Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1893-12-11
HIS sou THLERN TOUR.
DR., TALMAeE breaches ON ST. PAUL
AT BIRMINGHAM. ALA.


Prosecutors Both an Encouragement an,
warniDg-Out OF Great Tribulation
Come Zeal and Clear Views of Truth.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala, Dec. 10.-Rev. DR.
Talmage, who lectured in this city yes
terlay, having spoken during the weel
ut Nashville. Memphis and other cities
preached here this forenoon to larg,
audience under the auspices Of the Bap
tist church. The subject was "Un
borsed." and the text chosen was Acts
tx. 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
n voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me? And he said, Who
art thou, Lord? And the Lord said,
am Jesus whom thou persecutest."
The Damascus of Bible times still
stands, with population of 1876, 900. 1t
was a gay city of white and glistening
architecture. its minarets and crescents
and domes playing with the light of the
morning sun; embowered in groves of
olive and citron and orange and pome-
granate; famous river plunging its
brightness into the scene; city by the
ancients styled 'a pearl surrounded by
emeralds."
THE COMING TERROR.
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 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 a long and quick travel Of 135
miles. He urges on his steed, for those
Christians must be captured and 81
fenced, and that religion Of the cross
must be annihilated.
Suddenly the horses shy of and plunge
until the riders are precipitated. Freed
from the riders, the horses bound snort
ing away. You know that dumb ami
mails, 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 at
tempts to get up, shading his eyes with
his hands from the severe luster of the
.eavens, but unsuccessfully, for he is
,truck stone blind as he cries out, "Who
,rt thou, Lord?" and Jesus answered him:
L 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;
Il is mine. 1t is not their heart that Is
breaking; it is mine. am Jesus whom
thou persecutest"
THE EDEFoRMED TRANSFORMED.
From that wild, exciting and over
whelming scene there rises up the great |
est preacher of all the ages-Paul-m
whose behalf prisons were rocked down,
before whom soldiers turned pale, into
whose hand Mediterranean sea captains
mt control of their shipwrecking craft
and whose epistles are the avant courier
of resurrection day.
learn from this scene that worldly
fall sometimes precedes a spiritual up
lifting. A man does not get much SYM
pathy by falling off horse. People say
he ought not to have got into the saddle
IL he could not ride. Those OF us who
were brought up in the country remem-
ber we'll how the workmen laughed
when. ON our way back from the brook
we suddenly lost our ride. When IN
grand review a general toppled from tne
stirrups, it became national merrlment;
Here is Paul on horseback proud
man, riding on with government docu,
ments in his pocket, a graduate OF moss
famous school, in which the celebrated
DR.. Ganialiel had been a professor, per
haps having already attained. two OF tne
three titles of the school-rab, the nrst'
rabbi. the second. and on his way 70
rabhak, the. third and highest TITLE !
know from his temperament tnat ms
horse was ahead of the other horses
But without time to think OF what pos
ture he should take, or without consid.
Grafton for his dignity, ne is tum oieu
into the dust. And yet that was the OeS'
ride Paul ever took. Out OF that vio'
lent fall he arose into the apostlesmp'
So it has been in all ages, and SOFT Is now
PURIFIED BY SUFFERING
You will never be worth mucn loi
God and the church until You lose your
fortune, or have your reputation upset
or in some way. somehow, are throwi
and humiliated. You must go down DO
fore you go up. Joseph finds his pain = =
the Egyptian court through the PIT int'
which his brothers threw him. Dame
would never have walked among tn
bronzed lions that adorned the Babylon
ish throne If he had not tirst wakes
among the real lions Of the cave. AM
parl ,oarahala all the generations