Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1894-03-16
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject; "Unappreclated Services. &"

Xt., 33.
Damascus is a city or white and glisteninc
architecture sometimes called "the eye Ofthe
East, sometimes called "a pearl surround
cd by emeralds" at one time distinguished
for swords Of the best material, called Da-
mascus blades, and upholstery of richest
fabric. called damasks.
A horseman OF the name Of Paul, riding
toward this city, had heen thrown from tho
saddle. Tho horse had dropped under "a
| flash from the sky, which ut the same time
was so bright It blinded the rider for many
days, and think so permanently injured his
eyesiCht that this defect OF vision became the
thorn IN the flesh he afterward speaks of.
He started for Damascus TO butcher Chris
tians, but after that hard fall from his horse
lie was changed man and preached Christ
in Damascus till tho city was shaken TO its
/ foundation.
/ The mayor gives authority for bis arrest.
/ and the popular cry is: xiii him Kill
| himF The city is surrounded by high
| wall, and the gates are watched 10y the police
/ lest tho Cilican preacher escape. Many OF
] the houses are built on the wall, and their
! balconies projected clear over and hoycrcd
above the gardens outside. 1t was customary
| to lower baskets out OF these balconies and
! pull up fruits and flowers from the garden.
! To this day visitors ut the monastery OF
/ Mount Sinai are lifted and let down in bas-
kets.
Detectives prowled around from house to
| house looking for Paul. hut his friends hid
him, now in one place now in another. He
| ia no coward, rs fifty incidents OF his life
demonstrate. But he feels his work is not
done yet, and so he evades assassination.
! Ills that preacher hereP' the foaming mob
/ shout ut one house door is that fanatic
/ here?" the police shout at another house
/ door. Sometimes on the street in"ognito h"
passes through u crOwdOi clcnched fists. and
sometimes he secrctes himself on the house
: tops AT last the Infatuated people get on
! SUR track OF him.
/ They have positive evidence that ne is in
! the house Of one OF the Christians, the bal
| ConY OF whose home reaches over tho wall.
! "Here he is Here he il The vorifera-
ton and blnsphemy AMI bowling Of the pur-
suers are at the front door They break in.
! Fetch out that gospcliHer and !et Us hang
his beal on the city gate. Where is h"?'
The emergency was terrible. Proyiicntially
there vast good stout basket in the house.
Paul's friends iasten = rope to the basket.
! Paul steps into IT. The basket il 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. clrafully
and cautiously. slowly, but surely farther
/ down and farther down, until tho basket
/ strikes the earth and the apostle steps out.
anu hIbpl anu hlpu' starts bu lilut ldilbbS
missionary tour, the story of which has as
tontshcd earth and heaven. Appropriate en-
try In paul'S diary OF travels. Through Il
window, in q basket, was let down by the
wall.
Observe FIRST on what a slender tenure
great results hang. The ropemaEer who
twisted that cord fastened TO that lowering
| basket never knew how much would Deepen
| on the strength OF it, How Il it had been
upl III IA hul. ,laa hal
out2 What would have become of the Chris
tiun Church? All that magnificent mission
AIRY work in Pamphylia, Capadocia. Galatia
| Macedonia, would never have been accom-
plished. All his writings that make up 80
indispensable aud enchanting part Of the
New Testament would never have been
written. The story OF resurrection would
never have been so Glorously told ns he told
1t. That example OF heroic and triumphant
endurance at Philppt, in the Mediterranean
curoclydOn, under ilagellaton and at his be-
heading would not have kinilod the courage
of 1000 martyrdoms. But the rope hOJ ding
that bnsket, 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 pls-
senGer as hal once Il boat OF leaves, from
taiTratl to stern only thrc" or four feet, the
vessel made waterproof by II coat oi bitumen
and floating on the Nile with the infant law
giver OF the Jews on hoard? What n some
crocodile should crunch IT, What II some
OF the cattle waiing in for drink should
sink IL Vessels Of war sometimes carry
forty guns looking through the portfolios,
ready 10 open battle. But that tiny craft on
the Nile seems to be arme with All the guns
OF thunder that bombariel Sinai At the law
giving. On how fragile craft sailed how
puch OF historical Importance
The parsonage ut Epworth, England. is on
fro in the night, and the father rushed
through tho hallway for the rescue OF his
children. Seven children arc out and safe
on the ground, hut one remains III the con-
Stunning building. That one wakes aud and
Ing his bed on fire and the building crumb-
ling, comes to tho window, andtw peasants
make u ladder OF their bodies, one peasant
standing on tho shoulder OF the other. and
down the human ladder the boy descends-
John Wesley. Ii you would know how much
depended en- that ladder OF peasants, ask the
millions OF AIethodists Oh both sides Of the
sen. Ask their mission stations all round
the world. Ask the hundreds Of thousands
already assembled to join their founder, who
would have persisted but for the living stair
of peasants shoulders.
An English ship stopped at Pitcairn island
and right in the midst OF surrounding canni.
balism and squalor the passengers discov
cred Christian colony of churches anC
schools and beautiful homes and highest
style of religion and civilization. For fifty
years no missionary and no Christian intiu
ence had landed there Why this oasis o
light amid desert OF heathendom? Sixty
years before u ship had met disaster, and onc
OF the sailors, unable to save anything else
went to his trunk andtook out n Bible which
his mother had placed there and swan
ashore, the Bible held in his teeth.
The book was read on all sides until thu
rough and vicious population were eyangel
led and q church was started and an On
lightened commonwealth established and thu
worlds history has no more brilliant pag
than that which tells OF the transformation
OF nation by one book. 1t did not seem o
much importance whether the sailor con
tinued to hold the book in his teeth or let !
fall in the breakers, but upon what small cir
cumstance depended what mighty results
Practical inference--there are no insignifl
canoes in our lives. The minutest thing 4
part OF q magnitude. Inanity is made up o
innnltesmas great things an aggregation
of small things. Bethlehem manger pulling
on a star in the eastern sky One book in
drenched sailors mouth the evangezatlor
of multitude. One boat OF papyrus on tn
Nile freighted with events Tor all ages. Tn
fate Of Chrstendom in n basket let dOwI
from window ON the wall. What you do
do well. II you make rope, make 1t stroni
and true, for you know not how much ma
depend on your workmanship. Ifyou fashion
boat, let it be waterproof, for you know
not who may sail in it.
If you put Bible in the trunk OF your DO.
as he goes from home, let it be- heard In YOU
prayers for it may have IA mission rs far
reaching as the book which the sailor car
rled in his teeth to the Pitcairn beach. Tn
plaLest mans lie is an islnnd between tw
eternitles eternity past ripping against hi
shoulders, eternity to come touching hi
brow. Tho casual. the accidental, that whici
merely happened so, are parts Of grea
plan, and the rope that lets the fugitive apps
tie from the Damascus wall is the cable tina
holds to its mooring the ship Of the churc
in the northeast storm OF tho centuries.
Again, notice unrecogniZed and unrecorJ
ed services. Who spun that rope? VII