The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-06-15
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: THE Secret Place of Thun.
der"

lsupJect: The Secret Place of Thun
der"
TEXT: "I anspered thee in the secret
place of thunde, Psalms lxxxi, z.
It 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 the 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 trowels with which these two walls
were built were none the less powerful be.
carse 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 ons 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 that lantern was
opened toward the Israelites ahead, giving
them light, and the back of the lantern was
toward the Egyptians and 1t growled and
rumbled and Jared with thunder, not thun-
der like that which cheers the earth after
drought, promising the refreshing shower.
but charged and surcharged with threats OF
doom.
The Egyptian captains lost their presence
Of mind, and the horses reared and snortsd
and would not answer to their bits, and the
chariot wheels got interlocked and torn OH,
and the charioteers 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 sarcophagus.
and the splash and the roar OF the Red Sea
rs it dropped to its natural bed were only
the shutting Of the sarcophagus on 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 and down the Bible,
e the symbol Of power. The Egyptian
plague OF hail was accompanied with this
Pull diapason of the heavens. While Sam
uel and his men were making burnt Offer
Ing of lamb, and the Philistines were about
to attack them, it was by terrorizing thun-
der they were discounted. Job, who was
combination Of the Dantesque and the Mil.
tonic, was solomnized on thus reverberation
of the heavens, and cried "The thunder OF
His power, who can understand? and he
challenges the universe by SAYING. "Canst
thou thunder with q voice like Him. and he
throws Rosa Bonheur's Horse Fair" into
the shade by the Bible photograph OF war.
horse when he describes his neck as clothed
with thunder" Because of the power OF
James and John, they were called 1.-THE sons
Of thunder" The law given op the basaitlc
c-ags Of Mount Sinai was emphasized with
this cloudy ebullition. The skies all around
about st. John at Patmos were full or 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 aneients the cause Of this lombard
ing the earth with loud sound must have
been more Of 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 it in lamps
and every schoolboy knows something about
the fact that it is the passage OK electricity
from cloud to cloud that 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 q thousand years to
come and learned men have discourssd to
the utmost about atmospheric electricity and
magnetic electricity and galvanio electricity
and thermotic electricity and frictional
electricity and positive electricity an 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 natural law there
is always q spiritual law, as there Is
secret place of moral thunder. In other
words, the religious power that you see
abroad in the church in the world has hid
ing place, and in many cases it Is never dis.
covered at all. I will use similitude. l
can give only dim outline OF q particular
case, for many Of the remarkable ctrcum-
stances have forgotten. Many years ago
there was large church. It was character
lied by strange and unaccountable conver.
siops There were no great revivals. but
individual cases OF spiritual arrest and trans
formation.
A Young man sat in one Of the front pewa
he was q graduate Of Yale, brilliant as the
north star and notoriously dissolute Every
body knew him and liked him for his geni-
slity, but dcplored his moral errantry. To
please his parents he was every Sabbath
morning in church. One day there was q
church, and chat young man, whelmed with
repentance, implored prayer and advice. and
passed into complete reformation OF heart
and life. All the neighborhood was aston
ished and asked, "Why was thiss" His
father and mother had said nothing to him
about his souls welfare.
On another aisle of the same church sat
an old yniser. He paid his pew rent but
| was hard OH tho poor, and had no interest in
people said, what struggle be will have
Ehen be quits this lie to part with his bonds
and mortgages." One day he wrote to his
minister: PLEASE to call Immediately. I
hava O matter Of great importance about
which I want to see you" Wnen the pastor
came IN the man could not speak for emo
ton, bat after awhile he gathered self con-
troll enough to say: 81 have lived for this
world too long. I want to know II you
think can be saved. and, if 80, wish you
would tell me how" Upon his soul the
o1Iy revolutionized in heart but in life be-
gan to scatter bensfactions, and toward all
the great charities of the day he became a
cheerful and bountiful almonsr. What was
the cause of this changer everybody asked,
and no one was capable OF giving An intelli-
gent answer.
In another part Of the church sat- Sabbath
by Sabbath, beautiful and talented woman,
who was great society leader. She went
to church because that was q respectable
thing to do. and in the neighborhood where
,ho I,ra1 hardlv raorncra hla rot tn
Worldly was she to the last degree. and all