Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-06-04

Father Pearson, and he, in blindness
and old age, waiting for the Masters
call to come up higher.
These old men came, not knowing
why had invited them. J. took them
to the top room of my house. said to
them: 81 have called you here for spe-
cial prayer. / am in an agony for n
great turning to god of the people. We
have vast multitudcs in attendance and
they are attentive and respectful, but l
Gun not see that they are saved. Let us
lSneel down and each one pray and not
leave this room until we are all assured
that the blessing will come and has
come" 1t was u most intense crying
unto God. l said, Brethren, let this
meeting be n secret" and they said it
would be. That Tuesday night special
service ended.
On the following Friday night oc-
cured the usual prayer meeting No
one knew of what had occurred on Tues
day night, but the meeting was unusu-
ally thronged. Men accustomed to pray
in public in great composure broke
down under emotion. The people were
in tears. There were sobs and silences
and solemnities Of such unusual power
that the worshipers looked into each
others faces, as much as to say, What
does all this mean?" And when the
following Sabbath came. although we
were in secular place, over four hun
dred arose for prayers, and n religious
awakening took place that made that
winter memorable for time and for
eternity. There may be in this build
ing many who were brought to God
during that great ingathering, but few
of them know that the upper room In
my house on Quincy street, where those
five old Christian men poured out their
souls before God, was the secret place
of thunder.
The day will come-God hasten it
when people will find out the velocity,
the majesty, the multipotence OF prayer.
We brag about our limited express
trains which put us down thousand
miles away in twenty-four hours, but
here is something by which in n mo-
ment we may confront people five thou
sand miles away. We brag about our
telephones, but here is something that
beats the telephone in utterance and re-
ply. for God says, 'Before they call, l
will hear" We brag about the phono-
graph, in which a man can speak, and
his words and the tones of his voice can
be kept for ages. and by the turning OF
crank the words may come forth upon
the ears of another century, but prayer
allows us to speak words into the ears
of everlasting remembrance, and on the
other side of all eternities they will be
heard. Oh. We who are wasting your
breath. and wasting your brains, and
wasting your nerves. and wasting your
lungs wishing for this good and that
good for the church and the world, why
do YOU not go into the secret place OF
thunder.
But" says some one, shat is beau
tiful theory, yet it does not work in my
case. for am in cloud of trouble, or
cloud of sickness, or u cloud of persecu-
ton, or cloud of poverty, or cloud OF
bereavement, or cloud of perpleXity."
How glad l am that you told me that.
That is exactly the place to which my
text refers. 1t was from n cloud that
God answered Israel-the cloud over
the chasm cut through the Red Sea-
the cloud that was light to the lsraelites
and darkness to the Egyptians 1t was
from q cloud, tremendous cloud, that
God made reply. 1t was n cloud that
was the secret place of thunder. So you
can not get away from the consolation
of my text by talking that way. Let
all the people under cloud hear 1t. II
answered thee in the secret place OF
thunder"
This suiect helps me to explain some
things you have not understood about
men and women, and there are multi
tudes of them. and the multitude is null
tiplving by the minute. Many of them
have not n superabundance OF educa-
ton. If you had their brain in post
mortem examination, and You could
weigh it. it would not weigh any heav-
Ter than the average. They have not
anything especially impressive in per-
sonal appearance. They are not very
fluent of tongue. They pretend to moth
ing unusual in mental faculty or social
influence, but yen feel their power; you
are elevated in their presence; you are
better man or better woman, having
confronted them. You know that in in
tcllectual endowment you are their SUI
perior, while in the matter of moral and
religious influence they are vastly your
superior. Why is this?
TO find the revelation of this secret
you must go back thirty or forty or
perhaps sixty years to the homestead
where this man was brought up. 1t is a
winter morning, and the tallow candle
is lighted. and the fires are kindled,
sometimes the shavings hardly enough
to start the wood The mother is pre-
pairing the breakfast, the blue edged
dishes are ON the table, and the lid OF