The Penn's Grove record., 1892-06-03
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
TIE BROOKLYN DIvINE5 sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "rhe Secret Place OF Ihur
der"

pidoS of hUndel. Psalms XXX, Z.
1t is past midnight, and two o'clock in the
morning, far enough from sunset and sun
rise to make the darkness very thick, and the
Egyptian army in pursuit of the ESCAPING
lsraelites are on the bottom of tue Red Sea
Its waters having been set up on either side
In masonry OF sapphire, for God can make a
wall as solid out of water as out OF granite,
and the troweIs with which these two walls
were built were one the less powerful be
cause invisible. Such walls had never before
been lifted.
When saw the waters of the Red Sea roll
ing through the Suez Canal they were blue
and beautiful and flowing like other waters,
but tonight, as the Egyptians look up to
them built into walls. now on one side and
now on the other, they must have been
frowning waters, for it was probable that
the same power that lifted them up might
suddenly fling them PROSTATE. A great Ian
tern OF cloud hung over this chasm between
the two walls. The door of tina lantern was
opened toward the Israelites ahead, giving
them light, and the back of the lantern was
toward the Egyptians, and it growled and
rumbled and Jared with thunder, not thun-
der like that which cheers the earth after a
drought, promising the refreshing shower,
but charged and surcharged with threats OF
doom.
The Egyptian captains lost their presence
of min, and the horses reared and snortei
and would not answer to their bits, and the
chariot wheels got interlocked and torn off,
and the characters were hurled headlong,
and the Red Sea fell on all the host. The
confusing and confounding thunder was in
answer to the prayer Of the Israelites. With
their backs cut by the lash, and their feet
bleeding. and their bodies decrepit with the
suffering of whole generations, they had
asked Almighty God to ensepulcher their
Egyptian pursuers in one great sarcOphasus,
and the splash and the roar of the Red Sea
as it dropped to its natural bed were only
the shutting. Of the s~arcophagqs on a dead
host. That is the meaning of the text when
God says, II answered thee in the secret
place of thunder"
Now thunder, all up n down the Bible,
is the symbol of power. The Egyptian
plague of hail was accompanied with this
full ~diapason of the heavens. While sam
uel and his men were making a burnt offer
ing of a lamb, and the Philistines were about
to attack them, it was by terrorizing thun-
der they were discounted. job, who was a
combination Of the Dantesque and the Mil
tonic, was solomnized on thus reyerberation
OF the heavens, and cried, The thunder of
His power, who can understand and he
challenges the universe by saying, 'Canst
thou thunder with a voice like Him. and he
throws Rosa Bonheur's ''Horse Fair into
the shade by the Bible photograph of a war
horse, when he describes his neck as clothed
with thunder" Because of the power Of
James and John, they were called the sons
of thunder" The law given or the basaltic
crags of Mount Sinai was emphasized with
this cloudy ebullition. The skies all around
about st. John at Patmos were full of the
thunder of war, and the thunder of Christly
triumph, and the thunder of resurrection,
and the thunder of eternity.
But when my text says, II answered thee
In the secret place of thunder it suggest
there is some mystery about the thunder.
To the ancients the cause of this lombard
ing the earth with loud sound must have
been more Of a mystery than it is to US. The
| hghtnings, which were to them wild mon
| sters ranging through the skies, in our time
| have been domesticated. We harness eiec-
| tricity to vehicles and we cage 1t in amps,
| and every schoolboy knows something about
| the fact that it is the passage of electricity
| from cloud to cloud hat makes the heavenly
| racket which we call thunder. But, after
| all that chemistry has taught the world,
| there are mysteries about the skyey reson-
| ance and my text, true in the time of the
| Psalmist, is true now and always will be
| true. that there is some secret about the
| place Of thunder,
To one thing known about the thunder
| there are a hundred things not known,
| After all the scientific batteries have been
| doing their work for a thousand years to
come and learned men have discoursei to
| the utmost about atmospheric electricity ant
| magnetic electricity and galvanic electricity
| and tbermotic electricity and FRACTIONAL
| electricity and positive electricity and mega
| tive electricity my text will he as suggestive
| as it is to-day, when it speaks of the secret
| place of thunder.
Now right along by a natural law there
| is always a spiritual law, as there is {
| secret place of moral thunder. In other
| words, the religious power that you set
| abroad in the church in the world has a hid
| inc place. and in many cases it is never dis
| covered at all. | will use a similitudP.
| can give only a dim outline of a particular
| case for MANY Of the remarkable circum
| stances I have forgotten. Many years ag,
| there was a large church. 1t was character
| ized nv strange and unaccountable CONVEX
Sons. There were no great r%evivals. bu
| Individual cases of spiritual arrest and trans
formation.
A young man sat in one OF the frontpews
| He was a graduate OF Yale, brilliant as tn
| north star and VIGOROUSLY dissolute. Every
| body knew him and liked him for his GEM.
| ality. but deplored his moral errantry. II
| nlease his parents he was every Sabbath
pnorninq in church. One day there was
| ringing of the door-bell of the pastor of tina
| church. and that young man, whelmed witt
renentauce. implored prayer and advice, ant
passed into complete reformation of hear
and life, All the neighborhood was aston
ished and asked, "Why was this?' Hi
father and mothsr had said nothing to hin
about his souls welfare.
IN anntber aisle of the same church sa
he aaid hic naW rant H.,
was hard on the poor, and had no interest ii
any philanthropy. Piles of money! AM
ne0nls said. what a struggle he will hav
when he quits this life to part with his bond
and MORTGAGES One day he wrote to hi
minister, .tPlease to call Immediately.
have 4 matter of great importance abou
which I want to see you" When the paste
came in the man could not speak for emo
ton. but after awhile he gathered self cor
troll enough to say; II nave hved for thi
world too long. l want 70 know II 20
think / can be saved, and, II 50, | wish 20
would tell me how" Upon his soul tn
lieht soon dawned, and the old miser, nc
o5iv revolutionizei in heart but in life, be
can 10 scatter bensfactions, and toward a
the great charities of the day he became
cheerful and bountiful aimoner. What Wa
tho canse of this change? everybody askel
and no one was capable OF giving an INTEL
In another part Of the church sat, Sabbat
hv Sahhotb a beautiful and talented woman
who was a great society leader. She WEI
10 church because hat was a respectful
thing TO do and in the Deighborhood whel
she lived it was hardly respectable not to <,
worldly was she to the last degree, and a
her family worldly. She had al her hou
the finest Germans that were ever dance
and the c~ostliest favors that were ever give
and though she attended church she new
MED To hear any story Of pathos, and as
RELIGIOUS emotion Of any kind, she thong
n n9sitiyely vulgar. Wines, cards, theatei
rmlnds Of costly gayety were to her t
highest satisfaction
One day a neighbor sent in a visiting car
and this iady came down the stairs in tea
and told the whole story Of how she had n
slept for several nights, and she feared S
was going to lose her soul, n she wonder
Il some one would not come around and pr
with her. From that m her entire {
msanor was changed, and though she "
moi called upon to sacrifice any OF her anne
ties of life. She consscratsd her beauty,
social position. her family, her all to God a
the church and usefulness. Everybody 8,
In regard to her: Have you noticed /
change, and what in the world caused Il
and no one could make satisfactory expla1
ton.
In the course of two ye=-s, though tht
was no general awakening in that churC
many such isolated cases of such ~unexpect
and u~naccountable conversions took MIA,