happiest i s

that wh ich has no h istory ; and Thyati ra, occupied i n trade

and manufactures,escaped many of the viciss i tudes and

catastrophes of i ts more ambitious neighbours.

Though abounding in ruins, i ts inscriptions are few, and

al l that have been discovered are subsequent to the Roman

conquest. From these i t appears that Vespasian,and after

h im Caracal la,were especial benefactors

,

— the former is re

corded with gratitude,as having restored the roads in the

neighbourhood, a boon which would be thoroughly appreci

ated by a manufacturing and commercial population.

Amongst the inscriptions are no less than three which

afford us a very interesting i l lustration of the s ingle allusion

to Thyati ra which occurs in the apostol i c h istory of S t. Paul .

Excepting the address to the angel of the church in the

Revelation , the only mention of the place i s in the account

of S t. Paul’s vis it to Philippi :l “ And~a certain woman

,

Acts xvi. 14, 1 5.


and Colosse. Possibly from Lydia the Thyatiran church

had its commencement. She had gone forth with her wares

to her mother c ity to sel l and get gain ; but the hostess

of the apostle returned with a far richer treasure than any

she had carried thence. “ For the merchandise of i t

(wisdom) i s better than the merchandise of si lver, and the

gain thereof than fine gold.

” 1

I t i s not easy to identi fy the allusions of the apocalyptic

address with the local c ircumstances of Thyati ra,of which

we know so l ittle. There are,however

,some traces of pecu

l iar or special superstitions connected with Thyatira. The

old coins of the ci ty are impressed with the effigies of Bacchus,Minerva, and Cybele ; but the princ ipal deity of the c ity

appears to have been the sun -god Apol lo,i ntroduced by

the Macedonian colonists.

Another pecul iar supersti tion may throw some l ight on

the rebuke to the angel of the Thyatiran church : Because

thou sufferest that woman j ezebel , which cal leth herself a

prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit

forn ication, and to eat thi ngs sacrificed unto idols.”We

are told by Suidas that there was outs ide the walls, in the

midst of an inclosure cal led the court of the Chaldaeans,a

small temple dedicated to a sybi l,Sambethe

,an oriental object

of idolatry, said to have been introduced by the j ews of

the d ispersed tribes from Chaldae a or Pers ia. I t i s possible

that the expression j ezebel has reference to th i s pol luted

un ion of j ewish and heathen rites,as practised by these

degenerate I srael ites. Time is given to her and to her

Prov. i i i. 14.

THYATIRA .

fol lowers to repent,as if her worsh ip had not been idolatrous

from the beginning, but had become corrupted by . i nter

course with others. There was probably a large j ewish

trading population in Thyatira. There were certainly many

Roman settlers,as wel l as the colon ists from European

Greece. Latin words are introduced into Greek inscriptions,and many tablets bear Greek and Latin names strangely

accumulated on the same individual .

I n ancient times the commingl ing of races was almost

sure to be accompanied by a strange confusion of different

supersti tions,i n a state of society where rel igious obser

vances were entwined with every circumstance of daily l ife.

I f then,amongst the judaeo-Christians

,there ex isted the

spiri t of Sambethe,combin ing the profess ion of a purer faith

with the superstitions and impuriti es of oriental r ites,the

censure and the space given for repen tance may be more

easi ly understood.

Perhaps the description with which the epistl e begins

The Son of God,who hath h i s eyes l ike unto a flame

of fire, and hiS‘

feet are l ike fine brass — may bear some

reference to the popular representations of Apollo,the sun

god,and tutelar divin ity of the city. The following verse

(verse 19) sets before us - e the spiri tual state of the church of

Thyatira as exactly the converse of that of Ephesus. 7 726 7 6 the

doctrine was sound,and zeal for orthodoxy was unquestioned

,

but love was cold ; whi le new charity and service, faith and

patience, were conspi cuous and increasing, or, as we may

paraphrase i t, the service of love and the patience of faith ;thei r service or m inistrations ari sing from their charity or

love,and their patience founded on their fai th , as seeing

85


H im that is invis ible ; and so the last works were more than

the first works,while Ephesus had left i ts first love.

But the puri ty i n doctrine of the Thyatiran church was

not commensurate wi th i ts love and zeal . There can be

very l ittle doubt that the same perversion of truth,lay at

the root of the errors of the N icolaitans of Ephesus, the

Balaamites of Pergamum,and the j ezebel of Thyatira,

al l al ike setting at nought the obl igations of the moral law,

professing to fol low Christ in the Spiri t,but combin ing that

profession with the grossest antinomian ism,forgetting that

without hol iness no man shal l see the Lord,and plausibly

deluding themselves and their fol lowers into the indulgence

of the grossest l icentiousness .

There i s noth ing to lead us to reject the V iew of many

commentators,that j ezebel refers to some ind ividual teacher

,

though the conjecture of Grotius,that i t i s the wife of the

bishop who is thus censured,seems to have no warrant

whatever.

I f the al lusion be to the ri tes of Sambethe,the l ife of

the h istori c j ezebel i s ful l of apposi te incidents ; for she was

the first to introduce not merely a corruption of the true

worship of j ehovah,as were the golden calves

,but to sup

plant it by the impure celebration of the S idon ian Ashtaroth,

’

the Venus of Asia. Hence j ehu asks,

“ What peace,so

long as the whoredoms of thy ~mother j ezebel and her

witchcrafts are so many"” To one who introduced similar

practices the evi l name is here transferred. I n the warn ing,

I wi l l k i l l her ch ildren with death,

” there i s perhaps a covert

al lusion to the slaughter of the prophets of Baal on Mount

Carmel , predicting some signal visi tation , by which“ al l the

86

THYATIRA .

churches shal l know that I am he which searcheth the rein s

and hearts. ”

One more expression in the epistle may have some local

reference— the blessing to those who “ have not th is doctrine,

and which have not known the depths of Satan,as they speak.

”

The phrase,

“ the depths of Satan,would seem to have been

adopted by these fol lowers of j ezebel themselves,meaning

,

probably, as

'

did some of the later Gnostics, that i t was lawful

for them to fathom every depth of in iquity,by drinking the

cup of s inful pleasure to i ts very dregs,and yet boasting

that, whi le they could give the body to the lusts of the flesh,

they could preserve the soul i n an imaginary ether undefiled,

and so defeat Satan in the midst of h is own kingdom . To

those who have not thus sought the fru it of the tree of

knowledge of good and evi l the Lord says,

“ I wi l l put upon

you none other burden ” than merely,as the apostles had

decided in the Acts,to “ abstain from things offered to idols

,

and from blood ; from things strangled, and from forn ication ,”

adding,almost in the same words

,that they lay on the Genti les

no greater burden than these necessary things,

to con

t inne to protest in doctrine and in practice against these

distort ions of Christian l iberty. Final ly, as to the faithful

at Ephesus i s promised to eat of the tree of l ife, to Smyrna

the crown of l ifef to Pergamum the white stone and theh idden manna

,each probably with an allusion to local c i r

cumstances,

— so to Thyatira, the city of Apollo, i s promised

the “ morn ing star, a better than Hesperus, even“ the Root

and Offspring of David,and the bright and morn ing star.

Beyond the incidental occurrence of the name of a bishop

of Thyatira from time to time in the l ists of the synods and87


counci ls of the E ast,the place disappears altogether from

history,unti l we approach the time of the final struggle

between the Byzantine empire and the Turkish hordes .

Thyatira then stood prominently forward in its zeal and

devotion to the cause of Christendom . While Andronicus

Palaeologus 11. and his grandson were destroying the resources

of the Eastern empire by intestine wars and suic idal feuds,the fatal blow at the Christian power in Asia was struck by

R U I N S OF THYAT I RA .

the capture of Broussa. When he entered i ts gate Orchan

had founded the O ttoman empire,although the glory is

attributed in popular language to his father O thman . An

dron icus hasti ly crossing into Asia,A. D . 1330,

vainly

endeavoured to stay his progress. He made a desperate

stand at Pergamum ; but when he was driven from thence,Thyatira s ti l l held firm to the Christian cause. I t was only

by storm that i t was taken at last, after every other city in88

Asia M inor except Phi ladelph ia had submitted to the Cres

cent,and Andron icus Palaeologus was obl iged to abandon h is

attempts to check the progress of the Moslem invasion . A

century afterwards Thyati ra was ravaged by Tamerlane,and

was finally incorporated into the Turkish empire, after the

vi ctory of the Sul tan Mourad before i ts wal ls. From that

time its name has been lost,and the Turkish appel lation

Ak-hissar,

“ white castle ” has been substituted.

