The Bossier banner., 1882-12-28
" Happy New Year |"

1857 Will have passed away. IL
most of us the closing year has
brought its sweet and bitter, and t.
all it has added to the stock of ex
perience, and we hope that the yeal
1888 will bring to each household
some welcome gift which, in afte,
days, will serve as a pleasant remem
brance of the year upon which WE
are about to enter.
"Happy New Yearw What
pleasant words-how genial and
sunshiny! They tell of warm hearts
of generous sympathies and genuine
friendships.
In every household in the land
where love rules and peace abides,
as well as upon the busy thorough.
fares where friend meets friend, the
familiar accents ofthis happy greet
ing will be heard next Monday
morning. And true it is that all
who give it and all who receive it
are happier for the giving and the
receiving. The wonder is that peo-
pie do not study to say, not on ssnew
year" merely, but on every day of
the year, such pleasant things. How
little it costs-how we'll it pays!-
not to the receiver only, as we have
already said, but to the giver as
well. For true it is, it is even more
blessed to give than to receive. And
how these little kindnesses do light.
en- the burdens of life! Only kind
word-only pleasant smile, telling
ofthe sweet sympathy that lies deep
in the heart-how, sometimes, it
makes the dark clouds drift away
and lets the poor soul, so long shroud-
ed in gloom, look up at the blue sky
and see again the sweet stars still
shining in the serene heavens.
There is always a freshness-a
joyousness and elasticity in the new
that the old and worn has long ceas.
ed to furnish. The bloom and beauty
and freshness of the early morn
the dew drops sparkling like show
er of diamonds on the bending
spires-the sweet notes swelling
from hundred musical throats, and
all the sweet sounds and sights that
make the glory and the gladness of
the new day slowly but surely fail
and fade into the stern realities and
sombre surroundings of noon and
are lost at last in the stiffness and
oppose of the solemn night. The
brightness of boyhood-the bloom
'of happy girlhood-how they con-
trast with the stern reallzations-l
the struggles and sorrows of man |
hood and womanhood, and how they
Seem but as tale that is told when
the locks are frosted and the eyes
are dim and the bent frame trembles
with the burden of the grasshopper. |
And so, as We have already init
mated, there will be freshness-a
joy and hope in the New Year that
the old could no longer afford. May
that freshness fail not too soon, nor
the JOY it brings fade, even as the
golden dream of childhood.
We cannot avoid disappointment
nor escape the ills to which all flesh
is heir. But the Golden Rule-the
rule that came down from Heaven
will do more, far more, than all the
wealth of the world or all the sue
cess Of science, or art OF ambition to
keep the footsteps of earth's pilgrims
in the path of peace and safety
"Do unto others as you would have
them do unto you" Let it, all the
year long, be the pillar of cloud by
day and the pillar of fire by night;
for surely it leads where the bright.
est flowers bloom and the sweetest
songs of earth are heard. And angel
wings watt the sweet air along the
way where the Golden Rule sheds
its blessed light.