Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1902-01-10
THE. OLD YEAR GONE.
DR.. Talmage Speaks of the Arrival
of the New.
Words of encouragement to All the
Tfmid and DOubting-January
in Aistory-A Time of
Sadness.

y
words of encoura cement to all the
timid and doubling. The text is .Exo-
dus 1872: This month shall be unto
you the beginning of months; it shall
be the first month of the year to
oyou.'
The last month of the old year has
passed out of sight, and the first
month of the new year has arrived.
The midnight gate last Wednesday
opened, and January entered. She
deserves a better 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 and -devour-
ing human life. In the missals of the
middle ages January was represented
as attired in white, suggestive of the
snow, and blowing the fingers, as
though suffering from the cold, and
having a bundle of wood under the
arm, suggestive Of the warmth that
must be kindled.
Yes, January is the open door of
the year, and through that door will
come what long professions, some OF
them bearing palm leaves and some
myrtle, others with garlands of
wheat and others with cypress and
mistletoe. They are coming, and
nothing can keep them back-the
events of a twelvemonth. It will, 1
think, be one of the greatest years of
all time. 1t will abound with bless
ing and disaster. National and inter-
national controversies of momentous
import will be settled. Year of cor
onation and dethronement, year that
will settle Cuban and Porto Rican and
Philippine and South African and Chi
nese Gestinies. The tamest year for
many a decade past has dug it's mil
lions of graves and reared it's millions
OF marriage affairs.
We can expect greater events in
this year than ever before, for the
worlds population has so vastly in
creased there are so many more than
in any other year to laugh and weep
and triumph and perish. The
mightier wheels of mechanism. have
such wider sweep. The fires are
kindled in furnaces not seven times
but 70 times heated. The velocities
whirling through the air and sailing
the seas and tunneling the noun
taias will make unprecedented dem
1onstration. Would to God that be-
fore the now opening year has closed
the earth might cease to tremble
with the last cannonade and the
heavens cease to be lighted up with
steads and the foundries that make
swords be turned into blacksmith
shops for making plowshares.
The front door of a stupendous
year has opened. Before many of you
there will be 10 months of oppor-
tunity for making the world 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 for secular purposes
might be put to their mightiest use
in cthe worlds evangelization-the
telegraph, the telephone, the phono-
graph! Electricity has such potent
tongue, such strong arm, such swift
wing, such lightning foot, that it oc-
ours to me that it may be the angel
that ST. John saw and heard in apoc-
alyptic vision when he started back
and cried out: II saw another angel
flying in the midst of Heaven having
the everlasting Gospel to preach I'M
to 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 Pentecost, and
why not the world called to God by
tongue of electric fire? Prepare your
batteries and make ready to put up
on the wires the world wide message
of whatsoever will"
Y Furthermore, this month of Janu-
airy has the greatest height and depth
of cold. The rivers are bounded in
crystal chains. The fountains that
made highest leap in the summer
parks now toss not one jet, for every
drop would be frozen tear. The
sleds craunch through the hard snow.
Warmest attire the wardrobe can af-
ford is put on that we may defend
ourselves against the fury of the .ele-
ments. Hardest of. all the months
for the poor. let 1t be the season of
greatest generosity on the part of
the prosperous. How much a scuttle
of coal or pair of shoes or coat
or shawl may do in Arrangement of
suffering between the first of Janu-
airy and the first of February God
only knows. Seated by our warm
registers or wrapped in furs which
make us independents of the cutting
January blast. 0let US not forget the
firelesS January blast, let US not for
get the freless hearth and the thin
garments and the hacking cough and