Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1902-01-16

CvpESSS Hklu AlSGlGtOG. IuSy dIC COLlluS.
ard nothing can keep them back-the
events of a tweivemonth. It will, I think,
be- one Of the greatest years Of all time.
I'll will abound with blessing and disaster.
National and international controversies
Of monentous import will be settled. Year
Of coronation and d~ethronement, year that
will settle Cuban and Porto Rican and
Philippine and South African and Chinese
1~estinies. Ihe tamest year for many a
decade past has dug its millions Of graves
ard reared it's millions OF marriage affairs.
We can expect greater events in this
year than ever before, for the worlds pop
ulation has SO vastly increased there are
60 many more than in any other year to
laugh and weep and triumph and perish.
The mightier whee.s Of mechanism have
such wider sweep. The fires are kindled
in furnaces not seven times but seventy
times heated. The velocities whirling
through the air and sailing the seas and
tunneling the mountains will make unpre-
cedented demonstration.
Would to God that before the now open
ing year has closed the earth might cease
to trembie with the last cannonade and
the heavens cease to be lighted up with any
more ~confagration of homesteads and the
foundries that make swords be turned
into blacksmith shops for making pow
shares.
The front door Of a stupendous year has
opened. Before many of you there will be
twelve months OF opportunity for making
the word better or worse, happier Or more
miserable. Let us pray that It may be a
year that will indicate the speedy redemp-
ton of the hemisphere. Would to God
that this might be the year in which the
three great instruments now chiefly used
foc secular purposes might be pat to their
mightiest use in the worlds evangelical
ton - the telegraph, the te.ephone, the
photograph. Electricity has such potent
tongue, such strong arm. such swift wing,
that it may be the angel that St. John saw
and heard in aroca yptic vision when he
started back and cried out, ST cav aDota-
er angel flying in the midst Of heaven hay
ing the everlasting gospel to preach unto
them that dwell on the earth and to every
nation and KINDRED sad tongue and peo-
pie"
They were TONGUES OF fire that set on
the heads of the disciples at the Pentecost,
and why not the world called to God by
tongue Of electric fire: Prepare your bat
teries end male ready to put upon the
wires the world wide message Of "whoso-
Furthermore. this month. Of January
has the greatest height and depth OF cod.
The fountains that made highest leap in
the summer parks now toss not one JET,
ior every drop would be a frozen tear,
The sieds craunch through the hard snow.
Warmest attire the wardrobe can AFFORD
is put on that we may defend ourselves
against the fury Of the Clements. Hardest
Of ell the months for the poor, let it be
the season Of greatest generosity on the
Fart of the prosperous. How much a scut
tie OF coal or a pair of shoes OF a coat ora
shawl nay do i'll arrangement OF suffering
between the !st OF January aud the LIST o:
February God only knows. Seated by ou1
warm registers Or wrapped in furs which
make us independent Of the cutting Janu
hearth and the thin garments and TIT
hacking cough and the rheumatic TWINS
Of those who through destitution find if'
In winter an agony. Suppose each one o
us take under charge one pove7ty-strickel
household or one disabled man or 4 in
valided On our way home from
bowling, and the night te1npestuous,
should not wonder i we could hear a vote
that was heard O, Galilee ard at the gate
of Main and by the pool Of Bethesda say
did it to Me-"
Oh, the might Of the cod! The arcti
aid antarctic invading the temperate zone
Thames in l2o5 became firm as any bridg
end the inhabitants crossed and recrosse
on the ice and booths aud places of ten
porary amusement were built on the hare
ened surface; as when many years az
New York Haroor was paved with ice S
that the people passed on foot to the &C
joining islands. But the full story Of th
cod will never be known. The lips whic
would have tod it were frozen and tn
fingers THAT would lave written it wer
benumbed. Only here and there a fact al
pears. In 1901 che cod was SO terrific tina
the wolves entered Vienna. In l4e5 it wa
so cold that wine was cut with hatchet
and distributed among the soldiers. ]
1884 a whole forest was killed by the CO.
at Ravenna. In 1853 the Black Sea WI
frozen over. As we go further back til
frosts are r,ightier, but as we come flu
cher down the frosts lessen.
The worst seventies nave been haitet
and the SHOWS have lost their depths, an
Che thermometers announce less terrif
falls Of Temperature, aud the time wi
come when the year. will be long sun
mer Of foliage and boom. While tt
worlds normal condition will be reforme,
the. worst climates will be corrected. Yo
could not have a millennium with a Ja]
aaary blast possible.
Do not go out aud ask the trees hung wit
icic,es by january storm whether the
will ever again blossom in MAY and lie,
in June. We are moving toward Il
worlds redemption. The frozen tears wi
mCe.t, Che river Of sadness viii resume i
; Row; TIE crocus will come up at the ed.
Of the snowbank, the morning star ",
{ open the door for the day, and the armi
Of the word will ground arms" all arour
the world.
The January Of frost viii be abolishe
: and the balm and radiance Of a divine
nosphere will fill the nations. If you
not see it and hear it for yourself 1 thi,
at the utmost your grandchildren will S
and hear it. The heavens will take pa
LII the conflict between Righteousness al
sin, and that will settle it, and settle
l Alright, aud settle it forever.
Fin this very month of January, le43, t,
months. after a great battle had be
fought between the army of the king a
l , the army of Parliament, shepherds a.
: > travellers between Il and ! o'clock