Though ful l of rema1ns of classic and of Christian times

marble friezes bu i lt i nto the walls of hovels,sculptured capital s

used as troughs or well-covers— few buildings can be traced

among the débris ; but the old cathedral church of S t . j ohn

remains,preserving the tradition of the apostle’s vis its ; and

though perverted to the worsh ip of the false prophet, with a

tal l minaret added,i t i s stil l on ly known by the native Christian

,

forbidden ever to cross i ts threshold, as“ the Church of

the Holy Theologian .

” I t had evidently been transformed

from heathen to Christ ian uses,or

,i f not a temple, had been

constructed from the materials of heathen fanes. One-th i rd

of the inhabitants,who number in al l about fifteen thousand,

sti l l adhere to the Christian faith,from which , in the earl ier

and less len ient days of Turkish rule , the native population

of the neighbourhood rapidly apostatised,

— the young men

induced by the allurement s of mil itary servi ce and exemption

from taxation,while the widows and maids of the conquered

race were at the mercy of the invaders. L ike the inhabi tants

of Phi ladelphia,the Christ ians of Thyatira were able by thei r

valour to extort some terms from the victors ; and there i s

sti l l a Greek bishop resident in the place.

The old trade of the dyer has long s ince become extinct ;89


but the Christians,who are the wealth iest and most thriv ing

part of the population,are busi ly occupied in the cultivation

of cotton,which has become the staple of the di stri ct. The

rai lway from Smyrna to Magnesia,on ly thirty mi les distant,

i s about to be extended to Ak-hissar,and we can only pray

that,with the revival of i ts trade and commerce

,when once

more open to Western influences,the Chri stian i ty of Thyatira

may revive,and a clearer l ight i l lumine the ch i ldren of those

who,for generation after generation

,i solated and oppressed

,

have held fast, with unwavering constancy, at least the

Christian name.

RU I NS TYRE

SARD I S.

N the banks of the l ittle

r ive r H e rm u s, wh i c h

drains the plain of Lydia

into the gulf of Smyrna,i s

centred the story of Asiati c

Greece. Olden poets have

sung of that plain as wide

and vast. Rich and ferti le

though it be,i t i s small

in the eyes of those famil iar

with Western lands,but to

one who has been taught“ ms AT ” D ’s:

net to confound greatness

with bigness,that river

’

s

banks recal l many a mighty deed,and the Hermus waters

a plain of imperishable renown'

in the world’s h istory.

As we ascend from Smyrna, and fol low up the river’

s

course, we ford many a brook, the very name of which

i s‘ redolent of classi c : memories ;' and

,where the plain

expands to , the widest, a l i ttle stream , s

'carce more than

93


a si lver thread under the summer sun,

flows northward

from Mount Tmolus, bringing with i t the contributions

from the many outlying spurs that break up the plain,

which here assumes the appearance of a cluster of wide

converging valleys. That l i ttle stream is the Pactolus,

the golden sands of which , once famed in song, attracted

of old the adventurers of Greece, but which are now as im

poverished as the vi l lages which they lave. Following the

track of th is l i ttle stream for about two hours , we reach

a spot where i t washes a smal l jagged peak that pushes

out into the plain . For acre after acre , the soi l , luxuriant

i n i ts growth of th istles and thorny shrubs, i s strewn with

carved stone and marble fragments. Here and there,a

mass of brickwork,a crumbl ing arch , or a broken column ,

tel l s the story of a peri shed splendour ; but the ex isting

s igns of human occupation are confined to a water-mil l

and two or three wretched l ittle hovels . Such is Sart,the

l iving rel i c of the ancient Sardis,a royal c i ty

,and the

seat of a powerful empire,ere Alba had given place to

Rome . I n classi c fame and h istoric dign ity,Sardis takes

precedence of al l her s ister churches . But her regal

d ign ity had passed away long before the apocalypti c

epistle was written,and

,though stil l a c ity of wealth and

splendour, i t could scarcely vie in pol it ical importance with

Ephesus and Pergamum .

Herodotus,the father of h istory

,gives u s the early

story of Sardis,which i s interwoven with that of the old

dynasty of the kings of Lydia . At first,only a col lection

of wattled huts,i t increased in importance

,as the king

dom of wh ich"i t was the cradle overspread the western

94


couches and floors of the weal thy, are supposed to havebeen the originals of our well-known Turkey carpets . So

h ighly esteemed were the finer sorts,that they were

reserved for the exclusive use of the Persian king.

One of the noblest lessons taught by the un inspired

wisdom of the Greek ph ilosophy, of the vanity of human

prosperity, i s embodied in the story of Croesus, the last

k ing of Lydia. Proud of h is wealth , he had exhibited

his treasures to Solon , the Athen ian philosopher and law

giver, i n the same spiri t of ostentation in which Hezekiah

displayed h is to the Babylonian ambassadors ; and then he

triumphantly asked h im , whom he thought the happiest of

men"“

Solon gave h im the name of an Athen ian of

humble position,who

,happy in h is fami ly

,had fal len for

h i s country in the moment of vi ctory. The next place he

gave to two dutiful sons, who, after winn ing the prize in

the publ i c games,had drawn their mother to the temple,

and there d ied with their honours fresh upon them.

Croesus,astonished that the sage found no place for nnn ,

was warned of the thousand changes of fortune, and told

that a man might be healthy,wealthy

,handsome, blessed

in h i s sons,and yet a change might come. Therefore he

should cal l no man happy unti l he had seen hi s end,and

knew his death . Fourteen years afterwards the Persians

i nvaded Lydia,and

,after Cyrus (s o. 546) had defeated

Croesus in a pitched battle, Sardis was taken by storm ,

and the captured monarch,according to the barbarous

custom of the t imes,was laden with fetters

,and sentenced

by the v i ctor to be burnt al ive. Whi le on the funeral

pyre, he exclaimed three t imes,

“ O Solon"Solon"”96

Cyrus having inquired the meaning of this exclamation,

heard the story of the warn ing which Croesus had received

from the ph ilosopher. But the pyre was already kindled ;touched

,however, by the tale, and perhaps some pang of

consc ience suggesting to h im that he too might meet with

a reverse,the Persian king ordered the flames to be e x tin

guished,and had the captive brought before him . Croesus

expla ined how ambiguous oracles had led h im to be con

fident of h is power, and, finally,having made h is submis

s ion to Cyrus,he was attached to his court

,and became

h is faithful fri end and fol lower . Sardis was,after th is

,

absorbed in the Persian empire,and Cyrus

,having rebui l t

i t,made i t the residence of the satrap who governed the

whole of Asia M inor, including the Greek cit ies of the

coast.

When the I on ians,in the reign of Darius

,assisted by

the Athen ians,and headed by Aristagoras and Histia:us

,

endeavoured to assert thei r independence, they took the

c i ty of Sardis, which was acc idental ly burnt down just after

its capture . The Pers ian s,however

,under Artaphernes,

retained the c itadel,and the I on ians were compelled to

wi thdraw . But th is burn ing of their western capital exci ted,

more than anything else,the indignation of the Persians ,

and was the _ principal e-cause al leged for the invasion of

Greece,

first by D arius,and a few years afterwards by h is

successor,Xerxes

,who made Sardis h is head—quarters prior

to the famous march,which met with the repulses of

Salamis and Plataea,i ndel ible in the world’s history . From

the temple of the goddess Cybele having been consumed

in the conflagration at the time of the I onian attack, the0 97


Persians found a pretext for violating the rules of ancient

warfare,and for burn ing al l the temples of Greece during

their invasion .

Though Greece and the maritime cities were del ivered from

Persian rule,Sardis never recovered its independence

,but

remained an appanage of the Persian empire. Here Cyru s

the younger mustered his army, when about to attack his

brother Artaxerxes,and it was not unti l Alexander the Great

had invaded Asia and won the battle of the Gran icus, that i t

opened its gates without resistance to the Greek conqueror.

I n acknowledgment of its complaisance,he restored to its

inhab i tants their Greek laws, and their right of self—government.

He buil t a temple to j upi ter O lympus,and in other ways

enriched the c i ty — of the h istory of which we know l ittle

more in detai l unti l the Roman period. On the partition of

Alexander’s conquests, i t fel l to the lot of Antigonus. After

the battle of I ssus 30 1) i t submitted to Seleucus, and

afterwards to Ptolemy. For a time i t was annexed to the

kingdom of Pergamum , and after a s iege of more than a year,i t was stormed by Antiochus . When the Scipios defeated him

at the battle of Magnesia,Sardis passed into the hands of the

Romans,and became the seat of the prefect of their province

of Asia.

