Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1894-03-17
MOMENTOUS TRIPLES.
REV. DR.. TALMAeE breaches AN IN
TEREsTlNG SERMON IN MOBILE.

TEREsTING SERMON IN MOBILE.
"Unnppreciatcd Services" Taken rs tho
Subject of the Text-Little Things of
Great Notwithstanding Is Insignificant.
Tho Escape In n Basket.
MOBILE, March 11.-Rev. T. De Witt
Talmage, D. D., who is now visiting the
south, selected as tho subject of todey's
sermon "Unappreciated Services" the
text being taken from II Corinthians Il,
33, Through window. in basket was
let down by the wall"
Damascus is a city Of white and glls-
tening architecture sometimes called
"the eye of the east" sometimes caHed
80 pearl surrounded by emeralds," ct one
time distinguished for swords of the best
material, called Damascus blades, and
upholstery of richest fabric, called dam
asks.
A horseman of the name of Paul, i'd
ing toward this city, had been thrown
from the saddle. The horse had dropped
under O. flash from the sky, which at the
same time was SO bright it blinded the
rider for many days, and think SO Per
manently injured his eyesight that this
defect of vision became the thorn in the
flesh he afterward speaks Of. He started
for Damascus to butcher Christians, 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.
CRY OF THE MOB.
The mayor gives authority for his ar
rest, and the popular cry is: Kill him!
Kill him" The city is surrounded by a
high wall, and tho gates are watched,by
the police lest the Cilician preacher es-
cape. Many of the houses are bullion
the wall, and their balconies projected
clear over and lowered above the gar
dens outside. 1t WIS customary to
lower baskets oct Of these balconies
and pull up fruits ind flowers from the
gardens. To his Gay visitors at the
monastery of ,iount Sinai are lifted and
let down in baskets.
Detectives prcwiel around from house,
to house looking for Paul. lat his friends
hid him, now in one Place, now IN an
other. He is no coward, as 30 incidents
In his life demonstrate. But lie feels his
work is not done yet, and so lie evades
assassination. us that preacher hereT
the foaming mob shout at one house
door. is that fanatic hcre:" the police
shout at another house door, Sometimes
on the street incognito he passes through
a crowd of clinched fists, and sometimes
he secretes himself on the housetops. At
last the Infatuated populace get on sure
track of him. g.
They have positive evidence that he IS
in the house of one of the Christians, the
balcony of whose home reaches over the
wall. Here he is! Here he isl' The 70
alteration and blasphemy and howl}ag
of the pursuers are at the front door.
They break in. "Fetch out that gospel
izer and let US hang his head on the city
gate. Where Is he" The emergency was
terrible. Providentially there was agood
stout basket in the house. Paul's friends
fasten a 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, far
Their 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
ofwhich has astonished earth and heaven.
Appropriate entry in Paul's diary of trav-
els, Through window, in q basket, was
let down by the wall"
SLENDER THREADS.
Observe first on what a slender tenure
great results hang The ropemaker who
twisted that cord fastened to that lower
ing 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 Christian church? All
that magnificent missionary work in
Pamphylia, Capadocia. Galatia, Mace
donia, would never have been accom-
plished. 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 so gloriously told
as he told it. That example Of heroic
and triumphant endurance at Philippi,
in the Mediterranean euroclydon, under
fagellation and at his beheading would
not have kindled the courage of 10000
martyrdoms. But the rope holding that
basket, how much depended on it! So
again and again great results have hung
on what seemed slender circumstances.
Did ever ship of many thousand tons
crossing the sea have such important pas
senger as had once boat of leaves, from
tafrail to stern only three or four feet,
the vessel made waterproof by coat of
bitumen and floating on the Nile with
the infant lawgiver of the Jews on boards
What if some crocodile should crunch it?
What If some of the cattle wading in
for a drink should sink it? Vessels of
war sometimes carry DO guns locking
through the portfolios, ready to open bat
tie. But that tiny 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
rushed through the hallway for the res
cue of his children. Seven children are
out and safe on the ground, but one re-
mains in the consuming building. That
one wakes, and finding his bed on fire
and the building crulnbling. comes to
the window. and two peasants make
ladder of their bodies, one peasant stand
ing on the shoulder of the other, and