Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-05-30

tn0n tht1<8 VIII fct tlsi1 pe- NND
are sesdom more tkm their mothers win
lee them he. But there come times
when IL seems that parents cannot con-
troll their children. There come times
in boys life VIXEN he thinks he knows
more than his father does. and l remem-
Der now that / knew more 81 6spo<n
years Of aes than l have ever known
sinco.
There come times in girls life when
she thinks her mother is notionA and
does not understand what is proper ard
best. and the sweet child Gays. "Oh.
pshswr' and abe longs for the time when
she viii not have to DO dictated TO. and
she goes Ont Of the door or goes 20 bed
with pouting lip, and these mothers re-
member for themselves that they knew
moro At fourteen years Of age than thSy
have ever known since. But. fSther and
mother. do not think you have lost your
influence over your child. You have
resource u prayer that puts the symps-
thetic and omnipotsnt God into your
parental undertaking. Do not waste
your time In reading himsy books about
tho bestsways TO bring up children Go
into the secret place OF thunder.
PRAY FOR THE PREACHERS.
The reason that We ministers do not
accomplish more is because others do
not pray enough for Us and we do not
pray enough for ourselves. Every min
lister could tell you thrilling story Of
scrmons-sermons hasty and impromptu
because OF funerals and sickbeds and
annoysnces in the parish, yet those ser.
mons harvesting many souls for God.
Aud then of sermons prepared with great
care and research and toll uninterrupted,
yet those sermons falling fat or power
less, or OF the Same sermon nightly
blessed ON one occasion and useless on
another. How well / remember SER
mon I preached at great outdoor meet
ing in the upper part OF this state. For
several days in that place prayers had
been offered for the success Of the serv-
ice. and had myself been unusually
prayerful, and we had. q Pentecostal
blessing while was preaching it.
That afternoon took the train for q
great outdoor meeting in Ohio. l said
to myself, This sermon was blessed to-
day and it is fresh in my mind, and I
viii preach it tomorrow in Ohio" And
did preach it, but not in Is prayerful .
spirit. and think no one else had been
praying about it. and it turned into tho
most inAne and proftless discourse that
I ever delivered. It was practically the
same sermon, but on Wednesday it had
ON it power that comes from the secret
place of thunder, and on Thursday it
had on it no such power at all.
Oh, pray for usl Poor sermons in tho
pulpit are the curse of God on prayer
les parish. People say: "What is the
matter with the ministers in our timer
So many of them seem dissatisfied with
the Bible and they are trying to help
Moses and Paul and Christ out Of in
constituencies and contradictions by fx-
ing up the Bible" AS well let the mu-
sicians go to work to fix up Hadyn's
Creation" or Handel's Israel in
Egypt" or let the painters go to fixing
F up Raphael's TRANSPORTATION, /" or archi-
tects go to fixing up Christopher Wren's
81 Paul's. But I will tell you what is
the matter. There are too many uncon-
ver.ed ministers. Their hearts have
never been changed by the grace Of
God.
/. A mere intellectual ministry is the
deadest failure this side of perdition.
Alas for the Gospel Of icicles! From
apologetics and hermeneutics and dog
mates, good Lord deliver Us! They are
trying to get from transcendental the
ology, or from profound exegesis, or
from the art Of splitting hairs between
north and northwest side instead of get
ting their power from the secret place
of thunder. We want the power o man
gets when he is alone, the door looked;
on his knees; at midnight; with such u
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 re-
formers and all evangelists and all min
listers know that diplomas and diction-
aries and encyclopedias and trestises
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, yes! So secret that CON-
paratively few ever find it.
At Boscobel, England, we visited q
house where king was once hid. No
one, unless It was pointed ont to him,
could find the door in the floor through
which the king entered his hiding place.
When there hidden the armed pursuers
looked in vain for him, and afterward
tnruakh an underground passage, far
out in the fields, ss came out in the open
air. So this imperial power Of spiritual
influence has Q hiding place, a secret
place which few know, and it comes
forth sometimes In strange and mys-
FERROUS ways and far from the place
where Il was hidden you can find it only
by diigcnt searching. But you may
fnd it. and some Of you will find it, and
! wish you might all find 1.-THE secret
place of thunder.
DR. TALMAoE CONC ABROAD.
At nine O'Clock Wednesday morning,
June IS NEXT, on the steamer City Of
New York, / expect TO sail for Liverpool.
TO be gone until September. 1t is in ac-
ceptance Of many invitations that am
going on preaching tour. Iexpect to
devote my time to preaching the Gospel
! in England. Scotland. Ireland and
Sweden. want 10 see how many souls
/ can gather for the kingdom OF God.
Those countries have for many years be.
longed to my parish. and ] go 10 speak
70 them and shake hands with them.