The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-08-30

Island, and right in the midst of sur
rounding cannibalsm and squalor, the
passengers discovered Christian colony
of churches and schools and beautiful
homes and highest style of religion and
civilization. For Fifty years no mission
airy and no Christian influence had landed
there Why this oasis of light amid
desert of heathendom9 Sixty years be-
fore a ship had met disaster, and one of
the sailors, unable to save anything else,
went TO his trunk and took out 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
evangelical, and church was
started and an enlightened common
wealth established, and the worlds his
tory has no more brilliant page than that
which tells of the transformation of
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 circumstances depended
what mighty resultsl
Practical inference: There are no in
signifcances in our lives. The minutest
thing is part of magnitude Infnity
is made up of infinitesimals Great
things an aggregation of small things.
Bethlehem manger pulling on star in
the eastern sky. One book in drenched
sailors mouth the evangelization of
multitude. One boat of papyrus on the
Nile freighted with events for all ages.
The fate of Christendom in basket let
down from window on the wall What
you do, do well. If you make rope
make it strong and true, for you know
not how much may depend on your
workmanship. If you fashion a boat
let it be waterproof, for you know not
who may sail in it. If you put Bible in
the trunk of your boy as he goes from
home, let it be heard in your prayers, for
it may have a mission as far reaching as
| the book which the sailor carried in his
teeth to the Pitcairn beach. The plain
est mans life is an island between two
eternities-eternity past rippling against
his shoulders, eternity to come touching
| his brow. The casual, the accidental,
that which merely happens SO, are parts
of great plan, and the rope that lets
| the fugitive apostle from the Damascus
wall is the cable that holds to its nlooYing
the ship of the church in the northeast
storm of the centuries
Again, notice unrecognized and unre-
corded services. Who spun the rope?
| Who tied it to the basket2 Who steadied
| the illustrious preacher as he stepped into
it? Who relaxed not a muscle of the
arm or dismissed an anxious look from
| his face until the basket touched the
ground and discharged its magnificent
cargo2 Not one of their names has
| come to us, but there was no work
done that day in Damascus or in
all the earth compared with the i'm
portance of their work. What if
| they had in the agitation tied knot
that could slip9 What if the sound of a
mob at the door had led them to say:
"Paul must take care of himself. and we
will take care of ourselves. No, no!
| They held the rope, and in doing SO did
more for the Christian church than any
thousand of us will ever accomplish.
| But God knows and has made eternal
record of their undertaking. And they
know. How exultant they must have
| felt when they read his letters to the
Romans, to the Corinthians, to the Gala
tians, to the Ephesians, to the Philippi-
ans, to the Colossians, to the Thessaloni-
| ans, to Timothy, to Titus, to Philemon,
| to the Hebrews, and when they heard
how he walked out Of prison with the
earthquake unlocking the door for
|, him, and took command of the Alexan-
drian corn ship when the sailors were
nearly scared to death, aud preached a
sermon that nearly shook Felix off his
Judgment seat. hear the men and wo-
men who helped him down through the
window and over the wall talking in
private over the matter, and saying:
'How glad / am that we effected that
rescue! In coming times others may
get the glory OF Pauls work, but
no one shall rob us of the satisfaction of
knowing that we held the rope"
There are said to he about sixty-nine
thousand ministers of religion in this
country. About fifty thousand l war
rant came from early homes which had
10 struggle for the necessaries of life.
The sons of rich bankers and mer-
chants generally become bankers and
merchants. The most of those who be-
come ministers are the sons of those who
had terrific struggle to get their every
day bread The collegiate and theolog-
ical education of that son took every
luxury from the parental table for eight
years. THE other children were more
scantily appareled. The son at college
everyx little while got bundle from
home. In it were the socks that mother
had knit, sitting up late at night, hei
sight not as good as once it was
And there also were some delicacies
from the sisters hand for the voracious
appetite of hungry student. The father
swung the heavy cradle through the
wheat, the sweat rolling from his CHR
bedewing every step of the way, and ther
sitting down under the cherry tree a
noon thinking to himself: 81 am fear
fully tired, but it will pay if lean once
see that boy through college, and if car
know that he will be preaching til,
Gospel after l am doad." The younGel
children want to knpw why they can
have this and that as others do, and thu
mother says; 'sBe patient, my children
until your brother graduates, and thei
you shall have more luxuries, but w,
must see that boy through.
The years go by and the son has beei
ordained and is preaching the glorious
oOSkESi, SIcdb IeNlNdl SOIltS, olit
souls by scores and hundreds accept tn
. Gospel from the lips of that youn;
preacher, and father and mother, quit
} old now, are visiting the son at the vii
lage parsonage, and at the close of ;
Sabbath of mighty blessing father an'
, mother retire to their room, the sol
, lighting the way and asking them if h
! could do anything to make them NOR
: comfortable, saying if they want any
| thing in the night just to knock on tn
5 wall. And then all alone father an
' mother talk over the gracious influence
: of the day and say: "Well, it was wort
. all we went through to educate that boy
n 1t was a hard pull, but we held on ii
k the work was done, The world ma
y not know it, but, mother, we held th
O rope, didn't we2' And the voice, tren