The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-02-03


in the morgue, and some thought it was her,
but cannot say" SIS it possible? you cry
out. "Yes, it is possible. The family is
complete wreck" My hearers. that Is just
what might have been expected. All this is
only the Echo the dismal Echo, the awful
Echo the dreadful Echo Of parental pbllqulty
and unfaithfulness. The old folks heapei up
a mountain of wrong influences, and this IS
only what my text calls 'ine sounulns u
the mountains"
Indeed our entire behavior in this world
will have q resound. While opportunities
fiy in q straight line and just touch us once
and are gone never to return, the wrongs
we practice upon others fly in a circle, and
they come back to the place from which
they started. Doctor Guillotine thought 1t
smart to introduce the instrument OF death
named after him, but did not like it so
well when his own head was chopped on
with the guillotiue.
So also the Judgment Day will bs an Echo
such day, for there are to many things In
the world that need to be fixed up and ex-
planned. If God had not appointed such q
day all the nations would cry out. "Oh,
God, give US O Judgment Day" But care
apt to think Of it and speak about it as q
day away off in the future. having no spe-
cial connection with this day or any other
up its voices; its trumpets will only sound
back again to US what we now say and do.
That is the meaning Of all that Scripture
which SAYS that Christ will on that day ad.
dress the soul, saying. II was naked and 4e
clothed me; was sick and in prison and Ye
visited me-"
An the footsteps in that prison corridor as
the Christian reformer walks too the wicket
of the incarcerated, yea all the whispers OF
coincidence in the ear of that poor soul dying
in that garrett, yea all the klndnesses are pc
ing caught up and rolled on until they dasa
against the Judgment throne and then they
will be struck back into the ears OF these
sons and daughters Of mercy. Louder than
the crash of Mount Washington falling on
its face in the world wide catastrophe, and
the boiling of the sea over the furnaces OF
universal confagration will be the Echo and
re-echo of the good deeds done and the SYM
pathetic words uttered and the mighty bene-
factions wrought. .,
On that dav all the charities all the sell.
sacrifices, all the philanthropies, all the
benehcent last wills and testaments, all the
Christian work Of all the ages will be piled
up into mountains, and those who have
served God and served the suffering human
race will hear what my text styles "fhe
sounding of the mountains"
Nv subject advances to tell you that
eternity itself is only an echo Of time. Mind
you, the analogy warrants my saying this
The echo is not always exactly In kind like
the sound originally projected, Lord Ra-
leigh says that woman,s voice sounding
from grove was returned an octave higher.
A scientist playing flute in Fairfax County,
Va. found that all the notes were returned,
although some Of them in raised pitch.
A trumpet sounded ten times near Glas-
cow. Scotland, and the ten notes were all
repeated, but third lower. And the spir-
itual law corresponds with the natural
world, What we do Of good or bad may
not come back to us in just the proportion
be from higher gladness than we thought
or from deeper woe, from mightier con-
oueror or from q worse captive. from
higher throne or deeper dungeon. Our
PRAYER or our blasphemy, our kindness or
our cruelty, our faith or our unbehef, our
holy life or our dissolute behavior, will come
back somehow.
Suppose the boss of factory or the head
of commercial firm some day comes out
among his clerks or employees, and putuns
his thumbs in the armholes or his vest says
with an air of swagger and jocosity: swell,
I don't believe in the Bible or the church.
The one is an imposition and the other Is
full Of hypocrites. declare I would not
trust one of those very pious people further
than I could see him. That is all he says,
but he has said enough. The young pen go
back to their counters or their shuttles and
say within themselves, "Well, he Is q sue.
cessful man and has probably studied up the
wholesubject and is probably right"
That ono lying utterance against Bibles
and churches has put five young men on the
wrong track, and though the influential man
had spoken only in half jest the echo shall
come back to him in five ruined hfetimes
aud five destroyed eternities. You see the
Echoes are an octave lower than he antici-
pated. On the other hand, some rainy day,
when there are hardly any customers the
Christian merchant comes out from his
counting room and stands among the young
"Well, boys, this is q dull day, but 1t will
clear or after awhile. There are good
many ups and downs in business, but there
is an overruling Providence.
Years ago made up my mind to trust
God and he has always seen me through.
remember when was your age had Just
come to town and the temptations OF city
life gathered around me, but resisted.
The fact is there were two old folks out on
the old farm praying for me and knew 1t;
md somehow could not do as some OF the
clerks did or 20 where some Of the clerks
went tell you, boys, it Is best always to
do right, and there is nothing to keep one
right like the old fashioned religion OF Jesus
Christ. John, where did you 60 to church
last Sunday? Henry, how Is the Young
Mems Crristian association prosperingY'
About noon the rain ceases and the sun
comes out and the clerks 20 to their places.
and they say within themselves: "Well, he
Is successful merchant and guess he
knows what he Is talking about and the
Christian religion must be . good thing.
God knows IWant some help In this battle
with temptation and sin" The successful
merchant who uttered the kind words did
not know how much good he was doing, but
the echo will come back In five Metimes 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"
Yea, I take step further in this subject
and say that our own eternity will be re-
verberation OF our own earthly lifetime
What we are here we will be there. only
on larger scale. Dissolution will tear down
the body and embank it. but our faculties Of
mind and soul will 60 right on without the
hesitancy of moment and without any
change except enlargement and intensi1ca-
ton. There will be no more difference than
between lion behind the iron bars and a
lion escaped into the field, between an eagle
in cage and an eagle in the sky. Good
here, good there; bad here, bad there. Time
is only bedwarfed eternity. 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 CEN
turies quintillion, but the ship does not
change its fundamental structure after 1t
4A,~ L-e L. L.