Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1892-01-29
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT: "ECuOEs.n
SUBJECT: "ECuOEs.n

TIKI; "7he sounding again ofthe mount.
aims. Ezekiel VII. T.
At last | have it. The Bible has in il
recognition OF all phrases OF the natural
world from the aurora of the midnight
heavens TO the pho5phorescsncs OF the tum-
bling sea. But the well known sound that
we call the Echo | found not until a few
days ago l discovered it in my text, "rhe
sounding again OF the MONTANA That is
the Echo. Ezekiel Of the text heard it
again and again.
Born among mountains. and in his jour
ney to distant exile, he had passed among
mountains, and it was natural that all
through his writng8 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
or Wild beast, but II man OF so poetic ma
ture as Ezekiel could not allow another
sound, viz, the Echo. to be disreSarded.
and So he gives US in our text The sound
ing again OF the mountains"
Greek mythology represented the Echo as
nymph, the daughter of Earth and Air,
following Narcissus through forests and into
grottoeS and every WHITTIER and so strange
and weird and startling is the Echo do not
wonder that the superstit,OuS have lifted it
into the supernatural. You AMI / in boy
hood or GirlhoUd eXperimented with this re-
sponsyencsso OF sound Standing half way
between the house and barn, we shouted
many times to hear the reverberations, or
cut among the mountains back of our home,
on some long tramp. we stopped and made
exclamation with iuI lungs Just TO hear
what Ezekiel calls "The sounding again OF
the mountains
The Echo has frightened many a child and
nauy man. 1t is no tame thing after you
have spoken to hear the same words raJcated
by the invisible. All the sIlences arc filled
with voices ready 10 answer. Yet It would
rot be so startling il they said something
else, but why do those lips Of the air say Just
what you say? Do they mean to mock or
mean 10 plcaSe' Who are YOU AMI where
nro YOU, thou wondrous Echo' Sometimes
its response is n rcteration. Tho shot OF
gun, the clappinG OF the hands the heating
OF drum, the voice of violin are some-
times repeated many times by the Echo.
Near COhlCnt&-thIt which is said has
seventeen Echoes. In l1i6 writer SAYS
that near Milan, Italy, there were seventy
such reflections o. sound t. one snap Of a
p,sto'. Pay bugle near lake OF Kiiiar-
rey and the tune Is played back to you as
distinctly as when you Played it. There is
q wei two hundred and Ten feet deep at
arisbrooke castle, in the Is,e OF Wight.
Drop pm INTO that well and the sound Of
its tall comes u the top of til, well distinct
ly. y blast OF an Alpine horn comes bac,:
from the rccks of Jungfrau in surge after
surge Of reflected sound until 1t seems as ii
every peak had l.ltel and blown un Alpine
born.
But have you noticed-and this is the raa.
son for tho present discourse - that this Echo
in the natural world has its analogy in the
moral and religious wor,dy Have you roticel
the trcmen Gus fact that what we say and
do comes back III rCColed gladnCSS or dis
ast"I? About this resonance | preach this
sermon.
First Parental teaching AMI example
have their Echo IN the character OF descend
ants Exceptions, Oh, yes. SO in the
natural worlt there may be no Echo, or
distorted Ec'l3, by reason Of peculiar pro1.
mites but the general rule is that the cnar.
Rcter Of the chil iren is the Echo Of the char.
Rcier OF The parents. The general RUE i
that good parents have Gooi children and
bad parents nave lad children. II the old
man IS a crank, his sQa Is apt to be crauS
and the granlchi!d crank. Tne tenicucy
is SO mighty IN that direction that it will get
worse and worse unless some hero or heroine
in that line shall rise ami say: Here! BY
the help OF God, | Will stand this no longer.
Against this hereditary tendency to QUEER
ness protest" And he or she Will set up an
altar and a magnificent lie that will reverse
things, and there will be no more cranEs
among that kindred.
In another family the father and mother
arc ConseCrated people. What tLej do is
right. What they teach isrisht The boys
may for some time be wild and tle daugh-
ter worldly, but watcl! Years pass on, per
baps ten years, twenty years. and you 90
back to the caurch where tho father and
mother u~el to be consistent members.
You nave heard nothing about the family
for twenty md nt tla door of thn
church ylu zee the sexton AMI you ask him,
Where is oil Mr.. Webster" "Oh, he has
been dec many years. "Whero is Mrs.
Webster" "Oh, she died fifteen years ago.
Il suppose their son Joe went to the dogsf
cob, no, says the sexton, "he is up there in
the elders scat. lie is ono OF our best and
most important members. You ought to
hear INN pray and sing. He is not Joe any
longer he is Elder Webster" ''WelI, where
is the daughter Nary l suppose she is the
same thou Shtless butterfly she used to
be" "Oh, no" says the sexton,
'she is the president of our missionary
society aad th3 dircctr2Ss in the
orphan asylum, AMI when she goes down
the street ali the ragamuflius take mol of her
dress and cry, 'Auntie when are you going
TO bring us some more books AM shoes and
thingsp And when, in times of revival,
there is some hard case back in church
Pew lllul uO Olit tlAt titll fOtS
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 tlud the way into the kingdom
| Of Cod And if notoly seems ready 10
pray, she kToels down in the aisle beside him
and says, % LordP with apathos and
power an n triumph that seem Instantly to
emaucpate the hardened sinner. Oh, no!
1t,t
| fy in our presence, You see We would not
stand it, Tho fact is that the son AMI
daughter of that family did not promise
much at the start, but they are now an
Echo glorious Echo, a prolonged Echo Of
| parental teaching and example.
A Vermont mother, rs her boy was about
! 10 start for life on the sea, said: ed
! ward have never seen the ocean, but un-
derstand the great temptation is strong
drink Promise me you will never touch
it," Many years after that, telling OF this
in a meeting, Edward said: II gave that
! promise to mother, and have been around
the world, and at Calcutta, the ports Of
the Mediterranean, San Francisco, Cape
| of GCol Hope and north and south poles,
| nnd never saw glass OF liquor in all those
| years that my mothers form did not appear
! before me- aud | do not know how liquor
tastes. never have tasted it and all be-
| cause OF the promise made 10 my mother.
This was the result of that conversation al
| the gate Of the Vermont farmhouse. The
statuary OF 1horwaldsan was sent from
Italy to Germany, aud the straw in which
the statues had been packed was thrown
upon the ground. The next spring beauti
full Italian flowers sprang up where thi
straw had been cast, for in it had been som.
of the seeds OF Italian flowers, and, whether
conscious of it or not, We are all the tim
planting for ourselves and planting TO
others roses or thvrns. You thought
only straw, vet among it were anemones
But here is slipshoG home the parent
are a goddess pair. They let their children
do as they please. No example fiji to follow
No lessons of morality or religion. Sunda
no better than any other day The Bible n
better than any other book. The house is
sort Of inn where the older and youuge
people OF the household stop for awhile. Th
N. n II. VNAt NJ