Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-12-15

BIRMINGuAM, Ala Dec. 10.--Rev DR.. Tel
mage, who lectured in this city yesterday,
having 81 oxen during the week at Nash
vile, Memphis, and other cities, preached
here this afternoon to a large audience,
under the auspices of the Baptist church.
The subject was: "Unhorsed," and the text
chosen was, Acts 0: 3-5: "And as he
journeyed, he came near Damascus; and
suddenly there shinod round about him a
light from heaven; and he fell to the earth,
and hoard voice saying unto him, Saul,
Saul why Tersecutest 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 n population of 1875, 900.
1t was a gay city of white and glister-
ing architecture, it's minarets and
crescents and domes playing with the
light of the morning sun; uncovered
in groves of olive, and citron, and or
ange, and pomegranate; a famous river
plunging its brightness into the scene;
a city by the ancients styled "A pearl
surrounded by emeralds."
A group of horSemen are advancing
upon that city. Let the Christians of
the place hide, for that cavalcade com
ing over the hills is made up of perse
cutors; their leader small and unat-
tractive in some respects, as leaders
sometimes are insignificant in person;
witness the Duke of Wellington and
DIR. Archibald Alexander. But there
is something very intent in the eye of
this man of the text, and the horse he
rides is lathercd with the foam of n
long and quick travel of 1875 miles. He
urges on his stced, for those Christians
must be captured and silenced, and
that religion of the cross must be
annihilated. Suddenly the horses shy
off, and plunge until the riders are
precipitated. Freed from their riders,
the horses bound snorting away.
You know that dumb animals,
at the sight of an eclipse. or
an earthquake, or anything like Il
supernatural appearance, sometimes
become very uncomfortable. A new
sun has 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
a cloud and the splendor was insutfer-
| able, 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 unsuccessfully, for he is struck
stone blind as he cries out, "Who art
thou, Lord?" and Jesus answered him,
81 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 mine. 1t is not their
heart that is breaking; it is mine.
am Jesus whom thou persecutest."
From that wild, exciting and over
whelming scene there rises ~ the
| greatest preacher of all the ages
Paul, in whose behalf prisons were
rocked down, before whom soldiers
! turned pale, into whose hands Med
| iterranean sea captains put control of
I their shipwrecking craft, and whose
! epistles are the avant courier of res
direction day
! / learn from this scene that a worldly
fall sometimes precedes a spiritual up
| lifting. A man does not get much
sympathy by falling off n horse. Peo-
! pie 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 work.
men laughed when, on our way back
from the brook, we suddenly lost our
ride When in our Grand Review a
general toppled from the stirrups it be-
came a national lnerriment. Here is
Paul on horsebacl--a proud man. rid
ing on with government documents in
his pocket, Il graduate of a most famous
school in which the celebrated DIR.
Gamaliel had been professor, perhaps
having already attained two or three
titles of the school-Rab, the first;
Rabbi the second; and on his way to
Rabbak, the third and highest title. l
! 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 con-
sideration forhis dignity he is tumbled
into the dust. And yet that was the
best ride Paul ever took. Out of that
violent faA 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
amidst the bronzed lions that adorned
the Babylonish throne If he had not
first walked amidst the real lions of
the cave. And Paul marshals all the
generations of Christendom by falling
fiat on his face on the road TO Da-
mascus Men who have been always
prospered may be efficient servants of
the world, but will be of no advantage
to Christ. You may ride majestically