Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1892-06-03

taHOrS bluL were ever gwen anu lAbttAA
sh9 attended church she never liked to
he;sS. any story Of pathos, and as to re
ligiods emotion of any Kind, she thought
it positively vulgar. Wines, cards, the
alters, r0Qnds Of costly gayety were TO her
the high&t satisfaction One day neigh
Dor sent i, a 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 go
ing to lose her soul, and she wondered If
some one would not come around and pray
with her.
From that time her entire demeanor was
changed, and though she was not called
upon to sacrifice any of her amenities OF
life, she consecrated her beauty, her social
position, her family, her all to God and the
church and usefulness. Everybody said
in regard to her, Have you noticed the
change, and what in the world caused it,"
and no one could make satisfactory eXpla-
nation. In the course of two years, though
there was no general awakening in that
church. many such isolated cases of such
unexpected and unaccountable conversions
took place The yery people whom no one
thought would be affected by such consid-
erations were converted.
THE EOM Els Nf EtAfA i fati
The pastor and the officers Of the church
were on the lookout for the solution OF this
religious phenomenon. where is It,
they said "and who is it and what is it"
At last the discovery was made and all
was explained. A poor old Christian wom-
an standing in the vestibule Of the church
one Sunday morning, trying to get her
breath again before she went upstairs 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 pres
ent and, though she might not know the
persons name, she would pray for that
person until he or she was converted to
God. All her prayers were for that one
person-iust that one. She waited and
waited for communion days 60 see when
the candidates for membership stood up
whether her prayers had been cHectual.
It turned out that these marvellous in
stances of conversion were the result Of
that old woman's prayers ms she sat in the
gallery Sabbath By Sabbath, bent and
wizencd and poor and unnoticed a little
cloud Of Consecrated humanity lowering
in the galleries That was the secret place
known, mysterious source Of almost all
the moral and religious power demon
strated. Not one out of a million-not one
out Of ten million prayers ever strikes Il
human car On public occasions a minis
ter 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
ascending, but myriads Of them are not
even as loud as whisper, for God hears a
thought as plainly as a vocalization. That
silence Of supplication-h hemisphere and
perpetual-is the secret place Of thunder.
In the winterof 1919 we were worshiping
in the Brooklyn Academy of Music in THEM
terregnum of churches. We had the usual
great audiences, but was oppressed beyond
measure by the fact that conversions were
not more numerous One Tuesday invited
10 my house five old, consecrated Christian
nfen-;tl Of them gone now, except Father
Pearson, ANA he, in blindness and old age,
waiting for the Masters call to come up
higher These old men came, not knowing
why | invited them / took them to the
top room of my house. ! said to them; Il
have called you here for special prayer.
am in an agony for great turning to God
of the people. We have vast multitudes in
attendance and they are attentive and re-
spectful but / cannot see that they are
saved. Let us lsneel down and each one
pray and not leave this room until we are
all assured that the blessing will come and
has come" Ii was a most intense crying
unto God. ! said, Brethren, let this meet
ing 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
cOmposure broke down under emotion
The PEOPLE were in tears. There were sobs
and silences and solemnitics Of such un
usual power that The worshipers looked
into each others faces as much as to say
"What does al this meau?" And when
the following Sabbath came, although W.
were in secular place, over four hundred
arose for prayers and a religious awaken
ing took place that made that winter mem
orable for time and for eternity There
may be in this building many who were
brought to God during that great ingath
ering, but few of them know that the up
per 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.
SCIENCE CANNOT APPROACH 1T.
/ The day viii come-God hasten it-wheI
peoplc will find out the velocity the maJes
/ ty, the multipotence Of prayer We bras
about our limited express trains, which
nut us down a thousand miles away il
| twenty-four hours, but here is something
/ by which in u moment we may confron
people five thousand miles away. W.
/ brag about our telephones, but here i
something that beats the telephone in mt
terance and reply, for God says, Befor
/ they call, win hear" We brag abou
lhe photograph, in which man can speal
and his words ard tlIe. tones Of his vote
can be kept for ages, and by the turning o
a crank the words may come forth upoi
the ears Of another century, but prayer al
lows us to speak words into the ears o
everlasting remembrance, and on the othe
side of an the eternitics they Will be heard
Oh, We who are wasting your breath, an'
wasting your brains, and wasting sou
nerves, and wasting your lungs, wishinl
for this good and that good for the churel
ana the world, why DO you not go into tn
secret place Of thunderg
but, says some one, chat is beautl
full theory, yet it does not work "a m
case, for / am in a cloud Of trouble, or
cloud of sickness, ora cloud of persecution
or cloud Of poverty, or cloud Of bereave
ment or n cloud Of perplexity." How ela
l am that you told me that That is ca
setl, the place to which my text refers
Il was from cloud that God answers
Israel the cloud over the chasm Gu
through the Red sea, the cloud that wa
Hight to the Israelites and darkness TO ia
Egyptians. il was from cloud, q e.
mendous cloud, that God made reply.
was a cloud that was the secret place
thunder So you cannet ret away froF
the consolation Of my text BY talking tia
way. Let ali the people under elon
lear it. 81 answered thee in the secrs
place OF thunder"
This subject helps me to explain som
things YOU have not understood about me
and women, and there are maititudes
them, and the multitude Is multiplying p
the minute. Many Of them have not
superabundance Of education. II you la
their brain in postmortem examination