Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1903-12-08

Or lhr AVIS tAci AM
THE ETERNITY TO COME.
The human mind is so constituted that
there needs must be variety of views
and multiplicity of opinions touching
any one thing, unless indeed it be a
self-evident fact, such as the dead GER
tainty of death, and the utter impossi-
bility for a tax assessor to get purely
straight statement from him whose tax
able property is covered. Upon such
staple truths the children of men are in
perfect agreement. They would be
proper glad TO disagree but cannot.
Scientists disagree in science, theOlogianS
in theology; in short, many people differ
in many ways on many things. Man need
not be dogmatic, but it is perfectly
proper that he be positive. Better be
positive than negative. A positive
quantity is plus quantity, a negative is
somewhat less than little or nothing
sometimes.
There are great many speculative
ideas aflOat in the speculative brains of
this speculative age in regard to the
manner how, and the time when, man
first set foot on the Sloping sides of this
good green earth. There seem to be
data, or used to be, from which to calcu
late the time of his appearance when he
began to make some little hustle and
confusion in the world, began to gain
some little local nOtoriety, as SLOUGH
and a fraud; but even that time is being
set farther back in the dim twilight of
the past. There are no data to tell with
any degree of exactneSs or with any
shadow of certainty when came the be-
ginning spoken of in Genesis.
If you consult the chronological tables
of the past you will come to the easy
conclusion that quite respectable sum
of years have been used up and laid
aside forever since man came upon the
scene, its beauty and its defilement, its
sublimity and it's righteousness; to-day
walking and talking with God in the
beauty of holiness, in the sweet sim
plicity of a perfect trust; tomorrow
sweating in the smoke of his own lusts
reeking in the consuming fires of his
own unholy passions, herding with
swine of the rakish sort and wallowing
in the denominations of the sty. A fear
full dOwn-grade that. 1t is not really
essential to our happiness to know just
how long ago, to tick, IL was that this
valley of shadows was mere dab of hot
muscle-mud, constitutionally unfit for
human occupancy, but if any one can
give us light on the subject it would be
thankfully received.
There is wonderful clock, a magical
time-keeper, they say, set aloft away up
somewhere in the blue dome of the sky,
that not only ticks out the little lives of
men, but tells off with sonorous sound
the slow moving cycles of time, striking
once in hundred years, electrifying the
drowsy continents with its magical
chimes and waking all the grand old
echoes, and all the sweet, rich memories
that sleep down in the still green valleys
of the past. IT'S a sacred thing, that
wonderful time-keeper, that magical
clock with its beautiful dial shining in
the clear light of the heavenly sun, but
invisible TO the eyes that look up through
the shadows of earth. The wheels be-
gan to turn, and the hands began to
move. when the morning stars sang to-
gether, and all the sons of God shouted
for Joy, but Science fails to fix the hour
Modern prophets sometimes tell US
that the weights are running low, that
the cold, dead finger on the dial-plate
of time points to the sunset hour. All
right. Let 'er point! We can't regulate
il, and we have no key. Thank God, it
ticks strong, and we believe it good for
another million of years, more or less,
as the case may be.
Vain attempt, to seek to know the
times and seasons so wisely hidden from
us. The future who can tell? That
there is to be future of some descrip-
ton we believe; that there has been
past we know; but how long that past
has been-exeept our own-we cannot
know. We cannot enumerate the years.
We can comprehend the eternity past no
more than we can comprehend the eter-
nifty to come.
There are those who deny that there
is future for man when he has gone to
mingle with the elements, except such a
future as is given to the clods of the valley
and they ask for proof. San angels arm
can't snatch me from the grave" That
is accepted for fact, because they know.
"Legions of angels can't confine me
there" They balk at that because they
do not know. Some things are to be
taken on trust. We would be sadly
circumscribed and fettered if we only
moved as we have knowledge. Don't
stir until you understand why your hand
and foot obey the mandate of your will
Do you understand all the hidden springs
of love and hatred, JOY and sorrow, hope
and fear? And where are they located?
And have you knowledge of that part
of man that can solve the intricate, can
measure the stars and fathom the skies,
can capture the electrical king and bid
him go work out the wonders of his will,
to whisper and to shout down through
all the sounding caves of ocean to be
heard and understood by other peoples
in other lands?
Analyze man in all his entirety and
give us the component parts if you can,
and tell us, if you dare, that the door
of death is hasped behind him forever
when his eyelids close and he is carried
out from among the living. Tell us if
you dare that we are like the morning
clouds that melt away into the infinite
azure of the past"
When our footsteps turn into the val
ley, flash light across the gloom, o
Fatherl Set thy lamp above our heads!
Shed thy radiance about our path, that
we may see and feel no evil where no
evil isl Help us so to live that in the
sweet By-and-By we may look back and
find some sunny passages in our dream
of the past. Our life is but a dream.
We shall wake in the morning, and there
shall be no night there.
JOHN.
A drowning accident occurred at Litch-
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