Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1892-01-01

more wonderful than any in the won-
derful narrative, and the recording an
gel sets his seal and turns the page. 1t
is a story that it is granted to none to
see its conclusion, and few indeed are
there who rightly read its past. Its be-
ginning was when the morning stars
sang together over the order that was
created out of chaos, and the plot, with
its threads of light and shade, sublime
courage and pitiful cowardice, hate and
love, JOY and fear, no man can compre-
hend and no man can alter. He may
delay the consummation of the Divine
plan. but there is all eternity for its
completion.
The year of our Lord 1891 has wit
messed marvels in the arts and sciences.
The depths of the earth and the heights
of the clouds have been called upon to
yield their secrets, and the whole realm
of space is now virtually the kingdom
of the mind. In year the world has
made giant strides toward the perfec-
tion of civilization, and every one of he
last fifty years has witnessed discovc ries
and inventions that have put to shame
those of as many centuries, until, paus-
ing in amazement on the threshold of
the future, we are forced to exclaim:
''What wilt thou bring forth. oh, mex
plicable voidl The crowning of mans
dreams or the end of material great
ness? Tho summit OF perfection or the
return Of formless chaos?'
Great rs has been the progress of the
world, the high water mark has only
been reached in certain favored spaces,
and vast continents are still reserved
for the maturing of Gods purposes.
To our nation it has been a year
whose bounteousness and peace have
been unparalleled in the history of any
country The seasons have poured
from their laps their garnered treas
ures, and north, south, east and west
rejoice in abundance. The faces of ma
ture and the elements have been pro-
pitious. and the smile of Provi-
dence seems to rest in benediction upon
the land. In the social world too, the
fruitage has been abundant. Never be-
fore in the history of our country has
so much good been done by earnest in
dividuals and society for the reclama-
ton of evil, the reform of abuses, and
the amelioration of the condition of the
deserving poor. The harvest of good
deeds in that has been great in spite of
the fact there are still fallow fields, and
that much has been left uninterrupted.
There are those, of course, who take
gloomy views of the times, who see the
evil, but fail to recognize the good, and
declare that morally the world is grow
ing weaker and more degenerate with
each year. But truth, the mighty leaven,
is terminating, dropped in the dark soil
of ignorance and error; and hidden
away from sight, folded in the bursting
sheath, is the sprout which shall one
day become the giant oak, meath which
our nation shall be sheltered from
storms and noontide heats.
Not in the spirit of the Pharisee, but
in that of reverent humility, should we
view our blessings of the past year, and
have fratcrnal sympathy for the fam
ishing peasants whose cry goes up from
the banks of the Volga, and from the
slopes of the Ural mountains; for the
exiled race, whose wandering through
the wilderness of prejudice and injus-
tice is as cruel as their forty years pro-
baton in the desert; for the poverty-op-
pressed masses of our kindred nation,
whose mother tongue is ours, and with
whom we claim common ancestry, and
for those nations who sit in darkness,
or girt about with misty and uncertain
light, but longing for perfect day.
The year 1892, upon whose threshold
we now stand, is surely destined to be
a momentous one in the worlds history,
and to America is granted the honor OF
erecting a milestone in the univepal
progress. In the year that is before
us the people of the old world will be
summoned to witness the inauguration
of monument worthy Of the genius
and courage of Columbus, monument
which puts TO shame the proudest
structure ever raised to commemorate
the great deeds of prince or conqueror,
and that monument is an enlightened
and prosperous people, whose self rev.
erence, self knowledge and self control
have raised them, in but little more
than a century, to be the object of the
wonder and admiration of the world.
Not Columbus, the Genoese, nor Column
bus, the navigator, do we thus honor,
but the courage which was repre-
sented in him, which dared to fling
away old traditions and obey the in
ward voice urging onward to great
achievement.
The year lies before us, a mystery as
great as the mystery of all mysteries
death. We meet it with high resolve,
but every day in our life in reality
marks similar anniversary, and every
night witnesses the end of year,
step taken irrevocably from time to-
ward eternity, for there, and there
only, can we meet face to face that
shrouded shape, the Future, which for
ever fees as we approach. If we would
truly live well, the years, whether
spent in work or meditation, in pleas
ure or pain, should yield us something
more than material good, which is as
evanescent as the morning mists. The
outlines of our lives are drawn for us
by circumstances, training, heredlty
and other Influences above our control,
but day by day we are filling in the
light and shade, the coloring in the pic
ture, and it is the coloring that Will
make or mar the beauty of that crea-
ton that shall hang in the gallery OF