The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-04-28
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
"A LISTENING GOD" LAST SUN
DAYS SUBJECT.
From the Text: HE That Planteth tho
Ell +, Shall He Not Hear? Stories of
the Worlds Grestest Musicians-The
Souls They Have Stirred.

Such scientists as Helmholtz and
Conte and De Blainville and Rank and
Buck have attempted to walk the
Apian Way of the human ear, but the
mysterious pathway has never been
fully trodden but by two feet-the foot
of sound and the foot of God. Three
ears on each side the head-the exter-
nal ear, the middle ear, the internal
ear, but all connected by most wonder
full telegraphy.
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
the three bright drops, her glittering
gems suspended from the ear" and
many of the adornments of modern
times werc only copies of her ear jew
els found in Pompeiian museum and
Etruscan vase. But while the outer
ear may be adorned by human art, the
middle and the internal ear are adorned
and garnished 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 I'M
dulating sound and passes it on
through the bonelets of the middle ear
to the internal ear, and the three
thousand fibres of the human brain
take up the vibration and roll the
sound on into the soul. The hidden
machinery of the ear by psychologists
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 mu-
sic. Coiled like snail SHE'LL" by
which one of the innermost passages of
the ear is actually called-like stair
way, the sound to ascend-like bent
tube of a heating apparatus, taking
that which enters round and round
like a labyrinth with wonderful pas
sages 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 light is too glaring
The external ear is defended by wax
which with it's bitterness 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 contrivance that
by the estimate of one scientist, it can
foh h. ~
a second. The outer ear taking in all
kinds of sound, whether the crash of an
avalanche, or the hum of a bee The
sound passing to the inner door of the
outside ear halts until another mechan-
ism, divine mechanism, passes it on
by the bonelets of the middle ear, and
coming to the inner door of that Sec
ond ear, the sound has no power to
come further 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 and on until it
comes to sensation, and there the cur
tain drops, and a hundred gates shut,
and the voice of God seems to saw to
all human inspection: Thus far and
no farther"
In this vestibule of the palace of the
soul, how many kings of thought, of
medicine, of physiology, have done
penance of lifelong study and got no
further 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 dis
patch plunging into the ear at the
speed of 1000 feet a second. Small in
strument of music on which is plaved
all the music you ever heard, from the
grandeurs of an August thunderstorm
to the softest breathings of a flute.
Small instrument of music, only a
quarter of an inch of surface and the
thinness of one-two hundredth and ff-
tieth part of an inch, and that thin
ness divided into three layers. In that
ear musical staff, lines, spaces, bar
and rest. A bridge leading from the
outside natural world to the inside
spiritual world; we seeing the abut-
ment at this end the bridge. bnt fhe
fog of an untitled mystery hiding the
abutment on the other end the bridge
Whispering gallery of the SOUL The
human voice is Gods eulogy the ear.
That voice capable of producing 1852
1856, 044,415 sounds, and all that variety
made, not for the regalement of beast
or bird, but for the human ear.
About fifteen years ago, in Venice.
lay down in death one whom many
considered the greatest musical COM
poser of the century. Struggling on
up from years of age when he was
left fatherless, Wagner use through
the obloquy of the world, and ofttimes
all nations seemingly against him, I'M
til he gained the favor of a king, and
won the enthusiasm of the opera
houses Of Europe and America. Strug-
Cling all the way on to 70 years of age.
to conquer the worlds ear. In that
same attempt to master the human ear
and gain supremacy over this gate of
the immortal soul, great battles were
fought by Mozart, Gluck and Weber.
and by Beethoven and Meyerbeer, by
Rossini and by all the roll of German