The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-06-10

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 soma 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 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 Il 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 1t was
from a cloud, tremendous cloud, that
God made reply. It was a cloud that
was the secret place of thunder. So you
can not get away from the consolation
of nv text by talking that way. Let
all the people under 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 a superabundence of educa-
ton. If you had their brain in a post
mortern examination, and you could
weigh it, it would not weigh any heav-
Ter than the average. They have not
anything especially impressive in per-
sonaI 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 90 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 shgvings 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 stOcl1-the oats thrown
~ l.. - aaN %
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 a chapter is read and a prayer made,
which includes all the interests for this
world and the next The children pay
not much attention to the prayer, for it
Is about the same thing day after day,
but 1t 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 il, and they feel it, and they can
not get away from It
Two funerals after avhile-not more
than two years apart, for it is seldom
! 10 lnr ~
time between fathers going and moth
| er's going-two funerals put out of sight
the old folks But where are the chill
| drens The daughters are in homes where
they are incarnaticns of good sense
industry and piety. The sons, perhaps
one a farmer. another a merchant
another physician, another a minister
of the Gospel. useful. consistent, adj
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 thinl
they had unusual mental caliber. From
accidental circumstances? No, they
had nothing of what is called astound
inE good luck.
think we will take train and rid'
to the depot nearest to the Homestead
from which these men and women start
ed. The train halts. Let us stop few
minutes at the village graveyard an'
see the tombstones of the parents. Yes
the one was seventy-four years of az,
and the other was seventy-two, and tn
epigraph says that latter q useful lif
they died a Christian death How ap
prUpristely the Scripture passage GU
on the mothers tombstone, she don
what she could And how beautiful
the passage cut on the fathers tomb
stone. blessed are the dead who die il
the Lord, for they rest from their Ia
bors and their works DO follow them
On over the country road We ride
the road q little rough, for the sprinl
weather is not quite settled and one
down in q rut il is hard to get the wheel
out again without breaking the shafts
But at last we come to the lane in from
of the farmhouse. Let me get out o
the wagon and open the gate while yo
drive through. Here is the arbor unde
which those boys and girls many year
ago used 70 play. But it is quite ont o
order now, for the property is in othe
hands. Yonder is the orchard wher
they used 20 thrash the trees fo- apples
sometimes before they were quite rips
We have got TO the fountain of piou
and gracious influences at last That
the place that decided these seven ea-,1
" and immortal destinieS Behold
: Behold. That is the secret place o
thunder. Boys are seldom more tina
their fathers will let them be- Girls ar