Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-03-23
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: ssUnappreciated Services. 81

Z
| architecture sometimes called ''the eye ofthe
| East" sometimes called "a pearl surround
| ed 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 been thrown from the
! saddle. The horse had dropped under a
| flash from the sky which at the same time
| was so bright it blinded the rider for many
| days, and think so permanently injured his
| eyeSight 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
| he was changed man and 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
| him! The city is surrounded by high
| wall, and the gates watched by the police
| lest the Cilician preacher escape. Many of
! the houses are built on the wall and their
| balconies projected clear over and hOvered
| above the gardens outside 1t was customary
! 10 lower baskets out of these balconies and
! pull up fruits aud flowers from the garden.
| 70 this day visitors at the monastery OF
! Mount Sinai are lifted and let down in bas.
| ketS.
| Detectives prOwIed around from house to
| house looking for Paul, but his friends hH
| him, now in one place now in another. He
! II no coward, rs llIty incidents OF MS lIf9
| demonstrate. But he feels his work is not
| done yet, and so he evades assassination.
| ''ls that preacher here?" the foaming mob
| shout at one house door SIS that fanatic
! hcre?" the police shO 1t at another house
| door. Sometimes on the street incOgnito he
| passes through a crowd of cIenched fists, and
sometimes he secretes himself on the house
tops. At last the infurrate1 people get on
sure track of him.
They have positive evidence that he is in
the house of one Of the Christians, the bal
cOny of whose home reaches over the wall.
Here he is Here he is ~ The Yocifera-
ton and blaspnemy and bowling of the pur-
! suers are at the front door. They break in.
| ''Fetch out that gOspelizer and let us hang
! his head on the city gate. Where is he?''
| The emergency was terrible. Providentaiy
! there was good stout basket IN the house.
| Paufs friends fasten rope to the basket.
| Paul steps into it. The basket is 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 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 that famous
missionary tour, the story of which has as
tOntshed earth and heaven. Appropriate en-
try III PauPs diary OF travels, "ThrOugh
window, in a basket, was let down by the
wall"
Observe first on what slender tenure
great results hang. The ropemaker who
twisted that cord fastened to that lowering
basket never knew how much would depend
on the strength OF it. How if it had been
| broken, and the apostles life had been dashed
out? What would have become of the Chris
tian Church? All that magnificent mission
airy work IN Pamphylia, CapadOcia, Galata
Macedonia, would never have been accom-
pished 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 50 GlOriOusiy told as he told
It. That example of heroic and triumphant
endurance at Philippt i'll the Mediterranean
eurOclydOn, under fiagellation and at his be.
heading would not have kindIed the courage
of 10 600 martyrdOms. But the rope holding
that basket. how much depended on it SO
again and again great results have hung oD
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
tatfrai to stern only three or four feet. the
vessel made waterproof by coat Of hitumen
and floating on the Nile with the infant law
giver of the Jews on board? What if some
crocodile should crunch it? What if some
OF the cattle wadinS in for drink should
sink it3 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 armed with all the guns
OF thunder that bOmbarded Sinai at the law
giving. On how fragile craft sailed how
much OF historical Importance.
The parsonage at Epworth. England. is on
fire in the night, and the father rushed
through the hallway for the rescue of his
children. Seven children are oul ana safe
on the ground. but one remains in the con-
suminC building That one wakes aud find
ing his bed on fire and the building crumb-
linz. comes to the window, and two peasants
make a ladder of their bodies, one peasant
ltpnliD,. on tbn Of no ~ hnr- 4
down the human ladder the boy descends-
John Wesley. Ii you would know how much
depended On that ladder of peasants. ask the
millions of MethOiists Oh both sides of the
sea. Ask their mission stations all round
the world. Ask the hundreds of thousands
already ascended to join their founder. who
would have perished but for the living stair
OF peasants, shoulders.
An English ship stopped at Pitcairn island
and right in the midst Ofsurr0undtng canni-
balism and squalOr the passengers disc0y-
cred Christian colony of churches and
schools and beautiful homes and highest
style OF religion and civilization. For fftv
years no missionary and DO Christian infiu-
ehce mad landed there Why this oasis cf
llSht amid desert of heathendOm? SiXtv
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 evangel-
lied, and church was started and an en-
Hghtened commonwealth established and the
world IS 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 it
fall in the breakers, but upon what small cir
cumstance depended what mighty results.
Practical inference-there are no nsignif-
part of magnitude. Infinity is made up OF
infinitesimals great things an aggregation
of small things. Bethlehem manger pulling
on a star in the eastern sky. One book in a
drenched sailors mouth the eVangelizatiOn
of a multitude. One boat of papyrus on the
Nile freighted with events for all ages. The
fate of Christendom in a basket let down
from a window on the wall. What you DO.
do well. If you make u rope, make It stron%
and true, for you know not how much may
depend on your Workmanship. II 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 lie goes rom home, let it be heard in your
prayers. for it may have mission as far
reaching as the book which the sailor car
ried in his teeth to the Pitcairn beach The
plaLest mans life is an island between two
eternities-eternityp 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 lets the fugitive apos-
tie from the Damascus wall is the cable that
holds to its mooring the ship of the church
Ill the northeast storm of the centuries.
Again, notice unrecognized and unrecord-
ed services. Who spun that rope? Who
tied it to the basket? Who steadied the il
Iustrlons preacher as he stepped into #?
VINO relaxed not muscle of the arm or dis
missed an anxious look from his face until
me basket touched the ground and dis
charged its magnificent cargo? Not one of
| thelr names has come to us, but there was
no work done that day in Damascus or in all
the earth compared with the Importance OF
tneir work What if they had in their agita-
| ti0n tied knot that could slipP What if the
sound OF the mob at the door had led them
TO say; Paul must take care of himself, and
will take nR ~