The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1890-12-11
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
DIR. TAlMAGe breaches A SERMON
ON DAMASCUS.

Client One-One Good In Mohammedan-
ism-The blindness of Paul Ia Not
Greater Than Some Modern blindness.
BROOKLYN, Dec. THE New York
Academy of Music was filed with an
audience Of nearly six thousand per
sons at Tho Christian Herald service
this evening, when DIR, Talmage deliv-
cred the eleventh sermon of his series
on Palestine and the adjoining coun-
tries This same sermon, as on pre-
vious Sundays, had been preached in
the morning to another large audience
in the Brooklyn Academy of Music
The subject was Damascus, and the
text, "As he iourneyed he came near
Damascus, Acts tx, 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 con-
tinent seem so attractive to me as THAT
structure. five 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 if to let us know what the
Bible means when prophet and evan
gelist and Christ himself spoke of the
fury of the elements. The atmos-
pheric wrath broke upon us about 1
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, while high up on the rocks, and
the gale blowing the hardest, signal
of distress halted the party, for down
in the ravines one of the horses had
fallen, and his rider must not be left
alone amid that wildness of scenery
and horror of storm. AS the night ap-
preached the tempest thickcned and
blackened and strengthened. Some of
our attendants, going ahead, had gain
ed permission for us to halt for the
night in the mud howell speak Of
Our first duty on arrival was the re,
suscitation of the exhausted of our
party, My room was without win.
dow, and an iron stove without any
top in the center of the room, the
smoke selecting my eyes in tho absence
OF a chimney. Through an opening in
the floor Arab faces were several times
thrust up to see how was progressing.
But the tempest ceased during the
night, and before it was fully day we
were feeling for the stirrups of our sad
died horses, this being the day whose
long march will bring us to that city
whose name cannot be pronounced in
TIC hearing of the intelligent or the
Christian without making the blood tc
tingle and the nerves to thrill, and put
ting the best emotions of the soul into
agitation Damascus!
During the day we passed CBsarea
Phlippi, the northern terminus OF
Christ's journeyings. North of that he
never went We lunch at noon, seated
on the fallen columns of one of Herod's
palaces,
IN SIGHT OF DAMASCUS.
At o'clock in the afternoon, coming
to hilltop, we saw on the broad plain
city, which the most famous came
driver of all time, afterward called
Mohammed, the prophet and the
founder of the most stupendous sys
tenn of error that has ever cursed the
earth, refused to enter because he sale
God would allow man to enter but one
paradise, and he would not enter thi.
earthly paradise lest he should be de
MED entrance to the heavenly. Bu1
no city that ever saw so plays hide
and seek with the traveller. The air il
so clear that the distant objects seen
close by You come on the top of {
hill and Damascus seems only littlt
way off. But down you go into val
Icy, and you sec nothing for the mex
half hour but barrenness and rocks re
gurgitated by the volcanoes of othe
ages Up another hill and down again
Up again and down again. But afte
your patience is almost exhausted yot
reach the last hilltop, and the city o
Damascus, the Oldest city under tn
whole heavens, and built by Noah
grandson. grows upon your vision
Every mile of the journey now be
comes more solemn and suggestive ant
Tremendous
This is the very road, for it has beer
the only road for thousands of years
the road from Jerusalem to Damascus
along which a cavulcadc of mounted
officers went, about 1854 years ago
in the midst of them a fierce little maj
who made up by magnitude of hatret
for Christianity for his diminutive stat
urc, and was the leading spirit and
though suffering from chronic infam
nation of the eyes, from those eye
flashed more indignation agains
Christ's followers than any one of tn
horsed procession. This little man
before his name was changed to Paul
was called Saul So many of til
mightiest natures of all ages are con
densed into smallness of stature.
The Frenchman who was sometime
called by his troops "Old One Hundre
Thousand, was often because of his al
breviated personal presence styled Lit
tie Nap" Lord Nelson, with insignif
cant stature to start with, and one ey
put out at Calvi and his right arm take
off at Teneriffe, proves himself at Ira
falgar the mightiest hero of the En-
glish navy. The greatest OF Amer
can theologians, Archibald Alexander
could stand under the elbow of man
of his contemporaries. Look out fo
little men when they start out for som
especial mission Of good or evil. tn
thunderboB is only condensation o.
electricity.
QUICK HALT.
Well. that gallopiDs group of horse
men on the road to Damascus wer'
halted quicker than bombshell or cav