The Penn's Grove record., 1901-08-30
DR., TALMAGES SERMON
nuV -
suNoA. lolscouRsE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
subject;N othIng is observation-disclosures
of on What a Slender Thread Great Re-
suits Bang-A Little Thing May Decide
Your Fate-The Importance of Trifies.

suits BanR-A Little ThinE MAY oeciut
You Fate-The Importance of Trihes'
copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, d. CA Bible incident
not often noticed is here used by DIR. Tai.
mage to set forth practical and beautiful
truth text, ii. Corinthians XII, 30,
Through q window in a 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
q basket.
Damascus is a city of white and g%listen-
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
n flash from the sky which at the game
time was so bright it blinded the rider for
many days, and I think so permanently
injured his eyesight that this defect of
vision became the thorn in the flesh he
afterward speaks of. He 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 hint" 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
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 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. rs 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
f~uriate populace get on sure track of him.
They ave 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 isl Here he is" The vo-
ciferation and b~lasphemy and bowling Of
the pursuers are at the front door, They
break in. Fetch out that gospelizer and
let us hang his head OF the city gate.
Where is he?" The emergency was terri.
bic. P~rovidentially there was a 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 OH 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 Hfoot
and alone starts on that famous mission
airy tour the story OF which has astonished
earth and heaven. Appropriate entry in
Paul's diary of travels: Through a win
dow in a basket was l let down by the
wall"
I observe first on what Il slender tenure
great results hang. The ropemakers who
twista5 thattsa fastened to that lower.
ing basKes nsyer kfIuns SOW much would
depend pom the strength of it. How II 1t
had bsen broken and the apostles life
had BEEN dashed out? What would have
become of the Christian Church? All that
nagni6cen missionary work in Pamphy.
liza, Cappadocia, Galatia, Macedonia, would
never have been accomplished. All his
writings that make up so indispensable
and enchanting a part OF the New Iesta-
menr 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 tlagellation and
at his beheading would not have kindled
the courage Of 10000 martyrdoms. But
that rope holding that basket, how much
depended on i'll So again and again great
results have hung on slender clreum-
stances.
Did eyer ship of many thousand tons
crossing the sea have such an important
passenger as had once a boat of leaves
from taffrRil to stern only three or four
feet. the vessel made waterproof by a coat
of bitumen and floating on the Nile with
the infant lnwgiver of the Jews on board!
What if spme, crocodile should crunch It!
What if OF the cattle wading in for
a drunk 15, I sink it?
FesselA OF war sometimes carry forty
guns lootking through the portfolios, ready
to open Ibattle. But the tiny craft on the
Nile seepns to be armed with all the guns
of thunder that bombarded Sinai at the
lawgivinsg. On how fragile a craft sailed
how mulch Of historical Importance
The Parsonage at Epworth, England; Is
on fire Tn the night, and the tather rushed
through the hallway for the rescue Of hls
childreni. Seven children are out and safe
on the aground, but one remains IN the
eonsumVng building. That one awakes
and, fndhng his bed on fire and the build,
Ing crunfhliug, comes to the window, and
two peafants make q ladder of their bod
les, one peasant standing on the shoulder
of the other, and down the human ladder
the boy Idesceuds-John Wesley.
if you'll would know how much depended
on thati ladder OF peasants, ask the mil
ions of iMethodists on both sides OF the
sea. ASK their mission stations all around
the world. Ask their hundreds OF thou
sands Already assembled TO join their toun-
der, WHO would have persisted but for the
living 4tairs Of peasants shoulders
An lEnglish ship stopped at Pitcairn
Island,9 and right in the midst OF surround
ing cagnnibalism and sgualor the paSsen.
gers discovered a Christian colony of
churclkes and schools and beautiful homes
and highest style of religion and c%ivlliza,
tion. For fifty years no missionary. and
no Chs influence had landed there.
Why Fthis oasis Of light amid a desert OF
heathsendom? Sixty years before a ship
had n2iet disaster, and one OF the sailors,
unablse to save anything else, went to ms
trunl8 and took out d Bible which his
mothAer had placed there and swan ashore,
the II bic he'd in his teeth. The book was
read Ion all sides until the rough and Vi
ciousf population were evangelical, and a
ehur,#h was started, and an enlightened
comff aonwealth established and the world
histdSry has no more brilliant page than
thatg which tells OF the transformation OF
A nation by one book. 1t did not seem OF
mucSh Importance whether the sailor con
tinuRrd to hold the book in his teeth OF
let III fall tn the breakers but upon that
smas circumstance depended what mighty
rest lts?
PHIactical inference: There are no insig'
mfg ances in life. The minutest thing is
palA OF a magnitude. lnhnity is made up
OF q nhnitesimals; great things an aggrega-
tiogn OF small things. Bethlehem manger
Ning ii a star in the Eastern sky; One
boGG.A it. a drenched sailors mouth the
evan lgeization of a multitude. One boat
Of p1apvrus on the Nile freighted with
sven for all ages. The fate OF Christen.
dom in a basket let down from a window
on tShe wall. What you do, do well. II
YOU make a rope, make it strong and true
TO. Hon know not how much may depend
~ Iour workmanship. If you fashion a
W let it be waterproof, for you know
Y Who may sail in it. If you put a Bible
7 lie trunk Of your boy as he goes iron
Il, let it be remembered in your pray
nor it may have a mission as far-reach
fhs tho hnok which the sailor carried