Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-07-02

1t will make us better ourselves it
will give us a new sense of God
goodness and strengthen our trust in
His providence it will incite us to
labor with more cheerfulness and per
severance for human advancement
There is an immense difference be
tween looking forward and looking
backward for better days the latter
begets sadness and stagnation the
former, courage and activity. No
matter how good our state is now, if
affairs are daily growing worse and
worse it is misery and no matter
how bad our state is now, if all is grow
ing better and better it is happiness.
1t makes all the difference in the world
whether it be morning with us or even
ing,-whether we stand in the dawn,
when the shades of darkness are pass
ing away, and the sky is growing
brighter and brighter, and all nature is
awakening to life and Joy and beauty
and the splendors of the day are yet to
burst upon us or whether we stand in
the evening twilight, when the glories
of the day are ended, and the chill
and gloom OF night are coming on.
There are malign influences in life
which tend to weaken the spirit of
Christian hopefulness. One of the
most potent Of these is found in the
inevitable disappointments which be
fall the innocence and trustfulness Of
Most children live in
happy ignorance OF the many gross
forms Of wickedness that there are in
human life Brought up, perhaps, in
the pure atmosphere OF yirtuous
homes, kept as far as possible from all
intercourse with the vicious, they do
not dream of the deprayity there is
around them. Oh many evils which
they do see they fail to understand the
yileness But as they come to years
of maturity, and see more OF the world
and look with sharper eyes, they learn
more and more of the wickedness of
men. They find that the trust which
they put in many is betrayed. They
are cheated and imposed upon and
begin to grow suspicious. They find
out how much Of sham there is in the
world, and become cynical. The gold
Of their childhood's jewels shows a
tarni5h and turns out to be nothing
but common brass. As the years 90
by human nature appears to one worse
and worse, and he fails to see that this
is not due to an actual change in
men, but to his own increasing
Just as when one is NOV
ing away from the wharf in a steam
boat the shore sometimes seems to be
receding and the boat stationary 50
society seems to be going backward in
vickedness, when it is but our
knowledge that is advancing. Many
4 man at fifty shakes his head at the
degeneracy of the age, and signs to
think how much better things were
when he was young, when the fact is
the age is no worse, but he has ac-
luired keener scent for evil.
Another influence which makes us
lose hope in human progress is the
natural tendency to glOrify the past.
We think the former days are better
than these, not only because we fail
to appreciate the present, but also
because we unduly eXalt the past We
are brought up justly to honor the
fathers, in youth we look upon the
older generation with admiration for
their achievements, and with reyer-
ence for their wisdom When they
pass away and we come to take their
places, it is impossible for us to admire
our equals as we once did our elders.
Aman OF sixty is very apt to eXtol the
greatness OF the older men whom he
knew when a boy. He will tell you
there were giants on the earth in those
days
When we look at mountains from a
distance, they have a beauty which dis
appears as we ascend them. All the
lnsghtly tangles of fallen trees and
broken rocks are hidden by the dis
lance, the ragged outlines are softened
into beauty. and over all is spread
a dreamy haze OF blue. y like
glamour is cast over the events OF the
past; all belittling circumstances fade
from view and we see only what is
grand and heroic. The good maxim
bids US speak OF naught but the viz
tues OF the dead and so we throw
the mantle OF charity over all that is
wrong and commonplace 1t is such
considerations as these that lead the
Chinese to pay worship to their dead
that led the ancients to fill
the early ages with heroesand demi-
gods, and that impels us now to extol
the customs and virtues of former
days, even to the depreciation of our
own.
This truth is recognized in the max
i'm that Familiarity breeds contempt"
The good things to which we are ac-