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Show NEW YEAR. When, in ancient days, the people who watched, saw the sun stop in his southern journey and turn again toward the earth: as they noted that a few minutes began to be added to each day, they said: "Our God is no longer angry; he is returning to us; see our granaries are filled and there is in the air an indefinable promise that the winter shall again pass away, that the birds will return and with their coming an awakening of the dead world, that, with her long sleep over, the flowers will again appeal; ap-peal; the trees will again put on their robes of green; there will be a resurrection." So they set aside a day of rejoicing and named it the New Year. It was dedicated to gladness, gladness for the harvest that had been gathered, for the promise prom-ise of another harvest. No one knows how far back the custom dates, but the feeling is the same, human nature must be the same as in the long ago. In some things the world does not much progress. True, in modern days, at the coming of this season merchants take account of their stock and estimate the old year's gains or losses. In the old days merchants did not keep books and may be they were the wiser for it But the habit of making good resolutions on the New Year's anniversary we suspect is older than history. When the habit of breaking the good resolutions res-olutions began was probably coincident with the first brewory or first distillery. But more people than the merchants run over ti lH the accounts of the year. The hopes of the last ' tyt'i'-MiM New Year's day are called up and their joy over t '-,jfl their fulfillment or sorrow over their failure is felt; .fv ' ,, fH the changes in families are brought vividly to I i fifl mind; maybe a baby's cooing fills the home with (t 'jv IjH sunshine, or the silence where the cooing was heard ( ft t 4111 a year ago robs the sunbeams of their light. But VuSl'B the secret, indefinable thrill that comes with the , j jf 4yH day is the assurance that it brings of progress that i & afl never lags. The seasons roll on; from nothing j fUf IB men spring into existence, make their showing, ' j'Pf RfH sometimes shake the world, but in a little while ' '':j? H they are swept away and there would be utter de- M&nr,',sB spair except that by the seasons and the stars men )') I IfH have learned that it is as natural for a soul as for , .V f a body to cast off its old clothing, and that the -I iM new garment which it done must be softer and ,, '. fsfH whiter than the old one was. iiSUB They have, too. relearned the old truth that '? ?f grfifl Death is but the brother of Sleep, and as the weary kuLWDM body, when the night comes on, sinks to sleep to t f fijljfl awaken with the singing of birds in the sunshine, i" PJ$fl so when the brother of sleep touches the eyelids of if mBB one who is overborne with the world's work and t 3lSjfl cares, what will be the music and the light that $f i9 will greet the awakening? t fl i!H This festival of the year is good for men. It is l (A 7, 19 good for them to greet each other in friendship, i v?9 good for the day to forget resentments, good to j ' I flj 19 wish each other well, for the wishes of men make 1, 1 fH their impression on the world; good to be thankful 1 (ji BfJM for the harvest that has been gathered and to look U ffl& Kjfifl forward with hope to another, for hope is the life uBiwififl of man and the mainspring of all his achievements. yiltf'flaH . mkm |