The Sumter watchman. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1855-1881, 1870-05-04

stilLremains vision of delight, while
those proud cities of the plain, with
Tyre and Babylon aud many capital
besides, have crumbled into ruin. In it
David posted garrisons, and from it the
son of Eliadah hurled his defiance against
Solomon. Ezekiel turned aside from
the fiery burden of prophecy to celebrate
it's greatness. Alexander seized it in.hi
campaign against Tyre. Marc Antony
turned from its gates the torrent Of
successful war, and Cleopatra revelled
there 10 dissolute indulgence. Pompey
poured against it his victorious legious.
The Ommiad Caliphs made it the centre
of the Mohammedan world. Tamerlane
aud Saladin, in turn, won and occupied
1T; and through continuous centuries
"The Beautiful City," "Thc Eye of the
East" "The Predestined Capital" has
continued the cynosure of historic in.
terest, and an object of unfading re-
gard.
When the cavalcado of Saul reached
the heights Of Anti Libanus, we may
easily imagine that all angry emotions
were for the moment subdued by the
splendor of the vision that burst upon
him. On one side lowered high the
snowy peaks of Hcrmon. Behind, naked
and sterile, rose the rough masses of
the mountain range. Far before him
stretched the wide plain, the long, bare
reach of the desert, marked by the high
way to Palmyra aud Bagdad. Beneath
him, from out the green fringing of the
mountains base, sprang the "Isiver of
Gold," the pride and glory of the lovely
city. Bursting from rocky cletts, its
magical flow summoned into life and
verdure vegetation more prolific than
that of tho wonder-working Nile,-and
which curtained with greenness, and
beauty tho rushing volume of the crystal
waters. In the very heart of the hot
and sandy desert, its branching channels
created an oasis of luxuriant fertility,
in whose midst-into the air, musical
with the perpetual play Of sparkling
fountains, the low drip Of the Syrian
water. wheels, the murmur of unseen
rivulets, and the rush of the rivers
current-rosc and spread (whitdR and
cleaning 10 tho fold of fairy.like gar
dehs) the walls and roofs of the famous
city, with many dome and turret
glittering in the hot splendor Of the
Oriental noon!
For thirty miles around spread q
wilderness of gardens. Beyond these
burned the yellow sands of tie desert,
and rose against the horizon the bare
hills, and stretched sterile and naked
the wide sweep OF the rcpulsivc rlain.-
Within the charmed enclosure, all was
luxuriant fertility and perennial beauty.
Great fields of waving grain contrasted
with groves of shining olives. Over the
emerald grasses burst into ripcncss the
purple fig, and opened the scarlet lips of
the pomegronate. Besides the stately
walnut dropped the laden branches Of
the apricot and plum while from tangled
strawberries and spreading gardens tho
perfume Of countless flowers filled the
air with rare and delicate odors. Through
wide and shaded avenues swept long
trains Of burdened camcls, lines of mules
and asses laden with costly stuffs, crowds
of Syrian peasants, and troops Of swart
and scowling Arabs.
ga thing of beauty and Joy forever"
claiming in all ages the rapt admiration
ofthc traveller, kindling into fcrvor tho
fires of fancy, and filing to safety the
sense Of loveliness so looked Damascus
to the eye of Saul,-when suddenly q
light above the brightness Of the noon
day burst all around him, and the arres.
ted pulses of his being paused at their
Makers voice, only to leap again into
diviner action, and flow in purcr cur.
rcnis, in the new life born Of the Miracle
that checked and changed them.
Sharp, sudden, and radical was the
revulsion 10 the spirit and purposes Of
the Jew Of Tarsus. In the solemnity
and solitude of the desert, human con-
temptation and superhuman teaching
had calmed the turbulent emotions of
his soul, and swept the scales from his
spiritual vision. Brief was the pause.
His was no meditative nature, promo to
brood and doubt and hesitate. Tho
thoroughncss of his new convictions
aroused all mis- energies, and the man of
action sprang at once into the arena, to
defy its dangers and to do its work.
The circumstances demanded a perfect
faith and sublime courage and from
the hard cxigencios Of the case, less
lofty nature would have shrunk appalled,.
The spoiled favoritc of Jerusalem
shorn ofpowcr and stripped of prestige /;
with no attendant band to execute his
will, and no voices of acclamation to
greet his advent; decorated with the
hatred of his old, and chilled by the
dstrust of his new associates ed
to Damascus, not to persccuto others,
but to be prosecuted himself. How vast
must have been the amazcmcnt OF his
Jewish brcthcrn, when his slight form
first roso in their crowded synagogues,
and his cocrcivc eloqucncc enforced the
hated doctrines ho had strivcn so bitterly
to crush! How overwhelming their
confusion, as with unanswcrablc proofs
drawn from thoir own law, with clearest
illustrations from their prophets, with
tho learning of their greatest SCHOOLS,
the young and fiery orator, girt with the
hoporo oF tIoir Nrood Conho1r;,, ood