Stockbridge High School - Panther Yearbook (Stockbridge, MI)

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might Brings wut 'Che Stars. I STAND alone at night, and gaze dreamingly into the E vaulted heavens. In my inmost soul, I ana lost in fllsgfiil wonder at the limitless bounds of space before me. The feeble-mental powers of mortal man are unable to solve the wonders of that scene. I am amazed by the brilliancy of that star decked sky, which from every quarter, glim- rners and twinkles with such splendor as to reveal the glory of the omnipotent God. It is dark about meg so dark that objects upon the sur- face could not be discriminated except for the light diffu sed from those brilliant heavenly sentinels. The narrow winding pathway which Lmust follow over hill and vale, through forest and glen, to my home, would be dreary in- deed were it not for the thousands of glittering stars to en- courage and guide me. In the midst of the forest where darkness is the most intense, the light of a single bright star shows me the way. When the orb of day sails majestically through the zenith, throwing forth its immense flood of light, the myriads of stars are in their usual positions in the heavens, but their light is invisible because of the superior brightness of the sun. When the silvery moon floats above the horizon some of the stars fade away. Thus it is, and the truth of the assertion, Night Brings out the Stars, is made apparent. But what are the stars, and of what use to man ? The stars are the landmarks of the universe. They

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Glass 1bistorQ. 'EN Wednesday September 10, 1902, Was organized the KN Class of 1903, and tonight it has reached the goal for my which it has been striving. For four years, we have labored together, tonight We part never to meet again as scholars. Our class of eight stands equal in numbers with the Class of 1901, and would have exceeded them if Fred Palmer had not left us last fall to go to California. Most of us Were born in the vicinity of Stockbridge. Charles Stocking, the oldest of our class, Was born Aug- ust 27, 1882 on a farm, three and one half miles north ofthis village, and gained the earliest'part'of his education in the Lowe. school. 1 In the fall of 1893, he moved With his par- ents to this village, and entered the Intermediate depart- ment of our school. In the fall of 1902 he Was chosen president of the class and has Well filled his position. On November 11, 1901 he left, to teach the Winter term in the Lowe. district. At the close of this term, he returned to the same grade in which he left. During the last year of his school, he has made a dozen or so voyages into the ministerial World. 0 Elnathan Skidmore was born in Waterloo, Jackson county, February 23, 1884. He attended the district school until the fall of 1899, When he moved With his parents to Stockbridge and entered the High School, tonight he has finished the course. During his attendance at school here he has become a Wonderful poet and Was selected as the poet of our class., 1

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seem to be placed in the heavens by the Creator, not alone to elevate our thoughts and expand our conceptions of the infinite and eternal, but to afford us, amid the constant fluctuations of our own earth, something unchangeable and abiding. Every object about us is constantly shifting, but over all shine the eternal stars, each with its place so accurately marked, that to the astronomer and the geog- rapher no deception is possible. To the mariner the heavens become a dial-plate, the figures on its face set with glittering stars along which the moon travels as a 'shining hand that marks of the hours with an accuracy no watch can ever rival. Thus by an evident plan of the Creator, even in the most common affairs of life, are we compelled to look for guid- ance from the shifting objects of earth to the heavens abovei' But it is not alone the celestial bodies to which I would refer, but to the stars which shine in the constell- ation of statesmenshipg to the galaxy of literary fame, to the brilliant and shining lights in music and scientiic de- velopments. In all of these cases the fact that Night Brings out the Stars is demonstrated by the stars of dazzling brightness Which they have formed in our nation's history. As we' think of the great number of those who have made their names immortal by some brave, noble work which they have accomplished, we find but very few who have not had their brightness brought out through some great darkness in their lives. I may mention our own Washington, Florence Nightingale, Frances E. Willard. Even Christ himself suffered the worst afiiictions, yet his name will shine as long as there is an existing planet. In scanning the pages of history, we see in a dark, cold cell, in one of the dreariest dungeons of the fair land of England, a man, desolate and alone. With no friend to share his almost unbearable lot, he sits there day after day