The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-06-15


dred arose for prayers, and religious
awakening took place that made that
winter memorable for time and for
eternity. There may be in this build
ing 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
soul1 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 thousand
miles away in 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 phono-
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, we who are wasting your
breath, and wasting your brains, and
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 a cloud of trouble, or
cloud of sickness, or cloud of persecu-
ton, or a 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. TWAS
from cloud, tremendous cloud, that
God made reply. 1t was 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 a 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 a post
norton examination, and you could
weigh it, it would not weigh any hesv-
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 a 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
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,
earlier than they would like and after
being called twice, are gathered p. 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 il
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 fol
their children and their children:
children. Day in and day out, month
in and month out year in and year out
decade in and decade out the sons ant
daughters of that family are remem
bered in earnest prayer, and they
know it, and they feel it, and they car
not get away from it.
Two funerals after awhile-not NOR,
than two years apart, for it is seldom
that there is more than that lapse o
time between fathers going and moth
er's going-two funerals put out of sigh
the old folks. But where are the chill
dren? The daughters are in homes wher
they are incarnations of good sense
industry and piety. The sons, pe-hap
one farmer, another merchant
another physician, another a ministe
of the Gospel, useful, consistent, ad
mired, honored. What a power for goo,
those seven sons and daughters! Wher
! did they get the power? From tn
, schools, and the seminaries, and tn
colleges? Oh, no, though these ma.