Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1888-10-04
LITTLE THINGS.
How Great Results Often Depend
on Small Events.
Rev. DIR. Talmage breaches About Paul,
Escape From His Enemies at Damas-
cus-Let Down From Bal
cony in a Basket.

Events, was the subject of recent sermon
preached by Rev. T. Dewitt Talnace. ID. ID.
on the camp ground at Grimsby, Can. His
text was from IL. Cor, it,, 80: Through a
window, in basket, was let down by the
wall" Following is the sermon:
Damascus is city of white and glisten-
ing architecture, sometimes called stha eve
OF the East" sometimes called IA 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 da:nasks. A horseman
by the name of Paul, riding towards this
city, had been thrown from the saddle. The
horse had dropped under flash from the
sky. which at the same time was so bright
it blinded the rider for many days, and, |
think, so permanently injured his eyesight
that this defect of vision became the thorn
in the flesh he afterward speaks Of He
started for Damascus to butcher Christians,
but after that hard fall from his horse he
was 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 "Kil him! Kill
him" The city is surrounded by high
wall and the gates are watched by the po-
lice lest the Cilician preacher escape. Many
of the houses are built on the wall, and their
balconies projected clear over and lowered
above the gardens outside 1t was custom
airy to lower baskets out of these balconies
and pull up fruits and flowers from the gar
dens. To this day visitors to the monastery
of Mount Sinai are lifted and let down in
baskets. Detectives prowed 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 as
sassination. rs that preacher herew the
foaming mob shout at one house door SIS
that fanatic herel" the police shout at an.
other house door. Sometimes on the
street ineognito he passes through a
crowd of clenched fists aud some
times 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 one
of the Christians, the balcony OF whose home
reaches over the wall Here he isl Here
he isp' 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 hef' The emergency was
terrible Providentially there was good
stout basket at the house. Paurs friends
fasten a rope to I G basket Paul steps into
it. The basket is lifte to the edge Of the
balcony on the wall. and then when Paul
holds on to the rope with both hands his
friends lower away, carefully and cautious
ly, 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 a,tonished
earth and Heaven. Appropriate entry in
Paulis diary of travels; Through win
dow, in basket, was | let down by the
walln
Observe, first, on what slender tenure
great results hang. The ropemaker who
twisted that cord fastened TO that lowering
basket never knew now much would depend
on the strength Of it. How if it had been
broken, and the apostles life had been
dashed QUIZ What would have become Of
the Christian church! All that magnificent
missionary work in Pamphila Cappadocia,
Galatia, Macedonia would never have been
accomplished. All his writings that make
up so Indispensable and enchanting 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 trl-
umphant endurance at Philippi, in the Med
iterranean euroclydon, under iiagellation
and at his beheading would not have kindled
the courage of ten thousand martyrdoms.
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
crossing the sea have such important pas
senger as had once boat of leaves, from
taffrail to stern only three or four feet, the
vessel made waterproof by coat of bitumen
and floating on the Nile with the infant
lawgiver of the Jews on boardl What If
some crocodile should crush it, What If
some of the cattle wading in for drink
should sink it! Vessels of war sometimes
carry forty guns looking through the port
holes. 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
fire in the night, and the father rushed
through the hallway for the rescue of his
on the ground, but one remains in the con-
Stunning building. That one wakes, and
finding his bed on fire and the building
crumbling, comes to the window and two
make ladder of their bodies, one
peasant standing on the shoulder OF the
other. and down the human ladder the boy |
Wesley. If you would
know how much depended on that ladder Of 1
peasants. ask the millions of Methcdists on I
both sides of the sea. Ask their mission 4
stations all around the world. Ask their /
hundreds of thousands already assembled I
to ioin their founder, who would have per- (
ished but for the living stairs OF peasants 4
shoulders.
An English ship SLOPES at Pitcairn /
Island. and right in the midst OF surround
ing cannibalism and squalor the passengers T
a Christian colony OF churches /
and schools and beautiful homes and highest I
style Of religion and civilization. For fifty I
years no mis- sionary and no Christian infu-
snce had landed there. Whythis oasis Of light I
amid a desert of heathendomi Sixty years
before a ship met disaster. and one OF the
sailors unable to save any thing else, went