The terrible earthquake in the reign of Tiberius,which

has been mentioned in the account of Ephesus,laid low al l

the publ i c bui ldings of Sardis,which were restored with in

creased splendour by order of the emperor. We find from

Taci tus,that the Sardians emulated their neighbours in their

sycophancy of the rul ing powers,and sent an embassy to

Rome to claim the privi lege of erecting a temple to the

98

THE SE V EN G OLDEN CAN D L E STI CRS.

pl ied by the expression in the second verse,

“ I have not

found thy works perfect before God ; for before men she

had a “ name to l ive,

” and may have appeared perfect. I t

has been remarked that Sardi s and Laodicea are the only

churches the epistles to which make no mention of any

struggle,difficulty

,burden or persecution borne for Christ. I t

could not be that the church of Sardis had openly coalesced

with the world . I n the days of pagan Rome that was im

possible . There could have been no open truce with idolatry,but there may have been a taci t armisti ce.

S trange,too

,that i n these two churches there was no

open heresy to be rebuked . I t would seem as though Satan

troubled not himself to infuse the poiso n of false doctrine

into a church,or to agitate i t by divisions

,so long as i t lay

quiescent under the effects of a spiri tual opiate. S leeping

and inactive, there was nothing in th is moribund church to

rouse either the antagonism of the heathen without,or to stir

up the selfwi l l of evi l-minded men within . The charge i s

not one of perversely holding untruth,but of heedlessly hold

ing the truth ; and therefore she is bidden to “ remember how

thou hast received and heard,and hold fast and repent. ”

She

is reminded of the fervour of her first love,when doubtless

“ there was great joy in that city,

” and is bidden by self

examination to recognise her own backsl i d ing . She i s warned ,“ I f thou shal t not watch , I wi l l come on thee as a thief

”

predicting that the visitation of Christ wi l l be unexpected,

and perhaps, too, referring to the story of the Greek mythology,which pictured the noiseless approach of D ivine judgments

by the avenging goddesses having their feet shod withwool .

SARDI S.

S ti l l, in Sard is there were a few names that had not defiled

thei r garments— perhaps the “ ten righteous,

” enough to save

the church for the time— names that were more than names,

for they had not only the form,but the power of godl iness.

The word “ defiled”

(e’

pékw av) i s different from that used for

the spotless robe of Christ’s righteousness,meaning not so

much a robe without stain,as one without fi l th upon it

,

the fi l th of open sin and carnal defilement. These are not

to be involved in the condemnation of the dead church . Their

robes, kept clean from corruption , shal l be changed for the

spotless white raiment of the redeemed and glorified .

“ They

shal l walk with me in white,

”— shal l be clothed in white raiment,

clad in the righteousness of Christ,and the glorified body

transformed into the l ikeness of Chri st’s body.

“ And I wil l

not blot h is name out of the book of l ife. While the names

of the mere professors shal l fade away when exposed to the

search ing l ight of H im who seeth in secret,the names of

these are indel ibly written in heaven,and there shal l be

confessed .

The name of Sardis appears but rarely in early Christian

h istory. One eminent man i t produced in Mel i to, who was

its bishop in the second century . Only a few fragments of

h is writings have descended to our times ; but these, and the

manner in which"

li is"

w~

orks are spoken of by h is contem

poraries and successors, make us regret their loss . One valu

able fragment i s preserved by Eusebius,interest ing as being

the earl iest catalogue of the books of the O ld Testament given

by any Christian wri ter. I t exactly corresponds with the

received canon,excepting that he omits N ehemiah and E sther,

both of them being probably included by him under the t itleI O I


of E zra. I t i s very important to observe that not one of the

books of the Apocrypha,foisted into the canon by the Church

of Rome,i s mentioned by him . From his use of the term ,

“ The books of the O ld Covenant,we may infer that at the

time he wrote (about A. D . the N ew Testament S criptures

had already been col lected into a complete volume . So

anxious have been the interpolators of the Apocrypha to avai l

themselves of some authori ty from Mel ito,that they have

argued that by the title “Wisdom,

” which he gives as a second

appel lation of the book of Proverbs,he intended the apocryphal

book of Wisdom .

At the least,twenty works are recorded as having been

the products of h is pen,the most celebrated of which was his

apology or defence of the Christians,addressed to the Emperor

Aurel ius during his persecution . He also wrote on the Lord’s

day, on the nature of Christ, on the doctrine of the I ncar

nation, and on the Christ ian church . He compiled a sum

mary of the O ld Testament,i n s ix books

,doubtless very

useful in an age when the multipl i cation of copies was so

costly. Of the details of h is l ife and death we know noth ing ;but he was buried at Sardis before the end of the second

century.

About one hundred and fifty years afterwards (A . D . 347)a counci l was held at Sardis

,upon the authority of which

great stress i s laid by the church of Rome,because i t i s

Stated by its fourth canon,that in case of the deposition of

a bishop the prelate might appeal to the Bishop of Rome .

Not, however, to enter into the question of the genuinenessof th is canon , which is much disputed, i t referred only to

a particular case, the granting of a court of appeal to a102


feet h igh . From the ir posi t ion we know,according to the

ancient inscriptions,that they belonged to a temple of Cybele ;

and they have been frequently attributed to the age of Croesus,

but as Herodotus mentions special ly the destruction of th is

temple by the I on ians,they are more probably the work of

Alexander,erected on the same site. As there are no marble

quarries on Mount Tmolus the blocks must have been brought

from a great distance . At the end of the last century there

were s ix columns sti l l standing,but four have since been

destroyed by the Turks for the sake of thei r marble,to break

i t up for l ime and for tombstones.

On the other side of the Acropol is there are the remains

of a theatre,four hundred feet in diameter

,with a vast

stadium,both fac ing the plain of the Hermus . But l ittle

remains of e ither, excepting the general contour and a few

seats. O f its later remains the most conspicuous are two large

bu ildings,partly brick and partly stone

,which have evidently

been Christian basi l icas or cathedrals,probably of the epoch

of j ustin ian ; but beyond their ground-plan , and the spring

of their arches, there i s very l ittle which can be clearly iden

tified . One remarkable bu ilding remains,cal led the Gerusia

,

or the house of Croesus,said to have been a temple con

verted into an asylum for aged men . Of the churches,the

lower one, which is two hundred and fifty feet long from

east to west,whilst oblong outside

,has within

,an apse

,or

semicircular termination at either end, of which there is no

sign external ly,resembl ing the ccena of many modern Greek

churches. Both these bu ildings consisted of brick arches

raised upon marble piers,made up entirely of architectural

fragments plundered from former bui ldings.104

The Acropol i s i s strangely weather-worn and jagged by

the combined effect of sun and rains,and the whole of the

ancient summit has been washed down excepting a narrow

ridge defended by a double wall and perpendicular prec ip ices,

several of the detached pinnacles of which are only held

together by the fragments of wal l which clamp them . But

the view from this Acropol i s i s magn ificent,commanding the

broad plain of the Hermus to the north,backed by the wide

expanse of the G ygzean Lake and the distant h il ls, and, to

the south,an undulating broken country of h i l l and valley

,

of wood and field,fringed in the far distance by the snow

t ip-

ped peaks of Mount Tmolus. The whole s ite of the

lower city, and the once-famed V al ley of Sweets, said to have

b een the most beautiful pleasure-ground in the world,are

"al ike strewn with broken and shapeless fragments— now indeed

a val ley of’

desolation . A few temporary shepherds’ huts

may be seen“ in summer ; and the river. Pactolus, which once

e nriched a nation with its golden sands,now renders i ts only

serv1ce to man by turning the wheel of the sol itary mil l

where resides the one inhabitant of Sart, himself a Christian ,and the single representative of the apocalyptic church

,of

the seat of a bishop,and the gathering-place of councils.

Any account of Sardis would be imperfect without mention

of the burying-

place of,-the ancient kings of Lydia

,which

ranks among the wonders of the ancient world. On the top

of a high plateau,on the other s ide of the plain of the

H ermus,about s ix miles north of Sardis, i s a vast col lection

of giganti c mounds,known by the Turks as Bin -teppe (the

Thousand Mounds) , which spread for a vast distance over

the plain . I t i s the mausoleum of the dynasty of Croesus.P 1 05


One of these,which towers far above the others, the monu

ment of Alyattes,the father of Croesus

,i s accurately described

by Herodotus (1. and remains undisturbed by man to the

present day. I t i s three thousand eight hundred feet i n ci r

cumference and one thousand three hundred feet in breadth .

