Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1894-03-23
REV. DR.. TALMAGR.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine'S Sun
day Sermon.
Subject: "Unsppreciated Services

Damascus is n city OF white and glistening
architecture sometimes called "the eye ofthe
! East" sometimes called "a pearl suffoundI
ed by emeralds," at one time distinguished
| for swords of the best material, called Da-
| mascus blades, aid upholstery OF richest
fabric, called damssks.
A horseman OF the name Of Paul, riding
toward this city, bad been thrown. from the
saddle. The horse had dropped under a
flash from the sky, which at the same time
was so bright il blinded the rider for many
days, andI think 30 permanently injured his
eyesight that this defect Of vision beda-lethe
thorn in the flesh Ne after#ari speaks o..
He started for Damascus I'd butcher Chris
tians, but after that hard fall from his horse
ne was changed man AMI 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
Finn The city is surrounded by high
wall, and the gates are watched by the police
lest the Ciliclan preacher escape: Many Of
the houses arc built bn the wall, and their
balconies projected clear over and lowered
above The gardens outside. 1t was customary
70 lower baskets out of these balconies AMI
pull up fruits and flowers from the gar len.
To this day visitors at the monastery pf
Mount Sinai are lifted and let dewh III bas=
kets.
Detectives prowled afound from house ID
house looking fof Paul, but his friends hid
him, now Ia one place; now in another. He
IL no coward, as fifty incidents of his life
demonstrate. But he feels his Work is not
done let; and SO he evades assassination
"Is that preacher here?" the foaming MOI
shout at ono house door. SIS that fanatic
heteg" the police shout at another house
door. Sometimes on the street incognito he
passes through a crowdo OF clenched fists. and
sometimes he secretes himself on the hodse-
tops, At last the infuriate1 People get Oh
sure track of him.
They have positive evidence that he is IN
the house Of one of the Christians, the ba,-
eony of whose home reaches over the wall.
Here he is! Here he is ~ The vocifera-
ton and blasphemy and bowling Of the pur-
suers are at the front door, They bleak i'll,
''Fetch ont that gospelzet and let vs. hang
his heal on the city gate. Whei is hep
The emergency was terrible. Providentially
there was a good stout basket in the house:
Paips friends fasteh rope I'd the basket,
Paul steps into it. The basket is lifted Id
the edge of the balcony on the wall, AMI
then while Paul holds On TO the rope with
both hands his friends lower away carefully
and cautiously. slowly, but surely, farther
down and farther 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 as
tonished earth and heaven. Appropriate en-
try in Paurs diary of travels, Through
window, III basket, was l let down by the
wall"
Observe 1rst on what a slender tenure
great results hang. The topemakef who
twisted that cord fastened to that lowering
basket never knew how much would depend
on the strength of it, How If il had been
broken, and the apostles life had been dashed
out2 What would have become 6i the Chris
tian Church, Ali that magnificent mission
airy work ia Pamphylia, Capadocia, GalatiG,
Macedonia, would never have been accom-
plished. 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 triumphant
endurance at Philippi, in the Mediterranean
curoclydon, under fiagelation and at his bea
heading would not have kihdled the eohrage
OF 10, 600 martyrdoms. But the rope holding
that basket, how much depended On it Sd
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 a boat Of leaves from
taffrail to stern only three or four feet, the
vessel made waterproof by coat OF bitunIen
and floating on the Nile with the infant lsw-
giver of the Jews on board2 What If some
crocodile should crunch i2 What il some
of the cattle wading in for drink should
sink it, 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 arme1 With all the gums
of thunder that bombarded Sinai a the law
giving. On how fragile craft sailed how
much Of historical Importance.
The parsonage at Epworth. England, is on
fire i'll 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 con-
Stunning building. That one wakes. aud find
ing his bed on fire and the building crumb-
ling, comes TO the window. and two peasants
make a ladder of their bodies. one peasant
standing on the shoulder of the other. and
down the human ladder tho boy descends--
John Wesley. If you would know how much
depended on that ladder OF peasants, ask the
millions OF Methodsts on both sides of the
sea. Ask their mission stations all roun1
the world. Ask the hun lreds 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 sIrro1n1ing clnni-
balism and squqlor the passengers discoy-
cred Christian colony OF churches and
schools and beautiful homes and highest
style of religion and civilization. For fifty
years no missionary AMI no Christian inhu-
ence had landed there Why this oasis Of
light amid desert of heathendom? Sixty
years before a ship had met disaster, and one
of the sailors, unable to save anything else,
went to his trunk andtook out a Bible which
his mother had placed there ana swan
ashore, the Bible held in his teeth.
The book was read on all sides until the
rough and vicious population were eyangel-
lied, and church was started, an an en-
lightened commonwealth established, an | the
worlds history has no mora brilliant page
than that which tells Of the IT. insformqtion
OF nation By one book 1t did not seem OF
much importance whether the sailor con-
tinued to hold the book in his teeth or let it
fall in the breakers. but upon what snail cir
cumstance depended what mighty results
Practical inference--there are no insignifl-
canoes in our lives. The minutest thing IS
part of a magnitude. Infnty is made up OF
lninitesimals great things an aggregation
of small things. Bethlehem manger pulling
on a star in the eastern sky. One book in II
drenched sailors mouth the evangellzltion
OF multitude One boat OF papyrus on the
Nile freighted with events for all ages. The
fate of Christendom in a basket let down
from u window on the wall. What you do.
do well. II you make rope, make 1t strong
and true, for you know not how much may
depend on your workmanship. H~~A fashion
boat, let it be waterproof, fol 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