The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-01-02
NEW YEAR.
The LessOnsOt
90.
THE APPLICATIONS.
DR.. Gunnison Says Profit
By SPANS Mistake.

year. lie traced the events OF the past
year, dwelling at some length on the
military aspect and great political
changes seen in the last twelve months.
Turning then to a consideration of the
present year he told how we should ap-
ply the lessons of the past year toward
Shaping our conduct in the future and
told how the government should profit
by SPANS mistakes in dealing with the
government of it's newly acquired pos
sessions.
The text was taken from Job xxxii:7-
Days should speak and multitude of
years should teach wisdom He said:
Today in the city of Havana the
Spanish flag is lowered and the Ameri-
can flag is hoisted in it's place, pro-
claiming that an old dynasty is ende
and new sovereignty has commenced.
However great may be the hope of the
people of oppressed Cuba in the ending
of the servitude of centuries, it will not
be possible for them to witness the
eVentful change without serious
thoughts-for the associations of cen
turtles gather around the Spanish flag
and all their lives have peen spent be-
meath the defeated and banished pow
er. The graves of their fathers are
in the soil above which the lowered
flag has fioated and their speech and
the language of their children is that OF
the Vanished nation, whose sovereignty
is ed.
1t is with a thought akin to this that
we all witness the closing of the chap
ter of the year and the turning over
of that blank leaf of the future or
which is to be written the unknown
history of days that are yet to be.
How singular it is that when we are
young, the passing of the old year
birthday anniversaries, parting from
familiar scenes, the breaking of old as
sociations, arrest an attention which
these events do not command in Older
years.
1 can remember when the last nigh
of the old year. was with me a time Of
inconceivable reflections. However hare
tried to escape the sadness of it, i
was impossible, and the last stroke 0,
the hour which marked the dying veal
was like the knell which tolled thu
burial of friends.
The poetry OF youth is the poetry o
sadness, that of age the pean of hope
for the years bring the philosophi;
mind, and we learn as life goes on will
US that the world does not measure
its events by birth days and dealt
days, by old years. days and new years
days, but that every day witnesses tn
closing of the old and the beginnin,
of the new, and the drama of life il
not divided into scenes and acts, era
and epochs, but goes on through day
and years with neVer-ceaSing change.
To every life, the year has brough
important issues: they may not have
been the pivots on which great crises
have turned. They may not have beer
revolutionary in their character-bu
they have at least somewhat DETECTED
life and been ripening and impelling in
f1uences in its shaping and direction
The past year has been an eventfuI on
in our national life, in that it has wit
messed a war which has far-reachins
and unanticipated consequences. Thu
north and south have been brought to
gether by the unity of a common cause
and our country has been brought gu
of its isolation, and forced to take
new place in the great international
arrangements of theold and new worlds
The prophets of the revolution
said that we can read the future b.
the past, and that the shadows of com
ing events are cast before-but whert
was the prophet a year ago who coulC
have foretold that the year would wit
ness a great war, the destruction o
Spanish power in the new world, thu
establishment of the arms of the re
public in islands of which we had hard
ly heard, and the transformation Of on
isolated nation into one of the grea
world powers. Old traditions hav,
been destroyed and new lines not onl-
of national advance but of industry AM
commerce, have been opened. 1t is no
wonderful that while men look forward
with hope, it is not unmingled with an
prehension.
The poet says that the closing of tn
old year is time for memory and TO
tears, and we shall do we'll before w
dismiss it forever to the limbo of tn
past, to gather up its lessons, and car
ry them with US into the new year
When the Jews left Egypt for thei
long march through the wilderness t.
the promised land they carried witt
them the dust of Joseph, and this wa
an inspiration to them in all thei
march. Happy shall we be- if v e carr,
with us only those memories which cal
give hope and cheer. It is said tina
in the early days of New England tn
land was covered with forests; thes
were cleared but the roots of the tree
remained unrCtted in The ground, max
ing subterranean sewers Cor the drain
ing of the land and keeping it light an,
porous for the sun and rain. But q
the year went on the roots decaye,
and the channels became tllled and tn
soil became hard, so that neither SUI
nor rain could enter, and il becam
sterile and non fbrous. IN the sam
way our today's life can only be pro
ductive as we keep beneath it tn
roots of the past. Tell me what yo,
would have left if you unbraideG all tn
strands of your life that memory ha
braided.
We are new nation; compared wit
other nations we are without a past
Ruskin said he could never come her
because we were without any rains
meaning that a nation had interest il
proportion as it was linked to grea
events which stretched through years
ana yet, when the war of the rebel
nun came, our troops went forth sing
ing the songs of the revolution, an
When the Spanish war came, the sol
olers marched to battle singing tn
songs OF the war of the rebellion
ana out OF those remembers struggle
came the knowledge and the inspira
lion Tor heroic deeds. So it is nc
iehsth OF Gays that make great memo
res, put great experiences which hav
touched and moulded life.
~ Inns sentiment of memory we ow
mueh OF that which is best in life.
gives reverence and sacredness I
places, persons, customs; IL keeps 4
anchored in the perturbations of life.
the same things and the good policie
or the past, and enables us when tb
sun Is hidden, to find by remembrance
the path of safety.
IL is already coming to pass that tn
abandoned farms of New England ar
being in a measure saved by the mem
ores or those who have been reare
upon them. They We're born there /
poverty They went in early manhoo
TO the great cities and won fortune