The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1915. SALONIKA

New Zealand Tablet, 21 October 1915, Page 33

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1915. SALONIKA

f T first mention, Salonika does not at the present moment awaken sentimental tor Milr '■ retrospective reflections, for the minds of all are absorbed on the one thought: ■ How many men are we landing, and when will they get to Ghevgeli ? Nevertheless, the .. city is peculiarly rich in classic, historic, V?' ** and religions associations. As everyone knows, it is the ancient Thessalonica, the one time capital of all Macedonia. From the sea it has a fine appearance, being surrounded with white walls, five miles in circumference, and having its houses and mosques embowered in trees of dark foliage. In all Greece, if . we except Corinth, there is no harbor with a finer situation ; the anchorage is of the best, the roadstead is as smooth as a lake, while the neighboring valleys of the Vardar and the Indje Karasou give access to highways leading into Epirus and Upper Macedonia. Through the city runs the Via Egnatia, the great highroad from the Adriatic (i.e., from Rome) to Byzantium, along which, from Italy and the European countries, merchants, legionaries, prefects, and delegates from Rome were continually, passing, whether homeward bound or with business to transact in the Asiatic provinces. , Towering over the blue gulf is Mount Olympus, which the ancient Greeks believed touched the heavens with its top, whereon was neither wind nor rain nor clouds, but an eternal spring, where the gods wantoned and where Zeus or Jupiter held his court—but on whose dazzling summit Cicero, who spent in Thessalonica his days of melancholy exile, remarked with pathetic irony that he saw nothing but snow and ice. Here, amongst other ancient remains, a triumphal arch, still standing, commemorates the victory of Octavianus and Antony at Philippi. Here is the propylaeum of the hippodrome in which the Emperor Theodosius in 390 ordered the massacre of 7000 of the citizens of Thessalonica, for which cruelty St. Ambrose, with heroic faithfulness, kept him for eight months from the Cathedral of Milan. Here the good and learned Archbishop Eustathius wrote those scholia on Homer, which place him in the first rank of ancient : commentators. But it is as the scene of a portion of St, Paul’s labors on his second great missionary . journey

that Thessalonica is most memorable to Christians. It was in a, vision which he beheld at Troas that the idea of crossing to Europe was first presented to him. As he lay asleep, with the murmur of the Aegean in his ears, he saw a man on the opposite coast, on which he had been looking before he went to rest, beckoning and crying, * Come over into Macedonia and help us.' That figure represented Europe, and its cry for help Europe's need of Christ— need never, surely, greater than at the present hour. Paul recognised in it a divine summons; and the very next sunset which bathed the Hellespont in its golden light shone upon his figure seated, on the deck of a ship whose prow was moving towards the shore of Macedonia. °

For three successive Sabbaths he betook himself to the synagogue, and labored to convert his brethren of Israel. The Jews, however, stubbornly refused to acknowledge the possibility of a poor and humble Saviour— who had died the death of a malefactor. ' Some few Israelites were persuaded, and joined themselves to Paul and Silas,' says the Scripture record; but in compensation for this failure the Gospel message was gladly welcomed by the delighted proselytes. 'Of the devout Greeks,' * says the sacred writer, summing up the results of the mission, ' a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.' The two great themes which Paul expounded at Thessalonica were the duties of a Christian life, * the commandments of the Lord Jesus,' and a mystery which was of absorbing interest to his Thessalonian hearers-the consummation of the ages. The Book of the Acts shows us in what light the Apostle set forth this end of all time, and the words have a strange appositeness in this period of universal upheaval:—'There shall be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars, and on the earth anguish among the nations by reason of the roaring of the sea and the floods, men withering away for fear as they await what must come upon the inhabited world ; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. Then shall men see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great might and majesty. And for you, when these things shall begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, because your Redemption is nigh. Of a truth, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away till all be accomplished.' Even at that time, Thessalonica had grown to be one of the most frequented ports of the Archipelago. Ships of every description, and hailing from all quarters, set sail from here" daily, carrying to far-off lands, along with their costly cargoes, whatever news was to be picked up along these busy Macedonian coasts. It was owing to this ceaseless ebb and flow of commerce that the Gospel preached at Thessalonica got itself carried so swiftly from one end of the Mediterranean to the other. In fact, only a few months after his departure we find the Apostle writing to the Thessalonians: ' From your midst the word of the Lord has resounded, not only throughout Macedonia and Achaia, but in all places.'

The scene has changed; and to-day Salonika, which passed into the hands of Greece on the occasion of the late Balkan wars, resounds with another blast than that of the Gospel. On October 5 the news was reported of the Allies landing at Salonika, and during the intervening days the city has witnessed nothing but the marshalling and march of troops. So far the movement has been attended with gratifying success. The Allied forces have penetrated as far as Strumnitza, and have occupied the town and district, rendering the protection, of the railway from Salonika so far assured. There is much yet to be accomplished, but the outlook is almost unexpectedly hopeful. It may be that both for the immediate future, and also as regards the ultimate issue, the words of the great Apostle, uttered so many centuries ago in this ancient city, have a message for us to-day ' And for you, when these things shall begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is nigh.'