The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-12-19
AT DAMASCUS.
DR.. Talmage Describes Scenes In
and About the Renowned City.
First View OF Damascus-The Scene of saul's
Conversion-The Mohammedan RelIg-
Ions Few Redeen,Ing Features
Hope For the Blind.

In his eleventh sermon on the Holy
Land, preached lately at Brooklyn,
Rev. T. De Witt Talmage took for his
subject Damascus" His text was:
"As He journeyed He came near Da-
mascus" Acts, IL. 3 DR. Talmage
said:
In Palestine we spent last night in a
mud howell of one story, but camels and
sheep in the basement Yet never did
the most brilliant hotel on any CONT
nent seem so attractive to me as that
structure. II we had been obliged to
stay in tent as we expected to do that
night, we must have persisted A vio-
lent storm had opened upon US its vol.
leys of hail, and snow, and rain, and
wind, as il to let us know what the
Bible means when prophet and evangel-
list and Christ himself spoke of the fury
of the elements The atmospheric
wrath broke upon US about one o'clock
in the afternoon and we were until
night exposed to it With hands and
feet benumbed, and our bodies chilled
to the bone, we made our slow way. As
the night approached, the tempest
thickened and blackened and strength
ened. Some of our attendants going
ahead had gained permission for us to
halt for the night in the mud howell l
speak Of But the tempest ceased dur
ing the night, and before it was fully
day we were feeling for the stirrups OF
our saddled horses, this being the day
whose long march Will bring us to that
city whose name can not be pronounced
in the hear ng of the intelligent or the
Christian without making the blood to
tingle and the nerves to thrill and put
ting the best emotions of the soul into
agitation-Damascus!
During the. day We passed Casarea
Philippi, the northern terminus of
Christs journeyings North of that he
never went We lunch at noon. seated
on the fallen columns of one of Herod's
palaces
At four o'clock IN the afternoon, COM
ing to a hilltop, we saw on the broad
plain a city, which the most famous
camel driver of all time. afterward
called Mohammed, the prophet and the
founder of the most stupendous system
of error that has ever cursed the earth,
refused to enter because he said God
would not allow man to enter but one
paradise and he would not enter this
earthly paradise lest he should be de-
MED entrance to the heavenly. But no
city that ever saw so plays hide and
seek with the traveller. The air is so
clear the distant objects seem close by.
You come on the top of a hill and Da-
mascus seems only little way of. But
down you go into valley and you see
nothing for the next half hour but bar
renness and rocks regurgitated by the
volcanoes Of other ages Up another
hill and down again. Up again and
down again But after your patience is
almost exhausted you reach the last hill
top and the city of Damascus, the old
est city under the whole heavens and
built by Noah's grandson, grows upon
your vision.
This is the very road, for it has been
the only road for thousands of years,
the road from Jerusalem to Damascus,
along which cavslcade of mounted Of
fcers went and 1895 years ago, in the
midst of them fierce little man who
made up by magnitude of hatred for
his diminutive stature, and was the
leading spirit and, though suffering
from chronic Inflammation of the eyes,
from those eyes flashed more indigna-
ton against Christ's followers than any
one of the horsed procession. This lit
tie man, before his name was changed
TO Paul. was called Saul So many of
the mightiest natures of all ages are
condensed into smaIlnesS Of stature.
The Frenchman who was sometimes
called by his troops ''old One Hundred
Thousand" was often because Of his
abbreviated personal presence styled
Little Nap" Lord Nelson, with in
significant stature to start with, and
one eye put out at CaIvi, and his right
arm taken of at Teneriffe, proves him
self at Trafalgar the mightlest hero of
the English navy. The greatest of
American theologians, Archibald Alex
ander, could stand under the elbow of
many of his contemporaries. Look out
Tor Little men when they start out for
some especial mission of good or evil
The thunderboIt is only a condensation
of electricity
Well that gslloping group OF horse
men on the road to Damascus were
halted quicker than bombshel or cav
airy charge ever halted a regiment
The Syrian MONDAY, because of the
clarity of the atmosphere, is the bright
est of all mondays and the MONDAY sun
in Syria is positively terrific for brill
lance But suddenly that noon there
flashed from the heavens a light which
made the Syrian sun seem tame as
star in com parison. 1t was the face of
the slain and assembled Christ looking
from the heavens and under the dash
of that overpoweriug light all the horses
dropped with their riders Human face
and Horses name together in the dust
And then two claps of thunder followed
uttering two words. the second word
like the first: Saul! SauII' For three
days that fallen equestrian was totally
blind, for excessive light will some
times extinguish the eyesight had
read it hundrsd times, but it never so
impressed me before and probably will
never so impress me again as 1 took my
Bible from the saddle bags and read
aloud to our comrades in travel: las he
journeyed, he came near Damascus and
suddenly there shined round about him
a light from Heaven and he fell to the
earth and heard a voice saying unto
him. Saul! SAUL Why persecutest thou
me? and he said: Who art Thou, Lord?'
And the Lord said: y am Jesus whom
thou persecutest
But we can not stop longer on this
road for we shall see this endorsed
equestrian later in Damascus, toward
which his horses head is turned and at
which we must ourselves arrive before