Louisburg Echoes.
“GIVE ME INSIGHT INTO TO-DAY.”
Vol. III.
LOUISBURG, N. C., JANUARY, 1911.
No. 5.
|SHS=S!
Editorial department
SEA GIFT society:
EVELYN CLARKE.
NEITHEAN SOCIETY :
MATllE MARTIN.
ASSISTANTS :
MAGGIE FLOYD. 1 JESSIE FLYTBE.
JULIA WITHEkINGTON. I FANNIE L. MASSENBUHG.
FACULTY editors:
MABEL I. DAVIS. ELIZABETH A. ALLEN
Business Manager, - - - CORA D. BAGLEY.
Entered at the poetoffice at Louisbursr* N. C., as second*
class matter.
FIFTY CENTS A YEAR.
BING OUT THE OLD.
At the sounding of the solemn midnight
bells most of us become silent and thought
ful. There comes to our minds many inci
dents connected with the old year, perhaps
there looms up the memory of some shat
tered and almost forgotten resolution, then
we silently breathe a prayer that our Father
will forgive our shortcomings and so strength
en us that the coming year may add more to
our narrow lives.
“Ring out the false, ring in the true.”
What a paradise this world might be if in
ringing out the old year we could also wring
from our hearts all pretences, evil passions
and selfish desires, and begin the new year
with clear consciences, clean hearts and firm
resolves to do our part toward the betterment
of humanity!
But it is a psychological truth that no one
can suddenly stop a bad habit. All evils are
remedied by slow perseverance, so through
out the whole year we should be training our
selves along these lines and thus be better
fitted to carry out our resolutions made at
that solemn hour of the dying year. No Idea
which has been forming throughout the pre
ceding year caTi be dropped immediately for
all time and something entirely new come in
to take its place, for ideas over-lap the years
and continue sometimes for ages. It should
be the pleasure and duty of each person in
this free ^nd to do all In his power to—
“Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.”
If each of us could realize the importance
of not only having high ideas, but living up
to them, we might transform the world into
a veritable Eden; then—
“Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.”
E. B. C.
WHICH SIDE DID YOU TAltE?
The old year, with its sorrows and cares,
its dreams and fruitions, has passed into his
tory and a new year is upon us. Was the
last all that it should have been to you?
Were the opportunities for doing good that
daily presented themselves appreciated?
The little kindnesses that required but a
momen.t or perhaps an hour, seemed so little
to you that you have long since forgotten
you lent a hand here, or said an encouraging
word there; but those trifles were very sweet
to the recipients and were perhaps deposits
in that savings bank where treasures are not
endangered by moth nor dust and thieves do
not break through nor steal. You may have
rendered services that required a sacrifice,
perhaps you recitation grade was lowered on
some occasion thereby, or some cherished plan
abandoned; don’t worry if they were.
The priest and the Levite met their en
gagements, they hadn’t time to administer to
a stranger’s needs, but a certain Samaritan,
whose business was no less important could
not ride his beast past while a man lay dying
on the roadside, and so his business suffered
that day, perhaps, but the Bank of Heaven
recorded a deposit that overbalanced any
made by priest or Levite.
Van Dyke tells a story of another wise
man/also a doctor, who converted his wealth
into three jewels which he intended to present
to the infant Saviour, but on his way to the
appointed place where he was to meet the
other wise men his ear caught the agon
ized moan of a suffering creature and
though angered that any one should hinder
his progress, he could not pass until he had
administered to his necessities. Having re
stored him to life, he could not leave him
hungry and penniless, and having nothing
else, he gave him the food prepared for the
long trip through the desert and a jewel pur
chased for the King. His delay caused him
to miss the company of the other three
magians, and disappointed and lonely, he fol
lows the star, but on arriving at Bethlehem
he is told that the new-born King has been
taken to Egypt. While making ready to fol
low Him there, the soldiers of Herod entered
the city and again the heart of Artaban—such
was his name—was touched with pity for a
young mother whose babe is about to be
snatched from her arms, and taking from his
wallet another gem, he gave it a ransom for
the beautiful child.
He returns from Egypt broken in health,
but he continues his search, hoping to live to
worship the King and offer Him his last gem.
It is time for the Passover, and he would
surely find Him in Jerusalem, Artaban
thought, a,nd so day after day he sought Him,
and at length hearing that one just person
whom his friends called Jesus, but who called
Himself the Son of God, was about to be cru
cified, he was filled with terror; then he re
membered his pearl, his last gem, and his
heart cries for joy: "Perhaps I shall find the
King in the hands of His enemies and shall
come in time to offer my pearl for His ransom
before he dies”; and so he follows the crowd
until a cry of anguish from a wretched girl
about to be sold into slavery to appease her
father’s creditors arrests his attention, and
taking out his pearl, his last treasure, he said,
“This is thy ramson, daughter. It is the last
of my treasures which I kept for the King.” '
A falling tile, shakened from its place by
the convulsions of nature, struck the old man
soon after, and as he lay dying, the youiig
girl who watched with him through the dark
ness, seeing his lips move, stooped low to
catch the words:
“Not so, my Lord! For when saw I thee
an hungered and fed thee? Or thirsty and
gave thee drink? When saw I thee a strang
er and took thee in? Or naked and clothed
thee? When saw I thee sick or in prison, and
came unto thee? Three-and-thirty years have
I looked for thee; but I have never seen thy
face, nor ministered to thee, my King.”
Again the lips moved, a calm radiance of
joy and wonder lighted the pale face and the
ransomed girl listening, heard:
“Verily I say unto thee, inasmuch as thou
hast done it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, thou hast done It unto me.” ’ ^
Moses saw the burning brush while passing,
but it was not until he turned aside, left his
flocks for a while, that God spoke to him and
called him to become the leader arid law-giver
of Israel.
If you have persevered with your chosen
tasks regardless of the outstretched -hands
and burning bushes along your way, God pity
your success, and grant that the solemn notes
of the midnight bells may toll the death-knell
of such inglorious dreams, and the-joyous
peals of the glad New Year may inspire you
with nobler ideals.
Annie S. is afraid her jar of preserves will
fumigate.