. New Testament hours. amlet Pactolus,with its once gold-bearing sand, still murmurs northwardsacross the silent plain, on its course from the longmountain range of Tmolus, to the river Hermus; thesemountains bending in a gentle arc, of which the highestswell looked down on Sardis at its feet; the Hermusgliding westward, five miles off, on the north side of thewalls, while the vast necropolis of early ages still showsitself on the other side of the stream, by countless burialmounds. Roads from Pergamos, Smyrna, and Ephesusmet at Sardis, and others branched off from it in various Morning Star,
. New Testament hours. amlet Pactolus,with its once gold-bearing sand, still murmurs northwardsacross the silent plain, on its course from the longmountain range of Tmolus, to the river Hermus; thesemountains bending in a gentle arc, of which the highestswell looked down on Sardis at its feet; the Hermusgliding westward, five miles off, on the north side of thewalls, while the vast necropolis of early ages still showsitself on the other side of the stream, by countless burialmounds. Roads from Pergamos, Smyrna, and Ephesusmet at Sardis, and others branched off from it in various Morning Star, as having, in its pride, vaunted, in the poetical language ofthe prophet, to ascend into heaven, and there exalt his throne abovethe stars of God, the deities of its national worship, and to sit on themountain of the assembly—of these gods—the Babylonian Olympus,which is in the recesses of the north. In the Apocalypse the name ofthe Morning Star is transferred to Him who has, truly, not in vain boast,done all THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE 227 directions, bringing it into close communication with allparts of the country; for Asia Minor was then as markedby its teeming population, its many towns, cities, andvillages, and its great prosperity, as it now is by thedismal opposite of all these. The city lay about sixtymiles, in a straight lioe, south-east from Pergamos, aboutfifty miles east of Smyrna, and nearly the same distancenorth-east of Ephesus. The houses being for the mostpart thatched with reeds, it had repeatedly been more orless destroyed by fire, and so recently as in the reign ofTiberius, had been so injured by a great earthquake, thatit was only rebuilt by a grant of imperial assistance.^ Itspride and luxury as the capital of a plutocrat like Croesus,and then of the Persian satraps, had, for centuries, becomea byword. In such a busy trade centre there were, ofcourse, Jews in large numbers; not a few enjoying thehonour of Eoman citizenship, while very
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbible, bookyear1894
