Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1890-12-12
THE CITY OF DAMASCUS.
Al e. |; !: |, ~

Therein.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, Dec. Z, 1S90.-The
New. York Academy of Music was filled
with an audience of nearly, six THOUSAND
persons this evdMing, when DR.. Talmages'
delivered the eleventh sermon of his sefies'
on Palestine and the adjoining countries.
The same sermon, as on previous Sundays.
had been preached in IT, morning to another
large audience in the Brooklyn Academy of
Music. The subject was Damascus, anu
the text, las he journeyed he came near
Damascus, Acts 9:3. DIR. 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 continent seem
so attractive to me as that structure. If
we had been obliged to- stay in tent, as we
expected to do that night, we must have
persisted. A violent storm had opened up
on US it's volleys OF hail, and snow. and
rain, and wind, as if TO let us know what
the Bible means when prophet, and evan
gelist and Christ himself spoke of the fury
Of the elements.
During the day we passed Cnsarea
Philippi, the northern terminus of Christ's
iourneyings. 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, coming
to u hill top, 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 allow man to enter but
one paradise, and he would not enter this
earthly paradise lest he should be denied
entrance to the heavenly. But no city that
/ ever saw SO plays hide and seek with
the traveller The air is so clear the dis
tant objects seem close by. You come on
the top of hill and Damascus seems only
little way of. But down you go into
valley and you see nothing for the next
half 'hour,. but barfenness end rocks re-
gurgitated 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 hei Jens, and built by
Noah's grandson, grows upon your vision.
Every mile of the Journey now becomes
more solemn and suggestive and ire
mendous.
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
1924 years ago, in the midst of them
fierce little man who made up by magni-
tude of hatred Of Christianity for his diminu-
tive stature. and was the leading spirit and,
though suffering from chronic inflammation
of the eyes, from those eyes flashed more
indignation against Christ's 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 smallness of stature. The E'renchman
who was sometimes called by his troops
"Old One Hundred Thousand" was often
because of his abbreviated personal pres
ence styled Little Nap" Lord Nelson,
with insignificant stature to start with and
one eye put. out at Calvi and his right arm
taken off at Teneriffe, proves himself at
Trafalgar the mightiest hero of the English
navy. The greatest of American theologians,
Archibald Alexander, 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 condensa-
ton of electricity.
Well, that galloping group Of horsemen
on the road TO Damascus were halted
quicker than bombshell or cavalry charge
ever halted a regiment. The Syrian noon
day, because of the clarity OF the atmos-
phere, is the brightest of all mondays,
and the MONDAY sun in Syria is positively
terrific for Prilliance. But suddenly that
noon there flashed from the heavens a
light which made. that Syrian sun seem
tame as Star in. Comparison 1t was the
I face of the slain and assembled Christ,
looking from the heavens, and under the
dash of that overpewering 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 the two words, the second word
! like the first: saul! Saulv For three
days that fallen equestrian was totally
blind, for excessive light will sometimes
extinguish the eyesigut. And what cornea
and crystalline lens could endure bright
ness greater than the monday Syrian sun?
/ had read it hundred times but IL never
so impressed me before and probably will
never so impress me again, as / took my
Bible from the saddle bags and read aloud
to our comrades in travel: ''As he
ourneyed, he came near Damascus and sud-
denly there shined round about him light
from heaven, and he fell to the earth and
heard voice saying unto him, Saul!
I Saul! Why persecutes' thou meY and he
said, Who art thou, Lord?' And the Lord
said, Il am Jesus whom thou perse-
tcutest", +
But we cannot 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 night.
Under my window tonight in the hotel
at Damascus / hear the perpetual ripple
and rush of the river ALBANIA. All, the
secret, is out! Now l know why all this
fora, and fruit, and why everything is so
| green, and the plain one great emerald.
The river Abana And not far off the river
Pharpar, which our horses waded through
today Thank the rivers, or rather the God
I who made the rivers! Deserts to the north,
deserts to the south, deserts to the east,
deserts to the west, but here pan adise.
And, as the rivers Gihon and Pison, and
Hiddekel. and Euphrates, made the other
paradise, ALBANIA and Pharpar make this
Damascus paradise That is what made
General Nnu nan of this tjtv of Damascus