The Bossier banner., 1892-03-24

not know how much good he was doing,
but the echo will come back to five life
times of virtue and usefulness, and five
Christian deathbeds, and five Heavens.
From all the mountains of rapture and
all the mountains of glory and all the
mountains of eternity, he will catch
what Ezekiel in my text styles 'the
sounding again of the mountains"
Well" says some one, this idea OF
moral, spiritual and eternal echo is new
to me. Is there not some way of stop
ping this echo?" My answer is: God
can, and He only" 1t is a cheerful
echo; we do not want it stopped; if
| baleful echo. we would like to have it
| stopped. The hardest thing in this
world to do is to stop an echo. Many
au Grafton has been spoiled and many
an orator confounded by an echo. Cost
tIy churches, cathedrals, theaters 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, and hundreds
of thousands of dollars have been eX-
pended in public buildings of this
country to keep the air from answering
when it ought to be quiet. Aristotle
and Pythagoras and Isaac Newton and
| La Place and our own Joseph Henry
tried to hunt down the echo, but still
! the explored realms of acoustics are
larger than the explored. When our
first Brooklyn tabernacle was being
constructed we were told by architects
that it was of such a shape that the hu-
man voice 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 the Smithsonian in
stitute at Washington, and told
him of this evil prophecy, and he re-
piled: 81 have probably experimental
more with the laws of sound than any
other man, and l have got as far as
this: Two buildings may seem to be
exactly alike, and yet in one the acous-
tics may be good and the other bad.
Go on with your church building and
trust that all will be we'll" And all
was well. Oh, this mighty law of
sound! eh, this subtle echo! There is
only one Being in the universe Woo
thoroughly understands 1.-THE sound
ing again of the mountains"
And if it Is so hard % destroy a nat
ural echo, how much harder to stop a
moral echo, a spiritual echo, an irnnor-
tai echo. You know that the echoes
are affected by the surfaces, and The
shape of rocks, and the depth of ra-
vines, and the relative position of build
ings? And. once in Heaven, God will
arrange the relative position of man-
sions and temples and thrones that one
of the everlasting charms of Heaven
will be the rolling, bursting, ascend
ing, descending, chanting echoes. All
the songs we ever sang devoutiy, all the
prayers we have ever uttered earnestly.
all the Christian deeds we have ever
done, will be waiting to spring us in
echo. The scientists tell us that in this
world the roar of artillery and the boom
of the thunder are SO loud, because they
are a combination of echoes-ail the
| hiLlsides, and the caverns 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 conjoined sounds
of heavenly echoes-harps and trum-
pets, orchestras and oratorios, hosan-
nahs and hallelujahs, east side of
Heaven answering the west side, north
side to south side, and all the heights,
and all the depths, ,.and all the immensi-
ties, and all the eternities joining in
echo upon echo, echo in the wake OF
echo In the future state, whether of rap
ture or ruin, we will listen for rever-
berations of earthly things and doings.
| Voltaire standing amid the shadows
will listen, and from the millions whose
gCdlessness and libertinism and de.
bauchery were a consequence of his
brilliant blasphemies will come back
weeping, wailing, despairing, agoniz.
ing, million-voiced echo. Paul will,
while standing in the light, listen. and
| 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 occupants and
from all the gates he helped
throng with arrivals, and from all
the temples he helped fill with wor-
shippers, there shall come back to him
glorious, ever-accumulating, transport
ing and triumphant echo. Oh, what
will the tyrants and oppressors of the
earth do with the echoes. Those who
are responsible for the wars of the
world will have come back to them all
the groans, the shrieks, the cannon
AIDES, the bursting shells, the craclxle
of burning cities, and the crash of
nations homes: Hohenlinden and Sala-
manca, Wagram and Sedan, Marathon
and Thermopyle, Bunker Hill and Lex
ington, South Mountain and Gettvs burg.
Sennacherib listen! Semiranis listen,
Marc Antony listen! Artaxerxes listen!
| Darius listen! Julius Caesar listen! AL
exander and Napoleon listen! But to
the righteous will come back the bliss
full echoes. Composers of Gospel 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