Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1882-12-29
REFLECTIONS ON THE OLD AND
NEW YEAR.

Death-shades are gathering around the
brow of the fond Old Year The air is still
without and the moonlight lay palid over
the land. The doors and windows are'closely
barred and the old fireplace is red and
cheerful. Trembling we stand between the
closed past and the unopened future with a
strange power TO will and perform. We
draw chair close to the hearth and settle
ourself to face the night with steadfast
thought.
There are many New Years in mans
life, and each one, perhaps, has its special
message and meaning. So conspicuous a
milestone on the road, must often arrest
memory and fix startled attention. The
imperceptible steps by which it steals along
carry US unwittingly until some strik-
ing landmark like the return of this day
New Year-reveals to us the length of the
travelled journey-the possible shortness OF
the space between us and the end. How
many hopes have faded how many joys
have been fruitless2 how many plans have
been frustrated which each New Year saw
spring into existenceP And, on the other
hand, how many fears and apprehensions
have turned out to be groundless, which
then haunted usp The reflection is common
pi~ossaough. Int there is lesson of wisdom
TO be learned from 1t. The lesson of ply
losophy as well as of religion is one of
cheerful birth and serene courage. And
the future will seemingly not be as bright as
our hopes would make 1t, neither will II be
as dark as we may sometimes sorrowfully
anticipate.
The past is past; the future, pregnant
with dread, is just ahead. Now is not the
moment for useless regret. 1t is rather the
instant for high resolve and noble aspiration
Hope is born of ignorance. Where there is
perfect knowledge, the best and worst are
known. The very uncertainty of life is its
great blessings. For few OF the sons and
daughters OF Eve are so constituted as to
expect evil when they wish for good. There.
fore, New Years Day is hailed with joy,
and its dawn witnesses the birth of new
hopes, new projects and holy resolutions.
Men make up their minds to abondon bad
habits on the last day OF the year and try
on better ones the following day. Unhappy
wretches determine to fling off the thralldom
of fascinating vices on the New Year and to
embrace freedom less attractive, but far
more profitable vices Indeed, it is the season
of good intentions, and for this reason is
welcomed with heartiness and gratitude
seldom portrayed at any other season of the
year. Men and women take one fearful
look at their unwholesome past and solemn
ly fix their eyes on the future. They can
not see beyond the first day. They cannot
see even its close until the same is at hand.
Different temperaments celebrate New
Years Day differently. The boisterous and
sanguine will be loud and blatant in their
rejoicings. The cultivated and mild will
attune their songs in minor key and find
pleasure in retirement and an interchange
OF ideas. 1t is in the families, however, that
the day is generally most festive and best
observed. Long separated members will
come together on this day. Aged grandsires
and dimpled children will meet, perhaps,
for the last time on Garth, for who can tell
whaS-niay happen in year. Too maay
know, alas what has befallen them in the
year gone by. To these the day will scarcely
be a festival. 1t will be too full of painful
recollections. Faces that were wreathed in
smiles and roseate with health and youth
twelve months ago have faded out of sight
and hidden beneath the mould of the church
yard forever. Eyes that were the windows
OF innocent, loving spirits then, are closed
now because the spirits have gone back To
Him who gave them and will never gladden.
the home circle again. All, there are hearts
To-Day which have more of sorrow than Joy
IN them; homes darker than they were last
year, and with faint hopes of brighter
future. This is the drama of lite. On New
Year, as on every other of the three hun.
dred and sixty.iour days, anguish and &c.
sasy will walk arm in arm through the
highways and byways of the world and
the same old fashion of humanity prevails.
In this and every part of the earth civil.
lied and christian people will bend their
energies in one direction generaly-the
pursuit Of happiness Despite the cause
for sorrow, the stricken will Strive 10 be
pleased and struggle to be strong. Rugged
tars will ring the Old Year out and the
New Year in; soldiers on post in the tropics
and icy regions will think of their old COM
RAIDS at home and borrow qualification from
the season. Sailors on top sail-yards reefng
frozen sails, mariners in the breakers on
some tempest-lashed coast, sufferers In the
hospitals and prisoners in their cells will
think Of New Year, what it was and now
is to them. The hungered and rooaess, with
torn and sordid garments and no clanship
save the great outcast Of muititudes whose
name is legion, will be heard in voice like
the mufiied throb of broken heart exclaim.
ing, "Oh, God, how long r. Orphan children,
with no tender motherhood TO arch over
their pathway like heaven; no kneelings
by the bedside-no baptism in the summer
deYs-no clover paths nor bird songs--no
dimples where love had set its kiss, the
veriest playthings oil the winds and waves,
will catch the inspiration of the day and
mid the seeming hardships of Providence
bend their tiny arms against the adverse
tides Let us hope that they may success.
fully reach the great lighthouse and finally
become ornaments and examplers in so.
ciety.
Yes, the fond Old Year is rapidly passing
away--very soon the strokes from the dis
tant Cathedrals will fall upon the hush of
midnight, one more leaf will have been
turned In our life, another volume in the
progress OF time will have been finished
and placed away in the great sepulcher OF
the past. Poor Old Year, he has been with
us In sunshine and shadow, in prosperity
and adversely, at the cradle. the altar and at
the grave He has listened 10 the music of
tiny feet as they battered over the floor, he
has caught the songs of innocent childhood
in their mirthful glee. he has heard the wills.