The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1901-10-22
NOTHING IS INSIGNIFICANT
Dr. Talmage Gives Instances of On
Wfat a Slender Thread Great
Results Hang,
Little Thing May Decide Your Fate-Ihc
Importance OF Trifes.
copyright ieOi.l


Through a window in a basket was / let
down by the wall"
Sermons on Paul in jail Paul on Mars
hill, Paul in the shpwreck, Paul before
the sanhedrin, Paul before Felix, are
plentiful, but IN my text we have Paul in
n basket.
Damascus is city of white and Chsten
ing architecture, sometimes called ''the
eye of the East" sometimes called "a
pearl surrounded by emeralds." at ono
time distinguished for swords of the best
material called Damascus blades and nm
holstery of richest fabric called damasil
"A horseman of the name of Saul riding
toward this city had been thrown from
the saddle The horse had dropped under
a flash from the sky which Mt the same
time was so bright it blinded the rider for
many days, and | think SO permanently
injured his eyesight that this defect OF
vision became the thorn in the flesh he
Mterward speaks of. He started for Da-
mascus to butcher Christians, but after
that hard fall from his horse he was a
changed man and preached Christ in Da-
mascus Till the city was shaken to its
foundation.
The mayor gives authority for his ar
rest, and the popular cry is, Kill him,
kill himl" The city is surrounded by a
nigh 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
SIDE. IL was customary to lower baskets
cut 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
md him now in one place, now in another
lie is no coward, as fifty incidents in his
life demonstrate, but he feels his work is
not done yet, and so he evades assassina-
ton. rs that preacher here" the foam
ing mob shout at one house door. is
that fanatic here" the police shout at an
other house door. Sometimes on the
street incognito he passes through a crowd
OF cllnched fists. and sometimes he secretes
himself on the house top. At last the in.
Iurlate populace get on sure track of him
They have positive evidence that he is i'm
the house of one of the Christians the bal
eony of whose home reaches over the
wall. Here he Is. Here he isl" The vo-
Seiferation and blasphemy and bowling of
the pursuer are at the front door. They
break in. Fetch out that gospelizer and
let us hang his head on the city gate.
Where is he?" The emergency was terri.
Bile. Providentially there was a good
stout basket in the house. Paul's friends
fasten rope to the basket Paul steps
INTO 1T: The backet is lifted to the edge
OF the balcony on the wall, and then while
faul holds the rope with both hands his
friends lower away carefully and cautious
~, slowly but surely, farther down and
farther down, until the basket strikes the
earth and the apostle steps out and afoot
and alone starts on that famous mission
airy tour the story of which has astonished
earth and heaven. Appropriate entry in
PauFs diary of travels: Through a win.
wall"
observe first on what a slender tenure
great results hang. The remembers who
twisted that cord fastened to that lower
ing basket never knew how much would
depend upon the strength of it. How If n
bad been broken and the apostles life
had been dashed out? What would have
become of the Christian Church? All that
magnificent missionary work in Pamphv
ia, Cappadocia, Galatia, Macedonia, would
never have been accomplished. All his
writings that make up so indispensable
and enchanting part of the New Tesla
ment would never have been written.
Inc story of resurrection would never
\ nave been so gloriously told as he told it.
That example of heroic and triumDbant
endurance at Phiippi. in the Mediterra.
mean Eurocydon, under hagellation and
at ms beheading would not have ldndled
the courage of 10000 martyrdoms. But
that rope holding that basket how much
depended on 1t! So again and again great
results have hung on slender circum.
stances.
Did ever ship of many thousand tons
crossing the sea have such an important
passenger as had once a boat of leaves
from tatfrail to stern only three or four
feet, the vessel made Waterproof by a coat
OF bitumen and floating on the Nile with
the infant lawgiver of the Jews on boards
What II some crocodile should crunch it?
what II some of the cattle wading in for
q drink should sink it?
Vessels of war sometimes carry FORTY
guns looking through the portfolios. ready
to open battle. But the tiny craft on the
Nile seems to be armed with all the guns
OF thunder that bombarded Sinai at the
laWgNng. On how fragile q craft sailed
how much of historical mportancel
The parsonage at Epworth. England Is
on fire, In the night, and the father rushed
through the hallway for the rescue of his
children. Seven children are out and safe
on the ground, but one remains in the
consuming building That one oyvakes
and, finding his bed on fire and the build.
ing crumbling, comes 20 the window, and
two peasants make ladder of their bod.
les, one peasant standing on the shoulder
OF the other, and down the human ladder
the boy desofnds-John Wesley.
If you would know how much depended
on that ladder OF peasants, ask the mill
ons OF MethOdists on both sides of the
sea. Ask their mission stations all around
the world Ask their hundreds of thou
sands already assembled TO join their fouu
der, who would have persisted but for the
living stairs of peasants shoulders.
An English ship stopped at Pitcairn
Island and right in the midst of surround
'Ig cannbalism and s0uaior the passeu
gers discovered Christian colony OF
churches and schools and beautiful home,
and highest style of religion and ciyiliza.
ton. For fifty years no missionary and
no Christian influence had landed there
Why this oasis of light amid n desert %.
heathendom! Sixty years before a shir
had met disaster, and one of the sailors
unable to save anything else. went to his
trunk and took out u Bible which bff
mother had placed there and SWAIN ashore
the Bible held in his teeth The hook ygat
read on all sides until the rough and Wi
cious population were evangelical. and
church was started. and am enlightener
commonwealth established and the yvoridf
history has no more brilliant page tbar
that which tells of the transformation oI
D nation by one book. Il did not seem ID
much importance whether the sailor con
tinued TO hold The book i'm his teeth oi
let NJ fall in the breakers. but upon fbal
small circumstance depended what might,
resultsy
Practical inference. There are no insie
nihcances In life. The minutost thing e
psrb oi magnitude. inhnity is made ut
of infuitesImaIs; great thiugs au aggreya
ton of small things Bethlehem nance
pulling on a star In the Eastern sLv a.,
book in q drenchcd sailors mouth fbs
eyangelHation of multitude. One boat
of papyrus on the Nile freighted vitt
events for an ages The fate of Chrisfcn.
dom in a basket let down from a windo9
on The wall. What you do. do we'll NJ
you make rep9, make 1t strong and true
for you know not how much may depend
on your workmanship. lf YOU fashion a
boat. Jet 10 be waterproof for you know
not who may sail in it. III you put a Bible
iu the trunk of your boy as hc goes from
home, let 10 be remembered iu your pray.
crs, Tor it may have n mission as farreach-
inf as inc book which The sailor carried
iu b teeth to the Pitcairn beach.