The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-05-31


and solemnities of such unusual power
that the worshipers looked into each
others faces, as much as to say, "What
does all this meanT And when the fol-
lowing Sabbath came, although we were
IN secular place, over four hundred
arose for prayers, and a religious awaken
ing took place that made that winter
memorable for time and for eternity.
There may be in this building 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 a thousand
miles away in twenty-four hours, but
here is something by which III mo
ment we may confront people five thou
sand miles away. We bSaS 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
a 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, ana
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, "that is a beau
tiful theory, yet it does not work in my
case, for 1 am in a cloud of trouble, or a
cloud of sickness, or d cloud of persecu-
ton, or a cloud of poverty, or q 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 a cloud that
God answered Israel-the cloud over the
chasm cut through the Red seattle
cloud that was light to the Israelites
and darkness to the Egyptians. 1t was
from clouG. a tremendous cloud, that
God made reply. 1t was a cloud that
was the secret place of thunder. So
you cannot get away from the consola-
ton of my text by talking that way.
Let all the people under a cloud hear it.
II answered thee in the secret place of
thunder"
INFLUENCE OF TIE OLD HOME.
This subject helps me to explain some
things you have not understood about
men and women, and there are m5sitl-
tudes of them, and the multitude is mui-
tiplying by the minute. Many of them
have not superabundance of educa-
ton. If you had their brain in a post
mortem examination, and you could
weigh it, it would not weigh auy 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 you feel their power; you
are elevated i'll their presence; you are 4
better man or better woman, having
confronted them You know that IN in
tellectual 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 90 back thirty or forty OF
perhaps sixty years to the HOMESTEAD
where this man was brought up. 1t Is /
winter morning, and the tallow candle
is lighted, and the fires are E1dled
sometimes the shavings hardly enough
to start the wood. The mother is pre-
paring the breakfast. the blue edged
dishes are on the table, and the lid OF
the kettle OF the hearth begins to rattle
with the steam, ana the shadow OF the
| industrious woman by the Pickering
/ flame on the hearth y I2ovCd up anC
| down the wall. The father Is at th'
( barn feeding the stOCll-the oats throw
/ into the horses bin and the cattl,
craunching the corn. The children, ear
/ her than they would like and after be
ing called twice, are gathered at tin
/ table.
The blessing of God is asked on th'
food. and. the meal over, the fanil.
Bible is put upon the white tableclotl
]
which includes all the interests for TIN
world and the next. The children pa.
not much attention to the prayer, for /
is about the same thing day after day
but it puts upon them an impression
that ten thousand years will only max
more vivid and tremendous. As long a
the old folks live their prayer is for thei
children and their children's children
Day in and day out, month III and mont
out, year in and year out, decade in AM
decade out the sons and daughters O
that family are remembered in earnes
prayer. and they know it, and they fee
it, and they cannot get away from 1t.
Two funerals after awL4le-not NOR
than two years apart, for it is seldor
that there is more than that lapse c
time between fathers going and mott
er's going-two funerals put out Of sigh
the old folks. But where are the cM
dren? The daughters are in home
where they are incarnations of goo
sense, industry and piety. The son!
perhaps one farmer, another mel
7 Ah,r-