The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-06-03

i'll public in great composure broke
down under emotion. The people were
III tears. There We're sobs and silences
and solemnities of such unusual power
that the worshipers looked into each
others faces, as much as to say, "What
does all this mean?" And when the fol-
lowing Sabbath came, although we were
in a secular place, over four hundred
arose for praye7s, and a religious awaken
ing 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 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 a thousand
miles away il twenty-four hours, but
here is something by which in mo-
ment we may confront people five thou
sand miles away. We brag about our
telephones, but here is something that
beats the telephone in utterance and re-
ply, for God says, Before they call, l
will hear" We brag about the phone
graph, 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 remembrance, and on the
other side of all eternities they will be
heard Oh, ye who are wasting your
breath, and wasting your brains, ana
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 beau
tiful theory, yet it does not work in my
case, for am in cloud of trouble, or a
cloud of sickness, or a cloud of persecu-
ton, or a cloud Of poverty, or cloud of
bereavement, or 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 cloud that
God answered Israel-the cloud over the
chasm cut through the Red seattle
cloud that was light to the Israelites
and darkness to the Egyptians. 1t was
from cloud, Il tremendous cloud, that
God made reply. 1t was cloud that
was the secret place of thunder. So
you cannot get away from the consola-
ton of my text by talking that way.
Let all the people under cloud hear it.
II answered thee in the secret place of
thunder"
INFLUENCE OF THE OLD HOME.
This subject helps me to explain some
things you have not understood about
men and women, and there are multi
tudes of them, and the multitude is null
tiplying by the minute. Many of them
have not a superabundance of educa-
ton. If you had their brain in post
mortem examination, and you could
weigh it, it would not weigh any heav-
Ter than thes-average. T&eyve not I
anything especially impressive in per-
sonal appearance. They are not very
fluent of tongue. They pretend to moth
ing 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 in
tellectual endowment you are their SUI
perior, while in the matter of moral and
religious influence they are vastly your
superior. Why is this?
To find the revelation of this secret
you must go back thirty or forty or
perhaps sixty years to the homestead
where this man was brought up 1t is
winter morning, and the tallow candle
is lighted, and the fires are kindled,
sometimes the shavings hardly enough
to start the wood. The mother is pre-
pairing the breakfast, the blue edged
dishes are on the table, and the lid of
the kettle on the hearth begins to rattle
with the steam, and the shadow of the
industrious woman by the Pickering
fame on the hearth is moved up and
down the wall. The father is at the
barn feeding the stock-the oats thrown
into the horses bin and the cattle
craunching the corn. The children, ear
lier than they would like and after be-
ing called twice, are gathered at the
table.
The blessing of God is asked on the
food, and, the meal over, the family
Bible is put upon the white tablecloth
and a chapter is read and prayer made,
which includes all the interests for this
world and the next. The children pay
not much attention to the prayer. for it
is about the same thing day after day,
but it puts upon them an impression
that ten thousand years will only make
more vivid and tremendous. As long as
the old folks live their prayer is for their
children and their children's children.
Dayin and day out, m>nth in and month
out, year ii and year ont, decade in and
decade out the sons end daughters of
that family are remembered in earnest
prayer, and they know it, and they feel
it, and they cannot get away from it.
Two funerals after awhile-not more
than two years apars for it is seldom
that there is more than that lapse Of