The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-06-04
IN UNSEEN POWER.
Rev. DR.. Talnage Discourses on
Thunder in the Bible.
He Refers to the Apostles james and
John, Who Were Called 'ssons of
Thunder''-The Secret Re
ligious Power in
the Church.


John, Who Were Called ''sons of
Thunder''-The Secret Re
ligious Power in
the Church.
DR.. Talmage took for his sermon last
Sunday, Psalms lxxxi, Z: 81 answered
thee in the secret place of thunder"
1t is past midnight, and Q o'clock in
the morning, far enough from sunset
and sunrise to make the darkness very
thick, and the Egyptian army in pur-
suit of the escaping Israelites are on
the bottom of the Red sea, its waters
having been set up on either side in ma
sonry of sapphire, for God can make q
wall as solid out of water as out OF
granite, and the trowels with which
these two walls were built Were none
the less powerful because invisible.
Such walls had never before been
lifted
When ! saw the waters of the Red
Sea rolling through the Suez canal they
were blue and beautiful and flowing
like other waters, but to night, as the
Egyptians look up to them built into
walls, now on one side and now on the
OuAAe15 t14S$ 41AuoO iAxSN7 Oc1CA lEOWnll&
waters, for it was probable that the.
same power that lifted them up might;
suddenly fling them PROSTATE. A great,
lantern ofocloud hung over this chasm,
between the two walls The door Of
tha&alantern was opened toward the,
1sraeaites ahead, giving them light, and
herback of the lantern was toward the
Egyptians. sandit growled and rumbled,
and Jared with thunder; not thunder.
like that which cheers the earth after a
drought, promising the refreshing
shower, hut charged and surcharged'
vvithstareats OF doom
The EgypsaanScaptains lost theirpres-
ence OF mind, and the horses reared and,
snOrted and would not answer to their.
bits, and the chariot wheels, got inter,
locked and torn off, and the characters
we've hurled headlong, and the Red sea
feiAcn aal the host. The confusing and
coIfounding thunder was in answer to
the prayer offhe Israelites. With their
backs cut by the lash, and their feet
bleeding, and theirbodies decrepit with
had asked Almighty God to ensepulcher
thsfr Egyptian puEsuers m one great
sarruphagus, and the splash and the:
roar of the Bed sea4as III dropped to its,
naHzral bed were only the ssazztsfting of
the saacCg,aragMs ron2 dead hos&4 That
rs the naeaningeof the texb when God
EayS- @I answered thee in the secret
paace OF Ehznder."
Now Eaazzaar, all UP and down the
Bible, is the symbol Aof power The
EgypSiam plague of hail YVES accom-
panied with this full diapason Of the
hsawech. While Slammed and his men
wern magTng burnt offering of a
1arnsby and the q hiaisatines were about to
zttsclk then, dt sxas7oy tearorizing thur
der tlaey were discounted. Job, who
ga combination of the Dantesuue
and the MTlltonie, was soAennized ON
this assyerberatinm of the heavens, and
eried, %"The ahunder of his power, who
cam atnfasrstazads" and hes challenges the
urfuarse by saying, sCanst thou
ttaa,zEnderg wfrhsa xuice Hike Him2' and he
thrDws Rosa Bnmhenras AsHorse Fairn
into fhesshai3e Try the Bible photograph
of "a, 1aranrse, wshen he DESCRIBES his
neck as %tclotied with thunder.~ Be-
caazsesof the powerof James and John
fheySWere called fine SONS of thunder
The daw giNm -on.5he basalIic crags of
Mount Sinai 7uaszenrph asized with this
CLOUDY ehuHMttion. Theslzles all around
about st. John at Ratnos were full OF
the thunder of WEE, and the thunder of
Ghristly triumph, and fhe thunder of
and the thunder of eter-
nifty.
Butwhen my text says, 81 answered
'thee In Xhe secret place of thunder" it
suggests there is some mystery about
the Shunder. Toafhe ancients the cause
OF 6hisa bonahard THE earth with loud
sound unust haveabeen more of a mys-
terry than tits to us. The lightnings,
which were to them wild monsters
ranging through the skies in our time
have been domesticated. We harness
electricity to vehicles. and we cage it in
lamps andsewery schooaboy knows some
thing aRout the fact fhatat is the pas
sage Of electricity fromscloud to cloud
that causes thesheavenly racket which
we call thunder, But after all that
chemistry has baughtathe world, there
are mysteries about this sl8yey reso-
nance, apd my text, time in the time of
the Rsahmist, is trne now and always
will he true, that there is some secret
about -Eheplace.o of thunder.
To1ene thing known about the thun-
der there are a hundred things not
KNOWN After all the scientific batter
les have been doing their work for a
Thousand years to come and learned
men have discussed to the utmost
about atmospheric electricity.a and mag
netic electricity and galganie electricity
and thermosic electricity and friction
electricity and positive electricity and
negative electricity my text will be as,
suggestive as itisto-day, when itspealxs
OF the secret place of thunder.
Now right along by a natural law
there is always a spiritual law. AS
there1s a secre6 place of natural thun-
der. there is a secret place of moral
thunder, In other words, the religious
power that you see abroad in the church
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