Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1901-01-15
JOHNS LETTER.
LITTLE GENEALOGY, A LITTLE THE
OLOGY, AND SOME SPECULATION.

Il
We have recently discovered the ole
family Bible, which we had not seen fol
fifty years perhaps. 10 It was the family
record. / read that Thomas Irish was
born May 18th, 1855; Elizabeth Roberts
born Aug. 10th, 1863. To them were
born eight children: =.
Mary. born June 2s, 1888.
Miriam, born Aug. 90. 1885.
Hoa, born May Is. 1888; died March. 1888.
Thomas. born March 1907.
Elizabeth. born Dec. 20, 1909: died Oct. 1904.
| William, born June %, 1905.
Jonathan. borr March %, 1908.
Sylvira, born May IS. lsls; died June 81, 1875
Grandfather died Jan. lat. 1S43
Grandmother died Feb. 18th, 1856. Their
w0manhood died at a good old age. We
do not feel rs a certain man we heard nj
felt whose Uncle Zske lived to be l02
years Of age, and who thought It damned
strange II he couldn't live as long as his
Uncle Zeke. We don't feel that way at
all.
1t Is rather mystery what will be
done with all that have lived and died
since the Almighty breathed the breath
of life into the nostrils of Adam and he
became living soul; and of all those
who will live and die down to the end of
time. And will family groups be broken
up and suudered wider far than here?
And II they meet each other there. will It
be by luck and chance? There is quite
good deal Of space around and among
and beyond the stars, so they say.
We shrink from the thought that any
one from any of earth's multitudinous
families will be lost In the infinite
spaces. Were 1t so, and unless affection
is of the earth and dies when the body
dies and the heart Is cold, there must be
Grape on the door Of the house of many
mansions. How does that idea strike
you?
The long, long train of the new cent
ury rolled into the station In perfect
silence, on time and without accident,
for neither men, angels nor devils had
tempered with the switch. All aboard
for the 2lst. Change cars for the Mil
lenium and the Highlands of Time. Not
one of US has secured through ticket.
There are unnumbered and unknown
way stations along the route. At which
ever station we leave we step from
moving train.
ave are living we are living In grand and
awful time"
There Is wonderful clock, q mythical
time-keeper, set alOft away up some
where in the beautiful dome Of the sky,
that not only sticks out the little lives
of men,, but tells of with sonorOus
sound the slow moving cycles of Time,
striking once In a hundred years, cleo
trifying the drowsy continents with It's
magical chime, and waking all the grand
old echoes and all the sweet, rich MEM
cries that sleep down in the still, green
valleys of the past.
IT'S sacred thing, that wonderful
time-keeper, that magical clock with its
beautiful dial shining in the clear light
of the heavenly sun. but Invisible to the
eyes that look up through the shadows
Of earth. The wheels began to turn and
the hands began to move when the morn
ing stars first sang together, and all the
sons Of God shouted for joy, but science
fails to fix the hour of starting. Modern
prophets often tell US that the weights
are running low, that "the cold, dead
finger on the dial-plste Of time points to
the sunset hour" All right! Let Ter
point. We can't regulate 1t. and we
have no key. Thank God 1t yet ticks
strong, and We believe 1t good for an
other million of years. Vain attempt,
to seek to know the times and seasons 80
wisely hidden from Us.
The future who can tell? That there
Is TO be a future we believe; that there
has been past we know, but how long
that past has been we cannot know; we
cannot enumsrate the years; we can
comprehend the eternity past no more
than we can comprehend the eternity to
come. When the Spirit Of God first
moved upon the face of the waters,
making the first great change toward
solidity and order, we cannot tell, but
we know that long and indefinite pc
Rod of time went down the shsdowy
silences OF the awful past, after the first
movement, to the last perfecting touch
of the Creative Hand, when the solid
earth rolled out and rolled on, thing OF
beauty and thing beloved, perfect, very
good, and In every part suited to be the
dwelling-place of man, and then man
came. We know that unnumbered ages
passed during the formative stages OF
the earth's existence, because In the
light of Scierce, like lettered page, 1t
can be clearly read, for iu Is craven In
well-defined characters on the old earth's
rocky tablets.
have vet to learn that the Almighty
Designer has ever denied His handwrit-
ing on the rocks. Science and the Book
agree with perfect agreement. II the
God of nature and Author Of all life
speaks through geology a very truth,
will the God of revelation and Author
of eternal salvation make that truth
lie?
But how about those six days Of labor
and one of rest when the world was be-
ing formed and had been formed? They
cannot be measured or computed, but
each one was longer than any life that
was ever lived on earth. 1t must be 80,
else the God of revelation plainly contra
diets the God of nature, and that Is
classed among impossible things:
JOHN,