Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-10-27

| be affected by such considerations were
converted. The pastor and the officers of
solution of this religious phenomenon.
Where u it?" they said, "and who is it.
and what Is it?''
| At last the discovery was made and all
was explained. poor old Christian wo-
man standing in the vestibule OF the church
one Sunday morning trying to get her
breath again before she went upstairs to
the gallery, heard the inquiry and told the
secret. For years she had been in 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
| er5 had been effectual. 1t turned out that
these marvellous instances OF conversion
we're the result OF that old woman's pray
srs as sat in the gallery Sabbath by Sabbath, !!
bent and wizened and poor and unnoticed
little cloud OF consecrated humanity how
sring In the galleries. That was the secret
place of the thunder. There is some hid
len, unknown, mysterious source for ali
most all the moral and religious power de-
monstrated. Not one out of ten Million
prayers ever strikes a human ear. On pub
ic occasions a minister of religion voices
:he supplications of an assemblage, but the,
prayers of all the congregation are in,
silence. There Is not a second in a century,
when prayers are not ascending, but my
rtads of them are not even as loud al
whisper. for God hears a thought as plainly
is vocalizatiOn. That silence OF suppli-
.ation-hemispheric and perpetual-is the,
secret place of thunder
The dav will come-God hasten it-whent
people will find out the velocity, the ma
esty, the multipOtence Of prayer. We brag
about our limited express trains which put
is down thousand miles away in twenty
tour hours, but here Is something by which,
In a moment we may confront people 5000
miles away. We brag about our telephones
but here is something that beats the tele-
phone in utterance and reply, for God says,
Before they call, 1 will hear We brag
about the phonoSraph, in which a man can
speak, and his words and the tones of his
voice can be kept for ages, and by the turn
ing of a crank the words may come forth
lpon the ears of another century, but
prayer allows us to speak words into the
sars of everlasting remembrance and on.
The other side of eternities they will be
heard. Oh, We 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 go into the secret place of thunder?
But" says some one, THAT is a beauti-'
Iul theory, YET III uOeS not WORK IN my case,
Tor am in a cloud of trouble or a cloud
of persecution or cloud of poverty or a,
,loud of perplexity." How glad 1 am
that you told me that. That is exactly the
place to which my text refers. 1t was from
/ cloud that God answered Israel-thel
cloud over the chasm cut through the Red
Seattle cloud that was light to the Israel
ties and darkness to She Egyptians. 1T
vas from a cloud, a tremendous cloud
hat God made reply. 1t was cloud that
was secret place of thunder. SO you
cannot get away from the consolation of
ny text by talking that way. Let all the
people under cloud hear it. 81 answered
.hee in the secret place of thunder
This subject helps me to explain some
filings you have not understood about GER,
.ain useful men and women. Many of them,
have not superabundance of educationi
IL you had their brain in post mortem ex-i
aminauiC:s and Won could weigh it it 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
4 better man or a better woman having
confronted them. You know that in in
:ellectual endowment you are their su-
perior, while in the matter of moral and
religious influence they are vastly your su-
DerlOT. WHY IS tulSg 10 U0u IUp rtNe-
alton of this secret you must go back
thirty or forty or perhaps sixty years to
he homestead where this IGan was
brought up. 1t Is a winter morning and
the tallow candle is lighted and the
Tres 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
he kettle on the hearth rattles with the
steam. The father Is at the barn feeding
he stock-the oats thrown into the horses
Din and the cattle crunching the corn. The
children. earlier than they would like and
utter being called twice, are gathered at
he table. The blessing of God is asked on
he food, and, the meal over, the family BIZ
Die Is put upon the white table cloth and
chapter is read aud prayer made, which
includes all the interests for this world and
The next. The children pay not much at
.ention 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 tre-
mendous. As long as the old folks live
their prayer Is for their children and their
.hildren'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 remembered In earnest prayer,
and they know 1t and feel it and they can
not get away from it. Two funerals after
awnllt-hOl more tudn Two years IOf
1t is seldom that there is more than that
lapse of time between fathers going and
mothers going-two funerals put out of
sight the old folks. The daughters are in
homes where they are incarnations of good
sense, industry and piety. The sons, per-
haps one "A farmer, another q merchant
another a mechanic, another a physician
another n minister Of the Gospel, useful
consistent, admired, honored. What a
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, those these may have
helped. From their superior mental en-
dowment? No: 1 do not think they had un-
usual mental caliber. From accidental cir
cumstances? No, they had nothing of what
Is called good luck.
think we will take a train and ride to
the depot nearest to the homestead from
which those men and women started. The
train haits. Let us stop a few minutes at
the village graveyard and see the tomb
stones of the parents. Yes, the one was
seventy-four years of age and the other
seventy-two, and the epitaph says that
after a useful life they died a Christian
death" On over the country road we ride
the road a little rough, and once down in
a rut it is hard to get the wheels out again
without breaking the shafts. But at last
We come to the lane In front of the farm.
house.
Let me get out of the wagon and open
the gate while you drive through. Here
is the arbor under which those boys and
girls many years ago used to play, but it is
quite out of order now, for the property is
In other hands. Yonder is the orchard,
where they used to thrash the trees fol
apples, sometimes before they were quite
ripe. There is the mob, where they hunted
for eggs before Easter. There Is the door.
sill upon which they used to sit. There is
the room in which they had family pray.
ers, and where they all knelt-the father
there, the mother there, and the boys ant
girls there. We have got to the fountain
There is the place that de .ded those sever
earthly and immortal destinies. Behold
| Behold That Is the secret place OF thunder
The reason we ministers do not accom-
~ ID