The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-06-04

curing that atingaoler1nS, pot lew
of them know that the upper room n
my house on Quincy street, where those
five old Christian men poured out their
souls before God, YVES the secret place
of thunder.
The day will come-tGod hasten it
when people will ind out the velocity,
the majesty, the nultipotence 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 a 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 utSerance and re-
ply, for God says, Before they call, I
will hear" We brag about the phono-
graph, in which a 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 remem brance, 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, shat is a 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 cloud of poverty, or a 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 eloudthat was light to the Israelites
and darkness to the Egyptians. 1t was
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 cloud hear it. 81
answered thee in the secret place of
thunder"
This SUBJECT 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 a 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 area
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 OF
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 stocla-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 e prayer made.
which includes all the interests e this
world and the next. The children paw
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 shey 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 follas. But where are the chill
dren? The danghtersare in homes where
they are incarnations of good sense,
industry and piety. The sons, perhaps
one a farmer, another merchant,
another physician, another minister
of the Gospel, useful consistent ad-
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