I t rises at an angle of about twenty-two degrees,and i s a

conspicuous object on al l s ides. Herodotus tel ls us that i t

was raised by merchants,artificers, and women , and that there

were marking-stones to show how much of the work each

had done. When measured, the work of the women proved

to be the greatest. Of these boundary-stones one of a

con ical shape sti l l remains on the summit of the mound ; but

the inscription , i f there ever was one, i s completely obl iterated

by time. These amazing earthen pyramids have h itherto

escaped the ravages of invaders,nor i s there any trace of

their having been ever violated by the hand of man . I t i s

sti l l left to future antiquarians to i l lustrate by their h idden

treasures the arts and funeral customs of a people whose

c ivi l isation dates long before that of Greece,and i s second

only. to Egypt and Assyria.

R U I NS SARD I S.

PH I L A D E L PH IA .

HE range of Mount

Tmolus i s the centre

round which most

of the churches of

Asia M inor clus

tered . Far away

to the eastward ,at the edge of

the north-easternRow s or PH I LADELPH IA. slopes of that

mountain , about n inety miles inland from Sardis, two val leys

converge, that of the Hermus on one side, and that of the

Meander on the other. The site i s a commanding one ; for i ts

central posi tion draws to the spot the traffic of the interior for

the coast,whether d irected towards Smyrna or Ephesus . Here

on the edge of the volcan ic regi on of Asia M inor, Atta lus

Philadelphus,the second king of Pergamum

,founded for

commerc ial purposes,in B.C . 140,

a c ity,which he fortified,

and cal led,accord ing to the fash ion of ancient monarchs, after

h is own name,Philadelph ia. Unl ike its s i ster churches, there

109


i s no halo of mythic antiquity about its origin ; no olden

stories of nymphs or heroes cradled on its s ite invested i t

with sanctity,or wove a local ised superstition into its c ivic

celebrations ; nor could i t vie with Sardi s or Pergamum in

its boast of a past regal or imperial splendour.

S i tuated on the l i ttle river Cogamus,which winds through

the val ley, and joins the H ermus near Sardis, and on the

PH I LADELPH IA,W ITH MOUNTA I N S BEH I ND .

frontiers of Lydia and Phrygia,its importance was simply

that of a considerable commercial emporium,and pol itical ly

i t was attached by the Romans to the jurisdiction of Sardis.The lower hi l l s just behind i t are composed of the detritus

washed down from the mountains above,picturesquely worn

and wooded , and form a vast amphitheatre, from the crest of

which there is a magnificent View of the town,with its ru ined

I I O

THE SE V E rV GOLDEN CANDLESTICK S.

Greece. A town named Collatebus, the name of which i s

now quite lost, seems to have stood on or near the si te of

Philadelphia Herodotus mentions i t as noted for a sort of

confection or honey,made with tamarisk and wheat ; and i t

i s worthy of remark,as showing the unchanging customs of

the East,that just as par chment is sti l l the staple manu

facture of Pergamum,after the lapse of twenty-two centuries

,

the favourite sweetmeat of Phi ladelphia is th is very confec

tion,sti l l made in the same way by the natives

,and cal led

by them “ hal va. ” The Greek historian tells too of a plane

tree of surpass ing beauty,under which K ing Xerxes rested

,

and with which he was so much struck,that he presented the

tree with golden ornaments,and entrusted it to the special

care of one of h is body-guard. The neighbourhood of Ph i

ladelphia i s sti l l noted for i ts noble plane- trees (Platanuswhich flourish here more luxuriantly than in any

other part of Asia M inor. 1

But while corn and sweet cane covered the plain,the

staple,and indeed the weal th of Phi ladelph ia

,from its foun

dation by Attal us was the cultivation of the vine on the

rocky volcan ic hi l ls around. L ike the s ides of Vesuvius and

1As a rather amusing i l lustration of the importance of actual observa

tion in identifying anc ient h istorical sites,we may mention , that wh i le some

geograph ical writers have argued that Col latebus could not be identical w ithPh iladelph ia, because of the p lane-tree mentioned by Herodotus

,since p lane

trees were not l ikely to grow wel l in so rocky a region,Signor Svoboda

,in

the notes to h is beautiful series of photographs of “ The Seven Churches, ”

recently publ ished by Messrs. L ow,remarks

,in ev ident ignorance of th is

stay-at-home critic ism,

on the magn ificence of the p lane-trees wh ich he

observed there, as surpassing all others in the reg ion .

1 1 2

PHILADELPH IA.

Etna,i ts volcan i c soi l i s pecul iarly adapted for the growth

of the vine,and the region i s celebrated by V i rgi l for the

excel lence of its w ines. Philadelphia was the market of the

wine region of Asia,and its coins indicate this

,as they are

stamped with the head of Bacchus, or with the figure of a

female Bacchanal,though now tangled forests have supplanted

the vine. L ike other famous wine distri cts, i t has suffered

much from earthquakes,

— so much so,that S trabo, writing at

the time of the Christian era, in the reign of T iberius, tel l s

u s that,owing to the insecuri ty of the houses, most of the

people passed the ir t ime in the fields and vil lages round,and

marvels at there being found any so attached to thei r c ity as

to res ide there at al l ; and sti l l more at the want of foresight

i n the founders of the place. But, in sp ite of these dangers,the ci ty sti l l ex ists

,occupying exactly the same extent

,and

girt by the same crumbl ing and shivered walls which marked

i ts l imits in the Roman times.

Though its continued ex istence and many circumstances

of its h istory are marvellous i l lustrations of the epistle in the~Revelation

,and have even extorted admissions from sceptical

w riters, yet there i s less of direct al lusion to the local c i rcum

stances of the place i n th is than in any other of the apoca

lyptic addresses . One expression , however, may perhaps,without incurringd

thefcharge of a fanciful interpretation , be

taken as pecul iarly appropriate to the dwellers in Philadelphia.

The promises of future blessedness to the faithful are couched

in different terms in the address to each church , and many of

them under metaphors which occur nowhere else in the

sacred writings. Thus to Ephesus we have “ the tree of

l ife to Smyrna,a crown of l i fe,

” the complement of the

Q 1 13


crown of martyrdom ; to Pergamos,“ the h idden manna and

the “ white stone,

” the revelation of the holy of hol ies ; to

Thyatira,where the heathen were given to the worsh ip of

Apollo,

“ the morn ing star to royal Sardis,the “ white rai

ment ;” so to the faithful in Phi ladelphia i s the pledge given

,

“ H im that overcometh wi l l I make a pil lar in the temple

of my God,and he shal l go no more out. ”

What Chris

t ian,feel ing h imself a pilgrim here

,could so thoroughly

real i se the permanence of h i s eternal home, under the figure

of a pi l lar in the temple of h is God,as one whose earthly

home,shattered repeatedly by the heaving of the unstable

earth,and often rent and overthrown by the earthquake

,

reminded h im by its cracks and fissures of the insecurity of

al l human bu ildings"Time after time had al l the marblecolumns of the temples of Phi ladelph ia been laid low. The

shattered and gaping walls of thi s c ity needed so often to

be repaired,that the burden of thei r maintenance had

,we

are told,utterly impoverished the c iti zens. But to the pro

mise of stabi l i ty was added permanence of residence : “ He

shal l go no more out. ” He who had so often fled into the

open field at the premonitory rumbl ing ; he whose house

had so often been deserted when he had camped in the plain,

out of reach of the fall ing dwell ings (for the h istorian tel ls .

us how the inhabitants had to l ive for the most part in the

country) , he, of al l others , could appreciate the promise,“ He

shal l go out no more, — for no earthquake can move the

eternal pi l lars,no shaking of the strong foundations drive out

the inhabitants of the heavenly c i ty.

-The same idea of permanence runs through the whole ofthe Lord

’

s address to his beloved church .

“ He that i s true ”

1 1 4


triumph over their j ewish opponents,greater and more

decisive than even that to Smyrna. To her i t was promised

that they should not prevai l against her, but to this church

i s foretold a more blessed victory than even that of endurance

to the end,for her enemies should come and worsh ip before

her feet and know that H e had loved her. I n short,owning

that God was with them of a truth , conquerors and con

quered should be blessed al ike and rejoice together. The

j ews should look on H im whom they had pierced and

acknowledge h im . The promise seems to have been early

and l iteral ly fulfi l led ; for Ignatius, i n h is epistle to the Phi la

delph ian church,i n the beginning of the second century

,

immediately after the death of S t. j ohn , al ludes to converts

from j udaism in this ci ty, who had learned the love of j esus ,and were now preach ing the faith which once they destroyed .

Richer sti l l i s the next promise Because thou hast

kept the word of my patience,I wi l l also keep thee from

the hour of temptation , which shal l come upon al l the world ,to try them that dwell on the earth .

