St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-05-21
THE WISDOM OF GOD.
Discourse by Rev. DR.. Talmage on
the Human Ear.


The Architect and Architecture Of One Of
Mans Most Important Faculties
Man Does Not Hear Alone,
God Hears Also.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in the fol-
lowing sermon, discourses instructive
" on mans organ of hearing. 1t is
based on the text:
He that planted the ear. shall he not hears-
Psalms Xcty.. o.
Architecture is one of the most fas-
cinating arts, and the study OF Egyp-
tian. Grecian. Etrlscar, Roman, By
zantine, Moorish, Renaissance styles of
building has been to many a man
sublime life work. Lincoln and York
cathedrals. st. Paurs and st. Peters,
and Arch of Titus, and Theban temple
Alhambra and Parthenon are the mon
uments to the genius of those who
built them. But more wonderful than
any arch they ever lifted. or any tran
sept window they ever illumined, or
any Corinthian column they ever
crowned, or any Gothic cloister they
ever elaborated, is the human ear. .
Among the most skillful aal assidu-
Gus psychologists of our time have been
those who given their time to an ex-
animation of the ear and the study of
its arches. it's walls, its floor, its canals,
its aqueducts, its galleries, its intrica-
cies. its convolutions, its Divine ma
chinery. and yet, it will take another
thousand years before the world comes
to any adequate appreciation OF what
God did when He planned and executed
the infinite ani overmastering archi-
lecture of the human ear. The most
of it is invisible all the microscope
breaks down in the attemp: at explora-
ton. 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
Conta and De Blainville ana Rank and
Buck have attempted to walk the Ap-
plan way of the human ear, but the
mysterious pathway has never been
fully trojden but by two feet-the foot
of sound and the foot of God. Three
ears on each side the head-the ex-
ternal ear, the middle ear, the internal
ear, but all connected by most wonder
full telegraphy.
The external elr in all ages adorned
by precious s.oncs or precious metals
The Temple of Jerusalem, partly bailt
by the contribution OF earrings, and
Homer in the IIial speaks of Hera,
1.-THE three bright drops, her glittering
gems suspended from The ear;" and
many of the adornments of modern
times were 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 internal ear are adorned
and garnish ID only by the hand OF the
Lord Almighty. The stroke of key
of yonder organ sets the air vibrating,
ana the external ear catches the undu-
lating sound and passes it on through
the bonelets of the middle ear to
the internal car, and the 5000
fibers of the human brain take
up the vibration and roll the sound
on into the soul The hidden ma
chinery of the ear by Psychologists
called by the names OF things familiar
to us. like the hammer, something to
strike-like the anvil il-.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 harp strings, to be swept with
music. Coiled like snail she'll" by
which one ot the innermost pas sages
of the ear is actually called-like
stairway, the sound to ascend-like q
bent tube Of a heating apparatus, TAX
| ing that which enters round and round
like a labyrinth with wonderful
passages into which the thought enters
only to BE- lost in bewilderment. A
muscle contracting when the noise is
too louI, just as the pupil OF the eye
contracts whel the light is too glar
ing. Tae external ear is defended BY
wax which with its bitterness discour
ages insectile invasion. The interna
ear embedlel in by what is far th'
hardest bone Of the humln system,
very rock of strength and defiance.
i The ear is SO strange IA contrivanct
that by the estimate OF one scientist
can catch the sound OF 13, 100 vibration
in a second. The outer ear taking ii
all kinds of sound, whether the cras
Of an avalanche or the hum OF a bee
The sound passing to the inner door
the outside ear halts until another mech
anism, Divine mechanism, passes l
on by the bonelets of the middle eal
and coming to the inner door OF tha
second ear the sound has no power t
come:further until another Divine mech
anism passes it on through into tn
inner ear, and then the sound comes
|. the rail track of the brain branchle'
and rolls on and on until it comes +
sensation. and there the curtain drops
and a hundred gates shut, and the voic
Of God seems to say to all human IN
; spection: Thus far and no farther"
In this vestibulc of the palace OF tn
soul, how many kings of thought,
, medicine, of physiology. have don
penance Of lifelong study and got n
further than the vestibule. Mysteriou
home of reverberatioD and echo. Gran
central depot OF sound. Headquarters
, II WHICH tUeTc CO1AC 4uIOh aiSRns~AAS
, part the way by cartillages. part tt
. way by air. part the way by bone, pal
the way by nerve-the slowest dispatc
plunging into the ear at the speed
l.U9o feet second. Small instrumer
|. of music on which is played all tn
: music you ever heard. from tae graz
deurs of an August thunderstorm to tt
softest breathings of flute. Small ii
strument of music, only quarter OF
!. inch of surface and the thinne IS OF on
: two hundred and fiftieth part OF a
inch and that thinness divided int
three layers. In that ear musical stat
; lines, spaces, bar and rest. A brids
= leading from the outside natural wor
to the inside spiritual world; we Sc
9 ing the abutment at this end Of Il
bridge. but the fog of an unified my
E terry hiding the ah ltm.nt on tn 9th,
\ end Of the bridge. Whispering galleI
$ of the soul. The human voice IS God
r eulorv the ear. That voice capable
. producing II, ,5s2. ls6. .0ii,4i5 sounds, a