Democratic messenger., 1892-06-04
A VALUABLE LESSON.
EXTRACTED FROM A TEXT APPAR-
EMILY BARREN OF SUGGESTIONS.
DIR. Talmage Gives n Fresh DiSnlay of
His Ability {" nc Eloquent and Earnest
In Novel Lines Of rulpit oratory.

gave a fresh illustration this morning Of
the power he possesses of extracting
valuable lessons from a text which
preachers have generally neglected as
barren ground. His sermon was based
on the text Psalms lXxxi. Z. II answered
thee in the secret place of thunder
1t is past midnight. and two O'Clock in
the morning. far enough from sunset
and sunrise TO make the darkness very
thick. and the Egyptian army in pursuit
of the escaping Israelites are on the bot
tom of the Red sea. its waters having
been set up on either side in masonry of
sapphire. for God can make a wall as
solid out of water rs out of granite, and
the trowels with which these two walls
were built We're 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 tonight, rs the Egyp-
tians look up TO them built into walls,
now on one side and now on the other,
they must have been frowning waters.
for it was probable that the same power
that lifted them mp might suddenly fling
them prostrate. \ great lantern of cloud
hung over this chasm between the two
walls. The door of that lantern was
opened toward the lsraeliics ahead. Civ
ing them light. and the back of the Ian
tern was toward the Egyptians, and it
growled and rumbled and Jared with
thunder: not thunder like that which
cheers the earth after a drought. promis-
ing the refreshing shower. but charged
and surcharged with threats Of doom.
The Egyptian captains lost their pres
ence of mind and the horses reared and
snorted and would not answer Ia their
bits. and the chariot wheels got inter
locked and torn off. and the charioteers
We're hurled headlong. and the Red sea
fell on all the host The confusing and
confounding thunder was i'll answer to
the prayer of the lsraclites. With their
backs cut by the lash. and their feet
bleeding, and their bodies decrcpit with
the suffering of whole generations, they
had asked Almighty God to ensepulcher
their Egyptian pursuers in one great
sarcophagus. and the splash and the
roar of the Red sea rs it dropped 10 its
natural bed were only the shutting of
the sarcophagus on a dead host. That
is the meaning of the text when God
says. Il answered thee in the secret place
of thunder"
POWER AND 4 MYSTERY.
NAxx. sl,,,,.In, al n,.l 81.
Bible. is the symbol of power. The Egyp-
tian plague of hail was accompanied
with this full diapason of the heavens.
While Samuel and his men were making
a burnt Offering of lamb. and the Phil
istines were about To attack them. il was
by terrorizing thunder they were dis
comtited. job. who was combination
of the Dantesque and the Miltonic. was
solemnized on this reverberation of the
heavens, and cried, The thunder of his
power, who can understand:" and he
challenges the universe by saying. "Canst
thou thunder with voice like him:"
and he throws Rosa Bonheur's Horse
Fair" into the shade by the Bible photo
graph of Il warhorse, when he describes
tiio iAtth stN VIII d.
cause of the power of James and John,
they were called 1.-THE sons Of thunder"
The law given on the basaltic crags of
Mount Sinai was emphasized with this
cloudy cbullition. The skies all around
about ST. John at Patmos We're full of
the thunder of war, and the thunder of
Christly triumph, and the thunder of
resurrection. and the thunder Of eternity.
But when my text says. Il answered
thee in the secret place of thunder" il
suggests there is some mystery about
the thunder. To the ancients the cause
of this bombarding the earth with loud
sound must have been more of mys-
terry than IL Is 10 us. The lightnings.
which were 10 them wild monsters
ranging through the skies. in our time
have been domesticated We harness
electricity 10 vehicles and we cage it in
lamps. and every schoolboy knows some
thing about the fact that il is the passage
of electricity from cloud 10 cloud that
makes the heavenly racket which we
call thunder. But. after all that chem
istry has taught the world. there are
mysteries about this skyey resonance,
and my text. true in the time of the
PsalmiSt. is true now and always will be
true, that there is some secret about the
place of thunder.
To one thing known about the thnn-
der there are Il hundred things not
known. After all the scientific batteries
have been doing their work for thou
sand years 10 come and learned men
have discoursed to the utmost about
atmospheric electricity and magnetic
electricity and galvanic electricity and
thermotic electricity and frictional cleo
tricity and positive electricity and mega
tive electricity my text will be as sug-
gestive as it is today. when it speaks of
the secret place of thunder.
RESULT OF A woMAN's PRAYERS.
Now right along by natural law
there is always a spiritual law. As
there is secret place of natural thun
Her, there is Il secret place of moral
thunder Ia other words, the religious
power that you see abroad in the church
in the world has hiding place. and in
many cases il is never discovered at all
will use similitude. | can give only
the dim outline of particular case, for
many of the remarkable circumstances
have forgotten. Many years ago there
was large church. II was character
lied by strange and unaccountable con
versions. There were no great revivals,
but individual cases of spiritual arrest
and transformation.
A young man sat in one of the front
pews. He was graduate of Yale. bril-
liant as the north star and notoriously
dissolute. Everybody knew MIN and
liked him for his gcniality, but deplorel
his moral errantry. To please his par
ents he was every Sabbath morning in
church. One day there was ringing.
the doorbell Of the pastor Of that churc,',
and that Young man. whelmed with re,
pentance, implored PRAYER aud aGvicc
and passed into complete reformation of
heart and life. Al the ncishharhood
was astonished and asked. why was
this:' His father aad mo her hal said