I visited the site of Ephesus without the services of a guide, walking along the road which passes at some distance on the right.  I continued my walk beyond the ruins, seeing some men plowing, and others caring for flocks of goats, which are very numerous in the East.  When I turned back from the road, I passed a well, obtaining a drink by means of the rope and bucket that were there, and then I climbed a hill to the remains of a strong stone building of four rooms.  The thick walls are several feet high, but all the upper part of the structure has been thrown down, and, strange to say, a good portion of the fallen rocks are in three of the rooms, which are almost filled.  It is supposed that Paul made a journey after the close of his history in the book of Acts; that he passed through Troas, where he left a cloak and some books (2 Tim. 4:13); was arrested there, and probably sent to Ephesus for trial before the proconsul.  Tradition has it that this ruined stone building is the place where he was lodged, and it is called St. Paul’s Prison.  From the top of its walls I could look away to the ruins of the city proper, about a mile distant, the theater being the most conspicuous object.

There are several attractions in Ephesus, where there was once a church of God—­one of the “seven churches in Asia”—­but the theater was the chief point of interest to me.  It was cut out of the side of the hill, and its marble seats rested on the sloping sides of the excavation, while a building of some kind, a portion of which yet remains, was built across the open side at the front.  I entered the inclosure, the outlines of which are still plainly discernible, and sat down on one of the old seats and ate my noonday meal.  As I sat there, I thought of the scene that would greet my eyes if the centuries that have intervened since Paul was in Ephesus could be turned back.  I thought I might see the seats filled with people looking down upon the apostle as he fought for his life; and while there I read his question:  “If after the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what doth it profit me” if the dead are not raised up? (I Cor. 15:32).  I also read the letter which Jesus caused the aged Apostle John to write to the church at this place (Rev. 2:1-7), and Paul’s epistle to the congregation that once existed in this idolatrous city of wealth and splendor.  As I was leaving this spot, where I was so deeply impressed with thoughts of the great apostle to the Gentiles, I stopped and turned back to take a final look, when I thought of his language to Timothy, recorded in the first eight verses of the second epistle, and then I turned and read it.  Perhaps I was not so deeply impressed at any other point on the whole journey as I was here.  The grand old hero, who dared to enter the city which was “temple-keeper of the great Diana,” this temple being one of the “Seven Wonders of the World,” and boldly preach the gospel of Christ, realizing that the time of his departure was