” Poor and tried,the

Philadelphian church had learned to practise patient waiting

for Christ, t i l l he should appear. I n watch ing and waiting

they had kept h is word ; therefore he promises to keep

them ; not indeed that they shal l have no temptation, but

rather shal l be kept i n temptation . But they shal l be kept

from the hour of temptation,which shal l be un iversal

,the

great catastrophes which were coming upon the world at

large to try and test them , God’s judgments which put al l

men to proof, and of which the earthquakes.

of Ph iladelph ia

were as premonitory types. Probably the word “ temptation ”

i s used here in the same sense in wh ich i t i s appl ied several1 16

PH I LADELPH IA.

times in Deuteronomy to the plagues of Egypt,which brought

out the pride and obstinacy of Pharaoh as no ordinary pro

vidence would have done.

To Philadelph ia,as to Smyrna

,i s the crown of l ife pro

mised :“ That no man take thy crown

,

— and to th is church

in terms even more emphati c than those to her si ster. To

her i t was,

“ I wil l give thee a crown of l ife. ” Here the

crown is spoken of as already won by the zeal and patience

of the l i ttle company. With l i ttle means accompl ish ing a

mighty work— a crown not of present triumph, but of future

glory,i s laid up for them above . Those who would strive to

despoi l them of it,are

,of course

,not the seekers after a crown

for themselves,but those who would begu i le them of their

reward,the adversaries

,who

,fal len and discrowned themselves,

would eagerly lead others down to a l ike depth of dishonour.

But noth ing save the fai l ing of their own faith, backsl iding, or

apostacy,could ever rob them of their glorious reward.

We may note that whi le “ the crown ” i s spoken of as

already given,the succeeding blessing, of which we have

already spoken,

“ him that overcometh wi l l I make a pi l lar

in the temple of my God,and he shal l go no more out,

” i s

promised as future. Their salvation was already assured as

members of the church mil itant,thei r glorification as members

of the church triumphant‘Was yet to come, when earthquakes

and persecutions shal l be no more . Then the door now set

open before them shal l be shut for ever, safely to enclose

those who shal l be for ever with the Lord, for“ the servant

abideth not in the house for ever,but the Son abideth ever ,

” 1

And as elsewhere in the Apocalpse we read that the ser

john vii i . 35.

THE SEVEN GOLDEN ‘

CAN D L E STICRS.

vants of God shall have the seal of God in their forehead,

or have the Father’s name written in their foreheads,a

s1milar metaphor i s appl ied here : “ I wi l l wri te upon him

the name of my God . As inscriptions, and especially charters

from kings and emperors,were commonly inscribed on pi l lars

,

so on them shal l be engraved the charter of their heavenly

citizensh ip,

“ the name of the c ity of my God,which is N ew

j erusalem,which cometh down out of heaven from my God

-the continu ing city,the city wh ich hath foundations, for

which Abraham as wel l as they themselves looked— and with

the gorgeous description of which the sacred canon is closed .

Archbishop Trench wel l observes that the epithet “ new ”

( x awég) sets the heavenly j erusalem in contrast with'the old

worn-out sinful c ity bearing the same name,for th is word

expresses the antithesis of the new to the old as the ant

worn,while the common word véog would but express that

which has recently come into ex istence, as contrasted with

that which has subsisted long — thus N eapol is,“ the c ity re

cently founded . There would , therefore , have been no fi tness

i n th is last ep ithet here , for this N ew j erusalem ,

“ whose

bu i lder and maker is God,i s at once new

,in that sin has

never wasted it,and at the same time the oldest of al l, dating

as far back as the promise given after the fal l . I t i s no

material c i ty to be let down bodily from heaven to earth,

as the Montanists strangely dreamt, and Tertul l ian fancied,and as other modern interpreters have sometimes speculated

,

i n their inabi l i ty to translate the figurative language of Scrip

ture into those glorious real it ies of the heavenly city, whereof

those figures were the vesture and outward array.

I t i s a trite remark that to Smyrna and Ph iladelph ia,alone

1 1 8


Thyatira,st i l l ex i st

,and contain Christian churches, though

shorn of their ancient splendour, and sunk in poverty, ignorance,and degradation . S ti l l the towns themselves are as flourish

ing as most others in Asia M inor,where there i s no foreign

element to protect the native Christian population . But Ph ila

delph ia has, with Smyrna, maintained an independence and

a freedom , as wel l as a degree of prosperi ty which has fal len

to the lot of none of the others. I n the case of Philadelph ia

this i s the more remarkable,for

,unl ike Smyrna

,there has

been no trade nor fore ign element to aid i t in maintain ing

its position .

We cannot trace its h i story and mark its present state

without feel ing that the threaten ings and promises of God have

fulfi l led themselves in h istory not less evidently than in the

case of the c ities of Gennesaret,of Capernaum

,Chorazin , and

Bethsaida. Even the h istorian Gibbon,when recounting the

overthrow of the Christian power in Asia M inor,writes on

these ci ties as i f Ize almost bel ieved their varied fates to be

an accompl ishment of the inspired prediction . After recount

ing the final subjugation of the provinces of Bithyn ia by Orchan

(A. D . 131 2 , he proceeds : “ The captivity or ru in of the

seven churches of Asia was consummated,and the barbarous

lords of I on ia and Lydia sti l l trample on the monuments of

classic and Christian antiqu ity. I n the loss of Ephesus the

Christians deplored the fal l of the first angel— the extinction

of the first candlesti ck of the Revelation . The desolation is

complete ;‘

and the temple of D iana or the church of Mary

wil l equal ly elude the search of the curious travel ler. The

circus and three stately theatres of Laodicea are now peopled

with wolves and foxes ; Sardis i s reduced to a miserable1 20

PH I LADELPHIA.

V i l lage ; the God of Mohammed, without a rival or a son , i s

i nvoked in the mosques of Thyati ra and Pergamos ; and the

populousness of Smyrna is supported by the foreign trade of

the Franks and Armenians. Philadelph ia alone has been saved

by prophecy or courage. At a distance from the sea,forgotten

by the emperors,encompassed on al l s ides by the Turks

,her

val iant c itizens defended their rel igion and freedom above ~

four-score years,and at length capitulated with the proudest

of the O ttomans. Among the Greek colon ies and churches

of Asia,Ph iladelph ia i s st i l l erect— a column in a scene of

ru ins— a pleasing example that the paths of honour and safety

may sometimes be the same. ” 1

I t i s difficult to trace the h istory of Ph iladelph ia from the

date of S t. j ohn to the twelfth century. Happy, perhaps, i t

was in having no h istory. I t i s on ly once or twice inc idental ly

mentioned by the later Greek writers,and not al luded to

excepting in l i sts of bishops by ecclesiastical authors. But in

the middle ages i t comes into more prominent not i ce. From

the eleventh century, when the northern hordes began to ravage

the eastern portion of the empire,i t was exposed to incessant

assaults,and its country repeatedly ravaged by barbarian in

vaders. S ti l l i t bravely res isted in s iege after s iege, unt i l,about A. D . 1 290,

i t was captured by the Seljoocides. But its

brave resistance,and the determ ined character of its inha

bitants,secured i t moderate terms

,and they had already

begun to combine against thei r Moslem oppressors,when the

invasion of Asia by that marvel lous soldier of fortune,Roger

de F lor,encouraged them openly to raise the standard of

G ibbon’s

“ D ec l ine and Fal l, chap. lxiv.R


revolt. Roger,who had risen to the ch ief command of the

disbanded armies which sought adventure after the peace of

S ic i ly fol lowing upon the terrible massacre of the S ic i l ian

Vespers,was named by Andron icus of Byzant ium

,Duke of

Rouman ia. He at once crossed the Hellespont, and attacked

the Turks. I n two bloody battles th irty thousand Moslems

fel l . Part of the ir army was engaged in the s iege of Phi la

delphia,whither Roger marched at once

,raised the s iege

,and

l iberated the place. H is successes earned for h im the t itle

of the Del iverer ofAsia. For a time Phi ladelph ia was included

with Sardis in the province of Pergamum ; but the intestine

broi ls of Constantinople, the assassination of Roger de Flor, by

order of Andronicus, and the utter weakness of Byzantium,

soon exposed that fai r land to renewed devastation . O rchan

subjugated t he whole of Asia Minor, and in A. D . 139 1 Phila

delph ia remained the last Christian city which had not been

taken by the Turks .

