Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-12-22
REV. Or. TsLnAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S sun.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "UNHoRsED."

dooe{ arm a hgh rom hedpeTl, ana ne ttU
10 he garth and heard roios saying unto
Aam, <asLl, Saul, tohy perSec7itsst p.ou NJ
And he said, Who art thou, Lord And the
Lord said, I am Jesus nhOm thou perss-
oiisst Acts tx, s-5.
The Damascus OF Bible times still stands,
with population OF 1876. 000. II was a gay
city OF white and glistening architecture, Its
minRrets and crescents and domes PLAYING
with the light OF the morning sun embow-
cred in groves OF olive and citron and orange
and pomegranats; a famous river plunging
its brightness into the scene city by the
sncients styled "a pearl surrounded by EN-
eralds."
A group OF horssmen are adva ncing 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 unattractlve in some respects. as
leaders sometimes arc insignificant in PER
son-witnes5 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
lathered with the foam Of a long and quick
| travel OF 1875 miles. He urges on his steel,
for those Christians must be captured and
| silenced, and that religion OF the cross must
! be nnnihilated.
Suddenly the horses shy of and plunge I'M
| I'll 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 n supernatural appearance. sometimes
! become very uncontrolable. A new sun had
! been kin lied in the heavens, putting out tho
glare OF the ordinary sun. Christ, with the
glories OF heaven wrapped about Him,
| looked out from O cloud, and the splendor
was insufTerable, 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 ulster o the heavens, but unsucess
| fully, tor he is struck stone blind as he cries
] out, 'Who art thou, LordT and Jesus an
! swered him 81 am the one you have been
| chasing. He that whips and scourges those
DamasJone Christians whips and scourges
Me. 1t is not their back that is bleeding it
| Is Mine. 1t is not their heart that Is break
ing II Is Nine. | am Jesus whom thou per-
| secutest."
From that Wild. exciting and overwhelm-
Ing scene there rises up the greatest
preacher OF all the ages-Pau--in whose
behalf prisons were rocked down, before
whom soldiers turned pale, into whose hand
Mediterranean sea captains put contrr OF
their shipwrecking craft, and whose epistles
are the avant courier OF a resurrection day.
learn from this scene that worldly TALL
sometimes precedes spiritual uplifting. A
man does not get much sympathy by falling
OF horse. People say he ought not to have
got into the saddle II he could not ride.
Those OF US who were brought up In the
country remember well how the workmen
laughed when, on our way back from the
brook, we suddenly lost our ride When in u
grand review q general toppled from the
strrups, it became National merrment.
Here Is Paul on horsback-a proud man,
riding on with Government documents In his
pocket, q graduate OF a most famous school,
L., - .h h. ..I. A. t..l n It.l E..Y
been a professor, perhaps having already at
tanned two OF the three titles OF the school
rab, the first rabbi, the second, and on the
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 dig
nifty, he is tumbled 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 1t has been In all ages, and 80 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 among the
bron5od lions that adorned the Babylonlsh
throne IL he had not first walked among the
real lions OF the cave. And Paul marshals
all the generations OF Chrstendom by fall
Ing 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 advantage to Christ You may ride
majestically seated on your charger, rein in
hand, foot in stirrup, but you will never be
worth anything spiritually until you fall Of
They who graduate from the school OF Christ
with the highest honorS have on their diplo-
ma the seal of lions muddy paw or the
plash OF an angry wave, or the drop OF q
stray tear, or the brown scorch OF perse-
cutting fire. In 800 cases out OF 1000 there is
no moral or spiritual elevation until there
has been thorough worldly upsetting.
Again, l learn from the suoiec that the
religion OF Christ is not pusillanimous
thing. People in this day try 70 make us be-
lieve that Christianity is something for men
OF small caliDer, Tor women with no capacity
to reason, for children in the infant class
under six years OF age, but not for stalwar
men. Look at this man of the text Do you
not think that the religion that could cap
ture such mum as that must have som,
power in it2 He was q loglcian he was
metaphyslcian he was an all conquerin<
orator; he was poet OF the highest type
He had a nature that could swamp the lead.
ing men OF his own day, and hurled against
He learned all that he could get in the
school OF his native village then he had
gone to n higher school and there mastered
the Greek and the Hebrew and perfected
himself In bellies lettres, until In after years
he astonished the Cretans, and the Corinth-
ians, and the Athenians by quotations from
their own authors have never found any,
thing in Carlyle or Goeth or Herbert Spencer
that could compare in strength or beauty
with Paufs epistles / do not think there Is
anything in the writings OF Sir William Ham,
ilton that shows such mental discipline as
you find in Pauls argument about justiflca-
ton and the resurrection. have not found
anything In Milton finer In the way OF imag-
nation than can find in Paul's illustrations
drawn from the amphitheater.
There was nothingin Robert Emmett plead
Ing for his life, or in Edmund Burke ar
raigning Warren Hastings in Westminster
Hall, that compared with the scene in the
courtroom when, before robed officials, Paul
bowed and began his speech, saying, ~
think myself happy, King Agrippa, because 1
shall answer for myself this day" repeat
that religion that can capture man like
that must have some power in It. 1t Is time
you stopped talking as though all the brain
OF the world were opposed to Christianity.
Where Paul leads, we can afford to follow.
l am glad to know that Christ has In the
different ages OF the world had in His dsci-
pleship Mozart and Handel in music, a
Raphael and Reynolds in painting, an AM
gelo and Canova in sculpture, Rush and
q Harvey In medicine, Grotius anda Wash
ington in craftsmanship; Blackstone, a
Marshall and a Kent In law. And the time
will -Ome when the religion OF Christ will
conquer all the observatories and UNIVERSE
ties, .nd philosophy will through her tele.
scope behold the morning star OF Jesus, and
In her laboratory see 'that all things work
together for good, and with her geological
hammer discover the Crock Of Ages"
Oh, instead OF covering and shivering
when the skeptio stands before you and
talks OF religion as though 1t were a puslllani-
nous thing-instead OF that take your New
Testament from your pocket and show him
the picture OF the intellectual giant OF all the
ages prostrated on the road to Damascus