Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1892-01-21
All ZEE TABERNACLE.
Or. TALMAGE FINDS IMPRESSIVE
LESSONS IN TIE ECHO.

difference In Another-Eternity TO Echo
tho Dongs OF Time.
BROOKLYN. Jan. lj.-Dr. Salmage gave
new illustration in his sermon this morn
ing of his mastery Of the art Of drawing
spiritual lessons from common natural
phenomenal His subject was Echoes"
and his text, Ezekiel vii, Z, 1.-THE sounding
again of the mountains"
At last have found it. The Bible has in
it recognition Of all phases Of the natural
world from the aurora Of the midnight
heavens to the phosphorescence of the
tumbling sea. But the we'll known sound
that we call the Echo found not until
few days ago | discovered it in my text,
1.-The sounding again Of the mountains"
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 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 a ,.aan of so poetic a
nature as Ezekiel could not allow another
sound, viz the Echo, to be disregarded,
ing again of the mountains"
Greek mythology represented the Echo
as a nymph the daughter of Earth and
Air, following Narcissus through forests
aud into grottoes and every whittier, and 50
strange and weird and startling is the Echo
/ do not wonder that the superstitious
have lifted it into the supernatural. You
and in hoy hood or girlhOOd experimental
with this responsiveness of sound Stand
ing half way between the house and barn.
we shouted many IA time to hear the rever
herations, or out among the mountains
back of our home, on some long tramp, we
stopped and made exclamation with full
lungs just to hear what Ezekiel calls "The
sounding again OF the mountains"
The Echo has frightened many a child
and many IA man. 1t is no tame thing after
You have spoken to hear the same words
repeated 10y the Invisible All the siences
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 Aiy inst what you sayP DO they
mean to mock or mean to please? Who
are You and where are you, thou wondrous
Echo; Sometimes its response is Il rcitera-
tiun. The ~nnt of Il gun, the clapping of
the hands the beating of II drum, the voice
OF a violin are sometimes repeated many
times 10y the Echo,
Near Cobentz-that which is said has
seventeen Echoes. In 1865, Il writer says
that near Milan, Italy there were seventy
such reflections of sound to one snap of II
pistol. Play Il hugle near II lake of Killar-
ney and the tune is played back to you as
distinctly as when you played it. There is
u well two hundred and ten feet deep at
CarlSbrooke castle, in the Isle of Wight,
Drop a PIN into that well and the sound
of lis fail comes to the top of the well
distinctly. y blast of an Alpine horn
come, back from the rocks of Jungfrau in
surge after surge of reflected sound, until
it seems as if every peak had lifted and
blown in Alpine horn.
But have YOU noticed-and this is the
reason for the present discOurse-tbat this
Echo in the natural world has its analogy
in the moral and religious world? Have
you noticed the tremendous fact that what
We say and do comes back in recoiled glad
ness or disasterY About this resonance |
preach this sermon.
FARREACH1NG MORAL EXAMPLES.
First-PareutHl teaching and example
have their Echo in the character of de-
scepdants ESceptions2 Oh, yes. So in
the natural world there may be no Echo,
or "A distorted Echo, by reason of peculiar
proxmites, but the general rule is that
the character Of the children is the Echo
of the character OF parents. The general
rule is that good parents have good chi
dren and bad parents have bad children.
If the old man is crank his son is apt to
be IA crank and the grandchid crank.
The tendency is SO mighty in that direc-
tion THAI it will get worse and worse un-
less some hero or heroine in that line shall
rise and say: "IIerel By the help of God
] will stand this no longer. Against this
hereditary tendency to qucerness | pro-
test" 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 watchl Years pass
on, perhaps ten years, twenty years, and
you go back to the church where the ia
Their and mother used to be consistent
members.
You have heard nothing about the fam
lily for twenty years, and at the door Of the
church you see the sexton and you ask
him, Where is old Mr., Webster" "Oh,
he has been dead many years" Where is
Mrs Webster?' "Oh; she died fifteen
years ago" Il suppose their son Joe went
to the dogs'" "Oh, nc" says the sexton,
che is up there in the elders seat. He is
one Of our best and most important mem
beers. You ought to hear him pray and
sing. He j. not Joe any longer; he is Elder
Webster" We'll, where is the daughter
Nary suppose she is the same thought
less butterfly she used to be?" ooh, 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 ragamuilins take hold Of
her dress and cry, Auntie, when are you
going to bring us some more books anG
lhoes aud thiugs| And when, in times
Of revival, there is some hard case bach
in IL church pew that no one else cal
touch, she goes where he is, and in one
minute she has him a-crying, and this first
thing we know she is fetching the hard
ened man up TO the front TO be prayed for
and says Here is brother who wants t.
find the way into the kingdom of God.
And If nobody seems ready TO pray, sh,
1 l. L. MI al NJ