K nolles relates, from the Arabic h i storians , the tale of the

last s iege of Philadelph ia by Bajazet. I t was now completely

isolated, and i ts distance from the sea forbad al l hope of

succour. S ti l l the garrison scorned the summons to surrender,relying on a tradition that the Christian c ity of Ph i ladelph ia

should never fal l into the hands of the infidel . At first Bajaz et

forbad h is soldiers to plunder the district,and ordered that

private property should be respected ; but finding the res ist

ance more stubborn than he had expected,determined to drive

them to desperation by utterly ravaging the whole country

round . After some months the garrison was reduced to ex

tremity, and capitulated on terms of complete submission ,saving only their l ives and rel igion . But the saddest part

1 22


Philadelph ia,and about fifteen churches are now belonging to

that commun ion . The Christians have sti l l the free exercise

of their rel igion,and are permitted to ring their church bel ls.

and to have rel igious processions i n the streets— a privilege

accorded to no other town in the interior of Asia M inor.

Besides the churches in repair,there are upwards of twenty

in ruins,most of which have been destroyed by earthquakes,

and their places suppl ied by humbler edifices. One of these

ancient pi les forms by far the most conspicuous object in the

c ity. I t was undoubtedly the old cathedral , and is sti l l cal led

the Church of the Holy Theologian,

of S t. j ohn . I ts

massive pi lasters tower h igh above the modern buildings, with

large blocks of masonry ; but the arches which sprung from

them have long since been overthrown . Though named after

S t. j ohn , i ts date cannot be referred to an earl ier period than

the reign of j ustin ian , about the fifth century,and the frag

ments of many ancient temples have been employed in its

construction . The piers and lower parts of the wal l are bu i lt

of blocks of stone and marble,while the arches, of some of

which the springs remain,are of bri ck. Many n iches and

brackets may yet be seen in the walls,and portions of muti

lated inscriptions remain,bui lt into many of the modern

churches and houses. The walls of the c ity can everywhere

be distinctly traced, though dilapidated, and m some places

completely overthrown . The only other remains of any

importance are the ruins of the stadium near the acropol is,the shape of which

,hollowed in the side of the hil l

,can be

d istinctly traced.

THE SE VEN GOLDEN CAND L E STICK S.

forming wider valleys as they approach the plain of the Meander,of which river they are the principal feeders. N ear one of

these stood Laodicea,general ly cal led

,from the name of the

river,Laodicea on the Lycus. A long shoulder of a rounded

h i l l stretches out into the level country,between the narrow

val leys of the l ittle streams Caprus and Asopus, which un ite

and form the Lycus. To reach the place from the coast we

must fol low up th is valley, composed of dreary sand-hi l ls with

scarcely any vegetation,and monotonous rounded hi l ls on

either s ide. About fifteen miles up the val leywe see in front

a low h il l, not quite a mi le long, and about a quarter of a

mile broad,clad with short herbage, excepting where, here

and there, a rugged block of ru in protrudes. “ N oth ing can

exceed the desolation and melancholy appearance of the s ite

of Laodicea. N o picturesque features in the nature of the

ground on which i t stands rel i eve the dul l un iformity of its

undulating and barren h i l ls. ” There is not even the geological

character of the Catacaumene round Ph i ladelphia,with its

lava streams and basalt dykes to give a feature to the scenery.

The gritty rocks are al l horizontal,undisturbed by earthquake

,

and scored by time. The very ru ins themselves are,l ike

the h il ls,featureless masses of conglomerate

,from whence

all the marble fac ings have been torn by Turkish gravestone

cutters,leaving the rel ics of fair temples reduced to the debris

of a stone quarry.

The place, though utterly without inhabitants, i s sti l l

marked by its Turkish name,E sé i H issar

,i .e . ,

O ld Castle ;and of ru ins

,enough are left to attest its ancient grandeur

in the heaps of i ts vast stad ium,i ts aqueducts

,bridges

,

theatres, and gymnasium . I n desolation it passes even Sardis.1 28

The stonecutter never comes but for the day, and hurries

back to D en isl i . The pasturage is poor,and i t i s only in

S ITE OF L AO D I L LA

spring that even a gipsy-tent may occasional ly be seen ,whi le the flocks are grazing on the early herbage .

Yet the rol l of i ts olden h istory i s a long one, extendings 1 29


from the establ i shment of the Greek empire to that of the

Turkish . Pl iny has given us i ts early traditions . They are

not royal or mythical l ike those of Sardis . Trade,business,

material prosperi ty,and luxury— not splendour, fame, or art

seem from the first to have been the pursu it of the Laodiceans .

Pl iny gives us i ts earl iest h i story as known in h is day . The

I onian Greeks,i ts probable founders

,named i t D iospol is

,

“ the

City of j upiter,

” which was afterwards exchanged for the

name of Rhoas,under which appellation i t became the largest

c i ty of Phrygia. I t suffered greatly during the wars -of the

successors of Alexander ; and at length Antiochus king

of Syria,surnamed Theos

,rebu i lt i t

,and gave it the name

of his wife Laodice,whom he afterwards heartlessly divorced

for the sake of a matrimonial and pol i tical connection with

Ptolemy,king of Egypt

,referred to in D an . x i . 6 :

“ I n the

end of years they shal l join themselves together ; for the

king’s daughter of the South (Egypt) shal l come to the king

of the North (Syria) to make an agreemen t : but she shal l

not retain the power of the arm .

”

I n two years the un ion

was dissolved, and Laodice contrived the assassination of her

husband and h is new spouse .

We next find Laodicea suffering i n the desperate contest

between the Romans and M ithridates king of Pontus for the

sovereignty of Asia,when the ci ty sustained a long siege

,

was given over to pil lage,and partial ly destroyed . But it

qu ickly rose again,and

,under the domin ion of Rome

,in

creased in wealth and importance . Many of its sons became

merchant-princes, and lavished vast sums in the decoration

of their native c i ty. S trabo tells us of one merchan t H ieron,

who adorned the c i ty wi th many splendid bu i ld ings,and at

130

THE SEVEN GOLDEN CAND LESTI CK S.

apostle ever personal ly visi ted Laodicea. I n fact, from the

expression,

“ I would that ye knew whatg reat conflict I havefor you and for them at Laodicea

,and for as many as have

not seen my face in the flesh,

” i t i s reasonable to infer that

S t. Paul’s missionary journeys had not extended th ither, and

th is opin ion i s supported by the best cri tics . More difficul t

is another al lusion to Laodicea in the same epistle : “ Cause

that i t be read also in the church of the Laodi ceans, and that

ye l ikewise read the epistle from Laodicea,

” 1 i .e. ,the letter

which was to come from Laodicea,which S t. Paul had wri tten

to i t. There have been two principal theories on thi s subject.

Fi rst, that by the letter i s meant the epistle to the Ephesians,

which was addressed as a c ircular letter to several neighbour

ing churches,Laodi cea among the rest

,and which is

,therefore,

without those local salutations at the end which mark S t. Paul’

s

other epistles. Secondly,that the message refers to a letter

now lost. Against thi s latter view our best authori ties cer

tainly i ncl ine, un less the letter were merely a sl ightly altered

copy of another apostol i c ep istle . We have no trace of any

such in early ecclesiastical h istory,nor any allusion to any

lost letter of S t. Paul . The apocryphal work professing to

be the “ Epistola ad L aodicenses i s manifestly a clumsy

forgery, compiled from the Galatians and Ephesians, and only

exists in Latin .

The subscription at the end of the first epistle to Timothy,stating it to have been wri tten from Laodicea

,i s of no

authori ty as to S t. Paul’s having ever visited the place ; but

i t i l lustrates the importance of the ci ty.

1Colos. iv. 1 6 . See Howson , Ell icott, etc .

L AOD I CEA.

We next come to the Apocalyptic Epistle,which we shal l

find to contai n various al lusions to the pecul iar c i rcumstances

and character of the place. The angel of the church of the

Laodiceans has been supposed to be once mentioned in the

epistle to the Colossians Say to Archippus,Take heed to

the mini stry which thou hast received i n the Lord,that thou

fulfi l it.”

In the apostol i c consti tutions Archippus i s named

as the first bishop of the Laodicean church . I f he were the

son of Phi lemon,

1 one of the principal converts of Colosse ,i t would be very natural to find h im selected as bishop of the

neighbouring city,perhaps more for h is father’s meri ts than

hi s own,and he may very probably have been sti l l holding

that position th irty years later. I f th i s conjecture be correct

i t would only be too consonant with the downward course of

lukewarmness,that he who required from S t. Paul , for h i s

want of zeal and h is slackness,the warn ing “ Take heed,

”

should in the lapse of years have grown more and more

negl igent,t i l l he i s vis ited with th is sharpest reproof from

his Lord.

“ These th ings saith the Amen,the faithful and true wit

ness . Here alone the Redeemer takes to himself the ti tle“ The Amen

,more emphatical ly proclaiming his eternal truth

than even the emphati c “ Veri ly,veri ly

,

” of his own dis

courses,and thus rendering the warn ing to Laodicea the most

solemn and awful of al l . He i s also “ the Beginn ing of the

creation of God ”— not

,as the Arians and Socinians falsely

explain,

“ the first created,

” but as He,the person ified W i sdom ,

declares,

2 “ I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning,

Ph il . ver. 2.

