登陆注册
5257200000129

第129章 Chapter 38(2)

This seaport of Smyrna, our first notable acquaintance in Asia, is a closely packed city of one hundred and thirty thousand inhabitants, and, like Constantinople, it has no outskirts. It is as closely packed at its outer edges as it is in the centre, and then the habitations leave suddenly off and the plain beyond seems houseless. It is just like any other Oriental city. That is to say, its Moslem houses are heavy and dark, and as comfortless as so many tombs; its streets are crooked, rude]y and roughly paved, and as narrow as an ordinary staircase; the streets uniformly carry a man to any other place than the one he wants to go to, and surprise him by landing him in the most unexpected localities; business is chiefly carried on in great covered bazaars, celled like a honeycomb with innumerable shops no larger than a common closet, and the whole hive cut up into a maze of alleys about wide enough to accommodate a laden camel, and well calculated to confuse a stranger and eventually lose him; every where there is dirt, every where there are fleas, every where there are lean, broken-hearted dogs; every alley is thronged with people; wherever you look, your eye rests upon a wild masquerade of extravagant costumes; the workshops are all open to the streets, and the workmen visible; all manner of sounds assail the ear, and over them all rings out the muezzin's cry from some tall minaret, calling the faithful vagabonds to prayer; and superior to the call to prayer, the noises in the streets, the interest of the costumes--superior to every thing, and claiming the bulk of at- tention first, last, and all the time--is a combination of Mohammedan stenches, to which the smell of even a Chinese quarter would be as pleasant as the roasting odors of the fatted calf to the nostrils of the returning Prodigal. Such is Oriental luxury--such is Oriental splendor! We read about it all our days, but we comprehend it not until we see it. Smyrna is a very old city. Its name occurs several times in the Bible, one or two of the disciples of Christ visited it, and here was located one of the original seven apocalyptic churches spoken of in Revelations. These churches were symbolized in the Scriptures as candlesticks, and on certain conditions there was a sort of implied promise that Smyrna should be endowed with a "crown of life."She was to "be faithful unto death"--those were the terms. She has not kept up her faith straight along, but the pilgrims that wander hither consider that she has come near enough to it to save her, and so they point to the fact that Smyrna to-day wears her crown of life, and is a great city, with a great commerce and full of energy, while the cities wherein were located the other six churches, and to which no crown of life was promised, have vanished from the earth. So Smyrna really still possesses her crown of life, in a business point of view. Her career, for eighteen centuries, has been a chequered one, and she has been under the rule of princes of many creeds, yet there has been no season during all that time, as far as we know, (and during such seasons as she was inhabited at all,) that she has been without her little community of Christians "faithful unto death." Hers was the only church against which no threats were implied in the Revelations, and the only one which survived.

With Ephesus, forty miles from here, where was located another of the seven churches, the case was different. The "candlestick" has been removed from Ephesus. Her light has been put out. Pilgrims, always prone to find prophecies in the Bible, and often where none exist, speak cheerfully and complacently of poor, ruined Ephesus as the victim of prophecy. And yet there is no sentence that promises, without due qualification, the destruction of the city. The words are: "Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." That is all; the other verses are singularly complimentary to Ephesus.

The threat is qualified. There is no history to show that she did not repent.

But the cruelest habit the modern prophecy-savans have, is that one of coolly and arbitrarily fitting the prophetic shirt on to the wrong man.

They do it without regard to rhyme or reason. Both the cases I have just mentioned are instances in point. Those "prophecies" are distinctly leveled at the " churches of Ephesus, Smyrna," etc., and yet the pilgrims invariably make them refer to the cities instead. No crown of life is promised to the town of Smyrna and its commerce, but to the handful of Christians who formed its "church." If they were "faithful unto death," they have their crown now--but no amount of faithfulness and legal shrewdness combined could legitimately drag the city into a participation in the promises of the prophecy. The stately language of the Bible refers to a crown of life whose lustre will reflect the day-beams of the endless ages of eternity, not the butterfly existence of a city built by men's hands, which must pass to dust with the builders and be forgotten even in the mere handful of centuries vouchsafed to the solid world itself between its cradle and its grave.

