The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-12-31

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Editor vareinian:
Sir,--Ofsthe holiday season at the hallowed
Chrismas-tide with oil its pleasures now
ccmeth the end The joyful anticipation of lit
tie children at the coming OF Santa Claus Is
over. Thousands Of the toys and dolls that
giaddened little hearts now broken frag
ments Sons and daughters. who with their
children came TO the old homestead for the joy
ful family reunion will turn their faces
homeward and the outgoing trains will be the
scenes of fearful good -byes. where Just week
ago the incoming trains were the scenes OF joy
fu greetings. Fond mother had for weeks been
busy preparing the old room of her who left
father and mother for her new home far away.
and otherwise lovingly preparing for the daugh-
ter's holiday visit The vacant chair was again
occupied The same CHEEKY voice rang through
the house. There the oid-time full-chorus
harmony of home. Old friends. long separated.
met, recounted their cumming days, laughed
and wept they lived over again the sunny
hours of the long ago and--''Then cometh tho
end" The Christmas decorations, arranged with
$50 much care and taste. are now withered and
in the way They must be removed for the .un-
adorned scenes of their adornment, for Then
cometh the end
The old year with all its joys and sorrows. its
hopes and fears, its successes and disappoint-
mcnta but with its larger measure of rich bless
lngs, is nearing its Then -cometh-the-end" COM
mon fate. The curtain Is about to be rung
down on another act in Old Times great drama
Day by day leaf of the calendar program mas
been torn off and Then cometh the end"
Beautiful spring merged into radiant summer,
which in turn was followed by the mellow
autumn, and she displaced by the dreary days OF
winters December and Then cometh the enc"
Idfes little day marks a checkered career
t'hildhood's roseate days of care-free rompings
about the knees of loved mother and father
sister and brother, soon merges into manhood's
and womanhoods prime, and soon the family
circle is broken az the children marry and leave
the old homestead Then cometh the end" OF
chdhood's young dream. The prime OF man
hood and womanhood is soon succeeded by the
days when the SHOWS of many winters have whit
.cned the hair, and the burrows of time have
been piowed into the erstwhile smooth and
rudy checks The shadows grow longer. and
life's sunset presently heayes in sight and Then
cometh the end
All this would he inexpressby sad but for the
assurance that Then cometh the end is rela-
term, and that there can be no shadow with
out the sun. Then cometh the end needs not
to be regarded the dismal note of funeral
dirge Rather let regard 1t as the sweet-toned
arbor bell of the bright Beyond the End
Rising above the discordant clang Of separations
and heartaches and disqnieting tumult incident
to lifes great battle. ring clear and true those
ioy-h bells of eternal peace, and the echoes from
the land OF Eternal day unhemmed by night.
Then cometh the end" marks epochs in the
individual lives of all, and are enshrined in low
ing memory looks back to the end off
some long night Of darkness despair Es-
pccially s this of those whose souls dead
spiritual sleep came to its end with the awaken
ing into a perfect day at the sunrise OF the
tnfinite~~when ''old things passed away and all
things became new" and he knew that there
is the bright Beyond the End" even In this
present life.
Then cometh the end is heavens royal
signal of cheer and goodwill to Or 1t ia
the beautiful silvery lining to the darksoms
clouds OF separations and heart sorrows--the in
spiration of youth-time and hoary age. the
sclace and the sauce of life. There Is no trouble
OF which 1t not be said Then cometh the
nd"---no Joy beyond the end OF which there
may not be infinitely greater Joys. The years
may come and go. and we mya write our con-
yentonal epita phs of them, but the bright Be-
yond the End is everlastingly assured. When
the sands in the hour glass OF our lifetime run
low and OF the days. perchance may be said
there Ia pleasures in them" 1t Ia quite pos
sible though the mediation of Him whose royal
birth we have just again celebrated
and who brought forth life out sof death to
turn our tired faces the setting and rest
well in the assurance that Then cometh the
end of WEAKNESS and the daybreak of the
Bright Beyond.
And so with old 1914, with its sealed record
of peace prosperity. storms and disasters, sun
shine and shadows, salute you at this Then
cometh the end" time of your existence and
we hope, with firmer faith. stronger courage,
brighter hopes. better resolves, and more
blessed conscenciousness at the "Then cometh
he end time" of all experiences. and of our
span of life itself. that the Bright Beyond the
End is sweet and abtding--even secured for
MS by the Prince Of Peace.
w. NJ. BICKERS.