Newspaper Page Text
4 (52) r H E P
Family F
'BITTER WORDS DO NOT BREAK BONES,
BUT THEY HAVE BROKEN MANY
HEARTS."
Old Proverb.
O my soul, will you remember?
Will you learu ths truth, at last?
"Grevious words will stir up anger,"
They will burn like furnace blast,?
Blistering, bleeding, scorching, searing?
Till all hope of good is past!
?
If the wrongs, that others do you,
Be as cruel as you think;
Rail not at them, but like Michael, 4
From reviling Satan shrink!? I
Lest, in yielding to your passions, a
You to lowest level sink! ^
I
Almost certainly your judgment
Of what others do to you
Is severer,?much severer,? 1
Than is right, or kind, or true; 1
Facts there may he, that you know not, ^
Justifying what they do.
And your anger stirs up anger:
If you bitter words .have said, t
You have wounded,?deeply wounded,? <
Those whose malice you may dread: 4
For a foeman, roused to madness, ,
Works his will,?all unafraid!
(
And this spirit,?bitter, cruel,? j
Hurts the man who gives to sway,? t
Hurts him far more than the victims <
Of his spleen: and some sad day
He will know that by his anger
He was smitten -worse than they! *
Haw much better, kinder, wiser, j
Would it be for us, when wronged,
If we showed a loving spirit,
Hike that which to Christ belonged!
He was patieut, kind, forgiving, ]
Wneu by murderous foemen thronged.
?Addison.
^
CONSTANTINOPLE AND ,ITS ANCIENT j
CONQUEROR, CONSTANTINE. ]
BY REV. 0. B. P. HALLOCK, D. D. 1
All eyes are turned upon Constantinople in 1
these days. But these are not the 01 ly days )
in whieh that great city has seen strife. The 1
early days of Christianity were full of conflict 1
and persecution. Christians were despised for
their very goodness, their lives being a constant
protest against the luxury and vice and
heathenism of those by whom they were surrounded.
The result was innumerable martyrdoms,
and that in order to save their lives, 1
the followers of Christ were driven into the <
caves of the earth, into catacombs and all sorts 1
of out-of-the-way hiding places, to escape the i
fury of those who hunted them as if they were
" 1 - xr i !1_ i.L- l_l 1
so many wild oeasts. 1 ei, vemy, me uiuuu
of the martyrs proved to be the seed of the
Church, and persecution only scattered the
seed of the kingdom and caused it to spring up <
in many places at once. From the days of Nero
until the end of the reign of Diocletian, in A. i
D. 305, the record seems to be one of increasing 1
horror. The last act of Diocletian was a perse- !
cution of the Christians so widespread, so un- i
" * - v - t- -If J 5
relenting ana aesperaie mat ne oeneveu, aim i
many others believed, that Christianity was i
forever obliterated from the face of the earth, i
And yet he had no sooner retired from the
government of the world than the faith he i
supposed he had suppressed sprang up with <
new force, and from that day to this has defied <
any further attempts to crush it. I
It was at this period, when Christianity was ]
KESBY TERIAN OF THE 8 (
leadings
i great spiritual power, but politically im
aau puiauuuivu, biiut v^uiifliauiuie
irose. He was uorn 111 Zi-A A. D., liis father
leing the Emperor (Jonstantine (J hi or us and
us mother the afterwards sainted Helena. He
vas in Britain when his father died, in 306, and
vas at once proclaimed emperor by the army
aider his command. But he was only one
>f six powerful generals who became comletitors
for Home s world empire. Maximian
ind his son, Maxentius, assumed imperial powir
at Kome, the central capitol; but in 312
ilaxentius was defeated and killed by the ar
uy of Constantine, who then entered the city
ind became master of all the western part of
he empire, including Italy and Africa. To
his triumph the great Arch of Constantine,
till standing in Home, bears eloquent testiuony.
Up to this time he had been a zealous
'agan, and made magnificent offerings to the
jods of his ancestors; but on the eve of this
lecisive battle he is said to have seen?or fantied
he saw?a little after noon, just above
he sun which he worshiped, a radiant sign
>i tne cross 111 the sky, bearing the inscription,
'In This Conquer"; and in the following
light, when sleep had overtaken him, he
Ireamed that Christ appeared to him and enloined
him to make a banner in the shape of
he celestial sign which he had seen. Whether
Jonstantine really saw such a sign and had
such a dream we do not know, but this we do
enow, that he became at least an outward concert
to Christianity and its most powerful na
ron. He enthroned the religion of Christ as
he State religion and has come down in history
under the title of The First Christian
Emperor.
