Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-08-26

= peasant sta QClpg on TIE SlOuIQ2r OF the
: ot!:cr, AID down the human ladder the
J boy descends-Joh1 Wesley. If you
would know how much depended on
that ladder OF peasants. ask the mil
/ lions OF Methodists on both sides Of the
sea. Ask their mission stations all
+ around the world. Ask their hundreds
Of thousands already assembled to join
! their founder. who would have perish
ed but for the living stairs Of peasants
shoulders.
An O.sis of Light.
An English ship stopped at Pitcairn
island, and right in the midst of sur
rounding cannibalism and squalor the
! passengers discovered a Christian col
Ony of churches and schools and beau
tiful homes and highest style of reli-
gion and civilization. For so years no
missionary and no Christian influence
had landed there. Why this oasis Of
light amid q desert Of heathendom?
Sixty years 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 held 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 en-.
Eghtened commonwealth Stablished
and the worlds history has no more
brilliant page than that which tells OF
the transformation of a nation by one
book. 1t did not seem Of much impor
lance whether the sailor continued tt
hnI in II iS LOT fol
il the breakers, but upon what small
circumstance depended what might,
results!
Practical inference: There are no IN
signiicances in life. The minutes
thing is part Of a magnitude. Infnit,
is made up Of infnitesimals; grea'
things an aggregation Of small things
Bethlehem manger pulling on a star il
the eastern sky. One book in a drench
ed sailors mouth the evangeliZatiOn OF
q multitude. One boat of papyrus OF
the Nile freighted with events for al
ages. The fate of ChristendOm in
basket let down from a window on the
wall. What you do, do we'll. If yoU
make a rope, make it strong and true
for you know not how much may de
pend Oh your workmanship. If yOl
fashion q boat. let it be waterproof, fol
you know not who may sail in it. Il
you put 4 Bible in the trunk of yoU
boy as he goes from home, let it be re
nemDerCd in your prayers, for it may
have a mission as farreaching as the
book which the sailor carried in his
teeth to the Pitcairn beach. The plain
est mans life is an island between two
eternities- eternity past ripplingagains1
his shoulders, eternity to come touch
ing Lis brow. The casual, the acciden-
tai, that which merely happened so, are
parts of great plan, and the rope that
lets the fugitive apostle from the Da-
mascus wall is the cable that holds to
its noOring the ship of the church in
the storm Of the centuries.
Again, notice unrecogniZcd and unre,
corded service. Who spun that rope:
Who tied it to the basket? Who stead
led the iliustrious preacher as he step.
ped into It? 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
mGCniE =. 20? Not one of their
names has come to US, but there was
no work done that day in Damascus or
in al earth compared with the impor-
lance Of their work. What if they had
III their agitation tied n knot that could
slip? What If the sound Of the mob at
the door lad led them to say, Paul
must take care CT himself, and we will
take care Of CCrselves?' No, no! They
held the rope and in doing 50 did more
for the Christian church than any thou
sand CT US will ever accomplish. But
God knows and has made record Of
their undertaking. And they know.
Cause For ExuItation.
How eXultant they must have felt
when they read his letters to the Ro-
mans. to the Corinthians. to the Gala
tians, to the EDhesians, to the Philip
plans, to the Colossians, to the Thessa-
Ionians, and when they heard how he
walked out Of prison, with the earth
quake unlocking the door for him, and
took command Of the AleXandrian corn
ship when the sailors were nearly
scared to death and preached a sermon
that nearly shook Felix off his judg-
ment seat! I hear the men and women
who helped him down through the
window and over the wall talking in
private over the matter and saying:
How glad l am that we effected that |
rescue. In coming times others may
get the glory OF PauPs work. but no |
one shall rob us Of the satisfaction of |
that we held the rope"
Once for SO hours we expected every |
moment to so to the bottom Of tie
ocean. The waves struck through the
skylights and rushed down into the |
hold Of the ship and Kissed against the |
boilers, 1t was an awful time, but by |
the blessing Of God and the faithful |