The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-01-28

- -. 9G,uPPea, Inc hardest thing in this
world TO 10 is to stop an echo. MANY
an Grafton has been spoiled and MANY
an orator confounded by an echo. Cost
~ churches, cathedrals, theaters and
| music halls have been ruined by an
echo. Architects have strung wires
across auditoriums to arrest the echo
and hungupholstery against the walls.
hoping to entrap it, and hundreds Of
thousands. of dollars have been en-
| pended in public buildings of this
country to keep the air from answer
ing when it ought to be quiet. Arts
totle and Pythagoras and Isaac New
ton and La Place and our own Joseph
Henry tried to hunt down the echo.
but still the unexplored realms of &C.
coustlcs are larger than the explored.
| When our first Brooklyn Taber-
nacle was being constructed, we were
| told by architects that it was of such
a shape that he human voice could
not be heard init, or, ifheard, it would
be tangled into echoes. In state of
Worrimenu I went to Joseph Henry.
the president of the Smithsonian IN
stitute at Washington, and told him
OF this evil prophecy, and he replied:
.! have probably experimental more
with the laws of sound than any 9th
er man, and | have got as far as this;
two buildings may seem to be exactly
alike and yet in one the acoustics
may egood and in the other bad.
10 on with your church building and
trust that all will be WE'LL" And all
was we'll. Oh, this mighty law OF.
sound! Oh, this subtle echo! There is
only one Being in the universe who
thoroughly understands it - ethe
sounding again OF the mountains
And if it is SO hard to DESTROY a
natural echo, how much harder to
stop moral echo,
| SPIRITUAL ECHO,
an immortal echo? You know that
the echoes are affected by the surfaces,
ana the shape of rocks, and the depths
OF ravines, and the relative position
OF buildings. And, once in heaven.
God will SO arrange the relative posi-
ton OF mansions and temples and
thrones that one Of the everlasting
charms of heaven will be the rolling.
bursting, ascending, descending, chant
Ing echoes. All the songs we ever sang
devotedly, all the prayers we have
ever uttered earnestly, all the Chris
tlan deeds we have ever done, will be
waiting to spring upon us in echo.
The scientists tell us that in this
world the roar Of artillery and the
boom OF the thunder are SO loud, be-
cause they are a combination of
echoes-ali the hilisides, and the cav
erns and the walls furnishing a share
OF the resonance. And never will we
understand the full power and music
OF an echo until with supernatural
faculties, able to endure them, we
hear all the conioined sounds of
heavenly echoes-harps and trumpets,
orchestras and oratorios, hosannahs
and hallelujahs, East side of heaven
answering to the West side, North
side to South side, and all the heights,
| and all the depths, and all the i'm
| mensities, and all the eternities Join
ing in echo upon echo, echo in the
wake OF echo, in the future state,
whether OF rap ture or ruin wewill list
en- for reverberations of earthly
things and doings. Voltaire standing
amid the shadows will listen. and
from the millions whose godlessness
and liDertlnlsm and debauchery were
a consequence of his brilliant bias
phemies will come back a weeping,
waiting, despairing, agonizing, million
| voiced echo. Paul will, while stand
ing in the light, listen ard from all
THE CIRCLES OF THE RANsOMED
and from all the many mansions
! whom he helped to people, and
from all the thrones he helped to oc-
cupants, and from all the gates he
helped to throng with arrivals, and
from all the temples he helped fill with
| worshipers, there shall come back to
him q glorious, accommodating,
| transporting and triumphant echo.
On, what will the tyrsunts and op-
pressors of the earth do with the
echoes. Those who are responsiblefor
the wars of the world will have come
back to them all the groans, the
shriells, the cannonades, the burning
Shells the crackle OF burning cities,
! and the crash of a nations homes.
Hohenlinden and Salamanca, Wagram
and Sedan, Marathon and Thermopy-
lac, Bun ller Hill and Lexington, South
| Mountain and Gettysburg. Sennach-
crib listen! Semiramis listen! Marc
Antony listen! Artaxerxes listen!
Alexander and Napoleon listen
Darius listen! julius Caesar listen!
But to the righteous will come back
the blissful echoes. Composers of Cos
pei hymns and singers will listen for
the return OF Antioch and Brattle
Street, Ariel and Dundee. Harwell and
Woodstock, Mount Pisgah and
Coronation, Homeward Bound and
Shining Shore, and all the melodies
they ever started. Bishop Heber, and
Charles Wesley, and Isaac Watts, and
Thomas Hastings, and Bradbury, and
Horatius Bonar, and Frances Haver-
gal listen.
But you know as we'll as do that
| there are some places where the rever-
berations seem to meet, and standing
there they rush upon you, they rain
| upon you, all at once they capture
your ear. And at the point where ALI
heavenly reverberations meet, Christ
will stand and listen for the resound
OF all his signs, and groaps, and sacri-
fees, and they shall come back in an
echo in which shall mingle the acclaim
| Of a redeemed world, and the .'Jubi-
late Dec" OF q tull Heaven Echo
|