The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-04-14
The ESCAPE OF PAUL.
Or. TALMAeE DESCRIBES IT IN HIS
MOBILE SERMON.


services'--How Great Results Hang on
slender Threads Many Helpful Innu.
ences Never Acknowledged.
MOBILE, March ii.-Rev. T. DE Witt Tai.
mage, ID. D., who is now visiting the south,
selected as the subject Of today's sermon
"Unappreciated Services" the text being
taken from II Corinthians xi, 80, Through
window, in a basket, was | let down by
the WALL
Damascus is a city Of white and glisten-
ing architecture-sometim called "the
eye of the east, - sometimes called "a pearl
surrounded by emeralds," at one time dis
tinguished for swords OF the best material.
called Damascus 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 be-
came the thorn in the flesh he afterward
speaks of. He started for Damascus to
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: Kill him Kill
himW The city is surrounded by high
wall, and the gates are watched by the po-
lice 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 to lower baskets out of these
balconies and pull up fruits and flowers
from the gardens To this day visitors at
the monastery of Mount Sinai are lifted
and let down in baskets
Detectives prowled around from house to
house looking for Paul, but his friends hid
him now in one place, now in another. He
is no coward, as so incidents in his life
demonstrate. But he feels his work is not
done yet, and so he evades assassination.
us that preacher here'" the foaming mob
shout at one house door "Is that fanatic
herein the police shout at another house
door. Sometimes on the street he passes
incognito througha crowd of clinched fists,
and sometimes he secretes himself on the
house top. At last the infurated populace
get ON sure track of him.
PAUL's ESCAPE.
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 isr' The vociferation
and blasphemy and bowling of the pursuers
are at the front door. They break in.
Fetch out that gospelizer and let us hang
his head on the city gate! Where is hef"
! The emergency was terrible. Providential-
ly there was good stout basket in the house
Paul's 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 onto the rope with
both hands his friends lower away, care
fully 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 astonished earth and heaven. Appro-
pirate entry in Paul's diary of travels
Through window, in basket, was let
down by the wall"
Observe first on what a slender tenure
great results hang. The ropemaker who
twisted that cord fastened to that lowering
basket never knew how much would de-
pend on the strength Of it. How ii IL had
been broken and the apostles life had been
dashed out? What would have become OF
the Christian church, All that magnifi-
cent missionary work in Pamphylia, Cap
padocia Galatia, Macedonia, would never
have been accomplished. All his writings
that make up so indispensable and enchant.
ing part of the New Testament would
never have been written. The story Of res
direction would never have been SO glori-
ously told as he told it. That example Of
heroic and triumphant endurance at Phi
lippi, in the Mediterranean euroclydon, un-
der hagellation and at his beheading, would
not have kindled the courage of 10000 mar
tyrdoms. But the rope holding that basket
how much depended on It'll So again and
again great results have hung ON what
seemed slender circumstances.
THE BOAT MOSES LAY IN.
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 a coat Of btu
men and floating on the Nile with the in
FAINT lawgiver of the Jews on boardp What
II some crocodile should crunch itS What
II some of the cattle wading in for drink
should sink itS Vessels of war sometimes
carry 40 guns looking through the port
craft on the Nile seems to be armed with all
the guns of thunder that bombarded Sinai
at the lawgiving On how fragile craft
sailed how much of historical Importance
The parsonage at Epworth, England, is
on fire in the night, and the father rushes
through the hallway for the rescue of his
children. Seven children are out and safe
on the ground. but one remains in the con
suming building. That one wakes, and
/ finding his bed on fire and the building
crumbling 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 the boy
descends-John Wesley. Ifyou would know
how much depended on that ladder of peas
ants, ask the 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 perished but for
the living stair of peasant s shoulders
An English ship stopped at Pitcairn is
land, and right in the mi lst of surround
! ing cannibalism and squalor the passengers
discovered Christian eolons Of churches
and schools and beautiful huucs and high
est style of religion and civilization. For
80 years no missionary and no Christian in
huence had landed there. Why this oasis
| of light amid desert OF heathendomf Six
ty years before a ship had met disaster, and
one Of the sailors, unable TO save anything
else, went to his trunk and took out a
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 popalRton we're evangel
lied, and a church va started, and an en-
lightened common r-~,lth este ltished, aud
the worlds history li-s 80 more brilliant
page than that whlos tells of the transfer
nation Of IA nation by one book. 1t did moi
seem Of much importance whether the sail
or continued TO hold the book in his teeth
or let il fall in the breakers, bUt upon what
small circumstance depended what mighty
resultsi
Practical inference; There are no insig
nihcances IN our lives. The minutest thing
Is part of II magnitude. lnhnity is made M
of ininiteslmals Great things an aggrega
tion of small things Bethlehem mangel