Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-12-22
REV. DIR. TALMAGE
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Unhorsed."

TExr: "And as he jour,,eyed he came ned,
Damascus. and suddenly there shtned roun1
about him a light from hedUen, and ne fet'
10 the earth and heard q UOace saying uIstc
HIM. Saul. Saul, ,5hy persecntest mom ne
md he said, Who art thou. Lord? Ana me
Lord said, am Jesus ,cho"' thou PeFSe-
cutest. Acts tx, 3-5.
The Damascus of Bible times still stands,
with a population of 1S5, 600. 1t was a gay
city of white and glistening architecture, its
minarets and crescents and domes playing
with the light OF the morning sun; emboW-
cred in groves OF olive and citron and orange
and pomegranate {. famous river pfung1ng
its brightness into the scene city by the
ancients STYLED ga pearl surrounded by EN-.
eralds."
A group of horsemen are advancing upon
that CITY, Let the Christians of the place
hide for that cavalc lde coming over the
hills is made up OF prosecutors their leader
small and unattractive in some respects, as
leaders sometimes are insignificant In per
sOn--witness the Duke of Wellington and
Dr. Archibald Alexander. But there is
something very intent in the eye OF this
man of the text, and the horse he rides is
lathered with the foam Of long and quick
travel of 135 miles. He urges on his steed,
for those Christians must be captured and
sIenced, and that religion Of the cross must
be annihilated.
Suddenly the horses shy off and plunge un-
til the riders are precipitated. Freed from
the riders the horses bound snOrtinS away.
You know that dumb animals, at the sight
of an eclipse, or an earthquake, or anything
like a supernatural appearance. sometimes
become very uncomfortable. A new sun had
been kindled in the heavens, putting out the
glare of the ordinary sun. Christ, with the
gIories of heaven wrapped about Hin,
looked out from a cloud, and the splendor
was insufferable, and no wonder the horses
sprang and the equestrians dropped.
Dust covered and bruised, Saul attempts to
get up, shading his eyes with his hands from
the severe luster OF the heavens, but unsucess-
fully. tor he is struck stone blind as he cries
out ''WhO art thou, Lord?" and Jesus an
swered him ~ am the one you have been
chasing He that whips and scourges those
Damascene Christians whips and scourges
Me 1t is not their back that is bleeding /; It
is Nine 1t is not their heart that is break
ing it is Mine. l am Jesus whom thou per
secutest."
From that wild, exciting and overwhelm-
ing scene there rises up the greatest
preacher OF all the a2es-Paul-in whose
behalf prisons We're rocked down, before
whom soldiers turned pale, into whose hand
Mediterranean captains put control of
their shipWrecking craft, and whose epistles
are the avant courier of a resurrection day.
[ learn from this scene that worldly fall
man does not get much sympathy by falling
of Z horse. People say he ought not to have
got into the saddle if he could not ride.
Those OF us who were brought up in the
country remember well how the workmeD
laughed when, on our way back from the
brook, we suddenly lost our ride. When in
grand review a general tOppled from the
stirrups it became National merriment.
Here is Paul on horseback proud man,
riding OF with Government documents in his
pocket. graduate of a most famous school,
in which the celebrated Dr. Gamaliel had
been professor, perhaps having already at
tanned two of the three titles OF the school
rab, the first rabbi, the second, and on the
way to rabbak. the third and highest title.
| know from his temperament that his horse
was ahead of the other horses. But without
time to think Of what posture he should
take, or without consideration for his dig
nifty, be is tumbled into the dust. And yet
that was the best ride Paul ever took. Out
of that violent fall he arose into the apostle
ship. SO it has been in all ages, and so it Is
now.
You will never be worth much for God and
the church until you lose your fortune, or
have your reputation upset, or in some way,
| somehow. are thrown and Inundated. You
| must go down before you go up. Joseph
! finds his path to the Egyptian court through
! the pit into which his brothers threw him.
! Daniel would never have walked among the
/ DTDnZoI lions IudL hlOGneu the buDSlOulSu
| throne if he had not first walked among the
real lions OF the cave. And Paul marshalS
! all the generations of Christendom by fall
ing flat ON his face on the road to Damascus.
Men who have been always prospered may
be efficient servants of the world, but will be
| of no advantage to Christ. You may ride
majestica!ly seated on your charger, rein in
hand, foot in stirrup. but you will never be
| worth anything spiritually until you fall off.
! They who graduate from the school oil Christ
with the highest hOnors have on their diplo-
ma the seal of lions muddy paw. or the
/ plash of an angry wave. the drop of q
| stray tear or the brown scOrch of Il perse-
/ cutting fire. In 900 cases out OF 1000 there is
/ no moral or spiritual elevation until there
mas been thorough worldly upsettinS.
again, | learn from the subject that the
| religion of Christ is not a pusillanimous
thing. People in this day try TO make US be
lieva that Christianity is something for men
! Of small caliber, Tor women with no capacity
! to reason, for children in the infant class
under six years Of age, but not for stalwart
| men. Look at this man OF the text Do you
/ not think that the religion that could cap
! ture such man that must have some
/ power in it? He was logican he was a
| metaphysician he was al all conquerinP
| orator; he was poet of the higheet type
lie had nature that could swamp the lead
ing men of his own day. and hurled against
| the sanhedrin he made il tremble
He learned all that he could get in the
school OF his native village then he bad
/ gone to a higher school and there mastered
/ the Greek and the Hebrew and perfected
himself in bellies lettres, until in after years
/ ne aStOnished the Cretans, and the Corinth-
/ lanS, and the Athenians by quotations from,
their own authors. have never found any
/ thing IN Carlyle or Goeth or Herbert Spencer
that could compare in strength or beauty
with Paul's epistles. l do not think there il
anything IN the writings Of Sir William Ham
liton that shows such mental discipline as
/ YOU find in Pauls argument about iusti6ca-
! ton and the resurrection. have not foun1
! anything in Milton finer in the way of imac-
| lnation than can find in Paul's illustrations
| drawn from the amphitheater
there was nothing in Robert Emmett plead
ing Tor his life, or in Edmund Burke ar
raIgnIng Warren Hastings in Westminster
| Hall. that compared with the scene in the
courtroom when, before robed officials. Paul
bowed and began his speech, saving. '.I
tnlnk myself happy, King Agrippa, because
shall answer for myself this day" repeat
mat religion that can capture a man like
mat must have some power in it, 1t is time
YOU stopped talking as though all the brain
or the world were opposed to Christianity.
where Paul leads we can afford to follow.
am glad to know that Christ has in the
dlHerent ages of the world had in His disoi-
pieshlp Mozart and a Handel in music, a
raphael and Reynolds in painting, an An
gelo and Canova in sculpture a Rush and
harvey In medicine, a Grotius and a Wash
.uEtrn IN craftsmanship a blackstone N
haFshall and Kent in law. And the time
Will come when the religion of Christ will
conquer all the observatories and universi-
ues, and philosophy will through her telo-
scope behold the morning star of Jesus. and
t n ,e[ laboratory see that all things work
loeether for good" and with her GEOLOGICAL
hammer discover the Rock OF Ages
On instead of covering and shiverin.
wen wen the skeptic stands before Won and
Lalks OF religion as though It were pusiIIani-
T Tests tnlnG-Instead of that take your New
, hestanent from your pocket and show him
the picture of the Intellectual giant Of au 1 tI
ages age; Frustrated on the road to Damasc om
m5li!e ms morse is flying wildly awav. T6on
as" asa your skeptic what it was that fri1b+one1
the one and threw the other ~ n'eneu