Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1892-06-02

and as to religious emotion of any kind,
she thought it positively vulgar. Wines,
cards, theaters. rounds of costly gayety
were to her the highest satisfaction.
One day a neighbor sent in a visiting
card, and this lady came down 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 n 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 Oh
life, she consecrated her beauty, her
social position, her family, her all to
God and the church and usefulness.
Everybody said in regard to her, Have
YOU noticed the change, and what in the
world caused it,: and no T. 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 CONVEX
sions 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 lookout for the solution Of
this religious phenomenon. Where is
it." they said, land who is it and what
is IT." At last the discovery was made
and all was explained. A poor old
Christian. woman standing in the vesti-
bule of the church one Sunday morning,
trying to get her breath again before She
went up stairs to the gallery, heard the
inquiry and told the secret.
Fer years she had been in the habit
of concentrating all her prayers for par
ticular 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 con-
verted to God. All her prayers We're
for that one person-just that n She
waited and waited for communion days
TO see when the candidates for member
ship stood up whether her prayers had
been effectual. 1t turned out that these
marvellous instances of conversion were
the result Of that old woman's prayers
as she sat in the gallery Sabbath by
Sabbath. bent and wiZened and poor
and unnoticed.
A little cloud of ~consecrated humani-
tv 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 reli-
gious power demonstrated. Not one
out of a miilion-not n o0t of ten mil
lion-prayers ever strikes.a human ear.
On public occasions a minister of reli-
gion voices the s~upplications of an as
semblage. 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 a thought as plainly as a vo-
~calization. That silence of supplication
hemisphere and perpetual-is the Sc
cret place Of thunder.
THE SECRET PLACE OF THUNDER.
In the winter of 1876 we We're worship
ing in the Brooklyn Academy of Music
in the i~nterregnum Of churches. We
had the usual great audiences, but was
oppressed beyond measure by the fact
that conversions were not more numer-
Gus. One Tuesday invited to my house
five old, consecrated Christian men-all
of them gone now, except Father Pear
son, and he, in blindness and old age,
waiting for the Masters cal to come up
higher.
These old men came, not knowing
why l had invited them. ! took them
to the top room of my house. l said to
them: Il have called you here for spe-
cial prayer. / am in an agony for a
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 down and each one pray and not
leave this room until we are all assured
that the blessing will come and has
come" 1t was a most intense crying
7 said, Brethren, let thu:
+hay cold II