Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1902-01-08

q encoura cement to all the timid and
doubling. The text is Exodus Nil. >,
This month shall be unto you the be-
ginning of months: it shall be the first
month of the year to you.
The last month Of the old year has
passed out of sight, and the first month
of the new year has arrived. The mid
night gate last "Wednesday opened. and
January entered. She deserves a bet
ter name. for she is called after Janus,
the heather deity who, they supposed,
presided over doors and so> might be
expected TO preside at the opening of
the year. This month WAS of old called
the wolf month because, through the
severity of its weather, the hungry
wolves came down seeking food ana de-
vouring human life In the misSas Of
the middle ages January was represented
as attired in white. suggestive Of the
snow, and blowing the fingers. rs though
suffering from the cold, and hayiag Il
bundle of wood under the arr. suggpS-
tive of the warmth that must be Kin
died.
Yes, January is the open door f the
year, and through that door will come
bearing palm leaves ana some myrtle,
others with garlands of wheat and 9th
ers with cypress and mistletoo. They are
coming, and nothing can keep them hack
the events of a twelvemonth. 1t will,
/ think, be one of the greatest years of
all time. 1t will abound with blessing
and disaster. National and international
controversies of momentous import Will
be settled. Year of cnr0uation and de-
thronement, year that will settle Cuban
and Porto Rican and Philippine and
South African and Chinese destinies. The
tamest year for many a decade past has
dug its millions of graves and reared its
millions of marriage affairs.
We can expect greater events in this
year than ever before, for the world $
population has so vastly increased there
are so many more than in any other year
to laugh and weep and triumph and per-
ish. The mightier wheels 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 unprecedented demonstration.
ing year has closed the earth might cease
to tremble with the last cannonade and
the heavens cease to be lighted up with
any more conflagration of homesteads and
the foundries that make swords be turn
ed into blacksmith shops for making
plowshares.
Grasp Present Opportunities.
The front door of a stupendous year
has opened. Before many of you there
will be twelve months of opportunity
for making the world better or worse,
happier or more miserable Let us pray
that it may be year that will indicate
the speedy redemption of the hemisphere.
Would to God that this might be the year
in which the three great Instruments now
chiefly used for secular purposes might
be put to their mightiest Use in the
worlds evangelization-the telegraph. the
telephone. The photograph! Electricity
has such potent tongue, such s'rnng arm,
such swift wing, such lightning foot, that
it occurs to me that it may be the angel
that st. John saw and heard in apoca-
lyptic vision when be started oack aud
cried out. II saw another angel flying
in the midst of heaven having the ever
lasting gospel to preach unto them that
dwell on the earth and to every nation
and kindred and tongue and people"
They were tongues of fire that sat on the
heads of the disciples at the P9ntecost,
and why not the world called to God by
tongue of electric fire? Prepare your
batteries and make ready to pat npon the
wires the world wide message q: who
soeyer will"
Furthermore, this month of January
has the greatest height and depth of
cold. The rivers are bound in crystal
chains The fountains that made high
est leap in the summer parks new toss
not one jet, for every drop would be
frozen tear The sleds craunch through
the hard snow. Warmest attire the
wardrobe can afford is put on that we
may defend ourselves against tn. fury
of the elements. Hardest of all the
months for the poor, let it be ths sea-
son Of greatest generosity on the part
of the prosperous. How much scut
tie of coal or 4 pair of shoes or a coat
or shawl may do in assuagemelt of
suffering between the LIST OF JaiMury
and the LIST of February God only knows.
Seated by our warm registers or wrap
ped in furs which make us independent
of the cutting J nuary blast, let Id not
forget the tire!ess hearth and the thin
garments and the hacking cough am the
rheumatic twinge Of those who through
destituti0n find life in winter an agony.
Suppose each one Of as take under Charge
one noverty stricken household or one
disabled man or one nyalided wolhan.
On our way home from such cha -ity.
though the wind may be bowling and the
night tenpestuous, | should not woJder
if we could hear q voice that was heard
on Galilee and at the gates Of Main and
by the pool OF Bethesda saying. has
much as We did it to them, ye did ii to
me-"
Victories of the Frost.
Oh, the might of the cold. The arc
tic and antarctic invading the temper
ate zcne! The victories of the frost
as when the Thames in 1905 became firm
as any bridge and the inhabitants cross
ed and recrossed on the ice and bouths
and places Of temporary amusement were
built on the hardened surface; as when
many years ago New York harb0r was
paved with ice so that the people passed
on foot to the adjoining Islands. But the
fun story of the cold viii never be known.
The lips which would have told it were
frozen and the fingers that would have
written it were hcnumbed. Only here
and there a fact appears. In 1901 the
cold was so terrific that the wolves en-
cred Vienna In I4GS it was so cold
that vine was cut with hatche,s and dis
tribuba among the soldiers. In l2j+
q whole forest WIS killed by the cold at
Ravenna. In T53 the Black sea was
frozen over. As We - further back the