Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1892-06-02

meeting in Ohio. said to myself, This
sermon was blessed today and it is fresh in
my mind, and | will preach it tomorrow in
Ohio" And did preach it, but not in as
prayerful spirit, and l think no one else
had been praying about it, and it turned
into the most inane and protitless discourse
that l ever delivered. 1t was practically
the same sermon, but on Wednesday it had
on it power that comes from the secret
place of thunder and on Thursday 1t had
on it no such power at all.
PRAYER IN THE PULPIT.
Oh, pray for usl Poor sermons in the
pulpit are the curse of God on "a prayerless
parish. People say: what is the matter
with the ministers in our time? So many
of them seem dissatisfied with the Bible
and they are trying to help Moses and
Paul and Christ out of inconsistencies and
contradictions by fixing up the Bible" As
well let the musicians go to work to fix up
Haydn's Creation" or Handel's Israel
in Egypt" or let the painters go to fixing
up Raphaels TRANSPORTATION, or archi-
tects go to fixing up Christopher Wrens
ST. Paul's.
But | will tell you what is the matter
There are too many unconverted ministers.
Their hearts have never been changed by
the grace Of God. A mere intellectual
ministry is the desdest failure this side of
perdition. Alas for the Gospel of icices!
From apologetics and hermeneutics and
dogmatics good Lord deliver us They are
trying to get from transcendental theology,
or from profound exegesis, or from the art
of splitting hairs between north and north
west side, instead of getting their power
from the secret place Of thunder We
want the power a man gets when he is
alone, the door locked on his knees; at
midnight; with such a burden of souls
upon him that makes him cry out, first in
lamentation and then in raptures.
| Let all the Sabbath school teachers and
Bible class instructors, and all reformers
and all evangelists and all ministers know
that diplomas and dictionaries and ency-
clopedias and treatises and libraries are
not the source of moral and spiritual
achievement, but that the room of prayer
where no one but God is present and no
one but God hears, is the secret place of
thunder. Secret? All, yesl So secret that
comparatively few ever find it. AT Bos-
cobel, England, we visited a house where a
king was once hid. No one, unless it were
pointed out to him, could find the door in
the floor through which the king entered
his hiding place,
When there hidden the armed pursuers
|
through an underground passage, far out
in the fields, he came out in the open air
So this imperial power of spiritual influ-
ence has hiding place, secret place
which few know, and it comes forth some
times in strange and mysterious ways, and
far off from the place where it was hidden
you can find it only by diligent searching
But you may find it, and some of you will
find it, and | wish you might all find it,
the secret place of thunder.
GOING TO EUROPE.
At nine o'clock "Wednesday morning,
June 10 next, on the steamer City of New
York, | expect to sail for Liverpool, to be
gone until September. 1t is in acceptance
, OF many invitations that ! am going on a
preaching tour / expect TO devote my
time to preaching the Gospel in England,
Scotland, Ireland and Sweden want to
soc how many souls I can gather for the
kingdom OF God. Those countries have for
many years belonged to my parish and !
go to speak to them and shake hands with
them. | want to visit more thoroughly
} than before those regions from which my
ancestors came, Wales and Scotland.
But who is sufficient for the work un-
+ dertake? | call upon you who have long
been my CONDUCTORS to go into the secret
place of the Almighty, and every day frcY
now until my work is done on the Other
; side of the sea to have me in your prnvers.
! In proportion to the intensity and continu-
, ance and faith of the prayers, yours and
, mine, will be the results. If you -mem.
Der me in the devotional circle. t1ut will
5 be well, but what | most want is your i'm
} portuning, your wrestling supplcation in
the secret place of thunder. God and YOU
alone may make me the humble nstru-
J mentality in the redemption of thousands
: of souls. | shall preach in churches, in
chapels and in the fields.
/ will make it "A campaign for God and
} eternity, and | hope to get during this alb
sence baptism of power that will make
: me of more service to you when return
than ! ever yet have been. For, brethrc,
) and sisters in Christ, our opportunity for
usefulness will soon be gone, and we shall
) have our faces uplifted to the throne of
judgment, before which we must give ac-
: count. That day there will he no secret
place of thunder, for all the thunders will
be out. There will be the thunder of the
tumbling rocks. There will be the thunder
: of the bursting waves There will be the
thunder of the descending chariots There
, will be the thunder of the partiug heay-
J ems. Boom Boom!
But all that din and uproar and crash
will find us unaffrighted, and will leave
/, us undismayed, if we have mad, Christ
our confidence, and as after an August
shower when the whole heavens have been
an numbered battery cannonadine the
earth, the fields are more green, and the
sunrise is more radiant, and the waters
are the more opaline so the thunders of
! the last day will make the trees of life an.
pear more emerald, and the carbuncle
of the wall more crimson, and the san
, phire seas the more shimmering. and the
sunrise of eternal gladness the more en-
purpled. The thunders of dissolving ma.
ture will be followed by a celestial psalm
ody, the sound of which st. John on Pat
, mos described, when he said, Il heard =
voice like the voice of mighty thr.pde,
ings" Amen.