Norfolk High School - Milestone Yearbook (Norfolk, NE)

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Q orA. Once, in the city of Boston, there lived a lady who kept in her library all the magazines and fashion plates she could get, so that she might be able to notice the change in fashions from time to time. After a while she observed that the newest fashions were but old ones brought hack again. Tis not only so with fashions, for we are all well aware of the fact that history repeats itself. The world is like a pendulum. In our age it swings far out, only to gradually return. We ever act upon impulse, and usually from one extreme to the other. Even Nature does her work over and over again. Plants, growing, absorb and decompose the carbonic acid in the air, and thereby store up energy derived from the heat and light of the sun. They decay, are buried, or eaten by animals, and exactly the same amount of energy is liberated or changed from potential to kinetic; and the same amount of carbon dioxide is restored to the air. Animals, in feeding on plants, transform the energy of sunlight into the energy of vitality. 'l'hus the seer, With vision clear, Sees forms appear and disappear, In the perpetual round of strange, Mysterious change. From birth to death, from death to birth, From earth to heaven, from heaven to earth, Till glimpses more sublime Of things, unseen before, Unto his wondering eyes reveal The universe an unmeasurable wheel Turning forever more In the rapid and rushing river of Time.” So let it be with our religion. This is an age when the pendulum has swung far out. Let it return. What we want is the old brought back with its original purity and goodness Tis natural for people to worship. The ancients knew not God. so they set up hideous blocks of wood and stone. When these

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22. his beautiful milk-white steeds, and wreathes their manes with sunbeams, while the gay, dancing hours harness them to his glowing sun-ear. Up and up they plunge; steadily now they climb through all the long, long day, dispelling darkness and tilling with sunshine the homes and hearts of the children of men. Night is coming, tin chariot sinks and sinks, softly into the golden cup floating in the western Ocean stream; clouds wrap it gently about and it is borne silently and unseen, back to the glorious palace in the east. Darkness again! Shall no light guide the poor earth wanderer through the night? In the east, pale Selene, godess of the moon appears. How steadily her silver chariot moves! The raven steeds arch their necks and smoothly pace beneath the guidance of her gentle hand; the vapor of their warm breath falls on us in glistening crystals of dew; we see the radiance in fair Selene’s eyes, as she seems softly to say “Sleep on mv children, peace and rest be with you, no danger shall come nigh you, I am watching.” Such are the tales of fair gods and godesses, that we read today. In the intense interest we forget that Greece, the birthplace of these wonderful visions, is no more. That once she contended with questions similar to those which are disturbing our nation today; that she felt the same confidence in her power that we feel in ours, and that she was once duped, led, whitewashed, if you will by over confident, avaricious politicians. ’Twas but the old, old story of nations, however, which will go on repeating itself to the end of time. “Greece, lovely Greece, The land of scholars and the nurse of armies,” forgot the sacred trust she held to her own people and proved her ‘own betrayer. Aye, Greece had her Macedonians, Home herGoths and Vandals, fair Columbia—may she profit by their example. Lillian Jkreckk.

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24. were found insufficient, they turned to the most wonderful and glorious works of Nature, the sun, moon and stars, and worshiped them. Even this was inadequate, and, in their longing for something on which to bestow their adoration and devotion, they erected an altar to “An Unknown God.” The Christian world is not so unfortunate as to be ignorant of the one God, and His divine will Many hundred years ago God gave his people, through Moses, a creed, Ten Commandments. l'or simplicity, terseness and beauty, these have never been surpassed by any writer. In the tirst, part of this wonderful law, it is said, “Thou shult have no other God before me. Thou shalt not bow down thyself, to them, etc.” Thus, first of all, God sets up his own superiority. We seem to have forgotten that this may apply to us: but when we think of it, many of us worship brazen, golden and other images. “We figure to ourselves The thing we like, and then we build it up, As chance will have it, on the rock or sand.” We have different idols that we worship, beauty, wealth, fashion, ancestry Tis true our idols often fall short of what we expect. Beauty, fashion and wealth have a strange and easy way of slipping from our grasp before we are aware of its intended departure; and what, but his own actions, makes one man better or more noble than another?” “For all the sons of man are sons of God; Nor limps a beggar but is nobly born, Nor wears a slave a yoke, or Czar a crown, That makes him more or less than just a man.” “Tho.u shaft not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” Doubtless you have all heard the “small boy” spoken of as a necessary evil, something to be endured rather than enjoyed. Indeed, there is one stage in his existence when this is true. It is when he reaches that point where he thinks it manly to swear. He does not think how very disgusting it is, besides being directly contrary to the command of God. He does it because he hears men do it, for of course they would not do anything that was not manly or noble. How many of us “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy?” We go to church in the morning, and try to think we have done our duty. The remainder of the day is spent driving around, do-