Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-09-08
We HOLD The ROPE
DR.. Talmage breaches the Last
OF His Outdoor Dis
courses.
Subject: Great Results May
Depend on Small
Events"
Grea. Things Are an Aggre-
cation of Small
Things.
Dr. Taimago's Weekly Scrmon-Hc
interests His Hearers at
Grimsby. Can.

GrIMsrY, Can.-The Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmace, ID, of Brooklyn, n. y
preached on the camp ground at this
place today. All Canada is represented
in the immense throngs assembled. DR..
Talmagc has preached at Grimsby many
This closes his summer alb
scnrc. he has preached, lectured and
visited IN thirteen states Of the union
this summer, his audiences numbering
10. 900 and Is, 900 people. The subject OF
his sermon here today was Great Re
suits May Depend OF Small Events DR..
Talmage took for his text: Through a
window, in a basket, was / let down 10y
the wal. 3 Cor, Oh. V. 3 He said:
Damascus is a city of white and glisten-
ing architecture, sometimes called ''The
Eye Of the East" sometimes called "A
Pearl Surrounded by Emeralds," at one
time distinguished for swords of the best
mater called Damascus blades, and up
holstr.y uf richest fabric called damasks.
A hors man hy the name of Paul, riding
toward his city, had been thrown from
the sad Ne. The horse had dropped un-
der a fash from the sky. which at the
same time was so bright it blinded the
rider for many days, and, | think, so
permanently injured his eyesighttha hal this
defect in vision became the thorn in the
flesh he afterwards speaks Of. He started
for Damascus to butcher Christians, but
after that hard fall from his horse he was
n changed man ana preached Christ in
Damascus till the city was shaken to lis
foundation.
The mayor gives authority for his ar
rest, and The popular cry is XIII him!
XIII him The city is surrounded by a
high wall, and the gates are watched by
the police lest the CiliCian preacher
escapc. Many Of the houses are built on
the wall, and their balconies projected
clear over and lowered above the gardens
outside. 1t was customary to lower bask
cts OUT of these balconies and pull up
fruits and flowers from the gardens. To
this day visitors at the monastery Of
Mount Sinai are lifted and let down in
baskets. Detectives prowled around from
house 70 house looking for Paul, but his
friends hid him now in one place, 0 in
another. lie is no coward, as fifty Incl
dents in his life demonstrates. But he
feels his work is not done yet, and so he
evadcs a~asassinatiSn. is that preacher
here Me fOaminr mob shout at one
house door. Is that fanatic hcre?' the
police sh0ut at another house door.
Sometimes on the street inCognito be
passes through a cro9l Of clenchcd fists
and sometimes he secrctcs himself on the
housetop. AT last the Infatuated popu-
lace get on sure track Of him. They have
positive evidence that he is in the house
Of one Of the Christians, the balcony Of
whose nome reaches over the wall. Here
he is Here he isl The vOciferation
and biasphen,y and bowling of the pur-
suers are At the front door. They break
in. Fetch out that gospeliZer, and let
us hang his head on the city gate. Where
is he" The emergency was terrible.
Providentlally there was a good stout
basket IN the house. Paul's friends fasten
a rope 70 the basket. Paul steps into il,
The basket is lifted to the edge
Of the balcony on the wall, and
then while Paul holds on to the rope with
both hands his friends lower away, care
fully and cautiously, slowly but surely,
further down and further down, until the
basket strikes the earth and the apostle
steps out, and afoot and alone starts on
that famous missionary tour, the story of
which has astonished earth and heaven.
Appropriate entry in Paul diary of trav
els: Through a window, in a basket.
was ! let down by the wall"
Observe, first, on what q slender tenure
great results hang. The ropemaker who
twisted that cord fastened to that lower
ing basket never knew how much would
depend on the strength of it. How if it
had been broker and the apostles life
dashed out? What would have become
Of the Christian church? All that mag
nificcnt missionary work in ~Pamphilia,
Cappadocia, Galatia, Macedonia, would
never have been accomplished. All his
writings that make up SO indispensable
and enchanting a part of the New Tesla
mcnt would never have been written.
The story Of the resurrection would never
have been SO ~gloriously told as he told it.
lUdl tNdillHlc VI ucIOlC anu triumphant
endurance at Philippi, in the Mediterra-
mean eurocIydon, under flagellation and
at his beheading would not have kindled
the courage of ten thousand martyrdoms.
But that rope holding that basket. how
much depended on it! So again and
again great results have hung on what
seemed slender circumstances.
Did ever ship of many thousand tons
crossing the sea have such important pas
scnger as had once a boat Of leaves, from
"taffrail 10 stern only three or four feet,
the vessel made waterproof by a coat Of
bitumen and floating On the Nile with the
infant lawgiver of the Jews on board?
What If some crocodile should crunch it?
What ii some OF the cattle wading in for
a drink should sink it? Vessels of war
sometimes carry forty guns looking
through the port holes ready to open bat.