Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-04-22
OUR LISTENING GOD.
Or. TALMAGe TELLS US HOW GOT
HEARS PRAYERS.

lie Not Hear?
Copyright 1898. by American Press Asso-
ciatiOnl
WASHINGTON, April 17.-In this dis
course DR.. Talmage sets forth the
goodness and wisdom Of God in the con.
struction of the human ear and extols
music and encourages prayer; text,
Psalms xciy, Q, "He that planted the ear,
shall he not hear:"
Architecture is one Of the most fasci
mating arts. and the study Of Egyptian,
Grecian, Etruscan, Roman, Byzantine,
Moorish, Renaissance styles Of building
has been to many man sublime life
work. Lincoln and York cathedrals, st.
Paul's and st. Peters and arch Of Ii
tus and Theban temple and Alhambra
and Parthenon are the monuments toI
the genius of those who built them.
But more wonderful than any arch they
ever lifted, or any transept window
they ever illumined, or any CorinthianI
column they ever crowned, or any Goth
ic cloister they ever elaborated, is the
human ear
Among the most skillful and assidu-
Gus physiologists of our time have been
those who have given their time to the
examination Of the ear and the study Of
its arches, its walls, its floors, its ca
mails, its aqueducts, its galleries, its in
tricacies, its convolutions, its divine
machinery, and yet it will take another
thousand years before the world comes
to any adequate appreciation Of what
God did when be planned and execut 'd
the infinite and Overmastering architec-
ture Of the human ear. The most Of 1t Is
invisible, and the microscope breaks
down in the attempt at exploration.
The cartilage which we call the ear IS
only the storm door Of the great temple
clear down out Of sight, next door to
the immortal soul.
Such scientists as Helmholtz and
Conte and De Blainville and Rank and
Buck have attempted to walk the Ap-
plan way Of the human ear, but the
mysterious pathway has never been full
" trodden but by two teet-the foot OF
sound and the foot Of God. Three ears
on each side the head-the external ear,
the middle ear, the internal ear-but all
connected by most wonderful teleg-
raphy.
Wonders of the Ear.
The external ear, in all ages adorned
by precious stones or precious metals.
The temple Of jerusalem partly built by
the contribution of earrings, and Homer,
in the "Iliad, speaks of Hera, 1.-THE
three bright drops, her glittering gems
suspended from the ear, and many Of
the adornmonts Of modern times were
only copies of her ear jewels found IN
Pompeiian museum and Etruscan vase.
But. while the outer ear may be adorn-
ed by human art, the middle and the IN
ternal ear are adorned and garnlshed
only by the hand Of the Lord Almighty.
The stroke of "a key of yonder organ sets
the air vibrating, and the external ear
catches the undulating sound and passes
it on through the bonelets of the middle
ear 10 the internal ear, and the 3,OuO
fbers Of the human brain take up the
vibration and roll the sound on into the
soul. The hidden machinery Of the ear, 4,
by physiologists called by the names OF
things familiar to Us, like the hammer,
something to strike; like the anvil,
something to be smitten; like the stirrup
of the saddle with which we mount the
steed: like the drum, beaten in the
march: like the harpstrings, to be swept
with music; coiled like snail shell,
bv which one Of the innermost passages
of the ear is actually called; like stair
way. the sound to ascend; like bent
tube of heating apparatus, taking tnat
which enters round and round; like
labyrinth with wonderful passages, into
which the thought enters only to be lost
in bewilderment; a muscle contracting
when the noise is too loud, just as the
pupil of the eye contracts when the llght
/ is too elaring. The external ear Is de-
Tended by wax which with its bitter
ness discourages insectile invasion The
internal ear imbedded in by what Is far
the hardest bone of the human system.
a very rock of strength and defiance.
The ear so strange a contriyance that
by the estimate Of one scientist 1t can
catch the sound of 70, 700 vibrations IN
a second. the outer ear taking III all
kinds of sound, whether the crash OF an
avalanche OF the hum Of bee. The
sound passing to the inner door OF the
outside ear halts until another mechan-
ism. divine mechanism, passes 1t on by
the bonelets of the middle ear, and, COM
ing TO the inner door of that second ear,
the sound has no power to come farther
until another divine mechanism passes
it ON through into the inner ear, and
then the sound comes to the rail track
of the brain branchlet and rolls on ana
on until it comes to sensation, ana there
the curtain drops, and hundred gates
shut and the voice of God seems to say
to all human inspection, THUS far ana
no farther.
yestibule of the Soul.
In this vestibule of the palace of the
soul how many kings Of thought OF
medicine, Of physiology, have done pen
ance of lifelong study and got no far
ther than the vestibule! Mysterious
home Of reverberation and echo. Grand
Central depot Of sound. Headquarters
to which there come quick dispatches,
part the way by cartilages, part the
way by air. part the way by bone, part
the way by nerve, the slowest dispatch
plunging into the ear at the speed oi
i. .O9O feet second. Small instrument
of music ON which is played all the