Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-01-18

times VI virtue UEU usefulness ana HNe
Christian deathbe,ls and five heavens.
From all the mountains Of rapture and all
the mountains Of glory and MI the noun
tains Of eternity, he will catch what Eze-
kiel in my text styles THE sounding again
of the mountains"
TlME's DO1EGs ECHOED IN ETERNITY.
Yea, | take Il step further in this subject
and say that our own eternity will be Il
reyerberation of our own earthly lifetime.
What we are here we will be there, only
IN larger scale. Dissolution Will tear
iown the body and embank it, but our
faculties of mind and soul viii go right ON
without the heSitIncy OF moment ana
without any change except enlargement
and intensiflcation. There will be no more
difference than between a lion behind the
iron bars and hon escaped into the field,
between an eagle in a cage and an eagle IN
the sky Good here, good there bad here,
bad there, Time is only a bedwarfed eter-
nifty Eternity is only an enlarged time.
In this life our soul is in dry dock. The
moment we leave this life we are launched
for our great voyage, and we sail on for
centuries quintillon, 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 schoon-
er to man-of war. What we are when
launched from this wo. id we will be IN
the world to come Oh, Godl by thy CON
verting and sanctiIying spirit make us
right here and now that we may be right
foreverl
"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 "A cheerful Echo we do
not want it stopped; if IA baleful Echo we
would like to have it stopped. The hard
est thing in this 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, thea
tiers 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 expended in public
buildings 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 Hen
ry tried to hunt down the Echo, but still
the UNEMPLOYED realms Of acoustics are
larger than the explored. When our first
Brooklyn Tabernacle was being construct
ed, we were told by architects that it was
of such IA shape that the human 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
institution at Washington, and told him of
this evil prophecy, and he replied: II have
probably experimental more with the laws
of sound than any other man, and | have
got as far as this, Two buildings may
seem 70 he exactly alike and yet in one the
acoustics may be good and in the other
bad. Go on with your church building
and trust that all will be we'll" And all
was . ell On, this mighty law of sound!
Oh this subtle EChol There is only one
being in the universe who thoroughly I'M
derstands 1.-THE sounding again Of the
ETERNAL MORAL CONSEQUENCES.
And if it is so hard to destroy a natural
Echo, how much harder to stop IA moral
Echo, 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 buiIdingsl And once in heaven
God will so arrange the relative position
of mansions and temples and thrones that
one of the everlasting charms of heaven
will be the rolling bursting, ascending, |
descending, chanting Echoes. All the
songs we ever sang deyoutly, all the pray
ers we have ever uttered earnestly, all the |
Christian deeds we have ever done will be !
waiting to spring upon rs in Echo.
The scientists tell us that in this world |
the roar Of artillery and the boom Of the |
thunder are 80 loud, because they are |
combination of Echoes-all the hllsides, |
and the caverns and the walls furnishings |
share of the resonance And never will we |
the full power and music of an
Echo until with supernatural faculties |
able to endure them we hear all the con.
Joined sounds of heavenly Echoes-harps |
and trumpets, orchestras and oratorios, |
hosannahs and hailclujahs, 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 immensities, |
and all the eternities joining in Echo upon |
Echo, Echo in the wake of Echo
In the future state whether Of rapture /
Or ruin we will listen for reverberations |
Of earthly things and doings. Noltaire |
standing amid the shadows will listen, and |
from the millions whose godlessness and |
ibertinism and debauchery were a couse !
luence of his brilliant blasphemies will |
come back weeping, wailng, despairing.
million-voced Echo. Paul will, |
while standing in the light, listen and |
rom all the circles of the ransomed, and |
rom all the many mansions whom he
helped to people, and from all the thrones
ne helped TO occupants, and from all the
gates he helped throng with arrivals, and .
rom all the temples he helped fill with
there shall come back to him a