The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-11-03
standing in the vestibule Of the church

| one Sunday morning trying to get ner
| breath again before she went upstairs to
the gallery, heard the inquiry and tod the the
habit of concentrating all her prayers for
! particular persons in that church. She
| would see some man or woman present,
and, though she might not know the per-
sons name, she would pray for that person
until he or she was converted to God. All
her prayers were for that one person-Just
that one. She waited and waited for COM
| munion days to see when the candidates
for memberfhip stood up whether her pray
ers had been effectual. It turned out that
these marvellous instances Of conversion
we're the result of that old woman's pray
ers as sat in the gallery Sabbath by Sabbath,
bent and wizened and poor and unnoticed.
A little cloud Of consecrated humanity nov.
ering in the galleries. That was the secret
place Of the thunder. There is some hid
den, unknown, mysterious source Tor al
most all the moral and religious power de-
monstrated. Not one out OF ten million
prayers ever strikes a human ear. On pub
| lie occasions minister Of religion voices
the supplications of an assemblage, but the
prayers of all the congregation are IN
silence. There is not second in century
when prayers are not ascending, but my
riads Of them are not even as loud es
whisper for God hears thought as plainly
US vocalization. That silence Of suppli-
cation-hemispheri and perpetual-is the
secret place of thunder.
The day will come-God hasten it--when
people will find out the velocity, the ma
| jesty, 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 moment we may confront people 5OOO
miles away. ebrag about our telephones,
but here is something that beats the tele-
phone in utterance and reply, for God says,
'sBefore they call, I will hear" We brag
| about the phonograph, in which man can
speak, and his words and the tones OF his
| voice can be kept for ages, and by the turn
| ing Of 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 eternities they will be
heard. Oh, ye who are wasting your breath
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 20 into the secret place of thunder?
"But," says some one, "that Is beauti.
/ full theory, yet 1t does not work in my case,
| for I am in cloud Of trouble or cloud
| of persecution or a cloud Of poverty or
cloud of perple1ity.' How glad I am
that you told me that. That is exactly the
place to which my text refers. It was from
cloud that God answered Israel-the
cloud over the chasm cut through the Red
Seattle cloud that was light to the 1srae-
lites and darkness to the Egyptians. It
was from cloud, q tremendous cloud,
that God made reply. It was cloud that
was secret place OF thunder. SO you
cannot get away from the consolation OF
] my text by talking that way. Let all the
people under cloud hear 1t. Unanswered
| thee in the secret place OF thunder"
| This subject helps me to explain some
| things you have not understood about GER
tain useful men and women. Many Of them
have not q superabundance OF education.
| II you had their brain in post mortem ex.
animation and you could weigh 1t 1t would
not weigh any heavier than the average.
They have not anything especially impress
sive in personal appearance. They are not
very fluent of tongue. They pretend to
nothing unusual in mental faculty or So
cial influence, but you feel their power,
YOU are elevated in their presence, you are
q better man or q better woman having
confronted them. You know that In in
| tellectual endowment you are their su-
| perior, while in the matter OF moral and
religious influence they are vastly your su-
perior. Why is this2 To find the reve-
iation Of this secret you must go back
thirty OF lOrty or PoruaPS eiAty JooAS W
the homestead where this man was
brought up. It is winter morning, and
the tallow candle Is lighted and the
fires kindled, sometimes the shavings
hardly enough to start the wood. The
mother is preparing the breakfast, the blue
edged dishes are on the table, and the lid Of
the kettle on the hearth rattles with the
steam. The father Is at the barn feeding
the stock-the oats thrown into the horses
bin and the cattle crunching 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 b.
| BILE Is put upon the white table cloth and
chapter is read and a prayer made, which
includes all the interests for this world and
the next. The children pay not much at
tention to the prayer. for 1t is about the
same thing day after day, but 1t puts ~
them an impression that ten thou
years will only make more vivid and tre-
mendous. AS long, as the old folks i've
their prayer Is for their children and their
children's children.
The reason we ministers do not accom-
plish more is because others do not pray
for US enough, and we do not pray for our
selves enough. Every minister could tell
you thrilling story Of sermons, sermons
hasty and impromptu, because Of funerals
and sick beds, annoyances In the parish,
yet those sermons directing many
souls to God. And then OF ser;
mons prepared with great care, and
research and toll uninterrupted; yet those
sermons falling fiat or powerless. The
difference was probably in the amount Of
private prayer offered for the success OF
those services.
Obi pray for us! Poor sermons in the
pulpit are the curse Of God on prayerless
parish. People say, "What is the matter
with the ministers in our time? So many
OF them seem dissatisfied with the Bible,
and they are trying to help Moses and Paul
tradictions by fixing up the Bible" AS
we'll let the musicians 60 to work to fix up
Haydn's "Creation" or Handels "Israel in
Egypt" or let the painters 60 to fixing up
Raphael's TRANSPORTATION" or architects
90 to fixing up Christopher Wren's st.
Pau1s. But will tell you what Is the mat
ter. There are too many unconverted
ministers. Their hearts have never been
changed by the grace Of God. A mere in
tellectual ministry Is the deadest fall
ure this side OF .perdition. Alas
ogetics, and hermeneutics and dogmatics,
good Lord deliver usl They are trying to
get their power from transcendental the
ology, or from profound exegesis, or from
the art of splitting hairs between north and
northwest side, instead Of getting their
power from the secret place Of thunder.
We want the power man gets when he Is
alone, the door locked, on his knees, at
midnight. with such burden OF souls up
on him that makes him cry out, first in
lamentation and then In raptures. We want
something OF the conservation of John
Knox, who, when his wife heard him pray.
ing In the cold night in another room. and
said to him, "How can you endanger your
life praying there in the cold when you