The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1894-03-16
MOMENTOUS TRIPLES.
REV, DIR. TAlMAGE breaches AN IN
TEREsTiNG SERMON IN MOBILE.

'Unappreoiated Services" Taken ms the
subject Of the Text-Little Things of
Great MISUNDERSTANDING Is insignificant.
The Escape In Basket. a.
MOBILE, March 11.--Rev. T. De Witt
Talmage, D. D., who is now visiting the
,outh, selected as the subject of today's
seEmon "Unappreciatea Services the
lext being taken from II Corinthians xi,
Ds, Through window, in basket. was
let down by the wall"
Damascus is city 4, white and glis-
lening architecture sEnetimes called
''the eye of the east sometimes called
"apearl surrounded by emeralds, at 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, rid
ing 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 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 a 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 the gates are watched by
the police lest the Cilician preacher es-
cape. Many of the houses are built on
the wall, and their balconies projected
clear over and lowered above the gar
dens 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 an
other 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. SIS that preacher here"
the foaming mob shout, at one house
door. us that fanatic here?" 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.
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 vo-
ciferation and blasphemy and bowling
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 good
stout basket in the house, Paul's friends
fasten rope to the basket. Paul steps
into 1t. 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
ther 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.
Appropriate entry in Paul's diary of trav-
els, Through window, in a basket, was
let down by the WALL
SLENDER THREADS.
Observe first on what 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
fiagellation 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
taffrail to stern only three or four feet,
the vessel made waterproof by coat of
bitumen and floating on the Nile with
the infant lawgiyer of the Jews on board?
What if some crocodile should crunch it?
| What if some of the cattle wading in
for drink should sink it? Vessels of
war sometimes carry 40 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
pne 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 stand
ing on the shoulder of the other, and
down the human ladder the boy de-
scends-John Wesley. If you would
know how much depended on that lad
der of peasants, ask the millions of Meth.
odists 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, whe