The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-12-26
lors rang with the merry-makirg. And
Tennyson, this year gone; he who for this
particular season OF the wear wrote:

particular season of the year wrote:
Ring out wide bells to the wild sky.
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night.
Ring out wild bells and let him die.
What miugling of emotions in this closing
year. What orange blossoms for the
marriage altar and what myrtle for the
tombs of the dead. Hosannas and lamenta-
tions IN collision. Anthem and Dead
March mounting from the same ivory keys.
Before this year quite leaves the earth, let
1t hear our repentance for opportunities
that con never return, kind words spoken
too late or not spoken at ALL Means OF
getting good or doing good so completely
gone by that the archangers voice could
not recall them. Can it be that this year
is closing and our sins are unforgiven and
we have no certainty that when our last
Dec 81 has sped away we shall enter a
blissful eternity. The most overwhelmingly
solemn week of all the year is the last week
Of December.
But on opening this subject, I'm Respect
Of a Holy Day. as my text puts it, or a
holiday as We moderns write and pro-
nounce it, ] advised that you divide this
season into three chapters: The first a
chapter Of illustrious birthday, the second
chapter of annual decadence and the third
a chapter Of chronological introduction,
and this last chapter we have reached. In
old year and opening new ons that was
very suggestive. The family would sit up
until twelve o'clock at night and when the
clock struck twelve the family would
all go to the front door of the
house. take down the bar and turn
back the lock and swing the door wide
open to let the old year out and the new
year In. And that is what we are going
TO do. With the same measured step that
time has kept since it started, it will come
20 our door in the closing night Of this week.
With what spirit shall we let the New Year
in7 have already indicated that it is to
be one Of the greatest years of all chronol-
ogy. Why" YOU ask. "Have you any
forebodings or premonitionsl" mo" "Ars
you expecting the millennium this year p
No! why, then, say this about the com
ing year," For the simple reason that I
find as the years 60 by they become more
and more eventful. Compare the nineteenth
century with the eighteenth century. Com
pare the first half Of this century with the
last half. The surges of this ocean of time
are rolling higher and higher. The
forces of right and wrong are
rapidly multiplying and their strug-
giles must be intensified. 1t is a chrome
logical fact that we are all the time comm z
nearer to the worlds Edenization first and
then to its incineration, to its redemption
and its demolition. And so I EXPECT that
1898 will be greater year than 1892 Its
wedding bells will be merrier Its obseouies
will be sadder. Its scientific discoveries
more brilliant. Its properties more sig
nifcant. Its opening more grand. It's
termination more stupendous. Look out
for 1881 Let printers have in their cases
of type plenty of exclamation points to set
up sudden paragraph. Let the conserva-
tories have profusion Of flowers that eau be
twisted into garlands. Let churches have
plenty of room for increased asSemblages.
Let men and women have more religion to
meet the vacillations and the exigencies and
the demands and the raptures ard the
woes OF this coming 1893. In what mood
shall we open the door of the new
yearl With faith. strong faith, buoyant
faith, triumphant faith, God will see you
through. His grace will be sufficient IL
you trust him. You can go to him at any
time and find sympathy. My little child
got hurt one morning during her mothers
absence We looked after the case as we'll
as we could. Toward night her mother re-
turned, and for the first time the child
cried, and cried vooiferously. Some one
said TO her: What do you cry fora You
did not cry all day." Her reply was;
There was no one TO cry to-" And go you
sometimes suppress your trouble because
there IL no full resource of earthly SYM
patty. But rejoice to tell you that in
God you always have some one to CRY to
He will condole and help in every crisis,
Come now, let me unstrap that knapsack
of care from your shoulders. Come
or burial, come health or sickness
come life or death, come time or
eternity. Ais we'll Ais walll Keep
your heart right and all else will be right,
Men and women have sometimes given
strange and whimsical directions in regard
to what shall be done with their heart after
death. Robert Bruce ordered his heart 10
be sent TO the Holy Land for burial. The
Earl OF leicester ordered his heart sent to
Brackley hospital. Isabella, daughter Of
the Earl OF Pembroke, died at Bsrkhsnn-
stead, but ordered her heart taken to Tewks-
bury cathedral. Lord Windsor, diving 10 a
foreign land, ordered his heart inclosed in
lead and sent 20 England for burial in the
chapel of Brakeman. Now. what shall we
decree for our hearth Thatis be the Lords.
and then it makes no difference what else
becomes OF 1t. Living and dying may it
all be his
Thus in three chapters have counseled
that the holidays be grouped. May nothing
interfere with their felicities. May they be
50 spent that they will be food for pleasant
reminiscence further on. You know that
after a while the old homestead will be
broken up. For years and years the chil-
uIeu cOiu6 NOME 10 sponQ Lnelr holidays
and the house is rummaged from garrett to
cellar. and the scenes of childhood are re-
hearsed, aud we laugh till the tears come as
we talk over some boyish or girlish freak, or
cry over some old trouble ended; but the
heart swings back again to mirth for IA
does not take a half second for a tear OF the
eye TO strike the smile of the Iip, For a
few year the grandchildren make the holt
days merry. One of the many uses OF grand
children Is to keep old folks young. Then
after few years the annual gathering at
the old homestead is half broken
up, for father or mother Is
gone. About two years after flor there
are generally about two years between the
: time of their going the other half of the
holiday season is broken up. Then the old
house goes into the possession of strangers
and the sons and daughters by that time
have homes of their own. They plant their
own Christmas trees and hang up their own
children's stockings, and Irvine their own
holly and mistletoe and have their own
good times. They will perhaps be riding
out on some Of those holidays, either ia
sleigh or carriage, twenty or thirty years
from now, along the places where we slum-
Der the last sleep, and may we have boon SO
considerste and sympathetic in our de-
meanor toward them now that they will
then say, one Co another, as they pass the
silent mounds of the village graveyard or
city cemetery: There rests as kind a father
and as kind a mother as ever wished their
children Merry Christmas or a Happy
New Year."
MasnwhgIa wa ehair parant. .od -.-..I