The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-05-30

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 lose her soul,
and she wondered If some one would not
come around and pray with her. From that
/ time her entire demeanor was changed, and
! though she was not called upon to sacrifice
/ any Of her amenities Of life, she consecraLed
! her beauty, her social position, her family
! her all 90 God and the church and usoful-
! ness. Everybody said in regard to her.
Have you noticed the change, and what in
/ the world caused itr' and no one could make
satisfactory explanation. In the course Of
two years, though there was no
general awakening in that church.
many such isolated cases Of
such unexpected and unaccountable
conversion took place. The very people
whom no one thought would be affected by
such considerations were converted. The
pastor and the officers of the church were
on the outlook for the solution of this re-
ligious phenomenon. "Where is itp they
said, land who is it. and what is it!n 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, trying to get her breath
again before she went upstairs to the gal
lery, heard the inquiry and told the secret.
For years she has been in the habit of con-
centratiug 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 Ior
communion days to ace when the candi~
dates for membership stood up whether
her prayers had been effeckual. 1t turned
out that these marvellous instances Of con-
version were the result Of that old woman's
prayers as she sat in the gallery Sabbath
by Sabbath, bent and wizened and poor aud
unnoticed. A little cloud of consecrated
huma lity lowering in the galleries. That
was the secret place of the thunder. There
is some hidden, unknown, mysterious
source of almost all the moral and religr
ious power demonstrated. Not one out of q
million-not one out of ten million prayers
ever strikes human ear On public occa-
sions 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 a century when prayers
are not ascending, but myriads of them are
not even as loud as a whisper, for God
hears thought as plainly as vocalization.
That silence of supploation-hem
and perpetual-is the secret place Of thun-
der
In the winter of 1875, we were Worship ng
in the Brooklyn. Academy of Music in the
AhIOlIGSnuul VA CuuICu6Ss we nhQ Lu6
usual great audiences, but was oppressed
beyond measure by the fact that CONVEX
sions were not more numerous. One Tues
day invited to my house five old conse-
Grated Christian men-all of them gone
now except Father Pearson, and he, in
blindness and old age, waiting for the
Masters call to come up higher. These old
men came, not knowing why l invited
them. took them to the top room of my
house. l said to them: II have called you
here for special prayer. | am in an agony
for great turning to God of the people
We have vast multitudes in attendance and
they are attentive and respectful, but /
cannot see that they are saved. Let us
kneel and each one pray and not leave this
room until we are all assured that the
blessing will come, and has come" Is was
a most intense crying unto God. 1 said
brethren, let this meeting be a secret
and they said it would be. That Tuesday,
night special service ended. On the follow
ing Friday night occurred the usual pray er
meeting. No one knew of what had oc~
Cured on Tuesday night, but the meeting
was unusually thronged. Men accustomed
to pray In public in great composure broke
down under emotion. The people were in
tears. There were sobs aud silences and
solemnlties OF such unusual power that the
worshipers looked into each others faces as
much as to say: What does all this mean p'
And when the following Sabbath came, al
though we were in a secular place, over
four hundred arose for prayers, and reli-
gious awakening took place that made that
winter memorable for time and for eter-
nifty. 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 q thousand miles away in
twenty>four hours, but here is something
by which in moment we may confront
! people five thousand miles away, We brag
about our telephones, but here is something
that beats the telephone in utterance and
reply, for God says, "aefore they call will
hear" We brag about the photograph, in
which 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 remem-
! beraDce and on the other side of all the
eternities they will be heard. o We who
are wasting your breath and wasting your
brains and wasting your nerves aud vast
ing your lungs wishing for this good and
| that good for the church aud the world,
! Why do you not go into the secret place of
! thunders
| but" says some one, "that is beautiful
theory, yet it does not work In my case, for
am in a cloud Of trouble, or a cloud of
sickness, or a cloud of persecution, or a
! cloud of poverty, or a cloud of bereave .
ment. or a cloud OF perplexity." How glad
| l am that you told me that. That is ex-
! actly the place to which my text refers. 1t
| was from a cloud that God answered Israel
! the cloud over the chasIn cut through the
! Red seattle cloud that was light to the
lsraelites and darkness to the Egyptians. 1t
was from cloud, a tremendous cloud that
God made reply. It was cloud that was
the secret place of thunder. Soyo cannot
| get away from the consolation of my text
by talking that way. Let all the people
under "a cloud hear it. ~ answered thee in
the secret place of thunder"
The subject helps me to explain some
things you have not understood about
certain useful men and women. MANY of
! them have not a superabundance of educa-
tion. If you had their BRAIN in a post
mortem examination, and you could weigh
| it, it would not weigh any heavier tn an the
average. They have not anything especi-
| ally impressive in personal appearance.
! They are not very fluent Of tongue They
! pretend to nothing unusual in mental
| faculty or social influence, but you feel
their power; you are elevated in their pres
ence; you are a better man or a better