The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1894-05-05

anus shoulders.
An English ship stopped at Pitcairn
island, and, right in the midst of sur
rounding cannibalism and squalor, the
passengers discovered a Christian col
ony of churches and schools and beau
tiful homes and highest style of re-
ligion and civilization. For fifty years
no missionary and no Christian influ-
ence had landed there. Why this oasis
of light amid desert of heathendom?
Sixty years before ship had
met disaster and one of the
sailors. 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 evangelical, and a
church was started, and an cnlight-
ened commonwealth established, and
the worlds history has no more bril-
liant page than that which tells of the
transformation of a nation by one
book. 1t did not seem of much inpor-
lance whether the sailor continued to
hold the book in his teeth or
let it fall in the breakers. but upon
what small circumstance depended
what mighty results.
Practical inference: There are no
insignificances in our lives. The mi
nutest thing is part of a magnitude. In
finity is made up of Infnitesimals.
Great things an aggregation OF small
things. Bethlehem manager pulling
on star in the easter sky. One book
in a drenched sailors mouth the evan
gelization of multitude. One boat of
papyrus on the Nile freighted with
events for all ages. The fate of Chris
tendon in a basket let down from a
window on the wall. What you do, do
well. If you make rope make it
strong and true, for you know not
how much may depend on your
workmanship. If you fashion boat
let it be waterproof, for 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 prayers. for it may have mis-
sion 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 eterni-
ties eternity past ripping against his
shoulders, eternity to come touching
his brow. The casual, the accidental,
that which merely happened SO. are
parts of great plan, and the rope
that let's the fugitive apostle from the
Damascus wall is the cable that holds
to it's mooring the ship of the church
in the northeast storm of the centuries.
Again notice unrecognized and I'M
recorded services. Who spun that
rope? Who tied it to the basket? Who
steadied the illustrious preacher as
he stepped into it? Who relaxed not
muscle of the arm or dismissed an
anxious look from his face until the
basket touched the ground and dis
charged it's magnificent cargo? Not
one of their names has come to us, but
there was no work done that day in
Damascus nor in all the earth COM
pared with the importance of their
work What if they had in their
agitation tied a knot that
could slip? What If the sound of
the mob at the door had led them to
say: paul must take care of himself.
and we will take care of ourselves. y
No, no! 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 Ephesians. 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 Alexan
drian corn-ship when the sailors were
nearly scared to death, and preached
a sermon that nearly shook Felix of
his Judgment seat. l near the mer
and women who helped him dowr
through the window and over the wal
talking in private over the matter
and saying: "How glad am that we
have effected that rescue! In coming
times others may get the glory o.
| Paul's work, but no one shall rob us o.
the satisfaction of knowing that we
held the rope"
There are said to be about sixty-nint
thousand ministers of religion in this
country. About fifty thousand war
rant came from early homes which hat
| to struggle for the necessaries of life
! The sons Of rich bankers and mer
chants generally become bankers and
merchants. The most of those wht
become ministers are the sons of thos,
| who had terrific struggle to get thei
/ everyday bread. The collegiat,
and theological education of tina
SON took every luxury from thu
parental table for eight years
The other children were more seantil,
apparelled. The son at college ever.
little while got bundle from home
| In it were the socks that mother hat
knit, sitting up late at night, her sigh
not as good as once it was. And Their
also were some delicacies from the sis
ter's hand for the voracious appetit
of hungry student
The years go by, and the son ha
been ordained and is preaching tn
glorious Gospel, and great reviva
comes, and souls by scores and hun
dreds accept the Gospel from the lip
4 e.