The Red Cloud chief., 1894-03-30
small circumstance depended what mighty

Y iiitftiCts iutTt u uO iIbf8-
~niflcances In our lives. The minutest thing
Is part Of a magnitude. ~Inhnity is made up
Of infnit,simals. Great things an aggrega-
ton Of small shings. Bethlehem manger
pulling on n star In the eastern sky. One
book In adrenched sailors mouth the evan
gelization Of a multitude. One boa OF
papyrus on the Nile freightcd 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. IL you make n rope,
make II strong and true, for you know not
how much may depend IN your workman
ship. II you fashion n boat. let 1t be wa
terproof, for you know not who may sail
In II.
II you put n Bible In the trunk Of your
boy as he goes from home, let 1t be heard In
your prayers, for IL may have a mission a.
farreaching as the book which the sailor
carried In his teeth to the Pitcairn beach.
The p~lainest mans life Is an island be-
tween two enthusiastically past ripping
against his shoulders, eternity to come
touching his brow. The casual, the acci-
dental, that which merely happened so. are
parts of n great plan, and the rope that let's
the fugitive apostle from the Damascus
wall is the cable that holds ia its mooring
the ship Of the church In the northeast
storm Of the centuries.
Again, notice unrecognized and unrecord-
ed services. Who spun that roper Who
tied It to the basket Who steadied the
illustrious preacher rs he stepped into III
Who relaxed not a muscle Of the arm or
dismissed an anxious look from his face
until the basket touched the ground and
discharged its magnificent cargOp Not one
Of their names has come to US, but there
was no work done That day In Damascus or
In all the earth compared with the impor-
lance Of their work. What IL they had I'm
their agitation tied n knot that could slipS
What IL the sound Of the mob mt the door
had led them to say, Paul must take care
OF himself. and we will take care Of our
s~elvesf" No, mol They held the rope, and
In doing SO did more for the Christian
church than any thousand Of us will ever
accomplish. But God knows and has made
eternal record Of their undertaking. And
they know.
How exultant they must have felt when
they read his letters to the Romans, to the
Corinthians, to the Galatians, to the Ephe.
slams, to the Philippians, to the Colossians,
to the Thessalonians, to Timothy, To Titus,
to Philemon, to the Hebrews, and when
they heard how he walked out of prison,
with the earthquake unlocking the door for
him, and took command Of the Alexandrian
cornship when the sailors were nearly scared
to death, and preached a sermon that near
ly shook Felix of his Judgment seat! I hear
the men and women who helped him down
through the window and over the wall talk
ing in private over the matter and saying:
"How glad ! am that we effected that res
cue! In coming times Others may get the
glory Of Paul's work, but no one shall rob
us Of the satisfaction of knowing that we
held the rope"
I'VE HELD THE ROPE"
There are said to be about {, 1000 minis.
ters of religion In this country. About 60.
900, ! warrant, came from carly homes
which had to struggle for the necessaries Of
life. The sons Of rich bankers and mer-
chants generally become bankers and mer.
tchapts-Ths -iffest- o. those who becorns
ministers are the sons Of those who had ter.
rifle struggle to get their everyday bread.
The collegiate and theological education Of
that son took every luxury from the paren.
tai table for eight years. The other children
were more scantily appareled. The son at
college every little while got u bundle from
home. In it We're the socks that mother
had knit, sitting up late at night, her sight
not as good as once IL was. Aud there also
were some delicacies from the sisters hand
Tor the voracious appetite OF a hungry stu
dent.
The years go by, and the son has been or.
dained and Is preaching the glorious Cos
pei, and a great revival comes, and souls
by scores and hundreds accept the gospel
from the lips of that young preacher, and
father and mother, quite old now, are visit.
ing the son at the village parsonage, and at
the close Of IA Sabbath OF mighty blessing
father and mother retire to their room, the
son lighting the way and asking them IL be
can do anything to make them more com
Portable, saying II they wan anything in
the night just to knock on the wall.
And then all alone father and mother
talk over the gracious influences OF the day
and say: "Well, il was worth all we went
through to educate that boy. 1t was a hard
pull, but we held on till the work was done.
The world may not know II; but, mother,
we held the rope, didn't WEI" And the
voice, tremulous with joyful emotion, re-
spends; "Yes, father; we held the rope. I
feel my work Is done. Now, Lord, lettest
thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine
eyes have seen thy salvation.' ''Pshaw,"
says the father, II never felt SO much like
living in my life rs now! l want to sec
what that fellow Is going on to do, he has
begun SO we'll"
HIDDEN FROM HI WORLD.
Oh, men n women here assembled, you
brag sometimes how you have fought your
way In the world, but / think there have
been helpful influences that you have never
fully acknowledged. Has there not been
some influence in your early or present
home that the world cannot seer Does
there not reach to you from among the New
England hills, or from western prairies, or
from southern plantation, or from English
or Scottish or Irish home, a cord Of infu.
ence that has kept you right when you
would v gone astray, and which, after
you had made a crooked track, recalled
your The rope may be rs long as so years
or 600 miles long or 1900 miles long, but
hands that went out Of mortal sight long
ago still hold the rope.
You want q very swift horse, and you
need to rowel him with sharpest spurs, and
to let the reins lie loose upon the neck, and
to give a shout to u racer, II you are going
to rid out of reach Of your mothers pray.
ers. Why, a ship crossing the Atlantic In
seven days can't sail away from theml A
sailor finds them on the lookout as he takes
II