Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-01-23

the crash of Mount Washington falling on
its face in the world wide catastrophe, and
the boiling of the sea over the furnaces of
universal conhAgration will be the Echo AMI
re-echo of the cool deeds done and the SYM
pathetic words uttered and the mighty bene-
factions wrought.
On that day all the charities, all the self
sacrifices, All the phIiantnropfes all tins
benefcent last wills ami testameuts all the
Christian work of all the ages, will be pilei
up into mountains, and those VINO have
served God and served the suffering human
race will hear what my text styles 1.-The
sounding of the mountains"
My subject advances to tell you that
eternity itself is only an echo Of time. Mind
you, the analogy warrants my saying this.
The echo is not always exactly in kind like
the sound originally projected, Lord Ra-
leigh says that wonan's voice sounding
from grove was returned an octave higher.
A scientist playing flute in Fairfax County,
Va. found that all the notes were returned,
although some of them in a raised pitch.
A trumpet sounded ten times near Glas-
cow, Scotland, and the ten notes were all
repeated, but third lower. And the spir-
itual law corresponds with the natural
world. What we do of good or bad may
not come back to us in just the proportion
we expect it, but come back it will; it may
be from higher gladness than we thought
queror or from q worse captive, from
higher throne or deeper dungeon. Our
prayer or our blasphemy, our kindness or
our cruelty, our faith o. our unbelief, Our
holy life or our dissolute behavior, will come
back somehow.
Suppose the toss of factory or the heal
of a commercial firm some day comes out
among his clerks or employees, and putting
his thumbs in the armholes of his vest says,
with an air of swagger and joc0sity: well,
| don't believe in the Bible or the church.
The one is an imposition and tae other is
fall of hypocrites. | declare | would not
trust one of those very pious people further
than | could see him." That is all he says,
but he has said enough. The young men go
back to their counters or their shuttles ant
say within themselves. "Well, he Is a sue
cessful man and has probably studied up the
whole subject AMI is probably right"
That one lying utterance against Bibles
and churches has put five young men on the
wrong track, and though the influential man
had spoken only in half jest, the echo shall
come back to him in five ruined lifetimes
and five destroyed eternities. You see the
Echoes are an octave lower than he autici-
pated. On the other hand, some rainy day,
when there are hardly any customers, the
Christian merchant comes out from his
counting room and stands among the young
men who have nothing to do, and says:
'Well, boys, this is a dull day, but it will
clear off after awhile. There are a gco1
many ups and downs in business, but there
is an overruling Providence.
Years ago | made up my mind to trust
God and He has always seen me through
remember when | was your age, had just
come to town and the te nptations of city
life gathered around me, but resisted.
The fact is there were two old folks out on
the old farm praying for me aud knew it,
Nd 7 In az If
clerks did or go where gone of the clerks
went. tell you, boys, it is best always to
do right, and there is nothing to keep one
right like the old fashioned religion OF Jesus
Christ. John, where did you go to church
last Sunday Henry, how is the Young
Mems CHRISTIAN association prospecting"
About noon the rain ceases and the sun
comes out and the clerks go to thatr places,
and they say within themselves: "Well, he
is successful merchant and | guess he
knows what he is talking about, and tbs
Christian religion must bs a cool thing,
God knows Iwant some help in this battle
with temptation and sin" The successful
merchant who uttered the kind words did
not know how much good he was doing, but
the echo will come back in five lifetimes Of
virtue and usefulness, and five Christian
deathbeds and five heavens. From all the
mountains OF rapture aud all the mountains
of glory AMI all the mountains of eternity,
he will catch what Ezekiel in my text styles
The sounding again of the mountains"
Yea, | take step further in this subject
and say that our own eternity will be re-
vsrberation of our own earthly lifetime
What we are here we will be there only
on larger scale. Dissolution will tear down
the body and embank it, but our faculties of
mind aud soul will go right on without the
hesltancy OF moment and without any
change except enlargement AMI intensdca-
ton. There will be no more difference than
between lion behind the iron bars and a
lion escaped into the field, between an eagle
in cage and an eagle in the sky. Cool
here, good there; bad here, bad there. Time
is only a bedwarfed eternity. Eternity is
only an enlarged time.
