The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-06-03

prGdLny ana Washing your Df4AHSs uAA
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 ses:ret place of
thunder.
But says some one, 'sthat is beau
tiful theory, yet it does not work in my
case, for am in a cloud of trouble, or a
cloud of sickness, or cloud of persecu-
ton, or cloud of poverty, or cloud OF
bereavement, or cloud of perPlexity."
How glad 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 Sea-
the cloud that was light to the Israelites
and darkness to the Egyptians 1t was
from cloud, a tremendous cloud, that
God made reply. 1t was a cloud that
was the secret place of thunder. So you
can not get away from the consolation
of my text by talking that way. Let
all the people under cloud hear it. Il
answered thee in the secret place of
thunder
This suject 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 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 the average. They have not
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 a
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 a
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
flame on the hearth is moved up and
barn feeding the stock-the oats thrown
into the horses bin and the cattle
craunching the corn. The children,
earlier than they would like and after
being 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 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. Day in and day out, month
in and month out, year in and year out,
decade in and decade out the sons and
daughters of that family are remem-
bered in earnest prayer, and they
know it, and they feel it, and they can
not get away from it.
Two funerals after awhile-not more
than two years apart, for it is seldom
that there is more than that lapse of
time between fathers going and moth
er's going-two funerals put out of sight
the old folks. But where are the chill
dren? The daughters are in homes where
they are incarnations of good sense,
industry and piety. The sons, perhaps
one a farmer, another a merchant,
another a physician, another minister
of the Gospel, useful, consistent, adj
mired, honored. What power for good
those seven sons and daughters! Where
did they get the power? From the
schools, and the seminaries, and the
colleges? Oh, no, though these may
have helped. From their superior
mental endowment? No, do not think
they had unusual mental caliber. From
accidental circumstances? = No, they
had nothing of what is called astound-
ing good luck.
l think we will take train and ride
to the depot nearest to the homestead
from which those men and women start
ed. The train halts. Let us stop few
minutes at the village graveyard and
see the tombstones of the parents. Yes,
the one was seventy-four years of age
and the other was seventy-two, and the
epigraph says that latter a useful life
they died Christian death" How APP
propriately the Scripture passage cut
on the mothers tombstone, "She done
what she could" And how beautiful
the passage cut on the fathers tomb
stone, blessed are the dead who die in
the Lord, for they rest from their la
bors and their works do follow them"
On over the country road we ride
the road little rough, for the spring
weather is not quite settled, and once
down in a rut it is hard to get the wheels
out again without breaking the shafts.
But at last we come to the lane in front |
of the farmhouse. Let me get out of
the wagon and open the gate while You
drive through. Here is the arbor under |
which those boys and girls many years
ago used to play. But it is quite out of
order now. for the property is in other
hands Yonder is the orchard where |
they used to thrash the trees for apples, |
sometimes before they were quite ripe. |
We have got to the fountain of pious |
and gracious influences at last That is |
the place hatdecioed these seven earth |
ly and immortal destinies. Beholdl |
Behold That is the secret place of |
thunder. Boys are seldom more than |
their fathers will let them be Girls are |