THE ECHO by Charles Elmer Jenney

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 13, 1900

THE ECHO.

By Charles Elmer Jenney

The word thou speakest, give it careful thought; Whose tongue the air vibrates with sudden might Must need an agile mind to guide aright, Or rue the sad discord his clang hath wrought. When long thy voice is hushed, some souls have caught The echo, and thy startled ear will smite, Thy word, thy accent e’en. Back from the height All thou hast uttered on the breeze is brought. Strange it will sound to thee, and scarce thine own. Oh, grant ’twas spoken well, for thousands hear, As echo after echo tells it o’er, Now swelling louder than thy natal tone, Then fainter, from those parts thou dream’st not near, And, dying, lives in silence evermore. — Charles Elmer Jenney.