THE QUIET HOUR

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 11888, 30 November 1935, Page 4

THE QUIET HOUR

ECHOES.

AN INEXORABLE LAW OF LIFE.

Marconi, the wizard of the aerial ■world, says "Nature is full of echoes, but you can’t hear them because the world is travelling so fast; It is like a top asleep, you only hear it when it slows down, or seems to slow' down, because something is travelling faster than the world.” In experimenting with the beam light, Marconi found that It can only be sent twenty-live miles; then it meets with ironlsed air which, line a steel encasement, surrounds the World so that it cannot be penetrated, and the beam light comes back like an echo.

The depths of the sea used to be measured by a plumb-line which was at the mercy of cross-currents; now it is done by a echo, if it is 4,000 fathoms deep it takes an echo ten seconds to come back.

Often on a moonlight night, where I Jive, a dog begins to bark on a low note; it rises higher until it gets on a key so that it rebounds from a building, and the dog thinks the echo is another dbg and continues barking. How to take the bark out of a dog is as difficult a problem as how to stop an echo.

The vegetable world Is always making response: "vVhatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” The soil can only give back the same kind as is put in, and that with interest. It was with great amazement that when, for the first time, having put in one potato, I dug’ up twenty-four. “.

The word “echo” is not mentioned in the Scriptures, but this truth is taught, that, the nfe we live is always coming back. The thoughts we have of God come back as an echo continually. The Psalmist savs ‘ vVlth the merciful Thou wijt aho v Thyself merciful; with the upright Thou wilt show Thyself uprightwith the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure; with the wrestler Thou wilt wrestle.” Carlisle and Leigh Hunt were walking together under a canopy of brilliant stars. They halted, and after a silence Carlisle looked Up and said, “God the terrible.” Hunt said, "God the beautiful,’.’ and each man got his own conception in an . echo—terrible! beauti-

, A rich young man came to Jesus Christ and asked “What good thing can I do to inherit eternal life?” He gave him an heroic act to do. It proved too much for ' him an u he ■ went away , sorrowful. ; Peter was there, and seemed to say, “Master we have done the very thing you told man t 0 00 ’ we have forsaken all.’—(someone says “an old boat a few rotten nets’”)—“what shall we have therefor?” Imagine the calm Christ saying, ’ Everyone that hath forsaken houses,' or brethren, or sisters, or . fathers, or mother, or, wife, or children, or lands for My name’s sake shall- receive a’ hundredtola and shall inherit s everlasting life.” As if Ho had said, "Whatever you leave wilt more than come , back. Verily •no Investment could be better than this. ‘.He that hath pity, on the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and look' what he layeth out it shall be, repaid him again.’ ” Prov. xix., 17). This • is one of God’s universal laws—life * duplicating, coming back like an ■ echo; no man. can alter It, no man can dodge it.

You. cannot confine the life you live to your, own skin; we are always projecting. 1 project the hand of fellowship or the hand of violence; I project the tongue of truth or lies, speaking words that heal or wound; but' whichever It is, .It comes back. If I injure my neighbour I benefit myself. This reverberating, echoing life Is continuous iu this present life -and the oeyond. ■ -H. G. Wells says he refuses to be identified with the young man of twenty-one called by his name. He may refuse, and in..the refusal prove that the echo of early days is coming back; In this God has men like rats in a trap, none can escape. The other day I saw a street artist try to cajole help from passers-by, by writing, “A shower of rain makes my work in vain..” There is no power, not even Divine,, that can do that with life. It is lived ’ for weal or woe. It comes back to the Christ man.

The outstanding truth in the New Testament is that Jesus Christ became like man, that men might duplicate His* Hie, This is hippeulng in the'lives’of all who, through penitence and faith, are .“being saved.’’ - i’o look at the other side of this fact, with Its tremendous issues, causes one to.shrink; but still the truth abides. - Life as lived comes back to the man who gravitates towards self and sin. Samuel Johnson says "Oliver Qoldsmitn was the cleverest man I ever knew.” The poet became wealthy and lived In wickedness till his poverty was ap- , palling. Johnson tried to give him sympathy, but he replied, “No; no, I chose my life, I must pay. the penalty.” ' I heard three men say that the [War had changed them—Harry Lauder; Conan;. Hoyle, and Horatio . Bottomley. lue last preached a wonderful sermon on God, and within a few months was “doing time” In a cell.' It is reported that a friend called to see him when ho was making bags, and said, “You are sewing?” ■ “No.” -he, sajd, ”1 am . reaping.” , Death cannot alter the echo of life unless a~ man now “thinks on • his ways and turns his feet unto God’s testimonies.” If he thus penitently turns. tQ God by faith in His promise of redemption through Jesus Christ, then; —and this is the glory of me Gospel-—God can - smash the echo, - for He hath said, “I, even I, am He that blotteth out all thy transgressions.’-’ . “I will heal all thy back-slidlngs.” . Christ’s mau does not fear the echo. Whatever may be meant by uohn’s vision on Patmos of Golden streets and harps - and music, he is already Joining in heavens doxology. “Unto Him that loveth me and hath looseed me from my sins by His own biood, and hath made me a king and a priest unto Him be. glory and dominion for ever and ever.” in that heavenly prchestra - my spirit “wui silence ail inusic but Its own,” So will yours. y “Pfir* what-v measure ye mete it ;Shall be measured to you again.iLue is au echo always coming back!” THOMAo ROSS.