The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-11-03
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON,
SABBATH DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

Mighty Influence of Prayer For the
Worlds Good-It Comes From Secret
PIaces-The Christian Home the Foun-
tain of Pious and Gracious Influences.
TEXT: ct answered thee in the secret
place OF thunder. "---Psalms 81: vii.
It is past midnight, and o'clock in the
morning; far enough from sunset and sun
rise to make the darkness very thick, and
the Egyptian army in pursuit of the escap-
Ing Israelltes are on the bottom of the Red
Sea, its waters having been set up on either
side in masonry of sapphire, for God can
make wall rs solid out Of water as out OF
granite, and the trowels with which these
two walls were built we're none the less
powerful because invisible. Such walls
had never before been lifted. When I saw
the waters Of the Red Sea rolling through
the Suez Canal they were blue and beauti-
full and flowing like other waters, but as
the Egyptians look up to them built into
walls, now on one side and now on the
| other, they must have been frowning wa
ters, for it was probable that the same
power that lifted them up might suddenly
fling them PROSTATE. A great lantern OF
cloud hung over this chasm between the
two walls. The door Of that lantern was
opened toward the Israelites ahead, giving
them light, anC the back Of the lantern
was toward the Egyptians, and 1t growled
and rumbled and Jared with thunder; not
thunder Ike that which cheers the earth
after drought, promising the refreshing
shower, but charged and surcharged with
threats of doom. The Egyptian captains
lost their presence of mind, and the horses
reared and snorted and would not answer
to their bits, and the chariot wheels got in
~ aoI han ohorf
were hurled headlong, and the Red Sea fell
on all the host. The confusing and con-
founding thunder was in answer to the
PRAYER Of the Israelites. With their backs
cut by the lash and their feet bleeding and
their bodies decrepit with the suffering OF
whole generations, they had asked Almighty
God to ensepulcher their Egyptian pur-
suers in one great sarcophagus, and the
splash and the roar Of the Red Sea as 1t
dropped to its natural bed were only the
shutting Of the sarcophagus on dead host.
That is the meaning OF the text, when God
SAYS: IT answered thee in the secret place
OF thunder
Now, thunder, all up and down the Bible,
is the symbol Of power. Small wits depre-
ciate the thunder, and say, "It Is the
lightning that strikes" But God evident
" thinks the thunder Of some Importance
or He would not make so much OF 1t. That
man must be without imagination and with
out sensitiveness and without religion who
can, without emotion, see the convention
of summer clouds called to order by the
falling gavel Of the thunderbolt. There is
nothing in the natural world that awes and
solemnizes me as the thunder. The Egyp-
tian plague Of hail was accompanied with
this full diapason Of the heaven. While
Samuel and his men were making burnt
offering Of lamb, and the Philistines were
about to attack them, it was by terrorizing
thunder they were discounted. Job, who
was a combination Of the Dantesque and
the Miltonic, was solemnized by this rever-
beration Of the heavens, and cried: "The
thunder Of His power, who can under
stand?" and He challenges the universe by
saying: "Can'st thou thunder with a voice
like Him?" and he throws Rosa Bonheur's
"Horse Fair" into the shade by the Bible
photograph Of q war horse, when he de-
scribes his neck as "clothed with thunder"
Because Of the power OF James aud John,
they were called "the sons OF thunder" I"
The law given on the basaltic crags OF
Mount Sinai was emphasized with this cloudy
ebullition. The skies all round about St.
John at Patmos were full OF the thunder of
war, and the thunder Of Christly triumph,
and the thunder of resurrection, and the
thunder Of eternity.
But when my text says, answered thee
in the secret place OF thunder, it suggests
there is some mystery about the thunder.
To the ancients the cause OF this lombard
ing the earth with loud sound must have
been more Of a mystery than 1t Is to u.s.
The lightnings, which were to them wild
monsters ranging through the skies, IN our
time have been domesticated. We harness
electricity to vehicles and we cage 1t in
lamps, and every schoolboy knows some
thing about the fact that 1t is the passage Of
electricity from cloud to cloud that makes
the heavenly racket which we call thun-
der. But, after all that chemistry has
taught the world, there are mysteries about
this skyey resonance, and my text, true In
the time Of the psalmist, is true now, and
always will be true, that there Is some Sc
cret about the place OF thunder.
Now, right along by natural law, there
Is always a spiritual law. AS there Is a
secret place OF natural thunder, there is
secret place Of moral thunder. In other
words, the religious power that you see
abroad in the church and in the world has
hiding place, and in many cases 1t Is
never discovered at all. will use simil-
itude. I can give only the dim outline of
particular case, for many OF the remark
able circumstances have forgotten. Many
years ago there was large church which
was characterized by strange and unac-
countable conversions. There were no
great revivals, but individual cases OF
spiritual arrest and transformation. A
young man sat in one Of the front pews.
He was a graduate Of Yale, brilliant as
the north star and notoriously dissolute.
Everybody knew him and liked him for
his genialty, but deplored his moral er-
rantry. To please his parents he was every
Sabbath morning In church. One day
there was a ringing Of the door bell OF the
pastor Of that church, and that young man,
whelmed with repentance, implored prayer
and advice, and passed into complete re-
formation Of heart and life. All the neigh
borhood was astonished and asked, Why
was this2 His father and mother had said
nothing to him about his souls welfare.
On another side Of the same church sat an
old miser. He paid his pew rent, but was
hard on the poor and had no interest In any
philanthropy. Piles Of money! And people
said: what struggle he will have, when
he quits this life, to part with his bonds
and mortgages" One day he wrote to his
minister: "Please to call Immediately.
have a matter Of great Importance about
which want to see you" When the pastor
came in the man could not speak for emo
tion, but after awhile he gathered self-con-
troll enough to say:
Il have lived for this world too long. l
want to know If you think can be saved,
ana, II so, WISH you Woulu tell me now.
Upon his soul the light soon dawned, and
the old miser, not only revolutionized in
heart but in life, began to scatter bene-
factions, and toward all the great chari-
ties OF the day he became cheerful and
bountiful alnoner. What was the cause of
this change everybody asked; and no one
was capable of giving an intelligent
answer. In another part Of that same
church sat Sabbath by Sabbath beautiful
and talented woman, who was a great
society leader. She went to church be-
cause that was n respectable thing to do,
and in the neighborhood where she lived