The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-11
TALMAGE At BIRMINGHAM.
The ENDORSING Of Saul the Subject
Of His Sermon.

New Sun in the Heavens and the
Rising of the Greatest Preacher of
the Age.
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 a large
audience under the auspices of the Bap-
fist church. The subject was: "Un-
horsed, - and the text chosen was, Acts g.:
3-5: And as he journeyed, he came near
Damascus; and suddenly there shined
round about him a light from heaven and
he fell to the earth, and heard a voice
saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why perse-
cutest thou me? And he said, Who art
thou, Lord} And the Lord said: l am
Jesus whom thou persecutest.n
The Damascus of Bible times still
stands, with population of one hundred
and thirty-five thousand. 1t was a gay
CITY of white and clustering architecture,
its miuarets and crescents and domes
playing with the light of the morning sun :;
uncovered in groves of olive, and citron,
and orange. and pomegranate; a famous
river plunging its brightness into the
scene; a city by the ancients styled "a
pearl surrounded by emeralds"
a group Oh uOESeLleu are advancing
upon that city. Let the Christians of the
place hide, for that cavalcade coming
over the hills is made up of prosecutors (;
their leader, small and unattractive in
some respects, as leaders sometimes are
insignificant in person: witness the Duke
of Wellington and DR.. Archib bald Alex
ander But there is. something very in
tent 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
one hundred aad thirty-five miles He
urges on his steed, 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 the riders, the horses bound snort
ing away. You know that dumb animals
at the sight of an eclipse, or an earth
quake, 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 glories of heaven wrapped about him,
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 luStre of the
heavens but unsuccessfully, for he is
u
art thou, Lord2" and Jesus answered him,
81 am the one you have been chasing. He
that whips and scOurges those Damas-
Gene Christians, whips and scOulges me.
1t is not their back that is bleeding: it is
mine. 1t is not their heart that is break
ing; it is mine. / am Jesus whom thou
persecuteSt."
From that wild, exciting, and over
whelming scene there rises up the greatest
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 con-
troll of their shipwrecking craft, and
whose epistles are the avant courier of a
resurrection day
learn from this scene that a worldly
fall sometimes precedes a spiritual uplift-
ing. A man does not get much sympathy
by falling off 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 remem-
Der well how the workmen laughed when,
on our way back from the brook, we sud
denly lost our ride. When in aIgrand re-
view general toppled from the stirrups
it became a national merriment Here is
Paul on horse back-a proud man, riding
on with government documents in his
pocket, a graduate of most famous
school in which the celebrated DIR.
Gamaliel had been professor, perhaps
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. 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 consideration for his
dignity he is tumbled into the dust And
vet that was the best ride Paul ever took.
Out of that violent fall he arose into the
apostleship. 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. Jo-
seph 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 gen.
erations of Christendom by falling fiat 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 advan-
tage to Christ You may ride majestic
ally seated or your charger, rein in hand,
foot in Stlrrup, but you will never be
worth anything spiritually until you fall
off. They who graduate from the school
of Christ with the highest honors have
on their diploma the seal of lion S
muddy paw, or the plash of an angry
wave, or the drop of stray tear, or the
brown scorch of a prosecuting fire. In
nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of
a thousand there is no moral or spiritual
elevation until there has been a thorough
worldly upsetting.
Again, learn from the subject that
the religion of Christ is not q pusillani-
nous thing. People in this day try to
make US believe that Christianity is
something for men of small caliber, for
women with no capacity to reason, for
children in the infant class under years
of age, but not for stalwart men. Look
at this man of the text Do you not
think that the religion that could capture
such a man as that must have some
power in it! He was a logician, he was
metaphysician, he was an all-conquering
orator, he was a poet of the highest type
He had a nature that could swamp the
leading men Of his own day, and hurled
against the Sanhedrim, he made it
tremble. He learned all he could
get in the school of his native
village; then he had gone to a higher
school, and there mastered the Greek and
the Hebrew, and perfected himself
In belleslettres, until in after years
he astOnished the Cretans, and the Corin-
th1gnc and tho tbapfaps