Days of Toil and Trial
197
ers with him and his work. They therefore brought forward one of
their own number to set the matter before the people. The speaker
chosen was Alexander, one of the craftsmen, a coppersmith, to whom
Paul afterward referred as having done him much evil.
2 Timothy
4:14
. Alexander was a man of considerable ability, and he bent all
his energies to direct the wrath of the people exclusively against Paul
and his companions. But the crowd, seeing that Alexander was a Jew,
thrust him aside, and “all with one voice about the space of two hours
cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.”
At last, from sheer exhaustion, they ceased, and there was a mo-
mentary silence. Then the recorder of the city arrested the attention of
the crowd, and by virtue of his office obtained a hearing. He met the
people on their own ground and showed that there was no cause for
the present tumult. He appealed to their reason. “Ye men of Ephesus,”
he said, “what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the
Ephesians is a worshiper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image
which fell down from Jupiter? Seeing then that these things cannot be
spoken against, ye ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rashly. For ye
have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches,
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nor yet blasphemers of your goddess. Wherefore if Demetrius, and the
craftsmen which are with him, have a matter against any man, the law
is open, and there are deputies: let them implead one another. But if ye
inquire anything concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a
lawful assembly. For we are in danger to be called in question for this
day’s uproar, there being no cause whereby we may give an account
of this concourse. And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the
assembly.”
In his speech Demetrius had said, “This our craft is in danger.”
These words reveal the real cause of the tumult at Ephesus, and also the
cause of much of the persecution which followed the apostles in their
work. Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen saw that by the teaching and
spread of the gospel the business of image making was endangered.
The income of pagan priests and artisans was at stake, and for this
reason they aroused against Paul the most bitter opposition.
The decision of the recorder and of others holding honorable of-
fices in the city had set Paul before the people as one innocent of any
unlawful act. This was another triumph of Christianity over error and
superstition. God had raised up a great magistrate to vindicate His