The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-01-07

UAC <C1Cs 4AC FkGhOtNCS VI tAG lIUSL0
us when The Thames In 1oO5 became
firm as any bridge and the inhabitants
crossed and recrossed on the ice and
booths and places of temporary amuse-
ment were built on the hardened sur
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
o. the cold will never be known. The
lips which would have told ir were
frozen and the fingers that would have
written it were benumbed. Only here
and there a fact appears. In 1901 the
cold vas so terrific that the wolves en-.
tered Vienna. In 14GS ii was so cold
that wine YVES cut with hatchets and
distributed among the soldiers. In
1884 q whole forest was killed by the
cold at Ravenna. In I63 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 beer halted.
II the SHOWS have lost their depths.
n the thermometers less
terrific falls Of temperature. and the
time will come when the year will be
n long summer of foliage and bloom.
While the worlds moral condition will
be reformed. the worst climates will
be corrected. You could not have n
millennium with 4 January blast pos
Eible.
Behold, also. as II 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 a bud of a 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 onc
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 he
passes in the midnight hurricane. In
July the trees stand clarifying the
earth; 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 philosophic mood and, hav-
ing passed on to old age rests himself
under it's shade. In these January days
the trees seem to say: 1.-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 nave 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 it's 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 branches
not only for the trees in June time
coronation, but in January privation of
everything but graceful structure! Let
the iconoclastic ak not be lifted against
them. "Woodman, spare that tree"
The Increasing Daylight.
Behold also in this January month
the increasing daylight. Last month
the sun went down at 4:3O, but in this
month the days are getting longer. The
sunrise and the sunset are farther
apart. Sunlight instead of artificial
light, and there is for our dear old bat
tered earth growing light THE day
spring from on high hath visited u.s."
We shall have more light for the home,
more light for the church, more light
for the nation, more light for the world
light Of intelligence. light Of comfort.
light of rescue. light of evangelization,
light from the face of God, light from
the throne. But. you say. the light in
creases so slowly. each day of this JAM
uary only one minute longer than its
predecessor. the sun setting the LIST day
of January at 4 o'clock and 43 minutes,
the sun setting the I'd day of January
at 4 O'Clock and Al minutes. the Sd day
of this month the sun setting at 4
o'clock and 45 minutes, b 4th day of
January the sun setting at a O'Clock
and &c minutes. This evening it will
set at 4 O'clock and Al minutes. The
day enlarges very little, and the reign
of sunlight Is not much increased, but
do not despise the minute Of increas.
ing light each day of this January. and
do not despise the fact that more light
is coming for the church and the world,
though it come slowly. As We are now
in this season gradually going toward
the longest day of next summer. so GU
world is moving forward toward the
long day Of emancipation and Christly
dominion. 1t may now in the state