The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1902-01-11

face; as when many years ago New
York harbor was paved with ice SO
that the people passed on foot to the
adjoining islands. But the full story
of the cold will never be known. The
lips which would have told it were
frozen and the fingers that would have
written II were benumbed. Only here
and there a fact appears. In 1901 the
cold was so terrific that the wolves en-
tered Vienna. In 1468 it was so cold
that wine was cut with hatchets and
distributed among the soldiers. In
1894 whole forest was killed by the
cold at Ravenna. In 763 the Black sea
was frozen over. AS we go further
back the frosts are mightier, but as we
come further down the frosts lessen.
The worst seventies have been halted,
and the SHOWS have lost their depths,
and the thermometers announce less
terrific falls of temperature, and the
time will come when the year will be
one long summer of foliage and bloom,
While the, worlds moral condition will
be reformed, the worst climates will
be corrected. You could not have
millennium with January blast pos
sible.
Behold, also, as 1t is possible in no
other month of the year, the wondrous
anatomy of the trees in January, the
leaves of the last year all gone and
not so much as bud of new botan-
ical wardrobe appearing, the trees
standing with arms stretched toward
heaven, one of the greatest evidences
of the wisdom and the power of the
Creator. The leaves appear only once
and then die, but these great arms are
stretched up toward heaven in silent
prayer for scores of years, now mailed
with ice, now robed in snow or bowling
to the God of the tempests as lie
passes in the midnight hurricane. In
July the trees stand clarifying the
eartb;- in January they stand defying
the winter. Under the same tree the
child plays with his toy and, growing
| up to manhood, sits under it in senti-
mental or philosophical mood and, hav-
ing passed on to old age, rests himself
under it's shade. In these January days
the trees seem to say: "The leaves that
rustled their music in the last summer
are dead and gone, but the leaves that
will adorn this uncovered brow and
these bare arms shall have as much
beauty and glory as their predecessors.
Only wait. There are beautiful and
lovely things to come in my tree life,
as there are beautiful and lovely things
to come in your life, o human specta-
tor" Oh, the tree! Only the Almighty
and the Infinite could have made one.
Gothic architecture was suggested by
it. But for the arch of its bough and
the pointing of it's branches the ST
Chapelle of Paris and other specimens
of Gothic arch would never have been
lifted. No wonder the world has taken
from it many styles of suggestiveness
the laurel for the victor, the willow
for the Borrowing, the aspen for the
trembling, the cypress for the burial!
But, unlike ourselves, they cannot
change their place and so stand watch
ing all that passes. Some of them are
: solemn monuments of the centuries
: Thank God for trees, their beauty
: their shelter, their interlacing branche!
not only for the trees in June tim'
coronation, but in January privation o.
everything but graceful structure! lie
l the iconoclastic ak not be lifted agains
them. "Woodman, spare that tree"
Behold also in this January montl
4 the increasing daylight. Last montl
the sun went down at 4:30, but in thi
S month the days are getting longer. Tn
i sunrise and the sunset are farthe
: apart. Sunlight instead of artificial
r light, and there is for our dear old ba t
J. tered earth growing light. "The day
r spring from on high hath visited us.
= We shall have more light for the home
o more light for the church, more ligh
n for the nation, more light for the worl,
S light of intelligence, light of comfort
S light of rescue, light Of evangelization
e light from the face Of God, light from
e the throne. But, you say, the light in
y creases so slowly, each day of this Jan
t uary only one minute longer than it
t predecessor, the sun setting the frs
= day of January at four o'clock and
i minutes, the sun setting the second da
= of January at four o'clock and A min
n utcs, TIC tHiu uuy VI thiS "ch'h III
i sun setting at four o'clock and As min
& utes, the fourth day of January tn
l. sun setting at four o'clock and 46 mir
d utes. This evening it will set at fou
d o'clock and AZ minutes. The day Ell
e larges very little, and the reign of sur
Is light is not much increased, but do nc
d despise the minute of increasing ligh
y each day of this January, and do nc
r despise the fact that more light
D coming for the church and the worl'
,e though it come slowly. AS We are no.
in this season gradually going towar
l. the longest day of next summer, SO on
h world is moving forward toward th
N long day Of emancipati ton and Christi
It dominion. 1t may now in the stat
r and the church and the world be Jal
v uary cold, but we are on the way
lie July harvests and September o.
v. chards.
T. Do not read your almanac backwar
ID Do not GO out and ask the trees hun
e. with icicles by.January storm wheths
Is they will ever again blossom in Ma
IF and leaf in June. We are moving I,
Of ward the worlds redemption. III