The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1892-06-16

the church and usefulness. Everybody said
in regard to her: "Have you noticed the
change and what in the world caused it,"
and 40 one could make satisfactory explana-
ton.
IN the course of two years, though there
was no general awakening In that church,
many such Isolated cases Of such unexpected
and pnseeountable conversions 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
ssWhere is it" they said, ''and who is 1t and
what is itp At Lest 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 up stairs
to the gallery, heard the inquiry and told
the secret.
FOR years she had been in the habit of
concentrating 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 person 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 for communion days to
see when the candidates for membership
| stood UP whether her prayers had been effect
| uaI. III turned OuU UudU DticsS Illdl NClOuS III
| stances 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 az consecrated humanity
lowering in the galleries. That was the
secret place of the thunder. There is some
| hidden, unknown, mysterious source or
almost all the moral aud religious power
demonstrated. Not one out of million
not one out of ten million-prayers ever
strikes a human ear. On public occasions a
minister of religion voices the supplications
of an assemblage but the prayers of all the
congregation are in silence. There is not
second in century when prayers are not
ascending but myriads of them are not even
as loud as whisper, for God hears thought
as plainly as vocalization. That silence OF
Observation-Disclosures aud perpetual
is the secret place OF thunder.
In the winter of 1875 we were worshiping
in the Brooklin Academy of Music in the in
terregnum of churches. We had the usual
great audiences, but I was oppressed beyond
measure by the fact that conversions were
not more numerous. One Tuesday I invited
to my house five old, consecrated 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
had invited them took them to the top
room of my house. 1 said to them; ~ have
called you here for special prayer. am in
an agony for great turning to God of the
people. We have vast multitudes in atten-
dance end they are attentive and respectful,
but l 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 most intense crying unto God. l
said, Brethren, let this meeting be a secret,
and they said it would be. That Tuesday
night special service ended.
On the following Friday night occurred
the usual prayer meeting. No one knew of
what had occurred on Tuesday night, but
the meeting was unusually thronged. Men
accustomed to pray in public in great COM
posure broke down under emotion. The
people were in tears. There were sobs
and silences and soiemnities OF such unusual
power that the worshipers looked into each
others faces as much as to say, what
does all this meapp' And when the follow
ing Sabbath came although we were in
secular place, over four hundred arose for
prayers, and a religious awakening 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
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 ma
jesty, the multipotence of prayer. w ebrag
about our limited express trains which put
us down a 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, Before they call, l will hear"
We brag about the photograph, 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 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 will be heard.
Oh, ye 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 the secret
place OF thunder.
But" says some one, ''that is beautiful
theory, yet it does not work in my case, for
/ am in cloud of trouble, or cloud OF
sickness, or clond of persecution, or a
cloud OF poverty, or a cloud Of bereavement
or a cloud of perplexity." How glad l am
that you told me that. That is exactly the
place to which my text refers. 1t was from
a cloud that God answered lsrael-the cloud
over the chasm cut through the Red Sea-
the cloud that was light to the Israelites and
darkness to the Egyptians. 1t was from a
cloud, tremendous cloud, that God made
reply. 1t was a cloud that was the secret
place of thunder. So you cannot GET away
from the consolation of my text by talking
that way. Let all the people under a cloud
hear it. 81 answered thee in the secret place
of thunder"
This subject helps me to explains some
things you have not understood about men
and women, and there are mutitudes of
them and the multitude is multiplying by
the minute. Many of them have not a
superabundance of education. II you had,
their brain in post-mortem examination,
and you could weigh it, it would not weigh
any heavier than the average. They have
not anything especially impressive in per-
sonal 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 presence; you are better man or
better woman, having confronted them.
You know that in intellectual endowment
| you are their superior, while in the matter
/