The Brookhaven leader., 1890-12-18
TALMAGE IN DAMASCUS.
A Day Spent in the Most Ancient
City in the Word.
Damascus of History and Damascus Of
To-Day-Its Memories of Absorb
ing Interest to the Mod
crn Christian.

The eleventh discourse Of the series
on the Holy Land was delivered by
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage in Brooklyn
and New York City from the text:
As he iourneyed he came near Damascus
Acts tx, 3.
In Palestine we spent last night in a
mud hovel OF one story, but camels and
sheep in the basement Yet never did
the most brilliant hotel on any conti-
nent 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 perished. A vio-
lent storm had opened upon US its
volleys OF hail, and snow, and rain, and
wind, as If to let us know what the
Bible meant when prophet and evan
gelist 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.
While high up on the rocks, and the
gale blowing tho hardest, a 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 approached, the tempest
thickoned, and blackened and strength
ened. Some of our attendants going
ahead had gained permission for US to
hn1 MI in ho ,,onA Ioua1
speak of. Our first duty on arrival was
the resuscitation 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 the absence of a
chimney. Through an opening in the
floor Arab faces were several times
thrust up to see how l 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 can not be pronounced in
tho hearing 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-Dama sous!
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 Of
icers went, about eighteen handred and
thirty-six years ago, in the midst of
them a 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 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 smallness of stature.
The Frenchman who was sometimes
called by his troops ''Old One Hun
dred 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 Calvi, and his right
arm taken off at Teneriffe, proves him
self at Trafalgar the mightiest hero of
the English navy. The greatest of
American theologians, Archibald AL
exander, 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 thund erbolt is only con-
densation of electricity.
Well, that galloping group of horse
men on the road to Damascus were
halted quicker than bombshell or
cavalry 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 Syra is positively terrific for
brilliancy. But suddenly that noon
there flashed from the heavens light
which made that Syrian sun seem tame
as star in comparison. twas the face
of the slain and ascended Christ. look
ing 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 And then two claps
of thunder followed uttering the
two words, the second word like the
first: saul! Saulr For three days
that fallen equestrian was totally blind,
for excessive. light will sometimes ex-
the eye-sight And what cornea
and crystalline lens could endure a
brightness greater than the noon-day
Syrian sun? l had read 1t hundred
times, but it never so impressed me
before, and probably will never impress
me again, as took my Bible from the
and read aloud to our COM
rades in travel: "As he journeyed he
came near Damascus, and suddenly
there shined around about him light
from Heaven, and he fell to the earth
and heard voice saying unto him:
Saul! Saul! Why persecutest thou Me?'
and he said: Who art Thou, Lord?'
And the Lord said: 4 am Jesus, whom
thou persecutest'
But we can not stop longer on this
road for we shall see this unhorsed
equestrian later in Damascus, toward
which his horses head is turned and at
which we must ourselves arrive before
night The evening is near at hand,
and as we leave snowy Hermon behind
us and approach the shadow of the min
arets and domes. we cut through a cir
of many miles of garden
which embower the city. So luxuriant
are these gardens. so opulent in colors.
so luscious Of fruits, so glittering with
fountains so rich with bowers and kiosks