The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1901-09-04
She boy Gesoea6s-Joia Wes2ey. 7

OF thousands already ascenoed to JOIN
their founder, who would have per-
ished but for the living stair Of peas
ants shoulders.
An English ship stopped at Pitcairn
island, and right in the midst Of sur
rounding cannibalism and squaloT the
passengers discovered a Christian col
ony OF churches and schools and beau
tiful homes and highest style Of reli-
gion and civilization. Fir so years no
missionary and no Christian influence
had landed there. Why this oasis Of
light amid a desert of heathendora?
Sixty years before a ship had met dis
aster, and one of :he sailors, unable to
save anything else, went to his trunk
and took out 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
church was started and an enlightened
commonwealth stabGshed, and the
worlds history has no more brilliant
page than thatwhich tells of the trans
formation of a nation by one book. It
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. Intin-
ity is made up of infnitesimals; great
things an aggregation Of small
things. Bethlehem manger pulling on
star in the eastern sky. One book
in a drenched sailors mouth the evan
gelization Of multitude. One boat
of papyrus on the Nile freighted with
events for all ages. The fate OF
Ch1istendom in a basket let down
from a window on the wall. WHAT
you do, do well. If you make rope,
make it strong and true, for you
know not how much may depend on
your workmanship. If you fashion
boat, let it be waterproof, for you
know not who may sail in it. Il you
put Bible in the trunk of your boy
as he goes from home, let it be re-
memberad in your prayers, for 1t 1aay
have a mission as farreaching as the
book which the sailor carried in his
teeth to the Pitcairn beach. The
piainest mans life is an island be-
tween two enthusiastically past
ripping against his shoulders, eter-
Iity to come touching his brow. The
casual, the accidental, that which
merely happened so, are parts Of a
great plan, and the rope that lets the
fugitive apostle from the Damascus
wall is the cable that holds to its
mooring the ship of the church in the
storm Of the centuries.
Again, notice unrecognized and un-
recorded service. Who spun that
rope? Who tried it to the basket?
Who steadied the illustrious preacher
as he stepped into it? Who relaxed
not q muscle Of the arm or dismissed
an anxious look from his face until
the basket touched the ground and
discharged its magnificent cargo?
Not ono of their names has come to
us. But there was no work done that
day in Damascus or in all the earth
compared with the importance Of
their work. What if they had in their
agitation tied knot that could slip?
What il the sound Of the mob at tho
door had led them to say: Paul
must take care of himself, and we
will take care of ourselves" No, no!
They held the rope, and in doing SO
did more for the Christian church
than any thousand of US will ever ac-
couplish. But God knows and has
made record of their undertaking.
And they know.
How exultant they must nave felt
when they read his letters to the
Romans, to the Corinthians, to the
Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the
Philippians, to the Colessians, to the
Thessalonians, and when they heard
how he walked out Of prison, with
the earthquake 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
shock Felix of his judgment seat. !
hear the men and women who helped
him down through the window and
over the wall talking in private ove7
the matter and saying: "How glad
an. that we effected that rescue! In
coming times others may get the
glory Of Paurs work, but no one shall
rob rs of the satisfaction OF knowing
that we held the rope"
Something occurs to me quite per
sonal. was tle youngest Of a large
family of children. My parents were
neither rich nor poor. -Four Of the
sons wanted o collegiate education,
and four obtained it. but not without
great homo struggle. We never heard
the old people say once that they
were denying themselves to effect
this, but I remember now that my
parents always looked tired. I don't
think they ever got rested until they
Law down in the Somerville cemetery
Mother would 81. down in the even
ing and say: We'll, I don't know
what makes me feel so tired" Fa-
ther would fall immediately to sleep,
seated by the evening stand, over
como with the days fatigues. About
IS years ago the one anc. about 81
years ago the other put down the
burdens OF this life, but they still
hold the rope.
But there must come time .when
we shall 6nd out who these
Oanascenes were who lowered Pau
in the basket, and greet them and al
those who have rendered to God and
the world unrecegnized and unrecord'
ed aer7ices. That is going to be one
of the glad excitements Of Heaven
the hunting up and picking OUT OF
those who cid great good on earth
and got no credit for it. Here the
church has been going on 1s cen
..;. ,,d -a% %be world has not