Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-01-28

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farmers in time of drought would tell
how, in answer to prayer, the rain came
| just in time to save the crop. If all
parents who prayed for wandering
son to come home would tell how, not
long after, they heard the boys hand on
the latch of the front door.
! There fingers on this side of the river
| that divides earth and heaven, ready
| at any time to cross over, the apostle of
prayer for this century, jeremiah Cal
vim Lanphier, the founder of the Full
| ton Street Prayer Meeting, and if he
! should put on his spectacles and read
| this, salute him as more qualified than
| any man since Bible times in demon
| strating what prayer can do. Dear
| Brother Lanphier! The high heavens
are full of his fame. Having announced
a meeting for II o'clock, September %,
| 1851 he sat in the upper room on Fulton
| street, New York, waiting for people to
| come. He waited for a half hour, and
| then a foot fall was heard on the steps,
| and after awhile in all six persons ar
| rived; but the next day twenty, and the.
next day forty, and from that time to,
this, for over thirty-eight years, every
! day, Sabbath excepted, that Fulton
Street Prayer Meeting has been place
where people have asked prayer and
| answers to prayers have been an
nounced, and the thrOb OF that great
| heart of supplication has thrilled not
only in the heavens, but clear around
! the world, more than any spot on earth.
That has been the place where the re-
deemed of the Lord said so!
There are hundreds of ministers who
| have hard work to make sermons be-
! cause no one expresses any apprecia-
ton. They are afraid of making him
vain. The moment the benediction is
! pronounced they turn on their heels
and go out Perhaps it was subject
on which he had put especial pains. He
! sought for the right text, and then did
his best to put the old thought into
! some new shape. He had prayed that
! it might go to the hearts of the peo-
! pie He had added to the argument
| the most vivid illustrations he could
| think Of He had delivered all with
| a power that left him nervously eX-
| hausted. Five hundred people may
have been blessed with it, and resolved
upon a higher life and nobler purpose.
| Yet all he hears is the clank of the
| pew door or the shutting of feet in
! the aisle, or some remark about the
! weather, the last resort Of inanity.
| Why did not that man come up and
say frankly, "You have done me
| good?" Why did not some woman
| come up and say, Il shall go home to
| take UP the burden of life more cheer
| fully?" Why did not some professional
man come up and say, Thank you,
dominic, for that good advice. l will
take it. God bless YOU" Why did
| they not tell him so? / have known
ministers, in the nervous reaction that
| comes to some after the delivery of a
sermon with no seeming result, to go
home and roll on the floor in agony.
| But to make up for this lack of out
spoken religion there needs to be and
will be Great Day, when amid the
solemnities and grandeurs' of listen
ing universe God will SAY so.' No
statistics can state how many mothers
have rocked cradles and lowered over
infantile sicknesses and brought up
their families to manhood and woman
| hood, and LAUGHED them upon useful
and successful lives, and yet never re-
ceived one Thank you" that amounted
TO anything. The daughters became
queens in social life and are affianced
In highest realms of prosperity; the
| soac took the first honors of the univer-
sity and became radiant in monetary
or professional spheres. Now the secret
Of oil that uplifted maternal influence
must come out. Society did not say
SO; the church did not say so; the world
! did not say SO, but on that day Of all
other days, the Last Day, God will say
so.
There are men to whom life is grind
and q conflict, hereditary tendencies to
! be overcome accidental environments
to be endured, appalling opposition to
! be met and conquered, and they never
! so much as had a rose pinned to their
| coat lapel in admiration. They never
! had song dedicated to their name.
! They never had a book presented to
them with a complimentary word on
| The fly leaf. All they have to show for
! lacir lifetime battle is scars. But in
! mo Last Day the story will come out,
! and that life will be put in holy and
| transcendent rhythm, and their courage
| md persistence and faith and victory
viii not only be announced, but re-
| Warded. These are they that come
ont ot great tribulation and had their
robes washed and made white in the
| blood Of the Lamb" God will say SOL
We miss one of the chief ideas of a
! Last Judgment. We put into the pic
| turc the fire, and the smoke and the
| earthquake, and the descending angels,
| and the uprising dead, but we omit to
| put into the picture that which makes
! TIC Last Judgment q magnificent OPP
| Dortunity. We omit the fact that it is
TO be day of glorious explanation and
commendation. The first justice that
millions of unrewarded, and unrecog-
nized, and unappreciated men and
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