Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-03-16


millions of Methodists on both sides of
the sea- Ask their mission stations all
round the world. Ask the hundreds
of thousands already assembled to join
their founder, who would have per-
ished but for the living stair of peas
ants shoulders.
An English ship stopped at Pitcairn
Island, and right in the midst of sur
rounding cannibalism and squalor, the
passengers discovered Christian col
ony Of churches and schools and beau
tifui homes and highest style of re-
ligion and civilization. For fifty years
no missionary and no Christian infiu-
ence had landed there. Why this oasis
of light amid desert of heathendom?
Sixty years before, n ship had met dis
aster, and one of the sailors, unable to
save anything else, went to his trunk
/ and took out Bible which his mother
1 had placed there and SWAN ashore,
the Bible held in his teeth. Tie book
was read on all sides until the rough
and vicious population were evange-
| lized, and a church was started, and
an enlightened commonwealth estab-
lished, and the worlds history has no
more brilliant page than that which
| tells of the Transformation OF a 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 ii fall in the breakers, but upon
what small circumstance depended
what mighty resultsl
| -
insignifcances in our lives. The min
utest thing is part OF n magnitude.
lntinity is made up of infnitesimals.
Great things an aggregation of small
things. Bethlehem manger pulling on
a star in the eastern sky. One book
in a drenehed sailors mouth the
evangelization of multitude. One
boat of papyrus on the Nile freighted
with events for all ages The fate of
Christendom in basket let down from
n 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 work
manship. II you fashion boat let it
be waterproof, for you know
not who may sail in it If
you put a Bible in the trunk of your
boy as he goes from home, let it be
heard in your prayers, for it may have
a mission 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
eternities - eternity past ripping
against his shoulders, eternity to come
touching his brow. The casual, the
accidental, that which merely hap
pened so, are parts of great plan, and
the rope that lets the fugitive apostle
from the Damascus wall is the cable
that holds to its 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 a muscle of the arm or dismissed
an anxious look from his face until
the basket touched the ground and
discharged its magnificent cargo? Not
one of their names has come 10 u.s. but
there was no work done thaC day in
Damascus or in all the earth compared
with the Importance of their work.
What if they had in their agitation
tied a knot that could ship? 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" No, no! They held the
| rOra and IN dn;n,. or, ala ,,,oro 10 "a 4,
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 ex-
ultant they must bave 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 Alcxan-
drian corn ship when the sailors were
nearly scared to death, and preached
a sermon that nearly shook Felix off
his judgment seat / hear the men
and women who helped him down
through the window and over the wall
talking in private over the matter and
saying: How glad l am that we ef-
fected that rescue! 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"
There are said to be about 80, 900
ministers of religion in this country.
About $4,000 | warrant came from
early homes which had to struggle for
the necessaries of life. The sons of
rich bankers and merchants generally
become bankers and merchants The
most Of those who become ministers
are the sons of those who had terrific
struggle to get their everyday bread.
The collegiate and theological educa-
ton of that son took every luxury
from the parental table for eight
years The other children were more