The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-08-31
TALMAGE IN CANADA.
GREAT RESULTS MAY DEPEND ON
sMALL EVENTS.


menss throngs assembled DR.. Talmage ha,
preached at Grimsby many summerk Thii
closes his summer absence. He has preached
lectured and visited in thirteen states Of the
Union this summer, his audiences numbering
tan and fifteen thousand people The ubjec'
Of his sermon here today was "Great Results
May Depend on Small Events." DR.. Tai
mage took for his text: Through window,
Cor. ii, S9. He said:
Damascus IL city OF white and glisteninp
architecture, sometimes called "rhe eye Of
the east" sometimes called "a pearl sur
rounded by emeralds," at one tire distin
guished for swords Of the bess material, called
Damascus blades, and upholstery Of riches
fabric called damasks. A horseman by thu
name Of Paul, riding toward this city, had
been thrown from the saddle. The horse had
dropped under o fash from the sky, which al
the same time was 80 bright it blinded thu
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 bis horse be was a changed mar
and preached Christ In Damascus till the city
was shaken to its foundation
Tho mayor gives authority for his arrest
and the popular cry Is, "Kin himi Kill himr
The city b 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 lowered
above the gardens outsida It was custom
airy 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 II
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
bis life demonstrate But he feels his WORK
is not done yet, and so he evades assassina-
ton sis that preacher heref' the foamine
mob shout at one house door. "Is that
fanatic herei" the police shout ct another
house door. Sometimes on the street. incog-
nito, he passes through Q 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.
dive evidence that he Is In the house Of one
Of the Christians, the balcony Of whose home
reaches over the wall "Here he Isl Here
he isr 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 her The emergency was ter
rible. Providentially there was good, stout
basket In the house. Pauls friends fasten q
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 q window, I'm q basket, was I let
down by the wall"
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 II 1t had been
broken and the apostles Life had been dashed
QUIT What would havo become of the Chris
iea churchi All that magnificent mission
airy work in Pamphilia, Cappadocia, Gala
complished All his writings that make up
20 indispensable and enchanting O part of
the New Testament would never have been
written. The story Of resurrection would
never have been 50 gloriously told as he told
1t. That example Of heroic and triumphant
endurance at Philippi, In the Mediter-
ranean euroclydon, under hagellation
and at his beheading would not have
loI L. 80
IONS. But that rope holding that basket,
how much depended on itl 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
Is had once a boat Of leaves, from taffrail to
tern only three or four feet, the vessel made
waterproof by a coat of bitumen, and foat-
ing on the Nile with the infant lawgiver of
the Jews on boardi What IL some crocodile
Ihould crunch iti What If some of the cat
lie, wading In for a drink, should sink 1T
Vessels Of war sometimes carry forty guns
looking through the portfolios, ready to open
battle. But that tiny craft ON the Nile seems
10 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
are In the night, and the father rushed
through the hallway for the rescue Of his
children. Seven children are out and safe on
the ground, but one remains In the consum-
ing building That one wakes, and finding
bis 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-
Icy. II 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
q 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
Q desert Of heathendomi Sixty years before
Q ship had met disaster, and one Of the sail
ors, 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 evan
gelized, and church was started, and an
enlightened commonwealth established, and
the worlds history has no more brilliant
page than that which tells Of the transforms
ton OF nation by one book, 1t did not
seam of much Importance whether the sailor
continued to hold the book In his teeth or let
&c fall In the breakers, but upon what small
circumstance depended what mighty 70.
Rlitsl
Practical inference, There are no insig-
nifcances IN our lives. The minutest thing
n part OF magnitude. Infnity IL made up
Of infinitesimala Great things an aggrega-
tion Of small things Bethlehem Manager pull
ing on star In the eastern sky. One book
tn o drenched sailors mouth the evangelical
ton of q 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 we'll II you make rope make Il
strong and true, for you know not how much
may depend on your workmanship II you
fashiona boat let IL be waterproof, for you
know not who may sail In 1t II you put a
Bible in the trunk Of your boy as he goes from
home, let 1t be heard in your prayers, for IL
may have mission as far reaching as the
book which the sailor carried In his teeth to
the Pitcairn beach. The plainest mans Life
Is an island between two enthusiastically
past ripping against his shoulders, eternity
to come touching his brow. The casual, the
accidental, that which merely happens 20, are
parts OF 9 great plan. and he rope that