Charles Blondin

What we have to do is we have to put our lives into the hands of Jesus.

So what does that look like? In 1850, there was a very famous tightrope walker called Charles Blondin.

And Blondin was a brave, courageous, and rather notorious tightrope walker.

And what made him most famous is that very often, he would tie a tightrope across the Niagara Falls Gorge.

After the death of her husband, she eventually settled in Bay City, Michigan, but by 1901 she was looking for a way to improve her financial situation after her house burnt down and she lost money in a bad investment.

Niagara Falls was established as a location for dangerous stunts in 1859, when Jean-Francois Gravelet, known as Blondin, crossed the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope.

Other performers had subsequently attempted journeys through the rapids, but going over the falls itself was a different proposition, especially in a barrel.

taylor therefore had a specially constructed barrel for the attempt which was built of oak reinforced with iron bands and fitted with internal padding an iron weight was attached to the bottom to help keep it upright A domestic cat was successfully sent over the falls on 22nd October to test the barrel and, after a day's delay due to weather and river conditions, Taylor was sealed inside the barrel near Goat Island in the Niagara River.

And we used an example of your friend and mine now, Charles Blunden, who walked from the Canadian to the American side on a tightrope of Niagara Falls.

I'm Charles Blondin.

Do you believe in me? Remember, 25,000 people said three times, yes, we believe.

So then he asked, then who will go with me? And nobody volunteered because you had a lot of people who claim belief, but no one who really was committed to trusting their lives into his hands.

Find out the real story.

His name is Charles Blondin.

And from 1957 to 1960, not just once, but during the entire summer, from the month of around late May to late August, Charles Blondin walked a tightrope from the Canadian side to the American side of Niagara Falls.

Every day, all summer long.

And people would gather and shout his name.

And he looks at 25,000 people and he says this.

Do you believe in me? Yes, we believe.

My name is Charles Blondin.

Which French daredevil crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope in 1859? Is it A.

Philippe Petit, B. Harry Houdini, C. Charles Blondin, or D. Carl Wallenda? The answer is C.

Charles Blondin.

After his first Niagara crossing in 1859, Charles Blondin kept raising the stakes, he returned to the titro blindfolded, on stilts, and pushing a wheelbarrow.

In one especially nerve-wracking stunt, he carried his manager, Harry Colcord, across on his back, proof that even a spectacular feat can become a repeat performance.

Question 7.

Amen.

Some of you here will have heard of a man named Charles Blondin.

He was a tightrope walker, tightrope walker from the 19th century.

He's famous for walking across the Niagara Falls by tightrope something like 300 times from America to Canada and back the other way.

People saw these things, but we're told at the end of chapter 2 that Jesus didn't entrust himself to these people, for he knew what was in each person.

In other words, people believed in Jesus' name, but it was purely because he had performed in front of them.

It's like Charles Blondin.

You see the tricks.

And in order to get close, it requires us to trust and surrender.

So there was this guy in the 1850s, Charles Blondin.

He was a French acrobat.

I think that was his stage name.