380

SMOKED WITH BRIMSTONE.

for the purpose, and, like bees in a hive, they are actually smoked with brimstone and stinking perfumes, and that for several times till they are reisted, or dried, somewhat after the fashion of red herrings. One of my travelling friends (a son of the Marquis of Bath) and his tutor would have thus been suffocated at Gaza, had his Lordship not sent his elbow through a pane of glass purposely to enable him to put his mouth to the fresh air the moment this comfortable operation began. But more obliging still are the Russian quarantine authorities on the Black Sea. At Odessa the poor voyagers, both male and female, were wont to be stripped naked every day, and bucketsful of cold salt water were poured over their bodies; and instead of being dried comfortably with towels, they were compelled to run stark naked, and promiscuously, in the open air till the sun, the wind, or the frost, served the purpose. For many years this barbarity was inflicted on both men and women till the wives of the masters of some English ships stood out and remonstrated with the Emperor, who commanded the regulation to be abolished. One way with another, with talking and walking and writing, time passed rapidly with everybody, and especially with the Arabs, who sat and sang, if singing it could be called, in scores till long after midnight.

I know nothing of the quarantine controversies lately carried on in the medical department, but the practice must have originated in necessity, and seems to have been well understood in the time of Moses. The regulations of that great lawgiver, as laid down in the book of Leviticus, are the groundwork of the whole practice till this day. Certainly were it not for these quarantines ten travellers for one would traverse the Levant. There is no quarantine coming from

LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVE.

381

Europe at Alexandria or in Egypt, but there is quarantine in passing from Egypt to Syria, and again in passing from Palestine to Smyrna or Constantinople. The better way therefore, is for travellers in the Levant to visit Smyrna and Constantinople before going into Egypt, and thus a quarantine of five days is escaped.

I

The moment the sun rose on the morning of the fifth day, I tripped down stairs and out at the gate with a merry heart. Never shall I forget the serenity and beauty of that morning on which, about five o'clock, I was set at liberty at Smyrna. The sea, the shore, and the whole scene, was a pretty picture of paradise, calm and cool. Far down the gulf as the eye could reach there were islands, and capes, and creeks; there were skiffs passing in vast numbers to and from this the busiest emporium of trade in the Turkish dominions. crossed the bay in a boat, every stroke of the oar speaking gayly of liberty to the captive. I passed the Levant steamer at the time when the officer on the watch was lowering the yellow flag. I hoisted a red handkerchief on the end of an idle oar, and hailed him most lustily. He and the whole crew on deck honoured me with a cordial hurrah in good English style. I had breakfast in Miln's Hotel, and so there was an end for the time of the hardships of quarantine But my noble fellow-traveller of Bath cut the initials of his name, his tutors, and mine, on the thick bark of a fig-tree within the quarantine walls at Smyrna, as a memento of our imprisonment there.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE SEVEN CHURCHES IN ASIA.

ASIA MINOR, where the seven first Christian churches were planted by St. John and St. Paul, presents claims of interest, from the beauties of nature and the superiority of climate, surpassing any Levantine scenes a traveller can see elsewhere. These lands are also interesting from the classical recollections which they furnish. Here the light of civilization shone bright when the rest of the world was involved in barbarism: and here is the birth-place of many distinguished men who have been rarely equalled, and perhaps never surpassed, for efforts of genius, for refinements of art, and for deeds of heroism. But to Christians this country has a most sacred interest, in the scriptural recollections which it recalls. These rivet our attention, and allure the traveller from the most distant regions. Here an apostle was born, there he taught, and yonder he suffered. On the face of that hill a martyr died, and amid these groves of cyprus trees of pensive beauty his body was interred. And surely spots so sacred as these will excite feelings of solemn delight: and when visiting such, the true believer will form new resolutions of devotedness to his Saviour, and consecrate himself to firmer fidelity in following those who through faith and patience have now inherited the promises.

THE SEVEN CHURCHES NOT STONE EDIFICES. 383

When the seven churches which are in Asia are spoken of, it is not surely to be expected that a description is to be given of each church, as a tangible, visible, and distinct edifice, the ruins of which may still exist to this day. As well may it be said that the Church of Scotland means a temple built with men's hands, such as St. Giles' in the heart of Mid-Lothian. A church denotes merely a number of people organized as a body, in opposition to a casual meeting, and in this acceptation the term appears to be uniformly applied in the New Testament. In like manner the seven churches in Asia were merely so many religious assemblies of good people selected and called out of the world by St. Paul and St. John, according to the doctrines of the gospel, to worship the true God in Christ by the aids of the Holy Spirit. It is not said anywhere in the New Testament that stone buildings existed in any one of these localities. On the contrary, it is believed, the early followers of a crucified Master had not where to lay their heads, much less magnificent temples to worship in. And whether such was the case or no, must ever remain a matter of doubt. And had these edifices ever existed, the lapse of time, and the ravages of so many earthquakes, must have levelled them long ago. The situations, however, are well known, and they seem all to have been located as if within the form of a circle, in a district of Asia Minor, most densely populated generally at the time, and studded every few miles with cities of great splendour, wealth, and inhabitants. But the whole country is now greatly depopulated, and the cities are almost all in utter ruins. But they teach us a lesson which the churches of modern Europe would do well to learn in time, and to the purpose, lest their candle also be removed, and their cities.

384

THEIR ANNIHILATION TEACHES A LESSON.

be laid waste. Much as these ancient churches have been destroyed by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the doings of the Almighty which the inhabitants could neither have foreseen nor prevented, ours have been still more torn asunder by schisms, corruptions, traditions, persecutions, and heresies, and all manner of rancorous divisions, most ungodly indeed, and the result of man's ambition and wickedness: and if such a total annihilation has overtaken the seven churches in Asia, what are the Christians in the west to expect, or what do they deserve in their corporate capacities? It is only because the great head of the church is compassionate still, and long-suffering, and slow to anger, and waiting to be gracious, that the churches of modern Europe are not swept away by the besom of destruction. But because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed, let not the heart of man be set in him to do evil, and that continually. Let every church learn that God is no respecter persons, and that he will by no means clear the guilty. "He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

of

It is a curious fact that for every pilgrimage which is made to the seven churches in Asia, one thousand at least are undertaken to the Holy Land: and while hundreds of travels are published, descriptive of Palestine, very few indeed, and these very cursory, are written as to the churches of the Apocalypse. There are comparatively few accounts of their present state contrasted with their former splendour, and it seems as if the western Christians either did not care or did not dare to visit these untrodden and dangerous paths. But thank God a pious zeal and a commendable curiosity on my part, induced me to make a voyage thither, to see the