In this lie our soul is in dry dock. The
moment we leave this life we are launched
for our great voyage, and we sail on for CEN
turles quintiilion, but the ship does not
change its fundamental structure after it
gets out of the dry DOCK, it does not pass
from brig to schooner or from schooner to
man-of-war. What we ara when launched
from this world we will be in the world to
come. Oh, God! by Thy converting and
sanctifying spirit make US right here and
nov that we may be right forever
well" says some one, "this idea of moral
spiritual and eternal Echo is new to me- Is
there not some way OF stopping this Echo2"
My answer is, God can and He only" If it
is cheerful Echo we do not want it stopped ;
If baleful Echo we would like to have it
stopped. The hardest thing in the world to
do is to stop an Echo. Many an Grafton has
been spoiled and many an orator COMPOUNDED
by an Echo, Costly churches, cathedrals,
theatres and music halls have been ruined by
an Echo. Architects have strung wires
across auditoriums to arrest the Echo and
hung upholstery against the walls, hoping to
entrap it, AMI hundreds of thousands of
dollars have been expended in public build
ings of this country to keep the air from
answering when it ought to be quiet
Aristotle and Pythagoras and Isaac New
ton and La Place and our own Joseph Henry
tried to huat down the Echo, but still the
unexplored realms of acoustics are larger
than the explored When our first Brook
Ign Tabernacle was being constructed, we
were told by architects that it was of such
shape that the human voics could not be
heard in it, or, if heard, it would be tangled
into Echoes
In state of worriment went to Joseph
Henry, the president of Smithsonian Insti-
tuition at Washington, and told him OF this
evil prophecy. AMI he replied: II have prooa-
bly, experimental m1r9 with the laws of
sound than any Other man, and have got as
far as this, Two buildings may seem to be
exactly alike and yet i'll one the acoustics
may be good and in thu other bad. Go on
with your church building aud trust that all
will be well.p Oh this mighty law of sound
Oh, this subtle Echo! There is only one be-
ing in the universe that thoroughly under
stands 1.-THE sounding again of the
mountains
And if it is so hard to destroy a natural
Echo, how much harder to stop a moral
Echo a spiritual Echo, an immortal Echo.
You know that the Echoes are affected BY
the surfaces, and the shape of ROCKS, and
the depth of ravineS, and the relative posi-
ton of buildings? And oncs in heaven
God will so arrange the relative position of
mansions and temples and tarones that one
of the everlasting charms OF heaven will be
the rolling. bursting. asc ending. defending.
chanting Echoes. All the songs we ever
sang devoutly, all the prayers we have ever
uttered earnestly, all the Christian deeds we
have ever done will be waiting to spring
upon us IN Echo.
The scientists tell us that in tnls world the
roar of artillery aud the boom of the thunder
! are so loud because they are combination
! of Echoes-all the hllsdes, and the caverns
ana the walls furnishing share OF the re-
sonance. Aud never will we understand
1 the full power and music of an Echo until
VITA supernatural faculties able TO endure
| them we hear all the conjoined sounds of
heavenly Echoes-harps and trumpets,
/ oreheStras and oratorios, hosanuahs and
! halleiujahs, east side of heaven answering to
| the west side north side to south side, and
! all the heights, aud all the depths, and all
the immensitjes, AMI all the eternities join
ing in Echo upon Echo, Echo in the
! wake of Echo.
! In the future state, whether of rapture or
ruin, we will listen for rsverberations OF
/ earthly things AMI doings. voltaire stand.
4 ing amid the shadows will listen, and from
! the millions whose godleSsnesS and libertin-
Ism and deoauchery were a consequences of