The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-04-14

h IT, ' '''' '"''
II you put a Bible In the trunk Of your
boy a. he goes from home. let ID be heard iu
your prayers, for 10 may have "a mission A.
larreachiug Hs the book which the sailor
carried ln his teeth 20 the Pitcairn beach.
The piarncst mans life is an island be-
tween two eternities-oternty past ripping
against his shoulders, eternity to come
touching bis brow. The casual. the acci-
dental, that which merely happened 50. are
parts Of "A great plan, and the rope that lets
the might've apostle from the Damascus
wall is the cable that holds to it, mooring
the ship Of the church in the northeast
storm Of the centuries
Again, notice unrecognized aud unrccord.
ed services. Who spun that ropeY Who
tied 1t to the basket Who steadied the
llustrious preacher IA he stepped into itl
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 carVoy Not one
Of their names has come to ~, but there
was no work done that day in Damascus or
IN all the earth compared with the impor.
tance of their work. What IL they had in
their agitation tied "A knot that could slipY
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 our.
selvesW No, moi They held the rope. and
in doing so did more for the 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 exultant they must have felt when
they read his letters to the Romans, to the
Corinthians, to the Galatians, to the Ephe.
slams 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 Alexandrian
cornship when the sailors were nearly scared
to death, and preached a sermon that near
ly shook Felix of his judgment seat! hear
the men and women who helped him down
through the window aud over the wall talk
ing in private over the matter and saying:
| How glad am that we effected that res
cuel 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"
1--WE HELD THE ROPE
There are said to be about 60, 600 minis
ters of religion in this country. About So
600, / warrant, came from early homes
which had to struggle for the necessaries of
| life The sons of rich bankers aud mer-
chants generally become bankers and mer-
chants. Tho most of those who become
min isters are the sons of those who had ter
rife struggle to get their everyday bread.
The collegiate and theological education of
that son took every luxury from the paren-
tai table for eight years. The other children
We're more scantily appareled. The son at
college every little while got IA bundle from
home In 1t were the socks that mot her
had knit, sitting up late at night, her sight
not as good as once il was. And there also
were some delicacies from the sisters hand
for the voracious appetite of "a hungry stu
dent.
The years go by, and the son has been or
dained and Is preaching the glorious gos-
pei, and n great revival comes, and soul.
by scores and hundreds accept the gospeI
from the lips of that young preacher, ant
father and mother, quite old now, are visit
ing the son at the village parsonage, and al
the close of Sabb- :, of mighty blessing
father and mother retire to their room the
son lighting the way and asking them IL he
can do anything to make them more COM
Portable, saying If they want anything in
the night just to knock on the wall
And then all alone father and mother
|
and say: "Well, it was worth all we went
through to educate that boy. Itwas n hard
pull, but we held on till the work was done
The world may not know it; but, mother,
we held the rope, didn't wein And the
voice, tremulous with joyful emotion, re-
spends: "Yes, father; we held the rope
feel my work is done. Now, Lord, lettest
thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine
eyes have seen thy salvation" "Pshaw, -
says the father, II never felt so much like
living in my life as nowl want to see
what that fellow is going on TO do, he has
begun so we'll"
HIDDEN FROM THE WORLD.
Oh, men and women here assembled, you
brag sometimes how you have fought your
way in the world, but l think there have
been helpful influences that you have never
fully acknowledged Has there not been
some influence in your early or present
home that the world cannot seer Does
there not reach to You from among the New
England hills, or from western prairies, or
from southern plantation, or from English
or Scottish or Irish home, a cord of innu-
ence that has kept you right when you
would have gone astray, and which, after
you had made a crooked track, recalled
your The rope may be as long as 80 years
or 800 miles long or 5000 miles long, but
hands that went out of mortal sight long
ago still hold the rope,
You want IA very swift horse, and you
need to rowel him with sharpest spurs, and
to let the reins lie loose upon the neck, and
to give a shout to "A racer, II you are going
to ride out of reach of your mothers pray.
ers. Why, a ship crossing the Atlantic In
seven days can't sail away from theml A
sailor finds them Oh the lookout as he takes
his place, and finds them on the mast as he
climbs the ratlines to disentangle n rope in
the tempest, and finds them swinging OF
the hammock when he turns in. Why moi
be frank and acknowledge itt The most o
us would long ago have been dashed tC
pieces had not gracious and loving hand.
steadily and lovingly and nightly held tn,
rope.
But there must come time when VT
shall find out who these Damascenes were
who lowered Paul in the basket, and greet
them and all those who have rendered tC
God and the world unrecognized and un
recorded services. That is going to be one
Of the glad excitements of heaven-th,
hunting up aud picking out OF those who
did great good on earth and got no credit
for it, Here the church has been going OF
10 centuries, and this is probably the frs
sermon ever recognizing the services Of the
people in that Damascus balcony. Charles
G. Finney said to dying Christian, "Giv'
my love TO St. Paul when you meet him.
When you and | meet him, as we will,
shall ask him 10 introduce me To those peo
Pile who Rot him out Of the Damascen
peril.
Once for 80 hours we expected every mo
ment TO go TO the bottom Of the ocean. Tn
waves struck through the skylights an,
, rushed down into the hold Of the ship an,
hissed against the boilers, IL was an awfu
time, but by the blessing Of God aud tn
faithfulness of the men in charge we cam
! out of the cyclone, and we arrived at home
Each one before leaving the ship thanke'
! Captain Andrews. | do not think there wa
man or woman that went off that shil
without thanking Captain Andrews, an'
when years after heard Of his death wa
impelled to write a letter Of coincidence 4