The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-06-10
SPECIAL PRAYER.
Thunder, in the Bible, is the Symbol
of Power.
st. James and ST. John Were Called zine
Sons of Thunder."-The kehgioos
Power In the Church has
Hiding Place-Dr. Tai
IMAGES Sermon.

Il
Sunday. Psalms lxxxi, Z: Il answered
thee in the secret place of thunder.
It is past midnight, and 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
sorry of sapphire, for God can make a
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 I saw the waters of the Red
Sea rolling through the Suez canal they
were blue and beautiful and flowing
like other waters, but tonight, as the
Egyptians look up to them built into
walls. now on one side and now on the
other. they must have been frowning
waters. for 1t was probable that the
same power that lifted them up might
suddenly fling them PROSTATE. A great
lantern Of cloud hung over this chasTn
between the two walls. The door of
that lantern was opened toward the
Israelites ahead. giving them light, and
the back Of the lantern was toward the
Egyptians. and it growled and rumbled
ard Jared with thunder; not thunder
like that which cheers the earth after a
drought. promising the refreshing
shower. but charged and surcharged
with threats of doom.
The Egyptian captains lost theirpre
-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 charioteers
were hurled headlong. and the Red sea
fell on all the host. The confusing and
confoundiug thunder was in answer to
the PRAYER Of the Israelites. With their
backs cut by the lash. and their feet
bleeding. and their bodies decrepit with
the suffering Of whole generations, they
had asked Almighty God 10 ensepulcher
their Egyptian pursuers in one great
sareophacus. and the splash and the
roar of the Red sea as it dropped to its
natural bed were only the shutting OF
the sareophagus on q dead host That
Is the meaning Of the text when God
saws: 81 answered thee in the secret
place Of thunder"
Now thunder all up and down the
Bible. is the symbol of power. The
Egyptian plague of hail was accom-
panied with this full diapason of the
heavens. While Samuel and his men
were making a burnt offering Of
lamb. and the Philistines were about to
attack them. It was by terrorizing thun-
der they were discounted. Job. who
was a combination of the Dantesque
and the Milto-ic, was solenlnized on
this reverberation of the heavens, and
cried. The thunder of his power, who
can understands" and he challenges the
universe by saying, ''Canst thou
thunder with a voice like Him?" and he
throws Rosa Bonheur's Horse Fair"
into the shade by the Bible photograph
Of a warhorse, when he describes his
neck as clothed with thunder" Be
cause OF the power OF James and John
they We're called the sons OF thunder"
The law given on the basaltic crags OF
Mount Sinai was emphasized with this
cloudy ebulIition. The skies all around
about St. John at Patmos were full Of
the thunder of war. and the thunder OF
CIristlv triumph. and the thunder OF
resurrection, and the thunder of eter-
atty.
But when NV text SAYS. 81 answered
thee in the secret place Of thunder" 1t
suggests there is some mystery about
the thunder. To the ancients the cause
of this bombardinC the earth with loud
sound must have been more Of nys-
terv than II is to US. The hghtnings,
which were 70 them wild monsters
ranging through the skies in our time
have been domesticated- We harness
electricity 70 vehicles, and we cage 1t IN
LAMPS. and every schoOlbOy knows some
thing about the fact that it is the pas
sage of electricity from cloud to cloud
that causes the heavenly racket which
ve call thunder. But, after all that
chemistry has taught the world, there
are mysteries about this skyey reso-
nance, 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 thun'
Ger LlCEN dEC a ANAANAACAA AA4AAA-1 LIZ
known. After all the scientific batter
les have been doing their work for q
thousand years 20 come and learned
men have discoursed TO the utmost
about atmospheric electricity and mag
netic electricity and Calvanic electricity
and thermotic electricity and friction
electricity and positive electricity and
negative electricity my text will be a
suggestive as il is to-day, when tspeakl
of the secret place Of thunder.
Now right along by natural Law
there is always a spiritual law. A
there Is a secret place Of natural thun
der. there IS a secret place Of mora
thunder. In other words. the religious
power that rou see abroad in the churcl
IL the world has a hiding place, and /:
many cases II IS never discovered at al
Twill use I sinilituGe. can give onl!
the dim outline Of particular case, 70
many Of the remarkable circumstance
have forgotten Many years az
there was large church 1t was char
aeterized By strange and unaceountabl
conversions. There were 10 great re
vivaIs, but individual cases of spiritua
arrest and transformation.
j young man sat in enc of the from
news de was graduate of Yale. bri
liant as the north star and notorious
6issolute- Everybody knew him an
liked him for his geniality, but deplore
his moral erra-try. To please his pal
-ents he was every Sabbath morning i
church One day there was ringing @
the doorbeu OF the pastor Of that church
and that young man, whelmed nth Re
-ra7-arce f-,1lo-ed r-axer and advie