The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-12-24
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUN.
DAY SERMON,
lbject: "The City of Damascus"

In Palestine we spent last night in mud
hogel 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. 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 upon us its
volleys of hail and snow and rain and
| wind as il to let US know what
the Bible means when prophet and evan
/ gelist and Christ Himself spoke of the fury
| Of the elements. The atmospheric wrath
| broke upon us about o'clock in the after
noon and we were until night exposed to
| 1t. 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 wilderness of
scenery and horror Of storm. As the night
| approached the tempest thickened and black
ened and strengthened. Some of our attend
ants going ahead had gained permission for
| Us to halt for the night in the mud hovel l
spoke of. Our first duty on arrival was
| the resuscitation Of the exhausted Of our
! party. My room was without q window,
! and an iron stove without any top in the
center of the room, the smoke selecting my
| eyes in the absence of O chimney. Through
an opening in the floor Arab faces were sew
eral times thrust up to see how Twas pro-
crossing. But the tempest ceased during 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 cannot be
or Christian without making the blood tingle
and the nerves to thrill, and putting the best
emotions of the soul into agitation-Damas-
Gus!
During the day we passed Cesarea Philip
pi, the northern terminus of Christ's jour-
neyings. North of that He never went. We
lunch at noon, seated on the fallen columns
Of one Of Herods palaces
At4 o'clock in the afternoon, coming to
hill top, we saw on the broad plain a city,
which the most famous camel driver Of all
prophet and the founder Of the most stu
pendous system Of error that has ever
cursed the earth, refused to enter because
he said God would allow no 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 tr veler. 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 and rocks regurgitated
by the volcanoes of other ages. Upanother
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
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
diguation 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 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 insignit-
can't stature to start with and one eye put out
at Calvi and his right arm taken of at Tene-
rife proves himself at Trafalgar the might
lest hero Of the English navy. The greatest
of American tbeo!ogians, Archibald Alex
ander, could stand under the elbow CT 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 condensation of electricity.
III IL. Of an Nr,
the road to Damascus We're 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 noon-days and the noon
day sun in Syria is positively terrific for
brilliance. But suddenly that noon there
flashed from the heavens light which made
that Syrian sun seem tame as star in COM
parison. 1t was the face Of the slain and as
cended Christ looking from the heavens, and
under the dash Of that overpowerlng light all
the horses dropped with their riders. Human
face and horses name together in the dust
And then two claps of thunder fol-
lowed uttering the two words, the
second word like the first: saul!
Saulw For three days that fallen equestrian
was totally blind, for excessive light will
sometimes extinguish the eyesight. And
what cornea and crystalline lens could en-
dure brightness greater than the MONDAY
Syrian sun? Ihad read it hundred times,
but it never so impressed me before. and
probably will never so impress me again, as
took nv Bible from the saddle bags and
read aloud to our comrades in travel, "AS
he iourned he came near Damascus, and
suddenly there shined round about him
light from heaven and he fell to the earth
and heard q voice saying unto him, Saul!
Saul! Why persecutest thou Me? and ne
said, Who art Thou, Lord? And the Lord
said Il am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.
But We cannot 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 our
selves arrive before night. The evening is
near at hand, and as we leave snowy Her
mon behind us and approach the shadow
of the cupolas of two hundred mosques we
cut through circumference 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 that the Mohammedan's heaven was
fashioned after what are to be seen here or
bloom and truitage. Here in Damascus at
the right season are cherries and mulDerries
and apricots and almonds and pistachlos
and pomegranates and pears and apples
and plums and citrons and all the richness
of the rornd worlds pomology. No won
der that Julian called this city "the eye of
the East" and that the poets of Syria have
styled it ''the luster on the neck Of doves"
and historians said. "It is the golden clasp
which couples the two sides of the world
together"
Many travellers express disappointment
with Damascus, but the trouble is they have
carried in their minds from boyhood the
book which dazz:es SO many young people,
1.-THE Arabian Nights" and they come into