Sylvanus Stall

Suggestion:—Object: A small tin box, with a cover and bottom removed. Over one end draw and tie a piece of parchment, or even of strong manilla paper, in the center of the miniature drum-head thus formed fasten a thin string, and you will then have a rude but real telephone and a good representation also of the phonograph.

But that is only one book; God has other books also. But you know you can not photograph what a person says. So I want to try and show you how our words and all we say also go into a great book and write themselves down, so as to become permanent for all time.

Now, I have here a baking-powder box, from which I have removed the ends, and in place of the tin have covered it with a stout piece of paper which I have tried to draw very smoothly. With two such boxes, connected by a string, we could make a telephone so that we could talk together a short distance. Or with only one box we could construct a very rude but yet very suggestive phonograph.

Let me tell you how it is that you can hear over the telephone, whether made of a simple box and string like this, or with a wire and electric battery, for in one respect they are both alike.

If you will place your finger gently on your throat, against what is sometimes called "Adam's Apple," but what is really the delicate little instrument with which we speak, and then utter some words in a strong, clear voice, you will doubtless feel a vibration or trembling in your throat, just the same as I now feel in my throat while I am talking. My effort to speak causes these little chords in my throat to vibrate, just the same as when you pass your fingers over the chords of a harp or violin, or when you strike the keys of a piano you make the wires tremble and thus produce sound, so these chords in my throat tremble and cause the air to tremble, producing what we call sound-waves. Just the same as when you take a stone and drop it into the lake, you see the little waves or ripples, as we call them, go out in small circles, wider and wider, further and further, until they strike the distant shore. So the air is made to vibrate by my effort to speak, and these little sound-waves in the air strike against the drum of your ear, back of which there are nerves, ever ready to convey to the brain the sensation which we call sound,

Now, this small baking-powder box represents the ear, and the paper at this end represents the drum of the ear, and this string represents the nerves. This string may be prolonged for a considerable distance, and if you were to connect the end of the string with another box of the same sort you would then have a telephone with which you would be able to hear quite plainly the words which are spoken by some other person at the opposite end of the string. When I speak into this box it makes the paper tremble, and that makes the string tremble, and if there were another box at the far end of the line it would cause the paper on the end of that box to tremble just the same, and that would cause the air to tremble where that box is, and if you were to hold your ear to that box you would be able to hear the words.

If I take this box, and instead of a string I should place the point of a needle back of it, and a cylinder to revolve, so that the needle would scratch the vibrations upon the cylinder, I would then have a phonograph. I would then be able to record the words, and with another smooth needle to go into the scratches which had been made by the sharp needle, I would be able to reproduce the sound; or, in other words, to make the cylinder talk back again to me the words which I had spoken into the tin box and recorded upon the cylinder.

Just as light carries the photograph or picture, so the air carries the sound of our words and other vibrations of the atmosphere which we call sound. Thus you see the light is one book and the air is another, and God doubtless has many other forms of making and keeping the record of our actions and words—yes, even of our thoughts, and in the great Judgment Day these words which we utter will say themselves over again in our ears. If you uttered any bad or wicked words yesterday or to-day, or shall do so tomorrow, remember you will have to give an account of them in the great Day of Judgment.

But there is another thing connected with our uttering of bad words, as well as the fact that we must give an account of them. Bad words are connected with bad thoughts, and so every bad word which we utter indicates the character of our thoughts and has a bad influence upon our minds and hearts.

Not only do these words record themselves upon the atmosphere, but they also record themselves in a lasting—yes, in an eternal influence upon the hearts and the minds and the lives of those who hear them. Just the same as the words which are spoken into a phonograph are recorded and can be repeated over and over many times, so the bad words and the wicked thoughts which are expressed into the ears of others make an indelible record upon their thoughts and hearts, and are oftentimes repeated to others, thus multiplying the record, and at last all these records will appear against us in the great Day of Judgment. How careful you and I should be to speak only good words and to think only good thoughts.