The Hand of Providence. Joseph Harvey Ward
four great cities of medieval times were Jerusalem, Rome, Alexandria and Constantinople. The first named has ever been the sacred city, not merely of the Jews, but also of devout Christian pilgrims of all ages. During the crusades it was the great object for the possession of which so much blood and treasure were expended.
Alexandria, for the first three centuries of the Christian era, was the commercial metropolis of the world, as well as the chief seat of pagan learning and philosophy. It was here that Hypatia, the daughter of Theon, the mathematician, held her famous school. Each day before her academy stood a long train of chariots. Her lecture room was crowded with the cultured classes of Alexandria. They came to ask those profound questions that human reason, unaided, can never answer: "What am I? Where am I? What can I know?"
At this time, Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria, was attempting to force upon the world his trinitarian views. His absurd ideas could not endure the sharp criticism of philosophic minds. Cyril employed a mob of Alexandrian monks. Amid the fearful yelling of these bare-legged and black-cowled fiends, Hypatia was dragged from her chariot. In mortal terror she fled to an adjacent church, and was there brutally murdered by the club of Peter the Reader. But this was not all. We can only get a faint idea of the depraved condition of paganized Christianity, when we call to mind the fact that the monks finished their infernal crime by dismembering her body and scraping the flesh from her bones with oyster shells.
Cyril then procured the banishment of all who held opposing doctrines, and thus his absurd doctrines were forced upon society. Such was the debased condition of society in a city where had been planted one of the apostolic churches. As vice increased her prosperity decreased. During the reign of Constantine, the influence of Alexandria was much diminished, and with the Mahometan conquest it fell to the rank of a provincial town.
Jerusalem, once the "glory of the earth, and the pride of the nations," never recovered from the siege by Titus, in A. D. 70. The answer which the Jews made to Pilate, "His blood be upon us and upon our children," which they spake in reference to the Savior, has been terribly and literally fulfilled. It may be safely asserted that Jerusalem has witnessed more scenes of human suffering than any other spot on earth.
Who does not see the hand of Providence in her retribution, as well as in the fate of Herculaneum and Pompeii?
These cities were destroyed in A. D. 79, by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and buried by a shower of ashes, sand and stones. Herculaneum was situated about eight miles south of the present city of Naples, and Pompeii about fifteen miles eastward.
Thus they remained buried for nearly seventeen hundred years. Extensive excavations have been made during the past century, disclosing the city walls, streets, temples, theatres, private dwellings, domestic utensils and statuary. Many objects have been found which indicate the wicked and licentious character of the inhabitants, and go to prove that they were ripe for the destruction which awaited them. The inhabitants died just as the catastrophe found them, guests in their banqueting halls, soldiers at their posts, prisoners in their dungeons, maidens at the mirror and students at their books.
When the city was unearthed, the houses were found standing. The interior paintings were still fresh, and the skeletons remained in the very position and the very place in which death had overtaken them so long ago. The marks left by the cups of the tiplers still remained on the counters; the prisoners still wore their fetters, the ladies their chains and bracelets. The researches are still going on, new wonders are every day coming to light, and we shall soon have quite a distinct idea of Roman towns in the first century of the Christian era.
Rome, from before the commencement of the Christian era, had been the political and military capital of the world. From her gates issued forth those imperial armies that conquered nations and crushed the liberties of mankind. Her rule was not one of reason but one of force. From the age of Augustus Caesar her power had been waning, and when the Emperor Constantine removed the capital to Constantinople, Rome became a city of secondary importance. Though her political prestige was gone she became the seat of a religious empire which had and still has a mighty influence in the nations of the earth. The wrongs which she inflicted on others have recoiled with terrible retribution on herself. Her ruins are silent and majestic witnesses of the providence of God.
To the reign of Constantine the Great, must be referred the commencement of those dark and dismal times which oppressed Europe for a thousand years.
Constantine, while dwelling at Rome, had murdered his son Crispus, his nephew Licinius, and had suffocated, in a steam bath, his wife, Fausta, to whom he had been married twenty years, and who was the mother of three of his sons.
The public abhorrence of his crimes could no longer be concealed. Constantine therefore determined to change his residence and build another metropolis, which he named in honor of himself. He also found it politic to favor the paganized and wrangling Christian sects, that by their aid he might be able to triumph over the powerful coalition that had been formed against him. The reign of Constantine is therefore the true close of the Roman empire: the beginning of the Greek. The transition from the one to the other is emphatically and abruptly marked, by a new metropolis and a new national religion.
Constantinople, at present the capital of the Turkish empire, stands, like Rome, on seven hills, and on a tongue of land projecting into the Bosphorus, which here forms an inlet or small bay known as the Golden Horn.
The Bosphorus, as most of our readers are aware, is the name given to the strait through which flow the waters of the Black sea into the sea of Marmora, and which divides Europe from Asia.
Constantinople is admirably situated for commerce. This is one reason why Russia has so long looked upon it with a covetous eye. In fact, the reason why the bay, on the shores of which the city is built, has been called the "Golden Horn," or horn of abundance, is because into it was brought the wealth of three continents and the products of every clime.
That which is commonly called Constantinople, in reality consists of three great cities, divided by arms of the sea, yet so near to each other that the edifices of either of the cities may be seen distinctly from the other two.
The view here given represents Constantinople looking from the north. In the background is seen the city of Scutari, on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus. The hills in the distance are those of Asia Minor. On the right is shown the city of Stamboul, which stands on the site of the ancient Byzantium, and the foreground represents the modern city of Galata, where the greater part of the foreign population resides, and where the exchange, custom-house, and most of the churches, convents and hospitals are situated.
As here depicted the current of the Bosphorus flows from left to right and disappears in the distance.
The history of this city is very remarkable, and runs far back into the mist of antiquity. Long before the Christian era it was a place of considerable trade and political importance. Here the barbarians from the coast of the Black sea came to barter their furs for the products of more favored regions. Near this point Alexander the Great crossed the Bosphorus on his great campaign of eastern conquest. In the second century before Christ, the Romans having subdued the neighboring countries, built a fort on the site of the ancient city and named it Byzantium.
The Roman emperor, Constantine the Great, enlarged and beautified the city and made it the capital of the Roman empire, and in honor of himself changed the name to Constantinople. After his death the Roman empire was divided, and Constantinople continued to be the capital of the eastern division.
For more than one thousand years it was the residence of the Caesars and the commercial metropolis of the world.
Owing to the religious rivalry of Rome it was taken and partly burned, by the Crusaders, in A. D. 1205. But the most memorable siege it has ever endured was in A. D. 1453, when it fell into the hands of the Ottoman Turks. By a strange coincidence a Constantine gave his name to the city, and a Constantine reigned at its fall.
It was on the morning of April 6th, A. D. 1453. that Mahomet II., gave the signal for the attack, and the Turkish cannon (then a new invention) thundered against the walls of the city. For fifty days the siege was carried on with little success. At last, food was getting scarce, and the pangs of hunger were sorely felt by the Christians within the city. But hope revived as away on the sea of Marmora,