The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1901-08-31
| the boy descends-John Wesley. I,

ions of N~etbodists on both s;des of ~
sea. ASK their mission stations all h
around the world. Ask their hundreds =
of thousands already assembled tn ioin n
their founder who would have nor
ished hnt FOR tbe LIVING stair If meas q,
ants shoulders. 7
An ENGLISH shin stonped at Pitcairn $
leland oDd rirb+ i, Tho nids+ - CO. ,
rounding c~annibalism and soualor the
discovered a Christian COL
onv of churches and schools and beau- |
tiful homes and highest style of reli-
zion and civilization. Fir so years no !
missionary and no Christian influence
had landed there. Why this oasis of
light amid a desert of heathendom?
Sixty wears before a ship had met dis
aster, and one of the sailors. unable to
save ANYTHING else. went to his trunk
and took out a Bible which his mother
had placed there and swan ashore, the
Bible in his teeth. The book was read
on all sides until the rough and vicious
population were evangelical, and a
| church was started and an enlightened
| commonwealth established, and the
worlds history has no more brilliant
page than that which tells of the trans
formation of a nation by one book. 1t
did not seem of much importance
whether the sailor continued to
hold the book in his teeth or let it fall
in the breakers, but upon what small
circumstances depended what mighty
results!
Practical inference: There are no
insignifcances in life. The minutest
thing is part of a magnitude. Infn-
ity is made up of infinitesimals; great
things an aggregation of small
things. Bethlehem manger pulling on
n star in the eastern sky. One book
in a drenched sailors mouth the evan
gelization of a multitude. One boat
of papyrus on the Nile freighted with
events for all ages. The fate of
Christendom in a basket let down
from a window on the wall. What
. you do, do well. If you make a rope,
make it strong and true, for you
: know not how much may depend on
your workmanship. If o fashion a
( boat, let it be waterproof, for you
know not who may sail in it. If you
put a Bible in the trunk of your boy
! as he goes from home. let it be re
membered in your prayers, for it ma,
e have a mission as ~farreaching as thu
; book which the sailor carried in hi
" teeth to the Pitcairn beach. Th'
plainest mans life is an island be
& tween two eternities-eternity pas
/" ripping against his shoulders, eter
:, nifty to come touching his brow. Th
u casual. the accidental, that whic
A. merely happened so, are parts of
u great plan, and the rope that let's TIL
:. fugitive apostle from the Damascu
- wall is the cable that holds to II
Z mooring the ship of the church in tn
storm of the centuries.
Again. notice unrecognized and IL
" recorded service. Who spun tn;
rome? Who tried it to the basket
~ Who steadied the illustrious preach
~, as he stepped into it? Who relax
~ not a muscle of the arm or dismiss
an anxious look from his face un
On the basket touched the ground al
~ discharged its magnificent carg
Not one of their names has come
"a us. But there was no work done tn
~ day in Damascus or in all the ear
compared with the Importance
their work. What if they had in tn
~ agitation tied a knot that could sli
,na What if the sound of the mob at t
~ door had led them to say: "Pi
vlr must take care of himself, and
will take care of ourselves" No, I
~ They held the rope, and in doing
Ia did more for the Christian chul
~ thar any thousand OF is will ever
complish. But God knows and
made record of their undertake
And they know.
al! How exultant they must have
L " wben they read his letters to
Romans, to the Corinthians, to
Galatians, to the Ephesians, to
'pe philippians, to the Colossians, to
.neu Thessalonians. and when they he
ne" how he walked out of prison, v
II +be earthquake unlocking the d
Gov him. and took command of
)eeh ., oorr shin when