Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-12-26
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINES sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: The City of Damascus"

Damascus Acts TX, 4.
In Palestine we spent last night in mud
hovel of one story, with camels and sheep in
the basement Yet never did the most bril-
liant hotel on any continent seem so attrac-
tive to me as that structure. II we had been
obliged to stay In Il tent as we expected TO
do that night. we must have persisted.
violent storm had opened upon us its
volleys OF hail and snow and rain and
WIND As if 10 let us know what
the Bible means when prophet and evan
Geist and Christ Himself spoke of the fury
OF the elements. The atmospheric wrath
broke upon us about l o'clock III the after
noon and we were until night exposed to
it. With hands and feet benumbed, and our
bodies chilled u the bone, we made our slow
way. While high up on the rocks, and the
gaze blowing the hardest, signal Of distress
halted the party. for down Ill the ravlnes one
of the horses had fallen ana his rider must
not be left alone amid that wilderness of
scenery and horror OF storm. As the night
approached the tempest thickenei and back
ened ana strengthened. Some OF our attend
ants gong ahead mad gained permission for
us to halt Tor the nignt in the mud howell |
spoke o.. Cur first duty arrival was
the TesuscitatlOn OF the exhausted of our
party. Ny room was without a window,
arc an non stove without any top III the
center OF the room. the smoke selecting my
ewes IN 1E@ absence Of Il chimney. Through
al opening II he floor Ara b faces were sew
egt! times thrust up to see how | was pro
crossing. But the tempest ceased during the
night, and before it was fully day we were
feeling Tor the stirrups Of our saddled horses,
this beng the day whose long march Will
bring US to that city whose name cannot be
pronounced in the hearing OF the intelligent
or Christian without making the blood tlngle
and the nerves to thrill, and putting the best
emotions OF the soul into agitatiOn-Damas-
Gus,
During the day we passed Caesarea Philip
of
neyin2s. North of that He never went. We
lunch at noon. seated on the fallen columns
of one Of HerOd's palaces.
AU4 O'clock iii the afternoon, coming to
hill top. we saw on the broad plain city,
which the most famous camel driver of all
time afterward called Mohammed, the
prophet and the founder of the most stu
peudous system of error that has ever
cursed the earth, refused to enter because
he said God would allow man to enter
hut 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 50 plays hide and seek
with the TT Weller. The air is SO clear the
distant objects seem close by. You come on
the top of hill and Damascus seems only
little way off. But down you go into val
ley and you see nothing for the next half
hour but barrennesS anu 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 oldest city under
the whole heavens and built by NOah's
grandson, grows upon your vision. Every
mile of the journey now becomes more sol
emn and suggestive and tremendous.
This is the very road, for it has been the
only road for thousands of years. the road
from Jerusalem to Damascus, along which
cavalcade of mounted officers. went, about
1854 years ago, III the midst of them fierce
little man who made up by magnitude OF
hatred for Christianity for his diminutive
stature, and was the leading SPIRIT and,
though suffering from chronic inflammation
of the eyes, from those eyes flashed more in
dignatiOn against Christ IS followers than any
one of the hOrsed procession. This little man,
before his name was changed to Paul, was
called Saul. SO many of the mightiest
natures OF all ages are condensed
into smalness 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 insignifi
cant stature to start with and one eye put out
at Calvi and his right arm taken off at Tene-
rife, proves himself at Trafalgar the might
lest nero of the English navy. The greatest
of American theoOgianS, Archibald Alex
ander could stand under the elbow of many
OF his contemporaries. Look out for little
men when they start out for some especial
mission Of good or evil. The thunderbolt is
only a condensation of electricity.
ell, that galloplng group of hOrsemen on
the road TO Damascus were halted quicker
than bombshell or cavalry charge ever halt
ed regiment. The Syrian MONDAY be-
cause of the charity Of the atmosphere, is
the brightest OF all nOOl-days, and the noon
day sun III Syria Is positively terrific for
brilliance. But suddenly that noon there
flashed from the heavens light which made
that Syrian sun seem tame as a star in COM
of Slain
cended Christ looking from the heavens and
under the dash of that OverpOwering light all
the horses dropped with their riders. Human
face and horses name together in the dust
lowed uttering the two words the
second word like the first: Saul
Saulr For three days that fallen equestrian
was totally bllnG, Tor excessive light will
sometimes extinguish the eyesight. And
what cOrnea and crystalline lens could en-
Syrian sun: l had read it hundred times,
but 1t never so impressed me before and
probably will never SO impress me again, as
L took my Bible from the saddle bags and
read aloud to our comrades in travel, 'As
he lOurned he came near Damascus and
suddenly there Shined round about him q
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, LordY And the Lord
said, am Jesus, whom thou perSccutest'"
But we cannot stop longer on this road,
Tor we shall see this endorsed equeS Crian
later i'll Damascus. toward which his horses
he ad is turned. ami at which we must our
selves arrive before night The evening is
near al hand. aud we leave snowy Her.
mon behind and approach the shadow
OF the cupOlaS of two hundred mosques we
cut through a circumference of many miles
of garden which embower the CITY. So
luxuriant are these gardens, so opuient in