Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-01-06

great in literature AMI sim pie as 8 child
for did not spend an afternoon with him in
barn in the Adironiacks, and IN ths even
ing We played blindman's buR, he tying
over nv eyes the handkerchief while the
hotel parIors rang with the merr making:
And Tennyson this year gone-le VINO for
this particular season o. tee year wrote:
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild SKY,
The dying cloud, tns frosty light
The year Is dying in the night.
Ring ous wild bells and les him die.
What mingling of emotions in this closing
year! What orange blossoms for the mar
riage altar, and what myrtle for the tombs
of the dead Hosannas and laments lions -
collision. Anthem and dead march mount
ing from the same ivory keys. Before this
year quite leaves the earth let it hear our
pentauce for opportunities that can never
return. Kind words spoken too late or not
spoken at all. Means of getting good or do
ing good 50 completely gone by that the
archangeps voice could not recall them. Can
it be that this year is closing and our sins
unforgiven, and we have no certainty that
when our last Dec 81 has sped away we shall
enter biissful eternityS The most over
whelningly solemn week OF all the year is
the last week OF December.
But on opening this subject, an respect
OF a holy day, my text puts It, or holi-
day. as we moderns write and pronounce it
l advised that you divide this season into
three chapters-the first chapter of illus
Dual decadence and the third a chapter of
chronological introduction-and this last
chapter we have reached. In olden times
there was a style of closing an old year and
opening new one 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
in nd hat j.
what we are going to do. With the same
measured step that time has kept since it
started it will come TO our door in the clos
Ing night of this week. With what spirit
indicated that it is to be one Of the greatest
Years OF all chronology. ''Why?' you ask.
Have you any fore6odings OF premoni-
lions" No. care you expecting the millen-
mum this year." No! "Whv, then, say
this about the coming years. For the simple
reason that find as the years go by they
become more and more eventful. Compare
the Nineteenth century with the Eighteenth
century.
Compare 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 null
hplylng, and their struggles must be inten-
siied. 1t is a chronological fact that we
all the time coming nearer to the
worlds edenization first and then to its in
ton. And SO / expect that 1898 will be a
greater year than 1892. Its wedding bells
will be merrier. It's obsequ1es will be sad
der. It's scientific discoveries more brill
liant. It's properties more significant Its
opening more grand. Its termination
more stupenious. Look out for 1895! Let
printers have in their cases Of type plenty
OF exclamation points to set up a sudden
paragraph. Let the cOnservator1es have
profusion of flowers that can be twisted into
Cror nH1S I.of ohy1ro hoy Of
room for increased assemblages. Let men
and women have more religion to meet the
vacillations and the exigencies, and the de-
mands and the raptures and the woes OF
this coming 1898. In what mood shall we
open the door of the new year? With faith,
strong faith, buoyant faith, triumphant
faith, God will see you through. His grace
will be sufficient if you trust Him. You
can go to Him at any time and find SYM
pathy.
My little child got hurt one morning dur
ing her mothers absence. We looked after
5he case as we'll as We could. Toward night
ner mothsr returned, and for the first time
the child cried ana cried vociferousy. Some
one said to her: 'What do you cry for?
You did not cry all day" Her reply was,
There was no one to cry to-" Aud so you
sometimes suppress your trouble because
there Is no tull resource of earthly SYM
pathy. But l 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 prosperity or
adversely, come wedding Or burial come
health or sickness, come life or
death, come time or eternity, ALPS
well, alPs we'll! Keep your heart
right and all else will be right. Men and
women nave sometimes given strange ana
whimsical directions in regard to what shall
be done with their hearts after death. Rob
ert Bruce ordered his heart to 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 Berkkampstead, but ordered her
heart taken to Tewkesbury Cathedral. Lord
Windsor, dying in foreign land, ordered
land for burial in the chapel of Brakeman.
Now what shall we decree for our heart?
That it be the Lords, and then it makes no
difference what else becomes of it. 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 b
Renaissance further On. You know that
after awhile the old homestead will be broken
up. For years and years the children come
home to spend the holidays, and the house IS
from garnet to cellar, and the
scenes OF childhood are rehearsed, and we
lau Oh 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 it does not take half
a second for tear of the eye to strike the
smile OF the lip. For few years the grand
children make the holidays merry. One Of
the old folks young. Then after few years
the annual gathering at the old homestead
is half broken up, for father or mother Is
gone.