The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-09-27

Your hnto-sAhe Importance OF aElueas
lcopyrlght 1901
WASHINGTON, ID. CA Bible incident
not often noticed Is here used by Dr.. Tai.
mage 10 set forth practical and beautiful
truth; text, III. Corinthians xi, 80,
Through a window in a basket was Jet
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
a basket
Damascus is a city Of white and glisten-
ing architecture, sometimes called "the
eye Of the East" sometimes called "a
pearl surrounded by emeralds," at one
time 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 riding
toward this city had been thrown from
the saddle. The horse had dropped under
a fash from the sky which at the same
time was so bright II blinded the rider for
many days, and ] think 80 permanently
! injured his eyesight that this defect OF
vision became the thorn in the flesh he
afterward speaks Of lie 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
! high 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
over and lowered above the gardens out
side. IL was customary to lower baskets
nut oF hal VNtgn fruit
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 another
He 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. IT'S that preacher herep 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 secretes
himself on the house top. At last the in-
furiate populace get on sure track Of him.
They have 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-
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 heT The emergency was terri
bic. Providentially there was good
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
! de of,YlI md
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
airy tour the story of which has astonished
earth and heaven. Appropriate entry in
Paups diary of travels: Through a win.
dow in q basket was let down by the
wall"
/ observe first on what a slender tenure
great results hang. The ropemakers who
twisted that cord fastened to that lower
ing basket never knew how much would
depend upon the strength of it. How if it
had been broken and the apostles life
had been dashed out? What would have
become of the Christian Church? All that
magnificent missionary work in Pamphy.
liza, Cappadocia, Galatia, Macedonia, would
never have been accomplished. All his
writings that make up SO indispensable
ment 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 Mediterra.
mean Euroclydon, under hagellation and
at his beheading would not have kindled
the courage of 10000 martyrdoms But
that rope holding that basket, how much
{ depended on it'll So again and again great
! results have hung on slender circum-
stances.
: Did ever ship of many thousand tons
3 crossing the sea have such an important
! passenger as had once a boat of leaves
from taffrail to stern only three OF four
! feet, the vessel made waterproof by coat
g of bitumen and floating on the Nile with
the infant lawgiver of the Jews on board
:. What if some crocodile should crunch it,
I What if some of the cattle wading in fol
4 a drink should sink it?
Y Vessels Of war sometimes carry forty
guns looking through the portfolios, ready
IL to open battle. But the tiny craft on the
It Nile seems to be armed with all the guns
q of thunder that bombarded Sinai at the
lawgiving. On how fragile a craft sailed
y how much of historical Importance!
t The parsonage at Epworth, England, ii
r on fire in the night, and the father rushed
II through the hallway for the rescue of his
Il children. Seven children are out and safC
e on the ground, but one remains in tht
!. consuming building. That one awakei
!, and, finding his bed on fire and the build
ing crumbling, comes to the window, anC
,. two peasants make ladder of their bod
/ les, one peasant standing on the shoulder
! of the other, and down the human ladder
Il the boy descends-John Wesley.
r If you would know how much depended
e on that ladder of peasants, ask the mill
ions Of Methodists on both sides of tn,
l. sea. Ask their mission stations all arouni
it the world Ask their hundreds of thou
It sands already assembled to join their foun
:. der, who would have persisted but for tn