Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1886-01-01

SHORT LAY SERMON FOR tn, sp,sou
II is only by those who have oes.sd IN 70.
gard the past with tenderness or the ,u,prs
with hope that the salutation of the day s;l
be regarded as impertinent or meaningless
To-day may be much the same as yesterday
in all its prospects aud possibilities it may be
regarded az but turning. point in division
OF time whose beginning has as little practi.
cal reference to the mutations Of human lives
~ II has to that aspect Of Binitude which il
seeks to measure by terms Of finite duration.
But neither the cynic nor the mataphysician
has much chance Of getting hearing to-day.
Nor Will the severe moralist who insists that
1t were more fitting to mourn over the wasted
opportunities of the past than to make mer.
ry over the uncertain possibilities of the fu.
ture, have any better chance of an audience
While men and women are fit for struggle
and for action, they will persist in believing
that they can do better in the year that IL
coming than they did in the year that is gone.
While youths and maidens continue to see
the life before them tinged with the golden
hues Of promise, they will find in New Years
Day the opening Of new vista Of joyful an
ticipation, another rift in the cloudy curtain
that conceals the bright reality Of coming
achievement. Let the stern teaching of ex-
perience rob us of what illusion it may, it is
long before it can strip from the future the
possibility of having something in store for
us which we have missed in the past.
II the sentiments and relations of life we're
adjusted on q strictly philosophical basis, we
might be so acutely conscious OF the absurd-
ty OF giving sort of mystic significance to
mere arbitrary division of time, that the
mirth Of the season would be hushed and
its wel-wishes left unsaid. But in this, as in
ann d. h.
more trustworthy than their reason the
imagination takes the place as a stimulus of
human action which the understanding is in
adequate to FILL Hope may be "but the
dream OF those who wake" but il We
did not expect much we should accom-
plish nothing. The resolutions with which
we begin each new year have become the
most commonplace illustration of human tol-
ly, but the faith which prompts 'Lsm i-fat
least an evidence that we hev- 10 US 'ne pos
sibilty OF better thinGs, IL Is true WISDOM
tions whieI. create joy and lightness of heart,
for tbs race is beginning TO experience that
u,Hat is rue of the individual is true of the
mass, 'he that increaseth knowledge increas-
eth sorrow" The problems of society grow
faster than the ability TO solve them, and it
needs all the warmth Of the feeling that we
can get from anniversaries like that OF to day
to sustain in the belief that sefshness
and cruelty and greed are not, after all, the
strongest impulses in human nature and the
most powerful forces in molding the future
of manhood.
The time-honored customs of the day may
be perverted, and all its brightness may be
tarnished by ridiculous travesty of its SEN
timent aud its duties The desire for osten-
tation needs to be carried but short way to
render the New Years festival worse than
meaningless and the New Years kindly greet
ing dismal burlesque of heartfelt blessing.
And there are those to whom the season can
bring no gladness because of the bitterness
of their lot or the stroke of the destroyer
which has fallen beside them. There are
shadows enough to dim the brightness of the
day, look at it how we will. There are crosses
enough in the lot of the most favored of
mortals to remind them that life is a check
cred business at the best. Yet are its ine-
qualities not quite so numerous as some peo-
pie imagine, nor are its contrasts so striking
as is commonly assumed by those who regard
merely the material aspects OF existence.
Better is dinner OF herbs where love is
than stalled OK and hatred Herewith" is a
saying OF the wise king which reveals the Sc
cret spring of human happiness, and helps
us to understand how the inequality Of what
are called "the gifts of fortune" is corrected
In many a humble dwelling the New Years
salutatiOn will ring with more earnestness
and more meaning than amid all the evidences
of luxury and wealth. So that we ourselves
can look with cheerful confidence to the days
before US, let us cast aside all envy of the es-
tate Of those who have in profusion what we
think most necessary to our happiness. The
year is happiest begun and best spent that is
peTvaded by faith in Divine Providence and
love for our fellow -men.-N. y. Times.