Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-03-16
STORY OF DAMASCUS.
A BRILLIANT eAoe FROM IT'S
EARLY HISTORY.
DIR. Talmage breaches In Mobile. Ala,
About Paul aud the Spread of Christ
iauity Among the Pagan Nations OF
the East.

SUBJECT OF to-day s sermon, 'Unappre-
ciated Services" The text being taken
from Cor. II xXxiii, Through a
window, in a basket, was i let down
by the wall"
Damascus is a city of white and glis-
tening architecture sometimes called
''the eye of the east, sometimes called
"a pearl surrounded by emeralds," at
one time distinguished Cor swords of
the best material called Damascus
blades, and upholstery of richest fabric
called damasks. A horseman by the
name of Paul, riding toward this city,
had been thrown from the saddle.
Tie horse had dropped under flash
frorn the sky, which at the same time
was so bright it blinded the rider for
many days, and l think SO permanent
ly injured his cyesight that this de-
feet of vision became the thorn in the
flesh he afterward speaks Of He
started for Damascus to hatcher Chris
tians, 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
arrest, and the popular cry is, xiii
him! Kill him. The city is sur
rounded by high wall, and the gates
are watched by the police lest the
Ciliclan preacher escape. Many of the
houses are built on the wall and their
balconies projected clear over and
lowered 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 provided 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 fifty incidents in his life
demonstrate. But he feels his work is
not done vet, and so he evades assas-
sination. us 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 inoegnito he
passes through crowd of clenched
fists, and sometimes he secretes him
self on the house-top. 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 vociferation and
blasphemy and bowling of the pur-
suers are at the front door. They
break in. Fetch out that gospelizer,
and lot 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
Pauls friends fasten n rope to the
basket Paul steps into it. The bas-
ket 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 eau
tiously, 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 famous missionary tour,
the story of which has astonished earth
and heaven. Appropriate entry in
Pauls 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 out? What would have be-
come of the Christian church? All
that magnificent missionary work in
Pamphylia, Cappadocia, 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 res
direction would never have been so
gloriously told as he told it. That ex-
ample of heroic and triumphant en-
durance at Philippi, in the hediter-
ranean euroclydon, under fagellation
and at his beheading would not have
kindled 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 a ship Of many thousand
tons crossing the sea have such inn
portant passenger as had once a boat
of leaves from taffrail to stern only
three or four feet. the vessel made
waterproof by n coat of bitumen and
floating on the Nile with the infant
lawgiver of the Jews on board? What
if some crocodile should crunch it?
What il some of the cattle wading in
for drink should sink it? 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 historical
Importance
The parsonage at Epworth, England,