The Princeton union., 1892-06-09

prayer and advice, and passed into
complete reformation of heart and
lie. All the neighborhood was aston
lshed and asked: Why was this? His
father and mother had said nothing
TO him about his souls welfare. On
another aisle OF the same church sat
an old miser. He paid his pew rent,
put was hard on the poor and had no
interest in any philanthropy. Piles of
money! And people said: What a
struggle he will have when he QUITS
TINS lie, to part with his bonds and
mortgages. One day he wrote to his
minister: "Please to call immediately.
| have q matter of great Importance
about which I want to see voi1."
When the pastor came. in the man
could not speak for emotion, but
after q while he gathered self-control
enough to say: II have lived
1or this world too long. I want to
know II you think can be saved, and,
II 80. L wish you would tell me how"
Upon his soul the light soon
dawned, and the old miser, not only
revolutlonized in heart but in life, be-
gan to scatter benefactions, and to.
ward all the great charities of the day
ne became a cheerful and bountiful
almoner. What was the cause of this
change? everybody asked; and no one
was capable of giving an in
teIllgent answer. In another part of
the church sat, Sabbath by Sabbath,
a beautiful and talented woman, who
was a great society leader. She went
to church because that was a respect
able thing to do, and in the neighbor-
hood where she lived, it was hardly
respectable not to go. Worldly was
she to the last degree, and all her
family worldly. She had at her house
the finest germans that were ever
danced, and the costliest favors that
were ever given, and though she at
tended church she never liked to hear
any story of pathos, and, as to relig-
lous emotion of any kind, she thought
it positively vulgar. Wines, cards, thea
ters, rounds of costly gaiety were to
her the highest satisfaction. One day
nelghbor sent in a visiting card, and
this lady came down the stairs in tears,
and told the whole story of how she
had not slept for several nights, and
she feared she was going to loose her
soul, and she wonderd if someone
would not come around and pray with
her. From that time her
ENTIRE DENEANOR WAS CHANGED.
and though she was not called upon
to sacrifice any of her amenities of
life, she consecrated her beauty, her
social position, her family, her all to
God and the church and usefulness.
Everybody said in regard to her:
"HaSe you noticed the change, and
what in the world caused it?" and no
one could make satisfactory explana-
tion. In the course of two years,
though there was no general awaken
ing in that church, many such isolated
cases OF such unexpected and unac-
countable conversions took place.
The very people whomno one thought
would be effected by such, considera-
tion were converted. The pastor and
the officers of the church were on the
lookout for the solution OF this religi-
Gus phenomenon. "Where isit?" they
said, "and who is it, and what is it?'
At last the discovery was made and all
was explained. A poor old Christian
woman standing in the vestibule of
the church one Sunday morning, try
ing to get her breath again before she
went upstairs to the gallery, heard
the enquiry and told the secret. For
years she had been in the habit Of
concentrating all her prayers for
particular persons in that church.
She would see some man or some
woman present, and, though she
might not know the persons name,
she would pray for that person until
he or she was converted to God. All
her prayers were for that one person
Just that one. She waited and
waited for communion. days to see
when the candidates for membership
stood up whether her prayers had
been efectual. 1t turned that these
MARVELLOUS INSTANCES OF CONVERSION
were the result of that old woman's
prayers as she sat in the gallery
Sabbath by Sabbath, bent and wizened
and poor and unnoticed. A little
cloud ofconsecrated humanity hover
ing in the galleries; that was the
secret place of the thunder. There is
some hidden, unknown, mysterious
source of almost all the moral and
religious power demonstrated. Not.
one out Of a million-not one out of
ten million prayers ever strikes q
human ear. On public occasions a
minister of religion voices the sup
plications of an assemblage, but the
prayers of all the congregation are in
silence. There is not a second in q
century when prayers are not ascend
ing, but myriads OF them are not even
as loud az: "a whisper, for God hears
thought as plainly as a vocalization.
That silence of supplication-hemis-
pheric and perpetual-is the secret
place of thunder.
The day will come-God hasten it
people will find out the velocity,
the majesty, the multipotence of
prayer.
The reason that we ministers do
not accomplish more, is because 9TH
ers do not pray enough for ourselves.
Every minister can tell you a thrilling
story of sermons-s sermons hastily
and impromptu, because OF funerals
and sickbeds and annoyances in the
parish; yet those sermons harvesting
many souls for God. And then OF
sermons prepared with great care
and research and toll uninterrupted;
,,,o+ +hooo corp, ono s a limo n r. ~ r,ovyo,.