It is this scene, of Coustantine's conversion,
which is represented in the first picture, it being
from a photographic reproduction of Bernini's
remarkable equestrian statute of Conrtantine,
which adorns the chief entrance to
the Vatican Palace, in Rome. It represents
Constantine wonder-struck by the sudden apparition
of the cross. To carry out the idea
consistently the sculptor, who not only made
the statute but the Stairs of Constantine and
the whole entranceway to the palace, fixed an
immense marble cross on the upper part of Hie
wall upon which the eye of the emperor seems
to be intently fixed.
It is commonly believed that Constantine's
conversion was more a change of policy than
of moral character. Long after his supposed
conversion he committed many crimes which
sullied his fame, and he never submitted to
baptism until on his death-bed.
One of the first things he did after his conversion
was to issue an edict of toleration,
w h i r> h oopiippH f'tii-lofiono ft,-.? ?
Hwv?. ?v. v/ui>o<.iuuo nuui lui iiicr persecution.
Those who had been banished, or who
were condemned to work on galleys or in
mines, he brought back and restored to them
their confiscated property. He ordered that
Sunday should be set apart for religious observances
in all the towns and cities of the
empire. He abolished crucifixion as a punishment.
He prohibited gladiatorial games. He
ltispnnrni7(vt ulnvprv infontini^o ?? 31
-? .uiauti^juc, ana easy ?.llvorces.
He granted freedom of religious worship
and allowed the people to choose their
own ministers, and did not interfere with the
election of bishops. He seems to have had
great veneration and respect for the clergy,
liberally patronized the Church and became
) 0 T M [ January 22, 1913
greatly interested in theological affairs, and
especially in doctrinal discussions. He convened
and presided over the first great Ecu
memcai council, wnicn was composed ot three
hundred and eighteen bishops and two thousand
and forty-eight ecclesiastics of lesser note,
held at Nicaea, or Nice, as it is usually called,
in Asia Minor, not far from Constantinople.
This council defined the doctrines of the Di
vinity of Christ and the Trinity, and gave to
the Church the Nicene Creed, still in almost
universal use.
It was after a reign of over ten vears in
Koine, over the western half of the empire, that
in a series of battles, culminating in a great
victory over Licwius at Adrianople, A. L>. 323,
Constantwe came to be the undisputed sovereign
of the whole world. He thereupon boldly
changed his capitol from its former seat at
Kome, selecting the ancient city of Byzantium
as the new center of the empire. The advantages
of this city, which he rebuilt about 33U
A. 1)., and renamed Constantinople, in his own
honor linri not Kooti orvrvvnoio -f
uwvh uw K/VVU u^/|/ivtiawu UXlUi tuc gb"
nius of Constantino selected it as the one place
in his vast dominions which combined a central
position with remarkable capacities for defense
and offense against invaders as also for
trade, commerce and political strategy.
The city of Constantinople was most delightfully
situated, on the conhnes between Asia
and Europe, and between the Euxine and the
Mediterranean. It has a beautiful harbor,
called the Golden Horn, inaccessible from Asia
except by water, while it could be made impregnable
from the west. The narrow waters
of the Hellespont and the Bosphorus, the nat
urai gates of tiie city, could be easily defended
from hostile fleets. The city is even to-day, as
some one has well said, "More favored by nature
for commerce, for safety, for dominion,
than any other spot on the face of the earth."
It is of this historic city, the capital of the
Turkish Empire, and containng to-day over a
million inhabitants, representing people of every
nation under the sun, we give a glimpse
iu me tsecunu piciure. me pnotograph was
taken from the Galata Tower, in Para, on the
north side of the Golden Horn, and back of
which rise the handsome buildings of the foreign
embassies. The famous Galata Bridge, a
pontoon bridge over the Golden Horn, a portion
of which fell into the harbor, with much
loss of life, a few years ago, is seen in the midJl
~1? it. -f i T. " " *
uie ui uie picture, it was in tne iall of lyUiJ
or spring of 1903, it fell. The large mosque
which can be seen near the top of the picture
is the famous one of Sultan Amecht, which we
reproduce in our third picture. It is not the
largest, but is the most beautiful mosque in
all the world. It is situated on the site of the
old Hippodrome, and it is the only one outside
of Mecca that has six minarets. This is
the State mosque of Constantinople and has a
large income for its support. The Hippodrome,
which was constructed on the plau of the Roman
Circus Maximus, shows few traces of its
original purpose, as we see a portion of its
site in the foreground of the picture. At one
end of its oblong space stands the obelisk, as
seen in the picture. It was brought from
Heliopolis, and was used to mark the turning
pointy in the chariot races. Inside the circular
fence, in a deep cavity, at the center of the
picture, is seen the famous Serpentine Column,
formed of thrvp hmn7 opmorito nn vkIiasa
Mvjfvuvw) WM ?* nvnv
are graven the names of the thirty-two Greek
States which were engaged in the wars against
the Persians. The column was erected at Delphos
in commemoration of the battle of Platea,
479 B. C., and originally supported a golden
tripod which was carried on the triple heads
bf the twined serpents.
>