The books mentioned, Acts xix :tsi, were doubt less books of magic. How extensively they were in use may be learned from the fact that 'the price of them' was 'fifty thousand pieces of silver.' Very celebrated were the Ephesian letters CEce(cna -ypdApara), which appear to have been a sort of magical formulae written on paper or parch ment, designed to be fixed as amulets on different parts of the body, such as the hands and the head (Plus. Spit. vii). Erasmus (Adag. Cent, ii. 578) says that they were certain signs or marks which rendered their possessor victorious in every thing.
(5) Ruins. The ruins of Ephesus lie two short days' journey from Smyrna, in proceeding from which towards the southeast the traveler passes the pretty village of Sedekuy; and two hours and a half onwards he comes to the ruined village of Danazzi, on a wide, solitary, uncultivated plain, beyond which several burial grounds may be ob served; near one of these, on an eminence, are the supposed ruins of Ephesus, consisting of shattered walls, in which some pillars, architraves, and frag ments of marble have been built. The soil of the plain appears rich. It is covered with a rank, burnt-up vegetation, and is everywhere deserted and solitary, though bordered by picturesque mountains. A few corn-fields are scattered along the site of the ancient city, which is marked by some large masses of shapeless ruins and stone walls. Towards the sea extends the ancient port, a pestilential marsh. Along the slope of the mountain and over the plain are scattered frag ments of masonry and detached ruins, but noth 'mg can now be fixed upon as the great temple of Diana. There are some broken columns and cap itals of the Corinthian order of white marble; there are also ruins of the theater above men tioned, consisting of some circular scats and nu merous arches.
The supposed site still retains the name of the parent city, /Isafook or Aynsaluk, a Turkish word, which is associated with the same idea as Ephesus, meaning the City of the Moon (Fellows). But Kiepert, the noted German geographer, and Isaac Taylor, a great authority on names, say that Ayasaluk is a corruption of IIagios Thentogos, the holy theologian, that is, St. John. A church dedicated to St. John is thought to have stood near, if not on the site of, the present mosque. Arundell (Discoveries, vol. ii. p. 253) conjectures that the gate, called the Gate of Persecution, and large masses of brick wall, which lie beyond it.
are parts of this celebrated church, which was fortified during the great Council of Ephesus. The tomb of St. John was in or under his church. Though Ephesus presents few traces of human life, and little hut scattered. and mutilated remains of its ancient grandeur, yet the environs, diversi fied as they arc with hill and dale, and not scant ily supplied with wood and water, present many features of great beauty.
(6) Church at Ephesus. However much the Church at Ephesus may (Rev. ii :2), in its earliest days, have merited praise for its 'works, labor, and patience,' yet it appears soon to have 'left its first love,' and to have received in vain the admonition —'Remember, therefore, from whence thou an 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 re pent.' If any repentance was produced by this solemn warning, its effects were not durable, and the place has long since offered an evidence of the truth of prophecy, and the certainty of the Di vine threatenings, as well as a melancholy sub ject for thought to the contemplative Christian. Its fate is that of the once-flourishing seven churches of Asia: its fate is that of the entire country— a garden has become a desert. Busy centers of civilization, spots where the refinements and de lights of the age were collected, are now a prey to silence, destruction, and death. Consecrated first of all to the purposes of idolatry, Ephesus next had Christian temples almost rivaling the pagan in splendor, wherein the image of the great Diana lay prostrate before the cross; and, after the lapse of some centuries, Jesus gives place to Mahomet. and the crescent glitters on the dome of the re cently Christian church. A few more scores of years, and Ephesus has neither temple, cross, cres cent, nor city, but is 'a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness.' Even the sea has retired from the scene of devastation, and a pestilential morass, covered with mud and rushes, has succeeded to the waters which brought up ships laden with merchandise from every part of the known world. Several important councils were held in Ephesus, among which was the third ecumenical council (June 22-August 31, A. D. 431). A small Turk ish town to-day represents the once noted city. (Mc. & Str. Cp..; Modern Discoveries on the Site of Ancient Ephesus. J. T. \Vcod. 189o.) J. R. B.