2 Prov. v i i i . 23.

THE SE VEN G OL D E zV CANDLESTICK S.

or ever the earth was “ by whom all th ings were made.

Any other interpretation would contradict every passage in

Scripture in which D ivine attributes are ascribed to him .

Besides,every other ti tle wh ich he gives h imself in these

seven epistles is only compatible with D eity— the divin ity

whom every creature i s represented,a l ittle farther on

,as

worsh ipping together with the Father.1

The warn ing begins,“ I know thy works

,that thou art

neither cold nor hot ; I would thou wert cold or hot.” we

might have thought that lukewarmness, though worse than

heat,was at least a better state than that of spiri tual cold

ness— that to have half a heart for Christ was better than

not to be stirred at al l by his love . I t would doubtless be so,

i f i t were spoken of a growing state — advancing from the first

melting of the icy heart to fervid love. But here he who is

cold i s one whom the powers of grace have never yet reached .

He is one who has not tasted of the powers of the world to

come at al l . The lukewarm has tasted of the good gift,but

has not been kindled by i t. He is l ike the Pharisees— l ike

that S imon who loved l ittle ; while the disciples were hot,and the publ i cans and harlots cold

,unti l changed

,l ike the

woman in S imon ’s house,who

,having had much forgiven

,

became from being icy cold intensely hot. “ She loved much,

”

l ike Saul the persecutor changed to Paul the apostle. These

cold ones , when brought to know “ the Amen,

” may reach

a degree of D ivine heat unattainable by the lukewarm,self

satisfied S imon .

As j eremy Taylor remarks,

“ God hates lukewarm worse

Rev. v . 13 .


constrained them earnestly to contend for the truth . I t was

just,perhaps

,because she had not gainsayers nor heretics to

resist,that the church of Laodicea did not learn to grasp

more fi rmly and to pri ze more dearly the truths she so coldly

held . I t was not good for them to be without the necessity

of doing battle for the truth . What i s th i s but the lesson

which al l church history teaches,that when the church has

settled down at ease,supreme apparently over al l around

,

she has lost,

first her watchfulness, and then her faithfulness"The struggles of the second century prevented the church

from settl ing down into a phi losoph ical sect. The oft-recur

ring heresies of the third century caused al l doctrine pertain

i ng to the person and offices of our blessed Lord to be so

defined,that clearness of dogma on those great points

,and

orthodoxy were ever after inseparable. The dominant church

of the middle ages, on the contrary, lost al l i ts l i fe and its

love,and sank into the dark sleep of death so soon as i t had

conquered the world,and the h istory of the middle of the

eighteen th century in England and Scotland is almost a

repetition of the same sad story.

But now comes the remedy offered to Laodicea : “ I

counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire,that thou

mayest be rich ; and white raiment, that thou mayest be

clothed,and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear

and anoint th ine eyes with eye-salve,that thou mayest see.

Here i s the three-fold remedy for their three—fold need— gold

for their poverty,white raiment for their nakedness

,eye-salve

for their bl indness. There is an irony,but

,as i t has been

said,the i rony of D ivi ne love

,in the counsel . The emphasi s

of the exhortation is in the words “ buy of M e,

” in whom136

are_

hid al l the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. They

had rel ied for these espec ial ly on themselves ; and the price

they are cal led on to pay i s simply the renunciation of thei r

own wisdom and their own righteousness. All i s a free gift,but to obtain that gift, they must strip themselves of thei r

own fi l thy rags,and count thei r own spiritual attainments but

dung that they win Christ’s gifts.

“ Christ conforms him

self, _so far as the outward form of h is words reaches

,to the

language of earth . To the merchants and factors of th is

wealthy mercanti le c ity he addresses h imself infthe ir own

dialect. Laodicea, on the great high road of oriental com

merce,was a city of extensive money transactions

,so that

Cicero,journeying to or from his province

,proposes to take

up money there. Christ here 1nv1tes to deal ings with h imself.

He has gold of so fine a standard,that none wi l l reject i t.

The wools of Laodicea,of a raven blackness, were famous

throughout the world. He has raiment of dazzl ing white

for as many as wil l receive it at h is hands There were

ointments for which many of the 'Asiatic e1t1es,perhaps

Laodicea among the , number,were famous ; but he, as he

wil l presently announce,has eye- salve more prec ious than

them all . Would it not be wise to transact their ehief busi

ness with h im Thus Perkins comments—n “ Christ saith,

‘I

counsel thee to buy of me,

’ when he alludeth to the outward

state of th is c ity,for i t ‘was rich

,and also given to much traffic

,

as h istories record ; and therefore he speaks to them in their

own kind,as i f he should say

,Ye are a people exerci sed in

much traffic,and del ighted with noth ing more than buying and

I Trench,in lac.

THE SE VEN GOLD EN CANDLESTI CK S.

sel l ing. Wel l, I have wares that wil l serve your turn , as gold,garments

,and oi l ; therefore come and buy of me.

”

The gold and the white raiment set forth the true riches,and the only garment that wi l l cl othe the nakedness of souls,the righteousness of Christ. Many profess Christ, who have

not yet put on Christ. Here we have an i l lustration of the

great doctrine,that Christ’s righteousness must be not only

imparted,but imputed— put on— if the shame of our naked

ness i s not to appear,while the beginn ing of al l true growth

is to have the eyes anointed with eye-salve,that we may

be able to see ourselves real ly poor and naked,without

righteousness,and standing in al l our shame unclothed before

God . The eye-salve, then , i s the enl ightening grace of the

Holy Spiri t, which not only shows us the true nature of God,but reveals us to ourselves as we are i n God’s s ight.

“ As many as I love,I rebuke and chasten

,

” evidently

impl ies that the threat of being spued out of the mouth,the

fate of utter rejection,i s delayed to give time for repentance.

And so the Lord continues : Behold,I stand at the door

,

and knock : i f any man hear my voice,and open the door

,

I wil l come in to h im,and wi l l sup with h im

,and he with

me.” The i llustration is taken from the imagery of the Song

of Solomon, and exactly sets forth Christ’s mode of deal ing

with men . N ot only does he wai t for them,he comes to

seek them. Instead of demanding that we should knock at

h is door, he knocks at ours . He searches for the straying

sheep, and reverses the whole relation which we might have

expected. He call s as well as knocks,that the sheep may

hear h is voice, and may know who i t i s that seeks admission

to their hearts. He not only vis its us by the outward deal138

THE SE V EN G o'

i Ejv'

CAs ESTI CK S.

I IIOII I II ,i

are’

~

offered on"repentance, not

i

like ‘ the’

apostles:to s it on twelve thrones

,but to share the

’

throne Wi th the

Son himself. We may trace a regular gradation in the

rev’

vards‘

offered to the fai thful, ti l l we reach th is culminating

triumph.

There i s in the promises to the seven churches, it~

has‘

been remarked, an order paral lel to the unfolding of the‘kingdom~

of God from its first beginn ings on earth to its

glori-

ous consummation in heaven . They begin with “ the

R U I N S OF H I ERAPOLI S , NEAR LAOD I CE A

tree of l ife i n the midst of the paradise of God to Ephesus,

where we are carried back,as i t were

,to Eden . Then death

entered,and the blessing to Smyrna i s next

,the removal

of that curse,

“ I wi l l give thee a crown of l ife. From the

patriarchs we go on to the Mosaic dispensation,and the th ird

blessing is the h idden manna and the white stone,more

glorious than .Urim . Then to Thyatira the figure i s taken

from the glories of the period of Dav i d and Solomon ,“ I

wi l l give power over the nations,and he shal l rule t hem

The next three promises are not clothed7with°

a rod of iron .

’

140

L AOD I CEA .

i n type adapted from the history of the earthly church, but

thei r language i s from the prophec ies of the church’s spiri tual

future. First,the name not blotted out of the book of l i fe

,

“ but I wil l confess h is name before my Father and before

h is angels. This i s the individual blessing of immortal ity:

N ext follows,to Philadelph ia

,the promise of being made a1

pi llar in the temple of my God, and he shal l go out no

more ;” and the c itizenship of the New j erusalem

,i s fellow ;

sh ip with Christ and with al l h i s glorified members. Lastly,

we have here the crown ing triumph , beyond which there can

be nothing further of dign ity or of blessing, for the summit

has been reached,the very presence of H im who sits upon

the throne,not on ly with in reach of H im at al l t imes

,but

, as

i t were, leaning on H is breast.“ To him that overcometh

wil l I grant to s it with Me on My throne.”

