The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1900-01-16

century question il Is Il fitting time for
him 70 consier the s~hrinkage OF time
s::lce he was Il boy, and - ponder upon
the reason why the years grow shorter
and shorter as he grows older and Wiser,
and how rheperiod is surely coming
when there viii be no years or months
and time will be no more. According 10
scripture this thing called time Is a per
ishable elastic compressible creation
adapted to man in his state OF probation
and not at al necessary 10 the creator
who said before the world was made
| am" God always speaks of himself
in the present tense 4 am He Is one
eternal now without beginning OF years
or end Of days. We cannot compre-
hcnd this. but as we near the goal we
bility. That time is compressible and
elastic all Of us have experienced for
sometimes the hours seem very long
and sometimes very short. In our dreams
we sometimes condenSe hours and days
of events III 4 few deliricus moments. |
never shall forget the anxiety and agony
Of a long effort to keep my brother from
fighting 4 duel and how l helped to write
all the correspondence x HIM ami
his adversary and how at the last the duel
could not bp avoided and now | carefully
selected and loaded his pistol and meas
u1ed off the distance and then made an
other effort to pacify and adjust ard pre-
vent the duel. hut all in vain. and he
stood to the mark and fired and fell. The
report of Il gun that was CRED back OF
our house at a squirrel aWakedm me and 1t
was this report that condensed all the
long train Of thought and events into n
moments space. My wife was sitting by
my bedside with her hand upon my fever
ish brow and declared l had not been
asleep more than a minute-and yet | re-
membered every line ard word Ct that
correspondence, and when | recovered
from my fever could repeat it. The time
Of hours was condensed into moments.
Just SO those who were thought TO be
droWne and were resuscitated tell us
that a panorama of their whole life came
before them as they lost consciousness.
Every WOr and thought ard deed from
every scene they had witnessed from
their childhood was as vivid and real as
il it We're just transpiring. There can be
no doubt about this experience of many
persons. 1t is we'll confirmed.
We are just on the verge of know
ing wonderful things and my faith is
that we will know when we put off this
mortal coil and our souls are released
and free. We have implanted. within US
Il spark of divinity. but only a\spark.
But alas how little we 10 krow and
how utterly helpless we are. We know
not whence we come, nor whittier we
are going. We cannot make one hair
white or black. We cannot tell by what
mysterious power we raise our hands
or move our feet or wink our e~yelashes.
We cannot add a day or an hour to our
lives, nor forcsee the accidents that may
befall us as we move to and fro an the
land or sea. We cannot escape the pestil-
cnce that walketh at MONDAY nor make
ourselves secure against fire and food and
famine. What pitifui creatures We are,
and yet we see everywhere around us
young men who are conceited and proud
of their manhood or their money and we
see young girls who are vain Of their
beauty or their dress when they PLAYED
10 part III the formation Of the one or
the earning of the other. \. beautiful
woman Is close kin to the angels, and she
hould be thankful that God made her
So, but she has no excuse in the world
for being vain. Humility is her loveliest
ornament. AS for these colceitel and
naughty young men who strut around in
the clothes that they never earned or
THAT got by short cuts ana dishonorable
means, they excite only pity or contempt.
When we look upon them we can but
eNclaim with David. Lord what is man
that thou art mindful of him. Young
men, why don't you humble yourselves
under the mighty hand of God who made
YOU, You have not the remotcst idea who
YOU are today and you don't care if Won
haven't. You have Travelled 200, OOO. 600
Of miles since the last year and got back
to the same place YOU started from. You
travel $4,000 miles an hour and everyday
turin a summersault $4,000 miles round
and don't know il, and you don't care if
You don't. The Creator is your engineer
and runs your train without a run-off or
a collision and you never think of Him
or thank Him. You seem to think that
you are doing it.
| reckon the Goth century problem is
about settled. 1t is AN old problem and
l%'erplcNeI mankind away bach in the
ages. The question used to be whether
II. year Lrior to the birth Of Christ was
/. =. T., or . b. C., and the matheQnati-
clans and astronomers settled it down
a y Is. e., and begun the new era with
!, \. D., and it remained /. \. d. for
800 days. But aside from this the prob
lem is purely a mathematical one, for
II 1t takes 100 years to make a century
1t VIII take 1900 years to make 10 cen
trrles, and they will not have passed I'M
III 1cNt january comes. What a word Of
confusion those old popes and monks
and kings got our chronology into. With
some of them the year began with 2Jtl
of March, with others 1st Of january.
and Christmas and Easter. One time the
year was set back three months and at
another time II days. The year was di-
vIded into 8 months and 10 months and
III months and at the last into l. months.
Ihey treated old Father Time according
to their T1hims. julius Caesar stuck in
a month TO crafty his vanity and he
called 1t July. This made Augustus Gaze
sar Jealous and he stuck in another
month and called it August.
But about 40 years ago all Christen-
dom got the divisions OF time settled down
upon the present basis and l hope it will
stick Aia rio nat 1-,1 49,. A.. g.