Milford chronicle., 1888-08-31
TALMAGE IN CkNADA.
GREAT RESULTS MAY DEPEND ON
SMALL EVENTS.

Mothers Prayers.
GRnisBY, Canada, Aug. 26.-The Rev. T.
De Witt Talmage, D. D., Of Brooklyn,
preached on the camp ground at this place
today. All Canada is represented in the inl-
mense throngs assembled DR.. Talmage has
preached at Grimsby many summers This
closes his summer absence. Hehas preached,
lectured and visited in thirteen states Of tho
Union this summer, his audiences numbering
ten and fifteen thousand people The subject
Of his sermon here today was "Great Results
May Depend on Small Events DR.. Tai
mage took for his text; Through q window,
in a basket, was 1 let down by the wall" qI
Cor ii, SS). He said
Damascus is q city OF white and glistening
architecture sometimes called ''the eye of
tho east sometimes called "a pearl sur
rounded by emeralds," at one time distin-
guished for swords of the best material, called
Damascus blades, and upholstery Of richest
fabric called damasks a horseman by the
name Of Paul, riding toward this city, had
been thrown from the saddle. The horse had
dropped under u flash from the sky, which at
the same time was so bright it blinded the
rider for many days, and, think, so perma-
neutly injured his eyesight that this defect Of
vision became the thorn in the flesh he after
wards speaks OF. He started for Damascus
to butcher Christians, but after that hard
fall from his horse he was a changed man
and preached Christ in Damascus till the city
was shaken to its foundation.
/ The mayor gives authority for his arrest,
and the popular cry is, "Kill himl XIII himln
The city is surrounded by a high wall, and
the gates are watched by the police lest the
/ Cilician preacher escape. Many of the
houses are built on tho wall, and their bal
comics projected clear over and hovered
above the gardens outside. It was custom
ary to lower baskets out of these balconies
/ and pull up fruits and flowers from the gar
dens. To this day visitors at the monastery
of Mount Sinai are lifted and let down in
baskets. Detectives prowled around from
house to house looking for Paul, but his
friends hid him now in one place, now in
another. He is no coward, as fifty mcidentsi in
his life demonstrate. But he feels his work
is not done yet, and so he evades assassina-
ton. rs that preacher herer the foaming
mob shout at one house door. rs that
fanatic herep the police shout at another
house door. Sometimes on the street. incog-
nito, he passes through a crowd Of clenched
fists, and sometimes he secretes himself on
the housetop. At last the infuriate populaco
get on sure track of him. They have posi-
lAFI AAtuCt AAttu lb Is III tllt llDlAse OL Olb
Of the Christians the balcony of whose home
reaches over the wall. "Here he is! Here
he isin The vociferation and blasphemy and
bowling of the pursuers are at the front
door, They break in. ''Fetch out that Cos
pelizer, and let us hang his head on tho city
gate. Where is hcF The emergency was ter
rible. Providentially there was a good, stout
basket in the house. Paul's friends fasten
rope to the basket. Paul steps into it. 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,
carefully 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. Appro-
pirate entry in Paul's diary of travels;
'Through a window, in basket, was l let
down by the wall"
Observe, first, on what a slender tenure
great results hang. The ropema5er who
twisted sat cord fastened to that lowering
basket never knew how much would depend
on the strength of it. How if it had been
broken and the apostles life had been dashed
out! What would have become Of tho Chris
tian church2 All that magnificent mission
ary work il Pamphilia, Cappadocia, Gala
tia Macedonia would never have been ac-
complished. All his writings that make up
so indispensable and enchanting Il part of
the New Testament would never have been
written Tho story of resurrection would
never have been so gloriously told as he told
it. That example of heroic and triumphant
endurance at Philippi, in the Mediter-
ranean euroclydOn, under hagellation
and at his beheading would not have
kindled the courage Of ten thousand martyr
dons 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 cross
ing the sea have such important passenger
as had once a boat Of leaves, from taffrail to
stern only three or four feet, the vessel made
waterproof by a coat of bitumen, and float
ing on the Nile with the infant lawgiver Of
the Jews on boardl What if some crocodile
should crunch it, What if some of the cat
tie, wading in for drink, should sink it,
Vessels Of war sometimes carry forty guns
looking through the porthOles ready to open
battle But that tiny craft on the Nile seems
TO be armed with all the guns Of thunder that
bombarded Sinai at the law giving. On how
fragile craft sailed how much of historical
Importance
The parsonage at Epworth, England, is on
lire in the night and the father rushed
through the hallway for the rescue of his
children. Seven children arc out and safe on
the ground, but one remains in the consum-
ing building That one wakes, and finding
his bed on fire and the building cTumbling,
comes to the window, and two peasants make
ladder of their bodies, one peasant standing
on the shoulder Of the other, and down the
human ladder the boy descends-John Wes-
ley. If you would know how much depended
on that ladder of peasants, ask the millions
of Methodists on both sides Of the sea- Ask
their mission stations all around the world
Ask their hundreds of thousands already as
cended to join their founder, who would have
persisted but for the living stairs Of peasants
shoulders
An English ship stopped at Pitcairn Island,
and right in the midst Of surrounding canni-
balism and squalor the passengers discovered
a Christian colony Of churches and schools
and beautiful homes and highest style of re-
ligion and civilization. For fifty years 10
missionary and no Christian influence had
lauded there. Why this oasis Of light amid
desert Of heathendoml Sixty years before
a ship had met disaster, and one Of the sail
ors, unable TO save anything else, went to
his trunk ard took out a Bible which
his mother had placed there, and
swan ashore, the Bible held in his teeth.
The Book was read on all sides until the
rough and vicious population were evan
gelized, and a church was started, and an
enlightened commonwealth established, and
the worlds history has no more brilliant
page than that which tells Of the transfoTma-
ton of a nation by one book 1t did not
seem of much importance whether the sailor
continued to hold the book in his teeth or let
it fall in the breakers, but upon what small
circumstance depended what mighty re
sults
Practical inference: There arc no insig-
nificances in our lives. The minutest thing