Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-08-27
TAtMAGE IN CANADA.
GREAT RESULTS MAY DEPEND on
SMALL EVENTS.

The Casual. the Accidental. Are Parts u
| Mothers Prayers.
| GRIMsBY, Canada, Aug. '96-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 Inn
mense throngs assembled DIR. Talmage has
preached at Griinsby many summers. This
closes his summer absence He has preached,
lectured and visited in thirteen states of the
| 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 DIR. Tai
mage took for his text: Through window,
in a basket, was let down by the walln III
Cor. ii, SS). He said:
Damascus is city of white and glistening
architecture, sometimes called ''the eye Of
the 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. horseman by the
name OF Paul, riding toward this city, had
been thrown from the saddle The horse had
dropped under szlash from the sky, which at
the same time was SO bright it blinded the
rider for many days, and, think, so perma-
nently 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,
i nd b,x ,lor % fsL~;lI hs,,t
The city is surrounded by high wall, and
the gates are watched by the police lest the
Cilician preacher escape. Many of the
houses are built on the 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 incidents In
his life demonstrate But he feels his work
| is not done yet, and so he evades assassina-
ton as that preacher here" the foaming
mob shout at one house door. ais that
fanatic here7n the police shout at another
house door. Sometimes on the street. incog-
nito, he passes through crowd of clenched
fists, and sometimes he secretes himself on
the housetop. At last the infuriate populace
get on sure track of him They have posi-
| tive evidence that he is in the house Of ono
Of the Christians, the balcony Of whose home
reaches over the wall "Here he isl Here
he isl" 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 the city
gate Where is hep The emergency was ter
rible Providentially there was a good, stout
basket in the house. Paul's friends fasten a
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 snd 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 Pauls diary of travels:
Through a window, in a basket, was let
down by the wall.n
Observe, first, on what q slender tenure
great results hang. The ropemaker who
twisted that cord fastened to that lowering
basket never knew how much would depend
on the strength Of it. How il it had been
broken and the apostles life had been dashed
outi What would have become of the Chris.
tian church! All that magnificent mission
ary work in Pamphilia, Cappadocia, Gala
tia, Macedonia would never have been &C
complished- All his writings that make up
so indispensable 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, in the Mediter-
ranean euroclydon, under fagellation
and at his beheading would not have
kindled the courage of ten Thousand martyr
dous But that rope holding that basket,
how much depended on it'll So again and
egain great results have hung on what
seemed slender circumstances.
Did ever ship of many thousand tons cross
ing the sea have such important passenger
Us had once a boat Of leaves, from taffrail to
stern only three or four feet, the vessel made
waterproof by coat Of bitumen, and float
ing on the Nile with the infant lawgiver Of
the Jews on boardf What II some crocodile
should crunch itf What If some of the cat
tie, wading in for a drink, should sink It'll
Vessels Of war sometimes carry forty guns
looking through the portfolios, 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
importancel
The parsonage at Epworth, England, Is on
fire in the night, and the father rushed
through the hallway for the rescue of hi
children. Seven children are out and safe Oh
the ground, but one remains in the consum-
ing building. That one wakes, and finding
his bed on fire and the building crumbling,
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
perished 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
Christian colony Of churches and schools
and beautiful homes and highest style of re-
ligion and civilization. For fifty years no
missionary and no Christian influence had
landed there. Why this oasis Of light amid
desert of heathendomi Sixty years before
ship had met disaster, and one Of the sail
ora 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 wes read on all sides until the
rough and vicious population were evan
celized, and church was started, and an
enlightened commonwealth established, and
the worlds history has no more brilliant
pace than that which tells of the transforma-
aioa, Of q, nation hv one book 1t did not