The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1913, Page 4

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4 The Lutheran Pioneer.

dedicated in the-year 558. It is by many regarded
as the grandest monument of Christian art, cover-
ing an area of 70,000 square feet. The main por-
tion of the building forms almost a square, measur-
ing about 240 feet one way and 260 feet the other.
The magnificent central dome — 115 feet in diam-
eter and 46 feet high — rises almost 200 feet from
the floor. East and west it rests not on pillars
with piers, but on two half-domes of the same di-
mensions, and thus a central space, 200 feet long
and 100 feet broad, is left entirely free from all
obstructions, affording room for thousands of wor-

For a period of 1,127 years, St. Sophia served
as a Christian church, but upon the taking of Con-
stantinople by the Turks, in 1453, it was turned
into a Mohammedan mosque. ‘The golden cross
which adorned the dome made place for a bronze
crescent. The beautiful mosaics were painted over.
I’rom the minarets erected on the four corners may
now be heard the shrill ery of the Turkish muezzin
calling the Moslem to prayer: “Allah is great!
There is no god but Allah! Mohammed is the
ambassador of Allah! Come to prayer! There is
no god but Allah!” Where Christians once thronged

THE MOSQUE OF ST. SOPHIA IN CONSTANTINOPLE.

shipers. It is richly decorated in the interior, the
vaults and arches being covered with superb mosaics
of porphyry, marble, and ivory on a gold ground.
Thus the costliness of the materials corresponds to
. the grandeur of the dimensions of this wonderful
building. The sublime unity and harmony of the
design, above all, the lightness and vastness of the
dome, are a source of wonder and admiration to
this day. The great cupola seems not to-rest upon
its supports, but to be held up by invisible hands.
When it was finished, Justinian is said to have burst
out, “I have surpassed thee, O Solomon!” And
true it is, as long as it stands, Santa-Sophia will
be the pride of the East and the wonder of the West.

in adoration of the true God, the Turks now gather
for their idolatrous worship.. No Christian dare
even enter the building to-day, except he has special
permission, and is accompanied by a Turkish guide.

Extracts from a Missionary’s Letter.

Rey. C. P. Thompson, our young missionary at
Greenville, a suburb of Charlotte, N. C., in a letter
to the Editor writes as follows: —

“The charge I have is a new one, hence one
meets with much opposition and encounters many
obstacles; but we meet these everywhere in the serv-