The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1896-12-17

full OF interest at THIS Season ot the Scai'!
Subject: The Lessons Of the Past: the Value
of Experience.
We cannot better introduce this subject than
by quoting Deu., 4 81: ask OF the days That
are past" This declaration is part OF the
farewell words of Moses to the Israelites 1t is
an appeal to the past Ii is with view of sug-
costing this idea that we use the quoted words
10 this Meditation. We can often study past
days with great profit.
BREvITY OF TIME.
Another year will soon have passed. few
moro heavifgs Of tho lungs, not many more
heart-beatiugs q few vibrations of the pendu-
Ium, three more revolutions of the earth. and
we shall have outridden the waves OF 1876;
have lodged for moment in the trough OF the
sea of time. and then have begun to ascend the
first wavc Of 1897 The months OF the past year
danced into light" In a little we can declare
"thcy died into shade"
Oh how time flies! Horace wrote: "Ehu
fugaces labunter ami" All the years are leap
years--they leap along with fearful velocity.
The miracle performed by Joshua cannot be
encorcd Sun and moon will not stand still at
any human ipse DIRT The shadow Will not go
back on the sundial plate.
We have much to learn from times rapldlty.
Writing to his mother, when he was AZ years
old, Benjamin Franklin said: So the years
roll round, and the last will come when would
rather have it said, He lived usefully,' than
He died rich.'"
/ would that just now we might be full of
exalted impulses We shall be passing these
final hours Of the year most serviceably ii our
meditation lead us to holy resolutions as to the
future would serve such purpose in this
my last Meditation for 1896.
WHAT HAVE THE YEARS BROUGHT Us?
70 nj
advanced age We feel we are getting older.
The age of threescore and 10 is rare. year
seems so brief! If so. then we cannot expect
to be residents Of earth much longer. 1t IS
we'll at times to think of this. No period is
more fit for such reflection than the closing
hours of year Of life.
This growing old seems one Of the effects OF
sin. Hence Hesiod may have been quite right
when, speaking of the golden race of mortal
men THAT is to say, of men in the sinless
state, men before what we call "The Fall -
he said:
"Nor on them creps
Wretclied old nge."-,Op. ct Dfcs)
It is theory that in the absence of the Fall
we would have enjoyed eternal youth. The
meaning is evidently and simply this: the
bodily organs would not have worn ont, be-
come enfeebled, and subjected more or less to
uneasiness. Time would necessarily have
passed on as now, but it would have been with
out any Of. the reminders which we in our
present condition have in the form of defective
physical organs and the resulting decrepitude.
The mere fact Of growing old is not so sad.
Those were cheory words Of DR.. Guthrie in his
advanced years of age. lie said They say
am growing old because my hair is silvered
and there are crows feet upon my forehead,
and my step is not $50 firm and elastic as of
yore. But they are mistaken. This is not
me. The brow is wrinkled, but the brow Is
not me. This is the house in which live;
but am young. younger now than ever was
before" But we do grow old, and the bell
that tolls out year impresses this fact--a fact
which, it cannot be- concealed, is not agree
able. 'sssa
9. These years have brought Us many losses
of friends. Every year tells on the circle of
our acquaintance. Each year brings around
the anniversary of the death of some dear rea-
tive. On that day we cannot but think with
unusual interest Of that one. Every family
has its own select canonJzed list of saints, at
whose shrines, in a certain pardonable sense
the members worship.
These separations Are sad, and tend to wean
US from earth. Every person quite advanced
in years can sympathize with Ihurlow Weeds
lonely refrain. At the close of his 92d year
of age he wrote: ~
among the sad things in the old mans ex-
perience, one Of the saddest is to ind the circle
/ went to funeral day before yesterday up
at Fourteenth street, and saw Mrs. Tilotson
laid away. A few years ago was dining with
her and her husband; now they are gone Mr..
Spofford, his partner-both well-known old
time merchants-is gone, too Mr.. and Mrs.
r. M. Blatchford. intimate friends of mine.
living right opposite to me, are gone Mr.. and
Mrs. Moses Fl. Grinnell are gone. Mr. j. Stur-
gis, who used to live right opposite. is gone.
Mr.. Robert B. Minturn, one of the truest and
best men that ever lived, is gone. My next
| door neighbors, Mr.. James Otis and Andrew
Carrigan and Geo. II. Aspinwall-al, all gone.
| and all intimate friends Of the past"
Uttering these words, the voice full OF sad
| ness. kept lowering, till at last he whispered
1t Is very painful to see so many gone from
| just around my own neighborhood."
| The older we become the more sensible we
| are to these losses. Unless one be social and
| fill up the circle Of his acquaintances, he will
| at length become lonely. So our associates
pass away. Many with us one year ago are
! with God now.
| 3. The years bring us experience. Every
| year is twelve months study into the science
| of earthly human life. Every year is four
| quarters of tuition in knowledge Of ourselves
Each January finds US with clearer concep.
ton Of the realities and the unrealities of time
| year is partly valuable to Us on account oil
| the grand lessons it imparts the greater in.
| sight it gives US into the unsubstantialness oil
the merely earthly. Experience is unsatisfac
tory. We find that earth lacks capacity t.
| crafty intellectual and specially spiritual out
readings. Wekeep learning. Michael Angelo
left in Rome device, representing an old man
| in q g0-cart, with an hour-glass, inscribed
Yet am learning" So we have the proverb:
| "Never too late to learn"
How the closing year reviews memories of on
] experiences and observations! Each year ind
| us richer, for experience is capital more prec
ous than rubies. Each year we live we should
be better able to live. Wecan usher all the pas
to our help in every emergency.
4. Every year leaves US more confirmed ii
truly fearful. Time crystalizes our proclivi
ties. We feel We are wrong. How shall ",
| get right? One says: " ! propose at some tim,
to make complete moral resolution in my life
and set ont for Zon." How do you know tina
you will carry out yonr resolution? Why d
you not turn right about now? You say: :"
hardly feel that I can" How do you know
that you will feel just like it at some futur
timer
The chances are every day against reform
Why? Because habits become more and NOR
fixed. You do not feel like taking this ste
now. Perhaps you will not feel like It by ant
by. But you dread the thought of entering tn
next life without first adjusting this matter o
your salvation. Then. would it not be wisest ii
attend to this interestat once? You will neve
be better able, and certainly circumstance
will never be more favorable. The only SAT-
way is Immediately to stop SHINING and to Sc
out i'll holiness. Shaksperc once exclaimed
How use doth breed habit in mani" The,
remember the definition of the word habit