The age-herald., 1900-12-30

iful persons is struck dead in his tracks!
 The worthy will give these vain babblers no heed The new century will call for no new faith, or creed, or dogma; no new du- ty.. The supreme laws ol morality and duty established in the beginning and ef- fectually and finally sealed nineteen cen turies ago remain unchanged and un- changeable and accursed shall they be. wno rant around the hideous basphemy of an up-to-date church and creed!
 $&
 The duty of loving and of doing good for love of good; of being faithful to every trust and charitable and generous in every relation of life; of uplifting the fallen and the weary, and soothing and comforting and cheering hearts that ache; of giving glad greeting all along life's way. and in- creasing the worlds store of happiness, of comradeship, and making for the higher conditions of social interdependence-the duty which demands all this in these final hours of the passing year and passing cen tury will be the duty which will make iden- tical demands upon all men and women in the New Year and the new century. It IS duty which all of us owe to ourselves and owe to God, duty which remains for ever unchangeable.
 As to the future:
 Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever
 reaping something new:
 That which they have done but earnest of
 the things that they shall do. For I dipt into the future, far as human
 eye could see,
 Saw the vision of the world, and all the
 wonder that would be;
 Saw the heavens filled with commerce, ar
 gosies of magic sails;
 Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping
 down with costly bales;
 Heard the heavens filled with shouting, and
 there rainfd a ghastly dew
 From the nauons' airy navies grappling in
 the central blue;
 Far along the worldwide whisper of the
 southwind rushing warm,
 With the standards of the peoples plunging
 thro' the thunderstorm;
 Till the war-drum throbbd no longer, and
 the batte-fags were furPd
 In the Parliament of man, the Federation
 of the world.
 There the common sense of most shall hold
 fretful realm in awe,
 And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in
 universal law"
 The imperishable words of the immortal, holy writ of the human soul, may be ac- cepted as the epistle and the gospel of this last plea of the last year of the century which brought us into the world, and the greeting to the century which shall mark our passing, my beloved.
 It is not for us to know or ask how or why: it is ours to do the best we can and leave the rest to God.
 And, believe me, beloved, whilst I may not look backward over the way you have come, and may not know the sorrows or stir you to deep emotion upon this death- watch of a past all your own and of your own, yet would I cry you joy for all the afterwhies that are to come! Our thoughts are pilots of the purple twi- light pointing to many a scene of sadness and many place of gladness back wonder, | and these we may not, would not, forget. Love was sweet and love was bitter, but 1 love was love, and many a wrath of our | faith comes to us in the shadows, and we | smile at the apparition in some sense of | satisfaction, smile and are comforted that | memory is true and unchanging, save that 1 it mellows and softens and becomes ever- | more a heavenly blessing. Upon the pillows of the past we may rest | our heads in these feeting moments of a | cycles twilight, and all of us may close our eyes to the sound of memory's bells | when, To! there shall be with us a thousand l treasures of our lives, blessed figures of the hearts seeking and the hearts fulfill ment, shining full and fair and concealine l all things that were not joyful We shall recall our givers who were good | and forget all who were not true; for te | the noble mind rich gifts wax poor wheI | givers prove unkind.
 l Maybe gentle hail there, loving wort 1 wonder; an act of faith, a deed of sweet ness; hope upheld, doubts vanquished; de spair driven far away, the heaven of real ity brought to our souls; kiss in sorrow