Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-05-31

IN pIbiic "a great ccmpUsure broke
down under emotion. 1he people wer,
i'm tears. There were sobs and silence:
and solemniies 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 a secular place. over four hundred
arose for prayers, and 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 haston 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 in a 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,
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 viii be
heard. Oh, "a 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 tie secret place Of
thunder.
But" says some one, ''that is beau
tiful theory, yet it does not work in my
case, for / am in cloud of trouble, or a
cloud of sickness, or a cloud of persecu-
ton, or a cloud of poverty, or a cloud of
bereavement, or cloud of perplexity." ="
How glad | 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 a cloud, O tremendous cloud, that
God made reply. 1t was 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 cloud hear it.
81 answered thee in the secret place Of
thunder"
INFLUENCE OF THE OLD HOME.
This subject 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
tiplying by the miHute. Many of them
have not superabundance of educa-
ton. If you had their brain in post
mortem examination, and you could
weigh it, it would not weigh any heav-
ier 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 in their presence; you are
better man or better woman, having
confronted them. You know that in in
tellectual endowment you are their su-
perior, while in the matter of moral and
religious influence they are vastly your
superior. Why is this2
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
the kettle ON the hearth begins to rattle
with the steam, and the shadow of the
Industrious woman by the fickering
fame on the hearth is moved up and
down the wall. The father is at the
barn feeding the stock-the oats thrown
into the horses bin and the cattle
craunching the corn. The children, ear
lier than they would like and after be-
ing called twice, are gathered at the
table.
The blessing of God is asked on the
food, and, the meal over, the family
Bible is put upon the white tablecloth
and chapter is read and prayer made,
which includes all the interests for this
world and the next. The children pay
not much attention to the prayer, for it
is about the same thing day after day,
but it puts upon them an impression
that ten thousand years will only make
more vivid and tremendous. AS long as
the old folks live their prayer is for their
children and their children's children.
Day in and day out, month in and month
out, year in and year out, decade in and
decade out the sons and daughters of
that family are remembered in earnest
prayer, and they know it, and they feel
it, and they cannot get away from it.
Two funerals after awhile-not more
than two years apart, for it is seldom
that there is more than that lapse of
time between fathers going and moth
er's going-two funerals put out of sight !
the old folks. But where are the chill
dren? The daughters are in homes
where they are incarnations of good |
sense, industry and piety, The sons,
perhaps one a farmer, another mer-
chant, another q mechanic, another q |
physician, another minister Of the |
Gospel, useful, consistent, admired, hon
Dred. What a power for good those |
seven sons aud daughters! Where did |
they get the power? From the schools, |
and the seminaries, and the oollegesl
Oh, no, though these may have helped.