Connecticut western news., 1893-12-14
HIS SOUTHERN TOUR.
DR. TALMAGE BREACHES ON ST. PAUL
 AT BIRMINGHAM. ALA.

Psrsecator Both an Encouragement and
 . Warning-Out of Great Tribulations
 Come Zeal and Clear Views of Truth.
 BIRMINGHAM, Ala, Dec. 10.-Rev. Dr. Talmage, who lectured in this city yes terday, having spoken during the week at Nashville, Memphis and other cities, preached here this forenoon to large audience under the auspices of the Bap- tfst church. The subject was "Un- horsed," and the text chosen was Acts ix, 3-5: "And as he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him light from heaven, and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul. Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, l am Jesus whom thou persecutest."
 The Damascus of Bible times still stands, with population of 135,000. It was a gay city of white and glistening architecture, it's minarets and crescents and domes playing with the light of the morning sun; embowered in groves of olive and citron and orange and spome- granate; famous rlver plunglng it's brightness into the scene; a city by the ancients styled "a pearl surrounded by emeralds."
 THE COMING TERROR.
 A group of hersemen are advancing upon that city. Let the Christians of the place hide, for that cavalcade com ing over the hills is made up of persecu- tors; their leader small and unattractive in some respects, as leaders sometimes are insignificant in person-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 si- fenced, and that religion of the cross must be annihilated.
 Suddenly the horses shy off and plunge until the riders are precipitated. Freed from the riders, the horses bound snort ing away. You know that dumb ani- malls, at the sight of, an eclipse, or an earthquake, or anything like supernat- ural 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 glories of heaven wrapped about him, looked out from cloud, and the splen- dor was insufferable, and no wonder the horses sprang and the equestrians dropped.
 Dust covered and bruised, Saul att tempts to get up, shading his eyes with his hands from the severe luster of the heavens, but unsuccessfully, for he is struck stone blind as hecries out, {" Who art thou, LordY' and Jesus answered him: "I am the one you have been chasing. He that whips and scourges those Dam ascene Christians whips and scourges me. It is not their back that is bleeding; it is mine. It is not their heart that is breaking; it is mine. l am Jesus whom thou persecutest."
 THE DEFoRMED TRANSFORMED.
 From. that .wild,s exciting and over whelming scene there rises up the great est preacher of all the ages-Paul-in whose behalf prisons were rocked down, before whom soldiers turned pale, into whose hand Mediterranean sea captains put control of their shipwrecking craft, and whose epistles are the avant courier of resurrection day.
 Tlearn from this scene that worldly fall sometimes precedes a spiritual up lifting. A man does not get much sym pathy by falling of a horse. People say l. o% %<,b bou info f1,ar q a if he could not ride. Those of us who were brought up in the country remen- Der well how the workmen laughed when, on our way back from the brook, we suddenly lost our ride. When in grand review 8 general toppled from the stirrups, it became national merriment.
 Here is Paul on horseback-a proud man, riding on with government docu- noents in his pocket, a graduate of amost famous school, in which the celebrated Dr. Gamaliel had been professor, per hapss having already attained two of the three titles of the school-rab, the first; rabbi, the second, and on his way to rabbak, the. third and highest title. 1 know from his temperament that his horse was ahead of the other horses. But without time to think of what pos ture he should take, or without consid- eration for his dignity, he is tunbled into the dust. And yet that was the best ride Paul ever took. Out of that vio- lent fall he arose into the apostleship. So it has been in all ages, and soft is now.
 PURIFIED BY SUFFERING.
 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 humiliated. You must go down be- fore 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 bronzed lions that adorned the Babylon ish throne if he had not first walked among the real lions of the cave. And Paul marshals all the generations of Christendom by falling 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. your charger, rein in hand, foot in stir rupsbut you will never be worth any thing spiritually until you fall off. They who graduate from the school of Christ with the highest honors have on their diploma the seal of lions muddy paw, or the plash of an angry wave, or the drop of stray tear, or the brown scorch of prosecuting fire. In 999 cases out of 1000 there is no moral or spiritual elevation until there has been thorough worldly upsetting.
 THE BRAVE CHRISTIANS.
 Again, learn from the. subject that the religion of Christ is not a pusillan- imorS thing. People in this day try to make us believethat Christianity is some thing for men of small caliber, for wom- en with no capacity to reason, for chill dren in the infant class under years of age, but not for stalwart men. Look at this man of the text! Do you not