Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-01-18
NATURE TEACHES.
pR. TALMAcE FINDS AN IMPRESSIVE
LESSON IN THE ECHO.

acuuencea-The Redemption of chill
dren Through the Memory Of Their
PIons Parents.
BROOKLYN. Jan. II. DIR Talmage
gave a new illustration In his sermon
this morning Of his mastery Of the
art Of drawing spiritual lessons from
common natural phenOm na. His
eubiesf was Echoes and his text
Ezekial vii. 4 "The sounding again
Of tho mountains.
AT last have found It. The Bible
has II IN recognition Of all phases of
the natural world from the aurora
OF the midnight heavens tO the phOs
phorescence of the tumbled sea. But
the well known sound that we call
the Echo found not until few days
ago discovered il in my text. THE
sounding again 0f the mountains.
That is the Echo Ezekiel of the text
had heard II again and again.
Born among mountains and in his
Journey todistant exile he had pasSod
among mountains. and It was natural
that all through his writings there
should lOOm up the mountains.
Among them he had heard the sound
of ,.atiif4uts aud OF tenp4sts IN
wreAtle with oak and cedar. and the
voices of wild beasts: but man of
so poetic nature us Ezekiel could
not allow another sound. viz. the
Echo. To be disregarded. and 40 he
gives us IN our text The sounding
again Of the mountains
ANALOGY or MORAL AND MATERIAL.
Greek mythology represents the
Echo as Il nymph, the daughter Of
Earth and Air. following Narcissus
Through forests and into grottOes and
every whittier, and 10 strange and
weird aud startling il the Echo ] do
not wonder that the supeiStitious
have lifted it into the supernatural
You and in boyhood or giilhood eX
perimeuted with this responsiveness
Of sound. Standing half way between
the house and barn, we shouted
many a time to hear the reverbera
tions; or out among the mountains
back of our home, ON some long
tramp. we stopped and made exca.
nations with full lungs just TO hear
what Ezekiel calls "The sounding
again of the mountains.
The Echo has frightened many
child and many man. II is no tame
thing after you have spoken TO hear
tbe same words repeated by the in
visible. All the silences are filled
with voices ready TO answer Yet il
would not be so startling II they said
something else, but why do those
lips of the air say just what you say2
no they mean 20 mock or mean to
pleasel Who are you and where are
you, thou wondrous EchoY Some
times its response is a reiteration.
The shot Of gun, the clapping OF the
hands. the beating of a drum, the
voice of a violin are sometimes re-
peated many times 10y the Echo
Near Coblentz that which Is said
has seventeen Echoes In 1866 Il
writer says that near Milan, Italy,
there were seventy such reflections
OF sound 10 one snap Of IA pistol. Play
bugle near Il lake of Killarney and
the tune is played back to you as dis
tinctly as when you played II, There
IL well two hundred and ten feet
deep ut Caiishrooke castle In tho Isle
OF Wight, Drop II pin into that well
and the sound of its fall comes 20 the
top OF the well distinctly
A blnSt from an Alpine horn comes
back from the rocks ot Jungfrau in
surge after surge of reflected sound,
until II seems ny II every peak had
lifted and blown IN Alpine horn
But have you noticed -and this IL
the reason for the present discourse
THAT this Echo in the natural world
has ia analogy in the moral aud re
ligious worlli Have you noticed the
tremendous fact that what we say
and do COMES back Ia recoiled glad
ness or dislsterp About this reso
nance preach this sermon,
First Parental teaching and eX
ample have their Echo in the chagac
terof descendants ENceptiunHi oh.
yes. So IN the natural world there
may be NO Echo or distorted Echo,
by reason of peculiar poximitieS hut
the general rule Is that the character
Of the children il the Echo OF the
character of parents, The general
rule is that good parents have good
children and had parents have had
children. II the old man Is a crank,
his son IL apt "a be a crank and the
grandchild a crank.
The tendency IL no mighty in that
direction that Il viii get worse and
WORSE unless some hero or heroine IN
that line shall rise and say Hero
by the help of G,sl, win stand this
no lnnger Against this hereditary
tondency 20 queerness | protest y
And be or she viii set up an altar
and magnificent life that will no
worse things and there will be no
more crinlss among that kindred
IN another family the father and
m0thor afe conse,Tatel people. What
ahoy DO X right; what they tsA,h
~ right. The boys may for same
time DO wild aud the daughters
worldly. but watch Years ias. ON.
perhaps ten years twenty years aGd
gou ~ back to tho church whcl,' iae
Gather and mother nsed 10 hetOa ~
enf members.
Yon have heard nothing nhun the
family for twenty ycass aud az ihe
door of tho church YOU ree the N''N
bon and you ark him, ''Where ls sd
hir. Welsterl' ''Oh. no bias bson
l.ad many yearalH Where Is MiN
I0rl l....,I llfth oAa af.4 fftaan