The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-09-07
SHALL EVENTS.
DR.. Talmaee Discusses on Great
Results From Small Events.
Nctl,f,e Really Insignificant In This Life
The Great Results OF Seemingly Unim-
portant Incidents - Unknown
Agencies For Good.

In a late sermon upon the subject:
.'Great Results Ma Depend ON Small
Events" DIR. Talmage took for his text:
Through window, in a basket, was l
let down by the wall."-2 Corinthians ii.
80. He said.
Damascus is 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
material called Damascus blades, and up
holstery 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
a flash from the sky. which at the same
time was so bright it blinded the rider for
many DAYS, and, l think, SO permanently
Injured bis eyesight that this defect of
vision became the thorn in the flesh he ef-
terward speaks Of He started for Damas-
Gus to butcher Christians, but after that
hard fall from his horse he was q changed
man and preached Christ in Damascus till
the city was shaken to its foundation.
The mayor gives authority for his ar
rest, and the popular cry is: Kill him!
Kill him"' The city is surrounded by
high wall, and the gates are watched by
the police lest the Cilician preacher es-
cape. Many of the houses are built on the
wall, and their balconies projected clear
over and lowered above the gardens out
side. 1t was customary to lower baskets
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 to
house looking for Paul, but his friends hid
him now in one place, now in another. He
is no coward, as fifty incidents in his life
demonstrate. Bat he feels his work is not
done vet and so he evades assassination.
Sis that preacher here:" the police shout
Mt another house door. Sometimes on the
street incognito he passes through crowd
of clenched fists. and sometimes he Sc
cretes himself on the house-top. At last
the infuriate populace 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 home reaches over
the wall. Here he is! Here he is" The
vociferation and blasphemv and bowling
of the pursuers are al 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. Provides.
tally there wss good stout basket in The
house. Paul's friends fasten rope to the
basket. Paul steps into it. The basket is
lifted tc 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
al, a ofA n
alone starts on that famous missionary
tour. the story of which has astonished
earth and Heaven. Appropriate entry in
Paul's diary of travels: Through WIN
dow, in a basket. was l let down by the
wall"
Observe, first, on what a slender tenure
great results hang. The ropemaker who
twisted that cord fastened to that low.
ering basket never knew how much would
depend on the strength of it. How if il
had been broken and the apostles life had
been dashed out: What would have be-
come of the Christian Church: All tina:
magnificent missionary work in Pam
philia, Cappadccia, Galatia. Macedonia
would never have been accomplished. AL
his writings that make up so indis-
pensable and enchanting a part OF
the New Testament would never have
been written. The story of resurrection
would never have been so gloriously
told as he told it. That example of heroic
and triumphant endurance at Philippi. liz
the Mediterranean euroclydon. under flag
citation and at his beheading would no;
have kindled the courage OF ten thousand
martyrdoms. But that rope holding that
basket, how much depended on it! Sc
again and again great results have hung
on what seemed slender circumstances.
Did ever ship of many thousand ton:
crossing the sea have such important pas
senger as had once a boat of leaves. from
taffrail to stern only three or four feet the
vessel made waterproof by a sort of btu
men and floating on the Nile with the in
FAINT lawgiver of the Jews on board. VIVA
il some crocodile should crunch it: VIVA
if some of the cattle wadipy in for drinl
should sink it. Vessels of War sodfetin.e
carry forty guns looking through the por
holes, ready TO open battle. But that tiny
craft on the Nile seems to be armed will
all the guns of thunder that bonbardeC
Sinai at the law giving. On how fragil,
craft sailed how much of historical impor
tance!
The parsonage at Epwor'h. Eng. is OF
fire il the night. and the father rushe'
through the hallway for the rescue of hi
children. Seven children are out and SAT-
Oh the ground, but one remains in the con
Stunning building. Tha: one wakes, and
finding his bed on FIRE and the buildin!
crumbling, comes TO the window, and tw'
peasants make a ladder of their bodies
one peasant standing on the shoulder o
the other. and down the human ladder til
boy descends-Jchn Wesley. If YOU woul,
know how much depended on that ladde
of peasants ask the millions of Methodist
on both sides of the sea. Ask their mis-
sion stations all around the world. Asl
their hundreds of thousands already as
cended to join their founder, who woui,
have persisted but for the living stairs O
peasants shoulders.
An English ship stopped at Pitcairn
Island and right in the midst of surround
ing cannibalism and squalor the passen
gers discovered q Christian colony 0
churches and schools and beautiful home
and highest style of religion and civiliza
ton. For fifty years NO missionary an,
no Christian influence had landed there
Why this oasis Of light amid a desert o
heathendom: Sixty years before a shi
had met disaster and one of the sailors
unable to save any thing else, went to hi
trunk and took ont q Bible which hi
mother had placed there and swan ashore
the Bible held in his teeth. The book wa
read on all sides until the rough an,
vicious population were evangelical and
church was started and an enlightene,
commonwealth established, and the world
history has no more brilliant page thai
that which tells Of the transformation of
nation by one box. 1t did not seem o
much Importance whether the sailor con
x;,raJ 20 hold tho DO in, his toafh nv 10