St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1904-01-30

! ! !. !
| N VT " (N make to the to-
Ahn~ MNA ,>nlA days. The to-days
kNNV SA~S7MIlM are wisely and
EM yNxh1Ko*SSssYzesY profitably lived in
sjMWANsre1h so far as they APP
M@NW( propriate and as
Ek N-}M simulate the lessons
EA - and experiences of
- h yesterdays.
''Days should speak, and multitude of
years should teach wisdom" That is,
the yesterdays should speak their mes
sage of admonition, of encouragement,
of hope to the to-days; they should
bring Of their stores OF wisdom which
have been gathered as the fruitage of
years and give instruction to the young
to-days. The words of our text are the
words of Elihu, the young man who
speaks after Jobs three aged friends
have concluded their long harangues to
the afflicted man. Elihu was modest, or
| at least affected to be, and with becom-
ing Difference, of which he is conscious
| ly proud, he waits until the men of gray
hairs have spoken. Well would it be if
young men of to-day were as modest and
deferential in the presence of their
! elders. Men of mature years and vener-
able age should speak first, says Elihu.
But in his words there is an implied re-
buke which is suggestive. 1t is as
| though he said to these three aged phil
osophers: The days and multitude Of
! years of your observation and expert
ence and learning should have enabled
you to speak and teach wisdom, but, he
goes on to say in the ninth verse, great
men are not always wise; neither do the
aged understand judgment" Years do
not always bring wisdom. nor do they
always qualify man to speak profitably
and wisely. Days should" however,
speak, and multitude of years should
teach wisdom" Each Gay should bring
forth its treasure to add to the life, and
each year should teach its lessons and
bestow the wealth of wisdom with which
it has been endowed. But too often the
days melt into weeks, and the weeks are
swallowed up of the months, and the
months are soon lost in the years as they
glide swiftly by, and thoughtlessness
and heedlessness, worldliness and self
seeking rob the days and weeks and
months and years of their offerings Of
true wisdom and enduring blessing.
| CUSTOM has marked the first day of
! " the New Year as the occasion Tor
| noting in an especial way the fight
of time. From the most ancient times
the beginning of years as marked by
In an1o 1nv -
and peoples has been characterized by
ceremonies and observations of special
recognition. The Jews, the Egyptians,
the Chinese, the Romans, the Moham-
| medans and other nations, although
| differing as to the time from which
| they reckoned the commencement Of
| the year, all regarded it as a day of sDe-
cial interest. Americans in the larger
cities of the country where the Chi
| nese are found in any numbers are
| reminded at the present day of the
| difference between the calendar COM
| monty in use among the principal ma
| tons of the world and that of China,
| by the elaborate celebration of the Chi
nese New Year It is the great day IN
the Chinaman's year. and the day is
| given over to festivities and religious
ceremonies of various kinds. The Jews
to this day observe the New Years
| day of their own Jewish calendar with
great faithfulness and solemnity. The
celebration of New Years day is of pa
| gan origin. The early Christian IA
thers-Augustine, Ambrose and others
forbade in Christian use all festive
celebration of the day, because of the
immoral and superstitious observances
of the pagan festival. The Christians,
however, were directed to open the
year with day of prayer, fasting and
humiliation. But New Years day is
not religious or church day, except
in the Roman Catholic church, where
it is observed as holiday of strict
observance and religious ceremony.
Upon the Christian OF the Protestant
denominations 1t has no direct claims,
and yet there is scarcely an organized
body of Christians in the world but in
some manner and to some degree gives
recognition to the day. 1t may be IN
a watch night service, in which the
closing hours of the Old Year and the
dawn of the New Year are passed in
songs Of praise and worship, in prayer,
Scripture reading and testimony. 1t
may be prayer service or other man
ner of religious exercises on New
Years day. 1t may be New Years
dinner or social, or it may be only
thought and reference to the day at the
regular religious services preceding it's
dawn. 1t is time of accounting, a
summing up Of days past and thought
for the days which the New Year will
count off day by day, and only give
UP the secrets of those days as they are
revealed by the days unfoldines.
Days should speak," and the New
Years day is the time when the days
of the year which has gone should have
opportunity to speak and cast the inf1u-
ence of their experience upon the days
of the year just begun.
TT IS an old and trite saying that
/ time is money" 1t is a sad COM
mentary upon the material worldly
standards of the majority of people
that this definition of time is consid-
that can be said for time. But is time
to be weighed only in the worlds per-
ishable gold? Time may be money;
it may give man the opportunity of
gaining heaps on heaps of the shining
metal in barter and trade, but it is
moro than money If ic a caornd tT1,st