Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1892-01-21


years that my mothers form did not sp-
pear before me, and do not know how
liquor tastes. never have tasted 1t and
all because Of the promise made to my
mother"
This was the result of that conversation
at the gate of tho Vermont farmhouse.
The statuary Of Thorwadsen was sent
from Italy to Germany, and the straw in
which the statues had been packed was
thrown upon the ground. The next spring
beautiful Italian flowers sprang up where
this straw had been cast, for in it had
been some of the seeds Of Italian flowers,
and, whether conscious of it or not, we are
all the time planting for ourselves and
planting for others roses or thorns. You
thought it only straw, yet among it were
anemones.
But here is slipshod home. The
parents are goddess pair They let their
children do as they please No example
fit to follow No lessons of morality or
religion. Sunday no better than any other
day. The Bible no better than any other
book. The house is sort of inn where the
older and younger people of the household
stop for awhile, The theory acted on,
though perhaps not announced, is: 1.-THE
children will have to do as | did and take
their chances. Life is n lottery anyhow,
and some draw prizes and some draw
blanks, and we will trust to luck"
Skip twenty years and come back to the
neghborhood where that family used to
live. You meet on the street or on the
road an old iuhabitant of that neighbor
hood, and you say, Can you tell me any
thing about the Petcrsons who used to live
here'" yes" says the old inhabtant; 81
remember them very well. The father
and mother have been dead for years"
well, how about the children? What
has become of them?" The old inhabitant
replies: "They turned out badly. You
know the old man was about half an in
fdel and the boys were all infides. The
oldest son married but got into drinking
habits, and in few years his wife was not
able to live with him any longer and his
children were taken by relatives, and he
died of delrum tremens on l}lnckwelis
island. His other son forged the name Of
his employer and fed to Canada.
"One Of the daughters of the old folks
married an iuebriatc with the idea Of re
forming him, and you know how that
always eudS-in the ruin Of both the eX-
permenter and the one experimental with.
The other daughter disappeared mysteri-
ouSly and has not been heard of. There
was young woman picked out of the
East river and put in the morguc, aud
some thought it was her, but cannot say"
as it possible?" you cry out. "Yes, it is
possible. The family is Il complete wreck. ;"
My hearers, that is just what might have
been expected. All this is only the Echo
the dismal Echo. the awful Echo, the
dreadful Echo OF parental obliquity and
unfaithfunrss. The old folks heapcd upa
mountain of wrong Influences and this is
only what my text calls THE sounding Of
the mountains"
Indeed our entire behavior in this
world will have n resound. While oppor-
tunities fly in II straight line and just
touch us once and are gone never to return,
the wrongs we practice upon others fly in
a circle, and they come back to the place
from which they started. Doctor Guillo-
tine thought it smart TO introduce the in
strument OF death named after him, but
did not like it so well when his own head
was chopped off with the t,uilotne.
THE DAY or ALL DAYS.
So also the Judgment Day will he an
Echo of all our other days. The universe
needs such day, for there are so many
things in the world that need to he fixed
up and explained. II God had not APP
pointed such IL day all the nations would
cry out, "Oh, God, give lIS II Judgment
Day" But we are apt to think of it and
speak about it as day away off in the fu-
ture, having no special connection with this
day or any other day. The fact is that we
are now making up its voices; its trumpets
will only sound back again to US what we
now say and do That i the meaning of all
that Scripture which says that Christ will
on that day address the soul, saying, Il was
naked and ye clothed me; was sick and in
! prison and We visited me"
/ All the footsteps in that prison corridor
as the Christian reformer walks to the
wicket Of the incarcerated, yea all the
whispers of coincidence in the ear of that
poor soul dying in that garnet, yea AL the
kindnesses are being caught up and rolled
on until they dash against the Judgment
Throne and then they will be struck back
into the ears of these sons and daughters
of mercy. Louder than the crash of Mount
Washington falling on its face in IbG
world wide catastrophe, and the boiling OF
! the sea over the furnaces OF universal con
fagration will be the Echo and Re-etho oil
the good deeds done and the sympathetic
words uttered and the mighty benefactions
wrought
On that day all the charities, all the self
sacrifices, all the phlanthropies, all the
beneficent last wills and tcstaments, all the
Christian work oil All the ages, VIII be plIeC
up into mountains, and those who have
served God and served the suffering human
race will hear what my text styles "Tht
sounding of the mountains"
My subject advances to tell you thai
eternity itself is only au echo of time
Mind you, the analogy warrants my saying
this. The echo is not always exactly II
kind like the sound originally projected
Lord Raleigh says that Il woman's voice
sounding from Il grove was returned AZ
octave higher. A scientist playing flut'
in Fairfax county, Va, found that all thu
notes were returned although some 0
them came in raised pitch.
A trumpet sounded ten times near Glas
gov, Scotland, and the ten notes were al
repeated, but Il third lower. hvd tht
spiritual law corresponds with the natura
world. What we do of good or bad ma!
not come back to us in just the proportion
we expect it, but come back it will; it ma,
be from II higher glsdness than we though
or from deeper Voc, from a mightie
conqueror or from worse captive, from
higher throne or deeper dungeon Gu
Ii, l.,