The Yale expositor., 1901-08-30
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
TAKEN FROM ST. PAUL TO THE
CCRlNT HANS.
Through IA Window in n Basket Was
i Let Down by the Wau'-How Great
Events often Hang on Slender
Thread.

copyright. 1901, by Louis Klopsch, N. VI
Washington, Aug. ga Bible incl
dent not often noticed is here used by
DR.. Talmage to set forth practical and
beautiful truth; text, ii Corinthians
XII, 33, Through a window in basket
was l let down by the wall"
Sermons on Paul in JAIL Paul on
Mars hill, Paul in the shipwreck, Paul
before the sanhedrin, Paul before
Felix, are plentiful, but in my text we
have Paul in basket.
Damascus is city OF white and
glistening architecture, sometimes
called "the eye Of the east" sometimes
called "a pearl surrounded by emer-
aids" at one time distinguished for
swords of the best material, called
Damascus blades, and upholstery Oh
richest fabric called damask A horse
man of the name of Saul, riding toward
this city, had been thrown from the
saddle. The horse had dropped under
flash from the sky, which at the
same time was so bright it blinded the
rider for many days and, l think, so
his 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
arrest, and the popular cry is: Kill
him! Kill him. The city is sur
rounded by high wall anu the gates
are watched by the police lest the
Cilician 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 bas-
kets. Detectives prowled 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
90 Incidents in his life demonstrate,
but he feels his work is not done yet
and so he evades assassination. "Is
that preacher lunatic here?" the foam
ing mob shout at one house door. "Is
that lunatic here?" the police shout at
another house door. Sometimes on the
street incognito he passes through a
cloud of clinched fists and sometimes
he secretes himself on the house top.
PauI's ProvIdentIaI Escane
At last the infuriate 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 let us hang his head on the city
gate Where is he?" 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 the
rope with both hands his friends lower
away, carefully and cautiously, 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
missionary tour the story of which has
astonished earth and heaven. Appro-
pirate entry in Paul's diary of travels
Through a window in a basket was |
let down by the wall"
observe first on what slender ten
ure great results hang. The rope-maker
who twisted that cord fastened to
that lowering basket never knew how
much would depend upon the strength
Of it. How If 1t had been broken and
the apostles life had been dashed out?
What would have become of the Chris
tian church? All that magnificent
missionary work in Pamphylia. Cappa-
docia, Galatia, Macedonia would never
have been accomplished. All his writ
ings that make up so Indispensable
and enchanting a part of the New
Testament would never have been
written. The story of resurrection
would never have been so gloriously
told as he told it. That example of
heroic and triumphant endurance at
Philippi, in the Mediterranean Euro
clydon, under fagellation, and at his
beheading, would not have kindled the
courage of 10000 martyrdoms. But
that rope holding that basket. how
much depended on it! So again and
again great results have hung on slen-
der circumstances.
Did ever ship of many thousand tons
crossing the sea have such an import
ant passenger as had once boat of
leaves, from taffrail to stern only three
or four feet, the vessel made water
proof by a coat of bitumen and floating
on the Nile with the infant lawgiver Of
the Jews on board? What IL some
crocodile should crunch it? What If
some cattle wading in for a drink
should sink It? Vessels of war some
times carry 40 guns looking through
the portfolios ready to open battle, but