Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1901-09-12
NOTHING TOO LITTLE
TO BE OF TERRIBLE SIGNIFICANCE
Dr.. TaImage's Discourse lreaI q
The Importance OF lungs Soin'
monIy Overlooked
rCopyright 1901

WASHINGTON, d. ca BlDle nIciuCno
not often noticed is here used by 1t. iaL
mage to set forth practical ana beauty %
truth: text, II. Corinthians xl, 50,
Through a window IN a DasKet "a' -
Sermons on Paul in Jail, Paul on Mars
hill, Paul in the shipwreck, Paul De1ore
the s%anhedrin, Paul before FeilS' aie
plentiful, but in my text we have faul III
q basket. =.
ing architecture, sometimes caleu 'm u
eve of the East" sometimes calieo
nearl surrounded by emeralds,". at one
fine DISTINGUISHED for swords Of the best
material called Damascus blades and up
holstery Of richest fabric called damask.
A horseman of the name OF Saul rldlns
toward this city had been thrown from
the saddle. The horse had dropped under
a flash from the sky which at the same
time was so bright it blinded the rider Tor
many days, and I think so permanent,
injured, his eyeslght that TINS rs de sesb b 0l
afterward speaks Of. He started Tor pa
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 It's
The mayor gives authority for his ar
rest, and the popular cry is, Kill him,
kill him!" The city is surrounded by, a
the police lest the Cilician preacher es-
cape. Many of the houses are built on the
wall, and their balconies projected clear
over and lowered above the gardens out
side. 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 baskets.
Detectives prowled around from house to
house looking for Paul, but his friends
hid him now in one place, now in smother.
He is no coward, as fifty incidents in his
life demonstrate, but he feels his work is
not lone yet, and so he evades assasslna-
ton. els 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 clinched fists. and sometimes he s%ecretes
himself on the house top. At last the in
furiate populace get on sure track of him.
They nave positive evidence that he is in
the house Of one of the Christians, the bal
cony of whose home reaches over the
wall. "Here he is! Here he isl" The vo-
ciferation and blasphemy and bowling of
the pursuers 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.
stout basket in the house. Paul's friends
fasten a rope to the basket. Paul steps
into it.. The backet 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 cautious
ly, 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,
earth and heaven. Appropriate entry in
Paul's diary of travels: Through a win
dow in a basket was I let down by the
wall"
I observe first on what a slender tenure
great results hang. The ropemakers VIII
twisted that cord fastened to that lower
ing basket, never Observation-Disclosures
depend upon the strength of it. How if j
had been broken and the apostles lf,
had been dashed out? What would hav,
become Of the Christian Church? All tina
magnificent missionary work in Pamphy
liza, Cappadocia, Galatia, Macedonia. woult
never have been accomplished. All hi
writings that make up SO indispensable
and enchanting a part Of the New Tesla
ment would never have been written.
! The story of resurrection would neve
nave DScu 81 SlOIlOUSly COlO as he COiO IL
That example of heroic and triumphan
endurance at Philippi. in the Mediterra
mean Euroc]ydon, under fagellation an,
at his beheading would not have kindle,
the courage of 10000 martyrdoms. Blu
that rope holding that basket, how mucl
depended o n it! So again and again grea
results have hung on slender circum
stances.
Did ever ship of many thousand ton
0rncc1nr thu horo o,,o1 o- ..-o-l--
passenger as had once a boat of leave
from taffrail to stern only three or fou
feet, the vessel made waterproof by a Goa
of bitumen and floating ON the Nile wit
the infant lawgiver of The Jews on board
What if some crocodile should crunch it
What if some of the cattle wading in 70
a drink should sink it?
Vessels Of war sometimes carry fort
guns looking through the portfolios, read
to open battle. But the tiny craft on tn
Nile seems to be armed with all the gun
Of thunder that bombarded Sinai at tn
lawgivlns. On how fragile a craft sale
how much Of historical Importance!
The parsonage at Epworth, England. j
on lire in the night, and the father rushe
through the hallway for the rescue Of hi
children. Seven children are out and SAT
consuming building. That one awake
and, finding his bed on fire and the buile
ing crumbling, comes to the window, an
two peasants make a ladder OF their boo
les, one peasant standing on the shoulde
Of the other, and down the human ladde
the boy descerds-John Wesley.
Ii you would know how much depende
on that ladder Of peasants, ask the mil
ions OF Methodists an both sides OF tn
sea. Ask their mission stations all arorn
the world. Ask their hundreds Of tho,
sands already assembled to ioin their four
der, who would have persisted but for tn
living stairs Of peasants shoulders.
An English ship stopped at Pitcair
Island, and right in the midst of surround
ing cannibalism and squalor the passe1
gers discovered a Christian COLONY {
churches and schools and beautiful home
and highest style of religion and civiliz;
tioa. Fos fifty years no missionary an
no Christian Influence had landed ther,
Why this oasis Of light amid a desert {
h~eathendom? Sixty years before a shi
had met disaster, and one of the sailor
unable to save anything else, went to h
trunk and took out a Bible which h
mother had placed there and swan ashor
the Bible held in his teeth. The book W;
read on all sides until the rough and v
clous population were evangelical. and
church was started, and an enligntene
commonwealth established and the world
history. has no more brilliant page tina
that Which tells of the Transformation
a nation by one book. It did not seem
much Importance whether tloa Sa;!or ~.