The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1892-06-10

and unaccountable conversions. There
were no great revivals, but indi-
vidual cases of spiritual arrest and
Transformation. A young man sat in
one of the front pews. He was grad
uate of Yale, brilliant as the North
star and notoriously dissolute. Every
body knew him and liked him for his
genialitY but deplored his moral
errantry, To please his parents he
was every Sabbath morning in church.
One day there was a ringing of the
door bell of the pastor of that church,
and that young man, whelmed with
repentance, implored prayer and adj
vice, and passed into complete reforma-
ton of heart and life. All the neigh
borhood was astonished and asked:
Why was this? His father and
mother had said nothing to him about
his souls welfare. On another aisle of
the same church sat an old miser. He
paid his pew rent but was hard on the
poor and had no interest in any philan-
thropy. Piles of money! And the
people said: What struggle he will
have when he quits this life, to part
with his bonds and mortgages. One
day he wrote to his minister: please
call Immediately. l have matter o
great Importance about which want
to see you" When the pastor came
in the man could not speak for emotion,
but after awhile he gathered self
control enough to say: Il have
lived for this world too long. 1 want
to know if you think can be saved,
and, if so, 1 wish you would tell me
how" Upon his soul the light soon
dawned, and the old miser, not only
revolutionized in heart but in life, began
to scatter benefactions, and toward all
the great charities of the day he be-
came cheerful and bountiful almoner.
What was the cause of this change?
everybody asked; and no one was
capable of giving an intelligent
answer. In another part of the church
sat, Sabbath by Sabbath, a
beautiful and talented woman, who
was great society leader. She went
to church because that was respecta-
BILE thing to do, and in the neighbour
hood where she lived, it was hardly
respectable not to go. Worldly was she
to the last degree, and all her family
worldly. She had at her house the
finest germans that were ever danced,
and the costliest favors that were ever
given, and though she attended church,
she never liked to hear any story Of
pathos, and, as to religious emotion
of any kind, she thought it posi-
lively vulgar Wines, cards, theaters,
rounds of costly gaiety were to
her the highest satisfaction. One day
a neighbor sent in visiting card, and
this lady came down the stairs in tears,
and told the whole story of how she
had not slept for several nights, and
she feared she was going to lose her
soul, and she wondered if someone
would not come around and pray with
her. From that time her entire de-
meanor was changed, and though she
was not called upon to sacrifice any Of
her amenities OF life, she conse-
Grated her beauty, her social position,
her family, her all to God and
the church and usefulness. Everybody
said in regard to her: Have you no.
ticed the change, and what in the
world caused it?" and no one could
make satisfactory explanation. In the
course of two years, though there was
no general awakening in that church,
many such isolated cases of such unex-
pected and unaccountable conversions
took place. The very people whom no
one thought would be effected by such
considerations were converted. The
pastor and the officers of the church
were on the lookout for the solution of
this religious phenomenon. Where is
it?" they said, land who is it, and
what is it - At last the discovery was
made and all was explained A poor
old christian woman in the vestibule
of the church one Sunday morning,
trying to get her breath again before
she went upstairs to the gallery, heard
the enquiry and told the secret. For
years she had been in the habit of con-
centrating all her prayers for partic-
ular persons in that church She
would see some man or some woman
present, and, though she might not
know the persons name she would
pray for that person until he
or she was converted 20 God. All her
prayers were for that one person-just
that one. She waited and waited for
communion days to see when the can
didates for membership stood up
whether her prayers had been effectual.
1t turned out that these marvellous in
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 I'M
noticed. A little cloud of consecrated
humanity lowering in the galleries.
That was the secret place of the
thunder. There is some hidden, I'M
known, mysterious source of almost all
the moral and religious power demon
strated. Not one out of million-not
one out of ten million prayers ever
strikes human ear. On public occa-
sions minister of religion voices the
supplications of an assemblage, but the
prayers of all the congregation are in
silence. There is not a second in a
century when prayers are not ascend
ing, but myriads of them are not even