San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-11-29
TT is strange circumstance that French
soldiers arc comnelled tn lombard


soldiers are compelled to lombard
Damascus, "the oldest city in the
world" and the scene of many of the
most interesting events in the Bible-a
city they received a mandate" to protect
on behalf of civilization.
Perhaps by this time the ancient house
where St. Paul's miraculous conversion
to Christianity occurred has been blown
to dust by high-power guns.
The Druses the fierce natives of
large part of Syria, rebelled against the
French and entered Damascus. To drive
them out the French were compelled to
lombard the city, destroying many of
its ancient Biblical buildings which had
stood there since the days of Moses and
Aaron.
Damascus is connected with the spread
of the Christian religion more than any
other city in the world. st. Paul was the
great Apostle who carried the faith to the
world outside of Palestine, and it was in
Damascus that he was converted from
being a prosecutor of Christians to a
jealous spreader of the Gospel.
Damascus evidently had a strong COM
munity of Christians in the lifetime of
the Saviour-more, probably, than any
place except Jerusalem. 1t was the GEN.
tire from which the faith was spread to
Asia Minor, Greece and Italy, the refuge
where the Disciples were protected from
prosecutors.
It's great cathedral, which rose on the
ruins of the Temple of Rimmon and is
now Mohammedan mosque, is regarded
as the earliest of all cathedrals. 1t was
distinguished by having the tomb of st.
John the Baptist enclosed within it, a
tomb which has always been respected
by the Mohsmmedan possessors of the
building, although it may now have been
blown up by explosive Christian shells.
Damascus has been called a great har-
Dor of refuge upon the earliest sea man
ever learned to navigate-the desert.
Damascus has remained prosperous
through all the wars that have ragged
around her for four thousand years, and
experience indicates that she may survive
the present trouble.
Damascus is called the oldest city in
the sense that it is substantially. the
same as in the days of the Bible patri-
archs and the Pharaohs and the rulers of
Babylon and Assyria.
Other cities of those days have disap-
peared entirely or have been entirely
changed. Jerusalem was pulled down in
Roman days and rebuilt, Babylon and
Nineveh, the greatest cities of Bible
times, have gone. Rome and Athens pre-
serve merely the foundations of early
DAVIS Damascus, in its walls and main
outlines and to a great extent in its
buildings, remains as it was in the days
of the patriarchs and the apostles.
When Abraham went to Canaan from
Ur Of the Chaldees five thousand years
ago the city Of Damascus was already
standing on the banks Of the lovely River
ALBANIA. He must have gone by way of
Damascus. for the Book of Genesis says
that he went through the Harsn Desert
The first mention of Damascus in the
Bible is in Genesis, chapter IS, verse 2,
where Abraham complains that he is
childless and says that his only successor
is his steward, Eliezer of Damascus.
Perhaps the most dramatic incident in
the Bible concerning Damascus is that
about Naaman, general of the army Of
the king of Syria, whose capital was the
ancient city. Naaman was hopelessly
smitten with leprosy and went to the
prophet Elisha, who had gained great
fame as healer, and asked him for q
cure.
Elisha told Naaman that he must battle
seven times in the River Jordan. At this
the Syrian became angry and replied:
Are not ALBANIA and Phsrphar, rivers
of Damascus. better than all the waters
of Israel? May Z not walk in them and
be clean?"
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