Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-12-22
REV. DIR. TALMAGE
The Eminent Brooklyn Divin9's Sun.
day Sermon.
Subject: "Unhorsed."


And he said, Who art tAou. lord And the
lord said. 7 am Jesus 1oh0n thou perse-
cNtest Acts tx, 3-5. t.
The Damascus of Bible times still stands.
with population Of $4,000. 1t was gay
city of white and gistening architecture, Hs
minarets and crescents and domes playing
with the light OF the morning sun em6ow-
cred in groves Of olive and citron and orange
and pomegranate a famous river plungln9
it's brightness into the scene; a city by the
ancients styled "a pearl surrounded BY eal'
eralds.
A group Of hcrsonen are Advancing upon
that CITY Let the Christians OF the pace
hide, for that cavalca1e comm; over the
hills is made up OF prosecutors their leader
small and unattractive in; some respects, as
leaders sometimes are insignificant in per-
son-witnes5 the Duke of Wellington and
D.. Archibald Alexander. But there is
something very intent ia the eye OF this
man of the text, and the horse he rides is
lathered with the foam Of q long and quick
travel of 1856 miles. He urges on his steed,
for those Christians must be captured AMI
silenced, and that religion OF the cross must
be annihilated.
Suddenly the horses shy of and plunge IN
til the riders are precipitated, Freed from
the riders. the horses bound snorting away.
You know that dumb animals. at the sight
of an eclipse, or an earthquake, or anything
like 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 AMI the etuestrians dropped,
Dust covered and bruised, Saul attempts to
,t,it bic hou ,1c
the severe luster otths heavens, but unsucess-
fully. for he is struck stone blind as he cries
out, who art thou LordY' and Jesus an
swered him 81 am the one you have been
CHASING He that whips and seourges those
Damascene Christians whips and scourges
Me II is not their back that is bleeding it
is Mine. It is not their heart that is break
ing it is Mine. am tesus whom thou per
seoutest."
From that wild, exciting and overwhelm
ing 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 control OF
their shipwrecking craft, and whose epistles
are the avant courier of n resurrection day.
learn from this scene that worldly fall
sometimes precedes spiritual uplifting.
man does not get much sympathy by falling
OF horse People say he ought not to have
got into the saddle if he could not ride,
Those of MS who were brought up in the
country remember we'll how the workmen
laughed when. on our way back from the
| brooS. we suddenly lost our ride. When in Il
grand review a general toppled from the
stirruDs, it became 4 National merriment.
Here is Paul on horsback-a proud man,
| riding on with Government documents in his
| pocket, q graduate of most famous school,
| in which the celebrated DR.. Gamalie 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 10 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
rake. or without consideration Tor his dig
nifty, he stumbled 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 10
| now.
You will never be worth much for God and
| the church until you lose your fortune, OF
have your 9putation upset, or IN some way,
somehow. are thrown and Inundated. You
must 90 down before you go up. JOSEPH
finds his path TO the Egyptian court through
| the nit into which his brothers threw him.
Daniel would never have walked among the
bronzsl lions that adorned the Babylonish
| throne if he bad not first walked among the
real lions of the cave And Paul marshals
all the generations of Christendom by fall'
ing fat 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
maiesticaly seated on your charger rein IN
hand. foot in sttrrup but YOU will never be
/, | ct,ir llN-
} They who graduate from the school ofChris'
with the highest honors have on their diplo
; ms the seal OF lions muddy paw, or TN
| plash Of an angry wave. or ths drop 81
, stravtear. or the brown seOrcb OF perse
cutting FIRE In 900 cases out of 1000 there 4
no moral or spiritual elevation until ther'
has been Thorough worldly upsettiny
Again, | learn from the subject that thu
religion OF Christ is not puslllanimou
thing People in this day try to make us be
ieve that Christianity is something ior mel
of small clliSer, Tor women with no capacit.
TO reason for children in the infant elias
under six wears OF age, but not for stalwar
men. Look at this man CT the text Do yo
not think that the religion that could cap
ture .uch a man As that must have soM
mower in III He was ~ logician he was
metaphysician he was an all conquerin
orator he was poet OF the highest type
| ASeD
ing men of his own day, and hurled agalns
the sanhedrin he made il trcmble.
He learned all that he could get in tn
school of his native village then he ha
gone TO d higher school and there mastere
ihe Greek and the Hebrew and periecte
himself in belles lettres, until in alter year
Re astonished the Cretans, and tho Corinth
ians. and the Athenians by quotations troT
their own authors l have never found any
thing in Carlyle or Gosth or Herbert Spence
that could compare in strength or beaut
with Pauls epistles. do not think there
anything in the wa ~ Sir william Ham
lion that shows ptal dlsclpnne a
YOU And in Paul's about justifca
lion and the resur 1--we not foun
ANYTHING in MitofS ny OF mag
nation than [ can y illustration
drawn from the ampMheater.
There was nothingf1 Robert Emmett plead
ing for his life, or in Edmund Burke ar
raiRning Warren Hastings in Westminste
Hall that compared with the scene in tn
courtroom when, before robed officials, Pau
bowed and began his speech, saying, e
think myself happy, King Agrippa, because
shall answer for myself this day. repes
that religion that can capture man Tx
that must have some power in it. 1t IS tim
\ YOU stopped talking rs though all the brai
U of the world were opposed to Christianity
Where Paul leads, we can afford to follow.
r 1 am glad to know that Christ has in tn
different ages OF the world had in His disci
pleship Mozart and Handel in music,
q Raphael and Reynolds in painting, an An
: cello and Canovl in sculpture, Ruon an
J a Harvey in medicine, a Grotius anda Wash
: ington in craftsmanship a Blackstone,
Marshall and Kent in law. And the tim
will come when the religion of Christ wi
- conquer all the o5servatories and univers
- ties. and philosophy will through her tel
Soona hehold the morning star of Jesus an