The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-03-23
UNAPPRECIATED ACTS.
Rev. DR.. TalmaRe Talks Upon APP
parently Trivial Things
that Frequently Lead to Great Results-
The Conversion OF IauI and the
Means Used In It's Accomplish
ment-Other Instances.


While absent on visit to the south
Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage made selec-
tion of sermons to be sent out to his
great congregation throughout the
world of newspap per readers. The fol-
lowing discourse is based on the text:
Through window in a basket I was let
down by the wall.-I Corinthians, t.. 81.
Damascus is city of white and glis-
teniDg architecture sometimes called
1.-THE eye of the east" sometimes "a
pearl surrounded by emeralds, at one
time distinguished for swords of the
best material called Damascus blades,
and upholstery of richest fabric called
damasks. A horseman called by the
name of Paul. riding toward this city,
had been thrown from the saddle. The
horse had dropped under flash from
the sky, which at the same time wns so
bright il blinded the rider for many
days. and think SO permanently in
jured his eyesighG 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.
The mayor gives authority for his ar
rest, and the popular cry is: Kill himl
Kill him. The city is surrounded by a
high wall, and the gates are watched
by the police lest the Cilician preacher
escape. Many of the houses are built
on the wall, and their balconies pro-
iected clear over and hovered above
the gardens outside. 1t was custom
airy to lower baskets out of these bal
comics and pull up fruits and flowers
from the gardens To this day Wis
itors at the monastery of Mount Sinai
are lifted and let down in bas-
kets. Detectives prowled around
from house to house looking for
Paul. hut his friends hid him now in
one place, now in another He is no
coward. as fifty incidents in his life
demonstrate. But he feels his work is
not done yet, and so he evades assas-
sination. is that preacher here?"
the foaming mob shout at one house
door. as that fanatic here?n the po-
lice shout at another house door. Some
times on the street incognito he passes
through a crowd of cInched fists,
and sometimes he secretes himself
on the house-top. At last the infuri-
ated 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''
y,I
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
hep" The emergency was terrible.
Providentially there was a good
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, further down and
further down, until the basket strikes
the earth and the apostle steps out,
and afoot and alone starts on that ia
nous missionary tour, the story of
which has astonished earth and Heav-
en-. Appropriate entry in Paul's diary
of travels; Through a window in a
basket was let down by the wall"
Observe, first, on what a slender ten
ure great results hang. The rope
maker 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 outP What would have become
of the Christian church? All that mag
niticent missionary work in Pamphylia,
Cappadocia, Galatia, Macedonia would
never have been accomplished. All
his writings that make up so indis-
pensable and enchanting a part of
the New Testament would never have
been written. The story of resurrec-
tion would never have been so glori-
ously told as he told it. The example
of heroic aud triumphant endurance at
Philippi, in the Mediterranean euro
clydon, under fagellations and at his
beheading would not have Eindled the
courage of ten thousand 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
passenger as had a boat of leaves,
from taffrail to stern only three or
four feet, the vessel made waterproof
by a coat of bitumen and floating on
the Nile with the infant lawmaker of
the Jews on board? What if some
crocodile should crunch il? What If
some of the cattle wading in for a
drink should sink it2 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 his
torical Importance.
The parsonage at Epworth, England,
Is on FIRE in the night. and the father
rushes through the hallway for the res
cue of his children. Seven children
are out and safe on the grounds, but
one remains in the consuming build
ing. That one wakes, and finding his
bed on fire and the building crun-
bling, comes to the window, and two
peasa nts make ladder of their bodies,
one peasant standing on the shoulders
of the other, and down the human lad
der the boy descended-John Wesley.
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