Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-01-23
THE ECHOES.
DR.. Talmags Disoourses on Natures
Strange Phenomenon.
Rarcnta, Teachings Have Their Echo in
the Character OF Their DESCENDANTS
Beauties OF Good Examples
Echoes OF the Hereafter.

lion OF MS mastery Oh INC drb Va uEdW
ling spiritual lessons from common
natural phenomena. His subject was
Echoes" and his text: Ezekiel vii, Z:
'The sounding again of the mount
aims" He said:
AT last / have found 1t. The Bible
has in it a recognition of all phases OF
the natural world from the aurora OF
the midnight heavens to the phosphor-
essence of the tumbled sea. But the
we'll known sound that we call the
echo, found not until few days ago.
/ discovered it in my text: "The sound
ing again of the mountains" That is
the echo. Ezekiel of the text had heard
4 it again and again. Born among the
mountains and in his journey to distant
exile he had passed among mountains,
and il was natural that all through his
writings there should loom up the
mountains. Among them he had heard
the sound of cataracts and OF tempests
in wrestle with oak and cedar, and the
voices of the wild beasts, but n man OF
so poetic a nature as Ezekiel could not
allow another sound, viz, the echo, to
be disregarded. and so he gives us in
our text "The sounding again of the
mountains"
The echo has frightened many child
and many a man. 1t is no tame thing
after you have spoken to hear the same
words repeated by the invisible. All
the silences are filled with voices ready
TO answer. Yet it would not be so
startling if they said something else. but
why do those lips of the air say just
what you say? Do they mean to mock
or mean II please? Who are you and
where are you, thou wondrous echo?
Sometimes its response is reiteration.
The shot of gun, the slapping of the
hands, the beating of drum, the voice
of a violin are sometimes repeated
many times by the echo. Near Cob
ilcntz, that which is said has seventeen
echoes. In 1866 a writer says that near
Milan. Italy, there were seventy such
reflections OF sound to one snap OF
pistol. Play a bugle near lake OF
Killarney and the tune is played back
TO you as distinctly as when you played
it. But have you noticed-as this Is
the reason for the present discourse
that this echo in the natural has its
analogy in the moral and religious
world? Have You noticed the ire
mendous fact that what we say or do
comes back in recoiled gladness or dis
aster? About this resonance preach
this sermon.
First-Parental teaching and eX-
ample have their echo in the character
of descendants Exceptions? o, yes.
So in the natural world there may be
mo echo, or distorted echo, by reason
of peculiar proximities, but the general
rule is that the character of the chill
dren is the echo of the character of the
parents. The general rule is that good
parents have good children and bad
parents have bad children. II the old
man is crank the son is apt to be
crank and the .grandchild crank The
tendency is so mighty in that direction
that it will get worse and worse unless
some hero or heroine in that line shall
rise and say: Here, by the help OF
God, l will stand this no longer
Against this hereditary tendency to
..oueerness l protest" And he or she
will set up an altar and magnificent
life that will reverse things and there
will be no more cranks among that
kindred. In another family the father
and mother are consecrated people.
What they do is right; what they teach
is right. The boys may for some time
be wild and the daughters worldly, but
watch! Years pass on, perhaps ten
years, twenty years, and you go back
to the church where the father and
mother used to be consistent members
You have heard nothing about the
family for twenty years, and at the
door Of the church you see the sexton,
and you ask him: ''Where is old Mr..
Webster" 70! he's been dead many
wears" "Where is Mrs Webster?"
"'Ol she died fifteen years ago" 81
suppose their son Joe went to the
4dogs?' 20, no" says the sexton. "He
is up there in the elders seat He is
..one of our most important members.
You ought to hear him pray and sing.
He is not Joe any longer; he is Elder
Webster" ''Well, where is the daugh-
ter, Mary? / suppose she Is the same
-thoughtless butterfly she used to be?"
30, no." says the sexton, 'she
is the president of our missionary
society and the directress in the
orphan asylum, and when she goes
down the street all the ragamuftins
take hold Of her dress and cry:
''Auntie, when are you going to bring
us some more books and shoes and
-things2" And, when in times of re-
vivai, there Is some hard case back in a
church pew that no one else can touch,
she goes where he is, and in one minute
she has him a-crying, and the first
thing we know she is fetching the
hardened man up to the front to be
prayed for and says: Here Is a
brother who wants TO find the way into