Whether the solemn warning against lukewarmness, and

the glorious reward “ to him that overcometh ” roused the

angel of the church of Laodicea for a time,and quickened

h is spiritual l i fe,we know not. H istory tel ls us from time

to time of the importance of the church there, i n rank and

numbers. L aodicea became the seat of a metropol itan arch

bishop,and under the roof of its cathedral church were

gathered from time to t ime counci ls of the eastern church .

Ohe was gathered here at an uncerta in date, either A. D . 363,

or more probably A. D . 372 ; undoubtedly at a period of

lukewarmness,for i ts lean ings were decidedly semi-Arian

,

although its decrees were afterwards, through the influence of

Basi l and the Gregories,accepted by the orthodox church .

These canons,

first acknowledged by the eastern and after

wards by the western, do not, however, touch on any cori14 1


troverted dogma of the great Christ ian veri ties.‘

The bestknown is that which forbade the placing of bishops in country

places,but directed that

'

the vi l lages should be vis ited by

itinerating presbyters,under the direction of the bishop of

the ci ty. Practical ly, th is counci l forbade the'

multipl ication

of suffragan bishops.

A much more important canon of th is council,as showing

how gradual was the change from the j ewish sabbath to the

Christian Lord’s-day,i s that which regulates i ts observance.

I t enacts that “ Christians shal l not judaize or rest from labour

on the seventh day, but work on i t as usual. But on the

Lord’s-day they are to rest from labour,as far as possible

(eiye St'mawr o) , l ike Christians. I n these days of chafing and

fretting at the D ivine authority of the Lord’s-day

,these words

are very important,as proving the practice of the early

church ; nor less so are the comments of the Byzantine

writers,who observe that the exceptions are special cases, as

fighting to preserve men’s l ives against an enemy,to il ing at

the helm and oar to escape a storm,travel l i ng to church for

the service of God,dressing food for man

,labouring to save

the l ife of man or beast— or the l ike. N o word here of

games,or Sports

,or amusements

,al l of which were expressly

and peremptori ly forbidden,as in the code of Theodosius.

The counci l of Laodi cea also affirmed the canon of Scrip

ture as already laid down and received .

From th is period the name of Laodicea often occurs

inc idental ly in Greek wri ters,and i t became a place of

mil i tary as wel l as commerc ial importance . The emperor

Manuel strongly fortified i t after h is visi t on h i s way to

Colosse and Apamea. But i t shared the fate and terrible1 42


once composed the defensive towers. But there are many

si len t . wal ls,which convey no idea of their purpose. Here

and there are the possible remains of a church , and a few

of the tombs outs ide bear Christ ian symbols. But of the

great church which was the seat of metropol itans and the

gathering-place of counc i ls, no trace can be identified .

The remains of the aqueduct which suppl ied the city

are almost continuous,the calcareous incrustation of the

water having encased the arches into one mass of petri

RL INS OF TH E G YMN \SI UM

faction . I t i s interesting to notice that th i s aqueduct proves

the Romans to have been acquainted with the hydrostati c

principle of water finding its own level ; for instead of being

conveyed on lofty arches, i t was conveyed down the hi l l i n

massive stone pipes,and then taken across the plain

,and

up _ the h il l on the other s ide to i ts original level, i nto the

town , where was a great reservoir near the ci rcus. The

stone pipes are hol lowed to a diameter of two feet inside,

and beauti fully fitted one within the other. At the entrance

of the ci ty are the remains of a bridge, of which the um

cemented stones appear to have been shaken out of their144

L AOD I CEA .

places by an earthquake. The publ ic bu i ldings are al l

crowded on the acropol i s,extending for about a mile in

length . The finest and least destroyed - of the ancient

bu ild ings'

is the stadium,hol lowed out of the s ide of the

h il l,or rather out of two sides of a narrow valley uti l i sed

for the purpose,and closed across the end . The hol lowed

subterranean road by which the horses and chariots entered

the arena,may sti l l be traced. The rows of marble seats

have not yet been al l destroyed by the Turkish tomb

cutters,and some of them yet retain

,roughly sculptured ,

the Greek letters and numbers which marked them ei ther

as private property,or as reserved seats. The marble seats

have been al l supported by carved l ions’ paws of the same

material . Three other theatres remain,two of them of

unusual si ze ; the th ird , rather smal ler, was doubtless the

Odeum . A long 1nscription i n the Greek language, of the

period of Hadrian,can sti l l be deciphered over the entrance,

and has been publ i shed by Hamilton .

But s ince our vis it,the progress of destruction has been

rapid. S ignor Svoboda,in h is i l lustrations of the seven

churches, gives sad detai ls of the systemati c destruction now

going on . A party of workmen sawing marble in the theatre,told h im they had been engaged for s ix years at the same

place,and had dug out the whole entablature, which was

covered with richly sculptured figures, and sawn it into slabs.

N ear the same place a colossal statue was seen sawn in

pieces in the same way. N o wonder, then , that the magn ifi

cent female colossal statue and others described by Pocock

and several earl ier travel lers,have long since disappeared .

So have also the two oriental agate p i l lars,eighteen inches

11 I 4S

THE SE V EN G OL D EN CANDLESTICK S.

i n diameter,which were standing one hundred and twenty

years ago— as were rows of richly sculptured composite

columns,adorned with busts and heads in rel ief

,and vases

with wreaths of leaves and fru its . The great theatre was in

the Corinthian style, a l ittle earl ier than the others.

At the north extremity of the acropol is is supposed to

have been the Christian basil ica,and the bases of a few

TO‘J B AT H I BRAPOL IS, N EAR LAOD I CEA .

columns yet remain ; but' there i s l i ttle of interest beyond

them,and noth ing to fix definite ly the site of the Laodicean

counci l. J ust beyond the wal l s on th i s s ide are the traces of

the Chri stian cemetery,as well as of the earl ier heathen one.

Many sarcophagi,some broken and some whole

,are strewn

about, but al l long ago rifled. They are frequently used by

the visi tors for various purposes,and some have been carried

146

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THE WISD OM OF OUR FATHERS.

I . Se l e c t io n s fr om th e M is c e l la n e o u s

WORK S OF ARCHB I SHOP LE I G HTON . W i th a M emoir.I I . Se l e c t io n s fr om t h e W r i t in g s o f L o r d

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I I I . Se l e c t io n s fr om t h e W r i t in g s o f

THOMAS FULLER . Wi th a M emoir.

I V . Se l e c t io n s fr om t h e W r i t in gs o f I s a a cBARROW,

D D . \V i th a M emoi r.V . Se l e c t io n s fr om t h e W r i t in g s o f R o b e r t

SOUTH , D D . W i th a M emoir.L a gh l ou The sketch of h is l ife prefi x ed to th is volume, narrates the lead ing facts ofh is holy h istory , and the select ions are made w1th J udgmen t and taste H i s serui ons

were, in their way, admirable H i s u ri ti ngs are beaten gold , and h is l ife “ as t hat ofa man who had p itched t camp on the very precmcts of the eterna l world

Ci t r u fza u l V l ffl l J‘J‘

L ag/ti on These ex horta t ions are in themselves very beaut iful T he sermons seemjud l ClOUSIy chosen , and all peop le of earnest minds “ I ll welcome the x olume

The Reader .

Bacon The sei i tent ious w isdom of Bacon is a we ll-spring, whence students in latertimes have drawn their ch0icest aphorisms and their most a x iomat ic truths Much ofwhat the d isti i igmshed lawyer bequeathed to posteri ty i s embod ied i i i th i s del ightfu lvolume, wh ich is prefaced by a wel l~wri tten ni emO i r Y/ze C/mrrh Stan da rd

B acon Replete ith gems of thought T he memoir is admirab le for i ts comp leteness ,and the just ice i t does to our great author I t is no sl ight recommendat ion of th is veryjudi ciously ex ecu ted book that it con ta ins Bacon’s best thoughts upon the best andhol iest of themes you rua l of Sacr ed L iterat ure.Fu l ler Fu ll er‘s thoughts are gems, from wh ich many a mosaic has been fashioned

B r zti r l t Q ua r ler ly Reva-w.

Fu l ler — “ Th is is a welcome book , may it go everywhere, and be quietly enjoyed ,seriously ponde red , and warm ly loved , by a l l its readers Nom'olgformwt

South These select ions are made w i th sk il l and J udgmen t, and convey a ful l idea ofthe sta tely force and cop ious weal th of th is great preacher Many who would not ventureto take up one of the seven stout octavo volumes con ta ining South's works may yet derivep leasure and profi t from the compact se lec tions oft his volume C/tm lmu A dvocate

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