The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-01-01
OUR SUNDAY COLUMN.
Original and OtherWise-Pre-
pared by Mark.
No. "a.
GOOD nYn. OLD YEAH.

| Leaf after leaf, day q ter day.
We have turned the pngc-, both and you,
| What il has told us full well we know;
Each FOR himself tho story has read
The old ship 1892 has made her voy-
ago and discharged her cargo, and re-
| tired from service. Shall We say well
done? Whether we'll done or not, there
will be no duplicate of the past. The
winds and tides of 1892 will never watt
and float another ship over tho voyage
of time. Those who failed to make the
most of the favorable opportunities of
the twelve months cruise can never
have another trial. The old ship 1892
will never make another voyage.
Many time did this old ship touch
at intermediate points to land souls
whose destined limit had been reached
in tho voyage OF life. Some choice spirits,
some friends, true and tried, some
loved ones dear TO the hearts Of many of
us debarke d at these intermediate land
lngs to travel with us no more on the
voyage of life. Oh, how we miss them.
How cherries has been tho voyage,
how long the nights and how gloomy
the days since thoy parted company
with US. And now the new ship 1895,
loosed from her mornings, has started
out upon the bosom of a now sea whose
depths and dangers are unknown. No
navigator has over traversed it's waters
and determined the windings of its
channels and marked its rocks and
shoals and quicksands with buoys and
lights by which we must steer. Its
dangers all lie hidden in its unfa thomed
deeps. And all who read these lines have
taken passage on the ship 1893 with all
their interests for time and for eternity.
There arc intermediate landings on
s,l, 80 ~,
sengers will say farewell" and debark
to travel with US no more. THOR tickets
are limited and will not carry them
beyond the destined point. Whore
| those landings are when we shall arrive,
| are uncertainties to each and every
| passenger. Dear reader, how will it be
| with you at the landing? Will you be
put of at some dangerous point and
have none but fends and evil spirits
to meet you and seize you and bear you
to the home of the lost? Or will you
land at some point on the shore of
| glory and be met by angels and the
redeemed spirits Of loved ones gone be.
fore and be escorted to your palace in
the celestial city? Heaven grant that
all who shall be called to debark at
these unknown intermediate ports in
the voyage of 1898, may find a landing
in the haven of rest.
This year thou shalt die" To man,
the past year has been sad year
Thousands have been made widows and
many more orphans. Signs, tears and
bitter membrances connect them-
selves with the past year. Shipwrecks,
explosions, collisions and famine, fol-
| lowed by dreaded diseases, have spread
devastation OF human life over tho
whole earth. God only knows what cal
antilles may befall the earth and it's in
hapitants during the year upon which
we have just entered. 1t may DO This
year thou shalt die" In our present
existence we are but creatures OF mo.
ment We stand trembling upon the
crnmbling banks Of time whose founda
tons deaths dark rolling pillows will
soon rash away and sweep us
all into the boundless ocean O
eternity. Standing as we arc to
day upon the borders of new year,
looking anXiously into the unknown flu
turc, i'll whose solemn darkness death
lies concealed, it behooves US mortal anc
yet immortal fellow men to give due
diligence TO thu awful possibilities O
the future, and stand with loins girded
and lights burning like unto men that
wait for the return OF the Lord, thai
when He comcth and knocketh. they
may open unto Him Immediately.
LIS year luOu SQdlC ulo. HOW
this declaration haunts me as 1 pen thi:
article cannot get away from it
: Will it prove tho funeral text of some
reader? Very likely.
This year thou shalt die" These
a'e serious words. Turn to the twenty
eighth chapter of jeremiah and reac
them and note the circumstances unde
which tho prophecy was spoken. VIVA
solemn message to that wicked man
Hananiah. What must have been hi
agitation when in the very &C
Of disseminating deception and false
hood among the people as revelation:
from God, message from tho grea
; Jehovah comes to him saying, 'Thi
year thou shalt die What would b,
the agitation of the reader if it wer
known that such decroo respect II,
himself had been signed in Heaven?
.. may be so.
1.-THE arrow that shall lay me low
} Was shot from deaths unerIing bow
The moment of my birth.
And every fooistcp proceed
, 1t tracks me with increasing speed.
turn-it meets me. Death
Hath given such impulse To The dart
1t points forever at my heart "
But you reply no prophet says to ne
: "This year thou shall die" Admit il
but what arc the probabilities for Tn
year? Are they not against you? "W
are fearfully and wonderfully made"
'"Tho human Frame" says an em
inent writer, "aboun6s with avenues a
which enter everything conducive t
preservation and comfort, and every
thing that can excite alarm. And, pei
haps, there is not one OF these avenue
but what may become an inlet to death
nor one of tho blessings Of life but ma
be tho means of accomplishing it. w
live by inhalation, but we also die by il
| nianaSno nd dnn I'll In In u-,,n hl