同类推荐
  • 将发循州社日于所居

    将发循州社日于所居

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Bound to Rise

    Bound to Rise

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 上清丹景道精隐地八术经

    上清丹景道精隐地八术经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 益部谈资

    益部谈资

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 近世社会龌龊史

    近世社会龌龊史

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 藏獒不是狗

    藏獒不是狗

    我们在《藏獒不是狗》中可以看到杨志军精神探索的回归。藏獒的灾难折射人心的黑暗,被罪恶颠覆的人性正在面临不甘丧尽的挣扎,真的是我们有权犯罪无权做人?谁在决定“人”的生死?《藏獒不是狗》用流畅的故事、诗意的语言告诉我们:怵目惊心的藏獒悲剧后面,更有匪夷所思的“人”的堕落,而我们又意外地看到了人性之光的闪耀、心灵之力的存在、信仰救赎的可能。藏獒从青藏高原走来。
  • 导弹:千里之外的杀机(青少年科学探索·求知·发现丛书)

    导弹:千里之外的杀机(青少年科学探索·求知·发现丛书)

    本丛书的出发点是用科学的眼光追寻青少年心中对这个已知和未知世界的热情和关注。《导弹:千里之外的杀机》这本书对导弹武器的研制过程、结构原理、分类及其对人类社会的影响和未来发展等进行了详细阐述,以揭开其神秘的面纱。
  • City of God
  • 最后的公国

    最后的公国

    这是一本关于生存智慧的书,从来没有无缘无故的强大,也从来没有无言无辜的认同与臣服....
  • 康桥再会:徐志摩浪漫诗歌精选

    康桥再会:徐志摩浪漫诗歌精选

    轻轻的我走了,正如我轻轻的来,我轻轻的招手,作别西天的云彩。那河畔的金柳,是夕阳中的新娘;波光里的艳影,在我的心头荡漾。悄悄的我走了,正如我悄悄的来;我挥一挥衣袖,不带走一片云彩。徐志摩与林徽茵的一段传奇姻缘,一直为人们所津津乐道,也为人所深思。而志摩有关爱情的诗早已超越了文字的局限,你一种有灵性的尤物,历经生活的洗礼,蜕变为一首永恒的歌谣,世代相传。他的歌谣有一点迷幻,有一点彻悟,有一点执著,还有一点不可知的气息。他的歌谣让干燥的空气变得温润,让我们无望的生活变得生动,也让我们沉睡的心灵从此苏醒。
  • 快穿女配:崩坏主角打脸攻略

    快穿女配:崩坏主角打脸攻略

    晨曦被孟婆随手丢给了一个不靠谱的系统,从此走上了虐渣之路。白莲花,心机婊,绿茶婊,汉子婊,虐起来绝不手软。而当一大堆冷面王爷,霸道总裁,傲娇男神,清冷校草,冷酷帝王,腹黑世子,忠犬哥哥,打包来袭的时候,晨曦表示......当然是继续开虐了。
  • 重生之复仇谋妃

    重生之复仇谋妃

    她,前世是万人之上,后宫之首的皇后,她为爱而活,却因爱而亡。她,今生是低贱卑微,受人利用的奴儿,她为爱复仇,却被爱所救。她视为挚爱的男人残忍将她杀害,她无视存在的男人却暗自为她伤怀。前世已亡,今生重头来过,她选择幸福被爱还是决心复仇?
  • 沉寂在盛夏

    沉寂在盛夏

    “我是谁?你又是谁?”女孩儿不知所措。 “你是我爱的人,我是爱你的人。”他眼神笃定,柔情万种。 恨是前世种下的蛊,命运安排他们在今生。 在伤害与被伤害里,他们是否还懂得怎样去爱?
  • 绘芳录

    绘芳录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 史上最牛道观

    史上最牛道观

    “恭喜宿主,获得道观经营系统,若十年内没达到限定规模,则扌...”“吧唧...这系统真香。”